Twice Cursed

by Marianne Morea

  Jack howled once, and Lily watched as he raced across the road toward the woods. She turned from the window as the man next to her uncapped a syringe. “For the pain,” he said, and stuck the needle in her thigh before she could protest. “Relax. It’s only Demerol. You’ll feel better in a moment.”

  In seconds, she couldn’t focus, and her eyelids were weighted down. Dizziness hit, making the interior of the car swim, and then everything went black.

  ***

  “Welcome back,” Edwards’s smooth voice echoed in her ears before she could even open her eyes. Lily struggled to get her lids up, but they were so heavy.

  “Give it a moment, my dear. I’m afraid you were given quite a large dose of Demerol. In fact, I had to take measures against my own men for causing you such distress.” He sighed. “However, your constitution reminds me of my own. Sturdy and hard hitting,” he said, with a prophetic undertone.

  Lily swallowed, and tried to move. She was lying down on a bed, that much registered, and her leg throbbed as she shifted position, but the pain was dull. She forced her eyes open, blinking to clear her vision. She was in a hospital room of sorts, and Edward sat in a chair to the right of her bed.

  “Where am I?”

  “You’re in my lab,” he answered matter-of-factly.

  “Your lab?”

  He nodded, pushing himself up from his chair. “Yes. There is a lot you don’t know about me, but I’d like to share my story with you, if you’re not in too much of a hurry,” he said with a husky chuckle.

  Parr walked toward the foot of her bed, then hesitated. “On second thought, why don’t you tell me what you know about yourself, first?”

  “Excuse me?”

  He gestured with his hand, circling it encouragingly. “I want to know all about you, Lily. This past month has been interesting, to say the least, but this past week has proved most enlightening. I want to know what you know about your family history, where you came from.”

  Lily shook her head, perplexed. “Edward, I don’t understand what you’re driving at. I’m a twenty-six year old orphan. Both my parents died in a car crash when I was ten.”

  He nodded. “Yes, yes. This I already know. What I’m looking for is the extent of your knowledge regarding your parents.”

  Lily looked at him again. What was he driving at? “Edward, my parents? Really? They were just regular people.”

  His eyes hardened, and the thin line of his lips made the planes of his cheeks sharp and ugly. Annoyed, he pushed away from her bed, and she watched as he drew a deep breath before turning back around, his practiced veneer back in its place.

  He smoothed the front of his navy double-breasted suit, his fingers following the lines of the tone on tone pin-striping. “I’m sorry, my dear. I didn’t mean to confuse or frighten you. Perhaps you don’t know more than what you’ve already told me. Pity, really.”

  “Edward, I’m not afraid of you,” she said, fixing him with a cold stare. “I never have been, nor will I ever be. As to being confused, this whole business is what’s confusing.” She gestured toward him and the room.

  He smiled at her bravado. “I’ve always admired your fire, and I’m glad to hear you’re not intimidated by me. It makes what I am about to reveal all the easier, and yes, this nasty business is confusing. However, all will be made clear.”

  Edward walked to the desk against the far wall and picked up the phone. “Have someone bring in a fresh set of clothes and toiletries. Ms. Saburi is awake.”

  “Edward…”

  He held up his hand. “You have been severely inconvenienced and abused by my people, all for an end that could have been settled with a simple conversation. The least I can do is try to make you as comfortable as possible. You’re usually such a pretty, little thing,” he said, his eyes sweeping her filthy clothes and hair.

  At the look Lily shot him, he chuckled. “That’s not to say, dangerous and clever. It’s just I hate seeing you there bedraggled and dirty. I’ve had my nurses see to your wounds. They have been thoroughly cleaned, and I hope you won’t mind, but I’ve taken the liberty of injecting you with an agent to prevent Jack’s bite from turning you. I do apologize for his rashness, but it was understandable given the circumstances.”

  Lily’s eyes widened. She didn’t know which of his words to choke on first.

  “Don’t look so shocked, my dear. I have the utmost respect for you. As to the agent in question, well, I’ve my own set of researchers working for me here. Dr. Volkmann is a brilliant man, but he’s not the only game in town—but I’ll stop there as I’m getting ahead of myself.”

