Chapter Nine
Saint Louis Cemetery
Middle Of the Day
Noon
Time: Twenty-One Hours Remaining…
N ormally, the tourist spot would be filled with spectators, bustling around to look at the graves of all the people who had passed. Today, the whole area was blocked off as the yellow police tape was still up.
Yeah, it was clear some shit went down there.
Granted, there were no cops to police it, and the tourists were being respectful of the situation.
NOLA policed itself more often than not.
If there was one thing you could count on in this city, it was that they were all about respecting the dead.
Here, the deceased were revered.
As they pulled up, they left their car at the tape blocking the entrance to the cemetery so they would be alone to do whatever it was that Rinnon needed to accomplish.
With a wave of his hand, Flynn used compulsion on all of the people staring so that they would go the other way.
Well, Rinnon did.
Basically, he’d made a no people zone all around the cemetery so they could get down to work.
No one needed to be on social media talking about zombies and other monster related stuff. That was the last thing Flynn needed.
Once inside the gates, the five of them looked around, and Seth clued him into what had gone down in the middle of the night when they’d been there.
Together, they walked the scene—not to work the case, so to speak, but so Rinnon could see if he sensed anything .
Like Fate.
They knew she was locked away for the rest of the day, but sometimes, she liked to leave traps.
“We were called here for this one,” Seth admitted, pointing to a cracked open crypt that rested on the ground. It was all white, and sat on the dirt beside countless others.
The angel on the top stared at them with a frozen look of sorrow etched into its face.
Rinnon was edgy.
Flynn could feel it.
What’s wrong with you? Are you trying to pace inside me?
It’s creepy here.
Flynn was confused.
At the cemetery? Flynn asked, curious why Rinnon thought that.
No, Flynn. Inside this mausoleum of memories you have. OF COURSE , I meant the actual cemetery. It’s giving me an uneasy feeling.
Oh, that was priceless.
Rinnon, the demon God was creeped out in a cemetery when he’d made countless monsters that weren’t even there, but he wasn’t fazed by them.
He laughed out loud, and again, everyone looked at him.
“Sorry for the inappropriate timing. Rinnon said something ridiculous, and for me, it’s like he’s here talking.”
No one said anything.
Why?
Tommy and Seth were accustomed to it. Cerise wasn’t focused. Oh, and Logan was freaked out about everything he’d learned so far, so one more thing didn’t bother him.
Yeah, they were their own spectacle.
Flynn looked around, trying to sense if there was anything there that would help them or hurt them.
So far, it felt like a normal cemetery.
“So she was dumped here from a club. I’m going to go out on a limb here, and say that Mathew was hunting at the club, dragged her here with the intent of using her as a sacrifice in some spell, and used some of her blood to activate whatever he’s using to raise the dead.”
You would be correct, Mon Amour. Jolie didn’t need blood, but her reanimation of your parents wasn’t to control them. It was just to bring them back.
And are they both okay still? I don’t want to go back to the house and find them snacking on Jolie’s vampyres. That’s divorce worthy.
He reassured him.
Vanth is babysitting, and they are back to talking about you. Nothing more, and nothing less.
Well, thank God.
Now, he could cross that off his list, and ask about the most important thing.
Are you and Jolie better now?
Flynn felt the wave of love from Jacques, and he knew he appreciated what he had done.
Oui. We’re just cuddling. Thank you for always having my back and thinking about my heart. I love you, Flynn. Forever.
You’d better believe it, he said, and then, Flynn closed off the connection to give them the privacy that they deserved.
Moving around the scene, the place felt absolutely desolate. It was a definite dead zone.
“Was this all that you found when you saw the body?” Flynn asked.
Rinnon was inside of him scanning, and there was nothing off there—minus the creep factor making the demon God twitchy. The area felt like an actual cemetery.
In this case, that was a good thing.
“For here, yes, but around the corner, in a private part of the cemetery is where Marie Laveau’s crypt is. That’s when we realized that this was worse,” Seth admitted.
Well, then, that’s where he needed to be. He’d never come to Marie Laveau’s grave.
Why?
He knew what darkness lurked, and honestly, he dealt with plenty of dark magick .
“Show me. Well, Rinnon. He wants to sniff it. That’s his kink.”
Immediately, he protested.
My kink is bending over my mates and taking their ass, Flynn. You’re just lucky I can’t reach your ass with your dick or I’d take you too.
You’re weird.
You don’t say? I’m also a lusty God who likes to have his mates at his whim.
