Curse of Stone

by Nikki Lockwood

  I glared at him with daggers. He would never let me hear the end of it now. His ego would’ve quadrupled and at any moment his head would burst.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked.

  “I’m sorry Gran but your granddaughter seems to have forgotten that we had plans tonight.” He winked at her.

  I glared at him. You big fat liar.

  A smiled widened across Gran’s face. “Oh, don’t be sorry. Take her.”

  I groaned. Seemed Gran’s fear of the night didn’t extend to sending me out on a date with Jay.

  56

  I gathered up my things and waited outside for Jay to wrap up the nonsense inside. It was only a few minutes before he strode out. I couldn’t stay mad at him, but tonight had been too much. Funny how my mother and grandmother had picked up on my crush as a teenager. But Jay didn’t feel the same way. He never put the moves on me, in a meaningful way, beyond the odd comment here and there, annoying the shit out of me. No, I was just his friend back then, and now. There was a faint flutter in my chest. My mind went blank. Fuck.

  “See I told you, your Gran loves me,” Jamie said as he closed the front door behind him, interrupting my harrowing moment.

  I ignored him.

  “You know she has a point,” he added.

  “And what would that be?” I breathed.

  He walked backwards towards his car. “That it makes no sense, why we aren’t dating?”

  “It makes perfect sense. You’re with Mac, and I’m dating Vee.”

  He laughed. “You’ve only been on one date. That does not equate to dating.”

  “Well, whatever, you’re sleeping with Mac,” I said, knowing it was a blatant lie.

  “I have never, nor do I ever plan on sleeping with Mackenzie.”

  “You lied.”

  Unsure what would happen if I aggravated a werewolf, I bit my tongue. I’d pretty much just told him that if he wasn’t seeing Mac, we might be dating. I don’t think he got the memo though.

  “You never answered my question.”

  Fuck. Okay just play it cool. “What question?”

  “How long has it been, Stone?”

  “Has what been?”

  “Since you had sex, because we both know you and Velkan haven’t done it, which me to ask the question why?”

  I scoffed. The flirtatious edge his words annoyed me. Why did he want to know that? How did he know me and Velkan hadn’t?

  Joining him in the car, I sat silent. I’d never been nervous around Jay, not once. Okay that was a lie. When I was younger, and had a crush on him, I got nervous around him. I don’t think he even noticed. But other day when he landed on top of me, then when kissed my neck yesterday, it must’ve provoked ancient feelings. Gran adding to it, saying all that stuff, I was conflicted. But there were more pressing things to worry about than the state of my head and heart.

  Jay reversed down the driveway, and as we drove away, I stared back at Gran’s brick house, with her quaint little garden out front, filled with rose bushes. She sure did love her roses. The memories time spent helping her in the garden flashed across my mind.

  “They must be trimmed twice a year,” Gran said, in her oversized jeans, floral shirt, garden gloves, holding pruning clippers. Sweat moistened her brow.

  “But why Gran?” said twelve-year-old me.

  “To help reduce disease, it creates more air circulation, and lets more light in, so that it can regenerate and bloom again. Just like in life, Danielle, we must clear out our excess baggage so we can breathe easier.”

  She was right in so many ways. And finding answers was one way I’d be able to breathe easier. That was my baggage.

  “Wolf got your tongue?” Jay interrupted my thoughts.

  “How did you know where I was?”

  He frowned. “When you didn’t text back, I went upstairs, and you weren’t hiding in your apartment, so I knew you had to be here.”

  “You went into my apartment?”

  “Sure did.”

  “Why would you do that?” I asked. “And I wasn’t hiding from you, I was—”

  “You were hiding because we need to talk,” Jamie said.

  “I have nothing to say to you,” I lied. There were a million things I wanted to ask him. But I didn’t know where to start.

  He took a deep breath. “Why didn’t you tell me about Radu, or that woman from last night being Ruth?”

