Bound by Secrets

by Angela M Hudson

  “Arthur was here,” I said. “He visits from time to time.”

  “What?” He leaned forward, smiling excitedly. “Really?”

  “Yes, and he says you need to clean out this shrine,” I lied, but it was okay because I was dead certain he’d say the same thing. It was sick, really. The man was dead, not gone forever.

  “I… you’re serious?” Jason folded his arms, taking in the room.

  I shrugged. “Well, yeah. I’m pretty sure that’s what he’d say.”

  “She’s right.” David took a backward step and looked around. “This room should become something more now.”

  Jason nodded. “I think you’re right. Hell, let’s make it Cal’s room.”

  “Cal’s?” I said.

  “Yeah.” Jason smiled. “If he’s family, he’ll need a place to come home to.”

  “He’s not the only family we’ve got. There’s his father, and his twin sister,” David reminded him.

  “I know. And they’re all welcome. But Cal’s immortal,” he said. “And he’s probably gonna be my favorite, since he reminds me so much of myself.”

  We all laughed. That was so damn true I was actually surprised he was able to see it. Most people don’t spot things like that.

  “So how are you feeling?” Jason asked David. “Any relief from the curse?”

  “Now that you mention it.” He rubbed his chest, his eyes narrowing when he looked at me. “How’s uh… how’s Falcon?”

  “He’s doing fine,” Jason said. “He’s littered with a bit of regret for some of the things he’s done as a result of the curse, and he’s terrified that you’ll hate him when you remember him, Ara; you know, because of what happened with Elora—”

  “But that wasn’t the curse,” I cut in. “It was a potion and it wasn’t his fault.”

  “I know, but once you open the door to regret, you start going over things that happened ten or twenty years ago.”

  “Or in my case, seventy years ago,” David said, holding Jason’s gaze.

  Something exchanged between them then, and it made Jason uncomfortable, made him shift from one foot to the other. “I forgave you for that, David.”

  “But I don’t see how you could.” He shook his head. “I was ready to kill Morgana for the same and—”

  “And you didn’t,” Jason said.

  “What are we talking about?” I asked, realizing as the words came out. They were talking about how David killed Jason’s unborn child when he took the mother’s life. I completely understood now what Jason went through then, and I just wanted to hug him and tell him I was sorry too. But we all just stood there, exchanging glances, knowing in our hearts what needed to be said but not needing to say it.

  “I remember him,” I added, breaking the awkwardness of being an outsider to this little exchange.

  “Remember who?”

  “Falcon. Well, I remember pieces of him. And he doesn’t need to worry. Tell him that for me, okay?” I said to Jason. “Tell him—”

  “No way.” He put both hands up. “He’ll need to hear it from you.”

  “You’re right.” I took my phone out and scrolled through, looking for Falcon’s number, until it occurred to me that it would still be listed under ‘Brett’.

  “What are you doing?” David asked.

  “Seeing if he’s still awake.”

  “You wanna talk to him now?”

  “Seems as good a time as any.” I shrugged.

  “And you’re as clueless as my brother usually is,” Jason said, plucking the phone from my hands and giving it to David. “Go to bed. Both of you. This is David’s last night as a human and his first night free of the curse.”

  When he winked suggestively at us as he left the room, my body warmed. He was right. I’d never made love to a curse-free David. And this would be our last chance while he was human.

  * * *

  I shut the bedroom door and leaned against it, waiting for him to look at me. But whatever I had planned for us in my mind, I seemed to be the only one with that kind of thinking.

  David sat down on the end of the bed and took off his boots, totally ignoring me. I knew he could feel me looking at him, because he barely even angled his head in my direction.

  “So Jase seemed pretty happy about Cal,” I teased, unsticking myself from the door.

  “And?”

  “And…” I moved from the sitting room to the bedroom and glued myself to another wall, trying to look sexy, or at least to catch his attention. “And I thought you were too.”

  He just shrugged.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked, abandoning the idea of having sex altogether. We clearly needed to talk.

