Cursed Kiss (Paranormal Romance) (23 page)

The blade sliced Clare's skin just below her collarbone. A whimper slipped between her lips. She tried to shrink back from the pain, but Edward stood firm, an unyielding barrier at her back. She looked down, dreading what she would find.

Blood trickled down onto the shiny fabric of the dress's bodice. Tears filled her eyes, more from shock than pain. She hated her weakness. The wound was nothing compared to Luka's.

"Don't hurt her," Pablo shouted, surging forward. He pulled up a few feet from Monique, breathing hard, but standing tall.

The tears in Clare's eyes brimmed over at the sacrifice Pablo was willing to make for her.

"You both protect her?" Monique's voice rose in disbelief.

She pointed her sword at Luka's groin. "I summoned you. You should have been mine. Instead you've defied me at every opportunity."

Edward suddenly released Clare. She stumbled aside to put distance between them and turned to see him backing towards the shadows. What was he up to now? She touched her collarbone. Her fingers came away bloody, but the cut didn't feel deep.

Monique shoved Pablo in the chest and pushed him against Luka, who sucked in an agonized breath as Pablo collided with his wounded stomach.

"Don't you want Pablo to touch you, Luka? Surely after so many years of selfless service, you give the poor boy whatever he wants."

Pablo stepped in front of Luka, blocking him from Monique's view. "Leave him. He owes me nothing."

Monique barked a short, humorless laugh. "You have no idea how right you are. You think you protect him, don't you? You've served him like a faithful little puppy dog, feeding him energy, because poor Luka can't touch anyone else, can he? No women. No love. Only you, Spaniard."

With every word Monique uttered, the tension wound tighter. They all sensed something terrible was coming.

Monique raised her blade and pointed at Pablo. "Let me tell you a secret. You're not his savior, you're his curse."

"Don't listen to her," Luka retorted. He tried to reach out to Pablo, but the guards yanked his arm back.

Pablo gazed from Monique to Luka, confusion creasing his face.

"It's true, pretty boy," she said. "Luka just has to kill you and he'll be free of his affliction."

"That can't be true," Luka said. "Ignore her."

From the look on Pablo's face, he wasn't hearing Luka. Desolation filled his eyes.

Monique walked around Pablo, poking him with her finger. "Every day you're alive, you hurt Luka. Because of you he's lived as a recluse. He doesn't want you. He's never wanted you." She stabbed a finger towards Clare. "He wants her."

Wide-eyed Pablo turned to Clare, his chest jumping with snatched breaths.

"It's not true, Pablo," Clare said. "Luka cares for you."

"He doesn't," Monique shouted. "Look at him, Pablo. Look at Luka. He's never wanted you."

Sick dread clogged Clare's chest. What would happen now? What would Pablo do if he thought his life had been a lie?

Monique would not be happy until she'd destroyed both the men just like she'd destroyed Clare's father.

Anger rose inside Clare like hot lava, the pressure building, ready to explode. She snatched a dagger from the belt of a guard who was holding Luka and stepped up to Monique.

Her hair floated around her head in a cloud, her skin tingled, and a distant hum filled her ears. "You destroyed my father," she said in a penetrating voice that filled the empty cavern. "You tried to do the same to me, but I survived Edward's attack. I won't let you destroy anyone else."

Clare angled the dagger towards Monique and a jolt of power shot out and struck the older woman like an electric shock. Monique jumped back and raised her sword. The air between them vibrated, pulsing against Clare's skin.

"I didn't send Edward to kill you," Monique said, her tone puzzled.

"Bullshit. Edward attacked me twice. In Amsterdam and psychically in the night."

Something dangerous flickered through Monique's eyes. She scanned the cavern. "Edward," she commanded. "Where are you? Show yourself."

Monique grabbed a lantern from the ground and raised it to illuminate the cavern.

Edward was crouched near the serpent, building a small heap of pebbles into a pyramid. He'd removed his jacket and tie, and half his shirt buttons were unfastened. "What're you doing?" Monique roared. "Come here and explain yourself."

Edward's eyes reflected the light with a glow like an animal caught in headlights. Slowly, he got to his feet and walked towards them.

The hair on Clare's scalp prickled. Her sense of self-preservation screamed at her to run. The four guards must have felt the same way as they all scattered. Clare sidled across to Pablo and grabbed his sleeve to get his attention. "Take Luka and get over by the wall."

He looked up at her dully, misery on his face. "Unless you want Luka to die, move him over by the wall." That got through to Pablo. He grasped Luka's arm and pulled him into the shadows.

Clare backed away, putting some distance between herself and Monique. Her grandmother stood alone in a circle of light, her slender body rigid with anger. As Edward approached, she strode forward and swung her hand at his face. The impact rang around the chamber as though she'd slapped a hollow pot. "How dare you attack my granddaughter. You do what you're told from now on."

Edward's head jolted to the side at the impact. He straightened, blinked rapidly, and lifted a hand to his eyes. A high-pitched whine escaped from his mouth, then a huge, fat cockroach wriggled out between his lips and dropped to the floor.

Clare pressed a hand over her mouth and swallowed back the bitter taste of bile. Edward's eyes fixed into a dead, unblinking gaze. He stared down at Monique and in a voice that sounded like the rattle of a million insect bodies, he said, "You killed my Daisy."

Chapter Seventeen

The swirling clouds obscuring Edward's thoughts cleared, knocked away by the blow to his head. He straightened his neck and stared down at the furious face of Monique Moray. Why was she angry?