  There was a knock on the door.

  “Ah. Come in,” he said with a magnanimous smile.

  A nurse walked in carrying a clean set of clothing and a travel bag. She nodded once to Edward and then put the items on one of the chairs across from the bed.

  Edward smiled warmly, and swept his arm toward the door on the adjacent wall. “There’s a full bathroom, complete with shower. It may be hospital grade, but it will do. Please…” he said, offering his hand to help her out of the bed.

  Both irked and uneasy, Lily raised one hand. “I appreciate the chivalry Edward, but I’m capable of taking myself to the bathroom.”

  He lifted an eyebrow, watching her carefully. “Very well, but I’ll send the nurse back in just in case you need help.”

  Edward swept out of the room, and Lily swung her legs over the edge of the bed. “Help me. Yeah right. More likely to avoid my escape.”

  She stepped her feet onto the cold linoleum and shivered. At least she wasn’t in one of those stupid hospital gowns. One of her pant legs was gone, and she could see the doctor’s handiwork. “I guess Jack’s bite is as bad as his bark, and he’s going to need one of those teeth when I cut his balls off,” she mumbled to herself, as she examined the wound. The stiches were tiny and precise, but there had to be one hundred of them holding her skin together.

  The nurse came in and immediately hooked her arm under Lily’s shoulder to help her to the bathroom. “Don’t worry, sweetheart. I’ll help you as much as I can. I used to work for Dr. V before Mr. Parr blackmailed me into working for him. My son was a vampire junkie, addicted to the rush that comes from them feeding on you. Edward threatened to expose the taboo and have us shunned, if I didn’t leave the Compound and come here.” Her voice barely rose above a whisper.

  “Can you reach Sean or Mitch?” Lily asked, her eyes searching the woman’s face.”

  She shook her head. “I’m watched too closely. But rest assured, you won’t be given any more drugs. I’ll see to that. I’ve been ordered to give you another dose of Demerol if you don’t cooperate.”

  Lily sucked in a breath.

  The nurse patted her arm. “Don’t worry. The only thing I’m going to give you is a shot of B12. It’ll help you get your energy back. You’re going to need your wits about you. Trust me.”

  Lily threw her arms around the woman’s neck.

  “Thank you.”

  The nurse put her finger to her lips. “Just pretend to sleep and they’ll leave you alone.” She smiled. “Now let’s get you cleaned up.”

  The hot water was delicious, and Lily scrubbed and sudseds, trying to wash away everything that had happened over the last twenty-four hours. She rinsed her hair and her body, stepping out onto the plain cotton mat the nurse had set out for her. The woman had left two white towels on the sink, and Lily quickly dried off, wrapping her body in one towel and her clean hair in the other.

  She sat on the closed toilet seat and shut her eyes. Concentrating, she sifted through the familiar traces deep in her psyche, completely skipping the ones that led to Sean, Mitch and Rissa. She ignored Jack’s trace, squelching the urge to send him a mental bitch slap. She went further in, and beneath Rissa’s trace, a faint line glowed at the back of her mind.

  She had only used it once or twice while testing Stephanie’s abilities. Her chest filled at the thought of how powerful a psychi
c the little girl truly was, and how easily she accepted it. She was unafraid, most of the time, anyway.

  The day she and Jack had left for New York, Stephanie had tried to tell Sean that something bad was coming. She knew. She had seen it already, and Lily was just as guilty as Sean and Rissa for dismissing her fears out of hand, chalking it up to a bad dream. Certainly something none of them would ever do again.

  Lily would bet odds that Stephanie already communicated with her little brother, though he wasn’t due to be born for another couple of months. The best thing Rissa did, though, was keep her daughter’s talent a family secret. Lord knows what Parr would do if he caught wind of it, and what Jack knew of her only scratched the surface. Thank God.

  Lily reigned her thoughts back in, and picked up the thread, giving the little girl a little mental tug. “Stephie?”

  She could feel the child’s sleep mottled answer. “Lily? Is that you? Are you home?”

