Curse of Stone

by Nikki Lockwood

  Jay’s grip on my hand tightened, his strength pushing against my lack of, helping me stand. His warmth radiated through me. My cheeks flushed. I’d never been so weak. I hated it.

  Everything was a little hazy. I didn’t know what had happened. What I did know was that I’d woken in Velkan’s bedroom. How I got there though, no idea. It was an odd place, dark, and sterile. One other thing I remembered, was the nightmare. It was terrifying. I never thought it would end.

  It had taken six hours for my sight to return. Longest time of my life. I’d held Jay’s hand with such possession and fear. I didn’t want him to let go. He hadn’t allowed anyone but Velkan in the room.

  “Are you okay, Stone?” he asked.

  I lifted my eyes to his, they were narrowed. Now I really wanted to know what happened to me. Jamie was being extra nice, and that wasn’t like him.

  “I’m good. Think I have been lying down for too long. How long have I been out?”

  “Thirteen days,” Vee said.

  “What?” I gasped, losing my balance, but Jay caught me. “What happened to me?”

  I stared at Vee; his eyes darted everywhere but at me. Jamie bowed his head. “What the hell is wrong with you guys? One of you had better tell me.”

  I stood up straight and a painful warming sensation radiated across my back. I knew something had happened, and it involved my back. That pain, that wasn’t from bed rest, no, that was different. With my body up right, gravity hit my bladder, like a wave crashing down on the shore.

  “Where’s the bathroom?” I said, wiggling my legs together.

  I bolted into a hallway, looking both ways, but each direction was identical.

  “First door on your left,” Vee said.

  Knees rubbing together, holding my crotch, I ran. I barely got the horrid sweatpants off, before thumping down on the toilet seat, and the fury of the seven seas released. My tummy panged with pain. The warmth on my back burnt.

  If Velkan wouldn’t tell me, I knew I could wrangle it out of Jamie.

  Trying to remember, I searched every crevasse of my mind, but it was blank. At the bathroom sink, I stared at myself in the mirror. I knew that face, it was mine, but something was different. Pain pinched my back. I pulled the top over my head, covering my breasts, and turned my back to the mirror.

  Wide scars ran diagonally across my back, from shoulder blade to the top of my bottom. They didn’t look fresh. I tried to reach them with my fingers, but I could only touch the tip of one. As my finger ran over the tip of the scar, my back tingled with a painful jolt.

  “Jamie?” I yelled.

  Jamie busted through the door. Panic plastered on his face.

  Trembling, my wide eyes stared at my reflection, and back in the mirror. Short sharp breaths shook me. “What the hell happened to me? These weren’t here before.”

  “As much as I love to see you half naked, please put your top back on,” Jay said.

  “No, I want the truth, and I want it now,” I demanded.

  “Sorry, you’ll have to wait,” Jamie said.

  “I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what happened,” I said. The fury was growing inside me, it was brewing in my belly, and my temperature was rising. I stood my ground.

  Then it hit me like a tsunami. I pulled my top back down. My blood ran ice cold. “Wait, where’s Gran? What happened to her? Is she okay?”

  The bathroom fell silent. I looked to Jay. My eyes burned into him.

  “Stone,” Jay said in a soft voice.

  I didn’t respond. My eyes felt like they were about to fall out. “What happened Jay?”

  “What do you remember?”

  Pausing, my memories flooded back. “Her body, so black.” My widened eyes met his. “It was Ruth.”

  “I know. Stone, Ruth’s a demon,” Jamie said, the words rolling off his tongue like they were totally normal.

  “A demon? Like Maurice?” I asked.

  He nodded.

  My chest heaved. “Can you take me to see Gran? I need to be there when she wakes up.”

  Silence rang through the air.

  “What is it?”

  Jamie’s head bowed, and his eyes dulled. “I’m so sorry, Gran passed away from her injuries two weeks ago.”

  “What?”

  “Her heart stopped. The doctors tried everything, but there wasn’t anything more they could do.”

