Shadows of Bourbon Street (6 page)

“Hold on.” Kat stood, demanding their attention. “I get that the closing of the veil is a big deal, but Jade said a young woman is trapped in some odd dimension. Isn’t that more important right now?”

I sent my friend a grateful smile. Leave it to Kat to steer the conversation back to what was most important. Lailah’s reaction was expected, but we had to focus on Mati now. “Can you call Chessandra?” I asked Lailah.

“Huh?” Her head jerked up, her expression still filled with wonder. “Oh, sure. But I can’t believe she didn’t give you a way to get to her directly.”

I held my hands up. “She was more than a little distracted.”

“I guess so.” Lailah stood and moved to the middle of the kitchen. She raised her hands and without a word, a beam of pure white light filled our kitchen. The light twisted in on itself and then morphed into a translucent form of the high angel.

“Did you find her?” Chessa demanded.

“Yes.”

A whoosh of breath rushed from Chessandra, and if she’d been in solid form, she might have lost her footing. “Thank the Goddess.” She glanced around and her relieved expression vanished just as quickly. “Where is she?”

“In another dimension. I couldn’t get her out. But I think she’s relatively safe…for now.”

Chessandra’s eyes turned crimson once more. Then she pierced Lailah with her terrifying gaze. “Do what you have to in order to get her home safe.”

Lailah stood tall and nodded, accepting her orders with grace. “Yes, your highness.”

The high angel turned back to me and Kane. “Keep me updated.” The light vanished, taking her with it.

“That was creepy,” Pyper said.

We all turned and stared at her.

“What? It totally was. I mean, she had devil eyes. Right?”

Kane chuckled and covered her small hand with his. “Definitely.”

I glanced at Lailah. Our eyes met and there was worry in her blue gaze. “Any ideas on where to start?” I asked.

She bent her head and pressed a hand to her forehead, thinking. “We need to know who her soul guardian is. He or she will have the closest connection to her soul. The guardian might be able to help her cross back over.”

I frowned. “Then why didn’t Chessandra start there?”

Lailah shook her head. “No idea. But didn’t she say angels are shut out? Maybe that’s why. I still want to find him or her. At the very least we might gain some knowledge about what Mati was up to and maybe find a way to reverse the spell if we have to in order to bring her home.”

“That sounds like a solid plan. Still, we should start working on a spell to see if we can pull her out together.” With the coven’s combined energy, we might be able to make it happen. I glanced around the kitchen and frowned. “Where’s Bea?”

“She left a while ago.” Kat pushed a mushroom around on her plate. “I’m pretty sure she was planning to set some protection spells for you two.”

“Really?”

“I think she’s feeling somewhat helpless,” Lailah added. “She can’t help you when you slip into the shadows. She’s your mentor. It’s hard to let go.”

My heart swelled with the knowledge Bea was still doing what she could. “But that was before we realized Matisse isn’t in the shadows. It looks like we need to get on the road to the Garden District,” I said to Kane.

“You’re kidding, right?” Pyper scoffed.

“No. Why?”

“Hello.” She waved a hand in front of my face. “Mardi Gras. The parades are headed down the Avenue. You’ll never get through.”

“She’s right, love,” Kane said as he got up and moved to stand behind me. The solid weight of his hands rested on my shoulders.

“Ugh.” How could I forget? “Now what?”

Lailah held a finger up and pulled out her phone. “I can’t imagine she went home anyway. I’ll find out where she is.” She got up and slipped into the other room.

“There you are,” my mom said as she strode into the kitchen. She stopped and placed her balled hands on her hips. “What happened?”

“Drake,” I said by way of answer.

She scowled. “That son of a bitch.” Then she eyed me and her stance relaxed. “I’m so sorry, Jade. What a crappy thing to have happen today.” Her high heels clattered on the tile as she strode over to me and squeezed my fingers. “Don’t worry about a thing, shortcake. I’ll take care of rescheduling this shindig.”

