Death Rites Read online

  Contents

  Legacy Club Teaser

  Title Page

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Review Request

  Free Book

  Coming Soon

  Copyright

  About the Author

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  Chapter One

  I clung to the branch as the Treant swung me around, my soul blade extended as it sliced through zombie flesh.

  “One… two… three…”

  Do you really need to count them as you take them down? Isabelle, the spirit who possessed me, asked as I made quick work of the snarling undead.

  I let go of the branch, my body flying through the air as I asked Beli—the elemental spirit who formed my weapon—to reform into a spear. I landed square on another zombie’s chest, his body dissolving into the ether as my weapon pierced his torso. I released a scream—all my anger, all my emotion… taking it out on mindless corpses.

  “That’s four, by the way,” I said as my blade dissolved in my hand. “And thanks for the help with the Treant.”

  You animated it, Isabelle said.

  “True. But I used your magic to do it. Probably all I could access, but damn… that was fun.”

  I felt a pain in my calf. I looked down. A hand had busted out of the ground and dug its fingernails into my flesh.

  “Fuck!” I shouted, trying to kick my leg free. “Beli!” I shouted, and my soul blade formed in my hand. I gripped the hilt and brought it down on the arm that gripped my leg as another hand grabbed my other leg and pulled.

  My body hit the grass with a thud.

  I rolled away, trying but failing to yank my foot out of the second zombie’s grip as three more came charging at me from across the field.

  “Dude!” I screamed. “How many more are there?”

  The zombie hand pulled my leg underground. I swung my blade at the mud, but I couldn’t get to its hand. Thankfully, my knee-high leather boots would protect me from a bite… this time.

  But I also wasn’t in any position to take out three charging corpses while another was trying to pull me down into its former grave.

  Letty, my black Lab, border collie mix, came running toward me full-steam barking her head off—as if to warn me that more zombies were afoot.

  You need a long-range weapon…

  I sighed. I’d been trying to master that one for weeks now. I almost had it, but ever since I’d lost Pauli—ever since Kalfu took him—and the shit hit the fan at the Academy, I just couldn’t focus enough to maintain it. But it wasn’t like I had much of a choice.

  “Beli,” I said. “Let’s do this.”

  I didn’t have to tell Beli what I wanted—he was an elemental spirit, in tune with my own. He knew what I was asking for. The blade reformed into a crossbow. I took aim at the closest zombie and fired a bolt into its chest. A split second later the zombie turned into a black could of smoke—dispatched by my weapon back to the land of the dead.

  “Rest in peace, fucker!” I screamed.

  Annabelle, quick!

  The second zombie approached from my right. He had a shifty gait. Hard to target. I fired—the bolt missed. I fired again.

  Click.

  “Beli, come on!”

  Click. Click. Click.

  I couldn’t get the bow to fire. This was the problem I’d been having. I couldn’t seem to hold onto my soul weapon in crossbow form for more than a few moments.

  “Isabelle, I’m going to have to let you take over. I don’t think I can do this.”

  I tried to release control, to allow Isabelle to take over our body—but at that moment a barrage of flames consumed one of the zombies and a massive boulder flew out of nowhere and took out the other one just before the thing reached me. Too close for comfort. I could smell its decaying flesh…

  “Oggie!” I shouted. “Mikah! There’s another one underneath. The bastard has my leg.”

  Oggie nodded at me and plunged his massive fist into the earth, released a torrent of flames into the ground, and I felt the zombie’s grip loosen as I pulled myself out of the ground.

  “Well, I took out five that time,” I said as I got back to my feet.

  “And if we hadn’t intervened, you’d be one of them by now,” Oggie said. “You need to get your mind right. If you can’t wield projectiles, how do you think you’ll stand a chance when Kalfu comes after you with an army of these things?”

  Mikah put his hand on my shoulder—a gesture of kindness, in part. But also one that I knew carried with it some extra affection—a sentiment intended for Isabelle, not me.

  “I just don’t get why we have to train this way,” I said.

  “Erzulie won’t allow us to train at the Academy. She believes our aspect, the aspect of war, will compromise the wards that protect us from Kalfu.”

  “No, I get that much,” I said. “But why do we have to go to places like this? Why do we have to fight against real zombies?”

  “I’ve got your back,” Oggie said, shrugging. “I won’t allow them to bite you. And if one did, I’d just lob off your leg before the rot could spread.”

  “Like Brad Pitt did to that girl in World War Z?” I asked.

  “Exactly,” Oggie said. “It actually works, believe it or not.”

  “Still, I’d rather not lose any limbs in training,” I said.

  “It’s a risk we have to take. You have to be ready.”

  “I am ready,” I said.

  “You have the skill. That move with the Treant, using Isabelle’s power like that in conjunction with your own… it was brilliant. But in the end, you couldn’t fire more than one bolt before you lost focus.”

  I shook my head. “I still could have just let Isabelle take the reins. That’s what we were about to do…”

  “Might have worked,” Oggie said. “But then again, it’s a question of your focus. Your emotions. Too much and you’d be back in control, only without any power to wield and exhausted to boot.”

