Forgotten Curse (Curse Trilogy)

by C. M. Owens

I hear the running water getting closer as he carries me into the bathroom, and I finally snap out of my moment of weakness. I jump free from his hips as the steamy room intensifies the feelings of desire I’m trying to fight.

  “You’re so relentless,” I grouse, and then he smirks before lightly kissing me once more.

  “It’s just a shower. No strings. Just stay with me for a little while.”

  “Not until I have closure. We’re not the type of couple who can split up and be friendly.”

  “I can be if you can,” he sizzles out, and I laugh while walking backwards to retreat.

  “I’ll pick you up at seven,” I tease, and he smiles while pulling off his pants.

  “If you can wait that long,” he smolders, and my eyes glue themselves to his perfectly exquisite body with his very tempting erection plainly in sight while he steps into the glass walled shower.

  Fuck my life.

  I can feel his mischievous grin as I walk out, and I lean against the door once I shut it. This is going to be as rough as the sex he’s desperate to have. I can’t help but be curious about a wild-in-the-bedroom Brazen.

  I let myself out, and then I walk the smaller distance to my more modest apartment. I collapse on the couch while rubbing my exasperation from my face. He’s sure as hell not going to make it easy to deny him.

  I stare at the very bold red shirt that dips low to reveal a great amount of cleavage. The open sleeves dangle loosely to reveal my arms all the way down until they reach my wrists where they’re held together by the gold cuffs. The gold skirt seems to look like metallic leather - what little bit of skirt there is. My large gold earrings dangle daringly, and my long necklace finds its way down the line of my cleavage. My dark hair has been wound in loose curls, and it elegantly cascades over my shoulders.

  I hear a knock at my door, and I see it’s five minutes until I was supposed to meet him at his place. I casually strut to the door, and his jaw unhinges the moment I open it. His wide-eyed response lets me know I’ve done something a little too much.

  “I’m not sure what to wear to an eighteen-year-old girl’s party. Is this inappropriate or too much?” I worry aloud.

  He barely claps his lips shut, and then he shakes his head as wry smile cocks to one side.

  “Please don’t change,” he almost begs, and then he starts walking in while keeping his eyes locked on mine.

  “I thought I was supposed to meet you at your place.”

  “You saw mine, and now I want to see yours,” he smolders, and his lips almost touch mine as he smirks all the more.

  “What?” I hoarsely ask when my nerves wad up, my mind flashing back to earlier when he dropped his pants in front of me to force me to look at his divine body.

  “Your place. You saw mine, and now I want to see yours,” he murmurs menacingly, and it’s apparent he’s toying with me.

  Fuck him and his sexy self.

  “It’s nice. You haven’t done a lot of decorating though. I expected it to be a little more like our old place,” he murmurs in an effort to force me to think of all the incredible memories we shared in our old place.

  “I still make pretty good considering my United official and my interrogator’s salary. It’s not quite the luxurious place you have,” I murmur while staring around at the stainless steel surfaces mingling with the flowing white fabrics draping all over the wall of windows.

  “Do you have any liquor here? They were closed when I went by earlier,” he murmurs while checking out my view.

  I laugh lightly, and then I go to the bar to pull out one of my several bottles of whiskey.

  “Still trying to get me tipsy?” I tease.

  He smirks before looking back at me, and then he gives me that Brazen wink.

  “Maybe, but right now I just want a glass. It’s been a hell of a week, and I haven’t had a chance to just relax until tonight. It feels good to have a home again. I just need one more piece to make it complete,” he says, his words slicing through to my heart, and then he struts over to me with his incredible eyes latching onto mine.

  “Why do you still want me? You shouldn’t. I already told you I’m not right for you, and I’m still in love-”

  His lips cover mine to silence their rebuttal, and he picks me up to sit me on the bar while pulling my legs around his waist.

  “Because I love you. You’re all I want,” he breathes, and then I close my eyes before falling back into his kiss.

  “I need closure,” I murmur against his lips.

  He pulls back and sighs out loudly before pulling me off the bar.

