Witch's Fury, page 6
Still seeing the same setting, Gilly opened her eyes, frustrated. She let go of Evee’s hands, which immediately broke the trance her sister had been in.
“Anything?” Evee asked hopefully.
“Nothing that made a damn lick of sense,” Gilly said. “Moose kept saying big heads, colors, surprised voices and something about wheels. The only thing I saw when attempting to connect to you and his voice was a carnival. You know, midway, rides, clowns, the whole bit.”
From the doorway, Nikoli asked, “Are there any carnivals in town right now?”
“Not that I know of,” Gilly said. “But that’s not something I’d usually track. If anyone would know about a carnival being in or around town, it would be Taka. She goes to all of them. Sort of like a big kid. Rides all the rides, eats cotton candy until she pukes. The whole ball of wax.”
“Then we should ask her if she knows of any,” Evee said.
Gilly groaned. “I’ve had my row with the Elders already today.”
“What?” Evee asked. “Did you get into an argument with them?”
“Kinda,” Gilly said. “I told Arabella off.”
“Gilly!”
“Well, she’d asked for it. They all did, except for Taka, I guess. She was on the fence during the argument, like always.”
“What was the argument about?” Lucien asked from the doorway.
“Nothing that means anything right now,” Gilly said and shot a quick look at Gavril, who lifted a brow.
“Abigail François,” Evee said with a look of incredulity. “You didn’t.”
Gilly gave her an innocent look. “Didn’t what?”
“You know what. The last time we were all together with the Elders, they reamed Viv and me for being intimate, sexually or otherwise, with our Benders. They warned us that the intimacy might very well be the cause of all the catastrophes we’ve been experiencing.”
“Yeah, and?”
“Don’t and me,” Evee said. She looked from Gavril to Gilly. “The two of you had sex, didn’t you?”
Gilly turned away from her sister and threw Gavril a look that said, No confession necessary.
“Gilly?” Evee said. “I need to know the truth. It might have something to do with Viv going missing. The Elders warned us that if we didn’t back away from having sex or deep relationships with our Benders that things might get worse. Having one of our sisters go missing is about the second worst thing that could happen.”
“What’s the first?” Nikoli asked from the doorway.
“Viv’s death.”
Nikoli took a step away from the doorway and ran his hands through his hair. “I should have kept her in my sights. It’s my fault. She’d asked me to wait near the feeding shoot, just in case any of her Loups showed up while she went inside the compound.”
“And you let her in there, knowing the scabior canopy was no longer operational?” Gavril asked.
“Yeah,” Nikoli said. “Dumb-ass move, I know, but Viv can be strong headed when she sets her mind to something. And I really don’t need you kicking my ass about it. Believe me, I’m doing enough kicking on my own. But it turned out okay—she came out. Then we parted ways. I walked her home, then came to the hotel. I shouldn’t have let her out of my sight. Ever.”
“Is there anyone else you can try to connect with besides Moose?” Gilly asked Evee. “What about the female Viv told us about who was in heat and causing all the ruckus in the compound?”
Evee shook her head. “I don’t have a visual to work with. Aside from Moose, most of the Loups looked the same to me.”
“Damn,” Gilly said. “I refuse to hit a brick wall. Let’s try Moose again, ask him questions. Maybe we can get clearer answers that way.”
Evee shrugged. “It’s worth a try.”
Gilly took Evee’s hands back into her own and held tight. When she saw Evee’s lips start moving silently, Gilly closed her own eyes and focused on the energy coming from her sister. She felt Evee’s hands grow hot and begin to tremble.
“Big heads,” Evee said, her voice low as if it had become male. “Lots of color. Laughing. So much laughing. Some scary, too. Clowns. Clowns are scary. Dragons, too.”
“Where are the big heads?” Evee asked in her own voice. “Moose, can you see where the big heads and colors are? The clowns and the dragons?”
Still unable to pick up anything but a carnival setting, Gilly opened her eyes, but kept her hands locked onto Evee’s.
