The Curse Defiers (11 page)

David’s eyes widened. “What did you just say?”

I shook my head, fighting a faint feeling. Where had
that
come from? Was it true?

“Ahone
saved you
?” he asked.

I moved to the desk and sat on the edge. Too many things were happening and too many memories were rushing back to me before fading away just as quickly. I needed to get myself together. “It just popped into my head. I knew he kept me from going downstairs, but somehow I know he did even more to protect me. I just can’t remember what.”

He released a deep breath. “Wow. Okay. Ahone really wanted you alive. That’s good.”

“Is it? Okeus wants to use me because I’m a witness to creation, but at least he’s semihonest about it. Ahone’s a sneaky bastard who’s trying to get what he wants without admitting to any of it. He was the one who told Collin to open the gate. He was the one who tricked him. Why would he want me to use the ring? For what purpose?” I’d spent a good part of the morning mulling it over while I scanned page after page, coming up with nothing.

Until now.

My eyes widened. “
The inscription
. He wants me to recite it at the gate. That’s exactly what Ahone told my ancestor I needed to do.” I shook my head in disgust. “I’m not giving that bastard what he wants. I don’t think I should use it.”

David’s jaw dropped. “What do you mean you
shouldn’t
use the ring? We just found out that it’s real and you can use it on your own. Without Collin.” He took a step back and ran his hand over his head. “Ellie, Ahone told the Dare Keeper that the ring would save your life by locking up the demons. No Collin needed.
Why wouldn’t you use it?
”

“Because that’s what Ahone wants, David! He’s using me. I don’t trust him, so I don’t trust the ring either.” I looked down at the vile thing on my hand. It had gotten my mother killed. I was certain of it. Was Ahone planning to sacrifice me as well? “I will never side with Ahone again.”

“You’re not seriously thinking about siding with Okeus, are you?”

My eyes narrowed. “No, of course not. I already told you last night that I don’t want to side with either of them.”

He shook his head in frustration. “If you won’t use the ring for yourself, think about the lives of countless other people. Four people already died in Manteo because of the Raven Mockers, Ellie, and that might just be the beginning.”

“
I don’t trust him
. If I use it, I’m falling right into his plans, which we both know is
never
in my best interest. So if I use the ring, what price will I have to pay?”

“You already put his mark on your back, Ellie. You sold your soul to him. What else can he take?”

“You.” Tears burned behind my eyes. “He can still take
you
. He’s using me, yet he keeps taking things from me. He took my mother and my father. You might be next.”

David heaved out a breath and pulled me against his chest, wrapping his arms around my back. “Oh, Ellie.”

“I can’t lose you, David. I don’t think I could survive it.”

He cradled my head against his chest. “I’m not going anywhere.”

But I knew he couldn’t promise me that.

Only one being could. And I was going to stop him if it was the last thing I did.

I suspected it just might be.

C
HAPTER
T
EN

I gave David a kiss and stepped away from him, moving back to the window.

“Ellie, don’t pull away from me because you’re afraid of losing me.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat and turned my attention to the wall of photos opposite his desk. “You have a lot of pictures.”

He rested his butt against the desk, watching me. “Yeah,” he murmured.

“I don’t see any photos of naked coeds,” I said with a small smile. “When I tried to show you a photo of my tattoo on my phone, you told me that you’d have me arrested if it was a naked picture. Have you really gotten any of those?”

“A few times, which was a few times more than I cared for. I think you know me well enough to know that I’m not really into that sort of thing.” A slow grin spread across his face. “Unless you want to text me some photos of yourself.”

I snorted. “Not a chance.”

“You can’t blame a bloke for trying.”

My heart was heavy, but I couldn’t stop myself from laughing. I stepped closer to the wall, where there were several pictures of David with an older couple. “Are these your parents?”

A soft smile spread across his face. “Yeah. And that’s my brother, Matthew.”

I studied a photo of a younger David with a guy who looked a lot like him. They were indoors, but the photo was so closely cropped, I couldn’t tell much else about the room where they were standing. “He has a nice smile. He looks friendly.”

“He is. We aren’t close—we’re just such opposites—but we’re there for each other if one of us needs something.”

“So you miss them?”

“Yeah. Particularly my mum, but we get to chat on the phone and Skype.”

My head jerked up. “You haven’t talked to her very much since you’ve been with me.”

“I usually call during my lunch break at work.” He shrugged. “The time difference.”

