The Curse Defiers (8 page)

I considered telling him about Claire’s reawakened ability and my new memory about Ahone, but I decided both were serious enough to require his undivided attention. We’d get into Chapel Hill early enough for me to tell him. But there was something else that couldn’t wait.

My guilt over what had happened with Collin started eating me alive, getting worse the longer we were in the car. I needed to tell him. Now. David would understand why I had met with him, so I needed to just put it out in the open. “David, there’s something I have to tell you.”

David shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “Actually, there’s something I need to tell you first. I’ve been trying to work up the nerve to bring it up, so I’m just going to come out with it.”

My breath stuck in my chest. I wasn’t sure how many more surprises I could take today. “Okay. What?”

“Allison’s not just a colleague.”

“Okay,” I said, hesitantly.

David shot me a glance before looking out the windshield. “Allison is my old girlfriend.”

“Your old girlfriend is a history professor?”

“Yes.”

I felt like I’d been doused in ice water. It was hard enough to accept that David not only had a college education but a master’s and doctorate degree, while all I had was a Manteo High School diploma and a Dare County food worker’s certificate. But what had I expected? He worked at a university, and while plenty of students were interested in him, he would never get involved with one. Of course he had dated a fellow professor.

“I should have told you sooner.”

My mouth dried up and I took a breath before answering. “Why didn’t you?” I didn’t want to think of the implications.

“I was afraid it could get messy”—he cast a glance in my direction before returning his attention to the road—“on
her
end, and I didn’t want to worry you. I was the one to end our relationship, and I know she hoped I would change my mind. Given the circumstances, there’s a chance that this lead will turn out to be nothing.”

Great, just what I needed—a jealous ex-girlfriend to add to my list of adversaries. “I guess we won’t know until we see whatever it is she wants to show you, right?”

He took a deep breath, then released it. “I have no reason to believe she’ll be anything but professional. Allison was never overly dramatic or emotional. And I told her that you’d be with me. Still, I’m worried.”

“The ex-girlfriend and the new one together in the same room. I can see why you might be on edge,” I tried to tease, but I wasn’t any more happy about the situation than he was. I could only imagine how ecstatic Allison had to be about David’s new, younger girlfriend.

“I would suggest I go alone, but this concerns you too and I think you should be there. That being said, if it makes you uncomfortable—”

“I’ll be fine. And don’t worry. I’m not jealous, David.” And I wasn’t, not really. I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that David wanted to be with me, that I could count on him to always be there. And I believed him. I had no worries that he would dump me after meeting with his old girlfriend this weekend.

My biggest concern was that I wasn’t good enough for him. This morning was proof positive of that.

“David, please. It’s not that big of a deal. We’ll handle it.”

“Thank you, Ellie. I know we’ve only been together a short time, but I’ve grown very attached to you, and I don’t want to jeopardize our relationship.” He picked up my hand and kissed it. “I would never intentionally hurt you. I want you to know that.”

Guilt gnawed at my gut. I didn’t deserve this man, but I was going to do everything in my power to change that. I knew I should tell him about kissing Collin earlier. I just couldn’t. “I do.” I choked out.

“Now what did you want to tell me?”

I was a Curse Keeper because Ananias Dare had done everything in his power to protect his family, even if he’d inadvertently destroyed them in the process. I wouldn’t destroy David. I needed him too much, in every possible way. But I had to tell him something about meeting Collin. I owed him at least that much. “I saw Collin at the beach today.”

He was silent for a moment, and then he forced a smile. “It’s okay, Ellie. He’s the other Curse Keeper. I know you’re going to see him sometimes.”

“You don’t want to know anything else about me seeing him?”

He hesitated again, swallowing before he answered. “No. I trust you.”

Did he have reason to trust me? I’d only kissed Collin, but I’d wanted so much more. It killed me that my carnal need for Collin simmered under the surface of my subconscious no matter what the commonsense part of me wanted. I knew I should tell David the full story, but would it help anything? It would probably just hurt him without helping either of us. Still, I couldn’t ignore the fact that burying my feelings meant that I was breaking my own cardinal rule for our relationship.

No secrets.

C
HAPTER
S
EVEN

The sun dipped close to the horizon as David pulled into the driveway of a tiny bungalow. “Here it is,” he said, opening his car door.

“It’s cute,” I said, climbing out and staring at the front porch covered in vines. Somehow I’d pictured him in a more contemporary house, not an older one with so much character. But after seeing the place, I realized it fit him perfectly.

David moved to the trunk and popped the lid. “Let’s get the door marked and get inside before we stumble upon any nasty surprises.”

“You think there’s a chance that we’d find any spirits or demons this far from Manteo?”

He already had his bag slung over his shoulder and my bag in his hand. “Honestly, I don’t know,” he said as he closed the trunk. “But I’d rather not hang outside and find out.”

