Cursed by Destiny (WG 3) (11 page)

I jumped out of my seat when they boarded Misha’s private jet. They smiled and waved, and apparently had been shopping. They slipped off their long coats to reveal matching camouflage tanks and cargo pants. They even wore army boots. I think they were trying for military chic, but the results were more like Special Forces Barbie. Taran sat down as if she owned the plane, tossed back her dark hair, and began applying another coat of lip gloss. God forbid we take on demons with chapped lips.

Emme tried to give me a small smile, but when she caught my not so cheery expression, she quickly sat next to Taran and shrank back into her seat.

“What the
hell
are you three doing here?”

Shayna finished adjusting her ponytail and grinned like I was the flight attendant welcoming her on board. “Misha called and told us you were going on another assignment. We’ve missed your last few so we asked him if we could come along.” She tugged on the strap of her tank top as it fell off her right shoulder. Unlike Taran, she didn’t have the goods to fill out her stretchy shirt.

If Misha had arrived I would’ve staked him in the ass. “It’s more like he manipulated you into coming along!”

Taran closed her compact and huffed. “No shit, Celia. But that doesn’t mean we don’t want to help.” She eyed me up and down. “Why the hell are you dressed like that? Aren’t we headed for a jungle?”

The vamps and I wore shorts and T-shirts. I rubbed my temples to fight off the headache pummeling my brain with each passing second. “The plane is not going to drop us
in
the jungle. We still have to drive by jeep to the Bosawás Reserve. We’re trying not to stand out. But forget how I’m dressed. Are you out of your minds? There’s no way you’re coming!”

Taran jutted out her chin and narrowed her blue eyes. “Look, Ceel. We’re going with you whether you like it or not. Those assholes tortured you guys and pissed on my birthday brunch. Now they’re trying to kill you.” She pointed an irate finger. “That’s just goddamn rude.”

I reached for my cell phone. “Oh, really? Well, I think your wolves may have something to say about that.” I hit Koda’s number on speed dial, knowing he’d be the most furious.

My sisters exchanged panicked glances. Emme ripped the phone away from me with her
force
and held me in place when I lunged for her. I opened my mouth to tell Koda everything the moment he answered the phone, but my voice was immediately silenced. Taran’s irises blanched and I felt my vocal cords constrict. I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t scream. I couldn’t even whistle.

The vamps watched the drama with quiet and wide-eyed enthusiasm. The bastards didn’t even lift a finger to help.

“Celia?” Koda’s deep voice reverberated through the cell. “What’s wrong?”

“No, puppy. It’s me,” Shayna answered.

He paused, already suspicious. “Why are you calling me on Celia’s phone, baby?”

“Um . . .”

Emme’s eyes widened and sweat beaded on her forehead. Her head smacked against the cushioned chair as I pushed against her power. “Hurry up and tell him something. She’s too strong. I can’t hold her.”

I smiled to myself and stopped thrashing. My sisters never could grasp how great our hearing was.

“What’s going on?” Koda growled. “Who is Emme holding back?”

“Oh, puppy . . . what could possibly be going on?” Shayna answered, laughing a little too hysterically.

“Put Celia on now!”

Taran covered her throat with one hand and motioned for the phone with the other. Shayna gave her the phone and Taran began speaking, using my voice. The words she used and the way she spoke screamed loud and clear that it wasn’t me. “Relax, man. We’re just out shopping for tampons and stuff.”

I laughed silently. I could almost hear the vein on Koda’s forehead pop. “What the hell is happening? This isn’t Celia!”

“
Pssst. Pssst.
Sorry, puppy . . .
psst 
. . . The phone is breaking . . .
psst 
. . . up. Don’t wait . . .
psst 
. . . up . . .
psst
.” She disconnected and gaped at the screen.

The vamps roared with laughter. Emme blushed two shades deeper than usual. “
Taran!
Did you have to tell him we were buying feminine products?”

“Emme, why do you have a goddamn problem saying the word ‘tampon’? Just say it. It would be so liberating.”

“Taran, the
vampires
are listening—”

“Tampon, tampon, tampon!” Taran sang.

Shayna’s head whipped from the phone to us. “Forget the tampons! I think puppy knows I lied to him.”

Taran rolled her eyes. “No shit, Shayna.” She scooted to my side. Her irises blanched to crystal; as they deepened to their blue color, my vocal cords relaxed.

