Voodoo Queens of New Orleans - Vol. II | In Progress

Chapter Eleven: Illusions

It felt like history was playing itself out again right in front of me.

War. Blood. Hunger. Power. All of that bullshit. Watching my brothers and sisters die, too. That looked familiar. Seeing a white face swimming in all the black blood that was spilled; the way the big woman smiled at me when Jeanie laid dead on the ground mirrored the faces of those over a century ago—the ones that'd smile at our pain and our suffering. Waiting around to see how we'd crumble into pieces. The Battle of De La Salle. I remember that one clear as night; I remember the look on Terah's face when he realized that we'd done lost, and the Council won. I remember the look on his face when he realized that Russell was our new vampire overlord. The horror and defeat in Terah's eyes, who was usually a man who didn't let nothing get him down.

I wanted to run after that bitch and grab her head, rip it off her body. I felt the anger course through me, hot and unrelenting, but Tekoah stopped me.

"Hezekiah!" Tekoah screamed. "Don't!"

I turned around at the wrong moment. Right when I did, the two goons slipped away, leaving the heads of our scouts and Jeanie's body by our feet. I could have followed they scent, but Tekoah refused to have me go.

"They want a wild goose chase," he said to me, kneeling by Jeanie. "We can't do that!"

"That's what Abraham wants!" I yelled, knowing the whole neighborhood probably woken up by now. "This what he wanted the whole time, Tekoah! For us to go run after these crackers and break our own necks trying to get to them. He don't give a fuck about us, Tekoah! He knew they'd do this!"

Tekoah was silent 'cause he knew I was right. When he saw the body of our Elder sister on the ground like her life ain't matter, he had no choice but to keep his mouth shut; he wouldn't even believe what come out his mouth.

He picked up Jeanie's body and stood up with her. We both stared at her face; she was with Beau in the Abyss, but not by no noble cause, and not by the hands of us. "An Eye for an Eye." This is what this was. But that Council bitch talked about two equal souls needed for restitution. Jeanie was one, and Tekoah and I could have easily been the other. Our scouts were just leeches. They wanted someone near the same level as us to pay back Abraham's blood debt. Someone just as important, if not more...

Tekoah saw how my eyes were and knew. The scent of the two Elders were near gone, but the other goons nearby still smelled close.

"Take Jeanie and the scouts heads back to the clan," I ordered Tekoah.

"Hezekiah, what are you doing!?"

"Go!"

He heard the urgency in my voice and figured I was about to do something real stupid. But I didn't have no time to hear his mouth yap about it 'fore I was out of the alley and into the street. There were about three of them, standing still under the lamp lights. Three bloodsuckers, all dressed like the ones in the alley. Standing taut, looking into the house. Just staring, knowing they can't get in but not letting that stop them from just being where they were. And it was working, 'cause I could sense the fear in the house, hitting the ceiling and spilling out from there. I could have ran through them, killed all of them. But I had to be smart; this was a distraction. For me and for them in the house. But it still didn't make sense; it was too easy. They were making it too easy for us: killing Jeanie talking about restitution, then having them stand outside the house looking a menace. I knew the Council; they were smarter than this. Way smarter.

Regardless, I ran up to the front steps and banged on the door.

"Aza!" I yelled, but no answer. I knew she was in there. I knew they all were. I turned back at the bloodsuckers still standing in the street, and they hadn't changed much from a moment ago—statues. These fuckers were willing to let everyone in this house ride out the night in fear while they stood 'round, watching.