Southern Charm

Chapter Seventeen: The Star
Date Written: 1/10/06
Rating: PG-13
Characters/Pairings: Dee/Ryo
Warnings Homosexuality, murder, hoodoo use, mentioned NC (non consent, or rape) and the issues that go with it.
Disclaimer: Same as Chapter Zero
Spoilers: All the way up through book 7
Notes: Finally, huh? Major props to totally4ryo for helping my muses along!
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A pirogue is a small, flat-hulled boat of a design associated particularly with West African fishermen and the Cajuns of the Louisiana marsh. These boats are not usually intended for over-night travel but are light and small enough to be easily taken onto land. The design also allows the pirogue to be easily turned over to drain any water that may get into the boat. The pirogue's motion comes from paddles that have one blade (as opposed to a kayak paddle, which has two). It can also be punted with a pole in shallow water.

--from Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia
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The Mississippi River flows in front of the entrance to the Aquarium of the Americas. Marie was dragging Dee along the waterfront, her slender brown fingers tugging on his shirt sleeve. "Merde, where the hell is he?!" she said more to herself.

"What's going on?" Dee demanded yet again. "Where is Ryo?"

Marie opened her mouth to answer, but almost tripped over a wheelchair that seemed to appear out of nowhere. She put her hand on it before looking out in the water and noticing the boat that had just pulled away. "FUCK!" She kicked the handrail.

Dee followed her gaze to the boat that he previously hadn't noticed, the familiar cop senses going off telling him that something was definately wrong.

"Son of a dog!" Marie continued, kicking the chair. She frowned and kicked it again for good measure and Dee realized that people were starting to stare.

"Marie... is Ryo--"

"Come on," she cut him off, grabbing his shirt again and pulling him along. "Where's your car?"

"Over there," he replied, letting the younger woman drag him around. "Can we get to whereever we're going by car?"

"Partway," Marie replied, her footsteps light over the cobblestone as they crossed the street to the parking lot.

"Partway? And then what, we have to flap our arms and fly?"

Marie grinned ruefully and Dee felt the overwhelming urge to shake her. "We could, but it'd take wax and feathers, neither of which I have on me at the moment."

"What's going to happen to Ryo?" Dee demanded.

Marie grew solemn, and Dee realized she was schooling her features. "I don't know."

This time he grabbed her and did shake her. "What the hell do you mean, you don't know?! Who took my fiance, and what the hell is going to go on?!"

"Calm down," she soothed, putting her hands on his shoulders. "Get in the car, I'll explain as I drive."

Dee looked at her for a long moment, but fished his keys out of his pocket. "I hope you can drive."

Marie held her hand out and Dee tossed them to her, going around the other side to climb into the passenger seat. Marie was already in and buckled as the detective got in, and was digging around in the shoulderbag she was carrying. After a few moments she pulled out a woven bag on a cord and looped it around the rearview mirror. Dee raised a skeptical eyebrow. "A GPS?"

Marie snorted. "Please, don' insult me, Yankee." She threw the car into reverse suddenly before pealing out of the lot. Dee grabbed onto the armrests and muttered something under his breath about crazy women drivers.

"What is it then?" he asked, unable to keep the tremble from his voice.

"Part protection, part deflection," she replied cryptically and Dee decided to give up getting a straight answer out of the pretty mulatto. She cursed profusely in French as she drove, flipping drivers the bird as she nearly ran into them. Dee risked a glance over at the speedometer and wshed he hadn't.

When they sped by a parked patrol car, he finally spoke up. "If we get arrested, how is that going to help Ryo?"

Marie grinned and reached over to pat his knee comfortingly. "They won't see us, darlin', just calm that pretty Yankee head," she soothed.

"Excuse me for going into a slight panic here," Dee retorted, "but my fiance is missing and you told me you don't know what will happen to him, but I know it's not good and...." he trailed off and bent forward, putting his face in his hands. "Oh shit... Please God, just let us get to him in time."

"For fuck's sake, I'm trying," Marie replied. She swirved sharply around a car and flipped it off, cussing roundly in French.

Dee reached up and grabbed the handle overhead once again. "I'll settle for getting there in one piece too, you know."