  “He’s back at Seminole. I saw him when I swung by there to get my new bike. He looks like he’s been trampled by a herd of bulls, but he’s back. He’ll only be there for a few weeks, so go get your closure tomorrow. I’m not giving up anytime soon, and he’s apparently not trying to win you back.”

  Tears sting my eyes from the brutal truth which has left his lips, and he wipes them free when they fall. His eyes soften, and then he kisses my forehead softly.

  “I mean it. Go get your closure. I want you to have it.”

  I nod against him, and then I lean back.

  “I get a day off in two weeks. I’ll go then.”

  He nods in acceptance of my counter offer. Then his lips stroll over my cheek before pulling me against him.

  “Let’s go party,” he says playfully, and then he guzzles his whiskey.

  I roll my eyes, and then his hand pulls mine to intertwine our fingers as we make our way out of the apartment.

  The party is in the enormous gymnasium, and the decorations are completely… pink. It looks like someone drank a truck of pepto and then exploded in the gym.

  “Wow. This is one girly party,” Brazen grumbles, and I laugh lightly against the thudding music.

  I smile when I see all the slinky attire, and I breathe out a breath of relief to know I wasn’t the only one to dress a little unladylike. I’m sure they’re all hybrids, but the mixed scents in the room are confusing my nose.

  “You’re the sexiest woman here. You can stop sizing up the competition,” he jokes, and I elbow him playfully.

  He pulls me onto the dance floor, and I feel a little silly dancing to the music the kids love so much.

  “Here,” he says, pulling a wrapped box from his pocket.

  The daring red paper shines under the flashing lights, and the black bow tangles around it to promise something extravagant. I smirk as I take it, and he keeps his arm around me while the dancers around us begin dodging us like an obstacle.

  “What’s this?” I giggle.

  “Your birthday present you never stuck around to get. After the… after you were upset, I decided to hold onto it.”

  I open the box to see my black opal ring with the scarlet flower. I huff as tears come to my eyes, and I lean into his body. He starts swaying to the music with me in his arms, and I shake my head.

  “Brazen, I’m not ready to be in any sort of relationship. What makes you think I’m ready to be engaged?”

  He laughs lightly, and his chest vibrates my drooping head that is still propped against it.

  “I wasn’t proposing,” he teases, and I tilt my head curiously while looking into his pale blue eyes.

  “This is my engagement ring,” I say suspiciously.

  “I know that. I’m the one who bought it,” he chuckles. “It doesn’t look like an engagement ring though, and it’s not like I have any use for it in my drawer. Just wear it on another finger. I bought it for you, and I want you to keep it.”

  I smile a little before pushing the ring onto my right hand ring finger, and I wrap my arms around his neck to give him an appreciative hug.

  “Thank you,” I murmur softly, and he kisses my forehead with his cool, soft lips in response.

  “Araya,” Nicholas says from behind, and I turn to face him.

  “What’s wrong?” I ask when I see the worry on his face.

  “I’m sorry to bother you, but I
could use your help. We had a man attack a woman earlier. He took her blood without permission, and these things need immediate attention. He’s apparently arguing she offered it willingly, but she’s crying blood rape. Will you-”

  “Yes. Of course. You stay here, and enjoy your daughter’s party. I’ll take care of it.”

  He nods appreciatively, and Brazen takes my hand to join me to the steel box. There are guards everywhere outside the doors, and Leon - Nicholas’s second in command - is directing them on what to do.

  Oh I hate this smug, Napoleon-complex-suffering bastard.

  His short stature leaves most of the taller men surrounding him looking like giants. In my heels, even I can see eye-to-eye with him in the literal sense. He’s one of the few full bloods here who doesn’t appreciate the presence of hybrids. The devil taints the pale eyes that are nothing like the soft, wonderful eyes of Brazen.

  “I’m here to interrogate,” I say authoritatively.

  “I don’t think so,” the arrogant full blood scoffs.

  “Excuse me?” I snort out derisively.

