“And then what?” Harper retorted. “Then you will let us go? I doubt it.”
“Why would we need to continue a relationship once we get our drugs?”
“Because your women will still be unable to become pregnant,” Harper said.
“What are you talking about? We are demigods just like you. And if they work for your kind, why wouldn’t they work for us?”
“Give Starling what she wants, and then I will give you the formula and our secret. Agreed?” Harper asked.
The president put his elbows on the table and tented his fingers in front of his face. “How do we know that we need something else besides the pills?”
“Hasn’t it occurred to you that Carey, Starling’s mother, had been taking the drugs for almost twenty years? She had one pregnancy. Now I’m sure she had more partners than just one in those years. Yet she never had another pregnancy.” Harper paused for a moment.
“Starling, had your mother seen other men?” the president asked.
“She had boyfriends on and off when I was growing up.” Starling cringed as she realized that her mother’s sex life was being called into question.
“Do you think she had relations with these men?”
“She probably did. I didn’t try to keep tabs on my mother’s sex life.”
“Right, right.” President Kitchings laughed. “Did she ever have another pregnancy?”
“Not that I know of,” Starling said.
“Do you know why that was?”
Starling shook her head. She’d never given thought to why she didn’t have siblings. She’d always assumed it was because Mom hadn’t wanted another child, not that there had been some secret to why she’d been an only child.
Harper patted her arm. “There were other nymphs who were taking the same medication; however, most never got pregnant. I’m more than happy to show you the number of women who successfully mated.” She raised two fingers.
“I get your point, but we can’t make a deal if we lose access to the Libros.” The president paused. “We need them. It’s how we’ve gotten control over the souls like Edward and Molly who work for us. If we lose those books, we will likely have an army of ghosts after us.”
“I know the feeling,” Starling retorted.
They were at an impasse. They could not live without the books, but neither could she.
“There has to be a way we can come to an agreement.”
“Instead of fighting, maybe we could become allies.” President Kitchings tapped his fingers against his chin as he thought. “We could give you the books if we have continued access to their contents. In return for this, you give us the drugs, formula, and secret. In addition, you all can walk out of here with the knowledge that the war is over.”
“What about Virginia and her men? They must be punished. Strip them of their feathers,” Starling urged.
“I know you are angry, but she is still my wife. She has done wrong. She kidnapped you and your friend and in doing so, went against the council. In the process of her mutiny, she also committed a mortal sin of erasing a soul. If other supernatural beings hear of what she has done, it will our be our asses on the line.” Kitchings shook his head in disgust. “She will be dealt with, but stripping her of her feathers is too harsh a punishment for her crime. She will lose everything.”
“She deserves to be punished,” Starling urged.
“You have to let them handle this, Starling,” Jasper whispered. “We will have to forgive them for what they have done so we can make this deal.”
Could she forgive them in order to make peace? If Jasper could move past Edward’s possession, she could move past her kidnapping, but there was still the issue of her mother’s death.
Her mother used to smile and wrap her arms around her when she had a tough day. Without a doubt her mother would have done that to her today. For once, Starling wished she could talk to the spirits down here. She would love to ask her mother what to do, whether it was okay to forgive the group for her death. But Starling did know where her responsibilities lay for a friend. “You have to free Molly B. from the mausoleum and let her safely cross to the other side. In exchange, you will give us the books and this war between us will be over.”
“Done, so long as we come to an adequate agreement about the production of the GX 149,” President Kitchings replied.
“What do you think, Harper?”
Harper nodded. “I already built my lab in Vegas. It’s a few months away from opening it doors, but if they pay me cost plus twenty percent, I could turn the lab into a legitimate drug manufacturing plant within the year. Chance could finish his agreement with the casino and all of us could be set, at least financially, for life. As long as they are willing to sign an official agreement for peace and trade, I’m good.”
“You can forgive the fact that these vultures tried to kill you? That they killed my mother?”
“As far as I can tell, Starling,” Jasper said, “it wasn’t they who killed your mother. It was Dr. Redbird, her sister, and their lackeys who put that together. Not the main council. Dr. Redbird is no longer an issue.”
“We need to put the past behind us, Starling. You have a long life ahead of you and this could be the chance you need to really start living. You’ve been in hiding too long thanks to this group. Think about it—you could travel, see the world,” Harper said, smiling.
“I could control the spirits,” Starling said, her voice dreamy at the possibility of being free from the onslaught of voices.
Starling sat up from their huddle. “Give me the books and then draw up an official contract including the terms that all future drugs will be made through Harper’s lab—you can negotiate your payment terms among yourselves. Deal?”
“We have to take a vote.” President Kitchings stood up. “All of those in favor of making a peace treaty with the Sisterhood in exchange for the books and their giving us the medication and secrets we need, raise your hand.”
Almost everyone in the room, except Virginia, raised their hand.
“It passes.” President Kitchings motioned to Virginia. “Get her the books.”
