The Nymph's Curse: The Collection (89 page)

“Just give him the bag, honey,” Jasper said, touching her hand.

Starling let go, but there was hurt in her eyes as he forced her to give up. “I need my medication.”

“No, Starling, you don’t. We will
find
something else. I promise,” Jasper hinted. “Besides, there aren’t very many pills in your purse, are there?”

Some of the hurt was replaced with a flicker of excitement as she must have realized they still had a maneuver left in their arsenal.

“You’re right. I only brought enough GX 149 for a few days.”

That was his girl. He shouldn’t have doubted that she would catch his clues and run with it.

“I don’t think that would be long enough for it to really affect fertility. Maybe we could make some kind of deal for inventory back in Vegas? You can have the rest of my drugs if you let Jasper and I go and promise to never bother another nymph again.”

He couldn’t help but feel proud of Starling as she stood there—strong, confident, and powerful, defying her enemies.

“We don’t want just the drugs. We want the formula as well,” Virginia said. “More than that, we need proof the drugs will work. Until we have a pregnancy in our population, you will have to stay here.” The words dripped from her lips like putrid waste.

“No,” Jasper interrupted. “You’re crazy if you think I’m going to let you keep her here.”

“Virginia,” Starling interrupted, “even if I wanted to help, I don’t have the formula. That is in the hands of Harper and her team of pharmacologists.”

“Devon, get Harper on the phone. Tell her that we will kill her stepdaughter if she doesn’t get her ass here in the next twenty-four hours. Then take Starling and Jasper to their rooms.”

“To our rooms?” Starling echoed.

“Would you rather stay in our dungeon?” Virginia asked. “We aren’t complete animals. You’ve shown that you are willing to help us. However, if things change, or if you attempt to escape, our little bit of hospitality will no longer be an option. Do we have an understanding?”

Starling nodded.

“Good night. Spend it praying that Harper will come to your rescue. Otherwise, we will have to kill her to send not only you, but your Sisterhood a message.”

They wouldn’t kill Harper. They couldn’t. She was well protected within her and Chance’s new apartment in the Bellagio. Jasper had made sure of it over the last few months. Yet, Harper loved Starling. He had to assume that she would put herself at risk again.

“Let’s go,” Devon said, grabbing Starling by the arm and shoving her toward the open door.

“Don’t touch her like that,” Jasper growled. “If you do that again, I will personally cut off your hands and stick them where the sun doesn’t shine.”

“How you gonna do that, man? I don’t see you packing a lot of heat.” Devon laughed. “One helluva Sisterhood you must have there, darlin’, to send in a bodyguard who can’t even protect you. It’s almost like they were hoping you would get killed. What did you do to piss them off?”

Starling shot him a pleading look, but there was nothing he could do—at least not now.

“Jasper, let’s go,” Virginia said, motioning for him to follow. She led him out of the room, through the main hall and into a maze of concrete-walled rooms and white halls. Right and then right again, finally a left. With each turn, Jasper’s suspicion grew. Where were they really taking him? He had to find a weapon. Anything to take the vultures down and get the hell out of there, but every room they passed through was empty or nearly so, with a few only holding folded tables or large recliners. He realized how alone they were; they hadn’t passed or seen even another vulture. Something was very, very wrong.

They made their way to a large atrium where the ceiling was painted to look like a morning sky, the mural reminding him of the Venetian in Las Vegas. The room had three long rows of rectangular tables, as if it was used for a meeting hall or cafeteria. He drew in a long breath. His sense of smell was weak, but he picked up hints of barbeque mixed with heady aroma of beer. The vultures must have fed on something more than death to sustain their bodies.

Sitting at the far end of the room was a small group of women. One of them looked up at the sound of the door closing behind the foursome.

“Ms. Virginia, I’m sorry,” the woman said, standing up. The other women followed her lead. “We didn’t know she had arrived.” She motioned toward Starling. “Does the president know she is here?”

“Shut up,” Virginia ordered. “Leave now and tell no one who or what you have seen.”

Suddenly it made sense. Virginia hadn’t been trying to get him lost in the maze of hallways and rooms. She was hiding them. But why was Virginia trying to sneak them through headquarters without the president’s knowledge?

