The Curse

by Sherrilyn Kenyon

  She couldn't fault him for the cold tone or quick retreat. She'd be insulted, too, if their roles had been reversed and he'd questioned her loyalty to him.

  What she didn't understand was the wild whip of anxiety she'd picked up from Quinn as he left. It contradicted his stiff answers.

  But he had answered her.

  Maybe everything would make more sense once she caught up on sleep. She hadn't seen her bed in two days. Reaching for her helmet hooked on the mirror of her bike, she paused. Unease skittered over her skin. Someone approached from behind.

  Evalle swung around, prepared to face a threat. And it was, but only to her heart. She crossed her arms. "Stalking me is dangerous, Storm."

  Although she sort of liked that he'd come searching for her.

  "Not as dangerous as the other things stalking the city tonight. You'd know if you'd been in the city since midnight."

  Had he been looking for her since then? But that didn't explain his finding her here. "How did you know where I'd be right now?"

  "I didn't. I was in this area for another reason."

  Oh. So he hadn't come looking for her.

  She kept her chin up and squashed her disappointment. She'd already made a fool of herself earlier by getting annoyed about Adrianna. "I did leave the city for a bit. Had some business to take care of. Why are you still out and about?"

  "I had some time to burn."

  He should be burning that time at home in bed. His eyes had a dark, hollow look. The urge to fuss over him snuck up on Evalle ... and reminded her how Adrianna had spent weeks fussing over him as his nurse. She had to let that go. That discussion had been seven hours ago.

  A long seven hours. Amazing how exhaustion took the edge off her hurt, and anyway, the hurt hadn't been Storm's fault. He shouldn't be blamed for her insecurities. "What have you been doing tonight?"

  "Talking to Nightstalkers for one thing."

  "About what?"

  "The gang battles."

  "Did you find out anything?"

  "Few things. That's why I ended up tracking something to this spot."

  He'd been using his ability to track nonhumans. The same way he'd found her in South America when no one else could. He'd defied Tribunal orders to come after her.

  Her tired mind immediately tallied points in his favor for that--points to wipe out any lingering irritation over the whole Adrianna issue. "What were you tracking?"

  "I picked up a Svart scent from the cemetery where you fought."

  Why had he done that? "VIPER doesn't even know you're back yet and you don't owe them anything. You should be home resting and not risk being seen."

  He closed the distance between them, never moving his flint-hard gaze from hers. His chest rose and fell sharply in time with the slow blink of his eyes. Muscles along his jaw tensed and flexed until he released a hiss of air and sighed. "I can't rest. Not when I'm worried about you."

  She caught herself before she sighed, but her lips slipped into a smile. How was it when she thought she'd never let a man touch her skin, much less her heart, that Storm had found the route? A twisted and rutted path, and one that required the steel will of a man like Storm to navigate. She was touched by his concern but didn't want to encourage him to stay on his feet when he didn't appear fully recovered.

  She said, "We both know I can take care of myself."

  "From what I'm hearing, these Svarts are not to be underestimated. The one I tracked left the cemetery, then went to where I met you by your bike, then I caught a similar scent not far from here, in the area of your apartment. I picked up yet another Svart scent that led me here, then it vanished. I think these trolls might be looking for you."

  "Me? Why?"

  "I don't know. I just have a feeling I'm right."

  She had yet to learn everything about Storm, and with his unusual heritage she respected his gift, but a Svart looking for her? "I can't come up with one reason why a Svart would be searching for me. Probably just a matter of them covering a lot of ground in the city that crossed with my movements."

  "I knew you'd come up with some excuse instead of realizing you shouldn't be running around alone right now."

  "I'll be fine."

  "You don't have to fight every battle by yourself." He touched her hair, lightly running a finger down the side until his hand stopped on her shoulder.

  She wished he'd pull her to him and kiss her again.

  He asked, "Where have you been?"

  "I can't tell you."

  His hand slid off her shoulder to hang at his side. "Now who's keeping secrets?"

