I’d wondered the same. When I saw the look Ashael leveled at Ian via the rearview mirror, I knew we weren’t getting an answer.
“That’s between me and Marie,” Ashael said with finality.
I was surprised when Ashael drove out of the French Quarter and toward the Garden District. Ian must have been, too, because his brow arched as if to say, know what he’s up to?
I shook my head. Marie’s formal audiences were in St. Louis Cemetery Number One, in the underground sanctuary beneath her crypt, and we were going in the opposite direction of that.
“Sightseeing, are we?” Ian asked in a casual tone.
Ashael grunted. “No, but I’d kill for a beignet and a café au lait right now. Pity that Café Du Monde is closed.”
At this hour, it certainly was. Midnight was the time Marie set for our meeting, proving she still had a sense of the dramatic.
After several minutes, Ashael pulled onto Prytania Street. We passed row after row of beautiful houses before he pulled over and parked in front of an ornate, wrought-iron fence that bordered the grounds of a stunning pale pink mansion.
“Here we are,” Ashael said.
Ian and I exchanged a look. I spoke first. “This isn’t Marie’s normal meeting place.”
“That dank hovel?” Ashael shuddered. “I wouldn’t have worn these shoes if splashing through secret cemetery tunnels was on my agenda for tonight.”
He had dressed up, wearing a black suit with a snowy white shirt open at the collar. Black diamond cuff links glittered at his wrists, and yes, his shoes were polished to a fine sheen.
Ian and I again wore borrowed clothes from Spade and Denise. Lucky for us, they had plenty to spare, though Denise wasn’t a fan of pantsuits the way I was. If she had to conceal multiple weapons the way I usually did, she’d become a fan. Since we were visiting Marie, I wasn’t armed. That was against her rules. My only weapons were my abilities. After I slept for fourteen hours straight, it felt like most of them were back to normal.
Thus, my attire was a dark silver Bergdorf Goodman column gown with long sleeves so my supernatural tattoo was covered. It also hung to my ankles, where instead of the heels Denise offered me, I wore a pair of black leather boots. Hey, I thought I would be traveling through crypt tunnels. Open-toed heels might have looked better, but I hadn’t wanted to spend an hour scrubbing rat feces from under my toenails.
Ian’s suit was deep sapphire. The contrast with his creamy skin, sunset-colored hair, and lighter turquoise eyes nearly grabbed your gaze with all the color. Looking at him, I suddenly wished we’d had more time alone at Spade and Denise’s, but between my marathon sleep session and trying to convince the ghosts that Tyler summoned via séance that they should join our side, our plate had been full.
It always seemed to be full, and I was struck with a sudden longing for what most couples had after they were newly married.
“If we make it through this, we should go on a honeymoon.”
A smile spread across Ian’s face. “Smashing idea. Where do you want to go? Because we will make it through this.”
The most remote place on earth sounded good, since I didn’t want to be near anyone except him. Still, Antarctica was hardly a romantic honeymoon destination.
“I don’t know,” I finally said. “Is there any place you’d like to go that you’ve never been to?”
“Yes,” he said instantly. “Your home.”
“Where I was born?” I let out a short laugh. “That’s somewhere in modern-day Iraq, to the best of my knowledge.”
“I’m not talking about location.” He reached between us, taking my head. “No matter where you were born, how much you’ve traveled, or how many properties you may own, everyone has a place that’s home to them. I took you to mine in Manhasset. I want you to take me to yours, wherever that is.”
For a moment, I couldn’t speak past the new lump in my throat. Yes, I had a place that was as close to home to me as a building could get, though it had always felt as if something was missing. Now, I knew what that was.
It had been missing Ian.
“Then, when this is over, we’ll go to my home,” I said in a newly husky voice.
He raised my hand and kissed it, his eyes never leaving mine. “There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”
Ashael cleared his throat. “Hate to interrupt, but in two minutes, we’ll be late, and Marie does not tolerate lateness.”
