The Curse Begins

by Abby James

  Scullion’s feet appeared in front of me. “I am now your master.”

  He grabbed a handful of my hair and yanked my head back, forcing me to look into his eyes. Leaning down, he said, “one day you will thank me for what I will make you become.”

  The raw power of his ability flowed through his hand and into me. I was doused in the magical feeling of energy, an energy that woke me up and attuned my senses.

  A blinding light flashed in front of my eyes. I was wrenched out of his grasp. And it felt like I had left half my hair behind in his grip. The jolt of colliding with something from behind punched the wind from my lungs. I hit the ground in a ball.

  I coughed through my confusion as the sounds of shouting erupted around me. I lifted my head to see Scullion on his back against the far wall, blown away to the other side of the room as I was. His minions raced to his rescue. I must’ve borrowed some of his ability and sent us both spinning to either side of the chamber. I so should’ve followed McGilus’s advice and attended all my classes so I could learn how to wield all the different abilities.

  “Keep an eye on her,” Scullion growled as he smacked the helping hand away. Thank god the lighting was too dim for me to read his expression. By the sound of his voice, I was sure his eyes would be shooting poisonous darts.

  Two of the three surrounded me.

  “Don’t touch her,” Scullion yelled, the rage still in his voice.

  And it looked as though I’d given him some inkling as to what I could do.

  “I want her up on the table. Let’s see if we can teach her some manners.”

  The guy on the left sneered down at me as he slowly raised his arm, palm facing downward. I was lifted to my feet like someone had placed their hands under my arms, meaning this guy had to be a telekinetic. If I could get me some of that juice I’d send the lot of them out the exit of the temple. Or maybe not, since I had no idea how to manipulate telekinetic energy.

  The asshole didn’t bother to lift me off my feet, instead he kept me at half height such that when he moved me across to the table, he dragged my legs behind me. Lucky I wore my trainers or else I would have a nice burn across the top of my feet. It was the weirdest feeling, floating along without any visible help. It didn’t hurt, but felt more like a tug under my arms and through my chest. I tried to struggle once by thrashing my arms and legs around, but it was short lived once a heavy weight descended onto my limps, anchoring them beside me.

  Once at the table, he jerked his arm up so I was lifted like a ragdoll then thudded down on the table on my side. My head cracked down onto the stone, filling my vision with a flash of light. The guy was mean enough to keep my limps weighted so I couldn’t nurse my head.

  Scullion stood next to the telekinetic wearing his own sneer. “This is most interesting,” he said. “I’m not sure what to make of you, but the reports I’ve received from my informants were most enlightening. This is fascinating.”

  He leaned down, bringing his face to my level. I was still pinned to the table and couldn’t even lift my head to meet his eyes, which I would’ve done if I could. I would’ve spat in his face if I didn’t feel like lead, and if my vision wasn’t wavering. Maybe I had mild concussion from smacking my head on the stone.

  “It will take some time, but I am sure you will learn to appreciate me. But this will only happen once you learn your place.” He straightened. “I am sorry, but every action requires a consequence. In this case I’m afraid you will not enjoy the consequence, but you will learn in time the actions that bring rewards and those which bring pain.”

  He turned to the telekinetic. “Make it quick. We need to be gone.”

  I was moved onto my back, not without hands, but through whatever magical means a telekinetic had to move objects. I felt the tug through all my limbs so it was not the bending of air that pushed me onto my back, rather the manipulation of my body as if he was the magnet and I was the nails.

  Once flat on my back, my arms were forced straight over my head, my legs pulled from my hip joint. At first it felt soothing, like a big stretch, but lasted mere seconds before the stretch went beyond comfort. My joints started to ache.

  “A rather crude form of torture employed in the dark ages. But it was affective.”

  “They will hunt for me.”

  And the fact they weren’t here now had to mean the tag on my wrist had not worked.

