Nancy K. Duplechain - Dark Trilogy 03 - Dark Legacy (27 page)

“Papa, we need help with a cloaking
spell. We need to hide her house—to protect it—and everyone in it.”

He stroked his beard and looked the
chicken over once more. “I will give you the power to do this.”

He tucked the chicken under one arm and
reached into his jacket pocket with his other hand. He pulled out an old, dark
bottle and offered it to Ruby. She drank from it and then offered it to me. I
knew better than to ask what it was. The man eyed me keenly. Those dark eyes seemed
ancient and all-knowing yet still twinkled with a hint of shrewd delight.

It was the most god-awful thing I had
ever tasted, but I refrained from making a face. A strong metallic taste coated
the back of my tongue, and I was sure there was blood in there somewhere,
buried beneath the overpowering taste of tobacco juice and mint, as if mint
could disguise any of that. My gut clinched and my mouth watered. I had to will
myself not to throw up.

He reached into his pocket again and
pulled out a tiny capsule containing three grains of sand. He gave it to Ruby. “Your
spell will last one hour once you cast it.”

“Thank you, Papa,” said Ruby.
After a moment of silence, she glared at me.

“Thank you,” I said. “Uh,
Papa, thank you.”

He laughed, held the chicken in front of
him and said, “Come, pretty lil’ bird.” Whistling happily, he walked
back down the road at that same leisurely pace, and disappeared under the
shadows of the trees.

***

Back at Clothilde’s, everyone was
waiting for us outside, a mix of fear and determination stamped across their
faces. Cee Cee said she would stay and guard Lyla. There were fourteen of us, and
about a dozen turned nephils. Our best bet was to turn as many as possible in
the bayou, which was about three hundred yards from the house. Clothilde’s
place was surrounded by a small wooded area, with the now-burned sugar cane
field to the right. Behind that was a bigger tree line, behind which was the
small bayou. While we waited, Noah and a few of the turned nephils flew out in
a five mile radius in separate directions to keep watch.

Miles brought Ruby with him to the bayou
so she could bless the water, turning it to holy water. Saul went with them.
His job was to form a giant dome shield to protect us all once we made it there.
Aimee, Sonja, Olivia, Casper, Alex and Oscar waited with them.

I stayed by the house with Felix and
three turned nephils. Ruby returned shortly. We needed to wait until the last
minute for Ruby to perform the cloaking spell so that we’d have the most time.
Once the house was cloaked, we’d head for the field and the bayou beyond. Noah could
out-fly the Nephilim, but the rest of us would need the turned ones under my
command to fly us to the bayou.

“You up for this?” It was Ruby.

“I have to be,” I said.

She nodded and then smiled. “We got
this, girl. We got this.” She wasn’t trying to show it, but I could tell how
frightened she was.

Felix took out a pack of cigarettes and
lit one up. He took a long drag and smiled at me. “I haven’t smoked in over ten
years.”

Ruby reached for the pack and took one.
“I haven’t smoked in over ten hours.” We all laughed, a little too much. She
took a long drag, held it, and then exhaled a long plume of smoke. Her eyes
found mine, and then she said, “My mom.”

“Come again?” said Felix.

She faintly shook her head, showing him
that it was nothing. He dropped it but still looked perplexed. I knew right
away what she meant. It was her mother she had turned for. She never explained
what happened, though. And I never asked.

Noah returned twenty minutes later with
the nephils.

“They’re coming,” he said. He
caught me staring at his wings and grinned. “I took your advice.”

I smiled. “I’m glad.”  

Ruby took a last puff of her second
cigarette and then crushed it with her heel. Raising her staff, she said, “Papa
Legba has granted me the power of invisibility! We thank you again, Papa, for
this gift, and ask that this home and everything surrounding it be hidden from
our enemies!”

