Voodoo Queens of New Orleans - Vol. I | ✓

Chapter 28: Acid Blood

**

I didn't know where to start. Realistically, how would you even start with a creature like Hezekiah Mercier?

He didn't want to answer any of my questions. Our interaction earlier that day was proof enough of that. So frankly, me being down in the undercroft again with my pajamas on and a candle in my hand was almost counterproductive. However, that instance earlier, I was under the supervision of the Coterie; the questions I asked were the questions they wanted to know the answers to. This time, as Hezekiah and I stood across from each other this late and forbidden in the night, I had different questions. The tides had shifted significantly that day, and I could no longer trust anyone in the house. The only person I felt I could trust had run off back into the city, practically exiled by the Coterie she belonged to. She was an outcast - an outcast that I had put my faith in. There were two things I wanted to know - two things Aza had piqued my interest in:

My father, and my mother.

I took one step forward. We were very close now, the warm light of the candle accentuating Hezekiah's features, chiseling every corner of his face.

"I don't want no trouble," I told him. He laughed at this, for "trouble" seemed to be synonymous with his name.

"Then what do you want?" he asked me. "Mommy ain't gone be too happy when she find out you been down here alone with me."

"I'm not worried about her right now."

Surprising words, coming out of my mouth. Even Hezekiah was taken back by them. His eyebrows raised down at me, then he began to smirk deviously.

"Oh," he cooed. "What happened? You finally realizing what I been trying to tell you?"

"No," I replied. "Not yet. You're going to help me 'realize' what you've apparently been trying to tell me, though."

He laughed, the baritone of his voice sending chills up my arms. He turned away from me then, pacing around in his little corner, the chains shackled around his arms and legs clanking with every step.

"Nah." He curled up his lip in discontent. "Nah, I ain't gone do that."

I forced myself to be patient with him, but it was wearing dangerously thin. "Why not?"

"Did you forget the little conversation we had earlier, baby girl? You come trotting your ass down here, thinking I'm gonna have a change of heart after what I told you? I got news for you, sweetheart - my heart stop beating 'long time ago."

"You know I was only asking you what the Coterie wanted to know," I told him. Half of this was true - I, personally, also wanted to know what Abraham's grand plan was, but at the same time, I was doing a service for the Coterie, especially considering Hezekiah wouldn't speak to anyone but me.

"Bullshit."

"It's the truth." I watched his body language, hoping his shoulders would relax or he would stop glaring at me. "But now things are different. I take it that you don't know what happened to Aza?"

What I was waiting for suddenly happened - his mood had shifted completely. His glare disappeared, replaced with a softness in his eyes that displayed worry and concern. His mouth was pressed into a firm line, holding back words behind them. This caught me off guard. Mentioning Aza was only supposed to be a segway, but seeing his reaction completely changed the situation.

He took a few steps towards me, his eyes boring into me as if he thought I was going to tell him a lie. Although his eyes, once bright with fury and strength, were weaker in might than the small candle I held, he was still an intimidating Elder vampire, regardless of his captive state. Plus, we had betrayed each other several times, using sex and seduction to trick each other in the most twisted of ways. It would make sense for Hezekiah to be suspicious of me.