Beauty's Cursed Sleep Page 17

  Cordray felt a small thrill of vindication when Jared was rendered useless, struck with pain only he could inflict. He reveled in Jared’s agony, permitting a dark smile to curve his features.

  In that moment, Cordray knew that even if he escaped, they’d succeeded in changing part of him that was precious to the survival of a soul. He’d been so aware of the fight to keep his body alive; he forgot to make sure his soul came out the other end intact. There was nothing much for him if he came to Rory all twisted by Malaura. Though, at this point, he knew part of that was a done deal.

  It was when Cordray started to smell something burning that he realized what Malaura had done. She’d used him to murder Jared (which, Cord had to admit, crossed his mind on many occasions). But being used solely as a weapon opened a door inside of him that he knew might never be shut again.

  When Malaura released them both, Jared fell to the floor. A sad puff of smoke wafted from his lips, signifying that everything that had once been alive inside of him was now fried.

  Malaura rolled her shoulders back and cracked her neck, smiling with satisfaction at the dastardly deed she’d orchestrated. “My, my. How deadly these Lethals are. If anyone comes looking for you, I think we’ll keep Jared here as proof that you’ve gone off the rails. I’ve never seen anyone’s Pulse as strong as yours. I killed him in almost no time at all, with barely any concentration! To have that coursing through my veins?” She smiled at him, eyes lidded as she shivered. “Oh, the fun we’ll have together.”

  Her guards were all in various stages of shock. There’s a certain amount of evil that’s expected when one signs up to fight with the bad guy, but judging by the worried looks on their faces, Cordray surmised that Malaura had never turned on any of them in such an irreparable way before.

  “Your majesty, is Jared… Did you kill him?” Dustin asked, horrified.

  She glanced around the room with narrowed eyes, taking in their terror with a superior glint. “He failed me. Hopefully that will be a lesson for all of you. Fail me too many times, and risk my displeasure. Jared displeased me, so he’s dismissed from my service.”

  Cordray listened to the conversations volley back and forth between her and her henchmen. He’d never seen them question her before, and it was just the confusion he needed to create enough chaos to stage his escape.

  Malaura’s fingers flexed when one of the men accused her of setting Jared up for failure. “No one can do what you wanted him to train the new guy to do – not even you! It’s not possible! You killed Jared for nothing!”

  When Malaura stalked over to the backtalker, Cordray didn’t move more than a simple twisting of his wrist, so he could aim his palm at the man. The moment she touched her brazen henchman, Cord shot an electric current out that flashed a spark only as it zapped on the man’s skin. He cried out, but the others didn’t understand it as anything other than Malaura enacting her malicious desires onto her peons. To the others, it appeared as if she was shaking him, but only Cordray knew it was his current surging through the man. The electricity leapt into her body, freezing them together with enough electricity to keep her from alerting the others with an intelligible command.

  Over and over, Cordray shot the man, amping up the current each time until Jared wasn’t the only body smoking in the long, cold throne room. Though they’d all been hoping for it, no one other than Malaura actually expected Cordray would be able to cast his Pulse - murdering without a single touch.

  There was a moment of hesitation when he realized two more people’s deaths would now be on his head, but Cordray resolved himself to feel the remorse later, in the fresh air where even the darkest of sins had room to fly away.

  29

  The Evolution of Magic

  When Malaura fell, it was with a cry of elation that Cordray gave away his position of power. The henchmen were torn between tending to their queen, and charging the Lethal who’d taken down their fearsome leader.

  Cordray didn’t know what kind of man he would be after this, but he knew he wouldn’t find out if he never made his way out of the bunker. His slack jaw snapped back into place, and his slumped posture became lithe and strong. His hands rose, and though he didn’t want to fight them, he knew there was no other option. Even if they somehow agreed to let him go, the knowledge of what he could do would be out there, circulating for others to try. They wouldn’t stop until he was studied and his abilities replicated, shoving Pulsing up to the next level of danger. It would be catastrophic if people had a wider tether to enact their wills upon others.