  “Or Isabelle would just kick some zombie ass in short order and we’d be back home in time for dinner.”

  “You need to deal with what’s bothering you, Anabelle. You need to grieve your friend.”

  “It’s not just Pauli,” I said. “It’s what happened to Nico. Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t like the guy at all. But he just wanted to be put to rest. Now… is he dead, even? Or did Kalfu take his soul, too?”

  Oggie shook his head. “Only Erzulie seems to know. And she won’t speak of it.”

  I shrugged. “Whatever. Can’t change what I fucked up in the past anyway.”

  “But you can learn from it,” Oggie said.
<
br />   I wasn’t sure if I wanted to slap Oggie in the face, just because I was sick of being lectured for shit. Another part of me wanted to be reckless and just rip the hulk of a Loa’s clothes completely off and palpate his massive pecs. Isabelle wouldn’t approve, but if I wasn’t going to get my pity party, I at least deserved a little carnal fun.

  “Whatever the issue is,” Oggie said, “you need to figure it out before it gets you killed.”

  “Got it, daddy,” I said, rolling my eyes.

  Mikah put his arm around me—which was undoubtedly awkward. He was Isabelle’s boyfriend, not mine. But he seemed to think that because we could both sense the same things, if he touched me affectionately she’d feel it… who gives a shit how uncomfortable it makes me feel. But I’d agreed to let Isabelle have a chance at love, so this was the penance I’d have to suffer. Not that I didn’t like Mikah—he was sweet. But he didn’t make my heart flutter… he didn’t give me that tingle all over my body… he didn’t awaken my lusts. Not like Oggie. Of course, Oggie was one of Erzulie’s many husbands—a part of her “harem” of beefy Loa. And the last thing I wanted to do was get on the bad side of the Academy’s headmistress.

  But Oggie had flirted enough before… I was pretty sure he reciprocated my attractions. If only I was sure we could get away with it, and if only Isabelle wouldn’t object. Whatever. If I let her and Mikah kiss—the boy always tasted like cherry fucking chapstick—she didn’t have any room to complain if I decided to have a little fun, too.

  I’d figure that one out another time. For now, I was exhausted. Even if the zombies were enthralled by Oggie, even if he had raised them and, I suspected, was actually controlling them the whole time, it was tiring. Of course, he wouldn’t admit he had the zombies enthralled. He wanted me to feel the fear, the battle lust of a real fight. All a part of the training. For now, the only thing I wanted to feel was a shower… and the comfort of my bedsheets. And if Oggie happened to join me in my sheets, at the very least as the star of my dreams, I’d be a happy girl.

  Chapter Two

  I used my phone light to find my way to my bunk. I was patently exhausted. It was one thing when our focus was on elemental weapons—it didn’t take much energy to summon Beli. Gave me a jolt of energy, if anything. But trying to go “Chuck Norris” on a demigod would exhaust literally anyone—maybe even Chuck Norris. Then again, probably not.

  I kicked off my tennies and tossed them in my wardrobe. I exhaled. Bed… sweet bed…

  I drew down my Egyptian cotton sheets and slid inside—1500 thread count equals pure bliss.

  My bare feet touched something under my sheets. Something cold… and then it moved. It slithered.

  “SNAKE!” I screamed as I leapt from the bed, my whole body going into convulsions. “There’s a fucking snake in my bed!”

  The lights turned on, and Sauron stood right beside the switch, smiling for maybe the first time ever. Ellie and Ashley were cracking up in their respective bunks—Ellie on the top, Ashley on the bottom.

  I looked back toward my bed.

  “It’s still in there! It’s moving!” I shouted as I backed away. “Oh my God! I’ve never seen one so big!”

  The snake’s giant head peeked out of the sheets and looked at me.

  “That’s what all the boys say to me, bitch!”

  I shook my head and scrunched my brow.

  I could still hear giggles echoing around the room.

  “I think I’m losing my mind…”

  The snake slid the rest of the way out of my sheets and curled up on my comforter. It was a beautiful creature. A boa, for sure. Its skin was iridescent, colored like a rainbow. The thing was gorgeous, which I’d appreciate if it wasn’t a snake… which I could swear just spoke to me in a familiar voice, the voice of my friend, the guy I thought had died.

  “It’s Pauli, bitch!”

  I wasn’t sure if I should laugh, scream, or cry. The giggles around the room had subsided a bit. I looked around at everyone.

  “Wait, you guys knew? All of you knew? Ashley, how could you know that Pauli was okay and not tell me?”

  Ashley shrugged. “Does he look ‘okay’ to you? Besides, it was totally worth it seeing your reaction! Oh my God, that was great!”

  I looked back at… Pauli. “Was this your idea?”

  I imagined he would have shrugged—but he didn’t have shoulders. “Nope. I was going to tell you straightaway! This was all Sauron’s doing.”