  "It's not like that. I had something to do for the Beladors."

  His face closed down, guarded again. "You take backup?"

  "Not for this."

  "It's not safe for you."

  "Since when has it ever been safe in our world?" she asked with a grim smile. "I fight demons and trolls and whatever else shows up to threaten humans. That's my job."

  "Svart trolls are more deadly than demons and local trolls. Plus there's been another gang battle since I saw you."

  "How did you know about--" Evalle's heart frosted over at the realization that only one other VIPER agent would have told Storm anything. She kept her voice free of a jealous tinge, but just saying the witch's name caused her to grind her back teeth. "Did Adrianna tell you?"

  Storm shook his head slowly. "I've gone home. She doesn't know where I live."

  So where had Adrianna and Storm been when she was taking care of him if not at his apartment, house, hut ... whatever? Evalle shielded her momentary relief at that small confession, until she realized she didn't know where he lived either.

  But Storm had said he'd put that in the e-mail draft for her so she could come to dinner. Had he done that yet? Evalle pushed her tired mind back to business. "So where'd you get that information on the gang battles?"

  "From your Nightstalker buddy."

  "Grady?"

  "Yes."

  "I'm not surprised he knows about the Svarts." Evalle yawned. "I need to get going. Sunrise is coming."

  "You've got eighteen minutes to make a mile on your street jet."

  She gave him a wan smile. "That gives me sixteen more minutes of sleep if I leave right now."

  "I can think of a better use for those sixteen minutes."

  "Oh? How would you use them?" She smiled, enjoying a warm glow from his flirting.

  "Proving how wrong you are about Adrianna."

  Adrianna? Evalle lost the warm glow. She didn't want to listen while Storm painted the witch as someone only concerned with his health. Men would never see Adrianna the way women saw her.

  Just when Evalle thought she'd put this unexpected jealousy to bed, the green-eyed devil reared its ugly head. "No."

  TWELVE

  Evalle pinned Storm with a look that should warn him his health could soon be in jeopardy again and said, "I'm not wasting my time or breath discussing Adrianna."

  Storm put a hand on her arm and leaned down, nose to nose with her. "You are the most thickheaded female I've ever met."

  "Not winning any points right now, Storm." She pulled on her arm, not enough to break his hold. Just to make a point. "Let go of me if you don't want to land on your butt on the other side of the street."

  "Sixty seconds."

  "For what?"

  "To prove--"

  She huffed. "I got it. Adrianna did you a favor. Nothing to discuss."

  "You may be trying to believe that but you don't. I can't stand knowing every time you see Adrianna you're going to be hurt all over again."

  See? Things like that made her heart wiggle. "If I'm hurt, it's my problem to deal with. I believe what you told me."

  "But you're still bothered about Adrianna."

  She hated to admit he'd hit that nail dead center, but she couldn't deny the truth. Angling her chin in challenge, she said, "Okay, I'll give you sixty seconds--"

  He had her in his arms, kissing her before she realized he
'd moved.

  Her righteous anger over Adrianna, which had festered since last night, tumbled beneath the onslaught of emotions crashing through her.

  She had the backbone of a caterpillar when Storm touched her. He held her close, secure in his arms.

  She'd missed everything about him in the past few weeks. Missed the way he took her in stride, accepting her as she was. Missed his voice, which whispered across her skin. And most definitely missed the way his mouth felt against hers right now, teasing and nipping.

  Heat zinged through her core, spinning tornadoes of excitement everywhere and shocking her skin, coiling deep inside until she murmured against his lips.

  He smiled, never slowing the kiss that said so much.

  Much more than sixty hours of talking could accomplish.

  She tasted his sincerity, knew by the way his heart slammed with each beat that she mattered to him.

  Blood barreled through her own heart, forcing the organ to feel alive after years of being an iceberg, frozen by terror. Another man had sent her into emotional lockdown as a teen.

  But Storm could stir a fever inside her with nothing more than a look.

