The Cursed One (23 page)

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Authors: Ronda Thompson

BOOK: The Cursed One
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“You know our own rules, Raef,” Mora countered to the man. “As little suffering as possible. We should offer her what comforts we can until …”
The silence that followed might as well have rung loud in the night as a death toll. “What about Gabriel?” Amelia asked. “I haven't seen you offer him any comfort today. Why have you put him in a cage?”
“We had to secure him in some fashion,” the man answered instead of Mora. He reached forward and tore a piece of juicy meat from a rabbit on one of the spits. “We thought seeing him thus might loosen your tongue. We could torture him if you don't provide Mora with information she needs concerning your background.”
Perhaps that was the reason they had not killed Gabriel right away, Amelia reasoned. They wanted to use him to force information from her. She had sworn she would not talk, but she now had to reconsider. Amelia also had to face the fact that once they had what they wanted from her, they no longer needed her alive. As she'd told Mora once before, she wouldn't make it easy for them.
“I have a sister and two brothers,” she lied. “My sister's name is Florence and my brothers' names are Michael and—”
“We know about your family and who they are,” the man called Raef said drily. “Please give us credit for having the intelligence to learn those details quickly. We need private information. What is your favorite color?”
“Pink of course.” Her favorite color was blue.
“What is your affiliation with the Dowager Duchess of Brayberry?” he asked next.
Amelia was surprised by the question. These people knew more than she suspected they might know about higher society. “We are acquaintances,” she admitted. “Although Her Grace hardly tolerates me. She believes I'm too outspoken.” Amelia doubted there was a more outspoken woman in the world than the duchess. She
encouraged similar behavior among those she counted as friends.
“How is your relationship with your parents?” Mora asked.
It was too much suddenly for Amelia to realize this woman would try to make her parents believe she was their daughter. Tears choked her throat and she couldn't answer.
“We usually try to find those who have no close family left,” Mora said quietly. “It's another reason Lord Collingsworth was chosen.”
“Be quiet, Mora,” Raef snapped. “You've told her too much already. You easily forget the ways taught to us. No need to pet the lamb before leading it to the slaughterhouse. Nothing you say will make her think better of you. Of any of us.”
Amelia supposed it wasn't so bad to die for a cause, just not someone else's. Darkness had now fallen and it was harder to see Gabriel inside his cage. All she saw were his glowing eyes trained on her. She stared back, hoping to send him a message. Hoping he knew she truly did love him and if perhaps they would be together again after death she didn't mind dying so much. She would rather live. She would rather spend her days and nights with him. She would rather have his blond little boys. That possibility seemed farfetched under current conditions.
Supper was removed from the spits and portions divided among the group. Amelia sat in silence as logs were added to the fire blazing before her. She was able to see Gabriel again in the orange glow cast by the flames, and for that she was grateful. She felt stronger
when she could see him. Amelia knew she must help him. Refusal of food had been foolish when she might use it to her advantage.
“I find I am hungry,” she said, glancing at Mora. “But I can't eat with my hands tied behind my back and don't wish to be further humiliated by being handfed. You can at least allow me my dignity.”
Mora glanced toward her brother. “She's hardly a match for the rest of us,” she said. “Shall we untie her hands so she can eat?”
Raef shook his head. “She's escaped us once already. You underestimated her, Mora. A mistake you should have already learned from.”
Mora bowed her head submissively. Amelia mentally cursed that the brother was less trusting and less civil than his sister. How could she wrest a weapon away from anyone with her hands tied? Maybe Gabriel had a plan. She hoped he did.
“Can I speak to Gabriel?” she asked. “Can I take him food, water? You said your rules do not include torture, and what you've done to him looks like torture to me.”
“The rules only apply to treatment of your kind,” Raef said; then he smiled slightly in the firelight.
What did he mean by that? Amelia wondered. Women but not men would be treated with respect? “It is torture for me not to be able to speak to him. To say things to him that I feel should be said if we are to shortly be led to the slaughter.”
