by Jan Eldredge
They pulled away from the house, and a white bird soared past the truck. It winged its way up the street and settled onto the shoulder of a tall, gray-bearded man standing within the shadows of a majestic oak on the corner.
As the truck rumbled up the street and past the man, Evangeline gave him a nod, from one professional to another. And Papa Urbain nodded to her in return.
A rush of relief fell over her, and she smiled. There would be no need to worry about the Midsomers now, not with someone here keeping an eye on them.
Percy drove them home, chattering every mile of the way. Evangeline tuned him out. She pressed her fingers to the bandaged wound on her shoulder. With Gran’s calendula salve, it would heal, but it would never completely disappear. She knew death’s puckered pink mark would remain there, no doubt the first of many scars she’d acquire throughout her life as a haunt huntress. She cast a glance back at the truck’s bed and at Berus sitting up tall, the wind ruffling his black fur. She also knew her familiar would remain with her too, no matter where her haunt huntress path might take her.
A week later, the council had not yet convened to decide if Evangeline should be granted her own silver talisman. But she wasn’t worried. She didn’t need a talisman to prove she was a haunt huntress. Though she had yet to discover what her unique talent would be, she had heart, she had her familiar, and she had some powers. Maybe only a half amount of those powers, but when she needed them, they would be there.
She twisted the lid onto the last jar of fresh aconitum extract she’d prepared that evening. She set the containers in their place on the front-room shelf, then removed her work gloves and gave Berus a pat on his warm, furry head. His tongue lolled, and her heart brimmed with contentment and pride.
Across the room Fader scratched at the front door, yowling to be let out.
“All right.” Evangeline pointed a finger of warning at him. “But no messenger birds.”
Fader fixed his gaze on hers, bent back one set of ears, and twitched his tail.
“Fader . . .” She narrowed her eyes at him.
Fader huffed.
“Good.” She opened the door. He scampered out, and true to his name, his dark-gray fur quickly camouflaged him, fading him against the backdrop of the night.
Gran dozed in her rocker there in the front room, one eye open and snoring mightily. Evangeline gave her a kiss on the forehead.
“Come on, Berus. Let’s get some sleep.” But the command wasn’t necessary. The big dog seldom left her side.
She pulled off her boots and climbed into bed, still in her jeans and T-shirt, too exhausted to put on a nightgown. As she drew the old patchwork quilt up to her chin, Berus clambered onto the foot of the bed, causing the springs to creak, and taking up nearly every square inch of available space. He laid his big head on his paws.
Evangeline closed her eyes. She was just drifting to sleep when a tapping sounded against her windowpane.
She peeled her eyelids open. A sparrow perched on the sill, clasping a note in its beak.
She dragged herself out of bed, opened the window, and retrieved the message.
As the bird flapped away into the night, a pair of bright-green eyes watched it from below. She closed the window and unfolded the note. It was addressed to her. She skimmed past Mrs. Arseneau’s hastily scrawled message, past the polite greeting and the customary request for the services of a swamp witch. She ran her eyes farther down the page and finally reached the meat of the matter.
“It’s a request to remove a shadow croucher from under the bed,” she murmured to Berus. She read aloud the second-to-last line of Mrs. Arseneau’s request: “‘You’ll have no problem locating the creature, as it smells strongly of smoke, kerosene, and root beer.’” But it was the last line of the note that brought a smile to Evangeline’s face and a grumble to her stomach. “‘There’s also a pecan pie waiting on the kitchen counter as payment for services.’”
Evangeline folded the note and tucked it into her satchel. She pulled on her priest-blessed, silver-tipped, alligator-skin boots and fastened her pearl-handled bowie knife to her leg.
“Come on, Berus. We’re needed.”
