Cursed: A Supernatural Thriller (Legend Hunters Book 4)

by JL Terra

  At the house the sword hadn’t disappeared, and the teen who’d picked it up hadn’t even been able to swing it. She’d been burned, instead. Had the sword not disappeared then because Bella had been present? Whether true or not, Mei didn’t know and now was not the time to think on that right now anyway.

  The first one ran at her with a knife in his hand, ready to strike. She sideswiped at his arm with her palm, swinging it away from its aim at her stomach. Then she used her other hand to punch him in the throat. He went down on his knees, choking, and the knife fell to the floor with a thud.

  The second crept closer to her with a crazed look in his eyes. He flicked open the knife blade and lunged at her. She swept up the knife from the first guy, distracted this one with a swing of its blade, and kicked him solidly between his legs. He collapsed as well, crying out and clutching his crotch. The guy’s knife skittered across the floor.

  She swiped that up as well, so that she carried two now.

  The sounds of slashing, yelling, and bodies hitting the floor filled the rafters of the house. When the third kid came at her, she said, “Think about what you’re doing. I don’t want to kill you.”

  He didn’t slow, only kept coming at her with a brazen smile pasted on his face. He, too, had a blade, and he waved it at her flippantly. Mei could tell immediately he was more cunning than his friends and had more awareness of what he was doing. But not like he was the one in charge. He was definitely still under instructions from someone else, the drug leaving him susceptible to the bidding of the high lord.

  “You don’t really want to hurt me. You’re just a kid who tried to party and it went wrong.” She didn’t want to kill him. Or even injure him. How could she get through to this kid?

  His lips widened into a sneer, and he started to laugh. The sound was hostile, and not a sound she would’ve thought he was capable of making.

  When he lunged at her, she sighed internally. She tried to warn him.

  She wasn’t about to let these guys hurt her friends, and absolutely not the teen under her charge.

  With a forceful jab, Mei tore into the crook of his arm with the tip of the steel blade, dragging it forcefully into the flesh and sinew. She pulled the blade out, revealing a crosswise slice that extended the length of his forearm. He didn’t even seem to notice. She dropped her second knife and grabbed at his hand holding his own knife. With her fingers locked around his wrist, she twisted with all her strength. He didn’t notice that either, just kept coming at her, this time with his mouth open.

  She had no intention of getting bitten again. Not given what had happened last time, and the fact that Malachi wasn’t here to give her his healing blood that would save her from that deadly fever.

  “I don’t think so.” Her friends needed to know about the threat of being bitten. Hopefully they wouldn’t allow themselves to be caught in a compromising situation and have it to happen to them before she could adequately warn them. They needed to weigh the risk of disarming these guys with the chance of getting an advantage.

  She knew each would allow themselves to be put in harm’s way before they let it happen to someone else. She could also admit, on occasion, it was necessary to take a blow to get close enough to deliver one of your own. Her team had that same mindset. It was why she trusted them so much.

  She kneed him in the stomach before he could bite her. While he tried to get a breath, she blasted the heel of her hand upwards into the base of his nose. With a horrific crunch, she felt the bones break.

  He cried out and fell.

  “Sorry dude.” Grasping the handle of the closed knife, she hit him on the back of the head with the end of it, knocking him out. He fell to the ground, landing flat on his face with a massive thud.

  She raced through the living room to the hallway and found Remy and Shadrach back-to-back, facing off with multiple assailants. Each one definitely fit the college guy vibe.

  “You guys okay?” One of the college men turned to the sound of her voice. Mei punched him in the face, which hurt her hand more than she wanted to admit.

  “We’re good,” Shadrach said. “Get to Taya and Bella. Make sure they’re okay.”

  Mei ran down the hall and spotted her dad in the kitchen, fighting off four of them. Impressive, but not a surprise, he seemed to be doing okay on his own. How long until the police showed up? Maybe it was a good thing Malachi wasn’t here. The rest of them seemed to be handling it just fine, and Malachi wouldn’t have to worry about being apprehended.

  Mei kept on through the hall, looking for any sign of Taya and Bella until she got to the end. The bathroom door was open.

  Mei drew knife and stepped in.

  Bella stood cowering in the corner of the tub, a look of fear on her face. Mei’s mom was on the floor, pinned to her back by a college guy astride her.

  He lifted the knife up above his head, preparing to bring it down and stab it into her mom’s chest.

  As Mei moved to intercept the knife, the sword appeared in her hands.

  Before she could even comprehend what she was doing, the blade buried into his back, far enough the tip came out his chest. Blood spurted from the wound and Bella screamed. Mei pulled the sword free and kicked the guy off her mom.

  She held out her hand to Taya. “You okay?”

  Her mom nodded, hissing out a breath. “He just caught me off guard.”

  “She hit her head on the toilet.”

  Mei mouthed, “Thanks” to Bella because her mom would never have told her that. She probably would have mentioned it to Ben, though. Maybe.

  “We need to get out of here,” Mei told them. “We should use the hatch and get to the car in the garage.”

