The Curse

by Sherrilyn Kenyon

  Tzader sounded tired when he said, "So this could be one of Bendelen's properties."

  Evalle kept up with the news as much as she could with her erratic schedule, but she couldn't place this name. "Who's he?"

  Leave it to Quinn to know a person insulated by a legal fortress. "Highly respected trauma reconstruction specialist who has donated a billion dollars over the years to programs for burned children. He's a recluse. Rumored to be the only surviving member of a fire that destroyed his family, but little is known about him personally. Only that he inherited a fortune as a child and grew up in Poland."

  Shaking his head, Trey offered, "That thing might have flown to this place the first time on its way to the cows. We may have just sent a predator to this guy's house."

  Besides the fact that Evalle didn't like doctors, donating money to good causes did not mean this man hadn't created a flying monster. "Maybe this doctor's been experimenting with genetics."

  "Genetics?" Casper echoed. "That thing we just followed here wasn't made purely from genetics. Someone with preternatural ability created it."

  Tzader cut off all conversation. "Regardless, we have to go in fast in case Trey's right and that doctor's in danger."

  After determining there were no dogs or security cameras--which in itself looked suspicious to Evalle--Casper changed into a shadow. She didn't know how he altered his molecules, but watching him shift into vapor-like mist was a thing to behold.

  She'd like to ask him how that felt when they weren't busy hunting something deadly.

  Casper slid between the vertical black fence rails then shifted back to solid form.

  She used her kinetics to scale the ten-foot-tall fence and dropped silently next to Casper, as did the other three.

  When they reached the house, Tzader sent Trey and Quinn to scout all the sides and told Casper to go up the mountain of steps to the veranda and find out how to get inside without triggering alarms. By the time Trey and Quinn returned to report nothing unusual about the house and no sign of anyone inside, Casper had shadowed his way under the door and merely turned the deadbolt to open the front door for the team.

  No alarm. Even more suspicious.

  Evalle strode in with the men, not surprised to see antique tables and flowers in the foyer that reminded her of homes from the movie Gone With the Wind.

  And still she couldn't shake the feeling that something was not right.

  Tzader had them fan out and search the house. Every room was more beautiful than the next, adorned with deep maroon-and-gold brocade drapes on tall windows and furnished with elegant eighteenth century heirlooms. Evalle felt guilty walking across the thick rugs in boots that had been through a cow pasture.

  What had the hairs on her neck on end, and was sending warning signals to her brain? Was her empathic side getting more sensitive or was there an unfriendly spirit in this old mansion?

  She'd just reached the large parlor with twelve-foot ceilings where the team hovered around Casper. He'd found a computer and was tapping on the keys when she stepped through the doorway and the room started changing.

  Sheets of metal slid from hidden spaces in the walls, snapping into position to create an interior metal shield around the room.

  "What the hell?" Casper stopped typing.

  Tzader ordered, "Battle positions."

  All five moved into a circle, shoulder to shoulder, facing out, hands on their weapons.

  Since Trey was the strongest telepathic of this team, Evalle spoke to him mind-to-mind. Can you call in backup?

  No. I just tried reaching out telepathically and I got smacked in the head. Something is blocking me, and I doubt it's the metal.

  That sucked big time. But it appeared they could at least speak to each other inside here, for whatever good that would do.

  One of the metal panels opened to expose the center of the house ... and the creature that had led them here.

  Or was it?

  No, this one was bigger and had a misshapen head, but the same yellow human-looking eyes, arms and legs. Thick hair covered this one from the neck down and it had no wings, but it did have claws on its feet. Each hand had three stubby fingers on the top with three opposing ones below, where a human thumb would be, and two-inch spikes on each finger, forming a mouth-like shape full of claw "teeth."

  When it charged forward, Casper yelled, "We're killing these, right, Tzader?"

  "Right."

  Casper lifted his customized double-barrel shotgun and blasted the creature dead center. This thing must have thicker skin than the one they caught in the pasture, because the blast didn't faze the creature.

