Shades of Blood

I have returned home. After all my years traveling, searching, learning, I have come back to the place of my birth. If it were possible to cry, I would weep tears of joy.

 

But like everything else, that simple pleasure is long gone.
 

In over fifty years, very little of New Orleans has changed. The Market, Café du Monde, the Mississippi—all are still here, all my old haunts. My old hunting grounds.
 

The foolish, still flock to Bourbon Street, still take part in its crassness. I have seen the fall of civilization more on Bourbon than any other place in the world. The foolish still flock, will continue to, even while myself and others like me prey on them.

The building still stands. Still blood-red. I thought I could stand the sight of it, that looking upon it would no longer cause me terror. In part, I was right. I feel something beyond terror, something for which I have no words. I feel grief for the acts I have committed, will commit.

But most of all, I feel rage. Rage and a hatred that causes all other emotions; even that nameless terror, to pale in comparison.

I have returned home. And now, at last, I will have my revenge.

-Taken from the diary of Felipe

November 28

Chapter One

 

“I’m going to kill her.” I didn’t throw the phone across the room like I wanted to, but instead, set it down gently on the coffee table. I took a deep breath and held it for a long moment before releasing it. “I’ll just have to owe Williams another favor.”

“That would put you at owing him three times, which is three times too many.” Theo slid the phone out of my reach. I’d already thrown two phones this month, so I didn’t begrudge him the action. “What exactly did Danie do this time?”

It’d been almost a month since Williams had shown up in the foyer and left his niece—Hart’s daughter—in my care. Not that I really wanted her here or that she wanted to be here. Things were just getting back to normal after the terror of Halloween, after darting around the city trying to find Hart’s other psychopathic brother. Having Hart’s daughter under my roof made me more than a little uneasy, even though he was still at the bottom of the Mississippi.

I’d argued with Williams. Danie had argued with Williams. Even Mickeal, Williams’s second-in-command and currently stationed at the Crossroads, had argued with Williams. He refused to budge. And my conscience wouldn’t let me throw her out without a definite place to go.

So Danie stayed. And did her best to make all our lives a living hell.

“Shoplifting. Again.” I drummed my fingers over my stomach, then stopped when one of the bumps kicked a little. Theo and I still called them the bumps, even though it was starting to look like I’d swallowed a small beach ball. At the rate I was going, I’d be as big as a cow by the time I delivered in May. “Down at that tourist shop.”

“Which one? There’s only half a million or so.” Theo made a little circle motion with his finger and I gave him my back. I always seemed to have a knot between my shoulder blades these days. Whether it was from Danie or from the bumps, I couldn’t begin to guess.

“Voodoo Blues. The owner recognized her, so instead of calling the police, he let her go and called me. I’ll send Elizabeth down tomorrow to take care of it.”

“Have you ever thought about letting her get picked up by the police? Seeing if having the law come down on her would actually make her see how stupid she’s being?” Theo pressed a kiss against my bare shoulder. I shrugged half-heartedly, tapping my fingers on my knee.

“Maybe it would work. Or maybe she’d go nuts on them and then we’d have a serious problem.” Restless now, I stood up to pace in front of the fireplace. It was just now ten p.m. and most of the house had been up long enough to start getting into trouble. Any minute now, someone was going to knock on the parlor door and tell me they needed help with something.

I wasn’t psychic. It had happened often enough that it was a given.