Claiming the Voodoo Princess Read online

  “You didn’t think I felt bad about it once you told me how old boy did you?”

  “And that same motherfucker is out here trying to open up some sort of gate that my family has to close! You’re nothing like him! The only similarity is that you lied.”

  “Look at me!”

  “I am!” she challenged him. “Look at me, Peresh! I’m freshly glued back together, and I can stand before you and tell you that your outer doesn’t fucking matter to me. It was how you treated me, how you talked to me and consoled me.”

  He sighed. “Look. The me you saw every Friday night wasn’t me. I’m not that kind of a guy. It was just a part I was playing—”

  “Playing?” she chorused as her neck popped backward. “Playing, Peresh? For seven years? You pretended to listen, to console, to give a damn? Even when I called on you a few nights ago, it was all just for show?”

  With his head bowed, Peresh’s thoughts were scrambling. He had the option of telling her how he honestly felt, but he wasn’t willing to take the chances of disappointing her any further, or risking his own heartbreak in the end. He lowly vowed, “Yes. All so that you wouldn’t hurt or be afraid anymore.”

  A ferocious balled fist slammed into his jaw so hard that his face landed in the mushy earth he was once standing in.

  “You’re absolutely, right, Peresh,” Annalissa said with her chin tilted upward. “Me giving you a version of myself that was completely transparent was all just for your show. But I don’t regret it.” Sharply, she turned away from him and sashayed away, thinking of what Jovan would’ve said about her controlling her anger.

  Once back at the house, she put on a brave smile and sipped ice-cold water from her glass to cool down. Since she couldn’t sit on ice, she’d might as well hold a few cubes on her tongue.

  “Are you alright?” Robyn gently asked from the end of the table, at her daughter’s right side.

  She nodded with her smile still intact.

  “Well, I’d like for you to meet the Northgates. Kirko, Cinderella, Fairest and Akiel. We’re sure you’re quite fond of Peresh.”

  Her head snapped over to her mother with knitted brows. “What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked with a mouthful of ice.

  “It means that you already met him, honey.”

  “Oh.” She giggled, covering her mouth. “A few times. Nice kid.”

  “Well, the Northgates are going to be helping us with our situation. Your brother insists on not pushing his wedding back, so he’s overly confident that we can resolve this.”

  “Of course, we can,” Lisa added with pride. “We’re the Pharaohs and the infamous demon-hunting clan, the Northgates.” Pleasantly, she laid a hand on top of her mother’s, on the table.

  Robyn looked to her husband with curious eyes. She wondered what the hell had happened in the Sun home in a five-day span to make her daughter do a 180-turn on her previous life.

  Chapter

  Nine

  Because it was a Friday night, Lisa purposely didn’t sleep. She meditated and researched demonology to brush up on her skills. While in her father’s old library, she could feel a presence watching her.

  “It’s not nice to lurk in the shadows, Fairest.” She turned away from the wall of books in front of her, to the darkest corner of the room. “Especially not in this house. We’re in tune with every nook and cranny.”

  Fairest stepped out with a small smile across her fat lips. “I was just watching the master at work, is all.”

  “Master?”

  “Yeah. You don’t know what they say about you?”

  Lisa squinted.

  “Princess Annilassa puts in the brain power and the family fetches like a pack of hungry dogs. It’s just exciting to see the flow of a family other than my own at work. Every process starts somewhere. ‘Course I always thought I’s the only bookworm in the business, but when I heard that you were too, a volt of electricity shot through me.”

  “I love your drawl,” Lisa said. “I especially love how you go from nonregional diction to country-bama. It’s so you. So, us.”

  “Well, we can only be who we are. No sense in bein’ someone else, right?”

  Slowly, Lisa nodded.

  “How’s about we take the books to the kitchen and I can brew us some herbal tea? It always helps me to study before a hunt.”

  Obliging, Lisa opened seven different books on the breakfast nook, not at all awaiting the tea in a tall mug Fairest was preparing to sit next to the book in front of her.