  For the good of the world, no one could know what he was now capable of. He stood in front of the doorway, guessing that he could cut and run right now, and probably escape. But for how long? He knew that as much as he wanted to bolt, the madness needed to end today. Cordray shook his head, wishing there was a better solution, but understanding there wasn’t one.

  “Calm it down, Cordray. Put the cuffs on, and we’ll go easy on you,” one of the men said, picking up the rubber cuffs from the floor and tossing them to him.

  The cuffs banged against Cord’s chest, and then fell to the floor. “I think you’ll all do what I say this time around. Dustin, put these cuffs on yourself. I’m walking out of here with only one prisoner today, and it’s going to be you.”

  Dustin blinked at Cord, confused. “How long have you been able to throw your Pulse?”

  “Put on the cuffs, or I’ll electrocute you just as easily as I did your queen!”

  Dustin jerked into action, obeying as the sweat dripped down his hairy temples. “What’s the plan, Cord? You’re going to fry them all?”

  Cordray flexed his fingers and bent his knees, willing all of them to attack, so his conscience could justify the works of his hands.

  When the first man took a hesitant step toward him, Cord didn’t hold back. His abdomen tensed as he Pulsed out a current of electricity enough to light the entire bunker for a week. The man didn’t cry out – his body was too locked down to manage the smallest of sounds.

  The others shouted enough on his behalf. Though they’d seen Malaura go down in the same way, to watch one of their own breathe his last in the span of a few seconds shocked them all into action. Some of them charged him, while others backed away. It was a risk to touch Cord, but some of them were just kamikaze enough try it. Cordray felt his arm begin to burn when the man who could singe skin with a single touch grabbed him. But no sooner did the burning sensation make him cry out, did the current pass through and deliver a direct hit to the attacker’s chest.

  Over and over, Cord shot out currents, his aim growing more miserably off the mark as he was touched by Lethals who were desperate to take him down.

  The biggest difference was that they had only their own lives to fight for. Cordray commissioned himself with the knowledge that Rory’s life now depended on his survival, so he fought through the fire, through the broken wrist one of them delivered with a well-placed touch, through the pain, and finally, through the last man’s end.

  Cordray let out a noise of distress as the breath was knocked out of him when he was tackled from behind. He cried out when none other than Dustin bashed his forehead down on the concrete, dazing him, but not knocking him out.

  When Cordray’s warden knelt on his back as he tried to suck the air from his lungs, Cordray knew he had no other option. Though he didn’t even know if it was possible to Pulse someone through one’s back, and not through touch or throwing his Pulse, he spun fate’s wheel and gave it a frantic try. The on-tap current Pulsed through his entire body, making him light up with electricity. He cried out as the current shot through his spine and up into Dustin. It was desperation that led to a second magical rule of nature being broken, but Cordray took no joy in the metamorphosis.

  Dustin slumped to the floor after Cordray tipped the dead body off his back. He lay for a few minutes on the concrete, catching his breath and willing the world to stop spinning. Finally, he managed to get up onto his hand and knee
s, his chest heaving as he cradled his broken wrist to his chest. His skin had burn marks littering his forearms, but he didn’t care. He could scarcely feel anything anymore. It was all clouded by the burning desire to get home to Rory.

  So focused was he on getting to the home that always called to him, that he didn’t do more than a quick surveillance of the room to check for partially moving bodies.

  He didn’t think to check for heartbeats – his own pounding too loud as he stumbled through the many hallways, and finally, out into the daylight.

  30

  Unhinged Escape

  Driving toward the mansion was challenging with only one hand, but Cordray managed. When he hit the freeway, he found he wasn’t even in his home state, but far from anything familiar. Unhinged as he was, he scraped at the skin on his neck to force himself to stay alert through the long drive in the stolen vehicle.

  It had been so long since he’d seen the outdoors. It was all so bright, with clumps of snow marking the season, letting him know the world had indeed kept spinning without his participation.

