Pure Blooded

by Amanda Carlson

  “Voodoo is very old magic—possibly one of the oldest forms of all time. It’s often referred to as vodou or voudoun. And from what I know—and my info is a little sketchy because it’s been so long—the kind that’s practiced in the U.S. was brought over from the West Indies a few hundred years ago. Voodoo worships the loa, which are literally spirits—like ghosts—but much more powerful. A priestess can summon the loa, and the spirit inhabits her body. It’s called being ‘ridden,’ if you can believe it.” She guffawed. “Not a ride I’d want to take.”

  “No, that sounds a little unpleasant,” I mused.

  “After they summon the loa, they’re supposed to become stronger. There are a couple of groups of loas, if I remember correctly, but this is coming from my grade-school witch education, so take it with a pinch of salt. All spell casters are required to learn about the entire witchy community, so we know how to defeat them.”

  “Did you learn how to defeat them in grade school?” I asked, my voice hopeful.

  “Heck no!” She laughed. “That’s a specialized field of magic. They just teach us a broad overview and how to shield and bounce back certain spells. But now that I’m thinking about it, there might be a teensy thing that could make this entire thing worse.” She turned toward me, her face appearing a little stricken.

  “What is it? You just went pale.”

  “Talking about this made me remember. In voudoun, the priestesses are not the top of the food chain.”

  “They’re not?”

  “No. So pray to your great aunt Fanny that we’re dealing with a priestess here, because if we’re not, life is about to get much harder.”

  “Stop beating around the bush and just tell me what you’re talking about! What’s more powerful than a priestess?” I didn’t really want to know, did I?

  “A bokor.”

  The name rang a few tiny bells inside my head, but not enough to put it together on my own. “Explain.”

  “In a nutshell, they’re the equivalent of a sorceress, and they deal primarily with the dead.”

  “Like a necromancer?” I asked, hoping she would tell me they were nothing like a necromancer.

  “Kind of, I guess. I don’t know much about it. We’re talking fifth-grade learning here. But I do know they’re supposed to be able to control their victims’ brain activities, and I know this because we used to chase each other around on the playground pretending to ‘voodoo’ each other at recess. But who knows, really? Like anything in our world, it’s all myth until you see it for yourself. If Tally were here, she’d set us straight.” Marcy’s eyes misted immediately and she glanced away. “Dang, I hope that old biddy is okay.”

  “Me too.” I’d been worried about Tally too. Ever since we’d found out the witches had disappeared unexpectedly, my mind had been occupied with scenarios about what had happened to her, none of them good, and all of them involving me in some way. Tally had disappeared while she was helping me after I’d killed Ardat Lili, who was the previous witch contingent on the Coalition. After we finished helping my father, aiding the witches would be my next order of business. I had no doubt Tally was in trouble because of me. “Do you have any hunches where she might be? Anything that can help us?”

  “Not really. The only info I have was from that Romanian witch who said there was something brewing in Italy.” Marcy had filled me in before we’d boarded the plane. To me, it was no coincidence that Julian de Rossi, the leader of the European Pack, was also in Italy. If there was a convergence of supernatural activity going on, they were all tied up in it together.

  The air around us suddenly became heavier.

  Both Marcy and I straightened in our seats. I darted a look back to Rourke. His face was set.

  We’d all felt it. Black magic.

  “I think it’s best to pull the boat up and wait for your father,” Rourke said. “We don’t know what’s real now, and what may be an illusion. From what I know about black magic, everything is tainted.” He slowed the boat down by turning off the propeller and gliding us toward a thick bank of trees. These boats didn’t have brakes. As Rourke nestled the boat in between cypress roots like a pro, the air around us pushed down on our chests, making it harder to breathe.

  My wolf paced back and forth, lifting her muzzle to scent the area. The smell of rancid meat and rotting flesh started to creep into my senses. No wonder the guides didn’t venture any farther. It was menacing here, and the trees were so thick that we could see only a few feet into the grove. Anything could be lurking there.

