Curse Of The Marhime

by Dayana Knight

  His touch emitted a low thrum of energy that vibrated up her arms, and again she sensed the odd stir of awakening within her. The sensation distracted her for a moment, and Niko asked softly, “Pita?”

  She gazed into his eyes and for a second thought she saw something. A change in color? A shadow move across them? She pulled her hands out of his and placed them in her lap.

  He tilted his head slightly and gave her a puzzled look. “What is it, Pita? What’s wrong? You are afraid. I can see it in your eyes.”

  Pita clasped her hands on the table in front of her. “Niko, don’t you feel it?” She chewed the inside of her bottom lip. He is going to think I’m nuts. God, why did I say that?

  A server chose that moment to bring the wine, and make a show of opening the bottle, then allowing Niko to test its bouquet, and with a subtle hint from Niko, left them alone once again.

  “What are you feeling?” he asked swirling the wine gently in the glass.

  “A sort of power like the hum of electricity when you touch me from the moment we first met. I’ve tried to ignore it because it seems you don’t notice it.” She looked down at her hands that had begun to tremble and then met his eyes. “Tell me you feel it, too.”

  Niko reached across the short distance between them, and ran his fingers down the side of her face and smiled. “Of course I feel it. Give me your hand.”

  She hesitated.

  Then she felt her mind open and the soft velvet voice in her head, the wolf’s voice, “Don’t fear me, Pita. It’s okay, give me your hand.”

  Her eyes flicked to Niko’s face. His eyes glowed amber with green ebbing at the edges, the expression gentle and serene. Still he smiled.

  “Oh my God… How?” She started to get up, but Niko reached out and took her hand forcing her back down in the chair, though without malice.

  “Please sit, Pita,” his voice low. “Let me explain.” He held her hand lightly, caressing the inside of her wrist with his thumb. “You must know you are different.” He hesitated a moment then continued, “different from other people.”

  She stared at him. No words came to mind. How could he be the wolf? “People don’t change into wolves.” She blurted in a hoarse whisper. “That’s just legend…stories. It’s not real.”

  Niko moved his chair around the little table to sit beside her. He handed her the glass of wine that sat untouched in front of her, “Drink. It will help calm you. I know how strange this is going to sound, but I need you to understand what is happening. You are in danger, Pita.”

  “Danger? I don’t understand…”

  The server approached the table with their order, while the waiter moved the place setting Niko had abandoned when he’d move closer to Pita, so it lay situated in front of him once again. A welcome distraction, to the confusion Pita’s brain attempted to process at Niko’s last words.

  Niko placed an arm around her and pulled her close, then whispered in her ear, “Relax. I promise this will all make sense.”

  She remembered the glass of wine in her hand, and took a long sip while the waiter and server finished and finally left the table. She set the glass down carefully and turned her attention to Niko once again.

  “I somehow sense I can trust you,” she whispered. “But I’m afraid.”

  He hugged her to him and kissed her softly on the lips. “Pita do you also sense a link? Between us, I mean. We belong together, can you feel it?”

  “Yes.” Her voice barely audible.

  He released her and picked up a cloth napkin shook it out and placed it in his lap. “Come let’s eat. I think you will enjoy this.” He indicated the food.

  She wasn’t hungry any longer, but took small bites of the fish and vegetables. It tasted delicious. Niko had a hearty appetite and patiently urged her to eat more. She sipped her wine slowly. Soon the alcohol lulled her fears, and she began to relax.

  “Feel better?” Niko asked.

  “Yes. I think the wine is going to my head.”

  “Well, before I have to carry you out of here, why don’t you tell me all the things that have been bothering you?”

  Pita told him everything she’d not mentioned in their conversations on the plane except the wolf involvement since he obviously knew those details first hand, something she still couldn’t wrap her mind around at the moment. She told him about the Matriarch and the dreams as well as the visions she’d had about the woman. In addition, the dreams in which she herself became the wolf. Pita told him that she felt the same type of power emanate from Tomas though it wasn’t as powerful as what they shared and also about the night Tomas had come out of the woods half-naked near dawn. As she talked, she began to feel better, a lightening of the soul. All through her monologue, Niko remained quiet and attentive.

