The Curse Keepers Collection (39 page)

He nodded, but he didn’t look so sure.

“So we break in to the botanical gardens tomorrow after dark?”

“I want to wait until the early hours of the morning to decrease our odds of getting caught. We should have time to get everything set up and make sure the ceremony is complete by sunrise.” He looked away. “But right now we need to concentrate on the current break-in.”

We stayed on the beach for another hour, both of us reluctant to leave. We would head back to Manteo after we got the bowl, and draw that much closer to the ceremony that would either save humanity—or doom humanity forever.

Collin drove into the museum parking lot, parking in the back. I was nervous, even if I didn’t want to admit it to Collin. He didn’t seem very worried about getting caught, despite his offer to keep me uninvolved. Still, I had no desire to add my fingerprints to the national data bank so Marino could track me down.

I wasn’t wearing the all-black outfit I’d had Claire pack. Instead I wore a pair of denim shorts, a tank top, and my Vans. “I don’t feel appropriately dressed for a break-in.”

“Not to worry, Ellie. It’s not black tie.”

“Very funny. You know what I mean.”

“There’s no dress code for breaking in. You’re fine.”

“Easy for you to say.” He wore dark jeans and a T-shirt.

He leaned over and kissed me. “Look at it this way: If you get arrested, you’ll look gorgeous in your mug shots.”

“You think I look gorgeous?” I asked in surprise.

“Of course I think you look gorgeous. Let’s go before you start wanting to discuss how you should have worn your hair.” He opened his door before I could answer, pulling his bag out of the truck bed.

I met him at the side of the truck, my stomach flopping like a fish.

“I only have one pair of gloves, so don’t touch anything.”

“Got it.”

He looked up with a grin. “And try to stay out of trouble this time.”

“Me? You’re the one who left me with a wind god and as a result, I almost got my Manitou sucked out.”

He stood, his jaw squared with determination as he handed me one of the two flashlights in his hand. “That won’t happen again.”

“It better not or I’ll kick your ass.”

“I have no doubt you will.” I heard the grin in his voice. “Let’s go.” Collin picked up his duffel bag full of thievery tools and we headed for the back door. “There are two codes. The first gets us
in
the door. The other lets us
stay
inside. I’ve been told the second security keypad is in an office down the hall, and we have thirty seconds to enter the code before the alarm goes off.”

I took a deep breath. “Okay.” We were really doing this.

He grabbed my waist and pulled me to him, studying my face. “Ellie, it’s not too late to change your mind. If you want to wait in the truck, we can roll up the windows and I’ll mark them up.”

I shook my head. “No. We’re in this together.”

Lifting my chin with his fingers, Collin’s gaze hardened. “I know what I’m doing. If I think we’re in any danger of getting caught, we’re out of here.”

“What about the bowl?”

“We can’t perform the ceremony if we’re in jail, can we? We’ll cut our losses and hope we can make something else work.”

For some reason that made me feel better, even though I was terrified the ceremony wouldn’t work. If we were in jail, we’d never be able to protect ourselves. And the last thing I wanted was to be vulnerable to the hundreds of spirits whose entire exit plan centered on torturing me.

Collin pulled out his phone and checked his texts. He punched a code into a keypad on the side of the door and within seconds, the door popped open. Collin shot me a smile before he headed in, motioning for me to stay close to the door.

He moved down the dim hall, his flashlight bouncing around and searching open doorways. He disappeared in one room and came back out in about ten seconds. “We’re good.”

I closed my eyes for a moment as I sighed in relief. “Where do we look?”

“There are three possibilities. We’ll search those rooms, then go from there.”

“Will it be in a case or something?”

“Probably.” Collin continued down the hall to a locked door. “If they keep the bowl under a glass box in the museum, it stands to reason they’d lock it up back here.” He pulled out his lock-picking set and told me to point my flashlight at the lock.

“I sense a déjà vu moment,” I whispered, my stomach rolling.

“We’re fine. I told you we won’t have a repeat of last time.”

I cringed. “I hope not.”

Collin tripped the lock and opened the door to small storage room filled with shelves. Most were empty, but a shelf by the door held a small metal box.

Collin headed straight for it. After he jimmied the lock, he opened the lid and grinned ear to ear.

