Zamani (12 page)

The congregants recited the
Lord’s Prayer in unison after kneeling and knocking.
 
Then, the drummers took up the rhythm
again, starting slowly and increasing the tempo as dancers found the music,
undulating and spinning in one mass of organized chaos.
 
Revelers ran to the water, some to
immerse themselves fully and others to ritually wash their hands and faces and
to look out toward the middle of the lake.
 
Someone had revived the fainted woman, Olivia realized as she moved
closer to the edge of the circle of dancers. Marie was still in that crowd,
assisting believers as they were mounted by the spirit and began speaking the
language of the Loa.

Olivia didn’t need the woman
to tell her that this was the true Marie Laveau; she’d known the moment she’d
seen her.
 
She stayed until the last
run of the Pontchartrain Rail back to the Marigny, caught in the energy of the
ceremony.
 
She’d tried to reach out
to Marie, but every effort was brushed off and deflected, which made her want
to know Marie even more.
 

Chapter
Seventeen

Olivia strolled from the
station toward her hotel on Royal and Iberville, smoking and contemplating what
it was that made Marie so powerful.
 
She knew next to nothing of religion of any sort; her father was not a
spiritual man, and he’d not raised her to be invested in idols or to even
consider the possibility of a world unseen.
 
If anything, he presented himself as all
powerful. He’d tried to make himself the god in her world.
 
It had worked for a long time.
 

Then she’d found Daniela,
and the hold her father had on her was broken.
 
Her relationship with Daniela had been all
consuming and was the one thing that allowed her to break free of her father’s
influence enough to defy him.
 
She
wondered at Marie Laveau’s true identity; she’d given off the same force of
power and energy that her father did, but it was different somehow.
 
Olivia knew in her gut that the
priestess role was not merely an act—it was who the woman was.
 
But, she was also so much more than
that.
 
Whereas most non-vampires
read to Olivia as fully body-identified, this woman read as a sort of spiritual
nomad.
 
Her body was a tool, and
Olivia caught glimpses of how the soul that inhabited the body was not the
original occupant.
 
As she’d watched
the dancers, she’d noticed a few surrendered to the Loa and allowed them to
enter their bodies, riding out the possession through fevered dancing.
 
It was those Marie tended to; she would
approach them with offerings, coax them into talking to her.
 
Olivia was fluent enough in French and
Spanish to know they were speaking a type of Creole
patois
, and some words were clear enough for her to make out.
 
Even so, she’d not fully understood much
of it.
 
She’d been too wrapped up in
the energy of it all to concentrate on the words, anyway.
 
But, she could see the relationship
Marie had with her congregants and that Marie was more like the possessing
spirits than the believers who offered their bodies up for occupation.

As she moved from the river
toward the hotel, she heard shuffling and a struggle in one of the narrow half
alleys near the St. Louis Cathedral.
 
The alley was not well lit, but her eyes could cut through the
darkness.
 
She saw a working girl
being mauled by a drunk. She was trying to fight him off, but he had her pinned
against the wall as he fumbled first with the edges of her skirts, then with
his pants, then back to her skirt with his free hand.
 
His other arm was pressed roughly
against her, just under her neck, and his knee and ample gut helped him to
press her against the wall.

“Please, sir. You’ve not
paid and I don’t do rough trade on the streets.
 
Please.”
 
Her face was wet and Olivia could see
she was young and quite scared.
 
She
was no innocent, but she was not deserving of abuse, either.
 
Olivia grabbed the man by his filthy
collar, easily throwing him against the opposite wall of the alleyway.
 
He sat on the ground, hard.
 

“I believe you’ve been asked
to leave.”
 
She wiped her now grimy
hand on her trousers.
 
She was still
in the shadows enough that neither the abuser nor victim could see her
face.
 
The drunk struggled to stand.

“Mind your own fucking
business.
 
I paid the whore and I’m
going to take what’s coming to me.”

 
The woman stood and waited for the
resolution, and Olivia could sense from her that she was not only hoping to
save her evening by offering herself up to her rescuer for a fair price but
that she also wanted to see the drunk get his due.

The drunk was unsuccessful
in standing, but he kept up his tirade. “This whore’s not your concern.”
 
As the drunk slurred this at Olivia, she
stepped closer to where he sat, squatting down so they were at eye level.
 