  Lily smiled. “It’s me, baby. But no, I’m not home…or at least I don’t think so. I’m a little lost, and I need your help to figure out how to get home. You’re the only one who can help me, but you cannot talk to mommy or Mitch about it with your mind. You can tell mommy and Mitch everything I say with your words, but I’m the only one you can talk to with your mind. Do you understand?”

  Lily waited, feeling the little girl trying to wrap her head around what she’d just told her.

  “Lily, are you in trouble?”

  Lily took a deep breath, couching her words very carefully. The last thing she wanted was to scare a four year old. “Yes, sweetheart. I am. Uncle Sean can’t find me with his mind, and whenever I try to reach him, I get a bad pain in my head. You’re the only one I can talk to without feeling hurt. I need for you to wake up mommy and Mitch, and then we’re going to play telephone? Okay?”

  “Okay. I like that game. We play it in school sometimes. I’ll be right back.”

  Lily’s shoulders slumped in relief. Mitch knew Maine like the back of his hand. From the outskirts of Bradford Dairy they would be able to track her scent, and Rissa would make sure Stephie kept the trace open between them. Now all she had to do was wait and stay alive. She looked up at the ceiling, praying silently Sean did the same.

  Chapter Eighteen

  ***

  Dressed, Lily brushed her hair out, letting it hang loose across her shoulders and back. After having it in a braid for so long, the idea of pulling it tight again made her head throb even more than her possible concussion. She opened the bathroom door, only to find Parr sitting in the chair near the bed opposite her.

  “You look refreshed, and I’m glad to see the clothing suits you,” he said with an appreciative gaze.

  “Jeans and a tee shirt, how can you go wrong with that?” Lily answered with a shrug. She still couldn’t get a handle on his generous benefactor bit. What was he after, besides Sean’s status?

  “Please, have a seat. I would very much like to continue our conversation.” He got up and moved two chairs toward a window that overlooked the woods.

  Outdoor flood lights illuminated the area, and Parr pulled up the blinds, giving Lily a full view of the barbed wire fence surrounding the perimeter of wherever they were. Passive aggressive. The man dripped with courtesy, yet showed her the fence in case she got any bright ideas.

  Lily sat down, careful not to jar her leg. “So what is it you wanted to tell me, Edward?”

  He cleared his throat at her direct stare. “Did you know I was originally from California?”

  “No, really? That’s gnarly dude,” she said, mimicking a surfer’s accent.

  He smirked. “Yes, I was born into a very secretive cougar community in the Sierra Nevada’s. My pride didn’t believe in mixing with the outside world. It was detrimental to our growth in many ways, I’m sure you can imagine, but mostly it hindered our gene pool.” He watched her closely.

  “And?”

  He chuckled. “Forgive me, if I watch you for signs of revulsion. It’s very important to me that I make you understand.”

  Okay, Twilight Zone anyone? Flabbergasted, Lily just shrugged.

  He cleared his throat again. “What I am about to say next is not something I’m proud of, it’s just what we did to survive.” He paused, watching her face again before continuing. “We had hunting parties, but we didn’t hunt for food. We hunted for mates.”

  Lily raised an eyebrow, unconsciously pushing her chair back.

  Seeing her flinch away, he waved his hands in front of him. “No, no, my dear. You haven’t been brought here in that capacity…Lord no! I’m just telling you all this as background information.”

  Lily hmmphed. “Yeah, well according to your newest acolyte, Jack informed me that I now belonged to him. Part of the deal and all, for getting me here to use as bait.”

  Parr’s eyes narrowed, and his face reddened. “He won’t touch you, of that you can be sure. I’ll kill him first.”

  She didn’t know what to think, the man was acting like either her mate or her father. What was the deal here?

  He dragged in a long breath. “Anyway, let’s not dwell on how you got here. This is all about why you’re here. Nearly thirty years ago, I was elected to this hunting circle. It’s a cyclical pact, and only the males selected to breed can participate. Most of the women you read about that go missing in the mountains of northern California aren’t mauled by cougars, they’re taken—by Weres, for breeding purposes.”

  He stopped, and got up to pace. “There’s that look of revulsion I was waiting to see,” he said, pointing at her. “Please, try to listen with an open mind. Like I said, this was all in the past.”

