Cursed by Darkness (An Urban Fantasy Novel) (Befallen Tides)

by Anna Sanders

  “Keaton?” she called softly.

  “Yes?” he answered in the same tone, turning to face her.

  They looked at one another for a long moment. Both were still bracing themselves, both were wide-eyed and flustered.

  Winx thought she knew what was going on. “Did you just have a nightmare?”

  “Uh, yeah.” He sounded almost chagrined by it.

  Oh boy. “Flying through the air, and then you fell?”

  “Is this one of those psychic moments?”

  Winx got out of bed and stretched slowly, luxuriating in the way her bones popped. Cool air hit her warm legs, and she remembered that she was scantily clad in front of the Bandit. But Winx had little modesty. Working at Skinned could do that to a person.

  “You could say that. Only it’s not quite what you think.” She sighed. “It was my dream. I’ve been having it for a long time now. I… linked to you. And you experienced my nightmare.”

  “Okay.” Keaton sounded confused and irritated all at once. He stayed on the floor, and his long braid slid down his shoulder as he lowered his head to hide a frown.

  “Sorry.” Winx scrunched up her nose. “I don’t do it on purpose.”

  “Your abilities allow you to enter someone’s mind while you are asleep?”

  “I said sorry. I’ll try to control myself better in the future. Sheesh.” She looked out of the still-open window to see darkness. “How long have I been asleep?”

  Keaton looked at the digital clock. “About twelve hours.”

  “Wow. I guess we should get some food then, shouldn’t we?” Winx went into her duffle bag and pulled out a new outfit. She also grabbed her toothbrush, body wash, and lotion. Then she headed toward the bathroom.

  Winx didn’t take long getting refreshed. She eventually came out wearing black, seamless leggings and a white tank top covered with a black duster-style cardigan.

  Keaton was seated on the edge of the bed, fully dressed. He sported another pair of boot-cut denim jeans and a simple white button-up shirt. The outfit enhanced his bandages, making him look like a casual badass.

  “Something is bugging me about that dream,” he told her while he laced up his shoes. “You told me this morning that your wings were taken from you. But I saw your back. There are only scars there. In your dream, you still had, well…”

  “Remaining cartilage? You can only see that when I am in my full form.”

  “And what does that look like?”

  “Red horns. Red tail. And what used to be wings.”

  “I thought so. You were exposing your true self in the nightclub?”

  “It’s hard to keep everything hidden for too long. When I can get away with it, I don’t see the point of hiding.”

  “I am fairly sure that the lixyns would see this as unveiling coverage,” Keaton said.

  “That’s what it is, isn’t it? Besides, they have so many crimes racked up against me at this point, I don’t care. I’m already doomed here for cleansing. Might as well be comfortable while I do it.”

  The two of them left the room and went to Winx’s car. Keaton was ravenous for meat, and Winx had to admit that she was rather peckish herself. They drove around looking for a restaurant, eventually finding Main Street Grill. Keaton was encouraged by the smells wafting from the building, so Winx indulged him and found a parking spot.

  They opted to sit out in the night air to enjoy their food. It was a nice evening, slightly chilly with clear skies. Keaton played with the napkin holder on the table, and Winx twiddled her thumbs.

  “I wanted to thank you,” she told him.

  Keaton stopped fiddling with the decorative holder to look at her. “For what?”

  “For making me stop to sleep. I guess you were right. I did need it.”

  “Perhaps you will listen to me when I try to help you from now on?”

  “Perhaps.” She smiled at him, the first real smile she had ever given him. The significance was not missed by him. He smiled back. “You know, you aren’t so bad, Keaton Silver. You were quite the gentleman today, sleeping on the floor.”

  “I didn’t think that you would be too cozy with me intruding on your space.”

  “Yeah. Well, I want to be fair. You can have the bed when we get back, and I will sleep on the floor.”

  “I don’t mind sleeping on the floor,” he said.

  “And neither do I. So we’re even.”

