“So, where are you staying?” said Noah.
Nadia looked a little embarrassed when she said, “At the convent at St. Genevieve’s.”
“You’re staying at a convent?”
“My parents have a friend here, and he arranged for me to stay there until they move here in a few weeks.”
“Ah, cool. Um … well, I live right up that street over there. Do you need me to walk you anywhere?”
Nadia blushed. “Oh, no. I’m just going to cross over that way and wait for the streetcar.”
“Oh, okay. I can wait with you if you want.”
She looked like she wanted to say yes. “That’s okay. I’ll be fine. You should get out of those clothes quickly. I mean, go home and change quickly. So that you can warm up.”
Noah grinned. “Yeah, I know what you meant.”
“Thank you for everything, though.”
“Sure thing.”
They both went to press the button at the crosswalk at the same time. When they did, their hands touched, and Nadia’s eyes widened and her mouth slackened.
“Hey, you okay?”
She didn’t respond for a moment, just staring off into space. Noah snapped his fingers. “Nadia?”
Still staring off into space, she reached out for his hand and held it in hers. Her eyes widened again, but this time her face bore emotional pain and tears filled her eyes.
“Hey, what’s the matter?” Noah grew more alarmed by the second.
Finally Nadia murmured “I’m so sorry.”
“Huh?”
“The blood, the blood … your mother crying … your … your wings?”
Noah jerked his hand away and looked at her like she was some kind of alien. “What did you say?”
The cross signal beeped, but neither of them moved.
Nadia’s gaze returned to normal, and she wiped away a tear that was falling down her cheek. She looked sympathetically at Noah. “I don’t know what just happened, but … did that happen to you?”
“Did what happen to me?”
“What I just said, about the blood and your mother and … why did I see wings?”
Noah, horrified, stared at her for a moment. She began to feel like she had done something wrong.
“What are you?” said Noah.
“I … I don’t know. I don’t know what just happened. I touched you, and I suddenly saw something that happened to you. That did happen to you, didn’t it?” Her eyes pleaded with his.
Noah looked away, still afraid of what was happening. “I have to go,” he murmured. He hurried across the street, and was gone in a flash.
Nadia stared after him, wondering how someone could run that fast.
4
The New Job
In his mind, he kept replaying what had happened earlier when Nadia touched him. And he also wondered how he was able to pick up Bus and throw him so far, and how he was able to run so fast. Up until today, the only strange thing about him was those damned wings. He figured that his abilities had something to do with that, like he inherited them from his … well, he hated saying father, but that’s what he was. And Nadia … she seemed pretty surprised by what she did. Could she be one of those monsters, too?
***
After school the next day, Noah paid a visit to Miles’ house in the upscale Garden District. He seemed surprised to see Noah so soon but greeted him warmly.
“Please, come in.”
Noah marveled at the beauty of the house as Miles led him to the toasty living room. Noah sat on the sofa near the fireplace where the coals still glowed. Miles sat across from him in the wingback chair.
“Nice house,” said Noah.
“Thank you. I wasn’t expecting you so soon, if at all, to tell you the truth.”
“Yeah, well, you said I should see you if I started to develop any, uh, abilities?”
Miles’ eyes lit up. “Have you?”
“Well … I don’t know if this counts, but …”
“Go on.”
“I can see in the dark really good. I don’t need a flashlight or anything. I just noticed that last night. I can run pretty fast. And I picked up this guy who was messing with this girl. I threw him into the wall. I didn’t know I was that strong. Is that something all of those Watcher Angels can do?”
Miles thought on this for a moment. “Well, they are quite strong and fast, and some have different abilities, but, from what you’re telling me, I believe you get yours from … your mother.”
Noah tilted his head and furrowed his brows. “Come again?”
Your mother doesn’t know this, but she—as well as you—are descendants of Gerard of Roussillon.”
“And, who is Gerard of Roussillon?”
“Ah, here we get into the story of Charlemagne and his twelve holy knights. God granted them powers to fight the dark side. Their children inherited these powers, and their children’s children, and so on. Gerard of Roussillon was one of the original paladins. He was given the ability of animals: speed, stealth, strength, sight, hearing. Your senses and natural physical abilities are all heightened. It’s quite useful.”
“I never noticed anything like this with my mom.”
“Which brings me to another point I must make. Not all who inherit power will come to know it. You can either be told, or happen upon it by helping someone in need. You said there was a girl yesterday who needed your help, so your power made itself known then.”
Noah listened carefully, his eyes wide with excitement, grinning. At last he said, “So, we’re like superheroes.”
Miles laughed. “Perhaps. Please refrain from wearing a cape and mask. It will only draw attention to you.”
“I don’t know. I think I’d look pretty good in a mask and cape. Maybe some underwear on the outside of my tights.” He laughed. “Man, that’s pretty cool. I’d much rather be that than those … things.”
“It’s not all fun and games. You have to be cautious. You must not tell anyone, and you have to be very careful with how you use your abilities so as not to attract attention. It was good of you to help that girl yesterday, but always be cautious that anyone or anything can be watching you. Be careful, Noah.”
