Gifted Curse (Curse Trilogy) (14 page)

My tears fall feverishly, and I drown out my sobs on the pillow as I crash to the bed.  It’s too painful to think about everything I’ve lost in a matter of hours, and what’s left to lose if Brazen ever finds out. 
Can I not tell him?

My burdened eyes close shut before I can think too much, and I feel the tears still seeping out as I curl up like a scared child in a parentless bed.

Chapter 4

Whiskey Breath and betrayal

The cold room is iced with a new frost when I wake up to the empty bed. 
Brazen still isn’t back.

I start to sit up, but I gasp when I see the pale eyes almost glowing in the dark with their night vision.

“Brazen?” I whisper.

“Yeah,” he snaps, and I hear the sloshing of the strong liquor I can smell rather than see in the pitch black air.

“Why are you sitting over there?  Come to bed,” I murmur warily.

He doesn’t usually drink enough for me to smell it on his breath, and I can smell it dousing the room with its heavy toxic warning.

“I think I’ll pass,” he says very coldly.

I creep up a little better, and he stands to stagger across the room.  I can hear him bumping into shit, and it’s not because he can’t see.  He’s fucking wasted, fury radiating from his body.

“Brazen, you’re scaring me,” I almost whisper.

“Am I?” he asks with an ominous tone.  “I’m sorry, Araya.  It’s not like I can fucking hurt you or anything.”  He stops to turn his eyes into mine, the glowing wrath scaring me all the more.  “You have the big bad exploding gift, and the fact is, you’re more than capable of destroying me in every way fucking possible!” he blares.

“Please tell me what’s going on,” I murmur with a skittish tone.

“Really?” he chuckles out, and the lights almost blinds me as he flips them on.  “I get back, and I’m worried to fucking death about you because I’ve been calling nonstop.  No one could get through to the fucking compound because Hale wasn’t answering either.  We finally got a hold of Wendy, and she couldn’t find you.  Hale was busy, so she didn’t want to bother him.  He was banging some girl because we could hear the vicious, wild, and savagely carnal sounds over the phone through the fucking door.  I should have known something very obviously telling when Clay’s face went white beside me, but I thought there was no fucking way it was you,” he eerily releases, and I swallow hard when I realize what’s playing out right now.

“I’m thinking you’re hurt, or you’re tending to someone hurt.  I’m thinking you’re devastated over your home being blown to pieces and you’re hiding out to find solace in solitude.  Then I get here, and you’re in the bed asleep.  I sigh out in relief to know that girl wasn’t you.  My girl is in bed with tears staining her face, but then I smell him.  He’s all over you.  Then I see the man’s shirt you’re wearing, and it sure the hell isn’t mine,” he blares louder.

“So, Araya, as you can see, I’m pretty fucking pissed to know I just heard my fiancée fucking her ex while I’m trying to get here to comfort her and make sure she’s safe,” he screams, and then the whiskey bottle shatters against the wall when he throws it beside my head.

Holy… fucking… shit.

“Brazen, please calm down.  Let me explain before you do anything rash.  I-”

“Rash?” he screams out in interruption.  “Don’t do anything
rash
she
s
ays,” he chuckles out.  “No, baby.  I’m not doing anything
rash
at all.  I realized tonight that I spent two years making love to a woman who just wanted to be fucked.  You’re no different than the rest of your fucking kind,” he says in disgust, and the fuse that hasn’t been lit in a really long time suddenly bursts into flames.

My head tilts to the side as I stare at him like a lioness views her prey just before she goes for the throat.  The small, thin thread that keeps my dark secret at bay has just snapped under his words.

“
My kind
?” I ask with a chilling tone, and the walls rattle  lightly to emphasize my fury for his cutting, belligerent words.

His eyes begin to sober as fear pops into them, and he takes a step back when he realizes the dangerous zone he’s in.

“I didn’t mean it like that, baby.  I’m sorry.  I swear I didn’t mean to do this like this,” he babbles out.

“Of course you didn’t.  Not now.  You think my kind is savage, don’t you?” I rumble out, and the thunderous promise of the walls crumbling threatens him all the more.