“The colors are safe.” Moose’s voice carried through Evee. “The scary clowns are, too. The wheels don’t move, though. Not now—it’s not time.”
“When is the time?” Evee asked, her voice back to its own timbre. “Do you know?” Evee’s voice grew deeper. “When it gets noisy. Lots of people. Big heads, lotsa color. Scary faces. Happy faces. Sick people.”
Evee opened her eyes and released her hands from Gilly’s. “The only thing that comes to mind with his gibberish is some kind of carnival.”
“There’s only one way to find out,” Gavril said from the doorway. “We’ll pile up in our rental car and head out to check it out.”
“There’s got to be an easier way,” Lucien said, standing beside Gavril. “If Taka’s a carnival fanatic like you say she is, she’d know about all the ones in town, and probably knows about any outside of the city.”
“I’ve already told you,” Gilly said. “We had a bit of a tiff. I’m not comfortable going back there right now.”
“So we’ll go,” Gavril said.
“And get your head chopped off!” Gilly proclaimed. “You guys are the reason they believe we’re in so much crap.”
“Talking about crap,” Evee sad to Gilly. “You never answered my question.”
Gilly frowned. “What question?”
“You said we’re the reason the Elders believe we’re in so much crap. Well, were you intimate with Gavril?” Evee looked over at Gavril, who was looking down at his boots.
“None of your business,” Gilly said.
“It sure as hell is my business,” Evee said. “If you were, it could be the reason Viv’s gone missing. So give it up. Were you intimate with your Bender?”
Gilly looked over at Gavril and rolled her eyes. When she turned back to Evee, she felt sparks of anger flying toward her sister. “Yeah, we were intimate. Satisfied? It’s not like you’ve been Mother Teresa, you know. You can’t blame Viv’s disappearance on me. You and Viv gave it up to your Benders as well as I did. For all we know, it could be a collective thing, not just something I did. Besides, my escapade with Gavril happened after the fact. Viv was already missing. I didn’t cause it.”
“The Elders warned us, yet you went ahead and did what they strictly prohibited us from doing. Is it any wonder Viv’s missing? You were the last of the three of us to push the lever over too far. You purposely disobeyed the Elders.”
“Oh, get a grip,” Gilly said, growing angrier by the moment. “Instead of pointing fingers and placing blame, we need to find Viv and fast. Remember the Cartesians? If she’s out there alone, she’s a moving target for those bastards.”
“Viv’s not stupid,” Nikoli chimed in. “I don’t think she’s lost. I think she’s hiding out somewhere so she doesn’t get captured by the Cartesians.”
“So how do we find her to help?” Lucien asked. He pointed his chin at Gilly, and then at Evee. “The two of you didn’t seem to get very far with Moose. All we have is what he said. We’ll have to try and decipher it.”
“We’ve got to find a carnival,” Gilly said. “That’s what I saw when Evee was communicating with him.”
“Fine,” Gavril said. “Instead of beating this up to death, let’s set up a plan and make it happen. Gilly, since I was with you at the Elders’ earlier and didn’t exactly earn any brownie points with them, you and I will take the rental car and head to Chalmette. See if any carnivals are up and running in or around the town. Evee, you, Nikoli and Lucien go and talk to Taka. Find out all she knows about any carnival in a hundred-mile radius.”
“A hundred miles?” Lucien asked. “Isn’t that a bit far?”
“Not if some of the Originals already infiltrated Chalmette. They could be anywhere. And wherever they are, you can bet the Cartesians are on the prowl. No telling how many Originals we’ve lost since they went missing.”
“I don’t know about this talking to Taka thing,” Lucien said. “The other two Elders sound like quite a piece of work. For all we know, they might get mega pissed because we’re there and turn us into turtles or ants or something.”
Evee grinned. “They’re tough at times, but not stupid. Nobody’s going to turn you into anything. Especially when they know you’re only trying to help and find Viv. It’ll be a good thing that Gavril and Gilly won’t be around. They were their last two targets, so at least you’ll have a fairly decent shot at getting their attention, instead of making their anger flare up.”
