Grim Tidings Read online

  “And you shouldn’t doubt the power of prayer,” Oggie added. “Bondye will hear you.”

  “Bondye?” Ashley asked.

  “It’s the word they use for ‘God’ in Voodoo,” Mikah said. “You’ll soon find out that there’s one thing the Loa are certain of—more certain of than any of us are—and that’s that Bondye, that God, is real.”

  “I’m a Catholic girl,” Ashley said. “Didn’t go to Catholic school like Annabelle, but I’m a believer. I’ll just say, in this instance, I really hope they’re right. Mom and Dad don’t stand a chance in there otherwise.”

  * * * * *

  “The answer is positively no,” Aida-Wedo said as her boa constrictor slithered around her neck.

  “No?” Oggie said. “We have reason to believe a vampire clan is assembling in New Orleans and that their numbers are increasing by the day. The fact is that your initiate is the only one who could possibly get into that house to let us know what’s going on.”

  “You are the Loa of war, Ogoun,” Aida-Wedo said, spinning a rainbow between the fingers of one hand while her boa continued slithering around her body. “You tend to resort to… conflictual methods… to resolve the problems you encounter. Perhaps if you thought outside of the box.”

  Oggie threw his arms in the air. “If you have an idea, I’d love to hear it. But I’m not in the mood for riddles.”

  “Temper, temper, temper… I cannot give you my consent to allow Pauli to join you on your quest. However, if he should decide to go about it of his own accord, if he should get himself into another mess by tagging along with some of his friends without your knowledge, Ogoun, then there would be no reason for me to reconsider my support of your position before the queen.”

  Oggie grinned subtly and gave a quick nod. “Understood, sister.”

  “I’m glad we have an understanding,” Aida-Wedo said, briefly making eye contact with me and then with Ashley. “It might be wise that Erzulie’s newest initiate not be involved, either.”

  “My parents are in there!” Ashley protested. “My involvement has nothing to do with your bullshit school politics.”

  Aida-Wedo grinned widely, exposing her crooked and yellowed teeth. “It is only a piece of advice, child. Do not take offense.”

  “None taken,” Ashley said, her hands fixed defiantly on her hips.

  “I simply would hate for any other initiates to go missing, under circumstances each time connected to the activities of College Ogoun. Such would not… go over well with the queen. But I cannot force anyone’s hand here. Your choices remain your own—that goes for all of you. And I know nothing of any of it.”

  “You just heard the whole story, why we wanted Pauli’s help,” I interjected, even as Oggie shot me the evil eye.

  “The story? Oh. I do love stories, child. Tell me one, will you?” Aida-Wedo winked at me as her boa nuzzled its head under her chin.

  “But we just…” My words were interrupted by an elbow to my ribs.

  “What was that for?” I asked, turning to Mikah.

  “Just trust me… I know my mother. She’d rather pretend to be ignorant, imagine she has no recollection of what we intend to do, than have to tell Marie Laveau about it later.”

  I nodded as Ashley, Mikah, and I left Aida-Wedo’s office—if you could call it that. It was more like her own personal Ripley’s Believe It or Not museum. Shrunken heads. The head of what looked like a minotaur mounted on her wall—surely it wasn’t real. Or was it? Who knows what’s real anymore. Oggie, however, stayed behind. I made eye contact with him just before walking out. I’d tried to shed any crush I had on Oggie, especially once I found out that he was one of Erzulie’s many husbands. But I still couldn’t help but blush when he looked at me, his eyes locked onto mine, and his dimples showed up on either side of his smile.

  Isabelle couldn’t read my mind, but she could feel my cheeks flush. She made gagging noises from inside my mind, indicating her disapproval.

  I just shook my head as we walked down the hall away from Aida-Wedo’s office and toward the exit of the presently defunct Voodoo Academy.

  “Sounds like we’re on our own,” Ashley said as she followed behind me.

  “Looks that way,” I said, shrugging. “We were handling this alone anyway before we happened to run into Oggie.”

