Curse of Stone

by Nikki Lockwood

  25

  “They were outside her fucking window,” I said.

  King raised an eyebrow. He was one of three alphas within the pack, and he was mine. In human form he stood just over six-feet-tall, and his one-hundred-and-ten-kilogram frame, was pure muscle.

  “They who?”

  “Those winged beasts.”

  King fell silent. Neither of us were fond of our alliance with the gargoyles. They had been alive, if that is what you would call it, for so long that they had an aura of divinity about them, and with that came arrogance. We’d all heard the tales growing up, of how they came to be, they were the greatest warriors from each of their time, blah blah blah.

  “You said she was followed. Did you pick up anything?” King asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Did you track it?”

  “Dassies and I did a sweep after I made sure she was in her apartment, but we saw no demon. Its foulness was in the air though.”

  “It is growing desperate as the scent of her blood strengthens,” King said. “As for them being outside her window, I don’t know what happened. But I will find out.”

  “Thank you.” I couldn’t bear it if those winged bastards got near her.

  They, they… My head went light and fuzzy, as heat rose upwards.

  “I know she is your mate,” King said.

  My eyes widened for a second, then relaxed. Dassies. Big mouth.

  “What, you think I didn’t know?” he asked.

  “I, uh.”

  “Jamie, I am your alpha. I have known since you were younger. You just didn’t have the sense to see it.”

  Fuck. I knew our friendship was something more when we were kids, but I was too damn late in figuring it out. “It doesn’t matter, she has a date with Velkan tonight.”

  “Pack law is held above any futile interest Velkan has with her.”

  “I lied to her.”

  King widened his stance and folded his arms.

  “She thinks I’m sleeping with her friend.”

  “Why don’t you just tell her the truth? Show her who you truly are. It shall set you free, son. You might be surprised.”

  “But it might scare her.”

  “You said yourself, she searches for the truth. Gargoyles, werewolves, we are all supernatural creatures. I do not think she will be scared. A mate, whether human or wolf, knows, deep down.”

  Damn it, he was right. I had been so blinded by my pursuit that I hadn’t considered that she might recognise our friendship as something more.

  “As for Velkan, you must tell him. Otherwise, what you will lose, will be far greater than a packmate.”

  I paused and nodded.

  “I am serious. You could lose your mate, forever, Jay. I couldn’t imagine if I lost Cora. I’d be more useful as a pelt rug.” He wiped the sweat from his brow. “Now get to work,” he said, throwing a shovel towards me.

  The new garden that Cathwulf had ordered wasn’t going to dig itself.

  26

  The bottom basement of the local library was dim lit and the shelves, full of overflowing labelled boxes. I’d woken early to get here.

  “Maurice, where are you?” The librarian who had escorted me to the bottom floor, called out.

  Eight rows back, a grim man appeared. Dressed in a plaid suit that had seen better days, and scruffy unkempt grey hair, he had to be in his eighties, at least.

  “Ah, there you are,” the librarian said, then turned to me. “I will leave you with Maurice, he can help you find whatever it is you’re looking for.”

  She spun on her heel and strode towards the awaiting elevator. My eyes followed her, the split up the back of her scarlet skirt sliding from side to side as she walked, revealing black gartered stockings.

  Turning around, my heart juddered. An elderly man was standing in front of me.

  “Oh, you scared me.”

  “What was that dear?” he asked.

  “Nothing. I was wanting to see copies of the local newspapers that were printed fifty-eight years ago. In September.”

  Maurice’s cold grey-blue eyes narrowed at me. “That’s quite specific. Come now, they are back this way.”

  He turned and walked down the middle aisle. I followed. After about fifteen rows, he stopped. “Here are all the newspapers from decade. The boxes are labelled accordingly.”

  “There aren’t that many boxes here. This is a decade’s worth of papers?”

  Maurice paused, studying me. “Back then they only published a paper once a week, sometimes once a fortnight.”

