Bury Their Bones (Wicked Fortunes Book 2)

by AJ Merlin

  She snorted.

  “Maybe next week,” she bargained. “So I have time to tidy up.”

  “Yuna, you do not strike me as the type of person who ever needs to ‘tidy up,’” I informed her. “And uh, I will most likely be unavailable.”

  Next week was the full moon.

  Yuna narrowed her eyes in confusion. “Is that shop witch kidnapping you to work the whole way through? Or is it a Cian-thing?”

  “It’s the full moon,” I answered slowly.

  “Right. On Wednesday. What about the other six days of the week?”

  “I’m just not so fun to be around,” I said with a shrug. “I don’t want to inflict that on you.”

  “Is it really so bad? You’re not a full werewolf.”

  “Depends on who you’re asking. Mom says that when I was a kid, I would turn into a wolf and ransack the house.” I played with the edges of the paper napkin, shredding the edges between my fingers.

  “Do you have plans to ransack the house next week?” Yuna smoothed her own napkin as if making a point.

  “Goddess, I hope not. That would be embarrassing.”

  “So you’re…what? Chaining yourself to the wall? Avoiding all of us like the plague? Is Aveline moving out for the week?” Watching me carefully, she waited for me to finish tearing the paper napkin.

  “What? No, of course not. It’s not that bad.”

  “Then why block out the whole week?”

  “Well, it’s…I just don’t want to be a bitch to any of you,” I tried to explain. I was being courteous. Was that so unheard of? I wouldn’t kill anyone, but I was always more intense during the week of the full moon.

  “If that’s what makes you comfortable,” the cecaelia shrugged. She paused when the waitress reappeared with both our plates.

  “Everything look all right?” The girl asked, still very obviously talking to Yuna and not me.

  The sea witch spared her no attention. “You have everything?” She asked me instead.

  I fought to hide a smile. “Yes, mother,” I told her with amusement after I’d checked my burger to make sure it was what I’d ordered.

  “We’re fine. Thanks. And you can go on and bring me the check so I can get that paid,” Yuna said.

  “What?” I looked up, a fry wavering near my lips. “Yuna, it’s fine. I can pay for my own.”

  “Ignore her,” my date said. “Single check. Straight to me.”

  The waitress looked between us finally, taking in my distressed frown. “She looks like she wants to pay…” the girl protested. I couldn’t decide if I was grateful that she was on my side, or mentally ruffled at her words.

  “She also looks like she doesn’t mind that you’re doing your best to ignore her in favor of me,” Yuna pointed out. “But I wasn’t going to say anything.”

  Ouch. I saw the waitress flush, a guilty expression finding her face.

  Yuna’s smile was beatific, and I had to fight to hide my own nervous giggling.

  “I’ll be back,” the waitress mumbled, and made a hasty retreat.

  “You didn’t have to do that,” I informed the cecaelia. “She just has a crush. It’s impossible not to. I mean-have you seen you?”

  “Frequently,” Yuna assured me. “I brush my teeth in front of my mirror every morning, same as the rest of you, I promise.”

  Chapter 2

  While I was not questioning the existence of a black rooster with oil-slick bright feathers, I was, in fact suspicious at there being one in my front yard.

  I closed the door of my SUV behind me, half shifted and ready with magic rising in my chest that awaited my call.

  It hadn’t been so long ago that two witches had kidnapped me only a few steps from here. I wasn’t looking to repeat the experience.

  To my surprise, the rooster did not morph into a person, monster, or any combination thereof. It picked at the grass in front of the porch, not paying me any attention.

  “Okay?” I approached it slowly, deliberately, and checked for any scant trace of magic as I walked.

  Still nothing.

  Finally, I stepped close enough to kneel beside it. The rooster looked up at me, tipping its beak this way and that, before apparently deciding I wasn’t worth the trouble and going back to its careful survey of the ground.

  “Are you lost?” I asked, reaching a hand out to flick my fingers against the tips of its tail. It took a step forward, and I did it again. Did some of the neighbors keep chickens?

