Bound, An Arelia LaRue Novel #1 YA Paranormal Romance (19 page)

Prior to my lessons, I hadn’t given
palm reading and tarot cards a second thought. I had always been
under the impression that they were tricks invented by scam artists
to make a quick buck. In New Orleans, there was always some
sketchy, gypsy-type woman with a shop willing to sell you your
fate. Ms. Mae told me that although a majority of people who
claimed they tell fortunes were frauds, some actually did have the
gift. Since Erzulie had blessed me, I had no excuse not to
understand how to read the tarot, as well as palms. A truly
powerful voodoo queen was expected to do it all, and since that was
what I supposedly was, I had no choice, but to learn. The LaRue
family tarot wasn’t like the typical tarot decks you found at
Barnes and Noble, it was a bit more complex. It had four suits, but
they were divided by the names Rada (Sky), Petro (Fire), Ghede
(Earth) and Kongo (Water). As much as I tried to memorize the
significance of all the cards in the deck, the task seemed utterly
impossible. I figured that I would probably be around grand-mere
Bea’s age when I finally did.

I was disgusted to find out that human
hair, blood and bone were powerful materials when casting a spell
on a target, and almost threw up my pain perdu when Ms. Mae showed
me her collection of human hair samples. Ms. Mae told me not to be
so dramatic like she always did and clarified that all the human
hair she had was used to cast spells that were meant to bring luck
or cure rather than curse. She also explained that when casting or
making charms, using personal belongings made the spell more
effective.

I was really eager to get to the part
about voodoo dolls and was a bit shocked to find that according to
Ms. Mae, they weren’t just an epic myth, but did serve a real
purpose. Apparently, voodoo dolls are charms that can be used for
carrying out a spell on a person they are meant to resemble. That
made me think of Sabrina, and how badly I wanted to make a blond,
bossy doll and curse it to endure a lifetime of being unable to
wear makeup. There were a few times, when I woke up in the middle
of the night to her snores and was tempted to cut off a lock of her
hair. Of course, I didn’t, but I sure wanted to. Things were still
bad between us, and we hadn’t spoken since the fight.

I went about doing my daily duties
while she continued to throw herself at Lucus. From my observation
of him, I had come to the conclusion that he wasn’t trying to pit
Sabrina against me. In fact, he knew that if he spoke to me in
front of Sabrina, she would continue to be bitter and angry. He
respected my wishes and kept his distance all the while being
polite and courteous to Sabrina no matter how obnoxious she got. I
convinced myself that I didn’t care about their relationship, but
there were times I caught myself mesmerized by Lucus a little more
than I should have been. He was always so composed on the surface,
but his eyes were a clear giveaway that there was sadness within
him. Although I tried to justify that he was just another guy, I
knew I was lying to myself. Sometimes, I was really good at doing
that.

Chapter 14

The Alligators and the
Ghosts

One morning, the guests were anxious to
take a tour of the swamp. They claimed they wanted to see the
wildlife, but in reality, they were eager to see if the swamp was
really haunted like everyone in New Orleans said it was. There was
something about New Orleans and ghosts that made tourists
unafraid.

I could hear Mr. Dumpty threatening to
ask for a full refund if he didn’t see at least three ghosts while
he was at Darkwood. “Look here, I didn’t come all the way from New
York to leave empty handed. I promised the guys at work that I’d
bring back pictures of ghosts. It would be preferable if they were
standing by a grave or tomb of some sort.”

“
Yes sir, I do see your
point about not wanting to leave Darkwood empty handed. I’m certain
you won’t be disappointed by the tour,” Lucus desperately tried to
appease Mr. Dumpty. From where I was standing, I could see little
beads of sweat forming on the back of his neck and starting to drip
onto his white t-shirt. It was barely nine am, and the sun was
already threatening to scorch us to death.

“
Finally a man who
understands the importance of souvenirs,” Mr. Dumpty wholly sounded
satisfied as he slurped from his water bottle.

