Nancy K. Duplechain - Dark Trilogy 03 - Dark Legacy (21 page)

When I opened my
eyes, I found myself in Noah’s arms. He was carrying me upstairs to my room. He
laid me down on my bed and smoothed my hair away from my face.

“You okay?” he
said.

“We were
attacked. I don’t know where the rest of you went. I was alone with all of
those …
things
after me. Where is everyone?”

He looked at me
strangely. “Miles is recovering.”

“What happened?
One of those things got him?”

“Leigh.
You
attacked him.”

“What do you
mean? I didn’t even see him! I was running from those monsters—”

“You were
running from
us
. That was what the witches did. They made you
hallucinate so that you’d turn against us. You took off into the forest. We
went after you. You tried to attack me first because I was in the lead, but
Miles stepped in and took the bullet, so to speak. I lost your trail.” He
grinned. “You run really fast. Charmagne put Danielle in a safe room in the
house and then came out to see about Miles. While she was gone, the house was
ransacked. They were looking for the grimoire.”

“Oh, God. Is he
okay?”

“Charmagne’s with
him now.”

“He was right.
I’m dangerous to be around. I should go home.”

“He’ll be okay.
He’s a tough guy.”

“Are you okay?
From last night? I’m really sorry about what happened between us.”

He grinned.
“Well, I have to say that was the most interesting thing that’s ever happened
to me in bed with a woman, but I’m fine.”

I felt blood
rushing to my cheeks and looked away. “It’s not funny. I almost killed you. I
can’t be with anyone ever again. I’ll just get everyone killed.”

“Can I ask you
another personal question?”

“No.”

“I’ll ask
anyway. Is that why you don’t want to be with Lucas? Because you’re afraid
you’ll hurt him?”

“I didn’t know
about all this draining life stuff until I came here. I don’t want to be with
him or around anyone in my family because of all of
this
! This fighting
the Dark Side with monsters and God knows what else. It’s too dangerous for
them.”

He nodded,
understanding. “That really shouldn’t stop you. They know who you are, and they
still want to be with you. Nadia … she was pure light and goodness. I don’t
regret one second I spent with her.”

I was silent for
a while, thinking about what he said. I found myself agreeing with him.

“Miles and Ridge
and I are going to the witches’ lair tomorrow. We’ll try to get a couple more
pallys to help us. I’m sure Felix will, and some of the others will be back
from their trips. We’re going to put a stop to this. You’re staying here.
Miles’ orders.”

***

They managed to
get a hold of Felix, Olivia, Alex, Oscar, and Saul. Aimee wanted to help, too,
but her flight from London was delayed. Sonja was headed back to Ireland to
take care of some family business. Casper couldn’t be reached. By the time they
all arrived at Charmagne’s, it was late afternoon. I offered to go with them,
but Miles pulled me aside and insisted that I stay put until I’ve had more
training.

After they left,
I checked my phone and was surprised to see that, in the hour or so I was
downstairs with everyone, I had seven missed calls, some from Carrie and the
rest from Lucas. The last call was from Lucas about ten minutes earlier, so I
decided to call him first. Before I could press the call button, the phone rang
again, and it was him.

“Hello?”

“Christ, Leigh!
I’ve been trying to reach you for the last few hours.” His voice was strained,
like he had been crying.

“What’s wrong?”

“Your maw maw’s back
in the hospital.”

My heart stopped
momentarily. “What is it? What’s—”

“It’s not good. One
of her lungs collapsed. The doc said they can’t do anymore surgery on her. Said
she’s too old and wouldn’t make it though. They have her hooked up to machines
right now. She’s conscious, but wants to go back home. She said she didn’t want
to die in a hospital.” He had tears in his voice. “This is it, Leigh. She only
has a couple of days left.”  

I sank to the
bed, my legs betraying me, not knowing what to say, tears welling up in my
eyes.

“Leigh?”

“Yeah. I’m going
to get my things and get the next flight out.” I heard the words I said, but it
didn’t feel like they came out of my mouth. Just before we hung up, I said,
“Lyla.”

“She and Jon are
spending the night at Carrie’s. Miss Clo doesn’t want Lyla to know. She’s
afraid that she’ll try to heal her and that she’ll … you know. Turn into what
you are now.”

I realized that
was a very wise thing for Clothilde to do. I would not wish this life on Lyla.
“I’m going to pack now. Thanks, Luke.”

After I packed,
I took my luggage downstairs and set it by the door. I wondered how to call a
cab. I didn’t even know the address of the house. While I wracked my brain, trying
to figure out what to do, I started to cry, wondering if I was going to see my
grandmother again.

Charmagne came
up behind me. “I thought I heard someone—” she started, but stopped when she
saw the tears in my eyes. Her face changed to worry. “My dear, whatever is the
matter?”