  Belatedly I looked up, wondering if I might be able to see where this rooster on my front lawn had come from. If someone on the street had built a chicken coop, I surely would’ve smelled it before now.

  “Seems you don’t know your New Orleans supernatural lore very well, do you?” A smooth voice asked with a rich creole accent..

  My heart dropped.

  I stood abruptly, calling back all of my power as my tail curled at my waist. “Who are you?” I demanded, even before I’d given the man leaning against my SUV a good look.

  He didn’t move. Even when my magic buffeted him in the threat I’d meant it as, he only leaned against my SUV in his dark violet suit like he didn’t feel a damn thing.

  Red eyes glittering, the stranger smiled and lifted his hands in surrender. “My bad. I sometimes forget that mortals don’t normally sense me coming. I just figured you knew I was here.”

  “Did you really?” Surveying him carefully, I found myself at a loss. He felt magical. Like a witch. I was usually able to tell if someone practiced magic like I did, though I wasn’t sure exactly how to explain the magical sense that told me that.

  But something was different with this man. He was magical, witch-like, but also not. If I had only been looking at him, I would’ve assumed by his red gaze that he was a vampire.

  His lips parted as his grin widened. Those were definitely fangs in his mouth.

  But even Cian, powerful and gifted as he was, didn’t feel like this.

  “I did not,” the man admitted. “But don’t tell anyone. I have to take my kicks where I can get them, and mortal surprise is one of the few I can count on.”

  Mortal surprise? I’d never been called mortal by another preternatural. Sure, compared to the agelessness of vampires, my four-century lifespan might be considered mortal…but it was still a strange term to be thrown around.

  My confusion must’ve shown on my face. The man chuckled. “I’m not trying to be this difficult,” he promised.

  “Then why are you here?” I asked levelly, erring on the side of caution rather than confidence. I didn’t want to threaten someone who could very easily grind me under their heel. “I don’t even know who you are.” My stomach twisted in knots, though I tried not to let my nervousness show.

  He looked very pointedly down at the rooster that now picked at the grass around my feet. “Even with the rooster? I know it’s not mine, but I didn’t think you’d enjoy it as much if I dropped voodoo dolls on your head or sent you a bottle of rum and peppers. I was trying to be subtle.”

  “….What?” I could only think to ask.

  “This is kind of embarrassing. Are we so esoteric that you don’t know that the rooster is the symbol of Maman Brigitte?”

  It was difficult to be so on edge with my magic tingling my palms in response to his presence and his nonchalance. I was still no closer to knowing what he was.

  “Could we perhaps start over?” I asked at last, pulling my attention from the rooster. “My name is George. I live here, and I am a wolf-witch hybrid.” I shifted to stand on the balls of my feet like I was ready for a fight. “Your turn.”

  “Same format, I’m assuming?” He inquired.

  “I can write down the template if you prefer?”

  “No, no, let me try this.” He cleared his throat and shook out his hands like he was preparing for a dramatic production. “I am Baron Samedi. I live a little ways away, and I am a Loa.”

  I stared at him, nonplussed and deadpan.

 
Baron Samedi, he’d said.

  Loa, he’d said.

  Surely there wasn’t a real voodoo deity standing on my front lawn. As far as I knew, gods didn’t actually exist.

  “…What?” I asked finally.

  “Do I need to repeat it?”

  “Yes, please.”

  “Which part?”

  “All of it.”

  “Ah, I gotcha.” He clapped his hands together. “Mortal surprise again. I like it. Well.” He pointed at the rooster, and with a surprised cluck, it vanished in a puff of smoke.

  I jumped back from where it had been like I might be next.

  “You killed it!” I gasped, heart beating fast.

  “I sent it home,” he dismissed. “She’d kill me if I harmed one of her chickens.”

  “Right. Okay.” I rolled my shoulders to ease the tension in my neck and stared at him across the battlefield of my front lawn. “So, what do you want?”

  “Did you still want me to repeat my introduction?”

