Gifted Curse (Curse Trilogy)

by C. M. Owens

  “How are they treated? The hybrids I mean.”

  “I know who you’re talking about.” He doesn’t hide his amusement for my constant concern. I’ve always been worried about our young ones - the torture their lives come with. “They’re treated fairly, very fairly. The captain doesn’t allow for any mistreatment or harsh corporal punishment.”

  “The captain at Javeline is good too, though I’m sure that has something to do with the commander of the United being stationed there. Especially since Clay is a hybrid.”

  Hale lets a laugh out, his head bobbing once.

  “So I heard you had a bit of an outbreak,” he says, veering our conversation again.

  “We had a full blood lose his patience with the overly diluted blood. He went after animals when he couldn’t find any pleasure in his packaged meals. The blood from another full blood apparently seemed less appealing than the four-legged creatures he drained. We’ve exterminated the outbreak and the culprit is in custody,” I answer very matter-of-factly.

  “I suppose you were the one to interrogate him.”

  He takes a step closer to me, his mischievous eyes burning into mine while his tone drips sex appeal.

  “Yes,” I breathily release, his proximity to my body over stimulating my senses, and he steps even closer.

  Our very intense moment is interrupted when a group of people come walking up. A man salutes Hale, and I see the smug smirk on the face of the man that still owns a piece of my heart as he salutes him dismissively in return.

  “Captain,” the other man asserts, and my mouth almost slaps the ground as he keeps walking.

  “Captain?” I ask with a bit more of a shocked tone than I had intended.

  He grins very smugly, and then he gives me that sexy-as-Hale smirk.

  “Yes. You’ve just stepped into my compound. Worried?” he smolders out, his captivating eyes drawing me in.

  Balls.

  Fortunately Clay walks up before Hale can seduce me further. I’m going to have to put steel rods in my knees to steady them while I’m here. I wish our connection could be broken. I wish he didn’t own a piece of me I can’t take back.

  “Well seeing you two so close together brings back old memories,” he chuckles out, and Hale offers a wolfish grin to me before turning to face the commander of the United and our shared friend.

  “It feels pretty damn good,” Hale rolls out too easily.

  Why haven’t I told him I’m engaged?

  “We’re ready for you in the interrogation room. Let’s get the sham out of the way for today so we can start on the real stuff,” Clay grouches.

  “So they’re learning interrogation today?” I inquire.

  “Go easy on them, they’re new, young, and very eager to be the best. You’ll be taking lead of course.”

  “I love watching her work,” Hale says to Clay, but his eyes stay fixated on mine, holding that endearing admiration I can’t bear to see in this moment of weakness I’m almost drowning in.

  I quickly sprint toward the assembled group to try to avoid the in depth game of seduction we seem to keep toying with. I clear my throat, ready to forget Hale and get to work.

  I examine the room to see the setup is about the same. The walls promise to carry the same secrets, and the layout offers the same work room. I smile at the familiarity in the strange place, and a calm washes over me.

  “This is Araya Crush. She’ll be your instructor this evening. Please don’t ask questions, just listen for the answers you would be seeking while she advises,” Clay asserts.

  All the eager students show their readiness to impress the commander of the United by saluting in perfect unison. I take my cue, and I point to a ready to oblige girl in the front row of the seven newbies.

  “You can go first. We need to know the name of someone. The answer is hidden inside this room, but you can’t look for it anywhere but your suspect. Use your wit, your skill, and your ability to bring out the truth. Commander Jude and Captain Banner both know the name you seek. I don’t know the name because I’ll be stepping in when you fail to show you the proper way to execute an interrogation. Captain Banner will be your suspect for the demonstration. Make him talk,” I add very mischievously, and Hale’s eyes narrow at me for volunteering his services.

  “Very well,” he murmurs hesitantly, and he takes his seat behind the steel table.

  The girl turns to break the rules about not asking questions.

  “What all can we do?” she inquires.

