Lifted Curse

by Owens, C. M.

  “He’s actually gone. He’s been gone for two days now. I’m surprised you’re just now noticing.”

  “Well I might have noticed sooner if he and Brazen weren’t icing me out.”

  “He had to go to Callan to track down the blood source. He took a team, they made the bust, and Hale handled the interrogations himself. They came out with quite a few leads, and Brazen’s team went to inspect Cheyenne.”

  “What did they find?”

  “Nothing. There’s nothing but dust on the surface, and they tried blowing up the underground access. They weren’t successful though. They did underground reads which checks for body temperatures below the surface, but there wasn’t anyone there. Either they’ve moved on, or they were never there. It’s possible she was wrong about the location.”

  “I don’t think so. Cheyenne runs deep. Those readers aren’t strong enough to reach some places. I’m sure they’ve moved on by now though if we’ve already played our hand. Damn it,” I growl, and the walls around me vibrate as my frustration shines through.

  “I need you to speak to Nicholas,” he blurts out.

  “I don’t think so. There’s no need to know about my mother. I heard that part too,” I grumble, and his eyes narrow.

  “You’re eyes are streaked with more purple than ever before. I’m worried there’s more to be told about you that we don’t know, and we have to know everything, Araya. Your power, strength, and gifts are growing almost daily now. Your savage is a hell of a lot stronger than ever before, and you’re barely in control for split seconds anymore. At this rate, we’re going to have to bump you up from an eight to a nine.”

  My teeth grind together as my jaws clench. I hate to admit he’s right. I’m getting more dangerous by the minute, and the last thing I want to do is hurt someone I care about.

  “Fine. Call Nicholas and let’s get this over with,” I strain out, and his eyes gape open.

  “You’re sure?”

  “Don’t ask me that, and don’t dawdle. Take it while I’m offering before I change my mind.”

  “I’ll do it,” he says quickly, and then he pulls out his phone to make the call I’ve been dreading for far too long.

  Can I do this without Hale’s help? What if I lose it?

  I have to learn to handle myself at some point, and now is as good a time as any I suppose.

  Chapter 5

  The Road to Hale is Paved with Savage Intentions

  Nicholas sits across from me, and I can see his nerves dancing carelessly over his skin as he squirms under my glare.

  “Are you sure you’re ready for this?” he asks shakily.

  “No, but I also need to know what I’m capable of before I hurt someone. If you feel it has any bearings on such, then tell me now before I back out.”

  He takes a deep breath, and Angelica’s eyes waver with pain showing her sympathy for the father she grew up with. Just being in the same room with him damn near makes me want to go savage. Fortunately I was wise enough to give myself several injections of olophine before coming in here.

  He finally releases his breath as he starts from the beginning. His voice is meek, worried, and very close to trembling as he tries to explain.

  “Your mother was my informant, as you already know. She had the right gene, and we needed her information. Everything should have gone right, but it all went terribly wrong instead.

  “Her name was Cleo Everest. She was beautiful - more so than humans should be. She was an emergent,” he reveals, and every breath becomes trapped in our mouths - other than Grayson who looks clueless.

  Brazen walks in just as the big bomb is dropped, and he sits beside me to take my hand in his.

  “Emergents were just urban legends,” he rebuts, and I lean into his comforting embrace as Nicholas continues.

  “That’s what we wanted everyone to think, but emergents were very much real - as real as you or I. We kept a lid on their existence, and all emergents were put to death. She had somehow passed the tests for full blood initiation without us finding out. The second I took her blood, I knew it was wrong. I could taste the difference, and she had managed to hide her secret for years despite the numerous blood donations, physical exams, and so much more. She had help, but I never found out who. She was the only living emergent I’ve ever known.”

  I’m almost pale after hearing the revelation, and my lips don’t even attempt to move for fear of quivering out of place. Brazen’s grip tightens around me as he puts my wavering emotions ahead of his anger.

  “What the hell is an emergent?” Grayson asks with some irritation.