I touched my throat with the tips of my fingers. “How did you do that?”

“I’ve been practicing harnessing Tahoe’s magic.” Taran shrugged. “Sometimes it works; most of the time it doesn’t.”

I nodded. “Interesting— Oh! But guess what. You’re still not coming.” I grabbed hold of the plane door just as it was about to shut.

“Oh, yes, we are,” Taran shot back, right before she put me to sleep.

CHAPTER 9

The villager called the nest
El Hogar del Diablo.
The devil’s home.

Taran’s spell had knocked me out for the entire trip. I woke cranky as hell and ready to make evil my bitch. And yet the young woman’s fear gave me pause. I may have been residing with vampires, but she was living among monsters.

Emme’s face blanched at the name despite the choking heat and humidity. I tried asking the young woman more, but she shook her head and hurried away. The residents of the small Nicaraguan town knew of the evil lurking in their forest, but they were too frightened to speak of it. I pulled my out-of-control curls into a ponytail and nodded my head toward an approaching male. Maria smiled and licked her lips. You didn’t need a GPS with a vampire around.

“Can I eat him? He looks so tasty.”

I held up a finger. “One bite. That’s all you get.”

The man led us to the nest with a big grin on his face and his eyes swirling from Maria’s hypnosis. We had formed a plan, one I wasn’t happy with. The vamps thought it best to split us up, but I refused to leave my sisters alone. My sisters sided with the vamps, feeling we needed to attack strong from all sides in order to emerge victorious. I suspected they didn’t trust them and felt they needed to be kept in check. Regardless of the reason, we needed to act fast. My group would be the first to go in and the others would commence an assault from different sides.

Shayna especially made me anxious. She tossed the hilt of her new sword back and forth between her hands as we bustled through the dense vegetation in the back of a pickup. She wasn’t able to return Taran’s necklace to its original form. Taran told her to consider it her birthday gift for the next thirty years.

“I want to be the one to make the kill,” Shayna told us. “I want to be the one to kill the Tribemaster.”

Taran and I exchanged glances. “Son of a bitch,” Taran snapped. “Are you out of your mind?”

“You and Celia have both done it,” Shayna protested.

“Yeah, and almost died in the goddamn process!” Mini bolts of blue and white sizzled from Taran’s fingertips.

Shayna veered on Taran. “Did you get eaten alive by demons?”

Taran answered her with a scowl.

“Did
you
, Celia?” Shayna asked, turning back to me.

I stopped drumming my fingers against the rim of the truck bed. No. I’d been bitten and I’d been tortured, but my injuries paled compared to what those damn Tribesmen had done to Shayna. If it hadn’t been for Koda’s attempt to
turn
her wolf, we would have lost her. She couldn’t
change
, yet she’d received enough of Koda’s essence to heal her ravaged body.

I leaned forward. “What’s going on?” Her hands shook and that terrified look returned to her face, just as it had the day we’d fought the giant maggot. “Shayna?”

Shayna released a shaky breath. Then another. And another. She spoke very softly, likely so Emme couldn’t hear her in the cab of the truck. “I dream every night that I’m being devoured by demons. I wake up screaming. Koda’s freaking out.” She glanced back to where Emme was sitting up front. “I’ve asked Emme to use her healing touch to tend to my emotional wounds, but it’s not working. I think I’m losing it, Ceel.”

Blue and white sparks sizzled above Taran’s head. “Celia, tell the vamps to turn around. She shouldn’t freaking be here.”

“I’m better since the fight with the last Tribemaster,” Shayna insisted. “It’s like it helped knowing I could still fight and protect myself. I think . . .” She swallowed hard. “I think killing one of these things will be the ultimate therapy.”

I watched her closely. I knew revenge. We were the best of friends and the worst of enemies. But Shayna wasn’t asking for a chance at vengeance. She wanted to feel safe. It’s not something I could grant myself. Yet maybe I could gift it to her. “We’ll see what happens. Just don’t do anything stupid.”

My sisters and I prayed before leaving the pickup. The Catholic schoolgirls kept their distance from us. Unlike some vampires who were devout Catholics—bizarre, considering they didn’t possess a soul—these she-vamps embraced the uniform and very little else. It’s not that a Hail Mary would have killed them; it’s just that it probably made them nervous. In becoming vampires, they’d ceded the opportunity for heaven or hell. An eternity on earth was the only thereafter they’d know. If ever killed, they’d simply cease to exist. After all, you can’t move on without a soul. That’s what made Misha so powerful. He simultaneously balanced life and death.

