by Dylan Quinn
After trusting the woman who cursed her, Geneva knew never to trust anybody again.
She retained residual powers from the Metas whose powers she absorbed, so she picked and chose wisely, which powers she wanted or needed to be effective at any given time.
Just in case.
But to use any power at full force, she had to awaken her sword, a relic carrying the powers and storing all the pain.
A necessary evil.
And after seeing a glimpse of another war in her vision from Denvar and Reanna, she had to be sure.
Another war could end her.
Could end them all.
And while she really didn’t care, since she was on a mission to end her own life anyway, her quiet contemplation on the way back to her apartment reassured her.
She actually did care.
But it was her secret. One she’d take to the grave if she must, because after all her years, she learned sometimes caring just wasn’t worth it in the end.
After arriving at her stop, they all followed Geneva into her living quarters.
“Have a seat.” She directed the teenagers to sit on the sofa. “Lennox, come with me for a minute.”
They went into her room, and she closed the door behind them.
Geneva sat on her bed, then bent over, running her hands through her hair, trying to decide how much to tell him.
“I already know what you saw, Geneva. Most of it, anyway.”
She looked up, eyes narrowed.
“I’m the Watcher. I know everything.”
“Of course you do.” She sighed.
“May I?” He gestured to the spot beside her.
Geneva laughed lightly. “By all means.” She wiggled her eyebrows.
“I suppose I don’t always know what to say. If your vision was right, we have another war to prepare for.”
“I can’t be sure I was.” She blew out a breath. “But I need to ask you a favor.” Geneva glanced to Lennox. “I want you to leave.”
Lennox tipped his head to the side, eyes narrowed.
“Just for a little while. Let me read them. You shouldn’t be here.”
“I’m not going anywhere.” He narrowed his eyes and pressed his lips tightly together.
“I made a deal with you. I took your pain in exchange for your power. If you’re around when I enact the sword, it could bring back some of it. I know how hard it was on you. Because I went through it, too.” She shook her head. “You shouldn’t have to go through that again.”
“I can take care of myself, Miss Jayne.”
She widened her gaze. “I thought we had a deal Lexie, love?”
Lennox chuckled. “I will be fine, Geneva. I need to hear your thoughts and see your vision when you get them.”
“That’s the thing. You won’t be able to.”
He sat straight, eyes narrowed. “I don’t understand.”
“With your power, comes your pain. You’ll be so grief- stricken with the flood of emotion that you won’t see the vision. There’s no point in you being here, anyway.”
“And you?” he asked. “What’s the difference?”
“It’s not my pain. Not my memories. I can block them out to a degree, enough to see clearly. You, however, can’t.”
Lennox sighed.
He knew Geneva was right, she could read his emotions like he could read her thoughts.
The two could be an unstoppable team if they could find some common ground.
“Give me some time with them,” she said. “I’ll have Denvar come get you when we’re through.”
Lennox rose to his feet. “Can I see it?”
Geneva shook her head. “It’s locked away for a reason. You cannot come near my sword, or you’ll begin to feel the pain. I need you to go.” She pointed to her door. “I’ll send Denvar after you shortly.”
She rose to her feet and moved toward her bedroom door, opening it, ushering him out before her watching him leave her bedroom, walking out behind him.
“Lennox is going to leave us for a short time. He’ll be back,” she told Reanna and Denvar, staring as Lennox moved toward her front door.
He turned, lips pursed, and glimpsed at Geneva.
She exhaled as he left, then turned to face the lovers on the sofa.
“Okay, so before I do this, we need to discuss something.”
She sat on a chair across from them.
“I take heartache away from Metas in exchange for one of their powers. I saw a vision when I held your hands. It’s a power I took from another Meta, but without my sword, my powers aren’t at full force. So I need to get the sword. It’s big and kind of scary. I didn’t want you two to worry that I was going to hurt you. But—I do need to hurt myself to use it. I just wanted to prepare you for that.”
Geneva stood and walked into her bedroom, locked the door behind her and moved slowly toward the wall, staring at a large painting of her home on earth, in California, overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
The painting calmed her, even though it reminded her of home. All the painful memories of her own mortal life she was forced to leave behind too soon, one that ended so long ago.
Something about the ocean just calmed her, though. Gave her a brief moment of peace, but she missed it too much, so she stayed away from water.
She took in a breath, running her fingers along the backside of the frame.
A small lever protruded behind it, and she pulled it down, releasing the enormous painting from the wall, pulling it out and revealing the secret compartment that hid her sword.
“Cupid, you evil bitch,” she muttered to the heavy iron door hiding her sword.
She remembered a story from her childhood about King Arthur naming his sword, so of course, she knew she had to name hers.
Naming her sword Cupid gave Geneva some separation from her curse. That perhaps if the sword was Cupid, not Geneva, and she kept the powers stolen in it, that maybe she wasn’t her curse.
That maybe she could be more.
Maybe she could be loved.
And although time had proven otherwise, there was still an indiscernible speck of hope hidden somewhere deep inside her.
