The Nymph's Curse: The Collection (39 page)

“I think I just need some sleep and to get away from the ranch.” There were just too many memories that wanted to elbow their way into his mind. He kept trying to push away the thoughts of them as kids, his mother and father, and the night he’d found Angela in Zeb’s arms.

“What about the barn? Has anyone looked in there for any evidence? Did they find anything?”

“Honey, it’s okay. They have the investigation under control.”

“Did
you
check the barn?”

How could he tell her that he would never enter that place? That there were things on this ranch that haunted him to this day, and every cell in his body wanted to get off the land and away from his memories. No matter how much concern she had for him, she wouldn’t understand.

“They’ve got it, Aura.”

She glanced back at the stables. “Why don’t you just take me back to my truck at the main house and then I’ll go to the campsite?”

So much had happened in the last twenty-four hours. He’d almost forgotten that they’d met here only with the intention of talking to Zeb about gaining access to the land. And there was still so much work to do.

“I’ll take you back to your truck.”

She nodded and pulled her torn coat down over her hands. Her face was drawn and tired. She’d had one hell of a day. He should have taken her back sooner, but he’d been so wrapped up in it all.

“How’s your arm?” Before she could stop him, he took her hand and pushed back her sleeve.

She jerked in his hands, but he held tight. The skin of her arm was pink and tight like a fresh scar, but there was nothing else. The teeth marks that had been bleeding on her arm only a few hours before were gone.

His breath left him like he’d been punched in the gut. “What the fuck?” He dropped her arm.

Aura glanced back over her shoulder. “Shhh.” She drew her finger to her mouth, motioning him to keep quiet. “We need to talk.”

• • •

Dane had begrudgingly given Aura his address, along with a promise to listen to everything she had to say. A knot of dread tightened in her stomach. Was she really ready to tell him everything? Everything about her and Natalie? Undoubtedly, he was going to freak out. He probably wouldn’t even believe her. He’d probably try to have her committed to a psych ward.

In her long life, she’d never told a man the truth of her condition. For the last few hundred years she had avoided any emotional entanglement. She’d lived a little hard, moving from one place to another, avoiding anything beyond short term relationships with men. But it used to be different. Marriage wasn’t always about love. It was most often nothing more than a business arrangement in which the man was the patriarch and the woman was forced into the subservient role. In the early days of the United States, this type of patriarchal society required that she had a man in her life. And whenever the women of the community found out she wasn’t married, questions of her capabilities as a woman always arose.

That’s how’d they’d found their way to Arizona. The desert had offered them something no place else ever had — in Yuma they had found a safe haven from humanity and a place amongst the wild horses that roamed the plains. Natalie had loved it. It was where she had completely embraced everything she was — horse, woman, and nymph.

It had been wonderful until the roundup of the wild mustangs by the Bureau of Land Management starting in the 1950s. Then even their safe haven had turned into hell on earth. The sound of hundreds of hooves pounding against the dry earth, the scream of frightened horses, and the yelling of men filled her memory. She shuddered and tried to blink away the image. She couldn’t think of the wounds of her past.

After a hot bath and less than a restful night, the next morning Aura pulled the truck down the road that matched the directions Dane had given her to his home. At the end of the short street sat a ruddy pine-colored house. Its windows were closed and the blinds were pulled shut, shielding Dane from the outside world. The yard was covered in snow, but the driveway had been shoveled in a perfect pattern and not a single extra bit of snow was out of place.

There were no decorations on the outside of the house except an aged, sun-bleached
Welcome
sign that had been put up beside the front door. It wasn’t hard to tell that the sign was a remnant from the days of Angela. A profound sense of sadness filled her. He had gone through so much that would have ruined most men, or at the least, left them closed to emotions. Yet he’d opened up to her and given part of himself to her. And she’d have to break his heart.

She knocked on his door, still not knowing what she was going to say. She tried not to think about the horrible things that could go wrong. He didn’t seem like the type of man who would hurt her; he loved helping people too much. But she couldn’t even guess how he’d respond. That was, if she told him the truth. Was there a way she could avoid telling him who she really was?

