“So you’d want me to join your team?” I asked. “I mean, I don’t know what else to call it.”
“I like to think of it as a circle of friends and peers,” Ezekiel said. “But you would be ahead of the pack. One of my right-hand women.”
“What about Zillah?” I asked. “I’d want nothing to do with her.”
“Done,” Ezekiel said, snapping his fingers to illustrate how meaningless she was to him. “I can’t stand Zillah. If that’s your price, it’s an easy one for me to pay.”
“And my sister,” I said. “I’d want her to be okay.”
He paused. “We could see about that.”
I shook my head, “No. That’s non-negotiable. I’d want her to be with me. I don’t do this without her.”
“She might be harder to convince,” he said, suddenly seeming to be annoyed with my request. “She’s not as strong as you, Briar. She’s privileged in a way you’re not. It would be hard to persuade her to leave their side. She’s more… involved with them.”
I considered what he was asking from me. The chance at power, achievement, and control. They were intoxicating offers.
Don’t even think about it, a voice said to me in my mind.
I froze. Who was that?
“Who is that?” I asked looking around.
“Who is what?” Ezekiel said. “What do you hear?”
Don’t tell him. It’s Aleta Indigo. I tracked you here and am here to take you back. Come back inside.
“Nothing, I thought you said something,” I said, but I could tell he didn’t believe me.
“Aleta,” he said. “She’s here.”
His kindly façade was gone and his eyes were dark again. He walked quickly back inside his mansion and I followed him. I didn’t know what else to do.
Sure enough, as soon we walked in, we were greeted by an other-worldly beautiful girl with long braids and striking amber colored eyes.
“Hello, Briar,” she said. “My name is Aleta Indigo. I’ve come to collect you.”
Aleta ignored Ezekiel who was seething next to us.
Yet he didn’t do anything. I’d expected him to flaunt whatever abilities he had, but something about Aleta was stopping him.
“She’s not in danger here,” Ezekiel replied. “We’re just talking. I’m telling her the truth.”
Aleta narrowed her eyes at Ezekiel. “Sure you are. Anyway, we’ve lost a beloved staff member due to your flexing. I hope you’re satisfied that an innocent man died today. His blood is on your hands.”
Ezekiel yawned to show his complete disinterest.
What a true monster he was under the beautiful looks.
“Briar, we will be going now,” Aleta instructed me.
I looked at Ezekiel, expecting him to stop me. But something about Aleta had taken the wind out of his sales. He waved us away.
“This isn’t over,” he said directly to Aleta. “You know that.”
“I know,” Aleta said. “But one day, it will be.”
And with that, we walked out of Ezekiel Walker’s home.
Aleta drove us back to Virginia’s. She said nothing. I wasn’t sure if she was angry with me, or thinking about other things. I’d never met someone so intimidating before. I thought Calista was scary, but Aleta was forbidding in a different sort of way.
“Your sister is eager to see you,” she finally said. “She wants to take you to lunch. We will follow close behind. To make sure you’re covered.”
I nodded. I didn’t know what else to say.
“Was she…” I started, not knowing how to phrase my question.
“She was very happy to hear that she has a twin sister,” Aleta said gently. “It’s a surprise for her, as you know. But it will help her heal from her loss. You will be her greatest asset and ally through this.”
I was relieved.
We pulled up to the house on the Battery. I was still dumbfounded at its size and beauty. I’d never get used to the exquisiteness of Charleston homes.
It was the longest walk of my life up that driveway to the front entrance of the Belles mansion. I’d never been so anxious.
As soon as we opened the door, there she was.
I was looking into my own eyes.
And suddenly her arms were around me, and I knew I was finally home.
Chapter 18
“My friend Mara raves about this place, but I’ve never eaten here,” I said as we pulled into Martha Lou’s for lunch. “Always wanted to, though.”
