Shadows of Bourbon Street (18 page)

She nodded and secured my necklace around her neck.

A soft glow of magic radiated from the bead at the same time I experienced a small shock right in my breastbone, where my magic resided. Good, we’d definitely formed a connection. “I made that a while ago.”

“Really.” She tightened her hand around the bead. “It has positive energy.”

I smiled. “I was practicing trapping my magic into glass. I’m glad you can sense it. That means you’re strong. Not everyone can.”

“Well…” Matisse stared at her feet. “I used to be a lot stronger.”

I placed a soothing hand on her arm and was gratified when she didn’t jerk back. She was beginning to trust me. “You’ll be strong again.”

She let out a skeptical laugh. “Yeah, sure. But only if you keep feeding me those pills.”

“You can bet your life I’ll bring them every damn day until you’re home safe.”

She sighed wearily. “I don’t know what’s worse, sitting here waiting endlessly or just fading away.”

She seemed so dejected, so hopeless, I wanted to cry for her. But that was the last thing she needed. I gently grabbed her by both arms. “Listen to me. I will not let you rot here. Not like this. Whatever I have to do, I’ll do it. Understand?”

Her eyes misted and as she nodded, two tears spilled down her cheeks. A pain slashed through my heart for her. How easily this could have been me at her age if my circumstances had been different. How dare Chessandra task her to complete such a dangerous activity on her own? Why had it been so important to get the veil closed now? And by someone who was so inexperienced. Was Matisse that strong? Or was Chessandra just out of her mind? I was guessing somewhere in the middle.

“I need to get back so we can keep working on how to get you out of here. But I’d really like it if you’d try to merge your magic with mine to see if you can cross over with me.”

“It didn’t work last time,” she said.

“I know. But we have a bond now.” I smiled and touched the glass bead around her neck. “I’m going to focus on my friend, Kat. She has a talisman of mine. I’d like to see how well this might work.”

She waved at the fog closing in on us. “Anything’s better than this.”

I held out my hand, and when she clasped hers in mine, I was overwhelmed with a rush of gratitude and anxiety. She was thankful I was here to help. But also very skeptical that I could be of any use at all. She didn’t really expect to ever get home. The crack in my heart widened. It was awful to see her lose hope. I squeezed her hand. “Just focus on me, or, if it’s easier, my necklace.”

“I’ll try.” Her voice seemed far away already.

I peered at her, my eyesight already blurring, and the world started to tilt. I clasped her hand tighter and yelled, “Hang on!”

But when I landed once again in the club, my hand was empty and the only people I saw were Bea and Lailah hovering over me.

“How is she doing?” Bea asked, clutching the hem of her coral silk shirt.

I glanced around, trying to orient myself again. Kat and Charlie stood near the bar, gaping at me. Besides Lailah and Bea, the place was empty. Disappointment consumed me. “Crap. It didn’t work.”

“What didn’t? The pills?” Bea held her hand out to help me up.

I took it and stumbled to my feet. “Oh, no. Those did the trick. Thank you very much. If it hadn’t been for you…” I didn’t finish, couldn’t finish. Poor Mati. I cleared my throat. “I left my necklace with her and she gave me an earring. I was hoping the connection might be useful enough to bring her back. No go, though I guess I suspected as much. Seems stupid to think that would work.”

“It’s not stupid, Jade,” Bea said gently. “Things carry energy. You know that.”

Boy, did I ever.

“It could’ve worked, but I suspect your power is strong enough that if it was possible for her to cross at all, you could’ve done it on your own.”

“So what was this about?” I pointed to Kat’s tree-of-life necklace secured around my neck.

She shrugged. “Like I said, it doesn’t hurt.”

I flopped into a chair, totally frustrated. “Now what?”

Kat stepped forward and handed me my engagement ring. I slipped it on my finger and clutched my hand, grateful to have a piece of Kane. “Here,” I said, reaching up to give her the necklace back.

