“Everyone ready?” Rose asked.
Remy, who’d arrived a few minutes before, nodded. “Yep, you ready, Jean?”
“Yeah, let’s go,” I replied, trying to strap my klaive to my belt while the red scarf around my neck kept sliding off. This time I was ready for anything we might find in the muck; I had put on thick, warm socks, my most durable jeans, a heavy dark-gray sweatshirt which proclaimed ‘Swell Hill Softball Central League Champions 1998’, and my big, steel-toe boots. Underneath were the Dedicated shorts and tee-shirt that I’d taken to always wearing, just in case.
“Dear, why are you wearing a scarf? It’s only 65 degrees.” Rose looked at me suspiciously. That’s the problem with lying to mages; you can never be sure when they’re reading your mind and already know the truth.
I sighed and took off the scarf that had been covering my collar. The dog tags jingled slightly, but neither of them laughed, though the gleam in Remy eyes screamed that it was just too good not to.
“I c-couldn’t get it off. Scissors and my jack-knife didn’t even scratch the leather.”
Rose inspected the collar and tags. “Remy, somehow I have the feeling that a certain student of mine was involved in this, and in case you see her before I do, please remind Ms. Candy that Ruby could use a lot of help cleaning today.” She gave a tug, and the stupid thing came off.
“Thanks Rose.”
“Don’t mention it. Since I assume your car is still there,” I nodded, “let’s take the Hummer.”
You’ve got to admit, it just feels great to cruise down the road in a Hummer. I wish my car had had that kind of traction all those times up North in the snow. It wasn’t far to where I’d been the night before, and we got there pretty quickly, in fact, if I didn’t know better, I’d say that Rose had been speeding the entire way. My car was as I’d left it, and the place looked different, though no less sinister, in the daylight.
“This way?”
“Yeah.”
Rose started off quickly, and Remy and I ran to catch up. “You know, we’re voluntarily walking through cold, foul-smelling mud, looking for zombies.” Remy said to me.
“So? What did you expect?” Rose asked, a bit testy.
“Nothing, I’m just commenting on it.” He pulled an apple out of his pocket, and tossed it a few times. “A typical day in the lives of two mages and a werewolf. What will happen next week on ‘As the Bayou Turns’?”
The over-cast sky was depressing, and after a while, even Remy gave up on trying to lighten the mood. I didn’t feel like joking around, but as for the cause of Rose’s bad mood, I was at a loss. She’d kept pressing the pace, so finally, we were moving along at a moderate run. Suddenly, she clutched her head and screamed, then slumped to the ground, back against a large tree. Instantly, Remy was kneeling by Rose’s side, but before I could take a step, something hit me across the back.
Shifting into Crinos as I whirled around, the thing caught me again, and its claws burned as they raked. It looked like a Garou in the war-form, but had sickly gray fur, and its eyes glowed bright green. Teeth were jutting out of the slavering mouth at every angle, and most of the face was deformed. Loving Gaia, the thing was a Black Spiral Dancer.
Jumping back, I drew my klaive, only distantly hearing Remy pull his gun and fire. The Dancer tried to flank me, but I threw him off and gained the instant I needed. I crouched, then launched myself at the beast, growling like a rabid dog, and slashed its throat. Black blood gushed into the mire as the thing caught me in a death grip around my neck, but I plunged the klaive into its gut and twisted. The Dancer’s muscles seized, then he was still and fell to the mud.
For how long I just stood there, staring at the dead thing, I’ll probably never know. Finally, Remy came up behind me.
“Jean? Are you ok? Did it hurt you?”
I reverted to Homid, but it made me feel so small and vulnerable. “I’m fine, where’s Rose?”
“Right here.” Turning, I saw her standing up, leaning heavily on the tree. Remy ran over and tried to give her a hand, but she ignored him and stood on her own.
“Ok, what just happened?”
“Child, you killed a Black Spiral Dancer.”
Yeah, wait a minute, I had! A minion of the Wyrm was dead because of me! “Oh, I know. No, I mean, what just happened to you?” Was it just me or did she seem a few years older than when we’d left the house?
Rose rubbed her eyes. “I had a…premonition, that’s all.”
“Maybe we should go home,” Remy suggested, “If you’re feeling poorly, that is.”
