Nancy K. Duplechain - Dark Trilogy 02 - Dark Carnival (22 page)

The Nephyls flew toward
us, and it seemed like Déjà vu as they closed in on us.  Just before they
reached the stables, I saw a bolt of lightning shoot out from one of the
stalls.  It struck one of the Nephyls, and she descended to the earth.  Another
Nephyl went down in a ball of flames.  I looked behind me to see Gretchen and
Felix.  Behind them was Miles.  He raised his hands, aiming at one Nephyl which
suddenly stopped in mid flight, the life appearing to drain from him, his chest
caving in and his body going limp.  He fell from the sky with a heavy thud.

There were twelve more Nephyls
headed toward us.  Sam, realizing what was happening, started for us, too.  Two
Nephyls made it into the stables.  Felix shot one down with electricity while
Noah tackled and ripped apart the other.  Gretchen took down the next one that
came flying our way.

The other six rushed us.  Miles was
able to take one out.  Noah was struggling with the one on top of him.  Felix
and Gretchen looked like they were about to drop, their power draining.  A
Nephyl ripped at Felix, slashing the left side of his body, and he was down.  Before
the Nephyl could finish him off, Gretchen lit him on fire and then she
collapsed from exhaustion.  I knelt beside Felix and healed him just as another
Nephyl was attacking.  Felix quickly took that one out.

I jumped on top of the Nephyl who
had Noah pinned to the ground.  I scratched at his eyes, but another Nephyl
grabbed me and flew me out of the stables and back toward the fire.  She was
about to drop me into the flames, but the sound of a gun firing pierced the
night and she dropped me a few feet off the ground near Mulogo.

I rolled over and saw Lucas come
out from behind a tree.  He shot at the Nephyl three more times, and she
collapsed into the fire, swallowed up by the blaze.  Seeing this from afar,
another Nephyl rushed toward Lucas.

Mulogo, watching Lucas struggle
with the Nephyl, reached into a bag tied to his waist.  Before he could pull
anything out, I reached for him and pulled him down.

I felt a sudden stabbing pain in my
leg.  I collapsed to the ground, my hand firmly grasping my left leg to try to
dull the pain, but it was no use.  Then I suddenly felt as though my back were
on fire.  I screamed in pain, rolling over onto my back, trying to put out the
invisible flames.  I looked over at Ruby and saw she was holding up a Voodoo
doll, burning it with a cigarette lighter.  There was a pin sticking in the
doll’s left leg.  Even from where I was, I could make out strands of copper red
hair that reflected the light of the fire.  Despite the agony I was in, I had
enough of my faculties to realize that it was Ruby who had entered Cee Cee’s
apartment and gone through my things the night of Cee Cee’s meeting.  She had
taken hair from my brush to make this doll.

Noah was running toward me.  When he got to the fire, he noticed
me on the ground looking at Ruby.  He followed my line of vision and saw the
Voodoo doll.  He rushed her, ripping the doll from her hands and removing the
pin.  Ruby lashed out at him with a binding spell.  He dropped the doll and
stood rigid and in pain.

“Ruby, stop it!” he ordered her.  She smiled devilishly and
clinched her fist tighter.  Noah’s body contracted and he cried out in pain.

Mulogo stood over me, holding a palm full of Bella Donna
dust.  Before he could blow it into my face, Cee Cee reached into her pocket
and pulled out a handful of her own dust, and blew it at Mulogo.  He was out
instantly.

Feeling much better, I got up, grabbed the nearest big stick,
snuck up behind Ruby and clubbed her over the head.  Noah collapsed to the
ground.  I rushed over to him.

“I think she broke one of my ribs,” he groaned.

I put my hand over his ribs and used all my concentration.  In
a few moments, he was better and rushed back into battle near the stables.

“Oh, no!” cried Cee Cee.

I followed her gaze over at Lucas who had fatally wounded one
of the Nephyls who lay dead at his feet.  But now Sam was coming for him.  Lucas
shot at him, but of course the bullet did no good except to briefly slow him
down; he wasn’t half human like the Nephilim.  Sam picked him up by his throat,
threatening to crush the life out of him.  At that moment, Noah charged Sam,
who then tossed Lucas’ limp body into the lake.

I ran to the lake’s edge and looked for him, waited for him
to come up, but I saw no sign of him.  I looked behind me to see Noah wrestling
with Sam.

Without hesitation, I kicked off my shoes and tore off the
heavy dress, stripping down to my underwear, and rushed into the icy lake.  I
dove beneath the surface, blindly, frantically searching for Lucas until my
lungs threatened to burst.  I quickly went back up for air.  I took three deep
breaths, knowing that wouldn’t be enough but I didn’t care.  If I didn’t come
back up with him, I was determined to stay under with him forever if it took
that long.

