by A. P. Jensen
“The Council was attacked last night by the Battalion. It was a bloodbath. The Battalion’s taken hostages and the Council’s going on the offensive to get their people back,” Gerald said.
“How many were killed?” someone asked.
“Around forty,” Bones said quietly.
There was a stark silence and Gerald clasped his hands behind his back.
“We’re not sure what the Battalion’s objective is. Angel was in Las Vegas several days ago.” Gerald’s eyes flicked to Raven and then away. “As we now know, if someone takes our blood or hair, that person is capable of remembering us temporarily. The Battalion is stirring things up. We have no plans to intervene on the Council’s behalf. We’ll bide our time and figure out what the Battalion’s goal is before we act.”
Raven opened her mouth and Jackie kicked her under the table. She bit back a yelp and kicked back.
Shut up, Jackie said telepathically. Now’s not the time.
“Shit happens,” someone muttered at another table. “Angel hit hard. You gotta respect him for going head-to-head with Rich like that.”
“Yeah, Angel knows what he’s doing.”
“Wonder why the Seer didn’t have a vision about it,” someone asked in a low voice.
“Maybe Rich was with the youngest Henson. She interferes with everyone’s power. When I was doing surveillance on the Council, she remembered me. Fucking scared the shit out of me.”
“Did she get killed?” someone else asked casually.
“Heard she’s one of the hostages.”
“Hmm. Wonder what Angel’s gonna do with her. Maybe he’ll...”
Raven shot to her feet and Jackie cursed. She had everyone’s undivided attention and knew they were expecting an outburst from her, but she didn’t care. Gerald eyed her with a forbidding expression she didn’t heed.
“I know you don’t give a shit about the Council,” Raven said and her voice was clear and strong. “I don’t care for Rich either. I know what he did to your pregnant women and that’s low, but the Battalion is murdering innocents. Out of those forty that were killed, how many were children? How many were women who don’t know how to fight?”
Some of the men rolled their eyes while others watched her coldly while eating pieces of salted meat with their hands.
“Maggie is Cain’s sister. She’s eight and innocent and she was taken by the Battalion. Doesn’t she deserve to live?”
“That girl will grow up to be just like her parents.”
Raven didn’t bother trying to locate the voice. Several grunts echoed around the kitchen as others agreed.
“But she’s eight. Maggie believes in marriage and happily-ever-afters.”
Snickers filled the kitchen. Raven clenched her fists at her sides.
“The Unmemorables don’t interfere between the Battalion and the Council,” Gerald said. “For all I care, they can destroy each other.”
“Maybe its time you changed,” she snapped.
“You think we should help the Council after their attempts to trap us like animals?” asked Louie, a cousin who was obviously not a fan of hers or the Council.
“I think you should help those who aren’t strong enough to fight back. The Council was celebrating Christmas and the Battalion hit knowing there would be visitors. Those people were innocent. I’m not choosing a side, but...”
“You’re with Cain and his family is the Council,” Popeye snapped.
“Cain pulled out,” she said.
Raspberries filled the kitchen. She tried to soothe her temper and the urge to grab a knife.
“You believe what you want, but Cain is neutral,” she said.
“Where is he?” someone demanded.
“He’s tracking his sister.”
More eye rolling.
“Believe what you want, but I won’t stand by and watch Angel torture a little girl.”
“What can you do?” a bald guy asked.
“I can’t track like Cain, but I can try to break the Unmemorable curse. Then we’ll see what side all of you choose.”
Raven slid off the bench and strode out of the kitchen. She passed the fountain in the foyer and walked down the hallway. She stopped in front of Gerald’s office and sank onto the chair in front of the closed doors. She put a hand on her face and tried to calm her erratic breathing. She didn’t know what to do. She wanted to scream at them and demand that they do something. What were their combat talents worth if they didn’t use it to defend others? She didn’t have the right to ask them to risk their lives for people who caused them pain in the past, but she didn’t care what her rights were. Maggie’s face kept swimming into focus in her mind and Cain was out there. Nothing could happen to either of them.
Raven reached for her phone and realized she still had Sunshine’s sketchpad clutched in her hand. She pulled out her phone, hoping for a message or missed call from Cain, but there was nothing. Her hand hovered over the keys. Should she call him? She wanted to hear him say he still loved her and that everything was going to be okay. Instead, she slipped the phone back in her pocket and flipped open Sunshine’s sketchpad. Her heart stopped.
The first page was an illustration of the long tables in the kitchen. She was the focal point of the sketch, done up like a superhero with a cape and red bustier. She stood in the middle of the page and faced Gerald who wore a headpiece with antlers. There was a bubble near her mouth that said, “We have to help!”
She flipped to the next page and saw an image of herself sitting in front of the closed doors of Gerald’s office, staring at a phone. She flipped to the next page and frowned. She and Bones were face to face. There was a bubble in front of her mouth that said, “I don’t want your help.”
Raven looked up and muffled a scream. Bones stood several feet away, watching her from the shadows.
“What do you want?” She got to her feet so she could defend herself if she had to.
“You’re jumpy,” Bones commented as he strolled forward.
“And you’re a callous bastard.”
