Visions of Vengeance: A Paranormal Romance (The Gypsy's Curse Book 2)

by Meg Anne

  When a dozen heartbeats had passed and she still hadn’t said anything, Lucas glanced down over his shoulder. Her shoulders shook and tears streamed from her eyes. She bit down on her lip to keep from laughing outright.

  Lucas pulled his pants up.

  Skye reached out, her hand on his wrist. “Just answer one question for me?”

  He eyed her. “What’s that?”

  “How could you have been so upset with my mug choice this morning, when you have such a cute little unicorn tattooed on your ass?”

  Lizzie and Matthews lost it, their laughter joining Skye’s. Lucas looked around at them, feeling cornered, but also, strangely pleased. In the middle of everything they’d been dealing with, they still found a way to carve out a few minutes of normal. To be a family.

  Lucas welcomed the laughter, and what it represented, even if it was at his expense.

  “Would you say it’s your spirit animal?” Skye asked with another teasing grin.

  He leaned over to growl in her ear. “Laugh as much as you want, sweetheart. I’m the same man that had you screaming my name this morning. Unicorn and all.”

  Skye’s eyes went molten, and she squirmed in her seat. “Fair point,” she murmured, her voice strangled.

  He finished adjusting his pants and went to grab another beer.

  “I’m guessing you didn’t pick it on purpose?” she called after him.

  “It’s an academy tradition,” Matthews answered for him. “The night we graduated, we all got shitfaced and picked a tattoo for each other. Lucas got a unicorn, because he always seemed to do the fucking impossible. Funny how it ended up being more appropriate than any of us thought.”

  “And pink, don’t forget pink,” Lizzie chuckled.

  “Well, that was to try to bring him down a peg or two.” Matthews winked. “Can’t have the guy letting it go to his head.”

  Skye’s eyes were bright with mirth as she looked at his partner. “What tattoo did you get?”

  Matthews grimaced. Lizzie snorted, turning to answer, “A dandelion.”

  Skye threw her head back and laughed.

  Lucas slapped his friend on the shoulder. “That’s what you get for outing me, partner.”

  Matthews nodded. “Yeah, yeah. It was still worth it.”

  “Alright guys,” Lizzie said, still chuckling. “Dinner’s ready. Come grab your plates while it’s hot.”

  Lucas moved to the side so Skye could walk past him. He smacked her playfully on the ass, and she turned to glare at him, although the heat behind it was far from anger. “Payback for laughing, Giovanni,” he whispered hotly.

  The way his words brought a flush to her cheeks amused him. As did the way she purposefully swung her hips while she walked by. Lucas smirked. Thanks for the show.

  They fixed their plates and took seats around the table. Lucas’ stomach growled in response to the delectable chicken dinner his sister had prepared. He may be the Druid in the family, but she sure as fuck possessed magic when it came to food.

  “This is delicious, Lizzie,” Skye told her.

  “Thanks! It felt good to be back in the kitchen.” Lizzie smiled, and Lucas was beyond grateful to see the gesture was genuine.

  He’d been spending so much time focusing on his power and Skye, that he hadn’t stopped to consider how his baby sister was handling everything.

  Mathews reached over and rubbed her shoulder. At least she isn’t dealing with it alone, even though I’ve been a self-absorbed prick.

  “You guys up for another game tonight?” he asked, wanting them to spend a night focused on life rather than the death that surrounded them.

  “What did you have in mind?” Lizzie asked, quirking a brow and taking another bite of her dinner.

  “I think I saw Candy Land in the closet.” He grinned, hoping Lizzie would take the bait.

  Skye laughed. “You want to play Candy Land? How old are you? Six?”

  “Lizzie loves to play Candy Land.” He kept his eyes trained on his sister, and she glared back at him.

  “I feel like there’s a story here,” Matthews commented as he glanced between them.

  “Oh, there is,” Lizzie confirmed bitterly. “Lucas is a fucking cheater.”

  Lucas feigned hurt. “Am not! I can’t believe you’d say that. It’s not my fault you suck.”

