Narciso took that moment to push her back, and Nikki slammed into another wall, again covered with talismans. Not hers, though she knew that item to be well within her reach. Before he could attack her, Nikki spun and turned him against the wall and pushed his head into it. Her demon howled, or maybe that sound came from her.
She stared at her enemy, both the demon and the human. With a force and a strength she’d never felt before, Nikki slammed the side of her hand against his neck. The hatchet he’d found clattered to the floor, followed by his body, his neck broken clean through.
Nikki stared at the body, feeling no remorse at his death. Cooper stood beside her, and she slowly turned to look at him. His gaze caught hers, free from condemnation or blame of any kind; his dark eyes quieted the demon…and her. He bent to the floor, and it was only then she saw he held the necklace Narciso had worn.
She panicked and grabbed it from him, snatching the rectangular wood from Cooper before…before what? Nikki stared at the now-harmless piece of wood in confusion then back at her lover. He continued to watch her, not judging but simply watching her.
“I thought the demon might jump into you,” she admitted.
Her voice was quiet, but it sounded like a shout in the room after all that had happened. Nikki cleared her throat and only then realized that the energy that had battered her, the forces that had pushed at her, now calmed.
“It didn’t,” Cooper reassured her, his voice flowing like silk over her skin, easing her further from the bloodlust of moments ago. “At least,” he offered with a crooked smile, “I don’t feel any different.”
Returning his smile with unutterable relief, Nikki pulled him close and held him.
Chapter Thirteen
Cooper looked over Nikki’s head at the spiritualist’s room. Candles still burned in the alcoves and along shelves lining the walls. Dozens of talismans lay scattered on the floor, still intact despite the violence of the fight between Nikki and Narciso.
Nikki didn’t relax in his arms, and Cooper debated taking her out of there. He didn’t want her in this room a moment more than necessary. Narciso lay dead on the floor by the curtained doorway, but Cooper dismissed his body. The bastard deserved this.
He deserved death for cursing all these people with their own demons. If the number of talismans equaled the number of unsuspecting people Narciso had cursed, then he deserved worse than the death Nikki had given him.
With a deep breath, Nikki pulled back and looked up at him. Her blue eyes softened as she cupped his cheek, and she smiled gently. Though she’d spoken the words, Cooper saw the love in her eyes and marveled in it, in the fierceness of emotion there.
This wasn’t exactly how he envisioned his life with Nikki starting. A honeymoon in Mexico, maybe, but not a quest to find those responsible for tormenting her with this demon.
Nikki started to say something, but then shook her head and stepped from his embrace. Cooper let her, worried about her mental stability, but not that she’d leave him. She kept her gaze on his as she moved back, and he had the feeling she tried to tell him something with that look. But then she turned and faced the wall of tiny, rectangular talismans.
Hovering her hand inches from the wall, she closed her eyes and breathed deeply. Her steps were slow and steady, and Cooper silently watched her navigate the rows upon rows of wooden talismans.
He moved so he faced her, ready for…anything. Cooper didn’t know what Nikki saw or felt as she stared at the wall, but knew—
Her hand closed over one of the talismans, and she plucked it from its stop. Her eyes glazed over, went black, and before he realized he’d moved, Cooper caught Nikki as she fainted.
“Nikki!” Panic threatened to choke him, but she didn’t respond.
Cooper looked around the room, but there was no place he wanted to set her, no safe place he saw that wouldn’t do her more harm. Her hand still closed firmly over the wooden object, and her breathing sounded even, but her fingers trembled and she refused to—or couldn’t—open her eyes.
“Nikki,” Cooper called again, shaking her.
No response.
He tried to gently open her hand and take the talisman from her grasp, but her fingers closed stiffly over the object. He didn’t want to force her to release the wood, but at the same time he knew in the very depth of his soul that it had something to do with her current unresponsive state.
