by Danae Ayusso
Holy shit.
I really wish someone had given us the memo on that earlier because we nearly killed everyone.
No, you nearly killed everyone. I can control my temper.
Liar.
Shut up.
“We were human?” I wanted to clarify. “Born mortal, and when we were cursed… How did she do that?”
Price blew out a long breath. “That is slightly harder to explain,” he admitted. “After much research, I discovered that Novalea wasn’t human. She was what the French call devins-guerisseurs, or what the English call a white witch. She cursed us. We are the Damned of Lost Creek.” He motioned to the dried up creek bed, explaining that this piece of shit lifeless land is Lost Creek. “Novalea was complicated, what she was is, and because of that she could have been thousands of years old for all we know. Through study, I learned that devins-guerisseurs exhibit the appearance of immortality by stealing bodies and taking them over, feeding off their soul. If that’s correct, somehow Novalea found herself in the body of a young servant girl and decided to follow her set path out west. Her wrath, her curse, damned and transformed us into what we are now. We are the living undead, in a sense.”
My eyes widened.
“Am I going to start craving brains?” we asked.
He chuckled. “Thank you for that, Girls. No. We aren’t the living undead in the zombie sense. It isn’t undead in the physical aspect, rather in the spiritual. When these vessels, these bodies, start to fail, we select new ones, typically tourists that come into the area, and take them over.”
“Killing them,” I whispered, and he nodded. “So we’re monsters.”
“No, you’re not!” he snapped. “This curse, this damnation, is so much worse than immortality! Our curse is to watch those we love, our children, our family that wasn’t there that day, die. They are born. They marry. They have children. And they die. We have to live with that every moment of every day. William has buried five wives and twenty children.”
Holy shit.
You can say that again.
Holy shit.
“I don’t understand,” we admitted, though we were starting to.
Price stroked Pony’s head. I didn’t realize that I was doing the same to Moonshine…
I think the horses are crying.
Can they do that?
Hell if I know.
He sighed. “My brother, Bishop, he was Kieran and Bleu’s father, and his wife ventured out of the county. Bishop knew the risk, but he had to follow his heart, which was his wife, and she wanted to go home for a bit. They were scheduled to return prior to the ten-year mark. We can only leave the land, our land, for no more than ten-years at a time or else we become lost souls, and the way that lost souls are found is by Hellhound. A volcano sent an impenetrable plume of ash into the air, grounding all flights for weeks. And in those weeks, the decade mark lapsed. Bishop was torn apart in front of the twins, the child his wife was carrying triggered the Hellhound’s wrath for some reason, and she and the unborn child were killed as well. The twins haven’t spoken since. Yet another family ruined because of this curse.”
Oh whoa.
That’s putting it mildly.
“If there are no females, how am I and Lizzy possible? She and Christian are twins, I can tell by the way they look and bicker,” I asked.
Price shook his head. “No. Lizzy isn’t a Van Zul, she just doesn’t know it. There was a mix up at the fertility lab; they have the same mother but different fathers. Christian is Marian’s son, there is no denying it. Lizzy is not Marian’s biological daughter though. Soren has, much like me, never had an heir until Draven. That was a surprise to everyone, most of all Soren. Because of the inability to raise their own children, whether it be through neglect, selfishness, or simply no longing to be a parent anymore, Lizzy, Christian and Paul have been raised, questionably mind you, by Soren. You are the only female to be born in centuries in either family tree. I don’t know what it means, and I really don’t care. You girls are my world now, and I will do whatever it takes to protect you. I just wish I could have protected you from all of this.”
I really wish Draven had given me a bit more of a heads up. The Band-Aid approach I usually like, but this time it was too much at once.
It could be worse, I guess.
How?
When I figure it out, I’ll let you know.
“So how do we die?” I reluctantly asked since I was rather hard to kill.
Price looked up at the rapidly darkening sky, as if he were looking for the answer. “The children aren’t immortal. Only those that were there at Lost Creek are. After the ‘natural’ death of the first vessel, the original body… Almost as if it was a form of punishment, we got to see, live and experience for the most part, what our lives would have been in a physical sense. After that first death, our souls jumped into another vessel, killing them. There are ways for us to die, but they aren’t natural. Death by mythical and paranormal means is a permanent death: hellhounds, vampires, werewolves, witches, warlocks, skin walkers, ghosts, ghouls… The list is longer than you could possibly imagine. Thankfully, you don’t see too many of them in the backwoods of Montana anymore. Have we had vampires in the area before? Yes. Have we had werewolves? Yes. We monitor them and watch the mythical and paranormal population as best as we can to make sure it doesn’t affect the balance we’ve struggled to keep for centuries. Some incidents are more noticeable than others. Bodies turning up with holes in their necks are a little obvious to say the least. Those that cross into our borders are typically chased off by the Van Zuls and their ridiculous nature or we address it and get our hands dirty. It is a delicate balancing act that we must maintain to protect our families,” he said.
Tone noted.
“Why Lares and Larvae?” I asked.
