Cursed

by Jamie Leigh Hansen

  “Nice woman you chose.” Elizabeth shook her head and squeezed her eyes shut. “I hated having her in my head. I hated her thoughts, her feelings. Especially the images. How can I stop someone like that?”

  “Whatever you gleaned was only the surface, Elizabeth. Never forget the surface is deceiving. It’s the depths which—”

  Elizabeth exhaled in a short, frustrated burst. “I get it. I just don’t know how to fight her.”

  “You don’t. Until the battle comes to you, the rest is just damage control.”

  Elizabeth frowned. “What?”

  “She fights beneath the surface, Elizabeth. It is how she bends the rules.”

  Alex lay flat on his back, arms outstretched. Maeve sat next to him, her feet on the floor, but her cheek rested on his chest. Her full red lips were pursed, her deep red curls fanned over his chest. Her hands were the worst. A thumb and forefinger pinched his left nipple while her right hand thoroughly cupped his groin.

  No. Silas froze in place, staring with wide, horrified eyes. This couldn’t happen. Maeve was a destroyer, a villain. He moved forward, but Draven, who’d stood motionless in the corner far too long, stopped him.

  “We can’t touch them, Silas. They are linked, mind to mind, by Elizabeth’s dreams and Adad’s power. If we touch them, we’ll fall into them, too.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Because it’s how Maeve fell.”

  “You mean you just stood here and watched?” Silas scowled.

  “I know how to cloak my presence. She didn’t know I was here.”

  “So you sacrificed Alex for your own protection?”

  “That’s it, Silas. Think the worst.” Draven sighed impatiently. “My protection was only a side benefit. While she is like this, her body is weak. Vulnerable.”

  Silas sighed and relaxed his shoulders. “But untouchable.”

  “Yes. But when she awakens it will be our moment to catch her off guard. Fight her or follow the tracking spell I have in place to capture her.”

  “So we bind her, take her away from Alex, and then what’s your plan?”

  Draven shrunk further into the shadows of the corner. “That part I’m not so sure of, Silas.”

  Silas crossed his arms. “I am.”

  “What?”

  “I know who we can take her to. They’ll never let her go free.”

  “Can they hold one of her power? I thought only the Tunnels of the Forgotten Ones were strong enough for that.”

  “For long enough to figure out how to destroy her, they will hold. I never suggested it before because I didn’t think we would have this chance.”

  No sooner had Silas spoken, then Maeve opened her eyes. Seeing Draven and Silas, she flashed from lying prone to face them both. “You think you have a chance?”

  Neither said a word. Moving as one, they clasped hands and channeled their gifts into a whirlwind of light that wrapped around Maeve, constricting like golden boas, attempting to bind her. Maeve shook them off, freeing herself easily. Looking at Silas and Draven, Maeve laughed.

  Blackened barbed wire snapped around Maeve, cutting her skin into bloodied strips. Maeve tried to shake them off as she had the boas, but the barbed wire only tightened, coiling around her. Extending her claws, she cut at them, striking desperately, frowning at the difficulty of their silent battle. Hope renewed, Silas raised his snakes again, transforming them into golden wires that entwined with the barbed wire, strengthening its hold.

  It was working. No matter how she struggled, Maeve could not break free. No matter that he strained to keep the power in place, Silas knew at that moment they really could win. He smiled and began preparing the portal to take them to safety, maneuvered one hand in ancient symbols to match the words in his mind. The portal began to form, opening as a pinpoint in space and slowly expanding.

  A presence formed behind them, solidifying into a dark danger. Something pushed him, throwing Silas to his right. Draven flew to the left, their hands breaking contact. The tall, cloaked form strode briskly past them both and wrapped dark appendages around Maeve. A blink later, they were gone.

  “What the hell?” Silas burst out. The entire maneuver had lasted only a split second, leaving him sprawled ignominiously on the floor.

  Draven sat up, huffing, gloved hands braced against the floor. “Dugan.”

  Elizabeth opened her eyes to high-pitched wails of fury. She stumbled out of bed, nearly falling over as the sheets twisted around her ankles. Putting one arm on the bed for balance, she freed one foot and tugged the other loose, kicking it into the leg of the bed. “Son of a—”

  “Aunt Beth! Can you come help me?” Shelly’s voice sounded strangely distant, as if she were yelling from downstairs. But then why were there screams coming from just down the hall?

