Curse of Stone

by Nikki Lockwood

  I tried to step around Jay, but his arm held me back. His head whipped over his shoulder back to me. “No fucking way,” he growled.

  A cold jolt tore up my spine.

  “Danielle,” a faint female voice called.

  My head whipped around, scanning the room for the voice’s owner, but there wasn’t anyone I didn’t recognise. Velkan and Radu were colliding again.

  “Don’t you fucking move,” Jamie warned, but this time he didn’t look at me.

  “Danielle,” the female voice called again.

  This time it was behind me. I glanced back. The sink?

  “Did you hear that?” I asked, hoping that Jamie had.

  “Hear what?” he asked.

  “Danielle.” This time the voice was clear. I turned behind Jamie’s grip, facing the sink, and looked down.

  My eyes widened. Every part of me went numb. A woman’s face was on the wooden plate that floated atop the water in the sink. She was real, like watching a movie, but fucking real. Her arm reached towards me, breaking through the barrier that I thought was the plate.

  “Jay,” I squealed.

  Jamie spun around, tightening his grip around me as the woman’s hand grabbed me.

  96

  There was no way he could get to her in time. A fiery orange glow radiated from her sink, while Radu stood in front of her. Two demons. This was not happening. Panic heaved Gabriel’s chest. Eyes widening in horror.

  Water demons. He hadn’t expected them. Nor had Radu, by the flash of fear in his eyes.

  Wait, what was she doing? A horrid sickness filled him. “No,” Gabriel yelled.

  Iktok was fast, landing at Gabriel’s side.

  Danielle trapped behind a wolf, turned towards the sink. The wolf grabbed her in an instant, but with an orange flash, they vanished into thin air. Gabriel’s eyes widened.

  Radu faded from human form into a star and darted away as Velkan came flying back into the room.

  A pain radiated from Gabriel’s chest, beckoning him to his knees.

  “She was wearing the necklace. The water demons are of another realm.” Belvess’ voice sounded behind him.

  Iktok placed his hand on Gabriel’s shoulder. “You must bring her back, brother. She is needed here for more reasons than that of your own.”

  Words failed Gabriel. His heart stopped. A gasp sounded from his chest that was caving in radiating pain of a thousand blades.

  A chorus of winds, full of power and strength swept through them. Gabriel lifted his head. “She lives,” he uttered.

  “Yes,” Iktok said. “She lives. Her presence has left this plane, but she is the key. No person, demon, or creature, will end her life now that they will all know.”

  Iktok knelt beside Gabriel. “And so, the curse of stone has come to pass.”

  Epilogue

  Spain, 1994

  Gabriel sat at the bar, waiting for the opportune moment. His gaze fixed on the man out on the patio. They had to make sure. But as he emitted a throbbing fiery glow, there wasn’t much confirmation needed. He was unnatural, he shouldn’t have been here. Gabriel could hear the boisterous voice of the egotistical and misogynistic man sitting at a table on the patio, talking about himself. It was enough to irritate him.

  He stared at his glass of water, although he didn’t want to drink it, he had no need to. He couldn’t remember the last time he had needed his thirst quenched, the last time he felt thirsty.

  Gabriel half-smiled to himself in delight and remained unmoved as he watched the man approaching the bar with an empty beer glass, swaying.

  “Dos cervezas,” he told the barman.

  Then the man noticed Gabriel sitting staring at the end of the bar.

  “I’m sorry but do I know you?” he asked.

  “No.”

  “Yes, I know you.”

  “Do you just?” Gabriel said.

  “Yeah, I know you. Barcelona, last year, Casa Donista?”

  “No, sorry, I didn’t visit Spain last year.”

  “But I have met you before, I just can’t place where,” he said. “You’re not going to help me at all are you?”

  “No, because we have never met before.”

  “Yes, we have. I remember your face.”

  The man stared at Gabriel, raising his eyes to think.

  “Damn it, I’ve met you before. Surely, you must remember me?”

  “Trust me, I remember every person I have ever met.”

  “Then you must remember me.”

  “No,” he reiterated.

  “Then you lie.”

  “Lying is for cowards.”

  “Then you’re a coward.”

  “Unfortunately for you, I am no coward, nor do I lie.” Technically, Gabriel hadn’t lied, he had never met this man before, although, he had seen him, and witnessed the atrocities he had caused.

  “Then tell me where I know you from.”

  Gabriel paused, he knew that it was all fun and games. That was until, the man standing at the bar remembered what Gabriel was, then the real fun began.

  “Have you ever been up into the hills of Castilia? That is the place I visited the last time I was in Spain. Perhaps you know that region?” Gabriel asked.

  “Uh, perhaps, I mean there are plenty of hilly regions in Spain, even out there, there is a hill.”

  “Yes indeed, but Castilia is a particular region that has a lot of history. Are you sure you are not familiar with that region?”

  “Wait, Castilia? Sure, I’m familiar with that region.”

  “Do you know the history of the region?” Gabriel asked. He knew the history; he had witnessed it with his own eyes.

