Unlucky (30 page)

Scooter, who had been standing just outside the car door, finally worked up the nerve to take a few steps closer to them. "Well, I'm not okay with it. They're trying to do voodoo, man. You don't mess with voodoo."

"What other options do we have?" Amy asked, her voice filled with exasperation. "Silas wasn't cheating today, was he?" she directed her question at Jake.

"No," Jake replied. "He wasn't."

"See," Amy said. "The voodoo doll is the only explanation. After Mallory stole this one, Silas probably had another made. That's why he was winning again today. If we knew what kind of curse was on it, maybe we could figure out a way to work around it."

Jake stared at Amy for a moment then looked back at Mallory. "You're okay with this?"

Mallory shrugged. "At this point, what could it hurt?" She and Amy sank to the ground, resuming their original positions across from each other.

Jake sighed and stepped into the circle, sinking down on the ground to form a third point. "C'mon, Scooter. Let's get this over with."

Scooter looked from one face to another, obviously waiting for someone to let him in on the joke but no punch line was forthcoming. "Oh hell," he said, and stepped into the circle across from Jake. "You owe me big-time for this, Mallory. It's going to take way more than a six-pack to even this one out."

Mallory grinned at Scooter as he took a seat. "We'll work something out." She looked over at Amy and nodded. "Let's do it."

Amy drew in a breath and reached for the candle again. The purple wax was pooled heavily in the top and it only took a second for it to spill over the side and onto the doll. As soon as the drop hit the doll, Amy picked up the book, and began to chant, "Spirit of the doll, we call you out. Show yourself to us on the hallowed ground. Bring all that you are to light."

As the last words left her mouth, lightning struck the ground in the clearing, and they all jumped. Mallory was fairly certain they all yelled, at least she was sure she did.

The smoke and dust from the lightning strike whirled around not ten feet from them, a thick, cloudy haze that was impossible to see through, and the darkness seemed to close in on them until only the tiny sliver of candlelight remained. The night sounds went away, the insects and birds seeming to be on mute and even the gentle tide of the bayou faded from hearing.

Then slowly a light began to glow and, from the center of the haze, the voodoo woman stepped out.

Mallory sucked in a breath and stared at the woman, unblinking. She heard Scooter yelp and Amy gasp. Even Jake scooted a few inches back into the circle away from the woman. It was the voodoo woman, the same in every way as she'd been when Mallory was a kid.

She wore a long black robe with wide sleeves that hung to her wrists, and she clutched a black sack with one gnarled hand. Her skin was the deep, rich brown of the Creoles, and her hair, which at one time would have been a deep black, was now pure silver and seemed to glow in the light. Her dark eyes locked on Mallory's, seeming to look deep into her soul, and Mallory felt a rush of disbelief race through her.

It just couldn't be. Was it really possible that twenty years hadn't changed her at all?

"You're playing around with things you don't understand," the woman said.

Mallory glanced around at her friends, but it was clear from the looks on their faces that if anyone was going to keep the conversation going, it was up to her. "We were just... there was this doll... and we thought..."

The woman locked her dark gaze on Mallory, studying her as a hawk would its prey, unblinking and unreadable. "I know what you were doing, Mallory Devereaux. I knew the instant you stepped onto this ground."

Mallory swallowed and blinked. "You know me?"

The woman nodded. "I remember you as a small child. Your uncle brought you to me, hoping I could remove the curse."

Mallory's head whirled. "What curse? I don't understand." She pointed at the doll. "I just found, this... what do you mean? It was there when I was a child?"

The voodoo woman shook her head. "That doll protects the man who commissioned the curse on your mother... the curse that was put on her when you were still in the womb. There was an anger in him that couldn't be sated. It's still there--an open wound--even after all these years."

"My mother knew?"

"Your mother came to me after the curse was put upon her. The creator had reasonable skill, but nothing that could match my own. I easily removed the curse from your mother, but I told her that I couldn't remove the curse from you until your birth. I told her to call when she was in labor--that I would come and all would be well."

"She never called?" Mallory stared at the woman, a feeling of dread creeping over her. "My own mother? She left me this way on purpose?"

The voodoo woman nodded. "I'm sorry, child, but even your name gives her thoughts away. Mallory is old French for 'unlucky.'"

Jake rose from the circle to stand beside Mallory. "Isn't there something you can do?"

"There is nothing to be done. The curse has been a part of Mallory for so long that it has a life of its own. In order to take one life, you'd have to take the other."

Mallory stared at her, a faint memory forming in the back of her mind. She was young, not even five, traveling deep into the bayou with her uncle. She remembered the candles arranged in a clearing--in this clearing--and the warm blood of a chicken dripping across her forehead as she lay in a circle drawn on the ground.

"My uncle, he brought me here," Mallory said.