“I need to get
to the airport,” I said, sniffling. “My grandmother … It doesn’t look good. I
need to be there.”

She put her arm
around me and said, “Of course, darling. I’ll drive you to the airport myself.
Just let me grab a couple of things first.”

I sniffled again
and nodded. “I should tell Miles.”

She shook her
head. “I will tell him when they return. I’ll be right back. And Leigh? It will
all be okay.” She smiled sympathetically and went upstairs.

I waited in the
living area, sitting on the chaise lounge and nervously shaking my leg. She
seemed to be taking an eternity, though I wasn’t sure how much time had passed.
Charmagne finally came downstairs with her purse hanging from her shoulder.
“Ready to go?”

I nodded. She
put her hand on my shoulder. “You know, with our line of work, the battle
against evil takes its toll on the body and the mind. From what Miles has told
me, your grandmother is a great healer. When my father passed, I was unable to
do anything about it because of that grim rule about keeping souls from the Guardians.
I was already a dark paladin at the time, so I could not heal him, or I would have
become one of the very dark entities we strive to rid the world from.”

I looked at her,
wondering why she was telling me this.

“What if I told
you that there was a way to save your grandmother and preserve the light you
have left so that you do not fall to the Dark Side?” There was anticipation,
almost hunger in her eyes as she awaited my answer.

“I don’t
understand,” I said slowly. “If you know of a way to do this, why didn’t you
use it with your father? And why not use it with Danielle?”

“Because I did
not know it at the time. But since then, I have discovered a
key
, of
sorts, that would work. The only problem is it is hidden in a very difficult
place. I knew the general location, but could not pin point where it was. Until
recently.

“Then why don’t
you just go get it?”

Her mouth curved
up into a smile, but her eyes were dead serious. “It is quite dangerous.”

“Where is it?”

Her features
softened, and she projected an air of coyness and hidden knowledge. “When
Charlemagne died, the granddaughter of Anseis took his heart and hid it away.
Only a pure descendant of Charlemagne can retrieve it, and only a descendant of
Anseis can perform the spell for the heart to work.”

“What does it
do?”

“The Heart of
Charlemagne can return life to the body.”

“You mean like a
zombie or something?”

She laughed
softly. “No, my dear. This is about life force and souls, not the reanimation
of dead tissue. This is returning to the body the very thing that makes us
human, and they will be as they were before.”

“Where is the
Heart?”

“The Paris
underground.”

“Why haven’t you
tried to get it?”

“I only have the
bloodline on my father’s side, and only a pure descendant of Charlemagne can
retrieve the heart.
You
are a pure descendant.”

“Have you told
Miles about this?”

She resoundingly
shook her head. “He would not understand. He was a good student of mine, but he
was afraid to delve too deeply into the dark arts. I have exquisite control,
however. If you tell him, he would never permit you to use it. I’m afraid you
must go alone.”

After a couple
of moments of contemplation on my part, she said, “Since you’ve been here,
you’ve no idea how many times I wanted to ask you for your help. But you were
not strong yet. Now, you are. And now I see that it is something you also need.
If you really want to save your grandmother, and at the same time help me save
Danielle, this is the only way.”

My desperation
to save Clothilde trumped my fear and common sense. “So, how do I get there?”

“Come. I will
draw you a map.”

Charmagne let me
use her car. Before I left, I called Lucas to tell him I would be late.

“Hey, how’s she
doing?” I asked.

“She’s stable,
but why the hell aren’t you on a plane right now?”

“I’m still in
Paris. But I think I can help her, Luke. Charmagne knows a way to help her
without me turning to the Dark Side.” I chose not to tell him about the
dangerous mission I was about to undertake.

He breathed hard
on the other end of the phone, and I knew he was wrestling with a decision. “Do
what you have to,” he said at last.

“Did you, um,
just give me your blessing?”

“Yes. I don’t
want to lose her, either.”

I felt tears
pricking my eyes. “Okay. As soon as I get what I need, I’ll be on the next
flight out.”

“Okay. Love you.
Bye.”

Before I could
respond, he hung up. Truth is, I almost said “I love you” back.

***

When I finally
got to the abandoned park, it was five-thirteen. An old, rusted iron gate,
fastened with a large padlock, barred the public from entering, but it didn’t
look like it did any good. The left side of the gate hung partially off its
hinge, creating a big enough gap for me to slip in. Not far from the gate were
broken wine and beer bottles, cigarette butts and condom wrappers. Charmagne
wasn’t kidding about the city letting the place go. It was little more than an
abandoned lot surrounded by a deteriorated stone wall.

Originally part
of the famous
Jardin des Plantes
botanical garden started by Louis
XIII’s doctor, the area caught fire nearly a century ago, and the borders of
the garden were moved. A wall was built to separate this side from the
renovated side which was to house museums, a zoo, and even a labyrinth. After
all that time, the botanical life grew back on this side, but, as Charmagne
said, it was never the same. The fire had unearthed a very old cave entrance
that hadn’t been used since the aqueduct was built over the quarry in the
sixteen hundreds.