  “I don’t suck; you are a cheater. How else do you explain twenty-six years of losing that stupid game?”

  Matthews held up a hand. “Wait, you’ve never won? Not once? As in this guy has always beat you at Candy Land?”

  It was a sore subject with his sister, and one Lucas liked to poke whenever given the opportunity. They even had game nights as adults where she’d try to win, never realizing he had taken all the specialty cards out of the stack and snuck them in when he needed them. It hadn't started out that way, though. He really hadn’t cheated when they’d been younger, but after so many years of being undefeated, and her groundless accusations, it just got to be way too much fun to mess with her.

  Lizzie glared at Matthews. “I’ve never won because Lucas. Is. A. Cheater.” She damn near snarled the last few words, her cheeks tinged pink.

  Lucas couldn’t help but laugh. It was like clockwork. No matter how many years it had been, she got heated, every damn time. “There’s no evidence to support your claims,” Lucas told her, not even bothering to hide his grin.

  Lizzie folded her arms, her eyes narrowing dangerously. “Fine, let’s play so I can finally kick your ass. At least now there will be witnesses so you can’t cheat.”

  “Whatever you say.” He winked.

  “Okay, Skye and James, you two have to help me keep an eye on him,” Lizzie said once dinner had been cleaned up and Candy Land spread out on the kitchen table.

  Lucas smiled widely. “See if you can keep up, sis.”

  Lizzie cracked her knuckles and glowered. “How about you just see if you can keep from cheating.”

  “I’m a little afraid of what might happen if she loses,” Matthews murmured as he placed the yellow plastic person at the start.

  Lucas picked blue, as usual, and placed it next to Skye’s red. Lizzie set the green just in front of his, and he smiled. She’d always done that, even if it had only been the two of them playing, Lizzie made sure her plastic person was always in front of his.

  He’d left the cards in the stack this time, mainly because it would be entirely too suspicious if he was the only one of them out of the four that picked those cards. The odds of his winning against all of them were not in his favor, but he was okay with that. He didn’t have to be the winner, just so long as Lizzie lost. And hell, even if she didn’t, he could still claim she’d never beaten him one-on-one. He chuckled at his logic, knowing it was going to piss her off even more.

  Since Lizzie was the youngest, she went first, followed by Skye and then Matthews. Lucas would go last. His first card was a double red, which sent him over the rainbow bridge and put him ahead of everyone else.

  Lizzie glared at him. “Cheater,” she growled.

  Skye and Matthews both burst into laughter.

  Lucas threw his hands up. “I did no such thing! You even shuffled the cards.”

  “I’m watching you,” Lizzie warned, emphasizing the words by pointing to her eyes and then to his. When Lucas only rolled his in response, she drew her next card. “In your face, sucker!” she cried, revealing the peanut card, which sent her nearly halfway to the finish line. She clapped her hands excitedly, and Lucas shot her a fake glare.

  “Now who’s cheating?”

  Lizzie laughed. “No cheating here, big brother, just finally getting some good luck.”

  Two hours later, and everyone but Lucas had won a game.

  “I’m going back to cheating from now on,” he declared, crossing his arms and slouching back in his seat.

  Lizzie jumped out of her chair, knocking it over as she pointed at him. “I knew it! I fucking knew that you cheated!”

  Luca
s grinned. “Of course I cheated! There is no one in the history of this game who’s never won at least once. It was just too much fun screwing with you.”

  Lizzie stuck her tongue out and started putting the game away. “This is karma, Lucas. Payback is a bitch.”

  “Karma shmarma, I’m not worried. I’ll get you guys next time.”

  “Not if you can’t cheat, and now I have proof, mister,” Lizzie declared, shaking the box at him for good measure.

  “Yeah, still not worried.” He wrapped her in a hug. “Love ya, sis.”

  “Love you, too, assface.”

  “Hey!”

  “Payback,” she said simply, tilting her face up to kiss his cheek. “Night, Skye!”

  “Goodnight, you two.” Skye hugged both Lizzie and Matthews, then headed down the hall toward the bedroom they’d been sharing.