“No! Now it’s more important than ever. I know, I understand, I saw; it’s all connected, all of this. Come on, both of you, we’re losing time!” the mage snapped, her eyes electric gray and frantic. Again, we started running through the swamps, until it got to the point where Remy was going at top speed and I shifted down to Lupus, just to keep up with Rose. Something was definitely wrong; I could feel it, and the sense only got stronger when we came upon the old shacks.
In the dingy daylight, mostly filtered out by the trees, the circle was as I remembered it, and I hesitated for a step as the memory of the previous night took over. Maybe coming back here wasn’t such a good idea. Rose went right up to one of the shacks, tossing aside the rotting plank that was the remains of a door. Remy and I looked at each other, not sure if we should follow. When her cry filled the clearing, however, we both bolted for the structure.
On the filthy floor of the place, the body of Vincent Archer was lying, face down, covered in blood and deep claw-rends. Little complex devices were scattered about, most crushed or broken, but worst of all, his gold-rimmed spectacles, the glass shattered, the frame twisted, were laying in a puddle of stagnant, muddy water by his head. Stiffly, Rose bent down and picked them up.
Remy tried to say something, but whatever it was trailed off. He stepped in front of Rose as I turned the body over. The front was clean save for the chest, which had all but been clawed out. From what I could remember from Advanced Bio., and ‘Murder, She Wrote’, a corpse is usually limp for about two hours after death. I folded his arms over his chest; rigor mortis hadn’t set in yet, but his skin was cold to the touch and the blood tacky. Vincent had probably been dead for at least an hour and a half. Huh, that’s great, I can’t do algebra to save my life, but if you’ve got a dead body that you need information from…
A piece of broken glass near his shoulder caught my attention, and when I picked it up and looked at the thing, was suddenly on the Umbra. Funny, I didn’t remember stepping sideways. Fly spirits, a minor Bane or two, and a water elemental were hovering in the shack, but that wasn’t all. Some kind of spirit-representation of Vincent Archer was standing in the place where his body was lying on the material plain.
“Did you bring me here, sir?” Always pays to be polite to ghosts, er, spirits.
“Please, there is danger. Get her away from here,” he said/thought at me.
I nodded and stepped back into the ‘real world’. Rose shot me a look, then disappeared. Damn, I didn’t know that mages could go to the Umbra. Remy knelt and reverently closed Vincent’s eyes, which had been frozen open in terror. To think, only yesterday he’d been sitting in the library and reading as he usually did. Now, well, I guess that’s how it goes when you’re a mage or Garou; heart disease, cancer, AIDS, they kind of stop being a threat when zombies or corrupted werewolves are after you.
“Poor Rose, I wish that there was something I could do to help,” I said softly.
Remy stood up, still looking down at the body. “You killed the thing that did this, and I can’t think of anything else that would have been better right now.”
“But why was he even here?”
“I don’t know, but this place is bad luck, I know that much,” he replied.
“How do you mean?”
Remy shrugged. “It just makes your skin crawl when you look around, kind of like something you knew but forgot, but you remember that it was really bad.”
“But what about that man last night?”
“I’m not sure, but from the magic you described, he sounds like he could be Euthanatos.”
“That’s your group, right?”
“Yeah, and if he is, then he’s getting a one-way ticket back to the Great Circle. Remy DeStatte doesn’t stand for anyone tarnishing the name of his Tradition.”
For some reason, that just didn’t click with me. “Hey Remy, what if that guy wasn’t a mage?”
“That’s a possibility. Do you think he was one of yours?”
“He could be Garou, but with power like that he’d be an elder. What were you saying before about voodoo vampires?”
“There’s a cult of them in the city, but they’re really secretive, and usually keep to themselves,” he replied, “I think we should talk with Ruby’s friend about this possibly being a voodoo thing.”
“Good idea. What if…” My thought was cut off by the reappearance of Rose, and this time, I was certain that she looked at least ten years older then before.
Without a word, she bent down, inexplicably picked up the +6 foot, all muscle man, slung him over her shoulder, and started back out. Knowing better than to say anything, we followed her all the way to where the Hummer and my car were parked. Still alarmingly silent, eyes alive with an intensity that I dared not question or even engage, Rose gently lay Vincent’s body in the back seat, got in the Hummer, and drove off.
