Cursed (Book 1, The Watchers; Young Adult Paranormal Romance) (24 page)

“No.”

Brand took me to
the kitchen sink and tenderly washed the blood away from my shaking hand.  He
made me sit at the kitchen table while he filled a bowl with water and brought
it to me to soak my injured foot in.

“Tell me what
happened,” he said washing the blood away from my foot.

I told him
everything I could remember about my encounter with Malcolm.

“Who is he?  What
is he?” I asked.

Brand had finished
washing my foot and was drying it off with a towel by this time. 

“I can’t believe
he left you alive,” he said instead of answering my questions. 

“He said my blood
didn’t smell like other humans.  What did he mean by that?”

Brand stood and
pulled out his cell phone.  He found the number he wanted and hit send.

“Will, you need to
get over to Lilly’s as quickly as you can.  We need to talk.  Malcolm paid her
a visit.”  There was a pause.  “No don’t bother with that.  Just get over
here.”

Within seconds
there was a knock at my door.  What the hell was going on?  How were they
traveling so quickly?

Then it hit me. 
Malcolm had traveled just as quickly.  The memory of Will in the basement came
back to me.  It was the same thing.  But if Brand and Will could travel like
Malcolm… 

I stood up and ran
to my room as Brand let Will in.

I shut the door
behind me and locked it.  Lot of good that would do, I realized.  If they were
like Malcolm they could just appear in my room before I could even blink.

“Lilly!” Brand
banged on my door with his fist.  “Lilly, what’s wrong?”

“You’re both just
like him!” My heart was pounding in my chest.  I was having difficulty
breathing.  “Stay away from me!”

“Lilly, please. 
We can explain.”  It was Will this time.

“Stay away from
me!” I shrieked.

“Come on, we need
to talk,” I heard Brand say to Will.  “Let her come out on her own.”

They both walked
away from the other side of my door.

I put my back to
the door and slid down it until I was sitting on the floor.  My mind raced from
thought to thought so fast I didn’t know what I was thinking anymore.  I could
hear Brand and Will whispering in the front room.  Whatever they were saying it
sounded like they were having a heated argument. 

I sat on the floor
and put my aching head in my hands.  What the hell was going on?  I desperately
tried to sort through what I knew, which wasn’t much. 

There wasn’t any
logical way that both of them could have come to my apartment so quickly unless
they had the same power Malcolm demonstrated to me.  What were they?

“Lilly.”

I jerked my head
up out of my hands and looked around the room.  The air around me suddenly
became very cold, like I was in a freezer.  I could see my warm breath condense
in the air around me.  The light on my ceiling flickered like it had a short
and finally went out plunging me into darkness.

“Lilly, don’t be
afraid.” 

It was a voice I
instantly recognized.  In the far corner of my room, I saw a blue light
appear.  Slowly, just like in the science building basement, the image of the
eight year old Will took shape.

“Don’t be
frightened, Lilly,” he cautiously walked closer to me doing his best not to
scare me.  He stopped a foot from me and sat down Indian style.

“Will?”  I asked,
not believing my eyes but strangely not afraid of the ghostly form in front of
me.  I actually felt comforted by my ethereal visitor.

“It’s me, Lilly.”
A sad smile touched his lips.

“I don’t
understand,” I said shaking my head.  “You look like a ghost.”

“I am.”

“But you’re not
dead.  You’re sitting in the living room!”  I pointed toward the wall where the
living room would be on the other side as if this would prove my point.

“It’s hard to
explain.”

“Could you try?” 
I pleaded.  “Because I think I might lose my mind if something doesn’t start
making sense soon.”

“I’m sorry you’ve
been having such a tough time lately.  I’ll try to explain, but I don’t know
everything either.”  He paused obviously trying to think of the best way to
explain what was going on.  “Do you remember that night by the lake?”

“Of course I do. 
I almost died.”

“I did die.”

“Then who’s that
out in my living room?”

“It was so dark
the night you fell in,” he continued with a distant look in his eyes
remembering that night.  “I tried to find you but I just couldn’t.   I wasn’t
strong enough.  I went so deep in the water I got confused and couldn’t tell
which way was up anymore.  He came to me then and said neither of us would
survive unless he took my body.”

