Chapter 14

 

Dudley Dumont had never been particularly friendly toward me. He and I were competitors in the Trials. But he did play a pivotal role channeling a bit of Baron Samedi’s essence in the end… whatever he could since Samedi was mostly trapped inside of Kalfu. He belonged to College Samedi, had been Nico’s mentor, in fact. He was an awkward boy—though I suppose, by age, he was technically a man. He was a couple years older than me, at least, before he’d died.

“Dudley,” I said. “I’ve come to release you. Before Kalfu…”

“You’re too late,” Dudley said.

“But you’re still…”

“He had no use for me. Not for most of us. But there was one he wanted. He sent some Bokors.”

“How did they get through?”

“Scuba gear.”

I bit my lip. It was the obvious way that one would enter an underwater city—too obvious. Sometimes, when you’re wrapped up in a world where magic is the default way of getting shit done, you forget that witches, vodouisants, druids… magical folks of any stripe… can still do things the old-fashioned way when push comes to shove.

“Whose soul did they take?” I asked.

“Whose soul do you think? The one who owed Kalfu her soul to begin with.”

I sighed. I should have figured it out. It was some kind of misguided bargain with Kalfu that brought her to the point of betraying the whole Voodoo world to begin with. It was while doing battle with me—well, more specifically with Isabelle—that she shot a bolt of lightning into the firmament and killed everyone. Alexa Windstrom… once the prized student of the Voodoo Academy. Now, the “soul” possession of a Loa who was the closest thing to the devil I’d ever encountered. Whatever Bokor was fused with her soul was going to inherit some insane abilities. I’d never seen anyone—even Isabelle—control the elements with such force, such strength. I despised her on account of what she’d done.

“They took Alexa’s soul,” I told Pauli. “The one soul that might rival what Isabelle and I can do.”

Pauli shook his head. “Alexa is powerful. But girl, you and Isabelle are bad mamba jambas! I’m not going to bet against you.”

I shook my head. “You don’t understand. Alexa wields a different power—the power of Sogbo—and in her it felt like it was amplified a hundred times. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Pauli huffed. “Never seen anything like it. In what, the few months you’ve been a part of our Voodoo world? Bitch, please.”

I bit my lip. “I suppose it could have been worse. He could have harvested all these souls.”

“You need to get going,” Dudley said.

“Not until we free you and everyone else,” I said, looking in his eyes. “I won’t leave you here to languish.”

“No, you need to go. The Bokors who came… I think they’re still here.”

He might be right, Isabelle said. There are so many souls here, all hiding in various places. I can’t tell which are living and which are dead.

“Then we need to act quickly,” I said. “Pauli, can you snake around here? Try to find a jar, some pottery. Anything we can use to gather souls.”

Pauli nodded. With an exhale, his whole body turned into something like water, which quickly reformed into his “true” boa constrictor form—as glowy and colorful as ever.

“Can you tell me where the Bokors are?” I asked Dudley.

“They’re hiding with the other souls, I think…”

“Beli,” I said out loud, summoning my soul blade in my right hand. Having Beli readily accessible was always wise when expecting to encounter a bad guy.

I stepped carefully toward the bleachers—the energies that flowed in my blade illuminated the area below. I saw hundreds of ghosts—all the souls of the dead—practically piled on top of each other. But they were all translucent enough that if the Bokors were under there, I should have been able to spot them. I shone the light of my blade around, trying to tell if one of them was opaque, one solid enough that the light from my blade wouldn’t pass through.

“Dudley, I don’t see anyone.”

“I’m telling you Annabelle, they’re here. Somewhere.”

Oggie had warned me about the Bokors, what they could do. They were said to practice the Voodoo arts with both hands—which was Voodoo speak for saying they wielded both the light and the dark sides of Voodoo. They embraced it all—the good, the peaceful, the harmonious. But also the dark, the dreadful, the unnatural. We accessed the same power, but their willingness to touch the “dark side of the force” (pardon the Star Wars reference—I’m a fangirl) gave them an advantage in a conflict with any Mambo. I was a Mambo—technically the High Mambo on account of being declared the default winner of the Trials—but I also had Isabelle… and a bad attitude. I wasn’t going to be easy prey for any Bokor—and they knew it. Otherwise, whoever was hiding in here would have shown themselves by now.

“Are you sure they were under the bleachers?” I asked.

“Not positive, but they are here. It’s not them that I can sense. But Alexa… her presence is hard to miss. And if she’s here, they’re here with her.”

Pauli reappeared, his serpentine body coiled around a giant piece of pottery, shaped into an oversized phallus.

