The Cursed One (19 page)

Read The Cursed One Online

Authors: Ronda Thompson

BOOK: The Cursed One
2.88Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
“Fill the tub, lad,” Mora said. “I assume that is what
you were sent to do.”
Her tone was a bit confusing, as if she were allowed to give orders, but Amelia couldn't see past her own happiness at discovering Mora alive and obviously well. The young woman wore her glorious hair loose around her and a silky robe that, upon further inspection, Amelia realized had once been part of her trousseau. Where did Mora get it? Most likely from the creatures that had ransacked Collingsworth Manor once they had forced them all to flee for their lives.
“Mora,” Amelia called softly. “I have come to rescue you.”
Mora's head snapped in her direction, sending her long hair floating around her. She looked a bit like an angel there by the window, the sun streaming in to illuminate her pretty features. “Amelia,” she breathed.
Placing a finger to her lips, Amelia cautioned her to be quiet. Amelia glanced meaningfully over her shoulder. “There are three of them in the common's room and two posted out front. I don't know how we will make it past them.”
“Where is Gabriel?” Mora asked, keeping her voice to a whisper.
Amelia's eyes filled with tears, but she quickly blinked them back. She must keep her wits about her. “He's sick. Very sick. He needs a doctor, Mora. I came to help you escape, and I thought together we might find someone to help him. I fear he might die if we don't. The leg is still infected and now he has a fever.”
“Where did you leave him?” Mora asked, moving toward her. “I hope not somewhere he can be easily discovered.”
“Of course not,” Amelia assured her. “We've been hiding in a cottage just a ways outside the village. The blacksmith and his family once lived there.”
“You stayed because he could not go on?” Mora asked.
The fact that Mora wanted to question her regarding Gabriel when the two should be discussing how they might escape tried Amelia's patience. Her nerves were already stretched to the limit. She shook her head.
“No. We could have pushed on, but I didn't want to leave you behind. I talked Gabriel into staying long enough to see if he could find you.”
Mora stared at the floor for a moment. “I told them you would stay for me,” she said. “They said you wouldn't. I almost wish I had been wrong.”
Mora's admission confused Amelia. “We have no time for this,” she whispered. “We need to figure out how we can escape. We have to find help for Gabriel.”
Suddenly Mora moved past her to the door. She stood blocking Amelia's way. “I can leave any time I wish,” she said. “It is you who must stay.”
A horrible suspicion began to dawn upon Amelia. She took a step back. “What are you saying?”
Mora did not answer, but her eyes began to glitter. Amelia gasped and retreated farther into the room. “Oh my God,” she whispered. “You are one of them.”
The woman flinched as if Amelia's fear wounded her. “Don't look at me like that,” she snapped. “As if I am not human. As if you find me repulsive.”
Amelia could only shake her head in denial of the truth. She hadn't seen this coming. “Why?” she managed to croak. “Why have you deceived us?”
Mora's glittering eyes now hardened. “Because it was my duty,” she answered bitterly. “The duty that I've known would someday be mine since I was a little girl. I am part of the plan, a plan for the betterment of all my people. My life has never been about what I might want, but what is expected of me.”
Amelia was still reeling from the shock of Mora's deception. She felt no sympathy for the woman. “You accept a duty to deceive and murder those who befriend you?”
Mora flinched again. “Murder is not part of our plan,” she defended. “At least it wasn't until Gabriel Wulf intruded. And I suppose, to be fair, until Vincent could not play his part as was taught him. For some, the beast is stronger than the person. Vincent did not have control of it. It had control of him.”
Now that her shock had begun to fade, Amelia battled her anger. “What about Robert? You murdered him!”
The deceiver straightened her spine and walked to the bed. “Lord Collingsworth was not long for this world. To further our plan, we have one of our own
working as a physician in London. Your departed husband visited him shortly before your marriage. His heart was weak, Amelia. It was a family fault. We doubted he could even survive his own wedding night. So we took our places. We secured positions in Lord Collingsworth's employment and we waited for him to return for his wedding night. We were supposed to wait until he expired of natural causes, but Vincent could not wait. He wanted to claim you. He took matters into his own hands.”
To know that Robert had died from being frightened to death sickened Amelia. “How can you affiliate yourself with these creatures, Mora? These murderers?”
The glitter returned to Mora's eyes. “You have lived a spoiled and silly life, Amelia. You have no idea what it is like to be hunted for sport. To starve because the forest can no longer feed your people. Once the Wargs were content to hide away and live their lives among other forest creatures, but we can no longer survive hidden away. Now we use our skills to infiltrate your highest ranks. To gain power for our kind. One day, we will rule the world.”
Amelia shivered. Could these creatures possibly do what they planned? Vincent had shifted his shape to look like Robert. If the creatures could do that, she supposed they could take over anyone's life. Mora, Amelia realized, had been a chameleon. The young woman even spoke differently now. She was educated. So many things were obvious now that hadn't been before.
“You're the reason they never attacked us in the woods,” Amelia now understood. “They had no call to attack us with one of their own planted among us. You would make certain we never reached safety.”
Mora perched on the end of the bed like a queen. She dug through a valise, one that Amelia realized belonged to her. “I told them I needed time with you,” she explained. “Time to learn your habits, your expressions, your speech patterns. It was never our plan for me to take your place. Not if Vincent had done his duty. But since he didn't, it was decided upon quickly. That day in the root cellar was when I was told.”
“How can you deceive us even now?” Amelia whispered. “I called you friend.”
Mora shrugged. “I have my duty, just as you once had yours within your society. You call me friend, but had we reached safety, you would have quickly forgotten the bond we forged with one another. I would become a servant again in your eyes and nothing more.”
Was that true? Perhaps at one time, but Amelia had changed. “You don't know me at all,” she said to Mora. “I didn't know myself, not until I made this journey. You are wounded when I call you an animal, yet you act like one. Did no one teach you about love? Compassion? Without them, you can never be human.”
Color suffused Mora's face. “I have been taught all I need to be taught to survive,” she bit out. “I know my duty. The cause of all before the needs of one. Victory at any cost.”
“And now your duty is to kill me. To take my place among society,” Amelia said. “Those who know me, those who love me, will never be fooled by you.”
Mora lifted a brow. “Does Gabriel Wulf know you? Does he love you? I fooled him once, you know. At Collingsworth Manor.”
It only took Amelia a moment to understand how
and when Mora had fooled Gabriel. “I didn't sleepwalk at all,” she said. “But he hardly knew me then. And even so, he said the kiss he shared with me while I was sleepwalking was different than one we had shared earlier the same day.” To add insult, she added, “He said you lacked passion. You couldn't fool him now.”
The smug smile on Mora's lips faded. “Can't I? If he's still alive, maybe I will see, just to test myself.”
“What are you going to do to him?” Amelia demanded.
Rising from the bed, Mora joined her. “I hope nothing. I hope he will simply die of his infection. It will be easier for everyone.”
“One less murder you must cover up,” Amelia spat.
With a shrug, Mora opened the door. “The coachman and the footman at Collingsworth Manor will never be found. The young lord is now resting peacefully in the fields, where it is obvious he expired due to his weak heart. Frightened when he did not return to me, I took a horse and tried to make my way to Wulfglen, where I knew my friend Rosalind and her husband would be in residence. As for Gabriel Wulf, I will be upset to learn he died of a fever in this small village so close to his home, but I never met the man, so I won't have to pretend to grieve overly for him.”
It seemed too quaint, too easy, for Mora to simply step in and steal Amelia's life. “You'll never get away with it,” she assured the woman.
Again, Mora lifted a brow. “Won't I?”
Before Amelia's eyes, Mora began to shift. Her features changed and Amelia was suddenly staring at her mirror image. The color of Mora's hair, her blue eyes,
had given her an advantage when it came to shifting into Amelia's form.
“Do you still believe I can't fool anyone?”
Mora had perfected Amelia's voice. Was she still having the nightmare? It seemed more plausible than the truth staring her in the eye.
The deceiver smiled. “I'm rather good at mimicking. At the same time, I still don't know enough about you to feel comfortable taking your place. They will let you live for a while longer because of that,” she said. “After I see if Gabriel is alive, or if he is coherent enough to believe I am you, I will return to question you further.”
“You'll be wasting your breath,” Amelia assured her.
Mora ignored her. “Any last words you want me to pass on to him, to make his own passing easier?”
Amelia's temper had gone from simmering to a raging boil. She couldn't stand the thought of Mora deceiving Gabriel again. Saying words to him that Amelia wanted to say. Touching him. Perhaps kissing him one last time. Her hands had fisted into balls. She flew at Mora, using her nails like claws, and managed to mark her face before the woman recovered. Mora grabbed Amelia's wrists, her strength beyond that of what a normal woman should possess. She flung Amelia across the room, where she landed on the bed.
Mora shifted back into herself and marched to the door. “Men!” she shouted. “The lad is the woman we've been waiting for, you idiots. Come up and guard her.”
Amelia felt sick. Not only had she managed to get herself taken captive; she had also given Mora Gabriel's location. They would let him die or possibly
kill him … and it was Amelia's fault. What was she going to do? How could she save Gabriel?
 