  “Oh, okay. Thank you.” I smiled. Something about him seemed familiar. “I’m sorry, have we met before?”

  “No, I don’t think so. I will be at my desk if you need me. Follow the painted lines.”

  I hadn’t noticed the yellow lines on the carpet. Maurice followed them, and soon disappeared around a corner.

  In the row, the boxes were stacked chronologically. I slid the first large box from the shelf. It was heavy. I squealed, almost dropping it as a daddy longlegs spider crawled across the lid. Placing it on the floor, I shook the ick feeling away. Ugh, spiders gave me the heebie-jeebies.

  Composing myself, I settled on the floor beside the box. The spider crawling away from me.

  The exact date of Ruth’s disappearance was patchy, Gran had never told me a specific date, all I remembered was that she went missing approximately fifty-eight years ago.

  One at a time, I pulled each printed edition of the local newspaper from the box and scanned for article titles - anything in relation to their mysterious sighting or Ruth’s disappearance.

  Box after box, I searched. My arms ached from the heavy lifting. But as I settled one the floor with yet another box of newspapers, something caught my attention. There were papers missing. Not just one, but a whole month. I kept flipping. It was a whole three months’ worth of newspapers missing. Fifty-eight years ago.

  My mind raced. This couldn’t be a coincidence. Could someone be hiding the truth?

  Unsuccessful, I lifted the box, careful not to drop it, back on to the shelf. My phone vibrated; it was Velkan.

  “Hello.”

  “Hey, how’s your day going?” he asked.

  “Yeah, good thanks.”

  “So, what are you up to?” His voice sounded tight.

  “Oh, I’m just at the library, doing some research.”

  There was a pause. “The library? That’s a new one.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Being stood up for a book.”

  I panicked. “What?” I glanced at the time on the screen. Shit. I was late for our date. My heart sank with guilt. “I haven’t forgotten, sorry, just got so preoccupied, that I—”

  “Forgot,” he said sounding amused.

  “No,” I said, too loud. “I mean, no, I’m coming right now. Where are you?”

  At the end of the yellow lines, a large wooden desk piled high with papers, but no Maurice.

  “Maurice,” I called out. Turning back and forth, scanning the aisles.

  “Wait, who’s Maurice?” Vee asked.

  “He’s the librarian. Where did you say you were?”

  “I am at Jay’s. But I can meet you.”

  “No, wait there, I’m on my way,” I said and hung up.

  “Maurice.”

  “Yes, dear.” Maurice appeared behind me.

  I placed my hand to my heart. “Oh, you snuck up on me, again.”

  “Everything alright?”

  “Do you know why some of the September papers are missing?”

  “Missing? That is news to me. What were you looking for? I’ve worked at the Tribune for nearly seventy years. Perhaps I can help?”

  “Really? You’ve here that long?”

  “That is correct.”

  “I’m looking for an article from about sixty years ago. About two girls seeing something unexplainable, and a missing girl.”

  “Ah, you are talking about the Stone sisters.”


  “Yes, how did you know that?”

  “Everyone knew Ruth and Claire. They were quite something, remarkably beautiful, much like yourself.”

  Caught off guard by his answer, I paused quickly choosing to ignore it. “Do you know what happened to Ruth?”

  “No. I heard about the incident, but it was rumoured that they had made the whole thing up. I cannot fathom why they would do such a thing. When Ruth went missing, the police searched for her, but they never found her.”

  “Then it must’ve been reported, or been in the news?” I asked, not wanting to divulge what Gran had said about a reporter sniffing around.

  “It never made the paper. The reporter working the case, Rupert Hemlock, was his name. One day, he came into the office, quit his job and moved away.” Maurice’s eyebrows pinched, creasing his forehead. “Why are you so interested in that?”

  “Oh, no reason, just curious I guess.”

  “It seems rather specific to be merely curious.” His eyes studied me. Cold as ice.

  “Thank you anyway,” I said, ignoring his inquiring statement.

