The Casquette Girls (54 page)

“Well, I’m no stranger to the
ménage à troi
s
,
”
Gabriel said, “but I can honestly say that seven is a record for me.”

In her goddess-disguised,
femme fatale
voice, Cosette replied sweetly, “Don’t make me sew your mouth shut for the night, because I will.”

He stroked my hair. Even through the numbness of the vampire venom and medicinal concoctions, I could feel his blood coursing through my veins, fighting the infection.

“Go to sleep, Adeline, and don’t even think about trying to get seconds. If you bite me again, you’ll end up stuck with me for the rest of your immortal life.”

His words made me shudder.

Pressed up against him, even though I was barely lucid, everything about Gabriel Medici made me shudder.

(cont.)

When I awoke the next morning, atop his chest, I hesitated before opening my eyes, allowing myself a brief moment to be held in his arms. He knew I was awake; his heart
had flickered the moment my consciousness returned. I remained still for just a few more seconds, lingering in his scent.

Then I screamed for him to get out of my bed.
To which he replied, “Are you sure you don’t want to lie with me a little longer?” His gaze burned straight through my thin gown.

“Get out!” I yelled once again, pushing him up.

The other girls woke, and quickly they were making a fuss over the status of my health. Sitting on the edge of the bed, Gabriel pulled on his boots and stretched his arms into his jacket, shielding his eyes from the sunlight that pierced the cracks in the drapery.

He stood and took my hand as if to kiss it goodbye, but instead he pulled me to my knees, just long enough to whisper in my ear, “This doesn’t change anything,
mademoisell
e
.
I am still going to drain your father.” He discreetly kissed the lobe of my ear and was gone.

“I despise him,” I said, as Cosette pulled me back down to the bed. And I meant it. I despised the way he made me feel about him.

She unwrapped the bandages and examined my neck. “It’s perfect,” she said and kissed it.

“He is an ass,” Susannah said with a clenched jaw. “Their time is near.”

Lisette giggled. “He is an ass who saved Adeline’s life.”

“Gabriel Medici did not save me… Louis saved me.”

“Louis, the dog?” asked Lisette. “Adeline, Louis has been missing for weeks. You must still be feeling the effects of the tea Susannah made you last night.”

“No, it was Louis! I swear to it! He attacked Lorenzo; that is how I escaped.”

I explained to them that I had gone out for a stroll to shop for new ribbons, when someone whipped past me, not at all trying to hide his supernatural speed despite being out in broad daylight. Lorenzo Medici made no threats, no demands; he simply pulled me into an alleyway and snarled, “I want to leave this hellhole!” And then he sank his teeth into my neck. I tried to fight back, but he was drinking so quickly, it was like the magic was draining from my body with my blood.

Then a giant dog sprang from nowhere and attacked him.

“That’s all I remember,” I said.

Cosette took my hand and gently explained how they had found me, near death, on the curb two blocks away from the estate.

“There was no one else in sight. Animal or otherwise,” she said.

I sprang from the bed. “We have to find Louis; he might have been hurt saving me!” My boots were not even laced as I ran down the stairs to the front door.

“Adeline, come back! You are not well!” Marassa yelled.

But she was wrong. I was never
better. Footsteps rattled as the five girls filed behind me. They could hardly keep up with me, for I now had Medici blood coursing through my veins. I didn’t stop running until I was back in the alley where Lorenzo had dragged me.

“Louis!” I called over and over again. The other girls began to peek through the rubbish.

“
Sacrebleu
!” cried Lisette.

“He’s badly hurt!” said Minette.

To my surprise, Lisette had been right: the animal we found wasn’t Louis, the furry friend who had been following me for weeks. This wolf-dog was a shiny gray color, unlike my black-haired companion. There was a silver star tied to a piece of leather around its neck. When I slid the ornament around to show the others, Susannah shouted, “We must bring her back to the house at once!”

I asked Susannah what was wrong, but all she did was repeat herself and use wind to lift the animal and support its weight. The five of us huddled around the giant beast regardless, pretending to lug her so as not to arouse suspicion. When a gruff man offered to help, all six of us yelled, “
N
o
!
”
at once.

“On the bed!” Susannah yelled when we burst through the door of my bedroom.

“Why is the bed necessary?” I asked as I closed the door behind us, thinking only of the garbage heap the animal had been lying in. Simultaneous gasps answered for me. When I rushed back to the bed, there was no more wolf but a young native woman.

“
Rougarou
!” gasped Marassa.

“
Loup-garou
!” yelled Lisette.

“Because she’s not a dog, Adeline. She’s a lycanthrope,” Susannah said. “A wolf-charmer.”

I had no idea what they were talking about, but when I pushed the girl’s hair from her face, I knew exactly who she was: Morning Star, the daughter of the chief and sister to the boy who had vanished without a trace. And that’s when I made the connection over my missing dog and the chief’s  missing son.

Morning Star had been badly beaten but did not appear to have been bitten. Marassa, Minette, and Cosette quickly went to work healing her injuries.

“How did you know, Susannah?” asked Lisette.

The girl on the bed answered for her, in broken French: “Because she has the power of wind beneath her wings.”

We all looked back at Susannah, but she wasn’t there. In her place was a magnificent red bird. And not just any red bird – the pirate captain’s red bird.

Cosette yelped in glee. “You were with us! You’ve been with us all along
!”

“It’s about time you showed your true self,” said Marassa.

But then the daughter of the chief interrupted the strange moment of truth with the question I fear the most.

