“What’s the rush?” Toni asked, trotting beside him.
“High noon. We need to get underway before then.”
“Underway with what?”
He didn’t answer.
In silence, Jericho led her into the sunroom where six men sat talking and waiting. The rumbling of their baritone voices sounded like a choir was practicing.
As soon as she walked through the door, they stood up to receive her.
The white-washed room was spacy with black-trimmed, panoramic windows that gave a breathtaking view of the sun patio attached and the acres of manicured grounds. Potted palm trees that towered up to the vaulted ceilings. Elegant white summer furniture with pops of yellow and green were sprinkled around the room.
Jericho placed a hand on her lower back, his body shadowing over her own.
“Gentlemen,” he said with a dip of his head.
The only face that she recognized was Jules. She smiled awkwardly at him and then darted her gaze across the rest of the men’s attractive faces to the silver fox in the corner.
That had to be his father. He was gorgeous, even more regal than Jericho. And his eyes were nearly stark white. But there was something else about the man that captured her, something about his power and presence that seemed larger than life. He was different from his sons, but she couldn’t put her finger on how.
“You’re pressing the clock,” Lafayette Laveau said in a thick southern accent, hitting his watch. “We’re nearly out of time.”
“Time for what?” Toni asked, frustrated. “Would someone please tell me what’s going on?”
Lafayette walked over to Toni and offered his hand in the most formal of fashion. “Forgive our ambiguity. Nice to make your acquaintance, Ms. St. John.”
He glared at her, eyes beaming bright like sparkling diamonds under thick black brows. His build was tall and wide, as muscular as any young man’s body. His hair was cut into a silver crew cut, and he boasted a thick, completely silver beard, but his skin was kissed with a tan and free of wrinkles. He truly looked ageless.
“Nice to meet you,” Toni said, shaking his hand. Something about him calmed her.
“I realize that all of this is new to you, and I truly apologize in advance for your crash course, but we must get underway right now if we are to help you find out who you are and where you come from, today,” the man explained.
“Underway with what?” Toni asked, looking back at Jericho.
She was starting to become afraid, now that she was thinking straight. She had followed this stranger, Jericho, out into the swamp before she really had time to think things through. For all she knew, they were going to kill her.
Then, she’d become a story, just like those girls had.
“There is truly no need to worry about that,” one of the other men said, stepping closer to her with his hands pressed together passively. “We have no desire to hurt you, only to help you.”
Toni took a deep breath. “You can read my thoughts.” Why was she not surprised?
The redhead tilted his head and smiled. “I can only hear the loud thoughts.” He offered his hand as well. “I’m Jonas.”
“We can introduce ourselves later,” Jericho said sternly.
“Right,” Jonas, said moving out the way so that Toni could see the pentagram etched into the wood of the sunroom floor.
“What in the hell is that?” Toni asked, stepping back.
Jericho grabbed her and pulled her to him. Spinning her around so that she could see his face, he held her silk arms. “You have to trust me. We only have a little time left. If we don’t do this now, we’ll have to wait until tomorrow, and every day counts.”
“Do what?” Toni asked again, heart fluttering.
Jericho knew that she was looking for him to explain all of this. “We’re going to cast a very powerful spell so that you can find out who you are, but it takes all of us. The spell will uncover your true nature and allow you to see what you’ve been missing, not for this investigation, but in yourself. I can’t promise that it will be pleasant, but I can promise that we won’t allow anything bad to happen to you.”
Jules stepped toward her, hoping his familiar face and the secret they shared would ease her worries. “We won’t hurt you, Toni, promise.” An easy smile crossed his face, lighting up his high-cheek bones and blazing eyes. “We just want to help.”
Jericho’s voice grew more urgent. “But we must do it now. Believe me.”
Toni did believe him, but she could not deny her fear. It was so peculiar, so foreign. She was just a reporter, for goodness sake. This was completely out of her wheelhouse. But she knew they would not make her.
Jericho especially…
If she said no, then all of this would be for naught, and she had come too far to chicken out now.
But if she said yes, then there would be no turning back.
She gave serious consideration before answering, weighing all of her options.
“Alright,” she said, looking over her shoulder at the pentagram like it would reach out and bite her. She had been less afraid of fanatics with loaded guns. A wary finger pointed at him. “But Jericho, you better stay with me the entire time, or I’m out of here.”
She’d call an Uber if she needed to, run on foot if she must.
“I won’t leave your side,” Jericho promised. “There is one more thing,” he said, very reluctantly.
“What? What else could there be?” Toni asked in a tight, high voice.
Jericho unenthusiastically met her eyes, knowing she was going to freak. “We have to disrobe completely. Not all of us…just the two of us.”
An exasperate gasp escaped her. DISROBE?
“You want me to get naked in front of all of your brothers and your FATHER?” she seethed, grabbing the top of her dress. This was turning into a horrible first date. “You must be crazy. OUT OF YOUR MIND!”
She could do a lot of things – had done a lot of things, but a strip show in the middle of a witchcraft ceremony at high fucking noon on a plantation was too…pagan.
