by Angie Fox
Four more guards stood outside, two by the front entrance, one by each end of the storefront. I saw a half dozen more on the roof.
"Jackpot," I grinned.
Dimitri squeezed my hand.
"Look at those armed guards," she protested. "This should not excite either one of you."
"It means we're in the right spot to mess things up for him," Dimitri murmured.
"Plus, I have biker witch magic." It was all falling into place.
Of course, this was usually the point where sparks flew and the whole thing exploded.
The crowning glory was when my emerald necklace warmed and began to glow. Aimee watched slack-jawed as the metal chain went liquid and snaked down my neck and chest. "It's defensive," I told her, by way of explanation, as the liquid bronze formed a chest plate that reached down to my leather bustier. The teardrop shaped emerald sat squarely in the middle.
Showtime.
Well, almost. I dug around in my pocket and came out with a round, blue orb with sparkles inside. Sneak spell. I handed it to Dimitri. "Put this in your pants." It was the tightest place I could think where it would stay put and be close to his skin.
Lucky spell.
"I never should have answered my door," Aimee muttered, as Dimitri turned his back to her and slid the spell into place.
"Jam it in there good," I told him, double-checking mine to make sure it was still there.
Snug as a bug in a rug.
Aimee furrowed her brow. "You really think you can get in there? Those people are in suits and dresses and you look like you've been combing your hair with twigs."
Yeah, well, she looked like a rainbow, but I wasn't about to make fun of her wardrobe choices. "You were the one who poured dirt over my head," I reminded her.
Dimitri, as usual, stayed on task. "We've tested the on-the-body sneak spell," he assured her.
"With mind-blowing results," I added.
She seemed to calm at that.
"You can be our backup in case things go bad. You don't have to go in. In fact…" I grabbed a pen out of my utility belt. "Here." I took her hand and wrote Grandma's cell number on her palm. "Call the biker witches if we're not out in an hour."
"Don't trust anyone you meet in there," Aimee instructed.
"Have you had dealings with any of them?" I asked, curious. The voodoo community had to be small.
Aimee didn't answer directly. "I looked in the window," she said. "There's a twisted veve on the floor of the lobby. It's designed to possess and control."
"I saw it," I said, glad I'd instinctively avoided it when I'd been inside.
Dimitri stood in the shadows at the corner of the alley, observing the street. "I just counted six more people going in."
I joined him. "Those are more church members," I said, recognizing the fire-eating woman from the ceremony in the swamp. She wore a white gown, and was accompanied by three other women.
"Let's go," he said, ducking out of the alleyway. I kept pace beside him, marveling at his smooth athletic grace and the way he maneuvered in behind two older men as they crossed the street toward the funeral parlor.
He was a natural at this sneak stuff. Dimitri winked at me as the guard opened the door and we passed into the funeral parlor with the group. Bodies crowded the lobby, cloying incense thick in the air. The room buzzed with the chants of the faithful.
This time, rich silk flags decorated the walls. They pictured dancing skeletons, twining snakes, and flaming hearts struck through with swords.
Festive.
We stuck to the edges, avoiding the swirling white designs on the floor of the lobby.
The sneak spells seemed to be working. The worshippers focused on the large wooden altar at the back, crowded with candles and bones of the dead. They spoke in Haitian Creole, their words thick with emotion and need.
Pran dlo nan je nou Et pran zosman nou
Mettre pou lavi ki pwòp pa nou
In my mind, I could almost hear the translation. It was one of the more nifty demon slayer powers. At least for a geek like me. I could translate script as well. I concentrated and let the words come:
Take our tears and take our bones
Bring to life what is our own
Holy smokes. "They're praying for resurrection."
Dimitri visibly paled. "Never a dull day."
I drew ahead as we neared the doorway that led to the courtyard. When Osse Pade had taken me back there, I'd seen nothing but a simple open air space with rows of chairs, a rough altar, and a platform for a coffin.
When we slipped through the door this time, I had no idea what to think.
