Nancy K. Duplechain - Dark Trilogy 03 - Dark Legacy (28 page)

“That’s one
down,” I said and then turned to Ruby. “How are we on time?”

She checked her
watch. “About ten more minutes.”

“Where’s
Charmagne? I don’t even see her! We need to get back to the house.”

The wind picked
up just then. I looked over at the remaining witches. Their white eyes were
upon us and each had a finger pointed in our direction. Clouds swiftly covered
the moon, and we found ourselves in total darkness.

Miles shouted to
Saul, “Keep up the shield!”

Thunderous
thudding pounded in our ears from the bodies hitting the other side of the
shield.

Alex created a
fireball in each hand. Sonja grabbed a few branches and wrapped them with
Spanish moss for Alex to create torches.

Above us, the
clouds broke in a radius of about ten yards. From the hole in the sky, it began
to rain snakes. Not just ordinary snakes, but giants that would put pythons to
shame, all of them black as the smoke that had billowed from crevice.

Olivia screamed
as one almost landed on her head but was stopped by Saul’s barrier. Surrounded
by Nephilim, demon hounds and giant snakes, our hopes were diminished, and I
was running out of time.

I sent more
nephils to attack one of the witches. They snatched one of them up and carried
her away. Three of my nephils were killed, but three more brought the witch to
us. Alex set her on fire. She screamed and thrashed. The nephils dropped her on
the bank of the bayou. Her charred flesh fell away from her rotten bones, and
her black heart burst with a hundred rats that quickly scurried away.

The snakes
stopped falling from the sky, and the clouds cleared. We could see again with
the light of the moon. I had five minutes left.

“I have to get
back to the house!” I said.

“Everyone make
your way to the house!” said Miles.

“I have to go
now
!”
I insisted.

“I’ll take her,”
Noah said to Miles. Maybe we can take out the witches from the other side.

“Okay, but if
there are more Nephilim coming from that direction, come back this way at
once,” ordered Miles.

I clutched the
Heart to my chest as Noah flew me toward the house while our friends battled
the remaining hounds, snakes and the last two witches. Just before we made it
to the house, we were blindsided by a powerful force that knocked us out of the
sky. Noah held on to me as best he could as we spun downward. We rolled into
the grass in front of the pond, near the driveway. He quickly rebounded and
positioned himself in front of me just in time to see Gadriel in his face. The
angel smacked him so hard that Noah flew into the trunk of a pine tree ten feet
away.

Gadriel soared
into the sky, and Noah tore after him. I tried to drain Gadriel, but they were
out of range. For a few moments it looked like they were dancing in the sky,
turning round and round, wings flapping violently.

A voice came
from behind me. “Where is she?!”

I whipped around
to see Charmagne a few feet away. She was as grotesque as the last time I laid
eyes on her in her crumbling mansion.

“Where is she?!”
she demanded again.

“Where you can’t
get to her!”

Her hungry eyes
spotted the Heart of Charlemagne in my hand. “Give me the Heart!”

“Come and get it
from me!”

She raised her
hands, and I felt my energy draining. I pushed back against her, attacking her
life force. She was surprised at how strong I was. We canceled each other out.

I heard muffled
yelling from above. I looked to see Noah and Gadriel falling from the sky with
Noah on top. Their hands were on each other’s throats. As they neared, I
drained Gadriel’s energy enough so that he went limp, his hands releasing Noah.

Noah steered him
toward a large rock near the pond, lining up Gadriel’s head just right. When
they made impact, I felt a rush of displaced wind, and I heard the loud, dull
crack of his skull. To make sure he was dead, Noah lifted his head and
repeatedly banged it into the rock with blood pooling on the grass.

“NO!” Charmagne
screamed and fell to her knees.

I heard a
commotion behind me and turned to see a pack of demon hounds coming my way.