Remy stood in place, watching the car disappear. “She’ll be Ok, we’ll just have to give her some time, that’s all.” I told him. He nodded, got in my car, and fiddled with my radio until it was fixed on the dixie-jazz station. Casting one last look around at the dismal place, I joined Remy in the car, and started for home. We were both quiet on the way back, and when we reached the Archer estate, I wasn’t surprised to see Ruby waiting for us at the front door.
“Miz Jean, Mister Remy, did dem zombies get Mister Vincent? Miz Rose done came t’rough here and he was dead, and she’s…” she cried, wringing her hands.
“Where is she now?” Remy pressed, not even bothering to hide his concern for our friend.
“She done gone up to her lab, but I ain’t goin’ up dere, no suh, not me.”
The young mage nodded curtly then took off up the stairs to the third floor. I moved to follow, but hesitated. Ruby was walking back towards the kitchen, mumbling about ‘how cruel dis world’s done been’ to ‘poor Miz Rose’.
“Ruby?”
“Yes, Miz Jean? What you need?”
Again, I hesitated, unsure of how to word what I wanted to ask. “Doesn’t it bother you, I mean, well, you’re just such a stereotype. That is, I don’t know much about the South, but, um, that’s how you seem to me anyway.”
She chuckled, then sighed. “Oh Lordy, well, I’ll put it dis way; if dese people ‘spect me to be like dis, well den, why not give ‘em what dey want, den I can go and be doin’ what all I want, and not no one says a t’ing. And don’t you go t’inking dat I ain’t sharp as a tack none, neither. Miz Rose, now, she knows that I be better den I act, so’s everything’s all fine.”
“I guess.”
Ruby smiled again, “And honey, I ain’t no stereotype, I be a Paradigm.”
She went into the kitchen, and I started to climb the stairs up to Rose’s lab on the third floor. Now that I thought about it, I’d never really been up there, and wasn’t really sure if I wanted to go then. Sure, I knew that she was a scientist and doctor and all, but combine that with being a mage, and you have the potential for some really messed up ‘mad scientist’ kind of things. Aw, what was I worrying about, probably the strangest thing I’d see up there would be the wallpaper or something.
More than a bit nervous, I opened the door. Remy was standing and looking at some of the things on the wall, and gave a small salute and walked over as I entered. Rose was nowhere to be found, so I looked at the cages that lined the walls. Curious enough, rose vines were growing around them, and up to the ceiling.
Wonderful creatures were living there, and some of them I’m sure shouldn’t have been. There were spiders with butterfly wings, snakes with purple feathers, and something that looked like a golden dragon who was reading the newspaper, every-so-often letting a wisp of smoke come curling out of its nostrils.
Remy was mesmerized in front of one of the cages on the south wall, and I walked over to see what was so interesting. Within, there were about a half-dozen rainbow-colored hamsters. When they noticed us, they all sat up on their haunches and started singing in perfect barbershop harmony.
“Did Rose do this to you?” Remy asked.
One of the larger ones shrugged, then snapped and pointed, as if to express the phrase ‘slick’. I decided that I liked Rose’s lab, and then I saw something that was, well, unnerving to say the least. In the back corner, there was what looked like a giant test-tube, and suspended in the clear liquid, blue eyes wide open, was the body of Rose’s husband.
“Man, did you see that?” I asked.
“Yeah, I don’t know what she’s gonna do with him, but it doesn’t seem very natural at all.”
“You know what I think? I think that the Dancer was connected in some way with the zombies and the guy from last night, and whatever’s going on here, I want to put a stop to it.”
“I agree, we’ve got to do something, if only not for our own safety, but for Rose as well. Do you really think she’s going to be all right?” Remy said.
Now this was something that I probably couldn’t explain so easily. A lot of women, especially strong women, go out of their way to fix a certain ‘poise’, a way of seeming, to survive and succeed in a man’s world. Then, when something becomes too much to handle beneath that, they close up, run away, and do anything they can until that shield is rebuilt. It was for that reason that I felt uncomfortable being in Rose’s lab, her private sanctuary, right then.
“Yeah, I think she’ll be fine.” Sometimes I guess you just have to lie to men. Gaia, how Black Fury did that sound?
“Maybe we should go out tonight and hunt around, see what we can find out,” he suggested.
“You mean back at the swamps?”
“No, we should wait until we’ve got enough force to go back there. When we do, we’ll be going to wipe out what’s there once and for all. I say let’s hit the streets, get in on the gossip.”
