Chapter 25 #5
I parted my hands in a gesture of peace and attempted to reassure her. “I mean you no harm.”
“I’ll ask you once more. Why have you come?”
“ Intrigue.. . Supplies?” I’d shrugged, unable to restrain the grin that had begun to stretch across my lips at the way she squirmed in my presence.
The voodoo woman grabbed a robust bundle of herbs bound in twine from somewhere beneath the counter. She hurriedly lit the end with a candle lighter. Muttering words so low I wasn’t able to decipher, she made the sign of the cross with the smoke before her.
“I noticed your brick dust when I entered.” I gestured to the door behind me. “I’m either telling you the truth, or your methods are… ineffective .”
“Intentions often shift when expectations aren’t met,” she said to me. “Perhaps I have yet to disappoint you.”
“Oh, I’m quite certain I’ll find what I seek here,” I told her.
When I moved to explore the shop, she nearly flinched, and I chuckled. Turning from her, I made my way to the extensive array of jarred herbs, roots, and resins that lined the expanse of old wooden shelves along the wall.
“We both know places like this carry the good shit .” I tauntingly winked over my shoulder at her.
Perusing casually along the shelves, I studied the contents of each jar. A particular few caught my eye, inspiring ill intentions within the darkness of my mind.
Ague Weed …to cause one’s enemies confusion.
Betel Nut …when chewed with lime, it is said to increase one’s power in chanted hexes.
Lemon Verbena, Mustard Seed, and Poppy …scattered at a couple’s doorway, it is said to cause discord in a relationship.
Calamus Root …considered so powerful, it is often used alone in compelling others to your will.
Poke Root and Knot Weed …to rid one of an enemy by way of accident…or complication...
And Yew …a tree which has an ancient history of association with death and necromancy. Incorporated in spell work, it could be used to cause ill health in one’s target.
I removed a few jars from her shelves and brought them to place upon the counter.
The voodoo woman had remained with her burning herbs. She lowered her eyes from mine to glance over the ingredients.
“You mean to cause someone great harm.”
“Maybe.” I smiled.
“Maybe I refuse to sell you these ingredients.”
I chuckled once again. “ Maybe I’ll have to convince you otherwise.”
She held the still thickly smoking smudge bundle out, closer to me. With a confidence I found most amusing, she muttered the word Demoon once more, as if it might ward me off.
I leaned in and lowered my face, sucking the smoke of the burning herbs up my nostrils. Upon straightening, I blew the smoke from my mouth into her face.
“What’s your next line of defense? You’re O-for-two by my count,” I sneered at her.
Marie Delai only stiffened, staring back at me with a defiance I was becoming more eager by the moment to break.
“Just sell me the ingredients, and I’ll be on my merry way.”
“I sell you these things, and you will do evil with them.”
“While you’re at it,” I cocked my chin at the display baskets behind her, “throw in a block of that white wax,” I said, removing my wallet and thumbing through some cash.
Again, she’d remained where she stood.
“Is it shop policy to police all purchases?” I scoffed.
She scowled. “Most purchase these herbs and roots for their healing properties. I can see in your cold eyes, you have nothing but bad intentions behind them.”
“That moral high ground crumbled beneath your feet long before I graced your humble establishment, Madam Delai. Any practitioner worth their salt is aware of the duality in all things. Now, you are trying my patience. It is in your best interest to sell me these items.”
G uilt over what I had done with those ingredients rips me back to the present, and I let out a remorseful sigh.
Perhaps Marie Delai had hexed me. Cast some sort of working to impede the success of my curse.
Whether it was my own inner conflict that sabotaged my workings or Marie Delai’s interference, I’m grateful for this particular failure on my part.
I’ve grown rather fond of the young Keegan…
The world is a better place with Ace in it.
Steeling myself for what I know will not be a happy reunion, I cross the line of brick dust and enter the domain of Marie Delai.
The thick, cloying air smells of burned sage and grave dirt, but I barely have a chance to glance around the cluttered shop before locking eyes with the owner.
Her piercing gaze drags over me, slow and deliberate.
