The Cursed (The Unearthly) (16 page)

Oliver whistled. “We got a sailor in the room.”

Instead of responding, I covered my face with my hands, my shoulders beginning to shake. I was about to lose it.

I heard Oliver pause, then crouch down next to me. He gave me a tight squeeze and kissed my temple. “I’ll be right back with enough spirits to raise yours and make you forget,” Oliver said, pushing himself back to his feet. A minute later I could hear his footfalls get fainter as he moved away from the study.

Caleb and I sat quietly for several moments
—
together but apart
—
and then I heard him get up. He dropped down next to me and slung an arm over my shoulder.

“Hey,” he said, shaking me, “it’s going to be okay.”

“No it’s not.” I dropped my hands and took in a shaky breath of air.

The devil was coming for me again, and innocent lives were being lost because of it. And if the myth of Hades and Persephone was prophetic, then I should cast away my hope now. Because in that myth, Hades kidnapped Persephone and took her away to his kingdom to be his wife, his queen. He tricked her.

And it worked.

Chapter 22

By the time
the sun was setting, Oliver, Caleb, and I had made good use of Andre’s liquor. We’d been playing pool for what seemed like hours in Andre’s game room. Who knew the king of vampires enjoyed these types of pastimes? Never would’ve guessed it.

I tipped back my drink, enjoying the way the spicy liquid burned going down. I quickly figured out that dark rum was my favorite liquor. And like I’d promised earlier, I was swigging it straight from the bottle. My worries were now fuzzy things.

“Hey, Jack Sparrow,” Caleb called, “it’s your turn.”

I eyed him as I took another gulp, then brought the bottle from my lips. Using the back of my hand, I wiped my mouth. “Sure thing,” I said, capping the bottle.

I tossed the drink onto a nearby couch and staggered over. I lurched to the right and grabbed the edge of the pool table for balance. Both boys were staring at me.

“What?” I asked a little too loudly. “Scared you’re going to lose this round? Should be.” I drew the words out. My skin flared and then settled. It’d been doing that now that the alcohol flowed through my system. And each time it did so, Caleb’s eyes flickered with interest.

As soon as my skin went back to normal, Caleb was shaking his head. “Shit, Gabrielle, I’m cutting you off. I can’t handle this glamour.” He walked over to the couch I’d thrown the bottle on, and grabbed the rum.

“Look who’s talking, chameeeeeleon,” I sang, my voice hitting several notes at once. For the last few hours Caleb’s features had flickered and changed as the alcohol coursed through him.

Caleb placed the bottle on a high shelf. I snorted at that and leaned back against the pool table. “I can just glamour you into getting that for me.”

“Do that, and I’ll report your ass,” he said, coming back to the game.

That shut me up.

“Fine. No more booze
—
for now.” I reached over to take the cue stick from Oliver’s glittering hand. I tugged, but he wouldn’t let it go. I guess he still hadn’t completely forgiven me for calling his iridescent wings “cute.”

“Majestic, sexy-as-hell, exquisite
—
those are all appropriate descriptions,” he had said. “Not
cute
. Puppies are cute. I. Am. Not. Cute.”

Now he said, “I’m not giving this to you until you ask nicely.”

Geez these boys were grouchy.

I tightened my grip on the stick. “Oh Beautiful One with the sparkly, erotic wings, please may I have the damn cue stick?”

Begrudgingly Oliver let it go.
Very
begrudgingly. “I almost feel bad for Andre right now,” he said. “He’s got his hands full with you.”

I lifted my hand into the air and gave him the bird. As I did so, the air seemed to shift. I felt the ripple of awakened power along my skin. I sucked in a breath and straightened. Andre had woken up.

I panicked, turning
to Oliver. “He’s awake.”

“Who’s awake?”

“The monster under the bed
—
who do you think?”

“Andre?” Oliver rolled his eyes. “So?”

“So,” I sputtered, “I’m drunk on his expensive liquor, and I’m supposed to fill him in on Caleb’s theory.”

“Bitch please
—
Caleb’s
theory? I was the one who told you about the myth being a prophecy.”

“Not the point.”

“Then what is the point?” Oliver asked, pursing his lips.

I scrubbed my face. I could feel my mood slipping through my fingers, turning dark and despairing. I didn’t know if the alcohol had caused it, or if it had actually been holding it at bay all this time.

“I don’t want to tell him,” I whispered into my hands. And what would I say? That we might be soulmates, but I was destined to be the devil’s wife? My head began to pound at the thought.

I dropped my hands, and a bloody tear snaked down my cheek. I could feel Caleb’s curious eyes on it.

“Sweets,” Oliver said gently, his annoyance with me forgotten, “you’re going to have to.”

“What has Gabrielle so worked up?” Caleb asked coming over to us.

