by Donna Grant
The entire house was being searched for her, but he knew she was gone. Was it because she didn’t trust him? Didn’t she know a Chiasson didn’t make a promise unless they could deliver on it?
“She’s not in the house,” Lincoln said as he stormed into the study. “Why did she leave?”
Ava was right on his heels. “You know why. Delphine.”
“She said Delphine didn’t have to enter the house to get to her,” Beau said. “That’s why she left. To protect us.”
God, why hadn’t he realized that sooner? If it had been anyone but Davena he would’ve comprehended that fact instantly. His mind was in constant turmoil where Davena was concerned.
Beau turned to face his brother and Ava and spotted the rest walking toward the doorway. He waited until everyone was gathered before he said, “If we’re going to save Davena, we need to look for Delphine.”
“Right, because that’s so easy,” Christian said.
Vincent frowned at him. “We know who we’re looking for now. It’s a small town with few places for her to hide.”
“Yeah, but many small communities in which to do it,” Lincoln pointed out.
Christian rubbed the back of his neck. “So much for staying away from the house once we found who we were after. She knows now.”
Ava lifted a finger to get Beau’s attention. “We’ll get to that in a moment. What about Davena?”
“She knows I’ll come looking for her. She’ll stay hidden waiting for Delphine.” Which would allow Beau time to find the priestess first if all went according to plan.
Vincent guessed his strategy and shook his head, baffled. “You really think Delphine will talk to you.”
“What?” Christian yelled looking from Vincent to Beau. “Have you lost your fucking mind, Beau?”
Lincoln’s smile was sad as he said, “No. He’s found his woman.”
“I hate to bring this up,” Olivia said, a forlorn look on her face. “Maman said someone would get hurt from this family. Beau, if you go looking for Delphine, that could end up being you.”
Beau wiped a hand across his mouth. “Possibly.”
He walked through the five of them and hurried upstairs to change. The clock had once more been set against them, but this time he knew who he had to save and who he was fighting against. That put the odds in his favor – slightly.
But Chiassons had been winning battles with less for generations. He wasn’t going to give up because the odds were stacked against him. That’s when a Chiasson excelled.
He dressed in record time, grabbing his shotgun on the way out of his room. When he reached the kitchen to go out the back door, everyone was waiting.
Olivia handed him a backpack with a warm smile. “There’s food and water inside.”
“As well as bandages and a change of clothes for both you and Davena,” Ava added.
Beau drew both women in for a hug. “Thank you.”
“Just bring her back,” Ava said as Olivia dabbed at her eyes.
Beau then faced his brothers. “I have to do this alone.”
“As if we’d allow that,” Vincent stated.
Christian slapped him on the back as he walked past him. “We’re splitting up and covering your scrawny ass, little brother.”
Beau watched him walk out, and a moment later heard the roar of an engine. Beau turned his gaze to Lincoln and Vincent. “Don’t interfere in whatever I do.”
“We can’t promise that,” Lincoln said and rubbed his thumb over the hilt of his Bowie knife. “You’re our brother.”
Vincent gave a small nod. “We’ll do our best.”
It was all Beau was going to get. He walked out of the house to his truck. Behind the wheel, he sat there for a moment thinking of where he might find Delphine. Then he started the engine and drove away.
He looked in the rearview mirror as he drove down the long crepe myrtle lined drive. The plantation loomed large and white. It had always been his safe haven, and he wanted it to be Davena’s.
When he reached the main road, Beau looked left. That would take him toward Crowley, but going right would bring him to Kaplan. There had been rumors recently of Voodoo growing in the town. It seemed like the perfect place to look for Delphine.
Beau turned right. The knot that had been in his stomach for days had let up the previous night, but it was back with a vengeance, and had been since he was in the middle of cooking.
It wasn’t long before he reached Kaplan and slowed. There wasn’t the normal traffic for a Sunday. Driving the streets wasn’t going to get him anywhere. He needed to make himself accessible.
Beau pulled over at the local diner and parked. He glanced at his shotgun. Carrying it wasn’t an option, and neither was trying to hide it. Fortunately, he had some throwing knives on him just in case. Not that any of it would matter if Delphine decided to kill him.
He hid his shotgun underneath the seat and got out of the truck. As he closed his door, he spotted Christian’s blue truck across the street, and Lincoln’s black truck down the street, just coming to a stop.
Beau turned around and came face to face with a black man as tall and thickly muscled as an oak. His midnight eyes were emotionless and trained on him.
“Delphine will see you,” he said in an eerily deep voice. Then he turned and walked away.
Beau hesitated for a second before he fell in step behind the big man. Most likely he was walking to his death. At the very least, it was a trap. And yet he kept going.
The small town fell behind them as they crossed rice fields and pastures. Beau could see a copse of trees ahead, and just as he expected, that’s where they stopped.
The big man pointed to an overturned bucket for Beau to sit on. Beau looked around at the bare earth. There were bones scattered around a banked fire along with a recently killed copperhead snake.
Beau counted at least ten men and women. Some were hiding behind trees while others sat out in the open staring at him. He rested his arms on his legs and slowly looked around for some sign of Delphine.
