The Nymph's Curse: The Collection (94 page)

“Harper, get behind me,” Jasper said, motioning for her to stand beside Starling.

“You guys should have left,” Harper said in a whisper. “I had everything under control.”

Starling pointed at the thin line of blood on Harper’s throat. “Looks like it.”

“Okay, so not everything was going to plan,” she murmured.

“Gun. Now.” President Kitchings motioned for one of his guards. Moving forward, the man grabbed Virginia by the arm, led her to a chair behind the president, and sat her down.

“I want us all to get along here. No need for anyone else to get hurt.” Jasper raised the gun above his head as he moved through the crowd. Starling rested her hand on his back as she followed him. His body radiated nervous heat and sweat built under her touch, but she couldn’t be sure if it was him, her, or the combination of both their fear.

He stopped at the designated spot and sat the gun down on the end of the table. This vulture had the same crimson-red color as the bird in the mausoleum, the eye that had been an elevator button. Was it possible this table was an elevator as well?

Just to the right of the carving was a thin seam. To the left of Jasper’s gun and the carving’s feet was another.

Some of her fear dissipated. There was a way out. Maybe.

“Shall we sit?” the president motioned to the seats. “Let us start again.” He walked to the head of the table, his bodyguards flanking him, and sat down. His men stayed standing at each of his sides.

She, Harper, and Jasper moved to the front of the table where the president motioned. Starling couldn’t take her eyes off the gun they were leaving farther behind with every step. No one got near it as they all made their way to the seats around the rectangle.

“Now, I want to extend to you my sincerest apologies about my wife’s behavior.” He looked to his right where Virginia sat. “She has a habit of interfering—even after there has been a vote.” He eyed her dangerously. “I assure you that she will be dealt with accordingly. And so will Harper for infiltrating our den.”

“I was told to come here. I infiltrated nothing!” Harper challenged.

“Be that as it may, the council and I were not expecting a nymph to walk into our chambers spewing hatred.”

“Your wife is threatening my step-daughter. My
spewing hatred
is the least of what I plan to do to Virginia,” Harper spat.

Jasper leaned toward her in his chair. “Stop,” he warned.

Harper glared at him. “Fine, you handle this.” After a moment she leaned back in her chair, arms crossed over her chest.

Jasper nodded and turned back to the president. “President Kitchings, we—”

“We offer no apologies,” Starling interrupted. “We did exactly what we needed to do. Your people have done nothing but try to steal my things, kidnap me, and hurt me since I arrived in Savannah.”

Jasper’s mouth was still open and his eyes were wide with surprise at her taking the lead. She laid her hand on his, in an attempt to reassure him that she didn’t need him to do her dirty work.

“I know the Catharterians broke into Jenna’s safe deposit and stole the
Libros Umbrarum
. Those were intended for me.”

The president shifted in his seat. “I will not give you—”

“Stop.” Starling raised her hand, putting a halt to the president’s possible refusal. “After all I’ve been through to get the books, you are going to give me all three. Without the books, there’s no way you will be getting the GX 149 or its formula.”

The president laughed. “We had to take down a bank to get those books. Do you really think we are going to give them to you just so we can get some silly drugs? Drugs that we already have?” He pointed to a woman sitting three chairs down, on his right. She reached into a bag at her side and pulled out a familiar orange bottle.

“You and I both know that there aren’t enough pills in there for your kind to get what they need.”

“But there are enough pills to study and find out what makes them effective in fertility,” the president challenged.

“And that could take years of research,” Harper retorted.

“Do you have years to waste on research?” Starling continued. “We have the formula. But first, I need the books.”

“We’re aware. But you aren’t getting those books.” The president’s face tightened as he tried to handle his emotions. He glared at Harper. “And it just so happens that you, Harper, and your friends are prisoners—and if you want everyone to make it out of this room alive, you will do as we wish.” He sat forward as he tried to control the situation. “If you’re smart, which I think you must be, you will take one of my teams back to your lab and we can keep you under watch while you make us a supply large enough to help with our population issues.”

