The Cursed (The Unearthly) (18 page)

Chapter 24

Andre stared at
the map as he held the phone to his ear.

“Andre?” Ivan said when he answered the phone.

“What do you have for me?” Andre asked. No formalities. He didn’t have time for them.

“Grigori took the day off.”

Andre ran a hand through his hair. “He took her.” Grigori might’ve also taken the shapeshifter
—
perhaps even the fairy. Andre hadn’t seen either since he’d risen.

“Andre, be reasonable.”

“Don’t tell me to be fucking reasonable. Listen to me: I think I have an idea where they’ll be.”

“You are claiming that one of our officers has kidnapped and intends to harm another officer of ours.”

“Yes, I am, and I’m right.”

“Andre crime and punishment may work like that in your circles, but it doesn’t work like that
—
”

He wanted to throttle Ivan. This was exactly why he loathed the Politia, and why his word meant very little in this network of supernaturals. They were so goddamn dense, clinging to their classicist beliefs even in the face of evidence.

Andre slammed a fist against the wall of his office. “Take down the following information, or so help me Ivan, I will have you wrung out to dry within the week.”

“Fine,” Ivan responded gruffly, “but no promises that our officers can get to it.”

“Fuck you. When the crime is exposed, mark my words: I will make sure you pay for any inaction on your part.”

Andre ended the call and threw the phone across the room. The Politia was out; this would be solely up to him.

He left his office to grab weapons and ammunition. He’d need all the arsenal he could bring along with him. Tonight, Andre would be fighting the devil.

“
Morta,” I whispered
.

“In the flesh.”

She was the fate that cut the thread of life; she was also the fate that was in the devil’s pocket.

This was really effing bad.

Even tied up I managed to scramble away from her.

“You’ve made my life difficult these last few months,” she said. “Not that I don’t enjoy a challenge every now and then.”

“What have you done?”

She patted my knee, and I tried not to flinch at her touch. “Let’s just say that I’ve steered your life back on course.”

Back on course? “Back on course from what?”

She didn’t answer, and in her silence I thought of all the strange coincidences and unlikely situations I’d been in since I left Peel Academy. “How much of my life have you meddled with?” I asked, terrified of her answer.

“‘Meddled with’? You court my wrath, using those words. I am a fate. I direct the flow of life. Everything that has led you here, to this moment, has been my doing.”

“So the murders … ?”

She made an impatient sound. “I am the fate of death
—
need you ask?”

“My involvement with this case?”

“Me,” she said.

“My status as a demonologist?”

She guffawed at that. “Definitely me.”

I sucked in my cheeks at the insult in her words. She’d been leading me like a lamb to slaughter.

She cleared her throat. “I’m not going to spend all evening discussing my actions. They mean little except that you are here now, about to fulfill your destiny.”

I swallowed. “What are you going to do to me?”

“What do you think the fate of death is going to do to you? I’m going to deliver you from your flesh.”

“
I’m coming with
you.”

Andre swiveled around to see Gabrielle’s friend, Oliver, sashay into his room. Guess he hadn’t been taken after all.

“No you’re not,” Andre growled, taking a menacing step towards him. There’d be no survivors tonight except him and Gabrielle
—
and perhaps Caleb, if the boy had also been taken. Andre sure as hell wasn’t going to put another friend of Gabrielle’s in danger.

“Yes, I am,” the fairy insisted.

A growl of warning rumbled at the back of Andre’s throat. “Don’t push me, fairy. I still haven’t forgiven you for touching her.”

The fairy came right up to him, ignoring all the warning signs that indicated Andre was not to be reckoned with. “I know exactly how long Gabrielle and Caleb have been gone, and I’ll only tell you if you take me with you.”

Andre ground his teeth together. The audacity of this one. It was barely tolerable. “I can get that information from other sources.” Like his servants.

“But you won’t.”

Andre’s nostrils flared in anger. Now was not the time to test his patience.

Oblivious, the fairy plucked the map from Andre’s hand. “So, where are we going?”

“What makes you think I’m going anywhere?”

Oliver lowered the map enough for Andre to see his raised eyebrows. He pointed to himself. “Fairy.”