Marie was quiet for a moment before asking, "You believe in God, right?"

"Yes. Of course I do."

"So you believe in unseen forces governing our lives, no?"

"You mean, like destiny?" he asked.

"More like magical forces," Marie clarified.

"That's more your area, but I'll believe aything to keep Ryo safe."

She sighed, thinking. There had to be another way... "Look, have you ever seen zombie movies?"

"I saw a ghost once," he offered helpfully. "She saved Ryo." The last part was a slip of the tongue and his eyes widened when he realized what he had said.

"What's Ryo's opinion of ghosts?" she asked softly.

Dee rolled his eyes. "He still doesn't believe us--me and our son, Bikky."

She sighed in relief. "That's good. What about stuff like movies?"

Dee shrugged. "I mean, we go to see them, but even I know they're just movies."

"Some people actually believe it. Anthropologists call it the 'voodoo effect' when someone dies from a curse.

Dee's head whipped around to stare at Marie. "People really can do that stuff?"

Marie's fingers tightened around the wheel, but relaxed as she looked over at him. "Yeah, we can. But the key to it is that the person has to believe." She looked back at the road and swore, almost sideswiping an eighteen wheeler.

Dee sighed in relief, looking out the window and muttering, "There's no way that Ryo believes in that shit."

"Joe can be extremely convincing," she said calmly. "Your partner will hold out, but not for long."

Dee looked back at Marie. "I mean, I was starting to get spooked with all this going on and Ryo was just as practical as ever, almost laughing at me. Well, he was laughing at me."

Marie was quiet for a moment, her face guarded as she thought. Finally, she asked, "Do you know who Marie Laveau was?"

Dee blinked at the sudden change in topic yet again, but nodded. "Her grave is in the cemetary over by the French Quarter, right?"

"Do you know who she was, though?"

"Some voodoo woman. They claim her magic is powerful, even in death." He shrugged. "We read about people going to her tomb and marking X's for good luck or something like that."

"That's because she had a daughter named Marie Laveau Paris, who looked so much like her mother that after Laveau died, people said she reincarnated herself."

"But if that was true, then what's the use of the marks if nobody's home?" Dee asked.

"It wasn't, and anyway people didn't start doing that until long long after."

"What does that have to do with Ryo?"

Marie sighed. "Just listen, okay? Anyway, when she died, her talents were passed to her daughter... and then later to her granddaughter--also named Marie, by the way. The third Marie used to tell fortunes in the French Quarter." She snorted. "By the twenties, so few people believed in voodoo... She was turning over damn tarot cards for tourists."

Dee's eyebrows raised, but he remained silent.

"Anyway, that was until she died after the Depression. Well, I take that back, she more like dissappeared; No taxes, no more appearances. You could probably find the old missing persons report if you knew the right place to look, being a cop and all."

"Something tells me that you may know more than the cops about this."

She grinned. "Do you know what a necromancer is?"

"Do you know how to stay on topic?" Dee shot back before going, "It's got to have something to do with death, since a necrophile has sex with dead people."

"It's a magician who specializes in death, specifically souls and their bodies... The man who kidnapped your lover is a necromancer."

Dee's mouth dropped open. "A-a... What's he want with my Ryo?"

"Joe--that's his name--lost his wife a long, long time ago... His longing for her turned into hate for the Laveau family, and towards the blacker side of hoodoo. He thought that Laveau killed his wife, and there's a spell involving a huge number of human sacrifices. If someone can pull it off, they can bring someone back from the other side. I read about it in Grandmere's notes, but... I never thought someone would actually have the werewithal to pull it off."

"That your fiance is next on the list? Oh yes. You too. I'm sure you caught on about the recent spate of murders in New Orleans."

Dee groaned. "Can't this car go any faster?" Then he shot forward, held back by his seatbelt. "Wait! Once we get there.... you have an idea what to do in case, well, in case he's doing any of that strange stuff to Ryo..."

"Honestly? Not a clue in hell. I figured we'd just wing it," Marie admitted.

"Wing it? Goddamn it!" Dee exploded, thumping the dashboard. "Does this guy need anything special? Like silver bullets or... Shit!"