Although she held much animosity toward the beastly weapon for so many years, now, it was kind of comforting to her, despite it being a reminder of what she was.
Cursed.
Geneva took a deep breath and closed her eyes, trying to relax. Just being near her sword brought on a swell of emotion that was often overwhelming.
It was full of powers and full of heartache. It revived her powers, like Lennox’s vision, but not enough to get the information she needed without waking the weapon with a spell.
If another war was coming, she had to know. If nothing else, this could be another bargaining chip for the future.
In case, for some reason, she wasn’t able to actually find this Curse Catcher Lennox told her about, and she actually had a future to look forward to.
Geneva pressed the numbers on the keypad to the storage compartment that held her sword.
The special insulation kept her from feeling the deluge of agony that came with activating the weapon.
She closed her eyes briefly as the door beeped and unlocked, slowly opening the heavy door.
Cupid sat encased in its insulated cell.
Geneva took every precaution protecting the sword and herself from the pain and flood of sadness it held.
She opened the case cautiously. Wrapping her hands around the handle, she cried out instantly at the pain overtaking her, but she couldn’t let go. Wouldn’t let it conquer her.
Beads of sweat pooled on her forehead, and an unbearable sting rushed through her veins, so powerful, tears instinctively streaked her heated cheeks.
Taking deep breaths was no easy task but the only way to settle her nerves as she ingested all the pain the sword held.
Geneva steadied herself.
It had been a while since she held the beast, she told herself just needed to rea
djust.
So many powers, so much pain.
It all overwhelmed Geneva.
But she wouldn’t let it beat her.
Steadying her gate, one foot at a time, Geneva pulled herself together and slowed her breaths, blowing out as she regained her footing.
“I can do this,” she announced.
Geneva paced slowly out toward her outer room of the living quarters where the two lovers sat quietly, unsure how to react.
They must have overheard her bellowing from the other room.
“I’m sorry if I scared you. Activating the sword can be painful if I haven’t held it in a while.”
Their eyes went wide at the sight of Geneva holding her sword.
It spanned the length of her body. Shiny. Silver. She could see her reflection in its surface, surrounding the spells etched into its blade.
Geneva took deep breaths. She stood before them, digging Cupid’s tip into the floor between her feet.
“So don’t freak out, but I need to do something while you two hold the sword. It may hurt a little, nothing we can’t handle. I need you to clear your minds. You’ll see my vision as I do. Understand? But please. Don’t. Freak out. I mean it. It’s not pretty.” She tilted her head. “Stand up.”
They glanced at each other, then to her, and rose to their feet.
“Cover my hands with yours,” she said.
Reanna and Denvar closer and covered hers, nearly knocking them off their feet.
Denvar held Reanna steady as tears dripped down her cheeks. “Oh gods, my chest is burning,” Reanna whimpered. “My head. It’s pounding.”
“Relax. Close your eyes. Take deep breaths and clear your minds,” Geneva told them. “Just follow my lead.”
After a moment of focus, Geneva closed her eyes and lifted the sword up slowly, a few inches off the floor, feeling the metal heating to her touch.
“Con la sua lungimiranza, arriva il suo dolore.” Geneva chanted beneath her breath, drawing forth Lennox’s power. “With his foresight, comes his sorrow,” she repeated the Cupid call in the Human’s native language.
In seconds, her surroundings went dark, and the vision of war once again, flooded their mind.
And for Geneva, accompanied by Lennox’s pain.
As the heartache took over her body, her Cupid wings pushed through her shoulder blades, forcing her to cry out in agony.
Like a butterfly, her wings spread further, taking up a large span of the room.
“Fucking hell!” Geneva burst into tears as Lennox’s heartache forced the visions of war through her mind and the wings from her body.
“Oh gods, what the hell is going on?” Reanna reacted to the sight of Geneva’s wings.
“Focus,” Geneva said. “I can’t hold this out long.”
Just as before, Geneva’s vision was clear.
Denvar and Reanna must stay together.
Their union could be the only thing to save the Ama Seldova from another war.
A war that could destroy them all.
Chapter 7
Lennox returned to find Geneva lying on her stomach naked, in her bed, crimson wings spanning out, at least five feet in both directions.
He remembered the wings from when she took his heartache.
Geneva was in her true Cupid form.
And one of the most breathtaking visions Lennox had ever beheld.
Butterflies lazily fluttered about the room as beams of artificial sunlight shone in through an open balcony door.
Lennox ordered Veccoli to ensure Reanna and Denvar returned to their quarters safely, so he could check up on Geneva.
She’d been through enough today.
Lennox saw Geneva’s vision, even from outside her quarters.
Another war was in fact, coming.
Lennox closed the bedroom door, then slowly moved toward Geneva, carefully sitting on the bed beside her.
“Geneva?”
She seemed to be asleep, though Lennox knew she was technically hibernating, wearing off the vision and the pain that had overtaken her from using the sword.