With that plan agreed upon, the troupe left the hotel room. Gavril and Gilly jumped into the rental car, and Lucien, Evee and Nikoli headed for the trolley. It was the fastest way for them to get to the Garden District, where the Elders lived.
As soon as Gavril took off in the rental, Gilly gave him directions to Chalmette.
“What do you think our chances are there?” Gavril asked.
“Finding Viv, you mean?”
“Yeah.”
“Slim to none. Just a gut feeling I have. Not that I haven’t been wrong before, but I just don’t feel her there.”
“Maybe it’s not about feeling her so much as it is getting information that’ll lead us to her,” Gavril offered.
Gilly stared through the windshield. “I hope that’s the case.”
She turned to face Gavril. “I didn’t want to say anything in front of Evee and Nikoli because I didn’t want to freak them out. But from somewhere deep in my gut, I feel Viv’s life force draining.”
Gavril shot her a quick look before bringing his attention back to the windshield and his driving. “You mean like you feel her dying?”
Gilly took in a deep breath. “That or something like it. All I know is we have to find her and find her fast. Otherwise, we’ll be dealing with another funeral.”
Chapter 6
Frustrated with the bumper-to-bumper traffic leading out of New Orleans, Gavril did his best to swerve from lane to lane, but most of the time, he was barely able to push ten miles an hour. Drivers had little mercy. Nobody wanted to wait a moment longer than they had to.
“This is stupid,” Gilly said. “At this rate, it’ll take hours to get there. Maybe we should have taken a different route.”
“We’ll make it just fine,” Gavril assured her. “This is the fastest. Must be construction holding things up. Once we get past it, I’ll push some juice, and we’ll be there in no time. We’re almost in Arabi, anyway. Chalmette’s only ten minutes or so from there.”
“Feels like we’ve been on the road for hours,” Gilly said, gazing out of the passenger window. She turned to Gavril. “Do you think we’ll find her? Any gut feelings?”
Holding the steering wheel with his left hand, Gavril laid his right hand on Gilly’s cheek. “I’m not like you and Evee. I can’t pick up signals from the dead or transport myself metaphysically to other places. But I can tell you, I have hope. If you say you still feel her alive, I trust in that. She’s still alive.” He hoped his words brought her some peace. He’d do anything to take the worry from her eyes, the pain from her heart.
Gilly pressed her hand against Gavril’s. “Thanks for the encouragement. Sadly though, like I said earlier, I feel her energy waning.”
“Does that mean you think she’s been hurt?”
Gilly nodded. “Hurt enough to possibly kill her if we don’t find her fast enough.”
Gavril grit his teeth, angry that anyone, especially the Cartesians, would hurt someone so innocent. As long as he’d known the Triad, which was but a couple of weeks, all he’d seen was them trying to help, either each other or their Originals.
Anger rushed through Gavril like someone had turned a gas burner up to high heat. To make all of this go away, to protect the Triad, the rest of the Originals, those who made up the rest of the netherworld, he had to find out who the Cartesians’ leader was and locate him or it. Cut off the head of the dog, and the rest of the body dies.
The problem was, he didn’t have the slightest idea as to where to locate him. In fact, he had no idea what he even looked like. Did he have the same huge body, talons and razor-sharp incisors that his band of Cartesians had? Or did he...or she—he couldn’t leave anything on the table by assuming the leader was male—look like a human, hiding among the rest without a care in the world except to accomplish this mission?
Knowing the Benders had to get to the leader to stop the massacres gave him nightmares. It was all he thought about. In his dreams, he’d see an elusive shadow darting in and around corners of buildings, inside houses, and the harder Gavril tried to chase him down, the more elusive the creature became. The dreams were always worse when he felt himself only inches away from seeing the face of the creature, even in shadow. Then it would turn into a huge puff of smoke and disappear right before Gavril had a chance to lock in on him.