Focus. I have to work here. You giving me an erection while I do it isn’t fun.
Since he wanted to get out of there as soon as possible, Rinnon did what he asked. He continually scanned the area as Flynn carted him over to the grave.
Yeah, that’s when he knew one hundred percent that something supernatural had been there.
The very old, thick crypt was cracked open, and again, the statues all around it had fallen. There were broken angels everywhere.
That’s apropos, Rinnon admitted.
You’re telling me .
This creep fest was saying a lot for them. Now, Flynn was feeling it in the air. It was heavy and making him twitchy too, and he didn’t think it had anything to do with Rinnon being edgy either.
Because he had no choice, Flynn leaned over the crypt and stared into the emptiness. That unlocked memories that he didn’t want to come back. In his mind, he saw flashes of when he’d been held captive and tortured in a similar crypt.
From inside him, Rinnon used his gifts to dull that terror he was feeling.
Now that he knew about Flynn’s fears of being locked in a crypt, he’d do whatever he could to save him from that.
When that calmness washed over him, he knew where it had come from.
Thank you.
You are welcome, my friend.
“Yeah, nothing is left. All the bones are gone and the material too. ”
Seth shared.
“There was a tiny scrap of fabric that we got before the melee began. It’s in evidence.”
Good to know.
“Do you think someone is using them for some wonky Voodoo spell?” Logan asked, as he was watching Cerise move around the crypts to check them out.
He couldn’t believe she was a vampyre, or that this was all happening. She looked angelic standing in the middle of the cemetery.
Flynn shook his head.
“No. It won’t be like you think it is. I think he’s using the actual body to do Voodoo. He brought Marie back to life so he could use her gifts. She likely had access to magick he needed.”
Like how Rinnon brought the dead woman back so they could interview her.
“This crypt smells, but it doesn’t feel like Mathew. It’s unfamiliar to me. Not bad, per se, but the woman who had been in here was powerful. Now, she’s under his control, and that’s a problem.”
“Why?” Logan asked.
“Because her magick is an offshoot of Rinnon’s, and that means if she uses the right spell…”
Only, he didn’t get to say more.
As Flynn took two steps back, that’s when they felt it. There was barely any warning.
The surge of power came from nowhere. It slammed into all of them, knocking the detective and Tommy over.
Flynn stayed on his feet, and that was only because of Rinnon. The demon God was very heavy, and you couldn’t toss him around easily.
“What the…?” Seth said, from his place on the ground. Luckily for him, one of the tombs blocked him from the barrage of power.
That’s when Flynn knew they were screwed.
And he screamed.
VOODOO !
From inside of him, Rinnon tried to break free to help his vessel, but the spell wouldn’t let him.
Flynn felt the ground opening beneath him, and when he looked down, skeletal hands had grabbed onto his legs, pulling him down.
The whole time, he tried to get away, but while he was supernatural himself, he wasn’t Rinnon.
He was locked inside him.
God.
He hated Voodoo.
“FIGHT!” he shouted, as the crypts around them cracked open, and the statues started bleeding from their eyes.
It was clear what was going on.
Mathew was using The Vampyre’s Cross to raise the dead, and they were the targets.
When Flynn turned his head, he saw Mathew not far away, smiling in absolute pleasure that he’d gotten the drop on him.
Well, yeah, because he was cloaked in a spell. The man knew where they lived, and must have followed him.
Beside Mathew, there was a rotting corpse waving her hands and creating this mess.
Well, Marie was doing his bidding.
This sucked.
As the spell was weaved around them, Flynn was pulled down deeper.
Rinnon couldn’t break free, and if he couldn’t, they weren’t fighting this.
The vampyres tried to fight, but in Mathew’s hand, there was a cross, and they knew they weren’t going to survive this.
Cerise was fighting, digging her claws into the ground as she was struggling to not go to Mathew. She was the only vampyre there, and that was what controlled her kind.
If he got her, he’d use her, and she’d likely end up dead.
“Flynn!” Tommy yelled, as they watched him being pulled underground. “I can’t get to you! ”
Flynn knew he was going to be buried alive with the skeletons that had his legs. There, they’d keep him so he couldn’t help save his family.
And now he was buried to the waist.
Again, he called for his mates, not sure if they were going to hear him or not. When they didn’t automatically appear, he figured he was screwed.
To make it worse, Rinnon was going insane inside him, the spell agitating him to the point he needed to get out of his vessel.
It was pulling Flynn apart at the seams.
As his head went under the dirt, that’s when he felt it.