She pulled out the capsule, and the wind
gusted, blowing in dark clouds overhead. She broke the capsule, and the wind
caught the grains of sand and multiplied them, over and over, creating a
blanket of sand. The house and everything in it faded until I could clearly see
the property on the other side. Even the foundation disappeared, and the shrubs
and trees around the house copied themselves in a pattern to make it look like
there was never anything there. The garden, outdoor kitchen and chicken coop
vanished, too. I reached out, expecting there to be nothing, but my hand hit
the wall that I could not see, and felt the roughness of the sand on my skin.

“We have an hour,” she
said.

She and Felix and I climbed onto
the backs of the nephils. They flew us to the bayou with Noah and the others taking
the rear position. When we got to the bayou, we found our allies on a small,
mossy island in between a couple of tupelos. Everyone was dry, and Oscar looked
a little drained. I assumed he created an ice path to the island. I heard a
faint hum and saw a large, shimmery, translucent dome around the island. Saul’s
eyes were closed in concentration.

The nephils set us down, and Noah
landed beside us. In a matter of moments, we saw them coming, a group of maybe a
hundred from the north. Everyone took a fighting stance. Noah squeezed my hand
once and then let go.

“Remember, no one get in front of
me,” said Sonja. “Unless you personally don’t like your ear drums.”

“And stay out of the water,”
added Felix.

The first wave of Nephilim became
clearer as they drew closer. Some of them were truly as beautiful as Noah,
looking mostly human with colorful wings in jewel tones. Others were the
definition of monsters with yellow or red eyes and marbled veins and ugly skin.
One of them, a male, could have been Arcelia’s twin brother with his alabaster
skin, a flying statue with flaming red hair and eyes.

“I’ll get the first line,” said
Alex.

They charged us from the sky.

Alex raised his hands and emitted
a wall of fire that took down the first line. Their burning bodies fell down
around us.

Some of them who survived the
fire found themselves trapped under a thick sheet of ice created by Oscar, and
they drowned.

The others used their powers full
force to fend off the approaching Nephilim.

Electricity and fire balls shot
through the air.

Vines crawled from the earth and
wrapped around the necks of low-flying nephils.

Ruby threw dust in their faces
that made them burst into flame. She raised her staff, whispered a few words,
and a group of them impaled themselves on branches.

Olivia had shadows drag other
nephils away into dark oblivion.

Sonja issued a great roar that
pushed dozens back
into the nephils behind them, creating mass confusion.
Some landed on
their backs in the water which became like acid to them; they convulsed as
their skin dissolved and bones protruded. Others seemed immune to the acid
effect. They landed on their feet and began to run at us, but were soon trapped
in ice thanks to Oscar. Now, stuck in the holy water, their life drained from
their bodies, and they collapsed, breaking the ice beneath them.

Some incoming nephils managed to
break through the chaos and smashed up against the invisible dome, knocking
them back into the water that killed them almost instantly.

Others were electrocuted when
Felix placed his hands in the water.

Noah and Aimee went outside of
the dome to fight on land and air.

Miles and I took turns pushing
our energy to replenish our friends and we also strategically drained the life
force from nephils who piled up against Aimee and Noah.

This continued for nearly twenty
minutes before the dome surrounding us flickered and began to fade.

“I’m almost
out!” said Saul, looking faint.

Miles scooped up
some water with his hand that he now placed on Saul’s shoulder. He whispered a
prayer, and the dome seemed solid again as Saul’s strength returned.

An icy wind
surged from Oscar’s hands, knocking several nephils back against a tree.
Frozen, they shattered to pieces.  

Noah flew toward
us. “Incoming!” Behind him, about three dozen Nephilim approached.

“I’ll get
this group,” said Olivia, “but I’ll be drained for a little
while.”

Noah entered our
safe spot as the Nephilim drew closer. Olivia’s pale eyes narrowed. Every
shadow from every tree and shrub came together and formed one giant, black
mass, creating a tidal wave of ink that spanned the small bayou, pouring over
the onslaught of enemies. Their bodies looked drenched in tar. Nephils fell
from the sky, barely able to use their wings. They flailed about in the holy
water of the bayou, dying.