“Your aura is worse…” she finally speaks, “Heavy… Thick and black like tar. You drag it with you like a funeral shroud.” Her brick red lip twitches with restrained animosity.
“You stain my floors where you stand with your sins.” I can practically feel her disdain curling around me like a living thing.
Impervious, I step further into her shop.
She doesn’t back away, despite the fact that I already know she fears me as if I’m some nightmarish creature dragged up from the bayou and unintentionally summoned to her door.
Delai remains where she stands behind the counter, hands resting folded against the worn wood of the checkout counter.
The tension in her eyes tells me she’s got something sharp to grab within reach.
Though after our last encounter, perhaps it’s a gun.
“Madam Delai… Is that any way to greet an old acquaintance?” I drag my gaze around the shop.
It hasn’t changed at all. The shelves are still packed with jars and candles, some burned down to nubs, the drips of hardened wax cascading down the wood.
I smile at her, slow and humorless. “You always did know how to make a man feel welcome.”
“ Demoon ,” she spits back. “What do you want?”
I stroll casually up to the counter. “What did she want?”
Marie tilts her chin up, defiant, but her fingers flex with unease, and she shifts her weight. “ You leave that one alone ,” she warns me.
My pulse thrums in my ears. Why? Did Vanna come here for a reading? Is there truly trouble in paradise? Was Puppet right?
I lean in closer, dropping my voice to an octave more persuasive. “Do not toy with me, Marie.”
Her dark eyes narrow. “I offered her insight…a warning.”
“About what?” I ask, a cold weight settling in my chest at the way she looks at me. “Or rather, from who?”
“From you.”
“ M ommy!” Ace slides off the couch and hits the living room floor running as Vanna steps through the front door.
“Sorry, I’m late. Laura’s car service took forever.
At least it covers any vehicle she’s riding in, so we told them she came with me, and I only had to pay the copay.
” Vanna’s brows pinch together, and she nibbles her bottom lip guiltily, moving her hands to cover Ace’s ears before she whispers, “ We lied.”
I chuckle and shake my head at her woeful track record with cages.
“These tires are adding up. I have the absolute worst luck lately. There has to be something wrong with… something...”
She stares at me, as if in deep thought, suspicion written plainly on her face, but then she drops her gaze to Ace and tells him it’s time to start washing up for dinner and to go put on his spaghetti shirt .
I put the lasagna she froze in the oven earlier, and Ace tends to wear his dinner whenever there happens to be tomato sauce involved.
He races down the hall to the guest bathroom, aka his bathroom , where we’ve set up a stepstool to help him reach the sink on his own.
“ Something?” I press.
“ Or someone .” She lets out a sigh, hanging her purse on the rack before slipping out of her jacket. She hangs it up over the purse. “I had an interesting reading with Marie Delai. Apparently, Lucinda is still plotting something.”
“ Lucinda?”
“Who hates me more than that woman?” Vanna says, walking into the kitchen. “How long has the lasagna been in the oven?”
“Like…forty-five minutes.” I grab the remote and turn off the TV before joining her in the kitchen.
Vanna switches off the oven, then pulls on a mitt to remove the steaming tray and places it down on the stove.
“You think Lucinda’s been letting the air out of your tires?” I ask, grabbing some plates out of the cabinet. “I suppose she’s capable of anything, but I don’t know… I don’t think she’d risk breaking a nail.”
“You’re probably right,” Vanna says, taking the plates from me and putting them down on the counter near the lasagna. “I’m just overthinking it.”
“What did the voodoo woman say that made you think Lucinda was up to something?” I ask, grabbing some forks and glasses to bring to the table.
“She pulled the Seven of Swords and The High Priestess, reversed!”
The way she emphasizes the last word, I have to press my lips together and roll them in to prevent myself from laughing.
“What?” she demands, all business.
I can’t fight the smile any longer when I open my mouth to respond. “Doll, you know I’m not fluent in all this witch slang. You’re gonna have to translate for me.”
Vanna giggles, shaking her head as she moves to the fridge to grab the pitcher of sweet tea.