She shook her head. “Keep it. I like knowing you have something of mine with you just in case.” Then she held her phone out. “I got a text from Lucien. He says he thinks he knows where to find Vaughn’s brother.”

I let my vision slip to the shadow world one more time and stared at the white light shining from the portal. I hated leaving Matisse there. How long would Bea’s pills last?

“Jade?” Kat called, startling me from my trance.

My vision cleared and I shook my head. “Yeah?”

“Did you hear that? We need to meet Lucien.”

“Right. Sorry. Let’s go.”

***

Kat and I pulled to a stop in front of Lucien’s house in Mid-City. Bea and Lailah were a few minutes behind us. As soon as we climbed out of Kat’s Mini, Lucien strode across his porch and waved for us to meet him at his car. “He’s there now. We have to go.”

I changed course mid-step and climbed into the backseat of his Jeep. Finding Vaughn was priority number one.

Kat cast me a questioning glance as she held the front passenger-side door handle. I waved for her to get in. I wasn’t going to make her sit in the backseat of her boyfriend’s car…even if they weren’t officially dating. Whatever they were doing, they were obviously together.

After we jumped in the car, Lucien peeled out of the driveway, and a few minutes later we were on Interstate 10, heading east away from New Orleans. Cars were stacked up miles deep trying to get into the city, and I had heart palpations thinking about getting back home later. Traffic was going to be a bitch.

“Where are we headed?” I asked Lucien.

“Six Flags.” He shifted lanes, cutting someone off.

My stomach dropped to my feet and I grabbed a door handle. “Whoa, what’s the hurry?”

“I don’t want to miss him.”

I glanced at Kat. “Six Flags?”

She shrugged and pulled her phone out. “I’ll text Lailah and tell her and Bea to meet us there.”

“But I thought it was closed. Why would anyone be there?” After Hurricane Katrina, the theme park had never opened again. As far as I knew it was abandoned.

“There’s a film shooting there today, and Mitch is a production assistant. If we hurry, we can catch him before they wrap for the day.”

“Ah.” The line of cars on the interstate trying to get into the city was not thinning. Damn. “Have you spoken to him?”

Lucien shook his head. “No, but I got a hold of his mom. She told me where he’d be.”

Kat’s phone buzzed, indicating an incoming text. Her fingers flew across the screen as she sent a reply.

I caught Lucien’s green gaze in the rearview mirror. “And she gave up the information just like that?”

The back of Lucien’s neck turned red, and that was when I knew he was holding something back.

“Lucien? What’s going on?”

He met my eyes in the mirror once more and grimaced.

Kat caught his look and raised curious eyebrows at him. “Lucien?” she asked quietly.

He let out a long breath. “Sorry. When I heard the name Vaughn Paxton, it sounded so incredibly familiar but I couldn’t place why. I mean, the guy is ten years younger than I am. It’s not like I run in the same circles as he does. But when I started researching, I found his half-brother Mitch.”

I scooted forward, waiting for him to continue. When he didn’t, I said, “And?”

Kat reached over and turned the radio off. The road noise filled the Jeep.

Lucien’s knuckles went white as he clutched the steering wheel. “I went to high school with Mitch. And we were at the same college for a few years before he dropped out. We weren’t friends. More like acquaintances, really. But I did spend a lot of time with him. We were on the basketball team together. It’s hard to avoid a guy in that situation. It gave me credibility when I asked about Mitch. When I casually inquired about Vaughn she was pretty vague. I’m hoping we can get more out of Mitch.”

Lucien’s expression turned troubled as he focused on the road. Kat touched his knee and when he glanced at her, she sent him an encouraging smile.

“What do you know about him?” I asked. “Whatever it is, you need to tell me before we get there.”

“He’s a witch.” Lucien glanced over his shoulder and gave me an apologetic look. “But he’s not really discerning about how he uses his magic.”

My mind immediately jumped to black magic, and fear mixed with anger coiled in my gut.