Bones didn’t seem bothered by her name-calling. “I want to talk about Olivie Belrose.”
“I don’t want your help.” The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them. It was suddenly hard to breathe. She whipped open Sunshine’s sketchpad and flipped to the next page, but it was blank.
“You shouldn’t let emotion cloud reason,” Bones said.
Raven slammed the sketchpad into Bones’s abdomen and found small satisfaction in his grunt. She crossed her arms and paced as Bones flipped through the drawings. She gave him time to examine the illustrations before she turned. Bones’s expression hadn’t altered a bit, the damn robot.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Bones drawled. “Either you draw fast or Sunshine has a power none of us have noticed.”
Chapter Thirteen
“Maybe you haven’t noticed because you’re too busy watching things happen.”
Bones didn’t acknowledge her barb. “So now what?”
“What did you want to tell me about Olivie Belrose? Can you track down the descendant?”
His mouth crooked at the corner. “No one told you how I got my nickname?”
She felt a chill trickle down her spine. “No.”
“I track dead bodies and bones.”
She felt lightheaded and realized she wasn’t breathing. She couldn’t stop herself from taking a step back. Bones looked amused, but his eyes didn’t change. They remained as unruffled as ever.
“Can you track down a Belrose descendant across continents?” she asked in a voice that sounded strangled. That had to be the freakiest power ever.
“I can, but I haven’t been able to locate any descendants.”
Raven frowned. “Maybe it’s harder when they’ve been dead for centuries.”
“That isn’t a factor.”
“Then why haven’t you been able to find even one?”
“I don’t know.”
She claspe
d her hands together and gave him a tight smile. “Oh, that’s fantastic. So, there are no Belrose descendants. Got it.”
“Hey.”
They both turned as Harvard came down the hallway trailed by Bam Bam who held a plate overflowing with food. When Raven snatched food from his plate, Bam Bam tried to bite her hand.
“What’s going on?” Harvard asked.
“Bones can’t find a single, dead Belrose,” she said acidly.
Harvard looked confused. “How’s that possible?”
Bones leaned against the wall. “Maybe Olivie Belrose is a myth.”
“She isn’t,” Harvard said and pulled his phone out of his pocket. “I found a painting that mentions her name.”
“What? How?” Raven asked.
Harvard gave her a smug look. “I may not have a talent for tracking people, but I’m pretty good with information. I found a painting from the sixteenth century of a queen and her friends.”
Bam Bam smelled strongly of onions and she elbowed him in the stomach to get breathing room. The image that Harvard pulled up on his phone was small and faded. It depicted the Queen and six women posing around her like stiff figurines. Harvard enlarged the image and they examined each of the women in turn.
“You’re saying Olivie Belrose was a friend of the queen that Francis had an affair with?” Raven asked.
“Yeah, her name turned up in the notes for this painting. I did my best, but I couldn’t find anything on Francis,” Harvard said.
“Of course you wouldn’t. Olivie Belrose erased him from history!” Bam Bam said through a mouthful of food and smeared grease on Harvard’s screen when he tapped it. “I think it’s that lady. She looks witchy.”
“They all look the same to me. They don’t look real.” Raven sighed. “Okay, so Olivie existed in the fifteenth century, but how do we find a descendant of hers?”
Bam Bam shrugged and demolished the food on his plate. Harvard switched from the painting of the Queen to the stock market. Bones continued to watch her as if she were putting on an entertaining show. She glared at him until her eyes fell on the sketchpad in his hands. She snatched the sketchbook from Bones and strode back to the kitchen. There were snickers and grunts at her entrance, but no one tried to stop her as she sat beside Sunshine who gulped down eggnog like water. Raven set his sketchpad on the table and he immediately put down his glass, pulled a pencil out of his pocket and flipped to a new page.
“Sunshine, when did you draw these sketches?” she asked as Bam Bam, Bones and Harvard sat down.
Sunshine squinted as he began to draw bold lines on the paper. “Yesterday.”
“What made you draw those pictures?” she asked in a low voice as Harvard began to whisper to Jackie and Ace.
Sunshine turned to the first picture of her in the kitchen and tapped it with his finger. “This is the beginning of your adventure!”
“What adventure?”
“To break the curse so I can be with my mom.”
She grasped a goblet of water and downed it. She wasn’t sure what to think of all this so she piled a plate high with food. When she was stuffed, she glanced at the sketch Sunshine was working on and knew where they had to go next.
“Louisiana,” she murmured.
“What?” Jackie asked.
“He’s drawing Manchac Swamp like he did in the dirt earlier,” she said and touched Sunshine’s arm to get his attention. “Who’s the villain, Sunshine?”
Sunshine didn’t answer. Her mind was whirling with questions. She looked up in time to see Big Daddy walk outside. She jumped up and followed him into the cold, calling out to him so he wouldn’t disappear.
“What’s up?” Big Daddy asked when she caught up to him.
“Have you ever noticed anything odd about Sunshine’s drawings?” she asked.
Big Daddy was quiet for so long that she almost rephrased the question until she saw that his stance was rigid.
“What do you know?” he asked quietly.
“He draws the future!”