I didn’t need to give her another reason to side with the gods over the vampires. So, with a final look at Ian, I left the car, squared my shoulders, and accepted my brother’s arm.
Time to negotiate with the ghoul queen.
Chapter 34
We walked right up to the front door without anyone stopping us. Marie didn’t appear to have any guards, either of the ghoul persuasion or the ghostly one. Then again, she probably didn’t need them. I’d seen Marie’s abilities firsthand. They were so formidable that one would be a fool to attack her.
Ashael rapped on the door. A handsome ghoul with a ruddy sepia complexion opened the door. His suit, ascot, and white gloves covered every inch of his skin aside from his face. Not that it needed covering. The word “ghoul” might conjure up images of rot and decay, but ghouls looked as hale and healthy as any human. They also had a pleasant, earthy scent that reminded me of herb gardens.
Bet it had been a vampire that had first started calling them ghouls. That they’d kept the term just showed how little they cared about our attempt to be derogatory.
“Greetings,” he said. “I am Jacques.” His gaze didn’t even slide to me when he added, “I’m afraid that Majestic was only expecting you, so she will need to wait with the car.”
“She is my sister,” Ashael answered. “Majestic can confirm that any family of mine was long ago included in her marker to me.”
“Wait here, sir,” Jacques said, and shut the door.
“You didn’t mention the family requirement for your plus-one before,” I said in a low tone.
Ashael grinned. “Wait until she realizes who you are.”
True. Marie, or Majestic, as her people called her, had never seen my real appearance. She wouldn’t recognize me as Veritas the Law Guardian now. She’d only see a stranger.
“I hope she loves surprises,” I murmured.
The door opened, revealing Jacques again. “Come in,” he said. “Majestic is expecting you.”
One glance inside was enough to know that the house was well over a century old. The abundance of tall, narrow windows was only common before the invention of air-conditioning, not to mention the steps we’d climbed to reach the front porch. Back before the pump system that kept this city dry, homes had been elevated to avoid being ruined from the area’s common floods.
Once inside, eighteenth-century Creole influences were also apparent in the lack of hallways. Jacques opened double doors to lead us through the twin parlors into the living room, where crown molding bordered the high ceiling, a mantled fireplace added a touch of coziness amidst the formality, and one of the walls was entirely made up of windows overlooking a lovely garden.
Jacques nodded at the beige suede couches arranged to face that window. Ashael and I sat. I declined Jacques’s offer of refreshment, but Ashael asked for a café au lait and a beignet. Guess he hadn’t been kidding about his craving.
Jacques left. Ashael and I sat in silence. Even if this room wasn’t being monitored, and it probably was, ghouls had great hearing. After five minutes, Marie entered.
She wore a long, pleated burgundy skirt and a sleeveless, cream-colored silk blouse. The skirt’s rich color accentuated the subtle pink glow in her light brown skin, and her thick black hair was swept up on both sides with a ruby-studded comb, showing off her high cheekbones, full mouth, and walnut-colored eyes.
Marie might have been in her mid-forties when she was changed. She might have been a decade younger, too. It was hard to tell. Her skin had the kind of ageless beauty that cosmetic compani
es promised to their customers, and most failed to deliver.
“Ma belle,” Ashael said, rising.
I got up, too. Marie accepted a kiss on each cheek from Ashael, but after a brief, appreciative glance at him, her gaze was all for me.
“I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure, sister of Ashael,” she said, extending her hand. “I am Marie Laveau, and you are?”
“Ariel,” I said with the briefest smile as I shook her hand. “But you’ll know me by my other name, Veritas.”
With that, I briefly donned my usual glamour, showing her a glimpse of my slender blonde disguise before dropping it for my real appearance again.
Marie didn’t flinch, but for an instant, she was haloed by an innumerable amount of writhing, translucent Remnants.
Remnants were made up of the darkest types of energy, and they consumed pain and vitality with the merciless ferocity of sharks during a feeding frenzy. No one was immune to them, living or undead, and Marie commanded them with absolute authority.