  “Is that fog rolling in like on a movie set?” Marcy asked, her voice hitting a high note at the end. “This place is laced with negative energy.”

  There was indeed a fog creeping in. It was misting in front of us, straight up the waterway, blocking out any sun that had been trying to filter through.

  “Dammit,” Tyler swore. “This isn’t good.”

  Rourke went to the side of the boat. “If I had to guess, I’d say we’re about a mile farther in than the guides have ever been. I didn’t feel any wards, but we definitely crossed a line of some kind back there.” He glanced at the sky. “And the vamps should’ve been back by now. I say we turn around and head back to wait for them on the other side of the line. No reason to stay here like sitting ducks if we’re in the priestess’s domain.” Rourke reached back to flip the fan back on.

  Nothing happened.

  Danny stepped over the bench in front of us, heading toward the guys. “Here, let me help. I have gifted fingers when it comes to starting things.”

  Rourke stepped aside. “By all means, wolf, give it your best shot.” Danny flipped the switch and nothing happened. Tyler started to argue with him and Rourke drew closer to me. He leaned over and said, “If we’re under some kind of attack, I want you to head straight back the way we came. Use the sun if you have to, but I want you to go.”

  I nodded absentmindedly, still scanning the trees in front of us. “The chances of us separating is slim, and you know it. I’m not leaving you here to fight the threat alone.”

  “If this priestess wants power,” he said, crossing his arms, “she wants you. If she’s a bokor like Marcy thinks, these Made wolves aren’t cursed—they’re dead. She’s likely been in control of their minds the entire time, and if that’s the case, she’s had an agenda all along. We don’t need much brainpower to reason that she’s lured the Pack here on purpose, in hopes you would show up. And we played right into her hands.”

  I nodded. “That might be true, but we don’t know anything for sure. It could be she was originally hired by the fracture pack and then decided to turn the tables when she realized how powerful her new wolves had become. Every supe we’ve encountered wants power any way they can get it. I might be the icing, now that I’m here, but there’s a possibility I wasn’t the main meal.”

  “I don’t believe any of this was unintentional. She wants you,” Rourke grumbled. “The air here is thick with hate. Nothing natural would live within these boundaries. Something that evil lies in wait for their prize, even if it means waiting a hundred years.”

  He was right. No self-respecting animal would live on cursed land if they could help it.

  I looked over at my brother and Danny. “Hey,” I called, “time to stop worrying about the motor. Let’s get some long sticks and start moving this thing along like a gondola. We only went a mile or so before Rourke shut the boat down. Naomi and Ray should be back any moment. We’ll meet them back the way we came.”

  Rourke leaned over the side and cracked a big branch off a cypress tree and placed it in the water.

  Then he stilled mid-thrust.

  “What?” I asked, reading his face. “What is it?”

  He put his finger to his lips, his eyes pinned over my shoulder. Don’t move, he told me internally.

  Marcy stifled a shriek behind me and I closed my eyes.

  My back was closest to the trees. Slowly, without moving my body, I tilted my eyes upward. Right into the
face of a huge python. It slithered above me, slowly descending, not making a sound. It was ten feet from my head. We wouldn’t be able to get the boat out fast enough by hand. We had to fight it.

  Rourke changed his grip on the branch to hold it like a baseball bat. Stay still. When I yell, you duck. It’s only going to take one hit.

  Hurry up. That thing looks hungry and more than a little possessed. There was no mistaking that the snake only had eyes for me. Its head never wavered.

  As Rourke waited not so patiently for it to come, my brother crept to the side of the boat, yanking another huge branch off the nearby tree for himself and then one for Danny. “Stay calm, sis,” he murmured. “I’m pretty sure that snake is dead, but it doesn’t matter. All we need is to get it the fuck out of here, and then we haul ass out.”

  The serpent was as big around as a basketball and was so long I couldn’t see where it ended. I also couldn’t rip my eyes away from the spectacle of it, almost as if it had me mesmerized. I didn’t feel any magic coming off it. I’m throwing power at it, I told Rourke, but it’s rebuffing me. Can it be an illusion? Tyler’s right—it has no heartbeat or any signs it’s actually alive.