  “I owe you for disrupting your life.”

  “And I owe you for…well, maybe I do not owe you anything as of yet. However. This is the way it’s going, animal.”

  After that, the meal was quiet. Their food was brought out promptly, hot and ready. They ate in silence and listened to the sounds of the city night. Since they were the only ones on the balcony, it was incredibly easy to do. Not too many cars passed on the street, so the jazz music from the entrance of the restaurant floated out to them. It made the dinner sort of intimate, which neither of them chose to address.

  It was after Winx finished her sandwich that her skin began to crawl. She shook it off at first, thinking that she merely was still groggy from her long slumber. However, pinpricks of chills were spiking the back of her neck. She couldn’t help but notice that her hands shook slightly.

  Keaton noticed it too. The change in the air was instant. A wind picked up, and he sniffed once, then wrinkled his nose in disgust. His back stiffened.

  “Do you feel that?” he asked her.

  There was no use in lying. Winx took a drink of her water, then cleared her throat. “It’s hard to miss.”

  The wind picked up again. Keaton took the liberty to inhale deeply, this time stiffening even more. “Do you know what that is?” How could she possibly forget? She lowered her head a notch. “We need to find them.”

  “Why? This isn’t your homeland.”

  “No. But if there are savages in town, we need to see to it. We have to be the only ones available to do anything about it. It is our responsibility.”

  “I thought the deal was that we go to Colorado.”

  “Winx, don’t try to talk your way out of this.”

  She took a deep breath. “You are going to be incredibly annoying about this, aren’t you?” Keaton just stared at her. “Fine. How many are there?”

  He sniffed again. “Just one.”

  “Are you sure?”

  He touched a single finger to his nose. “Absolutely sure.”

  “That sounds easy. Still…”

  “Think of it as practice?” It was obvious the thought of killing for penance did not appeal to him either. “I know you do not want to deal with this right now. But—”

  “No, I know.” Winx closed her eyes. “There is no toeing the current. Best to jump into the deep end.”

  THE PARK WAS SMALL AND deserted. It wasn’t much more than a square of lawn, some trees for cover, and a jungle gym. But the putrid smell of death hung in the air. Keaton led them straight to the site.

  They parked Winx’s car around the corner, wanting to walk the rest of the way undetected. Winx got her shovel from the trunk of her car. “What are you bringing that for?” Keaton asked.

  “We’ll need to dispose of the body.”

  “In the park?”

  She shrugged. “Do you have a better idea?”

  “I suppose not. But we need to be careful not to attract any curious humans.”

  “Don’t worry. I can plant ideas into their heads, remember?”

  “Yes, of course,” he answered. “But I thought you said you can only do that one at a time? There must be at least thirty homes surrounding this street.”

  “I lied, okay?” Winx grimaced. “I can actually do more than I let on.”

  They walked side by side, shoulders brushing. Keaton kept his eyes open for the culprit. Winx mentally sent out commands for all of the humans to close their windows, draw the curtains, and ignore any unusual sounds for the next two hours. She focused on each house as they walked and felt a seedy sort
of satisfaction whenever she saw blinds close or heard the clicks of locks.

  The sprinklers were spraying when they walked up to the lawn.

  “Anything you can do about that?” Keaton joked.

  Winx shook her head without laughing. They proceeded down the path, each doing their best to not pay attention to the cold water splashing their clothing or soaking into their shoes.

  Eventually, they reached a bend in the trees which hid a small pond and a picnic area. Keaton sniffed, then pointed at the water. “It’s down there.”

  The bank was covered with long reeds which made it hard to see the water. Winx gulped back a surge of panic and clung to her shovel.

  She weighed her options for a long moment. On the other side of the reeds, she could hear small splashes. The thing was wading through the water. It could be leaving, which wouldn’t be good. The thought of what victim it could have strengthened her resolve.

  The creature needed to be put down.

