Balance of Forces

by Ali Vali

  If Kendal was the current heir, her story of the miraculous Richoux success story would be a lie, Piper thought, not ready to share that possibility with Hill. “I admit I didn’t read your report, so give me a break before I ask. Did it mention anything about family?”

  Hill laughed at her honesty. “Nothing, why?”

  “She told me the other night that she wasn’t interested in Marmande anymore and was still in town on family business. I’m wondering who the family and business are.”

  “Why do you care?” Hill asked, getting up and offering her a hand. “You have control of the company again, and Kendal doesn’t want anything else to do with you.”

  “I don’t care,” she said, even if it was a lie.

  Why was Kendal walking the grounds and living at Oakgrove like she owned the place? Granted, Piper was more curious about why Kendal had helped her, but Oakgrove and its history had always fascinated her. Rumors of the original owner eventually became legends and ghost stories, but the history books weren’t clear as to what had happened to Jacques St. Louis and all his slaves.

  The official story was that the sheriff of the territory rode out to Oakgrove and found the place deserted. It was as if the slaves and the owner had never existed. They’d walked into the mist, leaving everything behind, but no matter how many years passed or events like the Civil War took place, nothing ever touched Oakgrove’s property. It had all stayed intact, a vault that held the St. Louis family secrets, and very few possessed the key to unlocking it.

  Perhaps the current heir knew the story, but Kendal was her own mystery, and the shark Piper had read about didn’t compute with the image of Kendal crying on the bench that afternoon. Something haunted Kendal, and Piper wanted to know what it was.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “Do you think we’re getting closer to the end?” Charlie asked. They were sitting on the rooftop of Pat O’Brien’s, the famous bar, waiting for the next group of vampires to appear, since they had apparently declared the French Quarter their battleground. Their last fight had taken all of Kendal’s skill and Charlie’s help—the opponents were getting better.

  “When we encounter the ones carrying the same weapons as ours, we’re getting closer to the head slimeball. All these others who think their kung fu moves will make a difference are just bait.” She peered down at the street and wondered if they could get away with what she had planned next. “Ready?” she asked, quickly descending the gutter pipe to the crowded street.

  “Warrior, I am Troy,” said the man she’d spotted as he pulled his blade from the sheath strapped to his back. The five Troy had with him followed his lead, laughing when the crowd dispersed, but remained nearby.

  “Please, call me Redemption,” she joked, twirling her sword slowly in one hand. In the other was a knife she had pulled from her boot.

  “Why?” asked one of the fighters with Troy.

  She moved forward a little, giving Charlie room to land to the applause of the crowd, which now thought it was a street performance. “What, Henri doesn’t give you time to watch television? I’d contact my union rep about that. You need to have time to watch televangelists between all the killing and mayhem. They’ll tell you to accept Jesus Christ because eternal life is only possible through redemption. That’s me, and I want your soul.”

  “Kill her,” Troy screamed.

  Three of his men rushed forward, and sparks flew from their weapons when they clashed with her. “Watch my back, Charlie. These creeps have been practicing.”

  Everyone stared in awe as her katana met the other three swords stroke for stroke, driving them down one of the side streets. With one kick to the side of the shortest one’s head, she sent his blade clattering.

  When most of the audience clapped, she smiled before running up the brick wall of a building close by and flipping over two of the vampires’ heads, landing in the middle of them. “Now you see them, and now you don’t.” The blade of the katana sliced through the one who was armed, and she threw the knife into the chest of the one who wasn’t. When the oblivious crowd started clapping again, she took a bow after they turned to dust.

  It was approaching midnight when the other two moved forward, Troy hanging back to observe. She took a short axe off her belt and stood waiting as the taller one twirled his sword in precision moves, as if trying to impress her. With no theatrics, she threw her axe and his exercise ended, his weapon dropping to the street. “Good form, but fancy sword tricks won’t get it done, Troy,” she said, keeping an eye on the guy standing between her and Troy, holding his sword still with both hands.