  “What’s wrong is I hate that everyone in my family, including those I didn’t even know were in my family, are in love with my wife!” he yelled.

  “Okay, David, seriously.” I put both hands up, walking stiltedly toward him. “Where is this coming from?”

  “I saw the way he looked at you, Ara.” He picked up his boots and pushed past me on his way to the closet. “And what’s his excuse? At least Cal’s under your curse, but my brother—”

  “Aw, come on, David, Jason does not feel anything for me other than the love of a sister. You know that.”

  “Do I?” He threw his shoes in, wiping hard at his face as he turned around. “Because it looks to me like the pattern is repeating.”

  “What pattern?”

  “You two making eyes at each other. Him getting all up in our private business—”

  “What business?”

  “You calling him Jase!” he continued, ignoring my question.

  “I shorten names,” I said, laughing. “I always have.”

  “Not mine.” He looked at me squarely, eyes misty but sharp. “You never shorten my name.”

  “Shorten it to Dave?” I almost threw up. “You hate being called Dave.”

  “And I hate you calling my brother Jase, but it never stopped you!”

  My shoulders dropped. He was right. Not about me calling Jason Jase. That was stupid. I would not be told how to address someone else no matter what his opinion of it was. But he was right about me not having a pet name for him. It never occurred to me until now. ‘Dave’ didn’t suit him, though. Or hun, or bae, or love. He was strong and powerful and dark. I just couldn’t picture a vampire ‘King Dave’. It sounded so ridiculous in my head that I laughed.

  “So it’s funny now?” he said, angling his body slightly sideways as if to deflect the mockery.

  “I’m sorry.” I composed myself, desperately holding back the smile. “It’s just… Dave sounds so funny.”

  “Laugh,” he yelled. “Go ahead. But I’ll have the last laugh, bitch.”

  My head whipped up as that cold name struck me like an iron rod. “David? Did you seriously just call me a bitch?”

  “What are you gonna do about it?” he said, taking two long strides to stand before me. I knew I was in trouble then. He stood so tall that he towered over me, and a glimmer from the past shot back into my mind, showing me a version of him that scared me. I ducked as his arm swung out to strike, tripping forward onto my fingertips as he swung at me again.

  “David!” I yelled, flipping over to scuttle away on my butt, no time to get to my feet. “Stop it!”

  The rage flared in him, his pride damaged as he came at me again and missed. This time, I didn’t wait for him to back down. I kicked out his ankle and brought him hard onto the ground, jumping up so quickly to run for the door that I snagged my toe on the rug and fell down right beside him.

  He grabbed my wrist before I could get my breath. “Don’t you run from me, Ara! You stay here and own up to your mistakes.”

  “What mistakes?” I screeched, bringing my elbows in as he flipped me onto my back, landing on top of me. “What are you talking about?”

  “I am your husband. You are duty bound to obey me,” he spat through caged teeth. “When I tell you not to shorten my brother’s nam
e, I damn well mean it!”

  “What does it matter? It’s just a name.”

  “It is the way you connect with people, Ara. It starts with the name and ends in sex!” He leaned right down, pressing his wet lips to my forehead, his body shaking with fury. “And I am your husband. If I tell you to use his proper name, you fucking do it!”

  The vibrations from his throat as his gruff voice bounded around the room made my ears hum. He was loud for a human. And stronger than I ever realized. But he wasn’t violent. Not by nature. Something darker was going on here. Something besides the point of his argument.

  I moved my eyes onto his, my own widening when I saw the black rings circling the green, almost swallowing it up. He looked as cold and mean as that man in the painting above Arthur’s fireplace, and it sickened me that I’d ever made love to him. I had to remind myself that this wasn’t David right now.