There had to be some other way.
A hand touched Toni gently. “I would not ask you to do this, if it were not absolutely necessary.” Jericho took a deep breath. “I realize what I’m asking.” And what it would cause in him.
Utter embarrassment.
He had been burning for Toni since the moment she waltzed into the hotel and stole his heart. He had been fighting a raging erection since the moment she put on that black dress and danced into his bar. He had fallen head over heels in love with her the moment that he kissed her. But through all of it, he had hidden his true emotions well.
Now, he would be forced to show himself in front of his coven, more specifically, his brothers – the men who looked up to him, who had seen him devour women for centuries.
After all his years of posturing, the men in his family would finally see a woman, a little, pretty Manhattanite brings him to his knees.
Toni stood in silence – petrified at what was being asked of her. She contemplated plan B – to run from this place as quickly as her feet would take her, but something in her held on, begging to be set free.
Alas, the clock was ticking, even amidst the emotion.
At least one man in the room didn’t care about the posturing, the range of emotion, the doubt – they had to act.
“Let’s begin,” Lafayette said, walking towards the pentagram. Without shame, he pulled off his shirt to reveal sinewy chorded muscles that flexed with his every movement.
Under Lafayette’s plaid red and blue button down were intricate occult tattoos on his back and chest. Scars on the blades of shoulders looked like someone had taken a knife to his back and cut out chunks of meat.
He stood in place and looked at Toni, revealing himself without worry of judgement.
Remarkably, despite the scars on his back, every other part of skin was as flawless and beautiful. Rolling his shoulders, he waved toward them. “Come now
, boys. We mustn’t waste a moment.”
Coming toward the pentagram, the six sons did the same including Jericho, who pulled off his shirt last.
He glanced back at her, hoping for her submission. This was no longer about his selfish need, but his primal desire to set her free.
Toni couldn’t take her eyes off Jericho. Seeing him without his clothes made her feel like all the nerve ending in her body had come alive all at once.
His chest was incredibly wide and covered in a large black crow tattoo, so intricate it seemed to be alive. She wanted more than anything to fall into that chest and shelter herself from the fear that encapsulated her.
As if reading her mind, he stretched out a long arm toward her. “Come to me,” he said, simply.
How could she resist? She slipped her hand in his.
Taking deep breaths that made his chest swell, he pulled her into the middle of the pentagram and positioned her to stand in front of him.
“Keep your eyes on me,” Jericho ordered, kissing the back of her hand. “When you start to feel the light, walk into it.”
“I thought you were never supposed to walk into the light,” Toni said, holding his hands so tightly until his knuckles were turning white.
He rubbed her fingers gently. “It’s not that kind of light,” he said with a wry smile. “Don’t worry. You’re safe here.”
“Easy for you to say,” she disputed. “I’m sure they’ve all seen you naked.”
“These men are honorable,” he vouched. “They won’t disrespect you in any way.”
Her brow shot up. “Okay. Here goes.”
Taking a deep breath, she pulled off her yellow cotton sundress to reveal a lace yellow thong that decorated her heart-shaped behind and a yellow, lace bra that woefully displayed her ample brown breasts.
Jericho clenched his jaw, begging himself to not lose control.
“This too?” she asked of her underwear, rolling her eyes.
“Yes,” Jericho said, trying to center himself. “All of it.”
She reached behind her and unsnapped her bra. Pulling it off slowly, she threw it on the floor as well.
The other men in the room averted their eyes, all except Jericho, who continued to look right into hers.
She took off her underwear and felt the sudden need to cover her shaved little secret but could not because Jericho needed to hold her hands.
“Okay, you too, lover boy,” she said, feeling completely vulnerable. She wasn’t going to be embarrassed alone.
Jericho pulled off his jeans, shoes and socks. Unfortunately, he did not have on underwear. A thick, half-erect penis flapped against his thigh, begging for attention.
Throwing his clothes over hers, he stood with her and tried not to rise to his full, powerful length.
“This is crazy,” Toni said, shaking her head. “I must be out of my mind.”
“Not yet,” Jules said, under his breath, knowing what was coming.
“Trust me. It’s a lot harder for me,” Jericho said, face flush-red, knowing she understood his true meaning.
“Well, I won’t look, if you don’t.” Toni couldn’t believe that she was actually doing this in front of all these strangers.
“The visions you will experience will move fast,” Jericho explained. “They may go faster as you get closer to the end. No one knows how much time it will take. Each person is different.”
Jules spoke up. “You can’t possibly make her ready for what she’s going to experience, Jericho. You’ll be all night just trying to give her a tutorial. It’s better to just let her go.”
But Jericho didn’t want to let her go. He was afraid, deathly afraid, of what she might see.
“He’s right,” Jonas spoke up. “You can’t prepare her. There isn’t enough time.”
Jericho nodded and clasped her hand in his. “Just remember the light won’t hurt you. It’s a guide.”
Lafayette began to speak. His voice boomed across the room like a preacher in the pulpit. “Holy Litha give us light. Share your pearls and cast the swine. Holy Litha reveal the truth, expel all evil and revive our youth. Holy Litha remove the dark, cast away the shadows and reveal the heart.”