I continued down the wall. The photos were random snapshots of his life. Pictures with friends at parties and a few archaeological sites. And there were several of David with a pretty blonde woman. Even though they weren’t showing any signs of physical affection, I knew they were a couple. In one of the photos, they were in the mountains, both of them dressed in ski jackets and carrying poles. “You ski?” I asked.

“Yeah.” He shifted nervously.

I pointed to the photo while looking over my shoulder at him. “This is Allison, isn’t it?”

“We’re still friends, Ellie. As I told you, our breakup was amicable.” He pushed himself off the desk. “I can take them down.”

“No.” I shook my head. “Please don’t.” I gave him a tentative smile. “I’m not jealous of her.”

He flashed a wonky grin. “I’m not sure whether to be worried or relieved.”

I turned around so that I was facing him and stared into his anxious face. “Go with relieved. I know you want to be with me, so I’m not worried.” Although I still wondered if it was a good idea for me to keep him around. The last thing I wanted to do was endanger him. “Do we know anything about when we’re meeting her?”

“She texted earlier. She wants both of us to come over for dinner.”

“
Dinner?
”

“We parted friends, Ellie. She’s curious about what I’ve been up to in Manteo.” He hesitated. “But we’ll only do it if you’re okay with it.”

I didn’t want to, but David put up with so much crap involving Collin, how could I refuse him? I could tell he really wanted to go. “Of course. It’s fine.”

“Okay.” But he didn’t sound convinced. “She’d like us to come to her house at seven.”

“Okay.” I paused. “I still haven’t made arrangements to see Myra. I was waiting to see what happened with Allison. I’ll see if she can meet me tomorrow.”

“Let’s grab some lunch and head back to my place. I can pack up some of my personal things before we go over to Allison’s.”

David led me to the doorway of his office. Before walking out of the room, he surveyed it for a moment, releasing a sigh. Then he locked the door behind us without another word.

“You miss it,” I said softly. “Being here at the university.”

He looked down at me, his brow furrowed. “Ellie.”

“No, you do. I can tell.”

He lowered his head close to my ear. “Do you remember when I told you weeks ago that I thought you were my destiny? That I had been moving on a path toward you for years? I still believe that.”

“Maybe so, but you didn’t answer my question.”

He hesitated. “Yes, I miss it. I like teaching, and I miss the interaction with students.”

My heart ached and guilt flooded in.

“You just asked me a few minutes ago if I miss my family and I admitted that I do. But I still wouldn’t move back home.” I started to talk and he put a finger on my lips. “Even if you weren’t part of my life. I miss them, but it wouldn’t be the same if I went back. I’ve changed. They’ve changed. I can’t go back to that life even if that’s what I wanted, which it isn’t . . .” He took a breath. “This situation is exactly the same.”

“No, it’s not. You’ve only been gone about two months, not years.”

“Maybe so, but
I’ve
changed. I can’t just come back here and pretend like the last two months haven’t happened.”

I started to respond and he leaned down to kiss me. When he lifted his head, he grinned. “I’m hungry. Let me take you to my favorite Italian restaurant.”

I nodded my agreement and we went to lunch, making sure to steer our conversation away from anything related to the curse. We spent so much time in Manteo talking about the curse that I worried our conversation would flounder, but David told me stories about teaching and some of his students. And I told him some horror stories about training new employees at the restaurant. By the time we left to go back to his house, our moods had lightened, even after David stopped at a hardware store to pick up a load of boxes and packing tape.

We spent the rest of the afternoon packing up David’s house. I expected it to be sad for both of us, but David seemed to enjoy showing me some of his favorite things from his travels in the States and in the UK. I wanted to take a shower before we went to meet Allison, so I stopped working at around five thirty to get cleaned up while David continued to pack.

When I got out, I dried off and looked around the bathroom for a hair dryer. I couldn’t find one, so I wrapped a towel around my body and opened the door, intent on asking David. As soon as the door was open, I could hear his voice in the living room.

“I really don’t think that’s a good idea, Allison.”

Curious, I stood in the bathroom doorway. David’s back was to me.

“Because I don’t want to overwhelm her.” He sensed me behind him and turned, pointing to the phone.

“What’s wrong?” I whispered.

He covered the mouthpiece with his hand. “Allison has invited a bunch of our mutual friends to see me and meet you.”

“Why isn’t it a good idea?” Was he embarrassed about his friends meeting me?

He removed his hand from the phone. “Allison, hold on for a moment.” He pushed mute and lowered the phone. “Ellie, you’ve had a stressful afternoon. It isn’t fair to make you deal with a bunch of people who want to ask you a million questions. They know we’re together and they’re extremely curious.”

