Cursed (Book 1, The Watchers; Young Adult Paranormal Romance)

by S. J. West

  “Enjoy your meal.” The way he grinned at me made me lose my appetite. He vanished.

  Justin didn’t come back to my prison. Apparently Robert had been put in charge of bringing me my meals for the remainder of my stay. He would usually just hand me my plate and glass of water and leave without trying to make a lot of small talk. I was thankful for that, just being around him made my skin crawl. I don’t know how long I’d been trapped in my stone cell, but I knew Robert had been to see me at least fifteen times. Each time he appeared, I hoped it would be Brand, but it became evident that dream would not come true. To say I missed Brand didn’t adequately describe my true feelings. Every cell in my body cried out for his touch. If only I could see him one more time maybe I could meet death without so much regret. Regret for not fighting to be with him when he pushed me away thinking he was protecting me.

  “Hello, Lilly.”

  Startled out of my reverie, I saw Robert standing over me. Not only did he startle me with his presence but his timing. He’d only been here a short while ago to give me my last meal.

  “What are you doing here?”

  His hooded eyes lowered even further and he smiled like a man possessing no conscious. “I thought you might be getting lonely.”

  “I’m fine by myself,” I told him, becoming nervous about his motives.

  “Come come, Lilly. We both know I find you attractive,” he walked closer to me.

  I hopped off my cot and stood in the nearest corner of my room with my back to the walls. Was this seriously happening to me?

  “Going to play hard to get?”

  “Not hard,” I told him, trying to think of someway to escape, knowing there was none, “impossible.”

  “Well, I do like a challenge in some things, but I’ve never had to force my intentions on a human before. How are you immune to my natural charms?”

  “Justin probably won’t like what you’re about to do,” I said grasping at the last straw I had.

  “Justin’s busy at the moment. He won’t know until it’s too late. Besides,” he said shrugging as he slowly walked closer toward me, almost like he was feeding his ego with my fear, “it won’t take very long. Unless you want it to, of course.”

  I became light headed and nauseous with the thought that Robert would be the one to take my virginity. I felt trapped, suffocating on the knowledge of the fate awaiting me in his hands.

  When he finally stood in front of me in my corner, he reached out and grabbed my face roughly.

  “What is it about you that makes me feel this way?” he whispered, more to himself than actually expecting me to have an answer for him. “If you don’t fight me, I can make this a pleasurable experience for you,” his hand travelled from my face down my neck. “I can assure you I’ve never had any complaints before.”

  “The only way something like you would ever get anything from me is by force. I’d rather die than give myself willingly to a soulless creature like you.”

  My words didn’t seem to have much of an affect on him. He simply smiled and grabbed my arms. Before I knew it, he was laying on top of me on the cot kissing my throat with so much pressure I thought my neck might break. I tried to struggle but he was just too strong. I started to scream as loudly as I could hoping it would be distracting and cause him to falter in his plans but he didn’t stop. If anything, it just made him more determined. I closed my eyes praying that it would all be over soon.

  Then his weight was suddenly lifted off me. I opened my eyes in time to see him fly across the room, hitting the far wall and falling to the floor in a crumpled heap.

  Justin stood over me.

  “Are you all right, child?”

  All I could do was nod mutely.

  Justin walked over to Robert and picked him up by the neck like he weighed nothing.

  “I give you a simple chore and this is how you behave?” he hissed.

  “She’s just a human,” Robert said, spitting the last word out like it was a curse.

  “A human under my protection. Get out of my sight, Robert. I don’t want to see you again for a long while.” Justin let Robert go.

  Before he left, Robert looked at me with a hatred I’ve never seen on anyone’s face before. Once Robert was gone, Justin turned to me.

  “I’m sorry for my brother’s ill manners. He’s never been one to forsake his baser needs, even when the occasion is inappropriate.”

  He came to stand by my cot again. “I’m afraid our time together is coming to an end, Lilly. He’ll be here soon.”

  It was time. Time for me to die. I knew the day would be coming but to actually be faced with my last minutes of life was something I wasn’t ready for. I wanted to run but had nowhere to run to.

  “I’ll let you spend some time preparing yourself. When he leaves, I’ll come back and end the torment you’ve been forced to live with.”

  When Justin vanished, I broke down. I couldn’t think. I could barely breathe. Facing death was something I thought I wouldn’t have to do until I was much older. Realizing that my life was going to end in this cold stone room made me want to beg for just a little more life. Why, after I’d finally found a love that could nourish my heart and soul did my life have to end so soon? What sort of justice was that?

  I lay down on the cot in a ball and tried to relive my night with Brand in my memory one last time. Losing myself in that night over and over again had been the only thing keeping me from going completely mad in my confinement. At least I’d had one perfect night with him. It was all I would ever get. All the happiness I would ever be able to experience in his arms.

  And then I felt it in the pit of my stomach.

  He was coming.

  The person who wanted me dead was near. I could feel his aura getting closer to me. I thought my skin and muscles would melt off my bones just from the heat of his near presence. It triggered something inside me. I’m not sure if I was imagining things or losing control of my mind but I could almost hear what he was thinking. He kept repeating to himself that my sacrifice was necessary. He knew I was an innocent in what was about to happen but that my sacrifice would preserve what he loved most. He felt regret and righteousness over my death all at the same time. The power of his thoughts scared me. I didn’t want to die. I wanted to be with Brand.

