Bound, An Arelia LaRue Novel #1 YA Paranormal Romance

Bound, An Arelia LaRue Novel
#1

Copyright 2011 Kira Saito

Smashwords Edition

All rights reserved: no part of this
book may be reproduced without written permission from the
author.

This is a work of fiction and any
resemblance between the characters and persons living or dead is
strictly coincidental

Love is the only freedom

in the world

because it so elevates the
spirit

that the laws of humanity

and the phenomena

of nature

do not alter its course

-Khalil Gibran

Chapter 1

An Opportunity

“
We’ve been over this
before. I have to go. Sabrina is going to be here any second, and
I’m not even packed yet.” Not that there was much to pack. I
crammed my favorite jeans into an old duffel bag, threw in a few
tank tops and the print sundress Grand-mere Bea had made for me
last week. My bedroom was a mess. Littered with dirty laundry, open
books, and half-empty coffee cups, it wasn’t exactly
sanitary.

I caught a glance of myself in the
mirror and decided that I didn’t look much better than my room. My
olive skin had decided to take on a yellowish tinge as punishment
for working overtime last night. The New Orleans summer heat
transformed my wavy, dark hair into a bird’s nest, and my large,
brown eyes were bloodshot. It wasn’t the picture I wanted to
present to my new boss. I searched the room for a hairbrush and
found one under a pile of socks. After a few frantic strokes
through my hair, I gave up and roughly tied it into a lopsided
ponytail. I knew Sabrina was going to be horrified, but at this
point, I didn’t care. I had a tube of lip gloss somewhere, how I
was going to find it was a mystery.

“
The devil takes many forms
my child,” Grand-mere Bea’s voice was barely above a whisper.
“Speak his name and he appears. I don’t understand why you have to
go to Darkwood plantation.”

I sighed. She had no idea. “We need the
money. James has upped the rent again, and if I don’t start saving
for college now, I won’t ever go." James, our landlord was getting
greedier and fatter, as he got older. His hunger for money probably
stemmed from the fact that his fourth wife had recently left him
for a barista. Within the past year alone, our rent had gone up
three times.

“
Yes, I know Arelia, but I
am sure you can find something in the city, something safe.” She
desperately attempted to make one last plea. This little argument
had been an ongoing event since I announced I took a summer job at
Darkwood.

“
Yesterday was my last day
working at Lola’s. What they’re offering me at Darkwood for the
summer is a year’s pay there. The job isn’t hard either. Sabrina
said that it’s just showing tourists around, helping out in the
kitchen, and stuff like that. It sounds much better than slaving
over an espresso machine all summer.”

“
Oh, she said that now, did
she?” Her voice had a sarcastic ring to it. “The only reason
Sabrina wants to go there is to get close to the LaPlante family.
That girl has never lifted a finger in her life, and you’re just
going to have to do twice the work to make up for it,” grand-mere
advised as she frantically fidgeted with the red beads that hung
around her neck.

I couldn’t argue with her there. At
first, I was confused as to why my best friend wanted to work since
her family is already loaded. It was only after I found out about
her plan to meet one of the LaPlante men, did I realize what she
was actually up to. According to her, she was going to make one of
them fall in love with her. Within a few years, she would be
married to one of the richest men in the world. She would then
become a lady of leisure like her mother, and focus on having
children. Yes, she actually said lady of leisure and was thinking
about having children already. Besides, her parents were spending
the summer visiting friends in Morocco, so she didn’t have anything
better to do. It wasn’t surprising that she was obsessed with
marriage and kids. Her family, who lived in the absurdly wealthy
Garden District, was part of high society in New Orleans. The women
who ran in those circles were programmed to seek out rich and
powerful mates while they were still in the womb. While Sabrina had
everything handed to her on a silver platter, I had to fight for
even the littlest things. How we became friends is an enigma even
to me. Grand-mere used to be her nanny, so I’ve known her
forever.

“
You know how important it
is for me to go. I don’t understand why you think Darkwood is
dangerous. Tourists are going there, so they can see a ghost or
two. It’s all a clever marketing trap like the rest of the ghosts
and voodoo queens in New Orleans.” I unsuccessfully hunted for
clean underwear as I tried to convince grand-mere that going to
Darkwood wouldn’t cause my demise.

Grand-mere Bea crossed herself. “You
are never to joke about that Arelia. The spirits are everywhere,
and they hear everything. That plantation is cursed. Evil surrounds
the LaPlante family, and all of New Orleans knows it.” Grand-mere
had a somewhat hostile attitude towards the LaPlante family. She
probably figured that a family loaded enough to own a massive
plantation like Darkwood must have made several deals with good old
Lucifer himself.

“
Just because the LaPlantes
are filthy rich, it doesn’t make them evil.” Besides, I knew the
spirits were everywhere, and I knew they heard everything that’s
why I spent my entire life deliberately ignoring them. Ever since I
was a little girl they haunted my thoughts, and stalked me through
shadows. At a very early age, I decided I would never invite them
into my world, so I ignored them. Whenever they called, I wished
them away, and when they followed me on the streets I looked in the
other direction.

