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

Chapter Twenty: To Kill A Gargoyle

Hezekiah

When Abraham told me that we were going to kill the gargoyle, Sephtis, I almost had a laugh.

I knew who Sephtis was - that wretched gargoyle the Council has kept as a pet for years; he was around even before the Battle of De La Salle. That's probably one of the reasons why Abraham was so sure on killing this thing; to send The Council a message.

But there was more to that reasoning than I knew. Hiking up to that house, I knew the energy was off; there were people in that house, and I didn't mean people like me. Human folk. That's what I felt. And when I found my way inside, my suspicions were correct - bloodsuckers standing on one end, staring down a group of voodoo witches on the other end of the foyer, huddled together, trying not to give them eyes. I recognized the Coterie standing about, so I knew that Alize had to be here. Meaning, shit was worse off than I thought.

"Kiah." Tekoah walked up to me the moment I stepped foot in the house.

"What's goin' on?"

Tekoah just shook his head. "I think you should be the one to go up there and speak to him yourself."

I sighed, cause I knew what was coming. The only reason either of us would be in this room together was if there was an alliance forged of some sort - the one Aza was talking about hours ago at her house. But the tension was heavy; I could feel it within me...

When I got to Abraham's study, there they were - Abraham, with his hands clasped around Aza's hand and Alize's hand, too. There was blood, I smelled it. Human blood.

"Hezekiah." Aza dragged herself over to me and wrapped her arms around me, but pulled away when she realized the smell of her blood dripping from her hand was distracting me.

"Sorry." She wrapped her nightgown on her palm. Those eyes of hers were so tired and drained.

"The kids are fine." My eyes didn't leave Abrahams. "They're at Ben's for the day."

"Thank God."

It got real quiet. Alize, who had her arms crossed over her chest, was deeply upset, I could feel this, too. Her head turned towards an empty corner, her bloodied hand tucked between her blouse. I saw Lisa in Alize's face and was hit with a bout of anger that tensed me up. Made me fall deeper into that place I didn't like falling into.

Aza and Alize felt the tension deepen in the room. It was mostly coming from Abraham, who knew that part of this was his fault; killing those members of the Council, knowing it would leave them coming for our necks. Now, Jeanie was dead, and Lisa was missing.

How far was he willing to go? For his own desires? In fact, how far were any of us willing to go?

"We best be getting home," Alize said; she wiped the tears that were falling from her eyes with her free hand.

"Y'all staying with Ben?"

"I'll be." Aza looked at Alize. "It would be safer if we all stayed together."

"I agree. But what I don't think is best is us staying in the city. When night comes..."

"I'll send a few of my men to patrol around," Abraham said. I knew the look on my face wasn't a pleasant one, cause I could already hear the complaining and moaning coming out of they mouths when I had to be the one to round them up. It had been a while since we were allowed to set our footing in the city with Abraham's permission. Even Terah didn't allow us to hang about the city unless we really needed to. 'Course, these rules applied differently to Elders like me. But times were different; times were like never before, now.