Blood Craft: The Shadow Sorceress Book Two (13 page)

“
S
he did
nothing but defend herself,” Heddou cut in, his voice ringing out clear in the still silent room.

I stared at the other people standing around, but I didn’t see terror in their faces. Instead, they continued to watch me with a type of curiosity normally reserved for animals in the zoo.

“I don’t know what happened, I…” I stuttered, my gaze falling back to the people still lying around me on the floor.

Dropping to my knees next to the nearest one, I pressed my fingers against his neck, but there was no pulse and his skin was icy. It shouldn’t have been possible, but he felt as though he’d been dead for far longer than a couple of seconds.

“I didn’t mean to do this…” I said, staring back up at Heddou.

He shook his head and clapped his hands together, the sound resonating around the room, growing deeper until I felt it in my very core. The man I’d just checked stirred and flipped over onto his back before slowly climbing to his feet. His movements were awkward and stiff; the kind of movements you might make if you’d spent weeks lying on your back….

“They’re all zombies…” I said, staring at the other people as they climbed upright.

Nic took an instinctive step backwards, and I didn’t blame him. Zombies were dangerous—the types in the movies were bad, but these were worse. At least the ones in the movies could be put down with a headshot; the type raised from the dead couldn’t be stopped so easily. Fire was the pretty much the only way to guarantee they went down, and even then, you had to wait for them to burn down enough that they couldn’t move.

That was the difference between a virus and magic…. It suddenly became crystal clear why Nic was so afraid of Heddou. It would take a hell of a lot of power to raise a room full of zombies, but to make them so life-like that I’d honestly believed I’d just killed eight people….

Heddou continued to smile, but he’d turned his attention to the undead surrounding me and his expression had softened.

“What gave them away?” he asked, his tone gentle as he reached out to stroke the hair of the woman nearest to him. She moved into his touch, rubbing her face against his hand like a cat might, and it sent my stomach churning.

Zombies didn’t feel anything. Or, at least, that was what I’d heard during my training for the Elite—so why would she react to him like that?

“They don’t move like a human, they move like the dead,” I said, keeping my voice devoid of all emotion.

“I could make them move like the rest of us, but then the others would suffer; the power it takes to move them is almost as great as the power to resurrect.”

“Why are you doing this? Don’t they deserve to rest? Their lives are done now; they’re finished … why keep them here like this?”

Heddou tore his gaze away from the people surrounding him and stared at me in disdain. “I do this because I can, because I am Heddou, and all who come to me must know of my power; no one can cross me.”

“But does it not drain you?”

He didn’t answer me, and another sick thought occurred to me. “Are these all the people who have done wrong to you?”

His smile widened and he snapped his fingers in my direction. “Child, you are smarter than those you work for would give you credit for. This is the price you pay for betraying Heddou; there will be no rest, no eternal slumber, just eternal service….”

“You can’t do that. It’s against the law…” I said, glancing around in horror at all the people in the room.

“Raising the dead isn’t. I can do as I please with them; they’re dead,” he said. He spoke with such conviction that it was obvious it wasn’t the first time he’d been challenged on the issue. “You didn’t come here to argue the law with me….”

I took another look around the room. How was I supposed to ignore something like this? I couldn’t just walk out of here and let him get away with something so awful—if I did, then I’d be just as bad as he was. But I’d felt his power; he’d been fit to contain me all the while keeping his zombies intact. If I went head to head with him, I wasn’t convinced I’d walk away from it with my life.

Nic’s hand against my arm drew my attention and I glanced down at the place where his fingers brushed against my wrist.

Lifting my face, the look in his eyes made up my mind for me. He didn’t like any of what was going on any more than I did. But it was all about restraint at the end of the day, and there was no point in picking fights everywhere I went unless I thought I could finish them. And this wasn’t the time to face Heddou.

“There’s a killer using human bodies as conduits for spirits….”

“It’s not Voodoo, if that’s what you’re wondering. I’m the only one in the city with a power capable of the crimes you speak of.”

“I know, it’s why I came to you. I need to know how to stop this; the people are still alive, it’s a type of possession, but their bodies are rotting….” My mind was filled with the images of the possessed, the fear in their eyes when I crushed the spirit within and the human was left behind to suffer the consequences.

