Chapter Thirty-Five

“Priestess.” Mezareau closed the door behind him, shutting out the light. “It’s a whole new world for you today, isn’t it?”

I could do nothing but stare at him. I’d suspected he wasn’t dead, yet still it was so strange to see him.

He appeared just as he had in Haiti—linen shirt and trousers, dark hair combed just so, green eyes far too bright in his semidark face. The only differences I could detect in him were his shoes—sandals— and his turning up alive.

“Wh-why? How?”

“Your questions will soon be answered.”

He smiled, and I was struck again by his precise and numerous teeth. I ran my tongue over my own.

Were there more today than yesterday?

“First, Priestess, I have a question of my own: Where’s the diamond?”

“I don’t have it.”

He backhanded me so hard I flew into a shelf of bottles and bones. Everything shattered but me.

“I know you have it.”

I shook my head. Nothing rattled. Except for the glass in my ass, I was good.

“I don’t.” I wasn’t going to tell him Murphy did, though I was sure he’d figure it out quickly enough. I needed to stall. “Go ahead and look.”

Mezareau tore the place apart, and I let him. Though I wasn’t sure how I could stop the man, and really what difference did it make? As he’d said, today my world was new, and in it I doubted I’d be able to continue as a voodoo priestess in the French Quarter, even if I managed to escape Edward’s wrath.

The knowledge saddened me. I’d liked it here, when I could forget why I’d come.

“I tried to raise a zombie,” I said.

“Let me guess.” He smashed the glass on one of my display cases and tossed things hither and yon.

“Your zombie wasn’t quite right.”

I remembered the voodoo queen’s steadily disintegrating face. “I’ll say.”

“Only under a full moon at midnight, during a ceremony performed by a wereleopard, can the living dead be raised.”

“No other type of shifter will do?”

“We are a select club.”

No kidding.

“I was a shape-shifter,” I said slowly. “I just didn’t know it.”

“No, you were not a wereleopard yet. The first transformation takes time. Didn’t you notice the small alterations that came about bit by bit?” He waved a careless hand at my eyes.

I didn’t bother to answer; I wasn’t blind, although I had been a bit dumb.

“Until the midnight moon, when your first complete change occurred, you were not truly one of us and you did not have the power to raise a living zombie.”

That made sense—or as much sense as anything else did lately.

“So, full midnight moon—” I held up one finger. “Ceremony performed by a wereleopard—” I flipped up another. “That’s all there is to the spell?”

“That and the fucking diamond!”

A chill passed over me. “We need the diamond?”

“Why do you think I care so much?”

“It’s expensive?”

He cast me a withering glare. “Considering I can raise the dead, do you think I lack for money?”

Good point.

He crossed the distance that separated us so fast I didn’t see him coming until he was there. “Where is it?”

“I don’t know.”

This time I was ready, and I caught his hand before it smashed into my face.

“How did you do this to me?” I shoved him, and he stumbled back several feet.

He was strong, but now so was I. Being a wereleopard had its uses. If it weren’t for the need to commit bloody murder, I might like it.

“Why so angry?” He circled me like the beast he was. “You came to me. You asked me to share my secret.”

I wasn’t blameless. However, I did think it was common courtesy to tell someone before you turned them into a wereleopard.

“What, exactly , did you do?”

“Just a little curse.” He tilted his head, the movement more canine than feline. “Nothing to be so upset about.”

“I don’t remember a curse.”

Of course, after I’d drunk the kleren, I didn’t remember much.

“More of a potion really.”

Aha. That explained why I’d gotten loopy after drinking his rum and stayed sane after drinking my own.

“What was it?” I demanded.

“A secret passed down from my ancestors.” I could tell by his smirk he wasn’t going to give me the recipe.

“Are there more wereleopards running around somewhere?”

“Not yet.” He leaned in close and took a deep breath. “You smell so good,” he purred. “Perhaps we can create more of our kind in an intimate way.”

“Yeah. That’ll happen.” I shoved him in the chest. This time when he fell back, he stayed there.

“You will change your mind.” He licked his lips as his gaze wandered over me. I suddenly felt the need for a scalding hot shower and a bar of lye soap. “The longer you are a shifter, the more of a shifter you become. Soon you will be like me in all ways. The thrill of the chase, the excitement of the kill—it’s better than sex.”

His words made me shudder as I recalled dreams that hadn’t been my own. “I remember things that haven’t happened.”

