When Noah dropped Ruby off at her house in her rundown neighborhood, he walked her to the door to make sure she’d be safe.
“Hang on right here for a second,” she said, and then went inside. Noah stood there awkwardly with his hands in his pockets.
She returned a minute later with something in her hand that she slipped into his. He looked down to see a black gris gris bag. “Just a little something for your trouble. Wear it around your neck. It’s for protection.”
Noah smiled. “Thanks.” He started to put it in his pocket.
Ruby rolled her eyes, took it from his hand and hung it around his neck, tucking it into his shirt. Her hand lingered on his chest. She stole another glance at Nadia, and a little smile worked the corner of her mouth. “Thanks for the ride,” she whispered in Noah’s ear, and then put her lips to his, kissing him slowly and tenderly. Noah was lost in the moment for a second until she pulled away and giggled, closing the door behind her. He stood there, dumbfounded, before heading back to the car. Nadia raised her eyebrows at him.
“I have no idea,” he said, and then headed for the convent.
It was getting late, and traffic had thinned considerably. The Charger was the only car on the bridge going back across the river. Noah was lost in thought about the kiss Ruby had planted on him. Nadia stewed in silence. The radio was mindlessly playing some old rock song Noah remembered from grade school.
Just as they reached the middle of the bridge, something large landed in the lane in front of them. Noah had just enough time to register the face of someone who looked a lot like him in the headlights before he swerved into the next lane and spun around.
“It’s him!” said Nadia. “It’s the man I saw when I touched your mother’s hand!”
The angel looked over his shoulder and found Noah’s eyes, which looked so much like his own. Noah revved the car and hit the gas pedal, charging for the angel. He flew up just before the car hit him.
Noah turned the car around, put it in park and said to Nadia, “Stay here.” He went to open the door, but Nadia pulled him back.
“No! He’ll kill you!”
“He doesn’t want to. I’m going to take care of him.”
“Don’t be stupid!”
“Stay in the car!”
He stepped out onto the bridge. The angel hovered about ten feet above, looking at Noah with a menacing smile.
Noah jumped onto the roof of the car and yelled to the angel, “What are you waiting for?!”
The angel flew toward him, stopping in front of the headlights. “You know who I am.”
“Yeah, I know who you are, and I know what you did.”
“Then you know who you are.”
“What the hell do you want with me?”
“The others said you are special, that you have something none of them have. They can smell it on you. I smell it, too, underneath that concoction that’s supposed to protect you.”
“Not just for protection. To get rid of the wings, too.”
The angel smirked. “You hate us that much, do you? But do you realize how powerful you could be? A nephil with paladin blood could be a strong force to aid us. You could be a ruler some day.”
“You’re all disgusting and evil, and I will never join you.”
The angel considered him for a moment. “How is your mother?”
Noah’s jaw tightened, and a vein in his neck throbbed.
“She still looks as beautiful as the last time I saw her,” he continued.
“You stay away from her!”
“Join me, and you have my word that no one will touch her.” He looked at Nadia in the car. “Or your little friend in there.”
Noah leaped off the car, almost tackling the angel, who dodged him at the last second, spun around, and grabbed Noah, lifting him up fifty feet in the air.
Nadia jumped out of the car and looked up at the sky. “Noah!”
The angel held him by his upper arms and stared into his eyes. “Think it over. When you’re ready to join me, meet me at the pier where you found Arcelia. I’d tell you to come alone, but it really doesn’t matter who you bring. There are more of us than there are of you. Don’t take too long to think about it. I know where you live. And don’t be foolish enough to think that a protection spell around your house is going to keep me out.”
He released his grip, and Noah fell to the bridge with barely enough time to reposition himself for a steady landing. It still hurt his legs. He groaned and sat on the asphalt with his head between his knees. Nadia rushed over to him.
“Are you okay?” she said.
“I need to take you to the convent, and then I need to get home and warn my mom. Tomorrow, I’m going to go see Miles. We need to take this guy out. Fast.”
