Banishing the Dark (The Arcadia Bell series) (18 page)

The next few minutes were a blur. Leticia’s mom switched to English and called out for a bunch of stuff—the names of some pillars, angels, elements. Everyone got up and sat down a billion times. It got a little monotonous, and Jupe’s gaze was drifting down to Leticia’s breasts. Then the spotlight in the back of the room began moving, and everyone’s head swiveled to watch two more people coming down the aisle.

A man holding a spear and a dark-haired woman who was dressed like some sort of Arabian princess or a belly dancer, with a belt of golden coins and a lot of long necklaces. He could almost see through her robe, which was super-distracting. She parted the curtains at the altar and closed them behind her. Now he could just see the shape of her standing behind the curtains. What was she doing back there?

After more ceremonial stuff, the guy used his spear to part the curtain around the altar, and the spotlight fell on the belly-dancer chick. She sat among the pillows on the red table with her legs dangling off, knees spread.

Naked
.

Oh.

My.

God.

Naked chick on the altar!
Breasts, belly, dark triangle of hair between her legs. As if she didn’t even give two shits about the fact that an entire room of people were staring up at her. And the guy with the spear was kneeling in front of her, praying, it looked like, with his face right at crotch level. The bead of sweat that had trickled down Jupe’s back earlier suddenly became a waterfall, and—oh, God,
no
—he felt himself getting hard.

Don’t look at the naked girl. Don’t look, don’t look, don’t look.
How could he not look? It was the first naked chick he’d seen in person. Ever. Well, he once accidentally saw Mrs. Holiday come out of the guest shower naked, but that was
horrifying
.

This was not.

And goddammit, what did they expect? It was a natural reaction. Only it was getting mighty uncomfortable, and he was painfully aware he was sitting next to Leticia. Did she know? How could she not?

He risked a glance at her. She wasn’t staring at his dick, thank God. It was pretty dark back here, so maybe he was safe. But then she caught him looking at her, so he forced his eyes back to the naked-flesh carnival at the altar. No good! Ah, crap. He glanced back at Leticia again, and she had a funny look on her face. Like she was pissed, maybe. Or not. He didn’t know. How could he think with all this going on?

Just when he thought he couldn’t be more freaked out, the people in the seats around him began heading down the aisle. One by one, they headed to the girl on the altar, drank what looked to be wine, and ate some communion-type wafer. Right in front of her, as if they were toasting to her vagina. And maybe they were, who knew? Part of Jupe wanted to find out, and part of him was absolutely horrified to be forced to walk down the aisle with a raging erection.

He couldn’t do it. He prepared himself to make up some excuse and bail—just run out of the room and leave. Then he smelled strawberry jam.

“We don’t go up there,” Leticia’s voice said in his ear.

He nearly jumped out of his seat but had sense enough to pull the hem of his jacket down over his pants. “Why not?” he whispered back.

“You have to be a certain degree.”

“Temperature?”

“Ranking,” she clarified. “For some, you have to be a certain age. I’m not old enough. And you’re not a member.”

Relief flowed through his limbs. And after concentrating really hard and biting the inside of his mouth until pain shot through him, he was finally able to get everything under control between his legs. He wiped sweat off his brow and exhaled heavily before whispering, “Who is that chick on the altar? Do you guys hire a stripper or something?”

Anger tightened Leticia’s face. Her whispered reply was so sharp she might as well have slapped him. “That
chick
is my sister.”

* * *

The mass couldn’t have dragged on any longer. Jupe apologized to Leticia a billion times. And he continued to do so, even when the whole shebang was finished and everyone filed outside the lodge into the old parking lot in back, which had been converted into a patio. Beneath the cover of two battered canopy tents, people gathered around picnic tables and scattered chairs. They looked so normal—moms, dads, teens. A group of smaller kids who hadn’t been in the sanctuary burst out of the hallway with a lady who must have been watching them.

Jupe was really confused.

And Leticia was walking really fast. He jogged to catch up to her as she headed to a picnic table outside the tent and plopped down on top of it, settling her feet on one of the attached benches.

“I’m really, really sorry,” Jupe said as he approached.

“I heard.” She dug inside a neon-green messenger bag that was slung diagonally across her body, pulled out a tablet, and settled it in her lap to read.