  We’re about to find out. “Now!” Rourke yelled.

  I hit the floor of the boat as Rourke swung the tree branch a foot above the thing’s head with supernatural force. The branch shattered instantly as it connected with the snake, but it was enough force to send the serpent flying. As the python went, it tore out the branch it had been coiled on, so it didn’t go nearly far enough as we all would’ve liked.

  It plunked in the water a measly five feet from us.

  “That thing will be back as soon as it’s able,” Danny yelled, flipping the start button on and off frantically but still not getting the desired result. “Fighting a possessed python that could swallow us whole is not how I’d like to spend the rest of my day. Getting piss drunk on moonshine is a much better option.”

  “Danny’s right, fighting that thing is not on the agenda,” I said, scrambling back up. Because this thing was now supernatural and couldn’t be killed easily, it was going to keep coming until it either killed us or took what it wanted. “Let’s get out of here, and I don’t care how we do it.”

  “Way ahead of you,” Tyler grunted.

  I glanced over and saw both Tyler and Rourke with branches the size of small trees in the water. They shoved them against the bank, their muscles bulging with effort, but we didn’t move.

  Not even an inch.

  Marcy had turned white in panic, her hands fisted at her sides.

  I leaned over and snapped my fingers in front of her face. “I need you to wake up, Marcy. This is exactly the kind of adventure you were looking for not twenty minutes ago. Your adrenaline should be up and running, and now that our happy fun time is beginning, I need you. You can help us get out of here, just like on the plane. Can you detect any spells? Something is holding us here and we need to break free.”

  She physically shook herself. “Okay, yes. Yes, okay, I’m on it!” She brought her fingertips to her temples and closed her eyes, but they snapped open after a mere second. “There’s no spell! I can’t pick up on anything. It all just feels… dead. Kind of like what happened on the airplane, but different. The plane was a void. This dead feels… evil.”

  I turned to Rourke. “Do you think there’s any chance the Hags are using the priestess to get the job of killing me done?”

  “I don’t know,” Rourke answered. “Could be. But we’re not going to wait to find out. We have two choices. We fight that thing once it makes its way back here, or we bail out of the boat and try to make it back the way we came through the cypress trees.” He motioned to the thick trees over his shoulder.

  “Sorry, mate, there aren’t two choices,” Danny said, backing up until his shoulders hit the propeller screen. “The way I see it, there’s only one.”

  I nodded numbly in agreement as I watched more snakes emerge out of the dense growth and slither toward us from all directions.

  There was no fighting. We had no choice but to run.

  6

  Tyler jumped first because he was closest. He leapt to a clear spot on one of the bigger trees, one of only a few that wasn’t covered in a snake. “Hurry,” he urged. “From up here I can see more. There are literally hundreds. They’ve definitely been called into action, and we’re the target.”

  “I’m right behind you,” Marcy called as she launched herself over the side and landed next to Tyler.

  Rourke placed his hands over my hips and said, “You’re next. Once you get there, don’t wait for Danny and me, start running. We’ll keep back as many as we can, and then we’ll join you.”

  “Goddamn bloody serpents,” Danny yelled as he brought his stick down on the heads of some that had started to creep over the edges of the boat. If it wasn’t so horrible, it might be comical. Attack of the Killer Swamp Snakes. “Get the holy feck out of here, you bloody bastards!” Whap! The blows only temporarily stunned them. Their tongues hissed as they came right back for more.

  I jumped next, landing on the right side of Tyler. He grabbed my wrist and steadied me. We started to move immediately, which meant we bounded from one tree to the next, balancing on top of the roots. Marcy was right behind me, and when she started to fall behind, I tugged her along. I was directly behind Tyler, who was taking the clearest route around the snakes and doing a pretty decent job. But it wasn’t going to last. The snakes would figure out where I was soon enough and start to converge, but I’d take it for the moment.

  “I’m coming, I’m coming,” Marcy muttered. “I don’t need any more incentive to get away from this house of horrors.”

