Highlander's Curse

by Numees Collins

  "Go to yer chambers, Aengus," Brodrick commanded. "We shall talk in the morrow."

  Angered, Aengus decided to retreat and come up with a better strategy in the morning. He will confront them tomorrow and show how important his love was.

  Later that night, the serving girl brought him wine. The heavenly drink set his ragged thoughts at ease and Aengus let sleep take over his tired mind. He slept peacefully. Way too peacefully.

  Three days later, when Aengus finally woke up from the trap of his long sleep, he found out that he had been betrayed by his brothers. Aengus could've run to the woods and tried to find Tara. He could've roamed the whole world for years until he found the woman he had loved. He never did any of it, though. The rage of the wounded beast calmed and he accepted his destiny. He was the heir to his father's title, the protector of his lands, and this was his duty.

  Laird Aengus lived a long life in unhappy wedlock. He never knew what had happened to the heartbroken witch who had been exiled from her clan for her willingness to follow her heart. He never knew that his betrayal had brought a powerful curse upon the generations that were to come.

  Every firstborn son of the MacLachlan clan had to suffer a severe injury and lose the one woman who was dear to their heart. Centuries after centuries, generations after generations the curse was passed through their blood and there would be no cure to the curse until the day when a brave descendant of his bloodline would love a witch with pure, unbreakable love and would refuse to lose her.

  Chapter 4

  "How on Earth shall I find a witch in the twenty-first century?" Connor yelled frustrated. "And I don't even believe in witches..." He got even more frustrated because he could not kick the door. That loud bang would've probably calmed his anger. Yup, one could not even do a simple heart-warming thing like kicking a door when stuck in a stupid wheelchair after a damned accident.

  Connor MacLachlan had always been happy with his life as a musician. He had been in love with his girlfriend since they had been twelve. He never gave too much thought to anything that was out of his reach. Magic was among those things.

  Everything had changed in a blink. The wheel of fortune had turned away from him. In a matter of just one week, Connor got into an accident while riding his bike, broke his leg and got kicked out of his band. As if that was not enough, Kelly decided she was too young to take care of a crippled boyfriend for the rest of her life and left him.

  With his parents living abroad, his old grandpa was the only relative who had enough time and patience to deal with Connor. The old man seemed to have some magical defense against Connor's mood swings and constant nagging. If not for the unceasing pain in his knee, Connor would probably be grateful to his grandpa for all the kindness the man showed to him during the last months.

  Today, it was probably the gloomy weather and the gray sky that made him particularly bad-tempered, or the realization that his recovery was not as fast and painless as he expected, or maybe it was his grandpa's sudden desire to entertain him with some family history. Connor was fed up with those stories. Undoubtedly, anyone who came from a family that had a thousand-year-old history and ancestors that were remembered for their great deeds and victories should be proud of his roots. Connor had enjoyed those stories as a kid. Not anymore.

  This morning, when his grandpa mentioned that Connor's accident and all the misfortunes that followed it were caused by the infamous family curse, his nerves gave up. It was enough for him to suffer all of this. The thought that some weird magic was the cause of it, made it so much worse. He was not going to believe that some guy from the past who had fucked up his relationship with a girl was to be blamed for Connor getting into an accident on a bike. It had been his fault. He had been in a hurry to see Kelly and didn't think that rushing to her on a motorcycle on a rainy day was not a good idea.

  "Son, every first born in our family has had an accident after they turned twenty-five," Grandpa continued stubbornly. "That's the same age when Aengus MacLachlan betrayed his beloved women. Her family, who were powerful witches, cursed us."

  Connor's head was going to explode. He had heard that story a million times. Grandpa thought the guy was a traitor. Yes, he had broken some girl's heart in the past. And yes, all of them were long dead. His band for sure did not know about Aengus' misdeeds when they kicked him out. The bastards had been just looking for a chance to get rid of him since he was the only one who cared about not selling their music too cheap. Now, as they lost their songwriter and lead guitarist, let them go and play some crappy pop. As if he cared!

