Rescind

by Shawn Knightley

  “We’re going back to the academy tomorrow,” he said as he reached for the doorknob. “Now that I know Alexei has the protection of your father and the Sorlin-Vontaine placed a charm over the area we can leave.”

  My jaw nearly fell to the floor. “You can’t be serious! There’s more we could do here!”

  “Like what?”

  “Find the site where the curse was spelled. Continue my brother’s work. We don’t have all the answers we came to find.”

  “We don’t have time to pursue those angles right now. Daniella’s coven will-”

  “Screw Daniella’s coven!” I shouted. “Margaux was the one doing most of the work, not Daniella. Leaving right now is cowardice! We need to stay at least another day. We can spend it searching for the site of the curse. You’re letting your concerns about this stupid curse walk all over you.”

  “My concerns?” he said, stepping away from the door and back into the room until he was only a few paces away from me. “You think my concerns are unwarranted, Riley?”

  I was so taken aback by him suddenly using my first name again that I barely had a second to react before he closed the space between us and pushed me right into the wall. My body shuddered under the weight of his smoldering skin pressing into mine. I could feel the heat from his body through the white cotton nightgown. His chest, his muscles, even the hairs running down the center of his abs. Every single sense I had was on fire, telling me not to move until he did. He was an alpha. The leader of the academy patroned by powerful vixra witchlings. I had to do what he said. And I didn’t mind even in the least when he crashed his lips into mine, letting me feel the true warmth of his mouth for the first time. This wasn’t Devon deceiving me twice and taking his form. Nor was it a dream showing me my greatest temptations then brutally reminding me that it wasn’t reality. This was real. Rodrick was kissing me.

  I opened my eyes, wondering if I would suddenly wake up only to find that I managed to go completely insane and imagine the unimaginable all over again. The second his scent delved deeper into my sense of smell I knew it was real. I shut my eyes once more. And to my surprise, I kissed him back.

  He took my dress and pushed the hem up higher, giving him full access to my thigh and touching it with his long fingers trailing up my skin. I wrapped my leg around his and allowed him to push his body deeper into mine. He didn’t hesitate with my invitation. He dared to deepen the kiss as his other hand roamed through my hair, playing with the long strands and looping his fingers around so he could pull me closer to him.

  His heart hammered inside his chest. As did mine. He couldn’t lie to me anymore and say that what was going on was unrequited. He wanted me. Any reluctance I might have had or an inner voice telling me to stop was silenced. There was nothing but his scent commanding me to give in. The heat of his skin pressed up against mine. His lips explored me as he laid a trail of kisses down the length of my neck and made every hair on my left side stand right up.

  My legs were so shaky that I thought I might cave right under him. He didn’t allow it. His arms scooped me up from where I stood and carried me to Margaux’s huge four-poster bed. He crawled over me and closed the gap between us once more, kissing me deeper and with more passion than a man had ever shown me. Then he pulled for the bottom hem of my dress and pushed it up above my stomach. His hands wanted to explore more of me. I gasped when he reached for my leg and wrapped it around his back, giving him more access to me.

  ‘This is it. He’s going to have me.’

  Excitement burst inside me. I wasn’t nervous. I wasn’t even afraid. We weren’t in some gross bathroom in a dodgy London pub. Nor were we standing outside the library like I had with Lothar. It was in Paris. The city of light. The city of romance.

  ‘Lothar!’

  My eyes shot open. I could feel my senses gradually melting inside of me as Rodrick pushed the nightgown further up my body, wanting to see more of my skin. He was as ready for this as I was. Unless I stopped it.

  I shut my eyes as he continued kissing me. But my mind was gradually pushing away. I focused on one part of my body at a time. My feet, my ankles, my legs, my torso, then finally my chest and arms. The heat inside my body dying for release dissipated. Not gently or even slowly. It took every shred of effort I had. And when Rodrick moved to pull down his trousers I sat up and pushed him away from me.