“
I’m sure we can manage to
find a ghost or two that would love to get their picture taken.”
From his tone, I could tell Lucus was trying to be as solemn as
possible for Mr. Dumpty’s sake.

“
Seriously, the swamp is
going to be buzzing with flies, mosquitoes and who knows what other
creepy things,” Sabrina dramatically whined.

“
As long as you’ve got
repellent on you’ll survive,” Henri calmly replied.

We had the honor of lugging around
bottles of water, bug repellent, and parasols in case any of the
guests needed the supplies. Although Sabrina had put on a brave
face in front of Lucus, as soon as he was out of ear shot, she
couldn’t resist complaining. Of course, she was ignoring me and
directing her complaints to Mrs. Gopal who politely nodded in
agreement.

Lucus lead the group with Henri. Henri
apparently had an air boat license, so he was going to do the
driving while Lucus was going to fill the guests in on the wildlife
that made their homes in the area. It sounded rather boring, but
hey, the tourists were paying customers. It had been a little over
a week since Lucus had barged into my bedroom insisting that he
needed me, but I still didn’t know what he had meant. Secretly, I
was dying for more details, but knew if I dared to step within ten
feet of him, Sabrina would probably throw me into the swamp. Things
were still cold between us. When we were in our room together, we
were like an old married couple, who had run out of things to say
to one another. The only interaction we had involved shooting evil
glances at one another from across any room we were in
together.

As we walked deeper into the swampland,
we were greeted by moss draped cypress trees and the calls of snowy
egrets. The moist air made my hideous uniform cling to my skin
which prompted me to curse at the genius who thought it had been a
good idea for us to wear them.

“
Cool look, what is that?”
Ben hysterically shouted as he pointed to a turtle resting on a
log.

“
That there is a snapping
turtle,” advised Henri.

“
A snapping turtle, does
that mean the alligators are close?” Ben reasoned.

“
They certainly are. May I
present to you Lady LaPlante.” Henri pointed to a large air boat
that was parked on the swamp water.

“
Are you sure that boat is
safe?” Questioned Mrs. Scott as she eyed it in
suspicion.

“
It’s completely safe,”
Lucus assured her. “It was purchased only a few months ago
specifically for the tour, so it is entirely up to
code.”

“
If you say so dear,” Mrs.
Scott still didn’t sound convinced as she got on board. The rest of
the guests followed her lead except for Sabrina.

“
I get motion sickness on
the water,” Sabrina annoyingly whined as she crossed her arms in
defiance.

“
In that case, would you
like to head back to the house by yourself, or wait here until the
tour is over?” Henri gave Sabrina an ultimatum.

“
Head back by myself? I’ll
get lost, why can’t Lucus take me?” She pouted.

“
I’m a bit busy here
Sabrina,” Lucus evenly advised her. “Stay for the tour. It will be
entertaining.”

“
Fine,” Sabrina bitterly
muttered as she swatted mosquitoes off of her arms and stomped on
board. Since all the other seats were taken, she had no choice but
to sit beside me.

“
Great.” She rolled her
eyes.

“
Trust me, it’s no picnic
for me either,” I hissed.

“
Whatever,” she turned to
the side facing away from me.

The boat started moving, and the
cameras began snapping. As Lucus was describing the various species
of birds and fish that lived in the swamp, my eyes started getting
uncontrollably heavy. Biology wasn’t exactly my favorite subject,
and I’d already been to enough swamps to know the basic animals
that lived there.

“
Wake up Arelia, an offer
has already been made. You may be too late,” a familiar voice
beckoned as a breeze blew through my hair. My eyes snapped open,
and I looked at the faces around me. Luckily, the guests were too
busy snapping pictures of the wildlife, and Sabrina was too
absorbed with filming Lucus.

“
Bade?” I whispered. “What
do you want?”

“
I’m just trying to warn you
that an offer has already been made.”

“
On what? Is there a poker
game I wasn’t invited to or something?”