His first impulse upon realizing his
challenger was female was to laugh, but the fear that looking into her eyes
caused to well up choked out any laughter.
 
She smiled at him, a slow grin that spread across her face and scared
him to the point that he lost control of his bladder.
 
Without a word, she took the woman by
the hand and they walked toward her hotel.

The prostitute’s name was
Lisette.
 
They didn’t speak as they
walked.
 
Instead, Olivia lit them
both cigarettes and they smoked quietly until they reached the hotel, still
walking hand in hand.
 
She knew the
woman would spend the evening with her, and she knew that she would pay her
handsomely enough that she’d not have to worry about working the streets again
for some time.

Later, as Lisette slept, Olivia
simply sought her madam. Olivia explained that Lisette was hers now, and that
they were family.
 
Between Olivia’s
powers of persuasion and a few well-placed gold pieces, the woman was more than
happy to forget Lisette existed.
 
She wasn’t, after all, a cruel woman, and there were plenty of girls waiting
to take Lisette’s place.

During the week Olivia
stayed in New Orleans, Lisette was her constant companion.
 
Olivia tried to gain access to Marie
Laveau, hoping to meet her, but to no avail.
 
She quickly found that Marie’s network
was strong and that those from out of town couldn’t just decide to meet
her.
 
These barriers were something
completely foreign to Olivia, and eventually she tired of trying. She realized
that she needed more knowledge of the magic that Marie possessed if she were to
make any headway.
 

She left one morning
unannounced, slipping out of the hotel room before Lisette awoke.
 
She left an envelope for her that would
allow her to reestablish herself. As she checked out of the hotel, she paid for
another week’s worth of lodgings for her.
 

She’d also left her with a
far more sinister gift; Lisette would have been loyal without being turned, but
Olivia knew she could use the girl as an information portal.
 

She also knew she’d be back.
 

And it’s always good to have
family.

Chapter
Eighteen

After leaving Christophe, Olivia
took a cab to the Quarter.
 
Cabs are
never difficult to find one on the edge of the Garden District, and the short
walk to St. Charles helped her shake off the irritation she felt with herself
and with Christophe.
 
It had been
foolish of her not to prepare for this.
 
She had put it off, hoping it would be later. Wren’s mistake with Alex
had certainly messed up her plans.
 
He’d been so easy to control before, and while she had no doubt she
could handle him even now, she knew it would be more difficult as he realized
the truth about his new existence and started to test his abilities.

She asked the cab driver to
take her to Frenchmen Street.
 
She
slipped from the cab and waited until it pulled away from the curb before she
took off down the street toward the river, the opposite direction of most of
the traffic.
 
She wanted to stand at
the river and remember that night so long ago when she’d first come to New
Orleans and taken the Pontchartrain Railroad to the lakefront.
 

Old Smoky Mary, the train
she’d ridden that first night in New Orleans, was long gone.
 
She moved toward the old Elysian Fields
Avenue milestone in the neutral ground and realized someone else was standing
there.
 
She shouldn’t have been
surprised.
 
Lisette had been
following Christophe for some time, but he’d never realized it because she was
skilled with cloaking.
 

“I thought you might come
tonight, Olivia.
 
I was at the
ceremony earlier, and I saw them.
 
I
also felt Christophe’s reaction.”
 

Olivia moved closer to
Lisette in the dark, kissing her on the cheek lightly. “So, I suppose it’s
true; did you recognize them?”

Lisette nodded.
 
“Zofia.
 
She had some new vamp with her, though,
and I think that’s what Christophe reacted to.
 
The pair of them were stunning, and in
the thrall of the drumming, the new one let her guard down enough that
Christophe sensed her, as did I.” She chuckled.
 
“At least I had the good fortune to be
your first true conquest in New Orleans.
 
I can only imagine how the poor boy must feel now that he knows he’s not
so special.”

Olivia smiled. “Well, they
can’t all be you, my dear.”
 
She
threaded her arm though Lisette’s and they started to move toward Washington
Square, back away from the river.
 
“He does have a special place in my plans; they just aren’t, I’m sure,
what he’s imagined they might be.”
 
She paused for bit and added, “I may need your help with him.”

Lisette patted her on the
arm.
 
“You know I am happy to help.”

Lisette led Olivia back to
the crowds and noise. They rarely hunted together, but they made a very good
team when they did.
 
Lisette had
been forever grateful for Olivia’s influence in her life and held no ill will
toward her.
 