  “How do you know my brother?” Fairest asked curiously as she sat.

  Lisa cleared her throat. “A dream. Nightmare, actually.”

  “Yeah, he’s good at walkin’ in and out of daydreams, nightdreams, sometimes even your thoughts.”

  Lisa glared at her across the table.

  “Is this conflicting to you? I heard that it was your ex-mistake that was doing all of this who-shot-john.”

  Lisa lowly giggled. “Ex-mistake. I like that. But, no. Duty calls. Dossier has never been one to disappoint me when it comes to disappointments.”

  “No, I meant with him being an ex and you being in love with my brother and all.”

  Lisa’s eyes shot off her page the size of golf balls.

  “Honey, I read auras too. It ain’t a secret that you’re head over heels for him as he is for you. But what I can’t understand is why y’all would run away from each other.”

  “Fairest, believe me when I say I’m not running.”

  “Oh? But y’all spent quite some time with one another and never made it official. See, I knew of a girl that my brother was into, but was never told of who that girl was. You could’ve made a move.”

  “I made the wrong one with Dossier. If you don’t mind, I really need to study.”

  “Right.” Fairest gently placed her mug on the table to wrap her long locks into a high, messy bun. “So, I know a lot about the creatures we’re working with, all but this Dossier character. Do you know where he could be? We need to find him before five-thirty-seven. That’s when the sun will be starting to set, and the Blood Moon will be ready to show itself in this region. Our families think that’s what he’s waiting for in order to open the gate and keep it open, and I have to agree.”

  “Cooper’s Bayou,” she muttered. “He’s got a cloaked place out by the bayou. I might remember where it is if I can get close enough and sense it.”

  “Great! Now, all we gotta to do is study, and we’ll be ready to rock and roll tomorrow.”

  “Hey, Fairest?”

  “Yes?”

  “How do you stay so perky and upbeat with all the things you encounter?”

  Fairest drummed her fingertips at her chin. “Well, I remember that if I lose sight of myself, one of those things could enter my body and ruin me. I don’t know what’s worst—being possessed or forgetting who I am.”

  That statement made Lisa sit back and think for a moment. Now was the time to remember her capabilities, even if facing off, finally, with her power-hungry ex.

  ***

  With all the pages that had to be read, the girls didn’t wrap up until dawn. They put breakfast on for their families, and Lisa Spartan sprinted through town to try and clear her head. She only wished she could call Jovan and ask for her for advice, but it would remain one of her biggest regrets not to ask questions before she left the woman’s land.

  After a shower, a nap, and a hearty brunch, the families were packed and ready to go, including Peresh, who arrived as the families were pouring out of the front doors.

  “Alright, Northgates,” Pharaoh announced. “This is going to be swift, just, and very dramatic.”

  Kirko chuckled. “One day, we’re going to have to tell our kids about boarding school.”

  “No, Kirk. No, we’re not.”

  “Can we get a move on?” Moses interrupted. “I still have to get my final fitting for my tux.”

  Akiel slammed his hand down onto Moses’s shoulder. “Southern cha
rm is the best dress.” He then winked at him.

  “Lisa,” Robyn called her daughter from the doorway. “Honey, only you know where this cloak is. You have to take us there.”

  Suddenly, Lisa was riddled with nervousness. “Mama, I don’t think—”

  Robyn drew her daughter closer, cradling Lisa’s jaws gently in her small, soft hand. “Baby, you can do this,” she said honestly. “Practicing and knowing are two different things. This here is in your bloodline. You were made for this.”

  “I’ve never transported this many people before.”

  “You know why I’m proud of you, Lisa? It’s because you try instead of sitting back, twiddling your thumbs. Don’t forgive me for coaching you as opposed to putting you down.” Robyn raised a single brow to silently tell her daughter that she’d spoken to Jovan. What she didn’t say was that Jovan practically put her foot up Mr. and Mrs. Pharaoh’s backside for not sitting their daughter down to give her a bit of tough love. She swore that the Pharaohs were the reason so much was on their daughter’s heart, and they let it fester until she self-destructed.