Noah ran toward
me. He saw the hounds advancing and turned to me. “Run.” His eyes pleaded with
me. But there was something else behind that look. It was something that said
he knew this was it. In that split second, I didn’t want to believe it and even
thought I was imagining it.

“Go!” He pushed
me out of the way just as the pack of hounds crashed into him. I drained two of
them as he valiantly tried to fight them off, managing to kill three as they
mauled him, ripping out his beautiful wings, blood gushing from his mortal
wounds. They were too much for him.

I ran to him,
pulling another hound away, draining it. There were too many. “NOAH!” I screamed
as they feasted on him. The Guardians came almost instantly, carrying his light
away with them. And it was over. My heart caught in my throat, and I dropped to
my knees, holding my gut, sobbing.

To my left, I
heard a vile laugh. I whipped around to see Charmagne, her eyes crazed with
glee, laughing at the sight of Noah’s mangled body. “Justice!” she said, and
laughed again.

I tackled her.
My fist found her eye, her jaw, her gut. Blinded by my rage, I threw punches,
and when my fists got tired and streaked with blood, I found my hands wrapped
around her throat, wanting those crazy eyes to close and never open again.

In the scuffle I
dropped the Heart.

She thrust her
fist into my gut. I rolled over just as the house was coming back into focus.

“The house!”
Charmagne croaked, holding her throat. She was looking at one of the witches
who stood near Noah’s body with three demon hounds at her side.

The witch raised
her hands and began a spell. Just then, the door flew open, and Cee Cee stepped
out. She spat on the ground in front of the witch, yelled with righteous
indignation “BACK, YOU UGLY HEIFER!” and stomped the earth with her foot. The
ground shook with a tremendous force, knocking the witch and her demons down. Before
she could get back up, Cee Cee reached into her Elvis purse, pulled out some white
dust and threw it at the sister.

She tried to
shield her face, but she was too late. She screamed, and her hounds
disappeared. She lifted her head, and half her face was burned. She now had one
white eye and one black eye. Her flesh was charred, and her jaw showed through
the hole in her face which leaked black blood and cockroaches.

I finished her
off, draining whatever life was left. But as I was doing that, Eloise lifted
her hand, and Cee Cee clutched her own throat and fell to the ground. As soon
as I finished off the witch, I ran to Cee Cee and kneeled beside her. Her eyes
were rolled back into her head. I laid my hands on her, healing as quickly as I
could, but whatever force Eloise had over her was too strong.

“Leave her!”
said Charmagne. “Get the girl!”

Eloise and
Charmagne advanced on the house. Before they could reach the door, the cougar
leaped out the doorway and pounced on Eloise. She screamed as the cat mauled
her. Charmagne began to drain the cougar. It provided enough distraction to escape.
Eloise disappeared from under the cat and reappeared a few feet away, clutching
her shredded shoulder.

I felt Cee Cee’s
pulse beneath my fingers, faint but there. I pushed some energy into her. Her
body relaxed somewhat. Her eyes closed. She would survive.

A few feet from
me, Charmagne was just about to finish off the cougar. I moved to help it, and
that’s when I saw Lyla running out of the house.

“No! Leave her
alone!” she yelled at Charmagne, running toward the cat.

“Lyla!” I
shouted. “Get back inside!”

Eloise
reappeared near Lyla and grabbed her before she could reach Charmagne, who had
just finished killing the cougar.

“Let her go!” I
said. I charged them, but Eloise raised her hand, and an invisible barrier
stopped me, like I was trapped in a glass box.

“That won’t hold
her for long,” said Eloise.

“Hurry!” said
Charmagne. “The spell!” She went to the witch, who struggled to keep Lyla in
place. “Do you remember the spell?”

“Yes,” said Eloise.
“Place your hand upon her head.” She passed Lyla off to Charmagne.

“Let me go!” yelled
Lyla. She kicked and struggled to no avail.

“Stop!” I said,
still struggling against my invisible barrier. I pushed with my hands, throwing
all of my weight into it. I felt something give, like whatever it was, was
bending with the pressure.

