MATURE READERS ONLY! SEXUAL CONTENT PRESENT!
"Laveau?" Damon repeats, hairs on the back of his neck raising in caution and excitement. "Like the voodoo queen?"
"Something like that," Nala whispers, her lips pressing sensual kisses along the sided of...
Authors Note: Just to preface for my history buffs or fact checkers, pieces of the information regarding the background of Nala and her family are not going to be completely historically accurate. A portion of it will be based off how it was described in American Horror Story just because it's the only visual representation of Marie Laveau that I have seen thus far! Now back to the regularly scheduled program...
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Chapter 12: Painful Goodbyes
Nala Laveau had prided herself in being able to stay out of the supernatural drama that was eternally plaguing Mystic Falls, but not even an hour after she'd seen her grandmother, she received a warning that overwhelmed her.
Sitting on her front porch was a single crying baby, her eyes widening on instinct. This was a joke, some sick disgusting joke like the kids back in Louisiana used to play on her after hearing about her lineage.
Rumors of her grandmothers hand in the dark voodoo practice were taken out of hand by the predominantly Catholic upbringing of the people who resided there—going far enough to call Marie a demon or an evil spirit summoned from the depths of hell. It wasn't true, not completely, at least.
Nala was knowledgeable on the sacrifices her voodoo priestess of a grandmother took place in, the late night meetings she'd held with the other presumed voodoo practitioners in town.
Once, as a young girl, no older than fourteen she'd woken up in the dead of the night, the faint sound of a rhythmic bass capturing her attention. Slipping quietly out of bed, slinking down the stairs like the silent ebbs of darkness that creeped through the hallway of her home.
Downstairs she found the source of the music, a fire lit ablaze with no more than fifteen women dancing and singing around it. Many of them were dressed in all white, covered from head to toe in the ashy chalk that came from rubbing decaying skeletons together.
Latin spewed from their tongues, the only man present coming forth with a hot pepper stabbed onto a skewer, it being saturated in the fire until the iron ran red hot. Her grandmother shook with power from her place in a beautifully crafted wooden chair—carved deep into the flesh of the wood were protection symbols, ones that summoned power, hieroglyphs that called upon the dead for ancient knowledge of magic and what resides beyond the dimensions.
That was the first time she ever saw her grandmother in her element, eyes wide as she was fueled by the dark magic that others didn't dare to try—most didn't even have the right to. Opening her mouth to take the red hot pepper, she chewed vigorously, calling upon the ancestors to watch her sacrifice of such great pain to prove that she was worth of their guidance and power.
Later in life, her mother had told her what Marie Laveau was doing—summoning the spirit that had clinged to their family—Papa Legba.
His request was simple, a pure innocent soul and Marie delivered year after year, kidnapping little beautiful babies from their homes: the hospital even. Anywhere she could get her hands of the innocent soul that had once granted her grandmother the everlasting beauty that everyone always spoke of.
Even years after her grandmother had died, the townspeople heard word of her actions, taking matters into their own hands. Students and neighbors crept to their door in the dead of the night with poorly made voodoo dolls with shit sewn inside, horrible messages written on the fabric with needles and staples showing what they really wanted to do to her. It was traumatizing as a child, but once her parents died she had no other choice than to grow a firm backbone.
The baby let out a shrilling cry, one that snapped her from the memories of the past. Dusky eyes fervently looked for the clue as who'd leave their baby here but no one was to be found. Freaking out and completely unable to take a proper deep breath, shaky hands grasped onto her phone, clicking the contact before she even thought twice.
It rang a total of three times for the chirpy voice called through, the sound of music playing in the background. "Hey Nala, I'm at the parade where are you?"
"Caroline, I need help. I need you to come to my house now!"
Her fear was evident, breathing so choppy that the blonde haired vampire on the recieving end of the phone was terrified Nala would pass out before she even got there. "I'm on my way."
Less than five minutes pass and the screeching sound of fast tires coming to a halt on the pavement before her. Vampire speeding over, Caroline immediately gasped at the sight of the baby before Nala. "Who's is that?"
"I don't know! I was leaving to head to you and it was just here."
"It?"
"I'm not exactly trying to pick it up and figure out the gender, bond or play house right now Caroline. I need you to take this thing to your mom."
Caroline's eyes widened. "And tell her what? Here mom, I found a baby?"
"Yes, actually. Unless you wanted me to just leave it here."
The small features of her control-freak of a friend were smushed up into angry lines on her forehead and nose. "We can't just leave it here." Stomping over and grabbing the carrier and putting it into the car. "I can't believe you called me for this!"
"I don't see why not? Your mom is literally the Sheriff, how would it make me look if before she's ever even met me, I bring her an abandoned infant?"
Caroline sighed, finally being bested by another in an argument. "Fine, but after we drop it off you're buying me a drink."
"Done," Nala paused, pursing her lips. "As long as you can handle a double shot."