“And then what?” Harper retorted. “Then you will let us go? I doubt it.”

“Why would we need to continue a relationship once we get our drugs?”

“Because your women will still be unable to become pregnant,” Harper said.

“What are you talking about? We are demigods just like you. And if they work for your kind, why wouldn’t they work for us?”

“Give Starling what she wants, and then I will give you the formula and our secret. Agreed?” Harper asked.

The president put his elbows on the table and tented his fingers in front of his face. “How do we know that we need something else besides the pills?”

“Hasn’t it occurred to you that Carey, Starling’s mother, had been taking the drugs for almost twenty years? She had one pregnancy. Now I’m sure she had more partners than just one in those years. Yet she never had another pregnancy.” Harper paused for a moment.

“Starling, had your mother seen other men?” the president asked.

“She had boyfriends on and off when I was growing up.” Starling cringed as she realized that her mother’s sex life was being called into question.

“Do you think she had relations with these men?”

“She probably did. I didn’t try to keep tabs on my mother’s sex life.”

“Right, right.” President Kitchings laughed. “Did she ever have another pregnancy?”

“Not that I know of,” Starling said.

“Do you know why that was?”

Starling shook her head. She’d never given thought to why she didn’t have siblings. She’d always assumed it was because Mom hadn’t wanted another child, not that there had been some secret to why she’d been an only child.

Harper patted her arm. “There were other nymphs who were taking the same medication; however, most never got pregnant. I’m more than happy to show you the number of women who successfully mated.” She raised two fingers.

“I get your point, but we can’t make a deal if we lose access to the
Libros.”
The president paused. “We need them. It’s how we’ve gotten control over the souls like Edward and Molly who work for us. If we lose those books, we will likely have an army of ghosts after us.”

“I know the feeling,” Starling retorted.

They were at an impasse. They could not live without the books, but neither could she.

“There has to be a way we can come to an agreement.”

“Instead of fighting, maybe we could become allies.” President Kitchings tapped his fingers against his chin as he thought. “We could give you the books if we have continued access to their contents. In return for this, you give us the drugs, formula, and secret. In addition, you all can walk out of here with the knowledge that the war is over.”

“What about Virginia and her men? They must be punished. Strip them of their feathers,” Starling urged.

“I know you are angry, but she is still my wife. She has done wrong. She kidnapped you and your friend and in doing so, went against the council. In the process of her mutiny, she also committed a mortal sin of erasing a soul. If other supernatural beings hear of what she has done, it will our be our asses on the line.” Kitchings shook his head in disgust. “She will be dealt with, but stripping her of her feathers is too harsh a punishment for her crime. She will lose everything.”

“She deserves to be punished,” Starling urged.

“You have to let them handle this, Starling,” Jasper whispered. “We will have to forgive them for what they have done so we can make this deal.”

Could she forgive them in order to make peace? If Jasper could move past Edward’s possession, she could move past her kidnapping, but there was still the issue of her mother’s death.

Her mother used to smile and wrap her arms around her when she had a tough day. Without a doubt her mother would have done that to her today. For once, Starling wished she could talk to the spirits down here. She would love to ask her mother what to do, whether it was okay to forgive the group for her death. But Starling did know where her responsibilities lay for a friend. “You have to free Molly B. from the mausoleum and let her safely cross to the other side. In exchange, you will give us the books and this war between us will be over.”

“Done, so long as we come to an adequate agreement about the production of the GX 149,” President Kitchings replied.

“What do you think, Harper?”

Harper nodded. “I already built my lab in Vegas. It’s a few months away from opening it doors, but if they pay me cost plus twenty percent, I could turn the lab into a legitimate drug manufacturing plant within the year. Chance could finish his agreement with the casino and all of us could be set, at least financially, for life. As long as they are willing to sign an official agreement for peace and trade, I’m good.”

“You can forgive the fact that these vultures tried to kill you? That they killed my mother?”

