Nancy K. Duplechain - Dark Trilogy 02 - Dark Carnival (15 page)

I felt he intentionally
avoided looking at me and possibly Ruby, too.  He looked only at Miles and
seemed he just wanted to get this little meeting over with so he could go back
home to bed and try to forget this night.  “Ready when you are, Miles,” he
said, crossing his arms and leaning against the frame of the foyer door a
couple of feet from me.

Miles finished writing
something down, cleared his throat and leaned back in his chair.  He looked at
Noah and me and then at Ruby, who was still in the same position on the couch,
facing away from everyone, brandy still in her hand.  He paid no attention to
her mood, and I supposed he was used to it.  “What did the two of you find
out?” he asked us.

Noah reached into his
pocket, took out his wallet and pulled out the tickets.  “Got two of them.”

Miles nodded
thoughtfully. He lifted his stack of papers and pulled out a manila envelope
from beneath them.  “I was able to get a hold of some tickets as well.”

Noah’s jaw dropped.  “How?”

“At St.
Geneviève
’s.  I went back after I dropped off
Leigh.  One of the men I healed wanted to thank me.  He said they were offered
to his niece, but she couldn’t go.  Two tickets.”  He smiled a little, pleased
with the luck of it.  “Poor soul had no idea what they had planned for her.  Lucky
for us, right?”

“Am I missing something?”
asked Ruby, sitting up and facing us.  “Why do we need tickets to their ball?”

“If you had come to the
meeting the other day when I asked you, you’d know that Noah already searched
the house and couldn’t find the mask.  Our only other alternative is to
infiltrate them and wait for them to bring it out at the ball.”

“Are you kidding?” chided
Ruby.  “That’s like walking right into the lion’s den.”

“If we don’t get that
mask back, there will be plenty of lions coming for us and many innocent
people, too.”

She stared down at the
floor, angry, but realized that Miles was right.  I, on the other hand, had my
doubts.  “How do we even get to the mask with all of them surrounding it?” I asked.

“No,” said Noah, sternly.
 He faced Miles.  “She can’t go.  She’s not ready.”

Ruby chuckled softly from
the couch.  “None of us is ready for that, but put her in there and we’ll be
spending all our energy trying to keep her from getting killed.”  She stared me
down with a wicked half smile and downed the rest of her drink.

I tried to ignore her,
but she made me uneasy.  “I’m not worried about myself, but I don’t think I can
heal anyone quickly enough in a battle situation,” I said, recalling the
painful memory of what happened to Nadia.  I felt Noah’s eyes on me, and I
couldn’t bring myself to look at him, so I dropped my gaze to the floor.

Ruby laughed.  “Not
worried about herself.  See?  That’s what I’m talking about, Miles.  She can’t
do this.”

“You’ve gotten much
stronger,” said Miles, ignoring Ruby and sounding very pleased with my progress. 

“But I have to be
concentrating really hard.  I can’t—”

“It’s up to you.  Everything
about what we do is a choice, but you know that already.  I think you can do
this, and we need the help.”

I had lied when I said I
wasn’t worried about myself.  I
was
scared.  Terrified was more like it.
 It was a situation where I felt like I was jumping in without a net, and I
certainly didn’t feel like Ruby would bother to help me if I needed it in a
dire situation.  Noah might, but I didn’t know if I could count on that,
either.  At the last second, his emotions over what happened to Nadia might
overtake him and he could let me die; ultimate payback, though I doubted he
would.  That just left Miles, who was still practically a stranger to me.  But
there was something else to consider.  If Les Foncés gained power, that would
shift the balance for the paladins, and it would very much be
the lions
coming for us
, as Miles put it, and all the innocents who would suffer,
Lyla included.  If something happened to me, I knew that Lucas would take care
of her.  If the Grigori recruited more to join Les Foncés, then I could never
protect Lyla or anyone I loved.

“Okay,” I said at last.  “I’ll
do it.”