  Connor actually did care. The band meant everything to him. He had dedicated almost of decade of his life to it.

  "Alright, let's pretend for a moment, I believe in all that crap about witchcraft. How does that information help me?" he asked his grandfather. Connor hoped the old man would leave him alone after that. No such luck!

  "Break the curse," Grandpa shrugged as if his grandson was stupid not to see such an obvious thing.

  "How?" Connor was almost screaming.

  "Oh, that I don't know, Son. But I'm guessing that if a witch has done it, it will take another witch to undo it," Grandpa explained. Probably to avoid more questions from Connor, he said that he needed to buy groceries for dinner and hurried to leave.

  Perfect! Connor mumbled. Though, if him finding a witch would mean he could get back into his band, maybe he was eager to believe in witches. How hard should it be to find one? Connor powered his laptop. He knew it was a silly idea, but at least, it was entertaining. “How to meet a witch,” he asked Google.

  He was ready for a screen to pop up saying that he was an idiot. Instead, the search engine offered him hundreds of websites. One local website Meet&LoveAWitch.com caught his interest. He was sure a bunch of psychos would be hanging out there. In his wheelchair and bored to death, Connor qualified as a weirdo. In addition, they were local psychos. So if it turned out that he found a witch, he would not need to travel half the world to meet her. He signed up.

  Find a witch! Yeah, sure, good luck with that, buddy, he muttered to himself.

  Not much happened at first. His initial guess was almost true—weirdoes—one stranger than the other. Conner had received the oddest messages and invitations during the first week of his membership at Meet&LoveAWitch.com. The more days passed, the more he got convinced that his misfortunes had nothing to do with magic. His band had kicked him out because he was a big pain in their backs. He had been stubborn, egocentric and no amount of talent was a good enough excuse for that.

  "Why are you here?" A strange message woke him up one morning. He growled. It was becoming a bad habit not to turn off the Wi-Fi on his phone at night. Waking up to another weird message was nothing he was looking forward to. He checked it anyway.

  The sender's username was unfamiliar to him. Surprisingly, she looked quite nice and almost felt like a normal girl from a normal dating website. He checked the message again.

  FirstBornWitch: "Why are you here?"

  Connor: "Why not?!"

  He'd usually start a conversation in a much nicer manner, but the girl had asked for it. Why would she send such a message to a stranger at 8 am? Why did he need a reason to be on that website?

  FirstBornWitch: "You don't believe in magic. Why are you here?" she answered immediately.

  Ah, that was what she meant. But how on Earth could she know? Connor checked his profile information. He had been careful filling in the “about me” part, making sure he did not mention how skeptical he was about such places and what he really thought about most of the users. There was nothing to give away his lack of trust in magic for sure.

  Connor: "Why u think so?"

  FirstBornWitch: "i sense it"

  Oh, now this was getting crazy. So she was going to claim that she could “sense” what was going on in his head? Connor barked a laughter. Hilarious. He immediately regretted that he woke up so early.

  Connor: "so u can sense me?"

  Hmm, t
his sounded too cheese. He was almost about to change his mind but his finger pressed “Enter” before he could do that. Was he flirting with her?

  FirstBornWitch: "Maybe. You haven't answered me. What r u looking 4 here?"

  She was stubborn. Connor shook his head. It was probably his foul morning mood or the strange dreams he had had at night or maybe his hope that he could be back in his band, that suddenly made Connor start typing.

  Connor: "My ancestor was cursed. Need to undo it now to get back into my band."

  The word “curse” was like a sweet tune to the most users here, they were hooked up immediately. For a strange reason, Connor did want to sound interesting to this girl. She had intrigued him. Yet, one could never know what was true and what not in the virtual space.

  FirstBornWitch: "U r in a band? Hot. tell me more"

  Connor smiled. That was the one true way to his heart. He loved talking about his music. Now, when he was practically out of the band and nobody who knew would take him for a serious musician, chatting about music online was a remedy to his wounded heart. One big bonus point to her - she was more interested in his music than his family curse.