He nodded. “That girl I helped yesterday … something kind of happened when we touched. She saw what happened to me when I tore off my wings. Would she be a paladin, too?”
“Knowing someone’s history by touching them is a gift, and it’s traced through the Yvon bloodline. Who is this girl? What’s her name?”
“Nadia.”
His eyes widened. “Nadia Ancelet?”
He shrugged. “I didn’t get her last name, but she’s staying at that convent near City Park.”
Miles chuckled. “That’s Nadia. I know her and her family very well. So, her ability finally showed up. It seems you two were a catalyst for each other. I don’t know if that was fate or just an extraordinary coincidence. I’ll pay a visit to the convent later this evening and talk to her, reassure her what she’s going through is normal for us.”
“Us?”
“Paladins.”
“Oh, yeah. It’s still kind of hard to wrap my head around everything. So, what’s your ability?” Noah put up air quotes for ability.
“I’m a healer, among other things.”
“What other things?”
Miles chuckled. “Other things.”
Noah was intrigued but decided to drop it. “Cool. Well, thank you. For telling me all of this,” said Noah, standing.
“Of course. Please let me know if I can help you with anything else.”
“Sure thing. Well, I gotta go. I have a job interview. Thanks again, Mr. Knighten.”
“You can call me Miles. If you don’t mind, what are you applying for?”
“Oh, this chicken place near my neighborhood.”
“I see. Please forgive my curiosity, but what are your plans for your future? College? Career?”
Noah shrugged. “I always wanted to travel. See the world. A
ctually, I thought about joining the Navy. I think I’d like to be a SEAL.”
“That’s very commendable. Why do you suppose you’re drawn to this line of work?”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “Don’t know. It’s just something I always thought about, like since I was eleven I think. I read this National Geographic with a story about the SEALs, and I thought it was pretty cool. I’d really like to do something like that.”
Miles smiled slightly. “And this chicken job. Do you believe you need this?”
“Yeah, it’s my fault my mom got fired, so I want to help.”
Miles considered this thoughtfully and said, “Would you be interested in working for me?”
“Um … what, uh, doing what?”
Miles shrugged. “Running errands, mostly. Maybe chauffer me around. As long as it doesn’t interfere with your schooling, of course. But I do pay well.”
Noah scrunched his eyebrows in deep thought.
Miles smiled politely. “It’s just an offer. Don’t feel you have to say yes.”
“Oh, no! It’s not that. I just don’t know how I’d run errands for you. I mean, I have an old bike in our garage. Mom has a car, but I hate to use hers if she needs it.”
“I see. Follow me, please.”
Miles led Noah to his two-car garage on the side of the house. A black, new model Mercedes and a newly-restored, dark charcoal gray 1968 Dodge Charger were parked there.
Miles gestured toward the Charger. “You would be driving this.”
Noah’s mouth hung open. “Um … okay.”
Miles laughed. “Then I can expect you Saturday?”
Noah managed to nod, not taking his eyes off the Charger.
“Good. We need to take a trip to St. Mary parish. Be here at ten o’clock.”
5
Road Trip
Miles wasted no time in getting down to business. As soon as Noah arrived, he led him to the big table against the back wall in the living room where there was a book opened to show an old sketch of another book with a blank, leather cover.
“Hey, did you get to talk to Nadia?” said Noah.
“Yes. She was as surprised about her lineage and abilities as you were. She said she wished her parents would have told her, especially her father who carries the bloodline. She’s a little upset right now because she hasn’t heard from them since the day before yesterday. I told her they’re probably having the baby. I called a friend of mine in Paris to check in on them.” He tapped the book in front of him. “Now, this is why I asked you to meet me here today.”
“Yeah, you said we’re going to St. Mary?”
“Yes.” He pointed to the picture in the book. “This is what we’re looking for. This is a grimoire. Do you know what that is?”
He shook his head.
“It’s a book of spells, written by a witch or sorcerer. This particular grimoire is referred to as the Book of Avelina. My friend, a fellow paladin—Father Ben Olivier—who has the gift of prophecy and vision, said this book is very powerful and that we need to get it. It was written in the ninth century by Avelina, the granddaughter of the original paladin Anseis, who had the gift of magic.”
“And you think this ancient, all-powerful book found its way to St. Mary Parish of all places.”
Miles glanced at him over his shoulder and raised an eyebrow. “My boy, when dealing with magic, anything is possible.”
Miles put on some latex gloves and unrolled a series of musty, yellowed papers near the book. They were family trees. On the first page, there were thirteen drawings—profiles of men. At the head and very top of the chart, the caption under the man’s face read: Charlemagne. Below him, in a line of twelve faces, were the names of his twelve paladins: Roland, Anseis, Oliver, Berenger, Samson, Yvoire, Gerin, Engeler, Yvon, Gerard of Roussillon, Oton, Gerer. The next pages were family trees for each paladin.