  I looked over at Sauron, who was still grinning widely. I laughed. I had to admit, she was the last one I’d suspect, and frankly, I expected her to hate me after we almost got Nico back only to have him get his soul sucked right back out of him moments after it was returned to him. The one and only person ever to come back from vampirism… and he made it a whole two seconds before his own vampire apprentice had made a meal out of him. Of course, she didn’t last much longer, either. Mercy Brown—she’d thought she was going to take Nico’s ancient powers, but Pauli bit her, sucking God knows what out of her. An act that brought Kalfu out to the forefront and gave him free rein and control over Pauli’s body. I thought Pauli was a goner… until now.

  “Pauli. I don’t understand. You’re a snake now?”

  “I’m a boa! Without feathers. And I look fabulous, don’t you think?”

  “You are gorgeous… you know, apart from the whole ‘being a snake’ thing.”

  “Bitch please. You gotta work what you got! Ralph Lauren has nothing in my size anymore!”

  “A travesty,” I said, rolling my eyes. “But I don’t understand. I’m glad you’re alive. I’d hug you, but…”

  “But I’m a snake?” Pauli asked. “Good thing about being a boa… hugging is my jam.”

  “So you somehow projected your soul out of your body? You got away from Kalfu?”

  “Not exactly. After Mercy accused me of biting her, Erzulie and Aida-Wedo whisked me away to the headmistress’s office. Did you know she basically has a dungeon in the back of that thing? Like real S and M shit. Crazy.”

  “I think that’s what Papa Legba used to restrain himself at night, so Kalfu wouldn’t come out.”

  “Or Daddy Legba was just all kinds of freaky in ways we never understood.”

  “Your hypothesis is more entertaining than mine. And more disturbing. Can you picture Legba…”

  “Bitch, no! Don’t do that! Gross! Anyway, they locked me up, which I have to say had me mildly excited. I’m not usually into chicks, but that Erzulie could seduce anyone. Aida-Wedo was there. They did some weird shit, spoke some strange language I didn’t even know. And the next thing I knew I was floating in thin air, over my chained-up body which, I have to say, looked sexy as hell.”

  “And they put your soul into the snake?”

  “Exactly,” Pauli said. “Not just any snake… Aida-Wedo’s boa, the one she always has slithering around her body as if it were the season’s most essential accessory.”

  I cocked my head. “But that snake… it isn’t all colorful like you are.”

  “Girl, Pauli makes everything fabulous! I don’t know how it happened, but when I awoke in this body, this is how I looked.”

  “I don’t understand.” I scratched my head. “Why did they do that?”

  “I was losing control, Annabelle,” Pauli said. “Mercy wasn’t wrong to accuse me of wanting to bite her. It would have happened eventually anyway. It was like a sick craving, but it wasn’t from me. It was from him. And the first time it happened…”

  “Back at Casa do Diabo when you bit Ramon?” I asked.

  Pauli nodded. “I could feel Kalfu get stronger. When I bit Ramon, I was losing control.”

  “So they found a way to save you before it happened?”

  Pauli nodded—as his forked tongue tickled the air.

  “And then they just let him go?” I asked.

  “More or less. Once he was in control, those chains weren’t able to hold him, I suspect. They all took off to try and stop Nico. They
had to know he’d get out.”

  I glanced around, and Sauron, Ellie, and Ashley had all huddled around to hear the story. I smiled a little—it was probably the first time we’d had any real “community” moment as a class.

  “So let me get this right,” I said. “They just let Kalfu go… because they thought Nico was a bigger threat?”

  “Or,” Ellie added, “they figured that if you have two monsters to defeat, why not sic them on each other?”

  “Let them weaken one another,” Ashley added.

  “Only problem is that they didn’t know I was helping Nico become a real boy again,” I said.

  “Or that Mercy was going to take him out seconds later,” Sauron said.

  “I should have seen that coming,” I said. “She always seemed so conflicted, between wanting more power and whatever she seemed to have left within her that resembled humanity.”

  “Where were you when all this happened?” I asked Pauli.

  “I was there… in more ways than one. I was curled around Aida-Wedo and saw myself bite Mercy, but then I could see it from my eyes, too, like a small part of my soul was still hidden there inside my body.”

  “Wait,” I said. “You can see what Kalfu sees?”

  “I can. Best part is, I think there’s so little of me left there, and with all the power he stole from Mercy, not to mention Baron Samedi’s essence, little old me just fades in the background. I can’t see everything. Not all the time. But I get flashes, visions…”

  “That has to be a part of their plan,” I said. “When Erzulie and Aida-Wedo transferred the better part of your soul out. It’s brilliant! It’s like they made you into a spy!”

  “James Bond, eat your heart out.”

  I looked at him incredulously. “You’re hardly James Bond.”

  “I’m the gay version! Way more fabulous. When do I get seduced by Wiener Galore?”

  I almost lost it. “Wiener Galore?”

  “Austin Powers already took Goldmember… otherwise, I’d have used that.”

  “It’s not that. Who calls it a wiener, anyway?”

  “The schlong goes by many names, my dear. And I relish in them all.”

  I laughed too hard. “I see what you did there… wiener and relish?”