Just as quickly, the Remnants vanished, leaving Marie haloed by nothing more than her elegant furnishings and then Jacques, who’d come back into the room bearing a china coffeepot, cups, and beignets on a silver platter.
“Not now,” Marie said curtly.
Jacques turned on his heel and left. Ashael sighed in disappointment.
“You deceived me, Ashael.” Marie’s tone was smoother than honey, yet each word landed with the slam of an anvil.
Ashael spread out his hands. “Never, ma belle—”
Remnants flashed behind her again. “Do not ‘ma belle’ me!”
I had to stop this before Marie had them attack. Shadows ripped out of me while my gaze flashed from emerald to bright silver.
“I am not what you thought I was, Marie,” I said with all the icy calm of my other nature. Then, I lightly tugged on her blood so she’d know the darkness spilling out of me and my glowing silver eyes were no trick of glamour.
Her face, chest, and arms flushed a deep red as her blood rushed to the surface. I released it before any drops broke her skin. I didn’t want her to bleed for my proof, and besides, her power over Remnants resided in her blood. I might be able to glimpse the Remnants always hovering near Marie because of my abilities, but they wouldn’t become manifest to attack without her drawing her blood and commanding them.
My non-vampire side now revealed, I rescinded my shadows and let my gaze return to normal.
Marie said nothing for a moment. Then, to my surprise, she laughed until she held her sides as if they’d split otherwise.
“All this time, you’ve been that,” she said, gesturing at me. “I wish I could have seen the vampire council’s faces when they discovered their longest-serving Law Guardian was a walking embodiment of their most-feared crime!”
“They weren’t nearly as amused as you are,” I confirmed.
“Now I know why they issued that death sentence against you several months ago,” she said, regaining control of herself. “My spies couldn’t discover why, and normally, people talk no matter how sacred the secret. But you humiliated the council so badly that they didn’t even discuss it among themselves. Ah, Veritas, or Ariel, thank you for that. They richly deserved it.”
“Not all of them,” I said, trying to steer the conversation away from vampire bashing. “Almost half the council wanted to decriminalize mixed-species people. It was Haldam who cast the tie-breaking vote against the tri-bred child not too long ago, and now, Haldam is dead.”
Marie’s left eyebrow twitched—the only indication that Haldam’s death was news to her.
“You already know that Pyotor and Claudia are dead, too,” I went on. “As I told you before, I didn’t kill them. I was framed by the gods I was trying to warn you about.”
Her shrug was careless, but her gaze was hard. “Again, what business is that of mine?”
“They tried to take out the vampire species’ rulers. You rule the ghouls, so you could be next,” I said bluntly.
A smile ghosted across her lips. “Someone has wanted to kill me since my youth as a human. If I cowered in fear at every new attempt on my life, I would never leave my bed.”
This wasn’t going in the direction I’d hoped. What might cause Marie to rethink her “not my problem” take on this?
“I told you Haldam cast the deciding vote that kept mixed-species people outlawed. Now, Haldam’s seat and two others are vacant. If they’re filled with three more moderate-thinking council members, any number of discriminatory laws might be overturned.”
“Or they could be filled with three more bigots,” Marie said in a sharp tone. “I’m more inclined to bet on that.”
“Vampires don’t have a monopoly on being prejudiced,” I said evenly. “It wasn’t long ago that your people were ruled by a rabid bigot who nearly brought ghouls and vampires to all-out war twice over mixed-species people. Then, he was killed and you took the throne. Positive change can happen. You’re proof of that.”
“Besides, these gods won’t stop at taking out the vampire hierarchy,” Ashael said in a dark tone.
“Won’t they?” Marie had a new gleam in her eye I didn’t like. “What makes you think they’re enemies of my people?”
“They tried to rule the world once before,” I pointed out. “Now they’re back, and they’re already blowing up mountains, cooling the arctic, and cracking open the earth. That’s not in celebration of discovering Internet porn, so what do you think they intend to do with such incredible powers? Allying with vampires against them might be the only way to stop them.”
