WyattBri had us pull over once we got into the older part of New Orleans. She pulled her hair through the back of a baseball cap and pulled her hood up on Beau’s hoodie. We all followed suit. We followed her as she led us down dark alleyways that stank of piss and cheap liquor. She had steered clear of the garden district where she said the house was. We were on the outskirts of the historic quarter. All manner of shops and living quarters were tangled here like a puzzle of mismatched pieces. Mardi Gras was in full swing even at its end, which was the peak of tourist season. Music and jubilant glee, mingled with drunken chanting and tipsy stumbling on the main street. Bri stopped at a gate at the back alley of one of the row’s rear gardens down the backside of a row of Creole townhouses and approached the rear door after ensuring Beau closed the gate behind him. She gave the backdoor a peculiar knock like it was some sort of code. Lights flickered within. A knock returned, Bri murmu
BeauA few hours later after using Zoey’s dryer to dry our rain-drenched hoodies we changed and found ourselves entering a coffee shop. The scent of coffee, sugar, and pastries assaulted me. Along with the scent of weed and incense. It reminded me a little of how Bri smelt when she first came to us. Wyatt’s glance at me told me he thought the same. We knew where we were, the girls had spoken about it in front of us but for the scent of such a place to be embedded into the essence of our beloved Bri, meant it was special. Much like the swamp had since found its way into her essence, mingling into all the beautiful fibers that made Bri who she was, whatever she was.We kept our heads down on the street but when we got into the building Wyatt and I pushed our hoods back accessing the place for threats. Bri perked up her gaze searching people at the tables and in the small crowd already dancing without music. Then she kept walking right behind the counter and through the door to the backr
IssacThe girls had walked out for a private chat. The two specimens Mouse had been using as play toys came out in nothing but low-slung jeans and rippling muscles. Damn was she one lucky girl. I glanced them over schooling my face from admitting I wanted to know just how large those packages were. A boy could dream, right? Sis better spill every fucking bean! And she would, once I got her talking in that chair it would be like a never-ending array of images I could savour. I just kept up with my pile of french toast to keep my hands busy, both men’s eyes darted to the door, they were silent yet they looked at each other and their facial expressions told a different story. Were they telepathic? Now I bet that was useful in the bedroom.When Mouse and Zoey came in and she approached them the big guy pulled her to him, his focus impeccable as he tilted her chin up to peer into her eyes. “Everything alright Ma Sha?” “Besides the obvious, yes,” he kissed her brow tenderly before envelo
WyattBri had been down there for hours as we paced Zoey’s apartment. She just watched us from her spot on the couch. She made sandwiches for lunch took a few downstairs and when we went to follow, she glared at us and we huffed when she implied that we would see her when she was ready.She brought up a box with clothes from Celeste and we changed and came dressed in leather pants, snug boots, and nothing more, Our hands held the accessories like they were snakes ready to bite us.“You said you would follow her to her revenge, it’s just a costume,” she drawled rolling her eyes. Beau and I shared glances and nodded at each other before we wrapped the black leather collars adorned with long chains around our necks and returned to pacing. A sharp pang in my heart alerted me to Bri’s distress but quickly eased, the only thing keeping me from barging downstairs. It was one thing being away from her knowing I’d soon return to her, it was a completely different one knowing we would soon be p
BeauWhen we came to the warehouse district where the floats were held Zoey started explaining all the preparations they had made for the parade and how everything would go down I just trailed Bri who had Wyatt’s Jacket slung over her shoulders. He pretended it was to protect her from the chill and not the roving eyes of all of New Orleans. She saw through him and placated him by not saying anything. Me, I was keeping my eye on her rear the way her bustle swayed and her tiny heels cracked. I wanted them digging into my shoulders while I pile drove into her. I didn’t get the point of this parade. It was some sort of statement I supposed but I just wanted my woman while I had her.When the floats started lining up Bri went to dump the jacket in Zoey’s car. “How am I supposed to get through this night knowing all of New Orleans has seen her like that?” Wyatt sighed, his eyes trained on her like a watchdog ready to lunge. Isaac who had a foe fur cape and a top hat on along with some pain
Prologue BriMy fingers brushed the smooth stone of the mausoleum. The tips traced the words of the machine-hewn inscription. Sabastian Piere La’ Blanc, Dutiful Husband, Leader, and Humanitarian. The symbol of the coven etched beneath it. A coven raised within New Orleans meshing the world of cajun hereditary witches with the deep roots of voodoo practitioners. My fingers traced the dates from his birth to the day life ended in 1994, ten achingly long years ago. He deserved to have a craftsman etching his stone crypt, not some effortless, heartless machine, chiseling out empty words void of empathy. The pads of my fingers caressed each chip in the stone,I felt he deserved. There was nothing in the inscription, to note the little girl he left behind after his death. The only soul who still visited his grave every weekend, placing flowers in the vases at the door. The only one who still mourned his insurmountable loss. There is nothing here
BriThose memories haunted my mind from the tender age of ten when my life had turned into a real-life nightmare. My mother was a whirlwind who only existed in my world if she expected something from me or had some unknown tick that I set off without even trying. I was often ducking as she heaved whatever was closest to her at my head using her tiny little gift of wind manipulation. Her real gift lay in whatever magic she had used on my father. Anytime she thought I stepped out of line, there was a special kind of torture waiting for me. She tried to coerce my abilities to the surface. Goading me to reveal all of what I was, yet I held it all back and in the safe place within me where no one could see. Holding onto my father’s warning I would lay in wait, for the moment I could get away. Her recruits into my father’s once harmonious coven were shady at best, seedy was more like it, giving me voyeur vibes and prickling my skin with unease. I constantly pushed the extent of my power’s
BriA few weeks laterI was in countdown mode as I walked through the halls towards my literature class. I was playing through the motions of starting the fall semester like any other student. I didn’t need the credits, all of my transcripts, important bank documents, a few of my father’s prized heirlooms I had managed to snatch out from under my mother’s nose, and estate files were in a safety deposit box under a fake name. To be protected. My brain was too preoccupied with timing and checking off lists to see Andrew swoop in front of me and pin me to the wall around the corner. Trent was with him acting like it was normal for his boyfriend to pin random girls to the wall while staring at a billboard pretending to read it. We were directly under a camera. Zoe and I had mapped this place out and I knew all the angles of escape from their overseeing eyes. This was purposeful.Andrew didn’t want the binding, he and Trent were a known item. Trent didn’t know the extent of anything just th