  I said Brand’s name over and over and over in my mind, concentrating on his face, on the love we shared for one another. I refused to think of anything else.

  And then it happened.

  I phased back to the one place I wanted to be.

  I knew I wasn’t in the stone room anymore almost instantly. I sat upright.

  I was lying on Brand’s bed, alone.

  “Brand!”

  I’m not sure how many times I screamed his name, afraid to move, but it didn’t take long before I heard footsteps coming up the stairs and down the hallway. After what seemed like a lifetime, he finally opened the bedroom door. He stood there motionless, just staring at me unblinking like I might be a phantom of his imagination and disappear if he moved. I could tell he’d been crying and his eyes looked haunted with a pain I’d never seen in anyone else except for myself.

  I flung myself off the bed and into his arms before I could take another breath. He held me so tight I thought my ribs might crack at any moment, but I didn’t care. I didn’t care about anything except being in his arms. I started to cry uncontrollably.

  “Shh, Lilly, you’re safe. You’re home.” He repeated the words to me over and over through his own tears trying to reassure us both that everything was all right. I clung to him fiercely, trying to convince myself that I wasn’t hallucinating. That I wasn’t just dreaming again.

  He touched his lips to mine in a kiss filled with a desperate need to prove I wasn’t an illusion and to make us both forget the pain of our forced separation. I wrapped my arms around his neck and responded to him with an urgency I’d never felt before. I needed him. I wanted him and I knew he wanted me too. We fell back on the
bed never losing contact between our bodies. The more I touched him the more alive I felt. I didn’t want to stop. I wanted to feel his skin against mine to wash away the memories of loss and sorrow I had endured the past few days.

  I pulled his shirt out of his pants and started to unbutton it. Becoming frustrated with the buttons, a pitiful whine escaped from between my lips. I felt Brand’s hands leave my waist. Before I knew it, he tore his shirt off himself, sending the maddening buttons across the bedroom. I pulled my T-shirt off over my head in one quick movement and threw it to the floor on the other side of the bed.

  The feel of Brand’s bare skin against mine was addictive. I wanted more. I needed to feel all of him. I put my hands on the waist of his pants attempting in my haste to unbutton them.

  I felt his hands on mine before I could start.

  “Lilly,” he said in a breathless, hoarse voice. “Lilly, no. Not like this.” He laced his finger with mine, bringing them up over my head entwined.

  “I want you,” I pleaded, kissing the line of his jaw up to his ear. “Make love to me. Make me feel alive,” I whispered.

  Brand found my lips again, gripping my hands even tighter. I could feel his racing heart beating against my chest. His fingers slowly let go of mine. I felt them on my face gently pushing me back to break the contact of our lips.

  When I looked down into his silver-grey eyes, I could see his desire to follow through with my demands but his head gently shook from side to side.

  “It shouldn’t be like this Lilly,” he said looking at me with more love than I could have ever imagined anyone ever feeling for me in a million lifetimes. “I don’t want your first time to be rushed like this. Do you remember the dream I had?”

  I nodded my head slowly.

  “Then you know how beautiful it will be. Please, let me make it like that for you. Let me make it something we’ll both remember for the rest of our lives.”

  I laid down on top of him, hugging him close to me, finding contentment in his nearness. He held me just as tightly. After a few minutes, our hearts stopped racing.

  “Can you tell me what happened?” he asked gently, slowly running his hand up and down my back.

  “Justin came to my room just after you left me,” I began. “He put me in some sort of prison. I have no idea where it was. The room didn’t have any windows or doors so I couldn’t see anything.”

  “That’s where you’ve been all this time?”

  “Yes. How long have I been gone?”

  He paused before answering, like it was hard for him say. “Six days.”

  I lifted my face off of his chest and looked into his eyes. “He was waiting to kill me.”

  “What was he waiting for?” His eyes tightened.

  “The person who ordered him to do it wanted to see me first. He said they wanted to explain why I needed to die personally.”

  “Did you see them?”

  “No,” I said hesitantly. “I didn’t see them, but I felt them coming.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “It was like I could feel the air surrounding them getting closer to me. And I could hear what they were thinking and I felt the emotions they were having. I knew I was about to die,” I couldn’t help the tears which spilled so freely at the memory of hopelessness I’d felt in that moment. “I didn’t want to die. I couldn’t die without seeing you one more time. I kept repeating your name in my head over and over again, imagining I was here with you. And then I was here.”

  Brand was quiet for a moment obviously understanding the implications of what I had just said. “You phased yourself here?”

  All I could do was nod. How could I explain what I didn’t understand myself?

  He held me tighter. “You’re safe now. We’ll figure out what happened together.”

  “But what does it mean?” I looked back into his eyes to see what he was thinking. All I could see was confusion. He didn’t have any idea how I could have the power to phase either.

  “Let’s not worry about that right now, Lilly. You’re home. That’s all that matters.”