  I rolled my eyes. Of course, Santini told Jay I’d visited him this morning.

  “I was going to, I just—”

  “How am I supposed to protect you if you don’t tell me these things.”

  “Like how you told me that you’re a werewolf?”

  57

  “In all the years we’ve been friends you couldn’t find one moment to tell me?” Her words were brutal.

  She was hurt. I hated that keeping my secret from her, had caused this. Her reaction at the time had been better than I’d thought. That was poor judgement on my part, underestimating her. But I’d still backed her into a corner. There was no undoing this.

  The demon from last night was dead. Those winged bastards were at least good for one thing. But another would come.

  The mating bond wasn’t enough to break whatever had triggered her blood scent. It frustrated my wolf. One thing my mate would never have to worry about was being protected, that was my duty, and I would do so without mercy.

  “And for your information, I never asked you to protect me,” she added.

  I grinned. That’s my girl. So tenacious, and spirited, she would never let me walk all over her. That made me soar with pride, that she was my mate. Not that she knew the latter. Not yet.

  “No, but you rang me, remember.”

  The car fell silent, the tension thick. The side of her bottom lip caught between her teeth. My wolf growled. Heat filled my limbs. I wanted to bite, suck and kiss that lip until she was utterly breathless. The energy in the air spiked. Seconds felt like minutes.

  “Why did you lie about sleeping with Mac?” she asked.

  “I didn’t, I just didn’t correct you,” I said. “But there’s something else I need to tell you.”

  Her mind would be scrambling. I loved it. Panic struck her face. Although she was trying her best to not react. She cringed. “What?”

  “I’m not the only werewolf that you know.”

  58

  Gabriel sat deep in thought atop the cathedral. He had just morphed into human form since the sun set not more than an hour ago.

  His mind wandered to her face. Danielle Stone. Last night when she had seen him. Her eyes, greener than the slopes of the hills in his homeland, Niadar, had thrown his emotions into chaos. He scorned himself for wanting her. She was a mere human.

  “Sune,” Zaire called from the opposing corner.

  Gabriel spun around and flew across. He scanned the blur of people walking below.

  “There.” Zaire pointed.

  Gabriel followed Zaire’s aim towards the demon disguised as an old woman. They knew she was here, but for what reason, they were yet to find that out. She walked at great speed through the sea of people on the sidewalk.

  Hidden in the shadows, they moved across rooftops, following her, block after block.

  “She is headed towards a residential area,” Zaire said. His glacial blue eyes contrasted against his pale skin, and long black hair fell around his face, stopping at his shoulder. “Something is wrong.”

  “Yes,” Gabriel agreed. Even after sending that demon back into the depths of hell last night, an unshakable dread filled him.

  “We must follow her.”

  Gabriel nodded. The breeze picked up strands of his hair and blew them across his face. It was a black wind tonight, there was an odour to it, a foulness.

  Zaire and Gabriel followed the woman to the residential suburbs, skirted around the outside of the city. She slowed her walk as she approached a quaint brick home, with groomed rose bushes in the front yard. With the f
lick of her finger, the streetlight nearby blew, letting the darkness cover all.

  Gabriel’s eyes narrowed. Steam rose from him. Heat seared, burning. Muscles tightened, skin stretching, ripping. Claws tearing through feet. His body contorted in contracting spasms. Wings tore from his back, and outstretched. Bending over, with a gasp. In a final ricochet of body twisting, he stood, in all his powerful might and fury.

  No way was he going risk anything by appearing in his weakest form. Tucking his wings behind his back, he was ready and waiting to apprehend the demon woman. Zaire followed suit.

  She slunk up the footpath towards the front door, muttering over and over. “He is mine. She cannot have him.”

  A light was on in the house, and there were bars on the interior of the windows. That meant that whoever lived here, knew what lingered in the darkness.

  The woman knocked twice on the door. Gabriel focused.