Once I got a few
yards past the gate, the area was maybe a quarter mile wide and twenty yards
deep, nothing but a huge, knotted mess of thick, dead vines. I thought briefly
that they looked like stretched-out bones, all twisted together.

I promised
myself an hour, because that’s when the sun would set. Looking over my shoulder
to make sure no one had followed me, I pushed through the tangles of dead vines
for about eighteen feet. My hair kept getting caught, and it was hard to move
at times, but the vines were easy to cut with my knife.

About ten
minutes later, I saw the opening to the tunnel. The smell of dank earth wafted
from deep inside. I cut away the mesh of vines from the opening and then
checked the map once more. My route seemed simple enough, and I was confident
that I would not get lost.

Taking a deep
breath, I turned on my flashlight and entered the tunnel. Forty-three feet in,
I came to a dead end wall. At my feet, there was a large opening with a fixed
ladder made of rusted iron rungs. Charmagne said that I would be entering the
oldest part of the underground, that it was a series of tunnels carved
centuries before the quarries and aqueducts were put in. “A simple climb down,
about nineteen meters, roughly sixty-two feet,” she had told me. What she
hadn’t told me was how terrifying it looked to descend into a dark, gaping maw.
I leaned over and shined my flashlight at the bottom, but the light didn’t even
reach that far.

To save
Clothilde
,
I reminded myself, trying to drum up more courage. Checking the map again, I
took another deep breath, folded it into my jacket pocket and put the
flashlight into the back pocket of my jeans.

I slowly,
carefully, descended the ladder. With each rung, the air seemed colder, and the
smell of damp earth intensified. The light from the opening of the tunnel
dimmed the further I went, until it was near total darkness. I pulled my
flashlight out, turned it on, and put the base in my mouth, keeping my head
down to see the rungs.

Half way down,
something faint tickled one of my fingers. I jerked my hand away, holding onto
the rung with my other hand, and almost dropped the flashlight. Stuck to the
bolt in the rung were several strands of long, brown hair. Someone else had
been here. I shined the light downward again, and this time the light reached
bottom, but showed nothing except dimly lit earth. 

The second I
reached the ground, I took the flashlight from my mouth with a shaking hand and
looked in each direction. It was a wide tunnel that stretched into darkness on
either side. The rough limestone wall in front of me looked like it had been
scorched, and the soil … something had been dragged. Something tiny and white
caught my eye. I bent down near the base of the ladder and picked it up to see
it was part of a fingernail.

Everything in my
gut told me to go back up the ladder and run. I took out a switchblade I packed,
holding it at the ready, and reminded myself,
for Clothilde.
That didn’t
calm my fears, but it made me more determined.

Following the
map, and being as quiet as possible, I went right, following the tunnel for
fifteen yards until it came to a split. The map showed to go left. Another ten
yards, and then I went left again, and then right and another left, all the
while feeling a downward sloping, deeper underground. This world was deathly
quiet and, unlike the graffiti and signs of the more popular parts of the
catacombs, this place was largely undisturbed.

After nearly twenty
minutes, I came to the room Charmagne had marked off on the map. It was a small
chamber, barren, except for a make-shift altar in the center. I cautiously
approached, following the beam of my flashlight and the particles of dust that
danced lazily in its path.

There was
nothing on the altar.

I looked around
the chamber but saw nothing. No heart.

Sudden anger
ripped through my body. “DAMNIT!” My voice echoed. Tears welled up, and I bit
my lip. It wasn’t fair. To come all this way, to get my hopes so high that I
could save Clothilde. And nothing here. I kicked the altar in frustration.

That’s when I
heard the faint rustling.

I froze,
flashlight in hand, aiming it at the entrance of the chamber. The rustling came
from the tunnel. It was a slow, dragging sound, and it was coming closer. Soon
I heard heavy breathing as the rustling approached. With it was a soft,
flickering glow. I turned off the flashlight and crouched behind the altar.

The glow
intensified along with the breathing, but the dragging sound stopped. Whatever
was making that noise, it was at the entrance of the chamber.

I did my best to
quiet my breath, to make as little noise as possible as I pulled out my knife.
My hand shook terribly as the adrenaline of panic crept from my gut through my
sternum and threatened to escape my lips in a horrific scream.

The shuffling
started again, coming closer to the altar, and now I could see that the
flickering glow came from a torch, and that torch was being held by a monstrous
hand that looked like a thin layer of fleshy mud interwoven between dull,
yellowed bones.  And the smell … rotten earth, dank and soured … the scent of a
sanctuary for death.

