Tempt Me

by R. G. Alexander

  The Marassa Twins reached him, both standing on tiptoe to press two perfect bow mouths to either cheek. Their whispers echoed in his ears. “Our gift to you, brother of bon ange.”

  The sky that was too blue and the grass that was too green started to swirl together like a ruined watercolor. And still, Gabriel could not move.

  “Hurry to her now, Toussaint.” Papa Legba’s voice seemed to come from far away. “And welcome home.”

  “HE’S OPENING HIS EYES. GABE? GABRIEL, WAKE UP.” BETHANY sounded anxious.

  Gabriel opened his eyes and looked around. He was lying on the floor by the window. The hotel room. He was back. His shirt still clutched in his hand. “How long was I out?”

  BD, leaning against the window ledge, looked over at the clock. “A few minutes only. Did you hit your head?”

  “No, he didn’t.”

  Gabriel looked down at Ben’s hand on his arm and sighed. “Never could keep anything from you. Not even when we were kids.”

  Ben dragged him up to a sitting position. “I saw it. Holy shit, Gabe, I saw it. And heard. I had no idea—” He shook his head roughly, obviously trying to clear it. “We can talk about that later. If they were right, which is a given, we need to leave now and get Bethany to tell us what she knows. Can you stand?”

  “Yeah. I’m fine. We need to go.”

  His head was spinning. And—he rubbed his eyes—everyone looked . . . off. Like he’d stared directly into the sun before he’d looked at them. He would think he was still in Loa land if his jaw wasn’t hurting again.

  Bethany looked up at the men around her, a frustrated sound emerging from her throat. “Who? What? When? What did you see, Ben? What just happened? Did someone mention me?”

  BD smiled down at his wife. “I’m betting they saw Papa Legba, Blue Eyes. The one who used to lecture me all the time on interfering.” He sighed, shaking his head. “I must have been a good influence.”

  Gabriel nodded, slipping on his shirt for the second time. “And the Marassa Twins. They said . . . a lot of things. Most important, that Angelique was in danger, and if the other women are with her . . .”

  A sound of gut-wrenching pain emerged from Celestin’s throat. “Allegra and the baby.”

  Gabriel strode ahead of them out the door. “We need to get to my mother’s as soon as possible, and, Bethany? On the way, you need to tell us about that damned locket.”

  CHAPTER 15

  WHERE WAS SHE? WHY COULDN’T ANYONE HEAR HER?

  Angelique had woken from her darkness into a new kind of hell. She couldn’t move her arms or legs. Couldn’t feel them. Couldn’t feel anything.

  She heard muffled sounds behind her. Wailing sounds that terrified her, made it hard for her to hear what was going on in the world outside of herself. The world she saw through what she could only describe as a wavering window smeared with streaks of mud.

  Oh God, what was happening to her?

  Through the window she saw herself taking her pale, trembling mother by the arm and walking all the way to Mambo Toussaint’s, ignoring her mother’s stumbling as she attempted to keep up.

  “Mama, I’m so sorry.”

  The Mambo greeted them warmly at first. Until she saw Theresa’s face. Then Angelique noticed concern change her expression.

  “Mambo! Help me!”

  So far, only a few people had come in answer to Theresa’s call. Elise, Michelle, and Allegra were sitting in the living room.

  She hoped they stayed away.

  Looking relieved to see her, Michelle got up off the couch and swept her into a hug, but Angelique couldn’t feel it. Why didn’t she see?

  “It isn’t me.”

  Before Elise Adair could touch her she backed away, making the older woman frown and ask what was wrong. But by that time it was too late.

  She moved to stand behind the armchair where the very pregnant Allegra was sitting, stopping her sister-in-law from turning to look at her with a clawed hand in her hair.

  That was when she saw the knife. The carving knife from her kitchen.

  “No! It isn’t me. Don’t hurt Allegra!”

  “They can’t hear you.”

  She knew that voice. “Emmanuel? What’s happening? Where are you?”

  He sounded worried. “I’m as near to you as I can be.”

