Redemption Song [Midnight, New Orleans Style 4] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

by Karen Mercury

  In one giant swoop, an enormous cloud of wind swept onto the street, picking up Sabine in its palm. It almost did look like an arm and hand, the way it lifted Sabine like a stick figure. She was being tossed over the street, over the rooftops, her cries like a kitten’s.

  “Who are you?” Niko roared at the wind cloud. “What in the name of hell do you want from me?”

  Sure enough, a face did begin to form from the cloud. It looked like an Arabian genie, with bald head, pixie ears, Van Dyke facial hair, and a giant, forbidding forehead. “I move mountains!” bellowed the demon, not half as polite as Baal-Berith had been before lopping that charlatan’s head off. “I can carry houses from city to city. I can overthrow kings.”

  “Put down my sister!”

  “She is mine! She will remain here until you finish placing your stones and repenting for the wrong you did.”

  “She is not yours! It is no fault of hers what happened between Leclerc and me! I can finish placing stones—that is no problem! I need to know how to get my sister back, to stay with me in the present, now and forever.”

  The genie seemed almost to chortle as it rattled Sabine in its massive fist. “Only Baal-Berith can redeem Sabine to your bosom again. I can move boulders, but I cannot give her back to you.”

  Niko was shaking his upraised fist now, too. He had never been so enraged—had never felt so helpless and futile. “Give her back, you damned demon! I repent for what I did to Leclerc. I now see it was wrong, that I could have saved a lot of penance and angst if I had not had such a violent solution!”

  “Words. Only words!” yelled the devil, and it sent an all-consuming gust of wind down to wipe Niko off his feet.

  Tumbling, tumbling, tumbling—head over heels Niko went. He knew he was no longer in the mirror world of the Vieux Carré but in a much darker, more realistic place. He saw crags and canyons, great uplifted rock formations of slick, black obsidian. He saw lava pour into these caverns from a great height, and he knew this was where Leclerc would reside for eternity for his trespasses against Sabine and many, many other women.

  There was no redemption for Leclerc. He would reside on one of these cliff-top nests like a vulture, squawking and picking at branches like the despicable fox-pig that he was.

  But Niko still had to apologize for the wrong he’d done. Swirling and twirling like a second line parasol, Niko couldn’t grip onto anything. Anything—a passing stick, a little tree jutting from the rocks, anything! He tried to yell.

  “I did you wrong, Leclerc! It was wrong of me to chase you down and brutally assault you.” But his words felt like tissue paper, flimsy little squeaks against the roar of the windstorm. He used every cell in his being to scream out, but only tiny whimpers emerged. He now truly believed murdering Leclerc had been wrong, and there was no one to hear him! “Leclerc! Hear me and allow me to right the wrongs I have done! I take full responsibility for your death, and I was wrong.”

  He didn’t even care anymore that Leclerc had murdered him, too. If anything, it should be Leclerc who was apologizing for this slight mishap. But Niko suddenly felt that Leclerc had apologized, and there was no more to say. If only someone could hear him.

  “Stop!” he howled. “Stop and I will repent! Let me out of this damned place, this place that is damned a thousand times over!”

  And then, at the tinkling of a few chimes, it was all over. He was back in the Shriner’s temple, and everything was quiet.

  The other three stared at him with bug’s eyes. Rémy held up a little box like the one Heidi was always fussing with, and the little chimes emerged from there.

  Chapter Ten

  Heidi didn’t know when Niko had been sucked out of the temple. One minute she was fervently praying, actually putting her hands together and beseeching some higher power to help them. The next moment she snuck and opened her eyes a sliver to see what Niko was doing, and his chair was empty.

  “Where’d he go?” Heidi said aloud, earning glares from Marvin.

  “Pray,” Marvin commanded.

  She pointed at the empty chair. “But he’s gone. And I would’ve heard him get up and leave if he had to go to the bathroom or something.”

  “Besides,” said Rémy, “he already went to the bathroom before we entered the chapel. What the fuck? Marvin?”

  Marvin sighed heavily, as though they had interrupted his nap. “Niko Valdés is busy creating his own destiny. He needs to grapple with these demons in order to see the light.”

