A Curse Unbroken (15 page)

My landing, while rushed, was quiet. I sniffed the air for any more of Dilip’s guards. I scented magic—old and earthy. Likely, it belonged to Shah. It poked at me, trying to figure me out. My tigress found it curious. I could feel her sit back within me, waiting for it to react so she could respond in turn. While she was alert and ready, she didn’t seem on edge.

Shah didn’t mean me harm for the moment. That didn’t mean I was safe.

I crossed the yacht and carefully climbed the steps leading to the upper deck. Dilip was steering, his back to me. He mumbled, distracted. I rose carefully and advanced, trying to stay silent as the strong current of air whipped my hair behind me and slapped against my exposed skin.

The engine purred softly, but the wind and the splash of waves were loud where I stood. And yet I heard Dilip as his mumbles grew more audible. Not that I was loving what he had to say.

“You will kill anyone who tries to harm me. You hear me, Shah? You will kill anyone who harms me. I own you. You piece of
shit
. I own you!”

Lights flashed across the panel that curved around Dilip. I jerked as “Magic Carpet Ride” blasted over the speaker system. Shah was definitely in the house. I perked up, and so did my tigress, trying to ready myself for what came next as I closed in.

Dilip screamed when I was mere feet from him. He smacked at his belly, his cries becoming agonized and frightened. I thought Shah was tearing him open and mangling his flesh. But Shah had his own brand of torture, and it seemed this rock was done being used.

Dilip whipped around, his face bleached with terror. Beneath the skin of his belly a face appeared, singing along to Steppenwolf’s classic.

Okay. Yet another thing that gave me pause.

Dilip’s belly button had stretched across the length of his stomach to become a mouth, cheerily lip-syncing to the lyrics while a nose protruded from his sternum and his nipples morphed into rather animated and gleeful eyes.

As I watched, Dilip’s chest hair crawled to form an Afro above the nipple eyes.

“Close your eyes, girl. Look inside, girl…” Dilip’s stomach merrily sang.

I looked at Dilip’s face—his other one—as I tried to swallow the bile burning its way through my throat. “Wow. That’s quite a dilemma you have here,” I managed. “Um. What say you stop this whole world domination thing you have going on so maybe Shah will give you your life back?”

Dilip answered with a high-pitched hysterical laugh that didn’t belong on someone with that much chest hair. In the meantime, we were about to crash into an island at full velocity.

I shoved him aside and cut the steering wheel left, spinning the damn thing until the boat wound in crazy circles. Meanwhile, “Magic Carpet Ride” continued to blast through the speakers and apparently Dilip’s stomach.

“Why don’t you tell your dreams to me…”

This was a whole new brand of crazy I hadn’t expected. Between my haphazard steering, the music, and the impromptu karaoke concert, Dilip’s cries grew more hysterical. Maybe he wasn’t a fan of the song. Or it could have simply been the whole there’s-a-face-on-my-stomach thing scaring the shit out him.

The way things stood, I couldn’t help him even if I tried. Anyone who claimed sailing a boat was easy probably never had a guy with a freaky lip-syncing belly standing next to her.

By the grace of everything good, I managed to straighten the boat. I played with the fancy buttons and levers until the motor seemed to die or I somehow broke it while I tried my best to keep sight of Dilip. He may have been a shrieking hysterical human, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t kill me.

Near as I could see, he was hunched in the corner, laughing, then crying, then laughing again as the yacht slowed to drift with the current. It didn’t seem like much time had passed from when my hands first seized control to when we eased to rock along the water, but it was plenty of time for Dilip to act.

I gasped when I abandoned the wheel and saw what he’d been up to.

He’d acquired a fishing knife and had made quick use of it. His warped smile met my face even though he continued to stab himself in the stomach. If he was in pain, he didn’t show it. Maybe only the first few stabs had hurt, or maybe he felt nothing at all.

He sat with his legs outstretched in a “V” while his body fluids pooled around him. The punctures in his belly were vicious and angry, and bits of bowel poked through his damaged skin to shine against the moonlight. But even that wouldn’t erase his disturbing grin.

Shah’s makeshift face had stopped singing and disappeared, but I doubted Dilip’s insane efforts to silence him had anything to do with it. Shah was furious and had meant to punish. While he hadn’t harmed Dilip directly, he did make a point: Don’t fuck with mystical stones.