Memories swooped up from the dark hole in his mind. His name was Charles Kemp. He was an architect, top in his class. Monique had hired him to design a house in the south of France. He'd taken his wife Daisy to see Monique's garden. Daisy loved flowers. She wore a straw hat with a yellow ribbon.

Darkness flooded back, wiping his mind. He looked right and left. He stood in a dark cave. Lantern light beat the shadows back to the walls. Clare Moray stood to his right, her face stained with tears. How did he know her? What had he done to her? Guilt swamped him. "What will I tell Daisy?"

"Forget Daisy," Monique snapped. "That was a different life. Your name is Edward Gregore." She started reciting a litany of words he didn't understand.

Images flashed through his mind, overwhelming him. Tall buildings, faces he didn't know, blood, a man's body on a bed. He closed his eyes and rubbed his face, but the pictures kept coming. When he opened his eyes, Monique raised her sword and pointed it at his chest.

Remembered pain flooded through him. He grabbed the sword to push it away as he'd done before. Last time it had sliced off his fingers. This time it sank into his hand, but he couldn't feel it.

Monique shrieked and his body vibrated with the sound. "Let go, you fool."

He tried to hold fast to the sword. Monique ripped it back and lunged at him. He couldn't move. Last time he'd been chained, this time his feet were clay. He looked down and watched the shiny red blade sink into his side. There had been blood last time, hot and wet, running down his leg. She'd cut a pattern of agony on his chest.

His wife's scream pierced his soul. Monique had silenced her with a gaping red gash across her throat. Crimson had seeped into the yellow dress. He hadn't been able to move, hadn't been able to save Daisy.

Edward reached towards Monique, grasped a handful of fabric and flesh, and lifted her up. Monique screamed. In his mind, the sound became Daisy's scream. His vision filled with Daisy's anguished expression as Monique tortured him.

Now he remembered who he was. Monique had no power over him.

She hacked at his shoulders and head with the sword. He felt no pain, but he knew his body was weakening. A thundering roar vibrated the ground and focused his attention on the back of the cave. Red Death reared up, flapping its wings and drumming its hooked claws on the rock. The creature's gaping mouth was filled with instruments of death that even Monique could not match. The trapped serpent called to him, demanding justice.

Holding Monique above his head, he walked towards the dark corner of the cave where the serpent waited. He sensed its muscles quivering beneath its scales, eager to attack. "Here you are, my beauty," he said. "Death for death."

***

The sound of Clare's panicked breaths filled her ears. As Edward carried Monique towards the serpent, her humanity screamed at her to stop him, but her mind and body refused.

Clare retreated to the wall, the solid, cold rock reassuring against her back. She shivered, the dagger held ready in her hand—as if the small blade would offer any protection if the thing that had been Edward came for her.

Monique shouted threats and abuse at the egregore. She hacked at its body with her sword. But as in the office when Edward pierced his hand with the letter opener, the wounds were temporary, closing immediately.

Where the egregore walked, it left a trail of cockroaches, which scuttled away into cracks. They wriggled out from beneath its shirt, squeezed out of its mouth and ears, dropped from its pants. She couldn't think of that thing as Edward anymore. Luka had been right. It was an inhuman abomination Monique had created. Some poor soul she had trapped and enslaved.

Clare tore her gaze from the egregore as it approached Red Death and looked for Pablo and Luka. They were crouched by the wall on the opposite side of the tunnel. She would have signaled them to leave, but neither of them looked at her. Instead, both stared at the unfolding drama.

The guards had made a run for it when Edward came for Monique. There was nothing to stop Clare from taking her friends and leaving. So why couldn't she move?

Monique screamed, a note of desperation that flashed primeval fear through Clare. She dragged her gaze back to witness the final moments of her only living relative. A relative she'd grieved for two months earlier. Clare felt nothing for her grandmother now.

The egregore halted a few feet from Red Death, bent its arms, and hurled Monique at the creature. Like a dog catching a stick, the serpent bounced on its front legs, opened its jaws, and snapped its double row of razor-sharp teeth closed on the woman's body.

Clare's dagger clattered to the ground as she clamped her hands over her ears to block out her grandmother's cries. Red Death tossed the woman into the air with a flick of its neck and caught her headfirst. Tipping its head back, the creature undulated its throat and, like a snake, swallowed her whole.

Revulsion clenched Clare's stomach. She tore her gaze away from the morbid sight of the creature's neck distended with its victim. Closing her eyes, she concentrated on breathing. What would the egregore do now?

Over the thundering of her heart, she heard the scrape of shuffling footsteps. Slowly, she raised her head. The pale, barely human form crawling with dark insects walked towards her.

Clare dropped to her knees in the dirt, mesmerized by a horror her brain could barely comprehend.

"Clare, move," Luka bellowed. He stumbled towards her, his face contorted with pain. His underwear was darkly stained with blood from his wound.

The shuffling steps of the egregore drew closer. With shaking fingers, Clare scrabbled in the dirt for her dropped dagger, then pushed herself to her feet.

Back flattened to the wall, she edged towards the tunnel. The thing that had been Edward changed direction and stalked her.

Clare dragged her gaze from the approaching monster and looked at the man she loved. Luka was resting a shoulder against the wall by the tunnel, one hand clutching his belly, the other beckoning her. "Come, Clare. Quickly."

She wanted to run, but she couldn't leave the spirit trapped in the clay shell. She had to free it and undo her grandmother's evil. "You and Pablo go on ahead. I'll catch up."

"I won't leave you."

"I know how to handle this." She hoped she was right. "I'll be right behind you. Just get out of here so I know you're safe."