The Ghosts Of New Orleans (A PARANORMAL RESEARCH AND CONTAINMENT DIVISION (PRCD) CASE FILE) (24 page)

Sally and Turner moved beyond the
grove of willow trees and looked around the lawn.

“Look,” Sally whispered, “There’s
Eloise heading toward the bayou.  I think we ought to follow her.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Turner agreed.

Eloise moved stealthily toward the
brush on the rise before the beach area.  She knelt behind some dense bushes
and saw Delphine create a small altar at the far eastern side of the little
peninsula.  Delphine placed blue-glass bottles on the altar next to a primitive
drum lying on the ground next to her.  Eloise knew that she shouldn’t try and
interrupt Delphine because Paul’s life hung in the balance. Instead, she was
going to have to summon Agwe and deal with the consequences of a sacrifice once
it presented itself.

Eloise moved around to the west
side of the beach, hidden by a small rise and more brush.  She walked to the
edge of the land and found a large flat rock.  She brushed the dirt and
vegetation off the rock and knelt next to it.  She could hear the thrumming of
Delphine’s drum from the other side of the beach.

Eloise pulled the cornmeal out of
the pack and slowly poured thin lines out, reconstructing the drawing that Mary
Margaret had shown them.  That complete, she pulled out the leather rattle, stood
and then started to dance, following the steps that Mary Margaret showed her.

“Agwe, god of the waters,” Eloise chanted,
“I summon thee.”

As she danced and chanted she lost
awareness of the things around her, her mind was focused solely on a connection
with Agwe.  The brush, the water, the sky, all melded together in a soft blue
blur.  She moved without thought, the chant became hypnotic and she felt as if
her spirit were being lifted to another level.

She heard soft laughter behind her,
she slowed her dance steps and slowly chanted one last time, “Agwe, god of the
waters, I summon thee.”

She turned and saw Jean-Henri
standing behind her on the beach.  He was wearing a red and white striped shirt
and bright blue sailor’s trousers.

“Jean-Henri,” Eloise said, worried
that in some way Delphine was able to pull spirits back from the next life.
“What happened? Why are you here?”

Jean-Henri chuckled.  “Bonjour,
ange. Il fait beau. Do you remember, this is what I say to you when we first meet? 
Hello, Angel, nice weather we are having.”

Eloise shook her head in
confusion.  “Yes, I remember, but I do not understand.”

Jean-Henri shrugged, “Je vous ai dit mensonge. How you say, I told you a
little lie.”

“You lied to me?” Eloise said.

“Un peu,” Jean-Henri said, holding his thumb and forefinger slightly
apart. “Just a little one.”

“And what was that lie?” Eloise asked.

“I am not Jean-Henri, I am Agwe,” he said.

Eloise eyes widened. “You are the god, Agwe.  But why didn’t you tell
me?  Why didn’t you help?”

Jean-Henri shook his head. “I could not help unless you called for me,”
he explained. “I could only warn you.”

“And now, what can you do for me?” she asked.

“I can help you.  I can remove Yemanja so she cannot help the evil one.”

Eloise breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank you, yes, please remove
Yemanja.”

Jean-Henri shook his head. “First, I need a sacrifice.  I cannot help you
without some kind of offering.”

“What do you need?  What do you want?”

Jean-Henri chuckled. “Mon ami, it is not wise to ask a god what he wants,
he might take more than you are willing to give.”

Eloise looked around wildly, “But I don’t know what I can give you,” she
said.

Suddenly an object flew out of the brush from behind Eloise.  It hit the
soft ground and rolled a few times before stopping at Eloise’s feet.  She
picked it up and held it out to Jean-Henri.

Jean-Henri took it from Eloise’s hands and slowly examined it.  “This is
very interesting,” he said, “What do you call this?”

“A tape measure,” Eloise replied.

Jean-Henri looked up from the tape measure, “And this is of value to
you?”

Eloise nodded. “Yes, I don’t know what I would do without my tape measure.
It is of great value to me.”

Jean-Henri smiled, “Then it will do. And now, only one more request.”

“Yes?”

“Donne-moi un petit bec doux, cher!” he said, leaning over and placing a
kiss on her cheek. “A little kiss before I go.”

Eloise smiled at him, “Thank you.”

“Non la petit, thank you for your bravery,” he said and then leaned
forward and whispered into her ear. “Go to your lover quickly. Delphine will be
angry very soon.  Remember, cher, you must believe in your love, it has great
power.”

He stepped back and smiled, and then his body slowly became like sea mist
and drifted towards where Delphine was performing her spell.

Eloise turned towards the brush the tape measure had come from.

“Sally?  Is that you?” she called.

Sally and Turner climbed out from behind the bushes. Eloise ran up and
gave Sally a hug.  “Thank you, you are amazing. Both of you,” she said,
including Turner in her smile.