She fully expected her request to be denied. Raef glanced up at the sky, glanced toward the cage, and shrugged. “Perhaps you should say your good-byes.
Go and have a closer look at him. You.” He nodded toward one of the guards standing close. “Take her over to see him.”
The man reached down and grabbed Amelia's arm and pulled her to her feet. Amelia was led to where the cage sat. Gabriel had his back to her. She bent before the cage.
“Gabriel,” she said softly. “They have allowed me to speak to you for a moment.”
He didn't turn to look at her. Was he blaming himself for their capture? He'd done all he could; she knew that. Amelia glanced at the guard. “Please, a moment of privacy?” she asked.
The man took a few steps back, but he didn't retreat as far as she would have wished. “Gabriel,” Amelia tried again, keeping her voice to a whisper. “Talk to me.”
“Can they hear us?” he asked softly.
Amelia glanced at the guard again. He seemed alert but not particularly interested in what they were saying. “Not if we keep our voices down,” she answered. “Have you got a plan, Gabriel?”
“Yes.”
She breathed a sigh of relief but wondered why he wouldn't turn and look at her; then she noticed he was shaking. “Are you ill again?” she whispered.
“That's not important,” he said. He reached behind him and shoved something in her direction. The cage threw shadows inside and Amelia reached for the object. It was a knife.
She wondered how he had come by it; then she recalled the guard using a knife to cut the net away before they shoved Gabriel inside the cage. Somehow he
had taken it from the guard, who obviously hadn't missed the weapon yet.
“Free your hands,” Gabriel said.
Amelia wondered if she could, her wrists tied together as they were. “You may have to do it,” she whispered.
He shook his head. “I'm shaking too badly. I might cut you. Use your knees. Slide the knife between them to hold it steady; then you can cut through the rope around your wrists.”
Wondering what she was supposed to do once she had freed her hands, Amelia did as he instructed. She was thankful she wore a dress and could easily hide her actions within the folds of her skirt. The knife was sharp and it didn't take but a moment to free her hands.
“Now what?”
“Pretend you are trying to see me better and move toward the end of the cage,” he instructed. “Use the knife on the ropes holding the gate together at the bottom. I should be able to kick it open. Appeal to me loudly to look at you before you reposition yourself.”
So, this was why he kept his back to her. Very clever. “Gabriel, why won't you look at me?” Amelia raised her voice to ask. “Why won't you let me see you?” It now would seem a natural response for her to scoot to a position where she might better see him.
Once there, Amelia bent her knees, hiding the fact that her hands were free and going for the ropes that lashed the cage together on one end.
“How are we going to escape?” she whispered.
For a moment his shaking worsened. “I will create a diversion,” he finally said, and she thought his voice
sounded odd. “You are to run, Amelia, and keep running. I'll keep them off of you as long as I can.”
She didn't like his plan. Not one bit. “No,” she whispered. “We run together.”
He shook his head. “That won't work, Amelia. They would be upon us before we made it past the camp perimeters. We have a better chance of escaping if you do as I say.”
She had a better chance, Amelia wanted to argue. To her, it sounded as if he had no chance at all. “I've cut the ropes,” she whispered. “Please look at me now.”
Rather than do as she asked, he said, “Put the knife in your boot, Amelia. Can you use it if you are forced to? If it means your life at the cost of someone else's?”
Mora, she thought. He was asking her if she could use it against Mora if she must. Amelia wasn't sure. In selfdefense, yes, she supposed she could. She wouldn't know unless tested. But that wasn't what Gabriel needed to hear.
“Yes,” she answered.
“Promise me.”
“Look at me,” she insisted.
“Promise me first.”
“I promise,” she said, although she wasn't sure she wasn't lying to him, which she didn't want to do. A person shouldn't lie to someone they loved. Not without good cause. Amelia thought she had good enough reason at the moment.