“How was I supposed to know?”

“I thought you said your dad’s girlfriend went to the main lodge.”

“Years ago, before she met my dad!”

“Oh.”

“That . . . what your sister did in the sanctuary was just a little shocking, is all.”

“She was playing the role of the priestess. It’s called a living altar, and there’s nothing wrong with it. It’s a beautiful ritual that celebrates women’s power. It’s not some cheap stripper show for a bachelor’s party.”

“I didn’t say—” Ugh. Well, he had kind of implied it. He tried again. “I’ve got nothing against strippers. Or naked girls. I mean, I like naked girls.” Oh, God.
Shut up. Just shut up.
But he couldn’t. “Your sister’s pretty hot.”

Leticia’s nostrils flared.

“I’m sure you’re even hotter,” Jupe said desperately.

She looked horrified. “Naked?”

“No. Yes? No,” he said in quick succession. “Wait, have you, uh, played the role of the priestess?”

Her eyes darted to the side. “Of course not. You have to be an adult to participate in the mass. Eighteen.”

“That’s only four years away. Are you going to—”

“Get naked in front of my lodge?”

Jupe’s pulse doubled. Then the thought crossed his mind that maybe Cady had played priestess back when she was active in her lodge, and that made him feel a little squicky. “Never mind,” he said. “Can we please not talk about this anymore? I’m already freaked out, and you’re making it worse.”

“Now it’s my fault?”

“Let’s blame it on your sister and call it even.”

“You’re a piece of work, Jupiter.” She remembered his name! Jupe grinned, forgetting all the awkwardness for a moment. Until she said, “Who’s Kar Yee?”

“What?” How did she know about Kar Yee? All the awkwardness came back and punched him in the gut. “Did you do some sort of spell on me?”

She rolled her eyes. “No, you weirdo. I saw your Facebook profile online. It says your relationship status is complicated, and you’ve got a bunch of pictures of some woman named Kar Yee. Is that your girlfriend?”

He scratched the side of his neck. “Kar Yee is my dad’s girlfriend’s best friend. We just tease each other. It’s just a joke.” Well, most of the thoughts he’d had about Kar Yee weren’t funny at all. In fact, they were downright filthy, but Leticia didn’t need to know that.
Nobody
needed to know that. “Wait, you looked me up? How come you didn’t friend me?”

She shrugged. “I didn’t know what kind of person you were. I still don’t. I thought you were serious about wanting magical help, but after tonight, I’m not sure you even know anything about it.”

“I do,” he insisted, smelling charcoal and onions drifting in the air from the grill. “My dad can do a little magick. He’s got an occult library that would probably put this one to shame. And his fiancée—”

“I thought you said she was his girlfriend?”

“He bought her a ring, but it’s just been hectic. She’ll say yes.” He hoped. It sure would be easier to
say “stepmom” than “Dad’s girlfriend” in situations like this. “She’s the reason I’m here. I need to help her with a big problem.”

“Why didn’t she just come herself?”

“It’s complicated.”

“Like your relationship status?”

“I already explained that.” He motioned to the picnic table. She motioned back for him to sit down, so he crawled up beside her, careful to leave a little room between them. From here, he could see the mass attendees talking and laughing under the strings of fairy lights while grabbing drinks out of a big cooler. A couple of other people were bringing covered dishes out of the lodge’s back door. One of those people was Leticia’s sister, now fully clothed in jeans and a long-sleeved shirt.

That way lies danger.

Fearing a repeat of what had happened to him during the mass, he quickly averted his eyes and glanced down at Leticia’s book. A few words were highlighted. “What are you reading?”

“Nothing you’d like,” she said, shutting off the screen and closing the cover.

“You’re into dragons? Like high-fantasy stuff?”

She shoved the reader into her bag. “Maybe.”

“That’s cool. My best friend, Jack, reads fantasy. I’m a visual person, so I like comics and anime. Movies.”

A long silence stretched between them, until she finally said, “If you want my help, maybe you should start by telling me who your dad’s girlfriend is.”

He sighed. “I can’t do that.”

“Don’t tell me, it’s complicated.”