“
This is no time for games
Arelia, if you don’t act now you may be too late,” he
urged.

“
I can’t do anything if you
don’t tell me what you’re talking about.” I didn’t mean to sound
rude, but it was true. I really had no clue what he was referring
to.

“
Damballa has been called
upon to protect the swamp and guard the grave,” he
explained.

In voodoo, Damballa was known as one of
the most powerful spirits and could be called upon for protection.
He was sort of like a father to all of the other spirits. From what
I knew about him, anyone who called upon him was pretty serious
about whatever they wanted to protect. “Who called him and
why?”

“
I cannot tell you that. It
is not my place. Keep your eyes open Arelia. Keep your eyes open.”
With those words, I felt him leave.

“
I see it, I see it!” Ben
was in a wild frenzy. “I see an alligator!”

“
Good work son.” Mr.
Dumpty’s camera flashed in rapid succession as he tried to capture
the full length of the twelve foot alligator.

“
Can we get closer?” Ben
frantically begged.

“
A tiny bit, too close and
we’re in trouble,” Henri warned.

“
Awesome!” Ben had been
waiting to see an alligator forever. This was an epic moment for
him.

As we got closer to the alligator, it
ignored us and was concentrating on a pile of what looked like
white powder close to the shore.

“
What is that?” I asked
Henri. I got up and tried to take a closer look.

“
No it can’t be, but how?”
Henri sounded confused.

“
What’s going on?” I turned
to Lucus for an answer.

“
It’s an offering to
Damballa,” Lucus explained. “Someone is trying to protect that part
of the swamp,” he pointed at the area beyond a cluster of cypress
trees.

“
Why?”

Lucus turned to me, “I’m not
certain.”

“
That’s so cool, are they
dead?” Ben pointed to the white powder and six white hens that were
placed against it. From my study sessions with Ms. Mae, I knew that
a typical offering to Damballa was a pile of flour with an egg on
top. He was a spirit who liked all of his offerings to be in white.
Animal sacrifices were only performed if the asker was really
looking for extra help or special favors.

“
Oh my!” Mrs. Gopal was
disgusted.

We got closer and saw the hens stringed
together with vine and wrapped around the large pile of flour like
Christmas tree ornaments. Their mouths hung open, and blood still
flowed from the slits in their stomachs. The offering must have
been fresh because the hens weren’t rotting and the flour hadn’t
been swept away by the water. Whoever had made the sacrifice must
have done so right before we got there.

“
That’s nasty,” Sabrina
commented on the scene in front of us.

“
Animal cruelty,” Mrs. Scott
angrily added. “Who could have done something so
ghastly?”

“
They’re only props,” Henri
lied. “We thought it would be educational for you folks to see a
traditional voodoo altar. Albeit, the designer did manage to
exaggerate the nature of the altar a bit.”

“
So those are fake hens?”
Asked Mr. Dumpty.

“
Yeah, can’t you tell?” I
felt my stomach churn as I looked at the poor hens. However, it was
pointless to frighten or disgust the guests any further, so I
played along with Henri’s lie. “They look so waxy.”

The guests relaxed knowing that there
wasn’t a psychopathic hen murderer running around. Things got back
to normal, and the tour continued as we ventured further into the
swamp. That was until the boat stopped.

“
What’s going on here?” Mr.
Dumpty demanded.

“
Just a minor hiccup,” Henri
assured him. He unsuccessfully tried to start up the boat
again.

I wasn’t so sure. Around me, I felt a
storm starting to form. “You don’t belong here,” whispered a voice.
The sky darkened, and lightning struck. Damballa wasn’t going to
allow us to go any deeper into the swamp.

“
We can’t stay here,” I said
to Lucus under my breath. “It’s not safe. We have to get the guests
out of here as soon as possible.”

Lucus shifted his eyes from the sky to
me finally making the connection between the words coming out of my
mouth and the events that were taking place around us. “You’re
right Arelia, but Henri can’t start the boat. We need your help.”
He sounded slightly defeated.