Nancy K. Duplechain - Dark Trilogy 03 - Dark Legacy (25 page)

Miles sat in a
chair near the TV, his eyes closed, and lips moving silently, in prayer perhaps.

Noah stood by
the window overlooking the side of the house near the arbor covered in dead
honeysuckle vines and the path that led to the garden in the back. He looked as
nervous as Ruby.

There we sat,
not a word spoken between any of us.

And we waited.

It was 1:30 in
the morning, and the smell of coffee filled the house. Cee Cee had consecrated
the Book of
Avelina
a few hours earlier, sometime after she was able to set her grief aside. She
had lit a white candle, burned a small cedar branch from one of the trees outside,
and passed the book through the smoke. She had us join hands and said, “I
consecrate this, the Book of Avelina, with the powers of fire, air, earth,
water, and spirit. By God’s will and through our best intentions, this book
will only be used for good. Let it serve us well, here and the beyond. Amen.”
She said this
seven times.

Lyla had long fallen
asleep at the table. I had carried her to the couch and covered her with a
blanket around 11:00, and Smittens curled up next to her. The only light on was
the one over the stove, and it cast a soft glow upon us as we spoke quietly
around the kitchen table.

From where I
sat, I could see the door to Clothilde’s room. Even though I saw her soul leave
her body, there was something about the atmosphere and the time of night that
had me glancing at the door every couple of minutes, expecting her to walk out
of it.

“—the pond?”

“Sorry, what?” I
said, taking my eyes off the door to the bedroom.

“How deep is the
pond?” repeated Miles.

I shrugged. “Three
or four feet in the middle? If that.”

He was quiet for
a moment, staring down at the table, his eyebrows scrunched into deep thought.

“Have an idea?”
said Ruby.

“Maybe.” He
looked up. “If we can turn it all to holy water … If we can get them trapped
there … I don’t know. Just thinking aloud.”

“There are going
to be too many,” said Noah and then shook his head in frustration. “There’s
going to be so many. Even if the others join us, we’ll still be way outnumbered.
I don’t know, Miles. Maybe we should hide out for a while.”

I shook my head.
“Maybe we can hide, but I can’t take Lyla away from here and just run away. I
can’t ask my friends to hide and not be able to tell them for how long. This
needs to end.”

I think Noah was
surprised to hear the determination in my voice. The truth was that I was
faking my confidence. My whole psyche was riddled with dread and fear, but I
didn’t want Lyla to see that. I didn’t want her to be afraid any more than she
already was.

“Maybe we can
take a look at the pond and see if we can arrange something,” said Miles.

I stayed inside
to make a fresh pot of coffee while they went to check the pond. I didn’t want
Lyla to be alone in the house, anyway. If she woke up and no one was there,
she’d probably be terrified.

I was half
finished my cup of coffee when they came back. For the first time, they looked
hopeful.

“That’ll have to
do for now,” said Noah.

“What did y’all
do?” I said.

“I blessed the
water,” said Cee Cee.

“We can get lucky
with the first few that come in,” said Miles. “But when the others catch on,
they’ll avoid that general area.”

They each poured
themselves another cup of coffee, and we settled into waiting silence again. After
a while, Ruby pulled out the grimoire and looked through it while Miles, Noah,
Cee Cee and I discussed strategies. About every fifteen minutes, Noah got up
and checked all the windows in the house. This went on for around forty-five
minutes.

I saw Lyla stir
from the couch. She rubbed her eyes and yawned and then looked around. She got
up and went to the laundry room, the bathroom and then upstairs.

Ruby sat up in
her chair, a smile on her lips. “This could work,” she whispered.

“What do you
have?” said Miles.

She turned the
book toward Miles and pointed to an illustration of hooded figures in a field,
fighting a battle against men in armor. Their hands were raised, and the figure
in the lead held a small object in his or her hand. The opposing side had
bodies strewn about the field, their souls above their bodies. But instead of
the souls floating away, it looked like the souls were being pulled back into
their bodies. Other soldiers stood beside the hooded figures, and instead of
fighting them, they turned on their fellow soldiers.