“As far as I can tell, Starling,” Jasper said, “it wasn’t
they
who killed your mother. It was Dr. Redbird, her sister, and their lackeys who put that together. Not the main council. Dr. Redbird is no longer an issue.”

“We need to put the past behind us, Starling. You have a long life ahead of you and this could be the chance you need to really start living. You’ve been in hiding too long thanks to this group. Think about it—you could travel, see the world,” Harper said, smiling.

“I could control the spirits,” Starling said, her voice dreamy at the possibility of being free from the onslaught of voices.

Starling sat up from their huddle. “Give me the books and then draw up an official contract including the terms that all future drugs will be made through Harper’s lab—you can negotiate your payment terms among yourselves. Deal?”

“We have to take a vote.” President Kitchings stood up. “All of those in favor of making a peace treaty with the Sisterhood in exchange for the books and their giving us the medication and secrets we need, raise your hand.”

Almost everyone in the room, except Virginia, raised their hand.

“It passes.” President Kitchings motioned to Virginia. “Get her the books.”

Virginia stood up and walked to the corner of the room where a picture of President Kitchings hung from the wall. Taking down the picture and dropping it with a clatter to the floor, she revealed a safe behind the portrait. She spun the dial and opened the metal vault. Starling sucked in a breath as the woman pulled out three large books and, shuffling her feet resignedly, brought them to the group. She thumped them on the black table in front of the president. “Here,” she grunted, passing him a defiant look.

The books were smaller than Starling expected. For months, she had imagined them as if they were thousands of pages with heavy bindings and metal brackets. Instead they were thin, their edges curled with age. The covers were simple, each carrying nothing more than a trinity-like design. They looked antique, but aside from the cover they were
ordinary
. If Starling hadn’t known the truth of what they were, it would have been hard to guess that these books held the secrets that would save her life.

“Thank you, Virginia.” The president motioned for her to sit down and then turned back to Starling. “I believe these are the books you wanted.” He pushed them across the table.

Starling picked the one on top. Its white velum cover was almost the same shade as her skin. The Red sat underneath, its cover the color of blood. Beneath it was the Black, its color so dark it almost disappeared into the table. She flipped open the White. Inside were hand-inked drawings and long pages filled with Latin.

Her knees weakened. The time had come … the books were here … in her hands. She sat down before her exhausted body failed.

“Are we allies?” the president asked.

Starling forced herself to stand back up and took his proffered hand. “Allies.”

“What is the secret, Harper?”

“You must mate with a demigod while taking the pills,” Harper said.

The door slammed open. Jim rushed into the room, Devon close behind him. Devon scanned the room, his eyes wild with rage.

“What’s going on?” Jim screamed. “These are our enemies and you are having a meeting with them. That’s bullshit! They deserve to die!”

Starling let go of President Kitchings’s hand and moved down the table until she found the vulture’s ruby-colored eye. She pressed down and frantically searched under the table with her left hand for another button, but she found nothing. She moved toward the gun, but Virginia stepped in her way. “Where’s the elevator?” Starling yelled at the president.

“This table isn’t an elevator. It’s there—” He pointed to a large painting that adorned the wall.

“I’m not going in any damn elevator!” Jasper yelled. “There has to be another way!”

“Shut up! Everybody shut up!” Jim yelled.

Devon stared at her, the anger in his eyes turning to lust. Jasper pulled Starling down and pushed her to the floor. Her knees connected hard with the concrete.

“Don’t touch her. Don’t touch Starling!” Devon screamed. “She’s mine!”

Starling watched in horror as Devon grabbed Jasper’s gun and pointed it toward them.

The shot rang out, its deafening roar careening through the room.

Jasper crumpled to the ground beside her. A scream rippled from her lips as blood poured from his chest. “I … love … you.” As the last word fell from his lips, his body stilled. His breathing stopped. Jasper was gone.

Starling pulled him against her chest as she rocked him back and forth in her arms. “You promised … you promised you wouldn’t leave me … ”