Redemption (29 page)

A block from the coffee shop, he turns to me.

“Do you trust her?”

“Who?” I ask.

“Kateri.”

“I think so.”

“I have a bad feeling. Call me as soon as you’re done. I’ll pick you up.”

“Of course.” I try to sound annoyed, but can’t quite pull it off. The more he looks at me with that concerned expression, the more nervous I’m getting.

I say goodbye, and run into the small coffee shop. I’ve never been here before, but the place is quaint and I like it. I scan the cozy interior but can’t find Kateri at any of the candlelit booths. I take out my cell to see if she’s called or texted. There are no messages waiting for me, so I call to see where she is, but there is no phone signal in this building. I step outside and try again. Still nothing. What the hell? It’s not like I’m out in the suburbs. I walk up the block, keeping my eye on the phone instead of on my surroundings. Someone’s hand covers my mouth. I try to bite hard into it, but I can’t get at anything. I drop my weight down, trying to escape the person’s grasp, but I feel more hands hold me down.

45

Guillaume

When Aude hadn’t called me to pick her up after two hours, I decided to go find her and check in on her. I easily spotted Kateri in the gloomy interior but she was alone. It was dark by then, and she was sitting by herself at a table lit by a candle in a hurricane shade. She looked as if she was still waiting for someone but Aude must have come and gone by then. I sat down in front of her and she looked up at me with confusion in her eyes.

“Where is she?” I asked her.

“Aude? I don’t know. I’ve been waiting for her since four thirty.”

I studied her expression, but I knew she had to be telling the truth. I couldn’t think of any other reason for her to still wait here an hour and a half later.

“Weren’t you supposed to meet her at four?”

“Yes, but my idiot friends held me up. And she’s not answering her phone. I’m pretty sure I missed her, but my grandpa won’t come to get me for about fifteen minutes.”

The nagging apprehension hit me full force.

“Something’s wrong,” I told her.

Still in front of Kateri’s table, I put my head in my hands and tried to sort out what to do next. I grabbed Kateri by the wrist, pulling her out of her chair.

“Ow!” she yelled.

“You’re coming with me. We need to find her.” I couldn’t care less about her discomfort right then. Aude was missing and I couldn’t help but hold Kateri responsible.

“Do you have your cell phone?” I asked her.

She nodded and passed it to me. I stared at the phone, not sure how to proceed. She took it from my hand and asked what number I wanted to dial. I gave her our home number, and as soon as Antoine answered, I asked him to check out Aude’s house in case she’d gone straight home.

Kateri and I checked all nearby roads and alleyways but there was no trace of her anywhere, and I didn’t know what to think of it.

When Kateri’s phone finally rang, I recognized our home number on the call display. It was Antoine. I skipped the useless greetings and answered straight to the point. “Is she home?”

“No.”

My mind was reeling with the “
what ifs”
of Aude’s disappearance. There was not a doubt in my mind that something had happened to her. I reluctantly allowed Kateri to go home, but not without strictly warning her that I’d better not find out that she was involved in this somehow.

I involved the whole family in the search, but try as we might to go through the entire city, it was fruitless.

When we got home, there was a voicemail message waiting for us. Luckily, Vincent knew how to listen to it. It was Kateri and she needed us to call her as soon as possible.

“Kateri? Any news on Aude?” I didn’t waste any time.

Silence.

“Kateri?”

“Guillaume … about that … ” She swallowed loud enough that I could hear it over the phone. A chill crept through me along with a feeling of dread.

“What is it, Kateri? You have to tell me!”

“Please, you have to believe me, I had no idea.”

“No idea about what?” I was frightening her. I tried to calm down so she’d talk. I wished she would say it already.

“I told my boyfriend, Anias, about what Aude and I had talked about. And he told his friends, the ones from the other res.”

“What exactly did you tell him?” I enunciated every syllable slowly.

“About her being a witch and stuff … they also knew I was meeting up with her. Anias was trying to do good. He wanted them to understand that she was special. He wanted them to accept her. Anyways, this has got to be why they held me up. They didn’t want me there.”

I clenched the phone so tightly that my knuckles turned white. I wanted to throw it or step on it or something. I couldn’t believe that Aude was in trouble because of what boiled down to teenage gossip.

“I suggest you get yourself and Anias to your grandfather’s house and that you guys get in touch with whoever it is that may know what these boys are up to. My family and I will meet you there.”

I took a deep breath.

“And Kateri?”

“Yes?”

“You better hope she’s okay.”

With those words, I hung up.

46

Aude

It doesn’t take me long to recognize my assailants as the four boys who were rude to me at old man Robert’s house. I struggle against my bonds and gag, wanting to give them a piece of my mind, but it’s no use.

“Quit struggling, witch!” one boy yells, kicking me in the ribs.

Pain burns through my side and I stay still to avoid hurting myself more. We’re in an abandoned factory and I notice three men bringing a large stone statue toward me. Once they get closer, I know exactly who they are; the men who first assailed me in front of the de Rouen’s church. Of course, it would make sense that they’re involved, but so many creepy things had happened since then that I’d all but forgotten about them.

One of the rude boys, the one named Stan, the one who was such a jerk at old man Robert’s house, notices the way I look at the stone statue and grins at me.

“We’re the seventh generation, the prophecy is in motion. But before we can take control over our land again, we need a new stone monster since you killed the last one.”