  He suddenly dropped it and starting running, only to meet the same fate at the end of the other axe when she threw it with deadly aim. Because of the crowd, she followed the weapon’s path to make sure it had hit its mark.

  “Kendal, turn around,” Charlie yelled, but before she could, Troy’s sword sliced completely through her chest. The instant pain dropped her to her knees. His aim had punctured a lung and nicked her heart. She felt Troy yank a bit, like he was pulling it out to stab her again, when the crowd applauded again. The movement had stopped and she could still see the end sticking out of her chest, but she was getting weaker by the second. Had it not been for the elixir, her fight would’ve ended before the sword made it all the way through.

  “I got him,” Charlie said, kneeling next to her.

  “Could you do me a favor?”

  “Move faster next time?”

  “There’s that, yeah, but I was thinking more about you pulling this goddamn thing out of my chest so I can beat you with it.” She laughed up at his concerned face. “If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times, this hurts like a bitch.”

  A mounted policeman rode up and looked down at the bloodstain growing along her shirt. “Are you all right, lady?”

  She stood on shaky legs and nodded, borrowing Piper’s expression, “Just peachy.” She sheathed the katana and accepted Charlie’s help to get to her feet. “How’d you like the show? We thought we’d try a dry run out here before moving into the theater down the street.”

  “The disappearing acts could’ve been better, and the blood on your shirt is too dark looking to be real.”

  “Well, it’s really old,” she said with a smile. She took the axes back from Charlie before accepting his help back to the car. “Everyone’s a critic, I swear.”

  *

  “You’re not still beating yourself up, are you, Charlie?” Kendal asked. She had been silent during the drive, reviewing that last fight. Something about the way some of the demons fought had nothing to do with Henri and his training. Their skill level was much more advanced, and the style wasn’t the straightforward technique the younger ones had displayed, simply trying to overpower their opponent. These guys showed more finesse, which spoke of experience with the blade.

  Charlie had been driving the speed limit since she didn’t want to get pulled over and have to explain the bloody mess. She was in no danger of dying, but she wouldn’t fight again until the sun came up and brought back her full strength.

  “I’m turning out to be more of an anchor to you than anything else. You should start going out alone and leave me behind,” Charlie said, finally breaking his silence.

  “You took care of the big guy, or did the audience participate more than I realized?”

  He put the vehicle in park and smiled at her. “No, that was me, and stop trying to make me feel better. I didn’t get to you before he stabbed you.”

  “Time will make you better, but you’re with me because I want you here. Would you like to wait until I’m done? I don’t want to pressure you into something you’d rather not do.”

  The night was starting to fade with the coming of dawn, and he looked out toward the east. “If you don’t mind, I want to be there for you, but mostly for Celia and my sons. They deserve for me to try to kill the bastard who did that to them. I’m sorry he’s your brother, but I want nothing more than to kill him.�
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  “I know how you feel. Have I ever told you who Henri or Abez’s first kill was all those years ago when he became what he is?”

  “Trust me, I remember all our talks having to do with him. You never told me much more than what he is.”

  She moved her hand from her chest and put it on his shoulder. “It was my father.”

  “Did you share the same parents?” Charlie looked at the steering column in shock.

  “Yes, but that didn’t stop him from killing the man who’d raised and taken care of him even as an adult when he came home drunk and broke, expecting to be bailed out again. I wasn’t there, but I can imagine the betrayal my father must have felt as Abez drained him. Like you, it’s what made me accept Morgaine’s offer of eternal life.”

  He looked up at her in dismay. “You thought about not taking it?”

  She studied her chest wound, which still bled freely. The blow would have killed her seconds after Troy inflicted it if she hadn’t accepted the elixir more than three thousand years ago. “I didn’t want to live forever. I wanted to serve my pharaoh, then find a woman to share my life with. Back then if you believed strongly enough, the gods would provide all that I could not, like children.”