“Okay, what’s next?” Sally asked, “How can we help?”

“Delphine is on the other side of the beach and she is going to be angry
very soon.  After she follows me to the plantation, could you please go to the
synthesizer, turn off whale song and switch is to something else?”

“What?” Sally asked. “What should I switch it to?”

Eloise shrugged. “I don’t know. I never studied repelling spirits.  Just
play something that would chase you out of a room if it were played.”

“Yes, ma’am, we’ll figure something out,” Turner said.

Eloise turned, ran over the rise and across the lawn.  She entered the
front door of the plantation, switching on her headband light as she ran she
dashed through the hall and down the stairs. She found Maria still hovering
over him.

“I stayed with him, but I am too weak to help,” Maria said.

Eloise pushed through the mud and went to Paul.

She knelt next to him and ran her hands over his forehead. “Paul, Paul,
can you hear me?” she called. She shifted her hands down to his neck and felt
for a pulse.  She could feel it there – weak, but still beating. She searched
his body, looking for obvious signs of broken bones or external injuries and
could find none.  Even a concussion was unlikely because of the way he landed
in the mud.

She wondered if his coma-like state had been induced by Delphine, not by
any physical problems.  She thought back to Jean-Henri and his advice. She slid
her hands down and cupped his face in her hands; she lowered her lips to his.
“Oh, Paul, please forgive me for not trusting us enough.”

She kissed him, gently rubbing her lips against his. After a few moments,
she felt his lips move beneath hers, felt his head tilt slightly and take the
kiss deeper. Large mud covered arms slipped around her waist and he pulled her
down on top of him.  After a few moments she pulled back and smiled down on
him.

“Hi,” she whispered, devouring his face with her eyes.

“Hi yourself,” he said, sliding muddy hands up her back, “Thanks for
bringing me back.”

“Where were you?” she asked, brushing his hair from his forehead.

“I don’t know if it was a place as much as a state of being,” he said, “I
felt like I was in a coma, trapped within my own body.  It wasn’t until you
kissed me that I could move again.

“Like Sleeping Beauty,” Eloise smiled.

He lifted his head and kissed her quickly.

“You know, Sally mentioned there is often truth found in fairy tales,” he
said.

Suddenly Delphine’s scream echoed throughout the house.

“Well, let’s hope that love conquers all,” Eloise said. “Can you stand up?”

Paul nodded. “Yeah, I think so.”

The door to the cellar crashed open and Delphine glided down the stairs. 
Her eyes were glowing with madness as she circled around them, her voice
echoing with rage. Eloise shivered at the evil emanating from Delphine.

“You deceived me,” Delphine yelled.  She waved her arm and a set of
shelves along one wall came crashing down onto the floor. “And now you will
die.”

Eloise and Paul wrapped their arms around each other.

“No, you can’t hurt us,” Eloise cried. “We have too much power.”

Delphine sent another set of shelves soaring across the room and glided
up to them. “You don’t believe that, do you?” she asked slyly, “You can’t
believe someone like this man would be interested in a woman like you?”

Eloise confidence wavered and Delphine smiled.

“He could have so many women,” Delphine continued, “So many beautiful,
sophisticated women. Why would he want you?”

An iron pot slowly glided off a shelf and flew towards Eloise’s head.

Paul tightened his hold on Eloise and whispered, “I love you, believe
me.”

Eloise took a deep breath and smiled.  The pot dropped to the ground. 
She turned to Delphine and shrugged, “I just know that he loves me.  And the
power of our love is stronger than your power of hate.”

Delphine raised her arms and sent the shelves that surrounded Paul and
Eloise down on their heads.  Eloise turned to Paul. “Kiss me, darling,” she
said.

Paul grinned, “My pleasure.”

He pulled her closer and kissed her with tenderness, with love and with
confidence.  The shelves started to sway towards them, but then uprighted
themselves.

Delphine screamed, “No!”

She waved her arms and created a
whirlwind in the cellar, lifting an assortment of tools, bottles, chairs and
boxes into the air, swirling dangerously towards Eloise and Paul. Eloise moved
slightly away, slowly stroked her hand up Paul’s cheek and looked up into his
eyes. “Have I mentioned that I love you with all my heart?” she asked.

“Eloise,” he breathed, pulling her
into his arms again and kissing her with an intensity that answered her
question.

The whirlwind diminished and the
objects fell harmlessly to the ground.

Delphine screamed again and, with
her fists clutched in frustration, glided up the cellar stairs.

Eloise and Paul pulled apart; Paul
rested his forehead against hers and looked intently into her eyes. “Never
doubt, no matter what she says. Never doubt that I love you.”

Eloise smiled, “I promise.”

Paul kissed her tenderly on the
cheek. “So, what’s next, boss?

“Can you walk?” Eloise asked. “We
should get outside to help Sally and Turner set up phase two of the plan.”

