That was the easy part. Getting her to trust the man who had nearly killed her was another matter altogether.
Chapter Three
Laughing, Beth clapped her hands to the music as the guests who entered themselves into the night’s costume party showed off their moves in a Soul Train-style dance line. Nikki’s gregarious father had a microphone and announced the contestants with note cards as they shaked and shimmied by.
Nikki’s family did not mess around when it came to Mardi Gras.
After finishing her water she wiped a bead of sweat from her hairline. The entire first floor was packed with dancers and spectators shouting for their favorite costumes. Sandwiched between a giant M&M and someone in an inflatable sumo wrestler getup, she started to feel somewhat claustrophobic.
“Excuse me,” she said and made her way through the crowd to get some air.
Once out back, she took a deep breath of the refreshing winter chill. It usually hovered around the mid to high fifties in February, but to a N’awlins girl that was downright brisk. Beth shivered and rubbed her upper arms, but wasn’t ready to head inside just yet.
Illuminated by randomly scattered tiki torches, the backyard stretched a ways toward Lake Pontchartrain. Situated a good distance from the house, a wooden pergola wrapped in white Christmas lights caught her attention and she looked over her shoulder to the commotion inside before walking to the cushioned patio set under the lights.
She sat in one of the chairs and bent down to take off her shoes, finally letting out a great sigh when she undid the strappy sandals. Rubbing her foot with one hand and holding the high heels in the other, she paused at the sound of movement by the other end of the structure.
“Is someone there?” She craned her head to see past the thick wooden beam.
A booted foot came into view, followed by a long leg in dark denim jeans. A muscular torso in a collarless leather jacket drew her eyes up to the man’s face.
“You!” Her shoes slipped from her grasp as she stood.
The man who had attacked her—the one she couldn’t stop thinking about—was back to finish her off. She stared him down as he approached and put his hands up in an apparent gesture of peace.
“I’m not going to harm you, Bethany,” he assured her. “I’m here to help you.”
“Like hell you are.”
The corner of his mouth briefly curved into a smile.
“You can trust me. I know you have no reason to. But you have to believe—”
Beth had focused her power and blasted him with a wallop of her energy before he could finish his lie. The green flash lit up the area around them as he was thrown into the corner of the pergola. The framework trembled and the Christmas lights flickered. She concentrated, readying herself for another shot.
He groaned as he sat up. “I see you’ve been practicing.”
“Damn right I have.” She whipped her head from him to the house. Everyone was inside and preoccupied with the costume contest, too far away to hear if she called for help. “Don’t move,” she warned.
“Bethany, listen to me. We don’t have much time.” He stood up slowly. “When I come back empty-handed she’ll send her dark mages after you. You can’t stay here.”
“Who will send what after me?” She shook her head quickly. “I need you to shut up. Okay, psycho? Can you do that for me?”
“Beth, please.” The man took a step toward her.
She shot him again, this time at his feet. It knocked him off balance but he caught himself on the back of a patio chair before he fell.
“I can do this all night, creep. Or maybe I should stop holding back. I’ve taught myself a lot since you tried to kill me.”
“Lucius.” He straightened and started toward her again. “My name is Lucius.”
“I don’t care what your name is, and back off!” She directed every ounce of mental strength to blast Lucius once more with her magic, not knowing the extent of damage he’d suffer. It was her or him, and she wasn’t going to pull any punches.
With a growl, he jumped forward, right into the path of the electric arcs flying at him. Her magic didn’t strike him, instead it bounced violently from a protective green field around him just like her car had before it rolled from the highway. Beth ducked just in time and it missed hitting her by less than a second before it faded into the darkness.
“I’m bound to Helena with her magic, Bethany. I have been for some time. Since I put myself in front of your blast intentionally, it couldn’t touch me. That’s how your car went from the road that night.”
Beth stood on shaky legs. “Who the hell is Helena?”
“She’s the reason I came after you. I never wanted to hurt you. I never wanted to hurt anyone, you have to understand that. Helena is a very strong witch, maybe the strongest one of you left since she drained so many others of their magic. Please, we have to hurry. Come with me now and I’ll explain everything.”
“Witch?” She never said it out loud about herself, never openly associated her gift with that word. Not even to Aunt Mae. But having it come from him somehow made sense, felt right, even if she wasn’t ready to hear it. “No,” she said, shaking her head, “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
Lucius tracked Bethany’s eyes as they darted from him to the perceived safety of the house. She was going to run.
He couldn’t let her escape—he needed to slip away with her quietly. They’d already pushed their luck with her impressive flashes of magic arcs. No one had seen, but if she kept it up she’d be sure to draw someone’s attention. He covertly pulled the vial of nightshade from his back pocket, his other hand held up in an effort to calm her down.
She met his eyes. Bethany showed no fear, just determination and anger. He admired her for it all the more.
