“Here’s what we do,” I said. “I’ll do what I can to keep Kalfu off of the vampires. We don’t want him stealing any more power. He wants me—I am the threat to his dominance over the crossroads. I will lure him away from the vampires, and I need you—all of you vampires—to rally and take on whatever creatures he brings through from Samhuinn until I can seize control. Understood?”
“We understand,” Mercy said, speaking for the vampires, who were mostly, with their beady red eyes, nodding in agreement.
“He’s set up base at my old home. We can’t wait for him to attack us. We need to make our stand there while he’s still assembling his army, before he launches his assault on humanity.”
This time, I surveyed the whole crowd, and everyone was in agreement. They were at my back—which, frankly, made me anxious. These people were trusting me, they were relying on me. Humanity was depending on me, even if they didn’t know it, and hopefully never would. But there was still one haunting problem with my plan—a fact I couldn’t let everyone see. When push came to shove, I had no idea how I’d stand a chance against Kalfu when it came to actually laying claim on the crossroads. I had my friends—Legba was right about that. But even I knew that with all they could do, we were little match for Kalfu. So far, my speech had been mostly strategy. Now I had to dig down deep and find the words to inspire and motivate.
“I know I’m not who most of you might have chosen to be your new queen. And I cannot pretend to match what Marie Laveau had been and all she meant to you for all these years. But I’m not asking you to fight for me. I’m asking you to take a stand. Our world, this whole city, was once forged by a people who needed a place where they could find freedom. In a world that would enslave them, dominate and oppress them, this place gave them a chance to live their lives with dignity, even if only while they were here. My past, my ancestors, were a part of the problem. But I embrace a new heritage. A new tradition. And I’m urging you to embrace this future, to boldly demand a world of our making. We are no longer a people who can settle for a partial freedom, who can hide beneath the refuge of this place. This is New Vilokan—this is not a shelter, but a seed for change. Today we stand up against Kalfu, and in so doing, against every force that has ever stood against us. Today, we rise up not as a people defined by our oppressors, but as a people who demand our right to this world, our place in history. Today we claim our right—given to us by Bondye in the beginning—to life, liberty, and a pursuit of happiness on our terms. Today, we save the world. Not just from Kalfu and his bloody campaign of terror. But we save the world from any who would dominate us, from any who would tell us to stand in our place and submit. Today we stand for a more perfect world. This battle, our fight against Kalfu, is not the end of the struggle. It is a new beginning—and facing this threat, we will stand together for a better tomorrow. And from this day forward, come what may, we will face it together. We are done waiting. Done letting those who threaten us dictate the terms of our survival. Today we stand. Today we act. Today we are free and unashamed. No matter where you come from, no matter what you look like or what you’ve been through, this is a future that belongs to you.”
The room erupted in hoots, hollers, and applause. Even Mercy and the vampires cheered—which I hadn’t expected. But this was their future too—even if it did mean they would soon return to their place as creatures of the night, stalking humanity as prey. They were also a group that had been forced into the shadows, a “people,” if you can use that word to describe them. Yes, they fed on humans—but they also feared us. That’s why they’d more often than not staked their own—for fear of human vampire hunters. It’s hard to empathize with vampires. But at least as far as my speech went, there was something there for them, too. Something they understood. Something that would inspire them, at least for today, to stand up and fight.
Chapter Twenty-Six
To contest the crossroads, Legba told me, all I needed to do was make physical contact with Kalfu. What happened after that… well, he didn’t offer much clarification, which, frankly, was mildly unsettling. He said the terms of the contest would be set on contact—that there was no way to predict what would unfold, but that I could rely on my friends as my source of strength. More than once I’d had to dive into the “unknown” and trust that things would work out. But before, I’d had Isabelle and Beli at my side—now I had to enter this unknown, this contest with Kalfu, alone. My friends, Legba said, would be my source of power. I knew how to leverage their power in the battle itself—as his legions met ours on the plantation grounds. But when it came to the contest over the crossroads, I was basically going into it blind.