  His hand cupped the back of her head, carefully and gently. Probably still remembering how she'd reacted like a trapped animal when he'd stepped too close to her in an underground subway tunnel. She'd shoved him thirty feet across the tracks. He'd landed against a concrete wall.

  Nothing like Sen had done to Storm, but a hit that would have seriously hurt a human.

  And would have sent any other man backpedaling to get as far away from a freak as possible.

  Not Storm. He'd dusted himself off and had come right back, refusing to let her retreat from him. Looking at her with too much understanding as if he could see past her fears, all the way to the emotional wasteland where her personal demons crouched in the corners of her mind, laughing at her.

  She'd tried to warn Storm away more than once, but he could be beyond stubborn at times.

  He moved his long fingers lightly over her face and hair, forcing her to think about him and only him. The last three weeks melted away. She ran her hands up into his hair, then folded her arms around his neck. He kissed her with a hunger that sent shivers of excitement fingering along her spine.

  She'd never expected to feel that with a man.

  The female voice haunting her mind lately said, To feel is to live. To live is to love.

  Evalle hoped the woman could hear her when she silently replied, Go. Away.

  Storm paused. He swept his lips softly across hers and murmured something in a language she didn't understand. But she could feel the passion in his words.

  He was telling her he cared.

  Then his lips were gone and his breath coming hard as if he'd been battling for hours. He dropped a kiss on her forehead, then pulled back, raking a knuckle over her cheek.

  Her eyes fluttered open to find him waiting patiently.

  He had something to tell her.

  She pulled her hands back to his chest and conceded the challenge. "You win. I was an idiot."

  Storm brushed his fingers over her hair and spoke in a deep whisper. "You're not an idiot. You're a woman who does everything with passion. Even being jealous."

  "I wasn't ..." The lie died in her throat. "Okay, I was jealous."

  "I know, and that's why I need you to understand why you have no reason to ever be when it comes to me." His chest moved under her hand as he took in a deep breath. "My guardian spirit, Kai, stayed with me the whole time I was injured. She said she doubted that I would come back to this world."

  Evalle's fingers clenched his shirt, unable to stop the knee-jerk reaction. What if he hadn't come back at all? She couldn't bear the thought.

  He kissed her again, a quick touch, as if not quite finished with her, then continued. "I told Kai I was not ready to leave. That I had to come back. She said I would have to fight a fierce battle to return to the human world, and even then she didn't think I'd survive. But she believed that the will to live could be greater than the pull of death if my reason for fighting was powerful enough. She asked why I had to come back."

  "What did you tell her?" The question slipped out of Evalle on a strained breath.

  "I had to hold you one more time."

  Evalle never, ever cried, but she came close when he said that. She dropped her head onto his chest, so glad that his guardian spirit had been with him. "Thank you for coming back."

  "There was never a question of my returning. Not in my mind. I owe Adrianna a debt for her help that I plan to repay, but only as a friend. I'm not interested in seeing her again for any other reason."

  "Okay." Evalle lifted her head. She still had some work to do on her lack of confidence as a woman, but she believed Storm.

  His gaze searched beyond her. "I don't want you to go, but you're running out of dark, sweetheart. Horizon's getting lighter all the time."

  Sweetheart? She reached up and placed her palm on his face, reminding herself that he had come back to her. Alive.

  He turned to kiss her skin. "If you keep that up, I'm going to have to kiss you again," he teased, then wrapped his fingers around her wrists to pull her arms down.

  She hissed at the contact.

  He pulled her wrists up into the light. "What the hell happened to you this time?"

  "It's a long story and I can't really talk about it."

  "Why not?" Now he was angry.

  Why couldn't they both end this on a happy note?

  "Because I'm doing something for ... my tribe and I'm not supposed to say anything about it." She hoped Storm didn't read a lie in that because she'd been doing Macha's business when she went to see Tristan, so in a warped way that was technically for the Beladors. Pulling one hand free, she reached toward her bike to grab her helmet.

  Indecision shot through Storm's gaze, but he didn't press her for more when he released her other wrist. He asked, "What are you doing tonight when you come back out after dark?"

