Echoes in the Bayou (20 page)

 
Magnus was sitting up now and propped the pillows
behind him. She scooted over to his side of the bed and was cuddled up against
him. "We'll get to the cemetery location in a minute, but did I just hear
you call yourself average?" He asked her.

"Not
in my book," he said and leaned in for a kiss. "You are
breathtakingly beautiful Ava."

Suddenly
his hands were wrapped around her waist,
 and
he was pulling her against his erection. "You are so beautiful and this
feels so good," he moaned.

Ava loved
the feeling he gave her, she plunged her fingers into his long hair. What she
wouldn’t give to feel his soft hair brushing between her thighs. But now wasn’t
the time, and she knew she had to stop it before things got out of control,
before her body got out of control.

"Magnus,"
she moaned. "We've got work to do
, another
day won't kill us," she smiled as she kissed him and got out of bed.
"Maybe it won't kill you but it just might kill me," he said staring
down at his erection.

"Magnus,"
she gasped and her breathing became shallow.

"That
was just a joke Ava, but I …
"

"He
stopped mid-sentence when he saw that she was standing there and pointing at
the chair.

"That
can't be the same chair that …" He was dumbfounded
.

Ava could
only nod
her head frantically as the two stood
astonished and frightened staring at the wooden chair that she had lodged underneath
the door knob last night. It now sat upright and was facing the end of the bed.

"You
know what?" She said, "I bet it was Will watching us sleep. No harm
came to us at least none that we know of and that's fine with me. Besides,
we've got other things to take care of today and finding that cemetery is one
of those things," she said with confidence.

After a
quick shower and bite to eat Ava, Magnus, and Sinta set out in the direction of
the Montieu family graveyard. Gavin and Melanie were still asleep and Ava
thought it best not to wake them. "Let them sleep," she told him.
"They're going to need their rest, they've got a long drive ahead of
them," she said with a childlike grin.

The
grounds of the plantation were still muddy but the sun shone brightly hiding
any evidence of the past storm. After several twists and turns and couple of
backtracks, they found the old cemetery. It was overgrown with weeds and it was
obvious that it had not been tended to in years. "I would have never found
this," Magnus said.

"I
agree, thank god Will showed me in the dream last
 
night," Ava told him. "You know the more I think about it, the more I
believe that it was Will in our room last night, I bet he was just looking out
for us after all, it was his bedroom centuries ago."

"She
right Mister Magnus cuz if it was Miss Amelia or Mister John, neitha one of
you's woul
d

a
gots any sleep."

Th
e warm, humid breeze kicked up the left over rain from
the weeds and Sinta searched through them until she came upon Will Jr.'s
headstone. It was aged so badly that most of the words had disintegrated. 
All that was left was a partial name and date of birth and date of death.

 
Ava gently touched it. "I can't believe we found
it. Now that I'm seeing it right here in front of me, it all seems too real.
It's all so very, very sad," she said and leaned against Magnus.

"You
feel
anything Miss Ava?" Sinta asked. She
was hoping that seeing the cemetery where Will was buried would bring Celeste
closer to the surface of her.

"I'm
not sure what I feel," she said and touched the headstone again, this time
she pulled some dead weeds fro
m around it.

When she
touched the ground, a burst of energy soared through her body and she closed
her eyes and caught a glimpse of his funeral. His parents were there along with
the entire house staff and several other mourners. Amelia stood inconsolable
and William Sr. was stoic as he held onto his wife. The day was hot and sunny
but there was a warm steady breeze . Off in the distance, Ava could see a black
woman leaning against a tree and standing next to her was a young woman. She
recognized her immediately, it was Celeste. But her body wasn’t solid
like  the older woman she stood next to, it was transparent.

As she
walked towards them, she turned and glanced back at the funeral, Amelia had
collapsed and several people had gone over to her to help. The breeze had grown
warmer now as she approached the two women and she felt out of place. The
closer she got the more she began to see that the older woman was Sinta. She was
stunning and carried the same characteristics in youth that she did now. Her
eyes told Ava that even then she was full of knowledge and it was quite evident
that Sinta had lived many, many lives.

Ava
wanted to call out to them because she couldn’t reach them, her legs were
moving but the closer she got, the farther they seemed to be.  A voice
called out from behind the two but neither turned towards it. "Go back and
tell Will that I love him." The voice echoed in her mind.

"Ava!"
Magnus had been shouting her name.

"You's
sees her didn’t you Miss A
va?" Sinta stood
next to her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

 
Tears ran down her face as she told them about her
déjà vu and what Celeste had asked her to do. "She really is a part of
me," she said and cried into Magnus's arms.

"Now
all we
have to do is figure out a way to get the
two of them together," said Magnus.

"It's
like they are in different time zones, we need to break this awful curse, once
we do that we can reconnect them. Breaking the curse is the key
," she said to Magnus and Sinta.

"We
have got to get rid of Amelia and John. Then we can summon Will and bring him
to where Celeste is buried. That should do it right?" She turned and
looked at Sinta.