  Taya said, “I don’t want to leave your dad. I’ll stick around to help. You get Bella to safety.”

  Mei gave her mom a quick hug. “Please be careful.”

  “You be careful with that sword. You could take somebody’s eye out with that thing.”

  “That’s the point, mom.”

  Bella barked a nervous laugh. Mei took Bella’s hand in a reassuring way and, holding the sword with the other, led her to the room where the hatch was concealed under a rug.

  They climbed down the ladder, Bella going first so that Mei could make sure nobody followed them. Just as Mei was about to jump off the last rung, she reached up to grab the handle to close the hatch behind her when a hand grasped the hatch door.

  Mei recoiled as a one of the white-haired college kids jumped down, landing on her and causing her to crumple awkwardly onto the floor, trapped by two hundred pounds of muscle. Bella screamed.

  Mei yelled, “Run!”

  She’d fallen on the handle of the sword and couldn’t get it out from under her. He had a knife, and she had no choice now but to use that against him. She grasped his hand and, with a barbaric scream, applied as much pressure as she could to turn the blade tip back on him, twisting his arm and using all her strength. She got as far as snagging his T-shirt material before he slammed his forehead into hers.

  Mei cried out. She lost her grip on him as pain rolled through her skull, ricocheting every which way like a hundred scattered bowling pins.

  Fire burned across the outside of her arm, and she realized she had been cut with that knife.

  This wasn’t going well at all. They needed to get out of here.

  Mei got her legs out from under her and kicked him off, then scrambled around to reach for the sword.

  He slammed into her back. She went down on her knees, the move jarring her as pain shot up her femurs. She cried out but managed to grab for the sword hilt.

  It wasn’t there.

  Standing staunch in front of her was Bella, the sword in her hands. No sign that she was suffering from burned palms.

  “What are you—”

  Mei’s words were cut off with the need to duck. Bella swung wildly at the man with a whacking motion. She obviously lacked experience or skill, but the blade was weighty and viciously sharp.
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  It took the man’s head clean off his neck.

  Chapter 17

  Mei glanced at the young woman in the passenger side of the car. No longer a girl, though still a teen. She had taken a life with the sword and now sat still and quiet, processing, while Mei drove as quickly as she could away from the house without being too conspicuous. Police cars passed them on the opposite side of the street, lights flashing and sirens wailing..

  When the cops finally showed up at the house, they would find the garage door busted open from Mei accelerating through the door, mowing it down with the front bumper as she hurtled down the drive. Thankfully, she hadn’t hit anyone.

  She’d even managed to close the hatch so the police wouldn’t quickly discover the tunnel that led to the house. That would expose the team as a whole.

  She didn’t need them distracted, chasing rabbit trails. Nor did she need the team on radar when they did their best work anonymously. All she needed was for the cops to help her teammates—her family—subdue all the young men and get them into custody. Once they sobered up and the drug wore off, they would return to their normal selves and hopefully be able to provide the police with information.

  Remy could get copies of their statements and, with the details contained therein, have actionable intel for the team to move in on the high lord. It wasn’t a case much different from any of the other investigations they had undertaken. Most of those had been personal anyway. So what exactly was different about this one?

  This one was about Mei.

  Or, more accurately, it was about the quiet girl sitting beside her. Bella.

  Mei glanced at her. “Are you okay?”

  Some people reacted in interesting ways to having taken a life. She had no idea how Bella would respond, beyond withdrawing into herself the way she was now.

  “You had no choice. Aside from the fact that it might turn out to be what you were born to do, you were protecting yourself, and me. That means it was self defense.”

  No matter that there truly was some nobility in believing that the action was necessary, Bella was still responsible for someone’s death. A son. A brother. She had killed that young man.

  “It doesn’t matter.” Bella spoke to the window, her voice thin.

  Mei couldn’t get a clear read on how she was feeling, but her withdrawn behavior was enough for Mei to know she would need some time to process it all. Maybe it would hit her later. Or not at all.

  “Is there anyone you want me to call?”

  Bella just shook her head.

  Mei’s phone buzzed in her back pocket. She pulled it out and put it in the cup holder. “Can you see what that was? It could be an update from the others.”

  Bella pressed the button on the side and looked without picking up the phone. “A text from your mom. They have them all in custody.”

  She turned back to the window.

  Mei said, “Thanks. I’m glad they’re all safe.”

  Although, Mei knew that her mom likely had much more to say than that.

  She and her mom had worked together enough for her to know she was likely just giving her the basic facts that all the young men were in custody now. No details on who, if any, were hurt. Shielding her meant Mei could focus on Bella right now and not worry about the rest of the team. It was a rough line they all walked, doing what they thought was right for one another. Sometimes that meant secrets.

  But not the kind Malachi seemed to keep. From the team.

  From her.

  Mei’s job was to keep Bella safe and not put the rest in danger. The thought was like the taste of lemon on her tongue.

  She was so engrossed in her driving and her own aimless thoughts that she hadn’t noticed the car following them until just then. A silver compact. Tinted windows. Driving much too close. How long had it been behind them?