He glanced around the room, but her weapon was nowhere to be found. Somehow, she’d managed to store it back safely in it’s crypt, knowing that being in the same room with the sword would be excruciating on Lennox.
He sat beside her on the bed, glancing over her stunning form.
Wings protruded out of her strong shoulder blades and had begun to retract an inch at a time. Red, swollen gashes surrounding her wings and porcelain skin appeared painful, though the Cupid took it in stride.
Impressive.
Geneva’s fiery red curls were draped over her shoulders, covering most of her back, twisting around the wings.
Lennox inspected her beauty. The curve of her neck. Her lower back and her hips. Her ass.
Geneva Jayne was exquisite. Captivating in a way only the goddess of love could be.
Geneva truly was a goddess. And after the kindness she’d shown him today, Lennox owed her something.
While he waited for her vision to be read, he’d placed a few calls, getting his people tracking the Curse Catcher.
She was technically a missing person if Intra couldn’t locate her, so Lennox could justify putting a rush on the location order, regardless.
One way or another, Lennox had made it his mission to help Geneva find some peace.
And the Watcher never broke a promise.
Geneva wasn’t the selfish woman she appeared to be. The one she tried to be, tried to convince the world that she was.
Lennox saw there was so much more to this woman than he ever imagined.
If he was being honest, his emotions could be mistaken for caring about her, though he wasn’t sure what that meant for them.
He didn’t know how her curse worked, exactly, how men were unable to care for or even fall in love with her, because at that moment, as he watched her sleep off her pain and considered the selfless act she managed today in his honor, Lennox knew she deserved so much more than this curse she’d had to live with for over a thousand years.
There was so much more to Geneva Jayne, and Lennox was intrigued.
He wanted to find out what it was that kept him looking after her all these years.
As he sat beside her, a light breeze blew in through the open balcony door.
Geneva sprung up, crying out in pain as her butterfly wings retracted with the force of a tornado whipping through her room.
Lennox stood up beside the bed, caught off guard at her cries.
A knot sprung to his chest.
Geneva inhaled a sharp breath then fell back to the bed.
Wings gone, her porcelain skin shimmered as the slits that once protruded with wings in her back cinched themselves shut, revealing her perfect, natural form.
She let out a quiet sob and steadied her breaths.
“Geneva? Are you all right?”
She rolled over quickly, surprised at his presence.
“What the hell are you doing in here?” Her voice was sharp.
“I wanted to see how you were doing.”
She sat up, pulling in her knees, wrapping her petite hands around them. “I’m fine. How long have you been here?”
“Not long. A few minutes. I couldn’t leave without knowing you’re all right.” He took a step closer. “I remember your wings. They look painful.”
She sighed. “Yeah, they are.”
“It’s breathtaking though. Your Cupid form. Your wings.” He approached the bed. “You’re stunning.”
She tilted her head and narrowed her eyes, sucking on her bottom lip.
“May I?” Lennox gestured toward the bed beside her.
She stared for a moment then nodded.
Never taking his gaze from hers, he gestured his head toward her pillow.
Geneva laid down, and Lennox settled in beside her.
“Are you feeling all right now?”
“I said I’ll be fine.”
Slowly so not
to scare her, Lennox wrapped his arms around her naked body, holding her close to him.
She let out a relieved breath, settling her cheek onto his chest. “Thank you,” she said quietly.
“My pleasure, Geneva,” he whispered back.
As he held the goddess of love, her breaths became shallow, and she fell into a deep sleep in his embrace.
If this Cupid curse was real, Lennox knew he could never give Geneva the love she truly deserved, but after the sacrifice she’d made for him today—and all of Ama Seldova—the least he could give her was his presence.
Chapter 8
Geneva’s eyelids fluttered open, waking her to darkness filling the bedroom and strong arms wrapped around her waist.
He stayed.
Geneva didn’t know what to think as she laid safe in the Watcher’s arms.
No man had ever done that before. Not since the curse.
For the briefest of moments, she almost thought she could overcome it.
Almost.
Deep down though, after over a thousand years of chasing a cure, Geneva knew better.
She told herself not to get attached to Lennox. Not to get close.
But it was too late.
She’d wanted in Lennox’s bed since she saved him from his heartache hundreds of years ago, but this simple act changed everything.
For the first time in over a thousand years, Geneva had hope. Hope that she could be free from her curse.
Maybe even loved.
So many men had come and gone in her immortal life. And just as she fell for them... Over.
She tried so hard not to fall for Lennox because she knew as soon as she did, he’d lose any feelings he had for her.
It happened every time. Just because it hadn’t happened in a while, didn’t mean this time would be any different.
Geneva had two choices: Deny her feelings emphatically, returning to her old ways and use Lennox for sex, knowing at least then he could remain a part of her life, or open up to the possibility of something more and inevitably watch as everything fell apart, like it always did.
Deep down, Geneva knew the curse would stand. Though the hope that someday she could be loved anyway always remained foremost in the back of her mind.