Heddou scrubbed his hand across his chin and turned towards the woman standing next to him. He dropped his voice and spoke in a language that flowed a little like French, but none of the words were familiar. I’d attempted to learn French when I was in school, but my aptitude had not lain in the mastery of different languages.

“Do you know what he’s saying?” I said, leaning in towards Nic and whispering.

He shook his head and continued to watch the other two people interact. “I don’t speak it, but I’m pretty sure it’s Creole.”

I glanced over at him, surprised—he couldn’t speak it, but his ability to even recognise it impressed me. There were times, usually when I was pissed as all hell, that English was a struggle. My tendency to slip into nothing but “creative swearing mode”, as Graham had dubbed it, was about as close as I’d ever gotten to speaking a second language.

How was Graham doing? I wanted to see him, talk to him, hear him tell me everything would be all right, but that wasn’t going to happen any time soon.

“They are not the Loa,” Heddou said, addressing me and drawing me back to the present.

“The what?” I asked, wracking my brains for a meaning to the word Loa.

“Ah, my sweet child, you have so much to learn if you are to become a Bokor. The Loa are the intermediaries between the living and the creator. They are the spirits who guide us, but they are not causing you the grief you feel.”

“So what are they then? Enzo wouldn’t send me here unless he believed you could help.”

“I do not have the answer you’re seeking, but I can give you something to strip the spirit from the human host. But it needs to be administered before the body begins to break down. The more powerful the spirit, the faster the body will die.”

“But why? Your zombies aren’t rotting; why would these people rot even though they’re still alive? It just doesn’t make any sense.”

Heddou smiled and took a step towards me. I held my ground as he reached out and wrapped a stray strand of my red hair around his fingers.

“The spirits are powerful and the human form was built to house only one soul. Unless one spirit gives up and moves on, the body will eventually die. It is why the Loa do not stay with us all the time; they must be called to a body, and then when their time is done, they leave. Your spirits are not leaving….”

He whipped his hand back, ripping the strand of hair from my scalp hard enough to make me cry out. Heddou skipped out of reach and quickly stashed the strands of my hair inside his blue waistcoat.

“What the hell are you doing?” I asked, anger beginning to bubble in my veins.

“Nothing you need to worry about. It’s merely a precaution and payment for the drink I will give you.”

“Drink?”

“Yes, give it to the possessed and the spirits doing the harm will simply burn away. Give it too late, and the human soul will die instead….”

His words sent a shiver of fear racing down my spine. Dex and Victoria had already been gone for several hours—maybe we were already too late to save them.

You can’t think like that, Amber, you’ll get to them, you will save them.

“Give her back her hair, Heddou. I know what you’ll do with that and I won’t let you pull any voodoo doll crap on her,” Nic cut in, his voice low and threatening.

“A voodoo doll? Is that what my hair is for?”

“What does it matter, if you have the means to save the ones you care for…? I know you, Amber Morgan; the Loa know you, and you’re not the type to let the innocent suffer, power be damned….” Heddou spoke, his lips curling back into a wide smile.

He was right, of course; a few strands of hair were a small price to pay for the means to save as many people as possible. And anyway, I wasn’t convinced I believed in all that Voodoo doll crap; I’d always thought it was something dreamt up to frighten naughty little witches. But I’d seen what he could do, and raising the dead was no mean feat—it didn’t seem like such a stretch to believe he could use my hair to create a voodoo doll if he wanted to.

“Keep it, but if I so much as get a hint of you doing any creepy shit to me, I will make you sorry.” Heddou didn’t seem in the least little bit bothered by my statement, but it at least made me feel a little better to make it.

Heddou turned to the woman beside him once more and said something in Creole.

Nic’s hand closed around my wrist and he jerked me around to face him. “Have you lost your mind? You can’t let him keep the hair. Do you know what he could do with that? What power you’d be giving him?”

“Nic, I don’t have a choice. I need whatever that stuff is. Without it, I have no way of saving the innocent people possessed; I saw what it did to them and I won’t let that happen again, not if I can stop it.”

“There has to be another way,” he said.

“There isn’t, and if you don’t like it, then go and wait outside until I finish up here.”

His expression darkened and, without another word, he stalked away to the door. I let him go, swallowing back my disappointment. Why couldn’t he understand that I needed to do this? That if there was even the slightest chance that I could save those infected, then I would do it, no matter what….

