Rose spun around and nodded frantically. “Okay, okay, don’t worry. We’ll leave it dark. I didn’t know.”
“Of course you didn’t know, you’re barely around,” the Mambo sniveled, settling back into her pillows. “Everyone is shunning me, including you.”
Rose sighed and looked over at us, as if we were supposed to say something. The thing is, I didn’t know what. The whole Voodoo zombie angle was Rose’s idea, not mine. I wanted that haunted house and I had a feeling an ailing Voodoo priestess would be no help with that.
“Maryse, I have some people here I’d like you to meet. Ambrosia told you about them, didn’t she?”
“Ambrosia tells me a lot of things. I never listen.”
Wow, being Maryse’s apprentice was starting to sound like a pretty shitty job. I started to wonder what Ambrosia’s deal was when I felt my gaze being drawn to the bed. Maryse was staring right at me, I could feel it.
“Who is that young man?” Maryse asked in weird disbelief, a crooked finger extended in my direction.
I pointed at myself. “Me?”
“You seem familiar.”
Well, that certainly wasn’t possible. I looked up at Maximus hulking over me and elbowed him. “This guy, I’ve heard you met him before.” I shot him a look to step forward. Apparently he was feeling nervy too.
He cleared his throat and came toward her, one slow step at a time. “Mambo Maryse. Do you remember me? It’s Maximus.”
She fell silent. The whole room did. Outside, you could hear the crickets and cicadas, the drone of dragonflies. Finally she said, “I don’t think I know you. Who is this man, Rose?”
Rose tilted her head at him apologetically before answering her. “He was my…we worked at the bar together. I know you can’t really see him now, but he was tall, handsome, with red hair. We were…together. A lot. You know him, Maryse.”
More silence. I was about to say “Ouch” on his behalf, since he failed to make an impression on her over the years, but suddenly Maryse sat up straighter, her posture rigid in the dim light.
“Jacobs,” she whispered.
The way she said his last name made chills run down my back, stopping at my balls, and continuing to my toes. Perry applied pressure to my hand, perhaps feeling the same way. Except for the balls part.
“That’s right,” Maximus said, his voice shaking a little. “Maximus Jacobs. I used to be in love with your Rose here.”
“But…” Maryse trailed off, shaking her head. “You’re mortal.”
Rose and Maximus’s eyes flew to each other, both of them wide and shining with horror.
“Of course he’s mortal,” Rose said quickly, trying to laugh it off. “He—”
“No,” she interrupted Rose, her focus back on him. “No, you changed. You’ve gone rogue. I remember now.”
I raised my hand even though she probably couldn’t see me. “Uh, miss Voodoo lady? I hate to break it to you but this dude’s been mortal for a long time. He was my college roommate and I drank him under the table time and time again.”
“You,” she seethed, her finger pointing at me again. I cringed a bit, feeling like she was poking into my soul. “You. I know you, I know about you! You’re the exception.”
I raised my brows and looked down at Perry. She was shaking her head in confusion. “Exception to what?”
“Get out,” she suddenly yelled, her glinting eyes on Perry now. “Get out, all of you, you too, Rose! I’m tired of people just showing up in my life and wanting things from me, disturbing everything. You’re all a bunch of idiots, dabbling in things you don’t understand, bending the laws with no regard for this world or the one next to us, or the one above us or the one under us. I’m too old to deal with this baloney anymore.”
And with that she flopped back on the bed and pointed at the netting. “Now close the netting and leave.”
Rose quickly did as she asked, looking flustered, and we all got out of that room as quickly as we could. Rose closed the door behind her and we scrambled out into the kitchen just as Ambrosia was coming toward us with a pot of tea.
She gave us a waning smile. “I suppose I should have warned you that she’s got a bit of dementia and has been talking gibberish for the last few days now.”
“Yeah,” I said carefully, “a little warning would have been nice.”
She beamed at me, her teeth so white, lips so full. I felt kind of dazzled. “I’ll go bring her the tea, but I’d love to talk to you guys more about all of this, even if she doesn’t want to. I have a friend whose blues band is playing in the city at Deep N’ Easy. Why don’t we all meet there tonight? I’ll even put you on the guest list.”
I looked to the others for their opinion. The women looked less enthused than the men, but Rose still nodded brusquely and said, “Sounds good, see you there.”
We left Maryse’s swamp house in a hurry, and all I could think about as we got back in the truck was how that frail old witch said she knew me. She obviously did have dementia, I mean she was surprised that Maximus wasn’t immortal anymore and probably saw a bunch of pixies dancing around her head, but it was the conviction in her words that was doing me in.
I had too many strange messages for one day. The Big Easy was turning out to be harder than I thought.