Miles turned to the page for Anseis’ family tree and pointed to a name: Avelina. “She is the one who created the grimoire. It has changed hands throughout history. For a few centuries, it was with a coven of Avelina’s descendants in Germany. Then it somehow found its way to the U.S. during the time of the British Revolution. A British general used it to win battles, but when he died, it was picked up by some witches near Salem, where it stayed until the Salem Witch Trials. A coven of witches fled to the South, where the grimoire was eventually picked up by some witches in the Appalachian Mountains. It then traveled with a man to Louisiana at the turn of the twentieth century, and it was picked up by Houma Indians here in South Louisiana.”
“Why would the Houma need it?”
For the same reason a coven would need it. There are obviously some paladin descendants in the tribes. I know one Houma tribe with a healer paladin, a descendant of Charlemagne just like I am. He trained someone I know in Vermilion Parish.
“Do you think his tribe has the book?”
“I called him. He said that a long time ago, there was suspicion of one of the tribe members in St. Mary Parish.”
“He thinks they have it?”
“He said he’s not sure, but he’s heard of strange things happening in that area, but that was back in the nineteen-sixties and seventies. When he and a few of the tribe elders investigated, they found several unusual deaths and evidence of skin walkers, but they couldn’t figure out who was doing it. He said any other reports of skin walker-type activities stopped in the early eighties.”
“I’m afraid to ask.”
Miles half smiled. “Someone with the gift of magic can use spells to transform themselves into animals. Sometimes very dangerous animals.”
“Like … um, werewolves?”
Miles looked at him with solemn eyes. “Could be. Could be anything, actually. Anything that will help him or her get what they want.”
“Your friend couldn’t do anything about it?”
“He’s the only paladin in his tribe, and he’s over a hundred years old. Back then, and even today, they can’t do much more than the police. The only things they can do are related to tribal business.”
Noah was quiet and reflective for a moment while Miles flipped through the sheets of Anseis’ family tree. He stopped on the most recent sheet and followed a branch that led to a name: Joe Billiot. He pointed to it. “This is who we need to find. He is the last recorded descendent on this branch. His grandmother, Elizabeth, had the book when she lived with them. His father, Thomas, was the next to have it. He died around the same time the skin walker activity ceased in St. Mary Parish.”
“Then it was him. He was the skin walker.”
“It would seem so, but we still need to find his son Joe and see if he has the grimoire. You up for it?”
After a moment’s consideration, Noah nodded. “Yeah. Let’s go.”
***
The first stop was the St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s office. Miles told Noah to wait in the car. When he returned, they stopped for a bite to eat at a diner on the parish line. Miles brought with him a manila folder with papers that he got from the Sheriff’s office. He and Noah sat in a booth and ate and went through the contents of the folder. Noah almost choked on his fish Po-boy when Miles pushed a picture in front of him: a black and white photo of a dead man with this tongue black and swollen, hanging out of his mouth.
“Shit, what’s that?” said Noah, his mouth full.
“A friend of a friend dug this file out for me. It’s a murder investigation from the early eighties. This man—Christopher Thibodeaux—was found dead in his home in Patterson.”
Noah wrinkled his nose and swallowed his food. “So that has something to do with the Billiot family and the skin walkers?”
Miles nodded. “I believe so. The report here says that lab tests were performed on the body, but they could find nothing that would cause his tongue to swell like that. They figured it was some sort of poison.”
“But you don’t think so.”
“If Thomas Billiot or his son was using the grimoire, then this
could possibly be the work of dark magic. As soon as we’re done here, I’ll phone Cee Cee and ask her.”
“Are they all skin walkers?”
“No. The descendants of Anseis have the gift of magic, but it’s up to them how they want to practice it. The descendants in the Houma tribe—as well as other native tribes—use a form of shamanism. Animal transfiguration is just one aspect. Not all of them choose it. Witches sometimes use that particular ability, especially in Europe. Voodoo does not use it, to my knowledge.”
When they finished their meal, Miles phoned Cee Cee from the pay phone outside. Noah could hear her on the other end of the line.
“What could cause a victim to have a blackened, swollen tongue?” he asked her.
She was quiet for a second. “Corpse dust. You know what that made of? Ground up infant bones.”
His eyes widened and his lips pressed into a hard line. “Is that used in Voodoo?”
“Absolutely not! You take the life of an innocent to enact a curse it’ll damn your soul. You know Voodoo ain’t about that.”
“Forgive me. I didn’t mean to imply that. I was just wondering if a Dark One would use such a thing.”
“That kind of thing’ll turn anyone to Les Foncés.”
“Would the Houma know how to perform such a spell?”
Silence on the other end of the phone, and then, “Suppose so. Assuming they had instructions.”
“Like the Book of Avelina?”
“You found it?!”
“Not yet, but we have a good lead.”
“Be careful, Miles. Someone who’d make corpse dust is someone you don’t want to mess with.”
“I’ll be careful. Thank you.”
Noah quickly whispered, “Ask her if she’s with my mom.”
Miles waved for him to be quiet, but it was too late.
“That Noah with you?! He don’t need to be out chasing that book with you, Miles, you know that!”
“I needed him. Don’t tell Selena. Please. I’ll keep him safe.” He hung up before she could say another word and then turned to Noah. “Ready?”
Nancy K. Duplechain - Dark Trilogy 03 - Dark Legacy Page 3