  Heidi nearly bowled over her chair, she shot to her feet so fast. “Grappling with demons? That doesn’t sound very good. What do you mean? He went back to Everlost?”

  Marvin smiled. “Yes, exactly!” He switched back into the high ceremonial voice. “Now, I have ushered in three poor sons of the desert, who humbly crave that sacred boon of the thirsty traveler. A cup of water and shelter under the protecting dome of our goodly temple.”

  Marvin went to the dais behind him where suddenly a jug of Gallo wine had appeared. He started pouring the wine into little paper cups while Heidi turned to Rémy.

  “He’s acting so casual! We’ve got to get Niko out of Everlost. If we lose him back to that in-between world, we’ve totally failed in our entire quest!”

  “I agree. Marvin! This is completely unacceptable! Niko was on his way to becoming fully mortal. He’s more mortal than not. He can’t just suddenly go backward when he’s already come so far!”

  Marvin came around the pulpit to solemnly hand them their cups of wine. “I will imprint upon the tablets of your memories a knowledge of the duties you are hereby assuming.”

  “Duties?” cried Heidi, not daring to drink the wine, although she sure could use some. “What duties do you speak of?” Why am I talking so fancy, too? She saw that Rémy did drink his wine, perhaps wondering at its magical properties.

  Marvin said stone-faced, “Strangers, are your motives for coming among us honourable, pure, and free from hope of gain or pride of knowledge?”

  Of course Heidi declared, “Yes!”

  “Have you a belief in the existence of future rewards and punishments?”

  “Of course!” said Heidi.

  And, “Yes!” cried Rémy.

  “Have you a desire to promote justice and suppress wrong?’

  “We do!”

  “Are you willing to jeopardize your life, if need be, to punish the guilty and protect the innocent, and labor in the cause of justice, truth, and common humanity?”

  Heidi wasn’t so sure about that one. She had to turn to Rémy for assurance. He grabbed her hand as he smashed his empty paper cup.

  “Yes, yes!” he said irritably. “Die, be thrown into a pit, torn asunder, whatever it takes to get Niko back.”

  Heidi added, “I thought we were inseparable. We’re bound together for all eternity.”

  Marvin became casual then, having broken with his protocol. “Oh, you are inseparable!” he said cheerily. “I just wanted some wine. Drink up, Heidi.”

  Rolling her eyes, Heidi obediently drank.

  Marvin recited, “Have you still a desire to unite with us in the inseparable bonds of the Mystic Shrine for the purposes to which you have assented?”

  Wearily, the duo said, “We have.”

  “If you have answered in sincerity and in truth these replies, I can assure you that no conflicting sentiment nor requirement here will mar your principles nor your duties in the outside world—”

  “Wait!” whispered Heidi. “What’s that?”

  She had heard a vague tinkling somewhere in the chapel behind her. Twirling around, she fully expected to see Niko restored to them on a beam of stardust. Anything was possible, with the whacky shit that had been happening lately.

  It was only the chiming of a cell phone someone had left behind on a pew. Yet Heidi had seen too much this week to just dismiss it.

  She sped back about ten rows to the pew where the offending song was emanating. Diving for the phone, she held it up high as she jog
ged back down toward the pulpit. Not just a chime, it was playing an actual song…a very long song. She held it up to Rémy, and even Marvin came around his pulpit to listen.

  “Bob Marley,” said Rémy with wonder.

  Heidi wasn’t familiar with Bob Marley. The ring tone’s song went on and on, the phone’s voicemail not picking up. Suddenly Niko was standing right in front of his chair, clawing at the sky, practically renting his old brocade vest.

  “I will repent!” he growled, the moan of a dying animal. He looked at the ceiling with bugged, crazed eyes. “Let me out of this damned place!”

  Shoving the phone at Rémy, Heidi took two long strides to reach Niko. She held his face to her throat while cooing soothing sounds at him.

  “You’re back, Niko. You’re back with us, safe and sound.”

  “Oh, mon Dieu!” Niko sobbed, clutching at Heidi’s shoulders for security. “This was a different demon, a demon sent by Baal-Berith just as Marvin warned!”