"Bodies," Dimitri whispered.
"You're not kidding."
Four rows of tables stretched across the courtyard. Followers dressed in white huddled over them, assembling bones. Each table held a skeleton. One skull, one pelvis, assorted arm bones and fingers and toes.
They were putting everyone back together again, like some twisted version of Humpty Dumpty.
Thick red candles flickered from sconces on the walls. We slipped into the shadows near the far left corner.
Osse Pade stood in the doorway to his private sanctuary. Black and white paint streaked his face and chest, mimicking a skeleton. His fingers caressed the forehead and lingered over the empty eye sockets. "Can you feel her?" he purred. "She wants to come to us."
A nearby male priest appeared nervous, overwhelmed. "It is difficult, my bokor. We cannot sense her like you can." He bowed his head quickly back to his work. "The remains are old."
"Age doesn't matter," Osse Pade said, cradling the skull as he observed the half-completed skeletons. "You must go by what you feel. We trust in magic above all things."
He swept a hand over the remains nearest to him and a long thigh bone began rattling on the table. It shook all on its own, bumping against the tangle of bones piled on all sides.
The voodoo bokor smiled. "Mamma." He gently stroked the bone before plucking it from the others. "You see? All bones are not the same."
My palms began to sweat. It was the same thing the spirit had said to me.
He removed his mother's thigh bone and lovingly placed it into a pink coffin at the front. "There."
Dimitri stiffened next to me. "They're putting Mamma Pade back together."
Sweet puppies.
I'd seen a lot of things as a demon slayer that I never would have believed before I'd gotten my powers. This was right up there.
The bokor turned, his fingers stroking the skull. "Mamma's bones, they call to me. Just as they will call to you. You must let yourselves hear her. Open yourselves to her power. Let her strength seep into you. It's the only way we can do what needs to be done."
"Why?" I hissed, my words barely audible. "Why do they want mamma back together?" I thought back to the alligator in the swamp. How he'd put a soul into it.
A line of sweat trickled down Dimitri's cheek. "You said it yourself," Dimitri murmured. "Resurrection."
Like the chicken in the swamp. That thing had a body. These remains, these bones were well and truly dead. "This isn't Night of the Living Demon Slayer," I protested.
"Think again." Dimitri stuck close to me, his breath coming hard. "Theoretically, reanimation is possible."
Anyone who tried would surely be doomed. But Osse Pade had already gone down that road. I cringed as the bokor kissed his mother's skull.
"Careful, now. Slowly," he said, as his followers prayed over a body. Two vertebrae began twitching, along with a finger bone. "We don't want her mixed up with Aunt Ceila or anybody else. Trust in magic above all things," he repeated like a mantra.
They carried the shivering vertebrae to the pink coffin.
"We've got to stop this," Dimitri hissed.
I agreed. We couldn't let this happen. But I had no idea how to put a halt to it.
Think. We couldn't let them use Carpenter to raise up mamma. For all I knew, they may mean to kill him while they did it.
O
f course, they couldn't raise mamma without a few key parts.
"I'm going to steal her head."
"What?" Dimitri barked, a little too loud. The priest and priestess of the cult turned, and stared into the shadows where we hid.
"They won't see me until I'm on top of them." And it would keep them from raising mamma.
Of course it would require a direct assault on the bokor, who murmured to the head as he lingered near the coffin. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if he'd start singing it lullabies.
My husband clenched his jaw, as if he couldn't quite believe he was doing this. "There's another way," he murmured, "follow my lead."
Chapter Sixteen
This is why I'd missed my dear husband. Sure I had no idea what he was about to pull, but I knew it would be epic. And for our sakes, it had better work.
Dimitri and I kept close to the wall as we snuck up the side of the room, toward Osse Pade. We slipped behind a huddled group of men and women in white. They rocked their bodies forward and back with a desperation only matched by their harsh, moaning chants.
