75
A nail-biting scream repeatedly rang out from inside the room. I bolted upright from my hunched lean, wanting to run into the room, but I couldn’t. Balam and Zaire had placed themselves in front of the door.
“What are they doing to her?” I asked.
“It will be alright. Iktok won’t let anything happen to her. Trust me,” Cathwulf said.
Trust them, unlikely. My wolf snarled, scraping its claws against my insides. But she was right, Iktok wouldn’t, but it still didn’t make it any easier to hear. My heart raced, as it felt like it was being stabbed with a knife every time another scream rang out. I covered my ears and paced, trying to focus on something else, anything else.
After about two minutes of hell, an eerie silence echoed.
“Who the hell is that in there with Iktok?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” Vee said.
“And you would not. You are not old enough to know,” Zaire said. “She is the apprentice of Kharachne. They live deep in the earth, and never come to the surface. Even when summoned, she has not yet come herself, not once.”
“She? That thing is a she?” I scoffed.
Zaire laughed. “Do not be fooled young wolf, she is not like an apprentice in the human world. She is a powerful sorceress, controlling both dark and light magic.”
“What will she do to Stone?”
“Jay, she is here to heal her,” Vee said.
“And if she fails, then what?”
“We take that which he wants,” Cathwulf said in a tone that drove daggers through me.
Almost dropping to my knees, everything going fuzzy. The fire inside me so hot it burnt. “No one is cutting out her heart,” I growled. No fucking way was it going to happen. Not now, not ever.
Vee stood silent. In times of trouble, and pain, Velkan tended to withdraw, and be very silent. It stemmed from when he was enslaved.
The minutes ticked by, but it felt like hours. Zaire and Balam stood very still, not even moving to shift their weight.
It baffled me that these ridiculously transcendent men were once the fiercest warriors of their peoples. It must pain them to live such a cursed existence for millennia. I didn’t know if I’d be able to stay as sane as they appeared to be. But that didn’t change how I felt about them.
“Holy shit,” Velkan said a few hours later.
I sprung alert from my dozed state. It had been boring and painful waiting, not knowing what the hell they were doing in there.
Panic struck and I jumped to my feet. A trail of small spiders, one after the other, squeezed under the door, and crawled hurriedly along the wall.
The door cracked open, and Iktok appeared.
76
“We were able to draw the poison from her body. It fought back, as we tried to release the hold it had on her mind. But we won. She needs to heal before we will know if there are any lasting effects. Do not be alarmed when you see her, the spiders are the best way for her to heal. They will not harm her. When they leave, you can remove her from her wrappings,” Iktok said, emerging from the room.
“Her wrappings?” Velkan asked.
Iktok stepped aside. The sorceress appeared from the room and walked past us. Vee rushed into the room. I followed behind and halted. Holy shit.
Stone had been spun into a cocoon, and was hanging from the ceiling, in a massive web. Several large spiders, about the size of a small cat, looked to be working on her, with more web spitting out from their back ends.
The ceiling was now clear of spiders but around the web, on the walls, there were still hundreds of spiders.
Vee tried to approach Stone, but the large spiders, reared up at him, and hissed.
“What is going on?” he asked.
“They are healing her.” Cathwulf walked into the room.
“Be careful Velkan, they also protect her,” Iktok said, appearing at Cathwulf’s side.
“If she wakes and sees this, she is going to lose her mind,” I said.
“They will leave before she wakes. That is when you can cut her down and free her from the web. If you try before this, you will interrupt her healing, and they will attack you.”
“What kind of spiders are they?” Velkan asked.
“Succumbus spiders. They were created by Kharachne and have great healing venom. Designed to be warriors, protectors of the realm in which they live, and heal all those that have sought refuge with their master, those who have been touched by evil. They are magnificent creatures.”
“Magnificent isn’t the word I would use,” I said.
They were ugly, hairy, green and black beasts with red faces.
“So, how long will it take her to heal?” Vee asked.
“As long as it takes. It could be a few hours, or a few days, it depends on her,” Iktok said. “We will return each night, to check on her. Once she has recovered, and is awake, I would very much like to meet her. For the time being, she is to remain unaware of our other side.”
Other side - he meant without telling her they were supernatural beings.
“You know she’s getting closer to figuring out that you exist,” I said, and it was the truth. Stone was so close.
Iktok cast me a steely look. “She is clever, is she not?”
That shut me up. My phone rang. The number was concealed.
“Hello,” I answered.
“Yes, hello, this is Doctor Steven Ashby from Estermoor Central Hospital, are you Jamie Wildhorn?”
“Yeah.”
“Well Mr Wildhorn, I am looking for Danielle Stone, and you are listed as her emergency contact.”
I was? Wow. His words floored me. “Danielle isn’t available at the current time. Is this about Gran, uh I mean, Claire Stone?”
“Yes,” Doctor Ashby said.
“Well, I’m afraid you will just have to tell me, as I am the next of kin for the one you are looking for.”
“I suppose so. We need you to come down to the hospital and sign a few papers.”
“Okay, what’s happened?”
“Claire’s heart stopped a few hours ago. We tried to resuscitate her but there wasn’t anything more we could have done.”