  “You are still in the woods at Darkwells, Miss Wright. They don’t have far to search to find you. But what they will find when they stumble on your body is a shell. You see, you are trapped within your mind, and I plan on keeping you there until such time as I have reeducated you. Only then will I let your mind free so that you may come to me.”

  “That will never happen,” I gasped as the pain in my joints took over. The strain on my shoulders and hip joints throbbed. Even so I bit my tongue to keep myself from making any noise. “No wonder you turned to the skurks. No one with any dignity would want to associate with you.”

  Scullion sighed and turned to his telekinetic minion. No words were spoken, but the guy got the hint, increasing the stretch until I couldn’t keep my voice. I cried out, no longer caring if he knew how much it hurt. “Have my pain,” I managed between gasping cries. “But you will never have my servitude, asshole.”

  “My dear girl, just like your father. It is what has made him so great. But believe me, I will break you. And it will be my pleasure doing it.”

  A sudden wave of energy radiated throughout the room, an iridescent blue that rippled outward like a bow wave to smash into the walls of the chamber. But it didn’t just warp through the room, it went straight through me. I felt invigorated and alive, charged with ten ton of dynamite.

  The stretch in my limps and the weight on my body disappeared, and I curled into a ball, coiling my aching joints as I looked around the chamber to find Scullion and his minions had been thrown aside.

  I jerked my head up when I heard smacking shoes hurrying toward me.

  Oh my god. “Luca.”

  He reached me, then pounced, pushing me back down onto the stone table, shielding me with his body as a bolt of energy seared over head and harmlessly smashed into the rock on the other side of the chamber. Luca turned to face Scullion, now on his feet, placing his body between me and the impending fight.

  “You have to snap yourself out of this, Samara,” he said, still facing Scullion.

  Before I could ask him how, Scullion launched another attack, which Luca deflected with a jerk of his hand. The channel of white light bent left and shot off to the roof of the chamber.

  Luca repaid the favor, but a funny shimmering light appeared in front of Scullion and his men, who were now getting to their feet. Since Luca did not mount another attack it was safe to say Scullion had himself a fancy shield. Behind this he launched another of his blistering lightening bolts, which Luca deflected once again.

  “We’re running out of time, Samara, you need to pull yourself out of this. I can’t do it for you.”

  The moment he said that, he spun, leaped up onto the table at the same time shoving me across the top. With the power of his shunt, I slid backward, his body on top of me. When there was no stone table left we fell to the ground, but Luca managed to maneuver us mid-fall so I landed partially on top of him. Regardless, the air was punched from my lungs.

  “Times running out, Samara,” he whispered, not needing to say it any louder because I’d landed so our faces were mere inches from each other.

  He rolled me to the side and jumped to his feet. Looking down at me, he said, “stay down.”

  The volley of energy began in earnest. Each sending devastating blows that never hit their mark and instead made the stone walls crumb and the chamber shudder. At this rate the whole thing would collapse in on us. We would die in our minds and the ripple effect would have us die in real life.

  As if thinking the same thing, Luca glanced down at me. Then held out his hand. “Take it,” he barked through th
e noise of the stone walls cracking. Chunks were falling away.

  I slipped my hand in his. He gripped me tight and pulled me to my feet. The energy that was his flowed through me in all its glory. Luca looked across at me, “stay open, Samara. Don’t block your mind, don’t fight it. Let me in.”

  I didn’t know what to do, what he meant. But I didn’t have time to ponder it. The flow of his ability carved through me, but instead of hollowing me out, I felt filled up with the most amazing energy. I looked down at my body because I was sure I would be glowing. Luca squeezed my hand tight. I lifted my head to look at him when something felt like it had slammed through my chest and ripped my ribcage apart. Out flowed the energy Luca had fed into me, or I had sucked in myself, detonating outward as a shockwave. I was thrown backward from the impact, until I felt the hard tug on my hand. Through his strength, Luca kept me with him.

  The walls were caving in. A thunderous sound roared through my ears. The tug on my hand so great, I was pulled off my feet and into a run.