“Why are they after you?” she asked, staring straight at me. “They stalk you every night. That’s why my brother always stayed close to you. He feared for your life. What do they want with you?”

I stammered, put on the spot for the first time. “I don’t know. Something to do with my family.”

“We are your family, Adeline,” all three triplets said at the same time.

“And this madness must end once and for all,” I said and watched the smiles spread across all of their faces. “We are six, and they are three. We can beat them.”

“No, they are four,” said Morning Star. “The one who killed my brother
is a woman called Giovanna. She is the sister of the one who attacked you. They are four, but we are seven.”

28
th
August 1728

There was no time to waste. Not only because of the chronic threat of death the monsters plagued the city with, but also because I was afraid of myself. That if I waited too long, I would lose my strength. After all, I had already passed the chance to rid the world of them at sea.

Mother Superior had taken action the day we set foot in
La Nouvelle-Orléan
s
,
demanding nine thousand nails be sent from the Holy Pope himself, all the way from the Vatican in Rome. I admired the immediate action taken by the Ursuline sister, but I knew that not even a million nails from the papacy would contain this group of undead.

Our coven was complete. Our circle was cast. And together, a plan was devised. It was hurried and risky, but it made good use of each girl’s unique skills. We outnumbered them, but they were physically superior and more experienced in the art of deception. We could only hope that they would dismiss us – a group of silly girls, barely able to communicate with each other. What they didn’t know was that we each had a story, a destiny, a
raison d’être
.

I wish I could say our plan was perfect and the execution was flawless, but nothing is ever perfect.

On the night of our attack, I sat perched in a tree under the full moon, the perfect vantage point to see through the attic windows. My heart raced, knowing the lives of others would soon be in my hands. A lullaby attracted my attention; it meant Cosette must have been close to luring them into the convent, and soon it would be my turn to act.

Moments later, I watched the vampires file into the attic behind her. By the way they moved, I could tell their senses had been dulled, thanks to Susannah’s herbs. It all happened within seconds, but it was exhilarating.

I launched a stake into the air, and the first set of shutters snapped closed, secured forever by the bewitched metal stake. The second set also closed without notice.

The slam of the third set made Martine DuFrense turn her head.

Then the Medici boys perked up as well—their heads turned towards me—realizing it was a trap. I sent another stake sailing, and the fourth set of shutters snapped closed.

As they rushed the window, Lisette and Minette ran to shut the attic door, and then the vampires lunged back towards them.

My heart pounded, and a preemptive smile spread across my face when, just as we planned, Cosette jumped out the last window. She landed on the roof, and I threw the last stake into the air, but then… I saw the horrors unfolding inside. I screamed and tried to pull the stake back. Its speed slowed, but it was too late to stop it. There was just enough time for a woman to jump out of the window before it snapped the shutters closed, muffling Minette’s bloodcurdling scream and veiling the image of Gabriel’s fangs ripping into Lisette’s throat – an image that will forever be branded in my memory.

There was no time to react, because Cosette was hanging from the roof with a blonde woman, who was screaming in Italian, attached to her waist. I could only assume this was the vampire, Giovanna, whom Morning Star had spoken of. They dangled in the moonlight, and then the vampire began to swing their bodies back and forth. Cosette clung to the ledge. If they both fell, I was sure that only one might survive.

I yelled for Susannah and Marassa, but it was Morning Star’s deep-throated growl that answered first. Without hesitation, she leapt through the air, and her jaws tore into the waist of the living corpse. The dangling vampire was an easy target for her animal form.

Both vampire and wolf tumbled to the ground with a roll.

Overwhelmed with the thought of losing another one of our sisters, I jumped down from the tree. Pain shot from my ankle up my leg, and a surge of energy charged from my toes to the tips of my fingers, but it was my human strength that I became consumed by.

My memory is so blurred it hardly even seems real now, Papa. I snapped a branch from the tree – it was sturdy, but thin enough for my hand to fit around – and charged. Morning Star was on top of the Italian girl, but she was struggling to hold the flailing vampire down. Giovanna bared her teeth dangerously close to the wolf’s neck. But just as she was able to bite down, I plunged the splintered wood into her heart.

Blood instantly trickled from the corners of Giovanna’s lips, who still looked oddly beautiful in the slashed-up gown. Her gaze never left mine. Even as her heart pumped its last beat, the sparkle never left her dead green eyes.

I don’t regret my action for even a breath, but that image will haunt me forever.

Morning Star clamped her jaws around the dead girl’s neck and dragged her body down to the river, where we would later ensure that she would never resurrect again.

Marassa and Susannah came running from around the convent, and I realized Cosette was still dangling from the ledge. Marassa began shouting words I didn’t understand but was never more grateful to hear, for suddenly the branches of the tree I had been perched in began to grow longer, until one of them was underneath Cosette’s frantic feet.

She ran along the branch fearlessly.

Even before her shoes touched the ground, she was asking in between gasps for air, “Where are my sisters?”

It was the most horrible news I have ever delivered. She ran away before I could even finish the sentence. We chased her through the garden, into the convent, up the stairs and to the attic door… the enchanted door that held the monsters, and the two Monvoisin sisters.

Susannah and Marassa pulled the hysterical triplet away as she tried to beat down the cursed door. We
attempted to break the enchantment, but we could not, as it was Lisette and Minette who had bound the door. However, the fact that the curse hadn’t broken itself gave us a strange sense of hope that they might still be alive.