  Then she told him about Sasha not being able to make the trip and her father’s medical issues.

  “Oh and yesterday, I went for a walk and found this lake with a little island in the middle and some sort of ruin on the other side. I assumed it was castle ruins. Anyway, I’m standing there and all of a sudden, I feel like my skin is going to rip apart. Like something is growing inside of me and trying to get out. Well…next thing I know this woman is picking me up off the ground and helping me home.

  “And I still don’t know anything I came here to find out. So many questions, and I’ve gotten not one answer. I’m still no closer to finding my biological parents.” She breathed a heavy sigh. “God, Niko, please tell me what all this means. Do you know who my family is? Did fate bring us together? Or did you seek me out for some other purpose?”

  While Pita talked, the waiter re-appeared, and discreetly placed the check on the table.

  “Let’s get out of here, and I will tell you all I know.”

  Chapter Twenty-five

  They settled in a small park near a pond. Several ducks floated upon the water’s smooth surface. The day remained mild and the sun peeked in and out of the cumulus clouds moving across the sky.

  Pita stared out across the pond. Niko held her close rubbing her arm in a slow rhythmic manner. He drew a deep breath then exhaled a heavy sigh.

  “Where do I begin?” he said a distant look in his eyes.

  “The beginning would be good.” She tried for humor but fell short.

  Turning to face her, he shifted on the bench, and took her hands in his. Touch seemed important to him. The brush of his power flowed through her creating a tightening deep inside her almost like sexual yearning, but not quite. It rolled and twisted within her as if being drawn upward.

  Niko studied their entwined hands for a moment, and then said, “I guess this sensation that passes between us would be a good place to start.” He held their clasped hands up, and then settled them gently upon his thigh again. “We share an ancient power and along with it a kinship with the Lychan or wolves. Some of us have the ability to shift form. This ability marks the strong ones, the elders, though we do not age. It also makes us responsible for the lesser. We must protect those who cannot yet shift. You are coming into your power. You are on the cusp of shifting, Pita. This ability is passed along through the muló or spirits.”

  “Muló? Dorina used that term the other night. She whispered it after my incident at the lake. What does it mean?”

  “When a person dies, especially in shame, it is believed that they can be reincarnated as another human or animal. The may appear as muló, ‘living dead’, or animal form such as a wolf to seek revenge on those who harmed them in life.”

  “You’re losing me, Niko. What does all this have to do with me?” Then a disturbing thought formed in Pita’s baffled mind. “So…our meeting was, uh, predestined? Not by chance?”

  “Yes, regarding our coming together. As for the rest, you must find your blood mother to determine the answers you seek. I do not know who she was only that we are important to each other.” He squeezed her hands in his. “I will help you learn the rest.”

  “But, how did you find me?”

&
nbsp; “Once you became the designated age in human years you emit an aura sort of like GPS.” He smiled, though hesitantly. “I just honed in on it. I am able to sense you, link with you, as you know.”

  “Great. That makes perfect sense to me.” Pita pulled her hands free, stood, and walked towards the water’s edge. She hugged her arms around herself and gazed out over the peaceful surface of the pond. A light breeze lifted her hair and tickled it across her face. She smoothed it back behind her ears.

  Niko stepped up behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders. “I know this is a shock to you, Pita. If you had been raised by your biological parents you would have been made aware of your purpose.”

  “Purpose? Great. I have a purpose in life and what would my purpose be, Niko?” She continued to gaze out over the glassy surface not trusting herself to look at him.

  He turned her to face him and placed his hands gently on her face. “Please trust that I will guide you.”