Devon pushed Starling forward, hustling her out of the dining hall. “Let’s go.”

“What’s going on?” Jasper asked as he followed Starling. “Why are you hiding us? What are you doing?”

“If you don’t shut up, I will kill you, man,” Devon growled.

“Devon, stop,” Virginia ordered. “I’m sure Jasper knows what is at risk—it’s not just his life at stake.”

“Tell me what the hell is going on,” Jasper ordered. “Obviously you don’t want your president to know we’re here, but why?”

“I have no idea what you are talking about,” Virginia said with a fake smile. “We simply want to get you into your rooms before we announce your arrival. After that, perhaps you will have a meeting with him.”

He heard the words coming out of her mouth, but something about the way she spoke, or perhaps it was the way her body stiffened, made his suspicion rise.

Devon stopped in front of a long row of doors. “This is our dormitory area. Thanks to Walter, there’s a suite that was recently vacated. You can put them in his old room. You’ll be staying here, Starling.” Taking a set of keys from his pocket, he unlocked the door.

The door opened to a large bedroom. Pictures of circling vultures adorned the walls. In the center of the room was a white queen-sized bed with Starling’s luggage beside it. “We took the liberty of collecting your things from your hotel.”

“You bastard. You had no right touching my things.” Starling rushed into the room and lifted her bag onto the bed.

“We had a courier pick up your items. I was trying to make you more comfortable. It’s hard to say how long you may be staying with us.”

Starling blanched. “If I have my way, it won’t be for more than one night.”

Devon laughed. Virginia silenced him with a motion of her hand. “We shall see how cooperative you and Jasper are. In fact, if you play nicely, you may end up walking away from this experience.”

He found that hard to believe. If they were hiding them, even if that meant putting them in the headquarters’ nicest bedrooms, there was only a slight chance Starling would make it out alive—and an even smaller chance of his survival. No matter how he played through the possible scenarios in his head, for the vultures, he was expendable—or worse, a liability. In fact, if he were separated from Starling now, there was little chance that he would make it through the night.

He had to stay alive for her.

“She can’t stay here alone. I won’t allow it,” he said, as he stopped beside Starling. “I don’t trust you.”

“That isn’t a choice you get to make, Jasper,” Virginia replied.

“Don’t underestimate me,” he threatened. “We can continue being the perfect little hostages, or we can start fighting. Your call.”

Devon glanced over at Virginia. “We’d only have to run one guard during the night. It would draw less attention.”

“Fine,” Virginia conceded. “But if something goes wrong, Devon, I will personally take it out on you.”

Jasper suddenly had an urge to make sure something went very wrong. He couldn’t help but laugh.

“Something funny?” Devon grumbled.

“Not at all. I just imagined your face uglier than it already is. I really think you would have to start wearing a bag over your head.”

Devon took a threatening step toward him, but Virginia stopped him. “No, Devon,” she said, glancing down at her watch. “We only have a few hours before the council meets. We need to get our story together. There’s no way, after we were seen in the dining hall, that we won’t have a fight on our hands. We have to tie up a few loose ends before word spreads.”

Devon nodded. “Got it, Ms. Virginia.”

Virginia glared at Jasper. “As for you two, stay out of trouble. Your lives depend on your cooperation.”

Starling rifled through her suitcase. She had all of her paperwork, her clothes, but the small, extra bottle of pills she had brought with her was missing. She had nothing left to trade for their freedom.

Jasper’s face was tight and his brow furrowed. Even from across the room, she could hear him grind his teeth. He was a good bodyguard, but she couldn’t imagine how he could get them out of this mess.

“You okay, Jasper?” she asked, pulling the zipper closed on her bag. She sat down on the edge of the bed, and as she stopped moving she realized exactly how exhausted she was. Even her eyes were tired.

“I’m fine. Are you okay?”

She nodded. Physically she was fine, but her emotions were a mess. There was no way they were going to be okay. On top of it all, she’d lost all of her medication and hadn’t found the books. The only good thing about being down in the bowels of the Catharterian headquarters was that it kept the spirits at bay. So if she stayed here, she was a goner, but if she managed to get out of this place, freedom would be its own hell when the spirits inundated her once again. Regardless of what happened, a white picket fence, dog, and a normal life weren’t in her future.

