Dark Destiny: Book One of the Destiny Novella Series (Destiny Novellas 1) (5 page)

He did know her too well and she felt vulnerable because of it. She trailed her finger down the glass, making a path through the condensation. “Finally taking vacation time that you’ve obviously saved up, to go where? Somewhere awesome? No. To stay home and play nursemaid to an old friend who keeps you up at night with crying fits.”

“You did keep me up all night,” he said and ducked his head to catch her eyes, “but it wasn’t because you were having a crying fit.”

She couldn’t stop the ghost of a smile that played around the corners of her mouth. “Biology. Nature. Perpetuation of the species,” she mumbled.

He laughed and straightened, taking the towel from his shoulder and wiping his hands. “Right. Biology. We have a lot to deal with, Lily Bordeaux, but first things first. I took your phone and charged it,” he said, pulling it from his pocket. “I’m not trying to be all domineering, just knew you were sleeping pretty deep and if our weird guy called back, I wanted to know.”

She nodded and exhaled. “And did he call?”

“No. I think the first thing you need to do now is call Mimi. We have to figure out what this thing is we’re supposed to find.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

Lily listened to the silence on the other end of the phone with a heavy heart. She hadn’t wanted to call Mimi, despite knowing full well she had to, really should have called long before now.

Mimi cleared her throat. “So what are we looking at, then?”

Lily closed her eyes briefly and winced. “She has second and third degree burns on the lower half of her body and a few more broken bones than I do. They’re keeping her in a medically induced coma for at least another week.”

“More broken bones than
you
do? Lily, you said you were fine.” Mimi never lost it, was always calm and self-possessed. But Lily could see the expression on her grandmother’s face as clearly as if she’d been standing there. She would look at Lily with those ice blue eyes and Lily would spill all of her guilty secrets.

She swallowed, feeling like a kid again. “I’m a little banged up. I wasn’t standing right next to the store like Ronnie was. I had dropped my beignet and stopped to pick it up.” Lily sighed. “That’s not all of it, Mimi. Looks like the bomb was put there by someone who wants a talisman or something he says Ronnie has access to. I have no idea what he’s talking about—Ronnie’s never said anything to be about it. Do you know?”

There was a pause, then, and Lily’s heart thumped. “You do know something.”

She heard the scrape of a chair across the floor, heard Mimi emit a soft sigh as she sank down into it. Probably at the charming kitchen window, overlooking the old Boston neighborhood where Lily had spent the first 18 years of her life. “Do you remember Lady Chamonix?”

Lily frowned. “Not specifically, the name doesn’t ring a bell.” She scribbled it on a piece of paper and slid it over to Bennett, who sat next to her at the kitchen island. He shook his head and shrugged.

“She was Veronique’s friend, from when they were both very young and Veronique had only just moved to New Orleans.” Mimi paused, cleared her throat. “Ronnie opened her shop and Lady Chamonix became New Orleans’ premier voodoo priestess over time. She was a good ten years older than Ronnie, but still very young to be one of such stature in the voodoo community. She was special to Ronnie, and a compassionate woman with a very developed spiritual sense.”

“Did you ever meet her?”

“Yes, on a couple occasions when I visited. She was very bright, very humble, more than you might expect someone of such lofty stature to be. And she had enemies.”

“Why?”

Mimi sighed. “The history is a long one, but to get to the crux of it, she was powerful and people wanted that power. Much like they wanted from your mother.”

Lily swallowed, her mouth feeling suddenly very dry.

“Ronnie knew Chamonix was in danger, and although Ronnie never gave me any details, she told me that Chamonix had given her information pertaining to some of her valuables, things that would spell danger if in the wrong hands.”

Lily frowned. “I’ve lived with Ronnie for four years, spent my summers down here as a kid, and she never once mentioned this woman to me.”

“Ah, but she wanted to keep you safe, my dear. You and Dahlia and Poppy. The three jewels we have sworn to protect.”