“Seriously, Pauli? Where the hell did you get that?”

“I made it! When I took a pottery class in the ninth grade! I couldn’t believe it was still here!”

I looked at Pauli incredulously. “You made this in the ninth grade, and they let you get away with it?”

“Well, I…”

“Never mind,” I said. “We don’t have time. It will have to work. Can you open it somehow?”

“You can screw off the head.”

I snorted. “I’m going to try to not take that the way it sounded.”

I looked at Dudley. “You ready for this?”

For a ghost, his stare was quite piercing. “I’m not getting inside that thing.”

“It’s either that or risk being taken by the Bokors,” I said. “Choice is yours.”

“Fine,” Dudley said. He whistled—which was strange to see a ghost do—and a flow of souls poured out from beneath the bleachers and into the…vessel. Yeah, let’s call it that.

“Rest in peace, Dudley. And tell Brayden and Nico hello for me.”

“Will do,” Dudley said as he floated into the vessel.

I stood back, willed Beli to reform into his crossbow form, and fired.

But the bolt veered off course.

I fired again.

This time I could feel the gust of wind strike.

“Shit!” I exclaimed.

A figure in all black—no wonder I’d missed him before, he’d probably hidden on the floor or something—stepped out from behind the bleachers. His face was shrouded.

“I’ll be taking that with me,” the Bokor said.

“Like hell you will!” I said, firing my crossbow at him. He waved his hand, brushing the bolt away before it could strike him.

I willed Beli to turn back into a blade. I gripped my sword with both hands and charged the Bokor in black.

He cast a torrent of wind at me. I couldn’t run against it. He extended another hand, formed something like a tornado around the massive phallus, and sent it out the door.

“Thank you for packaging them all up for me,” the Bokor said. “Kalfu will be pleased.”

“Fuck you!” I screamed.

Give me control! Isabelle shouted in my mind.

I released the reins, and Isabelle took over. She extended her hand and shot green energies at the Bokor. They struck his cloak, forcing the whole thing to illuminate with lightning, like electricity, somehow shielding him from her spell.

Isabelle tried again, with more force this time. The spell ricocheted back, striking Pauli and sending his boa constrictor body hurling through the air. He quickly vanished in a rainbow before hitting the wall, then fell limp on one of the bleachers.

“Be glad it didn’t strike you,” the Bokor said. “Kalfu demands you remain unharmed… until the time is right.”

“He’ll never have me!” Isabelle shouted.

The Bokor shook his head. “We’ll see about that.”

The next thing I knew, his whole body was enveloped in a tornado infused with lightning. He and the phallus of souls spun together out the door and surely out of Vilokan. Isabelle started after him.

No, Isabelle. We can’t stop him. But you can help Pauli…

Isabelle nodded, reversed course and ran to Pauli’s side. She extended a hand over his body, willed some green magica into his flesh, and seconds later he was slithering again.

“Welcome back, my friend,” Isabelle said.

“You sound… kind, gentle. This must be Isabelle talking.”

“It is,” Isabelle said.

“Did you stop the Bokor?”

Isabelle shook her head. “He got away. He took the souls.”

“He used us… ugh, he fucking used us. You can’t capture a soul like that without their consent. We bound them on the promise we’d free them. That bitch was just waiting for us to do it.”

We’ll get him, I said.

Thankfully, Pauli could still hear me even when I was inside.

“Like I said, bad mamba jambas. I don’t doubt it. But first, can we check on my wardrobe? I know they’ll be soaking wet… but I need my clothes! Especially my Louboutins.”

Isabelle smiled. “Yes. But then we have to get back to the rest. Back to Casa do Diabo. And we need to find Mikah.”

“You miss him?”

“Yes. But it’s not that. I can only hold the reins for so long. Once Annabelle takes back over…”

I think I have some of the pills in my wardrobe. If we’re going there anyway for Pauli, we can grab them.

“I still think we should go find Mikah.”

I understand. I need to see Oggie, too.

I did want to see Oggie—though not for the same reasons Isabelle longed to see Mikah. My attraction to Oggie was more physical than anything else. Still, I did want to see him. Frankly, he was the only one who might know what we could possibly do. The Bokors—and Kalfu—now possessed the souls of all of Vilokan’s fallen, Dudley included. What they’d do with those souls, with the powers they might possess… I shuddered at the thought. Even with Isabelle in charge, we struggled to stand a chance against one Bokor who’d been fused to Alexa’s soul. The other souls might not be as powerful as she was… but they’d have powers. In some ways it was the unknown that was as frightening as anything else.