  “Keep trying to use your spells,” I said. “Maybe if we get farther away, they’ll work—”

  Tyler blipped out of existence in front of us. One second he was there, the next gone.

  Before I could yell for him, Marcy and I tumbled across some kind of warded boundary line. As we passed through, my body pulsed with strange magic. My wolf growled fiercely, snapping her jaws as the evil energy of the place raced along our skin. The ward tasted stale and very old.

  The world in front of us slowly morphed into view.

  Our environment before had been filled with healthy trees, interspersed with water. But now, like a watercolor being washed away, the space in front of us revealed another land entirely. What was left in its place was barren soil and dead trees. All the water was gone. We were standing along a ring of trees, a large circle of dead earth in the middle. The trunks were withered and gnarled, like old crones who had been forced to stand sentinel for their master. The sun had been cast into dark shadows, appearing like only a pale orange globe in the sky.

  This was her land.

  I could feel it as clearly as if she stood next to us. She was beckoning us, taunting us, daring us to move forward.

  “Holy crap,” Marcy said as my mate burst through the ward behind us.

  “Thank gods,” he roared as he made his way over. “When you disappeared, I thought it might have been through another goddamn portal.” Danny was close on his heels. Rourke stalked through the tress, taking in his surroundings like the rest of us. He stopped next to me, reaching for my hand, his eyes alert.

  “Well, this is a bit strange, isn’t it?” Danny said, peering into the barren circle. “But the bloody snakes didn’t follow us in, so maybe we’ve been given a short reprieve by finding this place?”

  “I don’t think a reprieve is what she has in mind,” I murmured. “I’m pretty certain her snakes can enter, but I think she used them to chase us here. She gave us the only clear path to run, so we used it. She wanted us to find her.”

  “Well, she’s not getting what she wants,” Tyler said. He was twenty feet to the left of where I stood. “We’re going back to the boat. The four of us will shift, and we can fight the snakes in our true forms. Our claws and fangs should be enough to hold them back until the vamps get back. Marcy, y
ou send up flares. We should’ve done something like that from the beginning. Once the vamps arrive, they can take two of us out at a time.”

  “I can light up the sky like the Fourth of July,” Marcy agreed, turning to follow Tyler without question. “I can also kindle a fire around us. That might keep them back. I know I have to start thinking better on my feet, but honestly, anyone in their right mind would freak out in the face of one of those monsters, much less hordes of them. I’ve never seen pythons that big in my entire life. And those red eyes. So hateful.”

  I didn’t have a better plan, and fighting the priestess or whoever she was right now wouldn’t be optimal. We all turned and started back the way we’d come.

  After about ten feet, Rourke said, “We should’ve hit the boundary line by now. We all came through right around here.” He turned in a circle. “But, honestly, I’m not sure if this place is an illusion or some kind of an alternate reality. If it’s an illusion, we might be screwed.”

  I took in the scenery again. “The ground seems firm and real,” I said, stomping on a tree root. “But I agree. This area gives off some weird, unnatural vibes. It’s hard to know if what we’re seeing is reality or not.”

  “It could be a place in between,” Marcy said. “Not reality and not illusion.”

  “Like between dimensions?” Tyler asked. “I’ve heard those exist but never believed it.”

  “I would think the voudoun would seek out those kinds of places.” Marcy nodded. “So I believe it. Maybe that’s why she chose this location in the first place, because it was close to the in between.”

  “I visited a place kind of like this in the Underworld,” I said. “The Scholls. Ardat Lili called it exactly that—a place in between. It was a spirit world for their half-dead, the demons who came back as wyvern. It was different than this but had the same thick air and menace.” The air wasn’t wavy like it had been in the Scholls, but it was similar enough. “I don’t know anything about voudoun, but if the priestess who lives here communes with specific spirits, I think you might be right, Marcy. She could’ve come here to be closer to them.” That seemed like the most logical. If a demon in the Underworld specialized in communing with the wyvern, they’d move to the Scholls.