Death Rites Read online

  “I knew you would ketchup eventually,” Pauli said.

  “You guys are horrible,” Ashley interjected.

  “But this is good,” Sauron said. “Bad puns or not, we have an inside scoop on Kalfu.”

  I grinned and nodded at Sauron. “Sorry about Nico, by the way. I know you cared for him.”

  “Not your fault. You helped him. At least you weren’t the one…”

  “Speaking of… her. Anyone know what happened to Mercy? Did she survive the bite?” I asked.

  “I bit Ramon before,” Pauli added, slithering up my leg and giving me a case of the heebie-jeebies, “and he was just fine. Came after you a few minutes later.”

  “No one knows,” Ellie said. “If someone did, Erzulie would. She thinks Mercy acted heroically. They wanted to bring her back, as I understand it. But something about a conflict with her nature and the wards that Ashley set up.”

  “My wards already permit the Loa to come and go. They’re different than house wards, bound only by a family’s human love. This one… it’s more inclusive by necessity. Technically, there’s no reason why Mercy couldn’t come back. It keeps Kalfu out only because he represents a threat.”

  “And Mercy doesn’t?” Sauron asked. “She killed Nico!”

  “In fairness,” I said, “Nico was about to die anyway. Still, it seemed like a power move to me.”

  “So is Erzulie going to bring her back?” Sauron asked.

  Ellie shrugged. “It’s possible. All I know is that they’re concerned about a void in the school, since Brigitte can’t pass along the Baron’s aspect anymore. With Kalfu possessing the Baron, it’s too risky.”

  I shook my head. “Bringing back Mercy? That isn’t going to solve the problem. She only has the aspect by virtue of her vampirism. And she can’t pass it along either.”

  Ellie shook her head. “I agree. But they’re concerned that there’s a void in the Academy. A weakness when we can’t afford any weaknesses. I just heard her and Sogbo discussing bringing someone in. Someone she felt she could control. I assumed the conversation was about Mercy. Maybe not?”

  This sure is going to be an interesting semester, Isabelle said in my mind, breaking her silence.

  “Sure will be!” Pauli said as he slithered up my leg.

  I tried to shake him off. “Dude, did you just respond to Isabelle?”

  I think he can hear me. I mean, Letty usually hears me and can see me if I project. Maybe since he’s an animal now…

  “Girl, I’ve always been an animal!” Pauli added, releasing a fake roar.

  I huffed. There was something odd about seeing a snake try to roar like a lion. But I was getting used to the odd. “Well, Isabelle, looks like you finally have someone else to annoy.”

  “Queen Bs!” Pauli shouted.

  “What do bees have to do with anything?”

  “Queen Bitches,” Pauli said. “That’s Isabelle and me now.”

  “Delightful,” I said as Pauli draped himself across my shoulders.

  This is interesting. Do you know what spell they used to enchant your soul into the snake?

  “No clue, girl! But it was some ancient shit!”

  This feels familiar. Like when my sister bound my spirit to her locket, before she put me into you… into Annabelle, I mean. It’s going to take some time getting used to someone else hearing me.

  “Makes sense,” I said as I lowered myself to the edge of my bed and kicked off my shoes. “But when Messalina bound your ghost to the locket, she was able to transfer you again into me.”

  Using some power she got from Baron Samedi…

  “But I do have his aspect now. No clue how to use it. But that’s why I was able to come back from the land of the dead.”

  “Wait,” Pauli said. “You actually died?”

  I nodded. “But I came back. Baron Samedi had apparently given me his aspect when I brought him back here the first time. If I can use it somehow, maybe we can put Pauli back in a human body.”

  Only problem with that, Isabelle said, is that he’ll end up being like me. Sharing a body with someone else. When I was bound to the locket I couldn’t do anything, because a locket can’t do anything. But he’s inside a snake… he has freedom. He can move, and obviously talk.

  “Well, it’s ultimately Pauli’s choice. And we’d have to find a willing host anyway.”

  “No rush! I’d rather hold out hope for my old body! I mean, I’d just finished my third round of Brazil Butt Lift! I had just passed the pencil test!”