The sound of his footsteps grew closer and she stepped back and waited for the door to open. The footsteps stopped behind the door. It was silent for a moment. She waited.

If he didn’t let her in, she could understand. She was a freak of nature. A cursed monster. He didn’t need her or her mess in his life. She turned and stepped off the porch.

He may not have needed her, but she needed him. Aura turned back. “Dane, let me in. Please.”

The lock clicked open and the knob turned. He slowly pulled the door open. Dane was staring at the floor like he couldn’t stand the sight of her. Her heart lurched in her chest with the thought.

“Can’t you look at me?” There was an edge of desperation and disbelief to her voice.

He looked up. “Hey. I’m sorry. I’m just tired.”

His face was pale and his eyes were bloodshot, but he was lying. Just because he was tired didn’t explain why he hadn’t wanted to answer the door.

“You can be honest. You just didn’t want to talk to me.” She grabbed the door. “That’s fine. You can just listen.” She slammed the door behind her as she walked into his living room.

The place was a bit barren. A single chair sat right in front of a giant television. Against the far wall was a couch with a glass end table covered in outdoor and ammo magazines. She walked over to the couch and sat down.

Dane’s cell phone vibrated on the counter and a rock song filled the tense air between them. He looked over toward the phone like he wanted to run to answer it … anything to avoid what was happening between them.

“Why don’t you answer it?” she said, pointing at the phone. It would give her a moment to collect her thoughts.

Dane walked over to the small kitchen that connected it to the dining room and picked up the phone. “Hello?”

A woman’s shrill voice sounded from the phone, but Aura couldn’t hear exactly what she was saying, only the muffled tones. The two talked for about a minute, but Dane mostly nodded or used the typical male responses of “yeahs” and “uh-huhs.”

A strange flicker of jealousy fluttered through Aura. Who was the woman who would be calling him? She tried to push the feelings aside. He was a deputy, a civil servant. He talked to hundreds of women on a daily basis and he was probably around more than his fair share of women who were willing to give him everything they had to get out of a ticket or just to get a chance to fulfill a fantasy.

She ran her fingers over the edge of the couch cushion. She had no right to feel anything about what he did or didn’t do. She had told him it was only going to be a one-time thing. And though they had made love, he wasn’t hers. He’d made her no promises. And he shouldn’t. Dane couldn’t be hers. Not if he wanted something more than a romp in the woods.

“Okay,” Dane answered. “Thanks for calling.” He sat the phone down on the counter and slowly turned to her. “That was the medical examiner. They got the rest of the lab work back.” His face was even paler than it had been when she’d arrived and his eyes more tired.

“What did she say?”

“The blood on the tarp was equine. So they couldn’t hold Zeb.”

“Did they find out anything about the women?”

“There was no clear evidence as for cause of death, but both women were missing large chunks of hair at the base of the heads.” He shook his head. “They each had clear defense wounds on their arms and there was some bruising on and around their abdomens.”

“Did they find out anything more about the green and yellow fibers? Where they came from?”

Dane shook his head. “She thinks it was from a type of rope, but it’s a rope that is sold in about every store. So it’s not of much use unless we find something that would match the description.”

He walked over and dropped onto the couch next to her. Nervously, he ran his hands down and over his knees and then glanced up at her. “Your sister wasn’t pregnant, was she?”

“
What
?” She fast-forwarded through her memories. No. A nymph couldn’t become pregnant, could they? “No. Natalie couldn’t have children.”

“Are you sure?”

“There’s no way.” At least, she didn’t think so …

“Both women killed had high levels of gonadotropins in their bodies. It turns out they were taking the fertility drug Clomiphene. They must have been trying to get pregnant. I didn’t know that Angela had wanted children … ”

The sadness in his voice made chills run down her spine. “I’m so sorry, Dane.” She leaned over to him and wrapped her arms around him, pulling him into her chest. He resisted for a second, and then let his body relax into hers.