  He turned, and leaned on the side rail of the hospital bed. “I was lucky enough to be sent to the city on many occasions for things we needed that couldn’t be found on the land. Over the years, I bartered not only for necessary items, but also for books. I taught myself everything, but what especially interested me was genetics. You see, Lily, I wasn’t like the others of my community. I was a genetic throw back to our ancestors— an American Lion. Unfortunately, now extinct, myself notwithstanding.

  “So when it was my time to mate, I promised myself I would do everything in my power to ensure that my genetic anomaly, my line, didn’t go extinct again. I studied and theorized and hypothesized, and then it came time to put those theories to the test, and the only thing I needed was a woman. One of my own, a Were would have been best, but they were all claimed by this point. So I had to take part in the hunting circle to carry out my plan.”

  He paused, pouring himself a glass of water and offering one to Lily as well. She took the glass from his hand, nodding for him to continue.

  “I managed to acquire a place in the Bay area, and stocked it, over time, with my books and equipment. I experimented with genetic mutation and DNA splicing, mostly.” He stopped. “Don’t look so horrified. I only experimented on myself, no one else.”

  Lily stood up, ignoring the pain that shot through her leg at the abrupt movement. “Don’t look so horrified! You stand there and tell me your some kind of Were version of Dr. Frankenstein, and I’m supposed to be okay with that? I’m not stupid, Edward, I can see where you’re headed with this, and it involves some poor woman you used for your own ends.”

  “Lily, please. Hear me out. Yes, it’s true. I did abduct a woman, but she was homeless and on the verge of selling herself anyway. She was an illegal alien who barely spoke English when I took her. She lived with me, willingly. It’s not like I tied her up.” He glanced down at the red, puckered marks on Lily’s wrists. “The one who did that to you is dead. I wanted you brought here, but not in the way it transpired, and for that I am sorry.”

  She flopped back down in her chair. “What do expect me say, Edward. Your lady friend may have chosen to stay of her own free will, but if she’d wanted to leave would you have let her? Would you let me?” Tony’s words came back to haunt her. Make it easy on yourself, baby, and cooperate.

  Parr
ignored her question. “Where was I…oh yes…experimenting. The time came to put my experiments to the test. As you can imagine, my lady friend, as you call her, was surprised when I insisted on artificial insemination.” He drew himself up, expanding his chest as if to prove his virility. “To my delight, it took on the first try and with twins, no less! I, of course, immediately packed us up to head back to the mountains. My children would be raised as a full Weres, regardless of their maternal line.

  “Unfortunately, things didn’t work out as planned,” he paused as if caught in the memory. “Teresa, that was her name, didn’t take well to life in the mountains, and being a human in a Were dominated world—well, let’s just say there were certain prejudices she had to endure. She ended up running away. I searched for her, but all I found were bloody clothes carrying her scent.”

  Lily looked at her hands. “So, as far as you know, she died while trying to escape?” Her words were a question mark, but her eyes were accusing. With the way the man clenched his jaw, she knew she’d hit a nerve, but his face was otherwise a mask. “Look, Edward. I’m sorry for your loss, truly, but what has this got to do with me?”

  He studied her for a moment, his gaze so intense, he seemed to be examining her every feature. He stepped to her chair and stood over her, his fingers brushing beneath her chin as he lifted it. “It has everything to do with you. You are my daughter.”

  Lily stood up, knocking Parr’s hand away. With the back of her legs she pushed her chair to the wall and scooted behind Edward to stand in the middle of the room. “I was right. You are delusional! My mother and father were my biological parents, I was not adopted.”

  Edward shook his head. “Perhaps they never told you, but there’s no other explanation as to why you are immune to the virus I created. I made it using my own blood, so therefore the only people who would have any natural immunity to it would have to be of my bloodline! I have no idea what happened to Teresa or the other fetus she carried, but I know, YOU ARE MY DAUGHTER, and you will take your place by my side. My coup is almost complete, not just at the Compound, but I intend to be the Alpha of the Brethren for the entire country. My rule will be all encompassing.”