I stood on my tiptoes, shining my flashlight into the box. It contained an almost flat, dark wood bowl with a thick lip. “It doesn’t look like much.”

“Neither does your cup.” He handed the bowl to me and removed the fake one from his duffel bag. I had to agree that to my nonexpert eye, the bowls looked similar. Collin put the new one in the box and reset the lock.

He removed his relic from my hands and stuffed it into a cloth bag, then into his duffel bag. “See? I told you. And in record time.”

“Okay, let’s go,” I said, heading straight for the back door. This all seemed entirely too easy.

Collin reset both alarms, then grabbed the handle to the exterior door.

“I suddenly have a very strange feeling that something bad’s about to happen.”

“Don’t say that. We’re almost home free.”

And we were. Until we opened the back door and came face-to-face with Marino’s men. The two guys I’d seen in the convenience store the other day stood ten feet from the museum’s exit.

“Fuck,” Collin mumbled, grabbing my arm and dragging me back inside.

“You disappear in there and we’ll set off the alarm and stick around to make sure the police pick you up.” The tall guy grinned. “And we all know you don’t want that.”

Collin slung his bag over his shoulder and held his hands out from his body. “No need for that, boys.” He walked out the door.

I stayed in the doorway, unsure what to do. Getting arrested might be preferable to going with these guys. One thing was sure: If I didn’t shut the door within seconds, the alarm would go off. But Collin was outside, and I’d already decided that I was sticking with him. I stepped through the opening, shutting the door behind me.

“I was just tellin’ Tony here that it was a good night for a break-in. And lo and behold, look who we run into. Isn’t that right, Tony?”

The short guy chuckled. “You know it, Vinnie.”

Collin moved in front of me. “What a coincidence.”

“Not really, once Marino figured out you took the map. It wasn’t hard to put together where you’d go next.”

“Changed your woman already?” Tony asked, and Vinnie laughed.

Collin’s gaze made a slow sweep of the parking lot. “Yeah, I told you. I get around.”

“Marino doesn’t like liars, Dailey.”

Collin titled his head. “Then why did he hire you two?”

“Smartass, huh? Good thing we’re not here for you.” Vinnie’s gaze turned to me. “You’re a hard woman to find, Ellie. Why don’t you come on out and join us.”

Leaving the sanctuary of the shadows, I lifted my chin, refusing to let them know I was scared, even though I was terrified. “I’m not surprised. I don’t spend much time in gutters, and I’m sure that’s your natural habitat.”

“Ellie,” Collin growled under his breath.

Vinnie laughed. “Ho boy. I can see why Marino wants her, but she doesn’t seem your usual type, Dailey.”

“You know I don’t have a type. I’m not partial.”

“Then you won’t mind if we take her off your hands, and you can run along. We’ll even let you keep whatever you have in that bag.”

Collin’s back stiffened. “I don’t think so. I’m not done with her yet.”

“Does she know about the woman you were screwing hours ago?” the other guy asked.

My skin crawled, but I put my hand on my hip. “I don’t care who he sleeps with.”

“Then you won’t mind coming with us.”

I swallowed the lump of fear in my throat. “Actually, I do. I came here with Collin, and I plan to leave with him.”

Marino’s man smiled, but the fake friendliness was gone. “Here’s the simple truth of it, Ellie. You don’t have a choice. So you either come along with us and ride to Marino’s in comfort, or you do things the hard way.” His eyes narrowed as he looked up and down my body. “And trust me, they will be
hard
.”

Collin’s hands fisted at his sides.

Terror flooded my head and I struggled to think straight.
How are we going to get out of this?

Vinnie reached a hand toward me. “Now come here.”

My feet froze to the concrete, my breath coming in uneven pants.

His voice lowered. “Don’t make me come over there, Ellie.”

Collin bolted toward them. “Ellie, run!”

I had a half-second delayed reaction before I ran toward the front of the museum.

Marino’s men had already anticipated my move.

Collin intercepted Tony, tackling him to the pavement while the taller guy caught me quickly, his long legs making him twice as fast. Vinnie grabbed my arm and pulled me against his body. “That was a very bad decision.”

Anger replaced my fear. “I’m warning you to let go of me.”