“Read the notes
in the margin,” said Ruby.

Miles read: “The
Heart of Charlemagne may only be used by a pure descendant. Whosoever uses the
Heart to return a soul back to the body will become master of that soul.” He
looked up from the book. “My God. We need that Heart.”

“Get it back,
Miles, and
she
can do this,” said Ruby, pointing at me.

“
Me
?”

Miles had a
faraway look in his eyes.

“
Miles
?”
said Ruby.

“That’s what Ben
saw,” he murmured. He glanced at Noah and quickly looked back at the book.
“Father Ben had told me once that he saw you, Leigh, in a great battle against angels.
Of course he was talking about the Nephilim.

“I don’t like
the sound of that,” said Cee Cee, crossing herself.

“Charmagne used
the Heart. Is she a pure descendant?” I said.

“No,” said
Miles. “But she absorbed enough of your ability, enough of your essence, that
she can use it.”

“Have her do it.
It’ll work. I
know
it will!” said Ruby. “I’ll perform the spell for her
while she holds the Heart. It’ll be charged, and as we take ‘em down, she can
bring ‘em back and make ‘em fight for us.”

“Wait,” I said.
“If I return all those souls, won’t that turn me to the Dark Side?”

“No,” said Noah.
“These are already Dark Ones. We can do whatever it takes to destroy them.
Their souls weren’t going to God anyway.”

“Okay,” I said
with resolve. “I’ll do whatever it takes.”       

***

“I don’t think
they’re coming tonight, Miles. They would have been here hours ago,” said Ruby,
stifling a yawn.

Miles shook his
head. “Charmagne wants this over with. They’ll come.”

It was nearing 4:00.
We had already gone through two pots of coffee as we plotted our defense. I
went upstairs to check on Lyla, but when I opened the door to her room, she
wasn’t in bed. I checked the bathroom, my room, and the other bedroom at the
end of the hall. I made the panic sit in its place before I jumped to any
conclusions. I hurried down the stairs and checked the bathroom near the
laundry room. She wasn’t there. Clothilde’s door was closed, and I hated to
open it, but if Lyla was anywhere in the house, she would be in there.

It was so dark
in the room. It felt like Clothilde was asleep and I was just sneaking in. I
turned on the light, but did not see Lyla. Clothilde’s body, her empty vessel,
lay on the bed with the sheet covering it. The room felt so very empty. I
gently shut the door and returned to the kitchen.

“Have you guys
seen Lyla?” I noticed the panic had crept up to my throat, but I didn’t care.

“Where did you
last see her?” said Cee Cee.

“I saw her go
upstairs, but she’s not there. She’s not down here that I can see either.”

“Where’s
Smittens?” Hearing Lyla’s voice, I turned around to see her coming from the
laundry room.

“Where were
you?!” That came out sounding harsher than I had intended, but anger was
quickly replacing panic.

“I was just
looking for Smittens! I thought she might’ve gone outside.”

“You were
outside
?”

“Just on the
back steps! I can’t find her!”

“When we went
outside to the pond earlier, the cat followed us,” said Noah. “Sorry. I didn’t
think it would be a problem.”

Lyla stormed off
toward the front door. I ran ahead of her, blocking her exit. “No!” I said.

“I have to get her!
What if they get her first?!”

“They not after her,
my baby,” said Cee Cee. “She gonna be alright. Come sit down with us.”

Lyla ignored her
and pushed me as hard as she could. I grabbed her wrists and kept her off of
me. “That’s
enough
, Lyla! You’re
not
going out there!”

“I need to get her!”

“I can go get her,”
said Noah, getting up from the table.

Lyla kicked me.
I yelled and fell against my grandfather’s chair, holding my shin. Lyla tore
open the door and ran out.