“Use this, they need to drink it,” Heddou said, and I turned to face him once more.

He held a small bottle out towards me; the amount of liquid in it caused my heart to sink. There wouldn’t be enough.

“I need more, there’s too many of them.”

“This is the best I can do. It takes time to make and this is what I have left….” There was no hint in his voice that he was lying to me, so I grabbed the bottle, my fingers brushing against his momentarily.

But it was enough, and my eyes rolled back up my head, the earth rushing to meet me as everything went black.

“
A
mber
!”

An all-too-familiar voice called out to me, causing the pounding pain in my skull to increase to fever pitch. All I wanted to do was fold my arms up over my head and hide from the world.

“What happened?” Nic said, shaking me softly, and everything came flooding back to me.

I’d touched Heddou’s hand when he’d held the bottle out to me. Images flashed through my mind: people screaming, blood, and Heddou’s laughter. His maniacal laughter grated my ears and I could taste blood in my mouth.

Pushing up, I stared around at the street I sat on. I was back on the sidewalk outside Heddou’s house and Nic was crouched down over me; the look of concern in his eyes would have sent my stomach somersaulting, but now, I was far too angry.

Reaching up, I brushed my fingers against my lip. The small cut on the inside of my mouth made me wince and the coppery tang of my own blood only increased.

“That rat bastard,” I said. Lurching up onto my feet, my head swam in sickening circles, forcing me to suck in a deep breath as I waited for the dizziness to pass.

The second my vision cleared, I stormed past Nic and marched towards the iron gate that stood barring the entrance. Grabbing the bars, I gasped; power surged up from the ground and in through my hands. Jolting back, I hissed in frustration and tried again, only to get the same shock.

“Can you open this?” I said, glancing back at Nic who stared at me with a bemused expression on his face.

“Open what?” he asked, moving up next to me.

“The gate, the giant ass iron gate that keeps on frying me every time I touch it!” There was no hiding the frustration in my voice and I didn’t care.

“There’s no gate….”

“Don’t play games, Nic, I know you don’t like Heddou but whatever he did to me, I can’t let it stand….”

Nic simply shook his head and stepped through the gate. I waited for him to get jammed in the bars but they melted around him as though they weren’t even there.

“There’s no gate, Amber, I don’t know what you’re on about,” he said.

I stared at him, my mouth hanging open, I looked like a fool but I didn’t care. Heddou had barred me, but why? I hadn’t done anything to him and, if anything, he seemed more than a little curious about me and my power.

“There’s a gate. Heddou has barred me…” I said, continuing to stare at the tall black iron gate in front of me. I didn’t know whether to feel flattered or even more pissed off.

Nic stepped back out through the invisible-to-him gate and shook his head.

“Why would he bother? He has your hair … even if you wanted to, now, you couldn’t get close enough to do him any harm.”

I shrugged and then patted my jacket pockets. Reaching into the inside pocket, I pulled the small bottle Heddou had given me free and stared down at the shimmering blue liquid. There wasn’t enough; it would barely be enough to save one person, how was I supposed to decide who was worthy and who wasn’t?

“What will that do?” Nic asked, staring at the liquid as it glinted in the sunlight.

“The possessed have to drink it; it’ll force the spirits to move on.”

“How much do they need to drink of it?”

I shrugged. Heddou hadn’t exactly given me the opportunity to ask questions.

“Great, so when do you want to attempt this suicide mission?” Nic’s voice was laden with sarcasm, and I shot him a sideways glance, but the smile he wore softened it.

“Can I make a quick stop first?” I asked, sliding the bottle back into my pocket.

He nodded and tossed me my helmet once more. I stared down at the shiny black surface, my face reflected back up at me.

“If we get out of this, you’re going to have to get a car…” I said, sliding the helmet into place.

Nic’s smile spread into a grin as he climbed onto the bike. “Seriously, Amber? A car is just going to screw with the bad boy vibe I’m going for.”

I swung my leg across the back of the bike and wrapped my arms around his waist.

“Besides, if we were in a car, your arms wouldn’t be wrapped so tightly around me,” he said, his voice carrying over the roar of the engine.

“You cheeky….” I started to talk, but he gunned the motorcycle and I was forced to press my face against his back.

I hated the bike, but I could honestly say I didn’t hate the proximity it forced me to share with him…. Of course, he couldn’t ever know that.