  “Mama—”

  “Take us, baby. You got this.”

  Trembling, Lisa walked down the last step of the porch, peering at all the faces who were now depending on her.

  “You need help, little sister?” Moses teased her. “I would take everyone, but I don’t know where this guy hangs.”

  “Leave me alone.”

  “Look, I have things to do, so I really would appreciate it if you got the molasses—”

  “I didn’t ask you to change your tux!”

  “You didn’t have to, ‘cause it ain’t your wedding.”

  “You can be a real—”

  “Do not make me take off my belt,” Pharaoh warned. “Neither of you are too old to be beaten. Lisa, get this show on the road already.”

  With a deep breath, Lisa shut her eyes and took everyone to a watery, wooded area. “Taxodium distichum,” she mumbled, to push the cypress trees away from the group.

  Cinderella quietly clapped her hands. “We got transported,” she whispered to Akiel. “This is so exciting.”

  Carefully Lisa moved through the knee-length water, trying to sense the cloak. She’d been there plenty of times before. They even made love in the hand-built shack where Dossier handled most of his illegal business.

  She turned to the families, placing her pointer finger up to her lips to make sure they remained quiet. Then, she disappeared into thin air along the bank.

  Chapter

  Ten

  With wet feet, she walked along a wooden floorboard with her eyes pasted on the back of Dossier’s menacing height. His back was to her at his makeshift altar.

  “Took you long enough,” he said.

  “Yeah? Well I had some soul searching to do.”

  Slowly, he turned to her with his hands clasped. “Obviously you didn’t search hard enough. You ain’t got a soul, you heartless bitch.”

  “Dossier, you can’t do this.”

  “Says who? You? You Pharaohs forget that there is a thing called free will.”

  “Yes, there is, but…” She huffed, moussing her locs behind her shoulder. “Dossier, I’m sorry.”

  “Ha!” He loudly chuckled, doubling over with his hand over his stomach. “You think I give a fuck about your apology?”

  “I hated myself so badly.”

  “And?”

  “I was with child.”

  He stopped laughing, standing tall to inspect her for the truth.

  “Dossier, I blamed you when I lost it. I told myself that if I hadn’t been stressed out over you, and all the other things I was going through, I would’ve kept my baby. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I honestly didn’t think you’d care.”

  His face balled into a grimace as he approached the honest, bleeding-heart young woman until he closed the space between them. “You really were carrying my seed,” he reasoned. “You got rid of it, didn’t you?”

  “What?” she hissed. “No, Dossier. I miscarried.”

  “No, you got rid of it because you hated me.”

  “No! I didn’t start hating you and the world until after I lost the baby! I blamed everybody but myself when it was my fault that I let everything get to—”

  Dossier punched Lisa so hard that all she could do was hit the ground with a nasty thud. As she was going down, she heard Jovan’s echoey voice in her thoughts.

  “If you shall fall, let it be glorious.”

  Chapter

  Eleven LOVE

  While the families waited for a sign, if any, Akiel’s neck stiffened as his head tilted heavenward.

  “What the?” Fairest grabbed her brother’s arm, fearing he’d fall into the murky water.

  “Son?” Kirko inched toward his son, dragging his thick boots through the muddy earth below the surface to try and make it to his eldest.

  “Daddy,” Akiel mumbled as he trembled. “The gate. The demons. They weren’t for the earth. They were for her.”

  “Lisa,” Moses gasped. He bolted toward the bank in the direction his sister had gone, but was violently pushed back.

  Pharaoh caught his son before he hit the water, gently lowering him over the bank with his mighty hand. “Y’all stay here. I’ll go and get my daughter.”

  Robyn caught his arm. “David, she already fell into a trap—”

  “And I’m going to do my damnedest to get her out of it.”

  “No,” Moses opposed. “It was her energy that kept me out.”

  ***

  On the wooden floor, Annalissa felt every painful dark entity enter her body for a home.

  “Always remember that physical pain is matched with the emotional and mental.”