  Clay sighs as he leans forward gripping his head, and Nicholas explains, “An emergent is an evolved human that mutates upon the virus being injected. It often takes a couple of years before it shows itself. They become stronger, faster, smarter, but viciously uncontrollable with only the thirst for blood being their driving force, their only desire, and the deadliest catalyst you’ve ever seen. They’re strong enough to slay full bloods without so much as breaking a sweat. They’re strong enough to withstand the force of a gifted hybrid as well. In one rampage, Araya’s mother killed fifteen men without ever taking one shot. We brought her down the only way we could, and it cost us a facility. It was one of the most emotionally taxing things I’ve ever gone through.”

  Tears drip vigorously from my eyes, and Brazen starts cooing in my ear as he tries to soothe me. I lightly sob into his chest as he strokes my hair. His lips press softly against the top of my head, and I cling to him as if he’s the only thing holding me steady - because he is.

  I was born from a monster.

  “Is that why you put me in Cheyenne?”

  Nicholas’s eyes droop to display the mounds of shame and guilt mingling with pain as he murmurs in a near muted tone, “Of course not. You were never supposed to be there. First of all, emergents were thought to be sterile, and it was rapidly apparent she was pregnant. You were the first child to ever be born from an emergent, and that makes you special, not like her. You’re nothing like her,” he promises.

  “She didn’t know she was going to be like that either,” I bellow.

  “She did know, Araya. She wanted to be changed so she could exact her revenge on her old gang. Don’t pity her one bit. I don’t blame her for keeping it a secret, but I do hold her accountable for the damage she did cause and intended to cause.

  “I didn’t send you to Cheyenne. I had you placed under the care of my human assistant until I could come care for you myself. Your eyes were a vibrant violet, stunningly so. I had never seen anything like it. I didn’t ask questions because I loved you no matter what. Then your mother turned almost a year after you were born. I was ordered to relinquish you for ashing. They didn’t want to take the chance of you growing up to be an even more deadly version of an emergent. I couldn’t do that. I had stared into those eyes, and I knew there was nothing wrong with you. You were a miracle, not an abomination. You were something incredible, new, and so much more evolved than the rest of us, and I was right. I gave you a metablocker, and I watched your eyes turn blue with just the faintest purple rim daring to reveal the truth about my precious baby girl. It was strong, and I prayed it kept your secret buried deeper than a shallow grave.

  “After that, I did the only thing I could think of, and I called an underground hybrid runner. I had busted her ring years earlier to find she was helping hybrids out of the nations to find peace in hybrid compounds in the unaligned. If they were gifted, they had to keep it silent, and they weren’t hurting anyone so I let her go. I called her, and she was glad to take you to find a suitable home. Another troop busted them on the run, and she was beheaded for her treason. The hybrid children were dispersed, and you were among them.

  “As soon as I found out about the attack, I tried to find you. I went compound to compound, but I never could recover you. I never would have dreamt you would make it all the way to Cheyenne, and I only recently discovered you were taken there days after I
had searched for you in that same place. After several decades, I decided I had to give up. I didn’t want you to know me because I felt as if I had let you down. I tried so hard to find you,” he chokes out, and the tears drench his face as he tries to swallow the enormous wads of emotion.

  “I saw a picture of you in a United special not too long ago when you received an award. Those purple rimmed eyes gave you away. I framed the picture and hid it in my desk drawer. I was so proud to see you had grown into a magnificent woman. I was so happy I made the right decision, and then I learned of how you suffered. It ached to read those gruesome details. It made me physically sick, and I couldn’t even look at myself in the mirror. Obviously I couldn’t tell you then.

