Nancy K. Duplechain - Dark Trilogy 03 - Dark Legacy (18 page)

We found a dark,
abandoned offshoot of a main tunnel. Aimee and the twins had flashlights, so
they lit it up for us. It was a small chamber and quiet, despite the steady
thump that carried from the rave room. Sonja broke open a blue glow stick, but
it hardly provided any extra light. She sat on the ground, and Olivia sat near
her. The glow stick made Olivia’s hair and skin seem like bioluminescence. She
was an angel with an alien halo.

The twins and
Casper sat on the ground across from Olivia and Sonja. The rest of us stood.

Felix spoke
first. “So, I wanted us all together to meet and discuss what’s happening. We
know there’s a turned coven here and that Gretchen is missing. We strongly
believe the coven is responsible. We also think they sent the
Masque de L’âme
Noire and its twin to New Orleans a few months ago. Our friends here,” he gestured
toward Noah and me, “recovered the masks from the Grigori and the Nephilim.”

“What does a
coven want with the angels and their offspring?” said Saul.

“Your guess is
as good as ours. Now, as you all know, there was a note found in Gretchen’s apartment.
It said ‘give it back.’ Also, the name ‘Hecate’ was written in haste on her
refrigerator. We don’t know what ‘give it back’ refers to, but ‘Hecate’ has
several possibilities. One is a Wiccan festival, of which there are several
happening in Europe day after tomorrow. There’s one in Loughborough Park in the
Brixton district of South West London. You’re familiar with it, I’m sure,
Aimee?”

“Yeah. I got a
mate from next door in Camberwell. I think I know the park you’re talking
about.”

“Can you go and
check it out?”

Aimee shrugged.
“Sure. Not a problem.”

“Can I go, too?”
said Sonja. “I love festivals.”

“You think they
have corndogs there?” Alex said to Oscar.

“Probably some
of those giant turkey legs,” said Oscar.

“Yeah, medieval
fare makes more sense over there,” said Alex.

Aimee smiled at
Sonja, ignoring the twins. “Yeah, come on. We can crash at my dad’s flat.”

“Right on,” said
Sonja.

“All right,”
said Felix. “There’s another festival in La Loupe, not too far from here. Any
takers?”

“Do you have
anything more exciting than a bunch of withered hags dancing in ugly clothes?”
said Casper.

The twins and Aimee
laughed, and Felix rolled his eyes and said, “There’s a display of Hecate at
the classical museum in Nice. Would that be to your liking?”

Casper grinned.
“Ah, I do like that. I can go to the beach.”

“It’s
not
a pleasure trip. If Gretchen is still alive, we could be running out of time.
It’s very possible that they do have her and want to trade for whatever it is
they are seeking.”

Casper pouted.
“Fine. I’ll go to the museum and look at the stupid statue and ask around.”

“That museum is
where the masks came from,” said Noah. “Someone bought them and they were
shipped to New Orleans from there.”

Felix looked at
Casper. “Talk to the manager and find out who bought those masks if you can.”

“Yes, yes. I’ll
do all of that,” said Casper with a wave of his hand.

Saul said, “I’ll
go to the festival in La Loupe.”

“I’ll go with
you,” said Olivia.

“There is an
occult museum in Brussels,” said Felix. “Gretchen said she was going to
Brussels before we lost contact with her. This museum will be featuring Hecate
in honor of the upcoming feast day, which is Sunday. However, the museum is not
open on Sundays, so they will be doing this tomorrow.”

“Leigh and I can
go,” said Noah. He looked at me and raised his eyebrows in question, as if to
ask if that was okay with me. I nodded.

“Good,” said
Felix. “As for you two,” He nodded toward the twins.

“We’re all
ears,” said Oscar.

“Do you have to
get back to the States anytime soon?”

“No,” they said
in unison.

“Can you pay a
visit to Professor Juliette Alexandre at
Université d’Orléans
? She
specializes in classical Greek studies. She can tell you all about Hecate.”

“Fun, fun,” said
Alex.

Oscar nudged him
in the ribs with his elbow and scowled at him. He looked at Felix. “Yeah. We’ll
be glad to.”