A hand grabbed his, and he was pulled up from the dirt and the makeshift grave.
When Flynn opened his eyes, he saw Death in all of his angry glory. His eyes were burning red, and his wings were out. In his one hand, he held a sword.
“Fight, my Mate!” he demanded, yanking him free.
Wrath appeared in Flynn’s hand as the skeletons who had been trying to take him under crawled out of the ground with him.
The battle began.
They were zombies everywhere, rising from the cemetery, and in that moment, he understood why they couldn’t let Mathew find that sword. Bodies underground were his to command.
Death made more swords appear for everyone, as Jolie was fighting to keep Cerise out of Mathew’s control. She was laying on her, pinning her to the ground as she slid along, getting closer.
“The female corpse!” she shouted. “She has to be stopped!”
Flynn was on his feet, and with Wrath, he was stronger. That was the last thing Mathew wanted. As he moved toward Mathew, the man had fear in his eyes.
Well, he should.
“I killed you once, and I’ll kill you again. This time, I’ll make you suffer!” he said, as Mathew raised his hands and more rotting corpses appeared between him and Flynn .
They were appearing left and right.
“I’ll get you, Flynn. You killed me. I’ll cut that baby from her belly, and feed it to them!”
Over his dead body was that happening.
And then, like that, Mathew and the rotting female corpse were gone.
Shit.
In that cemetery, Flynn began fighting for his family’s life. Only, he could see that the human detectives were no match for what Mathew had thrown at them. They didn’t know how to use a sword.
They were gun people.
With the cross gone, Cerise was no longer being dragged toward Mathew, and Jolie didn’t have to try and save her.
Now, they were both free.
Cerise was on her feet, and fighting.
“Get to high ground!” Flynn ordered, still unable to release Rinnon. The Voodoo was keeping him locked inside him, so they’d have to do this the hard way.
Hand-to-hand.
Even Death was at a disadvantage with his magick, but with a sword…it was clear he was a very old vampyre in his last life.
He was guardian-ing the shit out of the zombies with smooth efficient swings.
Flynn joined him. He was using Rinnon’s skills and memories to fight as the demon God gave him warnings when someone was coming for him.
Then, it was him and Death, back-to-back.
“The zombies are trying to leave the cemetery!” Jolie shouted, as five of them moved toward Logan, and he was firing into their heads and bodies after ditching the sword.
Yeah, he was screwed.
Cerise saw him about to go down, and she rushed them with the sword Death had given her.
She wasn’t an ancient vampyre like Jacques, but she knew how to use a sword .
Boy, they could use Alexzandre right about now. Only, Flynn couldn’t get him there, and it was clear that Jacques couldn’t either.
As Cerise stood in front of the human detective, she began mowing them down, and when one of Logan’s bullets hit her in the body, she went to her knees.
Immediately, he panicked, that fear filling him as he watched the bullet go into her back.
“Cerise,” he whispered.
The thought that he killed her…
It froze him where he was standing, and that gave the dead in the cemetery enough time.
A zombie jumped on him.
He screamed as it pulled him down, and when she heard Logan’s wails, Cerise was back up. She pushed the bullet from her flesh, and fought to save him.
Oh, the lead bullet hurt like hell, but it wasn’t silver.
Thank.
Freaking.
God.
She yanked the zombie from Logan, and then dragged him to safety at the top of a monument.
“Stay here,” she said, blood covering her shirt and scratches down her face from the zombie’s claws.
“Cerise!” Logan shouted, as she went back into the battle.
Tommy was fighting, but he was getting his ass handed to him, as was Seth.
“Humans, move!” Flynn said, slamming into them with his body to knock them out of the way. Then, he began slicing through zombies with Wrath.
Death was doing the same.
“We have to find the Voodoo bag. It’s here somewhere. If the dead keep rising, we won’t be able to contain them!” Death warned.
Flynn understood.
“Humans! Look for the magick bag!” he said.
The people on the ground did. Logan was on top of a crypt, trapped and couldn’t get back down. As the zombies tried to crawl up to reach him, he kicked them off as they reached the top.
He could see Cerise fighting hard, and she was a bloody mess from their claws.
Jesus.
He didn’t know what to do with this.
She’d saved him.
As a zombie fell from the tree hanging over him, it landed on Logan, and tried to dig into his flesh with its bony fingers.
He screamed in pain.
From where she was fighting for her life, Cerise heard it. She ran for him, climbing the crypt, and once there, she slashed the zombie with her blade. Then, she put herself over him.