  CHAPTER 10

  HER MIND WAS IN TURMOIL as she took those first steps. Fear and bravado collided in her chest and made her heart hammer. But she kept moving until she reached the pond.

  From there, it was as if everything were in slow motion. Walking into the water. The frightened quail that flapped their wings to fly into the night sky. The ripples caused by her trudging into the mud. She saw the savage immediately, and it turned and looked at her.

  There was despondency on the corpse’s face, features stricken with grief. Her eyes were sunken in, and her mouth was an open grimace, as if she was trapped inside the famous painting of the screaming man. It had been a woman with short brown hair, and she had possibly been a beauty once upon a time. But now, no more.

  She was holding a dead bird in her hands and had been obviously eating it; however, when she saw Winx, the prey was forgotten for the promise of new blood. She mechanically dropped the animal into the water and came toward Winx instead. Grunts emitted from her throat, which was slashed with a gory wound. Her clothing was nearly entirely ripped from her body, revealing gray, lifeless skin. Her arms were held out in front of her to keep her balance in the water, and her movements were unsteady.

  Winx held a hand up. “Stop.”

  The corpse stopped.

  Usually, when Winx was psychically embedded into a human mind, she could see flashes of everything they thought and knew. She could see a past of smiles or tears, family and friends, or just the opposite. She saw peoples’ stories, and their secrets, things that they would cringe from accidentally revealing.

  But that was not the case with a savage. Savages were no longer people. They were no longer anything. They were simply cannibalistic, untamed. Horrific animals.

  This one was no different. Winx saw nothing in her mind but darkness. She was no longer struggling to get to Winx, she simply stood there and stared at her. Empty and waiting.

  Winx lowered herself to sit in the shallow water. She stared back at the creature.

  “What happened to you? Who were you?”

  Of course, she did not get an answer, and she hadn’t been expecting one.

  “You were obviously killed. Your throat was cut. Who did it? Was it someone you knew? Someone you trusted? A boyfriend? A family member, or a friend?”

  Nothing back.

  “Were you kidnapped? Beaten? Raped? Or just robbed on the street corner? How long did your murder take? How sick was this person, to fill you up with terror to the point that everything good in you, everything worth something, died and cannot return?”

  Nothing. No answer.

  “Does your family know what happened to you? Do they think that one day they will find you? Are they even now searching for you wherever they go? Are they on the news, pleading for your attackers to release you alive? What about your home? Did you have kids? Did you have someone to go home to at night, someone waiting for you? A job? A house? Money? Popularity?”

  Nothing.

  “You see, that’s what makes this so hard. That’s what ruins me, to even think about. And I have to carry that with me. You aren’t just dying once, even if you aren’t aware of it. No, you are about to die again, and I don’t even know your name. I don’t even know who to apologize to. You’re just a husk, a reanimated killing machine. You are not human. You are nothing. I shouldn’t feel sorry for you.”

  No words from the dead. Only Winx’s continued stream of conversation.

  “I wish I did not feel so guilty for that. But I do. You have never wronged me. But I have to bury you.”

  The rattled breathing of the corpse never changed.

  “Come here and sit down.”

  The corpse shuffled over, bringing with it the intense smell of rotting flesh. She sat down uneasily in the water, her milky eyes trained onto Winx.

  “If there is a God, and I’m not too inclined to say whether or not there is, I hope that you meet him. I hope that he or she took whatever is left of you into paradise. And I hope that if you can see any of this, you will know why I am doing it. Not only know it, but that you are asking me to.”

  Winx removed a sharp dagger from her pocket. The blade’s handle was beset with rubies that glimmered in the moonlight, the setting was a pretty elaborate design with tassels at the edge.

  “Do you like it? It was my sister’s. She gave it to me right before she left home. See, I had pestered her for years because I liked it so much. Ever the pain-in-the-ass little sister. She took really excellent care of it. She had it professionally sharpened and added all these little decorations. When she gave it to me, she said, ‘Don’t ever ask me for anything else.’ That was probably one of the greatest gifts that I had ever gotten, I’d wanted it so bad for so long. Since I have to do all of this because I avenged her, I thought it would only make sense if I used her blade.” She held it out, handle first. “Here. Take it.”

