CHAPTER NINETEEN
When I opened my eyes, I was lying on squishy, wet, uneven ground, and insects were buzzing around me. My head lolled to the side, and I blinked past the daze and confusion until I could focus my attention on something. Anything. But even before I could see much at all, I knew from the smell of wet moss, the croaking of toads, and chirping of night birds that I was in the swamp.
Careful not to slip into the questionably sturdy ground beneath me, I rolled on my shoulder and reached around blindly for something solid to hold onto, like a tree root, a rock, or a vine. But my fingers succeeded only in digging into soil riddled with creepy, crawling insects and coming away caked with wet earth.
When I saw the tree standing not far from where I lay, I decided to roll onto my front and start crawling, one hand and leg in front of the other, until finally I reached it, and I was able to use the trunk to bring myself to a standing position. It was a cypress tree, and fingers of Spanish moss hung from it, tickling my face and hair like hundreds of invisible fingers.
I kept blinking and squinting my eyes, trying desperately to clear the daze, willing my sight to focus, but it was dark out here. The new moon was out, offering nothing in the way of illumination. Toads croaked in the distance, an owl hooted in a tree somewhere, maybe the tree I was standing next to now, while gnats buzzed loudly around me. That earthy, dirty swamp smell assaulted my nostrils, and my head was starting to pound. Each of these things painted a picture of where I was, which was useful because in this darkness, seeing anything except for the vague impressions of trees was impossible.
Alright, don’t panic. Don’t panic. Just think. You don’t know where you are, can’t call for help, but you’re definitely in the middle of the swamp and there could be gators out here. First things first—light.
I took a series of calming breaths and let my left hand stretch out in front of me, palm facing up toward the sky. “Lumière,” I whispered, taking a page out of Nicole’s book, and my hand began to radiate silver light, touching tree trunks, branches, and even glinting off the bodies of gnats as they buzzed around. It wasn’t exactly the same effect Nicole had when she invoked the magick, but it was the only thing I could think of, and it was at least enough.
Slowly I moved away from the cypress, keeping my eyes low and walking in a straight line toward wherever there wasn’t a body of water. I used to be a girl scout, and also happened to be well enough into cosmology that I could pick out different constellations in the night sky. As luck would have it, there weren’t many clouds in the sky, making it easy enough for me to pick out the North Star and get my bearings.
If I was in the Ninth Ward, and I had been dumped in a nearby swampy area, then what I wanted to do was head north. I would be walking for hours, but eventually I’d hit the interstate, or water, around either of which I would find lights, if not people.
I had been stupid to go and talk to Tamara alone. This was the thought keeping me company as I started on the long trek through the swamp. She was clearly bat-shit insane, and dropping me in the middle of a swamp proved it if nothing else would. Thinking about it now, stupid wasn’t the word to describe my decision to go and talk to Tamara alone. There should be a medal for people who screw up as much as I just had.
A twig snapped somewhere nearby, and I almost jumped out of my skin.
Scanning around in a wide arc with my glowing hand stretched above my head like a lantern, I saw nothing of note. The swamp was alive and moving, but there was nothing to suggest what could have caused that noise. Still, my heart began to thump against my chest, and my head started to swim. Maybe it was the knock or the blood loss, maybe it was a little bit of both, but the dizziness seemed to be getting worse.
I realized then the light wasn’t bringing me too much comfort. In fact, the darkness wasn’t the worst thing about this place; it was the noise. There was rustling, and bubbling, and swishing, and I didn’t know where any of it was coming from. The twig snap had been loud, louder than the other sounds, but the others were there all the time, as an awful, unsettling background noise. Whether caused by a gator, a snake, a fish, or something much darker—like the rougarou—, the bayou was alive, and I was not safe here on my own.
I turned again and found west by way of the North Star, then continued on my walk, but something was different. The impression that shadows were shifting quickly around me, zipping between trees to avoid detection, stuck like a catchy old song I couldn’t shake. Then a thought crossed my mind—a dreadful, panic-inducing thought.
What if I’m not alone out here?
Immediately, I went on the defensive, my back stiffening as the hairs on the nape of my neck rose on their points. I remained as still as I could and watched the swamp for movement, turning slowly. For the most part, the area was still. Pockets of air in puddles bubbled to the surface while slithery things crawled low to the ground. But my line of sight was as static as a landscape painting of the swamp itself.
That was, until the air began to shimmer, and the darkness spat out a soft, green glow.