  After a few minutes of lying together, reassuring ourselves that we weren’t imagining our reunion, Brand said, “We need to tell everyone you’re all right.”

  We put our shirts back on and I followed Brand downstairs. He sat on one of the stools by the kitchen counter pulling me in between his legs, unwilling to let me be far from him. He pulled his cell phone out of his pant’s pocket finding the number he wanted quickly.

  “Will, Lilly’s at my house. Bring Tara.”

  He then called a second number quickly. “Malcolm, she’s back.”

  Before I knew it, I was being swept up into two strong arms.

  Malcolm held me tightly to his chest, like a child does a doll.

  “Where are you been, dearest?” he asked. I could hear the anguish he’d been through in the past few days clearly in his voice. He kissed me chastely on the lips and sat me back down on the floor gently like I might break.

  Brand was there by my side placing a possessive arm around my shoulders, but he refrained from glaring at Malcolm too much. I guess he was letting Malcolm’s over exuberance slide under the circumstances.

  I told Malcolm what I had told Brand about my experiences since being abducted.

  “Justin will pay for this,” Malcolm said with such vengeance, it took me by surprise.

  We saw car headlights shine through the windows. Before I knew it, Tara and Will were running through Brand’s front door and enveloping me in their arms. None of us said anything. It almost felt like old times again. The three musketeers were back together.

  “Where have you been, girl?” Tara sobbed holding me tighter, her shoulders shaking uncontrollably from her tears.

  “It’s a long story,” I answered, holding my two best friends as tightly as I could.

  Tara didn’t seem in any rush to hear my tale. But I think that was because she was in a state of shock.

  “Excuse me.”

  I looked up and saw a police officer standing in Brand’s doorway.

  “Ms. Nightingale?” he asked, walking closer to us.

  “Yes?” What was a police officer doing here?

  “I was at Ms. Jenkin’s place when she learned you were here. I was wondering if you could tell me where you’ve been. We’ve had people out looking for you for a while now.”

  I didn’t know what to say. The police had been looking for me? What was I going to tell this nice man? That I’d been kidnapped by a vampire and held captive against my will in a stone room that existed somewhere in time and space but I didn’t know where exactly?

  “She was with me, Officer,” Malcolm came up to me and put his hands possessively on my shoulders.

  “Willingly?” the officer asked, eyeing Malcolm suspiciously.

  Malcolm grinned. “Of course.”

  I saw Brand come stand beside us with a murderous look in his eyes, focused completely on Malcolm. Malcolm’s hands began massaging my shoulders in an intimate gesture.

  “Can you tell me where you two have been the last few days?” The officer asked, dubiously.

  “We’ve been in Las Vegas,” Malcolm answered. “I wanted to show Lilly all I had to offer her. We simply lost track of time if you know what I mean.” The easy way he told his lie even made me think it had happened. I didn’t appreciate what he was insinuating, and I saw the thundercloud over Brand’s head darken.

  The officer sighed in exasperation. “Well, the next time you two decide to take a lover’s vacation, would you please tell Ms. Jenkin’s. She’s had us combing this city for Ms. Nightingale for almost a week now.”

  “Please accept our apologies,” Malcolm said. “If there’s anything I can do to make reparations for your time I would consider it an honor. A police fund perhaps?”

  “Well, I guess that would be appreciated,” the officer said, seeming mollified by Malcolm’s offer.

  Malcolm let go of my shoulders and walked to the
officer easily leading him back outside discussing how to go about making a generous contribution to the local police.

  Once the officer was out of ear shot, Tara said, “What was that all about?” She looked at me completely confused. “I know you weren’t with Malcolm. What’s goin’ on? Why would he lie like that?”

  How could I explain everything to Tara? I knew I didn’t have the strength to tell her everything she needed to know, not now.

  “Tara, you need to trust us right now,” I said to her. “This just isn’t the time to explain everything. You deserve an explanation, but I really need you to just trust me.”

  “But I’m gonna get some answers right? The truth, not that bullshit Malcolm just spewed?”

  “I promise you. Tomorrow we’ll all sit down and tell you everything. I just don’t have the energy to do it right now.”

  “We’re just glad you’re back,” Will said, taking me into his arms.

  It was the first time in a long time Will and I held each other like this, like we used to when we were kids. Could Will and I finally connect like that again and leave all of what happened in the last couple of years behind us? I hoped so. I desperately wanted my friend back, my confidant. Will pulled back and kissed me on the forehead before letting me go.

  Brand was there taking one of my hands in his. “Right now, I think we should forget about all this for at least a night. You need to get some rest,” he said to me.

  I couldn’t deny I was extremely tired, but I didn’t want to leave Brand.

  “I’m not leaving you,” I told him in a voice that he couldn’t argue against.

  Brand looked to Tara and Will as if asking permission for me to stay the night. I think I might have laughed at his sense of propriety if I hadn’t been so exhausted.

  “I guess that’d be all right, for one night,” Tara amended. She pointed a finger at Brand, “But you have her back home first thing in the morning. Y’all got some explaining to do.”

  Will’s expression was harder to read. “Lilly’s a grown woman. She can make her own decisions. Just make sure you keep her safe.”