The Nymph's Curse: The Collection (95 page)

Devon handed the gun to Jim and rushed to her side, dropping to his knees. “Sweetheart, are you okay?”

She stared at his eyes, noticing how the black had taken over. “You … you shot him.” She looked away as the bitter taste of bile filled her mouth. Jasper lay in her arms, his head perched in the crook of her elbow. “Jasper, I’m so sorry,” she whispered before leaning down to kiss his forehead. His skin was still warm, but even in its warmth it carried the weight of the dead.

“He threw you to the floor. No one can touch you like that. No one.” Devon reached for her hand that rested on Jasper’s motionless chest. She pulled away from his touch, hating him for making her move her hand from the man she loved.

“Get away,” she said through her teeth.

“But … you love me. You and I, we can be together forever.” The word
forever
hung in the air like the gun’s smoke.

“I never want to be with you,” she screamed.

Devon waved her off. “I was only protecting you. You will come to see that, sweetheart.”

“You and your friends are to be arrested for murder and treason!” President Kitchings yelled above the melee of noise. “You shall be stripped of your feathers!”

Jim raised the gun, taking aim at the president. “Who’s going to arrest me?” His finger moved under the trigger guard and Starling tensed, readying herself for the explosion.

“Jim, stop!” Virginia shouted. “You are not to hurt Steve.”

Starling slipped her arm out from beneath Jasper’s head and gently rested it on the ground. They had to pay. They had to pay for what they had done. “Devon?”

“Yes, sweetheart?” he asked.

“Get me that gun,” she said, motioning toward Jim.

“Yes, sweetheart.” Devon stood up and moved toward Jim.

She leaned down one more time and kissed Jasper’s forehead. “I love you, Jasper. I’ll always love you.”

It was funny how much she had feared saying those words when he’d been alive, but now they flowed unchecked. Perhaps if she hadn’t admitted it to herself, if she hadn’t felt that love in the first place, he would have still been alive. But no. She had selfishly allowed herself to feel.

“Give me the gun, Jim,” Devon said with outstretched hands.

“Shut up, Devon. You are as guilty as they are. You let her bewitch you. You promised you were better than this!”

“She’s so beautiful. I love her.” Devon signaled to Virginia to come closer. “Give me the gun, Jim, and I will let you run.”

Virginia stood up and, brushing off her lap, she joined the middle-aged man. “I told you that you were better off staying with me, Starling. If you would have listened, maybe your little boyfriend would still be alive. There’s really no one else to blame. You are responsible for his death.”

“Shut up, bitch!” Starling jumped to her feet. “All you care about is yourself. In fact, you don’t give a shit about Jim or Devon. You are only using them to get what you want.”

“You mean like you are using Devon? Like you used Jasper?” Virginia retorted. “Devon, do you hear this? Do you understand that if you stay with her you will end up dead as well? There’s no way out of here alive; she’s a nymph. Nymphs leave only death behind. You must overthrow the spell the harlot has passed over you and choose our side, or you will end up like every other man nymphs have sunk their claws into.”

Devon only gave Starling a bewitched, mindless smile.

“Go to hell! Go to hell!” A shrill non-human voice called from behind the room’s closed doors.

The doors to the room flew open, one hitting Jim in the back and knocking him off balance. He staggered a few steps toward the table. Devon took his chance and grabbed the gun, stripping it clean of Jim’s hands.

Standing in the doorway was Jamie, a gray parrot on her shoulder. Behind them were the Voodoo Queen Bethany, with her arm in a sling, and a dark-haired woman Starling didn’t recognize.

“Go to hell!” the parrot repeated.

“How did you get in here?” Harper asked, choking back tears of relief.

“Bethany used her magic. What in the hell is going on here?” Jamie asked. She glanced around the room until her gaze settled on Devon and the gun in his hand. “Give me that.”

“No. It’s for Starling.” He pulled the gun back against his chest protectively.

Jamie caught her eye, her gaze coming to a stop at the patch of fresh red blood on Starling’s cloak and moving to Jasper, who lay limp in her arms. “Give me the gun.” She stepped closer and grasped the gun in Devon’s hands.

“No,” he said, stepping back so his legs pressed against the side of the table.

“If you don’t, Starling is going to get hurt.” Jamie pulled the gun as Devon’s grip weakened. “You don’t want her to get hurt, do you?”