The light seemed to have pushed itself into existence out of nothing. I stared at it, backing away slowly but also mesmerized by the way it swirled and shimmered like a mirage—a twisting, shifting green flame no bigger than a cat, burning between the trees. And from it, a small creature emerged. One I recognized.
It was an imp.
The imp came toward me, not walking slowly or carefully, but running—a small pixie with pink skin, green eyes, floppy, pointed ears and a rat like tail, leaving a trail of green fire as it ran. If I hadn’t known what it was, if I hadn’t encountered any of them before, I may have started to run, but I stayed where I was and even knelt to greet this oddly adorable thing.
But I didn’t see happiness in its eyes, or even friendliness. Its mouth was open in a wide O of fear, its hands up and flailing. The imp seemed to be pointing at me and shouting, though I couldn’t understand what it was saying. I hadn’t learned their language, and Jared wasn’t here to translate. It was only when death’s icy cold breath caressed the back of my neck that I knew; the imp wasn’t pointing at me, but over my shoulder.
I spun around, palms up and crossed in front of my face, and bid magick to come flowing through me like water blasting out of a fire hydrant, striking whatever was behind me.
And I did hit something. Whatever it was rose a clear six feet off the ground and sailed across the swamp, striking the trunk of a tree with a loud thump and falling to the ground. Heart thrumming, head pounding, I straightened up and checked the area where the thing had fallen, but there was nothing on the there.
A black mass suddenly passed in front of me, as fast as a bullet and darker than the night itself. I jumped, ready to defend myself again, but when I looked around, I could see no one and nothing—only the imp, equally as alarmed as I was, its floppy ears now upright and arched back, like a cat’s.
Another shade zipped around behind me, creating a sound like a whisper. I was beginning to think there was more than one person out here, and that they were playing with me. Was it Tamara? No, I doubted it was. Why dump me in the swamp just to toy with me? She could have done that back at her house. This was something else—someone else—and I had a feeling I knew who.
“Who’s there?” I yelled, my voice filling the swamp. From between two trees, a shade began to creep out, moving as slowly and as implacably as mist. Human in shape, tall, dark, and slender, I couldn’t see what the person looked like, but knew from the way her hair flowed and her eyes shone that it was Marie Boucher.
Immediately, my hands balled into fists. “Stay behind me,” I said to the imp, whose breathing was even more ragged than mine.
“Hello, Madison,” she said, in her smooth, silken voice. “I suppose it’s time we introduced ourselves.”
“I know your name, Marie Boucher.”
She smiled, sweetly. “I see you’ve been speaking to Jean Luc. I haven’t gone by the name of Marie Boucher in many, many decades, but I’ll allow you to use it if you like.”
“Just tell me what you want.”
“You know what we want. We want you.”
A cold chill ran through me then, rooting me to the spot. “Who called you here?”
“Oh, I think you know the answer to that, too.”
“Tamara.”
“She promised us the life of another witch in return for our continued service.”
More figures had entered my view, distinguishable from the darkness by the way their bodies seemed to at once be a part of it, and also stand apart from it.
“You realize, if you kill me now, the witches will root you out and drag you into the sunlight.”
“Is that a threat?”
“I’m not threatening you; I just think you underestimate the witches of this city and their power a little too much.”
“And you underestimate our capacity for brutality, little girl,” she said.
“No… I know what you can do. I know how you kill with impunity. But you look like you’ve been around the block enough times to know people like Tamara. If you kill me tonight, she’ll pin my death on you, and then the witches will come for you. In force. And you’re fighting on their turf. You’ll end up burned, and Tamara will get everything she wants.”
“Who says we aren’t going to kill her, too?”
“I think if you could, you would have already.”
Marie flashed a wicked grin, and lightning-quick, she came at me with her mouth wide and fangs gleaming. My hands came up instinctively, wrapping Eliza’s shield around my body at the speed of thought. When Marie’s hands touched the shield, it was as if she had touched a red-hot wall of steel. She hissed and cradled her arm.
“Kill her!” she said, and the other six vampires attacked, each taking turns throwing themselves at the shield I was already struggling to hold up. I turned my eyes on the imp for only a split second and urged it to get behind me. The imp did as it was told. When the vampires ceased their attacks, I let the shield fall.
“So, this is how you’ll do it?” I asked, “Six of you corner a single witch out in the swamp and kill her, and that makes you, what… the great redeemers of your kind?”