There was no way to fight them.
“God!” he shouted, as her body was pressed to his, cocooning him beneath her to protect him. He knew she would be destroyed by them. “Go! Leave!”
There was no way. She wouldn’t leave him.
He might never love her, but she knew he was her mate. She was basically indestructible with Rinnon’s mark, and she could take the pain.
It hurt less than the anguish of never having him.
She clenched her teeth as her flesh was torn by their tainted claws, but still, she protected him with her body.
“Save yourself,” Logan shouted as he could see her being destroyed.
She held onto him, and didn’t give up.
“No! You’re the man who was supposed to be my mate. I’ll save you so you can have a life. I’m sorry,” she whispered, as the pain was incredible. “I would have loved you,” she added.
Then, she screamed in pain when bony fingers went into her ribs, damaging her. They tried to scoop out her organs to take her apart piece by piece.
Death heard her.
He appeared over them, and with a wave of his hand, he cleared the zombies off of her body .
And that’s when he saw it.
On top of the nearest crypt, in a circle, there was a bag.
“Seth!” he called. “Above you! I can’t break the circle!” Death shouted.
The man climbed, and once at the top of the crypt, tucked behind an angel, he saw it. Reaching for it, he destroyed the circle, and ripped the bag open.
That was all it took.
Immediately, a silence fell.
All of the reanimated bodies dropped to the earth, and slowly sank back down into the ground where they had been before the spell.
Holy.
Shit.
Rinnon burst from Flynn, and he looked around as he was late to the party. His family had been run through the wringer.
“I swear to myself that I am going to find that reanimated piece of shit vampyre and rip his body into pieces!” he roared.
His energy exploded from him, decimating even more crypts in its wake.
Yeah, that’s how angry he was.
Jolie made her sword disappear, and waved her hand putting away the other ones too.
They were magical, and the last thing they needed was one getting ‘borrowed’ by Mathew. They’d taught him how to fight and use one.
So, hell no.
Cerise rolled off of Logan, and stayed on her back. She was a bloody mess.
They had dug into her, and part of her organs were torn from her body. Her flesh was rotting from the damage.
Fortunately, her sacrifice paid off. Logan wasn’t harmed.
That was all that mattered.
“Rinnon,” she whispered. “Please.”
Flynn heard her from inside Rinnon .
Send her to the lair to heal. We promised to send her home after this, and we’ll take care of her there.
Very well.
Logan went to touch her hand, his eyes filled with tears. She’d been destroyed to save him, and he couldn’t stop hearing her say the words to him.
She would have loved him.
After all of what he said to her, she still cared.
“Cerise,” he whispered.
She slowly turned her head, and it hurt so much, but she wanted to see him one last time. She’d never come back to New Orleans.
Never.
She stared into his deep blue eyes.
“Have a safe life. Know that I love yo…”
And then, before she could finish, she was gone.
Logan looked around, and suddenly, he felt empty. His whole body ached from the distance between them.
“NO!” he shouted, trying to get up. “Where did she go?” he asked.
Death stared down at him.
“She’s gone home. You didn’t want her in your life, so we are taking care of her. She’s just a monster, no?”
That was all he had to say.
Suddenly, Logan understood.
They were all monsters, in a way. Him being a huge one since he’d hurt her, and she proved to be the better creature.
Without another word, Death jumped down, landing beside Flynn. They had bigger problems than Logan and his mistake. They had an amped up Mathew wracked with vengeance.
“We can’t fight a Voodoo priestess as demons,” Jacques said, making his sword disappear. “She clearly has one hell of a protection spell.”
“She tried to exorcize me! I hate VOODOO !” Rinnon raged. “If that’s not bad enough, she tried to bury my vessel alive! HE IS DEAD and so is she!”
Oh, Death was aware .
He looked around, and it was a mess.
They’d wrecked the place.
“We need to find that sword before that pissant little vampyre does,” he said. “This time, I’m going to make sure his essence stays in my realm. I’ll deal with him shortly.”
Oh, they understood what he meant.
Death was pissed.
“I could have raised some dead,” Jolie said. “Should I have? I didn’t because you told me you didn’t want Fate to know I could do it.”
They didn’t.
“You did the right thing, Little One,” Rinnon said, kissing her on the top of her head.
Death agreed.
“Yeah, without the sword, that’s unpredictable,” he admitted. “I can control them, but raising more is problematic.”
The humans approached, and they looked like they had been kicked to Hell and back.