  The corpse complied without blinking.

  Winx sighed deeply and closed her eyes, not opening them to see what was going to happen next.

  “Stick the blade, as deep as you can, into your temple.”

  KEATON HAD BEEN PACING IMPATIENTLY and jumped when he heard the scream of the creature. It was an awful sound. Not quite human, not quite animal. A rush of wind brought with it the fresh smell of blood. Metallic. Keaton coughed to rid it from his nostrils. He had heard the final screams of a savage before, but these were intense to him for some reason.

  Once the screaming stopped, he heard Winx walking in the water. But she didn’t emerge right away.

  “Are you okay?” he called to her.

  “In so many words,” she answered.

  “Do you need help getting the body up?”

  “No. I’ve got her.”

  He heard some dragging through the water, and then Winx appeared. Holding the thing by its leg with one hand, her other hand dangled with a wicked, blood-covered dagger. He felt nausea swarm him but did not succumb to it.

  The creature was quite dead. Well, it had been dead before. Now it was doubly dead.

  “Ugh, that’s disgusting.”

  “‘That’ used to be a person,” Winx snapped. “‘That’ went through a hell you cannot imagine. And you had better hope that you never can.” After dropping the dead body, she held her hand out for the shovel.

  “No. I had better do it. I need to pitch in somewhere, right?”

  Winx thought it over, then lowered her hand. “Make it quick. And deep as possible please.” She cleaned her blade with a cloth, taking special care with it. After it was sparkling, she sheathed it and placed it into her jacket. Then she pulled a medium-sized vial from somewhere unseen.

  Keaton had already started digging beside a tree, but looked up from his work when he saw what Winx was doing.

  “What is that?”

  “It is a dissolving acid. It will remove the evidence.”

  Keaton grunted. “Then what am I digging for?”

  “Because it will take about a month to completely dissolve the body. It’s fa
irly slow-working.”

  “And you don’t think anyone will check out this disturbed earth?”

  “If they do, they’ll only find a skeleton. And pardon me, but skeletons aren’t as feared by the public as newly-dead corpses. It will be their problem after this.” Winx began to pour the chemical over the body. “It destroys skin immediately. But it will take longer for the bone to deteriorate and turn into dust.”

  “Where did you get it from?” Keaton’s voice was shaky from his laboring.

  Winx had a faint, wry smile on her face. “It was the only thing that the lixyns left me with when they dumped me here.”

  That didn’t surprise him, but he had to pretend that it did. “Really? They aren’t the ones who set you up in that fancy apartment?”

  “Are you kidding? They left me in some backwater town in some random state with nothing more than a lixyn facility to train me.”

  “So, you would have been in an army?”

  “Yes. Giving my life for a cause I don’t believe in. I do not trust the lixyns.”

  “Well, you can’t say their cause is incorrect.”

  Winx paused in pouring the substance over the evidence to look at Keaton. “What?”

  “It’s the truth. They are stopping the human race from being wiped out by zombies. Could you imagine if there weren’t eradication forces? It would be chaos.”

  “Forcing someone into a service isn’t righteous. It’s barbaric. The lixyns aren’t the saviors to humans, even if they want to be seen as such.”

  “But this is an epidemic that must be contained. I know that better than anyone. Wait ‘til you see what these things have done to my land. It will change your mind.”

  Once the grave was dug, Keaton and Winx dragged the dissolving body to the hole. It sizzled and emanated strong fumes. Once they got it into the proper spot, the two of them worked to cover the woman with dirt. Eventually, they pounded the newly formed earth over the site and stamped the ground even.

  Keaton went over to a nearby picnic table. He tugged it over to the grave. “One down,” He looked over at Winx. “How do you feel?”