“Splendid,” said Miles,
getting back to business.  From the stack of papers, he pulled out a blueprint
of the Grigori House.  He rose and went to the large table at the back wall,
where he spread out the blueprint flat on the smooth surface.  Noah and I
followed him to the table and stood next to him, studying the layout of the
property.  “Ruby?” he called.  She sluggishly got up from the couch and joined
us.

The Grigori House
appeared huge.  It covered nearly two acres of land, and that was just for the
building.  The estate was fifteen acres, complete with a small vineyard, stables
and a six-car garage.  “We’ll pair off, arriving separately.  Ruby, you’ll
escort me.  Noah and Leigh, you two go together.”  I winced when Miles said
that.  I knew Ruby would protest and possibly Noah, too.

I avoided her eyes, but I
felt them thrust into my skull.  She said nothing, but I could see her face in
the corner of my eye, and to say that she wasn’t pleased is a great
understatement.  It was Noah who vocalized his objection.  “I think it would be
better if I went alone and you and Leigh and Ruby could—”

“It looks more normal to
go as pairs,” said Miles.  With his tone, it sounded like the subject was
closed.  Noah said no more, but he, too, looked displeased.  Being the new kid
in school is never easy, no matter what your age, and I felt like I was getting
picked last for a deadly game of kick-ball.

“How are we going to stop
all of them by ourselves?” asked Ruby, studying the map.  “They’re going to be
everywhere.”

“We’ll wait until they’re
ready to crown their new king and then take it from them.”

All three of us looked at
Miles as though he were crazy.  “That’s suicide,” said Noah.

Miles shook his head.  “Most
of them will be mortal.  We can handle them.  It’s the Watcher angels that
we’ll have to worry about.”

“There’s bound to be a
dozen of them there,” said Ruby with a huff.  “We’ll never make it out alive.”

“The trick is to trap
them in one room.  You can set up a barrier, Ruby.  That will keep the mortals
enclosed.”

“Will it hold the
Watchers?” I asked.

“No, it won’t” said Noah.
 “Miles, there’s no way we can take out all the Watchers in one swoop.  We’d
need at least five more paladins.  Fighting paladins too, not just healers.”

“Well, we’re getting two
more at least.”

“What do you mean?”

“I phoned Charmagne this
morning and asked her to send backup.  She’s sending Gretchen and Felix.”

Noah flashed a devilish
half grin.  “This might work.”

“You bet your ass it’ll
work!” came the sound of a young woman’s voice from the foyer.  In stepped a
pretty, petit woman of about thirty with tanned skin, small brown eyes and
wavy, brown hair.  Beside her was a tall, lanky guy of about twenty-five, brown
skin, black hair and, when he spoke, had a thick French accent and sounded very
effeminate. 

“Hey, everyone!” said the
young man.

Noah’s grin got wider,
and he embraced both of them.  There were smiles all around, even from Ruby,
who hugged them both.  Miles was smiling too when he looked at me and noticed
my perplexed glance.

“Leigh, I’d like you to
meet Gretchen and Felix,” he said.

I shook their hands.

“Charmagne is the woman
who trained me to be a healer,” explained Miles.  “She’s in France.  She and
her paladins fight The Dark Ones there.  Gretchen’s ability is fire.  Felix can
produce electricity.”

“Got that right,” said a
confident Felix.

“They’ll be great assets
to us,” continued Miles.  “We’ll have them waiting near the stables, on the
south side of the property.”  He tapped his index finger at the location on the
map.  “Plenty of hiding space there for an ambush.  Since they took over the property,
they don’t keep horses there, so there’s lots of fighting space with nothing to
get in the way.”

We discussed the plan
further.  Despite the nervous tension with our plan, I found Gretchen and Felix
to be comforting and fun.  They definitely livened up the atmosphere with their
stories of fighting Les Foncés in Paris.

When we were finished,
Noah and Ruby left, while Gretchen and Felix went upstairs.  Before I headed
out, something suddenly occurred to me.  “Father Ben had said something about a
paladin’s light shining brightly and that Les Foncés can see it.  Won’t they
suspect us?” I asked Miles.

He shook his head.  “They
don’t pick up on dark paladins.”

“I’m a light paladin,
though,” I reminded him.