I grinned and rolled my eyes. “You only want to hit the streets because that’ll give you an excuse to gamble.”
Remy smiled, flashing his dazzling white teeth and casually tossing his hair. “Well, if I must be forced to play cards and roll dice for the good of the team, then it’s just my bitter medicine to swallow. Oh, how I suffer, but don’t worry, I’ll be the martyr and walk into those dark dens of iniquity.”
“Boy, a den of iniquity is a whore-house, not a gambling parlor.”
A back door, which I assumed went to an inner lab, was open, and Rose had stepped out. She was again as young as she’d been when she first showed up at my door back in Swell Hill. Her clothes were covered with blood, and blue electricity crackled behind her eyes. Without another word, she pushed past us and went down the stairs to her room.
“Hey Rose, are you Ok?” Remy shouted after her.
“Fine.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Completely sure?”
“Very sure, and if I ever find you in my lab again without express permission, don’t think that I won’t skin you both alive.”
I think the two of us said it at the same time. “Yep, she’s fine.”
“Ok,” I said, turning to Remy, “What’s our next move?”
He started walking down the stairs. “Like I said before, let’s hit the streets. Even if we don’t find anything, it’s better than just sitting here and waiting for whatever’s out there to strike again.”
“I guess you’re right. Let me just shower off and put on non-swamp clothes and I’ll be ready.”
“Cool,” he replied, “I’ll be downstairs when you’re done. Oh, and if it’s possible, arm yourself. The streets of New Orleans can be just as dangerous as the bayou.”
I grinned in spite of the mud, death, and all that had happened in the last two days. “Remy, I’m a werewolf, I’m always armed.”
Twenty minutes later, clean and in fresh clothes, I bounded down the stairs, only to stop in my tracks in the front room. Candy and Remy appeared to be playing tonsil-tag on the couch. Tactfully, and horribly embarrassed, I cleared my throat and turned away.
“Huh? Oh, it’s you,” spat Candy as she looked up, “Take a picture, it’ll last longer.”
“Hey, I…” but I stopped, determined not to let her get to me again. The girl had already made me look bad in front of Rose and Remy once, no sense in making it worse.
“Oh, hey Jean. Guess what? Candy’s going to come with us.” Remy grinned boyishly and walked over to me, followed by his girlfriend.
“Really? Um, cool.”
“Actually, this is working out to be a lot of fun. Me, my darling, and my best friend, cruising the seamy streets of New Orleans, dodging bullets, killing zombies, and never giving up on the trail of the murderer!” he said dramatically, throwing an arm over each of our shoulders.
I turned and looked him in the eyes. “And you’re how old? Listen, I know that this seems to you like some kind of 1920’s detective novel, but you’ve got to start taking things seriously, Remy. Rick’s dead, and you might be thinking that your magic can protect you from whatever maniac is running around, but Vincent’s dead as well, and I’m sure he was much more powerful than you.”
Sure, I didn’t mean to yell at him or kill his fun, but what I’d said was the truth. Things still got a little hard to take when I thought about Rick, and in Gaia’s name, Rose had lost her husband.
“Humph, someone’s having their ‘time of the moon-phase’,” Candy said, idly playing with Remy’s hair.
He sighed. “No, dear. I think Jean’s right on this one. I’m sorry, but I do kind of get carried away, I guess. We shouldn’t forget the real objective here.”
“Right,” I nodded, “So, let’s get going. It’s what, almost 6:30 now, right? If we want, we can even get dinner while we’re out, um, investigating, I guess. We can take my car,” and with that, I started for the door.
Let me just say this right now; never let a mage with an attitude in your car, just trust me on this one. No sooner had I popped my tape into the player than it spit it back at me, all chewed up and coming apart. Then the window wipers went on, then the radio, then the brakes went out at a red light. All Remy would do was click his tongue and jokingly scold Candy.
This was the first time I’d been in New Orleans city traffic, besides having no idea where I was going. Finally I parked in the lot of ‘Cat’s Place’, the diner where we ended up eating dinner, then we struck out on foot through the streets of shops and nightlife. Candy and I tried to direct Remy in the direction of the markets, which reminded me of South Street in Philadelphia on a Saturday night, but he was pulling towards the seamy side of the area, where doubtless he could find somewhere to gamble.
By 9:00, we’d reached this wonderful old fountain in the center of a busy square. The thing was incredibly intricate, and lit by blue, red, and green lights. I sat down on the edge.