After the first words were spoken, my jaw clenched, and a thousand blades pierced my heart. “She’s dead?” I uttered, but it was barely coherent.
“I’m afraid so.”
77
Gabriel had sat still all night. The demon had attacked the girl, Danielle Stone. Radu was nowhere in sight. Two wolves had been killed – which was of little concern to him, but the influx of demons was.
Kharachne would heal the girl. If she were pure of blood she would survive, if she were not, well she would die.
Filled with dreaded weight, his heart sunk. The lingering of hope fluttered in his stomach, but it was faint.
Gabriel placed his forehead in his hand. As he closed his eyes, her face flashed before him. He had been following her for some time now since she had first touched his arm.
The night he had watched her, it struck a chord in his soul, deep down. He had seen her, for the first time. Even from a distance, never had he seen eyes so green. But had not allowed himself to look into them beyond the colour.
Now, he had no choice, and that scared him.
It was easier for him to push her away, not allow her to get close, than show any vulnerability or weakness. That was one thing that could be exploited or used against him. He didn’t want her to be put in a situation like that, nor did he want to feel vulnerable because of another.
A gust of wind swept around him, but he did not falter his stance. A tinge of silver caught his vision. Iktok.
Gabriel turned as wings of magnificent silver colourings flapped with grace, lowering Iktok to the rooftop. He had finally returned from the wolves.
“Is she—” The words caught in his throat.
“She lives, brother,” Iktok said.
Relief swept through Gabriel’s body, lightening the harrowing truth that he h
oped this human was his healer. That would ease the guilt from wanting her.
“Did Kharachne come?”
“No, it was as I suspected, she sent her sorceress, and the Succumbus.”
“The Succumbus, really? Not for an age have I seen them.”
“They are as they have always been. And she was healed enough for me to confirm it. It is her, Sune.”
Iktok had sent Belvess to the hospital, to retrieve a blood sample from the grandmother. It was a match for Cassandriella’s blood, but a weak potency. She was not a healer.
But this, this confirmed that Cassandriella’s blood ran pure in Danielle Stone’s veins.
“You’re sure?”
“Yes. She is twenty-seven years of age,” Iktok added. His words both harrowing and resonating.
Twenty-seven years ago, he thought. Gabriel had been in Spain at the time, on the day when his heart stopped before restarting to a different rhythm – twenty-seven years ago, this year.
“I do not wish to hope, for I have followed this human, and she shares a bed with a wolf.” Gabriel’s chest caved.
“Ah, that is fleeting. She is destined for you, only you can make her see that. You must allow yourself to look into her eyes, and to really look brother. If you see your past, present, future, in her eyes. She is destined for you.”
“I know how it works.”
“Do not be so pessimistic. It is a miracle we found her. Too many have slipped by unnoticed, undetected, and some of your brothers will never have the chance, which has been presented before you. Grab it Sune, with both hands, and do not let her slip through your fingers.”
“What would you have me do?” Gabriel asked.
“My brother do not be afraid. Your capacity for love may be something you have long forgotten but you must try. When she wakes, we return to visit with her, you will come with me and meet her.”
“I have met her.”
“Saving her from a demon, does not count. Be the man I knew once, not the cursed beast, but the man you are.”
“But I—”
“Do not argue with me, Sune. You will come with us when we return.” Iktok fell silent. The light of his blue eyes, darkening like storm clouds.
“What troubles you?” Gabriel asked.
“This one, she carries something different. A healer yes, but there was something else, something I have not seen before.”
The weight resettled like led in my heart. “What?”
“Her grandmother carried something, a stone, around her neck. The demon stole it, but a young wolf, took it back. I saw it, it is a gem not of this world.”
Air caught in his throat.
“Three stones: one of blood, one of light, and one bound. Think about it, brother. One of blood is the healer – the girl, one of light – is the gem not of this realm, and one bound – that is you Gabriel.” Iktok stared straight ahead with a vacant look, like that of deep in thought.
“But she must pass into the realm of that which no light touches, and Radu does not dwell in such a place.”
Iktok outstretched his wings. “Let us hope she does not venture into said realm, and the prophecy never comes to pass,” he said and flew across the rooftop to his place of daylight rest.
The thought pierced his mind as the first flecks of light hit his flesh, hardening Gabriel into his stone fortress.
Danielle would not be his death, for she was his life, and nothing, not a wolf nor a prophecy, would stop him.
78
The final Succumbus spider scurried down the hallway, on its long black hairy legs. My focus turned to Stone. “We can cut her down now, can’t we?”
One by one the remaining spiders marched back between the cracks in which they came.
It had been thirteen days. My mind and heart had been through hell. Every time Velkan or I tried to get close to Stone, the Succumbus spiders reared up and hissed.
Distracting myself from going stir crazy waiting, I’d dragged Cai and Bayley to Gran’s house. We’d cleaned up the blood, and the mess. Fixed the hole in the roof and replaced the front door. Stone didn’t need the stress of dealing with any of that. We left it neat and tidy, no one would suspect anything, except the slight change in colour on the patched ceiling. But even Stone wouldn’t notice that – I hoped.