  Angelique tried to think past her panic. “You need to go. Need to help Allegra. Tell them it isn’t me. Oh, please, Emmanuel. Help them.”

  His voice took a soothing tone. “Help is on the way, Angelique. Gabriel is on his way. It won’t make its move until it has what it wants. Otherwise, it would have already killed your mother.”

  “Oh God!” Killed her mother? And Gabriel was coming?

  This was Hell. Being forced to watch everyone you love look at you with horror. Watching as you hurt the people you care most about in the world.

  “Shhh. I’m more worried about you. You have to fight this.” Emmanuel’s voice turned hard. “Trust me, I know this place. You can get back some control if you focus. I’m going to show you how.”

  She was crying but she couldn’t feel the tears on her cheeks. “I can’t. I can’t move. I’m trapped.”

  “You can. You’re a bright soul, Angelique. A strong and beautiful soul. That’s why it had to work so hard to overcome you. I’m sorry I didn’t see it before. Didn’t protect you.”

  It. Something. Something had overcome her. Taken her over. Like Gabriel?

  “Is it a djab?”

  Emmanuel hesitated. She wished she could see his face. “I’m not sure, Angelique. I only know it’s old; it has some awareness. And it’s very angry. I shouldn’t have left you alone last night. I should have known, or taken it from you before you ended up here. If I’d been doing my job . . . I should have taken it.”

  Taken what? “Where is here?”

  “That paper-thin barrier between life and death. Before you reach the crossroads. Before you can move on. It is the space of a heartbeat for some, eternity for others.” He paused for a moment, as if weighing what to tell her. “The screaming you hear? Those are the trapped and lost. They aren’t souls. They are torn pieces. Fragments. Not whole like you. They exist here in rage and in agony. They reach for the souls that cross over, desperate to touch life. To remember life. It is not a place anyone conscious would want to be.”

  He sounded painfully familiar with this location. Had he been trapped here? Was this where he was after he left Bethany last year?

  “How did I get here? What happened?”

  “I think it was trapped in this place. And that the locket kept it from escaping somehow. Whatever happened, whatever it is, it’s trying to rip your soul apart, but we can’t let it succeed. Without a soul, you can’t live or die or be reborn. You cease to exist forever. And I won’t let that happen. Not to you.”

  Cease to exist? “Why?”

  “It can’t completely take over until you are gone. Either it doesn’t know how or it’s weakened from its imprisonment, but the longer it stays, the stronger it will grow.”

  “Why didn’t it just take me and hide? Why is it trying to hurt my family?” She was having a hard time taking this in. How the necklace, something that seemed so innocent, could have done so much damage.

  “Fear makes you weaker. Maybe it thinks if you are afraid of what it will do, you won’t struggle. It doesn’t want you to fight back. It wants to live. To feel. It will do anything, including threatening the people you love, claiming abilities it doesn’t have . . . Anything. We can use that desire in our favor, its lust, but I need you to trust me.”

  She did trust him. And she wasn’t willing to give up. It had succeeded in scaring her; she wouldn’t lie. Even now she was having a hard time not joining the screaming voices in the distance.

  But it had underestimated her and made a mistake if it thought she would fight harder for herself than she would for her family.

  “What do I have to do?”

  “WHY CAN’T MICHELLE
SEND IT AWAY?”

  “Because it isn’t a soul. Not really.”

  Gabriel listened intently. What Bethany had told them was already terrifying.

  According to her, after Emmanuel had talked with her about what he’d seen at Angelique’s, she’d gone back to the journals. One of them had a picture inside. An aged, sepia-toned picture of a woman wearing the locket.

  She’d read every entry last night, her horror growing with each turned page. It told the story of a New Orleans family of hougans and mambos. A lineage of powerful priests and priestesses going back to Haiti, as long as anyone could remember.

  The author of the journal had inherited the home, as well as the knowledge that her ancestors had strayed far from the path.