  Going to find Isak and ask for a weapon that can kill trolls. But telling Storm that would not go well and hesitating to answer wasn't helping.

  Shaking his head, he muttered, "Still can't trust me, huh?"

  "That's not true." She would tell him if not for having to then explain Isak and hearing Storm rant about her meeting a man whose goal in life was to kill all Alterants. "I just have to do something for Quinn and Tzader, then I'll be in touch."

  "That sounds like VIPER business."

  "It is."

  "Then why can't you tell me what you're doing?"

  "It's not that I don't trust you--"

  "Right." Frustration fueled his glare. "Let me get this straight. You don't trust me enough to share what you're up to, and you question me on something when I tell you the truth, but just accept it when Quinn lies to you?"

  "What lie?" She shoved her helmet back over the bike mirror.

  Storm dropped his chin, staring at the sidewalk. "I shouldn't have said anything."

  "Did you hear my conversation with Quinn?"

  "Not intentionally. I was focused on tracking the Svart when I saw your bike and had just walked up when you two stopped to talk. I backed away but I can't help that I have exceptional hearing. Forget that I said anything. I know he's a good friend of yours."

  "What. Lie."

  He lifted a face teeming with regret. "When you asked him about seeing Kizira or if he'd told her that you could be found with Tristan back when you were in the Maze of Death, Quinn lied. On both accounts."

  THIRTEEN

  Cathbad?"

  He smiled at the sound of Flaevynn's voice fillin' his dungeon chamber, but kept his head bent over an ancient tome he was readin' for the third time.

  This had to be the one.

  "Do not ignore me, druid," she warned.

  Liftin' his head, Cathbad searched his cell, his gaze runnin' over the wall of books, single bed and few amenities ... but no Medb queen present. "Hello, Flaevynn. Wh
y do ya no come to see me in person?"

  "And risk you trapping me down there?" Her voice swirled around him. A tempting, seductive cadence that men succumbed to all the time. After more than six hundred years with this woman, Cathbad knew better. Would seem only fair to lure the witch into his dungeon an' lock her here for a few years since that was what she ha done to him. But he could no indulge in fantasies of payback until he got what he wanted of her.

  He'd waited patiently for this moment when Flaevynn had to admit she needed him or face her death. He poked at her, sayin', "Why would I do somethin' so foolish as trap ya down here? Does no you nor me any good for us to no work together."

  The lack of immediate response meant she probably tapped one of those long, black fingernails against the arm of her throne and fumed over the fact that she ha run out of options, an' way out of time.

  When she finally spoke again, her words were carefully chosen. "I will bring you back up into the tower if you swear to help me fulfill the curse ... on my time frame."

  He'd given up explainin' that the prophecy was no a curse, but to argue that point would only waste time an' breath. He'd taken to callin' it a curse just to quiet her yapping.

  Acceptin' her offer without bein' clear on one point would be foolish. "Whether I agree to that or no, ya canna fulfill the curse without my help." He gave her a moment to swallow that medicine before adding, "But in a show of good faith, I will tell ya what ya need to know about the Alterants if ya lift the ward on the cell and free me. 'Tis somethin' only I know."

  Silence hushed across the cool stone walls and floor for several long seconds before she said, "Agreed. Don't make me regret this or Kizira will pay."

  "Understood." He had no doubt Flaevynn would sacrifice their only child for her own goals. She'd used Kizira to trap him down here an' believed he would forfeit his daughter just as quickly in pursuit of his goals.

  How little Flaevynn knew of him, even after six centuries.

  Power flushed through the dungeon as Flaevynn destroyed the ward that had prevented him from teleporting out before now.

  He took his time, freshenin' up at his small sink and mirror, trimmin' his beard and smoothin' back his wavy, black hair. He smiled into the mirror at the handsome image that dinna look a day over thirty-five. Then he stepped to the center of the room and waved his hand up and down once in front of his body. His black robe disappeared, replaced by a fresh suit, the first he'd worn in two years.