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

by Karen Mercury

  Heidi even started to feel a shred embarrassed. She had seen Baal-Berith lop the head off a fake priestess, and she hadn’t been nearly as terrified as she had just been. What a weenie! What a total and utter shitpickle! What’s wrong with me? She tried to get her shit together before Rémy decided he really didn’t want her coming with them past Hellmouth.

  “What happened?” she asked no one in particular. “Who the fuck is Beelzebub?”

  Of course Marvin had an explanation. “Beelzebub is another form of Baal-Berith. Rabbinic tradition holds they are one and the same.”

  Rémy asked, “So we killed Baal-Berith?”

  “Not likely. You just killed his feebler, more wussy manifestation.”

  Heidi gaped. “That was the feebler version of Baal-Berith? Dear Lord.”

  Marvin went on. “It’s just a temporary fix. We’ll need to call on the real, potent Baal-Berith in order to get Sabine out of Everlost, and in order to do that, we need to capture Ephippas in that bottle.”

  Rémy took a step toward Marvin. “Yeah. What was that all about, anyway? I wasn’t nearly ready, and you dialed my phone. Look what happened! Some halfway formed incubus almost strangled Heidi.”

  Heidi felt her spinal cord at the back of her neck. “It more like sunk its tentacle into my spine.”

  Rémy looked Marvin in the eye. The two men were nearly as tall, but Rémy was much more substantial, muscular, threatening. “Did you hear that? We can’t be taking these half-assed risks!”

  “Wait,” Niko whispered.

  Heidi said, “I don’t mind. If we can just get that damned wind demon into the bottle, I’d feel much more confident in going into this Hellmouth with you. But where is Hellmouth, anyway?”

  “Wait!” Niko said, louder now.

  He stood and pointed down at Heidi. She still sat in an embarrassing puddle of fear and tears. When she realized she still clutched the newel post, she removed her hands and put them in her lap.

  Niko said in a hushed voice, “I think I figured out where Hellmouth is.”

  Marvin and Rémy turned toward him and took a step. Every cell of their being cried out “Where? Where?” although no one uttered a sound.

  Niko pointed. “Hellmouth is this newel post.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Rémy was pumped with adrenaline after having axed the tiny, violent demon. He had never killed anything bigger than a spider before, having always begged off from his father’s hunting trips. Now he’d hacked a horse, an animal he’d always seen as loving and harmless, and he’d actually knifed to smithereens a gnome of some kind. It had vanished into the atmosphere the second he’d cleaved it in two, writhing in a pile of gnarled, hairy limbs for a few seconds first. Only a disgusting vomit-brown stain remained of it on the carpet—Rémy’s expensive Persian carpet.

  Now he asked Niko, “The newel post? How do you figure?”

  Niko said, “You said it’s a cornerstone that Ephippas helps move, right?”

  Marvin nodded. “Yes. The cornerstone, thought to be too large to lift, is raised into the entrance of the temple.”

  “Right. Doesn’t it make sense that this is the cornerstone?” Niko put his fingertip into the bullet hole. “This is where it all happened. This is where I lay in mortal repose, bullets peppering my body. This is where I stabbed the life from that bastard Leclerc—”

  “Only to discover he wasn’t half as bad as you thought,” Marvin calmly reminded Niko.

  Niko looked perplexed. Rémy could tell he struggled to justify what he’d done to Leclerc. But after all, Marvin had told him that perhaps he should feel a bit guiltier at Leclerc’s fate. Niko clearly struggled with his feelings on the matter. “Yes, I suppose. But I can hear Sabine telling me I’ve discovered the entrance to Hellmouth, I tell you! It might be my imagination, but I think I can hear Leclerc telling me the same. He wants to move on, as well.”

  That sounded encouraging to Rémy. “Yes, yes! You said we need to atone and apologize for the wrongs we’ve done. Don’t you feel some regret for what happened with Leclerc?”

  “Yes,” said Niko. “There are some aspects I regret. I was a bit hasty to condemn him…completely.”

  “Then it’s settled!” cried Rémy, clapping his hands. “We need to capture Ephippas to get him to somehow, ah…”

  “Move boulders,” said Niko. “Ephippas told me he can move boulders. Right, Marvin?”

  Marvin was remarkably calm, given the situation. His hands were folded placidly in front of his crotch as he said, “Indeed. He can move houses and overthrow kings. Why not move that newel post, if that is the entrance to Hellmouth?”