  “There are all kinds of monsters in this world. You would do well to leave what does not want to be found, alone. Now come, you must be going.” He ushered me towards the elevator.

  Maurice stood and watched as the elevator doors closed, never blinking. I shivered. His words on replay in my mind, with brutal fear. ‘There are all kinds of monsters in this world’. I already knew that, but did he mean real monsters?

  27

  Grey clouds had formed in the sky, a brewing blackness lingered above them. Two blocks away from my building, the footpath was still crowded with pedestrians. A chill swept across my skin, and I shuddered. My senses sharpened. The weight of eyes settled on me. My head whipped up, scanning from side to side. I stopped, frozen in place.

  On the other side of the street, at the edge of a darkened alleyway, stood a man. His eyes locked on me, even as the sea of people crossed his path, in a blur. Even from this distance, his eyes were strange, alluring. One blue, one green, like an anomaly of beauty. His face was fine, high cheek bones, with a short beard and moustache. My foot twitched, it wanted to step forwards, like I was being drawn to him. Someone bumped into me from behind, breaking my stare, and when I looked back, he was gone.

  A cool gust whistled around me, raising all the hairs on my arms. His unsettling eyes chilled my soul and pulled at my gut. A few steps onward, I rang Jamie.

  “Well, if it isn’t my favourite neighbour,” he answered.

  “Not now, Jamie. I’m not on speakerphone, am I?”

  “No.”

  “Good. Is Velkan still at your place?”

  “Yes, and he thinks you’re standing him up. Not that I care about that. But where are you?”

  “Does he know you’re on the phone to me?”

  “Now this sounds interesting. I like this line of questioning. You want me to tell him to bugger off so we can—”

  “Jay.” My patience tried.

  He sighed. “No, he doesn’t know.”

  “Can you sneak away for a bit?”

  “Mm, I like the sound of this. What did you have in mind? Oh, you want me to wait in the elevator for you, so we can go up and down, up and down.”

  His voice drowned out as my pulse drummed in my ears. Heart beating against the walls of my chest.

  “I think I’m being followed,” I blurted out interrupting him.

  His hilarity ceased. “Where are you?”

  “Carlisle Ave.”

  I waited a moment but there was no answer.

  He’d hung up on me. Great, the one person who said he would help. What a useless… In mid-thought and mid-step, the feeling returned. My attention was being pulled towards the opposite side of the street, once again, and there he was, at the edge of a different darkened alleyway, staring at me. This time I didn’t stop walking, but even as other people passed through my line of sight, I stayed focused on him. Something about him haunted me. There was a coldness to him, disturbingly so, even though I felt an unwelcome need to go closer to him.

  28

  “Stone,” I called out.

  In the crowd of people in front of me, Stone stood looking across the street. The stench of foul decay almost stronger than her blood’s sweet scent. My strides were wide. Moving fast through the myriad of unaware people. My mind and eyes solely fixed on her. Part of me was afraid that she would disappear.

  “There you are,” I said. “Are you okay?”

  Coming to a stop close to her, encompassing her in my presence, protecting her. My heart thudded. Stone’s fingers twitched. She was scared but would never admit it.

  “Yes, I am fine, but there was this guy,” Stone said.

  “What guy?” I followed her gaze to a dark alleyway across the road. The hairs on my wolf’s back heckled. Lips curled back, bared my incisors, and started growling. Whoever had been standing there, they’d left a lingering foulness. Fuck. I’d just missed them. They must’ve disappeared when they smelt me, if they knew of us. Not all demons knew of werewolves, it depended on how long they’d been alive, and, and that’s a big and, if their creator bothered to master them.

  “I don’t know, I’ve seen him twice on my way home today.”

  “Where?”

  “Back down there, and before you got to me, he was there,” she said, pointing to the edge of two alleyways.

  Fucking bastard. I knew it was getting closer, but this was bold and too damn close. If she’d been on the other side of the street, he could’ve pulled her into the dark, and then she would be gone.

