Page 238 of The Curse Trilogy

“Really? You couldn’t find a single pen?” I scoff.

“I stopped looking when I ran across these,” he says while motioning to the pictures I’m shoveling back into the bottom drawer. “So you’re willing to marry Brazen even though you’re not over me?”

“I am over you. As of tonight, it’s fucking official. If you fuck Alex in here, at least get my shit out first. I just came to finish up my paperwork before I leave. I’ll take it back to my apartment.”

“Araya, talk to me. I need to tell you something that has been killing me for years,” he groans. “Don’t marry Brazen, baby. I won’t live if you do.”

Every teardrop able to rush my lids falls out in unison to drench my face instantly as the bowling ball crashes to the front of my stomach once more.

“You can’t say shit like that, Hale. You’ll live, and you’ll be just fine. You never loved me, you love fucking other girls… including Alex. You broke me, and you win. I give up trying to love you. Just let me be happy with the only other man I’ve ever cared about. He’s good for me even though I’m terrible for him,” I sob out, and his arms wrap around me as I cry into his chest.

“Araya, I really fucked up worse than I meant to, and I saw it tonight. Please give me just a couple of months. Don’t marry him yet.”

I shove him off of me, and my eyes burn with resentment and fury as I scold, “Stop it! Just stop! You threw me aside. I’m sick of your mind-fucks. We’re savagely connected. Nothing else.”

I barge out of the room with my files in tow, and my tears race down my cheeks as I feel him whipping me around. My back presses against the wall and his lips cover mine feverishly as desire pours in. The files drop and papers slice against each other as they crash to the ground. My hands wrap around his neck, and he pulls my hips up when my legs wrap around his waist. It’s so fucking hard to deny him, but I have to.

He rips my shirt open as he forces me back into my office, and then my back slaps the top of my desk as the sound of his belt rattling rings like the sanity bell.

“Fuck! Stop,” I blare, and I use my gift to sling him off me.

“Araya, I love-”

“Don’t you fucking dare. Don’t do it. Don’t say it,” I say through gritted teeth as my tears fall fiercely.

I run out again, and I leave the papers in their messy pile on the floor as I rush down the winding hallways. My tears drip down my flushed face as the taste of Hale lingers on my lips. I can’t go back to Brazen’s apartment looking like this. I can’t explain what just happened without him, me, or both of us losing control. Why is Hale doing this to me?

I burst through my door without even swiping my key, and I slam against it with my back once I’m safely inside the dark, cold, and windy room. Why are all of my windows open?

I flick the light switch up, and nothing happens. Great. They must have cut off my power while I was gone. My fucking bill was paid though.

I huff as I use my gift to shut all the windows at once, and then something happens I could have never prepared for. Streaks of pain surge through me like running knives as my piercing shrieks scream out uselessly in my heavily padded apartment.

My body spasms as I convulse from the electricity violently surging through my body, and I scream out again as another zipping sound spirals toward me and connects with my chest to pierce my weakened flesh, drawing my blood to the surface. My gifts are rendered useless as the electricity courses through my body, and the face of my attacker stays hidden in the shadows of the home I once considered safe.

The eerie silence shatters against my screams and the laugh of one sadistic bastard in the room with me.

“It’s funny how things work out. I was starting to worry you wouldn’t come back tonight,” Leon’s maniacal voice chirps.

Chills spread over my convulsing body as he steps out in front of me with his glowing night eyes. I would shiver if I could stop shaking long enough, but all I can do is panic. I’m ungifted when electrically charged, and I’m completely vulnerable to any attack he wants to send my way like this.

“What’s the matter, Ms. Crush? Not able to fling me across the room or go invincible? That’s a shame. It’s so pathetic how easy it is to bring you down, but so few know about your little weakness. I, however, know everything there is to know about you now that you fucked my life up.”

Vengeance fuels his hatred as it spews from his words. His smile spreads, carrying a malevolent glow to his burning eyes.

“I… didn’t… fuck it… up,” I chatter out through the convulsions. “You did… you… bastard.”

“Even now you’re a defiant and disrespectful little bitch, aren’t you? That’s good. It’ll make this so much better. You see, there’s this wonderful dream I’ve always had. I’ve always wanted to feel the burn of the sun warming my skin. I’ve always wanted to taste the food the hybrids and humans take for granted. I never though it possible until your boyfriend walked out of that building alive and well,” he growls.

No. No. Please no.

“You… you staged the… prison run ambush,” I grunt out through the streaking pain.

“I did. I never even gave a damn if the full blood prisoner escaped. I wanted your hybrid ass dead,” he growls. “I was disappointed when I saw you running around, but there was a small victorious twinkle in my eye when I saw that arrogant cocksucker you call a boyfriend blown all to fuck. I shot out your blood truck myself so no sneaky half breathers would have the chance to heal and rise from the ashes. Then you go into a building where all hope is lost, and come out with a completely healed full blood. Now I personally checked all the buildings - including the ones you knocked down - before you got there, and there wasn’t a drop of blood on the premises. That leaves only one answer to his miraculous recovery… your blood.”

He shoots another strand into my body from his energy gun, and I scream as more waves of vicious currents surge through me. I hear the cracking of my bones as my body distorts to the most heinous positions and I begin gasping for air.

“Now here’s the best part, I followed you. I watched from the safety of my black tinted windows of my vehicle as your boyfriend climbed out of the car and stepped into the sunlight. I watched him stretch out his arms and soak in the sun no other full blood has ever experienced. I saw the reddening of his skin as it filled him with warmth. Then I followed you again. I watched him eating, gorging himself on heaps of food. You selfish bitch. Your blood can change us all, and you’re just going to cling onto it as if you have some divine right.”