Careful not to disturb the other talismans, and feeling utterly helpless, he sat on the floor. With Nikki’s warm body tight against his, and refusing to allow panic to overtake him, Cooper held her close and waited. He had no idea how much time passed, but with each passing moment his panic grew and he pulled her closer.
He took her hand again and tried, once more unsuccessfully, to pry open her fingers. Whatever that talisman did, it caused this. The longer she didn’t respond to him, the more Copper was convinced that he needed to get that thing away from her.
Suddenly she drew in a deep breath and opened her eyes. For a heartbeat her gaze remained unfocused. Then she licked her lips and looked up at him. Nikki breathed more evenly now and wasn’t so pale, but Cooper refused to release her.
“What happened?” Though quiet, his question rang through the back room like a shout.
“It’s difficult to explain,” Nikki said finally, licking her lips and swallowing hard. She made no move to stand. Her fingers curled around his arms, and she closed her eyes again, leaning her head against his chest.
Cooper’s fingers combed through her hair, tangled from her fight. He didn’t care. He shifted her and held her tighter, giving her whatever time she needed.
“I understand the demon—no.” Nikki shook her head, a slight movement. “I understand the spirit that’s inside of me.” She smiled and opened her eyes. The blue of them was crystal clear, even in the candlelit room, and she looked more at peace than he’d ever seen her.
“I understand.” She gave him a small, crooked grin. “Al…or perhaps we should call her Alena.”
She slowly opened her fingers and showed him the talisman she’d taken. It sat there, looking innocuous in her pale palm. Cooper knew better, but had a feeling the small piece of wood held the answers Nikki sought.
“This talisman,” she said haltingly, “allows me control.”
Surprised, Cooper looked from her gaze, troubled and confused, to her hand. Nikki looked down at it as well.
“I don’t see how,” Cooper said, careful to keep all emotion form his voice. He didn’t want her hearing his fear.
“When I touched it,” Nikki said, looking back at him, “I suddenly knew. I know what’s driving the spirit inside of me.”
“You do?” Cooper asked warily. He’d noticed the change from demon to spirit and wondered just what that talisman had done. What power it held over her.
“Taima was correct,” Nikki began, not moving from his lap but not really looking at him either. She stared at the talisman almost reverently.
“The spirit is an Ancient One,” she told him. “They were a nation long, long before the Spanish came to these lands. These Ancient Ones created this magic, this curse—however you want to view it. They did it to imbue their warriors with the strength and skill to fight, to defend their people.”
Her nails dug into her palm again as her fingers closed over the object. Cooper wondered if she protected it or she had another reason. But he didn’t interrupt and allowed her to speak. Whatever had happened to her while she’d been out, Nikki had apparently bonded with Alena.
“How do you know this spirit,” Cooper said carefully, not wanting to jostle her, “is named Alena?”
“She doesn’t have a name, really.” Nikki frowned and her gaze rose to meet his again. “But she’s female. So instead of Al, I’m calling her Alena.”
Cooper nodded silently. He really wasn’t sure what to say to that.
“They allowed their arrogance to get the better of them,” she said, her voice distant. “And instead of sim
ply instilling these spirits into their honored warriors, they chose to use…” She trailed off, and Cooper saw her struggle for words.
“I suppose our word would indeed be criminals,” Nikki said, echoing Taima’s words. “But worse, they moved away from using spirits like mine, like Alena.”
Cooper wanted to ask what kind of spirit Alena was like, but didn’t want to interrupt Nikki’s story.
“They used criminals to defend their people, each one cursed with a warrior spirit to aid in this defense.”
Nikki shook herself and looked back up at him. Her eyes were still cloudy, but he knew she slowly came back to herself from whatever she saw in Alena’s memories. “That proved to be a mistake. These criminals weren’t prepared with the proper rituals, physically or mentally. And when the spirits entered their bodies, they went insane.”
Nikki looked around the room at the hundreds, the thousands, of talismans lining the walls and shuddered. Cooper followed her gaze, but couldn’t find the words to answer her, to ask a question, nothing. He hadn’t expected this explanation that this demon, this spirit, within his lover was a warrior.
