Cursed by the Fountain of Youth (Unnatural States of America Book 1)

by Holly Kelly

  “Who am I going to tell?” Morgan said. “I’m dead.”

  “You have a good point.” Fae blew out a breath.

  “Well?” Morgan coaxed.

  “Well…,” Fae said hesitantly. “I’ve seen elves, succubi, shapeshifters, and who knows what else.”

  Morgan stood stunned, for a moment not uttering a word. “Um, Fae? Are you sure you didn’t hit your head on the way down this well?”

  Fae huffed a laugh. “I’m sure. I’m not what you’d consider normal.”

  Morgan gave a weak smile. “I’m starting to realize that.”

  “Shut up,” Fae said as she playfully pushed Morgan—only to have her hand slip though her like she wasn’t even there. Oh, right. Morgan was a ghost. “Sorry,” she muttered.

  “Okay, Jenny,” Morgan said, ignoring Fae’s blunder. “We’ve wasted enough time already. Let’s get Fae out of here before the Lafayette comes back and kills her too. Fae needs to stay alive. She’s about to get married to a smokin’ hot FBI agent.”

  Morgan and Jenny could get the screws off much more easily than Fae could climb the side of the well—which really wasn’t saying much. Climbing the side of the well was nearly impossible. Fae held on, suspended by the tips of her fingers and tips of her toes. What in the world was I thinking?

  She chanced a glance down. The light had faded fast. She could no longer see the bottom of the well. It looked like a black abyss below her, ready to swallow her up in its depths. She looked up. She was nearly there, but she had never felt so hopeless. She could barely hang on. How on earth would she be able to push the grate off?

  “Come on, Fae, you can do it,” Morgan cheered as she floated above.

  “Oh, really?” Fae replied. “How? ’Cause if you know a way for me to do it, I would really like you to tell me.”

  “You just need to…” Morgan said as she floated around Fae, examining the rocky wall Fae hung from. “Well, maybe…Gawd, I don’t know! Maybe you should have climbed up the other side.”

  “You are so not helping.” Fae’s fingers were burning like the fiery depths of hell, and she had no idea how much longer she could hold her position. Probably not long. “Maybe escaping like this was a bad idea. If I could overpower Lafayette when—”

  “No way,” Morgan shouted. “You need to stay far away from him. I know I’m stating the obvious, but there’s something seriously wrong with him. And he’s dangerous. Even the big, burly guy twice his size is afraid of him. And he…” Morgan’s voice shook as her words dropped away.

  “You don’t have to talk about it,” Fae said, her fingers beginning to slip. She pushed up on her toes to adjust her finger grip.

  “He’s a monster,” Jenny said. “And the kid…I don’t even want to think about what he did to that witch—to her body. Even as a ghost, I feel physically ill thinking about it.”

  Fae’s stomach soured. Could things be worse than she’d thought?

  “We will get the grate off,” Morgan said, obviously trying to sound confident, though she didn’t even come close to succeeding.

  “But,” Jenny began.

  “Shut up,” Morgan shouted. “We will get this grate off!”

  “Okay,” Jenny said. “You don’t have to get snippy.”

  It was difficult to see how hard they were trying. They didn’t use their hands to push the grate. She didn’t know what in the world they were doing. It looked like they were simply staring intensely at it. The grate shook but didn’t move from its place. Morgan narrowed her eyes further and, though she couldn’t be sure in the darkness, Fae could swear she saw a gleam of sweat drip down Morgan’s temple. Did ghosts sweat?

  “I can’t…” Jenny groaned.

  “Yes, you can,” Morgan growled through clenched teeth.

  The high-pitched sound of scraping metal made Fae cringe. And then there was a deep thud. Looking up, Fae could see only clear sky. The grate was gone.

  She didn’t waste any more time, but quickly climbed her way up and out of the well. Sinking to the ground and heaving air into her chest, she gasped out a thank you.

  “Don’t thank me,” an unfamiliar voice said. Startled, Fae looked up to see a glowing figure in a black dress. Morgan and Jenny were standing at Fae’s side, looking just as shocked as Fae felt.

  “Who are you?” Fae asked.