I gasped.  “Did he
kill you?”

“Not exactly.  I
was already dying.  He just gave me a way to save you.”

Young Will looked
at me with a melancholy smile, filled with regret for not being stronger for
me.  Maybe he should have let me die that night.  Maybe I was
supposed
to have died and Fate was just trying to correct the course of my existence. 

Will had been the
first of a string of innocent deaths caused by my cursed life and I didn’t even
know it.  The reality of my loss finally sunk in.  I had lost my Will, my best
friend that night.  His soul had been replaced with something I couldn’t even
fathom existed.

“What is he,
Will?”

“It would be
better if you let him explain it to you.  Do you trust me Lilly?”

“I’ve always
trusted you,” I cried. 

“Then you need to
go out there and let them explain what’s going on.”

“How can I trust
them?” I asked, tears spilling freely now.  “All they’ve done is lie to me.”

“They love you. 
That’s not a lie.  They can explain things to you better than I can.  Don’t
cry, Lilly.  You’re not alone.”

The ghostly form
of Will slowly began to fade.

I stretched my
hand out to him in desperation.  “Don’t leave,” I begged, unable to bear the
thought of losing him again.  “Stay with me.”

“I wish I could
but it’s hard for me to stay this way for very long.  Don’t cry, Lilly Rayne. 
I’ll be with you.  I’ve always been with you.”

Will faded away
leaving me alone in the dark.

Chapter 13

I’m not sure how
long I sat there, probably just a few minutes.  The air in the room warmed back
up and the ceiling light eventually flashed back on.  I finally pulled my self
together and decided I needed some answers.  If what Will’s ghost said was true,
then I had nothing to fear from Brand and the Will sitting in my living room.

I wiped the tears
from my face and stood up.  My hand trembled as I held onto the door knob but I
forced myself to stop being afraid.  I needed answers.  I unlocked my door,
took a deep breath and walked into the living room.

Will stopped his
pacing in front of Brand, who was sitting on the futon, when he saw me.  Brand
stood up immediately.  I noticed he’d taken off his tie and coat.  His white
shirt was unbuttoned at the top.

Neither of them
spoke.  I guess they were waiting to see if I was going to freak out on them
again.

I hugged my arms
to my chest.  “I need some answers.” I said to them.  “And I don’t want either
of you to lie to me anymore.  I need to know the truth.”

Will looked at
Brand who was staring at me with an apprehensive expression on his face.

“We’ve already
decided to answer anything you want to know, Lilly.  As best we can anyway,”
Will said.

“I’d feel better
if you both sat down.  You’re making me nervous.”

Brand retook his
spot on the futon and Will sat beside him.  I sat down in the rocking chair
across from them.

“I’m not sure
where to begin,” I said more to my self than to the two in front of me.  “I
guess I need to know what you both are.”

“You know,” Will
said with a wry expression on his face.  “I think I’ve had this conversation
with you a thousand or more times in my head and each time I never knew exactly
what to say to that question.”

“Say the truth.” I
implored.

Brand took the
lead.  “Do you believe in angels?”

“Like in the
Bible?”

“Yes,” Brand
nodded.  “You’ve read those stories right?”

“Yes.”  I looked
at Will and Brand.  “Are you telling me your angels?”

“Yes and no.  We
are angels but we’ve both fallen out of grace for different reasons.”

“Are you talking
about God’s grace?”

“Yes.”  They both
said in unison.

“So you’re telling
me you’re both fallen angels?”  I asked incredulously.

“Yes,” Brand said
watching me closely for my reaction.

“What did you do
to get kicked out of heaven?  Was it something evil?” I asked.

“Sinful would be
the more appropriate term,” Brand said.

“What did you do?”
I asked him pointedly.

He leaned forward
with his elbows resting on his thighs and lacing his fingers together in front
of him as if contemplating his next words.  It was obvious by his expression
that what he was about to tell me was difficult for him to say out loud.

“Have you ever
read the
Book of Enoch
?”

