Nancy K. Duplechain - Dark Trilogy 02 - Dark Carnival

by Nancy K. Duplechain

  “Noah, right?” He nodded. “Do you by any chance drive a Charger?”

  “Yeah, I do.”

  “So, you’ve been following me?”

  He looked uneasy, dropping his gaze and rubbing the back of his neck. “Kind of.”

  “Yeah? Well, you kind of scared the crap out of me the other night.”

  “Sorry about that,” he shrugged. “Orders.”

  “Whose orders?”

  “Miles. He wanted to make sure that you were safe.”

  “Well, that’s real nice of him and all, but why didn’t you just come over and introduce yourself at the bar when I first saw you?”

  “Because you looked like you were having a good time,” he said, smirking again. I’m sure he was recalling my embarrassing moment with the young college student. I gave him an angry look, but he kept on smirking.

  “So, you’re a paladin, too?” I asked.

  “That’s what they tell me.”

  “And what’s your ability? To kick ass like some Deep South version of Batman?”

  He laughed. “Not really. I inherited the ability to take on the aspects of animals.”

  I looked at him incredulously. “Can you change into animals or something like that?”

  I could tell he wanted to laugh at me, but he politely refrained. “No. I just take on their strengths, like a cheetah, for instance, can run really fast, and so can I. I can do just about anything an animal can do.”

  “So, you can breathe under water?”

  This time he did laugh, and I felt a little self-conscious. “Sorry,” he said, dropping his grin. “I don’t have gills. I just have a human body, but with heightened senses and agility, as good as any animal. I can see in the dark, climb really easily, have the strength of a bear, things like that.”

  “Wait. You have abilities of animals, and your mother named you Noah?” I said, laughing.

  Noah didn’t laugh. In fact, all traces of a smile left his face completely. He was just polite enough to keep looking at me, rather than walk away, which is what he seemed to want to do.”

  “Noah,” I repeated. “You know, like Noah’s Ark?” I tried to edge a smile out of him, but it was becoming more awkward by the second. “Heard that one before, I guess?”

  He raised an eyebrow and took a deep breath. It looked like I hit a nerve with him, and I just wanted to back out of the quicksand my mouth was getting me into.

  “Y’all coming?” yelled Ruby from the end of the block.

  “She’s not in the best of moods right now,” he said. “Tell you what. You can ride back to Miles’ with me.”

  Still feeling awkward and still bearing my slight grudge of him stalking me, I looked him in his gray eyes and said, “I’ll stick with Ruby.” This seemed to shock him momentarily.

  “Enjoy the ride back,” he said coolly, and then walked off with another smirk.

  The ride back to Miles’ mansion in the Garden District was painfully unpleasant. Halfway back, I had begun to regret not riding with Noah. I hated being wrong, especially as a result of my stubbornness. Ruby drove too fast and had her hip-hop reggae music on too loud. She didn’t speak once, but instead kept her lips tight and her dark blue eyes on the road. I had thought the ride to Algiers was unpleasant, but this trip was painfully awkward. The only good thing was that she drove fast, wanting me out of her sphere of awareness as soon as possible.

  I couldn’t take another second. I turned down the volume of the speakers and glared at her. “Look. I don’t know you. I’ve never done anything to you, so if you have a problem with me, just say it.”

  Ruby never took her cold blue eyes from the road. “Don’t know what makes you think you can just come here and think you’re one of us, because you’re not. Never will be. You should go back to Cajun Country and stay there. You messing with big girl problems out here.”

  “I was sent here to train. I didn’t choose it.”

  “You could’ve stayed home and learned from one of the Houma or Coushatta Indians. Your grandmother sent you here for something else.”

  “Yeah? What?”

  Ruby smirked. “I don’t know yet, but I’m going to find out. But don’t think for one second that I trust you.”

  “Likewise,” I muttered and then turned up the volume louder than she had it.

  8

  A Day for Sun

  When we got back to Miles’, Ruby pulled up behind Noah’s car. He was still in the driver’s seat, listening to some old Nirvana music. When he saw us get out the car, he got out of his Charger. “Took you guys long enough,” he teased Ruby.