  “So, all this time, you really cheated?” she asked as he closed the bedroom door behind them.

  “Not one of my proudest qualities, I’ll admit, but it sure made for some fun.”

  “Why not cheat tonight?”

  “Too many witnesses.” He grinned. “If it’s all the same to you, I don’t have much interest in talking about that tonight.”

  “Oh?” she asked, her eyes glowing in the soft light.

  “I have a much more adult activity in mind.”

  “Does it involve a unicorn?” She fought back a laugh by biting down on her bottom lip, and Lucas crossed the distance between them in two strides.

  “That’s mine,” he growled and took her bottom lip between his teeth.

  He bit down gently, eliciting a soft moan from her lips before he slid his mouth over hers. She tasted so fucking sweet, and no matter how many damn times he had her, it was never enough. His fingers ran down her body to the hem of her shirt, lifting it slowly as he let his fingertips graze over her soft skin.

  After breaking the kiss, he lifted her shirt up over her head and tossed it to the side, one less barrier between them. Then he held her amber eyes, letting himself get lost in them, as he knelt down in front of her and pressed a kiss to her stomach.

  Skye’s head rolled back, and she ran a hand through his hair, sending a shiver down his spine. This woman managed to keep him grounded and send him soaring with just one touch, and he was falling for her, hard. Hell, he’d already fallen.

  He loved her.

  Maybe he’d loved her all along.

  “Lucas,” she whispered as he popped the button to her jeans and slid them down her body.

  Once they were free, he lifted and carried her to the bed, laying her back onto the mattress and removing his own clothes.

  “You’re so fucking beautiful, Skye. I know I tell you that all the time, but you take my breath away.”

  He covered her body with his and took her mouth again, this time taking his time. He savored the taste of her, and the way her hands gripped his shoulders, and her low moan when he drove into her.

  Skye Giovanni was everything he never knew he wanted, and now that he’d found her, Lucas would do whatever the hell it took to keep her.

  Chapter 28

  Skye

  “So, do you have any other permanent body modifications I should know about?” Skye traced lazy circles on Lucas’ chest as they lay curled up in bed. Her body was spent from their love making, but her mind wasn’t ready to slip into sleep just yet.

  Lucas laughed and shook his head. “Just Sparkles.”

  “Poor guy, he’s probably lonely. You should get another; you know, so he has a friend.”

  Lucas looked down at her with a grin. “Never gonna happen, Giovanni.”

  “Party pooper.”

  “Why don’t you get one? Then they could have playdates.” He tickled her, and Skye let out a laugh.

  “I have no interest in getting a tattoo, let alone a unicorn on my ass.”

  “I do think you have a beautiful ass as is.” He reached down and gripped it. While the touch was meant to be playful, it sent a shiver of desire through her.

  “Yours is even better now that I know what’s on it.” Skye rolled over onto her back, and Lucas followed by rolling onto his side to look down at her.

  “I don’t think I’ll ever get enough of you,” he said, so quietly she nearly missed it. Blue eyes lifted to her face, and a mixture of hope and fear shone behind the crystal depths.

  A combination she recognized because it’s how she felt: hopeful for a future she feared would never come to pass.

  Lucas leaned down to kiss her again, and Skye’s fingers traveled up his rib cage.

  “Ow! What the hell was that?” Lucas hissed, pulling back as Skye's fingertips grazed over a raised patch of skin.

  “I don’t know.” She sat up and moved his arm out of the way to reveal a puckered brand that definitely hadn’t been there yesterday. The skin around it was smooth, but the brand itself was a bright, angry red.

  Panic surged through her veins. “Where the fuck did that come from?” She pointed to it, then looked back at Lucas.

  He stared down at the raised skin, eyes wide. “I don’t have a damn clue.”

  The brand was a rune. That much, at least, she knew. It was also what worried her the most. It was made up of two intersecting V’s, one of which was upside down. The negative space in the middle of them formed a diamond. She didn’t recognize it right away but jumped out of bed to toss clothes on.

  “Where are you going?”