He’d made his point. Fairies were notorious for involving themselves in everyone else’s business.

“How long were you eavesdropping?” Andre growled.

Oliver gave a shrug of one of his shoulders. A non-answer.

Andre folded his arms, clenching and unclenching his jaw to keep his anger in check. “I will imprison you here if I have to. You are not coming with me.”

The fairy dropped the map and leaned forward, his eyes glittering with interest. “How
does
she resist you?”

Andre turned from the fairy. He needed to stop talking and get his weapons strapped on. Back holsters for the twin blades that he favored in battle, and a belt to tuck in several throwing knives …

Behind him the fairy shrieked. “Oh my God, I know where we’re going! I always wanted to visit too!”

Damn it all to hell. “You are not going, fairy,” Andre said, opening his closet to retrieve the supple leather gear. He began sliding the back holster over his shoulders when Oliver spoke again.

“This trip will take you hours to reach her. She could be dead by then.”

Andre paused for the barest of moments. Gabrielle, dead. It was unimaginable.

“Take me with you, Andre, and I can get you there in twenty. All you’d need to do is drive us to a certain haunted forest.”

Andre glanced over his shoulder at the fairy. “What, exactly, are you proposing?”

Oliver flashed him a mischievous smile. “I think you already know.”

I’m going to
deliver you from your flesh.

That was quite … blunt. And terrifying beyond belief.

“You don’t need to do this,” I said to Morta.

“Of course I do. I’ve been planning this for centuries, for millennia even.”

“Please, there must be another way for you to get what you want. One that doesn’t involve killing me.”
Believe in us, believe in free will.
Andre’s words ran through my mind.

She laughed and grasped my chin, pressing her fingers into my cheek. “You are Pluto’s unwilling bride, through and through.”

“I’m no one’s bride,” I ground out.

She ignored my response and instead patted my cheek. “Rejoice my dear, for tonight, you ascend. Tonight you become queen of the Underworld.”

Andre pushed his
car as fast as it could go, which was still pathetically slow. The storm continued to rage, and the roads were slick with snow and ice. What should’ve been a short drive to Hoia Baciu, the haunted forest on the outskirts of Cluj, was already taking much longer than usual.

This better work.

Next to him Oliver bounced to some song on his iPod, singing along.

Even if he and the fairy pulled this off, they still might be too late. And so help him God, if he was, there would be hell to pay.

Reaching over, Andre pulled out one of the fairy’s earbuds. “You might as well play your music from the speakers,” he said. He could hear the sound just as well from the fairy’s earbuds. At least the car’s acoustics would take away that horrible tinny edge to each song.

“Really?” the fairy said.

Andre glanced at him, then back at the road. He wasn’t going to extend the offer twice.

But then again, the fairy wasn’t one to turn down an opportunity. Oliver synced his iPod to the car’s sound system, and a playlist titled “Kicking Ass and Taking Names,” flashed along Andre’s screen.

At that, Andre smirked. The fairy had style. He’d give him that.

The fairy cranked up the volume and whooped. “Evil bitches beware, we’re coming for you!”

Andre’s grip on the wheel tightened as he sped through a light, his smirk morphing into a sly smile. The thought of all the carnage to come …

Evil beware, indeed. I am coming for you, and I am hungry for your blood.

“
What if I
don’t want to become queen?” I asked.

“What you want matters little,” Morta replied.

“Well, the devil can go screw himself. I’m not marrying him.”

“Do not speak of him that way,” she hissed.

Tou-chy.

“I’m not marrying him,” I repeated.

“You are if you want your friend to live.”

I went rigid. “Caleb? Where is he?
What have you done to him?
”

“He’s safe, so long as you cooperate.”

This all had the horrible echo of Samhain. But unlike Samhain, I didn’t have Leanne to help me figure this one out, nor did I have Cecilia working behind the scenes to save my life. The devil had upped his game, and I was on my own.

“You are going to cooperate?” she asked.

I hesitated, then nodded. I couldn’t do it again, couldn’t allow others to sacrifice themselves so that I could live a bit longer before I met the devil.

“Why does he want me so badly?” I asked.

“You’ve been fated to be together for a very long time, and he’s impatient to make you his.”