  “Wait!” I muttered, completely out of breath and feeling as though I had just torn my skin from my body. Every shred of my being wanted him. I could feel it pulsating inside me and taking control. I reached for my chest, feeling a sharp pain dig into my lungs and threaten me with agony if I didn’t pull Rodrick back into me and give in to my every carnal desire.

  Rodrick must have felt the same because he reached for one of the wooden posters of the bed frame. His chest moved out and in as he steadied himself and tried to breathe normally again.

  I reluctantly let my gaze meet his, knowing he was glaring down at me with pent up frustration.

  ‘This is the curse. It’s taking hold of both of us.’

  “So now you see,” he breathed, taking my arms back into his and holding my hand over his beating heart. “Does any of this feel natural to you?”

  I shook my head, not sure what to say or how to even speak to him after what just happened. My body was still repulsed that my mind caught up to what we were doing. It wanted to yank him back down to the bed. To rip his clothes right off his muscular body and feel him take complete control of me.

  I blinked a few times, trying to regain my focus and resist it. I was failing.

  He leaned forward and let his lips fall back near mine, stopping a mere inch away from me and leaving me breathless.

  “Call me a coward again when you know now what kind of strength it takes to resist what the curse forces on us.”

  I stared up at him, unable to speak and downright feverish from his scent still penetrating my senses.

  “It takes fortitude to have what you want within reach and saying no, Riley,” he said, holding my face in his large hands. “I can’t have what I want. I serve too many others and look out for the well-being of my species before allowing myself such mercies. A quality that will be expected of you as well if you succeed in joining the Vontex.”

  He broke away from me and walked toward the door, closing it with a loud clank of the metal latch snapping into place behind him. I was left on the bed with nothing else to do but push thoughts out of my mind and somehow work through the pain. Not of rejection or being led on, but of frustration. Every desire I had was heightened and begging for release. It took over an hour to calm them enough to fall asleep.

  I forced my thoughts to focus on the one thing that managed to bring me back to reality and steer away the curse’s power over me.

  Lothar. The picture in my head of his eyes looking down at me outside the library. The way he trusted and challenged me. How he was there to help me through the trials and how he looked out for me long after they were over. And how he helped me to search for answers about my brother even when Rodrick told him not to. He even disobeyed Rodrick and gave me vixra blood against his direct orders.

  I wasn’t sure how it happened but I knew the part of me that was drawn to Rodrick was something I could control now. I knew the power it held and I nearly let it devour me. It was the same overwhelming desire that led me into Devon’s arms. And then to a graveyard where I murdered an innocent man.

  ‘Never again. I’m going to break this curse.’

  3

  I was certain just before I drifted off to sleep that I would unintentionally set the room ablaze without my special mixture to surround the bed. I forgot it back at the academy. But how was I to know that Rodrick would gather me up in his arms and force every single sense I possessed to burn inside me like a bed of hot coals?

  I sat up in the center of Margaux’s luxurious bed to discover the room still perfectly intact. I didn’t set it on fire. I settled into a dreamless sleep and didn�
�t move a single muscle all day while I slept. I even had a stiff shoulder to prove it.

  I stretched my arms and legs as I gently set the comforter aside and got dressed back in my clothes and trench coat, careful to make as little sound as possible. I didn’t want to wake up Rodrick. Not only because my father said he wanted to meet me in secret but also because the heat inside me wasn’t flaming with feverish desire anymore. And as a result, I was outraged at his behavior.

  I couldn’t decide if Rodrick took advantage of me or if he was trying to educate me in some cruel way.

  ‘Is this how it was with him and Clara? Is that why he pursued her?’

  I didn’t need help understanding how that might happen now. The frustrating tension I felt obsessively racking my brain as I tried to settle down enough to fall sleep was a solid explanation by itself.

  I crept closer to the door and listened closely for a sign that Rodrick might be awake. All I heard was the steady repetitions of his breathing in and out across the hall. He was still asleep. Which meant I had time to work with.