“Enoch?”  I shook
my head.  “I don’t remember that book being in the Bible.”

“No, it was one of
the books left out of the modern translation.  In the
Book of Enoch
, it
tells the story of angels who walked among humans in human form.  I was one of
those angels.  We were called the Watchers.  We all eventually fell in love
with humans, married, and had children with them.  God was furious with our
actions.  He banned us from ever entering heaven again unless we could prove
ourselves worthy of his forgiveness.”

“Was that all he
did to you?” I asked.

Brand became even
more unsettled.  “For me, it was the worse thing he could have done.  But, we
and our children were punished even further for our disobedience.”

“How?  What did he
do?”

“All of the
Watchers were cursed with an almost uncontrollable craving for human blood.”

“Like vampires?”

“Yes.  We are what
the vampire legend stems from.”

“So,” I was
hesitant to ask what I wanted to know.  “Do you drink blood?”

“No.  I have never
drunk the blood of a human.  Once a Watcher does that, they’re completely
damned.  I don’t think there’s a way to find forgiveness in His eyes after such
an abominable act.  The urge to drink human blood is another test we have to
endure if we ever want to be forgiven.  Over the years I’ve found ways to not
crave it as badly as I first did.  There was a long time in the beginning when
I couldn’t stand being around humans at all.  Eventually I found ways to live
among you again.”

 “Last Sunday, you
said that Michelle’s attempt on my life was your fault because of what you are,
what did you mean?”

 “Haven’t you ever
wondered why girls around me find me so irresistible?”

 “Well that’s
easy.  Have you seen yourself in a mirror?”

 Brand grinned. 
“But there are a lot of handsome guys around,” Brand sat back on the futon. 
“It’s another part of the curse I bear.”

“What, your cursed
to be irresistible to women?”

Brand’s smile grew
wider.  It nearly took my breath away. I’d missed seeing it so much the past
week.

“I produce a
pheromone that attracts women.  Most men do but mine is a thousand times more
potent.”

“Androstadienone?”

“Yes,” he said
with a tilt of his head.  “I’m surprised you’ve heard of it.”

“Detective Randall
said they found a large dose of it in Michelle’s system.  Is that why she went
crazy?”

“It’s part of the
reason,” Brand agreed.  “She had to have already been a bit mentally unbalanced. 
I didn’t help matters any.”

“Is that why I
feel the way I do about you?”

The smile faded
from his face to be replaced by an expression I couldn’t read.  Like he was
purposely hiding what he felt.  “I don’t know.  It could be.”

It wasn’t the
answer I wanted to hear but neither could I deny that I was only human.

“You’ve been
around Tara a lot too but she’s never tried to kill me over you.”

“I’ve wondered
about that myself.  I think it’s her loyalty to you that protects her.  It’s
just not conceivable to her to even think about me in that way because of the
rift it would cause between the two of you.  You have an exceedingly strong
bond with one another.”

“So is Malcolm a
Watcher who gave in?  He mentioned something about drinking my blood.”

“Yes, he gave into
his thirst a long time ago.”

“You seemed
surprised when I told you he didn’t try to bite me.”

“I was.  By all
rights you should be dead now.  Malcolm’s never let a human live once he’s
hunted them down.”

“Why do you think
he left me alone?”

“I honestly don’t
know, but I do understand what he was talking about when he said your blood
wasn’t like any other humans.”

“What do you
mean?”

“With almost every
human I come into contact with, I have to check myself and maintain the wall
I’ve built to not just rip out their throats and have my fill.  But with you,”
I could hear the amazement in his voice.  “With you, I don’t feel the craving
at all.  I don’t have to raise my shield when I’m around you.  I can just be
myself.  I can only assume that’s what Malcolm sensed.  You’re a …anomaly.  I’m
sure he’s curious about you now.”  Brand seemed uneasy with his last statement.

“He said someone
sent him to kill me.  Do you know who that is?”

“Not yet,” Will
piped in.  “I’ve been trying to find the answer to that for a long time.”

“A long time?  So
all the near misses I’ve had, they were actually caused by someone?  I wasn’t
just imagining a connection between them?”