  “Then one day I’m sitting in my office, and your résumé slides in front of my eyes. I was dumbfounded, terrified, and shaking so hard the paper rattled in my hands as I read your request for a job. I should have said no, and I debated for a while about how to proceed. I decided it wouldn’t be fair to you for me to selfishly bring you in under the guise of a job when all I wanted to do was get to know my daughter. I came here to the Seminole to get the grant for the hybrid school, and I literally ran into you. I had to speak to you, so I brought up the job. You jumped at the job I never thought you would take considering Seminole is a much bigger, more prominent place. I was excited and at the same time I felt the weight of the guilt for what you had gone through. I’m so sorry, Araya. I never meant to hurt you or to let you be hurt.”

  The volume of his tears are as overwhelming as mine. Angelica hides her face in Grayson’s chest so as not to let her own tears impose on our moment. It’s too much for me to digest right now though, and I have to get more medicine. I thought I had enough, but I don’t. I don’t know whether to forgive him or hate him even more. The weight he has unloaded has landed on my chest, and it’s suffocating me.

  “I need to get some air,” I wheeze out, and Clay quickly hands me a vial of olophine.

  I inject myself without hesitance as I climb to my feet. I start to speak to Nicholas, but I can’t. My mouth opens, but the words refuse to be shed. He looks away to hide his shame when I don’t offer him anything at all, and then I dart out of the room before the savage burns through the medicine that doesn’t feel as strong as it used to.

  “Araya, baby, stop,” Brazen calls from behind as I rush to get away.

  I slam into a table, and I look up to see the mirror on the wall. The purple has grown even more as it streaks through my blue like lightening around the dilating pupils.

  “I’m changing,” I mumble numbly into the mirror.

  “I can get you more medicine,” he says while whipping me around, and his eyes widen when he sees the crazy going on in my eyes.

  “You need to get away,” I caution.

  “No. I’m not leaving you. Let me get some fucking meds, and then I’ll take you to my place. You’re sleeping with me tonight, no arguments.”

  I start sobbing all the harder as a new feeling spreads throughout me. My savage feels different. It doesn’t feel as threatening, but at the same time, it feels even more dangerous. I feel it consuming me now, and it’s too late for the medicine he’s promising. I look up to meet his eyes, and again his eyes show their panic.

  “Fuck,” he breathes, and I smirk as I take a step back from his arms.

  “I’m not going to hurt you unless you try to stop me,” I caution, and he seems so confused.

  “Baby, please don’t leave me right now,” he coaxes, and it’s as if he’s talking to a woman strapped to a bomb in the middle of a crowded room. “I just want to help you.”

  “I don’t need your help,” I sizzle free in my eerie tone. “Now run along, full blood, before you get hurt. You’re messing with things far beyond your control.”

  “Brazen get away from her now,” Clay orders as he rushes out of the room. “Keep Nicholas back,” he says while turning to the fearful face of Grayson.

  “Where is he, Clay?” I demand, and he puts himself between me and Brazen while Angelica begins pulling black the full blood in love with me.

  “I don’t know. He hasn’t checked in, and his phone is off. Please take some medicine for me,” he softly prompts, and I just smile all the more deviously.

  “Not going to happen. You should know better, old friend.”

  “She’s acting different,” he murmurs to Grayson as he comes to take his side.

  “She isn’t acting like we do when we lose it, but she sure the fuck isn’t her,” Grayson chirps.

  “I’m more me than I ever have been. I suggest you let me leave without any problems. I’ll find him on my own,” I rattle out confidently, sex slithering around in my tone, and my hair swishes as I turn on my heel and head toward Clay’s apartment.

  Brazen’s panic brings an even bigger smile to my face as I hear him behind my back saying, “Where’s she going? You can’t let her go anywhere like that. What if she hurts-”

  “You can’t stop her. I have to try and get a hold of Hale,” Clay interrupts, and I just keep my stride as I go to find something more suitable to wear for my reunion with my love.

  The bar is oozing with sweat, sex, and the stench of full bloods layering the floors as they sip their whiskey and bask in their drunken glory. Out in the middle of nowhere, this place is the place where even the scum are too good to travel. The loud music rattles the walls with less aggression than I soon will, and the smoky filled air is laced with traces of alcohol breath and stale memories of death.