  Bokors, dark priests, had dwelt in the house. Bones were found in the basement, as well as other macabre signs of sacrifice. Bloodstains were hidden behind painted walls. And something unnatural roamed the house at night, getting into the new owner’s head. Into her heart. Scaring her and her young husband so much, they nearly lost hope and each other.

  When all of the artifacts had been destroyed, and no smoke or sage ritual could seem to cleanse the house of the evil, they called in help.

  A hougan and a mambo agreed to work together on her problem. She gave them one of her great-grandmother’s lockets to use as a lightning rod, something the energy would recognize.

  They told her that all the evil done in the house had left a mark. A stain of greed and malice, jealousy and wicked intent. It grew so strong that it became aware of its own existence. It was alive, but all it knew, all it wanted, was to create more of what it was. More fear. More pain.

  Bethany spoke softly. “She said they performed a three-day ritual, sending everyone away from the house. When she returned, the mambo appeared ill and weak, and the hougan handed her the locket, wrapped in a scarf. He said they weren’t strong enough to disperse it, that they’d had no other choice. They trapped it.”

  Ben was rubbing his temples as they turned on the final street to Gabriel’s mother’s house. “She never destroyed it? Sold it?”

  “She was terrified,” Bethany reasoned. “It must have been like owning Pandora’s box. I suppose one of her children must have inherited her things, then died, leaving no one behind. That’s how it came to be at your mother’s shop.”

  Gabriel wanted to hunt down whoever had sent this to his mother. Wanted to scream at the arrogant beings who had his Angelique open the box it came in. Made her take it home.

  His Angelique. His fault. They’d done it to hurt him through her. By taking her away.

  “We’re here.” BD pulled into the narrow parking spot and turned off the car. “I should have known something was up when I saw that man being ridden last night. Damn, this makes me wish I could borrow back my Loa powers for an hour or two.”

  Ridden? “Possessed? Do you think it was watching us? Angelique?” Was it one of the Loa who wanted to hurt her?

  Rousseau growled. “Of course he does. He doesn’t believe in coincidence.”

  “Amen,” Gabe murmured. They all sat in silence for a moment, and then he rubbed his face roughly with his hands. “They said I was the only one who could do this, so I should go in alone. There’s already too many people in there.”

  “Fuck you, Gabe.” Ben reached for the handle of the car door. “My wife is in there. Our families.”

  “I second that. Fuck you, Gabe.” Celestin, who’d been crowded into the backseat with Bethany and Gabriel, already had one leg on the curb.

  BD put a hand on Ben’s shoulder. “We will all go. All but Bethany.”

  “Excuse me?”

  Gabriel watched as BD turned toward the backseat, a look of determination crossing the handsome man’s features. “I love you, Blue Eyes. I’m not ordering you; I am begging you. For the sake of my child inside you, stay in the car.”

  His child?

  Celestin looked up at BD, understanding and apology in his eyes. “I agree.”

  Bethany’s stubborn expression had melted with her husband’s words, and her hands unconsciously cradled her still-flat stomach. “Okay.”

  Gabriel opened his door as the other men got out, but turned when Bethany whispered, “BD is only human. Don’t let him forget that.”

  “I won’t.”

  He frowned as he walked toward his mother’s familiar door. He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do, or how he was supposed to do it. If people trained to handle this sort of thing had failed to disperse it, what chance did he have? Hell, he knew more about exorcisms than he did about voodoo.

  He had to trust in what he’d seen, what Papa Legba had said.

  “Manny,” he muttered. “If you’re listening, I could really use your help right about now.”

  The door was open. Gabriel went in first, the unnatural quiet sending a jolt of fear down his spine. The four men walked in silence to the living room. Where he’d had that first, awkward reunion with his family. Right before the djab had taken him.

  It was also where he’d first seen Angelique.

  Now he turned from the hallway to the living area, seeing her again. Silently holding a knife to Allegra’s throat.

  He saw Ben and BD immediately reach out to hold Rousseau back. Good. He didn’t think startling Angelique would be the smartest move right now.