  “He won’t be uninvolved,” Mikah added. “He just has to pretend to be. The politics…”

  BAM! I ran directly into another body—I’d been looking at Mikah and not paying attention to where I was going.

  I stumbled a little and then regained my footing.

  “Ma’am, my apologies. The place is so empty, I just wasn’t expecting anyone else…”

  Then the woman looked up, and her eyes met mine. She was a beautiful woman. Mulatto with flowing black hair and near perfect skin. Her eyes were dark and deep.

  “Queen Laveau!” Mikah exclaimed.

  I gasped. “Marie Laveau? I’m so embarrassed, I had no idea…”

  The Voodoo queen looked at me with wide eyes and folded her hands together in front of her chest. “What is your name, child?”

  “I’m Annabelle Mulledy, College Ogoun. And this is my sister…”

  “Ashley Mulledy?” Marie Laveau asked.

  “Well yes, Your Highness,” Ashley responded. “How did you know?”

  “Your case is one of the several reasons I’m here, if I should be honest with you. I’m due to offer my decision as to whether or not you may attend once classes resume.”

  “Classes are starting again soon?” I asked.

  The Voodoo queen nodded. Even her nod seemed graceful and distinguished. “Loa Sogbo has returned and has cast a deciding vote on the matters in dispute.”

  “What was Sogbo’s decision?” I asked.

  Marie Laveau smiled widely. “It would be uncouth to reveal that information to you before I’ve consulted with all the interested parties. I hope you understand.”

  “Then what about Ashley,” I said, gesturing toward my sister. “You said a decision was made, and if there is an interested party at all, it’s her. She’s right here.”

  Marie Laveau pressed her lips together, as if she were considering her words. “Very well, I suppose I can give you this bit of news. You will be permitted to join College Erzulie; however, you will be expected to work beside and even in subjugation to the other student who came before you.”

  “Ellie?” I asked.

  Marie Laveau nodded, then returned her attention to Ashley. “The tradition is that the closest most senior student should mentor the next. In this case, while you and she are technically still first-year initiates, she is a whole semester ahead of you and will serve as your mentor.”

  “Thank you, Your Highness,” Ashley said.

  Marie Laveau smiled widely, clearly appreciating the deference my sister was granting her. “I should note, however, that the decision was not unanimous. I will not reveal who supported and who opposed your matriculation into the Academy. However, you should know that without the full support of the Loa, your status as a student remains contingent upon a majority of the Loa endorsing your ongoing presence.”

  “I understand,” Ashley said.

  “Very well, then congratulations. It has been a pleasure, as always, to meet you all.”

  “One more question,” I said. “If you don’t mind?”

  “Yes, dear.”

  “Did this decision have anything to do with, you know, our class already being down one initiate?”

  Marie Laveau took a deep breath and exhaled. “Yes and no. That this arrangement does not increase the size of your class, since one is now gone, played into the decision. Though I should say, Annabelle, I’m quite familiar with the fact that you’ve done your best to find your missing classmate. Your class cannot go without an initiate for College Samedi. Should he not be recovered soon, another will be chosen in his place.”

  “You knew I was looking for him?” I asked.

  “You a
re the one who wields the Blade of Beli, are you not?”

  I nodded. “Yes… I mean yes, Your Highness.”

  “Then I suspected you would have an interest in locating Mr. Freeman since you alone have the means to do so.”

  “Yes, I’ve been trying. But I don’t know where Nico is, or even when, to be honest.”

  “The truth will not evade you forever, child.”

  “Do you know where he is?” I asked.

  Marie Laveau smiled. “It makes no difference what I know or do not know. What matters is your desire to save him… in spite of the fact that your own Loa testifies that he is the one who attacked you first.”

  I sighed. “Yes, but I think it was a misunderstanding.”

  “It truly was!” Marie Laveau said. “But whose misunderstanding was it?”

  “My apologies, Your Highness, but I’m not sure I follow the question.”

  “No matter the circumstances, do you not share some responsibility in what happened to Mr. Freeman?”

  “Of course I do,” I said. “I brought Nico there to help but didn’t get him home in time.”