“Oh, Mimi.” Lily swallowed past the lump in her throat. “I think I’ve made a huge mistake in not learning about our stupid gifts. You can say ‘I told you so,’ because it’s true, and now I’ve put Ronnie in danger.”

Mimi laughed. “First of all, the gifts are not stupid. And secondly, nothing you have or haven’t done has put Ronnie in danger.”

Bennett looked at Lily in sympathy and it was nearly her undoing. She wanted to hiss at him to stop being nice because it was making her cry and she didn’t deserve it anyway. Instead, she pinched the bridge of her nose with her fingers and closed her eyes for a moment.

“Ok,” she said, “so what do I do? What am I looking for? The man who contacted me said it’s some sort of
pot tet
. A talisman on a long chain.”

Mimi sucked in her breath and her pause made Lily nervous. “Oh.”

“Oh, what?” Lily moved from nervous to alarmed.

“If it’s the one I’m thinking of, that talisman contains one hair from the head of each influential priestess for generations, predating Chamonix’ Jamaican ancestry, even. It came to this country in a roundabout way from Eastern Europe.”

Lily swallowed. “What does it do?”

“Oh, many things, supposedly. The one who wears it wields power no one person should hold, power that has, over time, become very dark. Power to create a zombie with a drop of the victim’s blood and a simple incantation. To call upon dark spirits who would wreak havoc on the living, that sort of thing. Chamonix herself never used the talisman. Preferred to pursue the light side.” Mimi paused again, and Lily heard the rustle of fabric as her grandmother began to move. “Ten years ago, Chamonix was murdered, and the culprit was never found. Only six months before that, she had given Veronique a letter that Veronique then gave to me to keep in the safe. I’ve never opened it.”

Lily frowned, thinking. “I remember that,” she said. “It was just after Mama died. Ronnie came for a visit again not long after the funeral and was all kinds of serious about something. I didn’t know what it was, but I knew she was unsettled.”

“Yes,” Mimi said, and Lily heard her shoes clicking on the wood floors of the Boston home. “It’s in the library.” Another pause, a few curses muttered under her breath, and Mimi must have been victorious in opening the family safe. “Here we go.”

“I think I need that letter,” Lily said. “And that little journal Mama gave me when I turned 10. She said I’d need it one day.” She fought back a sense of nausea at what she was setting in motion.

“I never thought I would live to hear you say that, Lily.”

“I wish I didn’t have to.”

“Is it really so bad, my sweet? Welcoming the legacy back into your life?”

“This is what happens, Mimi—I mean look at it! My parents were killed. Veronique’s voodoo-priestess-bestie was murdered. Someone tried to kill me to send a message to Ronnie—this magic never leads to anything good. In the last decade, paranormal stuff has been high on my list of things to hate.”

“And yet you moved to New Orleans as soon as you could. One of the world’s bastions of the paranormal.”

Lily stopped. She opened her mouth to argue, but couldn’t.

“Destiny, my dear.”

“I don’t like destiny. It leaves no room for choice.”

“Oh, we always have a choice. We can shape our own destinies. But some things can never be changed. Or avoided.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

The small shrimping boat motored along a narrow passage in the bayou, nearly skimming the moss that hung off trees in wispy tendrils and trailed along the water’s surface. Clouds hung low and dark gray in the sky, threatening to let loose at any moment. The air was thick and humid, and cold. Lily shivered in her hoodie and wondered how long the ibuprofen would last. Most everything in her body that was bandaged or bruised was temporarily numb and she crossed her fingers that it would hold.

Bennett chatted with the captain, giving him final instructions, and then turned his attention to her. He must have seen her shivering; he moved to her side and put both arms around her, pulling her close against his body’s blessed warmth. He rubbed his hands up and down her arms and she closed her eyes. It was such a comfortable fit.