He sat shaking for a moment; then slowly, he turned in the small confines of the cage to look at her.
She screamed.
Amelia scrambled back from Gabriel. His eyes glowed
bright blue. In the orange hue cast by the fire, his features looked distorted, as if his face was rearranging itself. When he opened his mouth, fangs flashed white in the darkness. He held a hand out to her, beseeching, but his hands were misshapen, long claws jutting from his fingertips. This could not be happening. It was another dream. Another nightmare.
“Amelia.” His voice came out garbled. “Forgive me.”
All she could do was shake her head in denial.
“What do you think of your hero now?” She glanced up to see Mora standing above her. “He deceived you, just as I deceived you. Look at him and tell me that you still love him.”
Amelia couldn't look. She didn't want to. She wanted to deny what she saw, deny the truth, deny that any of this was happening to her … to Gabriel. Had these people done something to him? Could they do something to a person to make him like they were? Could they do the same to her?
“What have you done to him?” she screamed at Mora.
Mora bent beside her. “We didn't do anything to him. This is his curse. He didn't tell you about this while he was wooing you into bed, did he? When he was stealing your heart away? Go ahead and tell him you love him regardless that he is a beast. Regardless that he has deceived you.”
Amelia glanced toward Gabriel, who, oddly enough, seemed to be listening, waiting for her response, even as he changed forms. There were too many emotions running through her to examine any of them but one. She had to get away.
With a loud bellow, Gabriel suddenly kicked out and knocked the gate off of his cage. He was out in the bat of an eye. Just as quickly he was pounced upon by two of the closest guards. He fought like a madman. He fought like an animal. And with sudden dawning, Amelia realized he was fighting for her. This was the diversion that was supposed to allow her to escape.
Mora still stood beside her, but Amelia saw that she was caught up in the diversion. Amelia quickly glanced around the campsite. Even Mora's brother had risen from his cushion and stood ready to jump into the fray if the guards could not handle Gabriel. Amelia slipped the knife into her boot; then she began to inch away, slowly, so as not to draw attention to herself. Even with thoughts of escape on her mind, she couldn't take her eyes from Gabriel.
His fangs were more pronounced now, his nose longer, his body bent and misshapen, and yet he fought gallantly. She'd nearly scooted to the edge of the camp perimeters when he went down on all fours. Men stumbled
away from him and she saw him clawing at his clothes.
It seemed to last forever, the transformation, although Amelia knew in truth only a few seconds had ticked past before he rose from the ground, no longer a man but a wolf. His coat was light colored. He was huge and she realized he had been the wolf that followed her the night she escaped from the tavern. The wolf that had sat below her while she sought safety in a tree, staring up at her. The wolf that had limped.
Gabriel, or, rather, the wolf that was once Gabriel, bolted in the opposite direction from Amelia. All around the camp, men's eyes began to glitter; fangs began to extract. They would hunt Gabriel in wolf form so that he had no advantage over them. And in a moment, someone would realize she was missing. Amelia scrambled to her feet. Although her knees were shaking, she ran into the woods. She ran as she had never run before, now more conditioned by her flight from Collingsworth Manor, from her journey through the woods toward Wulfglen.
Her mind wanted to think about Gabriel and what had just happened to him, but she would not allow it. She might easily snap if she did. Instead, she only thought about running, about staying ahead of the creatures she knew would soon come after her, if they hadn't already. A loud chorus of howls echoed around the forest behind her. Amelia swallowed down a scream and kept running.
There was no safety for her in the woods. No place that a wolf could not sniff her out. No possible way
that she could outrun one if her captors were in pursuit of her. Those realizations nearly defeated her. She wanted to stop and rest. Part of her wanted to give up. Then she caught a whiff of smoke on the air. Could it be the night fires burning at Wulfglen? Was she that close? Or did she simply smell the campfire she'd left behind not long ago? Amelia did stop.