Mom and I had our share of issues, but we were working on them. The fact that she was more concerned about my wedding being interrupted than the actual cause made me chuckle. Nothing was going to get in the way of her seeing her little girl walk down the aisle. “I love you, Mom.”

“I love you, too, baby. Now tell me what that prick did this time.” The fierceness in her voice, combined with the determination sparking from her, had me wondering if she was going to hunt him down and kick his ass. She probably would if she could get to him. I made a mental note to warn Meri in case Mom called in that favor.

I filled her in on the details, leaving nothing out. Curiously, she chose the tidbit about Coven Pointe to focus on. “Bea is at war with another coven? That seems…unlikely.”

“I don’t know, Mom. No one ever mentioned them. I thought I knew all the witches in town.”

“Some wounds run deep.” Gwen sipped her coffee. “If the feud has been going on that long, it could involve anything.”

“Very true.” Mom grabbed a diet soda from the fridge and headed toward the door. “I’m going to work on taking down the decorations so you don’t have to stare at everything for now. Let me know when you need me for anything.”

The door swung closed behind her, then slammed open again as Shelia stormed into the kitchen. “What’s going on in here? I thought this was a party? Kane, get the crawfish boil going. Damn, I’m going to starve.” She bypassed the multiple trays and chafing dishes and yanked the refrigerator door open. An instant later she had the fixings for another hurricane all spread out on the counter.

I slumped in my chair. I had to get out of there. She was too much.

Kane strode over to her and pulled the rum from her hands. “Maybe you should pace yourself, Mother.”

She froze and stared at him dumbfounded for a moment. Then she yanked the alcohol back in defiance. “How dare you embarrass me in front of your friends?” Her tone was a loud whisper we all could hear.

“I think you’re doing just fine on your own. In any case, if you want to keep drinking, be my guest. Drink yourself into a stupor if you want to. I don’t give a shit. Just don’t vomit on our furniture.”

My mouth fell open in shock. I knew their relationship was strained, but I hadn’t known about the hostility. Kane never talked about it. I could see why. I’d spent a significant amount of my life without my mother around, but it hadn’t been her choice. Kane’s mom had not only abandoned him but clearly had addiction issues. My heart swelled with admiration for the man he’d become despite his parents.

“Kane?” I said.

He tore his angry gaze from his drunk of a mother and looked at me. “Let’s go. We have work to do.”

Chapter 5

Filled with gratitude for all they were doing for us, we said a quick goodbye to our friends. On our way out, I gestured to Lailah to follow us outside. She was still talking with Bea and had been frantically taking notes on a napkin.

At the car, she handed me her phone. “Bea wants to talk to you.”

Hope pushed away some of my turmoil. My mentor never let me down. “Bea, thank the Goddess.”

“Jade, dear, I’m so sorry about the wedding.”

A stab of irritation pierced me in the gut. I appreciated the sentiment, I really did. But it was dammed hard not to wallow in pity when everyone wanted to mention it. “We’ll reschedule,” I said evenly. “Right now, Mati is more important. Please tell me you have something for me.”

“Not a lot, I’m afraid. Lailah said she already advised you to find her soul guardian. I don’t know if that will help, but you can try.” She sighed into the phone. “The Coven Pointe witches use a different form of magic than we do. Their spells come from a different source, so figuring out what
we
can do to help Mati is going to prove difficult, if not downright impossible.”

“What do you mean, different?”

She hesitated.

“Bea? Is all of this really about some dude?”

“What?” There was genuine shock in her voice. “How did you get that idea?”

“Mati said that’s why the two covens don’t mix. That this all started over some man.”

She laughed, a high-pitched tinkling sound. “Now, that’s funny. If Dayla is spouting that story, then she’s truly deluded.”

Dayla. Mati’s aunt and her coven leader. I was extremely curious about what had really gone down. But now wasn’t the time. “Do you have any information that might help? Or a place to start?”