“You ok?” he asked, his breath warm against her hair and she turned her face upward. His lips grazed her forehead and she suddenly felt a little melty.

“Yeah,” she whispered. “I’m good.” They traveled the remaining ten minutes in silence, watching the shoreline.

Mimi was going to bring Lily the letter Lady Chamonix had given Ronnie, and the journal Lily’s mother had given her years ago, just before her death. Mimi planned to travel to New Orleans herself to be with Ronnie, and Lily had begged her to make sure Dahlia and Poppy stayed in Boston. The thought of her sisters in harm’s way made her sick to her stomach. The man on the phone had mentioned Veronique’s three nieces and Mimi—they might not actually have been any safer in Boston, but it made Lily feel a tiny bit better.

The thought of doing nothing at Bennett’s house had made Lily’s mind revolt, so she’d told Bennett she wanted to see Lady Chamonix’ old house. After a little digging from his resources in the police department, Bennett had tracked down an address that still listed Lady Chamonix as the owner. She’d never married or had children—apparently Veronique had been her one true friend. She hadn’t left her property to anyone, and Lily hoped to find at least something still intact. What were the odds that the place hadn’t been looted ten times over in the years since the woman’s death?

The captain guided the boat alongside a rickety old dock that Lily eyed dubiously for a moment, chewing on her lip.

“Hmm,” Bennett said as he handed the man several bills. “I’ll pay you double to pull us out of the water if that thing collapses.”

The man chuckled. “How long do y’all suppose ye’ll be?”

“Not long, twenty minutes,” Bennett said and grasped Lily’s hand. “You will wait?”

The man glanced down at the cash Bennett had handed him. “Yeah, I’ll be wantin the other half of my pay. But hurry, my brother don’t know I’m gone.”

Bennett paused. “Your brother?”

A nod, a flicker of a match lighting a cigarette, a disarming smile. “He owns the boat.”

“You said you were the captain!”

“Naw, I said I am ‘a’ captain. Jus’ not of this beauty, here.”

“Great.” Bennett tugged Lily forward and they climbed out of the boat and onto the rickety dock. They walked quickly, and Lily wondered if Bennett would have been more comfortable breaking into a run. She couldn’t blame him—she barely held at bay her own terror of water moccasins and silent, lurking alligators.

Bennett swore under his breath. “If we’re lucky, he decides to wait, and if he waits, we might be here in time to see him get arrested for stealing his brother’s boat.”

“Look on the bright side, the cops could give us a ride back.”

He glanced at her, his lips twitching. “Can’t believe I let you talk me into this. Mimi would have my head.”

“Yes, she most definitely would. But she’s not here yet, and she doesn’t need to know.” Lily looked ahead at the dense foliage as they reached the end of the dock and stepped onto spongy land that was knee-deep in overgrown vegetation. They paused at the threshold of a tunnel-like path that wound back into the swampy interior and she sensed Bennett tensing, knew he was going to turn them around.

“We’ll call Jeremy and a couple other officers, have a group come check this place out.”

“No, Bennett. They won’t know what to look for.”

He cast a flat glance at her before turning his attention back to the undergrowth. “
You
don’t know what to look for.”

“I’m clairvoyant.”

He snorted and she scowled at him.

“That’s convenient, Lil. You can’t even remember the last time you read an aura.”

“I can too. I can read yours right now.”

He turned and faced her squarely. “Do it.”

“Now? We don’t have a lot of time before his brother brings the five-o and presses charges.”

“See? You’re rusty and way out of practice. Not to mention you told my mom once that you might have abilities you don’t even know about yet. So you have no idea yet what you can or can’t do.”

“How do you even remember this stuff? And for all we know, I’m in full possession of every witchy gift ever invented.” She felt a sense of desperation, a clawing fear that if she didn’t get into that old shack she would be missing something vital. The fact that staying the course was almost as terrifying as leaving was beside the point, and she was proud of herself for standing her ground. Spongy as it was.