With both hands on the steering wheel now, Gavril gripped it so tightly, his knuckles turned white. The traffic had come to a complete stop, all three lanes locked up bumper to bumper.
Gilly laid a hand on his right thigh. “I can feel you deep in thought. Aside from how frustrating this traffic is, care to share what you’re thinking? Anything’s better than this absolute silence. I’m jittery enough that it’s taking us so long to get to Chalmette. Talking might help.”
Gavril laid a hand over Gilly’s. “Just thinking about the leader of the Cartesians. I’ve got to find the bastard. Was thinking that you chop off the head of the dog, the rest of it dies. The problem is I have no idea if he looks like a Cartesian or disguises himself as a human. For all we know, he could be walking around New Orleans like any Tom, Dick or Harry, and we’d never know. He could own a tobacco shop on Canal, disguise himself as any nationality, and we’d never get a bead on him. The only way we have to track him is by going through one Cartesian at a time, and hope that one is him.” Gavril squeezed Gilly’s hand, and then moved her hand back to her own lap.
Gilly looked at him quizzically.
“Even with all we’re facing right now, so much seemingly impossible, your hand on my thigh creates a huge distraction. Hard to concentrate with a woody.”
Gavril glanced over at Gilly, who now had her hands folded in her lap; her cheeks were bright red.
“I didn’t mean to offend,” Gavril told her. “It’s just, you have that effect on me. Even having you in the same car makes my mind start to wonder from time to time.”
“I—I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”
“Stop,” Gavril said with a shake of his head. “I know you didn’t mean to create the distraction, but let’s face it, Gilly, I’m over-the-top attracted to you. Your touch drives me crazy. It makes me crave more. Armageddon could be in full swing right now, and I’d feel your touch, and in my mind, Armageddon become a secondary issue. Don’t you get it?”
She cocked her head, eyeing him questioningly. “What am I supposed to get?”
“I’m beyond attracted to you. All of you. So when you touch me, I don’t just feel your hand—I feel all of you, and I crave it more than I do food and water.”
Gavril saw Gilly do an abrupt about-face so she faced the windshield. Her cheeks were now fire-engine red. He wanted to kiss them.
“Does that offend you?” Gavril asked.
“No,” Gilly said, finally looking him in the eye, as his attention went from her face to the road ahead, where cars were still at a standstill.
“I’m not offended because I feel the same way,” Gilly said. “It makes me feel guilty, though. With all that’s been going on with the Nosferatu and Loup-Garous missing, and now Viv up and gone, you’d think that was the only thing that’d be on my mind.”
“It isn’t,” Gavril said. “Is it?”
Gilly shook her head. “No. I feel the same way you do. I’m going to put myself on a line here, something I’ve never done before. You can either accept it or crush it. I’m a big girl and can take either.”
“What is it?”
“Every time I see your face, I need you. When you touch me, even we’re talking about the direst situations, my body races to white hot, and if I had my way, I’d take you then and there.” She sighed and stared back at the windshield. “Sounds ridiculous, even to me. Makes me sound like a slut. My sister’s missing, and I’m talking about how much I always need you.”
Gavril took advantage of the two inches of space between him and the car in front of him, and then turned to Gilly. “Look, I know you don’t like to be told what to do. You’re independent and often hardheaded—in a good way. You’re more woman than any man could possibly think of handling, except me. I see you. I hear you. I understand you. And I want to see just how far you can tolerate me before you kick me to the curb.”
“The curb?”
“You know, shove me out of your life because I’m too much for you.”
“That’ll be the day,” Gilly said with a smirk.
“Accident,” Gavril suddenly said, jerking his chin toward the fast lane a half mile ahead. “Cops everywhere. That’s what caused the slow down. Shouldn’t take us long once we get past them.”
“Rubberneckers,” Gilly said. “That’s the slow down. People in the standard lane slowing to a crawl to see the carnage.” Suddenly her voice hitched and tears rimmed her eyes.
It didn’t go unnoticed by Gavril. “What’s wrong? Surely you’ve seen an accident before.”