We separated into our groups. My team and I moved silently through the area and stopped when we spotted the main entrance to the compound. A gangly man hauled a whimpering young girl to the gate. The gate opened and a vampire stepped out. I could scent his aroma of sex and chocolate from where we huddled.

“
Aquí está mi hija
,” the man said. “
Dame el dinero que me prometiste
.”

I swore as the vamp tossed him a crumpled twenty-dollar bill.

“What happened?” Edith Anne whispered.

“He just demanded money in exchange for the sale of his daughter.”

“Well, that sucks.”

I raised my eyebrows at her. “You think?”

“Oh, calm down, Celia,” Liz complained. “If you’d like, I’ll eat him for you after we’re done.”

The girl trembled with fear as the vampire scrutinized her. He laughed when her cries turned into choked sobs as he dragged her screaming into the camp. Her father picked up the bill from the worn path and dashed off in a mad run. “I don’t think you could catch him if you tried,” I added bitterly.

The closer we drew to the compound, the cooler the air. A horrible sense of death and wrongness shadowed the nest like a cloak fashioned from iniquity and suffering. I nodded toward the demon children in the nearby trees. There were fifteen, sleeping upside down like bats. Fangs protruded out of their reptilian mouths and their long leathery wings encased their scaled legs and arms. Taran once described them as “the flying monkeys from the
Wizard of Oz
.” I disagreed; the flying monkeys were way cuddlier.

The demons varied in size; some were only about two feet tall, others a hell of a lot bigger than my five-foot, three-inch frame. The leftover bones and skulls from their dinner had been licked clean and cluttered the ground beneath them. The bones were human. I was sure the Tribesmen had also paid about twenty dollars for them.
Bastards
.

“They’re sleeping off their dinner. Let’s keep this quiet.”

The Catholic schoolgirls and I worked fast. The little buggers didn’t know what hit them. Tearing into demon children released their innards, which resembled pulsating worms that slithered away until the air dried them into shriveled clumps. The hardest part about the whole thing was trying not to hurl. We almost lost it a couple of times and I really didn’t want to see the schoolgirls vomit. Unlike Misha, they didn’t eat food.

“Hold your positions and stay together. We’re moving now.” We disappeared into the shadows, embracing our predator instincts. We stalked in silence. My goal was to sweep in and obliterate the biggest threat before my sisters’ teams advanced.

I think it would have worked if Taran hadn’t lit up the vamp at the gate like a Fourth of July Roman candle.

The vamp shrieked and swatted the blue and white flames burrowing through his back and engulfing his face. He exploded in a mountain of ash, coating the wood fencing surrounding the compound. If Taran had taken the offensive without us present, there must’ve been a reason for it.

“Attack!”

We ran full out. Werebears belonging to the Tribe leapt over the high wooden walls, easily clearing the barbed-wire fencing that wound along on top. They landed with a hard pound, indenting the moist forest floor and blocking our paths to the gate. I kicked my opponent in his temple and severed his head with my claws as he spun. I grabbed the one on top of Liz and yanked him into a headlock. She leapt to her feet and broke through his chest, ripping out his heart in one pull.

The heart finished beating in her hand. “Do you want a bite?” she offered.

Was she trying to make me sick?
I ripped the arms off the bear that was trying to decapitate Maria. “Er, no, thanks.”

“Are you sure? He’s a sun bear. They’re considered a delicacy in—”

Rather than listening to what vamps considered yummy morsels, I raced to find my sisters. I ran into Emme first. She’d quickly freed a bunch of villagers from a large cage using her power. They huddled against one another, too terrified to move.

“
Corran, corran. Escapen de aquí
.” Emme’s small stature and soft features made her appear more friend than foe. The shaking villagers exchanged brief panicked glances before jetting out of the cell at her urging.

Anger fueled my onslaught
and
Emme’s. Once the villagers cleared the gate, she flung shards of firewood stacked in a corner and impaled the Tribesmen sprinting toward us. Those whose hearts she missed were quickly beheaded by me or by Misha’s vampires.