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Julianthat they were ready for anyone interested in the St Louis Number 1 tour

Nikki started to follow the others, but Brent caught her arm "You saw her, didn’t you?"

She looked at his hand on her ar to h "Okay… I ht have seen her But so briefly, I’ot to tell me when she’s there"

"Look, I just told you, I wasn’t sure And you were giving the tour, you were busy And you’re hurting my arm"

He instantly released her "Nikki, please--" he began

"And this," Julian was announcing, "is Brent, your guide through the streets down to the ce history and lore of the oldest of the cities of the dead"

Brent stepped forward to lead the crowd of tourists: couples, faenarians, both with sparkling powder-blue eyes

"Good afternoon, and welco Easy, N’Awlins I’ll talk about the city’s history while we head on over to the ceroup at all times, because as wonderful a city as this is, we have our share of pickpockets"

Though the distance to the ceiven the size of the group, progress was slow Brent talked about the French, Spanish and English, and the Louisiana Purchase, the power and ht of the Mississippi, and stopped in front of one of the old taverns, where it was said that pirates nations withthee of the canal, he told the story of a twentieth-century murder in which the perpetrator had been convinced he was a vampire and had drained his victied, he shot himself There were those, he said, who believed that his victihostly for to drain people of their very breath

Other groups were in the ce the full attention of his audience He started out with the toroup to view the tomb of Homer Plessy, involved in the 1896 landuson, which established the concept of separate but equal Certain that Huey was somewhere around, he decided to tell the haunt’s story "In cases of epidemic or need, vaults could be used by those who didn’t own them There’s no actual data on precisely where, but near here was interred a hardworking elderly slave, Huey, slain by his ht and murder It’s said that Huey haunts St Louis Nuh--he was bitter about his own death, but a fine old fellow, and he has it in for anyone who intends to vandalize this place" He raised his voice "Huey should knoever, that his wretched old ony Perhaps there is such a thing as retribution, and though we often wonder why it doesn’t seeh in this life, in so his words settle with his audience and looking for Nikki She was standing with Julian, whispering She seemed at ease now, even entertained Huey’s story was one they probably hadn’t heard before

"Archibald McManus?" exclai woman somewhere in her early twenties She was on the tour with two other women

"She’s a McManus," one of her friends said

"It’s a coirl in question said She laughed "I’o back to this area My dad said that randfather was a plantation owner here, that so terrible happened, and his children moved away and all lost touch with one another Do you know any h you may not like what you find out"

"Every family probably has one inhu to the redheaded friend at her side "What did you do that for?"

"What?" the redhead demanded

"You pulledhe hadn’t told the story Now he could see Huey Instead of being relieved and at peace with the satisfaction of knowing that old Archibald had gotten his coirl as a descendant of the man’s

"Let’sthe crowd through the maze of tombs in the city of the dead He felt Huey at his side

"You leave that girl alone," he ordered softly

"She comes from his blood Bad blood"

"The sins of the fathers are not visited upon the children," he said

"What?"

Brent glanced to his right Huey was gone Julian was there, frowning at hi He had to be careful Nikki was next to Julian, looking at him curiously

He jumped up on a broken tombstone "The sins of the fathers are not visited upon the children," he repeated And he told the Creole wolish family "When the hter-in-laas cast froe annulled In a few years’ tile to survive However, years later, when the Englishwoman was sick and alone, she fell in the streets of the Vieux Carré one day She was helped up by a beautiful young wohter-in-law It was her granddaughter The girl randht her instead to the nuns, who nursed her unto death The girl then saw to it that the old woman received a decent burial here in St Louis Nuhter, by the way, sought nothing from the estate, but the lawyers found her, and she inherited a ho American soldier, and they had five children, many of who away, but the ate says, ’God is , love’"

Huey was staring at hiroup

At least he wasn’t pulling hair anyates would be closed and locked soon, and Brent kneas tiet everyone out, hiested the other tours the group gave, and assured everyone that he would get them back to Madame D’Orso’s, so they could proceed hatever they had planned for the evening

As he led the way out, Huey was at his side "You co to tellback and let the others lead the tour out of earshot before he responded