Curse of the Egyptian Goddess (8 page)

“I’m afraid so.”

I smiled up at him. “I’m sorry. We’ll break the curse, and then I’ll find a way to get out of this murder charge. Hopefully it’ll all be over soon and then we can run away together.  We’ll go wherever you want to, and we’ll spend days in bed ordering room service.”  

“Promise?”

“I promise.”

Chapter 9

In my living room, I held Calvin’s hand and careful read the tablet off the picture. It was the story about Apep and Bast, but in this version Apep came back to life the night after Bast killed him because he was part of the underworld and death posed no threat. When I finished, I closed my eyes and waited, wished, and hoped. Nothing happened.

Minutes later, Calvin put a hand on my shoulder. “I don’t think a picture is going to work. We need the real tablet.”

I agreed with a nod and then plopped down onto the sofa where the wine sat at my feet. I started to refill my glass, but with his eyes on me, I set it back down. I had Calvin now, a beautiful, sexy Calvin, I didn’t need alcohol. “My mother told me this story six months before the tablet was even found, how is that possible?”

“I’m sure it was reproduced over the years and they just dug up those copies first.” He smiled and put my glass in the sink. “That’s why there are several versions of the same story. People copy them and change them to fit their beliefs.”

A strong sense of distress worked its way through my body until I was sure it shown on my face. “If this is the genuine version, then you can’t kill him.”

“Yes, I can,” he said matter-of-factly.

“But he’ll just come back.”

“Then I’ll kill him again.” He pulled me to my feet and reached down to kiss my lips. “All we have to do is stay together, Cleo.”

My weak smile felt like a frown. “So I just need to find a way to stay out of prison now and we’ll be able to live miserably ever after?”

Calvin clutched his heart. “You think you’ll be miserable with me?”

I covered my mouth and muffled a laugh. “There I go saying stupid things again. We’re still going to try to break this, right? We’re not giving up, are we?”

“No, we’re not giving up. Go take a shower, relax, and I’ll jump on the computer and find out where the tablet is.”

I didn’t argue. It was two in the morning and I needed some kind of boost to get me through the day, especially if I was going to quit drinking. I cringed internally at the thought before I distracted myself with Calvin’s image in the shower. He would make a great substitute for alcohol once the curse was broken. After a long, hot shower, I changed into fresh jeans and a light pink top.

Calvin stood by the door, one hand on the knob. “Let’s go. It’s in New York and our plane leaves soon.”

My eyes widened. “No! Tell me you didn’t give them my name.” When he nodded, I threw myself down on the sofa and buried my head in my hands. “I can’t get on a plane. I’m sure Detective Cade has me flagged by now!”

“So we’ll drive. No big deal.”

“It is a big deal! Now he knows I’m leaving!”

“You don’t know that.”

“You don’t know Mr. Cade. His whole purpose in life is to put me away.”

Calvin took my hand and helped me to my feet. “Why don’t you just tell him the truth?”

“The truth?” I asked as though it were a foreign term.

“Yes. The truth shall set you free.”

“Or get me locked up in a loony-bin!”

“Hey, do you get conjugal visits in a place like that?”

I stared at him, wishing I could find humor at such a serious time. Of course, he wasn’t about to break the law
again
. That was all me. Cade wouldn’t understand, but I did have to go. And not just for me, I had to go for Calvin as well. Any chance either of us had at happiness rested on breaking the curse. I’d never broken the law before and this would be twice in two weeks. What other choice did I have? “Can we go now?” I grumbled.

In response, he chuckled all the way to the car. He drove to the end of the block, but just before he turned the corner, I saw a police car pull up to my apartment. No doubt they’d already heard about the plane tickets. I ducked and told Calvin to speed up.

I slept most of the way but when I wasn’t sleeping, I thought about how perfect life would be for us without the curse. We would be able to do so many things. We could have careers, lives, maybe even children. We could have all the things most people took for granted. I would be able to run my own store and meet people, shake their hands without having to worry about spreading my bad luck to them. The impossible dream finally seemed within our reach.

At four in the afternoon, we parked in front of a small museum which was open for another three hours. The sun shone optimistically and two busloads of people filed out the door like they were making room for us. I combed through my hair and anxiously ran inside, dragging Calvin by the arm for a change. He hadn’t said much on the drive. I had assumed he was having the same hopeful thoughts as me, but now he seemed almost apprehensive to enter the building.

With a smile plastered on my face, I floated toward the brown tablet. Three foot tall and rounded at the top, it sat up in a thick glass case along with the silver box the necklaces were in. I grabbed Calvin’s hand and pulled him downward to kiss me. “This is it!” I squealed. “Are you ready?”

He hesitated while his fingers traced the curve of my neck. “Nothing’s going to change, right?”

“Not with us. You’re still going to be stuck with me.”

“Good,” he said sternly. “Let’s get on with it then.”

I slowly read the hieroglyphics on the tablet, my hand tightening on Calvin’s as I neared the end. When I finished, I closed my eyes and waited. Nothing.

“Maybe read it backwards.”

I read it forwards and backwards in English and Egyptian Arabic, I even tried holding my hand over the top of it as I read it. Nothing worked. We weren’t sure what was supposed to happen, but we couldn’t drop our necklaces afterward. Calvin called Clastrik back while I racked my brain for an answer. We’d come back to the source, all three items were present, and still the curse remained. Norman didn’t have any other ideas but he insisted the tablet had to be the key.

The security guards threw us out at closing time even though I begged them to let me borrow the piece. When they threatened to call the police, I accepted defeat. I drove home so Calvin could get some rest, but he seemed more intent on thinking of other ways to break the curse. He didn’t give up easily, I noted.