Sulu oh madre
Sulo oh loa fete
Sulu oh madre
Sulo oh loa fete
I hovered so close I feared the edge of their dresses would brush my boots. Dimitri kept his arms and hands flat against the wall and zeroed in on a spot ahead of us. He glanced back at me and gave a quick nod as if to ask, "Ready?"
Oh, yes.
He broke from behind the worshippers and dashed directly into Osse Pade's office.
No one saw him. I couldn't believe it. That was either the dumbest move or the smartest. And the witches definitely needed to brew up some more sneak spells.
I shoved off the wall and bolted after him, running headlong for the arched wooden doorway. The chanting rose up on all sides of me. The cloying scent of incense invaded my nose and stung my eyes. I held my breath against it as I ducked into Osse Pade's sanctuary.
Dimitri caught me against his chest. He was a rock wall in the blackness and he wasn't even trying to hide. His eyes flashed orange, then yellow as the adrenaline coursed through him. Yes, he was a man, but he was also a shapeshifter and he was never more animal then when he was primed for battle.
My body tensed, ready for the fight.
He could see in the dark much better than I could. When he didn't move against the next threat, I took my hand off my switch stars.
We'd gone undetected. For now, we had the advantage.
Just outside, the cult members chanted and held their blades and torches aloft. The bones lay naked and exposed. Osse Pade looked like a man possessed as he stroked his mamma's skull.
Then he jerked, and stared right at our hiding place. My heart raced. We needed time…for what, I didn't know. I was so tempted to run up and grab the skull from him, but then where would we go? We'd have no escape. There were too many of them.
My husband gripped me by the shoulders. Wordlessly, he tucked me behind him. I let him because I trusted him. He seemed to have a plan.
Then he grabbed hold of the shelf along the wall, the long one that held the bones and mementos and bits of bodies that Osse Pade treasured. With a mighty heave, he brought it crashing down onto the floor.
What the hell? I leapt back as glass, bone, and debris smashed to pieces. It scattered, striking my boots and tripping me as I beat a hasty retreat.
"Are you insane?" I screeched. My volume certainly didn't matter anymore.
He didn't even react to my outrage. "Steady," he murmured, bracing for a fight as the bokor ran straight for us, barking orders to his machete-wielding bodyguards. Dimitri raised his hands in front of him. "No switch stars." He ordered. "Now!"
Osse Pade burst through the doorway. Dimitri grabbed him by the shoulders and used the bokor's own momentum to drag him inside. He yanked the skull from Pade, and tossed it to me before gripping the bokor's shoulders once more and using him as a battering ram. He shoved the furious leader past the guards crowding the doorway and out into the courtyard.
I caught mamma's head. I stared down at the skull in my hands. The jaw rattled and I hoped to God it wasn't alive.
We were never going to get this thing out of here.
Just outside, Dimitri crashed down on top of Osse Pade, knocking down two of the tables, scattering bones. A half dozen guards piled on top of him like linebackers. He was down.
Or was he?
Dimitri let out a low beastly growl and I knew exactly what my griffin had in mind.
The pile of guards shifted and rose straight up under Dimitri's rapidly expanding form. His shirt tore. Thick lions' fur raced up his arms and over his back. Red, blue, purple, and green feathers formed wings as his bones shifted and his body grew to the size of a truck.
Dimitri unfurled his enormous wings, the feathers tipped in gold. He clipped another table, sending it crashing down, toppling several guards with it. He threw back his eagle head and called out a sharp battle cry.
He bent his massive lion's body low to the ground and I dashed straight for him. His fur felt smooth and warm, like a cat's. There was no way to straddle his back. It was too wide. So I climbed on with my legs over his shoulders and my fingers twined into the rough fur at his neck. I tucked the skull under my arm, ignoring the way its jaws snapped at my skin.
I took an extra second to tighten my grip. "I'm on! Let's go!" Griffins were like Ferraris. They could go from zero to two hundred in about five seconds flat.
As ready as I was, my head still jerked back as Dimitri lurched skyward, stunning the dazed guards. His claws scraped the air inches above their heads.