“Yes, but we’ll have Cee
Cee give you a special protection spell.  You’ll be fine,” he assured me.

“Can’t she put one on
herself, too?  That way she can help.”

He shook his head again.  “We
need someone on the outside in case we don’t make it.”

I nodded uneasily and
told him goodnight.  Before I left the living room he said, “What happened to
your face?”  He said it without much surprise as he rolled up the blueprint and
put a rubber band around it.

I touched my cheek and
winced from the bruise I received in the bar fight.  “Don’t know,” I said, not
wanting to recount the story.

Miles walked over to me
and gently placed his hand on my cheek.  For the first time, I saw a tenderness
in him, a contrast to his down-to-business manner.  After a moment, I no longer
felt the dull throb of the bruise.

“Thanks,” I said.

“Get some sleep.”

But sleep would not be
easy that night.

“Close your eyes, my baby.  Just relax and feel
yourself being protected.”

I leaned my head back
against the tub as Cee Cee spoke from the other side of the bathroom door.  I
was a little scared to take a bath again, choosing to take showers since I woke
up screaming underwater the day after Nadia died.  But Cee Cee assured me I
would be okay.  The water was an intensely calming indigo color.  She had added
lavender and rosemary and instructed me to wash with a handful of sea shells
she had given me.  I had given her an are-you-serious look, and she laughed,
saying I just needed to pass them over myself in the water.  A blue candle and
a white candle were lit on the counter; between them was a burning stick of
incense.  I felt more relaxed already.

When I was done, I joined
Cee Cee in the living room.  She was at her altar, praying for everyone’s
safety for our upcoming task.  I didn’t want to interrupt her, but she saw me
in the corner of her eye and beckoned me to sit beside her.

“How was your bath?”

“Very relaxing.”

“Good.  Now one more
thing.”

She picked up a small
bottle of oil with something resting at the bottom of it and tipped the bottle
onto her thumb.  She marked my forehead with her thumb, making a cross three
times.

“What is that?”

She put the cap back on
the bottle and placed it back on the altar.  “Just a little Angelica and
Rosemary oil.  That’s bay leaves and mandrake root at the bottom of the bottle
there.”

I nodded, hoping all of
this protection would help.  This brought on fresh nerves.

She picked up on my mood.
 “What’s the matter, my baby?”

I shrugged.  “Oh,
nothing.  Just about to throw myself into the pit of hell in a few days.”

She put her arm around my
shoulder and hugged me to her side.  “You don’t have to go through with this.”

I sighed.  “No.  I do.  I
gave my word.  I’m just really afraid of not being able to help them if they
need it.”

“Almost forgot!”  Cee Cee
reached over to her rhinestone Elvis purse, rummaged through it for a few
seconds and then pulled out something that she cupped in her hand.  “I stopped
by St. Geneviève’s gift shop today.”  She gently lifted my hand and placed the
object in it.  It was a silver token with the image of Joan of Arc with a fiery
halo on it.  I flipped it over.  A prayer was etched onto the other side of the
coin:

St. Joan of Arc, grant
me courage to defeat my fears, and give me strength to fight for what I believe
in.

I smiled at the little
token that was made for religious gift stores around the country.  I had seen
plenty of Saint coins in my life and never thought much of them.  Now, I
understood why so many took comfort in them.  “Thank you,” I whispered to Cee
Cee.

“Miles say you gettin’
stronger every day.  He have faith in you.  I do, too.”

“Thanks.”  My mind
trailed off to Noah and our weird interaction in Miles’ kitchen.  And then I
thought of everything that happened tonight.  “He hates me.  And I don’t blame
him.”

“Miles?”

“Noah.”

Cee Cee shook her head.  “You
couldn’t have saved Nadia.  He know that, too.”  I looked up at her and arched
an eyebrow.

“A few years ago, Nadia
was working on a case—not Les Foncés, but one of her cases for the church—and
she was checking on a little boy who’s step-daddy was abusing him.  The boy had
nasty bruises on him and it looked like his arm was broken.  Nadia tried to
leave with the boy.  That was her mistake ‘cause she should’ve called for the
police.  The step-daddy got his gun and shot her in the stomach and then took
off with the boy.