***
Noah dropped Nadia off at the convent and apologized to Sister Alice. He said Nadia had been with him at his house, and she could call his mother if she didn’t believe him. The nun was still not happy with Nadia running off, but held her tongue.
When Noah got home, he found Selena in the kitchen. She was on the phone, and he was surprised to see her smiling.
He leaned against the door frame to the kitchen. She grinned at him. For the first time in a long time, she had a light in her eyes.
“Yes,” she said, nodding with the receiver to her ear. “I can do that. I’ll see you tomorrow. Thank you again. Goodbye.” As soon as she hung up, she jumped up and squealed. She wrapped her arms around Noah and danced with him. Despite the night he had, he couldn’t help but smile. It was good to see her happy.
“Are you going to tell me?” he said.
She went to the refrigerator and grabbed a bottle of peach wine. “That was the principal at St. Sebastian’s! I applied there a couple of weeks ago. She wants me to meet her tomorrow afternoon. Their first grade teacher’s husband got transferred to Atlanta, and they need someone to take her place right away.” She opened the cabinet doors, searching. “Where are the wine glasses?” she muttered to herself and then checked the dishwasher.
“That’s great. You think you’re gonna get it?”
“It looks really good, baby. Really good.” She grabbed a couple of plastic cups from the cupboard and poured the wine, handing Noah a cup. “I’m only giving you a little, okay? Don’t tell anyone.” She giggled and touched her cup to his. “Bottoms up!”
After they downed their cups, she said, “I really feel like things are looking up.”
He didn’t have the heart to dash her hopes.
11
Dying Ember
“We have to protect her!”
“We will. I think if we follow the trail of the grimoire—”
“Screw the damn book! This is my mother we’re talking about!”
Miles maintained his calm demeanor. “I’m doing everything I can.”
“Well it’s not enough!” Noah punched the wall near the door frame, leaving a small dent. “It’s not enough, Miles!”
The doorbell rang. Noah looked like he wanted to say more. He and Miles just stood there in the foyer, facing each other.
“I will help you and your mother,” assured Miles.
Noah shook his head, too angry to even speak. The only words his frustration would allow were “It can’t wait.” He swung open the front door and saw an elderly priest on the other side. He brushed past him, not even saying hello.
The priest looked at Miles with questioning eyes.
“Hello, Ben,” said Miles.
Ben looked over his shoulder at Noah, who walked briskly toward the Charger in the driveway. Ben went inside the house, and Miles closed the door behind them.
Almost back at the car, Noah stopped midway. He realized who the priest was. It must have been the paladin Miles and Sister Alice talked about. He snuck back toward the house and peeked in through the living room window. There was too much condensation on the glass, but he could hear every word spoken.
***
Miles could tell right away
Ben’s smile was fake because it did not show in the old man’s deep and tired eyes. What did show was pain and sorrow just behind the mask.
“Hello, Miles,” he said in his raspy voice. For the all the years he had been a priest at St. John’s in Lafayette, he had insisted on not using a microphone, instead using his commanding voice that echoed to the last pew and even made fidgety and squirming children pay attention.
Miles looked concerned. “Please come in.” He led him to the living room where they sat on the leather sofa near the fireplace.
Ben looked around the vast room and at the collection of leather-bound books stacked on shelves that covered a whole wall. He took in the grandeur of the fireplace with the stone lion face embedded in the mantle. He leaned back on the comfortable cushion and smiled that fake smile again. “I should come here more often if you would permit me. Not that I don’t care for the rectory, but it would be nice to pretend I made it big sometimes.
Miles smiled uncomfortably. “Can I get you anything to drink?”
Ben started to say no, but changed his mind. “Scotch, if you have it.”
While Miles poured the scotch from the little bar on the other side of the room, he noticed Ben held a rosary in his hand, and he saw his lips silently moving as if in prayer.
Ben thanked him when he returned with his drink, and then he finished it in three swallows. “Have you been able to relocate the grimoire?”
