The Curse (Beladors)

by Sherrilyn Kenyon

  But underestimating Quinn as nothing more than a party boy would be akin to keeping a pet pit viper.

  One mistake and you’re dead.

  Tonight he’d donned a dark turtleneck and sleek pants, both probably made of some hi-tech material being tested for military use.

  Quinn continued, “These are quite valuable animals. They are a genetically superior line of cattle the owner has spent a small fortune raising as breeding stock for new herds. He’s lost two cows in the last thirty hours, and now he’s moved his herd indoors until someone figures out what is killing them. Our Belador contacts in law enforcement and animal control talked him into allowing them to substitute another group of cows as bait for tonight.”

  Casper scrunched up one side of his face with a frown. “Usually takes more than losing a few head of cattle to get any serious agency attention.”

  “True,” Quinn acknowledged. “This became high profile—and drew VIPER’s attention—because of the way the cows were killed and the evidence left around the attacks.”

  Evalle sorted through what they knew so far and played devil’s advocate. “So what if this thing we’re hunting can tell the difference between that farmer’s prize stock and a plain old cow? What’s going to make this bait work?”

  Tzader answered, “We’re hoping whatever is killing the cows will come back again out of habit, and it attacked only pregnant cows. We have a lot of those in this herd. Our plan is to catch this thing before it figures out the switch.”

  She understood cows were grown for food, but anything that harmed an expectant mother was evil and needed to die in misery. “I say the minute something with teeth shows up, we kill it.”

  “There’s the woman I want covering my six.” Casper chuckled.

  The sigh that escaped Tzader said he wished she was joking, but he’d given her the dagger she carried—that had a death spell on the blade—as a gift, and knew she didn’t use it to peel potatoes. “We need to capture this thing, Evalle, to figure out what it is and where it came from. There were only a couple footprints with deep claw marks found around all the cows that were attacked.”

  “Footprints as in feet, not paws or hooves?” Trey asked in a grumpy please-tell-me-you’re-kidding voice. Short brown hair stood up in all directions on his head, especially when he raked his fingers back and forth through it like he was doing now. Some men might claim that as a hairstyle, but with Trey it was pure bed-head. When you were built like a linebacker and supercharged with unusual powers, you could wear your hair any way you wanted.

  Evalle grinned at Trey and teased, “Yeah, we’re after Bigfoot now. This just gets better all the time.”

  “He’s right,” Tzader cut in. “What?” she sputtered. “Like human feet with claws?”

  Tzader nodded his bald head. “The feet and toes are human in shape. From the depth of the footprint and span of where the feet seemed to hit the ground in a stepping pattern we’ve estimated its size at over nine feet and weight somewhere around five-hundred pounds give or take some. The claws curving off the toes are three inches long and appear razor sharp.”

  “That’d gut a buffalo,” Casper reasoned. “I’m guessing this thing is coming in from the sky with so few prints to go on.”

  “That’s what we figure, too,” Tzader confirmed. “The bite marks on the bodies where the flesh was torn open were ten inches wide and indicate a double row of teeth that could rip through muscle and snap bones.”

  Lovely. Evalle muttered, “Carnivorous Bigfoot with wings. And you want us to catch that before it eats something else?”

  She had no doubt that Tzader had heard her with his exceptional hearing, but he kept talking as if he hadn’t. “Here’s the plan.”

  Tzader explained the layout of the pasture, which backed up to the woods behind the abandoned gas station, then added, “The new herd was fed a few hours ago, and recon says they’re bedded down near the end of the pasture where we’ll exit the woods. That’s where we should find them. Since no humans are involved, everyone is authorized to use their powers tonight, but we need this thing alive … unless the decision comes down to your life or a team member’s.”

  Evalle would follow Tzader into any battle without question, but she didn’t get why they had to capture this thing. They destroyed demons and other dangerous dark creatures all the time, the point being to rid the world of supernatural predators.

  Before she could ask, power surged into Evalle’s mind when Tzader addressed all the Beladors telepathically. It’s time to link with Evalle so we’ll all have night vision.

  No reply was needed. Belador warriors followed the orders of a Maistir without question.

  Evalle lowered her mental shields and energy surged into her, feeling like a blast of adrenaline from all the powers linked, but it settled down just as quickly. She looked over at Casper. “We’re linked and using my vision.”

  He nodded, moving his fingers up to his monocular.

  Trailing behind Tzader, Evalle entered the woods, having forgotten how noisy crickets and frogs could be outside the city. She kept her thoughts to herself while she climbed over a rusty wire fence and pushed her way through thick underbrush, rattling branches in the wake of Tzader’s quieter moves.

  Something squawked and flapped, diving from somewhere above her.

  Evalle swung her hands up, prepared to use her kinetic power against an attack, but Tzader shouted in her head, Don’t! Just a couple turkeys.

  Close behind her, Casper muttered, “Never taking you hunting, that’s for sure.”

  She released a stream of air that came out as a hiss of frustration and put her hands down. Back when she’d first been brought into the Beladors, she’d had survival training in a frigid climate. Her experience in southern rural settings had been minimal.