When I’d suggested we get away from the mansion for a few hours and have some one-on-one time, she excitedly agreed and suggested Martha Lou’s, a place she’d eaten with the other Belles. She insisted Martha served the best fried chicken in the world.
“Whatever you heard, I promise it’ll exceed your expectations,” she replied.
I half-expected some sort of enchantment to keep us from leaving, but we encountered no resistance, magical or otherwise. I remembered that Aleta said they’d have us covered, so I tried not to be too anxious about leaving the mansion.
It was mid-afternoon, just after the lunch rush, and the small restaurant held only two other occupants, a couple in the first booth, deep in conversation and picking clean the bones of their meal.
The restaurant consisted of a counter facing a single aisle flanked by two tables and then four booths. At the end were the restrooms. It was like a long boxcar, the only outside light coming from a small window by the door and a pair of skylights. Basic, but homey.
We sat down in the fourth and final booth, opposite the two other occupants. We ordered and started on sweet teas while we waited for our food.
“Tell me about Merritt,” I asked. “All this hoodoo and sorcery aside; I honestly can’t wrap my head around any of that stuff yet, but having family is something I’ve dreamed about since… well, since I can remember dreaming.”
“I feel like a horse’s ass telling you how great she was, and how great my life was, when I know what you were going through,” Emma answered. “I mean, really I can’t even imagine what life was like for you. I’m sorry.” She reached across and took my hands in hers.
I looked down and marveled at how identical they were to my own. I had a small crescent moon scar on the inside of my right thumb where I’d cut myself on a broken glass years ago, but besides that our hands were perfect duplicates.
To go from having no family to having a twin was going to take years, if not decades, to get used to.
“Can’t change the past, and we seem to be in the same boat now anyway,” I replied. “Fancy yacht that it seems to be.”
We smiled at each other like goobers.
“Merritt was the best sister ever,” Emma explained. “She was smart and funny and sweet and filled with encouragement and positive energy. She was the kind of girl who you don’t hate for being pretty because she’s just too nice, but at the same time genuine.”
Our food arrived just as the other two customers paid and departed, leaving us alone with our feast. We were mirror images of each other, picking up drumsticks in our right hands, balled in our fists like a child might hold it, and taking big, decidedly un-ladylike bites. We wiped our chins with napkins simultaneously.
“I wish she was here to eat this with us,” I said. “Holy hell this is so good!”
“It’s the best, isn’t it?” a voice replied.
I didn’t have to look over my shoulder to know who was standing there. Josephine’s voice and trademark exuberance were unmistakable. Her infectious energy gave me such a hit of dopamine that I almost wasn’t even bothered by Calista’s comments that followed.
“Fried chicken twice in one month, Emma? My thighs would never forgive me. I guess yours gave up a while ago, though.”
Emma flipped her off as she took another bite of her drumstick.
I loved the idea of having a sister. And my new surrogate “family” was an added bonus.
But Calista was going to be an acquired taste.
She appeared at the end of our table, looking resplendent as always, in a pair of distressed jeans that fit her like a second skin, a plain white t-shirt that I’m sure was made out of fibers from some tree that was only found on a mountaintop in Madagascar or something, and some strappy sandals that probably cost more than a decent used car. It was going to take some time to recognize all the exclusive and exorbitantly-priced labels she favored, but I had to admit, she was a knockout. There was no getting past that. Even in what looked like no makeup and her hair in a simple messy bun, she was ready to walk any runway fortunate enough to be blessed by her presence.
I picked up the large, juicy chicken breast on my plate, made eye contact with Calista, and took a generous bite.
“Jo, you’re welcome to stay, but Calista, you’re officially un-invited,” I said. Growing up the way I did had thickened my skin. I was never going to take Calista’s, or anyone else’s, bullshit.
Calista stared hard at me. She was used to having a certain effect on people, and when her beauty didn’t impress or intimidate, she didn’t seem to know what to do. “Whatever. None of us are staying. We’re doing you two a favor by bringing you home before Virginia finds out you left.”