Lucien must have sensed my unease, because he didn’t even glance at me before he started speaking again. “It’s not what you’re thinking. He uses it to manipulate people to do what he wants. Small things like getting a girl to kiss him when it’s pretty obvious she isn’t into him. Nudging professors to give him a better grade. Taking every opportunity to better his situation, even at the expense of others. He also crosses lines, and I don’t trust him. Never have.”

“And no one ever called him on it?” I asked, feeling sick to my stomach. It might not have been black magic, but it sure as hell wasn’t ethical.

“A few of us tried, but we could never prove it to anyone who mattered.” He shook his head. “I despise the guy.”

“I already do and I haven’t even met him.” Entitled bastard. “You said he was a production assistant. If he’s so determined to get ahead, why wouldn’t he use his magic to run the show? Or hell, even star in the movie?”

Lucien shrugged. “Probably because he likes to stay under the radar. That kind of thing would shine too big of a spotlight on him. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was hired as an intern and forced a promotion within hours.”

If Mitch was still up to his old tricks, then that made sense. “And you say this Vaughn guy is his half-brother?”

“Yes. But I don’t know him at all, other than I’d seen him around some of the basketball games. But he’d been a kid then. Like seven or eight? I have no idea what he’d look like now. Not like Mitch, that’s for sure. Mitch’s mom married Vaughn’s dad, and Mr. Paxton adopted him. Mitch never talked about his real dad. Not once.”

I sat back and took a deep breath, trying to get a grip on my anger. “How long has it been since you’ve seen him? Ten years? Maybe he’s changed.”

Lucien glanced over his shoulder and then shifted lanes to take the exit to five-ten. “I doubt it. His tendencies were getting worse the older he got. There was a rumor he roofied a girl. Only she tested negative for any traces of drugs.”

That got my attention. As a witch, if he had any skill at all, he wouldn’t need narcotics to alter a girl’s cognitive state. “Do you think he assaulted her?”

Kat’s lips formed a thin angry line. We’d been put in a position when we were fifteen that had our friend Dan not stepped in, one or both of us surely would have been attacked. I knew that day was running through her mind, just as it was mine.

“I honestly don’t know. But I wouldn’t want either of you left alone with him. He’s just one of those people I’ve never trusted.”

“Noted,” I said and blew out a breath. I wasn’t so much worried for myself. I could hold my own in a magical battle, but Kat? That was a different story. “Kat?”

“Yeah?”

“When we meet him, do me a favor and stay close to me.”

She frowned, her eyes squinting with annoyance. “I’m not a five-year-old. I think I’ve already figured out I should stick close to one of you.”

Lucien glanced at her. “No, babe. Not close to me. If there’s a magical duel, I’m useless. My power is neutralized, remember? Not to mention if I were to cast anything…well, it’s just not going to happen. Stick with Jade, Bea, or Lailah for now.”

Her expression went blank, but she couldn’t hide what was going on from me. She was suppressing a very healthy dose of frustration and fear. I reached across the seat and squeezed her shoulder. “We’ll stick together like we always do, right? You’ll keep me balanced, and I’ll send a magical sucker punch to anyone who dares get in your way.”

Her lips twitched and then she grinned. “Yeah. I can hang with that.”

Lucien’s shoulders relaxed and relief swirled around him.

It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him not to get too comfortable, but I didn’t want to ruin the moment. “Did Lailah text back?” I asked Kat. “Are they on their way?”

“Yes, but they’re about twenty minutes behind us now. They had to stop for gas.”

That wasn’t exactly what I wanted to hear. With those two along, we could handle just about anything. Still, I was strong enough that I could probably handle Mitch on my own, even if he was an ass. And who knew? Maybe he’d grown up since college. One could hope.

We pulled into the weed-infested parking lot of Six Flags and parked under a defunct lamppost. There weren’t any cars in sight. “Are you sure this is where they’re filming?”

“That’s what his mom said.” Lucien pushed his door open and jumped out. Kat and I followed. We made our way to the chained entrance.