  “This is a hybrid. Your track record is impressive, but it doesn’t include your own kind.”

  I step by him to walk into the viewing room, and I see the scared hybrid with dark blue eyes staring into the glass while jiggling his leg nervously. His soft, dirty blond hair is tousled and stained with blood. The white shirt he’s wearing isn’t ripped or tousled as it should be from a struggle, but it does bear stains of blood - fresh blood. If anything, he fucked the wrong person. This boy is shaking in terror, not because he feels as though he’s been caught, but because he’s a hybrid. The full bloods show no mercy on hybrids.

  “This guy? You think this guy blood raped someone? He’s scared to death right now,” I say with a laughable, yet slightly agitated tone.

  “See. You’ve been here for five minutes, and you’ve already assumed him innocent because he’s hybrid.”

  Oh you cocky son of a bitch.

  “Nicholas sent me down here to interrogate. Would you like me to tell him you refused to carry out his orders, Lieutenant?”

  He scowls fiercely at me, and then he steps out of my way. Brazen glowers at the short full blood glaring at me, and his hand brushes my back when Leon snorts out his disgust for my mere presence. I’m worried he’s going to show Leon the bad boy side Metropolis knows.

  I actually kind of hope he will. Never mind, I’d fuck him for sure then.

  There are pictures scattered across the table, and I look at the neck of the woman they’re claiming is a victim. She’s full blood. I can see it in her pale eyes - eyes holding more scandal than fear.

  “I think the captain should know he’s a hybrid. You don’t have any arrests on hybrids,” Leon grumbles while picking up his phone.

  Brazen steps out in front of him. His patience is completely gone, and I get a little excited when I see that protective look burning deep in those incredibly pale eyes.

  Oh please don’t fight on your first night here.

  “Do you know how many hybrids are in Stringham Prison alone?” he asks Leon, his voice surprisingly casual.

  “I don’t know… seventy, eighty maybe.”

  “There are eight-five. Araya has put fifty two of them in there because she’s an officer of the United. Her arrests within the United are placed under an alias to keep her identity safe. If you continue to question her, I’ll consider it an attack on one of our officers with discriminatory intentions. Are you sure you want to continue your disrespectful attitude?” Brazen smugly cautions.

  Oh damn. Now I’m swooning - knees buckling, mind fantasizing, and heart racing. Hmmm.

  “I don’t know who the hell you are, but this is a Hershian interrogation, not a United one. In this room, right now, she’s a Hershian interrogator, not a United official. I won’t be disrespected either. I outrank her in this instance, and I refuse to be talked down to by… whoever you are.”

  He’s my full blood, and I’ll rip you in half if you don’t watch your fucking tongue.

  My eyes narrow as my gift seeps out, the walls creaking as the dull vibrations start to emerge, but Brazen’s hand grips mine to bring me out of my fiery frame of mind. The others just assume it’s a ground stutter from the uneven plates of this land, but Brazen knows how I get when people fuck with him. I almost see that smug twinge in his eyes, and it damn near makes me smirk.

  Brazen’s cocky grin tilts up on one side as he pulls his shirt up to reveal the badge attached to his belt. Leon’s face ashes over to become a ghostly white. I have to stifle my laughter while covering my insuppressible grin with my hand.

  “Captain Mordel. I’m also an official in the United. I thought I made that rather clear earlier. I suppose now you’ll do as your Hershian captain ordered and let Ms. Crush do her job. You might want to watch, listen, and learn.”

  “Yes, Sir,” Leon snaps out with a graveling remorse replacing his smugness.

  Brazen gives me a smirk, and he walks over to me while I study the young hybrid on the other side of the glass. His hand slides up my back before resting on my shoulder as he stares at the trembling boy with me.

  This can’t be right. This boy couldn’t have hurt her.

  “Nice people,” he mumbles.

  “Everyone else is. You can’t have a perfect home,” I say distractedly.

  “What’s wrong?” he asks.