She hesitated. Then she took a deep breath. “I think you should go to Dayla in Coven Pointe. The best course of action is to restore Mati’s powers. But you can only get that from one of her ancestors. Or more likely a few of them. They should have some sort of spell for that. You’ll need to get them to trust you with their magic, though. And that will be the tough part. They aren’t going to like giving you any of their power.”

I could see why. If someone I didn’t know asked me to give up some of my power, I’d be downright hostile about it. Who knew what they’d do with it? But I had to agree. If Mati could use her own power to cross back over, that would be best. “Am I going to be welcome there?” If our covens were in some crazy war—one no one even understood—what was I going to be walking into?

“Probably not. Tell them Chessandra sent you.”

It sounded pretty simple. Just go get her power, restore her magic, and have her blast herself out. Right. Nothing was that easy. Not ever. And likely whatever spell they gave me would have consequences. They always did. “All right. But if one of them turns me into an ashtray, I expect you to come for me.”

“Ashtray?”

“Yeah. An ashtray. Like those horrible metal ones kids make in school.”

“Uh…all right, dear.” I could tell by her resistant tone she thought I’d lost my mind.

I laughed, realizing she was probably right. “They are the ugliest things ever. I’m just saying I don’t want to live life as a tin box smelling like tar and ash. That’s all.”

“I think you’re safe,” she said, chuckling. “But I promise I’ll save you from eternal ash. Call me after you speak to her. Lailah has the address and a few notes.”

“Thanks.” After ending the call, I handed Lailah her phone and took the directions from her. “Kane and I are off to deal with the other witches. Why did no one tell me about them?”

She shrugged. “They keep to themselves and so do we. It can sometimes be hard to coexist with another coven. Mostly it’s best to just ignore each other if each one doesn’t want to make waves.”

I stared at her dubiously. “Seriously?”

“Yes. I never mentioned them because I honestly don’t think about them much. Bea is one of my assignments, as are you. I’m worried about what you two are up to. Not the coven across the river. As long as they aren’t corrupting souls, I really don’t care what they do.”

Well, as long as they weren’t corrupting souls. Alrighty then.

Kane placed a hand on the small of my back and led me to the passenger side of his Lexus. “It doesn’t sound like I’m going to like this.”

I turned into him, his fresh rain scent so familiar and comforting. “Do you ever?”

Brushing his lips over my temple, he murmured, “I like you.”

That made me smile. “Good thing, Mr. Rouquette.”

He tilted his head and leaned in, catching my lower lip between his. My fingers curled in his shirt as I pulled him closer and kissed him. It was a bittersweet moment, the two of us standing in front of Summer House, in the place we should have been leaving to go on our honeymoon. We broke apart, staring at each other for a moment. Then Kane said, “Italy will still be there.”

I chuckled humorlessly. “It’s lasted this long.”

“There you go.” He brushed back a lock of hair that had fallen from my fancy updo. “Ready?”

I shook my head no but walked to the car anyway. He followed and opened the door for me. I waved at Lailah, who had retreated to the front porch to give us privacy. “I’ll call you as soon as we know anything.”

She nodded and disappeared back into the house.

Kane joined me in the car and within minutes we were back on the highway headed to the Pointe.

***

“Did we take a wrong turn?” I eyed the rough neighborhood, taking in the decaying homes. One was being overtaken by vegetation, vines invading it from all sides. Rusted bars covered the windows and the porch sagged, appearing moments from collapsing. I would have thought it abandoned if it hadn’t been for the woman standing in the doorway side-eyeing us. She wore gold hot pants, a skin-tight black cami tank top, and black slippers.

We came to a four-way stop behind a late-eighties souped-up Buick low-rider. Kane glanced at the GPS in the dash and shook his head. “No. This road leads us to the Pointe. But maybe we should’ve taken a different route.”