Virginia stood up and walked to the corner of the room where a picture of President Kitchings hung from the wall. Taking down the picture and dropping it with a clatter to the floor, she revealed a safe behind the portrait. She spun the dial and opened the metal vault. Starling sucked in a breath as the woman pulled out three large books and, shuffling her feet resignedly, brought them to the group. She thumped them on the black table in front of the president. “Here,” she grunted, passing him a defiant look.
The books were smaller than Starling expected. For months, she had imagined them as if they were thousands of pages with heavy bindings and metal brackets. Instead they were thin, their edges curled with age. The covers were simple, each carrying nothing more than a trinity-like design. They looked antique, but aside from the cover they were ordinary. If Starling hadn’t known the truth of what they were, it would have been hard to guess that these books held the secrets that would save her life.
“Thank you, Virginia.” The president motioned for her to sit down and then turned back to Starling. “I believe these are the books you wanted.” He pushed them across the table.
Starling picked the one on top. Its white velum cover was almost the same shade as her skin. The Red sat underneath, its cover the color of blood. Beneath it was the Black, its color so dark it almost disappeared into the table. She flipped open the White. Inside were hand-inked drawings and long pages filled with Latin.
Her knees weakened. The time had come … the books were here … in her hands. She sat down before her exhausted body failed.
“Are we allies?” the president asked.
Starling forced herself to stand back up and took his proffered hand. “Allies.”
“What is the secret, Harper?”
“You must mate with a demigod while taking the pills,” Harper said.
The door sla
mmed open. Jim rushed into the room, Devon close behind him. Devon scanned the room, his eyes wild with rage.
“What’s going on?” Jim screamed. “These are our enemies and you are having a meeting with them. That’s bullshit! They deserve to die!”
Starling let go of President Kitchings’s hand and moved down the table until she found the vulture’s ruby-colored eye. She pressed down and frantically searched under the table with her left hand for another button, but she found nothing. She moved toward the gun, but Virginia stepped in her way. “Where’s the elevator?” Starling yelled at the president.
“This table isn’t an elevator. It’s there—” He pointed to a large painting that adorned the wall.
“I’m not going in any damn elevator!” Jasper yelled. “There has to be another way!”
“Shut up! Everybody shut up!” Jim yelled.
Devon stared at her, the anger in his eyes turning to lust. Jasper pulled Starling down and pushed her to the floor. Her knees connected hard with the concrete.
“Don’t touch her. Don’t touch Starling!” Devon screamed. “She’s mine!”
Starling watched in horror as Devon grabbed Jasper’s gun and pointed it toward them.
The shot rang out, its deafening roar careening through the room.
Jasper crumpled to the ground beside her. A scream rippled from her lips as blood poured from his chest. “I … love … you.” As the last word fell from his lips, his body stilled. His breathing stopped. Jasper was gone.
Starling pulled him against her chest as she rocked him back and forth in her arms. “You promised … you promised you wouldn’t leave me … ”
Chapter Twenty-One
Devon handed the gun to Jim and rushed to her side, dropping to his knees. “Sweetheart, are you okay?”
She stared at his eyes, noticing how the black had taken over. “You … you shot him.” She looked away as the bitter taste of bile filled her mouth. Jasper lay in her arms, his head perched in the crook of her elbow. “Jasper, I’m so sorry,” she whispered before leaning down to kiss his forehead. His skin was still warm, but even in its warmth it carried the weight of the dead.
“He threw you to the floor. No one can touch you like that. No one.” Devon reached for her hand that rested on Jasper’s motionless chest. She pulled away from his touch, hating him for making her move her hand from the man she loved.
“Get away,” she said through her teeth.
“But … you love me. You and I, we can be together forever.” The word forever hung in the air like the gun’s smoke.
“I never want to be with you,” she screamed.
Devon waved her off. “I was only protecting you. You will come to see that, sweetheart.”
“You and your friends are to be arrested for murder and treason!” President Kitchings yelled above the melee of noise. “You shall be stripped of your feathers!”
Jim raised the gun, taking aim at the president. “Who’s going to arrest me?” His finger moved under the trigger guard and Starling tensed, readying herself for the explosion.
“Jim, stop!” Virginia shouted. “You are not to hurt Steve.”
Starling slipped her arm out from beneath Jasper’s head and gently rested it on the ground. They had to pay. They had to pay for what they had done. “Devon?”
“Yes, sweetheart?” he asked.
“Get me that gun,” she said, motioning toward Jim.
“Yes, sweetheart.” Devon stood up and moved toward Jim.
She leaned down one more time and kissed Jasper’s forehead. “I love you, Jasper. I’ll always love you.”
It was funny how much she had feared saying those words when he’d been alive, but now they flowed unchecked. Perhaps if she hadn’t admitted it to herself, if she hadn’t felt that love in the first place, he would have still been alive. But no. She had selfishly allowed herself to feel.
“Give me the gun, Jim,” Devon said with outstretched hands.
“Shut up, Devon. You are as guilty as they are. You let her bewitch you. You promised you were better than this!”
“She’s so beautiful. I love her.” Devon signaled to Virginia to come closer. “Give me the gun, Jim, and I will let you run.”