“That’s what he said. When the spiders leave, we can cut her down. After that, it’s just a matter of time before she wakes,” Vee said.
“We must be cautious. We don’t know what state her mind will be in,” Cathwulf said, entering the room.
It worried me, a heavy weight sitting on my heart. But troubling me more than that was the bomb I would have to drop on Stone. It was going to be hard to look her in the eyes and tell her. Gran was dead. I needed to be the one to do it though. We would have no more secrets. The truth would devastate her but lying would be worse.
“Hold her body, so she doesn’t drop,” I said, ripping and thrashing at the web. It was sticky and soft; my arms getting covered in it.
As I tore the last thread from the ceiling, Stone fell into Velkan’s arms. He placed her down on his new bed. The old one had to be tossed out, blood had soaked right through it.
“Let’s get this shit off her before she wakes,” I said.
With the tips of our fingers, we pulled at the webbed cocoon. Piece by piece it started to come away.
“Um,” I said, pausing at the sight Stone’s near naked body. It was spectacular. Every bit the women I knew, and curves that could make a man putty. But it was wrong to look. I grabbed a blanket from the cupboard and threw it over her.
“How’s the wounds on her back?” I asked, curious to see what the spiders had done.
“I don’t know. Come on, give me a hand, let’s roll her over and have a look,” Vee said.
I placed my hands carefully on Stone’s lower body, wrapping the blanket around her, and rolled her onto her front. Vee pulled back the blanket.
“Holy shit,” I said.
Velkan shared the sentiment.
Where her wounds had been, long scars ran the length of her back, but even those didn’t look sore or pink. They were completely healed.
“It was the spiders,” Cathwulf said. “I will get Lucky to bring some clothes for her.”
We rolled Stone back and placed the blanket back over her.
“No, not Luciana,” I said.
“Kamila then.”
I could imagine the look on Stone’s face when she realised what she was wearing, if Luciana dressed her. A flannel shirt, and baggy chino pants. The mental image made me smile. I could hear her now, saying ‘what the fuck is this crap’.
Cathwulf walked out, her footsteps disappearing down the hallway.
“So, Grayson’s back huh,” I said.
I had been a wreck all week and was nervous for when Stone would wake. I’d have to gauge it. Telling her she was my mate, shit, I’d waited years, I could wait until the time was right. With Grayson here, Velkan would keep to his word and back off, scared of his father’s repercussions if he didn’t.
Vee leant up against the stone wall and pushed out his chest. “How are you feeling about all this?”
I straightened my stance and folded my arms against my chest. “Fine, but it will be better once we know if there are any lasting effects from the poison.”
A short while later, Kamila appeared carrying a handful of clothes, and ordered Vee and I out of the room.
“You reckon she might be different, or lost her memory or something?”
“Not memory loss as such, but she might be a little off,” he said, rubbing his hand across his forehead.
“I’m sure she will be fine,” I said, confident she would be. Stone was strong, a fighter. It was her warrior spirit and resilience, among many things, that I loved about her.
I let out an exasperated sigh. Staring at the blank wall in front of me, the anxiety was building within me, but I had to stay calm. I practiced breathing, in my nose, out my mouth. But it
wasn’t fucking working.
The dim-lit, stone hallway was long, it led to room after room. The air was trickled with the faint essence of petrichor from the stone and disinfectant from Vee’s room having a total overhaul, whilst Stone was cocooned. It wasn’t unpleasant, it was merely present.
I twisted the ring on my finger, around in circles, with my thumb. Staring at my hands, the outline of a tattooed heart inside my index finger, made me pause.
It was for her.
Kamila appeared from the room, smiling with her eyes and mouth. “All clear. You guys might want to get in here.”
“Is she—” A wave of long buried hope galloped in my chest.
Velkan rushed into the room. As Kamila walked past me down the hallway, my eyes fixed on the door. To my surprise, I hesitated.
“Jay, get in here,” Vee shouted.
I raced into the room. My heart stopped. There was movement under her closed eye lids. With an unblinking focus, I watched every twitch. Her eyelashes flickered. She blinked several times.
Vee was seated right beside her.
“Jay,” she uttered, her voice dry, raspy.
I froze, staring at the floor. Velkan bowed his head and moved aside. I staggered, mouth ajar, towards her. Numb from head to toe. One heartbeat away from crumbling.
“Jay.” This time it was clearer.
Her eyes opened wide. White flooded her irises. My heart leapt into my throat. What the fuck was wrong with her eyes? Her lip trembled. I knew that look. She was frightened. It burnt a hole in my hard exterior. She would make a sap of me yet. And I would love it.
I rushed to her side. Scooped up her hand and kissed it. “Ssh, it’s okay, I’m here.”
“I can’t see.”
79
Every part of me hurt. As I tried to sit up, I pulled on Jamie’s arm. His strength wouldn’t buckle under the pull of my weight. He was supernatural after all. As my feet hit the cold stone floor, my body shuddered.
I gingerly stood up, and paused, my face twisting in agony. “Argh,” I yelled. My hand held onto my back, clutching at the pain. It felt like a knife stabbed me several times in the back.
Curse of Stone Page 21