Gifted Curse (Curse Trilogy) (35 page)

I laugh a little, and then I kiss him harder while wrapping my legs around him.  He smiles into my kiss, and I lean back to stare into his perfect blue eyes that tell the world he’s a hybrid.

“I want to marry you, but not until I get a real proposal.”

He grins huge, and then his lips fold over mine while letting me feel his erection once more.

“I’m definitely telling Clay you’re sick.  Give me just a minute,” he chirps, and then he goes to grab his phone.

I hold my hand over my face to suppress my laughter, but I rush over to pull his phone away.  The moment separation affects us both, causing us to shiver as an aching forms.  He quickly wraps me up in his arms, cringing for his painful thoughtlessness.

Leaning back, I say, “I need to go.  Everyone will have questions, and Clay is counting on my presentation.  We can spend the rest of the day in bed while the scouts run ahead.”

“You promise?”

“I swear,” I giggle out, and he pulls me to him once more to press his lips against mine.

“Fine,” he playfully exasperates.  “Go get ready… again, once this wears off.”

Slowly the minutes tick by, and in our escape, we’re just two lovers holding each other after having embarked on the more erotic side of our world.  His lips are strolling over my soft skin, and mine are memorizing every inch of his firm chest and arms, careful not to accidentally endeavor on another moment of ecstasy.  I wish it could always be this perfect.

“You’ve got ten minutes to get ready.  Think you can pull that off?”

“I may not look my best, but I’ll be presentable.”

“You can show me a presentation anytime you like,” he crudely jokes.

I laugh a little, and I swish through to pull my clothes back on.  I throw my hair into a sexy ponytail since I don’t have time to do too much else, and then I run through the motions of my makeup.

He’s still buttoning up his shirt when I walk out, and I smile as pull on my boots once again.  He smirks as he wraps his arms around me, and then he clips his captain’s badge to his belt before covering it up with his dangling white shirt that looks so fucking hot on him.

“After you, Ms. Crush.”

I smile as I walk through the doorway he’s ushering me through, and then I grab the folders I had laid out by the door before we fully escape the apartment filled with too many memories.

“Maybe we should visit my old place while we’re here,” he smolders into my ear.

“I’ve already checked on it.  It’s occupied.  They knew you weren’t ever coming back,” I murmur, a touch of pain sneaking into the undertones of my voice.

He tightens his lips, and then he turns me to face him.

“I never left you.  I just had shit to do, and I regret it.  It had to be done though,” he mutters with his secretive eyes staring into mine.

“I feel like you’re leaving me in the dark about something, and I don’t want you to propose until you trust me enough to tell me.”

“You think I don’t trust you?” he asks with a pained tone.

“I can’t think of any other reason you wouldn’t tell me something.  Until you tell me, I won’t know.  I love you, and I hope you find a way to let go of whatever is holding you back because I can’t marry you until I know there’s nothing left to tear us apart.”

“Araya, I-”

“I’m glad you two are on time for a change,” Clay chuckles out.

“Let’s get to work,” I say while stepping out of mine and Hale’s conversation and into the room of fully attentive faces staring expectantly at me.

“You did excellent,” Brazen compliments
as soon as the meeting adjourns, and I smile appreciatively at him.

“I hate speaking in big crowds.  I do better in an interrogation room.”

“Well, today you matched your skill in that steel box.  I was impressed, and I think everyone else was too.  Where are you going to look for your lead?”

“I’m going to start in the market area, and then I’ll work my way out to the taverns.  His name wasn’t on the check in sheet, but he could be using falsified credentials.  I think a few of us are going to fan out and search.  There’s over eight hundred people in
Selma, so it could take a while.”

“I’ll help you.  Just point me in the direction I should go,” he smolders out.  “Or we could work together.  I think that proved to be very fruitful the last time.”

I stifle a grin, and then I feel possessive arms wrapping around me as Hale stakes his claim.

“Araya and I are teaming up on this one,” he adamantly interjects, and Brazen smirks before giving me a wink and walking away.

I wish I could show Hale some sort of affection, but I’m still too pissed to pretend as though everything is okay.  I’m sure he’ll wear me down.  It’s his specialty after all.  He pisses me off, and then gives me nothing to satisfy my curiosity before finding a way to extinguish my anger.

“Let’s start combing the public places,” I mumble while walking out, obviously brushing his arms off me.

“You’re mad at me,” he sighs.

“I’m not just mad, I’m confused.  I don’t keep anything from you.  Why are you still hiding whatever
this thing
is?  Did you cheat on me?  Was it Alex?” I almost whisper.

“Hell no!  I didn’t cheat on you.”

“Then what the hell is so secretive?” I gripe while walking away.  “You should feel like you’re able to tell me anything if you want to marry me.”

“Please just trust me on this.  I promise I’ll tell you one day, but right now we need to focus on this.”

I stop walking and take a deep breath before turning to face him.

“Does it have anything to do with another girl?”

“Fuck no.  There’s no other girl in this world that could distract me from you.  It’s work related only.  I swear there’s nothing that kept me that could be avoided, and I swear I’ll tell you.  Please just drop it for now.  You know I fucking love you.”

I sigh out, and then I start walking a little slower.  His hand takes mine, and I don’t fight it as we make our way outside.

“Did you just get tired of me?”

He jerks my body to his, and he tilts my head up so that my eyes meet his.

“That’s an impossibility, baby.  I told you it’s work related.  Don’t ever think this had anything to do with you.  I begged you to come back to me, and you had me banned from the Javeline premises when I kept showing up.  I did everything I could to try and talk to you.  The day I found out you were coming to
my
compound, you can’t imagine how incredibly excited I felt.  I knew I was about to get to see you again… finally, and nothing compared to that feeling, baby.  I do love you… so fucking much.”

