Chapter 11

 

It looked like Hello Kitty and Twilight Sparkle had fucked—and this place was their lovechild. What happened to my Academy? My home away from home, the dark and broody place that matched my perpetual mood… perpetually? Erzulie happened.

I gripped Letty’s leash as she barked at the scene—apparently feeling as visually assaulted by it as I was.

Mikah had warmed me—by way of his flirty texts intended for Isabelle—that we’d be shocked at how much it changed. He’d arrived a few hours earlier, as each class was scheduled for new policy orientation at a distinct time.

I just couldn’t get over how much the place’s new decor made me want to throw up. Marie Laveau seemed so sophisticated during our brief encounter. She seemed wise, reserved, and calculated. Would she really approve of the way Erzulie decorated the Academy?

I’d seen less pink the last time I visited Victoria’s Secret. Don’t get me wrong, I like pink… if it’s highlighting my black. Pink is badass that way. But when pink is the dominant color—practically the only color—I’ll just say we could have flooded the place with Pepto Bismol and it would look less pink than it did now.

“So, Pauli, what do you think?” I asked, relishing in the opportunity for my fashionista friend to have a conniption.

“This is the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen. It is disrespectful to the color pink. It’s a perfectly decent color, but this…”

“Horrific?”

“It’s like a first time drag queen trying way too hard.”

I laughed. “I’m not sure I know what that means.”

“Honey, you can always spot the first timers. They’re so desperate to be as feminine as possible they take everything that is culturally construed as girly, throw it in a blender, and slap it on their bodies.”

“It’s not that bad,” Ashley interjected.

“Puh-lease, girl!” Pauli said. “You’re biased anyway since the new headmistress is your sponsoring Loa.”

“Not really,” Ashley said. “It’s kind of endearing.”

I rolled my eyes. “I feel like someone filled the toilet with glitter, forced my head into it and flushed. It’s a glitter swirly, this whole place. How can you even pretend to think it looks good?”

Ashley shrugged. “Different strokes for different folks?”

“No one’s stroking it to this, sister. Trust me.” Pauli gave Ashely the talk-to-the-hand gesture.

The one positive change, though, was the staircase that led up to the headmaster’s office. The previous stairs should have had a warning to check with your physician before attempting to climb them—individuals with heart conditions, pregnant women, and small children not allowed. It was that frightening. But now, the stairs had been replaced with something much sturdier—gaudy as hell, but sturdier. The new stairs spiraled upward and glistened like pearls. As put off as I was by the whole decor, I couldn’t help but admire the stairs. And then the door at the top of them opened, and out came Erzulie.

Her countenance radiated beauty but also authority. Her long yellow hair flowed down toward her waist like a fountain of liquid gold. Her eyes glowed with a pink that made all the room’s nauseating decor seem, somehow, bland.

“Welcome, students!” Erzulie said as she descended the stairs, clapping her hands together. Ellie followed close behind, her My Little Pony T-shirt matching the mood of our new… environment.

I exchanged glances with Pauli.

“First, students, let’s all give Ellie a round of applause! Our Academy hadn’t been updated in over a century, and I think she has done a marvelous job!”

I joined the rest of my classmates—including Sauron, who had just joined us and stood in the back of the group—in a slow clap.

“Everything makes sense now,” Pauli whispered in my ear. I giggled. Ellie wasn’t a bad girl—but aside from her addiction to steamy romance novels, she gave off the kind of childish vibe of someone who stubbornly resisted the maturation process. I’m pretty sure she still hoped she’d become a “Princess” when she grew up—which probably wasn’t ever going to happen.

“Oh!” Erzulie exclaimed, her eyes wide with joy. “It appears the new recruit for College Samedi has joined us!”

I turned to see the person whose footsteps I’d barely heard coming up behind me… and I knew those eyes. Only the last time I’d seen her, she had a black hood shadowing most of her face. Letty turned to her and growled—she sensed something brutish about the girl who approached.

“Everyone, welcome Mercy Brown to College Samedi!”

I turned, jaw dropped toward Erzulie. “Madam headmaster, you realize that she’s a vampire, right?”

“Miss Mulledy, I don’t know how things were at Catholic girls’ school, but in the Voodoo Academy we do not discriminate against the dead.”

Pauli coughed into his hand, “Undead.”

Chills ran up my back. I turned to look at Mercy a second time. Her long black hair fell down either side of her pale face. Her eyes were red—which I knew, since they’d glowed in the dark mausoleum before. But now, in the light, her irises were as red as blood. Her lips were full, and she licked them, barely exposing her fangs as she returned my stare with one of her own, one that seemed to say, “It’s time for lunch.” Don’t get me wrong—she was gorgeous in a way that even I found irresistible, and trust me, I don’t do girls.

I glanced at Pauli and thought, for a moment, he felt it too—but then he licked his lips. I elbowed him in the ribs.

I think he’s hungry, Isabelle commented.

I nodded. This was going to be a problem. On several fronts.