A Cursed Embrace

“I found her six months later. She was my first kill.”

CHAPTER 21

I jerked up. Aric had avenged his father at such a young age. Aric sat up, cupping his large hand on my shoulder. “You weren’t expecting that, were you?”

“No.”

He kissed my forehead. “Don’t be afraid. I won’t ever hurt you.”

“I know,” I whispered. My lips met his to prove my lack of fear for him. But then he pulled away and left our bed. He adjusted the vertical blinds so they allowed light in, but veiled us from the outside world.

I adjusted the sheet against my breasts when he returned to bed. He knelt in front of me. “Will you tell me about your first kill?”

I turned my face away from him. “Trust me when I say you don’t want to know.”

His fingers rubbed the base of my skull, gently playing with the fine hair beneath. “I want to know everything about you. Even the hard times you’ve endured.”

I didn’t say anything, choosing to listen to a car pull in next door. Doors flew open and a little girl squealed. Mrs. Mancuso’s great-grandchildren had come for a visit. It was the only time she semibehaved around us.

Aric waited patiently for me to speak. He didn’t seem to realize how opposed I was to discussing my past, so I offered him an explanation, hoping it would be enough. “Your opinion of me will change if I do.”

My reasoning didn’t deter Aric like I wished it would. He shook his head. “No. It won’t.”

“It should.” Long drawn-out seconds morphed into agonizing minutes. I finally stole a glance at his eyes. While they maintained the same fire, there was something different about them, a level of compassion I’d yet to discover. I don’t know why, but at that moment I felt like I needed to be honest with him. I waited, though, until the last of the children’s voices muffled behind the door of Mrs. Mancuso’s house. It was silly. It wasn’t like they could’ve heard me, but somehow their innocence made everything I had to tell Aric that much harder.

“I’d accomplished my first change a few months before my parents were murdered. But I didn’t have any control for a long time. Still my beast waited inside, giving me strength an eight- year-old had no business possessing and heightening my senses to the point I thought I’d go mad.” I blew out a breath, willing myself to calm. “I saw the four men who killed my parents standing over their bodies. I could taste the salt of their sweat on my tongue and scent each of their distinguishing odors, even over the blood of my mom and dad. My tigress latched onto their images like three-D photos complete with smells thrown in. And every night for years, she taunted me with their images. I hated her for it.”

Aric leaned against the headboard and pulled me against him, wrapping me with the sheet and using the edges to wipe my streaming tears. “Your tigress didn’t want to hurt you, Celia. She wanted you to hunt. And she was reminding you of your quarry.”

“Like I needed reminding,” I said barely above a whisper. I buried my face against Aric’s chest to give me the strength to continue. There was no going back now. “I was such an angry kid. But when my hormones kicked in during high school, I pretty much lost it and realized what my tigress was beckoning me to do. I started taking the bus to Plainfield, where my parents were killed, and began my hunt.”

“How old were you?”

“Fifteen. Sixteen by the time they were all dead.” I couldn’t face Aric then. “The first one was the hardest. He pleaded with me not to kill him. After him, it became easy. Too easy.”

There was noise outside, I was sure of it. Rain, maybe the kids. But all I heard was the sound of my frantically beating heart.

“How did you feel after it was done?” Aric finally asked.

“It satisfied my tigress, but my human side felt no different. My parents were still dead.” I rubbed my eyes. They were sore from crying. “I told my sisters the night after I had killed the last one. They all cried. Finally they felt safe.”

“Did you feel safe?”

I focused on the framed photograph Shayna had taken of an ancient tree. He gently turned my cheek to face him. “Celia, did you feel safe?”

My tears threatened to fall once more. “I’ve only ever felt safe with you.”

I couldn’t read Aric’s expression. He tried to kiss me, but I turned away embarrassed. “How did you feel after your first kill?” The only reason I asked was to shift the attention away from me. Aric wasn’t dumb. He knew what I tried to do, but he answered me anyway.

“Celia, we’re raised and trained to fight and annihilate evil. We’re too connected to our animal side to feel regret. That’s what makes us so different from humans. As per were laws, your kills were righteous. You avenged your family, just like I avenged my father.”

“I guess if I were of your kind, I could live with that. But I’m not.” I blinked a few times. “Do you think differently of me?”

Aric’s voice dropped several octaves when he lifted me to him. “Nothing’s changed between us. And nothing ever will. You’re still the best person I know. I just want you to feel safe. Even when I’m not here to hold you.”

I locked eyes with him. “Then let me help you hunt the demon lord.”

* * *

Aric jetted the Jeep Wrangler across the barren terrain, kicking up dry chunks of beaten soil into the hot, sticky air. The packs had tracked the demon’s trail to Death Valley. Once again, the irony was not lost. We drove through the sand-filled national park, trying to reach where the latest victims had been unearthed. The four-by- fours were perfect for off-road, except I’d given anything for the closed cabin and air-conditioning of Aric’s Escalade.

I’d heard the Valley was a wonder, nature’s masterpiece, a rare gem in a world busting with industry and flashy technology. Maybe. But after driving an hour in the one-hundred-plus-degree heat, it more than kind of sucked.

Aric passed me another water bottle. “Drink more,” he yelled over the roar of the engine. “We’ll have to abandon the Jeeps close to where the last set of bodies were scattered, and hike on foot from there.”

I forced down the tepid liquid. Sweat soaked through my white tank and clung to my white cotton bra like a newborn to her mother. “How wide is the perimeter from where the bodies were found?” Danny hollered from the back. His teeth knocked together with every bump and grind.

“About thirty miles,” Aric called over his shoulder.

Bren spit out the side of the Jeep, I assumed to rid his mouth from the coat of dust smearing our teeth like old paint. “Shit. That range is too vast even for the number of noses we have to track. Dan, your one-night stands with the Dewey Decimal Dames better pay off. This place blows.”

“I’ll do my best,” Danny muttered.

His apprehension made me turn around. Poor Danny clung to the frayed leather volume in his arms like he held the original Ten Commandments. The “Codex Demon-Summoner” as he called it had come from a “hot” librarian in Ohio. Danny’s interest in the Vixens of Microfiche continued to astound me. He’d wanted to help, except his lack of athleticism and his human status seemed to affect his spirits the farther we ventured into the scabrous and desolate park.

Shayna and I were part of Aric’s hunting party. Taran and Emme had joined their wolves and another group. They weren’t too far from us, but we couldn’t exactly count on their immediate help.

Aric had graciously insisted that Bren and Danny ride with us. I could have kissed him for it. His fellow werebeasts didn’t like a human tagging along, and resented Bren as a lone even more. Aric would help me keep them safe. At least, I hoped.

“We’re here, Celia.” Aric slowed the Jeep in the middle of stone hill path. The hot air beating against my face dwindled to a stop, exposing us to a layer of ozone so thick it slogged through my lungs. Danny took a few puffs of his inhaler, for all the good it did him. Bren shot him a worried glance before leaping out of the back.

I slid out of my sweat-soaked seat. Dunes stretched out in the horizon, laughing and mocking our withering