VooDoo Follies (18 page)

"You have ruined me, witch. And now, I will
ruin you too, starting with your guardians."

My cell phone was ringing on the
dresser.

"No doubt that's your little witch friend,
calling to warn you that I paid her a visit tonight
too."

"You seem to have the healthy glow of the
freshly fed about you, so what seems to be the problem?"

"The problem is..." His voice rose higher and
higher with each word, "you have taken all the fun out of being a
vampire!"

"Wait, I did what?"

"I used to be able to decide who lived and who
died. I used to toy with my pets. I used to lust after the blood in
such a way that when I finally got to taste it there was an
explosion of desire, and fulfillment in my mouth as I drank." He
came a little closer, not daring to get too near us though, "now,
there is nothing. There is only the desire to feed in order to not
wither away. I do not anticipate feedings, do not revel in them.
They just are. You took the fun from me, and I want it
back."

"So, I've screwed up a spell for you twice
trying to clean up what Tina did, and now you want me to try to fix
things again?" I couldn't believe this vampire could possibly be
this big of a moron.

"You will do it right, or I will make sure
neither of your guardians is ever able to return to a
body."

I knew in an instant his plan was to kill
Trevor, not the ghost Trevor, but his body so it couldn't be used.
"You were listening to their conversation at the house that
night."

"Of course I was." He cocked his head to the
side, looking at each of us and then laughed, "and it never
occurred to any of you because you are all silly little teenagers,
no matter what shell you've been put in."

"Again, I say, why would you want me to do
this? I have screwed it up twice."

"There is no one else. Witches are in short
supply around here. At least ones with training and experience." He
smiled, "besides, you are going to partake in your ceremony to
become a High Priestess of Voodoo, are you not?" The look of shock
on my face was obviously evident by the one of satisfaction that
crossed his. "Yes, I know about that too. You will go and receive
the blessings of a High Priestess, then you will have the power to
do this correctly. If you refuse, I will see to it that your friend
doesn't get to keep his shell."

With that, the Vampire was gone. He
disappeared back through the window he had obviously crawled into.
My cell phone was ringing again.

"Hello?"

"Don't worry, I have a plan." It was
Tina.

"You have a what? No. You've drug us into this
mess with you, and I am done. I am going to New Orleans, we will
figure something out, and I don't want you meddling in any of it."
I hung up.

"Didn't you at least want to hear her plan?"
Trevor asked.

"No." I said, "now I need to get some sleep,
so the two of you need to go somewhere else or be quiet." I decided
it wasn't worth it to wait for food. Sleep seemed more welcoming.
Tomorrow, I would get on the road to New Orleans and try to figure
everything else out along the way.

***

The VooDoo Follies

Part Four: The
Ceremony

Original Publication Date:

Oct. 4, 2011

I am Seraphine LaLande, and I am no longer in
training. My ceremony is set. I will ascend to the ranks of Voodoo
Priestess,, and then I will help one of the boys I love gain a body
while allowing the other to shed his completely.

My heart is still torn between Stephen and
Trevor.

The Voodoo ritual that will set them both free
is also a constant in my thoughts. If I mess this one up, there
won't be any going back. I could lose them both,
forever.

I could lose them anyway, thanks to my
meddling in the affairs of a vampire. Now, he's hell bent on
destroying the one thing that will make this ritual go off without
a hitch. All I keep thinking is, 'how will I live with myself if
this doesn't work?'

Maybe the better question would have been,
what happens if I don't live through this?

***

Heading Home

I pulled up to the old French
Colonial house that was the heart of New Orleans. My family had
never been rich. The house had been an inheritance that each
generation had to scrape by to hang on to. I took off from Rosedale
thinking about this house and now I was so tired after all that
driving that I was seeing double when it finally came into
view.

I pulled into the drive and threw
the car in park before I did any damage with it. The front door of
the house swung open and my Auntie Perrine stepped out. That was
all it took to wake me up and jump start something inside of me. I
flew out of the car yelling, "Auntie Perrine!" I ran to her and
wrapped my arms around her. "I missed you so much!"

"I've missed you too!" She pulled
away from me, examining everything, even lifting a strand of my
hair to see how long it had really gotten. "You are a different
person now," she finally said.

"It hasn't grown that much," I
said, playing nervously with my hair now.

"No, but you have. Look at that
aura. It says you have grown." My Auntie smiled that perfect white
smile of hers at me. "This is the aura of a high priestess," she
proclaimed before pulling me into another hug.

When we finally parted again
Auntie Perrine looked around and asked, "So, where are these boys
of yours?"

"What?"

"Did they not come with
you?

Awkward glances passed between
Trevor, Stephen, and myself as we looked back and forth between
Auntie Perrine and each other. "So, you really can't see them
then?"

"No, Seraphine. Apparently that is
a gift that was bestowed upon you and your momma, but not me." She
apparently registered the disappointment in my face because she
continued on, "don't worry! I don't need to see them to
help."

"Oh, okay." I turned and looked
from Trevor to Stephen. "Well, this is my Auntie Perrine." I
pointed to the house next, "and this is home."

"I can see why you missed it so
much." Stephen said to me as he looked around.

"Yeah." I stopped myself short of
sighing and then got excited again, "hey, you haven't seen anything
yet! Just wait till we take you down in the French Quarter and to
my Auntie's store."

"Okay," Auntie Perrine was looking
at me strangely again, "that's going to take some getting used
to."