  I didn’t open the door and leave the conventional way. He might hear me. So I walked right up to the tall doors leading to Margaux’s balcony and settled myself on the edge of the black iron rail. The drop-down was enough to kill a human. Fortunately for me, I hadn’t been human for months.

  I looked right to left to make sure no one was watching in the streets and then let my body sink over the edge, falling with more grace than I knew I possessed and landing perfectly on my feet below, just as I did after I set my dorm room on fire. My skills were growing. I had more control over my body than ever. Some small part of me was proud that I withstood the power of the curse’s hold over my mind and body as Rodrick nearly pushed me over the edge of all-consuming lust.

  I walked down the street just as the sun dipped below the buildings and lit the streets with a warm orange glow. As I got closer to the cafe where I knew my father was waiting, I steadied my breathing. However difficult it would be to face Rodrick after what happened only hours ago, my father would be worse.

  I turned a corner to see café Chez Louise in the distance. My father was sitting outside on one of the many chairs lining the window with a local newspaper in his hand and a latte on the table with steam curling up toward the cuff of his finely pressed suit.

  “What is it with older men always buying a local newspaper when they travel?” I taunted him as I pulled out a chair and sat down across from him.

  He let the newspaper fold over in half and set it down on the table between us. That was when I saw the story to the corner of the page. The headline was written in French. When translated, it read: BEASTS STORM LATIN QUARTER, TERRORIZE THE STREETS.

  I couldn’t help but scoff. “Lucky for you, it’s a rag. Mainstream papers would never print something like this.”

  “It doesn’t mean the vixra will treat it lightly.”

  “I’m sure you can pull whatever resources needed, given you’ve been so good at it in the past.”

  I took his latte from the saucer and helped myself to a sip before setting it back down.

  “You’ve changed,” he said, leaning back in his chair and setting his hands firmly on his propped up knee. “I’m proud of the strides you’ve made. Even though I didn’t want this for you. You could have had a much easier life.”

  “We don’t need to revisit all that again,” I said. “We can’t change it. So can we please just move forward?”

  He reached into his coat and dug for something deep inside his breast pocket. “I’m good at moving forward, Riley. I always have been.” Then he set down something heavy between us on top of the newspaper. When he moved his hand he revealed something I never expected to see again. The silver engraved box from my vision that Devon used as a weapon sat right there on the small circular table outside a French café.

  I reached for it with both hands, uncertain if it was even real. The second it touched my fingertips I received a slight jolt of electricity running through my hands and up my arms, forcing every hair on my skin to stand right up.

  “How did you-”

  “Find it?” he asked with a quizzical smile. “You’re not the only Blackatter who has visions, Riley. I had Adeline help me subdue the traps at the ritual site where Dirk kidnapped you a few days after it happened.”

  “How did you even know about it? I never told you.”

  “You didn’t need to. I saw it happen in my dreams. I knew what he did to you. Not the full extent, of course, but most of it.” His eyes focused on the scar running down my face. He didn’t try to hide how upset it made him to see me with such ghastly slashes tainting my once porcelain features.

  “Why didn’t you come to me if you knew what happened?” I asked.

  “I figured you wouldn’t want to see me.”

  I sighed.

  ‘He’s probably right.’

  “So you went to find this?” I asked. “Is this what you wanted to give me?”

  “Yes. I don’t recommend you open it unless you absolutely have to. I made that mistake in the library back home. Let’s just say that my collection of original works of Charles Dickens isn’t quite what it once was.”

  I smirked at the thought of him getting the surprise of his life when he opened the box and attempted to control the silver lightning inside it. If a powerful Blackatter such as my father couldn’t control it, why did he think I could?

  “I thought you might be able to use it in your future endeavors of learning from the Vontex. It isn’t the most lady-like of professions but it’s a worthy one. Much more worthy than that degenerate rock music you’re so fond of.”

  I shot him an irritated glare. “Don’t go there. It’s still a sore spot.”