  She scowled at him, still angry with me and quite possibly the whole world. She stormed off into the house. Noah held the door for me and arched his eyebrows, giving me a look as if to ask how I liked the ride. I pursed my lips and turned away, but saw him smirking in the corner of my eye. We all went into the house and into the living room where Miles sat waiting for us.

  To say it was a living room was a bit of a stretch. It didn’t have the comforts of a living room, like a television or over-stuffed recliners and sofas. It was dark with gray-blue paint and a deep mahogany fireplace and a matching large table near the back wall. The coffee table in the middle of the room was black wrought iron with a glass top. It was surrounded by matching dark leather furniture. A large book shelf took up half of one wall; it was filled with old, leather-bound tomes with gold lettering on the spines. There was natural light coming in from a large, dark-framed window on the west wall, illuminating the immaculate room. It was beautiful, but lacked the comforts of a family home.

  “We’ll start when Nadia gets here. She should be here soon,” said Miles from the leather sofa next to the coffee table.

  “Okay, I’m going to run home real quick and change,” said Noah. He looked over at Ruby who was leaning against the table near the back wall, staring out the window. “I got a little messy handling some bad guys today,” he said, with that seemingly ever-present smirk. Ruby turned her back to him with a huff, and he grinned. He left and was out the back door in less than two seconds. Like a cheetah, he had said.

  “So how did your day go?” Miles asked me.

  “It was okay,” I said, trying to sound pleasant. “I think Ruby found out some information from a friend of hers.” I looked at her, her back still turned to us.

  “Well, we’ll get to that in a minute when Nadia—” He was interrupted by the sound of the front door opening and closing. “Ah! I think that’s her now.”

  “It’s her,” said Nadia from the foyer. She joined us in the living room and had a friendly smile as always, which widened when she saw me. “Hello, Leigh. How are you?”

  “Fine and you?” I said, glad to see her.

  “Very fine, thank you.” She noticed Ruby at the other end of the room. “Ruby, I brought that recipe from Sister Adele with me. Remind me to give it to you before I go.”

  Ruby turned around and gave a hint of a smile. “The one for the onion bread?”

  She nodded.

  “Thanks, girl.” It seemed even Ruby’s cold center melted from the light radiating from Nadia.

  Noah came in wearing a different shirt and snuck up behind Nadia, playfully putting his hands over her eyes. “Guess who?” he said, disguising his voice in a lower register.

  She laughed. “Is it Santa Claus?”

  “No,” he said in the same voice.

  “Gerard Butler?”

  “No,” he said, trying not to laugh.

  “Then I don’t care because those are the only two I ever wanted to meet.”

  He pulled his hands from her eyes, and she craned her neck around to look at him. She mocked disappointment and said, “I’d still rather see Gerard Butler.”

  Noah laughed and gave her a playful hug. She patted his hand and laughed, too.

  “Okay you two. Let’s get down to business,” said Miles, motioning for us to sit around the coffee table. Noah, Nadia and I joined him. “Ruby, what did you f
ind out today?”

  She came closer to our little circle, but chose to stand near one of the armchairs. “I think I know where the Grigori house is.”

  “You actually found out where it is?” said Noah. “We’ve been looking for that thing for months.”

  “Maybe,” she stressed. “A friend of mine saw and overheard an interaction someone had with one of the Watchers.”

  “How can you be sure it was a Watcher angel?” asked Nadia.

  “Because he actually said they were with the Krewe of Grigori, and they handed some woman an invite to their ball.”

  “Son of a bitch,” murmured Noah, both amazed and amused. “They’re actually giving out invitations?”

  “Looks like it,” said Ruby.

  “Where is the house?” asked Miles.

  “Out near the U.N.O. research center, past the old fairgrounds.”

  “When is their ball?”

  “I don’t know. She didn’t hear him say. I guess it was on the ticket. And she said he approached only that one woman in the café, no one else.”