Rinnon saw they were cut up and bleeding. He walked toward Tommy and touched his forehead with his palm.
Immediately, he healed.
“Okay, that feels better,” Tommy said. “That was a shitshow, and not fun,” he admitted.
Yeah, he could say that again.
Then, Rinnon did the same for Seth.
“If we weren’t marked, we would have been dead. They knew we were protected,” he said. “They were heavily focused on Logan. He’s not safe.”
Yeah, they were aware.
Don’t mark him, Flynn whispered into his mates’ minds. If he isn’t her mate, he’s on his own.
Jolie understood.
The ties to us will make it harder for Cerise since she’s ours now.
I won’t. It’s refreshing to see Flynn isn’t handing out my gifts like breath mints.
You’re funny for a dead guy who couldn’t get out of my ‘subpar’ meat suit .
There was growling, and they all knew from who.
When Rinnon turned, he approached Logan to heal his few wounds. Only, he backed up.
“Where is she?” he asked, suffering now that she wasn’t there. He just knew he had to find her.
Rinnon tipped his head.
“Cerise?”
He nodded.
“Where did she go?”
He shrugged.
“I sent her home. She’s back in Paris. She’s damaged and needs time to heal,” Rinnon said, not talking about her body but her heart.
He could heal her wounds, but he couldn’t give her what her heart wanted most.
Logan knew he should let her go.
But he couldn’t.
“I want to see her.”
Rinnon blinked, and then, he laughed.
“No. You don’t get to call us monsters and then spend time in our presence. Cerise is mine to protect, and Flynn said you can kiss off.”
“Then let me see Flynn. Let me talk to him because I’m going to find her. I need to find her.”
The humanity left in Flynn took over.
He took control, and he shoved Rinnon back down so he could handle this. Rinnon had a way of jacking things up when it came to the heart.
When he opened his eyes, they were blue again.
“She doesn’t want to see you, Logan. Let her go. You have a woman in your life, and she’s making a sacrifice so you can have that. She’s abandoning what she feels so you can be happy with your current woman.”
He blinked.
“Please help me. I don’t understand any of this. Why do I feel what I feel?”
Flynn shrugged.
“I can’t help you. You’re in love with someone else. There’s nothing to explain. Now, if you don’t mind, we have a bigger problem to solve. You pushed her away, and you need to let her go.”
Logan couldn’t breathe.
All of a sudden, he felt sick.
“You will have to make the choice. You can’t have both. Either go with your brain or heart. One has to win, and one has to lose.”
Then, he was done speaking to him.
When Vanth appeared not far away with Kiera, she was holding an old book. Together, they immediately headed toward Death.
“Jacques?” Kiera asked.
Glancing over, his eyes were green. It appeared the danger was over.
“I think I found something,” Kiera admitted. “While I was sitting there listening to Flynn’s zombie parents…”
“HEY!” Flynn said. “Too soon, Kiera. Way too soon,” he admitted.
There was her lilted laughter.
“My bad. Anyway, I thought about a spell I saw in one of the books, and Vanth got it for me.”
Jacques appreciated their witch having their back. That was always helpful.
He held out his hand and she handed it to him.
The pages flipped, proving that she was getting stronger when it came to their magick.
As the pages stopped, he saw what she meant.
It was a spell.
An ancient one.
As he read over it, he saw the problem it was going to cause for them, and it explained a lot.
“Well, shit,” he said.
Flynn moved toward him.
“What?” he asked, rolling his neck.
“Apparently, Rinnon had a spell so he could find this particular relic. He wanted to know where Lilith was, and if she was using it, he could find her.”
I didn’t like the idea that she was out sleeping with other men. I’m possessive of my bitches .
RINNON! Jolie said. Bitches?
Was that the wrong word? I clearly saw in Flynn’s head how he likes to describe you.
HEY! I do not call her that! She’d kill me!
Flynn shook his head. He’d deal with his traitorous lurker later.
Jacques wasn’t shocked.
“Of course, he had a spell. Apparently, The Necromancer’s Sword is trackable.”
Flynn looked skeptical.
“But?” he asked because there was always a ‘but’ when it came to their situations.
He clued him in.
“We need something important to find it. There’s a kill switch, so to speak. If you don’t have the item, you can’t find it.”
Jolie was curious.
“What is the item?” she asked.
That’s when Jacques dropped the bomb.
“To do the spell, you need a bone from a strong Voodoo practitioner, or the actual practitioner.”
Oh, shit.