She took a moment to catch her breath; then she tried to figure out which way the wind blew. Toward her, she realized, which meant the smoke she smelled was not coming from the direction behind her but in front of her. But if she did manage to reach Wulfglen, would it be the safe harbor she once imagined it to be? Mora had said what happened to Gabriel was his curse. All of the Wulf brothers were supposedly cursed, by insanity, everyone thought.
Were Armond and Jackson like Gabriel? And if they were, did her friend Rosalind know about her husband? Did Lucinda know? Or had the Wulf brothers kept their secrets, the way Gabriel had kept his from Amelia? Would they want to kill her because she knew, like the others wanted her dead? Suddenly Amelia realized there was no one she could trust. No one who hadn't lied to her, deceived her.
But then, maybe that wasn't true. She was confused. Gabriel had lied to her, deceived her, but he'd also protected her. Even tonight he'd been willing to sacrifice himself for her. She had believed she loved him. Could she love a man cursed as he was?
Amelia had to make a decision. She couldn't stand around all night trying to sort through her thoughts and feelings. The only thoughts and feelings she
should have at the moment were how to best survive the night. She had to take a chance on Wulfglen. Even if no one was home, servants would be about, wouldn't they? At least whoever was in charge of looking after the stable. Having made her decision, Amelia set off toward the direction where she still smelled the vague traces of smoke in the air. She didn't get far when she was attacked.
The wolf lunged at her from the shadows, knocking her to the ground. Amelia rolled in the dirt, then scrambled up. She knew the wolf now. It was Mora. She would have been the first to notice Amelia had escaped. She would have been the first to come after her.
“I will kill you,” she said to the beast. “If you give me no choice, I will protect myself.”
The wolf peeled back its lips and growled at her. Amelia was almost glad Mora had attacked her while in the shape of an animal. If she had to make good on her threat, it would be easier. Still, there was one thing these people could not change, and that was their eyes. It was Mora's eyes staring up at Amelia, not the eyes of a beast.
“Just let me go,” she appealed to Mora. “No one would believe me if I told them about you and the others. They would think I had gone mad. I want the life you plan to steal from me. I will fight you to the very end to keep it.”
The wolf inched closer. Amelia brought the knife up, her hand gripping the short hilt so that she could lash out with all her strength. The animal crouched, as if it meant to pounce, but from the shadows a larger wolf hurled itself at Mora and knocked her
away. Amelia recognized this wolf, as well. It was Gabriel.
Wolf squared off against wolf. They circled each other, growling, hair down their backs raised. Amelia crawled away from them, her back pressed against a tree, the knife still held out in front of her. The beasts collided. They were a blur to Amelia's merely human eyes, but from the sounds of the fight, both were out for blood. In a battle of beasts, Gabriel clearly held the advantage. He was twice the size of Mora and quickly pinned her down. Amelia heard the smaller wolf yelp; then it was dragging itself away, crawling along the ground, bleeding at the shoulder.
Amelia expected Gabriel would finish Mora off, but instead his large head swung in her direction. He moved toward her. She swallowed loudly and brought the knife up before her again.
“Stay away, Gabriel,” she whispered. “I don't want to hurt you, but I will.”
The wolf stopped and stood regarding her. Amelia had no idea if Gabriel could understand her in wolf form, as she suspected Mora and her kind could. Mora had said he wasn't the same. He was cursed. His question came back to haunt her in that instant. When he'd asked if she could kill to defend herself, he hadn't just meant against Mora or one of her people. He'd meant against him.
Could she kill him if he attacked her? His eyes were the eyes of the man she loved, or thought she did. Whether he could understand her words, fathom who she was, he was still Gabriel beneath the fur and the fangs, wasn't he? Mora moved and the larger wolf immediately
turned its head and growled at her. She stayed down.