“Good,” said
Felix. “Everyone exchange phone numbers and keep in contact. I’ll book all of
your flights, and you can all leave tomorrow. Saul and Olivia, you’ll have to
drive, but I have a car for you.”

“I only fly
first class,” said Casper.

Felix glared at
him. “If you want first class, you’ll have to pay the upgrade fee.”

Casper huffed,
and then we all left the chamber.

Heading back
toward the rave room, the smoke in the tunnels grew thicker. The smell of weed
was slowly replaced by another odor that Noah noticed first. He stopped and
grabbed my hand.

“Wait up, guys,”
he said to our group.

Everyone
stopped.

The smoke intensified,
but now I realized what I smelled: damp earth, the same as the fog at
Clothilde’s house the night of the attack.

“What’s wrong,
Noah?” said Felix.

“There’re here,”
he answered. “The witches.”

“Where?” said
Saul.

“I don’t know.
Everyone stay together. They’ll try to separate—”

He was cut off
by the sound of screaming and the thunder of a stampede, people running away
from us, toward the exit. There was also the sound of growling like a dozen
dogs dashing through the tunnels, in and out of the chambers, coming closer to
us.

“Stay close to
me,” Noah murmured in my ear, and squeezed my hand.

“If that’s the
witches, those are demon hounds coming at us,” said Felix. “Everybody make your
way to the rave room! It’s a straight shot from here. Everyone move! Now!”

We made a dash
to the large alcove where the music was still spinning, but the room was in
utter chaos. People were getting trampled trying to escape. In the midst of the
crowd, I saw bodies being tossed around, and I spotted in the center of the
room some kind of beast I had never seen. It was hulking and bent over with the
hind legs of a wolf and the front legs of a mountain lion. Its face looked more
human, if you could call it that, but its eyes were solid silver and its ears
were short and pointed. Its skin was the darkest shade of red, almost black,
and it covered its bare, muscled body which seemed grotesquely human, except
for its ferocious teeth and the small razor spikes on its spine.

And there were a
dozen or so more of them.

The other
paladins wasted no time in attacking the demon hounds. Felix electrocuted one,
while Alex fried another. Oscar raised his hands, causing an icy wind to blow over
another. It froze solid. To my right, I saw Olivia with her hands raised. The
strobe lights were still going, producing flickering shadows, but it was enough
for her to grab on to. Two of the demon hound shadows conjoined and moved away
from them, pulling their bodies with the gliding black mass, dragging them into
deep shadow where they disappeared.

Noah and Aimee tackled
two of them. I focused my energy and drained the life force of one of them just
enough for Noah to get the upper hand. He killed it with his bare hands and
then looked at me for a second with surprise in his eyes.

The smoke that
had started to thicken in the tunnel made its way to the rave room. It lost its
yellowish tint and turned translucent white and grew denser by the second to near
total opaqueness. Most of the crowd was gone at this point, except for the
casualties who lay torn and battered around the alcove and in the tunnels.

I saw a demon
hound tear out of the rave room and into the tunnel. Noah took off after it,
despite the growing thickness of the fog.

“Wait!” I said,
going after him.

The battle
continued in the rave room, but I followed Noah down the tunnel until I could
no longer see where I was going, and the steady thump of the music faded to
silence. My nostrils were filled with the rotted earth smell.

“Noah!”

I was alone.

I hugged the
walls, the rough limestone scratching my fingertips until I touched empty
space. I had come to one of the chambers. If I went in, I’d be trapped. I
worried about Noah, but the safest thing to do would be to make my way back to
the others.

I turned to head
back toward the rave room, but there was something coming toward me. It was a
writhing shadow that slinked along the wall, a fluid pallet of ink in the shape
of a woman, just as I had seen that night at Clothilde’s.

Pulling from my
core, I tried to drain its life. As soon as I tried, its silhouette changed
from a woman to a giant, black snake. It stopped in front of me, staring me
down.

“Leigh! Get out
of the way!” It was Noah. He was behind the snake.

When it heard
his voice, it darted into the chamber next to me. Noah caught up to me, and the
fog began to disappear. We looked into the chamber, but the snake wasn’t there.

“Are you okay?”
he said.

I half nodded,
still looking around the chamber.

“Leigh?”