“No.  I’m not scared of you, baby.  Calm down.  Talk to me,” he murmurs softly, and now I feel like a rabid animal caught in a cage that he’s trying to coax out.

It’s enough to bring back some of my sanity to break free from the dangerous trance, and I stagger backwards gasping for air.

“Stay away from me,” I warn in my own, terrified voice.

“No.  Talk to me.  Why did you go back to him?” he pleads.  “Did you fuck him because of the thrill you got from the fight, or did you just do it to get out of marrying me?” he cries out.

My hand throws up, and he’s suddenly flying across the room.  I can’t let him provoke me any further or I could kill him.  I dash out of the room when I see him stumbling in his inebriated state to get back up, and I force my way through Wendy’s door.

“Ms. Crush,” she gasps while grabbing her heart that I’ve just forced to pound a little harder with my startling entry.

“I need olophine, now.  Get it,” I strain out, and she rushes out of the room to fill my request.

I stare in the mirror to see the dilated pupils that warn me of what’s to come if I don’t get my shit under control fast.  She returns with a vial and a syringe that is useless on a hybrid or a damn full blood.

“Who needs it?  Did someone change?” she gasps.

“No.  I need it,” I growl, and I jerk the bottle from her hand.

“Ms. Crush.  That’s for full bloods who’ve just been turned.  It could kill you,” she rattles out.

“It won’t kill me.  Trust me,” I grumble.

It’s sure as hell not the first time I’ve had to inject myself with the damn drug to subdue the darkness within.

“Newly turned ones need five milliliters.  If you’re going to take it I don’t suggest more than one or two milliliters,” she says hesitantly.

I bite into the flesh on my wrist to open it up, and I break the top of the full bottle off.  I take all of the medicine into my mouth, and then I pull my wrist to my mouth to force the medicine into the opening I’ve made.  I feel the burning sensation as the strong medicine takes its place in my bloodstream, and then I gasp when I feel the devil inside me climbing back into its cage.

Wendy’s mouth is gaping open in disbelief, and it flaps open and shut as if she’s trying to find the words for what she’s just witnessed.

“This doesn’t leave this room,” I murmur as the breaths of relief come in heaves.

“Yes ma’am,” she stammers out.

Then I hear yelling down the hall as a door breaks open.

Fuck.

“Hale, you selfish son of a bitch.  Where the fuck is she?” Brazen screams as he breaks into Hale’s room.

Wendy follows me to the hallway, and I hide behind the mass of people that have crept out to appease their startled curiosity for the disturbance.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” I hear Hale ask.

“Where is she?” Brazen slurs out, and I realize his drunken state has worsened now that he has tasted my power being used against him.

“She’s not here.  What the fuck is wrong with you?  Are you drunk?” Hale asks with loud bemusement.

“No.  I’m pissed, you arrogant prick.  Where’s my fucking fiancée?”

I stare down at the ring on my finger, and the shirt still covering my body. 
This is all my fault.

“How the hell am I supposed to know?  What’s your fucking problem?” Hale yells.

I want to creep up to the room so I can see rather than hear the confrontation, but my legs are too wobbly from the toxin I just pushed through my veins and the breaking in my heart.

“I know she came here.  She fucked you, left me, and now she’s here somewhere,” he growls, and I hear shit toppling to the ground as he starts his search in the room I’m not in.

“I can’t believe you’re acting like this, you bastard.  She fucking knew you would do this,” Hale screeches, and then Brazen is suddenly flying out of the room.

Hale steps across the broken shambles of the door that got in the way.  He’s still shirtless and in his track pants.  He was probably asleep, unaware of the drunk full blood coming to seek revenge.

Brazen climbs to his feet, and he lowers his shoulder to ram Hale into the wall.  The concrete cracks under the impact, and Hale grabs Brazen by the neck to shove him against the opposite wall.

“Why?” Brazen sighs out, as he sinks to the ground in a drunken exhaustion.  “Why did you have to fuck her over again?  It took her forever to let you go, and now you’re just going to break her all over again,” he sighs out, and tears fill up in my eyes.