Marie let out a sharp laugh. “As if I would ever trust vampires for my people’s liberty.”
Nothing I said would change her mind about that, and with good reason. Vampires couldn’t stop discriminating against other vampires at the moment. Until that changed, Marie had every reason to believe we wouldn’t treat ghouls equitably because we didn’t even treat each other equitably yet.
“As I said, positive change can happen,” I settled on. “Besides, you don’t have to trust vampires to align with them. ‘My enemy’s enemy is my friend’ is a saying for a reason.”
“That’s right, your enemy.” Marie’s tone was silky as she glanced at the Rolex on her wrist. “Not mine, and I remind you that I guarantee all my guests safe passage to and from a meeting with me. Anyone who violates that safe passage guarantees themselves an immediate, painful death.”
What caused her to make that threat . . . ?
My arm burned the instant before a knock sounded at the door. Jacques streaked over to answer it. In the seconds that took, my fitted sleeve had bulged from a pair of cuffs and chains that hadn’t been there moments ago.
I didn’t need Jacques to open the door to know the identity of Marie’s new guest, nor did I require what he said next.
“The goddess Morana is here to see you, Majestic.”
Chapter 35
Ian teleported in, sword drawn. Magic made the sword’s blade gleam with inner lights as he planted himself in front of me. Then, I felt his power build to heights that had Marie casting first an interested and then a wary look at him. Ian must be drawing on the cursed fruit he’d consumed, and doing so might make him unbeatable, but it could also kill him.
“Ian, don’t!” I said as Remnants burst from Marie in response. “Morana can’t harm me. I’m also Marie’s guest, so her ‘safe passage or else’ rule applies to me, too. Right, Marie?”
The Remnants stopped before attacking Ian as if Marie had suddenly yanked on a hundred invisible leashes. Then, tinkling laughter interrupted whatever Marie had been about to say.
“Is that the death demigod I hear, Marie?” Morana asked. “If so, what a delightful surprise!”
A hooded, cloaked figure opened the doors to the living room, ignoring Jacques’s sputtered protests that Majestic hadn’t authorized her entrance yet. The Remnants haloing Marie shot toward Morana before Marie’s hold stopped them short again. They coiled abov
e Marie, their diaphanous forms a silent, deadly threat.
Morana threw off her cloak when she entered the living room. I blinked, an involuntary reaction to seeing too much beauty, too fast.
Sapphire hair shimmered around Morana’s shoulders as if a massive jewel had been divided into thousands of strands. I barely had the time to register Morana’s crystalline skin, her red lips, the dazzling pearl-encrusted bodice over a full blue skirt, or her almost eerie loveliness before her wings unfurled.
Jacques gasped.
I bit mine back, but only just. Morana’s wings glittered more than the crystal chandelier above her, but that wasn’t what was almost mesmerizing. Her wings were made of ice, and though their length and breadth didn’t alter, the icy shards contained within them seamlessly formed into different, intricate patterns, like a living, magnified slideshow of snowflakes.
I didn’t know how Morana had transformed the body she inhabited to reveal her true, goddess appearance, but she had. Then again, transforming a host body was probably easy compared to her other abilities.
The supernatural cuffs my father had given me now almost burned against my skin. I glanced at the Remnants above Marie. They swirled and writhed with greater urgency, as if begging to be freed so they could feed from our pain and life force. Only Marie’s power held them back, and I could no longer freeze time to stop her from unleashing them. I’d burned myself out on my time-freezing skills when I held back that volcano. I’d be lucky if I regained that ability within the next two weeks.
I would also ensure an enemy for life in Marie, if I survived the Remnants long enough to cuff Morana and send her back to my father. I might be willing to risk that, but the vampire nation couldn’t, and Marie would definitely take her grudge against me out on them. She already didn’t trust vampires. I didn’t need to give her another reason to hate them, too. Not when there were two more renegade gods on the loose who would take full advantage of any ghoul animosity toward vampires.
That left doing nothing, which burned me more than the supernatural cuffs that now felt white-hot against my arm.
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