  She stared into his eyes, mesmerized for a moment. Logic said to push him away, fight the attraction and get her thoughts straight, figure out what is happening to her, but then he bent and kissed her. A gentle brush of soft lips at first, then becoming hungrier, arousing her own desire and need. His arms snaked behind her, and held her tightly against him. His tongue moved past her lips and her mouth opened to his exploration. Anger fizzled, confusion, resolve, and any caution she’d mustered, flew from her like traitors on the wind. Pita’s body responded to his and quickened as the kiss became more urgent. Her very soul, it seemed, twisted restlessly inside of her drawn to commune with his. Then, her senses returned through fear. And she did push him away. Pita gazed into his face a moment. His eyes were hooded with an animal passion and watched her as if she were prey. The moment passed and his eyes became their normal gold-flecked hazel. They gazed gently down on her. Niko reached to pull her back to him.

  “No, don’t.” She stepped away turning her back to him. “How can I trust you? I find I don’t even know the first thing about you.” She turned and paced a few feet away. “I thought I did… but now… I don’t know. Maybe you have used power or magic to bewitch me. I have feelings I never had before, but how can I trust what they are. I don’t even know who I am.” Her voice faltered, and she turned tear-filled eyes on him.

  His face held sadness as he stared back at her. “This is not what I would have between us, Pita. Trust is important. You must trust that I will help you, protect you. There are others that seek to destroy you.”

  “No, Niko, I can’t. I’d like you to take me back.” She started for the car.

  “Wait.” Niko grabbed her arm and spun her back to face him. She stiffened, but did not pull away. “I must finish explaining what is happening to you, and then if you want to go, I’ll take you.”

  The look in his face pleaded sincerity. It held no deceit, no malice. She felt compelled to hear him out, even as her heart squeezed with disappointment. She’d thought she’d finally met… ah well, no matter, she sighed. Pita sat heavily upon the bench and said in a flat voice, “Go on.”

  Niko was silent so long Pita thought he’d decided not to continue. As the silence lingered, she watched the birds flit back and forth across the green, sun-speckled canopy above. She stole glances at his profile and though totally confused, she felt that familiar tightening deep inside. And although she had no idea as to whether he was trustworthy or not, she wanted to feel his arms secured around her. Hating the way her body contradicted her sensibilities, Pita shifted on the bench and the movement jarred Niko from his thoughts. Only seconds had passed but it seemed like long minutes to her.

  He turned to face her and that crooked smile of his crawled across his mouth and it melted what was left of the hostility and lingering sense of mistrust she’d felt. “Sorry, kind of trying to figure out the right words.”

  “Just say it, Niko.” Pita, not willing to give in altogether, allowed him a shadow of a smile in return. “I think if I was going to run screaming, I would have done it an hour ago.”

  He chuckled, “Hmmm…good point.”

  Niko placed his arm around her and pulled her gently against him. She hesitated for only a moment, but unable to resist the temptation of being snuggled once again in his arms, rested her head on his shoulder and lost herself in his scent; the tang of damp earth and pine with an edge of muskiness. It wrapped her in memories of long walks in the summer forest of her home. She took a deep, comfortable breath.

  “I feel like I belong here and for some reason that I can’t explain, I am somehow able to accept what you are telling me, though I think realistically I should be jumping on the next plane out of here.” Pita traced tiny circles on her thigh as she spoke. “The weirdest thing is I’m more curious than fearful after all that has happened to me.”

  A shimmer of energy wrapped itself around her and caressed her skin as his hand moved absently up and down her arm. His heart beat a steady rhythm against the hand she rested on his chest.

  “You said earlier that I must know I’m different.” Pita chewed her bottom lip gazing out over the glimmering water. “Actually, I honestly never thought about it until now, but I was obsessed as a teenager with magic and folklore. I became infatuated with the paranormal. My parents never discouraged it but they didn’t encourage it either.” Her focus turned inward. “I spent a lot of time wandering the woods. I’ve always felt most comfortable in the quiet stillness of the forest, only sounds of animals foraging, the breeze rustling the leaves, the crunch of twigs underfoot. No modern noises. I grew up in a rural area, so it was easy to distance myself.”