  “We have to get out of here,” Luca yelled through the deafening noise. Large chunks of stone punctured through to the floor around us. I ducked as Luca pulled me through the chamber. Dust billowed up, blinding me to a few feet in front of me, enough to see Luca’s back.

  We passed out of the chamber and into a dark passage. Luca kept his pace and my hand. It was only through our touch that I felt the strength to go on. The force of the detonation of energy seemed to have also worked backward as well as outward. My lungs felt as though they had collapsed, leaving me gasping for air. My chest hurt. I didn’t want to look down in case I saw blood. I stayed on my feet only because of the connection with Luca. His power fed through our hands kept me alive.

  We burst out of the temple into the light. The sun was setting, casting an orange glow across the sky. Any other time and it would’ve stopped me in my tracks with wonder. The orange sky reflected off the stone buildings below, turning them a gravel brown.

  Not bothering with the view, Luca dragged me down the long flight of stone stairs quick enough I lost my footing and stumbled into his back once or twice, leaving his strength the only thing to prevent the two of us from ending up at the bottom of the stairs in a jumbled heap of broken limbs.

  “I can’t,” I gasped. My chest hurt.

  He stopped. “Look behind you.”

  I did as he said. With the rolling dust billowing out of the temple it looked like a volcanic eruption. The top of the temple caved in on itself with the noise of planets colliding.

  “Luca, I—” couldn’t speak. Panicking and speaking didn’t work well with the pain in my chest, which was now radiating up and down my body.

  He swept me up into his arms and hurried off down the stairs, taking three at a time. I closed my eyes because the stairs were steep and he was going too fast. No doubt fashioned by hand, they were uneven and rough. Any minute now he would trip and we would bounce and crack and break all the way to the bottom.

  The grumbling rumble from behind, then the blast of stone and dust that spread outward from the temple, swept us up in a blinding, suffocating cloud of debris and lethal projectiles.

  I saw nothing and was amazed Luca was still on his feet moving. But then the jars of his running ceased. It felt like we were flying through the air, caught up in the devastating blast from the collapsed temple. This was it. The end, and I’d only just started my days at Darkwells, only just discovered the true me. So not fair.

  I felt the jolt of us landing, but not the bone crunching break I expected after being flung off the stairs. We had still been a long way from the bottom of the steps when the temple collapsed.

  Miraculously enough, I could see. Luca peered down at me, his eyes intense. “Are you all right?”

  “I’m alive. I guess that means I’m all right.”

  I looked around me to find Luca had set me down behind one of the stone buildings within the city. Given we were away from the cloud of dust I would say we had reached the outer region of the ancient city.

  “You sure can move fast when you want to.”

  That didn’t earn me a smile. Luca stood, releasing his hold on me. The moment he left me with no contact the energy flowing from him to me ebbed. With its disappearance my strength crumbled. The pain that had plagued me from the moment Luca had released his blast doubled. No, quadrupled. I slid sideways on the stone wall unable to keep myself upright. I had thought breathing difficult before, but this was ridiculous. It was like someone had scooped my lungs right out of my chest. The rhythm of my heart faltered, missing a few beats.

  Luca grabbed my hand and eased me up against the wall again. The moment he touched me my heart eased into a steady rhythm and my lungs expanded, settling my sawing breaths. The roiling of my stomach eased, and I no longer felt like I would throw up all over him.

  “Dammit,” he snarled.

  “What’s going on?”

  “It’s my fault. I should’ve thought of another way.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I used your ability to magnify my own. I must’ve fed you too much. You’re only just coming into your power. Your body wasn’t ready for that level of energy.”

  He dropped his eyes and stared at the ground. “I’m sorry. But I was desperate to get you out. I didn’t want to continue the fight while you were so vulnerable.”

  “Don’t worry about that. We kicked their asses.”

  “Scullion’s not that easy to get rid of. He’s powerfu. It’s likely he got himself away. He may or may not have bothered to save his men, but you can be assured he isn’t dead.”