  “But to never worry about death…”

  She laughed. “Is replaced by the worry of living forever. Your family was different, Lionel. You watched them die and you wanted revenge, so I gave you the means to see it through. No one was left when I returned from battle; Abez’s hunger and vengeance took them all. At first when I saw what he’d done, I wanted to join them in the valley of the dead, but instead I chose my honor and duty. My father would have expected me to destroy Henri and creatures like him, so I followed Morgaine into the desert willingly.”

  “Let’s get you out of here to wait for the sunrise.”

  Her hand left a smear of blood along the door when she leaned on it to climb out of the car. She barely had the strength to stay on her feet. The purple of the night sky was turning pink behind the house, and she started walking slowly to one of the lawn chairs to sit and wait. It wouldn’t take long for the healing to begin once the first rays of light appeared.

  Behind them, an unexpected visitor announced herself by retching. When Kendal turned around, she sighed, watching Piper hold her stomach as if trying not to throw up again at the sight of all the blood she’d left in the car. She nodded when Charlie hiked his eyebrows in question.

  “May I help you with something, Miss Marmande?” he asked while Kendal headed to the back of the house, leaving him to deal with Piper.

  “I want to call an ambulance if you aren’t going to.”

  “What do we need an ambulance for?”

  “For the idiot bleeding profusely behind you,” Piper said, making Kendal laugh at the insult. “Who’s doing a good job of ignoring me, by the way.” Piper raised her voice so Kendal would be able to hear her, even though she’d almost reached the chair.

  “It’s just a scratch, Miss Marmande, but I’m sure Kendal would feel better if you left her to rest and recover. I’ll be happy to walk you out to the gate so you won’t trip in the dark.”

  “I’m not leaving until I talk to her.”

  “Or I could carry you and deposit you on the road, your choice,” Charlie said, making Kendal stop to hear Piper’s answer. She turned around when she heard Piper scream, surprised she’d almost reached her before Charlie caught her. Piper continued yelling all the way to the entrance as Charlie carried her over his shoulder like one of the bales of cotton he’d lugged here long before. Every time she was able to land a fist on his back, she seemed to get angrier when he laughed. Even though the gate was some distance away, she heard the squeak when Charlie opened the small entryway.

  “Have a good day, Miss Marmande,” Charlie said, and Kendal relaxed and closed her eyes now that the area grew peaceful again.

  “You’ll be having a great day too when I come back with the police,” Piper screamed at him.

  A few hours later Kendal didn’t get up when the sheriff’s deputy climbed out of his cruiser. He’d arrived unannounced since she’d made Charlie open the main gates to show they had nothing to hide.

  “Good morning, ma’am. Sorry to bother you, but could I have a word?” the deputy asked. She was sitting at the table on the porch eating a huge stack of waffles with syrup. Next to the plate sat another one with eggs and a rare steak. Not that she needed the food to repair the wounds, but eating the large breakfast that had followed Lola’s old recipes made her feel better, and she gave in to the cook’s wishes to feed her.

  “Is there a problem?”

  “Miss Marmande here—”

  “If that’s your problem, I can’t help you. Annoyance isn’t illegal. It just makes her a pain in the ass,” Kendal said, pointing her fork at Piper, who stood with her fists on her hips after getting out of the passenger side.

  He put his hand over his mouth to disguise his laugh. “I apologize for the bother, but Miss Marmande swears she was here this morning and you were knocking on death’s door from an injury to your chest. Seems you were bleeding pretty badly, so again, I’m sorry, but we have to follow up on her report.”

  “I spilled a V8 in the car, but I can assure you I wasn’t bleeding.”

  “V8, my ass,” Piper said in a frustrated voice, taking the steps two at a time, then stopping next to her. “Stand up right now.” Kendal’s chair legs scraped the wood floor when she pushed away from the table to do as Piper asked. “Now we’ll see who’s lying.”

