The Curse Defiers (27 page)

And he planned on taking me with him.

“Don’t kill her,
you fool
!” the old woman shouted in anger. “The Great One needs her!”

“
The mountain ranges and the rolling hills.
” Collin’s voice faltered as he realized what was happening. The vortex shrank slightly and the wind lessened.

Fighting to keep conscious despite my pain, I instinctively bent at the knees and forced the sword higher into the monster’s chest, then to my right.

The old man’s eyes widened and he screamed before sinking his teeth into my shoulder. Then his body evaporated into a plume of black smoke.

I fell to my hands and knees, the sword tumbling from my hand and clattering onto the pavement. The old woman moved deliberately toward me, stopping only a few feet away from the screaming homeless man. He still lay on his stomach, his jacket ripped open, the muscles and skin of his back ripped into ribbons, blood covering his clothes and the street beneath him.

I realized my own back must look the same. Probably worse.

“
I am the foundation of life and the receiver of death . . 
.”

The woman laughed, only it sounded like cackle. “So the Great One is right after all. You are a fighter.”

I looked up at her, my hair hanging in my face, my blood dripping into alarmingly large pools around me. “Go to fucking hell,” I snarled, trying to summon the strength to grab the sword and kill her, an unlikely act given the fact I was moments away from passing out from blood loss.

“
. . . and everything in between . . .
”

The wind was hurricane force now, and the woman struggled to resist its pull.

Caught in the gusts of wind, the sword spun back and forth on the asphalt before starting to slide toward the hole. I lunged for it, stretching out my arm. But my coordination was gone and my arms flailed like a rag doll’s, sending intense pain searing through my back. I screamed as my fingers closed around the handle and I fell the rest of the way to the ground, my cheek scraping the pavement as I watched the Raven Mocker turn toward the homeless man.

“
I compel you to leave my sight,”
Collin shouted, fury in his voice.

In one movement, she thrust her hand into the homeless man’s back. His screams pierced my ears, only stopping when her wrist twisted with a sharp jerk. The wind swept her feet out from beneath her and pulled her backward as she ripped the man’s heart from the gaping hole in his back. Holding it up in triumph, the Raven Mocker took a bite as she disappeared into the vortex. The hole closed, but her evil laughter still rang in my ears as everything fell away and faded to black.

I was dying. I’d failed them all.

C
HAPTER
T
WENTY
-T
WO

I was plunged into the blackest darkness I’d ever experienced and surrounded by an icy cold. Was this Popogusso? I fought to breathe, but my chest resisted the simplest command to draw in a breath. I was suffocating.

Collin called my name and I tried to answer him, but nothing came out. Instead, I felt myself falling and his voice became fainter and fainter.

Desperate, I reached out for anything to hold on to. My hands felt nothing but the dank, heavy air around me.

Was this how it would end?

The moans of countless creatures filled my ears and my panic resurfaced. I couldn’t spend the rest of eternity in Popogusso. Hysteria took over and I searched for an escape. But it was like I was running on a treadmill; there was nowhere to go. The moans and screams grew louder.

“
Collin!
” I screamed.

Then a searing pain exploded in my hand, shooting straight to my back, and a bright, blinding light flashed in front of my eyes. My spine arced as electricity shot through my body, jolting my nearly still heart and sending it racing. The band on my chest loosened and I sucked in a deep breath.

The Manitou of every living thing rushed through me with an intensity I’d never experienced. The sensation had always been peaceful and reassuring before, but this time it burned through my blood, filling every cell, and I cried out in pain and surprise. I was me, but not me. I was part of all living things, both in the sea and on the earth. I was everywhere and nowhere.

I was in Collin’s arms. His touch had brought me back.

Our connection was stronger than it had ever been before, and I not only felt his emotions—intense, overwhelming grief and panic—but my racing heart slowed down to synchronize to the rhythm of his, the rise and fall of our chests matching to the millisecond.

I felt his arms loosen around me as he realized I was not only alive but that we had a deeper access to each other than ever before.

We were literally two halves of a whole, separated by a thin veil. We stood on either side of it, our conscious minds aware of each other but neither one willing to make the breach.

I dragged my eyelids open and took in his pale face and his red, glassy eyes.