  As I opened my mouth to ease him back to me, he clipped his hand firmly across it. “Do not talk back to me, you little bitch! Before I’m finished with you—”

  He didn’t even finish his sentence. I didn’t let him. I brought my head up so brutally into his jaw that he flew back five feet, landing hard on the ground and hitting his head on the coffee table. A scary roar rolled out from the back of his throat and he pulled at the ground to get himself up, coming at me like a monster from under a bed. I didn’t want to hurt him, but there was something terrifying in his eyes that froze me. I couldn’t get up, couldn’t move back as he made his way toward my ankle, grabbing hold of it and sliding me along the ground and into his grasp. I squealed, the fright taking all control from my mind. My fist went back and shot forward again like a lightning bolt, splitting his lip open.

  Using the instant of shock he was in, I jumped on top of him and grabbed his face in both hands, squeezing to force his eyes onto me. “Look at me, David.”

  “No!” He rocked and kicked under me, pushing at my hands.

  “Look at me!” I demanded. “You’re having a surge.”

  “It’s not a surge, Ara.” He bucked me with his hips, nearly throwing me off. “I’m cured, so maybe I’m just tired of all your bullshit.”

  “My bullshit? This is bullshit, David! Look at yourself.” I nodded down at his hand, clutching my shirt in a tight fist. “This isn’t you. No matter what I do to piss you off.”

  His eyes went to the guards that appeared on either side of me then, widening for a second before coming back to me, narrowed with confusion.

  “You’re still cursed, David,” I insisted, breathless. “I don’t know what happened, but the cure didn’t work on you.”

  “It didn’t work on me either,” Falcon said, sweeping into the room. He bent down and hoisted me off David, offering a hand to help him up, but David declined, rolling to stand on his own.

  “What are you saying?” He dusted himself off, looking coldly at me.

  I stepped back from both of them and stood between the guards.

  “It’s not over, Ara,” Falcon said, taking a knife from his belt. “Look.”

  I hid my face as he cut himself open across the arm.

  “I discovered this the week you first woke up,” he explained, bringing his forearm closer so I could see the blood. “It pulls toward you. You fought me once, when you didn’t know who I was. You cut me, and as the blood fell to the floor, it did this.”

  At first, I couldn’t see anything. In fact, I was pretty sure he was insane. But when David’s eyes rounded and he drew a quick breath, I paid more attention. It was so subtle, hard to tell, but the blood on his arm pooled the wrong way. Where he held it slightly up, as if he was folding the cuff of his sleeve, the blood should have trickled to his elbow. But it didn’t. It moved slowly and almost unnoticeably up his arm as if it were swimming toward me. I would never have seen it without him pointing it out, but it was enough to convince me. The cure hadn’t worked.

  “What’s going on?” I put my head in my hands and took a long step backward to sit on a chair. “Why isn’t this over?”

  “I don’t know,” Falcon said, appearing beside me. “But we’ll figure it out. Together.”

  “I’ll go get Jason,” David said, stopping as he went to walk past. He backtracked a few steps and got down on one knee, bringing our eyes in line. “Are you okay? Did I hurt you?”

  I laughed, snotting out of my nose as I did. “The question is, did I hurt you?”

  “Yes.” He wiped his wrist across his smile, clearing up the blood. “But I’d expect nothing less. And I’m sorry, for what it’s worth.”

  “It’s worth everything.” I patted his knee and then stood up. “You go get Jason. I have a so-called goddess to summon.”

  * * *

  She was waiting for me, standing there in front of the tree with a smug smile on her face.

  “You knew it wouldn’t work, didn’t you?” I yelled.

  “Ah, Man and all their medical marvels.” Lilith’s high, mocking laugh set my hairs on end, making me want to punch her. “Did you really think you could cure it that easily?”

  “Tell me how to cure it,” I demanded, the rage in my voice coming out with eerie calm. I stopped before her, the sky swirling above the treetops where I stood, a wild, unnatural wind whipping my hair out behind me.