"No, there are few things that can kill him, but silver bullets aren't the ticket. You and your Ryo are prizes to him, the figurative crown jewels." She smiled at him sadly. "A mixed couple as passionate as you two are? He's been gorging himself."

Dee gave her a confused look. "Huh?"

"Mixed blood. You and your Ryo are at most half-bloods."

Dee looked back out the window, putting his chin on his hand. "Yeah, we went through that before... I never knew... But.. has he been... I don't know, but I'm afraid to ask how he's been gorging himself...."

Marie patted his knee. "People who have mixed blood--especially the first generations, like me, white and black--have specifically strong auras. They're exhuded off of a person, but only those finely attuned to picking up them can notice." She grinned. "Emotions are so strong even normal people can pick them up, like when you glare at someone because you're angry. Even an amateaur practitioner can take that energy and manipulate it."

Dee shook his head. "Like I said, we knew that Ryo's half-Japanese, but... I don't know my parents."

Marie gave him a sympathetic glance. "Yes you do. You want your Mother right now."

Dee laughed weakly. "She's not my biological mother, but yes, she's my Mom. In ever other sense of the word." He paused before blurting, "How much longer?"

"Don't worry, it'll take time and he's not going to do anything until he's home." She glanced at him then back at the road. "Your birth mother was very pretty. Half blood, so you're two quarters and a half. He wants you badly too."

"How do you do that?" Dee demanded, gritting his teeth. "You're telling me things... well, that no one else has been able to figure out."

Marie grinned. "I'm the best. Got it from my Mama."

Dee ran a nervous hand through his dark hair. "I guess the half is white."

Marie shook her head. "Hispanic. Your mother was half Asian, a pretty lady with vivid green eyes."

Dee's head snapped around to stare at her. "What did you say?" Marie calmly, quietly repeated her statement, and Dee gave a weak laugh. "So my strange genetics came from her... because she managed to have green eyes too..." He leaned forward and put his head in his hands. "I want a chance to tell this to Ryo... And all this time we both pretty much assumed I was white."

Marie shrugged. "Most people assume Ryo's white, but..." She chewed on her lower lip. "You were the first to realize that he was half in a long time."

Dee grinned a little at the memory, closing his eyes. "I just knew, it was something in his eyes... They were just gorgeous." He laughed a little. "He keeps teasing me that I look more Asian than he does." He opened his eyes and looked at her pleadingly. "Please. We need to get him back. We just got engaged... I want to be married."

Marie reached out to pat his bare arm. "Don't worry. I don't want to see another innocent die." Dee shivered a bit and she pulled her hand back. "Sorry."

"It's okay, some people get really cold hands when they're scared," Dee offered, rubbing his own hands together.

"I guess I'm always scared then," Marie said, chuckling at her own private joke.

Dee instictively reached out to Marie, grabbing one of her hands. She finched, but let him take a hand off the wheel. "You'll figure it out anyway," she muttered as Dee started rubbing the hand between his own.

"Wow, you really are cold," he said, his hands moving up to touch her wrist. His hand pauses and his eyes got impossibly wide.

She grinned. "I can't really feel hot or cold anymore. Or how food tastes or get tired..." She trailed off as Dee started looking for a pulse. "It's really amazing what life is when you're like this."

Dee stared at her hand, his brain still not comprehending what the facts were telling him. "You're... you're--"

"Yeah," she confirmed, sensing what he was going to say. "Go ahead, cut me. I won't bleed."

"I've touched people like this before, but they aren't moving anymore," he sputtered, feeling like he was on the verge of a mental breakdown.

She laughed softly. "Well, I'm not after your brains. I don't really need food anymore, anyway. I never really got that jump that Hollywood made. Hearts, other organs, maybe, but brains? You've got to break open the skull, way too much work."

Dee put his hands on his ears and closed his eyes, trying to void out all other thought. "Excuse me for a moment," he murmured, leaning over to take a deep breath as he finally admitted to himself that there actually was a dead person driving his rental car.

"Do you need to be sick?" Marie asked, rolling down the passenger side window.

"No," he said, sitting back and shaking his head. "Like I said, I've seen gory before, I've just... I've never had a murder vic offer to drive me somewhere before."