  Conner never was a big fan of dating sites and meeting strangers, yet this girl got more and more interesting with every minute. Before he knew it, he was chatting with her day and night, talking on the phone before both fell asleep and sending her a “good morning” message first thing in the morning when he opened his eyes.

  His recovery might've been slow and life at the verge of desperation, but he couldn't complain about his “curse.” He felt happy—strangely happy. Inexplicably happy.

  Chapter 5

  Anthea could not believe as little as three weeks could build such closeness with a person she had never met for real. Although her first feelings of Connor's moods and difficult personality had frightened her. Now, as their friendship grew tighter day by day and he opened up to her, she discovered more traits of his character that she could admire. For once, she seemed really lucky to have met a nice guy. Considering her past misfortunes, this was quite a rare thing.

  A voice inside her—the voice that always sensed trouble coming up her way—suddenly seemed to yell at her to come back to Earth and come to her senses. Nothing was going to be easy. She had never seen easy paths for herself. Neither for him... Her stomach clenched.

  She had gotten home early and her only desire was to call Connor. He had been nagging and complaining about having a boring day. And his grandpa had made some terribly spicy soup for dinner. Anthea smiled as she imagined his beautiful face twist as he was forced to eat the soup not to let his grandpa down. She imagined those deep gray eyes narrow every time he took a spoonful of hot soup into his mouth. Although she had not seen him for real, she had looked at his photos so often that at times, it felt as if she knew every gesture and every expression on his face.

  Her inner voice warned her that she could eventually be bitterly disappointed when they met in real life. Not when - if, Anthea reminded herself. Connor had not once mentioned about the possibility to meet. He was either worried about his injury too much or did not like her enough. She needed just to hear his voice to discard the latter.

  Although slow, he was making some progress to recovery. He could already walk in the house on his own. She had been encouraging him a lot, and had even tried to direct her energy to him in a failed attempt to ease his pain. It didn't work.

  Usually, they called each other late in the evening and talked until one of them fell asleep on the end of the line. Sometimes, their conversations felt quite romantic. At times, she even had an impression that he was flirting with her, although he did resist it quite obviously and changed the subject pretty quickly.

  Today, Anthea had a glass of wine earlier in the evening with a friend who had talked way too much about her new romance and how happy she was with her new boyfriend. As if that had not been enough, Clara had even reminded Anthea that she had been single for quite a while. Anthea dialed Connor's number immediately as the memory of that conversation fueled her determination.

  "You are early," he picked the phone on the first ring. She could almost hear the smile in his voice. A heart-warming smile.

  "Hey," she smiled back, sadly, he could not see it. Or maybe it was for the best. She wasn't sure a guy like Connor was going to like the real her. "I got home early and figured I missed ya."

  "You did?" he laughed. "How unexpected."

  "Aww, did you not miss me?" She let out a pout, knowing all too well that he was joking.

  "Nah, I've had too hot a day to miss you," he said firmly. Hmm, too hot day sounded quite promising. Or maybe it was the direction of her thoughts.

  "You are always hot," she blurted out before she could stop herself.

  "Is that so?" Connor chuckled. "Are you hinting at something, Thea?"

  Anthea shook her head. This was madness. She had never been good at expressing her feelings, let alone talking naughty on phone and enjoying it. What on Earth was she thinking and why did she feel this irresistible lure? Or maybe she was sensing his excitement and mirroring his feelings and desires? It would make her feel so much better if it was Connor making a step and not her.

  "You are silent," Connor spoke again. And this time, his voice sounded very different. It was lower - almost like a whisper, tempting and caressing her. "Thea, talk to me. I need to know what's on your mind. Please."