  “We need to know what that rune means, Lucas. I may not know a whole lot about this Druid stuff, but runes don’t just appear out of nowhere. This could be very, very bad news. What if he’s marked you somehow?”

  “Marked me for what? Skye, calm down.” Lucas yanked up his boxers, trying to keep up with her as she flew around the room.

  “We need to know what it means.”

  “I agree, but panicking about it now isn’t going to do us any good.” He reached down into his pants pocket and pulled out his phone, offering it to her. “Let’s Google, shall we?”

  Skye reluctantly took a seat on the edge of the bed and took his phone. All she had to do was type in ‘ancient runes’ and it popped up as one of the first image results.

  “It’s called Inguz.”

  “Ing-ooz?”

  Skye nodded, her eyes widening as she quickly read through the notes. “It means fertility.”

  Lucas paused, his shirt only half-way on, and his blue eyes comically wide. “I’m sorry, I must have misheard you. It means what?”

  Skye laughed, relaxing now that she’d read the full description. If the Druid had marked Lucas, he’d chosen a strange way to cause him pain. “Not necessarily fertile as in you’re going to start making a slew of babies.”

  Lucas visibly relaxed and finished pulling his shirt on.

  “It can also be a symbol for new beginnings, protection, and peace.”

  Lucas sat back down beside her and leaned back against the pillows. “Well, that’s a relief. None of those sound particularly murdery.”

  Skye pointed to the illuminated screen. “It does say that it’s a symbol for an erect phallus and fertilizing power.” She snorted when Lucas glared at her.

  “Well, I do frequently have an erect phallus around you, but I have no interest in kids at the moment. Someday, but definitely not any time soon.”

  Skye relaxed back against him, and he started playing with the ends of her hair again.

  “Feel better?”

  She nodded. “I’d feel a whole lot better if we knew where the hell it came from.”

  Lucas shrugged. “Probably a side effect of absorbing all the book’s energy.”

  Skye chewed on the inside of her cheek and considered. “I suppose so.” She turned her head up to look at his face. “You’re awfully calm for a man who just discovered a rune branded on his ribs.”

  “It’s hardly the worst thing I’ve had to deal with recently, and it’s not like it’s worse than Sparkles.”

  She kneeled in
the dirt, her hands clenched in the folds of a brown cloak. “Please,” she begged, her voice barely more than a rasp. “Please, I beg of you.”

  With a sharp tug, the cloak was jerked away and she fell onto her hands into the icy mud, which splattered all over her face and gown.

  “Away with you, Gypsy filth!” a man spat. “We have no use for your wickedness here.”

  She pushed up on trembling arms, looking up into the man’s face. “You have to help me.”

  His lips twisted in a snarl and his blue eyes darkened with disgust. “I will do no such thing, you good for nothing whore!”

  She flinched as if he’d slapped her. The jeering of the crowd that had gathered to watch her shamelessly debase herself by begging for this monster’s mercy only served to emphasize her desperation. If there was any other way, she’d never have willingly subjected herself to this.

  “Release me from this curse,” she begged, tears filling her eyes. “I cannot bear to watch another I love die. Please.”

  The man glanced around, his jaw clenching at her words. “I know not of what you speak, Gypsy.”

  “Are you not the head of the O’Leary line?” She sniffled, confusion wrinkling her brow.

  He was slow to nod. “Aye, I am.”

  “Then you must know of the curse. You, too, have been cursed. Tine minte amria…”

  The crowd hushed at her words, eager to hear the next words that fell from her lips. Hungry for a bit of gossip to spread about their councilman.

  The man drew back his arm and backhanded her across the face. “How dare you!” he cried in outrage. “I will not have you besmirch my family’s good name with your lies. There is no such thing as curses.”

  Her face exploded with pain, but she forced herself to meet his gaze. Her body trembled, and her hands balled into fists, but she did not back down. “Why do you lie? You know what Calum did to her. The way he damned us all with his spiteful words. One of his line is the only one that can take it back.”

  The man’s face was purple with rage, and he bent down to haul her to her feet. “I will not hear any more of your lies!” He began to drag her through the town square, making his way toward the constable.