“Ok, both of you, we need to settle on a plan of action.” Remy and Candy managed to pull themselves away from each other long enough to walk over to the fountain.
“What action? We’re going to investigate!” and Candy nodded seductively at him.
I sighed and rolled my eyes. Remy, though he was at least three years older than me, had been acting very immature of late, and I could well imagine the hell Rose was going through trying to keep him on task.
“Remy, think about that. We can’t just go up to people and say, ‘Well, how ‘bout them there zombies?’.”
“Well, what do you suggest we do, Miss Alpha-Wolf?” If Candy didn’t ditch her attitude soon I swore to Gaia I was going to shove my klaive up her ass, sideways.
“Spy. We should try to listen in on as much conversation as possible. If anyone mundane witnessed the kind of stuff that I suspect has been going on, they’re probably going to be talking about it. Other than going back to the swamps, that’s really the only thing we can do for now except wait for whatever we’re facing to move again.”
Remy and Candy decided to strike out headed towards the French Quarter while I covered the central market area to keep me from getting lost. I wanted to bring up that perhaps I shouldn’t be on my own, and that it didn’t make sense for two New Orleans natives to stick together and leave the newbie alone, but I really wanted to get away from Candy for a little while.
Three hours later I was still wandering around the same block, and had discovered absolutely nothing that helped us in any way. I was, however, being on the lookout for pickpockets, which I’d heard really made a killing in this city. In fact, I was so paranoid by that time that I nearly shifted when Remy tapped me on the shoulder.
“Don’t do that!”
“Sorry mon cherie, didn’t mean to scare you.”
I grinned. “Your roots are showing. I didn’t know you spoke French.”
“It was my first language, actually. In school, though, they discouraged the Cajun kids from speaking anything but English. When I get around in the city my accent gets stronger, that’s all.”
“Don’t be embarrassed, I think I sounds slick.”
Remy tried to hide his blush. “Yeah well, that’s what Rose says, and Candy thinks I sound romantic.”
I looked around. “Speaking of whom, where is she?”
“You know what, I don’t really know. I was trying to read a guy’s newspaper from over his shoulder, you know, to get the headlines, and when I turned around, she was gone.” He shrugged. “She’ll be fine; probably meet up with us later.”
We walked along for a bit with Remy pointing out all kinds of landmarks and historical places. Now he had switched to his ‘dashing leading man’ persona, and was acting his age for what seemed like the first time in hours. As far as I was concerned, Candy was a negative influence on him. She reduced him to a freshman with a crush; just thinking with his hormones and nothing else. I liked him better when she wasn’t around.
He was still going on about so-and-so whose mistress killed herself in 18-something-or-other, and normally I would have been listening because I love history, but I saw a form on the ground, huddled up against a wall.
“Um, sir? Are you ok?”
The man looked up, moving the crumpled hat back from his deep, black eyes. He was homeless; I could tell by the layers of tattered, dirty clothes he was wearing, the shaggy half-beard from never shaving, and the staggering stench of stale alcohol and worse. Also, he looked old, indiscriminately old, but not elderly, just somehow worn. I’d seen guys like him in Philly when I spent my nights volunteering at a shelter for a semester.
“I’m not gonna mess up this time, not gonna do nothin’ wrong, ya know?”
“Did you get thrown out of a shelter? Maybe I could help you find another one, or at least a meal.” This was the part of being a Garou that I liked. No fighting, no growling and submission, just helping out the people who need it.
“It’ll all be the same, just the same, and I won’t mess up!”
Remy came up beside me. “You’re wasting your breath.”
“Sir…”
“C’mon, Jean,” and my friend dragged me back into the crowd of the street.
“Hey! What’s wrong with you? I was just trying to be a Good Samaritan.”
He sighed and guided me down a side-road where there were fewer people. “I know what you were trying to do, and that’s fine. The thing is, you could try forever and you’d never be able to help Stumbler.”
“Stumbler?”
“No one really knows what his real name is, and he’s been called Stumbler for as long as anyone can remember. Every now and then the police half-heartedly arrest him for public drunkenness or loitering or something like that, then he gets sent to a shelter, which he immediately leaves. A few philanthropists have tried to pay his way through detox and get him cleaned up and into a good job, but he wouldn’t have it. I guess he just likes his life the way it is, and no one really tries to help him anymore.”