  Annalissa’s hands trembled as she listened to Dossier’s incantations underneath Jovan’s teachings.

  “The same as the scars we’ve inflicted upon your flesh will heal, your heart will too.”

  “I blamed you,” Lisa remembered saying to Dossier.

  “Nobody’s purpose, destiny and legacy matters more to you than your own.”

  Her eyes shot open with volts of electricity covering her irises. Her fingertips sparked with thunder.

  “…feed your own curiosity, your own ambition, go out on a limb for you before you do it for anyone else.”

  No longer could she feel the darkness consuming her. Yet, no longer was she a child to allow things to take over her and her abilities.

  With his back turned, Dossier didn’t see anything but a flicker of lightening against the wall in front of him. The moment he turned around, he dropped to his ass. “Lisa,” he said mindlessly. He was more concerned with the sight of her covered in neon blue bolts as opposed to fire. Her eyes were blacked out except for the hues of blue.

  “I tried being reasonable,” she confessed with the baritone of beings inside of her. “I tried being someone else. I tried being humble. I tried being thankful. But you wouldn’t accept that.”

  “Lisa—”

  “I’m finished with you.”

  Pharaoh was helping his son to his feet when what appeared to be a silver lining melting away from the trees, revealing a shack. Only for a moment. Shortly after, the side of it busted open with Dossier being tossed out of it.

  Lisa floated over to his rolling body, hovering above him. “You made a fool of me for the very last time, Dossier.”

  “Lisa!” Moses called his sister.

  “Stay out of this, Mo.”

  “Baby, you would’ve learned nothing if you kill him!” Robyn shouted.

  “I’m sorry, mama.” Lisa lifted her hand with her fingertips sparkling.

  Peresh ambushed her from the side, tackling her to the ground.

  Dossier gained his footing and was about to dart away, yet Kirko stopped him with his tall, hard body. He put the young man in a chokehold to keep him from getting too far.

  “Daddy, we gotta open the gate!” Fairest alerted him.

  “Get that s
hit out of her!” Kirko hollered back.

  Annalissa pushed Peresh off of her, but he bounced back, just in time for his sister to come over and lay hands on Lisa’s arms, though it was a painful task, being shocked by many volts.

  “Rest,” Fairest whispered to her, then took her attention to Cinderella. “Mama, we need more than holy water. Peresh.”

  He looked at his sister with a heaving chest, praying that he wouldn’t have the same reaction he had when he went inside the speed demon.

  “Akiel! Shake it off and open the gate!”

  “Are you crazy?” He yelled at her. “If I open that gate and we can’t get that shit out of her, we’re asking for trouble!”

  “Don’t scream at me! We can do this!”

  “Akiel, we can hold it off as much as we can,” Moses reasoned. “Together, my family is strong. I trust mine. You trust yours?”

  Akiel nodded as he slipped his backpack off his shoulders to fetch his sister’s notes.

  “Then get the tampon out ‘cha ass. We got this.”

  ***

  Lisa found herself in darkness, surrounded by glowing eyes. She wasn’t afraid, but she was confused. It was hot and musky. She was standing in some kind of water. This was far beyond the land she and Peresh created for themselves.

  She could hear the dark beings growling like hungry wolves around her.

  Suddenly, the echo of wet footsteps grew over the growls. Her wet hair whipped left and right to find out where the steps were coming from. Then, the tall, pale skinned, tattooed young man she swore she didn’t want to speak to parted the beings like smoke.

  “Peresh,” she called him, hugging herself. “What is this place? Did you bring us here?”

  “No.” He stopped before her, stuffing his hands inside the pockets of his dark colored jeans. “This is the place people come to when they’re possessed. They’re stuck and held prisoner inside their own body.”

  “Are-Are you saying that I’m…?” She pointed at her chest.

  Shamefully, he nodded. “I know this isn’t the most ideal place to say that I’m sorry, Lisa, but you have to understand that had you known who I was—”

  “Are we really going to have this conversation right here?”