  “That’s odd. You’d think they’d want as many recruits as possible,” said Nadia.

  “Maybe not,” said Miles. “They’re most likely going for the ones they believe will be the most easily converted, the ones with a lack of ethics and morals.”

  “So, they want to take over the Earth with a bunch of politicians,” I joked. Noah and Nadia politely laughed. Miles and Ruby barely acknowledged me. I nervously bit at the corner of my lip.

  “We’re going to have to get more information,” continued Miles. “I want you all to keep looking for the mask, but also I want you to try to get a hold of a ticket, or find someone who has a ticket and can tell us when this ball will take place. That’s all for now.”

  Everyone got up and left. I saw Noah headed for the back door through the kitchen.

  “Is that your house next door?” I asked him.

  “Yeah. I’m kind of like Miles’ guard dog.”

  “Oh, well I promise not to make any animal jokes.”

  He laughed. “Okay. See ya later.”

  “Bye.”

  He left through the back door. Nadia and Ruby left through the front door as Nadia pulled out Sister Adele’s recipe from her purse. I was about to leave, but Miles stopped me, saying that I still needed to train for the day.

  It was another long afternoon. I only got slightly better, my hands feeling a little above lukewarm. Nevertheless, Cee Cee was elated that I was getting better, but she could tell something was troubling me at the same time. I refrained from mentioning my confrontation with her niece, Ruby. Instead, I did my best to pretend like everything was just fine.

  When I crawled into bed that night, I checked my phone and realized I had a missed call from Lucas. Then I remembered it was from the day before, and I felt bad that I had forgotten to call him back. I dialed his number. He answered the phone, sounding frustrated.

  “Everything okay?” I asked.

  “No! Jonathan is still picking me up! I’m about to follow Miss Clo’s advice and give him a good swat.” I laughed and he softened a bit.

  “Sorry I forgot to call you back.”

  “Not a problem. So, how are things in the Big Easy?”

  “Not very easy. Looks like I have a lot of work ahead of me.”

  “Well, maybe if you’re going to be there a while, I can come by and visit … to bring Lyla for a visit, that is,” he said awkwardly.

  “Sure. Y’all come. I know she said she wanted to.”

  “Okay. How ‘bout tomorrow?”

  “Tomorrow? Really?”

  He must have picked up on the unease in my tone because he said, “If it’s a bad time …”

  “No, it’s not that.” Truthfully, it was as good a time as any. I didn’t see my training getting easier anytime soon. Best to come now and get it out of the way. And I honestly did miss them. “I just was going to say that space at Cee Cee’s is a little cramped.”

  “Oh, we probably wouldn’t spend the night, but if I got too tired, I could just find a motel.”

  “No, that’s fine. Y’all come.” I smiled, genuinely happy about seeing them.

  “Okay. We’ll head out early. I’ll call when we get into town.”

  “Sounds good.”

  “Well, I gotta go put Jonathan to bed. He’s been having nightmares again.”

  “Oh. Are they bad?”

  Lucas was silent for a moment. “He keeps dreaming that …” He dropped his voice down to a whisper. “… that I’m going to die.”

  I froze, remembering how Jon had nightmares last summer about Savoy, The Dark Man, as he called him. Those dreams came true, for the most part. “Luke, I’m …” I didn’t know what to say. “He’s probably just upset that you’ve been working a lot lately.” I hoped my tone was light enough for him to believe me.

  “Yeah. You’re probably right.” But I could already tell he didn’t believe me.

  It was a beautiful day for the middle of winter. The sun shone, and Lucas visiting with the kids turned out to be just what I needed. Never having been to New Orleans, I thought Lyla and Jon would have wanted to see and do everything. As it turned out, they just wanted to see the Aquarium. Lucas and I both laughed at the baby-shark-petting station when Jon squealed with delight and then asked his dad how come Jaws looked so much bigger.

  “I can’t believe you let him watch that movie,” I said to Lucas.

  He eyed me and said, “I watched that when I was like five. He’s almost seven.”

  I shrugged. “Fair enough.”