"Sorry, Auntie." I repeated what
Stephen had said so that she wasn't left out of the conversation.
"I'll set the laptop up inside. Stephen can chat with it. Trevor's
still trying to master those skills."

"He can manipulate things with
touch?"

"Only Stephen right now, and only
small things." I answered while trying to stifle a yawn that
quickly grew into a life of its own.

"You're tired, baby girl." Auntie
Perrine grabbed me up in a half-shoulder hug and started leading me
to the house. "Let's get you settled and we can chat
tomorrow."

~...~

Sleep and a shower were my elixir.
I felt like a new person in the morning, which was a good thing
because Auntie Perrine was gearing up to get to the store bright
and early. I watched the boys and their reactions as we drove
through New Orleans. Neither of them had been here in life. After
seeing their reaction, I supposed it didn't matter what state you
were in when seeing things for the first time, it was always a
treat.

"Seraphine, this is amazing."
Trevor looked from the window to me, finally and smiled. It was
that same smile he wore when I met him, the same one that I had
started falling for.

"I can almost understand why you
shut down in Rosedale now. This is a different world." It was
Stephen's turn to smile at me.

"Almost?" I questioned.

"Yeah, almost. I mean, you had me
there, and just never noticed!" His hair slipped back down over his
eyes, hiding what he didn't want me to see.

"I guess you just don't compare to
all this!" Trevor added excitedly.

"Trevor!"

"What?" He shrugged, "I mean, the
first day I met you I knew you were special and made a point of
getting to know you better." I was blushing a little, because
Trevor had a point. Stephen had pined away for me in quiet solitude
while Trevor had let me know right away that he was
interested.

"Too bad you didn't like her once
you got to know her." Stephen was mumbling but we heard him and
while the words hurt me, it did what he had intended and shut
Trevor up.

"Do I even want to know what this
conversation is about, because the flurry of emotions that just
played across your face were pretty intense."

"It was nothing," I said as we
pulled up to the familiar store front.

"Here's the spare keys to the
store, why don't you guys go ahead on in while I park the car."
Auntie Perrine winked at me and lowered her voice to whisper,
"seems like you guys need to say a few things without me listening
in to your side of the conversation."

"No, it's not..." I started to
protest, but Auntie Perrine wasn't hearing it. She just pushed me
towards the door.

"Go on now, I'll be there in a few
minutes."

I ignored both boys as I went
about unlocking the store and letting them in. I turned and locked
the door back up behind me. The store was closed for the day and I
didn't want to confuse anyone. I turned back around and started
wandering between the familiar shelves. My hands were
absentmindedly roaming across everything as I passed by. A feeling
deep inside me clenched my gut and brought tears to my eyes. I had
missed this place. I had missed home, and I had kept all that
bottled up along with the solitude I had worn as my own personal
prison for more than a year now. This was home, and while Rosedale
brought me to both Stephen and Trevor, I had nothing else to thank
it for.

"Seraphine?" Stephen called
quietly.

I wiped the tears from my eyes
that were about to fall and I walked quickly over to the counter
towards the back where I would find the herbs Auntie Perrine said
we needed.

"Seraphine," My Auntie's voice
broke into my reverie as I just stood there staring at the herbs.
"We won't be using any of those. I have fresh in the back,
remember?" She smiled at me and came over to hug me again, "It's
still home for you. It will be here for you when you are finished
with school, if you want it." She pulled me along with her away
from the herb cabinet to the back of the store. I don't know how
she did it, but Auntie Perrine was a mind reader. She couldn't
really read people's thoughts, but she could read their body
language well, and she was always an expert at reading
me."

We wandered into the back of the
store and were looking through some of the herbs that were hanging
out to dry when she asked, "are they here with you, or still out in
the store?" I nodded to the store so she felt free to say whatever
was on her mind. "Seraphine, I am worried about you. What have you
done?"

"I don't understand."

"You've gone and fallen in love
with two spirits, baby girl. The struggle is all over your face
when you are talking to them."

That did it, the damn I had built
up broke and the tears began to fall. "I don't know what to do,
Auntie." She handed me tissue to use and just hugged me.
"

"Oh, baby girl, the LaLande women
have always had it rough in love, but you..." she kissed my head
and then looked me in the eye, "you've done gone and beaten us
all."

"What if this doesn't work?" I
finally voiced the thing that had been plaguing my very existence
since Auntie Perrine had given us hope. "What if Stephen doesn't
get put in that body? What if I end up loosing them both?" I
crumpled in on myself a little, "I don't know if I can handle that
outcome."

"I know, sweet girl. You have to
try though, because it's what they both want. And you have to have
a little faith. Your magic has not let you down yet!"

"How can you say that? Look at the
messes I've made with it." I couldn't tell her about Vampire Dave,
but she knew about the zombies, and that alone should have been
enough to convince anyone that I wasn't exactly capable. "Do you
remember the zombie apocalypse I almost caused?"

"Okay, intervention time." My
auntie swung me around and sat me down on a stool. "Seraphine, has
it not occurred to you that your magic didn't mess up?"

"What do you mean, of course I
messed it up."

"No, baby girl. Everything happens
for a reason. If you hadn't messed up with that zombie girl you
raised,"

I cut her off, remembering my
conversation with Stephen, and not wanting to forget Adrianna.
"Adrianna," I said, wanting to remember that she was a person
once.