  “I’m someone who would rather kill you than look at you.” The woman shook her head, and Fae’s stomach took a turn. The stranger’s head seemed to wobble. She reached up, as if to steady it, but not before Fae caught sight of light peeking through a crack in the woman’s neck. It looked like she’d been decapitated. “I didn’t help you out of any sympathy I felt. But there is one person I hate more than pathetic do-gooders like yourselves. And he wants to keep you locked up in that well. I plan to make the rest of his short life a living hell. Helping you helped me. Now go on. Run, get help. Let the Order catch him. But you better do it soon, Lafayette heard the commotion and is coming out to investigate.” At those words, she disappeared.

  Fae jumped to her feet and took off running toward the woods. Morgan kept pace at her side. Fae was surprised to see Morgan’s image grow transparent in the darkness.

  Morgan confirmed her suspicions when she said, “You won’t be able to see me for much longer—there’s not enough limestone out here—but I have to tell you something.”

  “What?” Fae said as she started to get winded. Too bad she wasn’t a runner. She needed to put as much distance between her and Lafayette as she could before night fell completely, but it was already hard to navigate in the forest among the shadows.

  “As soon as you can, bring the FBI back here. I don’t want that kid…”

  Fae looked at her curiously when she hesitated. “The nerd?”

  Morgan nodded.

  “So, what, you don’t want him to get hurt? He doesn’t seem like your type, Morgan.”

  “No,” Morgan gagged. “That’s so disgusting. I just don’t want him…”

  Fae looked at her when she paused.

  “Eating me,” Morgan finally said.

  Fae gasped and stumbled. She caught herself and stopped to turn around.

  “Don’t stop,” Morgan shouted. “Keep going.”

  Fae returned to running, dodging trees and vines as she moved. Thunder rumbled in the distance. Please don’t let it rain. “So, he…” She couldn’t bring herself to say it.

  “Ate the witch—the one who helped us back there,” Morgan said. Fae once again felt sick. “Well, he’s still working on her. When he’s finished, I’m sure either Jenny or I will be next. Right now, I still look pretty good, so it’ll likely be me. Jenny’s frozen solid.”

  “She’s in the freezer?”

  Morgan frowned. “Yeah.”

  What had Morgan seen? “Okay, I promise.” Fae swallowed back bile. “I won’t let him take one bite out of you.”

  Morgan smiled weakly. “Thanks. Oh, and before I forget. I painted you a wedding present. It’s wrapped and hidden in the back of my closet.”

  Fae fought back tears. Would she ever see Morgan again? What was going to happen to her? Captain Abela and Dolores had been haunting the fort in St. Augustine for over two hundred years. Would Morgan have the same fate? If only Fae could save her like she saved Becca.

  Fae glanced over at Morgan, shocked to see she was nearly gone—just a shimmer of her remained. They must be getting far away from the limestone. Fae stopped and turned to take one last look at what was left of her friend. “I’m going to miss you, Morgan. I couldn’t have asked for a better roommate or a better friend.”

  There was just the faintest chuckle, and a whispered phrase, “You got that right.”

  Morgan’s image dissipated when Lafayette’s red, snarling face blasted through it.

  Chapter 32

  “What do you mean there’s no way to track her?” Nick snarled.

  Thomas turned to his team as the last of them filtered in. They had taken over one of the coll
ege’s offices, much to the surprise of the night security guards. Well, they were surprised for a moment before Miller worked his vampire mojo on them. Now they were going about business as if Thomas and his team weren’t even there.

  Thomas ignored Nick’s question and said, “I want the entire campus in lockdown.”

  “I don’t know how I’ll get the guards to agree to that,” Miller said. “It’s one thing giving their minds a nudge; what you’re proposing would take much more power than I have.”

  “Tell them the students are in danger. Tell them there’s an armed man on campus. I don’t care what you tell them! I want every entrance and exit covered, I want this campus searched, I want students questioned, I want to know exactly where Lafayette is, and I want him and every one of his cohorts brought in, dead or alive.”

  All eyes widened and several jaws dropped.

  “You have your orders,” Thomas said. “Now you’re dismissed.”