My lips find his, and he pulls me against his body as it intensifies.  He wipes the stray tears from my eyes as he pulls back, and then he cups my face before clearing his throat that has gotten full of emotion.  He did it.  I knew he was going to do it.  He defused me without telling me what I wanted to know.

“Now, can we go interrogate someone?” he plays.

“Yeah,” I chuckle out, watching the anger run free from me, leaving me with just confusion and curiosity.

He holds onto me as we head into the bustling, populated areas full of vendors and consumers.

No.  No.  He’s not doing this again and getting away with it.

I decide to force myself to be mad, and he hides a secretive smile, making me wonder if he doesn’t already know what I’m trying to do.  It’s hard to be mad when he’s so damn cute - cheeky, but cute.

“You swore we would spend the rest of the day in bed,” he murmurs against my ear.

“That was before Clay wanted us to fan out and get to work right away.  We were lucky enough to find a picture of the guy we’re looking for.  He fits the profile and the description perfectly.  Now shush,” I force out in my best I’m-staying-mad-at-you-until-you-talk tone.

“I like it when you’re mad,” he sizzles out, and I stifle an unwelcome grin.

Damn him.

“Good because you’re starting to piss me off.  Focus,” I grumble while fighting harder to suppress my smile.

“Even better.  When you fuck me while angry, it’s all I can do to stay composed.”

I feel a dull throbbing starting now as my lower body starts to pulse with my quickened heartbeat.  I hate it when he’s this fucking sexy.  It’s too hard to deny him when he’s this damn cocky, crude, and sexy-as-Hale.  I’m trying to be mad. 
I am mad.

He smirks more and gives me a devilish wink - his bag of tricks spilling onto the floor as he uses his magic on me. 
Conniving Bastard.

“I love you, Araya,” he coos, and I turn to face his smiling face while rolling my eyes.

“I love you,” I huff out, and I can’t fight my smile anymore as his lips press firmly against mine to hold me captive.

“You’re so annoying,” I grumble against his lips.

“I think you mean hot, irresistible, and undeniably charming,” he playfully retorts while kissing me harder.

“I think you’re impossibly full of yourself.”

He laughs lightly, and then his eyes flash over to view something.

“That’s odd,” he murmurs to himself, his hands abandoning my body.

“What’s odd?”

He doesn’t answer, but he pulls my hand while leading me to a far corner.  My eyes scour the surface for something, but I can’t see what he’s talking about until I finally smell the blood.

“That’s human,” I almost whisper.

“It’s fresh too.  This can’t be good.  There’s more blood hiding under this ground than we can see, and a human will die from that amount lost.  If one has been bitten, we need to put the others under lockdown before an infection spreads.”

“Shit,” I gasp, my eyes catching something I’ve always hated to see.

He stands to his feet to stare eye to eye with the paling woman emerging from a shed.

“Step back, and make sure there aren’t any humans close by,” he whispers.

“Help me,” the woman pleads, her voice broken and desperate, as she stares in disbelief at the hair in her hands that is rapidly falling from her head.

She’s crying, she’s scared, and her eyes are slowly turning red beneath the brown ones that once shined much sweeter.  I haven’t had to witness this in a really long time, and I forgot how painful it is to endure.

Her sad body is contending with the venom not meant for her veins to carry.  Her life is slowly leaving her mouth with each breath she takes, and her sanity is disintegrating by the second.

“He attacked me,” she cries.  “I was just buying some food.  I didn’t do anything,” she whimpers louder, and now people have started taking notice.

Their eyes show their panic, but I motion for them to disperse very calmly.  They begin backing away, and she squints her eyes as the tinted sky’s light glistens into them.

“No.  I can’t be… Please fix it.  I don’t want to die a monster,” she cries out louder.

“I’m sorry, but there’s no cure,” I choke out, and she howls out her sobs as she stares at her blackening nails.

“No.  Kill me,” she screeches.

“We’re not allowed to do that until full transformation,” Hale says so gingerly, as if he’s talking to a caged animal.

He keeps his hand on his gun, and I do the same as she continues staggering toward us.  Everyone behind us keeps stepping back as well.  I see a moment of clarity, acceptance, and a sudden realization attack her dilated, reddened eyes. 
No.  Please don’t make me do this.

Her gasp of a breath comes just before she screams out.  She charges Hale while flinging her hands erratically, her poisonous nails getting too close with each step.  My heartbeat finds my ears, drowning out all other sounds with its fierce, pounding thuds almost deafening me.

I fire five shots before I realize I’ve even drawn my gun, and she falls to the ground… lifeless… after her successful suicide attempt.

I feel the tears starting to whelp up in my eyes, and Hale’s arms wrap around me as the gun falls from my hand.

“It’s okay, baby.  She didn’t give us a choice.”

Us?  I shot her.  Not him.  He stayed calm.  She wanted to die, and I killed her before it was time.

Hale keeps one arm holding me to his body as he pulls out his phone with his free hand.  I sniffle into his chest, trying not to sob out in front of everyone at Selma, as he handles my mess.

“What’s up?” Clay chirps innocently.

“We need a fire crew in the fourth quadrant market.”

“An infected?  Inside the wall?” he gasps.

You’ll need a scavenging crew too to make sure it didn’t infect anyone else in the short time it lived,” Hale murmurs, and I whimper a little louder.

“I’ll take care of it.”

Hale hangs up the phone, and he pulls me tighter to his body as the people in the market take a step closer to investigate the dead human with patches of hairless skin, red eyes, and black nails.

“Everyone stay back.  I’m Captain Banner, an official in the United.  This is now a quarantined section.  You will turn around and walk away now,” he asserts while holding up his badge.