Glossary
OF MONSTERS, GHOSTS, AND ASSORTED SUPERNATURAL ENTITIES
Acadian fang worm: A fat, round worm roughly three feet long with a tiny, fang-lined mouth that spews venomous acid. Probably a distant relative of the Mongolian death worm that inhabits the most desolate parts of the Gobi Desert in China and Mongolia.
albino channel nixie: A water-dwelling imp with white flesh, white hair, red eyes, and long pink whiskers at the corners of its mouth. It enjoys nipping chunks of flesh from human hands and feet, which it finds much tastier than the insects and crawfish it normally eats in its marshy home.
bayou banshee: A ghostly being with wispy hair, cracked lips, and anguished eyes. Its wails and shrieks can shatter windows. Wearing a spectral gray prison dress, it emerges from its grave at the women’s state penitentiary.
blood fae: A tiny, wild gray fairy with shiny black eyes, slits instead of a nose, claws, and sharp teeth. It feeds on blood, and a hungry swarm of them can drain a human body in ten seconds.
cauchemar: A paralyzing nightmare spirit that rides sleeping people like horses, rendering them unable to cry out or move. Sometimes known to even choke or suffocate its victim. It arrived in Louisiana hundreds of years ago when it followed French settlers to the state.
chasse-galerie: A party of ghostly hunters and their dogs. They ride through the night like a fierce wind, bringing with them the sounds of barking, howling, blowing horns, ringing bells, and the shouts of invisible men.
chupacabra: A dark, furry creature with bulging red eyes, fanged teeth, and a row of quills along its back. It stands about four feet tall and walks on two hind legs. A killer of livestock, it drains the blood, leaving behind two puncture marks on its victims’ necks.
creeper: A small and harmless spectral being that floats silently after passersby. It is easily dissipated with a swipe of light.
dixie demon: A vicious, shape-shifting being encountered deep in the swamps and woods of Louisiana. First appearing in the form of a harmless person or animal that is distinctly out of place, it will then suddenly sprout a mouthful of sharp teeth and attack its victims.
fifolet: A floating, burning ball of light. Many believe following it will lead to a buried treasure, but it usually only draws people to their doom.
galerie goblin: A short, troublemaking creature with sharp teeth and a nose and ears that are long and pointy. Also known as a porch goblin. Notorious for destabilizing front steps, rocking chairs, and porch columns with the intent of causing injury and embarrassment to humans.
graveyard ghoul: A hunch-shouldered creature with clawed fingers and strong, sinewy arms and legs. Its stringy gray hair resembles Spanish moss, helpful when camouflaging itself among trees. It invades the graves and crypts of the recently deceased and feasts upon their bodies.
greedy grass: A patch of cursed grass that if stepped upon will render its victim suddenly and insatiably hungry, sometimes even causing them to gnaw their own fingers. It emits an aroma the victim perceives as smelling like their favorite food.
grim: A huge, yellow-eyed, shaggy black dog similar in appearance to a Newfoundland. To see one means someone near is about to die. It is fierce, strong, and intelligent and is responsible for escorting the souls of the dead to the other side.
grunch: A creature bearing a set of curved horns but the head, chest, and arms of a man. Its lower body is four-legged and wooly, like that of a ram. It inhabits remote dead-end roads in the undeveloped areas of eastern New Orleans.
hara-hand: An ancient, shriveled, very lively severed human hand, possibly an item of dark magic. Its origin is unknown, only that it was originally found crawling around a festival in Harahan, Louisiana. Thus it acquired the name, the hara-hand.
haunt huntress familiar: An animal distinct in appearance, or at least bearing s
ome unusual markings. It presents itself to its haunt huntress before she reaches her thirteenth birthday. The familiar’s particular abilities complement the unique talent of its mistress. Fiercely loyal, it aids and defends its haunt huntress throughout her lifetime, its own life coming to an end within minutes of the death of its mistress. Common examples of haunt huntress familiars include: cats, dogs, hares, hawks, owls, raccoons, rats, and snakes.
hookfoot: A green, tree-dwelling monster with bloodshot eyes, a human-shaped head, powerful jaws, and arrow-shaped teeth. It hangs by its hands from the high branches and snatches up prey with its long mantis-like legs and sharp-taloned feet. It is notorious for toying with its food before devouring it.
hydrangean lizard: A large lizard approximately the length of a medium-sized dog. It possesses the regenerative ability to regrow its lost limbs, tail, and sometimes even its head with multiple replacements. Its diet consists mostly of the flowers of the wild swamp hydrangeas.
Johnny revenant: The reanimated, moldering corpse of a Civil War soldier. It runs through the swamps, crying a shrill rebel yell and using a broken tree limb to wallop anyone in its path.
lootslang: A fanged, snake-like creature about three feet long, covered in bumpy green gator skin and bearing a set of tusks. It camouflages itself in its swampy surroundings and will leave intruders alone unless they began to dig in the area where it resides. It is said to be guarding the buried loot of a pirate.