  She shifted in the seat, looking more closely into the rearview mirror while she made her way through the gridded streets of New York City. Occasionally turning. Going nowhere in particular for right now.

  That could work to her benefit.

  She needed to discreetly lose whoever was behind them without making it obvious that she knew they were following. And she needed to do it quickly.

  Mei clocked a street up ahead and kept driving normally. At the last second, she cut onto it and hit the gas.

  The silver compact kept going, missing the turn. Seconds later, the screech of brakes sounded. She checked the rearview mirror as she hurtled down the side street and then saw the same car back up with another screech before pulling onto the road behind her. Gaining on her.

  “Look out!”

  She swerved to avoid the pink-haired girl who seemed to appear out of nowhere from the door of an adjacent building, holding a huge trash bag bursting at the seams. With a jump, she dropped the bag, the contents spilling around her feet. Mei gave her a wave, hoping that would suffice as an apology for right now and kept going.

  She was going to have to work hard to lose this car behind them. “Grab my phone and call Malachi. He’s in my contacts.”

  She unlocked the phone with her thumb and handed it over. “Put it on speaker.”

  Bella tapped the phone screen and, a few seconds later, it began to ring.

  At the opposite end of the alley, she pulled across several lanes of busy traffic and turned left. Pulling abruptly in front of several cars, she ignored the chorus of honking horns.

  The phone cut off without anyone picking up.

  “Sorry.”

  Mei shook her head. “It’s not your fault he doesn’t care.”

  She needed him to help her figure this out. But if he didn’t want to respond when she needed him most, well, she couldn’t do much about that, could she?

  The busyness of traffic on this street, much the same as any other street in New York City, made it so that she had to immediately hit the brakes, stuck behind a long line of commuters. As traffic backed up, the pursuing car couldn’t pull out of the alley and into her lane. As soon as the light turned green again, she took the first left and went about six more blocks before she made another turn. Finally, she pulled into a parking garage and got a ticket from the machine. She went all the way to the top level and parked in the open air section of the roof. As soon as she turned the car off, Mei let out a long breath.

  “Who was following us?” Bella asked.

  “My guess? A couple of the guys from that huge mansion, or someone else working for the high lord.”

  Bella shivered, though she tried to hide it.

  “Have you met him? The high lord, I mean.” It was possible he’d been at the house at some point while Bella had been there, or she’d at least seen him while walking through to the room where Mei had found her. Or maybe even some other time.

  Bella hadn’t been at the house too long before Mei got her out. But there had to have been a reason she’d been deemed the chosen one other than simply being at a soup kitchen. Or having red hair. She couldn’t have gone unnoticed for that reason alone. Especially since her brother, Ricardo, really was working with the high lord to distribute drugs.

  “I don’t want to talk about him.”

  “You don’t get the luxury of just not talking about him. He’s the entire objective here. My team needs to find him and take him out. That means I need all the intel you can give me about him.”

  Bella pushed open the passenger side door and got out.

  Mei rounded the car so she could face the girl, now standing, looking over the wall at the traffic below. The people walking on the sidewalks looked like little ants. People of all ages and shape. All walks of life, going about their business with no idea the sinister world that lived beyond what they saw with their own eyes. What they could touch. What they could taste.

  There was so much more to life than what was tangible, or provable. She had experienced far too much of it to ever go back to ignorance. No bliss for her.

  “So I guess none of this is about what I want?”
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br />   Mei shrugged. “Welcome to life. Mostly it sucks, but we try to make the most of it and find things that make us happy. Find the people who care about us and who we can care about back.”

  Bella just blinked at her.

  “What?”

  “I just never knew you were such a sage. For someone who comes across as kind of a tough girl, you’re pretty sweet with your mom.”

  Mei said, “She’s earned it. You wouldn’t believe everything we’ve been through, and yet, I can always count on her. We've stuck with each other all this time.”

  “And the other guy is your dad?”

  “Yes, absolutely, though we are not biologically related. Some people would say it’s complicated, but they’re more parents to me than anyone else in the world.”

  “That’s cool.” Bella’s tone had a sadness to it now.

  Mei knew that she had lost both her parents after her dad was killed and her mom descended into drugs. After her mom’s death, Ricardo had fallen deep into drugs and began dealing. No one had taken care of Bella. The fact she’d found the community center with people like Sheila and Mei who made it their life’s mission to help girls like Bella—people who fell through the cracks, kids that would end up dead or in jail otherwise—had been a literal lifesaver.

  And if she really thought about it, it had changed her life, too. It was a good life. A good mission.

  And yet, she had always known that she was put here on earth to be someone else. Not that mentoring at the community center wasn’t important. It was. But the truth of the matter was that being a guardian of both the sword and the one chosen to take out ancient evil, couldn’t make any more sense than it did right at this moment. I mean, of course she was made for this—whether she liked it or not. She almost wanted to laugh that she hadn’t sensed this greater purpose before now.

  “Are you really sure you don’t want to talk about that guy in the hallway?”

  Bella shrugged. “Why talk about it? He’s dead and there’s nothing either of us can do about that. Did you want him to be alive?”