Miles shook his head. “Unfortunately. That’s not what brings you to New Orleans now, is it?” Miles asked this knowing it couldn’t be good news.
“Cee Cee wanted to call you, but I felt it best to tell you in person. She’s still in Abbeville.” He looked at Miles with reluctant, sad eyes, and then he said, “We’ve lost Mary.”
Miles blinked, already in denial about what that could possibly mean. “You’ve lost her? You don’t mean …”
“She’s gone, Miles. She was killed in battle yesterday. I’m so very sorry.”
Miles still could not grasp what he was hearing. But then it finally registered that Mary was no longer on this Earth. “No,” he whispered. “Oh, no. Not Mary.” He looked away, putting his hand over his mouth, grief-stricken. “What … what happened? What happened to her?”
“A Dark Paladin who turned. His name was Walter Savoy.”
Tears slipped from Miles’ eyes. “Oh, dear God!” he said, staring at the dying embers in the fire place.
“I’m sorry, Miles. He was too tough for us. Clothilde is beside herself with grief. We all are.”
Miles was quiet for a very long time, his face buried in his hands. Ben had an arm around his shoulder, and he wiped away a few tears as well. At last, Miles said “Leigh? Is she … I can’t imagine what she must be feeling.”
“The news was understandably hard on the little girl. Her brother, too. And Mary’s husband. Clothilde spent the night at their house to help comfort the children. I don’t know how she does it, facing so much grief herself. She’s a very tough woman.”
Miles nodded sadly.
“Cee Cee saw it happen. She saw her go down. She tried to help her, but it was too late. Clovis and I tried to convince her that there was nothing she could do, but … you know Cee Cee.”
“When is the funeral?”
“Day after tomorrow. Visiting hours start tomorrow morning. Rosary at six tomorrow evening.”
“I think I’d like to go tomorrow and be there for the rosary. I’ll stay in the background.”
Ben was quiet for a while, letting the initial shock subside, and then he said, “I have to tell you something else, Miles. It’s about this boy, the nephil you saved.”
Miles looked at him. “Cee Cee told you?”
“Yes. I need to tell you that I had a vision of him in the future, just a few years from now.” He paused, not sure how to soften the news. “He’s going to walk the line, and possibly turn to the Dark Side.”
Miles shook his head. “No. I don’t believe that. This boy is good. I can see it in him. He is a paladin. He has more of that force in him than Grigori blood.”
“I saw it, Miles,” he said softly. “He’s going to do something to go against God’s rules, and he will turn.”
“What will he do? What do you see?”
He smiled sadly. “I don’t know. I’m not as sharp as I used to be. Gettin’ old now, and I can’t see as far as I used to. I hate myself for not seeing what would happen to Mary.” He closed his eyes and took a weary breath. “It’s just bits and pieces, just a small glimpse of what happens. I see him carrying a young woman’s body and then him cutting his arm with a knife. There’s darkness all around the vision. I see no light.”
“He’ll become a dark paladin, then.”
Ben shook his head. “Not just a line walker, Miles. Darker.”
They were both quiet. The fire snapped and crackled. “I’ll take every precaution I can with him,” said Miles. “And I’ll see you tomorrow at the funeral home.”
***
Noah turned away from the window and went back to the car. Miles was leaving tomorrow. He just had to keep his mother safe until he returned. Gadriel left the ball in his court. There was time. He told himself there was time, and he would prepare.
Instead of going home, he crossed the bridge into Algiers. He knocked on Ruby’s door. She opened it, looked over her shoulder quickly and then stepped outside with him.
“What are you doing here?” she whispered.
“Did I come at a bad time?”
She peered into the window that looked into the kitchen. “My daddy doesn’t like boys showing up for me.”
“Sorry. I don’t mean to make trouble for you.”
“Well, you’re here now. What you want?” She smirked. “You back for more sugar?”