“The sisters got worried
when she didn’t come back and called Miles.  He sent Noah to the man’s house
and he found Nadia barely alive.  He took her to Miles’, but she died on the
way there.”

“But if she died—”

“Ruby was there when Noah
arrived.  She told him that she could keep Nadia’s soul from leaving, but Noah
would have to hurry.  She told him that he’d have to take the life of the man
who took Nadia’s life.  He had to come back with his blood.

“Noah went back to the
man’s house and used his ability to track him down.  Followed him all the way
to Metairie, where he was hiding out at his sister’s house.  Noah barged in,
and the man tried to shoot him, but Noah was too fast.  He dragged the man
outside and killed him with his bare hands.  He gathered some of his blood and
went back to Miles’.

“Ruby instructed Noah to
cut himself to get his own blood—that how he got that scar on his arm—and then
mix it with the killer’s blood.  Then he had to use the mixed blood and make
three crosses on Nadia—one on her forehead, one on her lips and one on her
heart—and repeat a dark prayer nine times to bring her back.  I don’t know how
Ruby knew to do that ‘cause that not real Voodoo.  Must be that dark magic she
always dabblin’ with.

“But anyway, Nadia’s soul
came back to her body, and Miles was able to heal her wound.  Noah did what he
did out of love, but he shouldn’t have done that.”

“Why not?  He saved her
life, and she—”

“He didn’t
save
her
life.  She was already on her way to God, but he brought her back.  By doing
that, it make him a dark paladin—a line walker.”

“Line walker?”

“Remember me and Father
Ben told you about Walter Savoy and how he was a paladin before he went to the
dark side?”

I nodded.

“Well, you can be a dark
paladin and still fight for good, but you more tempted by the dark side, and
you don’t go directly to God when you die.  You kind of stay in a limbo, always
on the front line of the battle.  Your abilities are stronger when you a dark
paladin, but your soul won’t ever really know rest in this life or the next.  That
why Ruby and Noah and Miles can seem a little moody at times.  And that why so
many dark paladins turn to Les Foncés, ‘cause they don’t see the use in
fighting for good when they won’t get rewarded in the hereafter.  But that’s
not entirely true.  Even if I was a dark paladin, I’d rather go to Heaven than
wherever Les Foncés go!  Even if it only a suburb of Heaven!”  She laughed
loudly at this.

“I had asked Maw Maw Clo
why she didn’t heal her friend Miss Ya when she was dying.  She said that God
was calling Miss Ya, and it wouldn’t be right to keep her from Him.  She knew
that she would become a dark paladin if she saved her?”

Cee Cee nodded.

“And killing that man—was
that why Noah was in prison?”

“Yes.  But Miles saw to
it that he didn’t do much time, not as much as he could have done.”

I felt horribly guilty
for thinking badly of Noah.  I couldn’t—wouldn’t—have done what he did, but I
understood it.  And I started to feel a little angry with Lucas for leaving out
some major facts about Noah’s incarceration.  I was sure he knew that the man
Noah killed was a low-life child abuser, but he made it seem like Noah was a
cold-hearted killer.

“There something else you
should know about Noah.  Now I know it’s not any of my business to be talking
about him, but I just don’t want you to get the wrong idea about him, ‘cause he
a good boy.

“See, he not only kept
Nadia from God, but he also played God by taking a life that wasn’t his to
take.”

“I don’t understand.  That
guy killed Nadia.  That’s what paladins are supposed to do, destroy the Dark
Ones.”

Cee Cee shook her head.  “That
man was just a man.  He did horrible things, but it was not for Noah to take
his life.  There was no trial, didn’t even give him a chance to beg God for
forgiveness.  Noah
played
God and then kept Nadia
from
God.  Keeping
Nadia here automatically make him a dark paladin.  Taking a life when we’re
sworn to protect lives should have turned him to Les Foncés.”

“Then why is he still on
the good side?”