Still, more
came.

Olivia collapsed
from exhaustion. Oscar caught her and rested her against the trunk of a Tupelo.
 

Miles scanned
the mass of bodies piling up around us. “Leigh! Do it now!” he ordered.
His eyelids were heavy, his breathing labored. Saul looked no better, and the
dome flickered and dimmed once again.

Three nephils broke
through the dome, but Noah and Aimee took them down.

I grasped the
Heart of Charlemagne with my hands. Ruby placed hers around mine, and she
recited the spell.

The heat shot
through my body and out of my hands. The water around us boiled. Steam filled
the atmosphere so that we could barely see more than a few feet in front of us.
My comrades still battled through all of this, and every new body that fell to
the water became one of our new soldiers. Over two hundred dead, dripping nephils
arose, fanned their wings and awaited my order.

I took a long,
deep breath and shouted for all to hear: “FIGHT FOR US!”

They shot into
the sky, ripping into a new wave of their brothers and sisters. They were
savage. Tattered wings and bodies and severed heads fell from the tree tops.
Those who broke through our nephil barricade were stopped by the rest of us.

Even Olivia was
starting to regain her strength. Miles and Saul were near fainting. I went to
them and pushed some of my energy. They began to come around, but a new set of
worries was coming our way.

Hearing a
stampede from behind us, we turned to see a horde of demon hounds charging at
us from the sugar cane field where Eloise and her three remaining sisters could
be seen by the light of the moon. They stood on the edge of a deep crack in the
earth that was never there before. From the crevice came the hounds and an
abundance of black smoke that crawled along the field.

Ruby’s shoulders
slumped. “Shit. For real?”

Miles said to
Saul, “Put up as much of a shield as you can.” He looked at me next. “You won’t
be able to resurrect these things. Focus only on the Nephilim.”

I ordered some
of the turned nephils to attack the hounds and then Ruby and I focused our
energy on breathing life into the fallen ones in the bayou and scattered along
the banks.

Saul put up a
smaller shield than before. We were mostly back-to-back, fighting from every
direction. Only Noah and Aimee left the safety of the dome to fight, but they
didn’t stray far. Noah fought nephils in the air a few yards above us, while
Aimee stood just outside the dome, crushing incoming demon hounds.

Miles and I again
took turns re-energizing everyone. I looked over at the sisters in the field.
They stood, cloaked, eyes closed, their mouths moving in synch as they chanted.
Even from this distance, I could see snakes—giant water moccasins—coming from the
banks of the bayou to wrap themselves at the witches’ feet and slither up their
legs.

“The hounds will
just keep coming unless we stop the witches,” I said.

Sonja, her voice
hoarse, said, “What do you have in mind?”

I ordered a
group of ten nephils to attack the witches. As they were about to land on them,
the snakes shot up and attacked them, wrapping themselves around their necks,
piercing them repeatedly with their fangs. This distracted them long enough for
some demon hounds to strike and soon ripped them to pieces. The witches never
flinched.

“Crap,” I
whispered. “Ruby, you know any counter spells?”

She shook her
head. “No use. I can’t balance out against them when it’s four against one.
Even with Auntie Cee Cee we’d still be outnumbered. We can only counteract
their magic when it’s balanced.”

“Let’s try to
lower their number, then.”

I ordered
another group of nephils over toward the witches, but had them focus on only
one sister. Again, the snakes and demon hounds attacked, bringing down six
nephils, but five more charged through the chaos and snatched up one of the
witches.

Their spell was
broken, and the smoke and hounds stopped coming from the crevice which remained
open. The witches, noticing their taken sister, opened their eyes—solid white
now—and screamed. In unison, they raised their hands toward the nephils and
brought down three of them while the two who carried the other witch made it to
the bayou where they impaled her on a sharp, jutting tupelo branch. She
thrashed and convulsed as dark, inky liquid oozed from her mouth. And then she
exploded into a million black flies.