Devon released the gun, letting Jamie take it from him. “Good boy,” she said, like he was nothing more than an obedient dog. She turned to Virginia, Jim, and the rest of the council. “Ariadne?” she asked, motioning for the woman behind her to step forward.

“Thank you, Jamie.” Ariadne stopped beside Starling. She looked down at Jasper, pain radiating through her eyes. “He loved you, didn’t he?”

Starling nodded. The axe of their curse had fallen.

“I’m more sorry than you can possibly know, Starling.”

“Are you Ariadne Papadakis?”

The tanned, dark-haired woman nodded. “I’m here to help you.” She glanced back down at Jasper. “I only wish I could have come sooner. Maybe we would have avoided this tragedy.”

“Why did you bring Bethany here? She’s my enemy.”

Bethany ran her hand over the bandage on her shoulder where Starling had stabbed her. “You stabbed me. We be even.”

“You tried to steal my friend. We’re hardly even.”

“You’d do anything to be with your lover. I’m no different, except my lover's gone.”

Ariadne stepped between them. “Bethany was the only one who knew where we could find you and Harper. Without her and her magic, we never would have made it below. Mutual hatred makes great allies.” Ariadne paused. “Don’t worry, Starling, we will make this right and Bethany will help do that.”

“Fine, but make no mistake, Bethany and I will never be friends.” There was no making any of this right. Jasper was gone. Her love had killed him.

“Bethany says that you are responsible for erasing a soul. That type of action has consequences in the supernatural world. You are aware of this, are you not?” She turned as she addressed the council.

“It wasn’t us,” President Kitchings said, shaking his head. “It was Virginia and her group of followers. We never would have allowed such an action to be taken without a full vote.”

Ariadne looked to Virginia. “Is that true? Did you take this action on your own without the support of your council?”

Virginia nodded. “You wouldn’t understand … ”

“We will see that she and her lackeys are disciplined for their crimes,” President Kitchings said. “What say you, council?”

The room filled with the members’ agreement.

“She is your wife. How can I trust that you will give them the punishment they deserve?” Starling asked. “They killed him … ” she sobbed.

Ariadne wrapped her arm around Starling. “It’s okay. They will do what is right. Won’t you?”

The president nodded. “On the subject of punishment for Virginia Kitchings, Jim Peterson, and Devon James, I move that we strip them each of their feathers and all rights given to our kind. They will no longer be allowed in or around any of our communities or their members. And from this day forth, they shall no longer be allowed to call or consider themselves Catharterians. What say you, council?”

He was answered with another round of unanimous “ayes.”

Starling sucked in a long breath. Virginia, Jim, and Devon had lost everything. A shifter without their community would be at the mercy of the fates. They would no longer have the safety of their people and would be under the constant threat of other supernatural beings, beings that would love to enslave vultures and use them as they pleased. Yet, even with those staggering losses they still had their lives. The same couldn’t be said for Jasper.

“Are you happy with that punishment?” President Kitchings asked.

Ariadne looked to her. “I know that it doesn’t seem like enough. I know how badly it hurts right now, but killing them for what they have done won’t bring Jasper back. It will only bring more death. They will no longer be supernatural. In time, their new level of humanity will bring its own justice.”

Starling nodded. There would be no more death.

The taxi was cold even though the thick Savannah heat blanketed the world. Goose bumps rose over her body as she pulled Jasper’s body tighter against her. The
Libros
collection stuck out of her purse and dug painfully into her side.

“Your friend is awfully quiet, ladies. He okay?” the taxi driver asked as he peered from Harper to Starling.

Jasper was perched in the back seat, his eyes closed, and his head resting on Starling’s shoulder like he was merely asleep.

“He’s fine,” Harper replied from the front. She looked pointedly at the jacket Starling had put over Jasper’s chest to hide the bullet wound. “Just drank too much.”

The city twisted by, a world filled with deep early morning shadows, the kind that only further reminded Starling of how close they all were to the other side.

She should have taken the bullet for Jasper. She never should have gone for the elevator. She could have saved him, maybe not from her love, but at least from the bullet.

“Miss, you have something in your hair, ma’am.” The cabby pointed to a spot near the front of his head. “Right there.”