He laughed loudly. “
You’re
warning
me
?” His grip on my bicep tightened as he tugged me toward the sedan parked at the curb.

Collin and Tony had gotten to their feet. Collin pushed Tony’s shoulder and tried to get around him, but Tony shoved him back. Collin stumbled, keeping his eyes on me.

I jerked my arm, but Vinnie’s hold tightened. I kicked his legs and reached for his face to scratch him but got his neck instead. I got several blows in before he snagged my other arm and hauled me to his chest, excitement in his eyes. “You’re a feisty one.”

“Get your fucking hands off of her!” Collin shouted.

The guy holding me started to laugh. “You got it
bad
, Dailey.” He turned his attention back to me. “No wonder Marino wants her so much.” He dragged me to the car. I stomped on his foot, but he just laughed as he opened the back door. I leaned backward, anything to keep from being put inside, when birds began to screech and fly from the forest in a mass exodus, swarming over our heads.

The mark on my hand tingled.

Something fell from the sky, landing on the roof of the car with a thud.

A dead bird.

A new terror overtook me.

“What the hell?” Vinnie stood upright, confusion in his voice.

Two more birds crashed to the sidewalk.

I swung my head to look at Collin. His eyes were wild with panic as a slew of animals—deer, raccoons, rabbits, mice, and squirrels—fled in terror from the woods.

Hundreds of dead birds rained from the sky. Their frozen bodies landed on my head, on the car, on the sidewalk, and I screamed.

Vinnie dropped one of my arms to cover his head as he renewed his efforts to get me into the car. I was beginning to wonder if that wasn’t the safest place after all.

I felt the spirit before I saw it. My hand burned and the smell of sulfur permeated the air, an oppressive blanket of evil following behind. A dark horizontal stream of smoke swirled toward us, aiming straight for me.

Collin regained his wits and struggled to get past Tony.

“What the fuck?” Vinnie growled, his fingers twisting into the flesh on my arm as I squirmed to get out of his hold.

The smoke stopped next to Vinnie and became a shimmering, silvery, charcoal-gray, dense mass. “Have you made your decision, Curse Keeper?”

Okeus’s messenger. And Kanim was much stronger than before.

The man’s hold on my arm loosened slightly.
“What the fuck?”

“Silence!” The spirit’s voice boomed through the air. A tendril of smoke shot out, covering Vinnie’s face, wrapping black coils around his head and chest. His knees buckled, yet he still held on to me, pulling me down with him. The hand on my arm turned cold, and I screamed, unable to escape his grip. He fell to the ground, dragging me to my knees and trapping my right hand underneath him.

The guy blocking Collin had stopped fighting, his mouth open in shock. Collin stood next to him, frozen, watching in terror.

The mass now shimmered above the ground, next to Vinnie’s body. “Curse Keeper, daughter of the sea, witness to creation. Join with your lord and master, Okeus, or suffer the consequences.”

I struggled to catch my breath as I frantically tried to free my arm. The guy’s hand had literally frozen around my bicep. I took a breath. “If you wanted me dead, you would have killed me already. Okeus needs me alive.” I knew he wanted the gate opened, not left cracked. He needed me or it would be stuck.

The spirit howled and wind blew me back, but my arm was still trapped by Vinnie’s frozen body. “Do not think to control Okeus or his children, human. You will curse the day of your creation.”

I swallowed the bile rising in my throat. Vomiting right now would totally blow my tough-girl attitude. “Not if I shut the gate first.”

Okeus’s messenger laughed. “You are stupid and blind. You don’t even know the truth.”

“What truth?” Could I even trust anything this thing said?

“You will pay for your arrogance, Curse Keeper. I will search out the ones you love and send them to Popogusso like your predecessors locked us away.”

The spirit’s smoke swirled close to me, its tentacles stretching toward my chest, and my hysteria rose. What if Collin was wrong about the symbol he’d drawn on my back? What if I was wrong about Okeus needing me alive?

Collin’s voice echoed through the night as he recited his words in the ancient tongue. His hand glowed, and determination tightened his face.

The messenger ceased moving toward me, then disappeared, howling. “You will regret this, Curse Keeper, son of the land.”

Collin was next to me in moments, prying Vinnie’s fingers from my arm to get me free. Collin grunted, then I heard the snap of breaking appendages.