Nine
"I'm surprised you didn't succumb to her charms," LeSalle remarked. "Although I'm not quite sure who she is."
"Let's just say I'm stronger than most," Sarah, LeSalle's ghost friend said as she sat with him on the porch off of his and Drew's bedroom. "Like I told you before I'd rather be useful in my afterlife."
"I wish I could've found your body," LeSalle sighed. The ghost, Sarah, she'd been a young girl who'd been assaulted and then killed. Her body had been thrown into the bayou and no one had ever found it. "So you wouldn't have to be useful, just resting."
"You've been kind to me, most people would run from a ghost," Sarah looked over through the blowing curtains at Drew who was sleeping soundly in the bed. "You're telling me he still doesn't know?"
"That I'm a Warlock," LeSalle asked. "No he doesn't. It's better that way."
"I thought relationships worked better if there weren't secrets," Sarah looked over the edge of the balcony at the wooded backyard below. LeSalle's homemade knife throwing range was damp with dew from the muggy night air. "Call me old fashioned if you like."
"I hide it from him," LeSalle explained as he leaned his right leg over the edge and bent his left one, resting his left arm on it. The bottom of his pajama pants blew in the slight, but warm breeze. "Because it's safer for him, I don't want him to hate what I am. He hunts things like me."
"You are a man," Sarah placed her hand on his and he looked up at her. "I have watched over your house for years and I've never seen an ounce of hostility in you. These powers you've learned, inherited from your father. They are all in how you use them. You're a hunter first and a Warlock second. That's the way it's always been because you've never allowed it to be any different. And one day, maybe soon, you won't be able to protect your family from this all fired secret that you hold. You'll have to use it."
"LeSalle!" a voice harshly whispered from below and LeSalle looked down to see the one person he'd least have expected.
"Ah the cavalry showed up," LeSalle replied sarcastically. "We're not accepting applications. You can leave now."
"Nah man you don't understand," Deacon looked truly terrified, something that even LeSalle had to pause to take in. He sensed immediately something was not right. "T-They're coming. They know I know! She's coming!"
"Sallie," Drew groggily said and Sarah vanished before he could see her. Drew walked out to the balcony and looked at the cause of the disturbance. "What's going on?"
LeSalle paused a moment. Here his sworn enemy was in his backyard practically begging for his assistance. Though it went against every fiber of his being, LeSalle determined there were bigger forces at work that needed to be dealt with that just the likes of Deacon Barnes.
"Fine," LeSalle begrudgingly replied to Deacon down below. "Come to the front door. No tricks or your ass is getting shot understood?"
Deacon frantically nodded and then ran around front. LeSalle disappeared from the balcony and started off down the stairs. Drew was confused, but he followed diligently behind LeSalle. LeSalle stopped in his tracks when he ran into Dean, who was already awake and seemingly waiting for him.
"I heard you and Loretta," Dean's tone was accusatory and he looked as though he was distrusting of the man before him. "You've got things to tell us?"
"Later," LeSalle pushed past Dean. "Honestly probably sooner rather than later, but not right this second."
He opened the front door and Deacon came scrambling into the front room. He fell to the floor in blood splattered clothes and with eyes the size of the moon. He stared up at LeSalle and Drew snaked away from him. Delilah and Sam both came out of their rooms, confused beyond belief. Delilah's eyes narrowed and she stomped over to Deacon, hell bent on giving him a piece of her mind. LeSalle stuck out his arm and stopped her, looking her in the eyes and telling her to stop without a word. She gave him a look, but stopped what she was doing.
"I-It's ghosts." Deacon swallowed hard, still shaking from his encounter. LeSalle had never seen the man scared ever.
"Yeah genius," Delilah retorted, getting in her jab. "Tell us something we don't know."
"There's too many of 'em," Deacon explained as best he could as he shakily got to his feet. "Ghosts that is. There's too many of 'em at a time. They're coming from the old Boathouse Restaurant. I was there with my buddies. Hus he went outside to piss and we heard a scream and we went outside and he was dead. Ghost killed Tyler too and I saw more of 'em coming out of this portal of sorts."
"So like an invasion of ghosts?" Drew asked the first words he'd spoken to Deacon in a long time.
"Yeah I guess ya could call it that." Deacon nodded before noticing LeSalle was staring at him. "What are ya looking at?"
"I just love the irony of this," LeSalle stepped forward and looked Deacon in the eyes. "The snarky overconfident anti hero asking the help of his worst enemy. I find it comical, but there'll be time for me ta gloat later. Right now, we've got a city to defend."
"And pray tell Salle," Delilah crossed her arms and stared at him. "How are we supposed to do that?"
"Easy," LeSalle said. "We're hunters."
LeSalle took a deep breath before opening the hatch to his secret basement. There was no turning back now and he figured if they were going to know. They might as well know when they were going to need it most.
"So I say we do it the old fashioned way."
Reviews are appreciated!
Deacon is on their side? Unheard of. Will he cooperate?
Yes Dean will tell the others about Eve.
And they'll all learn of LeSalle's secret.
More to come soon.