  There was so much on her mind. Behind the confident mask, Anthea had been hiding a lot. And she was not yet ready to reveal anything to him. Except maybe for her feelings—those uncontrollable feelings that she never expected to find online. She might hide a lot, but she knew Connor was straightforward and honest. At times, painfully honest. A trait, she knew he had inherited from his ancestors that he spoke often about—those highlander warriors of the past. And even if he never admitted it, their stories fascinated him. Even most of his song lyrics carried that theme. It was funny that Connor didn't know how obvious that was.

  "Thea, have I lost you?" Connor asked and Anthea realized she had been silent for too long.

  "I'm here," she spoke shyly.

  "Hi," his voice carried that smiling tone again.

  "Hi," he always succeeded in making her smile. "What are you doing?" She hoped her miserable attempt of a distraction would work. It did not.

  "I'm alone in my bedroom," Connor started. "Grandpa went to a pub with some friends. I'm all alone and very lonely," he said meaningfully. "And I was thinking about your company and how fun it could be if you were here..."

  "Oh?" she breathed. "What we'd be doing?"

  "You tell me..." He was not going to make this easy for her.

  He cannot see you, maybe he will never see you for real, she reminded herself. What harm can be done if we do have a little bit of fun now?

  She couldn't explain that sudden urge, but it was almost unbearable. Her whole body was on fire, she could imagine his touch, his voice, his breathing puffing against her skin as he came closer and whispered words of passion in her ear.

  "How about we try to imagine together what will happen if I am there with you?" she suggested.

  "Hmm, are you sure you want to know what I have in mind?" Connor laughed uneasily. She could only hope it meant that he was as shy and uncomfortable with this sudden new development in their friendship as she was.

  "Yes, please tell me," Anthea couldn't resist her desire anymore. Before he could start talking again, she dimmed the lights in her bedroom. Hopefully, the mood could compensate for his absence a little bit.

  "You'll have to do most of the hard work here, darling, I'm still stuck in my wheelchair," he growled. Anthea knew how angry he was to still be unable to run or get back on his bike. Yet, she could feel some excitement as he described the image he had in his head. "You'll climb on my lap and straddle my hips," he said in a low voice. "You'll wrap your arms around my neck and when you lean forward to kiss my lips, I'll turn the wheels rapidly and we'll be spinning in
this wheelchair. Like in one of those cheesy romance movies." That didn't sound bad at all. He was quite creative in finding a use for his wheelchair after all.

  "What will happen after I tear my lips off yours?" she asked.

  "So soon? I hoped you'd want to deepen the kiss. You'll get so impatient that you'll bite the tip of my tongue and my body will jerk with sudden pain. And you'll feel something really hard and excited poking at your bum and that will fuel your passion even more, darling. Your tongue, teeth and lips will try to claim every inch of my mouth, taste me, suckle and bite, tease me so much that I would want to rip off your clothes..."

  Man, the guy could talk. No wonder he was a songwriter. Anthea could feel the heat gather between her legs. She closed her eyes and imagined she was sitting on his lap and not straddling her pillow. It was the hardened bulge in his pants that was touching her buttocks. She imagined feeling his manhood grow harder as she rocked on top of him, teasing him, giving him the anticipation of how it would feel when he was buried inside her heated soft depths.

  "Can you please do something for me, Anthea?" Connor asked suddenly.

  "Yes," she didn't care what it was. Anything. Everything.

  "Pull your bra up and touch your nipples, please. Do not stop until I tell you." Even hearing those words was enough for her nipples to get immediately excited. When she took them between her two fingers and rubbed slightly, they were already so hard, that her whole body started shaking. She continued rubbing and tugging at the beads. Her breathing got louder. Before she knew, she was moaning and was rewarded with Connor's heavy breathing on the other end of the line.

  "Your moans are so sexy. Do not stop. Touch those beautiful beads for me until they turn bright red with need.”

  That was not a request anymore but a demand. Anthea's head dropped back and her mouth opened letting out another loud moan. Mirroring her circular touches on both her breasts, she did not stop until her body was rocking and heat oozing out of her slit.