The magic in the air singed my cheeks and body.
Mamma's skull struggled against my grip, but I held on tight. She wasn't getting away. Not now.
I felt like I'd hitched a ride on a rocket as we jettisoned out of the courtyard and up into the night.
We did it. We'd actually pulled this off. I grinned hard, loving this, loving him.
Dimitri's shoulders shuddered underneath my thighs and he gave a sharp cry as we slammed into a solid wall of voodoo. The heat of it blazed through me. We jerked backward and plunged straight down.
Chapter Seventeen
We landed hard on the stone tile. Dimitri had his feet under him. He was conscious. That was about all I could find on the bright side. I rolled off his back, and drew a switch star, striking barrel of the pistol aimed at my husband's head. It shaved the end off, rumpling the metal, making it impossible to fire.
Then six more guards aimed guns at us.
So much for trusting in magic.
I tried to block Dimitri as he curled to his side and began to shift. He was at his most vulnerable during the change. He had to be hurt or in severe pain to be doing it now in front of this crowd. We'd hit the ground with bone-jarring force and he'd taken the brunt of the blow.
Feathers in blue, green, and purple folded over on themselves. He shimmered as his lion's body morphed to reveal a broad, muscled back, lean legs, and a bloodied floor underneath.
Damn.
Within seconds he was on his feet, naked and unarmed. He clutched a hand to his side.
Are you okay? The question screamed through my head, but I didn't dare ask it out loud. It would do him no good for us to show weakness.
He appeared dazed and unsteady. I reached for him, but a guard blocked my way.
Dimitri gave me a reassuring nod that turned into more of a grimace as we were dragged forward in front of the fuming bokor.
The burly guard with the feather necklace snatched the skull out of my grip. Another dragged my hands behind my back, making it impossible for me to go for my weapons.
"Place her in the casket," Osse Pade ordered. For a heart-stopping moment, I thought he meant me. "Let her rest…at least for now," he smiled, drawing his hands together as his goon took his mother's skull to join the rest of her bones.
Osse Pade's straight white teeth gleamed. The white skull paint crackled against
his skin as he turned back to us. He walked a small circle around Dimitri and I.
His followers shrank back and bowed their heads in reverence.
The bokor stopped directly in front of my husband, appearing entirely too pleased to see him. Guards held Dimitri on each side, rooting him to the spot. He swayed and I hoped he was playing it up. We were in big trouble if he was as shell-shocked as he looked.
"A griffin." The bokor's dark eyes sparkled with interest. "I could never have imagined you."
Dimitri glared at him, refusing to be baited into offering him anything.
Osse Pade touched a calloused finger my husband's broad chest. His nails were long, like a woman's. "When this is all over, I'm sure mamma will find you quite tasty." His finger trailed down Dimitri's exposed sternum.
I had no idea what he meant, but I had a pretty good inkling I never wanted to find out. I must have made some sort of noise because the bokor directed a soulless smile at me.
"I'll even let you watch, little demon slayer." He considered me, as if deciding on what kind of special treat I deserved. "You'll make a great enforcer. I never believed in your kind, either, but I'll bet you could show me a thing or two."
I drew back as far as I could from him. "I'd have to be insane to work for you."
He tilted his head. "That could be arranged." He watched me, as if he could pick apart my power that away. "I have enemies and voodoo takes time." His gaze found the switch stars at my belt. "I'll bet your weapons are quicker. I don't even have to hurt you." He drew close, his spicy breath warming my cheek. "How well you work for me determines how much I do or don't slice off your griffin."
I refused to react. I would not show this waste of a human being how his words cut me to the core.
The biker witches would come. We had backup. We just had to wait until they realized we were in trouble. Then pray they did better against the bokor than we had.
"You have hope," he said, as if he could read my mind. "I like that. It means you're a fighter, like me." His congenial tone evaporated. "But let me make one thing clear, as soon as I raise mamma, she and I will be unstoppable. Joining her body with her soul will give her life. The necromancer's blood will make her immortal."