Eloise recited
the spell while holding Charmagne’s hand. With her free hand, Charmagne held it
atop Lyla’s head. Something peculiar began to happen just then.

I had only
enough time to yell, “NO!” and then Lyla’s body glowed with a white light as
Charmagne’s body slowly caved in on itself, while the terrified witch watched
with wide eyes. Lyla grew brighter and brighter, like a thousand suns, and it
hurt to look at her. The brighter she became, Charmagne writhed and screamed as
her very being disintegrated, finally turning to black ash. Lyla’s light faded.

Eloise and I
could only stare for a few moments at Lyla and the remains of Charmagne. She turned
to run.

I broke through
the barrier and raised my hands toward Eloise, using all of my power to drain
every bit of life from her wretched body. She collapsed into the pile of ash
that was Charmagne. As soon as I released my hold on her, it felt like I had
just tipped off of a high wire, like that moment before gravity takes over. I
buckled and sank to the ground.

***

When I awoke, I
was on the sofa in the living room. My head was in Cee Cee’s lap, and there was
a strong odor of myrrh and sage. I looked over at the coffee table to see smoke
lazily rising from a bowl.

“You awake, my
baby?” said Cee Cee.

I felt someone
holding my hand. I thought it was her, but my eyes shifted to see Miles sitting
in a kitchen chair by the sofa, my hand in his. I had never seen such a
combination of relief and grief on someone’s face.

“Lyla,” I said,
my voice strangled.

“She’s fine,” he
said, and gestured toward my grandfather’s old chair.

Lyla looked back
at me and smiled sadly.

“Thank God,” I
whispered. “What about everyone else?”

“We lost Sonja
and Casper,” said Cee Cee, her voice barely above a whisper.

“And Noah,” I
added, tears stinging my eyes.

Miles looked
down at our enclosed hands, closed his eyes and swallowed hard.

“I’m sorry,” I
said to him.

“Me, too. He was
very brave.”

“He died saving
me.”

He gave a tired
smile and patted my hand.

“When Charmagne
was trying to take Lyla’s power, something happened,” I said.

“Lyla told us,”
said Miles.

“How was that
possible?”

“I’m not quite
sure. The only explanation I can think of is that Lyla is a hybrid, but it’s
impossible. I followed the branches of your family tree. Michelle and her
parents are not descendants of any of the paladins.”

“Michelle was
adopted.”

He furrowed his
brows. “I have no record of this. There were no adoption papers on file.”

“She didn’t like
to talk about it much. David told me that she found out one day in their
science class in junior high. They were studying blood types and heredity. She
knew her blood type and her parents’. She realized it didn’t add up. There was
no way she could have been their biological daughter. David asked her about it
one day when they were dating. She said she pulled it out of her mom years ago
that some woman—a Houma—gave her to them when Michelle was a baby.”

Miles’ eyes
widened. “My God,” he whispered. I think I understand what happened. Michelle’s
birth mother was a woman name Millie Billiot. She was a descendant of Anseis.”

I blinked.
“Michelle was a paladin?”

“She had the
blood line. I doubt if she ever discovered it, though. Millie used her magic
ability according to the belief system of her people. She was a skin walker.
She was able to transform herself into any animal she wished, and she chose a
cougar for the most part.”

My jaw dropped.
“That animal—Smittens—was Lyla’s grandmother?”

He nodded. I
looked over at Lyla. She stared silently down at the floor.

“We thought Lyla
just had the healer bloodline. But she had both. And the fact that her
grandmother was a skin walker, it seems to explain her penchant for healing
animals. When she saved her friend and became a dark paladin, she should have
been given the power we have—the ability to drain a life. But she’s a hybrid,
so she was given something else. If I had to call her anything, I’d call her a
mirror. She reflects any power aimed at her. When Charmagne was trying to take
all of her life force, it reflected back on Charmagne and drained her instead.”