  The next shot hit the creature in his eye, which exploded and blasted part of its head away, but that still didn't stop it.

  Evalle could see through the opening in the wall to where steps went down to a long hallway with doors.

  One of the doors opened and another creature came out, turning toward them, too. Evalle stomped her boots to release hidden blades and flipped her dagger from its sheath.

  Tzader ordered, "Trey and I'll put up a field of energy. The rest of you cover us." They threw up a massive kinetic wall to halt the first creature's attack, but the minute they did, energy bounced through the room, ricocheting against the walls and ceiling. Sparks of heat struck Evalle in the back and across her shoulder.

  Grunts of pain indicated she hadn't been the only one hit before the men dropped the energy field.

  Even the creature paused, throwing its hands up in defense.

  Crud, their kinetics were backlashing in here. "Are we linking?" she asked.

  Tzader didn't hesitate to say, "No. Too dangerous with no kinetics and no idea what we're up against."

  The first creature headed for them again.

  Tzader pulled out his sentient blades and sent one flying at the creature's throat. The thing tried to bat the blade aside but the blade split down its length and turned into two razor sharp pieces that cut like scissors, lopping off fingers.

  The creature screamed and fisted its hands, sending the blade flying across the room without touching it.

  "Damn thing has kinetic powers that actually work in here," Casper yelled.

  Evalle searched the ceiling and corners for any sign of a possible beam of power that was affecting the VIPER agents, but there was no laser unit or camera or evidence of any high-tech equipment in use.

  The second creature entered, snarling and screeching ... with a third hand growing out of its chest. Eww.

  Quinn swung silver three-sided discs shaped as razor-sharp Belador Triquetras and struck the second creature in the head with both, but it kept coming.

  How thick were their skulls? She shouted at Quinn, "Can you get inside their heads?"

  "Trying to. Keep getting shoved out. All I can see is rage and the need to kill."

  Evalle fought off the second one with her death-spelled dagger, which would kill a demon if she struck it between the eyes. But these things didn't appear to be demons. She kicked her feet, cutting a deep gash in the monster's leg. "You can't explode its brain?"

  Quinn sent another series of blades spinning at the creatures, but the discs skipped away as though blocked by kinetics. "Can't stay inside long enough to gain control. I'll try zapping them in short bursts. Might slow them up."

  Tzader called out, "Evalle. Casper. Get ready. Quinn, Trey and I will draw them to the side. You get past. Find who's controlling this and stop him."

  "Got it." The minute the fight shifted to Tzader's side of the room, Evalle and Casper rushed behind the creatures into the hallway lit with yellow security beams.

  The minute they stepped into the hall, the metal panel access to the parlor slammed shut.

  CHAPTER THREE

  "Ah, hell."

  Evalle mentally echoed Casper's sentiments. She signaled to him that she would go ahead, and he nodded that he'd cover her back. They had to find the operation center, but rushing through here could get both of them killed, which wou
ld not help Tzader, Quinn and Trey.

  She moved quietly down eight steps and into a chilly six-foot-wide hall with sallow lighting. The place had a sterile feel with concrete walls and steel doors, but it smelled like a septic tank that had been backed up for months. She had to run a close second in the stink department with cow manure smeared on her shirt and pants.

  A series of rooms ran along both sides of the hallway with over-sized doors of thick steel. Each had a small square observation opening protected with sturdy vertical bars, but no doorknobs or keyholes. Her gaze traveled down to the dry-erase panels beside each door.

  The first one she reached had a handwritten note: Level Three.

  Leaning close, she peered through the bars of the observation window to see what was inside the dark room.

  Another part-human-looking creature lay curled on the filthy floor, which was ankle deep with what had to be its own excrement, sleeping from what she could see.

  No wonder the place was rank.

  Who could have created these things? A witch or a mage?

  At the next room, she eased up to the observation window and looked into the black hole, not seeing anything until a face slammed the bars.

