Daughter Of The Blood Part 4

D'Artagnon said, "Oui."

"Julius Esposito," Michel said into the box, "I call on you. Who captured your soul?"

"Give me back my soul."

"Tell us who has it, and we'll retrieve it for you," Michel soothed. "We can do that. We're Gifted. We'll help you." Beneath the warmth of his promises, there was an unmistakable edge. He was lying. Izzy wondered if Esposito knew it, too.

"My soul!"

Or perhaps Esposito was beyond caring. He was in agony. She had never heard such terrible despair in her life, and that included her father's pleas to G.o.d Himself to bring his beloved wife, Anna Maria, back from the dead.

D'Artagnon murmured something to Michel, who nodded in reply. D'Artagnon extended his athame into the box.

"Stay well back," Michel ordered Izzy.

There was a terrible shriek. The white candle on the altar flickered. The statue of Jehanne shifted.

New mist billowed from the floor, very white, very concentrated, so redolent of lavender that Izzy's eyes watered. Neither Michel nor D'Artagnon paid it any attention. But the smell was choking her, making her cough and gag. The mist hung like a curtain between her and the altar.

A second, more horrible shriek followed.

The candles in the candelabra went out. A cold wind whistled around the room.

"What are you doing?" Izzy demanded, stumbling forward. She craned her neck- A burst of brilliance filled her field of vision.

"Don't look!" Michel cried.

But it was too late.

Where is your gun, Guardienne? He will take the gun and he will end the House of the Flames. You have to secure your gun. You have to do it now.

Izzy was running in the nightmare forest, dodging branches that grabbed at her as the wolves howled in a ring around her, their hot breath bathing the blood-red moon. The silver wolf at her side darted ahead, diving into the cattails at the murky bayou sh.o.r.eline. Its tail bobbed like a periscope as the wolf searched frantically, howling and chuffing.

Baying, the other wolves charged in after the silver one, disappearing into the cattails. Water splashed as they all jumped in, and Izzy called out, "No! This way!"

The bayou was crawling with death. It was all around them. They had to get out.

"This way!" she yelled again.

Sharp rocks sliced her feet as she ran to a trio of cypress trees jutting from the water. She heard herself sobbing for breath.

The moon raced across the sky as if hunted like her. Death was coming like a whirlwind.

Pressing her fists against her abdomen as she sucked in air, she glanced up. Her lips parted in terror. Something hung from the center tree...a man...

She saw his shoes, and then his legs...

It was Jean-Marc, gutted, hanging from the tree, his face blackened, worms crawling from his empty eye sockets.

"It didn't happen!" she shouted. "You showed me this before and-"

And he's lying in surgery with his chest cracked open, a voice whispered to her. He's dying, and he will rot, just like this. And it will be your fault.

Get your gun.

Chapter 4.

I have to get my gun. I have to stop it.

Thrashing, Izzy sat bolt upright. A damp cloth tumbled from her forehead onto her lap, which was swathed in white satin sheets. Beneath the bedclothes, she was wearing an ivory satin nightgown. The rose quartz necklace, the ring and her crucifix still hung around her neck. Andre's gris-gris was missing.

"Shh, Guardienne, it's all right. You're safe," a woman's voice murmured. Annette, her mother's nurse, leaned over her.

"What happened?" she said thickly, as she tried to pick up the cloth. Two veiled women were holding her hands. "Where am I?"

"You're in your bedroom in the mansion." Annette took the cloth from Izzy and placed it on a silver tray on a dark wood nightstand beside the bed. She saw gray stone walls, heavy dark furniture and a ma.s.sive fireplace similar to the one in the safehouse back in New York. In fact, the room was very like the one Jean-Marc had prepared for her in New York. Perhaps it was to make her more comfortable. The truth was, she found both rooms horribly oppressive.

"Reading the bokor's corpse was too much for you. It made you very ill. We rushed you in here and took care of you. The doctor left only a few minutes ago to check on the regent and your mother."

She remembered the agents, the box, the gremlin and the eye. And Esposito pleading for his soul. Everything past that was fuzzy.

Annette gestured to the dozen or so veiled women standing around the bed, holding each other's hands. One of them was curled up beside Izzy on the bed.

"The Femmes Blanches linked up with you and shared their magical essence with you. The doctor gave you oxygen and ran some tests. Your electrolytes were severely imbalanced. That's been corrected."

"Thank you," she said, and then, "What did we find out from the reading?"

A figure moved from the darkness and approached the end of Izzy's bed. It was Louise. She said, "I'd like to clear the room before we discuss that."

The Femmes Blanches moved and shifted. Izzy nodded at Annette, who seemed to be in charge. The woman holding her right hand released her. The veiled woman who was seated beside Izzy gave her left hand a squeeze and slid off the bed, joining her sisters as they walked toward the door.

"Please, if you weren't on duty in my mother's chamber, go home," Izzy told them.

The Femmes Blanches had made a vocation of keeping vigil over Izzy's mother. They worked in shifts, took vacations, and some of them even had jobs. They didn't live in the mansion. Some had homes in the garden district, and a few occupied funky bungalows and elegant apartments in the French quarter itself.

Once the women had filed out of the room, Louise said to Annette, "You, too, ma'am."

Annette shifted, unsure.

"It's all right," Izzy told her, although she was equally unsure.

As soon as Annette had closed the door behind herself, Louise said, "First, I want you to know that this is the most heavily warded s.p.a.ce in all of Bouvard territory. Nothing gets out, nothing comes in. That's the only reason I'm going to speak so freely."

"Okay," Izzy said.

"Esposito gave up Alain de Devereaux's location. Devereaux is being held in an abandoned convent on Rue de Gas-connes. Michel took Madame Sange and a sizable security team to extract him."

