Cursed (13 page)

I blinked back tears that would do me no good. “What I did was ... as evil as he is. If I forgive myself, then he has won. You barely know me, Julius. What you do know is that I’m a nutcase with a background better suited to a sci-fi novel.”

Julius studied me for a moment. “I can tell you, you’re not a nutcase. I think you’re strong for coping so well with what’s been done to you. And I’ve seen some strange things myself.”

I put my hands to my face. Hearing him like this was making what I had to do so much harder. “Don’t say good things about me. Please. You don’t know who I really am.”

“I know you’re caring. Gentle. Intelligent. If you saw what I saw, you’d say the same things. You haven’t been given a chance to show anything other than fight and survive. You haven’t given
yourself
a chance. You’ve been through more than what any one person should have to go through in ten lifetimes,” Julius said quietly.

His eyes were on me, intense and warm. Sympathetic. I had made him feel sorry for me, and there was no room for anyone to feel that way about me. “Don’t make the mistake of thinking I’m a good person, Julius. You don’t know anything about what I can do now. I’m stronger. The energy is easier for me to use. Quicker. And now I’ve put you in danger because of it.”

It was too much. The kindness he’d given me over the past few days. Now understanding. He’d made me feel human. As though I was someone good enough, not just a vessel to be used. Something I’d never felt, and it was getting to me. I willed back tears that threatened to spill, hating that I’d shown him such weakness.

Julius’s hands were on my cheeks, the tender pads of his thumbs tracing a soft line. So gentle. So soft. Such
temptation
. “I see someone who needs to heal. I see a beautiful woman who has had no kindness in her life through no fault of her own. Your father was a monster, but you have overcome that. You have a quiet strength inside of you. I’ve never known anyone quite like you.”

I wanted to believe him. I really did. It would be so nice and easy to let it all happen. Julius reached for my hand. I shook, not from fear, but from wanting to feel as though I were loved. Even if it wasn’t the truth. The yearning to be touched as though nothing else mattered, as though nothing else was out there ready to tear me limb from limb.

Understanding shone in his eyes. Understanding for what I didn’t know. Then, desire lit their depths. I stopped thinking. I was frightened beyond belief because I knew I stepped over a line I didn’t want to even draw. But I couldn’t seem to summon the willpower to pull back. Something inside me melted beyond being scared.

I wanted his mouth on mine. Feel his soft lips, his tongue, taste him. His hands on my body. My breasts. I wanted—needed—someone to touch me as though he cared. The way a man would love a woman. The need was intoxicating. Primal. I ached. Body and soul. Lips tingling, senses alive. For him.

Then his eyes dulled; the spark died. His expression became introverted. His fingers loosened their hold, dropped from mine. Katia,” his voice was strained, hoarse. “I can’t ...”

I nodded, swallowing hard, reality slamming into me, “Of course. I understand ...”

He ran his fingers through his hair, spiking it in all directions. “No you don’t, damn it! That’s the point. This isn’t the time or the moment. When I kiss you ... if you allow it ... I don’t want it to be like this. Not after what you’ve been through. I’d like to think kissing you isn’t just a reaction. I want it to be an intention.”

Pain emanated from his eyes, his features strained. I breathed in hard. One gasp. Two. My mind started ticking. He wanted me as much as I wanted him. Crazy. Just crazy. And yet I was ... elated.

“There’s more. Much more, Katia. I don’t think you’re going to feel the same way about me once you know what I’ve done.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I want you to know that no matter what, I’ve tried to help you. You have to understand that. Just ... try to forgive me when you know.”

“It can’t be that bad. Honestly. I know bad,” I said, but at the same time, my heart stumbled. Julius couldn’t be bad. He just couldn’t. He’d shown me such kindness. Such
compassion
. I was indebted to him, but it was more than that. Much more. People had shown me odd kindnesses in the past, and they could have told me they were murderers and I would have shrugged it off. Hell, when it came down to it, I’d murdered, too. But from Julius, there was something indefinably different about him. About how
I
felt about him. The trouble was, I’d let him in. Even though I knew I shouldn’t have, and I’d tried, he’d slipped past my defenses and had found a place in my heart.