  “At least we’re safe.”

  “But we’re not free. You have to get yourself out of this, Samara. You are trapped within your mind.”

  “But in real life I’m not injured, right?”

  “No. Your body is fine, but your mind is not, and it will kill you unless you can get yourself out.”

  “I don’t know how to get myself out of this.” I glanced around us, then ran my hand over the baked earth, which was nothing but dirt. “This all feels so real.”

  Luca took my face between his hands. “Glamor is powerful. Many have been trapped within their minds for their entire lives. But you have to break yourself out. You have to find a way.”

  “How?”

  Luca ran a hand down over my eyes, closing them. “You need to focus. This is how you got here right. Emrol had you focus on the temple. Now I want you to focus on Darkwells.”

  “But Scullion said—”

  He placed a finger over my lips. “You don’t need to think about anything Scullion said. Focus, Samara.”

  I did as he said, but I was shocking at focusing on anything. My mind always ran down corridors and diverted into all sorts of memories whenever I was forced to focus. But I tried. I thought about the first time I had seen Darkwells, the feeling I felt when first climbing off the bus and standing before the castle.

  I cracked an eye to see the glorious orange of the sun over Luca’s shoulders. Dammit, it hadn’t worked. I closed my eyes again and thought of Nylph house and my comfortable bed. I thought of Amy and Lorna, the eerie statues and the Draak party. When I opened my eyes again we were still stuck in ancient times.

  “It’s not working,” I cried.

  “You’re not focusing hard enough.”

  “I don’t know how I can focus any harder,” I barked, my desperation making me angry.

  “Samara.” His voice was so calm it caught my attention amongst the noisy panic in my head.

  “What is the one experience you’ve had at Darkwells you will never forget?”

  “One. God there has been so many.”

  “Give me one. A very special one.”

  I stared into his eyes and watched the amber and red swirl together. I had a very special moment, but I couldn’t voice it out loud. It was too embarrassing.

  Luca’s eyes were dissecting mine, and he caught the subtle expression that must have pla
yed across my face when I thought of the special memory.

  “What is it?”

  “You don’t want to know.”

  “If it will get you out of here, yes, I do want to know.”

  “That day on the couch.” It was all I could say.

  “What day on the couch?”

  “Should I slap you?”

  There was a small twitch of his lips. Yep, definitely a twitch of his lips as he fought with a smile.

  “I won’t take your blood. Never again, no matter how much I want to,” he said leaning toward me, bringing his face close to mine. “but…”

  His eyes dropped to my lips. Oh god, he was going to kiss me. Good feelings flared inside. He felt them or sensed them, whatever vampires did, as I saw the same arousal reflected in his beautiful eyes. His lips parted as his eyes dropped once again to my mouth. My heart raged, hammering a beat so fast any minute it would pound through my chest. Talk about forcing me fully into life.

  Luca’s lips touched mine, feather light. I closed my eyes so I was forced to rely on the sensation, the feel of his tongue tracing the bottom of my lip, then slipping inside my mouth. I inhaled him in, pressing myself forward and into his chest. The feel of him along the front of me, and my need spiraled to two hundred percent. Who would’ve guessed mind games would come with all the extra trimmings, such as the taste and smell of him.

  As with the first time we’d kissed, I couldn’t stay calm, couldn’t keep my hands from groping for him, my tongue from exploring him, demanding more of him, demanding he give me his all. I was so damn greedy, ravenous like I’d never been before. He wasn’t sucking my blood this time, but still the sensation was one powerful slug to my libido.

  I drove forward, taking control of the kiss, moaning my thirst into his mouth, driving the pace with my desperate hands, now exploring the contours of his body. I wanted more, more, more. He was mine, mine, mine.

  Luca rose over me, pressed into me, pushed me backward onto the ground. God, yes. Let’s do this. Let’s do it, let’s do it. Yeah, baby.

  I wrapped my legs around his waist, groaned with the feel of his hips spreading my legs wide. Sweet bliss.