  “The pencil test?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.

  “You stick a pencil under your butt cheek. If you can hold it there, you’ve got more work to do, honey! But if the pencil falls to the floor, that means you’re high and tight!”

  I shook my head. “We’re here debating the merits of trying to get you a human body back, and all you can think about is your ass?”

  “Try not having an ass for a while and you’d miss yours, too!”

  I smiled. “I guess I need to try and walk a mile in your shoes.”

  I cringed. I regretted it the moment I’d said it. No feet… no shoes. Poor choice of metaphor. But Pauli didn’t take it that way.

  “Might as well! I’m not using them. And I have a great pair of Louboutins I was waiting for a good Friday to show off!”

  I reached over and pried open Pauli’s old locker. Sure enough. “Dude, these are eight-inch heels, minimum. You mean to tell me you can walk in these?”

  “Not anymore!”

  “Yeah, sorry.” I grimaced. “Still, I think these are too big for me. Appreciate the sentiment.”

  “If you aren’t going to wear them, save them. For when I get my body back!”

  I nodded. In truth, the chances of exorcising two Loa, bolstered by God knows how many vampiric abilities, from his body was not likely to happen anytime soon. We’d be lucky to survive if we met Kalfu again—much less subdue him and exorcise him. But hope isn’t a bad thing. And if the prospect of wearing these Louboutins gave Pauli hope, who was I to take that from him?

  Chapter Three

  One perk to having training sessions with Oggie in the evenings—I didn’t have to wake up at six a.m. anymore. The downside? My biological alarm clock woke me up anyway. I stubbornly tossed and turned for an extra hour in a futile attempt to capture a few extra minutes of shut-eye. I supposed I’d better get up, anyway, if I was going to have enough time to make myself presentable.

  I stumbled out of bed and tripped over Pauli on the floor.

  “Hey watch it, hoe!”

  “How about not sleeping under my bed? You still have your bunk.” I hushed my voice, trying not to disturb Ashley and Sauron who, based on the symphony of snores coming from the opposite side of the room, were still asleep.

  “I don’t have any eyelids. It’s darker under here.”

  I coughed in my hand. “You do still have your own bed you could sleep under.”

  “It’s more fun to be the monster under yours, honey.”

  Pauli slithered up my bedpost and onto my mattress while I opened my wardrobe and checked out my bed head in the mirror I’d mounted to the door.

  “You’re a hot mess, girl!” Pauli said.

  “Yeah, no shit. Haven’t you noticed me in the mornings before?”

  Pauli shook his arrow-shaped head. “Aida-Wedo never has sessions this early. I don’t think I’ve ever been up before you.”

  “Well, now you have the privilege of witnessing my morning routine. Congratulations.”

  “From one bitch to another, nothing but respect. This is when the magic happens.”

  The girl who gives you your magic resents that comment, Isabelle said in the same groggy tone she usually used when I forced us awake this early for the sake of my beauty rituals.

  “Isabelle would rather I sleep in like everyone else in our class… well, almost everyone else.”

  I’d barely pulled my brush through my hair twice when the dormitory lights f
lashed on, forcing me to squint.

  “Time to get up!” Ellie announced, sounding far more chipper than any human being should at this time of the morning.

  “Ellie, what the hell?” I asked as Ashley pulled her covers over her face. Sauron was still snoring—sounded like a lumberjack at work.

  Ellie flashed the lights on and off a few times. Provoking the girl whose aspect gave her power over thunderstorms like that was rather weak. I half hoped Sauron would toss a lightning bolt up Ellie’s butt in response. I got up early for a reason—Ellie woke up early because she liked it. Lightning up the tush might reduce her mood to something that more closely resembled that of a human being.

  “Headmistress Erzulie has canceled today’s classes,” Ellie declared as Sauron looked at her, squinting.

  “Good. Then let us go back to fucking sleep!” Sauron said.

  “She canceled classes,” Ellie said matter-of-factly, “and has insisted that the whole school assemble in the cathedral.”

  “The cathedral?” I asked.

  “St. Louis Cathedral-Basilica,” Ellie said.