“It’s—”

“I already know you’re lying, because I looked at all your pictures online. I saw who your dad is. And your mom’s a celebrity.”

“My parents are divorced.”

“I also saw the picture of you and your dad and the owner of that Tiki bar, Arcadia Bell. That’s his girlfriend?”

Jupe felt like he was being led into a trap but was powerless to stop. “Yes . . .”

“I asked my mom if she could look up Arcadia Bell in the lodge directory. And she got all weird and freaked out and wanted to know why I was asking and who you were.”

Crap. That didn’t sound good. “Did you tell her?”

“No.”

Jupe bit the inside of his mouth. “Why do you think she freaked out?”

“I don’t know,” Leticia said, running the heels of her palms over her knees. “But she grilled me about it, and I had to lie and say some kid at school was talking about her. I tried to play dumb, but I’m not sure if she believed me. I don’t like lying to my family.”

“Tell me about it,” Jupe said sourly. “I went to a lot of trouble to get out here again. I’m not sure if I can keep pulling it off.”

After a moment, she said, “My mom told me to
leave it alone and forget about it, so I figured it must be important. I sneaked onto her computer after she went to bed and searched the lodge directory myself. It’s a list of every member of the order, since it moved from France to the States in the early 1900s. And no one named Arcadia Bell has ever been a member. No Bell at all.”

Ah, crap. He was torn between being thrilled that she’d gone to all that trouble out of curiosity over him and panicked that she now knew too much. He’d planned on quizzing her about Sélène Duval, not Arcadia Bell.

“Who is she?” Leticia asked.

“I can’t tell you.”

“Fine. Then I can’t help you.”

“Please,” Jupe begged. “I really need your help, but I just can’t.”

She buckled the strap on her messenger bag. “Trust has to start somewhere, Jupiter.”

He thought about everything Cady had told him and how she trusted him to keep her secrets. But then, what did her secrets matter if her mother came down from the Æthyr and stole her body? And then there were Priya’s warnings and his challenge to Jupe. Priya insisted that Cady’s order could be trusted, so it wasn’t as if Jupe would be turning her in to the FBI. Jesus, she didn’t even do anything wrong—why did she have to keep this secret, anyway?

Maybe the better question was, how could Jupe help Cady if he kept her secret and walked away right
now? He needed Leticia’s help. And sure, she was pretty and smelled good and had lots of nice curves. Hell, he even liked the way she argued with him. On top of all that, her knee was about an inch away from touching his, and that alone was enough to urge him into telling her anything she wanted to know. But Cady came first, and he really didn’t know what other choice he had. One day, he might have a brother or sister who’d look up to him as a hero, but not if Cady’s crazy mom won the fight.

“
If
I tell you,” he said cautiously, “it might be the biggest, most serious secret you’ve ever heard. And my family might be in danger if the wrong people find out. Will you promise not to tell anyone? Like, maybe you could undergo some kind of magical oath?”

She turned her head and leaned closer, until her face was right up in his and the scent of strawberry jam filled his nostrils. Her forehead tightened until her eyebrows were almost joined. “A few people in my lodge are under magical oath to protect a big secret. I think that’s bullshit. You can’t force a person to be loyal. If you’re going to trust someone, you trust them until they give you a reason not to.
¿Confías en mí?
”

Jupe’s Spanish lessons rattled around inside his head and overlapped with all the Mexican
lucha libre
wrestling he watched on Galavisión. He was pretty sure he understood her question, but he made a mental note to pay more attention in class.

As he cracked his knuckles, trying to make up his mind, Leticia’s knee touched his thigh, warm and insistent. He glanced down between them. After a moment, he pressed his leg against hers in answer. She didn’t pull away. When he lifted his head and looked into her eyes, all at once, he decided he
did
trust her, and not just as a last resort.

So he licked his lips and spoke in a low voice. “Have you ever heard of the Black Lodge slayings?”

If I thought that after sleeping all afternoon a few feet away from Lon, I might wake up and accidentally find myself in the middle of a lust-bleary romp under the sheets—and admittedly, that’s
exactly
what I thought—I was w-r-o-n-g. He’d already gotten up, showered, given our dirty clothes to the maid, gone to the gym, and scouted out the on-premises restaurant where we could eat our early-evening breakfast.