I followed,
trying my best to keep up with her. I saw the cat sitting on the edge of the
pond. And I noticed something in the distance.

“Leigh!” It was
Noah yelling behind me.

My eyes caught
something on the horizon. I stopped in horror. A dozen nephils ripped through
the sky, headed toward the house.

“LYLA!
STOP!” I chased after her. Noah was about to pass me up.

The nephil in
the lead swooped low, aiming for Lyla. And then something extraordinary
happened. Smittens jumped into the air and transformed into a cougar, grabbing
the nephil with its claws and bringing it down, tearing it to pieces.

Noah passed me
up, pulling off his shirt as he ran, and then leaped off the ground. Glorious
amethyst-colored wings unfurled from his shoulders. In mid-air, he tackled a nephil
that was about to snatch up Lyla. I grabbed her and ushered her
back toward the
house as Ruby came forth with her staff to stop another nephil. I had just
enough time to see it crash to the ground without Ruby ever laying a hand on
it. Cee Cee helped me get Lyla into the house while Miles ran to help the
others. The cougar became a house cat again, and it followed us inside.

As soon as Cee Cee closed the door, she
poured some more brick dust in front of it. A loud thud hit the other side of
the door. We were headed for the stairs when a nephil crashed one of the glass windows
in the living room. Smittens growled. I passed Lyla off to Cee Cee, and I
raised my hands toward the nephil. It crumpled in a heap to the ground outside.

The three of us ran upstairs to Lyla’s
room and hid her in the closet. She curled into a ball, clutching Smittens to
her chest.

“I have to help them,” I told
Cee Cee.

“Go, my baby! I’ll stay with
her!”

Outside, the battle seemed bleak. Noah
had taken two nephils at once. Miles looked drained. A half dozen Nephilim lay
scattered in the yard and the pond.

I used my ability to pull one of them
off of Noah. I heard noise on the roof and turned to see two of them ripping
the shingles off. I killed one, and the other came for me. Ruby killed that one
by throwing dust on it. The angel screamed and burst into flames, quickly
dissolving to ash.

Miles finished one off, and I looked
with dread in the distance as I saw more coming. But something seemed off. The
one in the lead was being attacked by the others. He was holding something in
his hand. A moment later I realized it was Ridge. He came down at a steep angle
as the others trailed him. I drained the life from the one closest to him. It
gave Ridge just enough of an edge to escape, but his wings soon gave out, and
he fell about thirteen stories and landed in the driveway, near the pond.

Three nephils descended upon him. Noah
ran to the mob and tackled one, breaking its neck, while Miles and Ruby took
care of the other two.

Ridge lay on his back, his violet wings
torn, his face bloodied, claw marks on his body. I put my energy into him
enough to bring him around, but I stopped when Miles removed my hands and
nodded toward the trees near the pond. The Guardians moved toward us.

Ridge’s breathing was labored. His eyes
found mine. His voice bubbled with fluid. “The Heart.” He coughed. A little
blood spattered across his lips. His fingers reached for a small package on the
ground near him. I recognized the ancient brown linen when he placed it in my
hand.

His breath hitched. “They’re coming
soon.” He coughed up more blood.

Ruby laid her hands upon him and
whispered a spell to keep him from being in too much pain. He closed his eyes
and slipped away. The Guardians took his soul with them.

Noah looked saddened.

Miles said, “Ruby. The grimoire.”

She ran inside
the house to retrieve the book and met us at the pond where there were at least
sixteen bodies, and Noah tossed more into the water. He stopped after the last
body and stared up into the sky over the sugar cane field. “Incoming!”

With the aid of
the moon, I could make out small shadows on the horizon, like a distant flock
of birds coming our way.

Miles looked at
me, his eyes pleading.

“I think
… I think I can do it,” I said.

“You
can
,”
insisted Ruby.

Miles held the
book open for Ruby while she and I held our hands around the Heart. She recited
the spell, and I felt a burst of energy surge through me.