  Marvin was butting in now with curiosity. “What sort of demon? Do you mind saying? Was he full of wind, by any chance?”

  “Yes!” said Niko in a hushed voice. “How did you know?”

  Marvin looked exasperated. “That damned Ephippas!” he said, as though a frisky puppy had torn up a stuffed animal. “He’s been around here the past week every damned day starting exactly at sunrise and blowing until the third hour, just as it says in the Testament of Solomon.”

  “Yes!” said Heidi. “That’s the book we used for research.”

  “Exactly. Ephippas can help if he wants to, only I don’t think he wants to just yet. Most demons can swing both ways, depending upon their mood.”

  “Yes,” said Niko. “He said he can move houses and overthrow kings, but he just picked up Sabine in the air and tossed her around. I did apologize, though, for killing Leclerc. I found out some…” He looked embarrassed then. “Some details that have changed my outlook a bit. I now feel honest repentance for having murdered Leclerc. I can’t believe I’m saying that, but I do. Rémy, what is that song playing from Heidi’s box?”

  “It’s not Heidi’s box,” said Rémy, “and the song is called ‘Redemption Song.’”

  A chill shot into the pit of Heidi’s stomach when Rémy sang the song. Rémy sang about pirates, merchant ships, and bottomless pits. In order to move forward triumphantly, they had to fulfill a book of some kind. Heidi gasped at the pertinence of the lyrics. “Old pirates? Could this be—”

  “A call from beyond the grave, yes! A call from Jean Lafitte!” said Rémy excitedly. He bashed the phone with his thumb, getting it to spring to life. “It’s a 504 number, New Orleans,” he said, and held it to his ear.

  Marvin shrugged. “Well. There’s your ring tone.”

  “What?” asked Heidi.

  “You were looking for a ring. Instead you got a ring tone. When it played, it obviously brought Niko back from Everlost. It’s a mighty powerful ring tone.”

  “Oh, come on!” said Heidi scornfully. “You’ve got to be kidding! We’ve spent what feels like our entire lives looking for a ring only to find out it’s really a ring tone? This is too much.”

  Marvin looked exasperated. “Oh, come now. A woman sees a man revived from the dead, and his limbs haven’t even rotted off. You witness Baal-Berith shift from a boa constrictor and chop off a human’s head. You see a football player in a second line telling you to look for a Corvette, and this is the part of your week that you are doubting? I think you need to put things into perspective here, young missy.”

  “It’s not that,” Heidi started to say. She didn’t want to alienate the potentate and redeemer of the downtrodden.

  But Rémy was holding the phone away from his ear now. “Just the usual recorded message saying I’ve reached such and such a number. Probably a burner, but I could get my IT guy on triangulating it.”

  “Yes, sounds like a good plan,” Heidi agreed.

  Rémy sang another verse of the song. He really had a lovely voice, and Heidi melted just a little bit more for him. He sang about killing prophets and the book again, and Marvin pointed.

  “The book! You said you were using the Testament of Solomon? There’s your book. I tell you, this is the ring you’ve been looking for.”

  Heidi relented. “All right. It may be the ring, but we still don’t know where Hellmouth is, and that’s the key to getting Sabine out of her two-dimensional hell. But this ring allows us to ‘command the demons’?”

  Marvin’s face had no expression. “But you just did command the demons. Niko, did you or did you not just get yanked back here from Everlost? I rest my case.”

  “Yes,” Niko agreed, “I felt that I was in the jaws of doom for sure, and it seemed like the chimes, or the song, pulled me out of there.”

  The phone again tinkled, not the entire song this time. Rémy thumbed it, and a look of revelation spread over his face. He turned the phone to face Heidi and Niko. Heidi squinted and then gasped.

  A pentalpha.

  Someone had texted them a picture of a pentalpha, complete with little red “stones” at every intersection of the star!

  “Well, that just about tears it!” Heidi cried in a hushed voice. “What do you think, Rémy?”

  “I’d say that just about clears it up. Unless this guy here planted the phone. That wouldn’t be hard to do. You could’ve had that dick-licking brownnoser Toby call someone to plant this phone right here.”