“I wouldn’t break her all over again if she’d fucking take me back, but that’s not why we fucked.  What did she tell you?” Hale snarls.

“She didn’t have to tell me anything.  She was still wearing your fucking shirt.  I heard you two over the damn phone,” he blares, and Wendy’s eyes almost pop out of her head now that she knows who was in the room with Hale.

She deliberately stares anywhere but at me, and she takes a step over when she becomes worried about her proximity to the woman that just drank enough of a sedative to put down three hundred full bloods while acting like it was Sunday brunch.  I roll my eyes, and I start to step up when Clay joins the fight.

“What the hell is going on?” he barks.

“Brazen thinks I fucked Araya just because I could.  That just goes to show how very little he fucking knows about her.  She wouldn’t have ever cheated on you, and you’re an asshole for thinking she would.  She was about to fucking die, and I had no choice but to give her my blood,” Hale explains, but Brazen starts laughing hysterically, insanity seething in his eyes.

“Sure you didn’t have a choice.  This whole compound has more blood than any other facility on this side of the region.  There are people every-fucking-where.  Don’t give me that shit,” he laughs out.

“The blood vault sealed when the explosions hit,” Clay says softly to the man he knows is about to fall apart.

“What?” Brazen asks in a more sobered tone.

“No one could get in, and they had a limited amount of blood to disperse to the full bloods.  There was a hell of a lot of people that had to share blood with the hybrids.  Araya almost died keeping the compound safe.  According to every witness here, it looked like she had very few breaths even left,” Clay says even softer.

“Why the fuck didn’t she tell me?” Brazen gasps.

“Because you assumed her guilty before giving her the fucking chance!” Hale explodes.

“I didn’t know.  She should have done much worse than throwing me into a wall,” Brazen whimpers.

“What?” Hale asks, and I see his face go pale.

“I said she should have done worse.  Are you happy?” Brazen screams.

“No,” Hale says, and I tilt my head to the side as he and Clay exchange a look of terror. 
They’re scared… of me. 
“You said she threw you against the wall?  Did she knock anything else over?” Hale asks.

“Fuck, I don’t know.  What the hell does it matter?”

“I can’t get her to answer her phone,” Clay says to Hale while waiting anxiously for me to pick up the phone I don’t have.

“It shattered to the ground when we went to face off with the ambushers,” Hale murmurs in a ghastly tone.

“Eli, hey, it’s Clay.  We’ve got a code fifteen.  Call it in, and find her now,” Clay says into the phone, and Brazen’s eyes hold the same confusion as mine.

“What the fuck is a code fifteen?” he asks.

“It’s none of your fucking business, you stupid son of a bitch.  You know damn how easy it is to provoke her.  Why the hell would you get drunk and attack her?  She can’t be handled that way, and if you loved her at all you would know that,” Hale barks, and it looks like he’s about to show his savage side as he stalks toward him to do more damage.

“Stop it right now,” I interrupt, and I walk through the crowd to take my place between Brazen and Hale.

“Araya,” Hale gushes in relief, and Clay dials a number to call off the search.

“Don’t,” I murmur as he starts to hug me.  “Why the fuck did you make a code for me?  Do you fear me that much?”

His eyes sadden when he sees my pain, and he shakes his head.

“I don’t fear you at all, but…” his voice trails off as he gauges all the eyes watching us, and he tugs at my hand to pull me into his room.

“Araya,” Brazen murmurs as he stands to pull me from the grasp of the wolf he felt stole me away.

His lips cover mine, his kiss seeping with apologies his words can’t relay the depth of.  I don’t return the stained affection, and I jerk away from the son of a bitch that just cut me deeper than he realizes.

“Araya, I’m sorry.  I didn’t know,” he pleads, and he tries pulling me to him again.

The walls rattle harder, and my fever starts to grow as the heavy medicine begins burning out of my veins from the monstrous dose of adrenaline eating it up.  I start feeling the dangerous high that threatens to tear apart the Seminole.

“Go get some olophine,” Hale murmurs to Clay.