Ugh, barf in my mouth. “Why would he care about me at all?” I asked. “He’s the devil.”

“He’s Pluto,” she corrected me, “and he is not all evil.”

“Agree to disagree,” I mumbled.

“It doesn’t matter. Within the hour, you’ll be his.”

Chapter 25

“
Fuck, shit, goddamnit
, bloody-fucking hell.” Andre kept going.

There was an accident, a huge goddamned accident, blocking the one road they needed to take to get to Hoia Baciu. Even now he could hear the crunch of metal as cars ahead of him slammed on their brakes a second too late.

The fairy whistled. “That’s not good.”

Andre ran his hands through his hair. His options were limited at this point. Every moment they lost now brought Gabrielle closer to death.

He stared at the pileup in front of him. Even as he watched, he heard the skid of cars behind him, and the crunch of metal as they slammed into one another. The wreckage was only getting worse with each passing second. It was a small miracle they hadn’t hit his car
—
yet. Other than completely abandoning his vehicle, he could only think of one alternative.

Andre opened his car door up and got out, crossing his fingers that no one would total his car before he had the chance to get back in it.

“What are you doing?” the fairy called after him.

Andre didn’t bother looking behind him when he answered. “Clearing the road.”

My throat seized
up. Within the next hour? I began yanking against the ties, not caring that the enemy sat next to me.

“Don’t bother,” Morta said, “those bindings are enchanted. Only I can remove them.”

Still I struggled. What other option did I have?

Morta sighed. “It’s always got to be hard with you, doesn’t it?”

“You don’t know anything about me,” I snapped.

“I know everything about you, mortal, and it’s best you don’t forget it. I am doing you a kindness, making you into a queen and a goddess.”

“You can take those titles and shove them up
—
”

The air shifted, and then Morta’s hand connected with my cheek, whipping my head to the side. The sound of the slap echoed throughout the room long before the pain blossomed.

“We’re done here.” The bed rocked as Morta stood up.

“Wait!” I begged. I wasn’t ready to die.

Her footfalls moved away from me.

“Fate can’t be the only reason he wants me!” I yelled after her.

Her footfalls stopped. “You’re right, it isn’t. You tip the scales in his favor.”

Your lifeblood drips, the scales tip.

“In favor of what?” I called after her, dread settling into my bones.

The door clicked shut in response, and she was gone.

Once he’d moved
the cars aside, Andre got back into his own. Some idiot driver had ended up ramming into his car from behind. What was that, two accidents and a busted steering wheel all within a week? Even for him that was an impressive amount of damage.

But it didn’t matter. Andre would wreck all of his cars getting to Gabrielle if he had to. He stepped off the clutch and shifted the car into first.

He could feel the fairy’s eyes on his face.

“What?” he said.

“You moved those cars … with your bare hands.”

“And?” he asked, shifting gears.

The fairy raised his eyebrows and began fanning himself, his leg jiggling furiously. “Lucky fucking siren,” he said, under his breath.

Andre gunned the engine, letting off only a little when the car lost traction. He cast a glance at Oliver. “Not lucky, fairy. Cursed.”

“
Please,” I begged
at the door, willing the fate to return. “I promise to be respectful if you come back.”

I listened.

Nothing.

I growled out my frustration. Damn my bound legs. I doubt Morta had even locked the door. Not when I’d have to roll my way out of here. Which was tempting … but no.

I scooted up to the bed’s headboard and leaned against it. Morta hadn’t slipped the gag back on me, and that was a mistake I was going to fully exploit. She might be immune to my voice, but anyone else in the area wouldn’t be.

I cleared my throat. Did I want to do what I was considering? If it didn’t work, I might end up worse off.

Worse off than dying and marrying the devil?

I leaned my head back as a hum built in the back of my throat. Tendrils of my power snaked to the surface of my skin. The siren was awake, and she was a formidable monster when I embraced her carnal cruelty.

A smile curled along my lips as my power built. What I was about to do would be different from the glamour I’d used in the past.

Tonight, the siren was going to sing.

“
Stop here,” Oliver
said.

Andre pulled onto the shoulder of the road, and he and the fairy got out. He nodded to the back of his car, where he’d stashed extra weaponry. “Might be a good idea to arm yourself, fairy.”