  “The only thing you can’t do is kill him,” I menace, and Hale glares at me for opening such a gaping door.

  Take that Captain Sexy.

  She smirks, and then she walks around him to size up his incredibly sculpted physique. She fights a blushing urge when her eyes linger against his face for too long, and his eyes look up to catch her ogling instead of working.

  Yes, he’s very distracting, little girl, but you couldn’t handle him.

  My twisted mind flashes back to the scandalous things we once did, and my bottom lip folds between my teeth to clue him in on my dark thoughts. His eyes burn into mine, and for a second too long, we’re lost in our own little world - one in which his body owns mine just as mine owns his.

  “You should tell me what you know,” she murmurs with a touch of embarrassment for her earlier slip, and we both snap out of our dangerously erotic trance.

  I have to stifle my laughter for her pathetic opening. She’s a beginner. Play nice, Araya.

  “Go fuck yourself,” Hale chirps while stifling a grin of his own, his eyes catching mine again.

  He’s playing the belligerent suspect a little too well. Her temper flares as her cheeks heat. I’m sure she’s used to feeling more in control. Hale’s too hot to let a girl think straight. Welcome to my world, bitch.

  Her eyes burn with anger, and she smirks more before he suddenly grips his side, instantly writhing in pain. His face distorts, forcing me to wince.

  Oh crap.

  “What the fuck?” he strains out.

  “Tell me,” she growls, and Hale slides to the floor, his pain becoming all the more pronounced as he curls into a ball.

  “Charman,” he grunts under duress.

  She dusts her hands off very smugly, releasing him from her hold. When she struts by me, I taste the triumph she has started celebrating too soon. My stern tone halts her cocky stalk.

  “Tell me the three things you did wrong,” I demand.

  I love being a bitch.

  “Excuse me,” the bratty girl scoffs, a derisive snort following behind.

  “Watch how you address your superiors,” Hale warns while slowly standing back up.

  “Sorry, Mrs. Crush,” she says very humbly, her eyes lowering to the ground like a child in trouble.

  “It’s Ms. Crush, and I’m still waiting on an answer,” I say without cracking the grin I want to.

  Hale starts smirking despite his attempt to suppress it. He enjoys hazing the new ones as well. Clay rolls his eyes at our amusement, but I can tell he’s having a bit of fun as well, despite his very obvious attempt to look disapproving.

  “I’m really sorry, Ms. Crush, but I got the name we were looking for. You said anything goes, so I’m not sure what you’re looking for,” she says with stupefied bewilderment.

  “Let me educate you,” I tartly remark. “You don’t walk into a room and exert your dominance by inflicting pain. You need them to want to talk to you. You have to own the suspect. The first thing you did wrong was use your gift. Your gift should never be displayed to anyone without top level security clearance. Anyone else that sees it should be in a body bag by the time you finish up. Now your suspect lives, and he’ll go tell everyone the gift you possess. They’ll prepare for you, and you’ll lose your edge.”

  She lowers her eyes again to hide her embarrassment, but I’m not through berating her just yet.

  “The second thing you did wrong was force your suspect into a state of frenzy. If you do y
our job right, then you get the right name. If you try to force a name out the way you did, then you have someone pissed off and ready to shut you down. You didn’t gauge his eyes, his body language, or his reaction to the name. It was a lie - a false, made-up name to hinder your quest. Now you’ve wasted precious time and valuable resources on a dead end because your arrogance interfered,” I scold, and her eyes lower all the more - her body begging to sink beneath the floor.

  “And the third?” she asks curiously, not looking up.

  In a blink, Hale blurs across the wall to rip her from her slouched stance. He slings her against the wall to cause a crack in the structure, and her eyes widen in sheer terror as she stares down into the unforgiving eyes of her assailant.

  “You didn’t secure your suspect,” I murmur with a cocky smirk.

  Hale drops her to the ground, and then he walks back over to the other side of the table to take his seat for the next student. His feet prop up on the table, his hands slide up to rest behind his head, and his eyes wait expectantly on mine to meet them.