We kept walking down the small street, silent for a few minutes until I finally spoke up. “Hey, Remy, were you born in New Orleans?”
“Yup, and raised in a tiny shack in the French Quarter. Both my parents were dead by the time I was ten, so I just kind of grew up in the city.”
“If you don’t mind my asking, what did your parents die of?” I was curious, but didn’t want to make him upset if it was something he didn’t want to talk about.
“Well, my mother was murdered in a back alley down by the theater district, and my father said he knew who did it, but he never came back from avenging her death. You know what, though, as a kid I always imagined that my family was once rich, and for years thought that my parents were killed because of some mysterious family secret or something romantic like that. Now I realize that she was probably just another mugging gone sour, and he just another gang hit.” Remy looked at the street and rubbed the back of his neck.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be, I was a little kid trying to make sense of human tragedy. Want to see this though? When I was ten, I thought it was my biggest ‘clue’,” and Remy dug into his pocket and pulled out a little silver spoon, heavily tarnished.
“See that? It has DS engraved on the handle, it stands for DeStatte, or at least, that’s what I thought when I was little. I’m not even sure where it came from, but looking back, it couldn’t have been ours because there’d have been other pieces to match it, and I don’t remember ever seeing any other silverware like this. It’s the only thing I have from my childhood though, so I like to carry it around with me.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean,” and I really did.
By now we were totally alone, and the already narrow street had become an alley. I watched Remy as he walked beside me; there was a calm, a style that he had, and was probably completely unaware of. Now, in the warm night, with him, everything that had happened felt like it all made sense and had always been meant to come to pass.
“So how about you, that is, if you don’t mind telling me. I remember you saying when you first came to New Orleans that you were an orphan. How did your parents die?”
“Not nearly as dramatically as your parents. My mother, Alexandria, died in a car accident when I was eight, and my father, Walter, died of stomach cancer when I was sixteen. I found out later from Rick that she’d been Child of Gaia Kin and he’d been Fianna Kin.”
“I’m…not sure I understand,” he stammered.
“My tribe. You know how you have a mage group that you belong to-”
“The Euthanatos.”
“Yeah, well, Garou faction into groups too, but the group you’re in depends on your genetics and what tribe your mother was a member of, or was Kin to. Both my parents were Kinfolk-”
“That means they had werewolf genes?” Remy broke in.
I nodded. “You could put it that way. I ‘bred true’, and if I’d had any brothers or sisters, they’d have been either Kinfolk, or if my parents were especially blessed of Gaia, Garou like me.”
“Oh.”
We turned back onto a large street, though it was just as empty. By then, I guess we’d basically shelved the mission. It was obvious that whatever was in the swamps had kept itself secret from the mundane population. Our next course of action would probably be branching out to supernatural channels for information. I wasn’t going to ask Lord Pytor for help, or even tell him about what was going on, though. In fact, I never wanted to go back to Moon Bayou Caern as long as I lived.
“So, there you two are! I was wondering where you guys got to.”
Remy and I turned, and saw Candy walking behind us. She waved and gave this shining smile. Something was wrong, definitely out-of-whack; if I hadn’t have known better, I’d have said she was actually in a good mood. We slowed for her to catch up, and she and Remy kissed quickly.
“Well, find anything out?” Candy asked.
“Sorry, dear, nothing to report. You?”
“Nothing.”
“Oh, Jean, on your left you’ll see the famous above-ground cemetery, Lafayette No. 1. Since New Orleans is technically below sea level, flooding happens a lot, which is why the area has so much swampland. Obviously, bodies buried in soggy ground won’t stay buried for very long before the water works them back to the surface.”
“Um, Remy, can we not talk about swamp-bodies?” Historically interesting, but I really didn’t want to think about that night.
“Sorry, I forgot! Man, I didn’t mean it, Jean.” He grabbed me by the wrist and his eyes were desperate; he probably thought I was upset with him. I tried to look nonchalant because I couldn’t stand seeing his eyes plead like that.
“No, it’s all good, don’t worry.”
“I shouldn’t have…”
“Remy, it’s fine, don’t work yourself up so much. So you slipped up, you weren’t being mean about what happened, so calm down. Yes, Rick is dead, yes, I was attacked and it was frightening, but it wasn’t the end of the world.” Even if that’s what it feels like, I thought.
