Cursed Kiss (Paranormal Romance) (22 page)

Pablo nodded and, keeping low, scurried towards the armor. He sorted through the pile and held up the sword. She released a shaky sigh and wiped cold sweat from her face. At least they had a weapon.

She expected Pablo to return to her, but he moved a few steps closer to Luka and called his name. Her gaze shot back to the serpent, waiting for its reaction. It ignored the sound.

Hesitantly, she called Luka as well. When the beast didn't react, both she and Pablo shouted Luka's name, trying to pull him back to consciousness.

He didn't move.

The creature lumbered a half step closer to him. When Clare saw the chain jerk taut on its front legs, she gasped with relief. It raised its head and bellowed an ear-numbing roar. Just a few more inches slack on the chain, and its snout would touch his shoulder.

But it couldn't reach him. That meant it should be safe for her to go to him.

She crept closer but a scuttling black movement caught her attention. Something the size of her hand scampered across the arc of light from her torch and disappeared in the shadows. It resembled the blood-sucking spider pet of her grandmother's.

Had it bitten Luka? With a sick lurch, she examined what she could see of his naked body. He was marked and bloody in places. He might have been bitten.

Seeing the spider reminded her of Monique. She'd been so consumed by Luka's plight, she'd forgotten her grandmother was headed this way.

"We must get out of here as soon as possible," she shouted to Pablo. "Monique might be along at any time."

Pablo flashed a bleak glance at the tunnel. However horrific the beast in the cavern, there was no doubt Monique frightened him more.

The serpent stretched towards Luka again. Its forked tongue flicked out over leathery lips and touched his chest. It grumbled in its throat and pulled against the chains. Had it gained another inch?

With a groan, Luka raised his head. The touch of the serpent must have roused him.

He was alive! "Thank you, God," Clare whispered and welcomed the warm surge of relief.

Pablo crawled closer to him. "Luka, we're here."

With what looked like tremendous effort, Luka turned his head towards Pablo. "Clare," Luka croaked.

"I'm here."

Luka's gaze wandered around the cave until he found her. A smile touched his lips, and his eyelids fluttered closed.

"Luka," Pablo called. "What did Monique do to you? Are you hurt?" He didn't respond and Clare's fear surged back.

"Luka," she called urgently. "Luka, what's wrong with you."

The beast licked him again. Luka opened his eyes and turned to look at it. Clare tensed, expecting him to jerk back in horror. Instead, he raised his hand towards it.

"No!" Pablo and Clare shouted in unison, sending the word echoing around the cavern.

Luka's fingers grazed the animal's chin. Rather than biting off his arm as Clare feared, the serpent calmed. The creature's eyes drifted closed, and it tipped back its head like a dog being petted.

"I'll untie Luka while the creature's distracted," Pablo said, and crawled forward, holding the sword before him.

Clare hesitated a moment, then crawled after him. When her dress caught under her sneakers, she ripped the skirt off, and bundled the silvery fabric beneath her arm.

As she approached Luka, the smell of the beast's breath made the gorge rise in her throat. Although she took small shallow breaths through her mouth, she could still taste the stench.

Luka was secured to the wall by a chain attached to a metal belt fastened by a bolt. His arms and legs weren't tied. Monique obviously hadn't expected him to wake up. Now Clare was closer, she saw bruising and shallow wounds marking his skin.

"Try touching him," Pablo said. "If Luka's theory about his psychic energy deficit is correct, he should be okay here."

Cautiously, she placed a fingertip on his shin. For a moment she thought it was all right, then the familiar rushing sound filled her ears. "I'm still affected."

Pablo frowned. "Then it isn't living on Earth that's caused his problem. It must be something Monique did to him."

Clare stared at Luka's pale face, the dark rings of fatigue beneath his eyes. If Monique had cursed him, maybe Clare could lift the curse. She pushed away the hope and concentrated on getting him free. "We must move him. Do you need me to help?"

Pablo glanced at Luka's hand petting the serpent's scaly chin. "Support his arm while I shift him away from the wall."

Clare unfolded the bundle of skirt material and looped it beneath Luka's arm. She took the weight slowly, careful not to allow his fingers to break contact with the beast. Pablo eased Luka forward, then worked behind him to release the metal belt. Her thumping heart marked the seconds as she crouched in front of him, the creature's massive head a few feet to her left.

Pablo pulled the metal belt clear and gripped Luka beneath his arms. "Take his legs."

Clare jammed the length of material beneath his knees. She gritted her teeth against the sucking feeling each time her fingers brushed his bare skin. Luka's hand drooped, breaking contact with the beast's chin. Its eyelids cracked open, and it blasted a snort of charnel house breath that made her eyes water.

"Now," Clare said. They stumbled away from the creature, Luka between them.

The beast's head whipped up, eyes blazing like the fires of hell. The cave reverberated with its roar of complaint as they collapsed near Luka's armor. Clare's muscles were weak and shaky with fear and the small loss of psychic energy.

"Your clothes are here." Pablo helped Luka don the padded undergarments that he wore with his armor.

"You seem more alert," Clare said with relief.

Luka glanced around the cavern. "Monique drugged me with something from Earth in a hypodermic syringe. Red Death has been drugged as well, the poor creature. It was once a proud animal."

Clare glanced at the beast. She'd only seen it as a danger to Luka, yet the way it stood with its head hanging reminded her of an abused pet. The poor serpent had suffered at Monique's hands like everyone else.