  Catching up to Tzader, she asked him privately mind-to-mind, Hey, Z, what does VIPER expect to learn from taking this thing in alive?

  He had to turn sideways and lift his arms to squeeze through an opening in a patch of blackberry bushes that snagged Evalle’s jeans when she passed through behind him.

  Just another reason to stay out of the boondocks.

  Put her in the middle of any metropolitan landscape and she was pure stealth, but right now she was making more noise than Quinn, Trey and Casper together.

  Trey and Casper she could understand since they both had grown up in the country, but Quinn surprised her. She hadn’t expected him to be so fluid and silent out here.

  Tzader finally answered her. One of the people I know up the food chain in the government has reason to believe that someone has been doing secret testing on strange animals in a private facility. This attack fits their intel. They need to know if this creature is a result of someone’s experiments and where it came from.

  You mean they think someone created this thing we’re after in a lab?

  Maybe.

  Considering that implication, something more significant struck her. She’d always been told never to expose her powers to a human. But I thought the humans and the government aren’t supposed to know we exist.

  You know we have Beladors in national security positions … this is coming down from those offices. The concern in his voice said there was more at stake than a few cows.

  What do you mean, Z? They think this thing could cause a national disaster or something?

  Worse than that. One reason VIPER was formed was out of concern over preternatural creatures being used in terrorist operations. Our people in Washington need a definitive answer that someone is or is not developing creatures like the one we’re hunting, and if so, why? Plus, they need to know quickly, because the president is making a campaign stop here this week. That’s why we can’t just kill this thing and risk another one popping up unexpectedly.

  She wanted to ask more questions but they’d reached a fence that looked like the normal white-board, three-slat fencing in rural areas until she stepped up close. A laser beam ran between support posts. On
the inside of the fence, wires had been stretched through two-inch metal support tabs and power hummed from the wires. A warning had been stamped on the outside of each wood section that read: NO TRESPASSING: ELECTRIC CHARGE - DANGEROUS.

  Tzader’s orders to the team filled her head. Trey, give Casper a hand so he can make it over the fence, then we’ll follow him on our own.

  She turned around as Tzader gave Casper hand signals.

  Casper had the ability to shift into a shadow that could attach to a surface or move like vapor, but sending him over the fence in his human form was more efficient right now.

  Standing with his back to the fence, Trey wove his fingers together to make a step support for launching Casper. Leaning forward, he bent one knee to support his arms.

  Casper nodded at him then took several long strides and stepped into Trey’s big hands. With the boost of Trey’s kinetics, Casper flew up and over the fence in an arc fifteen feet off the ground, flipping in the air and landing on his feet.

  Grinning, of course.

  Evalle and the other Beladors used their kinetic powers to take a high leap over the fence on their own, landing well inside a shorter electric “hot” wire fence meant to keep the cattle away from the higher-voltage rails. As she sailed across the barriers, the evening breeze was flush with the odor of cow manure and grass. Once inside the pasture, Tzader directed the team to move across the field to where a small herd of cows had bedded down for the night beneath the half moon. The cows chewed their cud and made soft mooing noises as the team approached.

  Evalle had never had a pet and knew zero about farm animals, but as she got closer she saw a field of bellies obviously swollen with baby calves.

  All the cows were pregnant?

  She could not sit here and watch those animals get attacked, but before she voiced her concern, Tzader gave a hand motion and communicated silently to the Beladors. Surround the pregnant cows. Stay at least seventy-five feet back.

  As they created a perimeter, Evalle said to Tzader, We could use a tracker who can follow something preternatural. This would be a good time to have that tracker you keep telling Sen we need.

  Sen acted as a liaison between VIPER agents and the ruling Tribunal body … when he wasn’t acting like an A-hole. But he saved the majority of his obnoxious personality traits to use on Evalle.

  He considered Alterants a genetic blight on the rest of the world.

  Sen could take his opinion and shove it where he kept his head most days.

  Tzader cut off her wandering thoughts when he said, Sen claims he’s found a potential tracker who’s coming in soon. A Navajo shaman.

  Evalle said, I’ll believe it when I see it.

  Don’t know that it would matter in this case unless the shaman could follow something with wings.

  Tzader had a point.

  Evalle found a place to flatten close to the ground where she wouldn’t end up with her face in fresh cow poop. She was just getting settled when she caught a movement in the woods a hundred yards away on the opposite side of the cow she was nearest.

  The way the men were positioned like hour marks in an oblong circle around the herd, she was the only one who might have noticed the movement.

  She slowed her breathing to listen, but everything was quiet. Silent, in fact.

  No chirping or croaking.

  Should she say something to the others? No way. Not until she determined what she’d seen was more than just a turkey.

  Bending her arms at the elbows, she slid them close to her body and pushed back on her knees, staying low, but prepared to move the minute anything tried to attack one of the cows.

  She scanned the tree line filled with pine trees and old hardwoods. Wouldn’t something in search of a meal come out and maybe even circle one time to scope out his attack point?

  If that was the case, the team should be able to intervene before—

  All at once a huge black shape with wings burst from the top of a massive oak tree thirty yards beyond the men hunkered down between her and the tree.