“Ellie,” he murmured in relief as he bent forward, resting his face on the top of my head. “Thank God.” His voice cracked with emotion.

Without releasing my hand, Collin sat on the ground with me draped across his lap. His grip on me tightened and his body shook with emotion.

“Oh, God, Ellie. I thought I’d lost you.” His grief and gratitude pushed through with his words, and I knew without a doubt that Collin had never been more frightened or more thankful in his life.

I stared up into his face, realizing that something about our connection had changed. I had always been able to feel him before, and while the veil between us was still intact, a wall I hadn’t known existed was gone.

“Thank you,” I murmured, but my mouth was dry and my tongue struggled to form the sounds. “You saved me.”

He let go of my hand, shutting down our connection, and pulled me closer. His eyes sank closed and he kissed my forehead. “You were dead, Ellie. You had no pulse.”

“I’m not dead now.” I didn’t want to think about what I’d experienced before Collin saved me. Nor the implications of where I’d be spending eternity.

I tried to sit up but realized my energy had faded now that we were no longer touching marks. I sagged into him, limp and useless. If a Raven Mocker were to attack us now, I wouldn’t even have the strength to lift my hand and recite the words of protection.

He felt my movement and released a heavy breath, searching my face. “How do you feel? Does your back hurt?”

“There isn’t any pain. I’m guessing our connection healed me?”

A soft smile barely lifted the corners of his mouth. “Yeah, but I thought I was too late.” His mouth pinched with anxiousness. “We have to get out of here. It’s not safe.”

“The third Raven Mocker?” I asked, looking for the bird.

“It was sucked into the vortex with the woman.”

At least those two would be gone for a while. I tried to move again, but my body was slow and sluggish.

Collin climbed to his knees and pulled me with him, but when he got us to our feet, my knees buckled and I fell against him. The front of his T-shirt was drenched in my blood, and a large puddle was still pooled in the street. How much blood had I lost?

“Don’t look at it, Ellie. You’re safe now.” He scooped me up in his arms and started for the corner of the building, but something shiny caught my eye.

“Collin, wait. The sword.” It lay on the pavement, several feet from the bloody body of the homeless man. He was one more person I had failed to save, but I couldn’t think about him right now. I was lucky to have survived myself.

Collin’s body tensed. “Fuck that
goddamned sword
,” he forced through gritted teeth as he kept moving toward the front of the building.

Some of my strength returned and I squirmed in his arms. “No! I need it!”

His feet froze and his face contorted in anger. “I’m not taking that fucking sword with us! It almost got you killed!”

“No!” I protested, still struggling, but I didn’t have the energy to fight him. I was barely hanging on to consciousness. “Collin, please. I need to be able to defend myself. You know there are countless creatures that have me on their hit list. Okeus’s protection isn’t enough.” I leaned my head on his shoulder. “You can’t leave me unprotected, Collin.”

I felt his resolve soften. “You won’t be unprotected, Ellie. I’ll be here for you.”

“You can’t be with me every minute of the day. I need to learn to defend myself.” I forced all my strength into lifting my hand to his cheek.

His gaze drifted to my face and I saw the terror in his eyes.

“Collin,
please
.”

He lowered his head until his forehead rested against my hair. “I’ll get it, but it doesn’t mean I’m just going to give it back to you.”

At least it was something.

Grumbling, he turned around and squatted next to the sword, then picked it up with me still in his arms. He carried the weapon in one hand, the blade pointing away from us. Collin’s truck was parked two streets over. He opened the passenger door and set me gently on the seat and buckled me in when I struggled to reach for my seat belt. The physical exertion from fighting him had sapped what little energy I had left, and sleep was quickly overtaking me.

“I’m tired.”

He cupped my cheek, searching my face. “You just fucking bled out, Ellie. I can’t believe you’re sitting here talking to me. You need sleep. Hell, you probably need a transfusion.” His gaze drifted from my shirt to his. “Do you have anything to wear in David’s car? We’re going to get a shitload of unwanted attention in these blood-soaked clothes.”

I nodded, or at least attempted to.

He shut my door and the truck engine turned over. My awareness faded, and when I came to again, he was back on my side of the vehicle. He stripped my shirt off and leaned me forward to look at my back. His fingers trailed down my spine, sending sensation shooting through me. “I can’t believe it. Not even a scar. Your back was ripped to shreds.” Then he tugged another shirt over my head and gently rested my head on the back of the seat.