  The group dispersed, and Thomas stepped up to Nick’s side. “You’re with me. We’re going to search Fae’s room.”

  Nick nodded and kept pace with Thomas as they walked under the glow of the sidewalk lights, heading across campus. He could feel the tension rolling off Thomas. Something was seriously wrong.

  Minutes later they were standing in Fae’s room.

  “I’m just guessing here,” Nick finally said, breaking the silence, “but what you did back there was way beyond protocol. What happened?”

  Thomas’s lips were pressed together in a thin line. He pulled out his phone and showed him a text.

  Hello, Agent Thomas. Or should I call you Kaare? I have someone that might mean something to you. We couldn’t help but notice that she is reeking of your scent. A succubus is a strange mate for a cougar, but who am I to judge?

  Knowing your kind mates for life, I’m guessing that you’re ready to rip my throat out about now. Am I right? Well, I’m offering to let her go unharmed, if you deliver up to me Nick Chase—dead. Oh, and if you have any second thoughts about giving in to my demands, I have your woman chained outside in a clearing. So, that would mean you have till sunrise.

  Text me when the agent is dead, and I’ll tell you where to meet me.

  Nick swore. “I’m hoping you aren’t thinking of giving in to his demands.” He frowned when Thomas didn’t give a quick dismissal.

  “We need to find them before the time is up,” Thomas said.

  “What happens to Avira at sunrise?”

  Thomas swallowed. “She dies.”

  “We need to get to her before then.”

  “Way to state the obvious,” Thomas sneered.

  “Doesn’t Conall have a way of tracking Fae?”

  Thomas shook his head. “Your bond with her was our way to track her.”

  “How did they break it so easily?”

  “Lafayette has been a guardian of the Fountain of Youth for a long time. I guess he learned a thing or two.”

  “Yeah, and your guards screwed up.”

  “They did their job.”

  “One of them should have stayed with Fae.” Nick narrowed his eyes.

  “Yes, one should have.” Thomas rubbed his eyes as if he were fighting off a headache. Nick pulled up a chair and opened Fae’s laptop.

  “What are you looking for?”

  “Cell phone records. I know it’s wishful thinking, but maybe I can track Fae and Morgan.” Nick’s fingers flew over the keyboard.

  “Morgan?”

  “Fae said she was worried. She hadn’t seen or heard from her roommate since yesterday afternoon. I’m guessing Lafayette used her as bait. Ah, here we go.”

  “You got the cell phone records already?” Thomas stood, looking over his shoulder.

  “I got Fae’s, but that was easy. I know all her passwords. It’ll take a few more minutes to get Morgan’s.”

  A moment later, Nick said, “Got it.”

  Nick and Thomas both read the texts, and Nick’s blood began to boil. It was just as he suspected. “I knew it. But…” His fingers flew over the keyboard, and the screen he wanted popped up. He cursed loudly. “Either Lafayette has turned off the GPS locator on both their cell phones, or they’re in an area so remote, it doesn’t get service. They dropped off the radar about sixty miles south of here. But knowing Lafayette’s tendency to send us off on wild goose chases…”

  “Yeah,” Thomas said. “They could be anywhere. Is there no other way to track them? You don’t have any hacker trick?”

  “No.”

  Thomas paced the floor. “Let’s go over what we know. We know Lafayette’s running around with Lavinia and a couple other Disorder members—one a known shifter, and the other we’re not sure of. He looks like a new recruit.”

  “Who’s this Lavinia?”

  “She’s a nasty witch. Conall has a long history with her—not a good one. She’s worse than Lafayette. And she’s powerful. She has to be the one who subdued Avira. None of the others are powerful enough.”

  “So how do we find her?” Nick asked.

  “That’s an age-old question. The Order has been trying to catch her for over two hundred years.”

  “We need to find them today.” Being surrounded by everything Fae had owned, everything she’d touched, and even her lingering smell… It drove him mad that she wasn’t there with him. That she wasn’t safe.

  “Our best bet is finding Lafayette,” Thomas said.