“Maybe we could go back tomorrow,” he suggested. “Try again. We didn’t try actually touching the piece when you read it. Maybe we both have to be touching it, maybe we both have to read it. You’ve read it enough times that I practically know it by heart.”

“You know they won’t let us touch it and I have to get back. I wasn’t supposed to leave town, remember?”

He looked at me seriously. “Well…at least I can break yours.”

“No.”

“What do you mean
no
? That’s what you wanted me to do in the first place.”

“Yeah, but that was before I realized you were right. I was being selfish. We’re in this together. If you can’t be cured, I don’t want to be either.”

He rolled his eyes upward. “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard you say! You go through actual pain and what is it, weekly now? I can’t stand to see you like that. I can’t stand to hear you scream like your soul is being ripped apart. I won’t let you go through that again.”

I shook my head. “We’re not even sure if that’ll work, remember?”

“We’re not sure that it won’t. And besides, it’s like you said, maybe it will break both the curses. We’ll stay together and if it doesn’t work, I’ll just keep right on killing that snake for the rest of my life if I have to.”

A tear formed in my eyes as I smiled over at him. “That’s the sweetest thing anyone’s ever said to me.”

“Oh yeah? What about this…I love you, Cleo Patrix.”

My heart heaved with happiness and I saw the possibility of us living happily ever after ever if we had to go through hell one night a week. “I love you too, Calvin Konrad and I hate to admit it but…I sort of like having you stuck with me.”

“I know and you’re gonna show me how much when we get home.”

I nodded, my face as bright as an apple.

“We have one beautiful night left before your next attack.”

My heart fell and I sighed at the reminder, again feeling the pressure of not knowing how to break the curse. I’d been so hopeful on the way to New York, and now we were right back where we’d started. I knew where that left me, but I wasn’t quite sure where it left Calvin.

“What’s it like for you? What’s it like to turn into a cat?”

He sat back in his seat and looked out the window. “It’s not bad. It’s not anything like what you go through, and the transformation isn’t painful. One minute I’m me and the next I’m a cat. I’m very aware of everything, sight, sound, smells, and I crave meat.
”

“What kind of cat do you turn into?”

“Up until I turned eighteen, I was always a kitten. Then at eighteen, I was a full grown tabby.” He looked over at me. “That week I followed you in Madison, that was the first time I turned into a tiger. Being closer to you makes me more powerful.”

“That’s good, right?” I asked hopefully.

“Yes. That’s very good.” He raised his eyebrows up and down. “Keeping your body safe will be great for our sex life.”

I laughed at him. “Is that really all you ever think about?”

“Pretty much!”

“I guess we better start soon then,” I teased.

“Soon,” he agreed. He fell asleep shortly after that so I stopped scanning the road for a place to pull over and tried to push the thoughts of sex out of my mind.

Calvin was still asleep when we returned to my house at nine am. The birds chirped in the trees and the sun was shining, but when I turned the corner, I almost hit the gas to try to escape.

Police cars lined half the block on both sides of the street, and a vehicle marked
Coroner
sat in David’s driveway. I stopped in the middle of the street and put the car into park. My legs felt shaky when Coy and Wilder approached me. They pulled my arms behind my back and immediately began reading me my rights.

I barely noticed. I was staring at body being loaded into the van. “No, no, no!” I screamed. “It can’t be David. Not David.”

My world started to spin while I tried to process what had happened. He hadn’t touched my necklace. He was just a friend and I was always careful around him. Why did he have to die? Had the incident with Calvin pushed him into caring about me too much?  I was doomed now. Cade would blame me for his death too, and he would lock me up and throw away the key. And I deserved it! I was a menace to society!

When I faintly heard my name through the fog in my head, I turned around to see Calvin being held away from me by three uniformed policeman. Cade appeared out of nowhere, smiling victoriously as he put me in the back of the squad car.

I didn’t look at Calvin again. I couldn’t stand for him to see me as the murderer I was. Everyone whose life I had touched, ended in pain and ruin because I’d led the snake to them. It was my fault and finally I would pay. Maybe they would execute me quickly and with so much haste that they wouldn’t even notice the necklace of death.

I knew my life was over. I would never see David again and now I would be accused of two murders instead of one. There would be no sex, no running away, and there would be no end to Calvin’s curse. I would either die or rot in jail for years to come. I’d never see sunlight again. I’d never make it back to father’s house to face the ghosts I’d created there. I wanted to apologize to them now more than anything.

All the deaths and funerals should have hardened me enough to confront my fate like an adult, but I hadn’t faced the deaths. I drank them all away and now I felt as weak and helpless as a newborn baby. After ten years, Calvin had finally given me a glimmer of hope and now that that was gone, unreachable, I crumbled inside my cold shell. 

I closed my eyes and tried to block out the sound of Calvin’s voice. He was still calling to me but he couldn’t save me now, and there would be no happy ending for either one of us.

When I heard a door open and close, Cade met my eyes in the rearview mirror. There were wires between the seats, making me feel caged and safe. I couldn’t hurt anyone from a cage.

“You ready to talk?”

I shook my head. “Just get me out of here.”

He chuckled and started the car. “That was quite a note you left. ‘I’m really, really sorry. I’ll see you soon.’ Was that supposed to be some kind of suicide threat?”

I looked over at Calvin. They’d calmed him down and he was sitting on my car. They were most likely telling him how lucky he was to be alive after hanging out with a murderer like me. He looked up and our eyes locked momentarily. I mouthed
I’m sorry
and looked away.

“You’re going to have to talk sooner or later.”