Melissa

I’m lying on my side staring into the dark. I haven’t left the bed since we got back from Algiers this afternoon. Elaine has run to the drugstore on the corner, assuring me we’ll get dinner when she returns, but I can’t eat. My stomach aches with emptiness, and despair holds me down against the mattress. I’m unable to shake it off.

We’d taken the Canal Street ferry across the Mississippi River to Algiers Point this afternoon. We disembarked amid beautiful Victorian homes and historic shops. Our objective, however, was deeper in the West Bank community, where the streets were narrow, barely wide enough for one car to pass, and the homes were mostly wooden shotgun shacks.

The live oak trees were thick and low to the ground, and ivy and wisteria covered everything that didn’t move. As a result, the atmosphere was dark and heavy, and the noise of cicadas rose in a shrill screech above it all.

Demeter’s was a red-painted wooden home hidden back off the road under the shade of several trees. Elaine had parked at the curb and taken my hand.

“No matter what happens in here, I’m not giving up.” I knew she was trying to be encouraging, but her words filled me with dread.

A stone walk led to the house, and before we even knocked, the front door opened with a slow scrape. A dark screen kept us from being able to make out the person on the other side, but from the shaky sound of her voice, I knew it was Demeter.

“I saw y’all park at the street. Why you come to Mama Demeter’s house without calling? What you after?”

“I’m sorry, Mama.” Elaine leaned forward into the screen. “I’m Elaine Merritt. My friend Sabrina Hyatt gave me your name, but she said you don’t have a phone.”

“Don’t need a phone. I hear enough as it is.”

My friend went silent, her green eyes focused on the woman through the screen, and I waited. The woman’s posture stayed relaxed, as did my friend’s. A hint of a smile flickered across Elaine’s lips, but she quickly covered it.

I’d only seen Elaine communicate telepathically one other time, and it was equally disturbing then. It felt like I’d slipped into another dimension, or at the very least gone deaf.

All at once, the old woman’s eyes flashed to me, and she took a step away, further into the darkness of her old house. As if forgetting her power, Elaine suddenly spoke.

“No! You’re wrong! She isn’t like them. Every day she fights the change. We came all this way hoping you can help us.”

It was silent several moments as the old woman stayed in the shadows of her home. My heart beat wildly in my chest, and I could barely breathe. If she pulled out a gris-gris or commanded us to leave, I didn’t know where else we would go. Despair clutched tightly at my throat.

Just then a musical tinkling of bracelets met my ears. It seemed very loud, but I knew it was because of my vampire ears.

“Hello! What’s happening here?” A higher voice greeted us from behind, and Elaine and I both turned to see a slim girl coming up the walk.

Her skin was a lovely tan shade, and her long, chestnut hair hung thick down her back in shiny, wavy curls. She wore a flowing, red gypsy-style skirt and white tunic top, and when she smiled, her golden-hazel eyes glistened like the sunset. The treasured sunset I so desperately didn’t want to lose.

“Mariska!” Demeter’s voice was loud, moving quickly in our direction. “Come inside at once!”

The screen door flew open with a screech, and Elaine and I both stepped back. Mama Demeter was dressed in a navy tunic top with tribal designs on the front, and her dark hair was braided in two thick ropes down the sides of her head. I was shocked to find her not African. Her skin was the same warm Creole as Mariska’s.

“Why are you afraid, Yaya?” Mariska stopped and smiled at me. “These women aren’t here to hurt you.”

“Come inside, child” the old woman said, glancing at me. “Loogaroo.”

Mariska’s lips pressed together, and her golden eyes grew serious. “Yes,” she nodded. “I felt it. Only I wasn’t sure what it was.”

Reaching for my hand, she pulled me into the dark house. “Come with me. We’ll see what we can do.”

Elaine followed right behind me as did Demeter, and we were through the dim-lit living room and in the much brighter kitchen when I heard the screen door slam.

“If we mess with her, we invite a rain of evil down on us. Nothing can be done for Loogaroo.”

My heart sank at her words, but Mariska jumped in at once.

“You say that, Yaya, but have we ever tried?” She turned to me with a smile and took both my hands in hers. “Your aura is a beautiful indigo, although at times it tends to muddy.”

“I don’t know what that means.” For all my supernatural state of affairs, I was woefully ignorant of paranormal things.

Elaine stepped up behind me, putting her arm around my waist. “It means you’re afraid of the future.”

The tears that had been threatening all day, waiting for a reason, suddenly flooded my eyes, and my chin dropped. My shoulders shuddered, and I found three tissues handed to me at the same time.

“Now now,” Demeter said in her stern voice. “Mariska’s right. We haven’t tried to solve this problem before. In the past we’ve only looked for ways to repel or kill your kind.”

Her words did not give me comfort, but Mariska placed both her hands on my shoulders. “What is your name?”

Touching the tears away, I lifted my chin. “Melissa.”

“Don’t you worry, Melissa. I’m going to scour every book we have in this house, and if I can’t find an answer here, I’ll go down to Philome’s and see what she knows about the matter.”

“Pfft!” Demeter made a disgusted noise. “Philome don’t know anything. She’s a greedy, materialistic hack selling gris-gris to tourists in the Quarter.”

A grin crossed Elaine’s lips, and this time she didn’t cover it. “Thank you.” Her voice was warm as she took both of Mariska’s hands. “You’re going to help us find the answers, I can feel it.”

“I’ll do my best.” I watched as the two of them exchanged numbers and Elaine told her where we were staying.

Mariska followed us to the door of the cottage, and as she held the screen door open she touched my arm. “I won’t give up until I have an answer.”

“Thank you,” I said, and we left, headed back to the ferry.

For all their encouraging words, however, I couldn’t shake the dread that my life was truly over, that my maker’s words were right and my fate was sealed.

Now I’m lying here hours later, staring into the darkness. Only it isn’t terribly dark to my evolving eyes. One of the things I’ve noticed about my gradual transformation is my ability to go very still. I can think about the smallest thing until it consumes my focus. I’m not sure how long I can maintain it, because my friend hasn’t left my side since it happened. She refuses to let me spiral into the despair hovering at the edges of my brain.

“You have to get out of that bed!” She’s back, slamming drawers open and closed and jerking back the heavy curtains. “We’re not going to sit in this room and brood. We’re going out!”

“I don’t want to go out.” My limbs are as heavy as my voice, and the black thoughts have nearly consumed my mind. “I’m grieving.”

Pulling my arm, she pushes my feet off the bed, forcing me to sit up. Anger fires in my chest so fiercely, I feel my gums tingle, and I know my teeth are growing. Another new trait—my emotions turn on a dime.

“Leave me alone!” I shout, and she jumps back, stunned by the ferocity of my voice. I’m a little stunned myself. And ashamed.

My chin drops, and I calm the savagery smoldering inside me. “Please leave me alone, Elaine. You have no idea how difficult this is for me.”

She carefully moves to sit beside me on the bed, and I can tell she’s a little shaken by my sudden, violent response.