“Yeah, I’m fi—”
I stopped short when I saw the blood oozing through his shirt on his right
side. He looked pale. I lifted the shirt and put my hand on his waist where
there were deep claw marks. My hand heated up quickly, and he sucked air in
through his teeth, in momentary pain, but closed his eyes, the tension leaving
his body.

He opened them
again while I was finishing up. He let out a long, slow breath and smiled. “I
like it so much better when you heal me than when Miles does.”

I felt myself
blush a little, and maybe my hand lingered on his waist longer than it should
have as our eyes locked for a moment.

“We need to get
back to the others. I think you’ll need to heal a few people.”

I did. Random
clubbers needed tending to, and so did Casper, Aimee and Felix, though only
Casper’s injuries were life-threatening. I was sure the Guardians would come
for him any minute, but he hung in there long enough for me to make him whole
again. I saw it in his eyes that he was grateful, though he would never admit
it. His thanks would be in actions, not in words.

When we made it
out of the catacombs, Felix made an anonymous call to the police to say there
was a mass killing in the catacombs. The demon hounds had either disappeared or
turned to dust after they were killed, so there was no evidence that something
supernatural had occurred there, though who knows what idiots stopped to film
anything on their phones or take pictures in the middle of such an attack.

Noah and I
returned to Charmagne’s where we explained to her and Miles everything that
happened. We also told them of Felix’s plan to follow up on the Hecate lead.
The only thing Noah didn’t mention was that I was able to drain a life force
now. I was relieved and grateful that he left that out.       

I was getting
ready for bed when I heard a soft knock on the door. It was Noah.

“Just making
sure you’re okay.”

“I’m fine.”

“I was talking
to Miles about our plans for tomorrow. He, um, said he just wants it to be me
and him.”

“That figures.
He asks me to come here, but doesn’t want me to do anything.”

“After tonight,
he’s just being protective. I kind of agree with him.”

“Why?”

He shrugged.
“We’ve been doing this for a long time. You’re just getting your feet wet. It’s
nothing personal.”

“You saw what I
can do. I’m a lot stronger now.”

“Yeah, that was
pretty cool.” He smiled.

“Believe me,
with him it’s personal. He’s trying to be my dad all of a sudden.”

“That such a bad
thing?”

I remembered
what Carrie told me before I left. “I guess not, but I wish he’d have a little
more faith in me.”

“Well, I just
wanted to let you down easily. Night.”

“Thanks. Night.”

When he turned
to leave, I saw a peculiar blood stain pattern on the back of his shirt. “Are
you okay?” I said, reaching out to touch his back.

“Hmm?”

“Your back …”

He pulled away
from me, grimacing. “Yeah. I’m fine.”

“No, you’re not.
What is that? Did I miss that from earlier?”

“No. I’m fine, okay?”

He headed for
the door again, and this time it dawned on me that the pattern was at his
shoulder blades and had a definite shape. “Oh my God,” I whispered in awe. “Are
those your wings?”

He didn’t turn
around, but stayed in the doorway, facing the hall. Neither of us spoke for a
moment, but he finally nodded.

“I thought you—”

“I
did
,”
he said, frustration and defeat on the edge of his voice.

“Then …”

He turned
around, stared at me for a moment with a little sadness behind his eyes, and he
quietly closed the door. “Please don’t tell anyone,” he whispered. “Especially
Miles.”

I nodded. “I … I
understand why you don’t want them. I really do, but maybe you can hang on to
them this time? I mean, they don’t have to define who you are. They can be like
… I don’t know. Like a symbol or something.”

He narrowed his
brows, questioning.

“Sort of a
battle flag for you. Something to show the Nephilim that you won’t be
corrupted. Like you’re telling them, ‘Hey, I can do anything you can do, but
I’m not going to follow you.’ Kind of like an in-your-face thing.”  I smiled,
hoping that would lighten the moment.

He seemed to be
turning the idea over in his mind. I was relieved when he smiled a little, too.
“Can I ask you something personal?”

“Sure,” I said,
even though I hated it when someone asked me that.

“Where do you
see yourself in the future? I mean, do you have hopes and dreams?”

I chuckled. “I’m
kind of a day-to-day person, but yeah, I suppose I do.”