“We have to save David,” I said, but my words were slurred like a drunk’s.

“We will,” he whispered next to my ear. “I promise.”

The truck began to move again, and I pried my eyes open. “Where are we going?”

His gaze turned to me, serious and protective. “Chapel Hill.”

Sleep took over before I could ask why. And when I awoke hours later, we were parked in front of David’s house and Collin was watching me with a guarded look.

I was on my left side, my back slumped against the door. At some point Collin had rolled the open window halfway up. “David’s house? Why are we here? How did you know where it was?”

“We need somewhere to clean up before heading to Durham. And I found his address in his bag.”

I pushed myself into a sitting position. “You had his bag?” But I also noticed he was wearing David’s short-sleeved button-down shirt—David’s favorite, a white and blue plaid. Anger raged to life inside me, accompanied by the irrational desire to demand he take it off. But Collin’s shirt had been soaked in
my
blood. It was smart for him to change, and I was sure that Collin hated wearing David’s clothes.

“I got all your personal belongings out of David’s car before we left Charlotte.”

“Why Durham?”

He hesitated. “I want to talk to Myra and especially her boyfriend. David wouldn’t have mentioned him for nothing.”

“Oh.” After my encounter with Myra yesterday morning, I wasn’t sure how well she’d take it if I showed up at her doorstep with Collin in tow. But Collin was right. David’s message had to mean that Steven must know something. Had Myra told Steven anything about the curse? Had he sold me out?

“I called the number on the phone while you were sleeping and arranged the meeting for tomorrow night at eleven. They agreed to give me the spear, but not the sword. But I want to know what these people know about us and how they found out. We need to figure out a way to get the three of us out of this alive and unharmed, so the more we know going in, the better.”

“The three of us?”

He nodded, looking solemn. “I promised to help save him, and I intend to make good on my word. We
will
get him back, Ellie.”

I couldn’t answer without breaking down again. Instead, I looked at the clock on the dashboard. It was close to two o’clock. It was hard to believe that so little time had passed since David and I first arrived in Charlotte. “So what’s your plan?”

“Let’s go shower, change clothes again, and try to set up meetings with the both of them for this afternoon. Then we’ll head back to the Outer Banks. You need the ocean.”

I couldn’t argue with him.

“I considered driving straight to the shore, but we really need to talk to Myra and her boyfriend in person. I’m pretty good at reading people. I think I’ll be able to tell if he’s lying.” His eyes hardened. “And if he is, I’m going to find out the truth.”

I couldn’t stomach the thought of Steven betraying me, but at this point I could count the people I trusted on one hand. “It’s a good plan.”

He wove his fingers through mine. “Do you know where a spare key to the house is? I can pick the lock if you don’t.”

“I don’t think he has one.”

“Wait here while I take care of it and I’ll come back to get you.”

He was out the door before I could answer.

My eyelids felt heavy again and I let them close for a moment before jerking them open. I didn’t have time to sleep. We needed to get this information. Now. I couldn’t leave David with those people. What were they doing to him?

Tears squeezed through the corners of my eyes and Collin’s voice surprised me.

“I’m going to carry you inside.”

I tried to lift my forehead so I could look him in the eye. “I can walk.”

“I know you can, Ellie.” But he scooped me up anyway and carried me into the house, setting me down on the sofa. “You really need to shower. Do you think you can stand for long enough?” He sounded worried.

“Yeah.” I sank back into the cushions, letting my eyes close again. “Just give me a minute.” But when I opened my eyes, it was dark and the air around me was cold.

I was really dead this time.

I bolted upright, screaming Collin’s name as hysteria swamped me. He pulled me into his arms in an instant.

“Ellie. It’s okay. You’re safe.”

“It was dark and cold,” I forced out between sobs. “I thought I was dead again.”

“No. It’s nighttime. You’re safe.” He held me for a long time until I calmed down, and then he unwrapped his arms from me and slid off the bed. Seconds later a light turned on in David’s bathroom and Collin cracked the door before coming back and sitting next to me.

I was in David’s house. On his bed with Collin.

This was so wrong.

“I thought we were going to Durham,” I said, confused.