He didn’t have one Voodoo witch bone. He had two hundred and six bones. Mathew had the whole freaking skeleton of Marie Laveau.
And now they knew why he picked her.
Damn Fate.
He had the spell too.
It was only a matter of time before he had the sword.
And then, they were screwed.
ROYALLY.
* * * T u e u r A n t i q u i t i e s * * *
The Lair
Paris
Living Area
When she was popped in, Cami was there waiting for her arrival.
The little ones were playing in a corner, and Cari was making sure they didn’t climb the walls.
Literally.
As Cerise opened her eyes, she saw the other vampyre sitting there, and she was holding some tea.
“You’re safe now,” Cami said, helping her sit up. When she was, she handed her the cup. “Here. Drink this. It’s the Mistress’ and she swears it helps the healing in our kind.”
Cerise didn’t want to heal.
She wanted to die.
And couldn’t.
She was screwed big-time with this one. She lost love, found her mate, and lost him all in the same day. Her world was shattered.
“I’ll be fine,” she whispered even though she didn’t believe it herself.
Cami knew what was going on. Her mate had told her all about it through their mental connection.
It had to be crushing to know that she had found her mate, and he had a woman in his life.
Cami’s heart broke for her.
“I know you’re hurting. Let me help you,” she said. “You need to heal, and the best way is to just relax for a bit.”
Cerise was honest .
“I don’t want to heal. It’s been a horrible week. I lost Tobias, my family left me behind, and now I find my mate, but he’s happy with someone else. This is the worst week of my life. I don’t know what I did to deserve this. It couldn’t get worse.”
Cami tried to reassure her.
“I understand.”
Only, Cerise was angry at the world, and she needed a target to vent it.
“You couldn’t possibly know. You have a mate and beautiful babies. I’ll never see that. I’ll just know what could have been.”
Cami shared her past.
Oh, she knew pain more than this woman could even suspect.
“I was forced to bear children to populate our family,” she said. “I was a prisoner and nothing but a vampyre used to breed for my family. I know what hopeless feels like. I never believed I’d have a mate, or that I’d hold my own children. Mine were birthed and given away.”
Cerise just sat there.
She was slowly healing thanks to the mark and being a vampyre.
“If you won’t drink the tea, how about you go swim in the grotto? The water there helps. It’s magical, and Rinnon lets us use it when we’re not well.”
Cerise knew the woman wouldn’t stop, and she didn’t blame her.
If she was in the same position, she’d try to save her too. There were few of their kind left.
“You don’t have to worry. I can’t die,” she whispered.
Cami understood that feeling too.
“But you can suffer.”
“Good. I want to remember what pain feels like, so I never feel anything but it. Love hurts worse. It’s more painful and terrible.”
Cami ran her hand over her leg.
“I’m sorry that you’re going through this now. ”
So was she.
Cerise’s only sin was that she dared to feel.
And now, she’d die alone.
* * * T u e u r A n t i q u i t i e s * * *
Cemetery
Same Time
They needed a plan, and they needed one soon. What it came down to was that they were between a rock and a hard place.
If they didn’t have someone who could help them with this, they were going to be in some big trouble at the next battle.
Flynn couldn’t walk around with Rinnon out all of the time simply because the other creatures out there would feel him and come for them.
Plus, if they were hit with Voodoo while he was out…
That would suck even more. His vessel would be damaged worse.
Keeping him inside was dangerous too, since then, he couldn’t let him out.
This was a no-win situation for Flynn.
Yes, they were powerful, but they were dealing with Voodoo, and that was ancient magick that was straight from the demon God’s bag of tricks .
Now, if they had all of his memories, they might have a way to stop it. Only, they weren’t all there.
That left one option. They had to do what they did best.
Figure a way out of the mess.
The only thing going in their favor was that Fate was locked in Death’s realm for a while longer.
“We can’t leave this looking like this,” Jolie admitted, as she picked up a toppled angel statue. The blood on its face was…
Well, creepy.
“Baby, don’t lift heavy things. You’re pregnant,” Flynn said, waving his arm.
Everything righted itself, and the crypts were back to being pristine. Granted, that in the ground, the bones were scattered all over outside their crypts.
That was tomorrow Flynn’s issue.
Not today’s.
“We need someone who can do Voodoo to counteract this mess,” Flynn admitted.
They rested against the newly fixed crypts and had a discussion. Now that the bag was destroyed, Rinnon could feel anything coming at them.
At least they knew if he got that ‘creepy’ feeling again, it was likely a trap.
“We have a witch,” Jolie offered.