“Like what?”

“Well,” I
started, but had a hard time thinking of something. “I think what I want most
of all is for my niece to have a normal life.”

“But what about
you
?
What do you want for
you
?  Anything you’ve always dreamed of doing? Ever
wanted to get married and start a family?”

“I have a
family. It’s not a big one, but I can’t see my life without them.”

He smiled. “It’s
good to have a family.”

“Do you have one?
Aunts or uncles or cousins?”

He shook his
head. “Our little Pally club is it for me.”

“Oh,” I
whispered.

“Your friend
Lucas, are you and he …?” He trailed off, but I knew what he meant.

“Oh, no! It’s …
complicated. I hate it when people say that, but that’s what it is.”

He nodded,
understanding. “Nadia and I used to be together a long time ago.”

“I know.”

He furrowed his
brows.

“She mentioned
there was someone once. She didn’t say who, but I had the feeling it was you.”

He smiled sadly.
“It was so long ago. And it took a while, but I knew that that part of our
relationship was over, but we really did stay great friends.” His smile faded.
“After she was killed, I was very angry, and I didn’t mean to take it out on
you.”

“It’s okay,” I
started, but he held up his hand to stop me.

“And I’m sorry
if I was out of line by kissing you and in any way hurting your relationship
with Lucas. I just haven’t felt this way about someone in a long time. About
you, that is.”

Lucas … my light
in this dark world. But I couldn’t be with him. I’d get him hurt or killed.
Noah and I stared at each other for a moment. He and I were the same. We were
both dark, both damned. We understood each other. I didn’t have to be afraid of
getting close to him. He was used to the danger. I found my body moved before
my mind did. I leaned in and brushed my lips against his.

He pulled back
and shook his head. “You don’t have to,” he whispered.

“I want to,” I
breathed, and kissed him again. This time he let me, and we stayed like that
for what seemed a small eternity, our bodies flushing with warmth, our skin
electrified.

We fell together
on the bed as we pulled off each other’s clothes. I found myself once again
attracted and overtaken by the raw power of his presence. The intensity of his
very being frightened me and excited me at the same time. As our bodies moved
together, my heated passion took a different turn as I felt a gradual coldness
pierce my veins. Noah’s breathing quickened and became shallow. I kept my eyes
shut and pulled him harder to me, wanting to take him all into me, wanting his
life force to merge with mine, and how everything in me beseeched the deathly
cold to consume my heart …

Noah let out a
breathless, choked scream. My eyes flew open to see his gray eyes wide and
frightened. I felt his heart slowing through his chest against my body. I
pushed him off of me and staggered off the bed to stoop near the window. I held
the curtain over my mouth to keep from screaming as Noah gasped for air. I
wanted to rush to him, to help him, but I was too frightened of my power to
even touch him.

And then his
eyes closed, and he was still.

All I could do
at first was shake my head. He couldn’t be dead, he just couldn’t be …
Miles!
 

I grabbed my
robe and put it on as I rushed out the door, stopping down the hall at his
door. I knocked quickly a couple of times and then just opened it, went in and
turned on the light.

“Miles!” I said
in a loud whisper as I ran to his bed. I shook him. “Miles!”

He jolted from
his sleep. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

“It’s Noah.
Please hurry!”

I waited for him
in the hall as he stumbled out of bed, wearing his sleep shirt and shorts. He
followed me to my bedroom, and I closed the door behind us. “Please help him!”

He looked down
at Noah in his state of undress and then at me in my robe. He arched one
eyebrow. “What were you doing before this happened?” he asked, feeling for a
pulse.

“Does it
matter?”

“Yes, it does. I
need to know exactly what happened.”

“He’s not dead,
is he? Please don’t tell me he’s dead.” I heard my voice catch and felt tears
well up in my eyes.

“He’s alive, but
barely.”

“It’s not too
late. I don’t see the Guardians—”

“Leigh—”

“You can heal
him, right?”

“Leigh!
What
happened
?!”

“I … we … we
were—”

“I can assume
what the two of you were doing, but what were
you
, specifically, doing?”