  I scrunched my brow. “The Voodoo Academy is having a school assembly in the Catholic cathedral?”

  “Of course.” Ellie nodded. “It’s tradition that we hold assemblies there.”

  I always hated school assemblies when I went to St. Bonaventure’s. They were basically pep rallies to cheer on the soccer team or some shit that I never cared about. School pride. We’ve got spirit, yes we do. We’ve got spirit, well, fuck you! Rah. Rah. Rah. Who needs that? Those were the frivolities of high school. This is the Voodoo Academy. What the hell did we need a pep rally for?

  “And Erzulie says that everyone should wear black.”

  I looked at Ellie incredulously. “Heaven forbid we don’t show our school colors.”

  Ellie shrugged. “I don’t think we have school colors.”

  “Good,” I said. “Because I mostly wear black these days anyway.”

  “What’s this about?” Ashley asked as she rolled out of bed, tying her blond hair back into a ponytail.

  “Didn’t you hear?” I asked. “The quidditch team is taking on Hogwarts at state!”

  Ashley chuckled.

  “Quidditch isn’t real,” Ellie said. “And I don’t think Hogwarts is, either.”

  “I was being sarcastic,” I said.

  “Oh,” Ellie said. “Well, I cannot say what the occasion is. All I know is that it must be important.”

  Sauron nodded as she brushed her teeth. “Only one school assembly has been called in the last fifty years.” Somehow she managed to talk as she brushed without drooling all over the floor. I was mildly impressed.

  “And what was the reason for it?” I asked.

  “You two Mulledys were.”

  “We were the reason for an assembly?” Ashley asked.

  “Not exactly,” Sauron said. “But you were involved. It was when Baron Samedi disappeared.”

  “And they assembled… to mourn his loss?” I asked.

  Sauron shrugged. “I don’t know. I was just a kid. I just remember people talking about it.”

  I exchanged glances with Ashley, then looked back at Ellie. “So this isn’t going to be a pep rally?”

  “I doubt it,” Ellie said. “But that sounds fun.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, as fun as a herpe.”

  “You have the herps, too?” Ellie said, a hint of excitement in her voice as she raised a hand in an attempt to elicit a high five.

  “No… I don’t. I was just making a joke. Sorry I can’t join you in a celebration of STD pride.”

  Ellie slowly lowered her hand. She seriously looked bummed out that I didn’t have herpes. Was she really that desperate for a friend? I almost felt bad.

  “But I do!” Pauli said. “I’d slap you five, but you know, no digits. Actually, come to think of it. My body had herpes… I don’t think I do anymore! How about that! I’m cured!”

  I chuckled. “Always look on the bright side of life, right?”

  “It’s the only way to live, honey! Embrace the fabulous, no matter what. Life’s too short to dwell on shit that sucks.”

  “True that,” Ashley added. “You guys ready to head out?”

  I looked at myself in the mirror again. “Not exactly… but I guess this will have to do.”

  * * * * *

  We stopped for a bowl of grits at one of the shops—all our meals in Vilokan were free, comped by the Academy. Not a bad deal—even though pretty much everything they made down here was spicy as hell… except for the sweet potato pie. And the grits. The stuff just stuck to my throat. Thankfully, they had an abundance of sweet tea to chase it all down.

  We entered Père Antoine Alley and proceeded toward the cathedral. A sign was hung on the front doors—Closed for Cleaning.

  I don’t think that applies to us, Isabelle said.

  She was right—in fact, “cleaning” was probably nothing more than a pretense for our gathering. The last thing the Church would want anyone to know was that they allowed a bunch of vodouisants to use their most holy sanctuary for anything, since you know… Voodoo is of the devil.

  I pressed on the door and walked inside, the smell of frankincense greeting me as I stepped into the nave. I might have been a Mambo in training, but I was still a Catholic girl at heart. Something about this place… it always calmed me. One thing the Catholics do well is create environments that give their cathedrals a sense of transcendence. It felt like walking between heaven and earth—something that, oddly enough, I’d literally done recently. More or less. Strangely, the cathedral gave me a similar feeling. Serenity… peace… a sense that there really was some fellow out there, a God in charge, who could see the big picture. In whose mysteries the world actually made sense even though everything going on from my feeble perspective seemed insensible at times. Walking in here… it was like I could feel the hand of the Divine on my shoulder just saying, “Don’t sweat it. I’ve got this.”