In an instant, she turned and made a run for it. Lucius caught up with her in a few long strides and wrapped his arm around her from the back, pinning her arms against her chest. She screamed and fought and kicked, but none of the people in the distant house paid any mind. He thumbed the cork from the small potion bottle and brought it to her mouth.
Her short hair brushed against his face and the velvet dress she wore was impossibly soft under his fingers. If he had another life, he’d pull her lush curves against his body and never let her go. But even if she didn’t despise him, it could never be. He had to make sure she was as far from Helena as possible. And in turn, far away from him. He lowered his eyes in defeat and tipped the nightshade against her lips.
“No!” she shouted, and the vial flew from his hand.
Bethany had the gift of telekinesis.
Helena was the only other witch he had ever come across with the talent, and it took a lot out of her; she rarely used it as it required so much magical energy. Momentarily caught off guard, he didn’t notice as Bethany’s teeth came down hard on his fingers. He pulled his bloodied hand away with a curse and she used the opportunity to push him off.
Beth’s bare feet pounded over the cool grass. She didn’t dare look back—she was almost to the house.
She opened her mouth to shout for help when the disco beat blaring from inside suddenly stopped. The people inside no longer danced, no longer whooped and hollered at the costumes. Instead, they seemed frozen in place. Some were mid-clap, others with a drink unmoving against their lips. Beth stopped in front of the French sliding glass doors and gazed in awe, her pursuer forgotten.
“It’s too bad you’ll never learn to do that.”
A woman with dark, flowing hair sneered when Beth turned to the direction of her voice.
“It really is a fun trick,” the woman continued.
Farther back, Lucius was on the ground struggling against the unseen hold of four tall, gaunt men standing over him in black robes. Were they the dark mages he spoke of?
“Helena,” Beth rasped.
“The one and only! And I am so glad to finally meet you. I had a hunch my Lucius here had been lying to me about you so I asked a
few friends to follow him.” Helena shook her head. “We’ll talk about this later, Asper. But you should be aware I’m severely disappointed.”
“What do you want from me, Helena?” Beth demanded.
“To be honest, my dear, I’d be happy just to have you dead. Draining your magic would be preferable, but seeing as Lucius is temporarily out of service, you’ll have to die by some good old-fashioned dark magic.”
Helena brought her emaciated hands up and Beth recognized the look of concentration that would precede the flash of green light. Instinct took over and Beth produced her own magic to deflect the emerald orb barreling toward her.
Blinking twice, Helena was taken aback by her defense. She scowled, bared her teeth, and redoubled her efforts. Beth parried every shot and threw as much of her own magic she could toward her attacker. She was inexperienced compared to the older witch, and her aim left much to be desired, but Beth made up for it with grit and fortitude. And the promise to herself she wouldn’t stop until Helena was down for the count.
The night turned as bright as day with their vibrant clashes. They leaned forward and dug the balls of their feet into the ground as their power pushed them away from one another.
One of the dark mages moved to assist Helena, and she screamed at him, not ceasing her barrage against Beth. “No, you fool! It will take the power of all four of you to keep Asper down!”
Beth took advantage of the distraction, using her telekinesis to fling a large planter at the woman’s head. Luckily, her magic once again did as she asked. Helena moved her arm in a wide half-circle, creating a bright shield to block it. Terracotta shards exploded in every direction as the pot made contact. Both women covered their heads to protect themselves from the shrapnel, but a heavy piece struck Beth in her knee and she cried out before collapsing to the ground.
An invisible weight forced Beth flat on her back and held her arms at her sides. She thrashed back and forth to no avail as Helena used her more practiced telekinetic power to restrain her.
“My, my.” Helena breathed heavily through clenched teeth. “You are a strong one, aren’t you? Such a shame. I’d love to see what I could do with your power.”
Another weight began to crush Beth’s throat.
“But I’d rather see you dead!”
She gasped for breath but none came, and an enraged roar sounded from where the dark mages held Lucius down. From the corner of her eye, she saw him break free from their enchantment and sweep a leg across the grass, dropping two of the mages to the ground. When she spied the flash of the blade he pulled from his jacket, a renewed sense of hope washed over her.
Summoning every stich of power within, she projected the mental image of her own fingers around Helena’s neck. The older witch’s eyes widened and her face turned red. As she grasped at her throat, the heavy, choking grip on Beth lessened. She stood and drew in a shallow breath. Then another. Helena released her and she did the same, before they both diverted all of their power into one final attack.
They heaved their magic at each other one last time, Beth’s green flashes and arcs taking on a new bluish glow as she called upon every bit of her preternatural strength. When the bright spheres of pure energy crashed together, a pulse reverberated in the air above them. The force of the pulsation hit Helena hard and she staggered back.
Helena began to cough and wheeze, a look of abject terror falling over her face. Her skin turned gray, then dark purple. Her magic was failing. Beth backed away as she clawed at her sunken cheeks in desperation. Instead of blood, the scratches turned to ash until her head and neck collapsed in on itself.