“I can walk through your dreams, Priestess. If you wish, you can walk through mine.”

“I don’t feel evil,” I whispered.

He smiled. “You will.”

“I killed a man.”

“Last night? No. I did. But next month you may have the pleasure.”

“What if I don’t want to?”

“We must partake of human blood on the night of the full moon or go mad.”

“But I didn’t!”

“You did. You just don’t remember.”

I thought of how I’d woken up—blood on my hands, my face. I suspected he was right and I wanted to throw up again, but I didn’t have the time.

“We may shift any night we wish,” he continued. “On those nights, the hunt is just for fun.”

“So we are like werewolves.”

“I know nothing of werewolves, nor do I care.”

“Silver doesn’t kill us.”

“Nothing can.”

Somehow I doubted that, but I’d come back to it.

“Why a potion and not a bite?”

“We aren’t diseased,” he snapped.

“Just cursed.”

“I prefer to believe I’m blessed.”

“You would.”

I considered what he’d told me. The shift wasn’t the result of a virus, which meant Elise couldn’t cure me, just as she hadn’t been able to cure Henri.

When had I begun to consider a cure? Probably from the moment I’d seen the blood beneath my fingernails. Really, once I raised Sarah, I couldn’t keep turning into a leopard under every full moon.

What would the neighbors say?

“I didn’t shift when the moon came up,” I pointed out.

“Just as the sun is at its peak at noon, the moon is at its peak at midnight. The first shift requires such power. From that point onward, the power is in you.” He brushed his hands together. “Now, the diamond.”

“I thought we were all-powerful beings. Why do we need a stone?”

“The diamond focuses the moon and the magic. It was found in the motherland.”

I frowned. “Germany?”

“You have been talking to Mandenauer too much. The diamond was birthed in the earth of Africa. The power of the ages is in every facet. When the Egbo was first formed, the diamond was the center of all.

The members learned the secret to changing shape by staring into its sparkling center.”

Sounded like BS to me, but then a lot of legends did.

“You’re saying the Egbo was actually a leopard society, with real leopards.”

“How do you think they kept the slaves in line?”

“Torture?”

“While that is great fun, seeing a man change into a leopard, tear out a few hearts, drink a little blood, always worked much better. There was also the very real threat they would be turned into a zombie.”

“The Egbo turned people into zombies?”

“My dear, where do you think this all began?”

My front door rattled, then opened. Devon Murphy strolled in carrying two cups of coffee and a bag of beignets. Since when did he use the front door?

He didn’t notice Mezareau and me in the shadows of the shop. He didn’t notice the place had been trashed. He was too busy balancing the coffee and the doughnuts, trying to shut the door with his foot.

Mezareau’s smile became predatory. His too-numerous teeth suddenly looked sharper. “Maybe you don’t know where the diamond is, Priestess, but I bet he does.”

Murphy spun at the sound of Mezareau’s voice. He managed to hold on to breakfast, until the bokor swept everything out of his hands.

I sprang between them. “No,” I said firmly. “He doesn’t know anything.”

“I had him detained,” Mezareau said, in a voice that reminded me of Lazarus. “But he didn’t have the diamond.”

“He still doesn’t,” I said, desperate to make Mezareau believe me. Murphy wasn’t going to give the thing up, if he even had it anymore. He’d probably let the bokor kill him instead.

Mezareau just laughed. “He gave it to you, or most likely hid it in your luggage, then romanced it out from under you.” He shook his head. “I thought you were smarter, Priestess, but you are still only a woman.”

I gritted my teeth but let that pass. “I haven’t seen the diamond since Haiti.”

“Maybe this will refresh your memory.”

I expected him to toss me aside, make a grab for Murphy, who’d been annoyingly silent through this whole exchange. Instead, Mezareau produced a knife made of dark stone, the handle wood. When he pressed it to my throat, my skin began to smoke, and I cried out.

“What the hell!” Murphy yanked me backward.

Slipping and sliding a bit until we got out of the puddle of spilled coffee, he then wrapped his arms around me from behind and tugged me close.

Mezareau lifted a brow. “I can easily stick this into her chest, and she will explode in a burning ball of fire.”

I slapped my hand to my aching neck. “I thought you said nothing could kill us.”

“I lie.”

“What’s going on?” Murphy demanded.

