Nancy K. Duplechain - Dark Trilogy 03 - Dark Legacy Read Online Free PDF Page A

“Would you be interested in working for me?”
    “Um … what, uh,
doing what?”
    Miles shrugged.
“Running errands, mostly. Maybe chauffer me around. As long as it doesn’t
interfere with your schooling, of course. But I do pay well.”
    Noah scrunched
his eyebrows in deep thought.
    Miles smiled
politely. “It’s just an offer. Don’t feel you have to say yes.”
    “Oh, no! It’s
not that. I just don’t know how I’d run errands for you. I mean, I have an old
bike in our garage. Mom has a car, but I hate to use hers if she needs it.”
    “I see. Follow
me, please.”
    Miles led Noah
to his two-car garage on the side of the house. A black, new model Mercedes and
a newly-restored, dark charcoal gray 1968 Dodge Charger were parked there.
    Miles gestured
toward the Charger. “You would be driving this.”
    Noah’s mouth
hung open. “Um … okay.”
    Miles laughed.
“Then I can expect you Saturday?”
    Noah managed to
nod, not taking his eyes off the Charger.
    “Good. We need
to take a trip to St. Mary parish. Be here at ten o’clock.”

5
Road Trip
     
    Miles wasted no
time in getting down to business. As soon as Noah arrived, he led him to the
big table against the back wall in the living room where there was a book
opened to show an old sketch of another book with a blank, leather cover.
    “Hey, did you
get to talk to Nadia?” said Noah.
    “Yes. She was as
surprised about her lineage and abilities as you were. She said she wished her
parents would have told her, especially her father who carries the bloodline.
She’s a little upset right now because she hasn’t heard from them since the day
before yesterday. I told her they’re probably having the baby. I called a
friend of mine in Paris to check in on them.” He tapped the book in front of
him. “Now, this is why I asked you to meet me here today.”
    “Yeah, you said
we’re going to St. Mary?”
    “Yes.” He
pointed to the picture in the book. “This is what we’re looking for. This is a
grimoire. Do you know what that is?”
    He shook his
head.
    “It’s a book of
spells, written by a witch or sorcerer. This particular grimoire is referred to
as the Book of Avelina. My friend, a fellow paladin—Father Ben Olivier—who has
the gift of prophecy and vision, said this book is very powerful and that we
need to get it. It was written in the ninth century by Avelina, the
granddaughter of the original paladin Anseis, who had the gift of magic.”
    “And you think this
ancient, all-powerful book found its way to St. Mary Parish of all places.”
    Miles glanced at
him over his shoulder and raised an eyebrow. “My boy, when dealing with magic,
anything is possible.”
    Miles put on
some latex gloves and unrolled a series of musty, yellowed papers near the book.
They were family trees. On the first page, there were thirteen
drawings—profiles of men. At the head and very top of the chart, the caption
under the man’s face read: Charlemagne. Below him, in a line of twelve faces,
were the names of his twelve paladins: Roland, Anseis, Oliver, Berenger,
Samson, Yvoire, Gerin, Engeler, Yvon, Gerard of Roussillon, Oton, Gerer. The
next pages were family trees for each paladin.
    Miles turned to the page for Anseis’
family tree and pointed to a name: Avelina. “She is the one who created the
grimoire. It
has changed hands throughout history. For a few centuries, it was with a coven
of Avelina’s descendants in Germany. Then it somehow found its way to the U.S.
during the time of the British Revolution. A British general used it to win
battles, but when he died, it was picked up by some witches near Salem, where
it stayed until the Salem Witch Trials. A coven of witches fled to the South,
where the grimoire was eventually picked up by some witches in the Appalachian
Mountains. It then traveled with a man to Louisiana at the turn of the
twentieth century, and it was picked up by Houma Indians here in South
Louisiana.”
    “Why would the Houma need