The Printed Page

Marie Levant, an ER doctor and the great-great granddaughter of the Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau, knows better than anyone New Orleans’s brutal legacy of slavery, poverty, racism and sexism. The struggle becomes personal, though, when an ancient African vampire – a spirit created by colonial oppression – grows intent on destroying all the Leveau descendants. The unforgettable heroine must fight to protect her daughter, her lover, and herself from the vampire’s seductive assault on both body and spirit.

Past the courtyard fountain, an impish, algae-covered fairy spitting water out of its mouth. Past the steel door, into a black-and-white tiled hallway.
A huge gilt mirror was on the right, above the mailboxes. Two had broken locks.
“Not much, but home. Elevator.” He pressed the button. “Third floor. You can rest a bit. No one will find you.”
“It will. Just not tonight.”
“The wazimamoto? Not if I can help it.”
She smiled wanly. She wished Kind Dog were here.
“You’re not seeing those spooks? JT, Rudy?”
“’Ghosts’ or ‘spirits’ is more respectful.”
“Are you kidding me? Respect spooks?”
“Yes. If you’re with me.”
The elevator door closed. Parks hit 3. He smoothed damp hair away from her eyes. “Okay, okay. Spirits, ghosts.”
She nodded. That was the difference – how she’d changed. Old Marie versus new improved Marie.
Growing up, her mother had had her sayings: “A broken-wing bird mean death”; “Scratch the wall, somebody die”; “Dead don’t lie” – useless sayings that added up to nothing about her family legacy.
In New Orleans, she’d stumbled headlong into family mysteries and murder. DuLac had lifted her up, shown her how pieces of herself connected to an ancient tradition. He’d made her a believer.
~ Page 194, Yellow Moon by Jewell Parker Rhodes ~