"We must get out of here now," Pablo said, as he helped Luka to stand and wrapped the cloak around his friend's shoulders. "Monique is not far behind us." The men's eyes met and held in a gaze that vibrated with unspoken memories.

Clare longed to help Pablo support Luka as the two men staggered towards the tunnel exit.

"I'm glad you came," Luka said, "but the last thing I want is for Monique to capture you two." He looked longingly at Clare. "She would hurt you to punish me."

Brightness flared in the tunnel entrance. All three of them stumbled to a halt and stared as Monique stepped into the lantern's pool of golden light, Edward behind her.

"Luka, what a wonderful suggestion." She ran the tip of her tongue across her blood-red lips. "You always were full of good ideas."

"Monique," Clare blurted. Her grandmother stood in the mouth of the tunnel surrounded by four guards, blocking the route to safety.

"Don't sound so surprised, Clare, darling. You knew I was coming. I asked you along, if you remember. It seems you chose to come with someone else instead." Monique turned an icy glare on Pablo. His gaze dropped to the ground, his shoulders slumped.

Anger coursed through Clare at the flicker of a smile on her grandmother's face at Pablo's reaction. She enjoyed tormenting him. She'd probably enjoyed tormenting Clare's father as well.

Clare's tiredness fell away and she moved to put herself between Monique and the men. "I'm taking them home."

Monique scanned her critically and tapped a finger against her lips. "What have you done to my favorite dress?" She glanced at the serpent, which had picked up the silvery material and was shredding the fabric between its teeth. Monique sighed theatrically. "You've fed my dress to Red Death. I'm sure it would rather have eaten Luka." She turned her attention to him. "I was waiting for you to wake up first. It's much more entertaining if the prey struggles."

She snapped her fingers and the four guards advanced on Luka, swords in hand. Clare stood her ground, blocking their way. "Don't touch him," she commanded in a voice that echoed around the cavern and sounded eerily like her grandmother's. The men hesitated and glanced uncertainly at Monique.

"Go on," she barked.

Three of them dodged around Clare to reach Luka. One bulldozed Pablo away from Luka's side with his shoulder. Clare jumped in front of the fourth man and shoved him in the chest. He stood a head taller than her and should have been able to knock her aside without blinking, but he shrank back from her touch as though she was poisonous. His eyes skittered back to Monique.

"She won't hurt you, you fool."

Warily he moved forward again, grabbed Clare's arm, and shoved her aside. The four guards surrounded Luka.

"Strip him," Monique said, and stared at Clare with a cruel twist of her lips. "We don't want the poor serpent to get any more fabric stuck between its teeth, do we?" Clare bit down on a curse. She wouldn't react to Monique's taunts. She must stay calm and composed. Tamping down on the panic that crawled into her chest, she waited for a chance to escape.

Luka stood passively as they pushed him around while they removed the clothes he'd just put on. Once again, nearly naked, Luka sneered at Monique, the mocking curl of his lips so blatant she could not miss the insult. "You can slap on all the youth-restoring tinctures in existence. You'll still be an ugly old crone."

"Shut up!" She stepped forward and slapped him around the face. Luka's head snapped aside, but after a moment he raised his chin and stared Monique down again.

Pablo retreated into the shadows by the wall.

Without taking his gaze off Monique, Luka addressed Pablo. "Don't give her the satisfaction, my friend. Stand up to her." He did shift his gaze then and flashed an apologetic smile at Clare. "I'm sorry, my darling. I wish things could have been different for us. I've come to love you very much."

With a shriek, Monique yanked her rosy sword from the small scabbard at her waist and brandished it in Luka's face. "You'll never have her."

Monique moved so quickly Clare could hardly follow with her eyes, let alone intervene. The sword sliced a diagonal cut across Luka's belly. He cried out and doubled over. When the guards pulled him upright, the wound gaped, blood trickling into the waistband of his underwear.

Clare jumped forward to help him, but Monique blocked the way with her blood-stained sword. The bloody, metallic scent filled Clare's nose and dizziness swept over her. For the first time, she truly understood how Pablo felt.

"Have you lost your mind?" Clare stared at her grandmother. The woman had a look of madness in her eyes. She was deranged. Clare couldn't reason with her when she was like this.

Monique swung around and her icy glare settled on Clare. "Edward, hold my granddaughter for me."

Edward took a step towards her. Clare backed away as a crashing tide of memories hit her: Edward's grip on her throat, the paralyzing dark cloud in the night. "Don't touch me."

Edward paused as if considering her words.

"Grab her, you damn fool," Monique shrieked.

Moving swiftly, Edward was behind her, wrenching her arms behind her back. Clare struggled and kicked his shins, but it was like kicking rock.

Monique advanced and touched the sword tip to the delicate skin of Clare's cleavage. The air froze in her lungs.

"You don't want to hurt your own granddaughter." Luka spoke calmly, but there was an edge of desperation in his voice.

"She has bad blood," Monique snapped back. "I should have known not to trust her with a father like that. He took my daughter from me but she paid for leaving and so did he."

Monique trailed the edge of the blade across Clare's skin to her neck. She held her breath, frightened to even breathe.

"Would you still love her if she was covered in scars?" Monique said to Luka. "But of course, I was forgetting. You can't touch her anyway, can you?" She laughed and it echoed around the cavern like something from a nightmare.

"You need her to continue your line." Luka's voice still sounded calm and steady although he must be in pain. "She's more use to you alive."

"Oh, I won't kill her."