  “Is anything in it going to change?”

  His answering smirk was enough.

  “Then no. My hearing is just fine.” I took a deep breath, looking him over like his words had changed what I might see. “You don’t look like…what you say you are,” I observed cautiously. Apart from the eyes and fangs, he looked human.

  “Didn’t you hear? It’s casual Thursday.”

  “Are you going to give me a straight answer at all?”

  His pearly white teeth flashed. “Do you think you should be demanding any kind of answer from me that I haven’t freely given you?”

  I expected some kind of power display. I thought perhaps the air would go heavy or cold or blood might rain from the sky if he was really a voodoo deity like he’d said.

  But nothing changed.

  “I’m not too sure I’m sold on the whole Loa thing,” I admitted. “New Orleans is a big place. I’ve met seven guys telling me they were actually Merlin. Why should I believe you’re who you say you are?”

  It wasn’t meant to be confrontational, but the words slipped out anyway.

  “Because Merlin is dead, and his remains were burned a long time ago, and I have fangs.” He opened his mouth to point at his canines. “And I brought a rooster.”

  “Okay. Okaaaay.” I scrubbed my palms against my jeans to relieve the itch of so much magic ready to go. “What do you want?”

  “My brother invited you to visit us,” Baron Samedi explained.

  “No, he didn’t.”

  “He most certainly did. He came home laughing about how he scared you and knocked you out of his taxi.”

  “Sorry–your brother, a Loa, is a taxi driver?” My mind clicked back on what he meant, and I instantly remembered the dark-skinned man with strange, ghostly eyes talking about my fortune in a very creepy way.

  I’d written him off as just weird.

  My mistake.

  “When he wants to be. We all have our hobbies. He thought you’d come looking for us, since he asked so nicely. I told him and the others that you had a lot on your plate.” His smile widened sweetly. “You should be grateful. They were going to come get you, and I doubt they would’ve dropped a rooster in your yard.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you are the most interesting thing that’s happened in this city in decades, if not centuries.”

  I weighed my options. If he really was what he said-and my reasons not to believe him were dwindling-then was I in any real danger of him? The Loa, a powerful force in voodoo culture, were neutral by nature, and I’d never read or seen anything about them ransacking the city or murdering anyone unjustly.

  “Give me your word that you aren’t lying to me,” I said slowly. “That you don’t intend to hurt me.”

  His eyes glittered. “I give you my word,” he replied solemnly when I had expected some kind of joke or jibe. “I have no intent to hurt you. Neither do any of my kin. When you wish to leave, I will bring you right back to this spot myself.”

  I let out a breath and let my magic recede into myself. “Okay. So…where are we going? Did you drive here or something?” If Akiva were here, he’d be rolling his eyes, and I was sure I’d get an earful from any of my friends–except Merric–about my habit of just diving into things.

  Baron Samedi barked out a laugh. “Drive? What do you take me for?” He closed the distance between us and offered one long-fingered hand. Rings glinted in the light, their mismatched surfaces and gems winking up at me in the sun.

  “Are we going to fly?” I asked dubiously, resting my much paler hand in his. “Or are we–“

  The world jerked suddenly like I’d been caught in a giant shepherd’s hook that rested against my lower back and yanked me off my feet.

  I gasped, the world around me spinning, then darkening, before finally being set on my feet once more.

  My head still spun, and I staggered away from the Loa, who grinned. “It’s a little hard to get used to. Give it a few more chances before you write off my traveling spell.”

  A few more chances? I was expecting this to be a one-time affair.

  “I didn’t know spells like that existed,” I mumbled. “Doesn’t it take a lot of magic to move yourself and another person?”

  “They don’t exist, outside of me. And it does.”

  “Oh.” I didn’t know how to respond to that. I took a moment to look around, shocked to see that this didn’t look like anywhere I’d been before.

  It didn’t even feel like the weather in New Orleans. A breeze ruffled my hair, bringing the strong scent of fish and saltwater. “Where are we?” I asked, finding that we stood on the cross-sections of a white sidewalk surrounded by tall, rustling trees.