“Exactly! Let’s sneak in!” I’d stopped paying attention to Candy, and when I looked over, I saw that she’d undone the thick padlock and chains that’d closed the main gate.
“Honey, I don’t think that’s such a good idea.” Remy rubbed the back of his neck again, visibly nervous.
“Yeah, and it’s probably illegal,” I added.
Candy fixed a great sneer on her face. “Come on, it’s almost one in the morning, who’s going to know? And besides, this is New Orleans and we’re mages, there’s no way we can get in trouble and not get out somehow.”
“I’m not sure that Rose would want us to…” I started, but she stalked over and cut me off.
“The hell with Rose! She isn’t here now, is she? And you know what, she’s not even as powerful as you think. Let’s do it, Remy, and leave the coward here.”
My mage friend walked over, indecision playing across his face. “Well, it’s true that we can almost certainly dodge any police involvement, and if we did, Rose would never know. Besides, I’ve never been in Lafayette after dark, yeah, let’s go for it! This is a great dashing adventure for young mages and a werewolf.”
Too late, I’d lost Remy to his inner child again. It wasn’t that I was afraid or a coward, but there’s always been something about graveyards that I didn’t like, and right then, all my instincts were telling me to stay on the right side of the law. The place looked gothic and sinister in the dark, not at all like a well-lit, cozy room, which is where I wanted to be. Still, I was a Garou, and such childish fears were best put behind me, or how could I fight the Wyrm?
“Fine, I’ll come, but I don’t even know why we’re doing this.”
“’Cause how cool is it to hang out in an above-ground cemetery?” Candy replied. Well, I couldn’t argue with that logic, I wasn’t all that sure I understood it in the first place.
They walked through the gate and I followed. There were several ‘streets’ through the isles of concrete slabs, which I assumed were crypts. It was too dark to read any of the inscriptions, and I stuck very close to Remy and Candy because this looked like just the place for rapists, muggers, or satanic cult members to be hiding out.
“Hey, Jean, see all these on this side?” It was dark, of course I couldn’t.
“Yeah?”
“They’re mass graves for children who died during the plague seasons.”
“Plague seasons?”
Remy put his hand on my shoulder and led me over to the rail, which overlooked a huge crypt with the silhouette of a concrete cradle on top. He took a breath and I could tell he was about to switch to historical mode.
“Because of all the swamps, the bugs breed like anyone’s business, and it’s bugs like mosquitoes and such that carry disease. Way back when, they didn’t have any vaccines or anything, so when the weather got hot in the summer, the bugs would come, bringing malaria, cholera, dysentery, and yellow fever. People died in droves all summer, and there was nothing that could be done, because they didn’t even know it was the bugs that caused the plagues back then. One year, I think sometime in the 1920’s, they even saw some bubonic plague, you know, Black Death.”
“Sweet Gaia, that’s terrible! Man, I’m glad I’m from Pennsylvania, I think the worst we had was that outbreak of Legionnaire’s disease back in the 80’s. Oh, and the flu epidemic after WWI, but then, that was a pandemic anyway.”
“Hey, you guys,” Candy was over a row down, looking at another grave. “This is kind of neat.”
“What?” Remy asked, and he and I walked over.
She pointed to a thick crack at the base. “That’s one of the broken ones. Deeper in are vaults that no one services anymore, and when the light’s right, you can look right in and see the rotting bones.”
That thought made my stomach twist, and my hair stood on end. I saw a glint of light from the shadows behind Candy, and realized that my heart was racing and I was out of breath. The silhouettes of angels and saints were all different, and in the dark, all seemed to be moving. I was standing in a pitch-black graveyard beyond the witching hour, and all around me were the dead.
“Jean, are you Ok?”
“Jeez, calm down. It’s not like the bodies are going to come out of the graves and get you or anything. You really are a coward, aren’t you?”
Before I could even conceive the words, a dark arm swung out and bashed Candy’s head against the crypt behind her. She slumped to the ground, and while Remy was moving to catch her, another arm shoved him facedown to the concrete. The sodden gray forms lurched forward from all around, the stench choking me, and I was trapped. Fresh terror caught me, and I ripped into Crinos as fast as I could.
We had to get away. One of the dead touched my arm and I tore away and fell over a fallen statue, scrambling, maddened, desperate to escape. It was right on top of me and reaching…
“Jean!”