  We continued through the exhibits and paused to let the kids watch the sting rays. Truthfully, I really wanted to watch them, too. I always found them to be, by far, the coolest ocean animals. I wasn’t enjoying them as much as I usually do, though. There was an awkward silence, and I found myself wanting to ask Lucas about his date with Carrie. I stole a glance at him. He was smiling at the kids as the blue light from the water reflection danced lazily across his face and torso. I decided to dance around the issue a little.

  He caught my eye for a moment, put his hand on mine and smiled at me before looking back at the kids. I found myself wanting to nudge in closer to him, to have him put his arm around me, but I still wasn’t sure about his feelings.

  “I think Carrie wants to come too,” I said, straining to hear even the slightest bit of uncomfortable noises from him; difference in breathing pattern, shuffling around, or sounding distracted. Nothing was different.

  “Yeah, she had said that when we went to the movies.”

  He acted like it was no big deal. I frowned slightly.

  “Look at that one, Aunt Leigh!” said, Lyla, grinning and pointing at a giant manta ray gliding along the bottom of the tank.

  “Oh, yeah, that’s a big one!” I said, trying to match her excitement.

  “So, how’s the training going?” Lucas asked.

  “Good. I’m getting a little better,” I said.

  “Great!” He sounded genuinely happy for me. It seemed he was getting better with this whole situation of the people around him having abilities. “You been meeting a lot of interesting people here?”

  “No,” I muttered, immediately starting to regret how frustrated I sounded.

  “What’s wrong?”

  I sighed and decided to tell him about Ruby. It kind of helped to get it out to someone.

  “She sounds like a real you-know-what,” he said, after I finished telling him about my interesting excursion with her.

  “She must have been adopted or something. There’s no way she and Cee Cee are in the same family tree.”

  I had expected Lucas to agree with me or laugh, but there was silence. “That was kind of a joke. Well, sort of,” I said. I pulled my gaze away from the tank of rays and looked at Lucas. He was staring off into the distance. I glanced over my shoulder to see what he was looking at.

  “What?” I said.

  “That guy over there in th
e black jacket, leaning up against the wall. The one playing with his phone. I think he’s following us.”

  I looked again and saw Noah in the spot where Lucas was staring. I looked back at the rays. “That’s just Noah.”

  “Who?”

  “Noah Dallion,” I said, starting to continue down to the next exhibit where Lyla and Jon were headed.

  Lucas began to follow us. “Who’s Noah Dallion?”

  “He’s sort of Miles’ … cohort, if that’s the word for it.”

  He turned back to look at Noah. “He’s gone,” he said, looking perplexed.

  “Yeah, he does that.”

  “Well, what else does he do?” Lucas was starting to have a slight edge to his voice.

  “He’s a pally, too.”

  “Pally? Oh, one of you?”

  I nodded.

  So, what’s his ability?” By the way he said that last word, I guessed he wasn’t as good with the whole special power situation as I had expected.

  I explained it to him the way Noah had explained it to me, about his animal-like abilities, but I left out the part where I made a failed attempt at a joke with Noah’s mother’s choice of moniker for her son. When I finished, there was a thoughtful silence coming from Lucas.

  “Hello?”

  “Well, be careful?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Don’t worry about me, okay?”

  “Okay,” he agreed. But I knew that was a lie.

  9

  A Dark Night in City Park

  After the Aquarium, the kids wanted to visit Cee Cee. Before we got to her place, they had spotted a line of horse-drawn carriages. We took a ride through the Quarter—laughing at Jon’s and Lyla’s expressions when the horse pulling us had an attack of flatulence—and continued on to Cee Cee’s for an excellent, early dinner. They left by seven o’clock. I was upset with myself for forgetting to give Lyla the music box I had bought her.

  Late the next morning, I met Miles at the convent to do some more training. Noah and Nadia were there, sitting outside in the visitor’s area with Miles who motioned me over to sit with them.

  “I suppose we can start,” said Miles. “Ruby, it seems, has better things to do.” He sounded very displeased with her.