  “You are not wrong to accept responsibility for this loss.”

  “I know, but I didn’t mean…”

  “Excuses regarding one’s intentions do not redeem past mistakes. The question is not how your error might be explained. The question is what you’re going to do when the time comes to set things right.”

  “I understand. But Your Highness, there’s one more thing…”

  “Yes, child?”

  “Vampires… at Casa do Diabo. I think they have my parents.”

  Marie Laveau reached toward my cheek and brushed a stray curl away that had been dangling in front of my eyes. “The tidings are grim, child. But I have nothing I can offer you beyond what you already possess. Except, perhaps, some advice.”

  “I’d appreciate that,” I said.

  “Confrontations with the dark side of our art… you are no stranger to these, I know it. But these can bring out the best and the worst of us. The path toward darkness is an easy road to follow. To tread in the footsteps of light, to embrace the goodness of our art in such perilous times, that is the harder way. It is the painful way. It requires sacrifice. Virtue, my dear, comes with a cost. Are you prepared to pay it?”

  I nodded. “Yes, ma’am. I mean, I think so. But what will the cost be?”

  “No less than what the moment requires, child.”

  Chapter Six

  I’d decided to go after Pauli alone. What he’d done for me before—making a deal with Kalfu to protect me—it was sweet. But it also meant I was responsible for what he was going through. The last thing I wanted to do was bring in a crowd, make him feel like I was trying to conduct some kind of intervention. The truth was, I needed Pauli’s help… and I really didn’t have a leg to stand on in order to ask him for it. But I also knew I was probably the only person he’d ever met who knew what it was like to have another spirit inhabiting your body. I realize it was apples and oranges. Isabelle was a benevolent spirit. Incredibly annoying at times. But she meant well. But Kalfu? He was Evil McNasty. Only one rung lower on the ladder of villainy than Satan himself. In fact, as I understood it, he was often mistaken for the devil by those who’ve been foolish enough to summon him. While Pauli held the reins—Kalfu was always there… lurking in the recesses of his consciousness… speaking to him… trying to exact a bargain… trying to get a foothold. If what it took for Pauli to keep Kalfu at bay was a month, or two months, wallowing in his makeshift bedroom in his mother’s basement, then so be it. But I knew Pauli well enough to recognize that this lifestyle wasn’t him.

  It wasn’t the first time I’d visited Pauli since it happened. His mother—a kind woman, though seemingly quite conservative by comparison to Pauli who, when he was himself, was about as flamboyant as they come—didn’t approve of Pauli’s decision to come out. She thought it was a phase, something she could change through prayer. But eventually she came to the realization that if she didn’t accept him, she’d lose him. We all have principles, but if our principles are put before people, what good are they? Strangely enough, she seemed more judgmental of me for being Catholic than she was of Pauli for being gay… and attending a Voodoo Academy. Go figure. I suppose the love one has for a child can overlook much—but it doesn’t necessarily change one’s core beliefs. We’ll put up with a lot for our family, on account of love, that we’d never tolerate from anyone else. Is it inconsistent? Yes. Is it right? Probably not. But it’s human nature, and I chose not to take her attitude toward me personally. I didn’t need her acceptance. I just needed her to let me in the house so I could go see Pauli.

  There wasn’t any guarantee she would. More than once, I suspected she simply pretended she didn’t hear me knock on the door. I’d hear the television blaring, some preacher screaming in a way that I was reasonably sure the Juh-ee-zus he preached about never did. Of course, I doubt Jesus spoke with the dull monotone I was used to from my priests, either.

  I braced myself for the conflict—if I was blessed enough to be graced with an open door. I took a deep breath and clenched my fist, ready to knock. The doorbell was broken—probably had been for years.

  Before my fist struck the wood, the door swung open, and Pauli came barging through.

  “Get me out of here, Annabelle! I can put up with Lucifer Junior in my head, but the one thing I can’t do is spend another moment listening to that woman!”

  I chuckled. “I thought she was loving and tender?”

  Pauli rolled his eyes. “She brought over elders…”

  “From her church?”