  Castilia was once a region with great monasteries, and villages. Now the region was uninhabited, scattered with remains of the brutal executions that had taken place there. Many innocent women had lost their lives, believed to be witches, some were but the majority weren’t. Burnt at the stake, tortured, raped, murdered, by evil men who claimed to be the hand of God, and evil beings in the body of men, reigned down upon humans. Gabriel and with his brothers were called to intervene. They saved many women from unlawful and unfair persecution, but they had also captured many demons who claimed to be God fearing men. This one, Gabriel remembered well, he was there, he had been a shot-caller, a priest, but he had hidden from him.

  “No, I don’t.”

  “Well then, how can you be familiar with the region, without knowing its history?”

  “You can visit an area without knowing its history, not everyone likes to read.”

  “Interesting, you say that you are familiar with the region but yet the region is scattered with visible remains from its history. It is impossible not to visit the area without realizing what was once carried out there.”

  “Hey man, I don’t have time for games. Sorry, I guess I mistook you for someone else,” he said.

  The man grabbed his beer and turned to walk away.

  “Isn’t it the most curious thing, that you say you recognize me, and that you and I are familiar with a region, yet you do not know its history.”

  “I obviously don’t know you, so cut it out. I have to get back to my date.”

  “Oh, she will be fine, in fact, she will be even better without you.”

  He turned back, frowning. “What did you say?”

  “I said, she would be better off without you,” said Gabriel.

  “What the hell do you know?”

  “A lot, actually.”

  “You’re a lunatic mate, just leave me and my girl alone.”

  “Well, see, that’s the thing. I cannot.”

  “Why the hell not? We have nothing to do with you. What’s your name?”

  Gabriel stood up, his well over six-foot stature towering over the man. The man stepped backwards as a flicker of red glistened in Gabriel’s eyes.

  “What the hell are you? Stay the hell away from me?”

  “You were half right, I do know who you are, but we have nev
er met. You saw me once, you stared right at me, but it was a long time ago. Do you remember?”

  The man stopped at the patio doorway and stared at Gabriel.

  “My name is Gabriel, but you may call me, Sune,” Gabriel rolled his birth name off his tongue, letting it linger in the air.

  “Sune, like the sun, what a stupid name.”

  “You have such a glow about you, it is a rather orange aura.” Gabriel said.

  “What? An orange what?”

  “Think, think really hard,” Gabriel sneered.

  “I’m trying to, just shut up,” the man paused. “Oh, my god.”

  “Ah, so you do remember.”

  “Castilia,” he choked.

  Paused for a moment, the man’s eyes glazed over. “You were standing at the back of the crowded courtyard. I was at the front. I stared right at you.” His eyes widened. “But you had wings? And then you disappeared in the blink of an eye.”

  Gabriel nodded and stepped towards the man.

  “But that, that was in…1478.” The man said, his mouth dropped opened. “Who are you?”

  “You know who I am.”

  “What do you want?”

  “History repeats itself, and you have repeated yourself over and over, your behaviour.”

  “What are you talking about? I am a good person.”

  “You, a person, that is funny,” Gabriel said. “Only in the flesh you wear today, and the flesh you wore before that. But nothing about you, is either good or human.”

  “Listen, I don’t want any trouble. I don’t know what you think I am or who I am, but I not that.”

  “The funny thing is, that orange aura you have, it means something. It tells me and my brothers something about you.”

  “Brothers?”

  “Yes, my brothers.”

  The man’s head swivelled from side to side, checking for his brothers. His eyes returned, fixing on Gabriel.

  “It is best, not to fight us, but you are coming with us.” Gabriel said.

  “I most certainly am not. You cannot take me anywhere, I won’t go.”

  There wasn’t much that Gabriel liked about his existence, but this part gave him a small amount of pleasure. “I knew you would say that, they always say that.”

  “They?”

  “Still playing innocent. Okay then, demon, this is the last body you will snatch. Let’s go.”

  The man looked to the ground, then lifted his eyes, threw his full glass of beer at Gabriel, and ran through out through the doors onto the patio. Gabriel smiled, he knew his brothers were waiting outside, ready to capture him.

  As Gabriel took one step forward, he was paralyzed in breathlessness. With a searing of burning, his heart twisted and turned in agony. He stood, gasping, unable to breath in. He had never felt anything like it before. Stumbling out the front door, he grasped his throat with his hands and fingers. Outside spun into a blur, and that is when he heard it, the voice, whispering in his ear. It was a menacing but familiar voice of an ancient memory. ‘She has arrived Gabriel. To break the curse, you must find her, and she must love you back.’

  Gabriel’s lungs expanded, filling with air. His heart pounded with urgency. With a spurt of quick short breath’s, he was able to relax his lungs, and control his breathing again. But it was different, he was different, in his heart.

  Right away he felt a pull - an ache, larger than the ache in his soul before this moment. A wave of warmth rushed over him. He knew that she had just entered this world by birth, and now his purpose was to find her.

  Gabriel wasn’t sure finding her would cure him, but he had to try, anything was better his cursed existence. He had no idea where to start - he didn’t know what she looked like, who she was, or where she was, but he knew that the men who were cursed like him, the ones he called brothers, would help him. He would search forever until he found her, or until she no longer walked this earth.

  The second book in this series:

  Prophecy of Stone

  Out in 2022.