  Fifteen feet of wingspan flapped in a mad rush toward the cows.

  It’s coming! she yelled telepathically and shot up first, rushing to reach the cow closest to her in time to shield it.

  Based on the angle the creature was heading down at a fast clip, it was going to overshoot most of the others and land near the edge of the herd.

  On the cow closest to Evalle.

  Just peachy. How lucky was she?

  When moonlight brushed across the creature’s body, she could make out human arms and legs with fingers and toes sporting claws Satan would envy. Mangy-looking skin covered its body, a thin sheath over bone and muscle.

  Everything happened in a matter of seconds.

  The men had gone into motion at the same time as her, but none were going to reach the cow that creature wanted before Evalle.

  Claws extended and curved into attack mode as the creature’s wings folded to land on top of its prey.

  Evalle realized she wasn’t going to make it in time to cover the cow with a protective kinetic field of energy either. She took two long strides and lunged into the air at the creature. Just before they collided, she tossed a kinetic blast forward, hoping to knock the beast away.

  Which sort of worked.

  The creature was blown sideways, hitting the ground face down and sliding away from the cow that started mooing and kicking, scrambling to get up.

  Evalle’s momentum took her over the cow and down in an angle that had her going straight for the creature. At least the blast of energy seemed to have stunned it … until Evalle landed on its back.

  The thing heaved up off the ground, screeching and crying out, sounding almost like a human that had been hurt.

  She reached around its neck with both arms to get a chokehold and gagged on the nasty odor she inhaled. The mottled skin smelled as if it was decaying, plus this thing had plowed through fresh cow patties.

  When she felt the body lift up and the wings unfold, Evalle kicked her legs out to each side to stop it from flapping.

  Tzader yelled in her head, Get off before it kills you! We can’t throw any power at it without risking you.

  She could feel the fury raging through the half-human thing. Her own budding empathic abilities were a new discovery these past few weeks—one she hadn’t had a chance to explore—and they picked a fine time to manifest. If she let go, the creature would probably turn on her or one of the others. Tzader would be forced to kill it, defeating the whole point of this operation.

  He’d never risk an agent’s life to capture this thing.

  But allowing it to escape could have deadly consequences if the national security guys were right.

  She was in the best position to stop it from flying and protect the team.

  She told Tzader, I’ve got a good hold on it and I don’t think it can bite me. Give me a minute to see if it settles down and we might just catch it.

  Sprigs of hair stuck off the deformed head that spun sideways trying to get at her. Yellow eyes glared at her—so human in shape they stole her ability to think, until the lipless mouth opened and a double row of pointed teeth snapped at her.

  What the heck was this thing?

  Tzader was foregoing telepathy for Casper’s sake, and was yelling orders for the Beladors to form a kinetic net above the creature. Trey, Tzader and Quinn would overlap an invisible covering to prevent it from flying off, but if the creature made a sudden move straight up it would crush Evalle between it and the solid layer of power they were holding overhead.

  She kept her head out of biting range and felt relatively safe until its tongue came out and slapped at the skin on her arms. Instead of soft tongue flesh this felt like a flexible serrated blade that slashed her forearms.

  Its freakin’ tongue was a foot long and sharp enough to slice her throat, which seemed to be the creature’s intent, as it swiveled its head back and forth.

  Evalle was so busy keeping out
of range of that tongue she almost forgot about the kinetic net when the creature arched and bucked again, trying to get her off … then it shoved off the ground trying to get lift.

  She yelled out loud, “Forget the net. Grab the wings. Now!”

  The creature made a super-strong push straight up and flapped its wings half way, catching air. The movement forced her outstretched legs further apart, her thigh muscles screaming in pain.

  She couldn’t see the men, but could feel them struggling to stop the wings by the way she was jerking from side to side.

  Now was the time to jump if she wanted to dismount before it flew off with her.

  The bottom fell out from under her.

  She dropped then bounced against the creature when it—and she along with it—were jerked to the ground.

  Tzader and Trey wrestled one of the wings down and climbed on it while Quinn and Casper struggled to get the other wing contained.

  The creature’s muscles quivered with strain. It kept snapping its teeth and tossing its head back.

  Tzader spoke between ragged breaths. “Quinn … can you do … anything?”

  Quinn had a rare gift of being able to mind lock, which allowed him to maneuver inside a person’s brain and, if necessary, control or crush a mind.

  Evalle had never seen him use that power on an animal, but was this thing animal, human, demon or what? It was making garbled distress noises, much like an insane person off their meds.

  The extra second Quinn took to answer worried her when he said, “I’ll try.”

  What if this creature could harm Quinn’s mind? In the next few seconds, the body stopped jerking and kicking. No more insane noises. If it hadn’t still moved with each labored breath, Evalle would have thought it was dead.

  Speaking softly, Quinn said, “I’ve never seen anything like this bloody thing. It’s not entirely human, but parts of that brain appear human.”

  Trey asked, “What’d you do to shut it down?”

  “I’ve taken control of its mind for the moment, but I can’t promise that will last long. I basically put it into a comatose state so I could search its memories for something that will explain its origins. I found images of a house, an antebellum looking place … and images of other creatures.”