Noah rubbed the back of his neck. “Uh, not that. No. I was wondering if you had another one of those gris gris bags. But maybe something with a little more kick?”
She looked him up and down. “Yeah, I think I can help you.”
12
Sins of the Father
“What is this?” Nadia lifted the medallion that was around Noah’s neck.
“It’s a talisman. It’s for protection.”
“Cee Cee gave that to you?”
“Um … no.”
“Who, then?”
He wavered. “Ruby.”
She let the talisman fall back onto his chest and put space between them. “Oh. When did you see her?”
“I went to her house last night, and I’m now realizing how that sounds, but I really did need some help.”
“Help for what?”
He hesitated longer.
“Help for what?” When he didn’t answer, she said, “You’re not going to go after him by yourself.”
He stared at the floor of his bedroom, knowing that no matter what he said, he wouldn’t be able to convince her.
“If you want to get yourself killed, then you go right ahead.” She walked out of his room, slamming the door.
He heard the phone ring from down stairs. By the time he got to it, he saw Nadia closing the front door behind her.
“Hello?”
“Have you made your decision?” His father’s voice chilled him. When he didn’t answer, Gadriel continued: “I got tired of waiting, so I thought I’d speed up your decision.”
The next voice he heard was his mother’s. “Don’t come after me, Noah!”
“Mom!”
“Don’t you think a job interview was a little too convenient?” said Gadriel.
Noah punched the wall with his fist, cracking the sheetrock. “Don’t you hurt her!”
“Go to the pier.”
The phone clicked.
Noah hung up and ran outside to his car. Nadia was getting into a cab down the block, but she stopped when she saw his car peel out of the driveway.
***
As soon as Noah parked the Charger on the pier, Nadia’s cab pulled up beside him. She told the driver to wait a
s she ran out. Noah got out of his car.
“Go back!” he told her.
“What’s going on?!”
Noah went around to the driver of the cab, pulled out his wallet and gave the guy a twenty-dollar bill. “Take her to St. Genevieve’s, across from City Park.”
“You got it.”
“No!” said Nadia. “Not until you tell me what’s going on!”
Noah clinched his jaw and pulled her aside. “He has my mom. That bastard has her!”
Her eyes widened. “I’m sorry.”
“You need to go. It’s not safe for you here. He threatened you, too, remember?”
“Noah …”
“Go, Nadia!”
“I …” She ran her hand through his hair and caressed his cheek. Her other hand rested on his chest.
He never felt so close to anyone in his whole life. Her life force pulled him in.
The sun was setting, and the world was gray with snow flurries and ice crystals that melted on the pier.
She took a step back and leaned against Noah’s car with her arms crossed, staring down at the disappearing snow.
“You don’t understand,” he said, his face drawn up in a scowl. “No one else can stop him.”
“What makes you think you can?”
“I have these abilities for a reason. I can take him down. I have to!”
After a tense bit of silence from both of them, Nadia said, “I wish you would wait for Miles to return.”
“Would you wait if it was your mother?”
Her eyes sparked with fire for a second but then softened. She cupped her hands to his face, brought him closer to her, and kissed him softly at first then passionately, as though it were the first and last time.
After, he held her and watched the tiny snowflakes and ice crystals sparkle in her hair. Neither knew how long they stood there holding each other, but both knew it wasn’t long enough. She left in the cab, and Noah returned to his car as the flurries grew heavier.
***
The sky was black. The water of the Mississippi rippled with sleet. Other than the ice patter, the warehouse and pier were dead quiet with not a soul about. Anchored near the dock were two large boats which cast their enormous shadows onto the pier. Nadia had left hours ago, and Noah waited in his car as the tiny shadows of the sleet streaked down his windows and danced across his face. He tried to prepare himself for what he would encounter. The longer he waited, the steadier his anger and resolve grew, building up inside of him, and he soon felt like a caged animal. He wondered if Gadriel would ever arrive.
Nancy K. Duplechain - Dark Trilogy 03 - Dark Legacy Page 7