Witches of Bourbon Street (5 page)

Ian watched her with a pleased smile, ignoring his half of the cake.

“What?” She loaded her fork.

“Just enjoying my dessert.” His eyes never left hers.

“Oh.” A blush crept up her neck and a nervous laugh escaped her lips before she stifled it.

Nervous? Pyper? Where was the confident, sassy spitfire I’d come to know and love? I turned to Kane and found his expression mirroring my own confusion. There was only one conclusion. Pyper had a thing for Ian.

As we left, Pyper and I walked together behind our dates. I leaned in and whispered, “Ian, huh?”

Her lips turned up in a sly smile. “Why not? He’s cute.”

“What about the guy you wanted us to meet?”

Her expression turned blank. “What guy?”

“Yesterday at the café, remember? You said you wanted to double date.” Hadn’t she said she’d just asked Ian two hours ago?

“Yeah. I meant with Ian. I meant to ask him right after work, but we were playing phone tag. All I wanted was something casual just in case, but since it’s going so well, I think we’ll call it a night.” She grinned and called out. “Hey, Ian. Ready to walk me home?”

“Sure,” he replied.

“I think we might need more dessert.” Pyper winked.

Ian’s gaze ran the length of her tiny body. “If you insist.”

“You have no idea.” Her voice came out low and sultry.

“Night, Jade, Kane,” Ian said, not looking back at us. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and the pair walked off toward Jackson Square.

“I don’t like that guy,” Kane said.

I laughed. “It’s a good thing you’re not going home with him then.”

Chapter 4

The next day, after working a six-hour shift at The Grind, I dragged myself up the third flight of stairs to my one-room apartment, ready to collapse on my lumpy couch. When I got to the door, I froze. It stood slightly ajar and soft voices echoed within.

Slowly, I backed up then spun. I’d made it halfway down the stairs when I heard the door swing open. Footsteps echoed in the hall.

Shit!
My body jerked forward, propelling me around the corner to the second floor.

“Jade!”

Grabbing the railing, I came to an abrupt stop then poked my head into the adjacent stairwell. “Pyper? What were you doing in my apartment?”

“Waiting for you. Sorry to barge in, but I had to use the restroom.”

“It’s okay.” I shook my head and climbed back up to my apartment. “The door was open and, well, I thought I had an intruder.”

“Oh, gosh.” Pyper made a face. “I hadn’t thought about that.”

Her silver high heels clacked on my wood floors as I followed her. “You’re dressed up today. Where are you headed?”

She spun, showing off her red, vintage, nineteen-fifty’s-style pinup dress, and smiled. “I have a lunch date.”

My eyebrows shot up. “With Ian?”

She gave me a coy look and walked behind my couch. “We need your help with something.”

“We?”

Right then the bathroom door opened. Lailah came strolling out with Duke on her heels. Once she stopped, the ghost dog sat and stared up at her in pure adoration.

“Lailah,” I said.

“Jade, you’re looking…satisfied.” Her lips curved in a teasing smile.

My faced burned. Since Lailah was supposedly some sort of angel, she could sense and see things others couldn’t. In particular, she could read auras, and mine probably had a healthy glow of red surrounding the normal purple haze. Red was the color for passion. Something Kane and I weren’t lacking in these days. If anything, it was growing. We couldn’t keep our hands off each other, and when we couldn’t be physically together, Kane always visited me in my dreams. Sometimes even right after…well, anyway. Having a boyfriend who dreamwalks has its perks.

I cleared my throat. “What brings you by this morning?”

Lailah turned her attention to Pyper. “She didn’t know we were coming?”

Pyper ignored the question and turned to me. “Lailah could use your help.”

“What’s going on?”

Pyper reached behind the couch and came up with a portrait in each hand.

“I can see their auras, but I can’t get a read on their emotions or intentions,” Lailah said, holding the third portrait.

My attention focused on the mutilated beauty in Pyper’s left hand. The desperation flowing from the portrait distracted me from Pyper’s attempt to make a case as to why I should help. Felicia’s blue eyes seemed to lock hold of my gaze. Everything in the room disappeared. Suddenly I was trapped in her energy.

Strong-willed and stubborn, Felicia held her emotions close. They were thick and weighted down. Not what I’d expect from a supernatural being. Unless they were inherently evil, their emotional signatures—like mine—were light and easy to navigate. Hers pushed, prodded, and wrapped around my limbs like heavy tentacles. Desperation began to seep into my pores.

“Jade?” Pyper called.

I blinked, and the tainted energy dissipated. “Yeah?”

“Are you listening?” Pyper waved a hand in front of my face. “I know you said you didn’t want to get involved, but we’re just asking for a reading to understand what’s going on.”

I studied Felicia again. What had happened to the soul trapped in that portrait? Despite my reservations of dealing with another spirit, I nodded. “Okay.”

“You don’t have to do anything else. Ian’s already got readings with Lailah. He just asked if we could jot down what you sense from them.”

I barely heard Pyper’s reply. Felicia’s energy force had found me again, and I’d started moving toward the portrait. It was like a personalized, mystical gravitation pull. Like I wouldn’t be able to break away even if I wanted to.

When I reached Pyper’s side, I held my hands out. She set one of the portraits down and passed Felicia to me. As soon as my hands clasped the frame, my world turned black.

No, not black. A crescent moon peeked out from behind the clouds. A few stars twinkled in the midnight sky. I spun, taking in the wide clearing among familiar pine trees.

My heart dropped to my stomach. I took a deep breath and choked on the overwhelming pine scent. I knew this place. I hadn’t been there for over ten years. Not since before my mother had disappeared.

“Why here?” I asked.

Felicia floated over the dirt-packed earth and stopped in front of me. Her perfect, non-deformed face radiated light and beauty. She studied me then began to move in a circle. On her third pass, she paused. “To remind you of what you lost.”