Rather than responding, the fairy leaned inside the car and grabbed a gun from the back seat.

He held the gun up to the light, a gleeful smile forming along his lips. “Now I am one badass bitch,” he said, posing with it. “Is it loaded?”

Andre nodded, leaning inside the car to grab the weapons he couldn’t wear while he drove.

“I’ve never used one before,” the fairy said.

Andre pushed away from the car. When he turned to face Oliver, the fairy was flipping the gun over in his hand, staring at it curiously. Giving a fairy a gun was a supremely bad idea
—
especially this one
—
but Andre didn’t really have the patience to regret his decision.

He came around behind Oliver and positioned the fairy’s hands over the gun, ignoring the lust pouring off the boy.

“Safety,” Andre said, pointing to a switch near the trigger. “Keep this on until you’re ready to shoot. Front and rear sight,” he indicated to two eyepieces. “Line these up with your mark for better accuracy. And lastly, the trigger,” he said, pointing to it. “I’m sure you know what to do there.

“This gun has eight bullets, seven in the magazine and one in the breach, so make them count. Try for close range targets and aim for the chest. Got it?” Andre said, stepping away from him.

“I think so.” The fairy no longer sounded so flippant. Violence had a way of making men out of boys.

“I’ll do my best to make sure you don’t have to use that at all,” Andre said, “but if someone tries to hurt you, don’t hesitate to defend yourself.”

Oliver jerked his head in answer.

“Good.” Andre clasped him on the shoulder. “Now take me to my soulmate.”

I opened my
mouth and something more than just words and notes came out. I couldn’t see my skin, but I could feel it ripple as my essence freed itself.

Magic flowed out from my lips, arcane and powerful. Every instance I’d used glamour up until to now had been child’s play in comparison. This, this was the true extent of my power, and it was terrifying.

The universe moved through me as I sang, and with each note I hit, I learned a new, impossible secret
—
how to seduce the unwilling, how to bring the proud to their knees, how to bring comfort to the desolate and leave the content wanting.

I tipped my head back and laughed even as I sang, the laughter fluidly weaving itself into the melody. I was getting high off the power. I might be tied up, but I was not the prisoner at the moment.

I listened for those humans who’d fallen under my spell, but I was met with … silence.

“Nice try Gabrielle,” I heard Morta say in the distance.

My voice faltered at her words. Nothing was happening, but surely something should be.

And then something did.

The smell of brimstone assaulted my nostrils as a being crept closer to my door. An unholy chill wrapped around my skin and seized up my windpipes. My voice painfully died away. The hollow sensation stroked my skin like a lover.

The being paused outside my door. My stomach clenched painfully, and my unseeing eyes darted under the blindfold.

Oh dear God and heaven above, my voice had garnered the attention of
something
.

After a pause, whatever lingered left, but not before it made me a promise.

Soon, Gabrielle.

Damn, but Andre
hated ley lines. The twisted, unnatural trees they passed were evidence of the snags in the fabric of this world. So was the strange, bloodied altar Oliver hoisted himself onto. The altar from the case Gabrielle was working on.

Oliver patted the stone slab, indicating that Andre join him.

In one fluid moment Andre lifted himself to the altar. He caught a whiff of an angelic being, and beneath that, a more familiar smell.
Gabrielle
. Her scent made him hiss through his teeth. Sometime recently she’d passed through here.

But now she was nothing more than a phantasm. And in a few more days, all traces of her would vanish from this place.

A fierce chill whipped down his spine. What did they call that? Revelers dancing over his grave? Whatever it was, it was a bad omen.

Oliver stretched out his hand. “Ready, Andre?”

In answer, Andre took his hand.

He’d die before all that remained of her was a scent in the wind.

The stink of
evil had barely left the hallway when I heard the click of two sets of footfalls. The door opened.

I almost choked on the smell of ash and roses. Two beings and only one scent.

“Oh lookie who’s back!”

“Miss me?” another voice purred. The cambion from the club

I frowned. “I guess that depends on whether you’re here to kill me or not.”

“I heard your voice,” she said. “Lovely. It will enchant our dark lord.”

“Yeah, I don’t think I’m happy to see you.”