  Pauli nodded. “To lay hands one me and mumble a bunch of incoherent nonsense.”

  “They were speaking in tongues?”

  “They were speaking gibberish!”

  I laughed. “They were trying to exorcise Kalfu?”

  “That’s what I thought at first. But no. They were trying to exorcise the gay!”

  “What?”

  “Momma thinks I welcomed the devil by my sin. She thinks I contracted him like a case of the HIV or some shit. To get rid of him, we have to get to the source…”

  “So she sent elders to speak in tongues over you?”

  Pauli shook his head as he swung open the passenger door of my Camaro. I buckled myself in and took a sip of my mocha. “One of the elders was kind of cute. So I pinched his butt.”

  I almost spit my mocha all over the steering wheel. I slapped my hand to my mouth to prevent it and quickly swallowed it down. “You did what?”

  “He liked it. I could tell he was into me. My gaydar was going off from the moment he walked into the room. And honey, my gaydar is more accurate than a weatherman predicting wind in the middle of a hurricane.”

  I rolled my eyes. “He was coming to try and exorcise your gayness. I doubt he was—”

  “Honey! The most serious homophobes, the angriest ones, they aren’t mad at gay people. They’re mad at themselves. They project their hate of their own… cravings for the kielbasa… on those of us who are bold enough to embrace it.”

  “Because you embrace the kielbasa?”

  “Honey, I’m the kielbasa-eating champion, three years running.”

  “I seriously hope there isn’t a competition for that.”

  “Honey, not only is there a competition. But I’m on the Olympic team. I even have trophies to prove it.”

  “And those trophies… are they shaped like…”

  “You know it! True to life. They’ll double for the real thing in a pinch.”

  I shook my head. “I really don’t want to know!”

  “Sure you do, honey.”

  “Well, I’m glad to see you’re acting more… yourself.”

  “I made the demon my bitch. I could only listen to his rambles about death and destruction for so long before the diva rage came out. And he was no match!”

  “The diva rage?”

  “I told him to talk to th
e hand, ’cause this face ain’t listening.”

  “You went 1990s diva just now. Totally my style.”

  “Sashay, shantay!” Pauli attempted to mimic a twirl the best he could from the confines of my passenger seat.

  “Work… work it, girl!”

  “You know I always do.”

  I smiled widely. “Really good to have you back. From now on, though, I’m calling you RuPauli.”

  “Thank you, bitch!”

  I laughed. He was probably the only person in the world who could call me that and make me laugh. For Pauli, it was a term of endearment.

  “But could I ask a favor of you? I hesitate to ask after everything…”

  “Your wish is my command, darling.”

  I smiled. “You might want to hear what I’m asking first.”

  Pauli shrugged. “Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?”

  I scrunched my brow. “Isn’t that a Joker quote from that awful Batman movie?”

  “Yes, the Michael Keaton one. It’s what the Joker says before he kills someone. Ignore the whole murderous context of it all. Just answer the question.”

  “Nope, never danced with the devil at all, under any light.”

  “Well, I have. I mean, he might not be the devil, but he’s close enough. Devil Junior. Or just Junior. That’s what I call him now. If I can handle this, I can handle whatever you want to lay on me.”

  I nodded. “Fair enough. Mind breaking into a vampire’s den for me?”

  Pauli’s jovial expression turned blank. “Are you serious?”

  “As serious as I can be. My parents turned up missing from the manor, and we traced their GPS to a house that we think is inhabited by vamps.”

  “And you and Isabelle couldn’t just unload a dose of bad-assery on them?”

  “That’s the thing. The place is warded. It actively repels my aspect, Oggie’s aspect. And it only accepts those who have… an inclination toward vampirism.”

  Pauli rolled his eyes. “So, because I have Kalfu bound to my soul, you think I can get past their magical defenses?”

  I nodded. “Yeah. I mean, I’m pretty sure you can. And besides, you can ride your rainbow in and out of there so quick they won’t even know you were there. I’m not asking you to fight them or anything. I just need some intel.”