Nancy K. Duplechain - Dark Trilogy 03 - Dark Legacy by Nancy K. Duplechain

anyway. Lately it’s been about my mom and things that
happened to her before I was born.”
    “The night you
were conceived?”
    Noah clinched
his jaw, and he walked over to Miles’s refrigerator and pulled out the orange
juice, closing the door a little harder than normally.
    “I know you’d
rather not talk about this, but it might be important.”
    Noah unscrewed
the cap and took a big gulp. “How…how can I see what happened that night if I
wasn’t there? Am I subconsciously projecting what I only think it was
like?”
    Miles shrugged.
    “Well that’s
helpful.”
    He smiled. “I’m
sorry, my friend. I’m just as confused as you are. But let’s not brush it off
as mere dreams. It seems as though there’s been a good bit of this type of
thing happening lately.”
    “What? Weird
dreams?”
    “ Prophetic dreams
and the like.” Seeing Noah’s quizzical look, he added, “Cee Cee told me about a
year ago, when Leigh returned to Louisiana after her brother died, she began
having dreams that her mother was talking to her, and she also had dreams where
her niece was in danger. About that same time, Father Ben told me that Lucas
Castille’s son, Jonathan, was having nightmares about Walter Savoy and then
about his father being killed here in New Orleans. Ben said he believed that
Jonathan’s Down’s syndrome might have crossed with his paladin blood line and
given him an extra ability, but now I’m not so sure.”
    “Anyone else dreaming
stuff like that?”
    Miles nodded. “I
am. But mine are a little different. I keep getting phone calls in the middle
of the night. I hear a voice on the other end of the line. It sounds familiar,
but I can’t place it. And then I wake up, and there’s no evidence to show that
I’d received a call.”
    “What’s the
voice say?”
    “That we need to
go to Paris.”
    “So that’s why
you’ve been in such a hurry to go.”
    “That and
because of those damned masks.”
    “You still have
them, though, right?”
    “Oh yes. They’re
in my vault. But we still don’t know who sent them.”
    “Leigh said no,
by the way.”
    “I figured she
would. We need to take a trip out there and convince her. In these dreams I
have with the voice telling me to go to Paris, it tells me that Leigh’s family
is in danger and she needs to come with us to save them.”
    “Then I’ll help
you get her there.”
     

Part II
Lyla’s Interlude
     
     
     
               
     

1
A Special Gift
     
    She had been hearing gun shots all day.
It was hunting season, and their house was on the edge of the woods. Daddy told
her she could play outside, but not to wander out of the back yard, especially
not to go into the woods. It didn’t happen often, but sometimes hunters would
cross the property line if they saw a big buck on the other side. Most of the
guys Daddy knew stayed in their deer stands on their own property, but every
now and then, some of the trackers would pretend not to see the signs posted.
    Today was one of
those days.
    Two loud shots
rang out. She covered her ears after the first shot, but they were close enough
that she felt her chest vibrate. Someone had definitely crossed the property
line. She was going to go tell Mama, but the sound of rustling leaves from the
tree line made her halt, and her curiosity got the best of her.
    She crept up to
the edge of the woods and peered through the shadows made by the leaf canopy.
Tiny sun rays danced on the fallen leaves with every sway of branch, making it
difficult to distinguish movement at first. But soon the little fawn came into
view. It staggered and fell, breathing quickly before picking itself back up,
only to fall again. From where she stood, she could just make out a spray of
tiny holes on its side, where blood trickled out.
    Knowing she
would get punished if she crossed the tree line only made her hesitate for a
moment. But she knew that she couldn’t let that poor little thing suffer and
die alone. She went to the