  His voice rumbled through his upper chest as he spoke. “Pita, the episode you described the other day, it was your body trying to shift. When that happens, it puts a whole lot of stress on your body and usually someone—another were— helps you through the shift the first several times. You shouldn’t be alone.”

  She stiffened against his shoulder afraid to speak, afraid to ask what kind of stress. The sensation she’d experienced before she passed out was that of her skin splitting apart. Not something she’d be overjoyed to experience again. “When you say help me to shift, just exactly what do you mean?”

  Before Niko could answer, the sun darkened and the warm breeze chilled lifting Pita’s hair. A sensation washed over her skin like thousands of tiny biting insects. All the color drained from her face.

  “Pita? What the hell? Do you feel that?” He shook himself like a wet dog to ward off the odd sensation and turned to follow her gaze. “I don’t see anything.”

  “The woman.” She whispered.

  Niko turned back to her. “What?”

  She knew her eyes were open a little too wide and her mouth didn’t seem to want to work, in fact, it didn’t seem to want to close. Pita had no rational explanation for the dread that filled her nor could she seem to explain herself at that moment. Fear paralyzed her. It took her a few seconds to realize that Niko was shaking her.

  “Pita, what happened? C’mon, baby,” he cajoled. “What did you see?”

  Her eyes focused behind him again. “I saw the gypsy woman who haunts my dreams. She was there.” Pita pointed at the tree line at far edge of the park behind them. “She stood there and stared at us with those cold, black, barracuda eyes.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Niko dropped her off at the Dorina’s shortly after the Matriarch sighting. Pita, still anxious and out of sorts, went to her room to lie down. The sun settled behind the mountains, painting the sky deep orange and the clouds dark lavender. The colors washed her room with a golden-rose hue.

  She lay on her side gazing out the window watching the colors fade as darkness settled in. Dorina had gone to visit with a neighbor, and Tomas went out for the evening. She relished in the fact that, for a little while, she was alone in the house. She really didn’t want to converse or explain her solemn mood and she knew Dorina would be perceptive enough to pick up on her melancholy.

  Pita considered the �
�shifting’ issue for a moment. Niko told her she would be fine until the next full moon. She had to laugh. This bordered on something out of a Lon Chaney movie. I’m going to turn furry at the next moon. Wooo hooo! How exciting is that?

  Part of her still didn’t believe it, but deep down she knew Niko spoke the truth, besides too many things pointed in that direction. Niko would pick her up in two days and they would spend the next moon cycle together. He’d told her about a cabin he’d leased in the mountains. It was secluded, and they would have all the privacy they needed—for what she still had trouble imagining. Part of her wished for the simplicity of a romantic tryst. Lord knew he had a knack for making parts of her body and senses respond to him that she hadn’t realized could. She sighed, turned onto her back and stretched trying to relieve some of the nervous and sexual tensions churning in her body. Even with all the weird off-the-wall stuff, she wanted him. She’d gotten an up close and personal idea of his desire for her, as well, and Pita wanted nothing more than to investigate that particular body part closer and feel it buried deep within her.

  The thought brought another question to mind. How in the world would that work? She shook her head and sat up. “I’m not even going there.” She giggled and wondered how she could find humor in all this oddness. Maybe the shock was just too much for her to bear, and she had now moved onto hysterics. But, for the most part, something—a deep-rooted instinct, perhaps—accepted the bizarre life.

  She’d always believed that life held many unexplained phenomena and absorbed all the paranormal, legends, ghost stories she could—anything and everything like that fascinated her. As a child, she would pretend to be Wiccan and cast spells, only good spells though, evil or black magic had frightened her, and she’d never wished harm on anyone. Even while others watched those goofy soap operas after school, her favorite show had been Dark Shadows, a gothic soap opera. She smiled again. Now Niko is telling her that she will be baying at the moon much like Quentin Collins did. Ho boy!