  “Okay.” Nick tried to force himself to think analytically. “Let’s go over again what we know about Lafayette. His real name is Demarquis Lafayette. The one alias we’ve found is Marcus DeCruise. He’s about six-foot-three, a hundred and eighty pounds. He has blond hair, crew-cut style.” The familiarity of the description hit him with great force. He swore as he pounded his fist against the desk. “I’m such an idiot!”

  “What?” Thomas said, his eyes wide.

  “I need to go back to the FBI,” Nick said as he packed up his computer.

  “In the middle of the night?”

  “I just need to talk to one person.”

  “Why? What resources could this person have that we don’t?”

  “A witness.”

  * * * * *

  Nick and Thomas made their way up a flagstone pathway to a small beach-front, clapboard home. It was midnight, but every light in the house was on. The crisp, salty-sea air blew over them as they stepped up onto the porch. This was the address Sanchez had given them.

  Even before they knocked, the door flew open, and a familiar face appeared. “You found her, didn’t you?” the woman said with a mixture of hope and anguish.

  “Olivia Harris?” Thomas said.

  She nodded as she chewed on her bottom lip. “Did you find my sister? Is she still alive?”

  “May we come in?” Nick asked.

  She pulled the door open and stepped back.

  The place was neatly decorated with bright, cheerful colors and lots of throw pillows.

  “Ms. Harris,” Thomas said. “We have a few questions to ask.”

  “I’m not answering a single question until you answer mine. Is my sister still alive?”

  “We don’t know,” Nick said.

  “But I thought you found her?”

  “Not yet,” Thomas said. “But we suspect who she might be with.”

  “He’s a killer, isn’t he? I let her go home with a murderer.”

  “What makes you think that?” Nick asked.

  “Well, I don’t know,” she snapped. “How about the fact that she never came home?” Her voice rose in volume until she shouted.

  “Calm down, Ms. Harris,” Thomas said.

  “Calm down?” She continued to shout. “How am I supposed to calm down? You don’t know whether she’s dead or alive.”

  “Your best bet of finding your sister,” Nick said, “is to keep your cool and help us figure out where she’s being held.”

  Olivia sank into a seat and dropped her face into her hands. “So, you know who has Je
nny. It’s Marcus, isn’t it? I let her leave with a criminal.”

  Thomas sighed. “His full name is Demarquis Lafayette. Most call him Lafayette, but he also uses the alias Marcus DeCruise.”

  “Who is he? What kind of monster took my sister?”

  They hesitated to tell her, especially seeing how fragile she was.

  “Please, just tell me the truth.” She raised her pleading, teary eyes to them.

  “He’s a disturbed man, but he’s not a killer,” Thomas lied. “He’s abducted women before, but he keeps them alive, if that makes you feel any better.”

  Nick suppressed his reaction. He was shocked that Thomas was outright lying to this poor woman.

  Tears brimmed in Olivia’s eyes as relief flooded her face. “Are you telling me the truth?”

  “I would never lie about something like this,” Thomas said with sincerity in his voice. This guy was an amazing actor.

  For the next half hour, they drilled her for information. She answered readily, even eagerly, with a light in her eyes and hope in her voice. When they finally left, they had some real leads.

  “I don’t know if I agree with your methods, but I’m so sick with worry over Fae, I’m not going to lecture you.”

  “I’m not proud of what I had to do,” Thomas said, “but we only have until sunrise. And you saw how messed up Olivia was. If I had told her the truth, we would have gotten nothing more out of her. She’ll have to deal with reality soon enough.”

  “What chance do you think Jenny has of being alive?”

  “Slim to none.”

  Nick didn’t want to ask about Fae’s chances. Was he living in denial about Fae’s fate? He hoped beyond hope that he wasn’t.

  Chapter 33

  Fae awoke with a pounding in her skull. Raising her head, she tried to get her bearings. She sat on the ground, leaning against a post. A familiar scent surrounded her—a mixture of dust and old animal stalls. She opened her eyes to darkness that was pierced by a sliver of moonlight coming through a barn door. She tried to move, only to find that she wasn’t just leaning against a post, she was tied to it.

  “Hey,” she shouted, her voice driving like a nail into her head. Lafayette must have hit her hard to give her a migraine as bad as this one. Nausea rose in her stomach, and she fought it back.