Mississippi mud man: A big and strong being created from Mississippi River mud for the purpose of performing difficult farm chores.
Nalusa Falaya: A creature that lives in the dense woods near swamps. It is tall and spindly with a shriveled face, small pink eyes, and scaly skin. Though it speaks with a human voice and walks upright, it slides on its stomach like a snake when stalking the victims it will bewitch into doing evil.
rougarou: A wolfman with red eyes, fangs, claws, and brown fur. He walks upright on two bowed legs and is unusually fast and strong. Even though he doesn’t feed on blood, he still possesses an overpowering drive to hunt and kill humans. Only the bite of an alpha rougarou can infect a victim, resulting in that victim’s transforming into a rougarou on the night of the next full moon.
shadow croucher: A creature that was previously a normal-sized animal but has grown larger and more vicious due to eating poisonous fruit from the tree of fear. Driven by an extreme state of fright, it will attack anyone it encounters. Light repulses it, causing it to hide under beds, in closets, and nearly any place that provides shadow and darkness.
Terrebonne Troll: A burly, bad-tempered, destructive creature nearly seven feet tall. Its skin is pale and pasty, its jaw juts, its brow protrudes, and its huge belly hangs low. Since it never bathes, it also smells bad. It steals food, property, and children—enslaving some of them and attempting to eat the others.
tree of fear: A tree bearing a poisonous fruit that resembles a black, slimy, gassy-smelling plum. Any creature eating the fruit will transform into a fear-filled shadow croucher.
yimmby: A gray-skinned being less than eight inches tall. It has a potbelly, two thin legs, long feet, round eyes, and wiry white hairs on its head. It loves to eat and will consume large amounts of food that it steals from humans.
Acknowledgments
My heartfelt thanks to my husband, Charlie, for his steadfast love and support, and to my kids, Jamie, Chase, and Savannah–sorry for ignoring you guys all those times I was writing, and extra thanks to Chase for his fantastic brainstorming ideas.
My wholehearted thanks to the publishing rock stars who believed in me: Elena Giovinazzo—the best agent ever; the wonderful Holly McGhee; the brilliant Alessandra Balzer; and the delightfully imaginative Joseph Kuefler.
My hearty thanks to my extraordinary beta readers: Amy Paulshock, Marcea Ustler, and Ann Meier, and to my other extraordinary critique group members: Taryn Souders, Leslie Santa Maria, Ruth Owen, Charlotte Hunter, Brian Crawford, Lynne Ryder, and Kimberly Lekman. And also to Ed Masessa and Zebo Ludvicek for just being awesome; Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld, our hardworking FL SCBWI regional advisor; and all my other writing-family members for their friendship and encouragement over the years: Lisa Iriarte, Joe Iriarte, Jennye Kamin, Alina Blanco, Mark Chick, Brian Truitt, Usman Malik, Charles Waters, Marlana Antifit, Rina Heisel, Peggy Jackson, Vivi Barnes, Dennis Cooper, Stephanie Spier, and Barb Nefer.
About the Author and Illustrator
JAN ELDREDGE was born and raised in Louisiana. She now lives in Florida with her husband, their children, and a house full of cats. When she’s not writing, she spends her time reading, going to theme parks, and exploring old cemeteries. She is particularly fascinated with monsters, magic, and all such eldritch things. Learn more about Jan at www.janeldredge.com.
JOSEPH KUEFLER is the author-illustrator of Beyond the Pond, Rulers of the Playground, and The Digger and the Flower. He lives in Minnesota with his wife and children. You can visit him online at www.josephkuefler.com.
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Copyright
Balzer + Bray is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
EVANGELINE OF THE BAYOU. Text copyright © 2018 by Jan Eldredge. Illustrations copyright © 2018 by Joseph Kuefler. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
www.harpercollinschildrens.com
Cover art © 2018 by Joseph Kuefler
Cover design by Dana Fritts and Joseph Kuefler
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Digital Edition MAY 2018 ISBN: 978-0-06-268036-5
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-268034-1
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1819202122CG/LSCH 10987654321
FIRST EDITION
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