  “Who is it?” He heard a croaky woman’s voice ask.

  With his supernatural senses, even a whisper could be heard in the distance.

  “Claire, it’s me, Ruth,” the demon said.

  The door opened but a chain held it ajar.

  An elderly woman peered outside. Her faced dropped. “What are you doing here?”

  “Claire, it’s me, Ruth. I’m home. Let me in.”

  “You didn’t remember me on the street the other day, so why should I believe you now?”

  “Because I am your sister, and I love you. I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you the other day, it has been far too many years, and no one has called me Ruth, since the day I was taken. Remember how we used to be great friends, we used to sneak out and have fun.”

  “Okay, hold on just a minute,” Claire said and shut the front door.

  Gabriel closed his eyes. He heard soft footsteps; the scratching of a pen writing; more footsteps; followed by the rustling of the chain on the door. The front door opened wide. Claire invited Ruth inside.

  Gabriel and Zaire launched into the air, and flew across the darkened street, their wings flapping quietly as they landed in the pitch black, down the side of Claire’s house. They didn’t want to alarm the demon, just yet. She was a young demon, no more than half a century old. Gabriel doubted she would know they existed or would even sense their presence.

  With every curtain closed Gabriel waited, listening for any disruption. Zaire stood beside him, waiting for the signal to enter the house.

  “He took a girl many years ago, thinking she was the one, but even though she was from the right blood line, she wasn’t the one,” Ruth said.

  “Why are you telling me a story? Just tell me what happened to you,” Claire said.

  Ruth continued. “When he eventually discovered this, he cast her aside, like she meant nothing, and he became angered with her for his mistake. The girl was heartbroken. She desperately wanted him to love her back, but he refused. Tired of her attempts to win his affection back, he cursed her to become something unnatural, and then imprisoned her, waiting for a chance for her to serve purposeful once again. It wasn’t until many years later that she let slip that she had a younger sister. As soon as he heard this, he became obsessed with finding her.”

  “Ruth, what on earth does this have to do with anything?” Claire interrupted.

  “Dear sister, you see, he ordered the woman to return to this world to find her younger sister, with no choice but to agree. Her intentions however were to find her sister, but not for him, because she wanted his love for herself – the love he used to give her. So, she returned to where she had been taken from. But she wandered for too long and was running out of time. She could feel his presence growing stronger from the shadows. So, one night she found her younger sister, and killed her in jealous rage. Then bathed in her blood, as she waited for her master to come.”

  Radu, Gabriel thought. This demon was a servant of his. Which meant there was no way Claire was his healer, as he had felt his enter the world twenty-seven years ago.

  The last time Radu was here was…Gabriel knew exactly when that was…fifty-eight winters ago. He had been seen by two young girls, in a cemetery, as he chased Radu from the city with his brothers. These women were those two girls.

  His heart jolted for a second. This was Danielle Stone’s grandmother and great-aunt.

  This information caused a distressing and unfamiliar sensation within Gabriel. He never felt sentiment towards one of the humans he saved. But she was their blood. The words rattled over in his mind, with a troubling notion.

  “Ruth, what is the relevance of this story? Sounds like a whole lot of poppycock to me. I want you to leave.”

  Gabriel readied himself to signal to Zaire.

  “Claire, my sister.” There was a sudden change of tone to her voice, it was menacing. “My foolish sister, don’t you see—”

  “Wait, what’s happened to your eyes?”

  The silence was threatening. Gabriel heard a slashing sound, and signalled Zaire, who followed him. They flew at full speed through the front door, cracking the timber to pieces.

  As they burst into the living room, the demon spun around snarling and hissing. Large bird like wings covered in grey and white tattered feathers, protruded from her back, and her fingers, deadly long bird claws.

  Beside her, Claire lay in a pile of blood on the floor. Gabriel listened for a heartbeat. It was there, but it was weak. They spread apart, cornering the demon.

  “End of the road for you demon,” said Zaire.