“I think the king of the vampires is awake,” Oliver said.

Caleb took a step closer to us. “How can she possibly know that?” he asked, eyeing me.

“It’s sunset,” Oliver said smoothly. He turned so that Caleb couldn’t see his face and winked at me. I gave him a small, tight-lipped smile in return.

I could feel the connection between Andre and me getting stronger, which meant he was getting closer.

“Oliver …” I didn’t know what I was asking for at this point. Maybe just someone to soothe my fear.

He squeezed my hands. “Sorry love, but you’re going to have to tell Andre.”

“Tell me what?”

My eyes fell on the door to the game room, where Andre stood, taking in the scene. In one of his hands was a small gift-wrapped box.

“What’s going on?” he asked, sauntering in. His voice sent pleasant skitters up my arms, but fear sliced through me. This was going to ruin his Christmas, and I’d already made a hot mess of his birthday.

I was a holiday wrecker.

Andre’s assessing eyes passed over me. “Gabrielle, your heart is beating much too quickly.” He took several steps towards me, looking scary as all get out. His nostrils flared. “And the room stinks of booze
—
you
smell of booze.” His eyes hardened when they met mine. “I will ask one more time: what is going on?”

“Time to scram,” Oliver whispered to Caleb, grabbing his arm. Caleb hesitated, looking between Andre and me.

I too began to edge away from Andre.

“You are not going anywhere, Gabrielle,” Andre said, “so don’t even consider it.”

Yikes.

Very slowly Andre turned to stare at Caleb, who had taken a step closer to us. “I will need to ask you to leave us,” Andre said. “I would like to speak to my subject alone.”

Caleb’s jaw tensed and the two stared each other down. I wanted to roll my eyes at the display. After a tense few seconds, Caleb jerked his head in acquiescence and backed away from us. Oliver, I noticed, had already bolted from the room. Smart fairy.

“No tricks, Caleb,” Andre called out after him. “If I sense you lingering, I will not be pleased.” That was a euphemism if I ever heard one.

Caleb gave a wave of acknowledgement and left the room. The door clicked shut behind him, and then Andre and I were alone.

For a beat Andre stared at the door, and then, painfully slow, he turned his attention to me.

Ho, was he scary when he wanted to be. Like right now. I was sobering up real quick.

He stalked forward and I backed up until I bumped into the pool table. Andre didn’t stop until his chest brushed mine.

Once he reached me, he set the small gift on the edge of the table. Then he ran his knuckles down my cheek. “Why does my soulmate fear me right now?”

My throat worked, but I didn’t respond.

He tilted my face left and right, assessing me. “I can smell the alcohol in your blood, and I’ve never seen you drunk. I’m guessing it’s not Christmas that has you worked up?”

I closed my eyes and shook my head. Oliver was right; I had to tell Andre. “Caleb discovered something about the murders,” I admitted.

Andre took my hands and held them between his own. “This is a good thing, is it not?”

“No,” I choked out. A bloody tear dripped down my cheeks, and then another.

Andre’s brows furrowed, and his hands left my own to cup my jaw. Frowning, he wiped away my tears with his thumbs. “Please don’t cry,” he said, his voice gravelly. “I can’t stand the sight.”

That only made me cry harder. After a moment, Andre pulled me into his arms, holding me tightly to him. He kissed the top of my head and stroked my hair, murmuring gentle words to me in Spanish. It would’ve been incredibly sexy if I weren’t such a wreck right now.

I hadn’t fallen apart when I was kidnapped, nor when we got into an accident. I’d held it together when I’d visited the devil and again when he dropped in on Andre and I. I’d even stayed strong throughout the day, thanks to the alcohol.

I’d bottled up my emotions for too long, and now they were spilling out all over the place.

When I finally got myself under control, I stepped away from him. The arms that had encircled my back now dropped to my waist.

“Are you ready to tell me what has you so worked up?” Andre asked.

I stared at his chest. “Yes.” Then I took a deep breath and told him.

The muscle in
Andre’s jaw ticked. And ticked again as I waited for him to rally against Caleb’s
—
and Oliver’s
—
theory. I even wished for that frightening laugh of his, just to hear his absolute disbelief.

But he hadn’t said anything. Only stared at me with agony in his eyes.

“You think the theory might be valid?”

He watched me for moment before responding. “It could be.”

I looked away. “But I’m
your
soulmate.”

“Yes, you are. Nothing changes that,” he said, his arms tightening around me. “And I will die before I give you up to him.”

“But if it’s a prophecy … then it will come to pass.”

“It was also prophesied that you’d become my queen and exterminate our people, and that hasn’t yet come to pass.”

A darker thought entered my mind. “Or perhaps you do die for me, Andre, you and every other vampire. Perhaps the devil still gets me anyway. Perhaps both prophecies come true.”