Virginia stood up and, brushing off her lap, she joined the middle-aged man. “I told you that you were better off staying with me, Starling. If you would have listened, maybe your little boyfriend would still be alive. There’s really no one else to blame. You are responsible for his death.”
“Shut up, bitch!” Starling jumped to her feet. “All you care about is yourself. In fact, you don’t give a shit about Jim or Devon. You are only using them to get what you want.”
“You mean like you are using Devon? Like you used Jasper?” Virginia retorted. “Devon, do you hear this? Do you understand that if you stay with her you will end up dead as well? There’s no way out of here alive; she’s a nymph. Nymphs leave only death behind. You must overthrow the spell the harlot has passed over you and choose our side, or you will end up like every other man nymphs have sunk their claws into.”
Devon only gave Starling a bewitched, mindless smile.
“Go to hell! Go to hell!” A shrill non-human voice called from behind the room’s closed doors.
The doors to the room flew open, one hitting Jim in the back and knocking him off balance. He staggered a few steps toward the table. Devon took his chance and grabbed the gun, stripping it clean of Jim’s hands.
Standing in the doorway was Jamie, a gray parrot on her shoulder. Behind them were the Voodoo Queen Bethany, with her arm in a sling, and a dark-haired woman Starling didn’t recognize.
“Go to hell!” the parrot repeated.
“How did you get in here?” Harper asked, choking back tears of relief.
“Bethany used her magic. What in the hell is going on here?” Jamie asked. She glanced around the room until her gaze settled on Devon and the gun in his hand. “Give me that.”
“No. It’s for Starling.” He pulled the gun back against his chest protectively.
Jamie caught her eye, her gaze coming to a stop at the patch of fresh red blood on Starling’s cloak and moving to Jasper, who lay limp in her arms. “Give me the gun.” She stepped closer and grasped the gun in Devon’s hands.
“No,” he said, stepping back so his legs pressed against the side of the table.
“If you don’t, Starling is going to get hurt.” Jamie pulled the gun as Devon’s grip weakened. “You don’t want her to get hurt, do you?”
Devon released the gun, letting Jamie take it from him. “Good boy,” she said, like he was nothing more than an obedient dog. She turned to Virginia, Jim, and the rest of the council. “Ariadne?” she asked, motioning for the woman behind her to step forward.
“Thank you, Jamie.” Ariadne stopped beside Starling. She looked down at Jasper, pain radiating through her eyes. “He loved you, didn’t he?”
Starling nodded. The axe of their curse had fallen.
“I’m more sorry than you can possibly know, Starling.”
“Are you Ariadne Papadakis?”
The tanned, dark-haired woman nodded. “I’m here to help you.” She glanced back down at Jasper. “I only wish I could have come sooner. Maybe we would have avoided this tragedy.”
“Why did you bring Bethany here? She’s my enemy.”
Bethany ran her hand over the bandage on her shoulder where Starling had stabbed her. “You stabbed me. We be even.”
“You tried to steal my friend. We’re hardly even.”
“You’d do anything to be with your lover. I’m no different, except my lover's gone.”
Ariadne stepped between them. “Bethany was the only one who knew where we could find you and Harper. Without her and her magic, we never would have made it below. Mutual hatred makes great allies.” Ariadne paused. “Don’t worry, Starling, we will make this right and Bethany will help do that.”
“Fine, but make no mistake, Bethany and I will never be
friends.” There was no making any of this right. Jasper was gone. Her love had killed him.
“Bethany says that you are responsible for erasing a soul. That type of action has consequences in the supernatural world. You are aware of this, are you not?” She turned as she addressed the council.
“It wasn’t us,” President Kitchings said, shaking his head. “It was Virginia and her group of followers. We never would have allowed such an action to be taken without a full vote.”
Ariadne looked to Virginia. “Is that true? Did you take this action on your own without the support of your council?”
Virginia nodded. “You wouldn’t understand … ”
“We will see that she and her lackeys are disciplined for their crimes,” President Kitchings said. “What say you, council?”
The room filled with the members’ agreement.
“She is your wife. How can I trust that you will give them the punishment they deserve?” Starling asked. “They killed him … ” she sobbed.
Ariadne wrapped her arm around Starling. “It’s okay. They will do what is right. Won’t you?”
The president nodded. “On the subject of punishment for Virginia Kitchings, Jim Peterson, and Devon James, I move that we strip them each of their feathers and all rights given to our kind. They will no longer be allowed in or around any of our communities or their members. And from this day forth, they shall no longer be allowed to call or consider themselves Catharterians. What say you, council?”
He was answered with another round of unanimous “ayes.”
Starling sucked in a long breath. Virginia, Jim, and Devon had lost everything. A shifter without their community would be at the mercy of the fates. They would no longer have the safety of their people and would be under the constant threat of other supernatural beings, beings that would love to enslave vultures and use them as they pleased. Yet, even with those staggering losses they still had their lives. The same couldn’t be said for Jasper.
The Nymph's Curse: The Collection Page 76