Cursed. Lisa Childs

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СКАЧАТЬ woman crouched behind him. Long curly black hair hung down her back. She wore an old gray sweater and a long skirt. And from the folds of the long skirt she pulled a knife. The backs of her hands were gouged, as if she’d already fought with someone. And then she swung the blade of that long knife toward the man’s back...

      That woman was Maria. Not the one lying on the floor. Joseph’s contacts had confirmed that Elena’s youngest sister had been a con artist. Elena remembered helping her mother run cons—before she, Ariel and Irina had been taken away from her. But Maria had kept running those cons—by herself—after their mother abandoned her. So she’d chosen to be a con artist. Was she now a killer?

      Or had she always been?

      Elena had had other visions. She had seen other bodies. Was Maria so damaged—so evil—that she had taken those lives?

      “No...” Irina murmured the word in her sleep as she shifted restlessly on the bed.

      “She can hear you,” Ariel warned her. “What are you thinking?”

      “I’m remembering a vision.”

      Ariel’s turquoise eyes widened and glowed in the darkened bedroom. She knew about the visions—knew that Elena wasn’t as convinced as she and Irina that it was a good idea to find Maria.

      They were desperate to find the youngest Cooper sister because they were worried that Maria was in danger. Elena was worried that Maria was the danger.

      Maybe to them all...

      Ariel settled closer to Elena’s side, as if seeking comfort. She softly murmured, “I hope you’re wrong.”

      Elena shrugged so that her shoulder rubbed against Ariel’s—offering comfort as she had when they were kids. “I can’t help what I see.”

      And if Maria was what Elena was afraid she was, then they wouldn’t be able to help her, either.

      * * *

      Maria fought to breathe as she waited in the cell, opening her mouth to suck in deep breaths—to fill her aching lungs.

      Was it her fear? Or someone else’s?

      Shortly after Seth Hughes had locked her in the room and left, she’d felt that choking sensation. It wasn’t the too-close walls that were shrinking the already small room. It was the mist that filtered in beneath the door.

      “No,” she murmured around the sob choking her throat. She felt as though that noose were around her neck, pulling tight, cutting off her breath. Off her life...

      Raven had been such a sweet girl. She had never done anything wrong except for trying to be Maria’s friend...and for being a witch. Raven had wanted to be a witch. That was why she’d sought out the shop. Not for the healing cures or love potions that Maria could sell her. Like learning to read the cards, Raven had wanted to learn to make the potions and cures herself.

      Maria glanced down at the photos Agent Hughes had left strewn across the small table. Every one of them had wanted the same thing. To practice witchcraft...

      Even the two guys. And one of them had been crushed to death, the other burned. But had becoming a witch been their real wish...or was it just because they’d wanted to be close to her?

      She had been told that she was that kind of person—the kind who drew other people to her. Apparently even when she didn’t want to...

      Like Raven...

      Her breath shuddered out with the sob that she couldn’t restrain. Nobody could get close to her without losing everything.

       Nobody...

      She reached out for the briefcase Agent Hughes had left on the table to see what else he had inside—like maybe the keys to the door. But the case was empty; he’d only had those crime scene photos in it. No keys. She needed the keys. She had to get out of here—before she suffocated or strangled. But as soon as her fingers touched the leather, images flashed through her mind...like when she read cards or touched a crystal ball.

      His smoky blue eyes stared down at her, his gaze intense. Not with anger or suspicion now but with passion. Moonlight gleamed on the bare skin of his broad shoulders and heavily muscled chest. Then his face, so handsome with his square jaw and sharp cheekbones, got closer as he lowered his body. His legs, naked but for soft hair, parted hers. And his chest covered her breasts, crushing them so that her nipples hardened and pressed against his skin.

      She moaned at the exquisite sensation. But it wasn’t enough. She wanted more, wanted his mouth...everywhere. On her lips, on her breasts and...

      He must have read her mind because he chuckled and his chest rumbled against hers. “I can’t believe this...”

      She shook her head, shaking off the image. “I can’t believe it, either.” It couldn’t be a vision; making love with Seth Hughes would not happen. Not just because he thought she was a killer, and she wasn’t entirely convinced he wasn’t one, too, but also because she would never, ever make the mistake of getting close to anyone else.

      Ever again.

      Even though she didn’t need reminders of what happened to people who got too close to her, she tried to focus on those pictures. Maybe she could see something in the crime scene photos that would help her figure out who was doing this. Who was the dark aura following her...

      But even in her visions, she never saw a person, never saw who was hurting these victims. She saw only the darkness. The evil.

      And then these images that the crime scene photos had captured. She had seen them before they had even happened—in her mind as she’d read their cards. The same cards that had turned up tonight. For Raven. The mist thickened so that she couldn’t see the photos. Or anything in the room.

      Then the mist shifted into a human form. She expected Raven’s tall thin body, so she gasped in surprise at the small stature and long curly black hair of the ghost. “No...”

      She shoved back her chair, as far as the wall would allow, and jumped up. Then she turned toward the door, clawing at the handle and hammering at the wood. “Let me out! Let me out!”

      “I’m not going to hurt you,” that all-too-familiar soft voice assured her.

      The scent of sandalwood and lavender, mixing with her own, overwhelmed her. And smoke. She always smelled smoke now whenever this ghost visited her. Tears burned her eyes. Seeing her always hurt. “I don’t want to see you. I told you to leave me alone!”

      Her voice cracked with so many emotions as the ghost whispered her name: “Maria...”

      “Go away!” she screamed.

      “I can’t leave you, child.”

      “Why not? You had no problem leaving me before!” she lashed out.

      “I did it for you,” her mama’s ghost insisted. “To keep you safe.”

      “You left a fifteen-year-old to fend for herself. How was that keeping me safe?” She had been lucky to survive СКАЧАТЬ