  “I will tell you nothing.” She stopped laughing, a dark shadow smoking her tone. “With this blessing I carry, I can bend men to my will, Amara. Why won’t you just embrace it—”

  “I don’t need to bend men to my will—”

  “No, not now, because you’re cursed. You bend them as easily as I, but take that curse away and see how much power they give you then—”

  “So that’s what this is? The curse is like your drug; you’re dependent on it, afraid to set yourself free because you don’t think you have any worth without it—”

  “In a man’s eye, I do not.” She pointed at me. “We are the weaker sex, born to answer to them. Created to serve them!”

  “We are equal to men in every way—”

  “Oh no, my darling girl, that is where you are wrong. We are not equal. They will always be more powerful, more—”

  “How can you say that!” I lifted my voice with the force of a queen. “Look at you. Look at how mighty you are, how feared you are—”

  “Because of this curse—”

  “No, because you are Woman. Because you are beautiful and yet strong, with an iron will, Lilith! Can’t you see that? They may be cursed to follow you, tricked into seeing you as more than you see yourself, but you need to stop looking at yourself through the eyes of a man! Of all men! And you need to see yourself through my eyes.” I stepped closer. “You are the most powerful woman I know, but you’re a disappointment to your own species, Lilith, because you don’t own that power. You think it’s fake—a result of magic. But you can claim it. You can release yourself from this curse and still be as adored, still be as revered—”

  “Oh, sweet naive little Amara.” She turned away, disgusted. “Nothing much has changed about you, has it?”

  “You’re wrong,” I said. “Everything about me has changed. I’ve grown. I’ve faced my demons, my fears, and I’ve risen above them. But you…” I shook my head with contempt. “You’re still the scared little girl you were when you ran away from Adam, when he ordered you to return and then—Ah!”

  I whirled around without control and hit the ground hard, her knuckles only stinging my cheek as a droplet of blood fell from my lip. When I looked up, ready for her to strike again, she was gone, while the looming sky, set wild by my fury, remained.

  * * *

  After searching the manor high and low, I was finally directed to the library, but as I entered the space of high windows and two floors of mahogany bookshelves, I barely got to take in the room before Jason nearly knocked me flat with a giant hardback. “Sorry, Ara,” he said, scurrying away.

  “What’s going on?” I asked, circling slowly on the spot as my eyes brushed past the entire lab te
am dotted around the room, books in hand.

  “We’re looking for more accounts of Lilith’s victims,” Ali said. “And the legend of how she came to be cursed.”

  “The legend?”

  “Yes. Every event that took place in the entire history of our people has been recorded somewhere, and that would include the tale of how Lilith became cursed.”

  “But it would be a lie, wouldn’t it?” I said, sitting down beside David at a big table laden with old books. “Like that old game Chinese Whispers—how the story changes in the end?”

  “Not if it were written by Lord Eden in the Book of Carmen.”

  “Who?”

  “Otherwise known as Vampirie,” David whispered, leaning in. He kissed my cheek then and gave me a wink, burying his head in the book he was reading.

  “And even if we find the mythological version,” Jason said, slumping down heavily on the leather armchair beside us, “there will be veins of truth and it might give us some clues.”

  “Okay.” I shuffled forward and turned a book upright. “How can I help? Where do I look?”

  “We need to find that old story first, but the Book of Carmen is missing,” Ali said, sitting across from us. “We can’t do much until we know what kind of magic was used.”

  “What kind?” I said, confused. “Isn’t there only one kind?”

  “No. There’s witchcraft and voodoo, just to name two, and they’re very different kinds of magic,” Ali said.

  “And then add Cerulean Magic, which has been practiced since the days when Vampirie’s daughter Lilith reigned as queen,” Jason said, his head snapping up then with a smile. “Wow. Time jump. I completely forgot she was even the same person for a moment there.”

  David laughed. “Don’t tell her that.”

  “Believe me,” Jason said under his breath, going back to his books, “it’s not worth my head.”

  I smiled, looking down at the page in front of me. “So what difference will it make—knowing what magic was used?”

  “Heaps,” Lora said, coming to sit beside Ali. “The kind of magic she used will give us clues on how to end the curse—”