  Elizabeth hobbled to the hall stairs. “Just a sec, Shelly.”

  Jerking open the door to the toddlers’ room, Abby and Jessie froze in mid tug, a shirt twisted between them. Elizabeth snapped, “What is going on?”

  “Wanna wear it! I want the shirt!” Jessie whined angrily.

  “It’s mine.” Abby stomped her foot.

  “I asked for it,” Jessie accused.

  “You stole it!” Abby yelled back.

  “I’m trying to sleep!” Elizabeth looked up to the top bunk in time to see Sarah tug her blankets over her head. But neither Abby nor Jessie paid a bit of attention, continuing to twist and tug on the shirt.

  “Give it to me.” Elizabeth held out her hand. Both girls looked at her, one chewing her lip, the other with tears pooling in her eyes. Reluctantly, they both held out their end of the shirt. Elizabeth nodded. “Thank you. I will keep the shirt. Find something else to wear.”

  “Aunt Beth!”

  “Coming!” Elizabeth watched the toddlers pull out more clothes from a dresser that should have been empty now that she was using the hanger system. They pouted, mutinously glaring at each other, but otherwise were calm. Elizabeth left them to it and marched down the stairs in a thigh-high T-shirt and bare feet. “What’s wrong, Shel?”

  Shelly perched on the edge of the couch, Veronica’s ankles in one hand, dirty wipes in the other. “The bag fell over and I can’t reach the diapers and wipes.”

  Veronica giggled and stuffed the head of her little bear in her mouth. Elizabeth grabbed what had fallen out of the diaper bag and brought the whole pack over. Pulling out another diaper and the box of wipes, she asked, “Where are the others?”

  “Tommy and the twins were ready to kill each other when I came up, so I sent them back to bed. I don’t think that’s where they went, though. They probably took it outside. Then I heard Abby and Jessie start in. I don’t know about the rest.” Shelly wiped up the baby and re-diapered her with skilled efficiency.

  Elizabeth headed to the kitchen. She would need to take something before the pounding behind her eyes got worse. Grabbing a bottle of ibuprofen and a glass of water, she looked out the back window to see Tommy and the twins practicing the punches and kicks that Alex had taught them. No one was bleeding, crying, or unconscious, so they must have worked out whatever it was they’d fought over. Elizabeth shook her head, popped two pills in her mouth, and guzzled the water like she hadn’t had a drink in decades.

  Teddy left the laundry room, clicking the light off behind him as he shut the door. The sounds of the washer and dryer running emerged from behind him. She wanted to kiss him. “Thank you for getting that started, honey.”

  He nodded. “I was looking for something for Abby and Jessie, but I heard you through the vent.”

  Elizabeth winced. She sighed and rinsed out the glass. She could go get dressed now, no one was dying yet. Alex and Geoffrey weren’t here and she had a chance to dash upstairs before they showed. Somehow, she didn’t think her father’s words about damage control applied to clothing tug-of-wars or diaper emergencies. She sighed.

  Before she could leave the kitchen and head back upstairs the phone rang.

&
nbsp; Maeve paced in the Raineses’ dank basement, her high heels clicking against the cement floor with each sharp step. Small emeralds and silver wires tangled in her hands. She twisted and turned the silver, wrapping it around the emeralds in short, delicate patterns.

  Dugan glanced up from where he sat next to the little boy, playing with the spiders that crossed the floor in front of them. Dugan was having fun, in love with spiders as he was. He enjoyed sharing his fascination with someone as equally enthralled by the leggy little buggers.

  There had been a time when Maeve would have found joy watching the harmful and potentially deadly arachnids scrambling over the child’s arms, but at the moment she was too angry to be indulgent. She was almost too angry to make her beautiful jewelry, but she had plans for this piece.