Fifteen minutes went by excruciatingly slowly without a single word being spoken since he had arrived. He leaned back against the pine behind him and caught a flash of white through the trees.
A moment later Delphine stepped into the clearing. Her skin was a deep mocha, her eyes as black as pitch. She wore a white flowing skirt and shirt, and white material was wrapped around her head, hiding her hair.
Beau had only caught a glimpse of her in the dark the night before, so he was wholly unprepared for her exquisite beauty. She wore no makeup, no jewelry, and yet eclipsed everything around her.
“I knew you would come,” she said with a small smile.
Beau was taken aback by her lush voice. She wasn’t anything like he’d expected. An old crone perhaps, but not the beauty before him. “How did you know?”
“Because of Davena. You care for her.”
“I do.” There was no point in trying to lie. “Why do you want to kill her? Just because her mother went against you?”
Delphine’s smile widened. “Because she’s mine.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Davena sat in the rented house staring off into nothing. The house was particularly quiet without the constant chatter of Delia or the fighting. She kept waiting for her sister to come through the door with some argument about something trivial as she usually did, but Delia didn’t come barging in. How could she when she was lying in a cold morgue?
Davena’s throat tightened when she thought about the funeral. It wasn’t right that Delia wouldn’t be buried next to their parents – even though there was already a grave there.
It had been morbid, but Delia had made her sneak into the graveyard three years after their mother was killed to see their graves. Davena had been more interested in saying farewell to her mother, and she hadn’t cared that the world thought her and Delia were already dead.
Now Delia would have a second grave, just as she would.
&nb
sp; Davena wondered if her death would be as painful as Delia’s. She hoped it was quick, but more than that, she prayed that Beau didn’t witness it.
She wasn’t stupid enough to believe he would let her leave. It wasn’t in his genes. He would look for her in the hopes that he could save her. If she had a chance, hopefully she could talk Delphine into not harming the Chiassons.
If she got the chance to talk to Delphine. It was such a huge if that it was laughable. Her mother and Delia hadn’t had that chance. What made her think she could?
Davena looked down at her hands. She had used magic last night. She realized that while she watched Beau sleep. She hadn’t even known she could do it, but spells of Hoodoo from her mother filled her mind without her even trying.
Delia had brought Delphine to town by doing Hoodoo. It only made sense that Delphine would find her if she did the same. Davena stood and closed her eyes as she began to ward the house and those next to it against supernatural fire.
That should be enough to let Delphine know she wasn’t hiding. Then Davena went to the drawer in the kitchen that held the knives and pulled out the biggest and two smaller ones. She took them to the table and began to mark them with a Hoodoo symbol to empower them with magic.
She wouldn’t hide in the house like her mother, or be fool enough to try and face off against the priestess with her magic like Delia. She stood, hiding the knives in her shorts. No, Davena had another plan altogether.
~ ~ ~
Beau knew by Delphine’s throaty laugh that she found his surprised expression funny. He composed himself quickly. “Yours? How is Davena yours?”
Delphine clasped her hands together in front of her and grinned while she waited for the big black male to lift a rather hefty piece of tree trunk from its place on one side of the clearing to set it in front of Beau.
She smiled seductively at the male and then sank gracefully onto the makeshift seat. “I’ll tell you all about Davena if you answer me one question.”
“Ask,” he said, even though he knew it was going to be something he didn’t want to answer.
“Would you die for her?”
He thought Delphine might ask if he loved Davena. He hadn’t expected the question he got. “She doesn’t deserve what has happened to her.”
“That’s not for you to decide,” Delphine said, her black eyes going hard as her smile vanished. “I asked a question. I expect an answer.”
The Chiassons were charged with keeping the people of the parish safe – in any way possible. He cared deeply for Davena, so deeply it might even be love. Every night they hunted, the Chiassons put their lives on the line, ready to die to save others. How would dying for Davena be any different?
“I would if I knew she would be free of you,” he finally answered.
Delphine inhaled, her chest expanding. “A deal is a deal. You answered my question. Now I will tell you the story that only one other knew – Babette Arcineaux.”
Beau waited for her to continue, each second that ticked by with silence grating on his nerves until he wanted to shout with it. That wasn’t how to deal with Delphine, however. It took more finesse, more tact.
“Her mother couldn’t conceive,” Delphine said. “They tried unsuccessfully for years. They couldn’t adopt, nor could they afford in vitro fertilization. After years of flaunting her Hoodoo in my face, Babette had the nerve to walk into my place.”
He was riveted with the story. Beau couldn’t imagine the nerve it took for Babette to see Delphine. “She wanted you to help her conceive,” he guessed.
Delphine nodded. “I always knew she would want something from me someday, but it wasn’t until she came to me that I knew what it would be.”
“You helped her.”
“I did.” Delphine smiled secretly as she glanced away. “With one condition. I told her she would have more than one child. In exchange for my help, she had to agree that one of the children would be mine to raise in the Voodoo religion to take my place leading my followers someday.”
Beau slowly leaned forward. “Davena.”