If I lived anywhere but New Orleans, I
would have thought I was a lunatic. Only here was it perfectly
acceptable to leave spirits rum and talk to them as if they were
human. Grand-mere Bea was constantly praising the spirits or loa,
as they’re called in voodoo. According to her, Bon Dieu or God was
too busy to communicate with us mere mortals. The spirits were the
ones who took care of our sticky messes. However, they were kind of
picky and only helped if you appeased them with stuff like rum,
cigarettes, and the occasional blood sacrifice or two. She always
told me, if you could hear the spirits you could control them. If
you could control them, it meant you could basically do whatever
you wanted, but it was very dangerous. If you didn’t know what you
were doing, you could end up dead, or worse. Well, those weren’t
her exact words, but it always sounded like that to me. Thanks to
her, I knew all their names, their history, and what they had power
over.

However, unlike the rest of New
Orleans, I didn’t want to be a witch, psychic, or voodoo queen. I
just wanted to be me. It was a strategy that was working fine so
far. I didn’t see how going to Darkwood was going to change
anything.

“
My sweet child always
trying to be so practical.” Grand-mere Bea was always going on
about how I was too uptight and that life didn’t always have to be
a full on battle. I hated that she thought she knew me better than
I knew myself. On a daily basis, she gave me these little ominous
speeches that ended up saying the same thing. Be proud, you’re
special, and all the other cliché things grownups told teenagers to
make them feel better about themselves.

“
I bought this protective
gris-gris for you from mambo Clara. Put it on and do not take it
off until you leave Darkwood.” She lovingly handed me a woven
bracelet with a small charm in the form of the letter X on it.
Inside the charm was a blend of herbs, allegedly blessed with the
power of protection. Grand-mere Bea, like many people in the city,
was more than a little superstitious. However, I thought that mambo
Clara was the biggest fraud in New Orleans. She only charged eighty
bucks for gris-gris bags, so she could support her latest
boyfriend. Usually, he was some twenty-two year-old model wannabe,
which is kind of gross considering she’s grand-mere’s age. I wanted
to yell at grand-mere for wasting money on garbage, but stopped
myself. One look at her dark, leathery skin, and kind old eyes made
me realize how lucky I was. She didn’t have to take me in after my
mother dumped me at her doorstep and ran away to join a traveling
country band, but she did. If it weren’t for her, I probably would
have ended up homeless and bitter.

“
Sure grand-mere, I’ll wear
it.” I took the bracelet from her hand and gave her a soft kiss on
the cheek. Hey, if wearing some bracelet would calm her down, why
not?

“
Arelia!” Sabrina’s high
pitched voiced beckoned me from the hallway. “Are you
ready?”

She walked into the room in a blaze of
Harajuku Lovers perfume. Her shoulder-length, blonde hair shone
from her latest Brazilian blowout, and her nails were flawlessly
manicured. Dressed in a new Miu Miu sundress, and Kate Spade
wedges, she looked perfect as usual. I knew all of her favorite
brands because the only thing she talked more about than boys was
shopping. For a split second, I felt a bit shy in my worn out jeans
and ancient tank top.

“
I’m ready, let’s
go.”

Sabrina greeted Grand-mere Bea with a
hug and a kiss then looked around my bedroom. Her clear, blue eyes
were horribly confused. “But where are your bags?”

“
Right here,” I said holding
up my duffel bag.

“
You can’t be serious,” her
voice filled with utter disgust. I loved Sabrina like a sister, but
she could be such a snob sometimes.

“
What’s the big deal?” I
tapped my foot impatiently.

“
What’s the big deal? We’re
going to spend the summer at Darkwood plantation, and you’re taking
an ugly, old duffel bag. How is it possible that you have enough
clothes in there for two months? It just doesn’t make any sense.
Let me have a look.” She attempted to snatch the bag from my
hands.

“
We’re going there to work
remember?” Well I am, I thought as I clutched the bag to my
chest.

“
Seriously Arelia, if I
looked like Jessica Alba, I know I would put in more of an effort.
Lucky for you, I came prepared. I brought enough clothes, makeup,
and shoes for the two of us.”

She was always going on about how I
could be super-hot if I put on some decent clothes and makeup once
in a while. I didn’t dress like I was homeless or anything. I took
showers on a daily basis, washed my hair, and used deodorant.
However, her opinion of decent clothes included only those that
ninety-nine percent of the population could never dream of buying
without selling one of their kidneys first. Her view on what
actress I most resembled also changed on a daily basis. Last week
she claimed that I looked like Vanessa Hudgens. The week before, I
was Odette Yustman. Today, I was Jessica Alba. Yes, she was a tad
dramatic.

“
We really should get going
otherwise we’re going to be late.” I attempted to deter Sabrina
from whipping out her makeup case by swiftly steering her towards
the door.

“
Oh crap! It’s already
noon,” she realized after looking at her cell. “We need to be there
by one at the latest.”

“
That’s why we go need to go
now.” I pushed her out the front door.

“
You girls promise to be
careful.” Grand-mere Bea warned while mindlessly cracking the
joints in her fingers, as she always did when anxious. Her large
frame shifted from side to side as she tried to hold back the tears
that were slowly forming in the corners of her eyes.

“
We promise grand-mere. I’ll
call you every day.” I gave her one last forceful hug
good-bye.

“
Don’t worry grand-mere Bea,
I’ll take care of this one,” Sabrina promised as she took out her
Chanel compact and powered away sweat from her t-zone. Her
statement brought a spontaneous smile to grand-mere’s face. The
thought of her taking care of anything, or anyone was ludicrous.
The girl switched miniature dogs like they were underwear and
tossed boys like they were dirty napkins.