  She jumped back. A tongue slapped at her through the bars, then yellow eyes glowed out of the darkness. When she got out of here, she'd have nightmares about those eyes.

  Continuing on, she found something similar in most of the rooms, with notes of Level One, Two or Three beside the doors. All except for two empty rooms where the notes read, "Failed Kill Test - Approved for Food."

  She stood in front of the second empty room. That notation had to mean the critter inside had been used as a meal for the others.

  What sick bastard was doing this?

  Dismissing the cell as vacant, Evalle stepped forward toward the next doorway. Then she heard a gurgling noise from the empty room.

  She leaned back. Even with her exceptional vision, she had to squint at the unnatural darkness in the cell until she could make out the shape of a small creature in the far corner. Maybe two feet tall, with bat-like wings that were tucked protectively around its short, fat body, it's head was bent down. When the thing lifted its head and looked at her, it had orange eyes and smoke curling from its snout.

  The glowing orange eyes were ... sad.

  She tried to tell herself it was an evil creation, maybe even a demon with those two little horns sticking up out of its head, but the decidedly nonhuman eyes staring at her blinked once and widened a little in curiosity ... or want.

  It trembled.

  Her heart did a weird flip.

  Casper touched her shoulder, letting her know he was ready for her to move. She continued on, feeling sick over that last little creature. It reminded her of how she'd hidden in the corner of a dark basement every day of her childhood until she'd escaped at eighteen.

  Humans feared monsters.

  But the monsters in her life had been humans.

  At the end of the passageway they dropped down another twelve steps to where she found a door with an actual doorknob.

  Casper leaned close to her ear and whispered, "I can get under the bottom."

  She kept her voice soft, too. "But I can't cover you from this side if you aren't able to open the door."

  "You hear that music?"

  Listening, she said, "That atonal noise?"

  "Guess whoever's in there likes heavy metal from the 90s. I might get in unnoticed."

  She still didn't like the idea of letting him go in without backup.

  The scream of a human--being tortured--on the other side of the door was all she needed to wrench the doorknob that was ... not locked.

  They both rushed in, then stopped just inside the door. The room was two stories tall, and the first thing that hit Evalle was the sharp antiseptic smell. This was a lab. Refrigerated units stood against one wall. Microscopes and assorted bottles of fluid and test tubes sat on laminate counters.

  But that's where the image distorted.

  Music blaring from a stereo system in the shelves on her left had been cranked to bleed-your-ears level.

  Mixed in with the antiseptic taint was the stinky body odor and cow manure smell of the creature she'd fought in the pasture, and the sickening smell of blood. In the next few seconds, she scanned the room for any additional threats and possible exits.

  The flying creature they'd followed in the helicopter had been chained on the far side of the room to the foundation of metal steps that led upward to a landing and another door.

  A man with a bald spot in the crown of his bark-brown hair and wearing a white lab coat stood facing the creature whose mottled skin had been flayed open.

  So there was a human in this house of horrors. The man swung a cat o' nine tails whip, striking the creature and shouting, "You were Level Three! Level Threee!"

  The creature screamed in pain. Then it sobbed.

  Really, it sounded like a human bawling.

  Evalle reached over to the white cabinet and turned off the music then ordered, "Stop. Right. Now."

  The crazy lab guy turned around, clearly surprised that someone had entered his domain unscathed. "How'd you get past my guardians to this point?"

  "Is that really important right now?" she asked. "Who are you?"

  He ignored her question, staring at her with an expression of disbelief. He put two fingers to his temple as though sensing something, then shook his head. "The guardians are still alive. ... I don't understand."

  That meant he had some sort of telepathic connection to the creatures fighting in the parlor. So what was this guy? There was nothing remarkable about him. He had bland skin, a basic nose, short hair and wire-framed glasses over gray eyes. But those gray eyes lacked any humanity. They were cold and flat.