Dilip lifted his hand, plunging the sharp point again. His motions had begun to slow and his laughter alternated with mild bursts of wheezes. But he pushed forward, using his remaining strength to puncture his belly.

I thought I should stop him—or save him—or
something
. But there wasn’t anything that could spare Dilip from himself. So I simply watched, horrified by his actions and confused by what drove him. Yes, Shah’s magic drifted around us, but like me, he appeared to solely observe. He wasn’t forcing Dilip to do anything. Dilip was all on his own.

Maybe Dilip had been crazy from the start. And maybe it had taken only a little of Shah’s personality to drive him over the edge. No matter what, Dilip wasn’t a good man. That was something I was completely sure of.

His misdeeds rivaled those of every twisted preternatural I’d ever encountered. He’d murdered those he’d called his friends for greed and for his own damn desires. As I watched the knife suddenly drop from his grasp, I was reminded that one way or another, everyone answered for their actions.

Dilip Singh died with that crazed expression frozen on his face, with no friends to hold his hand or grieve his passing. I wondered briefly if anyone would miss him. I wouldn’t. And neither would the loved ones of those he’d killed.

The waves splashed peacefully against the side of the yacht before I realized his body fluids had taken on a life all their own. Blood and acid from his stomach bubbled around him, leaving the pool surrounding his body to form words along the smooth floor.

I’m not sorry,
it said.

I couldn’t be sure if they were Shah’s words for tormenting Dilip or Dilip’s for the damage he’d caused. At that moment I didn’t care. More than anything, I just wanted to get away from them and him.

My body trembled as I searched my surroundings. Dilip’s jacket lay abandoned in the small seating area. I passed it twice before I realized it was there. With shaking hands, I reached into his pocket and removed a gold phone covered in diamonds. I stared at it, hoping it would be enough to find Shah before someone else did.

Music continued to blast over the speakers, but the voices sang in a language I couldn’t understand. I turned down the volume, feeling the need to speak. “I’m not here to hurt you or claim you, Shah. I just don’t want someone else to find you and use you for the wrong reasons.” I paused, thinking things through. “In fact, I don’t want anyone to use you at all,” I added truthfully.

I wasn’t positive why I said what I did to Shah. But I felt the need to tell him he had nothing to fear from me. I leapt to the rear of the yacht, wondering how I’d get back, when trails of light zigzagged along the water.

My eyes widened. I wasn’t familiar with everything witches could do, but I got schooled then. Betty Sue, Delilah, and Genevieve skimmed above the sea’s surface, the small waves splashing against their bare feet and circles of green light gathering beneath them.

Behind them, a smaller boat sped forward, followed closely by a Jet Ski. I knew Aric rode the Jet Ski when my tigress urged us toward the edge of the yacht. She’d sensed his wolf, and my desire to be with the man.

I tried to wait patiently, but my urgency to distance myself from Dilip’s corpse made me restless, as did Shah’s scrutiny. It was as if I could feel his magic circling me, trying to figure me out.

I frowned. “Don’t be rude,” I told him. “Like I said, I’m not your enemy.”

I couldn’t be sure he believed me, but I sensed his magic withdraw in time for the Alliance members to appear. The witches arrived first, skipping onto the boat with an added boost from their power. All three wore long medieval maiden gowns, the hems dripping ocean water as they walked across the deck. All seemed anxious, their stares scanning their surroundings.

“Do you have it?” Genevieve asked, stepping forward. “Do you have Shah?”

“No. But I haven’t actually looked for him here,” I replied.

Genevieve took off with Betty Sue hot on her heels before I could finish. Delilah tossed me a leery glance before following. I felt stupid for not bothering to even search for him. In truth, it hadn’t even occurred to me.

Aric arrived next. He cut the power of his Jet Ski and leapt onto the stern directly in front of me. He rose slowly, water dripping from his bare chest and onto his borrowed sweatpants. His breaths were labored, but seemed to calm as he drank me in. “Are you okay?”

I nodded and fell against him as he embraced me. “Dilip’s dead.”

Aric stiffened. “Where is he?”

I motioned to the bridge. Aric linked our fingers and led me to the top. Genevieve was already there, her long ebony hair sailing around her like smoke. “Did you kill him, Celia?” she asked.