  “He’s a new hybrid. His eyes have recently changed. He wouldn’t be drawn to a full blood this early on. It’s our nature to crave the touch of our own kind in our early change. He wouldn’t have done this. Not to mention, he went for her jugular. He connected with the artery, and we both know that’s a messy choice. We all tend to lean toward small veins when it’s more about pleasure.”

  “So why go for an artery?” he muses.

  “No offense, but some full bloods prefer a hybrid to take blood from an artery because it’s not as erotic. They feel guilty for wanting our kind, and they want us enough to give in, but they want it to be over with quickly so they can try to forget it ever happened.”

  “I’m aware of that, but I don’t feel that way. I want all the pleasure I can get out of it…. if you want to find a vein,” he murmurs against my ear, and then I hear all the uncomfortable throat clearings of the men behind us.

  I stifle my goofy smile, and he sits back with a wolfish grin.

  “Did someone catch the two of them?” I ask Leon.

  “Yes. How did you know?”

  “Because being caught could drive her guilt over the edge. Are they members here?”

  “No. They were in the visitor’s section… in a public restroom.”

  “The men’s or women’s?”

  “The men’s,” he answer shakily when he sees where I’m going with this.

  “Any idea why she would willingly go to the men’s restroom? He’s new to his strength, so I doubt he wrestled her in there considering she looks very mature in her change.”

  “I didn’t ask her,” he grumbles.

  “Where is she?”

  “She’s next door in the witness room filling out her formal statement.”

  “I’ll go,” Brazen says while taking my hand. “She’ll be less apprehensive around one of her own kind.”

  “You read my mind,” I reply daringly, and he kisses the back of my hand before leading me out.

  I walk into the viewing room of the witness stand, and Brazen walks over to the girl who has healed, blood still staining her dress.

  “Are you feeling okay-” he pauses while searching the file for her name “- Ms. Hanbrook?”

  She whimpers as tears drip from her face. Her tears seem rehearsed, easily provoked even. She’s not a very good actress.

  “She doesn’t look like a guilty wolf crier to me,” Leon growls.

  He’s trying to act like his balls are still hanging now that Brazen isn’t in the room.

  “She looks guilty to me. When women have been blood raped, they tend
to shiver around men. She is staring at her paper without any concern for Brazen’s presence. She’s dismissive of him, and she’s just ready to get the hell out of here.”

  “Ms. Hanbrook, can you tell me how you ended up in the men’s restroom?” Brazen asks.

  “He pushed me in there,” she lies, and I can tell she’s intentionally avoiding eye contact with the expert detective.

  “He pushed you in there? That’s odd. The restroom is up two flights of stairs, and it’s on a separate tower than the women’s according to this map. You’ll have to forgive me, I’m new to the area.”

  I smile at his finesse, and she shakes her head at him.

  “He drug me in there then. Whatever,” she mumbles.

  “Do you see that?” I say to Leon. “She got agitated when he called her out on her lie. She wouldn’t have started sobbing harder if this was a real attack.”

  “No one reacts the same to a traumatic incident,” he counters.

  “Follow me,” I murmur while leading him out of the room.

  I walk into the room where the terrified newbie is chained up. He shivers the instant I walk in, and I can see the fear in his eyes.

  “I swear I didn’t force her. She came to me. She followed me in the bathroom,” he pleads.

  “I just need you to do something for me,” I mutter while removing his cuffs.

  “What?” he asks through his youthful tears.

  “I need you to try to force me against that wall. I want to see how close you can get to my neck.”

  “No. No. No,” he cries, and it’s apparent who the real victim is.

  “Listen. I believe you’re innocent, but you have to prove me right,” I whisper, and he sucks back his tears as he nods.

  “Now try to push me against the wall.”

  He warily steps toward me, and his gentle hands show no signs of viciousness in them. He pushes as hard as he can, but his strength is no match for mine. I easily move out of his grip, and he falls to the floor.

  “You see?” I say to the invisible faces behind the glass, and then I turn back to the scared boy. “Have a seat. I’ll come back to let you go as soon as I have this straightened out.”

  “You believe me?” he asks so hopefully.