“And what kind of spirit is Alena?” he asked into the silence. Still, with all that had happened in the last few hours, he needed to ask.
“She’s a wolf.”
Cooper nodded and waited for Nikki to finish her story. He shifted her slightly on his lap, his fingers running over her body. Not in arousal, but to reassure himself she was whole. Alive. And in his arms.
“It was the rage and bloodlust that proved uncontrollable for those that went insane. At first,” she continued softly, “they directed that power only toward the Ancient One’s enemies. It wasn’t enough.
Nikki drew in a deep breath and closed her eyes briefly. “Soon they turned on their own people. The tribe created more warriors to fight the rogues. Many were imbued with these spirits, a futile attempt to allow the tribe to survive. But in the end, they turned on their own people and the spirits, the demons, good and bad, destroyed each other. All that survived were a handful of shaman who foresaw this destruction and prepared for it.”
“How do you prepare for such a thing?” Cooper demanded.
The entire story shocked and disgusted him, and yet Cooper knew Nikki hadn’t finished. So far, her story had been about the ancient past. She’d said nothing about her current situation.
“These shamans took the remnants, the spirits and demons, the souls—all that remained of their people—and put all of it into a totem.”
She stood now, her legs shaky, and looked at the far end, where several alcoves held dozens of skulls, paintings, candles, and other objects Cooper hadn’t seen before. Nikki took one step and almost collapsed again. Instantly catching her, he didn’t argue that she should stay put, but carried her to the far end of the room and set her back on her feet. She leaned against him, and Cooper held her tight.
Her hand unerringly reached forward and picked up an intricately carved wooden totem pole, about two or three feet tall and another foot around. The paint had long faded, but Cooper saw faint remnants of it deep in the grooves between animal heads. And it had been hacked. Almost one entire head had been carved away as well as most of the back of the piece.
Looking closer, he saw that unlike many of the totems he’d seen, the four faces on this one weren’t all animals; two faces were human.
“This man,” Nikki said with a quick glance to Narciso’s body, “or someone with him, found this. It’s been used in the worst possible manner. The people are no longer at rest because of all of this.”
At Nikki’s words, Cooper jerked his gaze from the totem to her. “We need to take these, all of them, out of Mexico.” He glanced around the room at the thousands of carvings from the broken totem pole.
“We’ll bring them back—the totem, too. Give them to Taima.” Cooper shook his head. “We’ll have them buried on sacred ground.”
Nikki looked up at him and nodded. Relief showed on her face and she smiled. “Yes. Yes, I think the Ancients would appreciate that.”
Cooper nodded again. And though he hadn’t heard anything—no one in the town had entered the small shop and no alarm had been raised—it was only a matter of time. They’d been in here for too long and as the obvious outsiders in this village, people were naturally suspicious.
“We need to leave,” Cooper said, his voice abnormally loud in the quiet back room. “Are you all right to walk?”
Nikki looked at him in surprise, but then slowly nodded. He saw the realization of their situation change her eyes from a deep blue to a lighter, stormy color.
Cooper looked around the daunting task of removing thousands of talismans. His primary concern was Nikki, however. But they needed to do this now.
It took hours to carefully disentangle each talisman from the curtain and pack it. Cooper had moved Narciso’s body out of the way and covered it with the doorway curtains. Then he’d ransacked the outer rooms for anything to carry the talismans in. Several duffle bags, two boxes later, and he thought they’d packed them all.
Cooper stacked them along a wall. They’d need to bring the car around and load them up, though how they were going to do so without being spotted, he didn’t know. He’d deal with shipping them to the ranch at the airport.
Nikki looked up at him, her eyes hard, and nodded before leaving the back room and returning to the outer shop to wait while Cooper took one last look around. He’d convinced her not to torch the place, not because he cared one way or the other about Narciso’s body or the relics Nikki had deemed non-important, but because this building was connected to others.