  “Now that I have your attention, I’ll demonstrate the proper way to interrogate a suspect. From now on, don’t think you know more than I do. As you can see, this isn’t class time out here. Most all of the beings that sit on the other side of that table are skilled, merciless, and they’re just waiting for you to mess up.

  “If you plan on being an interrogator, then you have to keep your eyes open at all times. This room opens up the secrets we need. This room carries more weight than you realize, and this room could be the answer to stopping or starting a war at any moment. Understood?”

  They all salute me in unison, and then Hale grins even more upon hearing my dominating tone. I resist the urge to roll my eyes at his incorrigible behavior before turning back to the seven far more attentive students.

  “I don’t do well with a visible audience. Go stand with Commander Jude behind the glass, and don’t do anything but watch.” I instruct, and Hale’s eyes dance menacingly.

  “Would it be too easy if I said I was hot for teacher?” he says mischievously, his salacious grin only growing.

  “Yes. It would,” I grumble.

  This is going to be harder than I thought. Why am I doing this with him? I know better. I should get Clay. Damn you, Hale Banner!

  “The first thing you need to know is your suspect’s biggest weakness. With full bloods, it’s the vein. The drink they need from the vein outweighs almost any other desire. With humans it’s the chance of immortality. If you tell a full blood they can drink from a vein, you had better sell it to the point they can’t turn you down. If a human wants immortality, then they have to have the right gene for the venom to work. Otherwise, they’ll become the infected instead of the immortal, and then you’ll be the one to have to put them down,” I murmur very authoritatively.

  Hale leans back in his seat while taking in my very assertive instructions.

  “And what do you do when it’s our kind?” he interjects with a daring tone.

  I offer a wry smile while strutting toward him like a vixen on a mission. Very slowly, I pull off the blazer that has been hiding my very slinky shirt that drapes dangerously low once I undo the top two buttons.

  His eyes grow wide when I let my hair down and toss my jacket to the chair while pulling my handcuffs out of the pocket.

  “With our kind,” I murmur with pause to add suspense, “you have to find out what they enjoy the most. Is it food, kinky sex, or a dirty, scandalous blood fuck,” I crudely remark, and I can see Hale’s humor fading as he squirms beneath my very light eyes staring fearlessly into his as if he’s my prey.

  “Fuck,” he whispers to himself.

  My menacing smile grows darker as the games get closer to starting. I step over to him to cuff his hands to the protruding posts designed for restraining. The touch of skin on skin still sends that unwelcome shiver, but I brush it off before he notices my reaction.

  “This feels like our third date,” he seduces when I secure the cuff into place.

  I almost feel flustered now that he has said such a personal remark in front of so many, but I’ll pay him back for his slip up when I humiliate him in front of everyone. I refrain from looking into the eyes that are burning down at me while I cuff his second hand. That stupid, unbidden fire that courses through me with one accidental graze of his skin is almost painful this time - a longing within me growing, growling, and begging me to straddle him right now.

  “With hybrids, you have to use whatever their strongest desire to seduce a confession or valid information,” I say to the very silent students on the other side of the glass.

  I sit down on top of the table to be in front of Hale, and my feet dangle just in front of his pants that seem to be fitting a little tighter, making his arousal apparent.

  “Normally I use blade cutting cuffs lined with uranium, but since I don’t want to leave my ex handless, I’ll just stick with the reinforced steel cuffs for this friendly demonstration,” I explain, and his devious grin grows.

  “Now what?” he smolders, and I lean over to be just inches from his lips, keeping mine just out of his reach.

  “Now we look for your weakness to extort,” I murmur softly, hypnotically… the way he likes my tone to be when I’m seducing him. My shirt falls open a little more to reveal the spot between my neck and shoulder - the spot where his blood bringers constantly broke the surface.

  He frowns when he sees the cruel game I’m playing. His body stiffens, and he leans back to escape the scent I know I have to be exuding right now… my scent - the hybrid scent of lust.