He must do something, but Gabriel couldn't remember
what. He struggled up from the dark folds of unconsciousness. It was more peaceful, the darkness, to surrender to it, but something kept niggling at him, urging him to wake, warning him that he had something important that he must do. He felt a cool hand against his forehead. He was burning up. Amelia was with him … but wait, he'd told her to go, hadn't he?
With effort, he pried his eyes open. His vision was blurred for a moment, and then slowly a face swam into focus above him. Amelia's face. He had told her to go, he remembered that, but he didn't remember why. And it was important. He recalled making love to her. He recalled her snuggled against him in sleep. Then he remembered the pain. It had sent him outside. His hands had been misshapen like in his nightmares. Fur had sprouted out on them and long claws had jutted from his fingertips.
Then he remembered nothing, not until morning, when Amelia had roused him. He'd been outside, naked and shivering, burning up from a fever. She'd helped him inside and he'd ordered her to leave him. Although he couldn't remember, he suspected the wolf had finally risen up in him. His curse was upon him and Amelia was not safe.
“I told you to go,” he said, and his own voice sounded foreign to him. Low and raspy.
“I couldn't leave you as you are,” Amelia said. “You know me better than that, don't you, Gabriel?”
He had come to know her, as he once believed he would never know a woman, never want to know a woman. “You're not safe here.”
She smoothed the hair away from his forehead. “The creatures don't know where we are. They'll stick close to the village in case we return for Mora. I'll be safe here for a while.”
Amelia didn't understand that he might be as much of a threat to her as those hunting them. Gabriel wasn't sure. What would he do while in wolf form? How would he behave? Like a snarling beast that would tear her from limb to limb? Or would he simply have the mentality of an animal? Dangerous when threatened but otherwise content to be left alone? If she stayed and his infection didn't kill him, she would see. She would know. She would be terrified and disgusted.
“You must go now,” he managed to say. “You can reach Wulfglen in two days if you move quickly, if you don't stop to sleep. You can go and bring back help.”

Other books

Adam Canfield of the Slash by Michael Winerip
Coffin Ship by William Henry
Waiting for the Queen by Joanna Higgins
Vamp-Hire by Rice, Gerald Dean
A Very Unusual Air War by Gill Griffin
The Secret Journey by James Hanley
Ice Shock by M. G. Harris