“Davena,” she repeated. She reached out her hand and ran her long fingernail over his hand. “There were two spells that night. The first, Babette was witness to and included in. The second occurred long after she left. I gave some of my own power coursing in my veins to one of the children. I thought it might have been Delia.”
“Because she was first?”
“She was conceived that very night, but no,” Delphine said and caressed languidly up his arm. “It was her desire to know all there was to know of Voodoo and Hoodoo that made me think it was her. Then Davena caught my attention. She didn’t care about what her mother did, and yet power filled her so fully she practically shone with it. Why do you think everyone always flocked to her?”
Beau tried to ignore her fingers as they reached his chest and then began to wander downward. “Because she’s beautiful and good.”
“Did you see how she put out my fire? No one has been able to do that before,” Delphine said as she leaned closer. “No one.”
“You fear her.”
“She is part of me. I don’t fear her, I love her. I came for her that night in Algiers, but Babette refused. That’s why she died. I didn’t know until it was too late that Davena was in there. I could have killed Delia right then, but I let both girls go. For six years, I’ve tracked their every movement.”
Beau grabbed her hand right before she reached his cock. He slowly pulled her hand away. “Why come now?”
“Delia all but dared me, and it is past time that Davena take her place beside me.”
“So you’re not here to kill Davena?”
Delphine yanked her hand from his grasp and smiled tightly. “No. However, I am prepared to use any incentive I came to...persuade...her to leave with me.”
“You mean you’re prepared to kill me and whoever else you need to,” Beau guessed.
“I would so hate to end as fine a specimen as you are, Beau Chiasson, but if you don’t help me I’ll do just that after I make you watch while I kill your family. Including your sister.”
Beau didn’t think he could hate anyone as much as he did Delphine. There wasn’t a doubt in his mind that Delphine wouldn’t hesitate to do exactly as she claimed. “What do you want me to do?”
“Go to Davena. She wants a battle that I’d like to avoid.”
“Can you blame her? She watched you kill her mother and sister, and she knows you killed her father.”
Delphine threw back her head and laughed. “I didn’t kill her father. That was done in retaliation after one of Babette’s Hoodoo spells countering my hex failed. The woman’s husband died, so she took Babette’s.”
“Why not come after you?”
“Everyone knows better.”
Beau had come expecting to bargain for Davena’s life. Instead, he was going to have to decide whether to convince Davena to go with Delphine to save his family.
Or sacrifice his family for her.
“Davena is at her house. You have a difficult choice,” Delphine said as she stood and cupped his face. “I hope you make the right one, mon cher.”
As one, the rest of the group rose and followed Delphine into the trees leaving Beau alone. He didn’t wait around to see if anyone would come back. He was half way back to Kaplan when he saw his brothers waiting for him next to a fence. Beau didn’t stop as he reached them. Delphine hadn’t given him a time limit, but he didn’t want to test her.
“So that was Delphine,” Linc said as they fell into step beside him.
Beau gave a nod.
Vincent glanced at him. “We didn’t get close enough to hear what she said, but she’s stunning.”
Christian let out a whistle in agreement. “If I didn’t know how messed up she was in the head, I’d want her in my bed for a night.”
“What did she want?” Lincoln asked.
Beau halted so quickly his brothers had taken several steps ahead of him. They s
topped and turned to him. He looked at each of them, and his decision was made. “To make a long story short, Davena has Delphine’s power. Babette couldn’t have children, so she went to Delphine. The bargain was that one of the children would eventually take Delphine’s place.”
“Fuck, but that’s messed up,” Christian said.
Vincent smoothed back the hair in the queue at the base of his neck. “Agreed. So she’s not here to kill Davena, but to bring her back to New Orleans?”
Beau grimly nodded. “It’s why Babette was killed. Delphine came for Davena that night. She’s known all along where the sisters have been.”
“And Delia?” Christian asked. “Why kill her?”
“Delphine said Delia called her out, so to speak,” Beau explained.
Fury laced Lincoln’s face. “And no one can go against her.”
“Exactly.” Beau let out a long breath. “I have to convince Davena to go with her.”
Christian grunted. “The hell you do.”
“If I don’t, she’ll make me watch as all of you die, then she’ll kill me.”
Vincent’s gaze caught his. “Our lives for Davena’s.”
“Essentially.”
Christian shook his head and turned away. “Now do y’all understand why I’ll never allow myself to be attached to a woman?”
“Shut up,” Lincoln told Christian. He then turned his attention to Beau. “We’re not defenseless. We can take care of ourselves.”
“Not against the likes of her.” Beau flattened his lips as he recalled something Davena had said the night before. “Davena said Delphine never lets something she wants go easily. She hasn’t forgotten Ava or Jack, or what our cousins did to her.”
Vincent let out a string of curses and began to pace. “They didn’t capture her. She let them.”
“That’s my guess,” Beau said.
Christian faced them again, his thumbs hooked in his belt loops. “What are you going to do?”
Beau looked to where his truck was parked feeling helpless and furious. “I’m going to find Davena.”
“We’ll come with you,” Lincoln said.