  “I don’t think this is fair. You know your suspect’s weaknesses a little too well,” he grumbles, and he stares at the place he once bled me from before taking me in the most surreal, mind-blowing ways.

  His breath hitches, but he can’t look away. I can feel his desire to take me here and now. I can taste his desire through his rasp breaths that are growing more coarse by the second.

  “Then you manipulate their lust for their coveted choice, and you find your answer,” I murmur very softly while staring into the entrapping eyes.

  “How do you do that?” a voice says through the glass, and I smirk when I hear Clay.

  “I told you not to ask questions. Araya has always been a bigger fan of show than tell,” he admonishes.

  I climb down to straddle Hale’s lap. He exhales slowly, his lips tightening as I go in for the first bit of the ploy, playing with my prey before going for the kill. His neck is inches from my lips, and I intentionally let the heat from my breath stroke it. His breath hitches again upon my sudden descent, and I feel the desire he has for me begging to burst free from his pants. With a slow caress, my hands begin to run up and down his chest, drawing out the moment of allure. I rip his shirt open to reveal his incredible body, and it’s all I can do to stay with this charade now.

  His golden abs and toned chest shine under the dim lights of the cold room, and I feel my temperature rising from its normal temperature - one hundred and five degrees - to at least one hundred and ten A sizzling sound emerges to remind me I’m overheating. His temperature rises too, making his clothes start to singe.

  “This isn’t fair,” he whispers in a nearly muted tone.

  “I’ve never played fair in this room,” I say with an enigmatic smirk, and he shows the excited fear in his eyes as I lean over to let my lips graze his chest.

  His hands try to move, the steel cuffs rattling against the metal of the poles as he does.

  “Damn it,” he groans, and I smirk against his chest as my lips trail up to be just below his collarbone - the place I bled him most.

  My blood bringers unsheathe and graze against the pressure point I know gets to him, and he almost gasps for air when I threaten to break the skin. Very teasingly, I pull back and move to my second favorite spot on his shoulder, and again my teeth bear down just enough to threaten his strong, almost impenetrable skin - our sharp blood bringers being o
ne of the few things strong enough to offer penetration.

  “Oh, this is torture,” he exasperates in a tormented tone.

  His lips seek mine, and I pull back to be just out of reach again.

  “I need the name,” I smolder out.

  I see him wanting to cave. His eyes tell the truth, his secret barely hanging on.

  “I don’t think so, Ms. Crush. You’ll have to work harder than that,” he mocks, but I can hear the shakiness in his tone he’s trying to mask with confidence.

  My lips scale down his neck again and back to his chest to bear down once more. I press too hard and a small drizzle of blood expels from his chest. I pull back instantly before the taste enters my mouth. The erotic trickling taunts me, and I almost feel compelled to end the game that has promised to go awry.

  Fuck. That could have been so, so, so bad.

  His eyes burn with excitement, danger, and desire as the warm stream trails his chest. I hear the impossible snapping of the strong metal, and suddenly I’m on my back against the table as his soft, supple, amazingly perfect lips engulf mine.

  I taste the pent up frustration from three years pouring into my mouth, and my hands grip the back of his neck to pull him even closer. My blood bringers retract, but his threaten to emerge from their sheathe to rush the finale that can’t happen.

  His erection grinds between my legs, and it’s ungodly tempting to just fuck him here and now despite all of the eyes on us waiting for me to show them how to grill a suspect. Instead they’re getting a lesson in Araya and Hale - the fucked up hybrid counters.

  I finally break free from the kiss, and then I push the panic button strapped to the bracelet on my wrist. Just like in our interrogation room, the restraints emerge from the wall and wrap him up to pull him off me. His head flops back in defeat, slightly thudding the wall behind him, when he feels the numerous chains holding him back.

  “Damn tease,” he whispers.

  I force a smirk, one of composure, triumph, and control, but in all reality, I’m feeling just as teased as he is.