Free Healing the Bayou by Mary Bernsen Page B

position you hold in this messed-up little shit hole. Now, if you’ll excuse me. I would really like to be getting home.”
    As quick as lightning his hand wrapped around my throat. I tried to scream but my breath was stuck beneath his pinching fingers. My flesh burned under his skin, and darkness rolled over me. My weight collapsed under me. His grip on my neck was the only thing keeping me standing. Tears flooded my eyes and my face infused with blood.
    “I’m the houngan ,” he seethed. “You will not take my place. These are my people. I will not let a little girl take my power from me.”
    His face was so close to mine, his saliva hit my cheeks as he spoke. I tried to squeak out a reply but no noise escaped.
    Suddenly, he was hurled away from me, and I crashed unto the hard sidewalk underneath me, my knees taking the impact of the fall. There were grunts of a scuffle in the near distance, but the darkness was too thick in front of me to find the source of it.
    Wandering farther into it to get a look at my rescuer, Samuel came into focus. He was on top of the man who had just held me near death. Samuel’s fists were barreling down onto his jaw, and blood dripped from the bastard’s mouth.
    I caught myself smiling at his misfortune. It was his turn to feel the fear he had just imposed. It was becoming clear Samuel was not going to stop until he had killed him. Shrieking, I begged for his attention. I wouldn’t let him live with the guilt that came from taking a man’s life on my account.
    “Samuel! Samuel, stop. That’s enough!”
    I pulled at his shoulder with all my strength, and my touch snapped him back into reality. When he looked up at me his eyes were as black as the night surrounding us.
    For only a moment I feared that he would turn his aggression on me instead. I convinced myself he wouldn’t harm me, not after protecting me so long. After his eyes faded back to green he moved his attention again to the man that lay bloodied underneath him. Still barely conscious, fright filled the man’s eyes. He held his hands over his head to show he was the submissive in this quarrel. Samuel stumbled to his feet to face me.
    “Are you all right?” he huffed.
    I nodded, even though I really wasn’t sure. I was shaken to hell, literally. My body was vibrating and I wrapped my arms around myself, hoping that my own warmth would squelch my anxiety.
    Removing his jacket, Samuel covered my shoulders with it and I managed a half-hearted smile to show my appreciation. The man got to his feet again, though bent over and vomiting from the trauma that had just been inflicted on him.
    “You get the hell out of here!” Samuel yelled.
    “This is my territory,” the man snapped back.
    “Bullshit! Right now this is Mambo Paris’s turf, but soon the woman you just attacked will be in power, and I almost pity you for that fact.”
    “I possess more power in one hand than that wench Vivian has in her whole body. And this little twig, she’s an outsider. She’ll never be accepted here. Don’t deceive yourself, boy.”
    “They have already accepted her.” Samuel beamed with pride as he said it. “The elders have already asked for her to stay and lead us. You’re right, you can wield more magic than Paris, but I promise you: this one is as gifted as Laveau herself. You’ve just ensured yourself a very slow and painful demise, you idiot.”
    The man’s chuckle morphed into a loud, patronizing laugh. “You fool. She doesn’t even know how to use her powers. You can’t teach her in a day what I have taken a lifetime to master. And you can’t always be around protecting her, either.”
    The threat echoed off the buildings that surrounded us and bounced back to fill me with dread. He was right. I had no control over my abilities, and Samuel couldn’t accompany me everywhere. If I stayed here, sooner or later I would be alone and defenseless, and this man would find me. I had little doubt it was him who had been