“All our preparations are ready,” Morta interrupted, nearing the bed.

I heard the other woman approach the bed, and felt her soft touch as she grabbed my arm.

Morta hauled me off the mattress with impressive strength, and I felt the other woman adjust her stance to support my weight.

I didn’t realize my feet were bare until they touched the cool floor. As for my wardrobe, the material swished around my ankles. A dress. Just like what the other victims wore.

What had Oliver said about virgins only being good for sacrifices? Damn him, he’d jinxed me!

“I know you’ve figured it out,” Morta whispered next to my ear.

I turned towards her voice.

“The myth of Pluto and Proserpine,” she explained. “It really is a prophecy. A very old and very popular one. And it is a prophecy about you.”

“But the details …” My voice trailed off as the cambion traced a finger down my arm. I grimaced as the sensation.

“The details matter not. That is what happens when a story outlasts several civilizations. Along the way word of mouth and cultural appropriation warp the details.”

“Why was it so popular?” I asked before the two could haul me out of the room.

“Because it has to do with life and death,” the cambion whispered into my ear, her breath hot against my skin.

“You were born of life but possess death in your bloodstream
—
you die even as you live. And yet in your death you’ll live forever an immortal. You see?” Morta said. “You’ve been married to the god of death since your birth. Two sides of the same coin.”

“But he’s not the god of death. He’s
the devil
.” How many times did I have to say that?

“Best start thinking of him as Pluto,” Morta said, “for I assure you his actions will conform to your beliefs. You want him cruel, he’ll be cruel. You want his kindness, think of him as capable of it.”

“
Here we are
,” the fairy said.

When Andre opened his eyes, for a single moment he mistook his surroundings for the afterlife. The whiteness, the soft silence of falling snow
—
it was such a vast contrast to the vivacity of life as he knew it.

All around him stood tall trees. Cut between them was a snow-covered path marred with several pairs footprints. Several interwoven scents clung to the path. Supernatural beings. At least a dozen of them.

He stretched his senses. In the distance he felt a pulse of life and amongst it …

“
Gabrielle
.”

He could feel her ahead of him. He almost fell to his knees; even with all his knowledge, he hadn’t been sure she’d be here, and if she was, that she’d be alive.

He pushed forward. “There are at least twelve beings near Gabrielle, and we have to assume all are hostile. You should stay here.”

“Oh hell no
—
I didn’t come all this way just to be left out of the fun,” the fairy said

Andre turned to give Oliver an appraising look. “This is not a game, fairy. People will get hurt. You will probably be one of them.” Even as he spoke, he could feel his bloodthirsty nature rise.

Gabrielle never again wanted to see Andre massacre people. Tonight he was going to have to disappoint her.

“Argue all you want, Rambo,” the fairy said. “I’ll still be sticking to you like a nymph to a tree.”

Andre didn’t have time for this. He growled in frustration. “Fine,” he said, defeated. “But once we get inside, you’ll follow my orders.”

The fairy’s eyes twinkled with excitement. “Agreed.”

They pressed forward once more, and as they did so, the trees began to thin out, and their destination towered over them. Made of marble and rock, conquests and cruelty, it was the perfect gateway into hell.

Bran Castle.

There was that
reminder again, that belief trumped fate. Ironic that a Fate would be the one to tell me this.

“I’m going to cut the bonds around your ankles,” Morta said. “If you try to pull some stunt on me, Lila will knock you out and carry you to your destination, and any remaining questions you have will go unanswered. Understood?”

Lila
—
I finally had a name for Creepy McCreeps-a-Lot.

I felt Lila stroke my cheek. “Please be difficult,” she whispered in my ear, and I recoiled. I was beginning to think that Lila was here just to ensure my cooperation.

“Fine,” I said to Morta, “so long as you answer more of my questions.”

She knelt down at my feet and unwound the rope that shackled them together. “You do not get to make demands. However, I will entertain a few more questions, so long as it pleases me.”

I didn’t wait for more. “What kind of power would the devil possess by being with me?” I asked. The last of the rope fell away from my ankles, and I shook them out.

In front of me I heard Morta rise. “How does the end of the myth of Pluto and Proserpine unfold?”