I found it interesting they were able to knock the dhampir out at all. If you somehow managed to deliver a blow to a vampire’s head strong enough to knock it unconscious, the blow would probably be strong enough to take its head off before it knocked the vampire’s lights out. I guessed dhampirs weren’t as resilient as vampires.
Jean Luc brought the dhampir back to my house, and once there, Nina, Nicole, and I started on a ritual to bind her from using her magick. Delphine watched with curious eyes as we worked our magick, maybe remembering a time where she could weave this powerful force herself. It was difficult not to feel bad for her. I was the kind of person who wouldn’t keep a caged bird because I thought it was cruel—Delphine was a caged bird, and while I didn’t like reminding her of what she was missing, I also had a job to do in making sure this witch couldn’t hurt us.
When the binding spell was complete, I took a sharpie and placed it under the dhampir’s nose. She got up with a start, scrambled back, but made it only as far as the edge of the ritual circle we had cast, bumping into an invisible wall and making the air itself seem to shimmer. She looked up and around, wriggled her wrists in an attempt at casting magick, but the runes drawn around the ritual circle in white chalk began to glow. The dhampir winced as though burned, then stopped trying to use magick.
“There’s no getting out,” I said, “Not unless we allow you to get out.”
“So, you have me,” the dhampir said, running her fingers through her hair. “Now what?”
“We don’t just have you,” I said, “We also know who you are.”
“Oh really? And how’s that?”
Jean Luc stepped forward. “Do you remember me?”
The dhampir narrowed her eyes and clenched her jaw, but said nothing.
“Your appearance is different,” Jean Luc continued, “But your scent is the same. I remember you well, as would Eliza if she were still alive… Suzanne Renaux.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“My senses do not deceive me. It was you who was one of Eliza’s most trusted, you who betrayed us and allowed Delphine to be taken by Marie, and you who was later turned into a dhampir by the very same. Do you deny it?”
Nicole clenched her fist. “You may not be able to use magick, but we can, and I suggest you start talking, otherwise I’ll pry the information from your brain myself.”
The dhampir took a deep breath. “I don’t deny it,” she said.
“So, it’s true…” I said, “You’re the one who sent Delphine to her death…”
“She wasn’t supposed to die that night,” Suzanne snapped, “But Marie botched the ritual. If it had been me that had gone first, I would be the one in her situation now, powerless and without reliable memories.”
“Why did you do it? Why did you betray your own people?”
“Why does anyone do anything? I knew Eliza was going to fail. It was only a matter of time before someone showed up and burned her at the stake. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to burn with her. I also wanted Delphine with me… we were friends, sisters in magick. I didn’t know that was going to happen to her.”
“How could I have been a sister to you?” Delphine snarled. “You are a liar and a manipulator.”
“Good people do bad things sometimes, it does not make them monsters. I only wanted to protect my sister. Marie had offered me the gift of everlasting life and safety from Remy’s crusade for me, for Delphine, and even for Eliza, only Eliza’s convictions were so strong, I knew she would never accept Marie’s offer.”
“You would have let us all burn at Remy’s hands,” Jean Luc said, “Marie would have let us all burn?”
“Marie knew of your love for the witch,” Suzanne said, “She had exiled you and those who chose to live a life chained to her and her precious home, but she knew Remy would not stop at Eliza; she knew Remy would come for the vampires next, and she wanted protection from him. What better protection from a witch than another witch?”
“You should have spoken to Eliza instead of betraying our trust and dooming your sister to the fate inflicted upon her. She did not deserve what happened to her that night, nor did she deserve to come back with no memories and no magick. It was not your decision to make.”
“She told me it would work!” Suzanne yelled. “Marie promised me the magick would work, but the witch who endowed her with the power made several mistakes the first time. Marie’s bite became cursed, and Delphine…” her eyes turned toward her sister from a former life. “You weren’t supposed to die like that. You were supposed to turn instantly, faster than any vampire.”
“Is that what happened to you?” I asked.
Suzanne looked up at me. “Yes,” she said. “It was instantaneous. I became then what I am now, an immortal witch who needs to drink blood to maintain what she is.”
“Or else you would die,” Jean Luc said.
Suzanne nodded. “A vampire who does not feed for a time falls into death-sleep. A dhampir would simply wither away and die.”
Jared pulled me aside and, after a deep breath, whispered into my ear. “This is a great history lesson, but what are we going to do with her?”
“I don’t know,” I said, “But I think the best thing we can do right now is go after Marie, before she finds out her secret weapon is out of action.”
“You really think that’s a good idea?”
“If Marie finds out that Suzanne is gone, she’ll either go deeper into hiding or she’ll slip away entirely, only to come back when she’s ready. We have to go after her, and we have to go after her tonight.”
Jared glanced over his shoulder at Suzanne, then looked at me again. “Okay, but how are we gonna do that?”
“I have a plan. First, though, we need to find out as much as we can about Suzanne. I need to know how she was able to stop me from using magick that night.”
I returned to the conversation to find Delphine kneeling at the edge of the ritual circle, staring at Suzanne almost in recognition. “I didn’t ever think I would see you again,” she said to Suzanne. “But you truly are… different. Why?”
