Page 32 of Nita's Redemption

The image of Vin, Tamara’s other mate shaking his head filled her vision, yet he was keeping his mouth shut while he held Tamara in his arms.

Bakra flashed to Olympus, materializing in their living room. She held her hand up, stopping their questions. “I need you to listen to me, but I also have to send word to Jaklyn and the others about the danger that sits at their back door. Ps. That’s not a euphemism for their bootyhole. We need to send more protection to the pack.”

Tamara snorted at Bakra’s words.

“First tell us what the fuck had you jerking us here like dogs on a chain,” Rafe rumbled again.

“Are you seriously upset because I pulled you back from Earth? Fine, have you heard of hypnosis?” Bakra asked, pacing back and forth in front of the large screen television the Ravens had installed in the game room.

“You mean like when that guy has people on his stage believe they’re dogs or chickens and they bark or quack?” Vin asked.

“Ducks quack, chickens cluck.” Rafe yelped as Tamara slapped him upside the head.

“Anyhow, hypnosis is a human condition involving focused attention, reduced peripheral awareness, and an enhanced capacity to respond to suggestion. There are those who are not only able to control all of the humans attentions and their awareness of reality, they are able to do so by a sound, an action, without the other aware until it’s too late. It’s a phenomena of hypnotics not many believe can be achieved. We know better. I’ve seen it first hand, and I’ve just barely escaped it tonight. She’s very skilled at hypnotics. I...we don’t know the extent of her ability, but if she was able to almost trap me in mist form, she might be able to distort reality for others, possibly in mass. I can’t wrap my head around a human female who dabbles in black magic, one who is fixated on bringing back a male she considers her king, can also manipulate minds of those like she does. This female...she’s even more dangerous than any of us could’ve expected.”

Tamara grabbed Bakra’s hands, looking her in the eyes. “Is she like you?”

Bakra snorted. “No, I believe she’s human, maybe. She’s made a deal with someone or something though.”

“Fuck.” Both Vin and Rafe both said.

ANTOINETTE JERKED BACK from the alter, looking around her at the gathering females. She stared at the shiny surface and wondered what the hell she was doing. She let out a sigh, brushing her hands down her sides to hide the shaking from Chloe and Cheryl. Thinking of the other two women and the damn male they should’ve already prepared for her to rid the world of, she turned to see if they were far enough away for her to set him ablaze. Both women wore startled expressions like they’d seen a ghost or something.

“What’s wrong with you two?” she asked, walking the few feet separating them.

Cheryl looked at Chloe then at her feet. Chloe, being the tougher of the two, let out a sigh that rivaled her own from moments before.

“He kind of exploded. We thought you’d done it, but then you were busy wiping down the altar, and we were paralyzed or stuck in place. It was an experience that felt out of body for the both of us. The next minute, he was dust on the ground. Gone.” Chloe clapped her hands together then spread them, making a whoosh sound.

If she’d have told Antoinette her little story five minutes ago, Antoinette would’ve slapped her and maybe even thrown her into the creek. Now? Now she was forced to believe that there was more at work in the sacred ground they’d chosen. Or was it cursed ground? A shiver worked its way up her spine.

“Let us gather our people and regroup. Tomorrow is a new dawn, and with it, we will see what direction we should go and how we should do so with clarity.” Antoinette wasn’t scared of much, but whatever had taken over her was an entity she couldn’t fight. She wasn’t a fan of being weak. “Never again,” she whispered.

“What?” Cheryl asked.

“Get the bus so we can head out.” She didn’t say so they could run as far and fast as they could go. Instead she took calm and controlled breaths while she walked to each female, clicking her fingers together so that the two metal daggers on her thumb and middle finger clacked together. The sound was very soothing to her and how she’d always been able to get others to do as she wanted once the circle was created and words were said. To undo her trance, she only had to click her fingers twice by each females’ left ear.

“You have done well, sister. Head for the bus while we clean up.” She said the same thing to each woman until the last was doing as she was told.

“It is quite amazing how you can do that so easily,” Cheryl said, her eyes stared at Antoinette’s fingers with awe.

“My mother had the gift as did my grandmère. Let’s finish and go.”

They didn’t waste time talking, each woman knowing what their job was in order to ensure their presence wasn’t detected. It was Antoinette who hid their altar and firepit from prying eyes. They’d taken too long to build each, and she’d be damned before she destroyed them. No, the land was perfect for what they needed to do. The animals over the creek had the blood Papa Legba needed. They would do what they needed to bring him back.

“Are you sure we shouldn’t try the way our ancestors did?” Chloe asked, sweeping the salt into the dust.

Antoinette breathed a frustrated breath. They’d gone over this so many times it was making her head hurt. “If what they’d done worked, then we wouldn’t be here in this sacred place, trying to bring our King back. Now would we?” she snarled.

Chloe bowed her head, using the old broom that had been in her family for years to sweep her footprints away. Cheryl followed in front of her with a bowl and a large sage stick, waving the smoke around. They were cleansing the air, yet she felt nothing could take the evil from what had been done to the soil. No, there was something deep beneath them that had tainted the land long before they’d stepped foot there. It was up to her to use her abilities mixed with the others and the blood of the beasts to get what they wanted. If the fools would just give her some of their precious fluid, she wouldn’t have to kill them. A snort left her as she climbed into the large bus with blacked out windows. She stared back at the abyss of darkness, fighting the shiver of fear that tried to claim her. “I am not afraid,” she vowed.

The doors shut behind her with a finality, the rubber sealing against the metal. Antoinette sat behind the driver’s seat, and then the bus was moving. She kept her eyes focused ahead when every instinct told her to look back. She fought herself, fought the need clawing at her insides until there were audible gasps from the others.

“Holy crap, I swear that looked like a snake trying to slither after us, only it was made of smoke,” someone muttered.

“I’m sure it was just your imagination, Dion.”

“No, I saw it too,” several others swore.

---