"Yes. He did the best he could. It was simply too late."

Mallory's heart fell at the woman's words. "So there is no hope."

The voodoo woman looked at her, sadness evident in her eyes. "I'm so sorry, child."

Mallory nodded and gestured to the doll in the circle. "What about the doll? Did the same person who put the curse on me put the protection spell on the doll?"

The voodoo woman shook her head. "The protection spell was placed on the doll by the man you took it from. He has very limited skill, but protecting himself from the curse he commissioned is something within his ability."

"And the guy who did the original curse on my mother... is he still around?"

"That man passed from this life many years ago in a most unpleasant fashion. He's spending his next life paying for his transgressions in this one."

Mallory stared at the woman for a moment, her mind conjuring up all kinds of visuals with hell and fire and no light. "What should be done with the doll?"

The voodoo woman looked at the doll and motioned for them to step aside. "The doll should be destroyed, but it needs to be done properly. You're welcome to watch, but I need you to step away from the circle."

The four of them backed away from the circle until they stood about ten feet away. "That's far enough," the voodoo woman said, and she reached into her bag, brought out a chicken and held it up over the doll.

"What the hell is she doing with that chicken?" Jake whispered.

"You probably don't want to know," Mallory replied, and turned just in time to place one hand over Amy's mouth as the voodoo woman drew a knife across the chicken's throat.

Her hand muffled the worst of Amy's scream, but Scooter's "Jesus Christ Almighty" carried across the bayou and probably all the way back to downtown Royal Flush.

Mallory removed her hand from Amy's mouth and focused her attention on the voodoo woman as she shook blood from the chicken onto the doll.

"I don't think PETA knows about this," Jake whispered.

Mallory nodded but didn't take her eyes off the scene in front of her. The air around them was still as death, but inside the circle, the voodoo woman's robes began to ripple. The candle's flame flickered back and forth and the dust stirred around the doll.

Mallory sensed rather than felt the shift in the atmosphere around them as the voodoo woman raised her arms in the air and started chanting. The wind in the circle grew stronger and stronger, until the woman's robe and hair billowed around her in a frenzied dance of black and silver. The flame on the candle whipped back and forth as a roll of thunder echoed around them.

Suddenly, a beam of light came down from the sky, lighting up the circle. Mallory watched as the doll began to glow. The voodoo woman chanted louder and shook the chicken in the bright light.

"Oh, my God," Amy said as smoke began to rise from the doll.

Mallory watched in fascination as the smoke began in a thin stream, growing thicker with each passing moment.

At the exact moment the voodoo woman stopped chanting, the doll exploded into flames, the candle blew out, and the light from the sky disappeared, leaving them in total darkness.

Mallory felt Jake's hand squeeze hers and figured she wasn't the only one who wanted to bolt. Unfortunately, there was the small issue of not being able to see even a foot in front of them. And probably no one wanted to risk running into the voodoo woman... or the chicken. Just when Mallory decided she was going to start inching backward until she reached the car, the flame from the candle began to flicker and slowly light crept into the clearing until the entire area was basked in a dim yellow glow.

The voodoo woman still stood in the center of the circle, but the chicken was nowhere in sight and all that remained of the doll was a pile of ash.
Good riddance
, Mallory thought and breathed a sigh of relief. The voodoo woman stepped out of the circle and walked over to stand in front of her.

"This doll can trouble you no more, but the man you fear has already replaced it with another that is identical. Its power is weak. The man who owns it is not strong in the craft. Within a couple of days it will be of no concern to you."

"Thank you," Mallory said. "You have no idea how grateful I am. For tonight... and for trying all those years ago."

The voodoo woman nodded. "If you need me for anything, I live in a cabin just off the point where you and the other man fish for speckled trout." She reached over and touched Mallory's forehead with her thumb. "Live well, Mallory Devereaux. This is my wish for you."

She glanced at the others and gave them a brief nod before walking toward the woods, a dim glow surrounding her. She'd only walked fifteen feet or so before the glow faded and she seemed to vanish before their eyes.

Mallory blinked and squinted in the darkness. Where the hell did she go?

"Show's over," Scooter said. "I say it's time to get the hell out of here." He looked over at Amy. "Would you mind giving me a ride home? I figure those two might want to talk."

Amy looked over at Mallory, her expression thoughtful. "If you need anything," she said. "Anything at all, you call me. It doesn't matter what time."

Mallory nodded and smiled at her friend. "Thanks for everything, Amy. You're a great friend and I'm lucky to have you."

Amy smiled. "That makes two of us." She gave Jake a wave and headed to her car, Scooter following close behind.

Mallory watched as Amy backed up and pulled away from the clearing, then she turned to Jake. "Looks like you got a bit more than you bargained for with this investigation."