Aric answered before I could. “Those are self-inflicted stab wounds,” he pointed out.

Delilah carefully climbed the steps, her eyes frowning when she found what remained of Shah’s holder.

“Dilip didn’t seem stable from the start,” I said. “And when Shah sought a little payback, Dilip completely unraveled.”

I explained what happened as Agnes fluttered onto the boat and up to the bridge. Her eyes traveled over me as she handed me my hooker shoes. I swapped the fiendish footwear for the cellphone. She smiled. “Well done, Celia.”

She strutted to where Dilip lay, taking a whiff of the blood pooling around him. “Hmph. Interesting,” she said. “So who’s not sorry, Celia? Dilip or Shah?”

“I don’t know,” I answered. “At this point I don’t care.” Having had enough death for the night, I hurried down the steps. Aric followed directly behind me.

Betty Sue emerged from down below. “Shah’s not here.” Her eyes narrowed when Agnes hopped over her head and onto the deck. “What’s that?” she asked when she saw the diamond cellphone clutched in Agnes’s hand.

Agnes smiled. It wasn’t one of her nicer smiles. “Our key to Shah.”

“And why should you have that key?” Betty Sue demanded.

Agnes stopped smiling. “Because I know how to open the lock.”

Genevieve didn’t appear to care. She gracefully drifted down the steps with the strength of her magic. Her motions were smooth, but the magic that enveloped her was as lethal as a field full of axe murderers. “Admit it, Agnes. Your master wants Shah for himself.” She tilted her head, appearing simply inquisitive, but I could sense the challenge brewing beneath the gesture. “Or is it your grandmaster who desires the stone?”

Agnes flashed her a grin. “I don’t have to tell you anything, Glinda. Besides, if ever a head witch needed more power, it’s you. Face it, Genevieve, with so many inferior witches beneath you, neither you nor your coven holds the command it once did. My master, and our grandmaster? Now,
their
strength is unparalleled and will soon be unmatched. Such a shame you can’t say the same.” Her smile widened. “Such a shame you’ll never be as good as you once were.” She tossed her hair and hopped into her boat without another glance back. I wasn’t sure who was more pissed, the witches or Aric.

“Let’s go,” I told Aric.

His gaze skipped over my body before he turned back to Genevieve. “I take it you’ll handle it?”

Genevieve lifted her perfect brows. “Don’t I always?” She’d answered Aric, but kept her attention on Agnes as her boat pounded against the waves and into the moonlight. Genevieve’s expression appeared unaffected despite Agnes having kneed her in the magical groin. But I knew better. For all that Agnes said about Genevieve’s lack of power, Genevieve still had the goods to burn her to ash with just a bat of her long lashes.

Aric watched her, but said nothing more. Instead he took my hand and led me onto his borrowed Jet Ski. I wrapped my arms around his waist and kissed the spot between his shoulder blades, my gentle contact appearing to ease some of his tension. “Are my sisters safe?”

He scratched his chest. “Yes. Taran’s a little hostile, but otherwise safe.”

Taran…what was it that she’d done that bothered me? I wrinkled my brow, trying to think, only to have my concerns quickly fade. “What about the wolves and everyone else?”

His hands gripped the handlebars. “They’re fine. A few injuries here and there, but nothing fatal or that can’t heal. We didn’t lose any more….” He shook his head as if attempting to clear it, then said, “The crocodiles, or whatever the hell they were, morphed back into ferrets almost right after you and Dilip left. I’ve been looking for you since.”

I rubbed my face against his back. The contact was meant for me so I could take in more of his comforting scent, but my actions seemed to stir us both. “How did you find me?” I asked, my eyes taking in the vast ocean. “It’s not exactly a small area to cover.”

“Our bond as mates led me to you,” he said, his deep timbre acquiring more of an edge.

“Good,” I whispered against his skin. For whatever reason, my thoughts grew cloudy, but not my need for Aric. “Are we done for the night?” I asked, well aware of the purr to my tone.

Aric stilled. “Yes. We’re done.”

“So my room or yours?” I asked.

“Mine,”
he said, growling softly.

With that, he started the motor and propelled us forward.

His fear for me kept his conversation short. I didn’t push and cuddled closer against him. The heat between us surged long before we returned to shore and back to his hotel room.

Chapter 12