Home>>read A Cursed Embrace free online

A Cursed Embrace(77)

By:Cecy Robson


“I’d accomplished my first change a few months before my parents were murdered. But I didn’t have any control for a long time. Still my beast waited inside, giving me strength an eight-year-old had no business possessing and heightening my senses to the point I thought I’d go mad.” I blew out a breath, willing myself to calm. “I saw the four men who killed my parents standing over their bodies. I could taste the salt of their sweat on my tongue and scent each of their distinguishing odors, even over the blood of my mom and dad. My tigress latched onto their images like three-D photos complete with smells thrown in. And every night for years, she taunted me with their images. I hated her for it.”

Aric leaned against the headboard and pulled me against him, wrapping me with the sheet and using the edges to wipe my streaming tears. “Your tigress didn’t want to hurt you, Celia. She wanted you to hunt. And she was reminding you of your quarry.”

“Like I needed reminding,” I said barely above a whisper. I buried my face against Aric’s chest to give me the strength to continue. There was no going back now. “I was such an angry kid. But when my hormones kicked in during high school, I pretty much lost it and realized what my tigress was beckoning me to do. I started taking the bus to Plainfield, where my parents were killed, and began my hunt.”

“How old were you?”

“Fifteen. Sixteen by the time they were all dead.” I couldn’t face Aric then. “The first one was the hardest. He pleaded with me not to kill him. After him, it became easy. Too easy.”

There was noise outside, I was sure of it. Rain, maybe the kids. But all I heard was the sound of my frantically beating heart.

“How did you feel after it was done?” Aric finally asked.

“It satisfied my tigress, but my human side felt no different. My parents were still dead.” I rubbed my eyes. They were sore from crying. “I told my sisters the night after I had killed the last one. They all cried. Finally they felt safe.”

“Did you feel safe?”

I focused on the framed photograph Shayna had taken of an ancient tree. He gently turned my cheek to face him. “Celia, did you feel safe?”

My tears threatened to fall once more. “I’ve only ever felt safe with you.”

I couldn’t read Aric’s expression. He tried to kiss me, but I turned away embarrassed. “How did you feel after your first kill?” The only reason I asked was to shift the attention away from me. Aric wasn’t dumb. He knew what I tried to do, but he answered me anyway.

“Celia, we’re raised and trained to fight and annihilate evil. We’re too connected to our animal side to feel regret. That’s what makes us so different from humans. As per were laws, your kills were righteous. You avenged your family, just like I avenged my father.”

“I guess if I were of your kind, I could live with that. But I’m not.” I blinked a few times. “Do you think differently of me?”

Aric’s voice dropped several octaves when he lifted me to him. “Nothing’s changed between us. And nothing ever will. You’re still the best person I know. I just want you to feel safe. Even when I’m not here to hold you.”

I locked eyes with him. “Then let me help you hunt the demon lord.”

• • •

Aric jetted the Jeep Wrangler across the barren terrain, kicking up dry chunks of beaten soil into the hot, sticky air. The packs had tracked the demon’s trail to Death Valley. Once again, the irony was not lost. We drove through the sand-filled national park, trying to reach where the latest victims had been unearthed. The four-by-fours were perfect for off-road, except I’d given anything for the closed cabin and air-conditioning of Aric’s Escalade.

I’d heard the Valley was a wonder, nature’s masterpiece, a rare gem in a world busting with industry and flashy technology. Maybe. But after driving an hour in the one-hundred-plus-degree heat, it more than kind of sucked.

Aric passed me another water bottle. “Drink more,” he yelled over the roar of the engine. “We’ll have to abandon the Jeeps close to where the last set of bodies were scattered, and hike on foot from there.”

I forced down the tepid liquid. Sweat soaked through my white tank and clung to my white cotton bra like a newborn to her mother. “How wide is the perimeter from where the bodies were found?” Danny hollered from the back. His teeth knocked together with every bump and grind.

“About thirty miles,” Aric called over his shoulder.

Bren spit out the side of the Jeep, I assumed to rid his mouth from the coat of dust smearing our teeth like old paint. “Shit. That range is too vast even for the number of noses we have to track. Dan, your one-night stands with the Dewey Decimal Dames better pay off. This place blows.”