  Rémy was surprised when the downtrodden Heidi stood, too, and took his arm. “I’m ready, Rémy. Marvin says we all need to be there, then I’ll be there. I feel tremendous repentance for having accused Lisette of what I did. Marvin, is there any way I might see her, too, once we pass through Hellmouth?”

  “Oh, anything is possible. Hellmouth is a sort of train station, a staging area from where people can either get sent back to Everlost, move onto the next plane, reincarnate, or…” Ominously, Marvin drifted off.

  Rémy took the focus off Marvin’s morbid wanderings. “Then let’s do it! Baal-Berith’s power is increasing the longer we wait. Niko? Did you want to change out of my bathrobe?”

  Niko looked down at his garment and shrugged. “I didn’t put my clothes into your drying machine, so this is all I have.”

  “It’s like Peter Pan anyway,” said Heidi. “Isn’t that where they flew around in their night clothes?”

  “I think so,” said Rémy, “but I could just be thinking of the Disney cartoon. Okay, then, it’s settled. Niko, pick up that bottle. I’ll call Ephippas with this ring tone, and you capture him, since you’re such butt buddies with him.”

  “Thanks a lot,” Niko grumbled, but he stood at attention with the bottle upraised, the cork in his other hand.

  “Let’s sing along,” suggested Heidi as Marvin speed-dialed Rémy’s phone.

  That was an excellent idea. It was too late to tutor Niko in the lyrics of the redemption song, but he recalled most of them from earlier in the day, when Rémy had sung them lustily in Marvin’s temple.

  They were an inseparable unit as they sang, displaying their solidarity. Even Marvin seemed to have brushed up on his Bob Marley as they bellowed out the lines to accompany the jingling little tune emanating from the phone. They were like a pack of hearty, enthusiastic Christmas carolers as they belted out the song, and soon a breeze wafted through the room.

  Heidi took Rémy’s hand and held onto Niko’s bathrobe sleeve with the other. She stumbled over a few of the words, but Rémy knew them all like the back of his hand, especially since they mentioned pirates. Soon the wind picked up, swirling around their feet, then their waists, with a thickness Rémy could almost see. Sure enough, just as it began to swirl around their shoulders and rustle their hair, a face did begin to form.

  Ephippas had pixie features, pointed ears like a leprechaun, hoop earrings like a pirate. He was the picture of a diabolical demon with his completely bald head spinning higher and higher toward the tall ceiling of the foyer. All four of them now looked up as he lifted arms that bulged with muscle, displaying his superiority. Rémy was afraid to stop singing to command Ephippas, but Marvin settled this problem for him by shouting, “Ephippas! Don’t you want to move Solomon’s cornerstone for him? I know you’re dying to. You’ve been waiting centuries to do that. Well, guess what, Ephippas? That’s the cornerstone, right there, right behind Niko. Yes, it is!”

  Ephippas appeared to be considering this option. Marvin even lunged to whip the phone from Rémy’s hand, carrying it over held high to place it over the neck of the wine bottle. Rémy wrapped his arms around Heidi’s shoulders as gusts lashed their hair around their faces.

  Ephippas shouted, “I move mountains, move houses from place to place!”

  Marvin yelled, “We know you do! That’s why this is the perf
ect opportunity for you to help, to show your strength! Swoop down and move this giant column!”

  Ephippas looked skeptical. “It doesn’t look that giant to me.”

  Marvin insisted. Wind whistled through his short spiky hair as though electrified. “But it is! It just looks small because of your perspective! You are so all-seeing, all-knowing, overpowering us with your strength, and yet you are compelled by this redemption song to come toward Niko. Come, come. Blow into Niko’s bottle and show us your strength. Show us how you can remove the impediment to Hellmouth.”

  “Hellmouth!” Ephippas had appeared to be lulled by Marvin’s hypnotic words, but once he heard the forbidden, satanic word, his expression changed completely.

  Flinging up his muscular Mr. Clean arms, he appeared to be sucked toward Niko, nose and chin first. His face elongated, his arms became cirrus clouds, and his body that had always just been a tadpole’s tail turned wispy.

  The cellphone song had ended by this time, and Ephippas was sucked into the bottle. “Noooooo…” His once-strong voice was drowned by the rushing whirlpools of wind as he was suctioned into the bottle, face-first.