I went back down and swam deeper.  I opened my eyes, the
water burning them instantly.  I blinked back the pain and scanned the bottom
of the lake.  It was hard to make out anything but algae and mud, but I finally
saw him in the dim light of the moon.  His body limply shifted with the slight
water current.  I swam as fast as I could, my body so cold it felt on fire.  When
I reached him, there were no bubbles coming from his mouth or nose.  I pulled
him up by his shirt and got a good hold of him as he floated into my arms.  I
drug him up as best I could, breaking the surface tension of the calm
water above and truly felt at that moment I could have easily broken through a
brick wall.

I pulled Lucas’ body in one arm and swam with the other.  The
shore was farther than I had expected.  The muscles in my arms burned as I used
all my strength to tow him with me.  “Stay with me, Lucas,” I begged, not
knowing if he could hear me or not.  I saw someone running toward the water.

“Noah!” I shouted.  “Help me get him out!”

Noah dove into the water and swam to me as I neared the
shore.  Together, we pulled Lucas out of the frigid water.  In the distance, I
saw Sam’s head several feet away from his lifeless body.  At the stables,
Miles, Gretchen and Felix were fighting the last three Nephyls.  Cee Cee, still
weak, rushed to help them.

I was shaking and soon realized I was crying as I cradled Lucas
in my arms.  Noah took off his jacket and wrapped me in it.

“Oh, God, Lucas. Please be okay. Please be okay,” I begged.

“Lay him down,” said Noah.  I didn’t want to.  I wanted to
hold him forever.  Noah had to pry him from my arms and lay him down.  “I have
to go help the others.  Can you heal him?”

I put my hands over his chest and tried to concentrate, but
my hands were shaking terribly and nothing was coming through.  “It’s not
working,” I said through chattering teeth.

Noah looked back at the battle at the stables.  We seemed to
be winning, but he got up, starting to run to help.

“No!  Please help me!  Please!”

He hesitated, but came back.  He moved my hands aside and
started CPR.  I held Lucas’ hand as Noah pumped his chest and tried to force
oxygen into his lungs.  I laid down next to him in the silt and put my head
near his.  I kissed his forehead.

“Please don’t die, Luke,” I whispered, still crying and
shivering.  I kissed his temple as Noah kept up a steady pace.  “You have to
fight.  Fight for me.  Fight for Jonathan!”  I whispered, “I love you,” still
not knowing if he could hear me.  When I said it, Noah paused for a second and
looked at me, slight hurt showing behind his eyes.  But I stayed focused on
Lucas.  Noah regained his concentration and kept up with the CPR.

“Please don’t leave me, Luke,” I whispered softly as I kissed
his hand.

After several minutes, Noah stopped.  He sat back, exhausted.
 Lucas felt very cold now.  “I’m sorry,” he said.  Behind Noah, I could faintly
begin to make out the forms of several tall, sentinel figures.

The Guardians
.

“No!” I yelled.  I got up and resumed CPR.  Noah watched me
for a minute and then put his head down in his hands, unable to watch my heart
break.

I stopped only long enough to say: “Get Miles!”

Noah looked over at Miles, who was still in battle.  He
looked back down at Lucas.  “He’s gone, Leigh.”

“He just has to get the water out,” I said, breathless as I
pumped his chest.  I held his nose and blew into his mouth.  I kept repeating
this for another couple of minutes, each time getting angrier and angrier.

Noah leaned over Lucas’ body and grabbed my wrists roughly.  I
tried to jerk them back, but he was too strong.  “Leigh,” he said, softly.

“No,” I said, barely choking out the word that came out
sounding like a squeak.  But I stopped.  I didn’t struggle anymore.  Noah let
go of me and stood up, looking out at the end of the battle in the distance.  He
walked to the bank of the lake and left me to take it all in, just as I had
done with him when Nadia died.

“No,” I whispered.  I looked down at Lucas.  I rested my head
on his shoulder, hugging him to me as I cried from my soul.  I cupped his cheek
in my hand and turned his head to me.  I kissed his mouth and hugged him
tighter to me.  I moved my hand to his cold chest and left it there.

The world seemed very still.  I closed my eyes and pictured
me and Lucas and nothing else.  I saw him in my mind’s eye; we were dancing at
Carrie’s; then we were holding hands on the porch at Clothilde’s; then we were nestled
together in my bed, our bodies fitting perfectly together, all of our problems
leaving us when we looked into each other’s eyes.

The hand I had on his chest began to get very warm, and soon
it was burning.  But it didn’t hurt.  I remained very still and my hand got hotter
and hotter.  I kept my eyes shut and whispered into his ear, “Come back to me.”