“It basically describes Lucinda perfectly. A vindictive woman who uses her looks to deceive others,” she explains, carrying it to the table.
I follow her over and place the glasses down for her to pour.
While she does, I set the forks and napkins where we’ll be sitting.
“Why can’t she just leave us alone? Why is she starting up again?
She’s been fairly quiet since Ace was born. Why now?”
“ Speaking of Ace , I should go make sure he’s changing into his spaghetti shirt and not playing in the sink,” I say, jerking a thumb toward the hall.
Vanna eyes me suspiciously. “Why do you look guilty? Like you’re using Ace to get out of telling me something about Lucinda?”
“Uh…it would probably be best to talk about it after Ace goes to bed,” I say, inching my way closer to the hall.
A fter dinner and Ace’s bath, and bedtime stories, Vanna and I stretch out together on the couch in the living room.
“Is this going to piss me off?” she asks, placing her feet in my lap and readjusting the throw blanket over us.
I shift a little to face her and slip my hands beneath the blanket to rub her feet the way she likes.
She gives me a suspicious smirk. “Normally, I enjoy your foot massages, but this seems like you’re trying to soften the blow about something. ”
“It’s really not a big deal…but she was recently at the Twisted throttle.”
“You are aware of the proximity of my feet to your balls, right?”
“I don’t think the cards were talking about Lucinda. She was just there to give Vixie a ride home the other night.”
“What were they doing at your bar?”
“I didn’t know Vixie called Lucinda.”
“Why was Vixie even there to begin with?”
“Will biker business get me out of this conversation?”
She scowls. “That wasn’t our agreement. You tell an Old Lady?—”
“ Everything or you tell her nothing .” I sigh and proceed to explain the recent events with Legion and Viking that didn’t make the news, including the part about interrogating Vixie until Lucinda showed up. “She didn’t know anything, and she was there for less than three minutes.”
Vanna lets out a contemplative sigh, shifting her gaze to stare at the couple of plastic storage bins marked ‘ Yule ornaments’ sitting in the corner of the room. She doesn’t say anything for several minutes.
“You okay?”
“Yeah.” She gives me a weak, placating smile. “Just tired, I guess. All that walking around in Southport. How did Ace like Church?”
“I let him slam the gavel a few times.” I grin, thinking back on Ace’s enthusiasm and the way he raised his hand to participate in the votes held today.
“We also decided it might be time to do something for the community kids this holiday. Ace might have inspired that discussion… I remember how excited you were when I first told you about Christmas at the Twisted Throttle. I’m not sure what it’s going to look like without Snowy, but…
the guys are finally open to entertaining the idea. ”
“That’s great news.” Vanna’s expression brightens, and it is genuine, but again, I was still expecting a little more enthusiasm.
“Did something else happen today?” I press. When she hesitates to answer, I know something is wrong. “Please tell me.”
“Laura and Robert are getting a divorce.”
“I’m sorry to hear that…wow… Kinda came out of nowhere.”
Vanna shrugs, “Apparently not. Laura said they’ve been trying to work it out for a while now, but the papers are filed.”
“Not that it’s any of my business, but did she say why?”
“No…and I didn’t press her on it. I guess some things just turn out to be fundamental incompatibilities. Over time, resentments build and… I guess there comes a point where there’s no undoing the damage. The divide just gets too wide to overcome… It’s sad. I thought she was happy.”
I know she’s only talking about Laura, but her words chill me to my bones. Is Vanna happy? Am I living up to the promises I vowed to keep? Or is our divide regarding another baby the fundamental incompatibility that inevitably tears us apart? I can’t lose her. Not in any sense of the word.
“Oh, speaking of relationships,” Vanna says, her tone slightly more upbeat again. “Did you ever get in touch with Slice about your brother?”
“Shit… No. But I’m riding up to meet with him this week.”
“Okay, it will be a nice holiday surprise for Trippy. She’s really into your brother. Don’t forget.”
“I won’t. I promise.”
But it’s not their relationship or happiness I’m concerned about.