The panic I’d been fighting vanished. My voice turned cold and flat. “I don’t need a reminder.”

Felicia floated higher and loomed over me. “Then why do you do nothing?” she asked in an icy tone.

“Nothing?” I cried. “What am I supposed to do? A whole coven of witches couldn’t bring her back! The very ones who lost her to the other side. If they can’t do anything, what makes you think I can?”

“You ignore your power. Every day you deny your gift is one more day Hope is a slave to the otherworld.”

My throat closed. “Hell?” I choked out. “You’re saying my mother is trapped in Hell?”

She nodded.

I crossed my arms and glared up at her. “No. That’s not possible.”

Felicia floated back down to my level and moved in close. Her eyes never left mine, but her suffocating energy wrapped around me. “Isn’t it?”

I struggled to break her hold, but with each movement, her tentacles only wrapped tighter. I stilled, searching for calm. Some energy feeds off of fear. I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction. “My mother disappeared during an earth spell. Agents of Hell cannot tolerate that kind of magic. She’d sooner be trapped in a tree than living in the underworld.”

Trapped in a tree.
My insides recoiled at the thought. She could certainly be trapped in one of the very trees right here outside the circle.
No. The coven would have found her.

I consciously relaxed each muscle one at a time. Slowly her hold started to ease. She redoubled her efforts, but the more relaxed I became, the harder she struggled. Eventually her perfect face started to deteriorate as the left side peeled off in chunks.

Gross. She must have been using her energy to form an illusion.

I cocked my head to one side. “You should release me now, or you’ll lose what’s left of your appearance. You’ll eventually run out of steam anyway.”

Felicia spun, hiding her face. After a moment, she turned back with narrowed eyes. “I know what happened to your mother. Get me out of that frame and I’ll lead you to her.”

An arrow of pain jabbed at my heart. I kept my voice cool and steady. “Tell me where she is and I’ll consider it.”

Her lips turned up in a gruesome smile. “I already did. She suffers in Hell.”

“Liar!” I screamed.

“See for yourself.” Felicia waved one shriveled arm and the scene suddenly changed.

I still stood in the middle of the circle, but now thirteen white-robed witches surrounded me. Each held a black candle in both hands while they chanted a protection spell.

Nobody noticed my presence, and I had the distinct impression I could see them, but they couldn’t see me. My suspicion was confirmed when two silver-robed witches stepped into the middle of the circle. One came dangerously close to walking right through me. I moved—no, floated—off to the side and waited.

The chanting grew louder. Energy seemed to vibrate through the air. Strong, powerful energy that could fill one with limitless possibilities. The witch at the northern point of the circle raised her arms and commanded, “Angel Avendale, heed our call. Our circle is true. Break the ties that bind you. Come forth to us, your sisters, your fate.”

The coven repeated her words while the pair in the middle burned a picture. I couldn’t make out the image.

As the last piece of ash fell from the photo, the witch leading the spell threw her head back and cried, “By the power of the coven, we command you, appear now within the safety of our circle. Join the souls of your sisters.”

The power built and pressed in on me. Had I been in solid form, I was sure I’d have fainted or cried out in pain. The strength of it overwhelmed me, weighing me down. This wasn’t an ordinary earth spell. Something much more dangerous and powerful was happening.

Blood magic. I smelled the copper tang first, and then turned to find both of the witches in the circle holding knives, each of them red with the owner’s blood. They raised their hands toward the sky and prayed while it trickled slowly over their wrists, down their bare arms.

“By the Goddess of heaven and earth, we sacrifice ourselves for our sister, the Angel Avendale.”

A heavy wind picked up, blowing out each of the black candles. The roar deafened the low chanting of the coven. Then suddenly, everything stopped and silence followed.

The leader’s head came up, and for the first time I got a good look at her face. My heart stopped. “Mom,” I whispered.

Of course she didn’t hear me. When she spoke again, I realized why I didn’t recognize her voice. It was the magic running through her. It transformed her soft-spoken speech into a powerhouse of a spell conjurer.

As if in slow motion, I watched her take out her own knife and run it across the palm of her hand. She held it straight out over the circle. Time seemed to stop as one small bead of blood clung to her palm. It dangled indefinitely, unwilling to complete the blood spell. Finally at last, it splattered on the ground.

All hell broke loose. Literally.

A misty, coal-shaded fog filled the area, blinding me momentarily. When it faded, a tall woman with wild gray eyes stood between the silver-cloaked witches. She reached out and grabbed both of their wrists. “How dare you summon me?” she seethed.

One of them gasped and fell to her knees. The other held herself steady and in a loud, but trembling voice said, “It’s too late. She’s already turned demon. Close the spell. Now!”

My mother gasped and started chanting again.

“No chanting,” the standing silver-cloaked witch commanded. “Not enough time.”

A cackling laugh came from the demon. “You’re mine now. All of you.”

The gray mist rose, swirling in a vortex around the two witches in her grasp. They stood trapped and terrified in their prisons. The mist spread out toward the rest of the witches, but before it reached them, my mother stepped forward.

“No!” Mom’s arms came up and power exploded from her. A brilliant white force spread out, protecting each of the coven members from the demon’s toxic magic. But inside, the two other witches and my mom were powerless against it. The demon’s eyes blazed black and back to gray. Then in one swift movement of her hand, all four of them vanished.

The panicked coven members and their cries of dismay faded away, and I was left once again in the empty coven circle.

Felicia appeared once more. “That’s what happened to your mother.”

The terror in my heart threatened to seize my entire body. I willed myself to calm down. It couldn’t be real. My mother wasn’t the coven leader. She didn’t perform blood magic. Someone would have told me.