I felt something move under my hand.  His chest softly rose,
lifting my burning hand with it.  I suddenly heard him gasp, and his whole body
shook.  I opened my eyes and sat up.  He gasped again and coughed loudly.  I
removed my hand and rolled him onto his side.  He coughed again and again, and
the fluid in his lungs gushed out.  He was finally able to catch his breath.

I looked up, not seeing the transparent forms of the
Guardians any more.  I now looked over at Noah who stared in disbelief.  But I
knew it wasn’t that Lucas was alive.  What stunned Noah was that I had crossed
the line I said I would never cross.  I looked down at Lucas and cried out of
relief but also out of fear.

My power was very strong now and that terrified me.  It meant
that the line had been crossed, and I knew I could never return.  With the
single act of saving the life of the man I loved, I also put myself in the
position to never be able to love him again.

I had just become a dark paladin.

Cee Cee undid the spell Ruby was under, but it
took a lot of hard work.  It was three days before Ruby was right again.  She
had no memory of what happened.  When Cee Cee told her about Mulogo, she was
deeply hurt by the betrayal.  It seemed that he had her take the mask from
Miles’ bag just before he boarded the plane to Paris.  

As to how the other mask
made it to New Orleans was still a mystery to everyone, especially Gretchen and
Felix who swore they saw the Queen’s Mask only days before they came out to
help us.  It would be nearly two weeks before I remembered the dream I had
about the phone call and the voice on the other end, telling me I needed to get
back both masks.  Who that was, I don’t know.  I still think about it sometimes
when I wake up in the middle of the night; somewhere in those quiet moments
when the house is still.

When I got back to
Clothilde’s house in Abbeville, I didn’t tell her what had happened with Lucas,
but I could tell she knew something was different.  The way she looked at me—it
was a combination of disbelief and sadness.  Lucas was another story.  He
couldn’t stop thanking me.  He said that Jonathan wouldn’t know what to do
without him, and he couldn’t imagine never seeing his son again.  Instead of
feeling proud, I felt awkward.  I couldn’t bring myself to tell him what it
meant when I brought him back from the dead.

I realized that I was
afraid of myself—not just of my power, but of my feelings for Lucas.  When I
thought he was gone, my heart ached for him.  I wanted nothing more than to be
with him forever, but how could I be?  Not now that I was a dark paladin—a Line
Walker.  I reflected on that moniker.  As a dark paladin, I literally walked
the line between good and evil.  It was much easier for me to fall to the dark
side, though I felt that was not possible with me.  I knew where my loyalty
resided, but the mere thought that it
could
happen scared me.

I couldn’t drag Lucas and
Jonathan into that world.  Jonathan was a pure light paladin, and I believed he
always would be.  He would retain that goodness, same as Nadia.  Lucas, a
mortal, would get hurt.  It was hard enough thinking about protecting Lyla,
much less Lucas and his son.

I now understood what Cee
Cee meant when she said that dark paladins can be moody and withdrawn.  It was
dangerous to get close to anyone.

When Lyla got back from
school, she ran upstairs to my bedroom, threw her arms around me and tackled me
onto the bed.  “Yay!  You’re back!”

I laughed, breathless.  “You’re
way too big for this,” I exhaled.

She rolled off of me and
onto the other side of the bed.  I sat up and gave her an evil eye.  She
laughed at me, and I started laughing, too.

“Did you have fun this
time?”  Clothilde had told her that I went back to New Orleans to finish my
training, so that she wouldn’t be scared.  It takes a lot to wake her up, and
she never heard the commotion when I was taken that night.

I paused for a reflective
moment and decided to let her continue to be a child.  “Yeah.  I had fun,” I
said and smiled.

“I almost forgot!”  She
gently lifted my mother’s locket over her head and handed it to me.  I took it
and opened it.  Seeing the pictures of my parents hit me hard, especially
seeing the man I had always thought to be my real father.  My eyes started to
tear up.  “What’s wrong?” she asked.

I sniffled and smiled,
closing the locket.  “Nothing.  Thank you for taking good care of it.”

“Duh!  I told you I
would.”

“Duh!  I know!” I teased
back.  “Oh, I have something for you.”  I reached into my suitcase and pulled
out the music box with the troubled past.  “Sorry.  I forgot to wrap it.”

Lyla’s eyes lit up.  “Is
that for me?  It’s so pretty!”  She took it from me like she was holding a rare
jewel.  She opened it, and the little plastic couple began to dance as the
music started.  She watched it, fascinated, her head tilted and eyes fixed on
the dancers.  Seeing her joy—the joy and wonderment that can only come from a
child—I was certain this little music box would indeed have a happily ever
after.

And that made me smile.