I thought he maybe even might even ... care a little about me. Then again, maybe I’d just been plain old stupid. Either way, I really didn’t want to hear it. Didn’t want to know.

Didn’t want that pain.

“This involves you. God, this is so hard to tell you. Know that I’ve fought so long and hard. This started before you came to me, and I only did what I did because I was caged into a corner. I’ve fought all along, but ...”

Dread seeped through the euphoria of his declaration only moments before. I was hot and cold all over, barely keeping myself together. This was going to be bad, certainly something I knew I wouldn’t want to hear. “What the hell have you done, Julius?” I whispered.

“I didn’t want to involve you in my mess. I’m
not
using you ... Hell, this is coming out all wrong. There’s so much I’m asking of you. How the hell are you not going to think the worst of me?”

I wanted to reach out. Tell him whatever he did, it didn’t matter. That we would deal with it. Nothing could hurt me more than what had been done to me already. Surely, nothing was as bad as what I’d seen and done.

Surely.

Screaming metal. A lurch sideways. I was thrown against the door, my head cracked against the window. A booming crunch and the car was spinning. Falling. I grabbed onto the console to steady myself, disoriented, heart pumping, mind spinning.

“Manual control,” Julius yelled. He fought to pull the car out of the spin. The engine screamed, and we lurched side to side, up and down. We cut the spin, the back of the car jolting into the ground.

My head snapped backward. Julius’s P.A. bobbed about in the space of the back seat. I hadn’t even noticed it had come into the car with us, and it had heard everything. The engine whined in protest, and there was a moment where we hung like a downed seesaw. My body slammed into the seat as we screamed upward.

Julius wrenched the wheel just before we flew into the line of traffic above us. We veered away. Horns blasted, cars scattered.

“Julius!” I screamed.

He uttered a curse, wrenching the wheel in the other direction just before we slammed into the side of a building. “Behind,” Julius said between clenched teeth.

I spun around in the seat to look out of the back window. A car drew level behind us. Sleek. Black.

Seth. Fuck.

There was a glimpse of his head behind the dark windows. He rammed into the back of us again. I was slammed into the seat. Our car tipped crazily. “It’s Seth. How the hell did he find us?” I yelled.

I clutched the front console, trying to steady myself. Julius glanced at the rearview mirror. The muscle in his jaw worked; his face shone with perspiration; his knuckles were white on the wheel. “I don’t know. But we have to get rid of him. Hang on.”

I gripped what I could. The nose of our car tipped, and we raced upward without warning. I gritted my teeth against nausea as my gut touched my spine. I dragged in my breath through my nose, fighting against the force of gravity. Too high. We were going too high. I lost sight of the ground and choked back hysteria. I gouged my fingertips into my thighs.

We dodged lines of traffic, carving through the air. “He’s still behind us!” I yelled.

Julius nodded, throwing the car sideways in a tight right curve. There was a moment of floating before I was collected in the seat, and we dropped. I held my hand against the roof of the car as we sailed downward.

Julius threw the car to the left. I glimpsed the rear of Seth’s car below us, before Julius clipped him. The car jolted with the impact, and I was slammed into the door. Seth spiraled away from us, throwing black smoke.

Julius tipped the car downward and slipped below a line of traffic. The shadow of cars was above us, the rumble of their motors loud overhead. We looked out of the windows. “Where’d he go?” I said.

Julius strained to look. He shook his head. “I don’t know.”

“How does he keep finding us?” I said.

The muscle worked at his temple. “There’s only one way this is going to end. I’m going to get you out of this mess, Katia. Whatever it takes. Enough is enough. No matter what you might see. When I tell you to run, I want you to run and don’t turn back. Do you hear me? Don’t turn back.”

“But ... no ... What about you?”

“It’s gone too far to worry about me. You know everything you need to know, Katia. Remember my notes on the LearnX. Permission. You need permission.”

Our car flipped forward. I was thrown against the seatbelt, looking right at the dizzying ground below, the breath punched from my lungs. The roar of the engine bit through the car as Julius tried to level it out. I could almost feel the chassis straining as it did things it was never designed to do.