  “I know. I’m trusting you to keep it hidden for the time being.”

  A rush of pink struck my cheeks. ‘I can’t even keep the notebook I borrowed from Margaux’s potion room a secret. How am I going to hide this?’

  “Did you try opening the tomb with it?” I asked.

  His brows furrowed. “Opening the tomb?”

  ‘Holy crap. My vision was different from his. He doesn’t know about the tomb underneath!’

  “Nothing,” I quickly covered.

  “Riley,” he said my name, demanding my full attention. “Only use it if it’s an emergency and you’re in immediate danger again. Are you capable of keeping this one promise to me?”

  I rolled my eyes. “I would have an easier time keeping my word if you didn’t keep things from me.”

  He leaned forward and set his folded arms on the table. “I made the decision to keep you in the dark because telling you would have placed you in great danger. Did you ever wonder how they got to Dirk? He was fascinated by the Dolch Erbe. His interest turned into an obsession. The vixra have suspected for years that the spirits of the Dolch Erbe’s inner circle can sense those who go searching for answers. They take hold of their minds and make them dig deeper. And when they do, they become susceptible to the Dolch Erbe’s influence from the grave. The original luxra witchling of the Dolch Erbe’s inner circle manipulated the spirits they killed into doing their work. They mark those who search for more answers with black brands. They slowly drift away from home and then don’t come back.”

  ‘Sybil. That must be how they got to Sybil over a century ago!’

  “Is that luxra the same one that has possession over Margaux’s body now?” I asked in a hushed voice.

  “Most likely,” he said. A grim expression washed over his face. I knew he was thinking of Dirk and how he was suffering a similar fate to Margaux.

  “It’s true then,” I mumbled. “The original grandmaster of the Dolch Erbe is controlling Dirk from the grave.”

  “They found a way to make themselves immortal by possessing those still alive who have an interest in the old order. You can imagine how that’s diverted many people’s lives over the centuries. Especially those who take an interest in destroying them. It practically makes
the inner circle invincible from destruction.”

  It was hard for me to deny the brilliance of it. The best way to stop those who wanted to target the Dolch Erbe was to prevent them from continuing their research. And taking those who have already been inside the lycan realm can reveal our secrets. It was nothing short of brilliant.

  I sat back in the chair with a heavy sigh. My father watched me as he sipped his latte. The smug look on his face told me everything I needed to know. He felt he had won on some small level. I was beginning to understand the depths of what I was dealing with and the near impossibility of liberating my brother from the clutches of evil. Unless I had help.

  “Why do they hate us so much?” I asked. “The Dolch Erbe. Why do they hunt us down like this?”

  My father’s face fell to the paper between us as he softly slid his finger around the rim of his cup. “It’s said that the original grandmaster of their order had a sister. She was murdered by a lycan and became a werewolf. She proceeded to slaughter the rest of their family after she was done with the local village. He had to kill her himself just to stop the carnage. He made it his life’s work after it happened to see the end of the lycan, no matter how many lifetimes or centuries it took and no matter how many innocents had to die. The ends justify the means for their grandmaster.”

  “You mean the grandmaster that possesses Dirk’s mind and body now?”

  He gave a small nod. There was pain behind his eyes. As much as he rejoiced in the knowledge that I was finally beginning to understand just how over my head I was, there was an equal amount of sorrow. He lost his only son to our mortal enemies. The only way he could try to make it right was by working with a former lover and a coven of French luxra witchlings with an equally motivated grudge.

  “Dirk said something just before he did this to me.” I pointed to the scars running down my face.

  “What was that?” My father asked, clearing his throat and crossing his arms over his chest. It was almost as though he was placing a shield over his body, protecting him from my intrusive questions. Or perhaps preventing his vulnerabilities from seeping out in a way that made him appear weak. If only he knew how much it would help me to know that he was still partially human on some small level. Even if lycanthrope blood ran through our veins along with the Blackatter gene, it would help me to know that he cared beyond trying to control me.