Andre stepped closer to me. “You can choose to be bound by those prophecies, Gabrielle, but I won’t.”

His words angered me. “And what am I supposed to do, ignore them?”

“Belief
—
not fate
—
rules the world,” he said. “Believe in us, believe in free will.”

His words reminded me of what Leanne had told me two months ago:
You’ve outwitted fate over and over again
.

My eyes moved up to Andre’s. Perhaps I really was his curse. The soulmate he could never quite have. I guess it really did come down to what you believed in at the end of the day.

And me, well, I believed in happy endings.

“Okay.” I nodded to him as the thought seeded itself in my mind. “I can do that. I can believe in us.”

We stayed in
the game room just long enough for the alcohol to work itself out of my system. Eventually Andre led me out.

“Even if the devil is behind the murders,” he said, opening the door and holding it open for me, “he did not kill those victims, Gabrielle. People of flesh and blood did this. They are who you need to worry about because they, and not the devil, are the ones doing the killing.”

I chewed on the inside of my cheek. Capture the killers, avoid the devil.

“Can I see the files again?” Andre asked.

“Sure.” I led us back to the study, where my book bag containing the files lay. Oliver and Caleb were already inside, Oliver texting like mad on his phone, and Caleb pacing the room.

As soon as we entered, Caleb froze, his eyes scouring me as though he feared Andre had hurt me. I rolled my eyes. “Dramatic much?”

“I was worried,” he said.

Behind me Andre went rigid, and I heard the low growl he made. “Worried about what, shifter?” Andre said, his words even.

I crouched in front of my bag. “Caleb
—
don’t answer that. It’s a loaded question. Andre, please don’t eat my friend.”

Andre sighed, his anger morphing into exasperation. “I don’t know how many times we must go over this, Gabrielle, but I don’t eat people.”

I stifled my smile and grabbed the file folders from my bag. “Here they are,” I said, standing up and handing them to Andre.

“What’s going on?” Caleb asked.

“Andre’s helping us on the case.”

Caleb scowled at that, but said nothing.

I turned my attention back to Andre. He opened the topmost file and picked up one of the photos from the second crime scene. From what I could tell, it looked to be a close-up of the altar.

Andre made a small noise.

“What?” I asked.

“These aren’t just images of Hades and Persephone,” he said, shaking his head. His eyes scoured the photo. “These are images of the Eleusinian Mysteries.”

“
What are the
Eleusinian Mysteries?” Caleb asked.

Andre glanced up from the photos. “They were initiation ceremonies for the cult of Persephone and Demeter. These were secret religious rites that reenacted the abduction of Persephone.”

All three men looked at me.

I took a step back. “What?”

“Nothing …
Persephone
,” Oliver said.

I slitted my eyes at him. “Don’t call me that.”

“Then what should I call you
—
Denial?”

“How about Gabrielle?”

Oliver buffed his nails on his shirt. “Well that’s just no fun.”

“The cult is still around,” Andre said, “though I believe it’s now called the Eleusinian Order. And if I had to place money on it, I’d guess that’s who’s behind the murders.”

Caleb cut in. “So if this cult believes that Gabrielle is Persephone, then we a big problem. Their goddess is still among the living.”

Oliver’s eyes cut to me, and he raised his eyebrows. “Me thinks I know how this story ends.”

I did too. If this murderous cult believed I was their Persephone, then they might take it upon themselves to unify me with my Hades.

They might take it upon themselves to kill me.

“
So if the
devil is behind these murders, then why two? And why in different cities?” I asked Caleb over breakfast the next morning.

By then the storm had died down enough for travel, and we were up early to find out whether today we’d get back to work or be sent home. We’d already contacted Grigori and let him know about our findings, so our “expertise” would hopefully no longer be needed, and we could get the hell out of here.

I didn’t have much time left in Romania, regardless; I knew that I couldn’t hold my protective boyfriend off for much longer. Last night Andre seemed ready to drag me kicking and screaming onto his jet and fly my ass out of the country. The only reason he hadn’t done so probably had something to do with the fact that his pilot had Christmas off.

“Well, we know it’s not ley lines,” Caleb said, “and if the devil is behind this, then some meaningful pattern will eventually show up.”

Hopefully this detail wouldn’t matter now that we’d essentially proved a cult was behind the murders. The Politia could just round up everyone in the cult and smack charges on them all.

Something told me it wouldn’t be quite that easy.

My phone went off. As soon as I saw Grigori’s name flash on the screen, I snatched it up. “Morning, Grigori,” I said, eyeing Caleb. He’d stopped spreading butter on his toast to hear our conversation.

“Morning. Are you and Caleb ready to get back to work today?”