“Don’t worry, I’m getting a to-go box. We’ll eat when we get back and Calista and her thighs can just be jealous,” Josephine giggled, and stuck her tongue out at the eye-rolling beauty queen of the Belles, before sliding in next to Emma.
“I’ll be outside. Don’t dawdle,” Calista said, gliding toward the door in a cloud of annoyance.
Before she could move though, what felt like an earthquake shook the entire building. The lights flickered and there was a destructive energy that filled the small diner.
“Do stay, Cal.”
I heard Calista gasp, followed by a voice I knew all too well, one that caused a visceral reaction among my companions – Zillah.
“I was only after the two ugly ducklings today, but it looks like we’ve caught a swan as well… oh, and a mouse. Hey, Jo.” Zillah was very pleased with herself. Which made my skin crawl.
I turned my body sideways in the booth so I could see the front door. Zillah stood there flanked by two large men and a smaller, docile figure in some sort of a hood or mask which obscured her face completely.
“You’ve made a bad mistake, Zillah,” Calista said, confidently.
“Have I?” Zillah retorted, laughing.
I could see a third man in the kitchen, menacing the cook and waitress, who were a pair of older women. To anyone looking at the scene from the outside, we were in serious trouble. But I knew that we had the great equalizer on our side, Calista.
So why were my hands shaking so badly?
Zillah’s face took on a look of mock concern. “What’s wrong, Calista? Why don’t you use your powers to save the day?” A grin spread across Zillah’s face. “Come on, do your worst. Drop a table on my head or something! I’m waiting… that’s right, no powers.”
Calista stumbled back toward the three of us. “Guys, something’s wrong. I can’t…” Calista looked down at her perfectly manicured hands in a confused panic. Zillah strode forward and slapped Calista hard across the face, sending her falling back into the booth across from where we sat.
“Calista!” Josephine screamed.
“Sit!” Zillah barked as Josephine started to rise from the booth to aid Calista. “Put her there,” Zillah commanded one of her henchmen, an SUV-sized man with close-cropped hair. She pointed to the first booth by the door, referring to the small girl in the hood. He led her to a seat and guided her into it before locking the front door and switching the sign in the small window from “Open” to “Closed.”
“Take their phones,” Zillah ordered the second man, and he walked up and grabbed Josephine’s phone and mine from off the table.
Emma hesitated, and the man looming over our table did something horrifying. A few days ago, I’d have thought I was hallucinating, but in my short time among the Belles, I’d come to realize that there’s more, often much more, to things and people than there seems to be.
Especially in Charleston.
The man, tall and lean, locked eyes with Emma and extended his tongue; a long, narrow, decidedly forked tongue, and flicked it rapidly. At the same time, his pupils became vertical slits and his skin took on a greenish hue. Emma dropped her phone on the table in shock. I felt ice cold all over.
Zillah stood imperiously over Calista, one hand on her hip and the other outstretched, palm up, waiting for Calista’s Vertu Signature Touch phone.
Watching Calista’s effortless cool shatter into a million terrified pieces as she tried in vain to access her powers put the end to any hope I still clung to.
We were in the deepest kind of trouble.
“Ooh, nice phone, Cal,” Zillah said, as the most beautiful Belle handed it over.
“My brothers and I want that one,” the man who took our phones said to Zillah, while pointing at Josephine.
“I thought you might,” Zillah responded. “Fair enough. Just promise she won’t suffer too much. Of all of them, I liked her the best. But she made her choice, as did you, eh, Briar?”
“What the hell?” I spat, trying to sound brave. “This is insane. You’re a woman, and you’re just going to let them rape her because they ask to?” I shook with rage.
Calista found her voice, but it was small and quivering. “They don’t want to assault Josephine.” Calista swallowed hard and looked from Zillah to Josephine and back to Zillah. “They want to eat her. They aren’t human. But I know she won’t let them do that. Zillah you can’t do this. That’s even unfathomable for you. We were once your sisters.”