His arms moved around her and he burrowed his face into her neck. His breath warmed her as his full lips grazed over her neck. His kisses ran up her neck and he tugged at her earlobe gently with his teeth. She struggled to hold back a moan. It felt so good to have him in her arms, wanting her, but now wasn’t the time. He couldn’t stall dealing with his emotions, it wasn’t healthy. They needed to talk.

She softly pushed him back from her. “Dane?” she whispered.

“Hmm?” His eyes were filled with lust. He reached over and unzipped her coat. Aura let him slip it off her shoulders. He dropped it on the floor.

“How do you know Angela wanted a baby? What if someone else was giving her the meds?”

“What?” The question must have pulled him from his haze. “Wait … You could be right.” He looked stunned at the revelation.

“Do you think this could have had something to do with why they were killed?” She shuddered at the thought. “Do you think whoever did this wanted them to get pregnant?”

“It’s possible, but it’s hard to say. I guess it would make sense. But if your sister is still there and taking these meds … ” He stared at her as he refused to say what he was thinking.

“She’s being raped,” she finished his sentence. Nausea engrossed her and she ran to the kitchen. She made it to the sink just in time.

Dane stepped behind her and rubbed her back. “For all we know, that might not be what’s going on. And she had to tell them that she couldn’t get pregnant. Maybe they are using her for something — ” He clipped his sentence short as he must have realized that he wasn’t making anything better.

A fresh wave of sickness overtook her. She heaved again. Her back shook as she tried to control the sickness. Natalie was strong, but she didn’t deserve to be a prisoner, to be used for unspeakable things. It couldn’t be. Not her sister.

He was quiet as he ran his hand up and down her back, trying to comfort her — but it wasn’t working. “Who knows what was really going on? Angela wasn’t known for her ability to stay with a single man. Maybe she wanted to have kids. Maybe she got wrapped in something weird.”

Dane stopped rubbing. Opening a cabinet, he grabbed a glass and filled it with a bit of water. “Here,” he said, sitting the glass at the edge of the sink.

Aura needed to be strong. She stood up too fast and the world swirled around her. She grabbed the edge of the sink, waiting until the light-headedness passed.

“Are you okay?”

Aura nodded, but she felt anything but fine. Her sister was missing and women were dead.
May the gods be with Natalie.

She picked up the glass and took a sip and swirled it around, washing away the bitter taste in her mouth. When she was done, she sat the glass down, turned on the water, and washed out the sink. Dane didn’t need to see her this way. She needed to keep her distance, both emotionally and physically. Natalie needed her even more than she’d first thought. A new sense of urgency filled her. If Natalie was still alive, the gods only knew what atrocious things were happening to her. Aura’s imagination filled with thoughts she shuddered to even acknowledge.

Using a paper towel she wiped her face and tried to swallow away the residual feelings of sickness. She wasn’t helping anything. “Where’s your garbage?”

He pointed under the sink. Opening the door she threw the towel away and turned to face him. “We need to find Shawn. He’ll lead us to Natalie.”

“We put out an APB on his truck, but nothing has come in yet. At least nothing I’ve heard.”

“We can’t sit here and do nothing. We need to get out there and find her. Now.”

“We don’t know for sure that Shawn had anything to do with this.”

She hugged her arms around her. “Zeb said he’d seen Shawn around. He was in the video … ”

“But he doesn’t have the initials M. J. P. He couldn’t be responsible for the women’s deaths and Natalie’s kidnapping.”

“There’s no reason to believe he didn’t. He could have stolen that knife.”

“Aura,” he said, touching her arm like he was talking to a stubborn child. “Just because he’s in the video and they were fighting doesn’t mean he’s the man we are after. He very well could be, but as you know, we believe in due process and everyone is innocent until proven guilty. Even if we find him, without a confession we’ll have nothing to pin him to the murders.”

“I know, but how can we find evidence that ties him to the murders and my sister by standing around here?” She pushed off from the sink and walked out to the living room. She pulled on her coat and strode to the door.

Dane moved in front of her, blocking the door. “Where are you going? I thought we were going to talk?”