“Marie didn’t want anyone recognizing me,” Suzanne said.
“She did not expect me to still be alive,” Jean Luc put in. “I watched you that night… I followed Marie to the graveyard, saw what they did to Delphine, then saw what they did to you. Were it not for Bernarde, I may have attacked you all, and perhaps we would not be speaking right now. One, or both of us would be dead.”
“Marie would’ve killed you… Jean Luc, you underestimate her power. She is stronger than you, stronger than any one of us, even me.”
“I don’t buy that,” I said, “She has something on you, a spell, a bond… something’s been done to you, because if you could stop me from using my magick that night, then you probably have the power to kill Marie outright, but you haven’t… what does she have?”
Suzanne sighed. “My word,” she said, “I swore an oath of allegiance to her long ago. I am bound by it.”
“An oath of allegiance does not make you her slave,” Jean Luc said, “And yet you are being treated like a slave, used and put away with her whims. Are you not tired of this? Tired of being her puppet?”
“I can’t act against her.”
“But you do not need to act for her when she wills it. You are not trapped, Suzanne. Many witches have died because of her, and much of that blood is on your hands also, but if you were to help us defeat her, you would be free of your oath. You could do good things instead.”
She shook her head. “I cannot take any action against her. None. My magick will not come, my attacks will not injure her. If she tries to kill me, she’ll succeed. I made an oath at a time when I was weaker than her, and it’s haunting me now. Do you think I like this?”
“No. I don’t think you do. But I think you’re a coward, and we’re giving you a choice. Help us and be free of her, or we’re going to have to take the difficult decision.”
“Kill me?” she asked, scoffing. “I would welcome death. I’ve been alive too long, I’ve seen too many people die, have done too many awful things.”
“If you can’t act against her, then don’t act against me when I go after her.”
Suzanne stared at the magick ring binding her from using her powers. “You have me locked in a cage,” she said.
“And I will unlock it, as long as you do two things for me.”
She swallowed hard, but never broke eye contact. “What two things?”
“I want you to swear an oath to me, like you did her, that you will not attempt to interfere with my magick again, that you will not hurt another witch, and that you will help Delphine.”
“Help her with what?”
“I’ve been able to sense magick, a witch’s magick, in her coming alive over the last few days… I don’t know what’s happening to cause it, but it’s been building slowly. I think she never really lost it, and if there’s even a chance you can impart something to her through the blood, I want you to do it.”
“And if I can’t? If there’s nothing I can do for her?”
“All you have to do for me is try, and accept my other conditions… then we’ll break the circle for you, and show you that we trust you.”
She paused, considering. “This feels like a trap.”
I approached the edge of the circle. “It’s not a trap… very soon I’m gonna leave this house and go after Marie. I’m putting my trust in you that you won’t try and kill me, or hurt me, or stop me from using my magick at a critical moment.”
Suzanne scoffed. “Do you think it’s as easy as clicking my fingers and, poof, you can’t do magick anymore? I’d need the time and components to create a ritual, and I don’t have any of that here.”
“Then in that case, you’re gonna make sure nothing happens to my friends while I’m gone… what do you say?”
I watched her eyes move around the room, first to Delphine, then to Jean Luc, and then back to Delphine. She didn’t have much of a choice, I was aware of that. The help us or die implication was there, front and center, and as distasteful as I would’ve found the idea of killing her here, in my house, while she couldn’t defend herself, I would’ve found the courage to do it somehow, and I had a feeling she could see that conviction in my eyes when she looked at me last.
“Alright,” she said, “I’ll help in whatever way I can.”
I gave Nicole a sidelong glance and nodded. Nicole then broke the chalk ritual circle we had drawn into the floor using her foot, and Suzanne was free to leave, free to use her magick, and free to kill us if she wanted to, but she didn’t. Instead she walked outside of the circle, took a deep breath, and nodded at me.
“I’m ready to do what you ask of me,” she said.
“Good… because we have some preparing to do before I can go out and find Marie.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
An evil wind was blowing through New Orleans, churning the skies and swirling the clouds. Everywhere I went, dogs were barking like mad, cats were yowling, and people seemed to be hurrying to get to wherever they needed to be like their lives depended on them getting indoors as quickly as possible.
That feeling was one I could relate to, because I felt it also. Being outdoors right now, racing against the clock to get to a suitable spot where we could battle Marie, was the last thing I wanted to be doing, but I had to lure her as far away from the center of the city as possible. So Jared drove the bike and I sat behind him, holding out my bleeding palm, hoping to attract every vampire in the city with the sweet scent of magick blood.
We drove around the Garden District, then moved to the French Quarter, then out toward the Ninth Ward and beyond, where the buildings started thinning out and the terrain was a little more open. Already I knew we were being followed, I could sense them; vampires moving swiftly behind us, sticking to the shadows, slipping through the night like whispers. I didn’t know how many there were, but that didn’t matter. The plan was working.
Jared started to slow his bike down, and I saw up ahead the reason why. He’d spotted an old industrial park about a mile away and was looking to turn into it. There were no lights on, only the impressions of dark buildings against the slightly orange clouds above. It looked ominous and foreboding, the kind of place you’d want to avoid at all costs, but we were moving into it because… it was perfect.
