The curse of Kalaan (29 page)

“I assure you my love; it’s nothing to swoon over!”

“Arghh!” Catherine shouted again and lifting her petticoats, jumped on the bench then onto the tabletop and finally jumped on Virginie, who, completely overwhelmed by the situation, giggled nervously.

She barely managed to avoid Catherine, letting out a little scream, but a second later couldn’t avoid the cascade of lace on her petticoats, tripped on them and fell flat on her face.

“Ouch!”she gasped as she landed, nose to the floor and Catherine lying on top of her almost crushing her, making it difficult to breathe.

Thinking she might have hurt Ginny, Catherine rolled over without completely letting go and asked,“Did I hurt you?”

“Oh, my love, you could never hurt me.” Virginie lied, gritting her teeth through the pain. She thought she might have two or three broken ribs.

“Ahhhh!” Catherine shrieked, hitting the floor with her fist. “I am not…!”

Virginie took advantage of Catherine’s distress and sudden silence at almost admitting the truth, to roll over and sit up holding her side. She slowly started to breathe normally again and the pain dissipated. She couldn’t hold Kalaan’s reaction against him. She had pushed him to the limit and probably would have reacted the same way had the roles been reversed.

“You are…?” she asked, encouragingly, sincerely hopeful.

Catherine sat up too, though not as gracefully, legs sticking out from under her skirt and hands flat on the floor. 

“You’ll learn soon enough,” she said under her breath, a bitter smile forming on her face. Looking out the window, she could see the evening darkness drawing in. The next minute she smiled maliciously and whispered, “In a few minutes it will be night,
ma kariadez
, and then you will learn what it is to be in the arms of a woman.”

Kalaan was doubly cursed! First, he had to put up with being a young lady during the day, and second, his soulmate had fallen in love with that abomination!

He suddenly felt broken, destroyed, empty— Virginie was like all the other women he’d encountered one day or had in his bed. They were all liars and frivolous creatures. Imagine, she hadn’t hesitated to give him her virginity only to be sure that she didn’t find him attractive, that it was really Catherine she wanted! Kalaan was furious. She wanted her ‘lady pirate?’ She was going to get her!

“My love,” Catherine cooed with her soft feminine voice, hiding her hostility. “First help rid me of my bodice. I’m literally suffocating with desire for you.”

Kalaan gloated for one short moment, when saw doubt clouding Virginie’s beautiful eyes and could see her confusion. After the story she’d just told him, she wasn’t going to play the frightened little prude, was she?

Night had almost fallen, yet Kalaan felt no pain warning him of the coming transformation. He only had the unpleasant pins and needles in his hands and feet. For once he was impatient for the transformation to occur so he could avenge the pain Virginie had caused him.

“Ginny?”

She jumped when he called her name and swallowed. She regained her composure and smiled a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. Then, on her knees, she crawled over to Kalaan who had his back turned to her, so she could undo his dress.

“Mu...must we… go… so fast?” Virginie asked stammering, trying to control her voice. She undid the hooks on his dress and started unlacing Catherine-Kalaan’s corset with trembling fingers.

“If you love me as much as you say, then yes!” he answered, enjoying the young woman’s sudden hesitation.

“We could try to become better acquainted first, don’t you think? Before we…go all the way?” Virginie asked, hopeful.

“As you did with Kalaan?” Catherine couldn’t help herself; it had to come out. She turned to look at Virginie, and held her hands in a tight grip.

When Catherine’s loosened bodice dropped, revealing her taut full breasts with their rosy nipples, Virginie looked away in modesty. She tried to pull her hands free, muttering excuses and looking out the window at the nightfall.

Kalaan thought she looked disappointed and weary, but his thoughts were interrupted by the sound of tearing fabric and he looked down to see his body transforming, once more, without any pain.