“You are being quiet.” Jasper walked over and sat on the bed beside her.

“You’re surprised that I’m quiet after everything we’ve been through? We are stuck in our enemy’s headquarters. Nothing’s going our way.” It came as a shock, but she couldn’t help the desire that simmered up from her core. Dark and dangerous—who knew that it could make a handsome man that much sexier? She looked away, focusing her attention on pushing her bag off the bed and onto the floor. It landed with a thump.

“At least we are together.” Jasper picked her bag up off the floor and sat it on its pedestal legs. “I’m sorry about all of this, Starling. I could have stopped it all from happening if I’d been strong enough to ward off Edward’s possession.”

“Strength has nothing to do with it. You didn’t stand a chance, Jasper. Once we get the books, maybe they’ll have what we need to stop something like that from ever happening to you again.”

“Do you know where we can find them?”

“Virginia took the White from the mausoleum, but I don’t know where she was taking it. As for the other books, according to Molly, a ghost I met, there are two more books in the
Libros Umbrarum:
the Black and the Red.”

“Did Molly know where to find them?” Jasper sat down on the edge of the bed, so close that he almost touched her.

The heat radiated off him, raising her desire from an ember to a flame. She couldn’t feel this way toward him. He’d made it more than clear he had no interest in her. She was his to protect, not to love. She edged back into the headboard until she was sitting fully upright.

“She didn’t.” Starling tried not to stare at the painful looking cut under Jasper’s eye.

“As far as I can tell, the headquarters is enormous. Even if we had weeks to search the place, I don’t think there’s much chance of us finding those books. That is, unless you can get some kind of clue where to look. Do you think you could use your powers?”

“You mean, do I think I could seduce someone to find out?”

“You can’t tell me you haven’t thought about it.” Jasper looked down at his hands. “I don’t understand why you don’t. If I had a power like that … ” He shook his head. “Let’s just say I would probably have more money and sex than would be healthy.”

Anger trickled into the fire of her desire. “So you’d be a man whore?”

“Maybe in the past, but not now.” Jasper looked over at her, and some of the darkness in his eyes disappeared, replaced by a flicker of something she couldn’t quite place.

“Why not now?”

Jasper grinned, making his dimple more prominent. No matter how hard she tried to force back her feelings, she couldn’t help the way her heart lifted along with the corners of his full, oh-so-kissable lips.

“Let’s just say that life has a way of becoming complicated.” He reached over and touched the back of her hand. His fingers stroked against her skin, intensifying her desire.

Did he know what he was doing? Did he understand what she experienced with just the thought of his lips pressed against hers again? If he did, he would have stopped. He would have been too protective to let her fall in love—even with him.

“How are we going to handle this, Jasper? How in the hell are we going to get out of here?”

“I don’t know, but the longer we stay, the more likely it is that they will kill me and then probably you. I’m fine with dying for you, but I can’t handle the thought that they are going to hurt you.”

“Virginia isn’t the first person who has wanted to hurt me and she’s probably far from the last. If you haven’t figured it out by now, Jasper, I’m a lot stronger than I look.”

“And a lot more stubborn.” He chuckled. “You don’t want to underestimate her. She’s hiding something, not only from us, but clearly from her council as well. You never know what a caged animal is willing to do to get what they want.”

“So what are we going to do?”

“We need to find her Achilles’ heel.”

“Devon.” Starling sighed as she glanced down at Jasper’s fingers on hers. “He’s her closest ally. If something happens to him, she will be down her right hand.”

“That will only make her more reckless if we kill him.”

“I’m not saying we kill him. I’m thinking that if I seduce him, he’s our way to make it out of here alive. ”

“So you’re saying I was right about the whole seduction idea?”

“Right is a strong word,” she said, running her thumb over his as she tried to memorize exactly how good it felt to have her hand in his. “I’m only saying that it wasn’t such a bad idea. And right now, it is our only option. We don’t have a whole lot of friends down here.”