  Heat raced through my body like gasoline fuelling a flame. I was seething. No fucking way was that demon filth going to get this close to her again.

  “Jamie?” Her voice was low, a whisper in the distance that I barely registered it.

  My vision blotched with white dots. Claws scraped against my insides. A cool soft hand touched my arm with an icy sting. Her voice broke my concentration. My wolf calmed, but only enough to remember where I was.

  “Come on, better get you home, you have a hot date,” I said, and threw my arm over her shoulders, tucking her in beside me. It was the safest place for her to be and having her this close, touching me, was the best feeling in the world. “So, where have you been?”

  Beneath me, her body shuddered as we walked.

  “At the library,” she said.

  “With Maurice?”

  “Wait, how’d you know that?” she asked. “Velkan. Never mind.”

  “Heard him on the phone to you. Figured I’d go for a run, just stepped out of the elevator when you rang. So, who’s Maurice?”

  “Jeez, nosey. He’s the old guy that looks after the archives.”

  “Old guy, like how old?”

  “I don’t know, like eighty or something. What relevance is that?”

  This was too fucking easy. “I never thought you were into grandads. But if you want you can call me daddy anytime.” I laughed. She walked right into that one.

  Even as a joke, I meant it. To hear her moaning daddy in ecstasy while I satisfied every inch of her body, wasn’t a dream. It was going to happen.

  “Oh, painful. You are so painful.” She shook her head and glared at me.

  Stone was so easy to wind up. I loved it too. Watching her get all flustered and rattled. The bright red that filled her cheeks when she got mad or embarrassed, brought warmth to me.

  “He was helping me find some old newspapers,” she said.

  “Why do you want old papers? I have a stack of them in my recycling.”

  ‘Not what I meant,” she said, her big green eyes narrowed at me. “I was searching for some information.”

  “Wouldn’t have anything to do with your gran, now, would it?” I asked raising my eyebrow at her. It bloody did, I knew it did. Everything was always about Gran.

  Surprise, surprise, she didn’t answer me.

  “Oh, Stone. When are you going to stop th
is ghost hunt? Did you ever stop to think what you’re looking for might not want to be found?” And they didn’t. Those winged bastards didn’t let humans gaze upon them. Nor did they like to be discovered. I guess we were the same. Private, hidden, a secret. But if Stone kept pushing, she might open a world that didn’t currently exist to her, and stumble upon a creature or demon that was evil.

  “It doesn’t matter, it was a dead end. The papers I wanted were missing.”

  I wasn’t surprised. Things like this tended to disappear from human records.

  “No one needs to hear about your nice, but crazy gran,” I said, knowing that I didn’t think Gran was crazy, she was a beautiful soul, much like her granddaughter. “But let’s get you home so you can scare Velkan off, one way or the other.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  And there they were in all their glory, her cheeks, flushed with a ripe redness. Thoughts ravaged my mind of her naked, tangled beneath me, flushed red for another reason, one of pure pleasure. Fuck.

  “Nah, come on, tell me. Can’t be that bad if you’re my friend,” she said with an acidic bite.

  “Ha, yeah, but I don’t have a choice.”

  “What?”

  “I’m stuck with you, and you’re stuck with me, friends forever. Pinkie promise?”

  29

  I was late. Dressed in my favourite black dress, turquoise earrings and clutch purse that accentuated my green eyes and long black hair, I added the finishing touch – lipstick.

  Several minutes later, there was a knock at the door, and with one last glance in the mirror, I was ready. I opened the door and froze. Velkan instantly rendered me breathless and warmed every morsel of my being. Every inch of him exuded his raw masculinity, and sexual prowess. Fibres clung to his muscles like the clothing was personally designed for him. Wearing black tight skinny jeans, and a white shirt with rolled sleeves that was unbuttoned part way down. Thin gold chains hung around his neck, finishing mid chest. His tattoos even more visible.