  “A hybrid,” one snorts, and I smirk before he goes flying across the bar and into the wall.

  The obnoxious music ceases, and all eyes glare at me for the out-of-place situation I’m in. I can smell him though. He was here. He’s not here now, but he was. One of them will know where he went just like the last bar I visited that now lies in shambles, the wind still carrying its ashes through the air as a warning to anyone that opposes me.

  “Who the fuck are you?” one growls.

  “I’m the one who is going to tear you to shreds if you don’t tell me where Hale Banner is,” I threaten, and they all look beyond pissed after my little warning.

  “I don’t know who the fuck Hale Banner is, nor do I give a fuck. You need to leave now, doll, before this gets ugly.”

  “This whole damn bar is already full of ugly. I just plan on sprucing it up,” I retort, and then I feel a bullet shattering against my invincible skin.

  The wide eyes of all are met with my streaked purple and menacing ones as I dust off the fragments which have made a hole in my black leather corset.

  “I just got this,” I murmur menacingly before looking back up, and then I fling my hands out to throw them all through the walls of the shack built in the disguise of a bar. Bottles shatter, bones crack, and the walls crash into rubble as I effortlessly walk through the debris. My clothes are ripped by the firing bullets, uranium tipped knives, and shards flying toward me, but I remain unfazed as I use both gifts at once, dusting the silly uranium fragments off me like specks of sand.

  Then the unstoppable finale brings all the remaining lives to a halt as the bar explodes around me. The air ripples as it carries the sound around, and the blinding lights just illuminate my destruction. I smirk as I walk away, and I grab another car to drive before using my gift to draw my name in the fire. I’ll find him, or I’ll lead him to me. Either way, I’m not stopping until we’re together.

  The dirt slings up behind me as I feel I’m getting closer. My phone rings, and I crush it in my hands when I see that full blood’s name on it. What fool hybrid is torn between a full blood and a hybrid? The choice is simple, and now I can make it easily without pause.

  It’s Hale. It’s always, always, always Hale.

  Several miles down the road is the place I feel his presence the strongest, and I smile when I see his car. Found him.

  I step out in front of the slinky strip club, and I smell sex oozing from the cracks made in the simple gray stone bu
ilding holding the fun inside. My clothes feel so confining in a place like this. I wouldn’t have bothered changing, but I couldn’t let Hale see me in the tattered rags I was wearing after the last filthy bar I was in.

  I peel out of my black leather pants, and my incredibly sexy, lacy, corseted ensemble underneath reveals itself once my shirt falls to the dirt.

  I adjust the stockings which are clipped to my thighs, and my heels give me a couple more inches of seduction as I saunter into the back door. The smoke rolls out through the doors, and I can taste the ash of cigars as I stalk toward the tall man with a clipboard.

  “I’m dancing next,” I murmur, my tone more insistent than questioning, and I hear him huff as if in frustration.

  “Look, I’ve got at least-”

  His sentence falls flat once he sees me, and his gaping mouth and widened eyes trail up and down my body as he stares me down.

  “Yes you are,” he sizzles out. “Name your song.”

  “Fucking Obsession,” I smolder out, and he smirks as he walks over to get my request ready.

  I stare out over the hazy film tainting the air, and my smile grows when I see the object of my quest sitting front and center in one of the curled around booths. It’s a private setting where he can only be viewed from the front. No one behind him or beside him can see him, and he’s talking to another guy as the girl on stage does her best to lure in some attention.

  I hear the music to my song start playing, and I start my slinky walk toward the stage to play the role of the temptress while pulling on a mask from the prop table. It’s a small, masquerade mask with bedazzled embellishments to offer a sexier appeal.

  The music intro of the song is enough to draw out Hale’s attention. It’s our song. The first song we ever fucked to, and it’s loud, fast and hard just like I like it. His hands steeple the moment he sees me spin around the pole, and I can feel him wanting me from a distance. The mask doesn’t hide me from him, and I let the lyrics of the song seduce him.