Holding my hand
over my mouth and nose to keep from gagging, I silently scooted backward around
the other side of the altar, trying to be unnoticed by the creature. Just then,
it let out a guttural groan and slammed its ruddy fist on top of the altar. In
one quick burst of anger, it swiped at it, sending it crashing against the
wall.

My eyes widened
in terror at the hulking beast before me. The rest of its body was covered in
that same muddy flesh that seemed to melt in between its ancient bones. Its
eyes were just two pools of ink, no irises or whites. It had to hunch over
because it was too tall for the ceiling. Its right foot curved at an awkward
angle.

When it saw me,
it let out another deep groan and lurched for me with its other hand. I pushed
back and rolled over, getting to my feet, and took off down the tunnel. I
turned on my flashlight as I ran and heard it follow me, groaning and shuffling
in my direction, the light from its torch glowing only yards behind me.

Before I
realized what I was doing, I had taken a wrong turn somewhere. I ducked into a
small alcove and checked the map. It looked like I had passed up the tunnel
where I should have turned left. I couldn’t go back, though. The monster would
be there by now. Going by the map, it looked like I could take another tunnel
that would lead me around in a circle.      

I took the other
tunnel and got no more than thirty feet when my batteries started to die.
Cursing, I knocked the base of the flashlight against my hand. It rattled to
life for a few more seconds before dimming again. I stooped down and dug
through my back pack, frantically feeling for the extra batteries as I still
heard the creature in the near distance. Panicked, I grabbed a glow stick from
the bottom of the pack, threw the flashlight in and zipped it up.

The stick turned
the tunnel a deep shade of indigo. It was just enough light for me to see. I
continued on my route and then took a right into the next tunnel, though
something didn’t seem right. It felt like I was descending again.

After another five
yards or so, I hit water, a puddle that went up to my ankles. I forged through,
but the puddle continued onward, and soon the water was up to my thighs, and
the tunnel seemed larger. Holding up the glow stick, I saw that the ceiling was
maybe fifteen feet or so above me and the walls farther apart.

My leg brushed
up against something that made me scream. The water was now up to my waist. I
pushed up against the tunnel wall, and my movement in the water caused whatever
it was to float up to the surface.

Extending my arm
in that direction, and, with a shaking hand, I held the glow stick over the
dark mass that had floated to the surface.

It was Gretchen.
Her glossy eyes stared up at the ceiling, her long, dark hair wet and flat
against her face and neck. Her insides had been gutted.

My breathing
became shaky and labored, my eyes wide with horror as I saw her hand. The nail
was broken off of her index finger.

The glow from
the creature’s torch suddenly appeared around the corner. It saw me and
groaned, charging after me.

I pushed through
the water, going deeper and deeper until I was up to my chin. I tucked the glow
stick into my pocket and swam for it, hearing the beast trudging through the
water behind me. The tunnel was more of a cavern now, and it felt like I was
swimming in an underground lake.

From the light
of the torch, I saw an end to the water up ahead, at the entrance to another
tunnel. The creature was gaining on me.

As I neared the
other tunnel, I found that I could stand up again in the water. Breathless, I
forced through until the water was up to my thighs again. I tried to run. It
was coming closer, and I could once again smell its putrid earth scent.

My foot got
stuck in the mud, and I fell forward. I pulled out my foot, but my other foot
got stuck when I used it as leverage. It became a frantic cycle of trying to
break free of the sludge, and the creature was almost on top of me now.

I struggled to
roll onto my back and then pulled out my knife. I held it in front of me just
as the beast swiped at me. I sliced its palm, and it pulled back with a roar,
leaving sickening brown slime on my blade. It wielded its torch at me, burning
my hand. I screamed, dropping the knife.

And now it stood
before me, about to pounce. I let my panic take over me for only a moment, and
then I closed my eyes, bringing forth all the power within me. I concentrated
on whatever life force the beast had. I felt the coldness enter my bones as I
took its energy into me. It was different, though. The colors around me grew
dimmer instead of brighter. I didn’t feel a rise of power, but started to feel
… dead.

Death seemed to
enter my body. It coaxed me, making it seem like that was my ultimate reason
for living—to die, to forever reign in this asylum of death. I started to crave
it, to want no more life, and
oh God, it was so cold
… and I loved it,
needed it.

Clothilde
… The thought
of saving her was the only warmth in my heart. It was a dim flame, but I
reached for it with everything I had. I thought only of her, how I wasn’t ready
for her to leave this world, how Lyla and I both needed her. The flame inside
me grew, and as it did, the monster melted away. Soon, it was just a puddle to
add to the sludge. Near it was the torch and a small mass covered in mud. I
picked it up, wiping it. It was a human heart.

As more life
came back into my body, I was able to check the map and, using the torch, find
my way out of the tunnels. At the entrance of the cave, I doused the torch,
afraid that it would catch the vines on fire. It was dark now, so I had to use
the moon to make my way back through the thicket I had cut earlier.