They did, but that wasn’t going to help them. It wasn’t the same kind of magick.
“I can only do so much,” Kiera admitted. “I wish I could do more. I mean if we get Aoibheann involved…”
That was a last case scenario.
They all knew that you had to fight Voodoo with Voodoo.
“Then, Death, what can we do?” Jolie asked, hoping her mate had a plan.
Because they only had a few tricks up their sleeves when it came to dealing with this, they had to work fast .
Not far away, looking as pristine as always, Jacques was standing there, tapping his finger on the book that was sitting on a crypt as he tried to find a solution.
Finally, he spoke.
“We won’t need you, Kiera,” he said, sending her back to the house before she could say anything else.
Everyone jumped as she vanished. Yeah, Death moved fast and was unpredictable.
For the time being, it was best she was safely tucked away at home with her mate. The last thing they needed was for Mathew to get their witch.
Now that their resident witch was gone, he focused on his family.
“There is a way but you’re not going to like it,” Death admitted.
Oh, boy.
It was always bad when Death gave you that warning before dropping the one plan that could save your ass. It almost always meant someone was dying.
Mainly…him.
“What?” he asked.
Honestly, Flynn knew they would take a chance on it, as long as it didn’t risk something they couldn’t afford to lose.
What choice did they have in the matter? This was survival of the fittest against Fate.
“My big issue is we have to do something before my realm is emptied out. This reanimation of living things is problematic. Those souls need to stay where they are.”
Why?
Well, with each body raised, he had to reconfigure his dimension, and it was getting smaller and smaller. He got his power from the dead, and if they were all gone…
Plus, if they’d learned anything, it was that once dead, things were meant to stay dead. The only difference were vampyres.
“He’s stalling,” Tommy said. “It’s going to suck worse than usual.”
Yeah, probably.
Jacques went there .
“To fight fire with fire, we need to raise a Voodoo practitioner, but I can’t do it,” he said.
They were all looking at him.
“Why not?” Flynn asked. “We just about got our asses handed to us. I don’t relish the idea of being buried with some corpses for all eternity as they pick at my body with their creepy-ass boney fingers.”
He understood his fears.
Really, he did.
“I would do it, but I literally CANNOT . I’m already pushing my luck with the fabric of time and fate. I’ve locked Fate away for a full day. The world is running on its own. It takes balance. If I begin raising the dead, I’m risking too much.”
Shit.
That wasn’t good.
“Can’t we just grab a Voodoo priestess here in New Orleans and hope for the best?” Flynn asked.
“No. It has to be someone who is familiar with our kind of magick. Rinnon is dark magick, forged in a time when there was nothing here. Voodoo calls to that. Wicca doesn’t. That’s the opposite. Again, balance.”
He knew this was difficult.
“There are not many priestesses who can handle Rinnon, Jacques,” he admitted.
Bring them on. I like an orgy.
That was all his wife had to hear.
IS THAT SO? Jolie asked. Do you now, Rinnon? Well, know what I like? The father of my baby to not say shit like that when I’m pregnant and testy.
Sorry?
Jacques and Flynn ignored them. They had bigger issues. From where he stood, Jacques began pacing, and his shiny leather shoes made no sound on the pavement.
It was crystal clear that he was struggling with this.
“Just say it,” Flynn offered.
When he came to a stop, he shared.
“What if Jolie raised a priestess, and then we put her back when we were done using her?” he asked .
They were confused.
“You just said you couldn’t raise the dead,” she admitted. “Now you want to raise the dead?”
He stopped her.
“I can’t, but you can. You raised Flynn’s parents, and we do know a priestess who understands our kind of magick. She’s handled us before. She gave us all tattoos, and they protect us to this day.”
Flynn blinked.
Oh, shit.
Mambo.
“Jacques, we know one priestess, and she died over a year ago. Mambo isn’t going to be magnanimous if we pull her from her death and drop this on her. Remember, she asked us to save her, and her son did too. We let her die because we said we couldn’t get involved.”
“Because we couldn’t save her at the time. We can give her some time now.”
“This is some sketchy shit,” Seth said. “Why do I get the feeling this is going to bite us in the ass?”
Oh, because it was.
It always did.
Everything had a cost, and there would be something sacrificed over this. Flynn would bet on it.
“If you don’t mind,” Logan said, “I’m out. If you won’t take me to Cerise, I can’t fight this fight.”
“If that’s what you want, Detective,” Flynn said.
“What I want is for you to send me to wherever you put Cerise. Since you won’t…”
He cut him off.