  I noticed several students staring at me as I walked in, my fellow first-years beside me. I imagined I wasn’t particularly well-liked by most of them. They were mostly from traditional families—like Nico and Sauron. And most of the school probably thought I was responsible for unleashing Kalfu on the world. It wasn’t a fair accusation by any means—but I was involved more than any of them had been.

  Ellie was walking ahead of me and selected the front pew—of course, she’d pick the one in the front. No one ever sat in the front pew in mass. Not sure why. It was like an obligatory buffer between the priest and the congregation—particularly since my priest had always had a tendency to inadvertently spit while he talked. The first row of pews was like the “splash zone” at Sea World.

  I genuflected and crossed myself before entering the pew. No one else did, except for Ashley of course. We must have been the only Catholic girls in the Voodoo Academy. Who woulda thunk?

  “This place is so pretty!” Ellie said, smiling widely.

  I just nodded. I doubted she’d ever attended a mass in her life. Probably had no idea the sense of reverence a place like this evoked. But she was right—it was pretty. Beautiful, really. That’s a better word, I think. It has a depth to it that “pretty” seems to gloss over. A depth that was likely lost on Ellie.

  Pauli slithered around the back of my neck, sending shivers down my spine.

  “Stop that,” I whispered as forcefully as I could while retaining my hushed tone. It was going to take a while before I got used to Pauli like this.

  “Please rise,” said a thundering voice, resonating throughout the cathedral. It was Oggie.

  I stood along with the rest of the student body as we turned to the back of the room. Erzulie processed first, holding in her hands some kind of pot—colorful, decorated with what looked like tribal symbols. They vaguely resembled Voodoo veves but were subtly different.

  Oggie followed behind her, with Maman Brigitte, Aida-Wedo, and Sogbo all processing behind in sin
gle file. They walked slowly, in step, and deliberately.

  I wasn’t sure what the fuck was going on, but every one of them looked deathly serious.

  I think this is a funeral, Isabelle said.

  I scrunched my brow. “Are you sure?” I whispered.

  That pot… I’ve seen some like it before. The other slaves on the plantations, the ones who’d been purchased from Haiti, they made pots like these. Used them in their death rites.

  “When a mortal dies,” Erzulie said, now standing just in front of the chancel and altar, “the nearly departed’s soul will wander the earth for seven days before moving on. In our tradition, a Hougan or Mambo might harness such souls in a vessel such as this, that their souls might be aided in the journey beyond. Mr. Freeman was a friend of ours. A first-year student, but gifted beyond his years. Due to an unfortunate accident, the details of which all of you are aware…”

  When Erzulie said that, she looked directly at me. It felt like the whole room was staring at me, their gazes penetrating the back of my skull.

  “Now we need to be unified more than ever before,” Erzulie continued. “Our safety, our very existence as a school, depends on it. So, in honor of Nico Freeman, I am evoking the Trials.”

  Audible gasps and muffled chatter filled the room.

  “What are the Trials?” I asked Pauli, whose forked tongue annoyingly tickled the back of my right ear.

  “Don’t know exactly. Only happened twice before. Once after emancipation. Again when Baron Samedi went away.”

  “The Trials are a time-honored tradition. A friendly competition meant to bring us together—unite us around a victor. But unlike previous Trials where any citizen of Vilokan could be nominated to compete, at the insistence of the very first victor, Queen Laveau herself, the participants of these Trials will be chosen solely from the student population.”

  Another round of gasps, followed by people hushing one another, filled the room.

  “The reason for this unprecedented limitation is simple. The ward that protects us, thanks to the older Miss Mulledy, is tied to the Academy. It is you, the students, who hold the fate of both our school and all of Vilokan in your hands. Thus, it must be one of you around whom we must all rally as High Hougan or Mambo. And as is always customary, it is the one who is chosen who will receive the Blessing.”