Gabriel didn't want Mora to get too close to her, Amelia realized. Even as a wolf, he was protecting her. She lowered the knife. Whatever Gabriel Wulf was, he wouldn't hurt Amelia. She knew that with a certainty she'd never known about anything or anyone before. He had lied to her. He had deceived her, but she could still trust him with her life. But what about her heart?
Exhaustion set into her bones. She leaned her head back against the trunk of the tree and closed her eyes. For the moment, Gabriel wouldn't let anything happen to her. For the moment, she was safe.
 
It was horrible. Coming awake naked and shivering, con
fused, trying to figure out what had happened to him and where he was. Gabriel uncurled himself, his muscles putting up a protest, as if he'd been turned inside out. His leg was better. Either that or the rest of him felt so bad the leg seemed minor in comparison. He stretched in the cool morning light. Then he remembered.
Amelia. God, where was she? Had she escaped? Oddly, he had a blurry recollection of seeing her in the forest … a knife clutched in her hand. Odder still, he recalled what she'd said to him. She'd said she would hurt him if she had no choice. He wasn't dead. That left the horrifying possibility that she might be. Gabriel rose from the forest floor, naked. Then he spotted her a few feet away. She was asleep. He breathed a sigh of relief; then he spotted someone else.
Mora lay on the ground, human, her eyes closed. Leaves covered her like a blanket. One might mistake
her for a fairy princess, if one didn't know better. The blade of the knife still clutched in Amelia's hand blinked at him when sunlight managed to penetrate the heavy canopy of trees overhead. Gabriel went to her; he bent and removed the knife from her hand. Her eyes opened. For a sweet moment, she smiled at him. Then, as dawning came to her, the smile faded and she pressed back against the tree, as if to get away from him. Gabriel had no time to offer her assurances that he was in his right head and she had no reason to be afraid of him.
He had to deal with the threat of Mora once and for all. Gabriel had never physically hurt a woman, but Mora would kill Amelia if she got another chance. He couldn't allow her to have another chance. He walked to where Mora lay, bent, and placed the knife against her throat. She opened her eyes, and for a moment, like he had felt earlier, she looked dazed. Her eyes widened upon seeing him leaning over her, naked and with a knife pressed against her throat. She tried to move, but the action brought a moan from her lips. The leaves fell away from her shoulder and Gabriel saw the nasty bite marks, the blood.
“You are my enemy, Mora,” he said to her. “You are a danger to Amelia. It's time to end your threats.”
He thought to make a clean, quick slash; regardless of what she'd done to him and Amelia, Gabriel did not want her to suffer. Suddenly a hand was upon his shoulder.
“Don't, Gabriel,” Amelia breathed.
He glanced up at her. The sunlight danced around
her blond head like a halo. The compassion in her eyes pierced his heart.
“She could have killed me twice and she didn't. I don't think her duty is as simple as she was led to believe.”
Gabriel glanced down at the woman pinned by his knife. Mora glanced up at Amelia. “They taught us how to speak, how to walk, how to fit into any setting, whether it be servant or superior. They did not tell us we would care. They did not teach us to kill without conscience. I'm not certain we are ready to take over the world yet.”
Mora had deceived them before. Gabriel didn't feel as compassionate toward her as Amelia did. He damn sure didn't trust Mora. And he didn't have Amelia safely to Wulfglen. He had a decision to make, and it was not an easy one, regardless of Mora's deception. He had deceived, as well. Mora and her kind were only trying to survive. He should understand that, and maybe he would, if they held by their own rules.
“You talk of rules among your people and then discard them the moment things do not work out as planned,” he said to Mora. “You have rogues among you, like Vincent, who would harm Amelia rather than woo her as he should have done. You are sometimes more beast than human. You will never survive among civilized society.”
“Something to think about.”
Gabriel turned his head to see Raef standing not far away, a pistol aimed at him.
“Now, get off of my sister.”
Raef was not alone. His men stood behind him. Gabriel might end Mora's threat with the swipe of his knife, but there were still the others to deal with.

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