Paul was stunned. “What are those
two doing here?”

Eloise smiled, “Coming to the
rescue.”

Paul found that his ankle was at
least sprained, if not broken, so he leaned on Eloise to help him get up the
stairs and out of the house.

They came out the front door and
immediately heard Sally’s choice in music for chasing away spirits.

Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin’ alive,
stayin’ alive. Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin’ alive.

The Bee Gees familiar falsetto
blasted across the plantation grounds. Eloise turned and smiled at Sally who was
looking up into one of the attic windows of the house.

“Ma’am, I told her that this wasn’t
the right music,” Turner explained, running up to help Paul negotiate the
stairs.

Eloise looked out over the lawn;
sure enough the spirits that had been drawn to the plantation by the whale song
were now moving away from the house.

Eloise shrugged. “Well, Sergeant it
certainly seems to be working.”

Eloise walked over to the
synthesizer and switched it off.  Sally turned to Eloise.

“Hey, what happened to the two of
you,” she said, “You look like you’ve been mud wrestling.”

“We’ll explain it later,” Eloise
said.

“Much later,” Paul agreed.

“Did Delphine pass through here?”
Eloise asked.

Sally nodded. “Yeah, she went
flying through here out towards the willow grove.”

“Great,” said Eloise, “That’s just
where we want her.”

They packed the equipment into the
back of the SUV and climbed in for the short ride to the gazebo.

“If it’s all the same to you,”
Sally said, “I’ll meet you at the gazebo. There’s someone I need to check on.”

Eloise glanced up and saw the
little girl who had helped them the last time they were there.  She nodded,
“Yeah, let them know it will be safe for them to come to the gazebo.”

Sally smiled. “I will.”

Eloise could tell even the short car
ride to the gazebo across the uneven lawn was painful for Paul.  She laid her
hand over his. “You going to make it?” she asked.

He turned his hand and entwined his
fingers with hers. “Yeah, we’re almost finished here.”

Turner unloaded the equipment and
Eloise helped Paul up the steps of the gazebo.  “Save me a spot,” she said,
turning and helping Turner set up the equipment. 

Once again the familiar strains of
whale songs echoed from the synthesizer.  Eloise watched as the spirits who had
only been dead a short time approached the gazebo. She turned to Paul. “Okay,
its time to kick it into high gear,” she smiled, slipping her arms around his
neck.

He wrapped his arms around her and
pulled her to him.  Then he slid one hand slowly up her back, finally threading
his fingers through her hair.  He kissed her and she responded, but it was
obvious that her mind was on all the things that were going on around them.

Paul pulled back and looked deeply
into Eloise’s eyes.

“I want you to think of me and only
me,” Paul said, “You’re not here, Eloise, you’re with me on a secluded island
somewhere.  It’s only you and me.”

She smiled. “A secluded beach? That
sounds nice.”

Paul softly stroked her face.
“Having you all to myself sounds nice.  Now, can you just focus on us, and
leave the rest of this behind?”

Eloise nodded and focused on her
love for him.  He trailed kisses along her cheek and jaw line, while softly
caressing her back. He nipped at the sensitive spot where her neck met her
collarbone and she trembled.  He took her lips in a demanding kiss, coaxing
them open so he could taste her sweetness.

“Where are you, Eloise?” he asked
hoarsely.

She sighed. “On the beach with
you,” she whispered.

He kissed her again.

“What do you want?”

“I want you,” she pleaded.

“I love my job,” he whispered,
before lowering his lips to hers.

He nibbled on her lips, sending
pulses of heat through Eloise’s insides.  Then he slowly traced her lips with
his tongue.  Eloise moaned and Paul deepened the kiss. He pulled her even
closer and tilting his head, took the kiss even deeper.

Eloise felt the heat spiral up from
her abdomen and she trembled in his arms.

“Paul,” she whispered.

Paul placed open-mouthed kisses on
her jaw, her neck and her collarbone. Eloise closed her eyes and arched her back,
allowing more access.  He followed his trail of kisses back up to her mouth and
kissed her with an intensity that caused Eloise knees to weaken, grateful for
the support of his strong arms.

“Eloise, darling,” he whispered
softly into her ear.  Eloise shivered at the sensation.

“Eloise, open your eyes,” he
murmured, nibbling on her earlobe.

Like a sleepwalker, Eloise lifted
too heavy eyelids and opened passion-filled eyes to Paul. He took a deep breath
and exhaled slowly. 

“When this is over, we have some
things we have to settle between us,” he said, then teased her mouth with a
soft kiss. “Now, darling, look over my shoulder and tell me what you see.”

Eloise looked over Paul’s shoulder
and stiffened.  Behind them, in the grove of willow trees, was a battalion of
Civil War soldiers, blood dripping from their mortal wounds.