There was a flash of Seth’s car below us. Julius accelerated and we spun toward the streets below. The ground hurtled toward us, way too fast. Tension rode through my body, muscles clenched, breath hissed between my teeth.

“This is going to be tight,” Julius said.

We dodged around the last line of cars before street level. Julius slammed on the brake. The car shuddered as the nose tipped back. The engine screamed, protesting against gravity. Julius grunted, putting all his weight on the pedal. The car skated downward, the street coming up way too fast.

“Hold on,” Julius yelled.

The car smashed into the street. The explosion of the car hitting the road thundered, metal screeched, glass burst and shattered over me. A massive jolt reverberated through my body, crunching my bones. I was flung back, then forward, my head snapping against the console. Pain exploded through my forehead. Blackness overpowered me.

Julius shook me, unclipping my seat belt. “Katia. Get out. Run!” His voice was thick, slurred.

I forced my limbs to move, willed my mind to clear. I shook my head, trying to beat away the fog. I watched Julius as though in slow motion. His face was cut to shreds. Blood ran in a rivulet down his cheek. Red stains on his shirt, his legs.

He shook my shoulders. “Katia!” His sharp voice enabled me to focus. “Get out! Now!”

He opened his door while I fumbled with mine. He disappeared, appearing at my side, heaving me out of the seat. My legs wobbled, but my head cleared as I breathed in fresh air. Julius planted his palms on my cheeks. “Run! Don’t look back. Do you understand me?”

I nodded. Behind him, Seth’s black car dropped to the ground, just meters away. It had barely stopped when Seth emerged. He grinned, pacing toward us. Julius pushed me back and turned, hiding me from Seth with his body.

This wasn’t right. Julius couldn’t protect me. Not against man-mountain Seth.

But I could.

I stepped from behind Julius. He whipped around, horror on his face. “I told you to go.”

“And you know what I can do. I can use it on him.”

“You shouldn’t.”

“I’m going to. And then we’re going to run together. Understand?”

Julius’s face was thunder, but I ignored him. I concentrated, willing the thought-energy to grow like a ball of molten electricity inside of me. Then I willed it out toward Seth.

The energy blast hit him right in the center of his chest. There was a solid thud as it smacked into his body, and he was pitched off his feet, through the air to land on his back. I seized Julius’s elbow. “We’re going.”

Before we had gone anywhere, a surge of electricity struck my foot like a whip. I pitched forward. My ankle was snagged, bound by energy, burning my skin and sending red-hot darts into my bone. Fuck, it hurt!

Hands grabbed my ankles, twisted and flipped me onto my back. Seth looked down on me as though he’d won the lottery. Holy shit—he’d used energy just as I did!

There was no time to process it, though. I answered with an upper right to his thick jaw, powered with thought-energy to give it extra kick. He didn’t expect that. His fingers released momentarily. I yanked my legs from his grasp and kicked him right in the middle of his chest. It was enough to send him staggering back. I flipped to my feet, facing him, braced to fight.

Julius was at my side. “Stand back, Julius. I can handle him.”

“No Katia. You can’t,” Julius murmured under his breath, too faint for Seth to hear.

“How the hell do you know what I’m capable of, Julius?”

“Things have changed while you were asleep.” There was a poignant sadness in his voice that caused me to falter.

My jaw ached as I watched Seth. I didn’t want to run from him. Unbidden fury welled up inside me. The animal inside opened its claws. Seth, I actually wanted to fight. I wanted to tear him apart so badly it made my limbs tremble.

A slow smile spread on Seth’s ugly face. “Katia. What a lovely ...
surprise
to see you.”

“Who are you? How do you know my name?”

“I’ve known your name for a long, long time. The great Katia. But I never thought I’d get the chance to defeat you. I’m going to enjoy this little game.”

The sound of his voice was enough to send a chill up my spine. I brushed aside his comment. “You can use thought-energy.”

Seth’s eyes glinted. “We have more in common than you think.”

“We are
nothing
alike.”

Seth chuckled, stepping closer toward me. His eyes flicked from Julius to me. “I’m sure your father wouldn’t agree.”

My heart stammered. Heat rose up my spine. “My father? How? Why?”

“Ask your boyfriend. I’m sure he can answer your questions.”

“You
know
him?”