“Then, go.”
The man actually did. He walked away, leaving them standing there in the cemetery.
Yeah, he was pissed at them too.
Well, take a number.
When he was gone, they continued discussing the only plan they had to try and combat Marie Laveau.
“Mambo was one of the best priestesses. She was born to do what she was doing. She could help,” Death offered .
Flynn thought about the woman who had given them protection tattoos when they needed it.
“Can she handle Marie Laveau?” he asked. “We’re talking about a woman who people called the queen of black magick.”
He nodded.
“If we give her a little extra under the hood, she should be able to help. I can’t bring her back, but I do have the ability to give her a little more knowledge. What we have is the advantage because Fate isn’t aware that Jolie has that same spell she gave Mathew.”
He had a point.
Death kept plotting.
“We take our advantage, mix in some Voodoo, and maybe, just maybe, we can stop this. We don’t have a lot of time before he finds that sword. Then, we’re in a bigger mess.”
Tommy was confused.
“What if she comes back…faulty?” he asked, not wanting to upset Flynn.
“We all know what he means,” Flynn said. “My parents are back, but we got damn lucky.”
That they did.
They were only soulless.
“We have to risk it,” Jacques said. “When we bring back Mambo, she won’t have a soul, but Jolie didn’t bring back monsters. Like we suspect, her intent matters. Her dead are in better shape than Mathew and his minions.”
Flynn stopped him.
“That we know of,” Flynn admitted. “My parents could go dark side at any second. That’s why you have Vanth babysitting them. She’s the kill switch in case they do.”
Yeah, because, they couldn’t ask Flynn to kill his own parents.
That was all kinds of wrong.
If your parents go bad, then we will have to put them down again. So far, them coming back hasn’t damaged fate. I don’t plan on reaping them yet.
Flynn didn’t want to hear that .
I can’t kill them, Jacques. If you ask me to, I won’t be able to do it. I also can’t let you reap them. You’re my mate. That will damage us.
Jacques understood.
My love, it will be a last case scenario. I promise.
“We need to focus on this and deal with the parent issue later. We’ll raise her, and then take her to her shop. She’s going to need to do this spell to help us find that sword.”
Jolie pulled out her phone, and she did the research. Finding her grave was easy. Someone like Mambo would only be in one of a few places.
It didn’t take Jolie long.
“I found her,” she said.
Flynn was curious.
“And her son? What about him?”
She kept working.
That was the far easier task.
Luckily for them, the shop was still there, and it was still being run by her son. It appeared they had a Voodoo priest to work with too.
Maybe their luck had changed.
After raising Mambo, they would do what no child wanted. They were going to drop in with their dead parent.
Oh, how could this go wrong?
In so many ways, Flynn whispered into her mind. This is going to go south. Bet on it.
On that, she agreed.
“He’s not going to be happy to see us,” she admitted. “In fact, her son is going to lose it. He practices Voodoo like his mother, so…”
They had to expect the meltdown and a retaliation of sorts. They knew that basically, someone was going to be throwing herbs at Rinnon, and trying to vanquish the demons.
Great.
Only, what choice did they have?
“We’ll have Vanth to pop in and stop him if he tries to do something with those herbs,” Jolie suggested .
I really hate it when they throw that shit at me. It makes me cranky.
You’re always cranky, Rinnon. Always.
Well, you try cramming yourself into a human. It’s not fun, Flynn. It’s organ-y in here. I feel like a turducken. Or is that a hu-demon? My wings are getting wrinkled.
He just shook his head.
They had other issues to worry about other than Rinnon’s comfort levels.
They had a city to save.
A vampyre to put down.
Oh, and two antiquities to find.
Yeah, there were more important things on their plates than Rinnon bitching.
“We might need more firepower than this,” Seth said, pointing at them. “Cerise is gone, Logan walked away, and here we are, ready to walk into a Voodoo shop.”
“I can bring them back. If we need them, I’ll snap their asses here, along with a witch, a guardian, and a demon.”
“We are absolutely batshit insane,” Tommy said. “We’re about to raise the dead, when we know raising the dead is the one thing that’s going to bite us in the ass.”
Flynn shrugged.
“ New Orleans is survival of the fittest.”
And craziest.
Apparently.
The ways that this could go horribly wrong were endless.
They all knew that.
“Well, family? Let’s go raise the dead and steal us a Voodoo practitioner,” Flynn said.
Yep.
That definitely sounded batshit insane .
Tommy was absolutely right.