“Thanks.” Reaching up, Starling pulled a black feather from her tresses. A slight sense of satisfaction whispered through her as she opened the car’s window and pitched the feather into the wind.

“Make sure to stay behind that car,” Starling said, motioning toward the black Escalade in front of them.

“You know where they are going, ma’am?”

“No idea.” Bethany, Ariadne, and Jamie had been silent about their plans, only reassuring her that with the books everything would be okay. She found it hard to believe.

They made their way under a canopy of trees and past a long row of historical homes before the Escalade came to a stop beside Forsyth Park.

Harper glanced back at her and gave her a reassuring smile. “It will all be okay.”

Her words sounded like the letter Epione had given Devon. “Absolutely.” She smiled as a light breeze weaved through the moss that hung from the oaks, making them appear to give a welcoming wave.

The driver stepped out of the car and opened Starling’s door. “Do you need help getting your friend somewhere? If you like, I could take him somewhere to let him sleep it off.”

“No. We need to take him to the fountain,” Harper said as she came around the car.

Ariadne, Bethany, and Jamie made their way out of the black Escalade and walked back to her taxi. “We’ll help her,” Ariadne said with a soft smile.

“Are you sure you ladies can handle him, ma’am?” he asked.

“One man? That’s nothing.” Harper laughed as she handed the man the money for their fare. “Please load all of the luggage into their car. We’ll be fine from here.”

“Got it, ma’am,” the driver said, turning from their small group of women.

Starling stepped out of the car.

“I got his arms. You got his legs?” Starling asked Ariadne as she slipped her hands under Jasper’s arms.

In her wildest nightmares, Starling never would have believed that she would someday ask the leader of the Sisterhood to help carry her dead lover.

Bethany and Jamie helped slide Jasper out of the car and, with each of them holding on, they carried him to the fountain and laid him on the ground.

“Why did we need to bring him here?” Starling wiped the sweat from her brow.

The fountain’s underwater lights were still on, giving off a haunting glow.

Jamie brushed her hands clean. “Savannah’s a special place, with special magic. Didn’t you feel it when you got here?”

Starling thought back to the moment she had stepped out of the airport, the feel of the moist swamp air and the winds that hinted of potential for change. She nodded.

“This place, this wonderful park has absorbed some of the happiness that goes on ’round here. All that good energy builds up, makin’ this the place you want to be when you want good things to come back to you.”

“What’s going to happen?” Starling pressed.

“Only your goddess can answer that,” Jamie said with a mischievous smile. “You must trust in her; she has shown me what is to come.”

“They be here … ” Bethany looked around like she could see things others could not.

“Who?” Starling asked.

I promised I would be waiting…
Asclepius’s spectral voice filled her mind.

“She be comin’ soon,” Bethany whispered.

“Who?”

Asclepius’s ghostly figure stepped out from behind a large oak near the fountain. “My wife,” he said as he stroked his long beard..

“Who’s your wife?”

“Your goddess. My Epione. Have I never told you?” He smiled gently. “Did you get the books?”

“Yes, and I’m going to use them to stop you from ever bothering me again.”
She reached down and drew the Black from her purse and laid it on the ground next to Jasper’s body.

“I think you will come to regret having said that. Do you know why Zeus sent me to the Underworld?”

Starling shook her head. “What does that have to do with you being here?”

“
Zeus was angry when Artemis came to me and offered me gold to resurrect Hippolytus.” Asclepius glanced up at the sculpture of the woman at the top of the fountain.

“You bring the dead back to life? Can you bring Jasper back to life?” She had learned her lesson for hoping, but this time she couldn’t help herself. She had to hope for Jasper’s return. She needed him back.

“I could, but only when I was alive.”

Her heart sank at his rejection. “If you can’t help me bring Jasper back, why are you here?”

“I wish to help. You have great potential.”

The wind shifted directions and it blew a faint mist off the water, the moisture wetting her face, drawing her attention to the fountain. The white, iron woman at the top shifted. Her hand, holding the iron dress above her knee, loosened and the changing fabric dropped to her ankle. Her face transformed. The lines of the woman’s face softened and her lips turned up into an easy smile. “Starling, my dear, you must trust my husband. He only wishes to help. Just as I do.” Epione floated down, rod in hand, and stopped beside Starling on the sidewalk. “We will make everything right just as Ariadne has promised.”