“I can’t really
explain it. I … sort of felt the life drain out of him and … into me. But it
was so cold …”

He regarded me
with first curiosity and then with fury. “I’ll be right back,” he said, and he
left the room. He returned right away carrying his black bag. He took out his
holy water and began to pray and mark Noah’s head and chest with the water.

I sat on the
chair in front of the vanity, nervously biting at the corner of my lip and
silently praying to anyone who would hear me. It felt like I held my breath for
the several minutes while he worked on Noah.

I finally
exhaled with relief when he stirred and his chest softly rose and fell with
each breath. His eyes fluttered open.

“All right now?”
said Miles.

Noah tried to
speak but could only make weak sounds. He tried to sit up, but Miles had him
stay down. “Not yet,” he told him. “I want you to rest.”

Noah looked
around the room, and his bewildered eyes found me in the corner. I couldn’t
bring myself to look at him. Ashamed, I left the room and waited in the hall. I
heard Miles tell him to rest again, and then he turned out the light and closed
the door.

I had never seen
Miles look so angry. He was so furious he couldn’t speak at first. He looked at
me, opened his mouth and closed it again before going back to his room. I
followed him and lingered in the doorway.

He put his bag
on the chair near the window and said, “Come in and close the door. I don’t
want to wake up anyone.”

I watched him
pace the room for a bit and then said, “Is he going to be okay?”

He stopped and
stared at me. “Yes, thank goodness. Do you have any
idea
what you did
tonight?” He was fighting to keep his voice quiet.

“I’m sorry,” I
said, unable to look at him.

“’Sorry.’ Yes, I
know you’re very sorry for what just happened, but what about
how
you
got to this point?”

I didn’t answer
him, and he continued. “Charmagne’s been teaching you how to drain a life, hasn’t
she?”

I nodded meekly.

“I told her
before we came here and I did
not
want you learning this, not yet! It’s
far too early and far too dangerous. You—you could have
killed
him!”

“Don’t you think
I know that?!” I looked at him now, tears in my eyes.

His fury
subsided, and his face softened to regret. “I think it was perhaps a mistake to
bring you here. I had hoped that it would be easier to figure out what’s been
going on with our dreams if all of the puzzle pieces were together, but it’s
only leading to more confusion. And now
this
… this is just too much for
you. It’s too much for
me
.”

“For you?”

“I hate myself
for thinking it, but” his voice dropped to a whisper, “I was afraid Charmagne
had something to do with what’s been going on—with the masks, the dreams,
Gretchen—I hate myself for thinking that. She is the greatest paladin I have
ever met. The years I spent with her, learning from her, have made me who I am
today.”

“I think she
wants the same thing for me.”

He thought about
this. “Maybe. But I don’t. Not right now. It’s very late, and there’s been
enough excitement for tonight. Let Noah sleep in your room, and you sleep in
his. Tomorrow, if Noah is better, I’ll take him with me. I may just decide to
send you back to Louisiana.”

I stood there,
looking down at the carpet like a little girl who was just scolded by her
daddy. That’s more or less what it was.

“I’ll check on
Noah later,” he said, his voice softening. “You go and get some sleep.”

I closed his door
but went downstairs instead of Noah’s room. I couldn’t sleep now if I wanted
to. I suddenly wanted to eat my feelings, so I headed for the kitchen to raid
the fridge. When I got there, the light was on, and Charmagne was at the sink.
We startled each other.

“Oh, I’m sorry.
I didn’t think anyone would be up,” I said.

“No, no! Come
in, dear. I was just putting away Danielle’s dish from the soup I brought her
earlier.”

“How is she
doing?”

Her shoulders
sagged, and she looked down at the stone floor, her eyes watering. “Not better.
You can’t understand what it’s like to watch your child suffer and not be able
to help. Every day I work with her, healing her as best I can, but nothing
helps. She’s just fading before my eyes … Dear, forgive me.” She smiled, wiping
away a couple of tears. “I am being an impolite host. I should not bring up
such matters with you.”

“No, it’s okay.
I’m really sorry that—you know.”

She looked at me
and tilted her head. “Have you been crying, my dear?”

I looked down at
the floor.

“Whatever is the
matter?”

“I … something
happened. With Noah. I …”

She came over to
me and took my hands in hers. “You can tell me!”