  Through walls that seemed paper thin, she heard Elizabeth respond to the hospital nurse. Adad’s wife had been an easy, helpless target. Fun as that was, it hadn’t even begun to lessen Maeve’s fury over his betrayal. She’d come for Alex, seeking justice, but she’d found so much more. Adad sought protection for his family, therefore it was obvious how to hurt him most. That she would also repay Alex for turning his back on Kai was a bonus. He would endure the same pain she had, watching someone he loved suffer with no aid.

  She paced before Dugan and the child yet again, then paused, watching a hobo spider crawl onto the palm of the child’s hand, furry legs scrambling along his skin. A bite wouldn’t hurt, but in half an hour a blister would form, slowly growing larger and deeper and more painful. The scars it left weren’t pretty either. But it was the potentially deadly staph infection that came after the bite he’d have to worry about most.

  Maeve stared at the flood of Tegenaria agrestise working their way toward the boy, drawn by Dugan’s whispers. They weren’t the only types available. Dugan had also enticed a black jumping spider from the basement windowsill; unfortunately it wasn’t dangerous but merely pretty for the boy to look at. Add a dash of wolf spiders and several that looked threateningly like poisonous brown recluses and it resulted in a virtual witch’s brew of both potential and definite danger.

  Maeve smiled and set the emerald-and-silver earrings upon the most visible box in the area. She wasn’t going to slowly unravel this family, she was going to build a bomb. The explosion would obliterate every descendant of Adad ever born. But every fuse had to be lit—and Kevin looked like a lovely little match.

  “Shelly!” Elizabeth ripped away the paper from the notepad and headed toward the living room. “I need to go to the hospital and see Mom. I need you to watch the kids until the guys arrive if they don’t get here before I leave, okay?”

  “Uh, sure. Aunt Beth?”

  Elizabeth skidded to a stop, her mouth open and her eyes wide, staring past Shelly straight into the surprised faces of the crowd.

  Elizabeth gaped at the crowd of people in the doorway. Geoffrey glanced at her, then turned away. Kalyss looked like she wanted to die of embarrassment. The man behind her, most likely her husband, looked amused as he gave her a curious glance before following Geoffrey into the dining room. At least his look hadn’t been lecherous. No, that was saved for Alex as he eyed her bare legs and obviously unfettered breasts.

  Elizabeth tugged at the hem of the shirt, praying it at least covered her underwear. There was no hiding her lack of a bra, though.

  Shelly choked on her laughter. Elizabeth glared at her niece. “Laugh now, because later …”

  Shelly smiled. “I’d be scared if you weren’t wearing your ‘I love fluffy bunnies’ T-shirt.”

  Elizabeth growled. Shelly laughed harder and went to the kitchen.

  “I’m so sorry, Elizabeth. We’ll just go occupy ourselves.” Kalyss blushed and followed her husband into the dining room, leaving Elizabeth alone with Alex.

  He held up his hands peacefully. “I invited them along because I think there’s a lot we need to talk about.”

  Elizabeth shook her head and headed toward the stairs. “There probably is, but I really need to leave for a bit.”

  “What’s happened with your mom?” Alex followed her up the stairs and to her room. For a second, he paused and looked around, recognizing all the furniture.

  Elizabeth turned to order him out, then shook her head and sighed. There just didn’t seem to be much to hide from him anymore. Instead, she grabbed a pair of jeans from the dresser and started tugging them on. “I was just asked to come up and talk to the doctor. That might not seem too important—”

  “Of course it is. She’s dying.”

  “—but she’s getting worse and there’s not much more that can be done for her. They’re probably going to give me a time frame.” Elizabeth zipped and buttoned her jeans, looking around for the rest of the clothes she needed to hurry into.

  Alex stepped in front of her, his hands rubbing her shoulders and biceps. “It’s very important, Elizabeth. She’ll still be gone later and these moments are all you have left.”

  Elizabeth looked up, into his eyes, and couldn’t control the burning and blurring in her own. “I’ve been so damn angry with her. I don’t deserve comfort, Alex.”

  “Everyone deserves comfort, honey.” He pulled her closer to his chest and tightened his arms around her. “Just try to stop me.”

  She was so tempted to melt into him and soak in his heat. If she had more time, she would. Quickly, she squeezed him and pushed him away. “I need to get dressed.”

  He nodded and backed away. “We’ll take care of everything here. Don’t worry about it. We’ll talk when you get back.”