“Ezekiel promised us. It’s our reward!” The man watching the girl in the mask protested. Zillah lifted a hand to quiet him.
“You’ll get your reward,” Zillah hissed.
“What do you mean by ‘eat’?” I blurted out. “Jo, what’s happening? Somebody has to do something!”
“These men aren’t men at all,” Calista explained. “They’re reptilian. And yes, they eat mammals, which we are. But I have no idea what they’re doing here; they know Charleston is off-limits to them. They usually stay in the swamps up around Sumter, in the Pee Dee.”
“Oh my God,” I gasped. “One of the girls in the group home was from Bishopville. She used to talk about the Lizard Man. We thought she was just, you know, telling ghost stories.” My eyes were wide with fear. I didn’t see any way out, our powers had abandoned us at the most inconvenient time, and at least one of us, evidently, was about to become lunch.
“We’re very real,” the man nearest us said, coldly. He pulled off the black hoodie he wore and set it on the table behind him, revealing a lean, toned swimmer’s build. He inhaled deeply, seemed to tense all over, and… changed.
What stood in front of us was definitely no longer human. It was as if a komodo dragon could stand on its hind legs. I dug my nails into the palm of my hand to wake myself from what had to be an awful nightmare. It didn’t work.
He reached down and picked up the untouched fried chicken breast from Emma’s plate and put the entire thing into his mouth, bones and all, crunching and swallowing it.
“Yeah, about the whole ‘off-limits’ thing; when that was agreed upon, they were deferring to Virginia,” Zillah said. “With recent developments, they no longer feel that it’s necessary to placate her.”
“Zillah, if giving me to them will save my sisters, I’ll go and deal with whatever they have planned for me,” Josephine pleaded. “Emma and Briar have nothing do with this.”
“They have everything to do with this,” Zillah corrected. “The work I’ve gone through to get them together? To end them permanently? You think I’d give that up?” Zillah laughed like she had front row seats for Dave Chappelle.
The reptilian dude who’d been in the kitchen escorted the waitress and cook into the dining area with us, seating them across the aisle from the hooded girl. They looked borderlin
e catatonic with fear.
Zillah reached back and grabbed a chair from the end of a booth, spun it around backwards and straddled it, bringing herself to eye level with Emma.
“How did you survive the fall?” she asked. “Are you so gifted that you were able to heal your own injuries and swim to shore? Or did you have help from a certain merman?”
Josephine turned white as a ghost. How did Zillah know?
“Screw you,” Emma replied, making me proud.
Zillah stared at my sister a while before answering. “I wonder if your little healing trick would have worked on your parents and your other sister. What was her name again? Meredith?”
“Merritt,” she said, icily.
“You could have saved her, you know. She hung on for a good, long while. But there wasn’t much left of your mother. And your dad? He wasn’t much more than a stain on the blacktop, honestly. Nothing there to heal, I’m afraid.”
My heart sank into my shoes. I watched tears stream down Emma’s cheeks.
I lunged across the table to get at Zillah, but the lizard intercepted me with shocking speed and slammed me back into my seat. Zillah never moved. She just smiled.
“I was there, you know. I slipped away just before the impact, but I came back to survey my handiwork. Took me a while to realize I was one body short, what with all the blood and body parts and mess, but Merritt explained that you hadn’t made the trip.”
Emma’s lips moved, but no sound came out.
“Dammit, Zillah, stop!” Calista implored.
“If she interrupts again, break her perfect face,” Zillah instructed her guard. She turned her attention back to Emma.
“Merritt survived the crash. She was all twisted up in the wreckage, but she was alive. When she saw me I swear she had, like, this glimmer of hope. That look on her face… like she thought she was going to be saved. And think about it, Emma. Hello, Emma, are you in there?”
Southern Charmed (Hell's Belles Trilogy Book 2) Page 9