He led me down a short cobblestone path to the stone-covered front steps, and I noticed that two wicker chairs had been arranged on one side. Several flowerpots with dead plants were in one of the corners.

“You had flowers?” I asked.

He cast a glance at the containers and shrugged before placing his key in the doorknob. “Yeah, they reminded me of my mother’s garden back home.”

“Do you miss your family?” His mother and father lived in London, and he saw them no more than once or twice a year.

“Sometimes. I was feeling a bit nostalgic at the beginning of the summer. I told you I was going through a rough patch.”

He pushed the door open and stepped inside to turn on a light. A warm glow lit up the sheer curtains in the windows.

I grabbed a piece of charcoal from my purse and tossed the bag on the porch. David came back out, his gaze dropping to my hand. I lifted it and shrugged. “I came prepared. Why don’t you go inside and I’ll start marking.”

He moved behind me, standing on the top step as if guarding my back. “And leave you out here alone? I’d rather not. Besides, I like to watch you mark the doors. It’s like watching a ceremony.”

I gave him a small smile, though his comment made me think of how I’d felt when I first saw Collin marking my door. “How many doors are there?”

“Two.”

I nodded and then began, making the marks for the elements around the perimeter of the door, starting with the four corners. As I applied the signs to the door, I asked the moon to lend its protection through the night, for the sun to add its strength to the moon as it watched over us, for the air to protect us from the wind gods. And in the center of each edge, I placed my own symbol for water along with David’s initials—the two people I was asking the elements to protect. In the very center of the door, I placed the new mark that Collin had begun to add, a diamond with an
x
in the center—the symbol that would keep the gods and spirits from invading our dreams.

When I finished, I stepped back and made sure it looked complete. The black charcoal marks on the red door were really going to stick out tomorrow in the daylight.

“What are your neighbors going to think?” I asked.

He chuckled. “They know I’m a professor of Native American studies. They probably won’t think anything of it. Besides, we’ll only be here two nights. Now let’s go mark the back door so we can give all of my neighbors something to talk about.”

He grabbed my hand and pulled me through the front door. Like the house itself, the furnishings weren’t what I’d expected. There was a vintage sofa in the living room and a couple of armchairs arranged in front of a brick fireplace.

“The back door is off the kitchen.” We walked through the dining room and into the small kitchen. David flipped on the overhead light, then opened an upper cabinet door and pulled out a flashlight. “There’s a small landing outside the door. We both won’t fit on it, so I’ll muck about the yard while you do the marking. When we go back inside, we can both take care of the salt.”

“Okay.”

We walked out the back door and I started making the protective marks while the flashlight beam bounced around the backyard. When I finished, I looked around, the nearly full moon providing enough light for me to tell that the yard butted up to some woods. A small shed was in the back corner.

Realizing that I was finished, David came back and flipped off the flashlight. “Nothing looks amiss, so that’s good.”

“I can’t wait to see everything in the daylight.”

He laughed. “I hope you’re not too disappointed. The grass is overgrown and the flowerbeds need weeding.”

We went back inside and I poured salt on the window ledges in the front room while David worked on the back. When we were finished, I asked for the location of the bathroom, and David pointed me toward a short hall off the dining room.

“There are only two bedrooms and mine’s in the back,” he said, moving into the kitchen and opening a cabinet. “I put our bags in there. Feel free to make yourself at home. I’m going to figure out what I have for us to eat.”

“Okay.” I took my time walking through the dining room and down the hall, amazed by how comfortable and cozy David’s house was. I closed myself in the small bathroom, which was covered in light blue tiles. The shower curtain and towels were white, making the room feel clean and fresh.

When I finished, I wandered back to David’s room. He’d left the lamp on next to his bed, and my bag was sitting in a chair in the corner. The room was small, so the queen-size bed filled up most of it. The room was warm and inviting, with light tan walls and a dark red comforter on the bed.

I found David in the kitchen, standing in front of the oven with a frozen pizza box. He looked up with a grin. “The bad news is that we’re having a three-month-old frozen pizza for dinner. The good news is that I have a bottle of wine that’s even older.”

I laughed. “Sounds good. Especially the part about you cooking.”

David put the pizza in the oven, then poured wine into two glasses and handed one to me.

“I love your house,” I said after taking a sip. “Are you still planning to give it up?”

He picked up his glass and rested his backside against the kitchen counter. “I don’t see the point in keeping it. At least for the next few months. Subletting it to a grad student or a new professor seems like the best plan.”

“What about your things? We probably won’t have time to move everything out while we’re here.”

“I can pack up most of my personal items this weekend and store the boxes in the shed. I’ll just rent it furnished.”

“Are you sure you want to do that? You have some really nice furniture.”

His eyes narrowed in concern. “What’s this all about, Ellie?”