  Alex left and Elizabeth hurried. Ten minutes later, she was dressed and headed down the stairs. Kalyss sat on the couch, Abby on her lap, and Jessie and Sarah pressed up to her sides. Tommy perched on the arm of the chair across from her, his blue eyes sparkling and the small cowlick at the back of his head sticking up despite his shower. “So whatcha naming your baby?”

  Kalyss’s lips twitched. Tommy was always a force to behold. “I’m not sure. There are so many options.”

  Tommy put an arm across the back of the chair and swung his leg with restless energy. “You could always do what my mom did. She wasn’t sure who my dad was, so she named me after both of them. Tommy Jack.”

  Elizabeth abruptly halted at the bottom of the stairs, trying not to choke. Good God, Dallas. She rifled through her purse, partially to check she had everything and partially to hide her burning face. At least Tommy didn’t see anything wrong with how his name came about.

  After a long pause, Kalyss spoke, good humor filling her voice. “I know my baby’s dad. So that only gives me one name, though I can see the benefit of having two names to choose from.”

  Tommy shrugged. “Aw, that’s okay. Maybe you could do what she did for Teddy.”

  Teddy looked up from his book and growled, “Shut up, Tommy.”

  Tommy’s face lit with mischief. “Mom loved his dad so much, she named him Thee-Adore Michael. But his nickname is from what she wore when—”

  “Tommy!” Elizabeth gasped, horribly afraid of the many embarrassing things that could come out of his mouth next.

  “I’m going to kill you!” Teddy threw his book aside, not even marking his spot first, and chased a giggling Tommy upstairs.

  “Boys!” But they were gone, slamming doors, giggling, and issuing threats. Elizabeth closed her eyes a second, then turned a red face to Kalyss, who luckily seemed to be amused.

  Shelly finished snapping a pink dress on Veronica and unfolded a pair of tiny socks. “Teddy’s hated his name since he found out what it stood for. But Mom thought it was cute.”

  Kalyss nodded. “I can see that. Where did your name come from?”

  Shelly finished the socks and slid on little slippers. “My mom’s best friends. Shelly and Kate.”

  “What about the baby?” Kalyss asked and Elizabeth held her breath, waiting for the answer. It could be anything.

  Shelly froze a moment, pursed her lips, then stood Veronica up to stra
ighten her tights. “Veronica Mars.”

  Elizabeth asked, “From the TV show?”

  “No.” Shelly shook her head briefly, then shrugged and stood up, the baby on her hip. “It seemed fitting. Veronica was a friend who was good at listening. And men are from Mars.”

  Shelly handed the baby over to Kalyss and left. Elizabeth watched her leave, wondering at the strange look on Shelly’s face. When she looked back at the baby, Veronica was happy and content in Kalyss’s arms and Alex’s best friend was busy falling in love.

  Chapter Seventeen

  The curtains around her mother’s bed were pulled closed and the room was silent. The air was cool and still, empty. It was a room for someone to die in. Just the thought gave Elizabeth chills. For a second, she couldn’t breathe and she was ready to cry again, but a touch of anger warmed her.

  Her mother needed to see the kids tomorrow. Mary Beth could pull herself together for a few hours. The children could handle seeing her sick. It was her sudden disappearance and complete absence from their lives they had so much trouble with. Why couldn’t she understand that?

  Elizabeth stared at the foot of the bed. Her mom was a lump, unmoving in the center. The blankets were pulled around her head so only the side of her face peeked out.

  The whole atmosphere was somber and hushed, practically shouting, “Someone is dying here.”

  The door burst open behind her and a man with a clipboard in one hand walked in. Dr. Mason smiled gently at her. “Good to see you again, Ms. Raines.”

  “Hi.” Elizabeth smiled. She gestured vaguely toward the bed in front of her. Her mother still hadn’t moved. “One of the nurses called.”

  He nodded. “Your mom asked me to fill you in on her condition.”

  Elizabeth nodded, even more puzzled. Mary Beth had shown plenty of energy all week when she’d argued with Elizabeth over the kids’ visits. Now she suddenly didn’t have enough strength to explain her own health? “She’s not getting better, right?”