While he couldn’t say no one else in Valle Arriba wasn’t involved with Narciso’s black magic, without proof he was unwilling to burn down half the town.
Nikki had agreed grudgingly, but she agreed.
Chapter Fourteen
Nikki wrapped her hand tightly around his as they reentered the hotel. No one looked to be about, not even behind the front desk. Cooper found that odd, but didn’t comment on it to Nikki; he didn’t want her to worry, and knew she had enough on her mind.
Back in their room, he eased the door closed and double-checked the lock. When he turned around to face her, she wrapped herself in his embrace and held on tightly.
“I never expected to know,” she whispered, her mouth moving against his neck. “I never expected to know about this curse, much less all we discovered.” Her arms tightened around him, crushing him to her as if she’d never be close enough to him. “Cooper,” she whispered, her voice thick with emotion. “Cooper, thank you. I wouldn’t have discovered any of this without you with me. I hardly know what to say or how to tell you.”
Cooper kissed her hard, unable to put into words his fear for her sanity, her safety. He hadn’t been able to protect her from Narciso, but she had done so herself and rather well. He was proud of her for that, but still afraid. Not of her. For her.
Her kiss tasted of passion and faith, of gratitude and relief.
“You don’t have to say anything to me, Nikki,” Cooper told her, breathing heavily. “Except,” he warned, utter seriousness in his voice, “that you won’t vanish on me.”
He hadn’t meant to voice the words, but since waking to discover his lover housed a demon—spirit—within her, his one overriding fear was that he’d wake one morning and she’d have disappeared from his life as quickly and easily as she’d appeared.
Her blue eyes caught and held his, and she answered honestly, “I won’t. I promise.”
The band that had tightened his chest for days eased, and he could finally breathe. Without taking her gaze from his, she thumbed the talisman she now wore on a piece of string around her neck.
“I have no reason to,” she admitted with a smile. “I love you, Cooper.”
Her words cut through him even as they warmed him from the inside out.
The warrior spirit still worried him. Cooper didn’t understand all that had happened; hell, he
didn’t think Nikki understood all of it, either. But he trusted her, trusted her instincts. And right now, they needed to figure out their next move against this cartel.
They’d gone through a lot of trouble to cause her father, her family, so much pain—a fate worse than death. What were they going to do now that she was literally nipping at their heels?
But then Nikki’s mouth was on his, her body warm and eager. She breathed his name, a warm sound of love and passion. Cooper deepened the kiss, drawing her into him, feeling all of her open without reservation, without fear.
He walked them back to the bed, a slow dance as he undressed her. Her dusty clothes dropped to the floor, his mouth trailing down her neck, over her breasts, covering every inch of newly exposed skin. His fingers brushed the curve of her hip, her belly, the hard peak of her nipples, teasing, grazing so lightly she moaned in need and arched into his touch.
Then she stood before him in nothing more than skimpy panties and the talisman, snug between her breasts. Cooper pulled back and looked at her. Simply looked. Her pale skin was flushed and her fingers pressed hard into her thighs as she watched him through hooded eyes. Holding her gaze, he ran a finger over the lace of her pale pink panties.
Nikki shuddered; a soft moan of his name escaped her lips as her head fell back.
Swallowing against the need pounding within him, grasping for control, Cooper kissed her. His hands splayed over her back and down her spine, and she shuddered in his arms. Over the curve of her ass to lift her closer.
She rocked her hips against his, standing on tiptoe and winding her arms around his shoulders. Nikki moaned his name again and deepened the kiss. Her fingers tangled in his hair, moving to the hem of his shirt and tugging the material up. She broke the kiss only long enough to pull the shirt over his head and toss it aside before her mouth attacked his again.
With her fingers on the button to his jeans, Nikki teased his cock through the rough material. Her fingers cupped him, and when she broke the kiss again, she sank her teeth into his bottom lip and tugged, a wicked look in her dark blue eyes.
Cursed Love: A Wicked Demon Tale Page 11