Price shook his head. “We don’t know. Through research, we learned that curses are very specific but very temperamental. Sometimes, there is no say or control over what comes of them. If Novalea was off by even a single syllable when she cursed us, we could have all turned into pigeons or feral cats.”
I giggled.
“Simian’s words, of course,” Price assured us. “Perhaps we were cursed to be Lares and Larvae because of our unity as a family? All we have are theories without evidentiary proof to support or disprove them.”
That’s what Draven was talking about…
Now it makes sense.
“Are you mad?” he whispered.
I shook my head. “Not at all… That’s a lie. I’m livid at Soren. Justice is beyond livid that she can’t kill him for you… She is feeling very homicidal lately. I think she’s moody.”
Screw you.
“I’m sorry they did that to you, that she did that to you,” I said. “Losing those we love is never easy, but having to watch over and over as those we love die around us… It’s a sick twist of Fate that Death alludes us.”
Price looked at us curiously.
“Stop trying to read us,” we warned, looking away from him.
“It’s hard not to when you’re a mess of emotions right now.”
“With good reason,” I retorted. “It’s getting late and we should get back before it gets too dark. I don’t like the woods, especially at night.”
Price nodded his understanding and came over to help me up in the saddle. “Nothing will hurt you in the woods as long as I’m here,” he promised.
Unless you’re immune to vampires and weird shit like that, or little demons that want to play with us, then no, neither of us are safe in the woods, especially at night.
For once, we’re in complete agreement on something, Sis.
The ride back to the house was quiet and it was starting to freak me out. It was too dark, especially for me to be out in the woods when there’s a little demonic bitch running around unchecked.
“I want to play.”
My head snapped to the side, following the sound.
Off to the side, barely visi
ble in the overhead moonlight, was Dandy. Absently her clawed fingers raked down the tree she was standing next to, causing large pieces of bark and wood to fall away.
“Dad, it’s too dark,” I called out.
Dandy flickered before disappearing then reappeared closer to us.
Moonshine pawed at the ground, snorting.
“You will play with me,” Dandy warned.
“Dad?” I called out.
Doesn’t he see this little bitch? Isn’t this the type of thing he’s supposed to protect us from?!
I started shaking in fear.
“I want to play,” she taunted, her body flickering before reappearing even closer to us.
Moonshine started retreating, as if the horse saw her, too.
Price pulled Pony to a stop then dismounted. “I was worried that’d happen,” he said, getting into his saddlebag, seemingly unconcerned with the demonic little bitch coming after us.
Dandy disappeared before she reappeared in front of me, crouched on the saddled horn, and she screamed in my face, her hands wrapping around my throat.
Oh hell no.
I swung at her but my fists harmlessly passed through her body.
“You will play,” Dandy snarled.
When bright light illuminated the area, I winched and she was suddenly gone, her body breaking away in a wisping of gray smoke that dissipated into the night.
I gasped and choked, trying to get the taste of her rank breath and decay from my tongue and nostrils.
“Mikhail, what’s wrong?” Price asked, hurrying over to us with a light stick that was channeling the sun in his hand.
“You didn’t…” I started to ask.
He gave me a look before his eyes turned black and he started looking around. “The Van Zuls were warned against this trickery,” he sneered.
If that’s a Van Zul, I’m a saint.
“It… I don’t like the woods and I really don’t like the woods at night,” I stammered.
Price looked at me suspiciously but handed the light to me. “You’re hiding something.”
“We hide many things, Dad,” we agreed. “If we felt as if they were important, we would possibly be more forthcoming in what we’re hiding. It’s yet another of those hereditary traits we got from our father,” we reminded him.
Despite himself, Price smiled. “Yes, from your father. Let’s get you home where it’s safe.”
I nodded.
Once back on his horse, Price took Moonshine’s reins in hand and guided the horse next to his while I held the light stick as if it were a light saber, waving it back and forth, trying to spread the light out.
I’m kicking that little bitch’s ass the next time I see her.
I fully support that.
Distract him or something. He’s resolving, I can tell and I don’t like it. He needs to stop talking to that damn therapist.
I agree.
We didn’t run screaming from Lost Creek, though a normal person would have.
We aren’t normal.
True.
It really upsets me that Soren did that to Novalea and Price. It’s beyond messed up, and he totally needs his ass kicked. If I weren’t so scared of you accidentally killing him, thus killing Price and everyone else tied to this stupid curse, I’d let you do it and not think twice about it.
I’ll remind you that you said that later.
Stupid loophole filled curse.
“How did you meet my mother?” I asked, breaking the silence.
Price looked over at me then chuckled when he saw me chasing the dark away with the light wand. “At the store. I took a young vessel, one of my nephews that was dying of a blood disorder. That’s the body I have now. Over the years, Gregory, the geneticist, has figured out the vessel changes and alters itself to match our original bodies. When my nephew Luke was dying and slipped into a coma, I took his body, vessel, as a last ditch effort to help Greg and his wife Molly, who later died in a car accident, to hold onto their son, in a matter of speaking. The vessel woke from the coma, I woke, and the blood disorder rapidly started to correct itself. And then the blood type changed from Luke’s rare type to mine, the eyes went from blue to brown, hair darkened, facial structure changed, and in five-years he looked exactly how I did when I was fifteen. This is how I looked at thirty-five in my original body and the same goes with the others. How Simian, William, and Nick look like now is what they looked like in their original bodies. The same with most of the family and Van Zuls.”