"Michel...left?" Izzy asked, her eyes widening. Abandoned her, her mother and Jean-Marc after a direct a.s.sault?

Louise's expression was shuttered. Izzy couldn't read her tone of voice, either, as she said, "It was a hard decision, madame. Michel wanted to survey the situation firsthand. If we can prove that the Malchances engineered the attack and the kidnapping, the Grand Covenate will have no choice but to punish them."

Izzy didn't know what to make of that. She had been going on the a.s.sumption that most members of the Bouvard family distrusted the Grand Covenate, the governing body of all the Gifted families, clans and tribes. She knew that the last time the Grand Covenate had intervened, Jean-Marc, who was a member of the House of the Shadows, was selected to act as the regent of the House of the Flames. The choice of an outsider from a different family caused a great deal of resentment. The fact that Michel hadn't contacted the Grand Covenate immediately after the attack bolstered her opinion that he would prefer not to deal with them at all.

She asked, "How many people know what happened to me? That I've been unconscious?"

"Very few. Michel ordered strict need-to-know," Louise informed her. She added, before Izzy could ask, "Your mother's condition is unchanged. The regent is out of surgery and the doctor is cautiously optimistic."

Izzy reeled with relief. Oh, thank you, Patroness. Oh, my dear G.o.d, thank you.

"Is the regent conscious?" Izzy asked. She needed to see him, to touch him, to be sure that it was true. She needed to hear his voice. See those dark eyes flecked with gold.

"No, and we're keeping that under wraps as well," Louise told her. "We've got our best guarding him and your mother both." She lifted her chin. "I've been a.s.signed to you."

"Good," Izzy said. "Thank you." She spied the nightstand beside the bed and, on impulse, slid open the top drawer. Her gris-gris lay coiled inside. Pleased, she draped it over her shoulders. She could feel its enfolding warmth. She decided to take it to Jean-Marc.

Izzy glanced at a large ebony clock on the mantel. It was exactly twelve.

She pointed to the clock. "Is that noon or midnight?"

"Midnight," Louise told her.

Izzy was shocked. She'd been out for an entire day.

She rubbed her forehead as pain blossomed behind her eyes. Then a sudden, sharp image hit her-cattails and cypress trees, the bayou-she saw it all. Remembered it all.

"Madame?" Louise said, instantly on alert.

The pain intensified. Izzy rasped out, "Alain de Devereaux isn't in a building. He's in the bayou. You need to let Michel know. He's searching in the wrong place."

Louise scrutinized Izzy, c.o.c.king her head. "Meaning no disrespect, madame, but D'Artagnon a.s.sisted with the reading. He's the best we have."

"Have him recheck," Izzy said.

Louise shook her head. "The remains were destroyed during the first reading."

"I know he's not there," Izzy insisted. "You have to contact Michel immediately."

Louise shook her head. "His team is on silent running. So are the other search parties. They're so heavily warded we can't even contact them telepathically."

"Then you have to go to Michel," Izzy said. She rethought. That would waste time. "I need to accompany a team into the bayou. I'm the one who can lead them to him."

Louise demurred. "Please, don't even think of that. Michel gave strict orders that you were to rest."

"Michel's not here. He doesn't know what I know. No one does." Izzy threw her legs over the side of the bed and got to her feet.

Izzy said, "I'm in command here. We need to rescue Alain de Devereaux now."

Izzy could practically see the wheels turning in the agent's brain. She raised her hand to brush errant tendrils of hair from her forehead, feeling more warmth against her skin as her headache lessened. Her palm was glowing; white heat pulsated in the center of her flame-shaped scar. On impulse, she showed it to Louise.

"Remember, I carry the sign of the House of the Flames," she said. She touched the ring. "And Michel himself handed over the ring. I need to make my orders stick, or there's no point."

Louise appeared to be thinking this over. Ice-water fingers crept down Izzy's backbone as she wondered if she and Louise were facing off. If she was about to find out what her true status was after all.

Louise made her decision, squaring her shoulders and setting her jaw, saying stiffly, "As you wish, ma Guardienne. I'll go with you."

I am not the guardienne yet, Izzy wanted to say. But this most definitely was not the time to remind the agent of that.

She said, "Good. First I'll go see Jean-"

Go now, said the voice. Or it will be too late.

She paused. Every part of her wanted to check on Jean-Marc first. But she knew she had to listen to the voice.

"What, madame?" Louise asked.

"Never mind. Where's my gun?"

Louise hesitated, then reached inside her jacket and lifted Izzy's Medusa out of her own holster.

"I took possession when you lost consciousness," she said. "You have five .9 mm cartridges left. I'll get you some more ammo."

"Thank you," Izzy said. "Now, we need a plan to rescue Alain without causing more havoc here in the mansion."

"D'accord," Louise said. "Let's work one out."

It was a good one, given the short notice. One thing about growing up in the NYPD was that you learned that operations were far messier and more ad hoc than they were characterized in TV and the movies. Improvisation and crossed fingers comprised about fifty percent of a cop's bag of tricks. So they had to leave a lot of holes that they would fill in as their mission got underway. It was the nature of the beast, and Izzy was good with that.

"Okay. Let's go with what we have," Izzy told her.

Louise half opened the door and peered out. "The Femmes Blanches are milling around out there."

Izzy walked to the door and opened it. Veiled faces turned in her direction. Annette, who had been sitting in an ivory brocade chair beside a white marble statue of Jehanne, rose to her feet.

"Thank you for seeing to me," Izzy told them. "I'm very grateful to you, and I'm all better now. Please resume your normal routine."

Annette frowned. "You are our normal routine."

"I'm fine," Izzy insisted. "And I need some time by myself. I'll have some guards. I insist," she added, pushing.