  Her black eyes shifted to him. She started to back away. Gabriel enjoyed this part - when they tried to get away. The chase was thrilling, and to make things interesting in their dull existence, they made it a game, drawing it out, making the demon squirm. But he knew they caught them in the end and sent them back to the underworld where they belonged.

  In a sudden dash, the winged demon, propelled herself upwards, blasting through the ceiling. Gabriel had banished many demons over the millennia, and this one, was as basic as they came.

  “Are we going after her?” Zaire asked.

  “No, we will find her later, she cannot hide from us. You must go to Belvess, let him know what has happened. If she is a healer, he will know. I will take her to the hospital.”

  Zaire flew upwards through the gaping hole in the roof, and into the night.

  Gabriel knelt at Claire’s side, gently swooped her up in his large grey arms, and looked down at her face. With her whiteish grey wavy hair, pulled to one side into a long braid; the rounded tip of her chin; and her thin lips. Even with her features blood soaked, her face reminded him of someone.

  It had been a long time since Gabriel had thought about his mother, but even after all the years passed, he could still see her face, her smile. She was incredibly beautiful, and smart.

  The thoughts of his mother bared him no heartbreak. When he was born, his father had given him the name ‘Sune’, but his mother had called him her little raven, because he could move fast like a raven soaring through the sky. He could hear her soft voice calling out for him, ‘Revna, oh where is my sweet little Revna’.

  He used to return to his long-abandoned childhood village once every couple of centuries, but after the volcanic eruption, the village and his family’s once great longhouse, was nothing more than a pile of fragmented ruins, severely deteriorated by the volcanic ash. He hadn’t visited for many centuries, it served as a painful reminder, but not of his mother or father, but the lives of his wife and young child.

  Gabriel shook off the sentiment and flew urgently into the nights sky. Claire was in bad shape, the lacerations on her arms would carry enough poison to stop her heart, and she was losing too much blood, too fast.

  With his large wings, he made it to the hospital within seconds. He landed in the darkness, just near the entrance. Gabriel placed her down on the footpath. Someone would come along very soon and see her, he hoped. He couldn’t take the risk of more humans seeing him, Danielle Stone was one too many.

  He wat
ched and waited from the neighbouring building rooftop. No more than ten minutes passed when a nurse walking up the path spotted her.

  An empty gurney came rolling out, accompanied by several nurses and what looked to be a doctor, dressed in a white coat. The doctor placed a stethoscope to her chest, and then removed it. It took several nurses to lift her onto the gurney before they wheeled her into the hospital.

  “Brother,” Gabriel said as a gust of wind swept against his back.

  Belvess landed beside him. After Iktok, Belvess was the second oldest of them, and an elder.

  From a land situated between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, deep in the heart of the Fertile Crescent – a place known as the first in human civilisations. Belvess’ light brown skin and blue eyes were not like that of his descendants. His people ruled for two thousand years before they were wiped out by another.

  A great warrior and skilled archer, he was known for his strength in close-range fighting. But it was not a blade nor an arrow that fated him, no, it was poison. It was his brother.

  “Zaire told me that she might be a healer,” Belvess said.

  It didn’t add up. The old woman being attacked by the demon, when Claire wasn’t the healer, he searched for.

  “She carries the blood, but she is not the one. I believe it is her granddaughter,” Gabriel said.

  Belvess had trained in medicine many centuries ago. No person alive today knew who he was. But he alone knew what to look for in the blood. It was a complicated process that required the blood of the original source, a woman long since passed. Belvess had mastered it and now took mere hours to confirm.

  “You have found her. Iktok did not tell me,” Belvess said.

  “It was just a suspicion. But now all signs point to her.” Danielle Stone.

  59

  I waited until we parted ways in the elevator before leaning against the wall. Air swept into my lungs like I was able to finally breathe. Grasping my chest, my heart thundered with jolts of lightening shocking me.