Her life on the streets
at the mercy of a madam had been much harsher than the life of a vampire.
 
Since Olivia turned her, she’d been in
control of her life. She willingly embraced the power Olivia gave her.
 
Her independence had been important to
her, too, so she was relieved that Olivia hadn’t wanted to impose the
boundaries of a conventional relationship on her; the two had remained close
friends, but they allowed each other to come and go freely.
 

Christophe, they both knew,
would be a different matter.
 
He’d
always been at the mercy of female power in his life—his mother, his
grandmother, and his sister.
 
Now
Olivia.
 
He also would eventually
realize why Olivia had chosen him, and unless she handled the situation well,
he might have a complete meltdown.
 
While that wouldn’t be the end of the world, Olivia would rather he
procure the information for her willingly.
 
Getting his sister or his grandmother involved could completely wreck
her plans.
 

Olivia trusted Lisette with
the whole story from the start; in that week they had spent together in 1881,
Olivia sat in bed, talking excitedly about how Marie Laveau had most certainly
discovered the secret to eternal life without the same limits that Olivia
faced.
 
“I can’t explain it,” she’d
rambled, “but I knew that she was the original Marie; it wasn’t her
daughter.
 
Can you imagine it?
 
Being able to move from one body to a
new one, taking all of the wisdom from your past life with you and being free
to start over completely? Not only that, but if this is truly possible, it must
mean there is something else than here—and that death isn’t the end.
 
Maybe I can bring Daniela back.”
 

Lisette had been caught up
in the energy of it all back then; after all, she was new to the idea of being
a vampire.
 
If vampires existed, who
was to say what Olivia described wasn’t possible?
 
She’d wondered why it was so important
to Olivia at the time, but as she lived as a vampire, she came to understand a
bit better.
 
Not only would being
able to move from one body to another make it easier to conceal her true identity,
but also she’d never really relished feeding.
 
On an animal level, she loved the hunt
and the exhilaration of the feeding and the control that came with it, but if
there were a way to live forever and not have the messiness of feeding, that
would be ideal. Donors were useful in times of exhaustion, but to be truly free
of obligation to others would be a welcome change.

Olivia, unlike Lisette, felt
no sense of obligation to anyone. The true motivation for Olivia was to bring her
beloved Daniela back from the dead. She’d spent the years in between 1881 and
2012, when she returned to New Orleans to live, chasing trails of evidence
around the globe, looking for some proof that what she hoped for existed.
 
She’d written Lisette sporadically,
telling her of different leads she found, then following up with letters revealing
yet another charlatan or dead end.

All roads led Olivia back to
New Orleans. She’d become convinced that Daniela was already reincarnated, and
she’d felt the pull of her so strongly that she’d been drawn back to New
Orleans.
 
When she returned, Lisette
wasn’t sure that it wasn’t just wishful thinking on Olivia’s part, but she was
glad that she’d returned for awhile.
 
She found Olivia’s presence comforting, and she felt less lonely with
her there.
 
New Orleans was not
devoid of vampires or donors, and Lisette had enjoyed the company of donors and
other vampires from time to time, but she felt a special affinity for Olivia.
 
Family lines were important to her now
in ways that they hadn’t been when she was a mere mortal. Olivia might be
ruthless in her own way, but she was always honest with Lisette.
 
Had she been inclined to do so, Lisette
thought she could make a living as a writer based on Olivia’s stories and
letters.
 
But, she’d never had such
aspirations, not truly. She’d kept the letters, though, tucked away in a French
Market coffee can, safely hidden in the back of a closet of the small cottage
she’d bought in the Treme after Olivia left New Orleans.
 
She wasn’t obsessed with Olivia, but she
loved her and would always be grateful to her.

When Olivia returned in
2012, Lisette saw the same sparkle in her eye she had that first night they met,
the Eve of St. John.
 
Lisette was
reading and had fallen asleep.
 
In
her mind, she heard Olivia’s voice calling softly to her, her laughter soft and
scented with violets.
 
She’d run to
the door and swung it open to see Olivia standing there, smiling.
 
She invited her in, and later, as they
drank wine in bed, Olivia told her she was here to stay.
 
“I think she’s here, Lisette.
 
I don’t really know how or why she’s
here, but I swear I can feel her.” Lisette simply listened, happy to have
Olivia back, hoping she would stay.