  Piper turned her around so as not to expose her to the deputy and opened her robe.

  “If you wanted to come to my house and see me naked, you didn’t have to bring the police with you. Asking nicely would’ve done the trick.”

  “Um, in your dreams. I was just worried about you, but you seem perfectly healthy.” Piper’s eyes never stopped slowly moving up and down her body.

  “Miss Marmande, is everything in order?” the deputy asked, coming a little closer.

  “Yes, I’m sorry. I must have misunderstood. She’s all right. Nothing out of place and no holes that shouldn’t be here.”

  “Are you done?” Kendal asked, amused.

  “Hmm?” Piper sounded distracted as she stared at her abdomen.

  “The visual tour, are you done?”

  “Of course,” Piper said, but her fingers still gripped the thick cotton of the robe.

  “Of course,” Kendal repeated, closing the robe herself. She turned to the deputy still standing by the steps with his hand covering his mouth again and gave him a smile. “Would you care for some coffee, Officer?”

  “No, ma’am, we won’t take up any more of your time. Miss Marmande, you ready to go?”

  “You can go ahead. I’ll see that Miss Marmande gets home. After all, she hasn’t checked out the back for suspicious puncture marks,” she said, making Piper blush.

  “Yes, ma’am, I’ll leave you to that.” The leather of his utility belt creaked as he got into the car, and as he closed the door he couldn’t hold back the laughter anymore, making Piper turn a darker shade of red.

  “Thank you for not subjecting me to his company all the way back to the sheriff’s office, but you and I both know what I saw this morning. You were hurt, and that guy threw me out instead of letting me call for help.”

  She pulled a chair out for Piper and put her hand on her shoulder to get her to sit in it. “I’m flattered that you were worried about me, but, as you saw, I’m fine. If I didn’t know better I’d say you were stalking me.”

  “You must have gotten an A+ in your self-esteem class. Why in the world would I stalk you?” Piper watched as she poured her a cup of coffee and mixed it with the right amounts of sugar and cream. “I don’t even like you all that much, remember?”

  “At the risk of my sanity, why were you here at the crack of dawn?” She motioned for the young man at the front door to bring out the plate he was holding. “I ask because, for someone who doesn
’t like me all that much, you spend inordinate amounts of time trying to see me.”

  “You interest me. Is that a crime?”

  “Interest you how?”

  The red streaks of a blush ran up Piper’s face again, and she tried to hide behind her coffee cup. “Not like that,” she whispered, apparently so the server wouldn’t overhear.

  “Shall I call Charlie to carry her out again, sire?” the man said in Japanese.

  “Let’s wait on that. If worse comes to worst I’ll carry her out myself.” Kendal acknowledged his bowed head, then pointed to Piper’s plate. “You should try them while they’re hot. They’re pecan hotcakes, an old family recipe.”

  “Whose family?”

  “The St. Louis family, I would imagine.” She buttered the stack and poured cane syrup over them so Piper would start eating. They weren’t quite as good as Lola’s, but the new chef had come close. “Shall I cut them up and feed them to you as well?”

  “How are you related to the St. Louis family?” Piper asked, picking up her fork.

  “I’m more like a family caretaker than a relative, and you haven’t answered my question as to why you were here this morning.”

  “We’ll get to that, but can you tell me about Jacques St. Louis and the woman he was going to marry, Angelina?”

  Kendal ran the final piece of hotcake around her own plate to pick up the last of the syrup she had poured over them and chewed slowly, trying to avoid this conversation with Piper without making her crazy by putting her off. “What makes you think I’d have any of that history in my head, Miss Marmande?”

  “Can I ask you something?” Kendal nodded. “Why do you call me Miss Marmande but call Hill Ms. Hickman?”

  “You don’t look like a Ms. to me, and it’s impolite, according to old Southern tradition, to address you that way.”

  “Kendal, if I asked you to, would you call me Piper?” The question came out in a tired voice, and Piper’s shoulders almost slumped.