Nancy K. Duplechain - Dark Trilogy 02 - Dark Carnival by Nancy K. Duplechain Page A

long
afternoon.  I only got slightly better, my hands feeling a little above
lukewarm.  Nevertheless, Cee Cee was elated that I was getting better, but she
could tell something was troubling me at the same time.  I refrained from
mentioning my confrontation with her niece, Ruby.  Instead, I did my best to
pretend like everything was just fine.
    When I crawled into bed that
night, I checked my phone and realized I had a missed call from Lucas.  Then I
remembered it was from the day before, and I felt bad that I had forgotten to
call him back.  I dialed his number.  He answered the phone, sounding
frustrated.
    “Everything okay?” I
asked.
    “No!  Jonathan is still
picking me up!  I’m about to follow Miss Clo’s advice and give him a good
swat.”  I laughed and he softened a bit.
    “Sorry I forgot to call
you back.”
    “Not a problem.  So, how
are things in the Big Easy?”
    “Not very easy.  Looks
like I have a lot of work ahead of me.”
    “Well, maybe if you’re
going to be there a while, I can come by and visit … to bring Lyla for a visit,
that is,” he said awkwardly.
    “Sure.  Y’all come.  I
know she said she wanted to.”
    “Okay.  How ‘bout tomorrow?”
    “Tomorrow?  Really?”
    He must have picked up on
the unease in my tone because he said, “If it’s a bad time …”
    “No, it’s not that.”  Truthfully,
it was as good a time as any.  I didn’t see my training getting easier anytime
soon.  Best to come now and get it out of the way.  And I honestly did miss
them.  “I just was going to say that space at Cee Cee’s is a little cramped.”
    “Oh, we probably wouldn’t
spend the night, but if I got too tired, I could just find a motel.”
    “No, that’s fine.  Y’all
come.”  I smiled, genuinely happy about seeing them.
    “Okay.  We’ll head out
early.  I’ll call when we get into town.”
    “Sounds good.”
    “Well, I gotta go put
Jonathan to bed.  He’s been having nightmares again.”
    “Oh.  Are they bad?”
    Lucas was silent for a
moment.  “He keeps dreaming that …”  He dropped his voice down to a whisper.  “…
that I’m going to die.”
    I froze, remembering how
Jon had nightmares last summer about Savoy, The Dark Man, as he called him.  Those
dreams came true, for the most part.  “Luke, I’m …”  I didn’t know what to say.
 “He’s probably just upset that you’ve been working a lot lately.”  I hoped my
tone was light enough for him to believe me.
    “Yeah.  You’re probably
right.”  But I could already tell he didn’t believe me.

    It was a beautiful day
for the middle of winter.  The sun shone, and Lucas visiting with the kids
turned out to be just what I needed.  Never having been to New Orleans, I
thought Lyla and Jon would have wanted to see and do everything.  As it turned
out, they just wanted to see the Aquarium.  Lucas and I both laughed at the
baby-shark-petting station when Jon squealed with delight and then asked his
dad how come Jaws looked so much bigger.
    “I can’t believe you let
him watch that movie,” I said to Lucas.
    He eyed me and said, “I
watched that when I was like five.  He’s almost seven.”
    I shrugged.  “Fair
enough.”
    We continued through the
exhibits and paused to let the kids watch the sting rays.  Truthfully, I really
wanted to watch them, too.  I always found them to be, by far, the coolest
ocean animals.  I wasn’t enjoying them as much as I usually do, though.  There
was an awkward silence, and I found myself wanting to ask Lucas about his date
with Carrie.  I stole a glance at him.  He was smiling at the kids as the blue
light from the water reflection danced lazily across his face and torso.  I
decided to dance around the issue a little.
    He caught my eye for a
moment, put his hand on mine and smiled at me before looking back at the kids.  I
found myself wanting to nudge in closer to him, to have him put his arm around
me, but I still wasn’t