Big Daddy braced his feet apart and gave her a sharp look. “He draws comics.”
“Based on reality.” Big Daddy said nothing. “Why keep it quiet?”
“Sunshine doesn’t know what he’s drawing. To him, he’s creating a story. He doesn’t realize it’s happening in real life,” Big Daddy said.
“He’s illustrating my story right now.”
“He’s been doing it for years.”
She blinked. “What?”
“I didn’t know the female he’s been drawing all these years was you until I met you at the casino.”
“Whoa.” Tiny bursts of light were exploding in her mind. She had a cousin who could draw the future with comic flair. A month ago, her biggest concern was keeping her housekeeping job at Decadent and now . . . Now, everything changed.
“You need Sunshine, don’t you?” Big Daddy asked.
Raven nodded. “Sunshine drew something in the dirt today, a place someone recognized. It’s called Manchac Swamp in Louisiana. Has Sunshine ever been there?”
“He’s never left Nevada.”
She double-blinked. “Sunshine said there’s a villain in that swamp. If this comic is about me and what’s happening now, I think we’ll find a Belrose descendant or someone who knows the family out there.”
“That’s a long shot. Why would a Belrose descendant be in a swamp in Louisiana?”
“What are the chances that all of the Unmemorables would migrate from France to Nevada?” she shot back. “Sunshine is giving us the only lead we have. Bones can’t locate a Belrose descendant, but Harvard found a reference to an Olivie Belrose in the fifteenth century. She existed.”
“You realize the reason I haven’t told anyone about Sunshine’s power is because I don’t want Sunshine getting involved in anything dangerous?”
Raven took comfort in the fact that Big Daddy said he was on her side, but right now he looked more like Gerald. Big Daddy could crush her bones to dust. She knew that, but she was so close. She needed Sunshine’s help and Big Daddy knew it.
“You said you believe I’m the one from the prophecy.” She ignored her internal shriek of alarm at the look in his eyes. “If you believe I’m the one who can break the curse, I need Sunshine’s help.”
“Sunshine isn’t like the other Unmemorables.”
“I know he isn’t. We’ll protect him.”
Confronting a man as big as The Hulk wasn’t how she wanted to end her first Christmas. Big Daddy leaned down so their faces were a breath apart.
“I won’t force Sunshine to go. My sons are everything to me, Raven, and that includes Luester. If anything happens to either of them, I’m holding you responsible.”
She licked her lips. “Luester’s a big boy.”
“And he believes in you. Don’t let him down.” Big Daddy cocked his head to the side. “Say you do find a Belrose, then what? They probably don’t know shit about their ancestor. You think you can politely ask them to reverse the curse?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “All I know is power is passed through the bloodline, which means a Belrose descendant can change our fate.”
“I hope you’re right,” Big Daddy said and walked off into the night.
“Me too,” she whispered and stuffed her hands in her pockets.
She’d officially gone off the deep end. There was no proof that a Belrose descendant could/would/had the power to change the curse. She could put the others in danger by following her hunch. Plus, she was following the ramblings of an autistic boy who loved to draw comics. Was it worth going to a Louisiana swamp to see if a villain popped out of the woods? Was she letting go of her old reality and getting the hang of this magical world, or was she simply delusional?
“What happened?” Jackie asked as he strolled over.
“Big Daddy will let me take Sunshine to Louisiana if he agrees to go.”
“That’s . . . surprising. Sunshine doesn’t leave the mansion withou
t Big Daddy.”
“Do you think I’m making a mistake?” she asked and wanted to wring her hands.
Jackie shrugged. “Heroes make mistakes.”
She shoved him hard. He staggered and laughed.
“This isn’t funny!” she snapped. “I’m risking our lives! Am I crazy for believing in Sunshine’s comics?”
Jackie put his arm around her neck. “Honey, crazy is my middle name. We’re unconventional and uncivilized. Driving out to Louisiana to check out a swamp? No biggie. I’ll follow you no matter where you go.”
She grabbed fistfuls of his jacket and shook him. “What if I can’t break the curse?”
“You will.”
There was absolute confidence in his voice. She walked over to the fountain because her legs began to tremble.
“Sunshine’s always drawn comics. It’s his way of communicating,” Jackie said. “We always figured Sunshine saw places or people on TV and those were the backdrops of his comics. We never realized it could be his power, yet you realized his drawing meant something right off the bat.”
“I’m observant. I’m a housekeeper,” she mumbled.
Jackie clucked his tongue. “You were a housekeeper. Now you’re a badass hero.”
“Stop calling me a hero! I haven’t done anything.”
“You’re the only female Unmemorable in history and you’ve managed to evade the Battalion for nearly a decade. You managed to gain the interest and loyalty of one of the Council’s main weapons, Cain Henson. You have Clarity, something only Gerald, Big Daddy and Bones have achieved. You can hold off fifteen trained men with paintball guns and you wear deadly shoes. You stand up for what you think is right even if it makes you look weak.” Jackie crossed his arms across his chest. “Sunshine is the youngest and most vulnerable in the family. The Unmemorables can be callous, but every one would protect Sunshine with their life. Sunshine is our heart and he trusts you.”