Lucius took out the last dark mage, and like the others, he turned to dust. He pulled his dagger from the crumbling corpse and ran to Beth. As Helena disintegrated before her, a strange warmth filled his chest for the briefest moment. With her death, he was free. And he had Beth to thank for it.
He approached her tentatively. She stared in shock as the last of his former master fell to her feet like soot in a fireplace. The music from the house started up again without warning and the people inside carried on, oblivious to what had just happened. Beth didn’t even jump.
“Holy shit.”
“Yeah.” Lucius nodded with an amused smile. “Are you all right?”
Mouth agape, she looked up at him. “Uh, no. Not particularly.” Beth swayed a little and he caught her.
“Shh, you’re safe now.”
He hesitated, then fanned his hand over her back. To his amazement, she relaxed in his arms. He traced his finger over the long, pink scar on her shoulder blade, not unlike the scars he bore on his own back. Lucius hated that she had it because of him. If she let him, he’d spend the rest of his mortal life making up for the pain he’d caused her.
“I’m still mad at you,” she mumbled, weary from the battle she’d just won.
Lucius laughed quietly. “I figured as much.” He pulled back and cradled her face in his hand, wiping a tear from her cheek with the other. “And I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Epilogue
Five Months Later
Washington, DC
Beth tapped her foot impatiently while she waited for Lucius to call back that the coast was clear. The unused Metro tunnel was pitch black, save for the soft blue-green glow radiating from her hands. A slow dripping of water sounded somewhere behind her and the smell of mechanical grime persisted along the tracks.
Lucius hated that she wanted to do this, but all she had to do was remind him he owed her. When she saw the news reports of the sickening attacks on women in the DC area, it sounded a lot like what he had told her of dark mages. She’d insisted on going to see if it was true and if so, she wanted to do whatever she could to stop them. With the help of Lucius’ training, her magic had grown stronger by the day and she felt she had to do something. She needed to utilize her gift for something good.
The two of them had tracked the dark mages to an abandoned underground passageway they believed they were using as a nest. The plan was to ambush them while they rested and Lucius was not happy she demanded to go with him.
She smiled.
If someone would have told her a few years ago she’d be trudging through a tunnel with a former gladiator hunting dark magic users, she would have told them they needed to get their head checked. Yet here she was. And while the setting lacked ambience, the company wasn’t half bad.
Slowly but surely, and most likely against her better judgement, Beth had warmed to Lucius since Mardi Gras. On top of that, she couldn’t help but notice how his eyes lingered on her when he thought she wasn’t looking. And she found she didn’t mind looking at him, either. But thoughts of their relationship and where it might go had to wait.
There were dark mages to slay.
Beth and Lucius will return in Infernal Embrace
Available August 2017
Read on for an excerpt of
Infernal Embrace
Book One of the Crescent City Arcana Series
by Rachel Chanticleer
Excerpt from Infernal Embrace, available August 2017
It was just after eleven when Beth took the dog out to the courtyard behind the townhouse where she now lived. The man watched her from a distance, waiting for the right moment to carry out his plan. Her short hair was almost golden under the decorative outdoor lamps lining the walkway and the belted dress hugging her hourglass figure fluttered in the slight breeze. The apples of her cheeks had a rosy tinge from time spent in the sun, a warm contrast to her otherwise fair skin. She closed her eyes and tilted her head up, evidently enjoying the brief respite from the oppressive Louisiana heat. This was the perfect time—she was relaxed, unprepared. He’d strike now.
He rolled a small leather pouch around in his hand. The bag was filled with yagé leaves, typically boiled after being freshly picked by Amazonian shamans to brew a hallucinogenic tea. But this Spirit Vine, or ayahuasca, was prepared neither as it is traditionally in Peru, nor as given to groups
of adventurous celebrities and the bored elite of New York and Los Angeles willing to vomit for hours in exchange for a potentially life-altering trip. The leaves crunching within the leather in his palm had been dried and purified by a local brujo and sealed in the bag with a binding charm. But not before a few strands of Beth’s and his own hair were tucked inside. He needed to get her alone. Just the two of them.
With his lips pressed to the pouch, he whispered an ancient verse, and then lit it with a silver flip-top lighter. As he held it away from his body, the bag burned cobalt blue, then the fire changed to a bright purple. The flames neared his fingertips and he scowled. In the back room of the botánica shop he’d been warned not to release the yagé a moment too soon or both he and Beth could become trapped in el Velo Entre los Mundos.
The Veil Between the Worlds. A place for neither the living nor the dead. Somewhere Beth would have no choice but to use her magic.
The fire had darkened to a deep plum and the searing heat now toyed with his thumb and index finger, but he didn’t dare drop it. At last the space surrounding her began to fade away, black and empty at the edges like a photo taken with a pinhole camera. Beth must have seen the margins of reality falling into shadows as well; she took several steps back and looked around frantically. Before the courtyard vanished completely, she found him in the darkness and met his eyes.
The Hunter and the Witch Page 3