She shook her head. “You have one direksyon.” She pointed to the Empress card. “She is your direksyon.”
She pulled out another card, and then another, her frown deepening as the darkness in the cards filled the table. Ten of Swords. Nine of Swords. Three of Swords.
“Ohhh, anpil soufrans.”
I knew that word. That word meant suffering. She pointed to the Nine of Swords and looked at me. “Soufri rèv fè nwa.”
I nodded in understanding. “Very dark dreams. Nightmares.”
“You live in the past. That is not good for you.”
She drew another card and smiled, placing it on top of the Empress. “She is your future.”
Grabbing the Three of Swords card, she slammed it against my chest and softly began to chant. I watched her in astonishment, unable to move as her words became meditative and I began to repeat them. She grabbed my hand and wrapped it around the dog chains at my neck.
“Pwoteksyon sa a se pouvwa mwen pou pwoteje kont mal. Sa pwoteje kenbe mal. Sa pwoteje kenbe mal.”
I knew she meant no harm, those words meant protection from the bad. I clenched my eyes and repeated those last words, feeling a stillness come over me. I didn’t realize she had stopped, until I opened my eyes and noticed I was alone. I looked around the dim room, skulls and candles aligned the shelves. Herbs filled jars and the protection stones lay all around us. When I looked down, the Knight of Swords was staring at me. His sword held high; his expression fierce with aggression.
The sound of the beads startled me, as Madame Laveaux re-entered the room. A hot beverage in her hands which she set in front of me.
“Drink.”
I breathed in the mint leaves and took a gulp of the tea. It was oddly soothing.
“I know you are afraid of me.”
I stared at her and slowly nodded. “I will not hurt you, but this…” she pointed at the ten of swords. “You hurt yourself.”
I closed my eyes. “The nightmares come all the time. I can’t get rid of them.”
“Manti!”
“I am not lying! I have tried!”
“Try harder! The spirits brought you to my door for a reason. She is your reason!” She slammed her hand over the Empress card. You must save her.”
“Dyanara?”
She nodded and grabbed my hands. In it she left a piece of paper with an address written down on it. “She is in danger. Grave danger. She is not safe.”
“I knew it! Where is she?”
Madame Laveaux shook her head. “Papa Legba watches closely over her.”
My body tensed, knowing who she meant by that. Papa Legba was known in the Voodoo religion as a Loa. The god of the crossroads, the one who warned against evil spirits. “What kind of evil am I going up against, Madame?”
“The kind that destroys the soul. Now, go. This will protect you,” she patted the dog tags on my chest and as she did her fingertips pressed to the scar on my chest. She frowned, “You must believe.”
“Believe in what?”
“Come.”
“Believe in what, Ms. Adelaide?”
“You will know when the time is right.” She shoved me out and slammed the door in my face. The sound of the frogs echoed around me and I took a deep breath and sighed. I knew now where Dyanara had gotten her cryptic messages from. Madame Laveaux was filled with them.
Staring down at the handwriting on the note, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to take a ride out to see what the fuss was all about. Silver amour didn’t align this Royal Bastard’s shoulders, this Knight crept in the darkness where he belonged.
8
Knuckles
I followed the GPS down a winding road in the backwoods of the Louisiana swamps, only a few miles east of the Royal Bastards territory. This place was set far deeper into the Bayou than I thought. I hated this place. I never felt welcome here. I stayed because Jameson had gotten me out of jail, but if it had been up to me, I would have left a long time ago.
The Royal Bastards had been my home ever since I got discharged. I did two tours in the Special Forces, but the last one, they might as well have left me for dead. I lost my entire troop, every one of my friends, and nearly my own life. When I woke up in the hospital, I begged them to let me die, but the sons of bitches wouldn’t. They kept me alive long enough for me to relive the entire nightmare over and over again to this day. This wasn’t living. It was barely breathing.
I made a sharp turn down another dirt road and killed the lights. The GPS said the place was only a half a mile up the road. I slid my bike into the shadows and walked. I didn’t know who had her or what I was saving her from, but I wasn’t dumb enough to risk anyone seeing me.
The two-story home loomed ahead. Only a couple lights were on and I was careful to remain hidden. I went towards the back of the house and that’s when I noticed it. The familiar patches on one of the bikes. I was in fucking enemy territory and I was alone.
The back door slammed open and I instantly dropped down into the bushes, grateful the moon wasn’t out tonight. I lay low and watched as two men stepped outside. The man on the right lit up a cigarette.
“You heard anything about those fucking Royal pains in my ass?”
“Nothing. They’ve gone silent. No movement.”
“I knew they wouldn’t make it. They don’t have the blood for it. This is and always will be Bloody Scorpions territory.”
“We’ll see about that, you piece of shit,” I uttered softly.
“Tadeo I’ve been meaning to ask you something.” The man on the left was choosing his words very carefully.
“Speak.”
“Your sister. Well, she’s been locked up long enough, don’t you think?”
“It’s what she deserves,” he snarled in disgust at the mention of her.
“I’d like to take her off your hands.”
“What would you want with such a dirty whore like her?” Pure hatred spewed from him and that’s when I knew I was dealing with something much more dangerous. Her life was in the hands of these assholes.
I should have put two and two together when she gave me her name. Reyes. The guy on the left was none other than Tadeo Reyes, the VP of the Bloody Scorpions. The one on the right was Cesar Dominguez. I’d gotten into it with him a couple times. He was SAA for the club, and he was a low life like no other. I’d heard stories about the fucker in prison. The last one I heard was how he’d cut his brother’s ear off for listening in on his conversation. Then he cut his tongue off for being a nosy snitch. And that was his own blood. I didn’t like it one bit that he had set his eyes on Dyanara.
The Bloody Scorpions were the rival club here in New Orleans, hell, pretty much everywhere around the nation. They wanted to compete with us, and we weren’t having it. We had connections they could only dream of and they’re only tactic was to get rid of us. So far, that hadn’t worked too well for them. Especially seeing that their Prez had gotten a bullet to his head not too long ago. Tadeo Reyes was up for President, and we knew that if we wanted to succeed, we needed to cut the snake at the head.
“Dyanara has always been a nuisance. She’s bait, that’s all she has ever been.”