She laughed. "I've been dead longer than you've been alive," she said with a grin before doubling over the steering wheel. The car swerved into another lane and Dee leaned over to grab the wheel and setting the car back on its course. She was grabbing at the necklace around her neck.

"Marie, what's wrong?"

"Off," she choked out, tugging weakly. "I need it off..."

The chain was cutting into her skin, but it wasn't bleeding, which made Dee shiver. He touched the necklace and felt a sort of odd shock go through his fingers, making him fumble with the clasp. After a few fumbling seconds, he got it off her and into his hand. The metal was warm and heavy, and Dee kept getting shivers all down his arm. He had the impulse to throw it out the window. "What is this?"

"It's my leash," she explained, rolling the window down. "Throw it out for me?" she asked, her hand going up to rub her neck, and Dee tossed it out the window.

"God, that felt so weird..."

"Since Joe is my *master*," she growled, clenching the steering wheel before easing up on it. "He orders me to do this and that, and the necklace is what made me do it. I couldn't take it off. One of the things I was ordered not to do was to tell people that I was dead."

"So..." He shivered, remembering how the metal felt. "He can't make you now?"

"He can order me, and I'll be compelled to do it, but I won't have to anymore." She looked at his ring. "You can use that, you know. It's a connection between you and your beloved."

Dee looked down at the ring, rubbing it with his other hand. "How? We just got them, we were only engaged last night."

"It's simply a symbol of your connection. Close you eyes and think about your ring."

"Okay," he said with a sigh. "I'll try anything once." He closed his eyes and thought back to that morning when Ryo put the ring on his finger.

She smiled, watching him a little. "Now, picture Ryo's ring. Yours is calling out to its mate, just follow where it goes."

Dee did so, imagining a perfect copy of his ring wrapped completely in blackness. "Oh Ryo," he whispered, biting his lower lip.

"Do you see it?"

"Yes."

"Now let the image grow from just the ring to the whole of him."

Dee's eyebrows furrowed as he saw Ryo lying on a table of some sort, pale but alive and not bleeding.

"Is he awake?"

"No."

Dee heard Marie's sigh. "Good. He has to be awake for the ceremony. You can speak to him if you want. He can't hear you, but he'll feel the emotion. And since it's confined, Joe can't use it or sense it."

"Aw baby," he murmured, imaginging that he was leaning over him. "I love you." The phantom him leaned over to kiss Ryo's cheek. "Hang in there, I'm coming." Marie put a hand on his shoulder and shook him. The image flickered as Dee fought her off. "No," he said aloud. "I don't want to leave him."

"Dee." Marie's voice was calm, and he could feel her breath on his cheek. "He needs you with me right now, so we can save him."

Dee's green eyes snapped open and he swore, pushing at her a little in his anger. "Shit! He looked so defenseless..."

She smiled and touched the ring. "He's strong. That's what you love about him. And he's still with you."

"That's what scares me," Dee said, biting his lip. "Ryo's so strong."

"He'll be okay."

"That son of bitch -- I swear I'll find one of those few ways to put that bastard out for good..."

She grinned at him. "Me first."

"Oh, I'll gladly help you."

She laughed softly. "We'll have to go by pirogue. A motorboat would be too loud, he'll hear us."

"Excuse me?"

"Pirogue. Boat with a long stick."

"Okay," Dee said, nodding. "How far with one of those things we have to go?

Marie pointed across the lake to a small shack on the other bank.

"He's there?"

"They all are."

"All? More than two?"

She looked at him. "Multiple Human Sacrifices," she repeated.

"But all of them except for your Ryo are like me. Already sacrificed, but waiting."

"Y-you mean that Ryo's surrounded by..." He rubbed his face. "It would be a helluva time to say I told you so..."

She parked the car and turned the ignition off before leaning over to Dee. "Listen. If I tell you to do something, you have to do it, you understand?"

Dee nodded, wondering if he could restrain himself.

Marie grabbed his shoulder. "NO MATTER WHAT. If I tell you to do it, you HAVE TO or you BOTH will die. Understand?"

"O-okay, okay," Dee sputtered before looking across the water to the shack where Ryo was. "That's never been my strongest point, but for Ryo I will."