  Marvin tsk-tsked Rémy’s skepticism. “Pshaw. Toby is only a Purveyor of Camel’s Milk, not a potentate or ambassador. He just drives a dune buggy and plays coronet in the marching band. He’s hardly a criminal mastermind.”

  Rémy raised one eyebrow. “Oh, so potentates are criminal masterminds?”

  Marvin narrowed his eyes. “Now, you listen here. Do you want my help or do you not?”

  There were a tense few seconds before Rémy breathed and answered. “I suppose I do.”

  Niko added, “I definitely do. That song yanked me right out of Everlost, and I’m betting it can do the same for Sabine.”

  Heidi said, “Then it’s decided.” She took Niko’s hand in hers and offered her other hand to Rémy. She knew he would think it was corny sealing their pact like that, but he took her hand anyway. “Good. Once we figure out where Hellmouth is, we can call on Baal-Berith or this Ephippas using our ringtone. Does that sound right, Marvin?”

  “Yes,” Marvin agreed, going to the pulpit and gripping one of the crossed scimitars. He rattled it around as though trying to dislodge it. “Although I think you might need this when the time comes. If you’ve been imbued with your egun’s qualities, no doubt you know how to use this sword like a pirate, too.”

  “Well, yes,” admitted Heidi. “Rémy did whack Baal-Berith’s horse with an axe at the cemetery.”

  “Here, let me,” said Rémy, going to the pulpit to take over from Marvin. He removed the sword effortlessly and held it aloft. Heidi could tell he didn’t want to act like he believed the corn, but his eyes were shining and his nostrils flared with excitement.

  Heidi turned to the redeemer of the downtrodden. “Can you give us any hints about where Hellmouth might be? We’ve pretty much ‘placed stones’ at every pentalpha point, but there might be one that we missed.”

  Marvin said, “Think of some coordinate point, a place saturated with emotion. A place where great sweeping events full of angst occurred.”

  Heidi made a lip fart. “That could be anywhere. Does it have to be in New Orleans?” She was thinking of the spot in Oxford where Lisette had been found with the strange symbol on her forehead.

  “Yes, it should be in New Orleans,” said Marvin. “That is where Niko was revived, and that is where you are all meant to stay together. The Solomon text talks about how he used the ring to trick Ephippas into being captured. Once captured, Ephippas uses his powers to move a giant cornerstone. I wonder if that’s the entrance to Hellmouth.”

  “What’s a cornerstone?” asked Heidi.


  Niko said, “Basically what is says. It’s a large stone at the corner of a building. So we just have to find an old building, of which there are only two hundred thousand.”

  “Look,” said Rémy, suddenly weary, “let’s go back to my house and place more stones. You’ve been through a lot today, Niko, to say the least.”

  Heidi agreed. She was exhausted and could use a rest before tackling this next step of their quest.

  But Marvin said, “Your house is in the Lower Garden District, is it not? I don’t believe that’s part of the pentalpha puzzle.”

  “Yes,” said Niko, “we still have a couple more stones to place.”

  “That’s not the kind of stone I’m interested in right now,” said Rémy. “We’re exhausted. We need to recharge our batteries. And I’ve got a whole carton of takeout jambalaya we could scarf.”

  “Ooh, I’m there,” said Heidi, already heading toward the back chapel door.

  “I’ll drive you,” called Marvin.

  “No need,” said Rémy, close on Heidi’s heels. “We’ll take a taxi. Thanks for the sword. Let us know if you come up with any more great ideas.”

  “So mote it be!” shouted Marvin. “The will of God be done!”

  Chapter Eleven

  “So you have no boyfriend in San Francisco?”

  Rémy was attempting to sound relaxed about the entire thing. But the reality was, whether or not Heidi had a boyfriend was hugely important to him.

  Heidi shrugged. “No. I did, until recently, when I discovered he was cheating on me.” She chuckled down at the wrought iron table where her wine glass sat. “Isn’t that corny? The ol’ cheating-on-me routine. How typical. I thought we might even marry. But now in retrospect I see it wasn’t meant to be.”

  “No,” Rémy said enthusiastically. “You were meant to be with me. And Niko,” he added, reluctantly. Niko was inside taking a “vertical bath.” After his run-in with the malevolent hurricane, he said he felt dirty.