"
Yes Miss Ava that should free 'da spirits of Miss
Celeste and Mister Will. Celeste just have to see 'dat 'da man she love has
come for her and she will rise up and be free."

"We've
come a long way but there's still a lo
t of work
to be done," Magnus said.

"You
let that stupid bitch paw all over you last night didn’t you?" Melanie and
Gavin were going at it again only this time, Gavin was defending Ava.

"Melanie,
I don’t know what the hell you're talking about. I w
as in bed lying next to you, don’t you remember?" He asked.

Ava and
Magnus exchanged looks as they walked into the house. Sinta had told them she'd
be by later, she had some important things to do she told them
.

"Roads
all clear, so you guys can head on ou
t
anytime," Ava shouted out. She couldn’t wait to get rid of them.

"I'll
leave when I'm good and ready," Melanie shouted back.

"And
you're ready now!" Gavin barked at her
.

He gave
them an apologetic look, "I don’t know what's gotten into her.
Ever since last night she's been… well she's been a
bitch. I think that Amelia woman has gotten into her head and decided to move
in because I have never seen Mel act this way."

"Or
maybe it's just the real Mel," Ava sneered
.

"Listen
Ava, before we go can
I please talk to you?
It'll only take a minute I promise."

 
It was strange, but she knew what he wanted to talk to
her about and she wasn’t about to go down that road again. There was no way
she'd leave Magnus.

"Gavin,
I know what you're goin
g to say and let me just
put a stop to this right now. You cheated on me with my best friend and then kicked
me out of your home, a home that you so readily invited me to live in with you.
I am not going to forgive either of you for doing that, but I am going to
forget it and I suggest you do the same. Gavin you wanted Melanie and you got
her, so be happy and please get out of this house. I can no longer stand the
sight of either one of you," she said it as politely as she could.
"Oh and by the way, I don’t know what in god's name made you think that I
would even think of hurting Magnus the way that you hurt me. No one deserves
that not even you, goodbye Gavin."

 
"You keep your hands off my man." Melanie
had returned from putting her suitcase in the car.

"I
don’
t want your man Melanie, I've already had
him remember? Now get the hell out."

Magnus
couldn’t help but smile, he was proud of her for standing up to them, even
though he'd hoped that Gavin would give him a reason to want to take him on th
at walk down to the bayou.

 
The smugness had returned in full force as Gavin
replied, "Your loss sweetheart." And led Melanie towards the car.
"Oh and by the way, you're fired," he grinned haughtily and slammed
the car door. "I've always wanted to say that to someone," he said to
Melanie. Who would go back to feeling like her old self the second they drove
down the long driveway and hit the open road.

Chapter Fifteen

"Thank
god that's over," she said. "Now we can concentrate on getting rid of
Amelia and John."

"I'm
sorry Ava.
"

"Sorry
for what?
"

"You
just got fired.
"

"Oh that
not to worry, I'm sure I can find something else," she said with a grin
.

"You
know you don’t ne
ed that job anyway right?"
Magnus looked at her. "You can still have free reign over the house; you
can redecorate the whole place at your leisure. And what would you say if I
told you that I was having second thoughts about selling this place?" He
asked waiting for her reaction.

"What
would I say? Well I'd say that keeping this place
sounds like a grand idea, that's what I'd say." She kissed him on the lips.

Magnus
needed to get some writing done, he had been lagging ever since he got back
from New Orleans and Steve his agent had called to remind him that he had a
dead line. "I know I do, It's just some things had come up that I had to
take care of," he told him.

Once he
was off the phone, Ava told him that she wouldn’t disturb
him as she had some reading of her own to do. She
wanted to finish reading both diaries if she could and she figured while Magnus
was busy writing, she could be busy reading.

"Ava,
you remember what Sinta told you about reading the diaries," he cautioned
her.

"Yes
I remember but Sinta's not here right now and we need to figure out how all
this works. I mean how else are we going to reunite Will and Celeste if we
don’t know everything about them?" Magnus knew that there would be no
changing he
r mind, he hoped that what Sinta had
told her wasn’t one hundred percent accurate.

 
"I need you to do me one teensy weensy
favor," she stood in front of him. He was sitting at his desk and looked
incredibly sexy in a studious sort of way. He was wearing his glasses, and his
hair fell lazily around them.
What I
wouldn’t give to run my fingers through his hair,
she thought to herself. 

"And
just wha
t might that favor be?" He grinned
at her.

He
couldn’t help but laugh at her request. She'd asked
him if he wouldn’t mind sharing his writing room with her as she was too afraid
to take the diaries into another part of the large house. "I don’t want to
be alone," she frowned shyly.

 
"Is that all?" He asked with a grin.

When she
walked in
to the room carrying the diaries and
wearing what she was wearing, Magnus knew that it was going to be very
difficult to get any work done. But still, he more than welcomed the
distraction.  The cut off short shorts that she was wearing was driving
him crazy and the frilly tank top she'd changed into looked incredibly sexy on
her, the straps fell languidly off her shoulders, and he was made well aware of
the fact that she was not wearing a bra.