“Oh... my Lord!” Virginie, who was on her knees, fell on her bottom, her eyes transfixed by Catherine’s rapidly shrinking breasts, the widening torso, ripping the seams of her bodice and lower down, the rippling pectorals forming a tautly muscled and very masculine abdomen. Then she raised her chin and looked up. Her eyes were wide in shock as she placed her hand over her mouth to stifle a cry. Catherine’s face was deformed, moving horribly, in plain transformation, to slowly become the face of Kalaan.

He seemed totally unaware of the change in his features as he stood up in a torn dress, with ripped sleeves hanging off his brawny arms. Virginie, however, crawled backwards as fast as she could until her back hit a china cabinet.

At that moment Kalaan, disturbed at not having felt any pain during the transformation and devoured by the desire to show the young woman who he really was, noticed Virginie, shivering and despondent from what she had just witnessed.

Seeing her in that state, all anger vanished. Despite her perfidy he felt nothing but compassion for her. She had, after all, just seen something unbelievable and at the same time, lost her soulmate.

“So… it is really true,” Virginie whispered, slowly regaining her composure.

She scrutinized Kalaan from head to toe, seeing his magnificent body for the very first time, a body she could only have imagined since their first night of lovemaking was in the pitch-black night when she could only feel his body.

Kalaan frowned. She was incredibly bewildering! Shouldn’t she have screamed or run off for help? Become a nun in order to have God’s protection against evil?

“Is what really true?” he asked, in his rich baritone voice as he tore away the rest of the fabric hanging off his arms and chest and kicked off the skirt revealing his virile legs covered in very torn stockings.

Virginie started to laugh, trying to stifle it at first; but then she broke out laughing freely, so much she had tears in her eyes. Kalaan looked absolutely ridiculous, despite his powerful charisma.

“Is it always like that?” Virginie wiped the tears of laughter from her eyes and asked, as she pointed to the shredded stockings.

He was wearing little more than what was left of the stockings, a pair of very old-fashioned white bloomers and his shoes. At the sight of him Virginie could not hold it in any more and began laughing so hard she was rolling on the floor. Her reaction puzzled him but as he watched her, the question she asked finally made sense in Kalaan’s mind. She’d asked if it was always like that.

“Virginie?” he called out questioningly.

Then, in an access of frustration, he pulled off his shoes and the remains of his stockings throwing them helter-skelter. He hastened to her side in his bare feet, knelt down to grab her and forced her to look him in the eyes.

“Ginny!” he called her name again, but more firmly, hoping she would come out of her hysterics, which she did, slowly.

Her lips and voice still trembling from laughter, she murmured,“Ladies’ bloomers suit you beautifully.”

“How many fingers am I holding up?” he asked, his heart pounding.

“Five!” Virginie answered her eyes looking deeply into his. “I’m not insane, Kalaan. I never have been, by the way. And it’s thanks to Clovis,as well as what... what I just witnessed, that I finally understood. Your skin, your bones, your hair, oh my! It was horrible; everything was suddenly moving and transforming you!”

“It’s difficult enough as it is to go through. Please, don’t tell me what it looks like,” he begged, smiling weakly. He went on, raising his eyebrows, “So, Clovis told you my story?”

Virginie shook her head to say no, and Kalaan immediately understood. He gave a long sigh.

“You were there, nearby, and you heard everything we said?”

“Yes,” Virginie confessed, gazing hungrily at the face of the man she loved, its virile contours highlighted by the light of the flames. “I was looking for a place to calm down and think about everything that was happening — how I felt about Catherine and you, and also that horrible monster. I was hiding behind the well when Clovis called you ‘
Monsieur
.’ Right then I knew I wasn’t losing my mind, but later, after your conversation and your confession ... everything came together in my head and I was extremely upset with you for having played such a trick on me. And yet, even while I was putting on that pretense earlier, I still couldn’t quite believe the extraordinary story. I started thinking I would have to apologize to Catherine.”