  It was like a cartoon, the way Ephippas’s formerly buff, puffy body was now nothing but a thread of fog as it whooshed into the wine bottle, as though going down a drain. Niko jammed the cork into the neck and held the bottle up high. Yes, the bottle was filled with smoke, as though they’d been using it for a hookah!

  “We did it!” cried Heidi, clapping her hands. Rémy stood behind her, his arms wrapped around her torso, his chin propped on her shoulder. He hadn’t felt this triumphant and confident about things in a long, long time. We’re going to make it. We’re going to keep Niko, and we’re going to get his sister out.

  Even Marvin celebrated. “Huzzah!” he shouted. “Amen! I salute the sacred book of Solomon!”

  Perhaps it was a coincidence, but just as Marvin said “Solomon,” the staircase began to shudder. Clutching Heidi to his chest, Rémy took a couple steps back. Yes, he could see in the overhead light that the wood of the stairs was actually trembling as though about to explode.

  Marvin yelled at the bottle. “Don’t blow up the stairs, you idiot! We just wanted you to move the cornerstone so we could get in!”

  Niko said, “Maybe this is his way of moving the cornerstone. See, the newel post is shaking, too.”

  “Yes,” said Marvin, “I just don’t want it to take off like a rocket through the middle of my head.”

  Heidi said tremulously, “Marvin! Don’t you know any ceremonial verbiage for a time like this? Should we be reciting something, paying respect to some deity or some crap like that?”

  Marvin looked thoughtful, even though the boards of the stairs were now shaking so violently, nails were popping right and left. “Well, let’s see. Which incantation would be apropos for a situation like this?”

  “You might want to hurry,” Rémy urged. The newel post was trembling like a manhole about to blow.

  “Speak, Marvin!” shrieked Heidi. “Speak!”

  A look of enlightenment came over Marvin’s face. “Ah. I’ve got it. My friends, it is with pleasure that I congratulate you upon having passed the ceremonies of our Order to prove your fidelity to our cause. Although vague may appear our purpose, let me assure you that there is a deep meaning in it all, and when you shall have passed unflinching and undismayed our final test of your fidelity, nerve, and courage, then will you indeed be worthy to espouse our cause—”

  Oddly, this seemed to work. The staircase stopped its shuddering and became calm and attentive, as though listening to Marvin’s high oratory. As though on a big hinge, the bottom five or six steps suddenly lifted and opened like a giant mouth, an entrance to a cave…a Hellmouth.

  Niko, standing the closest, peered into its blackness. “It’s just…black,” he reported.

  Rémy came to stand in front of Heidi, and he, too, peered in. A cold wind emanated from the cave of Hellmouth, but no fire or brimstone. All three of them looked at Marvin.

  “Well?” said Rémy.

  “Well?” repeated Marvin, waving a limp hand. “Get on with you! The cornerstone has been lifted, so get in there if you want to save your sister!”

  Rémy wanted to be gallant, but he didn’t want Heidi going first. “Are you coming?” he asked Marvin.

  “Oh, I wouldn’t miss this for the world!” declared the redeemer. “I’ve never gotten this far before. Here, take your scimitar.”

  So that was how they stepped through Rémy’s staircase. A hundred and fifty years ago, Niko had murdered a ravisher of women on this spot. In turn, he’d been murdered himself. Their agonized spirits had left an indelible mark on the spot, imbued it with their anguish and their torment. Now they were reversing the spell, making amends, redeeming themselves.

  Rémy clutched Heidi’s hand so as not to lose her in the blackness. He kept his eyes opened wide to soak up every available ray of light, if any. It occurred to him his magical burner phone might have a flashlight built into it. He hesitated, though, to start randomly pressing buttons on it, so he shouted out, “Marvin! You’ve got your phone. Use the flashlight.”

  “Oh. Right.”

  The feeble beam allowed them to walk faster past the boulders and rocks, so dark they looked to have been painted with black paint.

  “Rémy,” Heidi said in a stage whisper.

  “Yes?”

  “If we don’t make it through this, know that…know that I love you, too.”

  Rémy’s chest swelled with pride. He had succeeded in truly, honestly winning the heart of the sensitive, sultry stockbroker! Or…had he? “I love you, too, Heidi. But I think you’re just saying that because we’re heading into Hellmouth.”