  Angelique. Not Angelique. Still wearing her dress from the night before. And the locket around her neck . . . was open.

  It smiled through her when it saw him. Had it been waiting for him? He saw the others from the corner of his eye. All of them watching, unblinking. Confusion and fear and anger coming off them in varying shades of shadow that he could see. Could use.

  “You shouldn’t have come,” Michelle spoke in a tight whisper. “I thought you’d understand.”

  Ben’s chuckle held no humor. “As if I wouldn’t, Mimi. You know better.”

  Angelique’s voice sounded high. Strange. “I will trade her for him.”

  Gabriel focused on it. It made a motion with Angelique’s hand and he understood. “Me for Allegra? Deal.”

  Angelique’s expression became suspicious at the easy victory. “Why?”

  Of course it would be confused. It didn’t know positive emotions. All it knew was fear and betrayal.

  A familiar voice whispered in Gabriel’s ear. “Don’t speak; just listen. Angelique is still alive, but we have to hurry. We need to distract it with feeling. Lust. It used her lust for you, and her doubts to free itself. But you can trick it. Seduce it. Angelique wants you, so it will, too.”

  Emmanuel? Thank God. Seduce it? The thing that was consuming her? He hoped like hell Manny knew what he was talking about.

  “Why?” It was turning shrill. Bringing the knife closer to Allegra’s neck.

  Gabriel shrugged. “Does it matter?” He took a step closer, his hands out, smiling. “Don’t you want to have me at your mercy?”

  It hesitated, its glassy stare sliding up and down his body before nodding sharply, allowing him to move closer. He closed off his feelings for the other people in the room. He had to focus.

  He studied the energy around it. Light and darkness. Love and hate. He could see both. That meant Angelique was still there. But he wasn’t sure for how long.

  He maintained his smile, though a part of him wanted to cry out that she had to suffer this at all. Suffer like he had. No control. No power. “Take the knife away from that woman. She means nothing. None of them do. Only you and I. Let me help you. Take me.”

  The thing in Angelique looked confused. “I have her memories. She fears for them.”

  “Ah, but what she feels for me is more interesting than fear, isn’t it? Look at those memories. What I’ve done to her. Aren’t you curious? Don’t you wonder what it would be like to experience that with me?”

  All his attention was trained on Angelique’s energy. He was looking for an opening. Looking for a sign.

  “I know you want her,” he crooned seduct
ively. “I want her, too. We could share her body. Together.”

  Angelique’s face flushed. It recognized the lust Angelique’s body had known. Was responding to it. The hand holding the knife lowered, allowing Gabriel to lift Allegra from her perch and place her behind him.

  “Gabriel.” BD’s words held a warning . . . and concern.

  He couldn’t think about them right now. He stood in front of Angelique, one hand behind him, signaling the others not to rush her. That wouldn’t save her. “Everyone should leave now. I want to be alone with her.”

  He heard movement, the sounds of people rushing out of the room, and hoped his mother and sister had been among them. “See? I can protect you. And I can make you feel things you can’t even begin to imagine.”

  She held the knife against his chest, pushing just enough to prick him with the sharp tip. He looked down and saw a small circle of blood form on his shirt, and smiled.

  It’s Angelique. Her body. Think of Angelique.

  Gabriel rocked his hips forward, pressing his stirring erection against her body. “I could play hostage if you’d like. You can force me to pleasure you at knifepoint. Or I could just turn the tables on you now and get it over with.”

  Gabriel’s hands whipped up to grip her wrists, twisting them behind her back and tightening until the knife fell harmlessly to the floor.

  It smiled and the darker energy grew. He recognized it. Felt it move in his direction. Everything he’d been running from. The twisted lust. The violent darkness. He’d have to embrace it all now if he wanted to win.

  “You like that? I knew you would. Would you like me to tell you what else I know?”

  He leaned closer, ignoring her snapping teeth and whispering in her ear. “I know this body loves to be spanked. Loves to be made to submit.”

  A desperate sound of excitement emerged from Angelique’s throat.