“’Cause he special.  Half
paladin.”  She took a deep breath, and I could tell she was debating whether or
not to continue.  “And half Nephyl.”  She noticed my stunned reaction.  “A
Nephyl have a human mother and a angel father.”

“Miles told me what they
are.  Seriously?  He’s half
angel
?  Half
Grigori
?”

“Only half.  I shouldn’t
even be telling you this.  That’s for him to tell you if he want to, but I
thought it might help you to understand him a little better.  Long time ago,
his mama was raped by a Watcher angel.  She didn’t know she was a paladin at
the time, and the Watcher didn’t know, either.  She kept the baby and named him
Noah.

“Not long after he turned
fourteen, he started to grow wings.  His momma couldn’t keep what happened to
her a secret anymore.  She told him what happened and how he was created.  He
hated that Watcher for what he did to his mother.  He didn’t want any part of
him.  One night, he cut his wings off.  Almost bled to death.  She brought him
to me to help him.  She was afraid to go to the hospital because they’d ask too
many questions.  I sewed him up best I could and then brought him to Miles to
take care of any infection.  That’s how he and Noah first met.

“That year and the next,
Noah was a ball of rage.  He was on a self-destructive path, hanging with the
wrong people, gettin’ into all kind of trouble.  Then when he was sixteen,
that’s when he met Nadia.  She turned him around real good.  Set him straight.  He
would’ve done anything for her.  It broke his heart when she decided to join
the convent, but he stayed on the good path and has ever since.  That why he
not Les Foncés.

“Not long after Nadia met
him and turned him around, she started to get her power.  She saved his soul,
and that brought her to the light of the paladin.  But now, his soul is damned.
 When he die, he not gonna find anything on the Other Side but pain and
sorrow.”

I had no idea how to
respond to what I just heard.  Cee Cee was right in that I now saw Noah
differently.  After supper, I took a shower, said goodnight to Cee Cee and went
to bed, but wasn’t sleepy.  I stretched my legs out on the bed, leaned back
against the headboard and stared at the ceiling, feeling my guilty conscience
weigh me down like a wet blanket.

After a couple of minutes
my phone buzzed with an incoming text from Carrie, asking me if I was still up.
 I hesitated before texting her back, not sure if I wanted to talk to her at
all, afraid that I would take things out on her.  In truth, I was still hurt
about her date with Lucas, but best friends are hard to come by.  I texted her
back, letting her know that I was awake.  A moment later, my phone rang.

“Hey,” I said.

“Hey,” said Carrie,
sounding like she was walking on eggshells.  “I didn’t wake you, did I?”

“Nah.  I was just lying
down, thinking.  What’s up?”  I tried to sound cheerful, but she could read
through it.

“You okay?  You sound a
little down.”

“Yeah.  I’m fine,” I
lied.  “You okay?”

She paused for a moment
and then took a deep breath.  “Not really.”

“What’s up?”

“I feel really bad about
going out with Lucas.”

“You do?”

“Yeah.  I didn’t realize
how much of a connection the two of you had, but when I was out with him, I
noticed it big time.”

“What do you mean?  Did
he, like, talk about me the whole time or something?”

“Nope.  He didn’t say one
word about you, and changed the subject when I’d bring up your name.  He
avoided the subject of Leigh Benoit like the plague.”

I rolled my eyes.  “Uh,
Care, that’s not really a deep connection when a guy avoids talking about you.”

“That’s
exactly
what
it is.  If he didn’t like you so much, he wouldn’t care if we talked about you
or not.”

“God, I feel like I’m
back in high school with all this drama.  Reality is way harder than this
crap.”

“Well, I just wanted you
to know that he has it bad for you, and I feel like the worst friend ever for
going out with him.”

“Don’t feel like that.”

“You have to be pissed at
me.”

“I’m not.  I’m really
okay with it.  I’ve had other things to occupy my mind lately.”  That wasn’t a
lie, exactly.  I was starting to feel bad about being angry with Carrie in the
first place because it was clear that I wasn’t ready for a relationship with
Lucas, not in that way.

“I still hate myself.”

An idea suddenly occurred
to me and I grinned.  “I know what’ll make you feel better.”