  “Actually,” said Marvin, shining his beam on a rock that looked suspiciously like a headstone, “we’ve passed Hellmouth. Hellmouth can lead anywhere. I have no idea what this is.”

  “Well, that’s just dandy,” muttered Heidi.

  “Ayieee!”

  Niko’s shriek stopped them dead in their tracks. It looked like he was grabbing Marvin’s wrist, the hand that held the flashlight, shining it on what was now, definitely, a headstone.

  Rémy squinted to see the inscription.

  SABINE VALDÉS

  Beloved friend

  1833-1873

  They had walked through Rémy’s staircase and right into St. Louis Cemetery Number One.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Niko’s heart lurched when he saw his sister’s tombstone.

  He had known that they had one more stone to place to make the pentalpha whole. He had known that St. Louis Cemetery was the place to do it, falling right in line with one intersection of the star.

  “Rémy!” he cried. “Rémy, place a stone on Sabine’s grave! Then the pentalpha will be complete.”

  “Yes,” urged Heidi. She had yanked her own box out and also shined its beam on Sabine’s mossy name. “Maybe you can send that pentalpha picture back to Michael Angel or whoever is organizing all of this, to prove that we’re finished. Does that make sense, Marvin?”

  Marvin shrugged. “Sure. Sounds logical to me.”

  “Do it!” said Niko.

  Rémy seemed to take forever getting the bead out of his denim pocket. Niko hopped up and down on the balls of his feet and snatched the bead from Rémy’s hand. He placed it reverently on the stone, balancing it so it didn’t fall.

  “Sabine. Dear, dear sister. Ma chère sœur. You don’t know how much I’ve missed you, how much I’ve longed for you. It tears my heart into shreds to think of you stuck here, away from me. Come to me. Come live with me and my friends in the present. I beg you. We will use everything in our power to bring you here to live with us in safety, now and forever, Sabine.”

  “Yes,” Heidi echoed, as if to empower their position with more voices. “We want you here with us, Sabine. Come stay with me, Heidi, and Rémy Lafitte. We will protect you, now and forever.”

  Rémy helped out,
too. “Yes, Sabine. We have Niko here with us, and we want you to join us. You’re free to stay in my house with us, now and forever. We want Niko to be happy, and he’ll only be truly happy if you’re with us.”

  Everyone looked to Marvin. Niko knew Marvin had a sermon for every occasion, and he did not let them down now. As Marvin spoke, though, little campfires popped up in the surrounding area. One by one, as these fires were lit, a larger scene came into view. First a few crypts were lit up, topped by marble crosses. The shadow of a bent live oak was cast against a wall of weathered crypts. Rémy and Heidi looked around in wonder, but Niko’s eyes bore into Marvin’s, willing him to keep talking. Something was working.

  “Sabine, may Saint Michael protect and support you, that you be not cast into al hotama along with that bastard Leclerc. Let our secret vaults open to their width that the vapors of damp stagnation may pass away. Open the passage to the New Orleans night sky and allow our trusty soldiers, Niko, Rémy, and Heidi, to pass the test of redemption.” He looked at Niko. “Al hotama is hell.”

  “I figured,” Niko said nervously.

  Marvin went back into oratory mode. “A rough road is before you, beset with difficulties. Your life will be threatened, and you may lose it.”

  “What?” squeaked Niko.

  Marvin shook his head, smiling. “Don’t worry. I’m just saying that for emphasis, for drama. You know. Fire and brimstone and bombast. It’s part of the schtick. The very worst thing that could happen is that Sabine is forced to stay in Everlost. Now, where was I? Remember, those who die in the faith will be resurrected in glory…”

  Niko didn’t listen to what followed because the soil that made up Sabine’s grave was trembling. As if with a distant earthquake or a marching band or second line approaching, the ground shook. Heidi and Rémy must have felt it, too, for they spread their feet apart on the ground in anticipation of a giant tremor.

  No one was shaken off their feet, though, when the grave began to crack and crumble, exploding from within. Niko recalled his own emergence from his broken crypt, damaged by some cataclysmic hurricane. He had clawed his way out like a desperate mole, suddenly needing the air that his lungs hadn’t breathed in a century. No doubt Sabine was feeling this way now, too, so Niko dropped to his knees and scrabbled at the dirt, pulling weeds and clods of grass away with his bare hands.