  Casper told Evalle, "Looks just like the photo Trey had on his phone. He's Sar Bendelen."

  Evalle had the urge to point out that she'd been willing to suspect a doctor of evil, but admitted it wasn't fair to all the decent ones who helped people. "Call off your monsters, Sar."

  Sar's eyes went from surprised to perfectly calm. "Or what? I'm someone you'll regret having crossed."

  She couldn't believe this guy was acting as though the police had entered his home uninvited. "The longer you allow your guardians, as you call them, to battle our agents, the better chance you have of answering for this with your life."

  "Me? I'm not bothering a soul out here on private property," Sar emphasized. "And you come busting in. I'm within my rights to protect my home."

  "Not with those nine-foot tall--" She pointed at the thing whimpering. "Monsters or whatever that is you're creating." How powerful was this Sar? Tact wasn't her first language, but it had to work better than making threats she wasn't sure she and Casper could back up. "Call off the ones in your parlor and we'll talk."

  Sar appeared thoughtful then his eyebrows jumped with amusement again. "I don't think so."

  If she knew what she was up against, she'd hit this guy with a kinetic blast that would pin him to the wall while she found a way to get Tzader, Quinn and Trey away from those guardian creatures. But after what had happened in the parlor with Tzader's kinetics, she couldn't attack without putting Casper, and possibly the rest of the team, in more danger.

  Casper exchanged a look with her that said until they knew what they were up against, he didn't have an idea of how to overpower this guy, either.

  Evalle asked Sar, "Are you a witch or something?"

  Sar looked insulted. "Do you really think a mere witch could do this?" He gestured at the creature moaning behind him. "But you have piqued my curiosity. Now I want to know what you are. Your visit is timely. I'm at the point where I need to test my guardians against preternaturals. We'll see how you fair one at a time against two of my best specimens in my basement training pit."

  This was like playing a game of chess without knowing which piece was the queen. Evalle had met some seriously strange people since accepting her de
stiny as a Belador warrior, but most of them had enough survival instinct to recognize her and Casper as a potential threat.

  Sar didn't. If anything, he appeared pleased.

  And if he wanted an example of her powers all he had to do was try to lock her in any basement, the key word being "try."

  Thinking out loud, Casper said, "He's got to be a wizard or a--"

  "Oh, please. I'm a sorcerer," Sar corrected as though Casper had denigrated him. "A Dalfour," he added as if he'd just admitted being of royal descent. As if that hadn't been enough to impress them, he spread his arms wide and bragged, "The only one left and the only one who could have accomplished all this."

  Dalfour meant nothing to Evalle, but her empathic senses picked up what she'd been missing. This guy had been too calm. If he was a sorcerer, why hadn't he tried to attack them? She'd assumed it was because he was sizing her and Casper up to determine how big a threat they were.

  But now she realized Sar didn't see either of them as a threat at all ... because he was certifiably insane.

  In Sar's private universe he was the most powerful being. Which he might actually be, especially when you added the element of insanity to a powerful sorcerer. That combination totaled up to one unpredictable badass.

  He was enjoying himself right now, but what would happen the minute he stopped having a good time?

  Could he just zap them out of here and into a basement pit with two of these creatures?

  She gave Casper a small hand signal to keep this guy talking to give her a chance to look for controls that might open the metal panels in the parlor. If she found those, she might be able to use her kinetics to turn a lever or flip a switch that would open the shielding and allow the Beladors to escape. There was only so long the three of them could hold out against those guardians, and Sar might release more.

  Evidently Casper was up on his sorcerer history when he prodded the crazy doctor by saying, "Thought the Dalfour family died off a century ago. Weak genetics. Some sickness, right?"

  "No illness would have ever harmed us!" Sar said, clearly put out. "We were attacked by Svart Trolls who were supposed to deliver my father to a Noirre witch who wanted my family's secrets. But the trolls killed him in a battle and burned our house to the ground, claiming my father burned his family rather than go with them."