Raising his hands toward the ceiling, he and his sons made a perfect circle around Toni and Jericho. The other men began to chant with their father.
Over and over again, they spoke the spell that would reveal Toni’s truth. Louder and louder, their voices hummed into a rhythm.
Scared of what was to come, Toni kept her eyes on Jericho as instructed. As the chant continued, she saw his eyes began to burn like fire again.
A strange feeling began to overwhelm her. Something was happening…
Then she noticed something spectacular, something impossible.
The crow on Jericho’s stone chest started to come alive. It moved on his chest against his skin, pulling away from his body. Still, he continued to chant the words.
Her eyes widened in dismay.
Her first thought was to pull away also, to run and flee from all of this, but Jericho held on to her tight.
His lips moved, but she could no longer hear the words.
The room began to expand, but she could no longer run.
Then finally, she felt it.
CHOAS!
A mysterious wind blew through her hair, nearly knocking her down.
A powerful heat rushed over her burning her skin; the room became pitch dark; the people in it disappeared and, in that moment,, she saw a small, iridescent light that started as a ball, then grew larger and larger by the moment until it was as big as a tunnel.
Just as Jericho instructed, she walked toward it – her feet wet with something below.
She looked down curiously to see the floor was covered in blood.
Just as she was about to run, the force of the light pulled her inside its sphere, and she was no longer in the world she had known.
Chapter Eight
“And with the knowledge of her past, the chosen one shall join with the fruit of her future to usher in a new era, bringing the chosen coven to the cliff of the world where they will lunge themselves toward their redemption or plunge into the darkness of their transgressions.”
The Prophecy
T oni felt like she was in a dream state, plunged into infinite time. Moving at the speed of light, she was pulled back in time, to a place that oddly enough did not seem as foreign as it should.
She didn’t know how, but she knew this place. It was New Orleans, over two-decades ago in a quiet enclave in East Lake on St. Joseph Street.
It was just after dusk, and the golden hue of the sun was setting beyond willow trees and street lamps.
Her feet were planted squarely on the white, wrap-around porch of the one-floor, Victorian home.
Looking around, she could hear the chirping of grasshoppers and smell freshly cut grass. Children were playing a few houses down and an old, box Chevy drove down the street, but no one seemed to acknowledge a naked woman.
ODD…
In front of her was a red door with a black knob. She knocked first and waited, but no one came.
Taking a deep breath, she opened the door and stepped inside.
“Hello,” she called out. Her voice sounded hollow and wispy, barely carrying although she tried. “Is anyone here?”
Walking through the foyer, past a blue umbrella stand and a long mirror that oddly did not cast her reflection, she made her way down the path toward an internal pull.
It seemed like a special little place for a family. The house was decorated with dark woods and antique furniture. Everything was clean and quaint, perfectly placed. The smells met her nose and jogged her memory.
Murphy’s oil soap. Sage. Lavender and lemon…so clean, so well-kept. It felt like home, so much so that tears pricked at the corner of her eyes.
“Is anyone here?” she asked again, throat tight as she tried to fight the need to sob.
At the end of the hall was a tall, slend
er door. She opened it to find a long, wide hallway. There were three doors on the left that led to the bedrooms and a wall of family photos lining the right side. One door was at the very end. All were closed.
In the middle of the hall there was a singular wooden chair and table.
She saw a caramel-colored man that she had to guess was mixed race, but not just any man; it was the same man she had seen in her dreams for years.
She had been haunted by him, plagued by his face and the serene calm he brought.
He had been a piece of a puzzle that she had never before been able to understand.
But now it was clear who the man was.
Her father.
Without anyone telling her, she knew it was him. She could feel it deep in her soul.
“Hello,” Toni said again, certain that he would not respond.
Her heart fluttered, wanting more than anything to run up to him and hug him tight. She would settle for him at least being able to see her.
But he did not.
He could not hear or see her. She was a shadow, a breeze – completely invisible to him.
Toni slowly approached the man, transfixed by his presence.
“Daddy,” she said, wiping a tear before it could fall to her cheek. “It’s nice to meet you.” Her bottom lip quivered. Balling up her fists, she stilled her beating heart.
He was large in stature, wearing black slacks and a muted button down that was rolled at the sleeves around his thick forearms. A gold wedding band was on his left hand along with a brown leather watch. By all measures of her first assessment, he was well-put together. His elegant legs were crossed, his gaze averted to the words on the delicate pages.
Curly locks of feathery black hair danced atop his head, his skin a smooth honey hue.
Resting an arm on a small, round, wooden table with a simple little iron-based lamp, he was sitting alone reading the Bible, when suddenly the wooden door at the end of the hall opened and an older, black woman with curly dark hair in white scrubs emerged.
The man jumped up immediately, forgetting his book.
“Is she alright?” he asked, words impatient, eyes bright. He peered behind the woman into the room.
Warlocks: The Creole Coven (The Laveau Coven) Page 9