“I just feel so guilty. You’re giving up everything, literally
everything
, for me.”

He cracked an ornery smile. “Not just for you, Ellie. I’m doing my part to save humanity. You’re just a fringe benefit.”

I laughed. “So you’re telling me that your decision to live in Manteo—with me—was made with purely altruistic motives.”

He stepped toward me and pulled me into his arms. “Yes. Pure and utter selflessness.” He kissed me, taking his time as his mouth explored mine.

But I wasn’t so easily distracted. I pulled my head back and searched his face. “David, I’m serious. What happens when your sabbatical is up? It only lasts until the end of December.”

“It’s only mid-August. We have a few months to figure it out.” He cupped my cheek. “Don’t worry, Ellie. I’m exactly where I want to be.”

“Back in your kitchen?” I teased.

“No, with
you
. Wherever you are is where I want to be, Ellie Lancaster.”

We sat at his kitchen table and drank wine while we waited on the pizza. “What’s your plan with Allison?” I asked, keeping my gaze on my glass.

David hesitated. “I’m supposed to call her in the morning to confirm, but last I heard, she can’t meet with us until tomorrow evening. So I thought we could go by the library during the day to look at those resources I mentioned.”

“Okay.” Part of me was happy to hear we wouldn’t see David’s ex for almost twenty-four hours, even if she had potentially seen the Ricardo Estate. I needed to suck it up and be mature.

“The library opens at nine and closes at one on Saturday. I want to get there as soon as it opens so we don’t run out of time. Afterward, we can go out to lunch and figure out what to do with the rest of the day.” He paused and reached for my hand. “And then if everything is still a go, we’ll meet Allison in the evening.”

I nodded. “Yeah. Sounds great.” I sucked in a breath, hating myself for what I was about to ask. “Why did you break up?” Talk about sounding needy.

He sat up straighter but didn’t release my hand. “We dated for a year and Allison was ready to get serious and start a family. I cared for her, but I knew she wasn’t the one.”

“How long ago did you break up?”

He hesitated. “Last winter.”

The timer on the oven went off and David hopped up to get the pizza out. I grabbed two plates out of the cabinet and rinsed them off and dried them before putting them on the table. When we sat down, I grimaced and turned to him. “I have a feeling this meeting might not go very well.”

“Why?”

“From everything you’ve said, Allison obviously loved you. She’s going to be able to tell how you feel about me. We’ve been together for a little over a month. You didn’t love her after a year. That’s not going to go over well.”

He sat back, looking slightly alarmed. “What do you want to do? I really think you should be there. You might have some insight that I don’t.”

I had to admit that I wanted to see whatever it was that she had in her possession. “How about I go, but if things get too tense, I’ll leave.”

He nodded, but he didn’t look happy about it.

We ate in silence for several seconds before I decided now was a good time to tell him about my recent discoveries. “Yesterday, when Claire and I were supposed to be cleaning, she told me about something that happened on her honeymoon.”

He laughed. “She’s not urging us to try another new sexual position, is she? Why she cares so much about our sex life is beyond me.”

“No.” I chuckled nervously. “Nothing like that.”

“Why do you look so anxious? Should I be worried?”

“No, I don’t think so.” I told him about her seeing the ghost of poor Mr. Murphy at my apartment building and her experience at the cemetery in Charleston. “She used to hear voices when she was a little girl,” I said. “They stopped right around the time of Momma’s murder. Apparently she told me about it when we were kids, the day I told her about the curse. Only I don’t remember her telling me.”

His eyes widened. “Claire’s ability to talk to ghosts is related to the curse?”

“I don’t know. Maybe. All I know is that her ability has suddenly returned, and she says a voice is telling her that we need to move out of my parents’ house, that there’s a darkness there.”

“How do we know we can trust this voice?”

“When Claire was a little girl, the voices used to say ‘you have to help her.’ Claire didn’t know what it meant then, but now she thinks it means she needs to help me.”

He looked skeptical. “I still don’t know if this voice is a credible source.”

I cocked my head. “It also told Claire that I need to stay with you.”

A sly grin spread across his face. “I suddenly like this voice.”

“Besides, Claire says she sees the darkness too. It could be nothing, but you know I don’t feel comfortable there. Especially since Myra left for Durham.”

“I know, love. It might be because you miss her so much.”

While I had to admit it felt empty without Myra and Daddy in the house, I was sure there was more to it. I rubbed my greasy hand on a paper towel. “I’ve put more thought into selling it.”

He looked surprised. “But you haven’t found all the notes from your father. And what about it being in your family for generations?”

“Those are all still issues, but I trust Claire.” I paused. “I trust the voice.” I knew I should tell him that Okeus had said Claire could help me, but that would mean telling him more about Collin.

“Okay.” He looked lost in thought. “Do you have any idea where you want to move?”

“I think I’d like to be closer to the ocean.”