  The words hit me, like I’d been slammed into a wall, shattered glass slicing my heart into a million pieces. My stomach twisted into a ball. I panicked for air, with several short sharp breaths, not getting any in. She couldn’t die, she just couldn’t. Everything in me wanted to cry, but I couldn’t.

  I leant over the sink. Hands grasping the edge of the basin, with white knuckles. I was trembling. Gasping for breath. Gran. It was like a ball of heat rising the length of my body.

  “Stone,” Jay said. It drew my eyes to his, in the mirror, and held them. “Breathe.” He stepped towards me. “Just breathe.”

  He stared at me for the longest moment, then walked over to me. His warm hands caressed my shoulders. Then reached into his front pocket. “Here, this is yours,” he said, pulling something out and held out his open hand. “I know Gran wanted you to have it.”

  “Gran’s necklace,” I exclaimed. “Ruth stole it, I saw it around her neck.” I held it in my palm, marvelling it.

  “I took it back. Knew how much it meant to you.”

  Tears began to stream from my eyes. I threw my arms around him, holding him tight for just a second.

  “See I do listen,” Jay said.

  “Thank you so much.” Breaking our hug, my mind took over again, back into the pit of darkness. Ruth sneered at me. Her dark eyes glimmered with wickedness. In slow motion, her arms extended, and claws slashed at me. A howl rang out in the silence. My head turned to the sound. Jamie was running towards me. Beside him, a gigantic black wolf. I gasped and jolted back. That’s right, Jay and Velkan were werewolves.

  “You were there,” I said, looking at Jay. “She attacked me. But she had wings, she scratched my back.” I paused wrapping an arm around to feel my scars on my back. “Why if the same demon attacked both Gran and I, how is it that she is dead, and I am here? Wait, where is Gran now?”

  “They’ve stuck her on ice at our request. I knew you’d want to say goodbye properly.”

  He was right, I did. As the tears stung in my eyes, I let him wrap his arms around me again.

  80

  The door swung open and in walked Velkan and a woman I didn’t recognise. She was classically beautiful; I didn’t know whether to hate her or be in awe of her.

  Her eyes flickered as they ran over me. “Danielle, glad to see you are feeling better.”

  I glanced at Vee and then back to her. “I’m sorry, do I know you?”

  “Danielle, this is my mother, Cathwulf,” Vee said, without making eye contact.

  “Cathwulf? What an interesting name.”

  This was Vee’s mother. The first werewolf in all history. The only child of the great she-wolf Asena. Wow.

  Hair black as a raven, slicked back into a bun; deep brown eyes with flickers of gold; high cheek bones; and a youthful radiance that made her appear barely older than mid-twenties. Her slender frame and small stature only added to her beauty. Like a precious gem.

  No wonder Velkan was so handsome. But he must’ve got his bronzed skin from his father.

  “Come, you must be famished. Kamila has prepared some food for you,” Cathwulf said.

  We walked into the hallway, and past several closed doors in silence. Residual tears lined the rim of my eyelids, and lashes.

  “It was a gift given to me by my mother,” Cathwulf said.

  “What was?”

  “My name.”

  “Oh wow,” I said. “Does it mean anything?”

  “Yes, it means a woman as pure as a wolf.”

  “That’s pretty. Your mother was Asena?”

  “Very good. Th
at is correct. I see Jamie has been rather open with you.”

  Cathwulf led me down a long stone hallway, and we appeared in a large room. Long wooden tables and chairs were placed in parallel the length of the room. At the front sat a large chair, like a throne.

  “Just the basics. Asena was the ancient white wolf with a blue mane. She’s talked about in Turkic legends. How did you end up in America?” I asked.

  “Danielle,” a female voice called out.

  I spun around. A tall, muscular woman raced towards me with a smile on her face. Before I knew it, she wrapped her arms around me in a hug.

  “Ouch.”

  “Oh, my goodness, silly me. I am so sorry,” she said, releasing me. “It’s nice to finally meet you, I’m Kamila.”

  She was massive, like a bodybuilder. Holistically beautiful with sandy blonde hair fell to her shoulders. Even with a smile on her face, there was something in her eyes, which made me cautious.