  When had the sun started to set?

  “My family’s home.”

  “Which is…where?”

  “Further than you’ve been before.”

  That answered none of my questions.

  “Do I smell the ocean?” I asked, my ears flicking to pick up the soft crunch of leaves being stepped on.

  “Come on.” The Baron tugged on my arm, leading me down the white sidewalk.

  The trees cleared out, giving me a glimpse of the empty horizon not impeded by buildings or people. Wherever we were, it was empty.

  I shivered, wishing I had something more than my t-shirt.

  The white stone under us widened, becoming a large patio with the far end enclosed by a fence. Stairs disappeared on either side, confusing me as to where we were. Was there a building under us? There hadn’t been one behind us, unless it was further through the trees, and the sky on the other side of the rail was confusing.

  A large fountain decorated the middle of the stone patio, the sounds of flowing water hushed in the deep pool edged with dark bushes. Furniture was placed around the area, and a stone fire pit cast an eerie glow around the entire area that competed with the light from multiple, decorative lamp posts.

  And we weren’t alone. I could smell people before I saw them, but moments after I caught the scent, my sharp eyes picked out four people on the stone patio.

  Were they speaking? If so, I couldn’t hear it.

  I hesitated, but the Baron drew me forward, hand still clasped around my arm. “We won’t hurt you,” he reminded me, then stopped and released my arm.

  “So he says.” The woman closest to us who glared into the fountain had heard him. She lifted her head, thick black hair tumbling down her shoulders around a sharp-featured and beautiful face. “But there are so many ways to do harm.”

  My stomach plummeted to the ground.

  The Baron shot her a look before walking away and leaving me alone. I watched as he approached a woman on a long, white cushioned couch and sat down next to her. Both of them watched me, red eyes bright.

  “Who are you?” I asked, clenching my hands into fists until my nails bit into my palms. I turned to the woman at the fountain.

  “Did he not tell you?” The woman’s accent was much richer tha
n the Baron’s.

  “If I’m going to believe that he’s a Loa, and that you are too, then I still have to ask,” I said apologetically. “My knowledge of Voodoo lore isn’t good enough for me to make a guess.”

  Her eyebrows raised ever so slightly. “You don’t believe him?”

  “I don’t know what to think.”

  “Then how else are you here, when we are nowhere near your city, if not for magic beyond what any witch could do?” She tilted her head towards the far rail. “Come see.” She didn’t reach for me, but she did wait until I’d started walking before leading me through the stone patio, past the fire, and to the railing where another man stood.

  For a moment, I didn’t think to look at what lay in front of me. Not when I instantly recognized the man from the taxi ride weeks ago.

  He turned to look at me, a grin playing at his lips and his eyes ghostly blue.

  “You,” I breathed. I blinked away the image of his smile in the taxi, so many weeks ago. I knew him.

  “My brother says you did not mean to slight my invitation,” he remarked in a deep baritone, his accent as thick as the woman’s. “I am not so sure I believe him.”

  “I didn’t know…And I don’t see–“

  Wordlessly, the woman tugged me around to face the railing with her. As if that might answer my silent questions.

  Finally, I looked out across the sky in earnest.

  And saw the ocean.

  The sun set to my left, giving the water an orange and pinkish glow. In front of me sprawled a forest, on a lower level of the island, with white sidewalks peeking through the branches, and a small castle-like building set at the other side. The edges of the land dropped away, waves lapping at the cliffs that held this place high above them.

  “Where are we?” I whispered again.

  “This is not New Orleans,” the woman at my side informed me. “This is barely your world at all. Now do you believe we are who my brother says?” Her tone was impatient.

  Turning to look at her, I took in her dark bronze skin, crimson eyes, and the fangs that glittered between her parted lips. She felt magical, just like the Baron had.

  “But…” I looked back at the man on my other side. He watched me half as intently, his stance lazy and barely interested. “But what do you want with me?”