“He seems to have turned me into a wereleopard.”

Murphy stiffened. “Cass—”

“I don’t have time to argue. Even if you don’t believe it, he does.”

Murphy’s chest rose and fell on a sigh. “You want your diamond.”

“You always were sharp. Simply put, turn over my property, and I won’t turn her into flambé.”

I wondered if I could grab the knife before Mezareau buried it in my chest. I was quicker than I’d been yesterday, but Mezareau had been a furry feline longer. I doubted I was quicker than him.

I needed to move away so Murphy didn’t get turned to ashes along with me. Or maybe I should continue to block his body with mine so Mezareau couldn’t stick him with the knife? Sharp black stone would kill Murphy as easily as it would me, even without the fireworks.

Before I could decide, Murphy did. “I’ll get you the diamond.”

Mezareau appeared as shocked as I was at Murphy’s easy capitulation. “I’ll go with you.”

“You think I left a j ewel of that size in a hotel room or even a safe-deposit box? I left it somewhere secure, protected. Somewhere that someone I trust will move it the instant anyone else shows up but me, or even if anyone shows up with me.”

“You’ve done this before.” Mezareau kept his bright gaze on Murphy’s face. “Fine. Bring me the diamond within the hour.”

“It’s not that close.”

“When?”

“Tonight.”

“We’ll wait for you here.”

“I need her to—”

“Spare me,” Mezareau interrupted. “You think I’d let the priestess out of my sight? You think I give a shit what you need? I’m not stupid. Bring me the diamond or she dies.”

I shook my head. The only hope we had of stopping Mezareau was keeping the diamond away from him. Even though I wasn’t keen on the idea of helping him now, by next month I might be. Together we’d be unstoppable. We’d raise the dead until there weren’t any left; then our army would march across the world.

“Don’t do it,” I said. “Better I die than he raises that army.”

“I can’t let him kill you,” Murphy whispered, and then he was gone.

Hell. I should have told him to find Edward. The old man would know what to do. Now it was too late.

“More important than a diamond, Priestess.” Mezareau’s smirk made me want to smash something: How about him? “Aren’t you pleased?”

I stared at the open front door through which Murphy had disappeared. “You won’t kill me,” I said.

“No?” He gave the word that annoying twist that only the French are able to manage.

“You had a reason for cursing me instead of someone else.”

“Oui. You were chosen.”

“By whom?”

“Me.”

I rubbed my forehead. ” I came looking for you.”

“Because I wanted you to.”

My hand fell away. “I don’t understand.”

“The voodoo community may be spread all over the world, but it’s still very small. People talk; I listen.

They began talking of you almost as soon as you started your training.”

“Because I’m white?”

“Typical.” He made a sound of derision. “As if that makes you special. It is what is in here.” He tapped my forehead with one long fingernail. “And here.” He did the same to my breastbone. “That matters. All that has happened was ordained long ago.”

“All what?”

“You became who you are; you needed what I knew.”

“But—”

“You possess the power necessary to make the dead rise.”

“I thought that was in the shape-shifting and the diamond.”

“And you. I couldn’t turn just anyone into a wereleopard. You are favored by the loas.”

“I’ve never done anything more powerful than anyone else,” I protested.

“You sent your friend to Ife. Brought her out again with a piece of the moon goddess’s garden.”

Crap. How did he know about the time I’d sent Diana to voodoo heaven? That was supposed to be our little secret.

“Do you read minds?”

“No. But part of the magic in being a wereleopard is being able to see and hear over a great distance —if someone happens to say my name.”

“I knew it!”

“The power will come to you, too, eventually.”

I frowned, uncertain I wanted to listen in on people’s conversations—seemed a little evil.

No kidding.

“I haven’t done anything great since,” I hedged. “Ife was probably just an accident. A burp in the mystical universe.”

“I sent the dead and you sent them away. Only a mambo of incredible power can do that.”

He had me there.

“Then you conjured your daughter into my jungle.”

The room was suddenly icy cold. “That was a dream.”

Mezareau’s too-green eyes narrowed. “Do your dreams often leave footprints?”

“Where is she?” I managed.

“She is still dead, Priestess, but for an instant she was with you. She can be again, forever, if you help me on the next midnight moon. Together we will raise my army.”

“And then?”

His smile was a perfect imitation of the cat with canary feathers sticking out one side of its mouth. “Then I will give you the diamond.”