Legba said I’d have to choose a second. Who made these rules, anyway? God, or Bondye as most of the folks in the Voodoo world call the Almighty, most likely. All kinds of rules—and not just in the Voodoo world—exist without explanation. Why does gravity make things go down, not up? Why do some plants thrive in sunlight while others prefer the shade? Why do men have nipples? There aren’t satisfactory answers to these questions. It’s just the way things are. And, frankly, in spite of my lack of understanding, I didn’t have room to question the hows and the whys. This was the lot I was given—and I’d have to choose a second. Pauli would be the obvious choice. He was my best friend. I trusted him more than anyone, and he’d never let me down. But Kalfu inhabited his real body—did that mean Kalfu could influence Pauli somehow? Legba had said that the obvious choice is not always the right one. Maybe that’s what he meant. Then there was Ashley. I trusted her, too. And we’d seen and been through a lot together. But she was a Shaman—err… Shawoman, rather. Her abilities were pretty impressive when on the defense, but Kalfu and Hailey held the crossroads already. This was an offensive operation. Mikah was a possibility. He loved Isabelle—would that be a strength or a liability when we faced Hailey, who had Isabelle within her? Not to mention, as much as I know he had to do it, and as much as I knew it must have torn him apart inside, he was the one—under Kalfu’s control at the time or not—who utilized the ability he’d gained by being soul-fused to Alexa Windstrom to execute Oggie. I wanted to see past that, but I just couldn’t. How could I face Kalfu with him at my side? There was Mercy. That wasn’t happening. Whoever I chose, if by some remote chance we managed to succeed, would have responsibility over the crossroads for God knows how long. Putting a vampire in charge of that—one who might outlive me in spite of the fact that I had whatever magic came with being the Voodoo queen now sustaining me—just wasn’t a good idea. Not to mention, she might be able to handle Hailey, but she was no match for Kalfu. No more than a mouse is a match for a snake. Any option I considered had its plusses and its minuses. I’d have to make a choice—if I could even reach Kalfu to begin with.
One step at a time. That’s what I told myself. It’s something Isabelle would have said if her soul were still fused with mine. To initiate the challenge, either Legba or someone possessing Legba’s aspect would have to make physical contact with Kalfu. And he was in the process of bringing all kinds of supernatural nasties into our world and had probably already surrounded himself with a diabolical protectorate of some kind.
I’d studied all the war texts over the last few months with Oggie. Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. Clausewitz’s On War. I tried to retrieve Oggie’s editions from his old office, but the books were so water damaged that all but some of the innermost pages were impossible to read. Still, I remembered enough to know that to strike down a general can give an army a great advantage in battle. But it was also nearly impossible. A well-placed arrow, shot with some luck, might do it. But more often than not, you had to fight your way through a whole army to even get an open shot at a general or king. Unless the enemy’s army made a foolish move that left his rear or flank exposed—then you could take advantage.
Kalfu wasn’t a battle Loa—not like Oggie. That had to be why he felt the need to demand Oggie’s sacrifice in his bargain with Mikah. He knew Oggie would give us an advantage. The
sacrifice wasn’t for nothing. So many lost souls in Vilokan whose abilities might have been fused to Bokors. Sure, Kalfu managed to acquire the latent powers of those who had Samedi’s aspect, who’d become vampires, but that was only a fifth of the power he might have gained had it not been for Oggie. He knew, he trusted that Mikah and I would do what we needed to do, that we’d find a way. And we did.
But now we had to take the battle to Kalfu—the only way was a full-frontal assault. Keep his troops locked in conflict with whatever force we could muster and hope, pray even, that at some point we could find an opening on his sides or to his rear. Somehow I’d have to get to him. It would take something of a miracle to pull it off, but there really wasn’t any other way. And if we somehow pulled that one off, I’d need a second dose of the miraculous to figure out how to defeat Kalfu. Even with the powers I had before, it would have been hard to take him out. I could breathe underwater. I could see dead people. I could fight pretty well. My aspects gave me those abilities. Legba’s aspect wouldn’t be good for much other than contesting the crossroads—only after I somehow pulled that off would his powers really become useful. Too little, too late.