“Do you want to see your friends?”

“That’s not the point.”

“It’s a valid question. Do you want to see your friends?”

“Well, yes.” He shrugged. “I don’t know when we’ll be back to Chapel Hill, so I would like to see them.” He held up his hand. “But this is about you, Ellie. I’m sure you must be uncomfortable with going to Allison’s house. I don’t want to make this any more awkward for you.”

I shook my head. “No. I want to meet them. Don’t you see, I want to see as much of your life as possible.” And I meant it.

“Are you sure?”

“Positive. I’m excited to meet them.”

He took the phone off mute. “Okay, Allison. We’ll see you at seven.” He hung up and studied me. “You can still change your mind if you’d like.”

“No way. But now I really need a hair dryer. I forgot to pack mine.”

“Bedroom closet. I’ll get it for you.”

As I followed him to the back room, a new thought occurred to me. “Are you nervous about
me
meeting Allison?”

He stopped in front of the closet. “Yes, although I’m not embarrassed or ashamed of you in any way. I know that’s where your mind is going.” He shot me a nervous smirk. “I want you to be comfortable.”

“I’m not some fragile flower, David.”

“Oh, I know. I’d never accuse you of that. It’s just that you deal with so much crap between the curse and your job . . . well, I wanted this weekend to be a chance for you to get away from it all. But tonight could end up being another stressor for you.” He pulled the hair dryer down from a shelf and handed it to me. “If it gets overwhelming, just let me know and we’ll take off.”

But we couldn’t, not really. We needed whatever information she had, and I couldn’t help wondering if this was her way of stalling so she could spend more time with David. Still, I wasn’t about to tell him that. I wrapped my hands around his neck and pulled his mouth to mine. “Thanks.”

David took a shower while I got dressed and used a mirror in his bedroom to put on my makeup. Once I was ready, I grabbed my phone and worked past my nerves to call Myra. Our last call had ended on a good note, but what if she’d reverted to her previous indifference?

To my relief, she sounded happy to hear from me. “Ellie. How are you? I take it you’re in Chapel Hill?”

“We made it in last night.”

“Have you seen David’s colleague yet?”

“No, we’ll see her later tonight. But David’s researching some things related to the curse in the library, and we made some headway there today.”

“Really? Good news I hope.”

Myra’s emotional distance had hurt me more deeply than I’d realized. The fact that she was now acting more like the stepmother I knew brought tears of relief to my eyes. My throat burned and I swallowed before answering. “Yes, we found out something that could help us use the ring.”

She paused. “Really? That’s wonderful, Ellie. Will I still get to see you this weekend? I’d love to hear all about it.”

“I hope so. Would sometime tomorrow work?”

“That would be great.” Myra sounded happy. “How about a late breakfast? Were you planning on bringing David?” She paused and her voice lowered. “You know I’m fond of him, but I was hoping it would just be the two of us.”

Myra had made no secret of her concern that my relationship with David was moving at light speed, so her request wasn’t a complete surprise. I suspected she wanted to make sure I was still happy. I wouldn’t be able to answer honestly if he was there.

I cast a glance toward the bathroom door. The shower had turned off, but the door was still closed. I could use this to my advantage. If I was going to sell the bed and breakfast, I owed it to Myra to consult her first. “I’d like that too. There’s something important I need to talk to you about.”

“Oh.” She sounded surprised. “Is it serious?”

“It’s about the inn.”

“Is everything okay?”

“I’d rather talk in person.”

“Of course, Ellie. How about I text you directions to my apartment? Can you be here around ten?”

“Yes, sounds perfect. Thanks, Myra. I love you.”

She paused. “Me too.”

A few moments later, the bathroom door opened and David emerged, walking into the bedroom completely naked. I felt warm just looking at him, my fingers itching to touch his still-wet skin.

He caught me watching him and grinned. “You having second thoughts about going tonight?”

“No, but I’m wondering if we can be fashionably late.”

“Nope.” He laughed. “Let’s go on time, stay as long as we feel like it, and then you can bring me home and ravish me.”

I smirked as he brushed past me. “You think you can turn me down?”

“I will tonight. I’m always on time, so my friends will wonder why I’m late. And the guys will take one look at you and know.” He gave me a passionate kiss and then lifted his head to smile at me. “And I’d prefer not to give them a reason to think about you like that.”

I lifted my eyebrows in amusement. “You’re jealous?”