  “Thanks,” I said.

  “You must be hungry?”

  The thought of food churned my stomach, twisting in contorted knots. I couldn’t remember the last time I had eaten anything. Thirteen days ago.

  “Actually, I am.”

  “Great. I’ll be right back,” Kamila said, and darted out of the room.

  The floor in the front had several metal loops pinned into the floor, like to clip something to. It was a strange thing to have on a floor, in a house. Even a house this big.

  We sat down at one of the tables.

  “Can you tell me what happened to you and your parents?” I asked.

  Cathwulf stared at me, her eyes unmoved in emotion.

  “Sorry, you don’t have to, I didn’t mean to pry.”

  “It is okay,” she said. “When I was a teenager, hunters from the West had heard rumours of a half-woman, half-wolf creature, and set out to kill me. My mother and father were murdered protecting me. My heartbreak and pain were beyond any that I’d felt before, that I became blinded by my rage and grief. That was when I meta-morphed into a large variant of my werewolf self. I became a fierce warrior and slaughtered the entire hunting party. But my thirst for blood didn’t stop there. It led me into the South, to the military villages that had once slaughtered my father’s people. I terrorized them. With each kill, I lost more and more of my human side.” She paused as Kamila placed a bowl of stew in front of me.

  “Thank you,” I said as she left again, smiling.

  “That was until I met a great human warrior, who showed mercy in the face of adversity. His name was Grayson. I fell in love with him. He was not of wolf form, so I bit him, and he became my immortal mate. Together throughout the years, we created the original blood line of werewolves, which has come down through the ages, changing and adapting as new generations were born.”

  “But I thought you couldn’t become a werewolf by biting a human?”

  “That is true for every wolf except me. I alone can turn human into werewolf. You are either born of wolf blood or you’re not. Those that are born wolf, werepups, are bound to their wolf form until they are two years old. In times past, it was men, who tried to own werepups. Enslaving them, branding them.” There was a sadness to her eyes as she glanced at Velkan.

  Oh, fuck. She was talking about him. The scar on his face. He’d said, ‘there was a secret group of men that hunted for boys like me, to enslave them, and brand them’. I turned and stared at Velkan. His eyes met mine with intensity.

  “Vee,” I uttered.

  “Yes. My son bears the scars of these men,” Cathwulf said.

  81

  All the eyes in the room were on me. A tense silence filled the air. A door opened. I shuddered.

  Five men walked in, one by one. My mouth dropped open. Their presence filled the room. The energy spiked. Every head turned. They were magnificent. Bigger than Jay and Velkan in stature, and just as strong. Like the fiercest warriors from another time had banded together. Their power felt with every step. They were stunningly masculine it was hypnotising. With long hair, clean shaven, and skin so smooth and serene, it almost glowed. I didn’t know where to look.

  Cathwulf stood from the table and greeted them. I could hear them talking but was so focused on their beauty that I didn’t listen to what was being said. My ears pricked when I heard my name said by the one with long black hair. His eyes were crystallized blue, surrounded by dark outlined rings. At a guess, I’d say his Egyptian heritage had blessed him with razor sharp genes because he reminded me of portraits of the pharaohs of old.

  “I am glad to see you are feeling better, Danielle,” he said in a deep, smooth voice.

  How did he know my name? I hadn’t met him before; I would’ve remembered a face like that. “I’m sorry, do I know you?”

  “No, you do not. My name is Iktok.” His large prominent lips drew upwards.

  Accompanied by Cathwulf, the men walked towards the table. I sat down facing them, but only two sat. The other three stood off to the side, a short distance from the table.

  “I am Belvess, it is a pleasure to see you, again,” the second man sitting said.

  His light blue eyes, like the aquamarine of a glacial river, dazzled in the light. He had such refined features – roman nose, small subtle lips, prominent brow, sun kissed skin, and chocolate brown locks fell just below his shoulders.

  I looked around the room, feeling like a fish out of water, the only ordinary looking one in a room full of photoshopped models. Never had so many people wanted to make my acquaintance. It all seemed official and strange.