I sat in my old dormitory room—staring at the four walls, pondering everything I’d been through in such a small amount of time. Letty nuzzled her face against my knee. I scratched her behind the ears. “Here goes nothing, girl. If I don’t see you again, try to keep Ashley in check, all right? I mean, I know she’s the big sister. But she’s lost too much. If she loses me…”
Letty howled. I hugged her, and she licked my face. I love my dog, but I don’t kiss back. Kisses from her. Hugs from me. That’s how our relationship worked. I wiped the slobber from my face. She didn’t have a home—and I wasn’t going to stick her in the old academy kennel. She’d have to wait here. Hopefully I’d make it back to her. If not, someone else would find her. At least, presuming we had survivors at all… I almost slapped myself for the thought.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
I couldn’t believe how many people—and vampires—we’d assembled. Did we actually have a shot at this? It was the strangest, most eclectic army you could imagine. Voodoo folks aren’t especially known for being fighters. That wasn’t what the arts were about, not unless the circumstances were dire. And they were. People of every color, every stripe, had joined us. Men and women, young and old. I wasn’t going to sit back—I could fight. Oggie’s aspect gave me some abilities, even if I couldn’t wield my soul blade anymore. I’d grabbed an old Japanese katana from Kalfu’s office—this would have to do. I didn’t own a gun—some of the folks who gathered in the army had guns. That just wasn’t my style. Get me up close. I want to see my enemy face-to-face, and I want him to see me. Was it reckless? Probably. I was the queen, after all. Every war text I knew emphasized keeping the army’s leader out of reach and as safe as possible. But I was going to be a warrior queen. I’d read The Lord of the Rings. Well, sort of. I watched the movies. Isabelle read it. I know that means I probably was reading it, too. But my mind was wandering too much to keep up. She’d have to remind me to turn the pages. Still, I knew the story. King Aragorn didn’t sit and chill while Gimli and Legolas did his dirty work. He was in it.
Maybe it was dumb to set aside the strategies of Sun Tzu and Clausewitz in exchange for Tolkien. Okay, it was incredibly dumb. But this was one battle to end a war. We’d either die today, or we’d die in the morning as a part of Kalfu’s mass sacrifice of humanity. And I wasn’t the sort who could sit back and let other people fight my fights. I was in the middle of this conflict with Kalfu at the beginning, and I was going to be in the thick of it now.
Pauli wrapped his serpentine form around my body. He’d move me in and out of the conflict, find strategic places to strike, I’d make a blow and he’d zap me out of there before the enemy could retaliate.
As eclectic and strange as our army of vodouisants appeared, Mercy’s vampire army was surprisingly uniform. I figured that almost anyone could become a vampire—but the paling effect that vampirism had on their skin, the red beady eyes they all possessed, and their universal affinity for black clothing gave them a distinct and unified look. Black… it wasn’t just because they dug the Gothic vibe. In spite of popular opinion, vampires don’t shop at Hot Topic. They wear black because it helps them blend into the night. It’s a camouflage. In fact, now that I think about it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Mercy in anything but black. It was my color of choice, too, but for me it was a question of style, not homicidal efficiency.
The vampires would be of most use at whatever part of the army wasn’t near Kalfu—so they’d take most of the hellish creatures he’d summoned first. That also meant I’d probably be anywhere other than where the vampires were fighting, precisely because I was trying to get to Kalfu, not avoid him.