“Nick’s related?” I asked the obvious.
Price made that face that told me that he just slipped up. “Nick was with us at Lost Creek. He is the son of one of our servants, ranch hands, and was like, is like, a brother to me and thus he was cursed as well. It was rumored that his family at one point in time crossed, or branched off, from our family tree five or six generations prior, and his family was the possible result but it was never proven.”
That’s sweet but sad.
The puppy being your tenth generation cousin thing? Ew.
No, the taking Luke’s vessel, body, whichever, in order to give that side of the family more time together. It’s sweet.
Depressing as all Hell.
“Do I have family?” I asked. “I mean, is my mother’s family in the area? Should I stop by and introduce myself or something?”
Ew, why would you want to do that? I’m sure they’re crackheads like she was.
Price shook his head. “No, Noeline was a foster kid that was taken from some, and I only found this out later when she became missing, religious fanatics from the northeast. After a couple of abduction attempts by her biological family, the courts ordered that she be placed out west in protective custody and the records sealed. Her foster parents, Harold and Marge Timberwood, were selected because he was the sheriff at the time and she was a social worker specializing in working with difficult cases. They knew the importance of discretion and how to handle cases that warrant a child being in protective custody, especially those cases where the biological families were trying to violate court orders.”
That, surprisingly, doesn’t surprise me.
It does me… Okay, I can’t even lie. That doesn’t surprise me in the least. What is a surprise is that Price hooked up with the bitch.
Yeah, I’m still trying to figure that one out as well.
“Do you know why she was taken or who they were?” I asked.
“No, she never said,” he admitted. “I really didn’t ask though. Everyone has a past and secrets; Lord knows I have mine, so I respected that, just as she didn’t ask about mine. There was a strange level of commonality between us, almost as if we could communicate and understand each other, and have an entire conversation without uttering a single word. She felt like home,” he whispered the latter then looked over at me and forced a smile. “That’s the only way I can explain it. For the first time in years, in many lifetimes, I felt as if I was home when in her arms. Then I woke up one morning and she was gone. The feeling was gone… Huh,” he huffed then pushed his hand through his hair, pushing it back from his face. “I only realized that now. I knew she was gone before they told me. I woke up and felt as if a part of me was gone, and now I know that the missing piece wasn’t Noeline, it was you. I don’t know why she changed, why she was so vastly different with you from how she was with me.
“Noeline was smart and funny, she wasn’t as book smart as I am, but there was no denying that she was someone that could school you in the blink of an eye. Her razor sharp tongue and wit was almost endearing in a way… Much like yours. I cannot remember how many times she awed me with her words, and her touch rendered me speechless. I just… Mikhail, Justice, I swear, I don’t understand how she could be so drastically different with you girls. I’m so sorry for that.”
Why does he always have to make us cry?
I don’t think it’s intentional.
“It’s okay,” I said. “Dad, the past is just that. Just like you can’t go ba
ck and save Novalea, or hold her again, or feel the tenderness of her touch, I can’t, we can’t, fix the dysfunction of a woman that obviously lost her faculties. It’s okay, I’m surprisingly okay with that and everything else right now. As long as you don’t go all crazy on me and try to kill me or something, I’ll be fine.”
“I’d never hurt you.”
“I know, and I like that about you, Dad,” I said with a smile and he chuckled.
“Since we’re on the topic,” he said. “Jacquie was able to get a name for the men that were asking about you.”
This can’t be good.
“Kensington?” Price asked.
“Yeah, and?”
“Do you know them?” he pressed.
I shook my head. “No, but if I had to venture a guess they are related to the crackwhore. She went by Elizabeth Kensington in Philly.”
Price nodded, his eyes turning black.
“Did I do something wrong?” I asked.
Great, now you pissed him off.
He shook his head, his eyes returning to brown and white. “Of course not. I’m concerned but it is nothing that you’re responsible for. Jacquie confirmed they haven’t been back to the neighborhood. Apparently, some of your homies,” he said in quite possibly the most regal voice I have ever heard and I roared with laughter, “scared them off. Jacquie will stay in the area and continue to keep us appraised. He has someone that he’s working with in the local field office that might be able to help shed some light on these Kensingtons and their interest in you.”
I nodded.
That’s better than the alternative of running so they don’t find us.
You wouldn’t run and you know it. You’re a daddy’s girl now.
True, and I love it.
You have so many issues.
Jealousy is truly unbecoming, Sis.
Bitch.
Jerk.
When we arrived back to the house, Price helped me off Moonshine then forced a smile.
“It’s okay Dad,” I assured him. “I’m not running, I’m not freaking out, and I’m not mad. I’m completely okay and accepting of everything,” I assured him, handing him the light.