“History is told by the victor,” Marie said, and she lashed out again, throwing herself at me a second time. Again, I threw my hands up and summoned Eliza’s shield, and Marie struck the invisible barrier hard enough to cause an almost deafening whumph to ring out through the night.
She moved away again, allowing me a chance to breathe, this time deep, gasping breaths. My arms were tired, and the effort of holding the shield had brought me down to one knee, but I held my head up and stared at Marie and her cronies.
“That’s a powerful shield,” Marie said, “But I can hear your heartbeat racing, I can smell your fear, your exhaustion. I wonder, how long can you keep it up before you collapse into yourself like a house of cards?”
I wiped the back of my hand across my forehead and returned it to my side, fist clenched so tight my knuckles turned white. I could have tried to run. Maybe I would make it a couple hundred yards before getting caught. I knew the imps had some kind of teleportation magick they used to get around quickly, but I didn’t think the little thing clutching my leg would be able to create a spell powerful enough to carry us both out of this mess. I also wasn’t sure I would survive his kind’s mode of magickal transportation.
My choices were run and die, or fight and die.
“How about you try again and find out?” I asked.
Marie sneered, the tips of her fangs gleaming against the dim light still emanating from my right hand. She gestured with her head, and the vampires standing beside her started to draw near. Before they could get close, I clenched my fists, made an X with them in front of my head, and pulled my magick shield up once more, this time holding it as steadily as I could, focusing on not spending my energy too quickly. The vampires were circling, but I knew they wouldn’t get too close to the shimmering bubble now that they knew it could burn them.
But they knew they didn’t have to get too close too quickly. My magick would eventually expend itself, and then they would be free to do with me what they wanted. Slowly, inevitably, their radius around me began to shrink. They were like sharks about to kill a weakened prey, getting closer and closer to it, but doing so slowly, taking their time.
An hour passed. Two hours. I had no way of knowing with any certainty, but my instincts told me I wasn’t far off the mark. All this time, I held up a shield I was only accustomed to summoning for a matter of seconds at a time, let alone minutes, or even hours. But my arms were getting tired, and my chest was tightening.
A cry of anger and fear peeled out of my throat as I struggled to keep the shield up, the only thing saving my life. But I could feel the magick slipping as my own energy reserves reached their limit, the magick buckling like a car running on fumes. Hot tears ran down my cheeks as the shield began to flicker.
This was it. Marie was only inches away from my face, reaching with her slender, pale fingers, getting ready to plunge her long, sharp nails into the soft flesh of my neck.
Time was running short, and death was coming. I could feel its hand closing around my throat, killing my screams and sucking away what was left of my life force. I thought of Jared and wished only for one more kiss. I thought about Nicole, and as much as her choice to do nothing had upset me, I couldn’t blame her for choosing that path. I thought of Jean Luc, for whom this entire situation was so personal.
Finally, I thought about Eliza, whose presence I hadn’t felt in months, and yet it seemed like she was right here with me, her comforting hand resting on my shoulder.
The screaming stopped; the tears stopped. In a few seconds, the magick would also stop, and I would be struck dead. A small hand caressed my cheek, and I thought maybe Eliza’s spirit had come back to see me through to the other side. But when I opened my eyes, I saw, bathed in shimmering light, it was the imp who had touched my face.
I could see it now, up close and in greater detail than ever, and I couldn’t help but marvel at the swirly patterns in its green eyes. I had never gotten so close to one before, had never seen the faint markings on their smooth, pink skin. I had never noticed just how utterly without imperfections their little bodies were.
The imp closed its marvelous eyes, and a pulse of magick filled me, numbing the pain in my aching bones. But that wasn’t all it did—his magick was adding to the power of my shield, bolstering it, making it stronger. I shut my eyes again and the shield began to grow, pushing the circling vampires back.
When I opened my eyes, Marie almost couldn’t believe that I was still fighting, still resisting. I didn’t know how long our combined energies would last. The imp seemed to be shaking already, gritting his sharp teeth. But he persisted. For hours he persisted, adding wave after wave of energy to my shield; the shield that was keeping us alive.
Dawn broke before I did, and when Marie noticed the lightening of the sky, she turned her eyes on me and scowled.
“You can’t stop us,” she said, “And you can’t hide forever.”
She retreated along with the rest of her vampires, scurrying away like rats looking for shelter. The shield finally fell as the first rays of sunlight touched my brow. I closed my eyes. I only needed a moment to regain my strength.