Pauli zapped me into a tall tree that stood about a hundred yards away from my property line. My jaw almost dropped thirty feet. Two gravel paths had been built, intersecting right where the slave quarters was—or had been. A swirling pool of red magic had formed where the old building used to stand. Out of it poured creatures—some from myth and legend, creatures I could identify but didn’t know actually existed, even in Samhuinn. Minotaurs, imps and horned creatures of various kinds. Giant bipedal lizards—you might call them dinosaurs, I suppose, but they didn’t look like any I’d seen in the Jurassic World movies. After all, a lot of what we think we know about how dinosaurs looked was based on the highly educated guesses of paleontologists. These creatures, while they might not be identical to the dinosaurs who once roamed the earth, were magical beasts. A red magic shone from between their scales. Some of them stood as high as twenty feet—not as large as one might think, but big enough to dwarf any of us. I wasn’t sure what we’d do about them, but we’d have to try to take them out quickly. Swarm them with as many vamps as possible—that might give us a shot.
“How many do you think there are?” Pauli asked.
“I don’t know. A thousand maybe? But at the rate they’re pouring out of that portal, their number could double in the hour.”
“How are we going to take them down if they keep resupplying their armies?”
I shook my head. “We aren’t. That’s not the way we win this. We just need to find Kalfu, and I need to get to him.”
“Then I can just teleport you to him!”
“He knows that,” I said. “So you can be sure he isn’t going to make it easy to discover where he’s at. This is what we do. We don’t focus on eliminating them, we try to attack and flee, attack and run, try to spread them out. Bring me in, I’ll strike where I can, but while I do, look around. If you spot Kalfu even once, don’t hesitate. Take me to him.”
“You got it, girlfriend!”
“I’m not your girlfriend.”
“Psshhh. This boy don’t take girlfriends. But if I did, you’d be my one and only.”
I smiled a little. “I appreciate that. I think.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
The more Kalfu’s legion grew, the harder it would be to find him. Not to mention, I wasn’t sure what we’d do about the creatures already here if I beat him. Legba made it clear that it was just a momentary lapse of control over the crossroads that allowed a single demon from the other side to break through, which led to some of history’s worst atrocities. Getting control of the crossroads was the most important step—but after that, God knows if we’d be able to rid the world of this evil. And what I saw were only the creatures who had corporeal forms. Demons don’t. And frankly, I’d be shocked if more than a few demons hadn’t come through along with the army we were staring down.
I wasn’t going to try to command the vampires. Mercy would command them, but she’d promised to follow my lead. I issued the order. She’d march on the army headfirst, engage, and then pull back to try to spread them out as much as possible. The Voodoo army would work from a distance—these weren’t warriors, not most of them. They would fight through hexes, candles and oil
s, dollcraft, and whatever their various aspects—if they had any—might allow them to do. One thing grossly lacking from Sun Tzu and Clausewitz was how to wage a magical attack—and even Tolkien was of little use in this regard. We didn’t have a Gandalf amongst us—we had Voodoo, which wasn’t an art particularly crafted for use in a war. We had to rely on the vampires and then hope the Voodoo crowd could do whatever they could to lend support.
Just clear the way enough to find Kalfu—that was all I needed. We’d figure out how to take out these creatures after we got control of the crossroads, after we closed it off. The longer we took to accomplish that, the bigger their army would grow, and the harder it would be to vanquish them.
Vampires don’t usually wield weapons—they have their fangs. But some of these vampires had chosen to carry blades, mostly daggers and short swords. With their speed, they could do some damage fairly quickly, provided these creatures could bleed at all.
I signaled Mercy, and she gave the order.
The vampires charged up my old driveway and across the rubble of where my old plantation home once stood. Kalfu’s army was ready. They quickly formed a barrier, their dinosaur-like creatures forming a wall in front of the rest. Most of the vampires slammed against the dinosaurs—but barring a wound directly to the chest, most of them couldn’t be stopped. The only question was whether we had the numbers.
After one or two of the big creatures dropped, I gave the signal again, and Mercy signaled the vampires to retreat—they didn’t need to, but this would hopefully force the army to chase them and spread out a little. They pulled back to where the old house once stood.
Mikah grabbed a massive chunk of the rubble, threw it into the air, and then used Alexa’s ability to hurl it on a whirlwind at one of the charging dinosaurs. It struck with such force that it decapitated the beast, its massive body thudding against the ground.
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