Elle Jasper - Everdark

“Where’s Eli?” I asked Phin, who was propped against the counter. I must have had a worried expression on my face.

“Calm down, Poe,” he said. “He tried to tell you this morning, but you were too sacked out.” He rubbed a hand over his head. “He ran out to Garr’s with Jack and Tuba. There were a few things they needed before tonight.”

I crammed nearly half the burger into my mouth. Yes, hoggish, but I didn’t care. Hot, squishy greasy bread—heaven. I was starving. “What’s tonight?” I mumbled.

Noah dropped into the chair beside me and flung an arm over my shoulder. “Well, darlin’, a lot of things,” he said, his mercury eyes all but glowing. “First, a little dirty runnin’. Then, a little bit of Gullah-Gullah.” He grinned. “Hoodoo.”

I chewed. I only halfway understood.

I decided I’d know when it came.

Noah threw back his head and laughed.

The afternoon passed relatively fast. I dropped a call to Preacher and Estelle. They’d already spoken to Eli and knew of our plans. I promised my surrogate grandparents we’d stay safe and return soon.

“So,” I said, finally full. I wiped my mouth on a napkin and swigged down several gulps of Coke. “What sort of Gullah-Gullah are we up to tonight?”

Noah grinned. “You’ll see.”

By the time the sun began to set, Eli, Jack, and Tuba returned. Eli walked in through the kitchen, spied me, and strode purposefully straight to me. Without missing a beat, he pulled me into his arms, and, despite my Krystal breath, kissed me full-on in front of everyone. Several whistles and yells filled the kitchen; all of which I imagined were everyone’s except Noah’s. When I looked at him, his gaze held mine, and he simply shook his head and mouthed, Lucky fuck . I laughed.

With Eli’s arms like steel bands around me, I leaned back and looked into his eyes. “What sort of hoodoo are we about tonight?” I asked.

A slow grin spread across his sexy features. “A little grave robbing is all.”

I lifted a brow. He laughed. “The only way to end Valerian’s reign is to entomb him again. That’s not going to be easy. But there are things we will need.”

I nodded, accepting.

Soon, night fell.

Everyone except Jack and Tuba left Jake’s on foot and free-ran the city. Oddly enough, we encountered nothing—no vamps, not even a mugging. Even stranger was that I didn’t have a vision of Valerian the monster. I referred to it as a monster now because there were obvious character differences in vampires. At present I was living under the same roof with four, and at night kept company with eight in all. I trusted them all with Seth’s and my life. Even the monster’s own brother, to me, was safe. I fully believed he loved me, and although I didn’t return the sentiment, I did like him. I knew he wouldn’t hurt me despite what Eli and his family thought. And Eli and his kin, Noah and the others? They were Gullahvamps, as I started referring to them; Preacher’s cousin Garr treated Noah and his bunch just as Preacher treated the Duprés. A pact to keep the city safe meant keeping the vampires safe. Not only did their centuries-old traditions of hoodoo magic keep their cravings to a controlled minimum, but it made them . . . more like their true human characters, I believe. Take Noah. I can’t imagine he was much different in life as he is now, as an undead. Crazy fuck. I liked him, though—freaking fine as all double hell, with or without his weird antihump-me powder. He was a helluva free-runner, and an even better fighter—a regular Tyler Durden with dreads if you ask me. I loved having the secret that he was a vamp concealed by some special hoodoo juice. As was the truth about Seth’s and Zetty’s and my tendencies. It was all pretty fantastic if you asked me.

We finished running the streets, and it was well past two a.m. when we descended the buildings and entered the Circular Church Cemetery in the historic district. Any cemetery, in my book, was creepy at night; the Circular had to top the list as most creepy. A mist had sidled in from the harbor and sifted through the aged trunks of the live oaks, between the marble and slate headstones covered in black decay and draped with moss. Swear to God, it looked like something out of a freaking movie. We closed the front gate behind us and eased deeper into hallowed ground.

“Why is it you guys can come in here?” I asked.

Eli glanced at me, his hand tightly holding mine. “What do you mean?”

“You know. Hallowed ground and all that,” I answered in a whisper.

He grinned. “We’re not evil spirits, Riley. Besides, Garr fixed the cemeteries here a long, long time ago. Just like Preacher did the ones in Savannah.”

“Gotcha,” I said.

We continued on.

At one particular grave, Luc, who was leading, stopped. Jack and Tuba knelt beside it, murmuring Gullah words I couldn’t understand. With a pocket knife, Jack scraped some of the headstone into a plastic cup with a screw lid; Tuba, with his hands, pulled at some of the sod until he reached dirt. Retrieving a bag from his back pocket, he opened it and sprinkled the contents all around the grave; then dug a few handfuls of dirt, dropping them into a ziplock.

I was beginning to see the value of a ziplock.

Moonlight shined down through the canopy of trees and shot darts of illuminated glow throughout the gravestones. Seth elbowed me, and pointed; I followed his finger to a Gothic-y square-sided spire, jutting into the sky.

“The Unitarian Church of Charleston,” Noah said beside me. “Sort of reminds me of Notre Dame.”

I had to agree.

“Whose grave is that?” I asked Noah.

He glanced down at me. His face grew somber in the moonlight. “Elizabeth Mont Frey. Once, a very beautiful, highly respected woman of Charles Towne.” He glanced at the headstone. “She didn’t make it through her quickening before she was killed. Garr was saved by his daddy,” Noah looked at me. “They were taken at the same time, by the same vampire. You can imagine back then, a Gullah man and a prominent white woman, together.” He sighed. “They were crazy in love, those two. Things haven’t changed all that much, I’m afraid. Anyway, despite her blood being tainted by a vampire, Garr insisted she have a Christian burial. Even in death, her body exudes mystics only Garr knows how to use.” Noah’s eyes bore into mine. “Almost as if she knows his desires, and allows only him to utilize her gifts.”

I stared into the silver depths of Noah’s gaze. I nodded in understanding.

We’d only just stepped out of the Circular Cemetery when Eli’s back stiffened. Phin, Luc, Josie, and Noah glanced around, peering through the darkness. Saul, Jenna, Cafrey, and Tate, also on alert, began to move around the rest of us in a circle.

Then, they descended from the trees above us—six newlings; all punks, all rogues, all ravenous.

Eli shoved me—hard. “Get down, Riley!” he ground out. I flew several feet away and landed on my backside. I jumped right back up and ran to stand beside the one person I knew would let me fight—Noah.

Eli growled. It almost made me laugh, how protective he was. Even after seeing me fight, he still wanted me out of the fray. The newlings lunged, Eli swore in French, and the fight began.

I quickly learned why Eli was so concerned; they all seemed to hone in on me . I’m talking long-jawed, fangs dropped, faces grossly distorted, hideousness. Slobbering and rabid, they all lunged straight for me. Eli grabbed one by the throat and threw him against a tree. His body hit hard, but in a split second he was up, eyes seeking me out.

It gave me just the time I needed to grasp the blade from my back sheath, aim, and fling it at him. I threw hard. The blade hit its mark and pinned him to the tree.