He picks me up and I manage to swing myself so I can nail him with my bound feet right in the crotch. He yells out and drops me. The back of my head hits the corner of a table on the way down. My head blazes in pain and my vision temporarily blacks. I’m lying in something warm and wet.

“Shit, she’s bleeding!”

“No matter, as long as she’s still alive. The bleeding will actually help us,” one of my church-attackers says.

“I thought you said we weren’t going to kill her. Dude, I’m not down for murder no matter how disgusting and tainted she is.”

“Relax. We’re not doing any killing. Though I doubt she’ll survive one way or another.”

My stomach heaves and I choke against my gag as bile rises to my throat. I don’t know how it’s supposed to add up that they aren’t going to kill me but I won’t survive.

The massive statue is in position and I’m picked up off the ground and placed on the table that clipped my head earlier. Rough cords dig through my wrists and ankles when I’m secured tightly to the table.

“You have two choices, bitch. You can either send your essence into this rock here, or we bleed it out of you.”

I hear laughter from a corner of the room. I immediately recognize its rich timbre.

“Well, this isn’t exactly how I would have handled it, but it’ll work,” Ramtin says.

“Who are you, man?” Stan asks him.

“Why, the man you are working for, of course.”

“I’m not working for anyone. We’re going to bring about the prophecy.”

“Yes, yes the prophecy. You know what is convenient about this prophecy of yours?”

The boys shake their heads.

“No, of course not. You don’t really know anything. Well, I won’t keep you. Get to it.” He turns to exit the room but pauses. “Oh and Aude, I’m sorry it had to come to this. I really did like you. I wish we could have come to a more agreeable arrangement. Well, like they say in these parts:
c’est la vie.
”

“Who was that?” one of the boys asks.

“It’s none of your concern. Now are you going to bleed her of her essence, or am I going to need to do it?” one of the older men says.

“You heard him,” Stan says to me. “Transfer your essence or we will have to do it the hard way!”

I have no clue how to do what they’ve asked of me. Sure, I did the opposite when I was dying in that alleyway, but my ancestor spirits had guided me then. My head is completely clear of drumming and chanting right now.

“How do we know if she’s doing as we ask?”

“We won’t right away. Why don’t we just speed up the process?” the man says.

He takes a long, sharp knife. I close my eyes and bite against the cloth stuffed in my mouth. The tip of the blade pierces my left calf and slides up my leg. I feel the cold metal first and then the pain catches up, burning and stinging. It’s bad, but it isn’t as bad as I’d expect from having a knife slide up my leg. This is probably because the pain is competing with the aching throb of my head, the tight pinching of my restraints, and the nausea caused by fear.

I’m surrounded by my own blood. Head wounds are supposed to bleed a lot. At least, I think that’s what I’ve heard. I’m not sure if this is something I need to be alarmed about—but it’s an awful lot of blood.

I’m getting weaker and I guess it has something to do with whatever these guys are doing to me. I’m pretty sure the feeling is not all due to blood loss.

“I don’t think it’s working,” one of my kidnappers complains.

“It’s working, her essence will animate this giant statue and she’ll create the huge stone monsters from the prophecy.”

“But the prophecy speaks of a lot more than stone monsters.”

“Once the stone monster is created, the rest will follow.”

They aren’t aware that the prophecy is already in motion, though I imagined it would make no difference to them to know about the birds falling from the sky or the twisted creatures I noticed everywhere. It only means that the timeline is even faster than they imagine.

Is it me or are the lights dimming in here? My vision begin to swagger and everything turns to black.

47

Guillaume

The old man greeted us at the door.

He took a deep breath at the sight of us, and moved aside to let us in.

In the living room, Kateri paced, while Anias apologized to her. They both stopped cold in their tracks when they saw us.

I glared at the teenagers, but Garnier put his hand on my shoulder to signal for me to relax.

“It’s not worth it, Guillaume. We want them to help us. It’ll not do to have them scared.”

I waited for the others to chime in with more annoying comments and encouragement, but they remained silent.

The doorbell rang again and the old man returned to the front door. He let in a couple of other guys that I could only assume were the elders from the reservation northwest of here.

I didn’t wait for anyone to get settled or comfortable. “What do we know? I’ll start: Ramtin, an ancient gargoyle, has threatened Aude and said he had a use for her.”

“We also know that the Stone Monster is dead, and that it was involved with Ramtin, somehow,” Garnier added.

One of the men that had walked in, a guy of a slimmer build and short cropped hair, pinched the bridge of his nose several times before finally speaking. “So how does that involve our boys?”

“We’re not sure, but they seem to be connected somehow. It has to be tied to the Prophecy of the Seventh Generation,” I said.

“Stan’s been associating with some more extreme activists … but I can’t believe he’d have resorted to kidnapping.”

“Do you know where they would have brought her?”

“I don’t know
if
they did, but if you’re right, I may have a few guesses based on previous band activity.”

The men took out maps and discussed locations while I stood around helpless to do anything to save Aude.

Then old man Robert handed Antoine a cell phone and distributed directions and addresses. I wished I had been paying attention so I could know what the hell was happening. But when Antoine made a gesture to follow him, it wasn’t very difficult to interpret. We were splitting up.

I jumped in the car with my family while the others got in Robert’s car. Vincent navigated as I drove to the first of the three locations marked on the map. We found ourselves at a building that appeared very much abandoned.

Our footsteps echoed in the empty corridors as we searched the building. I hated that they would be able to hear us coming. Antoine’s phone rang and I jumped.