The thing suddenly burst into flames, and I kicked it back into another. Remy was kneeling by Candy, face banged up and bleeding. One of them shambled towards them and he pointed, screamed something, and it too crumbled under the fire. He didn’t see the one behind him, and it clubbed him down. Willing myself forward, I put my fist through the zombie and flung it as far as I could. Then, before any more could get close, I picked up Candy and Remy, made break-neck for the gate, and leapt the fence.
I ran, eating up the space, not even knowing if they were following. Howling and running is all I remember, then lying in full form on the floor of the kitchen of the Archer estate, vision hazy, and breathing ragged. Slowly, voices began to get louder, and the mists parted.
“…upstairs, but I wish I knew what happened.”
“I tol’ you Miz Rose, I done heared Miz Jean yellin’ from up the street, an’ so I goes out and she be commin’ wit’ Miz Candy and Mr. Remy, den run back here an’ dropped. Dey al’right?”
“Yes, Remy had a broken nose and Candy sustained a major concussion, but I’ve treated them, and besides quite a bit of rest in Candy’s case, they should be fine. You say Jean hasn’t moved since she came in?”
“No, ma’am. She just done been layin’ here and lookin’ at the floor. She gonna be al’right?”
“That’s what I’m going to try and find out. Jean, can you hear me?”
Rose moved into my field of vision and waved her hand in front of my eyes, but it was so hard to move. I took a deep breath, and shifted, but it felt slow and strange. Ruby helped me sit up, and I tried to talk, but parts of me were numb, and I couldn’t form the words.
“Good lord, what happened to your arm?”
She held up my right arm for me to see, and it looked like someone had poured a beaker of acid over it, then let it go gangrenous. I groaned and looked away, and suddenly felt very sick. Rose whispered something to Ruby, who ran off, and returned with a pot of steaming water and a towel. They plunged my arm into the scalding water, and my body jerked in pain.
Working quickly, Rose pulled a small knife out from some unseen pocket and in a few swipes had cut off all the horrible skin. It was agony now, and I was twitching and trying not to look. For a minute it burned, then began to fade away, and I felt my muscles unlocking and sensation returning. Ruby picked up the pot and whisked it away before I could see. After a bit, and a lot of deep breaths, I tried to speak again.
“What did you do?”
“Simple, I cut out the infected tissue and healed the rest. I’m willing to bet there was some kind of toxin in that wound which was causing your paralysis. Now, and this seems to be a question I find myself asking quite a bit lately, what happened?”
“We were ambushed by more of those dead things.”
“You went back to the swamps?”
“No,” I replied, “we were in the city, in Lafayette cemetery.”
Rose stood up. “And might I ask what the three of you were doing there so late at night?”
This wasn’t going to be fun, but then, I told Candy we’d get in trouble. “Well, we were passing by, and Candy said it’d be fun. Remy went in, and I couldn’t stay there by myself or let them go in unprotected.”
“That was an unspeakably foolish thing to do, but I think you’ve all learned your lesson for tonight. Was that man there commanding the zombies again?”
I shook my head. “If he was, I didn’t see him. There were about ten of them, and Remy and I took out at least three.”
“Is that how you hurt your arm?”
“I’m not sure. Remy killed two by throwing fire at them, and I put my fist through a third and threw him as far as I could. Do you think the dead gunk is what did that?”
“Most probably,” Rose said, “if we have to fight them again, it would be wise not to touch them at all.”
“We?”
“I’ve made the decision to join this little investigation and get to the bottom of it all as soon as possible. We’ll begin tomorrow morning.”
“Are Candy and Remy Ok? I tried to get them here as quick as I could.”
“Don’t worry, Jean, they’re both upstairs resting and they’re fine. Speaking of which, I suggest you get some rest yourself.” Rose helped me to my feet and I started to walk towards the stairs.
“I wasn’t as much of a coward this time, but I still ran away.”
“This is what I can’t stand about Garou ideology! Jean, listen to me. You weren’t being dishonorable or disgraceful either time you were attacked, and if anything, what you did tonight was nothing short of brave. You three were outnumbered and injured, and you made the right decision to escape. By running away, you saved your own life as well as the lives of your friends. If that’s not the opposite of cowardice, I don’t know what is.”
“Rick-”
“Rick would have been proud of you, now go to bed, and that’s an order.”