This was where we’d fight Marie, if she was going to fight us tonight at all.
We reached a chain-link fence at the outer extremity of the industrial park. Across the front of it there was a sign—Trespassers will be shot—but the fence was broken open and there was no sign of gunmen, so Jared pulled the bike through the threshold and flicked his high-beams on. The path ahead of us lit up to scenes of rusted metal husks, broken windows, and warehouses covered in graffiti. If we were unlucky, there’d be people here, humans too. I had to hope they’d be put off by the sound of Jared’s bike and decide to leave, but that was unlikely.
Jared moved the bike into a clearing surrounded on three sides by old warehouses and what looked like a factory, a huge smokestack reaching up into the clouds. He flicked the ignition off, set his leg down to hold the bike up, and then scanned the area. It was quiet, here. No voices, not even the sound of scuttling animals; nothing save for the groaning of old metal against the wind.
Already my heart was thrumming inside of my chest, but I ignored it and got off the bike, making a cursory scan of the place of my own.
There really was nothing here; not even possums or raccoons sifting around in the dirt. If there had been people here before we arrived, there were none now, and if there were rats scurrying along the floor, I couldn’t see them. Stretching my hand up toward the sky and shutting my eyes, I sent a pulse of magick in all directions, searching for signs of life, of heartbeats, of ticking brains; there were some, but no people or vampires.
“Looks like we’re clear,” I said, letting my hand drop to my side.
“Were we followed?” Jared asked.
“Oh yeah. Big time.”
That made him stiffen up and suck in a deep breath through his nose. “Do you think they’re here now?”
“I think they’re checking the place out… vampires are cunning, but also predictable. They’ll want my blood, but they’ll be cautious about it.”
“How do you know they’ll want your blood? Why wouldn’t they just go and get blood from someone in the city?”
“Because witch’s blood is powerful. Once they’ve had a smell, it sets them off… it’s like a drug.”
Jared nodded. “So, we wait?”
“That’s all we can do right now. Nicole and Nina should be ready by now… when the vampires come, they’ll regret it.”
“And Delphine? Did she follow us too?”
“She did. She’ll have looked like another shark swimming after the blood to the others…”
Jared looked around the place, keeping his eyes peeled. “I really don’t like the sound of any of this.”
“You agreed to the plan, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, but only because there’s no arguing with you. Once you’ve set your mind on something, good luck to the poor asshole trying to change your mind.”
I wrapped my arms around his neck and smiled. “Really? I’m that stubborn?”
His eyebrows arched upwards. “You’re really asking me that question?”
I shrugged. “I know the answer, I just want to hear you say it. You don’t usually say negative things about me.”
“Yeah I do…”
“No, you don’t. Sometimes I think you’d rather avoid saying anything negative so we won’t fight—which we do, by the way, even if you don’t want to admit it.”
“Okay, fine. You’re ‘stubborn, changing your mind is difficult, and sometimes I just go with what you want because it makes my life easier.”
“I knew it. When we get home, we’re—”
A window smashed somewhere, sna
pping my sentence in two before I could finish it. Maybe an already loose shard of glass had been knocked by the wind and sent crashing to the floor, or maybe someone was trying to toy with us—the first vampire looking to claim the blood—whatever the case was, that sound had our full attention.
“Where’d that come from?” Jared asked, keeping his voice low.
“I don’t know. Over there, somewhere, I think.”
“You think?”
“I don’t know! That factory looks like it has a ton of windows, maybe it came from over there.”
He took a couple of steps toward the factory building, when another pane of glass smashed, this one to my left. Throwing my attention in that direction, I saw the sound must have come from the warehouse standing silently there. It had high windows, many of which had had rocks put through them from down below.
“Over there,” I said, “Someone’s toying with us.”
“Think it’s time?” Jared asked.
Nodding, I took my knife and ran it along my left palm this time, opening the skin just enough to make it bleed, wincing from the pain. “Alright, you fuckers,” I called out, raising my voice so that an echo rang through the hollow industrial park, “Who’s gonna come out first?”
The vampire came shooting out of the shadows an instant after I’d finished speaking; it had been waiting. I saw at first only the glimmer of its reflective, silver eyes, but then it came into view fully, speeding toward me, wreathed in a cloak of shadow. Using my right hand to channel my magick, I threw a burst of telekinetic power at it that struck the vampire in the chest and sent it sprawling to the dirt, kicking up a cloud of dust as it fell. It hissed, then got back up, and as it did, I hit it a second time, and then a third, pounding it into the sand with blast, after blast.
Too bad vampires didn’t know when to quit. This one kept trying to get up, and would’ve continued getting up, if Jared hadn’t been quick with the wooden stake. He waited until I could press the vampire into the dirt with my magick, holding it still, then he lined the stake up, and drove it into the vampire’s heart, going under the ribs instead of through them just like Delphine had taught him. The vampire squealed, a sound that screamed through the industrial park like a metal edge scraping along a metal surface. The heavens grumbled, lightning snapped, and then the vampire stopped moving.
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