Kalaan sat down next to her and took her into his arms. As he cradled her, he want to laugh, shout his joy on the rooftops and at the same time, scold her, before showing her his passion! So, the little vixen had feigned everything to back him into a corner and force him to tell her the truth.

“Everything you told the
thing
was false?” Her words had caused him so much pain, Kalaan still needed to be reassured.

“Retribution, Kalaan, simple retribution. You should have trusted me, confided in me much sooner. When I was with Catherine, I mean you… heavens but this situation is complicated, I had the same feelings, the same attraction.” A moment later she continued, “The
thing
, is that what you call yourself when you’re a woman? I heard talk about a curse, a dark spell and… does magic really exist? Oh, I’m such a ninny, of course it does. You’re the living proof it does,” murmured Virginie again, as if to herself.

Of course, she had to answer for herself; Kalaan couldn’t get a word in edgewise.

When she finally stopped talking to catch her breath, he seized the opportunity.

“Yes, Ginny, my dear,” he said, smiling tenderly at her. Then, his face clouded over and he continued. “The occult world does exist and I paid the price in Egypt. It all took place inside a mysterious building after I touched a black stone in the shape of a pyramid,” Kalaan explained, raising his hand to show her the scar. “This has marked me for life.”

Virginie took his wrist, and caressed the wounded palm with her lips. From his palm she lifted her face up towards his and kissed his strong chin and started running her fingernails across his chest, making him quiver with desire. The young count made an effort to control his hunger because he needed to have a conversation with her before they could let their bodies sing together.

“Will you remain Catherine from sunrise to sunset for the rest of your days?”

Kalaan nodded and smiled bitterly.“Yes, until death sets me free, according to the texts.” he replied gloomily.

“Tell me about the curse, I want to hear the whole story.”

Kalaan got up and took Virginie to the fireplace where he laid out a thick sheepskin and they sat down on it, closely entwined, their eyes looking into the fire. And so, Kalaan told Virginie about his adventure starting with the story of the strange edifice at Amarna with Jean-François Champollion and ending with his urgent return to the Isle of Croz.

“Jaouen and Salam are doing everything they can to find a cure that will set me free.” As Kalaan ended his story, his hands were gently playing with Virginie’s soft hair. She turned to him and kissed him lightly on the lips.

“I hope for your sake, that they succeed,” she said quietly.” For when you think of the number of people who now know about the curse, your secret could very well be known to the whole world. Your mother and sister knew the very first day you were home!” She said, shaking her head. “They must have laughed at my expense!”

“Oh, no, no, my sweet! They only wished to protect you and were worried about your reaction. They weren’t exactly stoic when they saw me transform the first time. You arrived just after, with an ax in your hand,” Kalaan said, smiling at the memory.  “And I strictly forbade them from speaking about it.”

“Would you accept to live at our side, mine and Catherine’s, for the rest of your life?” He suddenly asked, looking at her, his eyes full of hope.

“You... that... is that a marriage proposal?” She stammered and sat up straight, while he lay back on his elbows, his magnificently muscular body on display for her.

“Yes, it is.”

“Kalaan! Oh, yes! Yes, a thousand times yes! I have loved you for such a long time, even when the feeling was not mutual. There has only ever been and only ever will be you!”

“I was such a fool, Ginny, my love. My heart was cold as stone and in that alone, the curse has been good because it opened my eyes and showed me what is most important in this world — you, and my family.”

Virginie leaned down and kissed him passionately, lacing her arms around his neck and lying down half on top of him as he lay down completely on the sheepskin, holding her tight. Desire rose in them like fire. Their slow, languid kisses soon became passionate and burning and as Virginie and Kalaan’s bodies sought to conquer each other once again, their caresses became more intimate.

“Wait,
ma kariadez
,” Kalaan whispered before rising with quick agility to pull the heavy curtains and lock the door. “’Tis only 6 o’clock and we could easily be disturbed if the house stayed open.”