  He wanted to take a minute to appreciate his escape, but wasn’t sure how big Malaura’s infrastructure actually was. If more would be coming, he didn’t want to be waiting around, unconscious and easy to pick off. He bit down on his finger to keep himself awake, but soon only the pain of moving his broken wrist was enough to keep him alert.

  He wasn’t sure where exactly he’d started out, but he hoped making a call to Rory’s phone from the one he’d stolen off the body of a dead man would at least tell him where he was going. He knew he didn’t want to be anywhere near the bunker when law enforcement showed up.

  “Stay where you are!” Benjamin ordered him upon answering Rory’s phone and hearing a few clipped sentences from the man they’d been searching for for months. “They need to take your statement and get you medical help. You sound deranged, Cord.”

  “I don’t care about making a statement! Tell me where she is! The cops can follow me there.” His voice slurred on a few of the words, due to his adrenaline plummeting, which combined poorly with his undernourishment and head injury.

  “Pull over. You’ll be no good to her if you drive off the road. You sound drunk.”

  “Not drunk. Where is she? Tell her I’m coming.”

  “Pull over, and I’ll come and get you myself. You have to talk to the police. Everyone’s been looking for you.”

  “You have?” Cord was stunned. He’d assumed they’d given up long ago.

  “Of course,” Benjamin’s voice softened. “You belong with us.”

  Cordray shook his head when the road started to blur in front of him. In the back of his mind he knew he should pull over, but he’d survived this far. He didn’t want to get abducted again. “You can’t leave her. I’ll come to you.”

  “Stop your car and tell me where you’re at. I’ll send Remus to pick you up.”

  Cordray finally obeyed, but only because he had to. The world was starting to get blurry around the edges. “Hit my head,” he murmured to Benjamin.

  “Tell me where you are!” Benjamin roared, and in the background, Cordray could hear the purr of the town car’s engine firing up.

  A note of angst crept out of Cordray as the confession bubbled to the surface. “They’re dead! I killed the Lethals. There wasn’t any other way. Malaura, she’s… Someone needs to come clean up all these bodies.”

  Benjamin swore. “How many of them had you captive?”

  “A dozen? Maybe more? I got out, but I had to kill them to escape.” The confession felt like breathing, but Cordray knew it would take more than that to cleanse his soul from the filth that felt caked into the crevices of his psyche.

  Cordray glanced out the windshield and squinted up at the green sign overhead on the freeway. “Fairview in one mile. Exit 136. Black sedan. Dead bodies. Rory! Rory.”

  That was all he could get out before the edges of his periphery began to tunnel. He pulled off onto the side of the freeway seconds before the world he’d longed to see once more faded to black.

  31

  The Teacher and the Student

  Cordray’s dreams were blurry and strange. There were swirling colors and shapes that seemed to represent people, but didn’t look a thing like them. He heard voices that echoed down from the heavens, but couldn’t connect the voices to actual language until he strained to pay attention.

  The tune of the voice was easy to pick out – Malaura had that way about her. When her words started to funnel down and put themselves in proper order, Cord stiffened. “Mine! He slaughtered too many people to walk free. You’ll let me have him, or I’ll come after you both!” She didn’t sound her usual cruel and calculating; she sounded almost drunk, her speech slurring.

  Cordray’s heart seized in confusion. His lips parted to offer up a protest to the universe for messing with him so cruelly. Malaura died. She was on the ground when last I left. The current I hit her with had to have been strong enough.

  “You’re in no position to make bargains. Let him go, or you die. Are you limping? Is the great Malaura actually displaying weakness to us common folk?”

  Cordray rallied at the sound of Benjamin’s voice. Though he didn’t particularly care for the fact that the stoic guard came with Rory as part of the package deal, in that moment, he knew he would gladly build the man a spare bedroom on his cabin if only Benjamin could get him out of this mess unscathed.

  “Wake up, Cord!”