  “I’m sorry, but who are you? Am I in trouble?” I asked.

  “More like wolf bait,” one of the men sneered.

  Over my right shoulder, I glanced in his direction. He stood the furthest away, leaning against the wall. Hidden by the dim light and shadows of the room. I was confused that my question aroused such an answer.

  “Sune,” Iktok snapped. Then said something in a language I didn’t understand.

  That did not please him one bit. But it pleased me.

  “You are not in any trouble,” Iktok said. “We heard of your attack and offered our services to Cathwulf.”

  “Services? What services?”

  “My, have they not told you?” Belvess asked.

  “We were just about to,” Cathwulf said.

  “The demon that attacked you, contained a venomous toxin in her nails. When she scratched you, it injected the toxin into you. It should have killed you, which it did not,” Belvess said.

  “Why didn’t it?”

  A deafening silence filled the room. I scanned each face for a reaction, and the only one that showed any emotion, was the one who Iktok called Sune, he seemed agitated.

  Who are these guys?

  “It is your blood,” Iktok said.

  “My blood?” I gulped.

  “Yes, your blood.”

  “But my blood’s the same as my gran’s. We both have AB negative. So, why did it kill her and not me?”

  “You may have the same blood type, but there are differences in your blood. You both share traces of an ancient matrilineal blood line. Your grandmother only had faint traces, while yours, is pure.”

  “An ancient what?”

  “Matrilineal blood line,” Iktok said.

  “What’s that?”

  “It means, you are the most important person in this room,” Belvess said, leaning forward on the table.

  I glanced around the room, every pair of eyes, even the hostile ones, were fixed on me. Except Jamie’s. His proud frame was slumped. My eyes narrowed at him for a moment. But he still didn’t look at me.

  “Ah, why?” I asked.

  Iktok’s gaze darted off to the side of me. “Sune,” he said, then a phrase in a language I didn’t understand.

  Sune responded, in the same language. They exchanged several more words, before Sune walked closer.

  His eyes. My lord, his eyes. Now that he’d stepped closer, and into the light. Green. Like a
thousand hues. I, was, captivated. His long brown locks tousled around his face, down past his shoulders. My mind raced.

  It was him.

  The man that had saved me from Maurice. That I’d seen with two red eyes and wings in the fog. A lump caught in my throat. “You,” I said.

  “I would like to introduce you to Sune,” Iktok said.

  “Nice to meet you,” he said and bowed his head.

  “Sune has volunteered to be your bodyguard, until we locate the person behind your attack.”

  I heard what he said, but I was bewitched by Sune’s eyes, it took a moment for my brain to register it. “You mean Ruth?”

  “No, I do not. Ruth was merely a pawn,” Iktok said. “Of course, your friends here are welcome to assist Sune.”

  “Radu,” I uttered, remembering what Ruth had said. “Is it, I mean, is he—”

  “Yes, I’m afraid so.”

  “Then it’s true, all of it. But what does Radu want with me?”

  “Your heart.”

  82

  “My heart.” I gulped. The fear in my voice clear.

  “Don’t worry, I won’t let him take you anywhere, and he certainly will not get your heart,” Jay said with absoluteness. The fire in his eyes evident of his anger.

  “Your bloodline belongs to Cassandriella, a witch, more than six thousand years ago, who fell in love with a man, named Radu. Long story short, she was his first love, and broke his heart. He was killed because of it. Angered by her rejection he vowed revenge on her descendants. But Radu bartered a deal with the devil before he could enter the gates of hell. Now he seeks to take that which he never had, the heart of a woman. But not just any, the heart of a healer. One of pure blood. A true descendant. Like you,” Iktok said.

  “How can we stop him, I mean, he can’t have my heart,” I said, panicking.

  “Do not fret,” Iktok said. “We wait for him to show. He is already here in the city, that is fact. Radu’s obsession is his greatest weakness. Now that two of his minion demons have been removed, he will grow desperate, and that is when he will make a mistake. That is when we will snatch him.”