  Cordray opened his eyes, but the world swam at a sickening pace. The colors and shapes began to blur into dripping lumps of clay that all seemed to want something from him. He felt his heels skip over rocks, and realized he was being dragged. Sharp nails dug into his armpits, piercing his skin and rousing him faster than the strongest coffee. The evening sky greeted him with a hearty cheer of “Get up and run!” so he tried his best to comply. His legs felt weighted and his arms clumsy, but he had one thing going for him that didn’t require much effort on his part. Cord was heavy, and thick with muscle. It didn’t take much for him to heft his body out of her grip, landing himself perched on three limbs on the side of the freeway.

  Remus and Benjamin ran forward, the latter with his knife drawn and murder glowing in his eyes. Cord didn’t understand how it was that she was upright, and well enough to drag him ten whole meters from the car he’d stolen fair and square. He’d electrocuted her with enough volts to make smoke billow from her parted crimson lips. There was no way he hadn’t killed her.

  Fear lit him up from the inside when the thought crossed his mind that perhaps he wasn’t powerful enough to take down such a formidable foe. For all the interest Remus had shown in cultivating Cord’s magic, praising him for its strength, Malaura had survived his best attempt.

  Malaura was livid and growing desperate. “We have as much right to magic as you do! I won’t stop until every Lethal knows the full extent of their power! My brother took my kingdom from me, but see? They flock to me, even when I have no crown!”

  “Where are they now?” Remus countered, his chin raised in defiance.

  Her drunkenness was painted with the brush of sweetness, as if she loved Remus without reservation, forgiving his betrayal. “Oh, my little lost boy. My favorite student. You ran away from me after everything I did to help you. Ran straight into your brother’s clutches. How they must worship you after all I’ve taught you. It’s not too late to come back. I forgive you, Remus.”

  Remus’ chin lowered, and a cold snarl twisted his features. “You kept me in the dark. The light of day has no place for someone like you!”

  Her syrupy disposition melted into a chilling sneer. Malaura held out her palms to the men and began chanting something that made Cordray’s blood run cold. He didn’t know much about curses, but recognized a few of the Latin words easily enough. Everything in him screamed to stop her, to shove the words back in her mouth and stop her wicked influence once and for all. If nothing else, he needed to make sure she never curse
d anyone again.

  He had a hard time focusing his gaze, and worried about the damage a spark sent in the wrong direction could do. He grunted as he tried his best to rise to the occasion, but his strength was failing him, as it had so many times in the bunker.

  Only this time, he wasn’t alone.

  Remus began chanting a different string of syllables with the same Latin, and as he stalked toward his prey, the snow began to melt. It was curse against curse, and the bursts of nature around them started to rebel. The ice-bedecked bushes that dotted the side of the freeway suddenly burst into flames, lighting Remus’ path to her with a fury that seemed to emanate from his eyes. She’d messed with his family one too many times.

  Today it would come to an end.

  Cordray could see the determination. He could see the familial loyalty that was set in deep. He could see years of Remus torturing himself that he hadn’t been able to completely undo Malaura’s curse, but only offer a counter to it – putting Rory’s life on hold instead of saving it completely. He’d sacrificed half a decade of his life expectancy for the chance that his niece might be saved. Malaura had cost him five years, and who knows how many sleepless nights. He was ready for her this time, unwilling to give her an inch of ground to stand yet another curse upon.

  Benjamin wasn’t willing to stand back and see how it all played out. He charged Malaura, a crazed fervor painting his eyes as he clutched his knife.

  Despite her concentration on the spellwork, Malaura stomped her foot on the back of Cordray’s head, and Cordray knew she wasn’t just trying to keep him pinned down. She was readying to rake in his Lethal ability, to use it against Benjamin when they collided.

  “No!” Cord howled, knowing that this last struggle would be the one that mattered most. With his last ounce of strength, he pushed up from the ground, faltering on his broken wrist as he did his best to part from her. It wasn’t graceful, nor was it painless, but Cordray finally shirked away just in time for Benjamin to crash into her form.