Love Cursed, page 11
Jules awoke mid-morning, feeling far more refreshed than she had in days. She blinked into the bright sunlight streaming into the room, then sat upright with a gasp.
She’d missed talking to Bastien last night before he changed back into a cat.
She spun. He was on his bed, curled up and fast asleep – he must have come in after his change. She ran her hand over his soft head and down his body – so thin – but he didn’t wake, so she left him alone and went downstairs to prepare food for him.
When he finally padded into the kitchen, she turned with a bright smile on her face. “You’re awake. I’ve made you all your favourites.” She gestured to the table. He gave a grateful meow, leaped up and began to eat.
She continued to cut up more ham. She’d never felt the need to fill the silence with him, but now, suddenly, she couldn’t stand it. “So, Valentine’s Eve tonight. Big one, hey? Maybe by Valentine’s Day, we’ll both get our happy ever afters.” Her face crumpled.
Oh Goddess. What did I say that for?
She tried to pull it together, but it didn’t work. Already, she felt the loss of her best friend in all the world – the one person who wasn’t family who liked her for her. Maybe even loved her for her.
Pain spiked through her head at the thought, but she hid her wince, spinning away from Bastien’s curious gaze. “I need to clean my teeth,” she said and rushed out, sprinting up the stairs and into their room. She went into the bathroom and only then realised she still had the big knife in her hand she’d used to cut the ham. She put it down with a shaky hand and tried to breathe, tried not to vomit, tried to just keep her shit together. But it was so hard.
“Don’t you want to help him?”
“Of course I do. But I’m going to miss him.” She rubbed her chest. “I just wish Bastien could be my forever love, my soulmate— Agh!”
She pushed the base of her palm into her eye where pain stabbed. “Bloody, stupid, idiot, bastard, fuckity-shit curse,” she said, smacking her other fist against the bathroom counter, the sting on her knuckles bright and an almost welcome relief against the throb in her head and the heavy sensation of claustrophobia squeezing around her heart.
“If Clodia wasn’t already dead—"
She looked down at the knife she’d picked up.
“I’ve long wanted to stab that ancient bitch-witch in her cold dead heart.”
Wow, she never realised she had such violent urges. Or were they Lianna’s urges? It was hard to know. How could she trust how she felt about her lo— No. She wasn’t going to think about him.
“Meow?”
She swung around to see Bastien sitting in the doorway, eyes full of her pain. “Don’t,” she said to him, rushing past to stare out the window. She couldn’t face him now – not with this raw, empty hole in her heart. It was like he’d already left her and she was left with … nothing but memories.
But of course, Bastien being Bastien leaped up on the windowsill, rearing up to put his paws on her shoulders and look in her eyes.
“Bastien,” she said, unable to stop from meeting his unblinking gaze. Such beautiful peridot eyes.
Peridot eyes like Seba—!
Pain exploded behind her eyes, her vision fracturing, split between Bastien’s peridot-coloured cat-eyes and a pair of long-lashed almond-shaped eyes, the flashes of gold and emerald in the depths sparking with heat and an eternal passion she dreamed of every night since … since … he’d been taken from her by Clodia and cursed.
“Bastien,” she whispered. “Bas … tien. Bas ... Bas.” Darkness flew towards her and she was falling, falling …
So lonely. She knew there was only a month to go, but she needed Bas now.
Power flared around her and he appeared as if he’d heard her need.
He always came when she needed him.
“Bas.” She held her arms out.
“Lianna,” he said, his deep voice a caress. “My love.”
“I need you.”
“Come.” He wrapped his muscled arms around her, holding her close to his warmth, then transported them away. They landed softly in the bed he’d made for them in a little cottage in the forest. Their clothes were already gone – all except her golden armbands that never came off. His magic tingled against her skin, caressing, making her gasp.
He rolled over her, bare skin sliding against bare skin as his lips took hers. Passion that had simmered for the days she’d been without him flared to vibrant, all-consuming life. Their tongues tangled, his breath becoming hers. His taste – oranges and spice – filled her mouth. She moaned deep in her throat. It was her favourite flavour, essence of Bas. As was his scent – spicy and citrus with a bit of something deeper, like fresh-cut wood.
Her hands dug into the silkiness of his thick black hair as his mouth left hers to explore her neck and shoulders. “I love you,” he said between nips and licks and suckles.
“I love you too,” she gasped.
His hands were on her breasts, then his lips were there. She cried out as he sucked a nipple into his mouth, his free hand diving into the curls at the juncture of her thighs, stroking in time to his licks and sucks in that way that drove all thought out of her head and lit lightning sparks behind her eyelids.
“Look at me, Lianna. Look at me.”
She opened her eyes and met his gaze. Such fire in the beautiful green-gold depths. It made her gasp and shiver as he drove a finger inside her, then another, his thumb playing her pleasure like a finely tuned harp. He kept his gaze locked on hers as he pushed her into orgasm then over the edge once, twice, three times, ignoring her begs and pleas to come inside her.
But then finally – finally – he was there, the thickness of his erection pushing into the slick heat of her, filling her in one quick glide. She moaned, her fingers digging into his hip and back as he seated himself deep inside her and began to move. Slow – oh so torturously slow. He loved to tease her with his control. But she knew some tricks herself.
She ground herself against him, fingers moving over his bottom, up his back and into his hair. She pulled his head down for a long, gloriously wet kiss before kissing a path down his strong neck to the glory of his shoulders. Then she bit down on the place between neck and shoulder where his pulse beat fast and strong.
“Witch,” he groaned, then pumped faster, deeper, harder, just as she needed him to.
“God,” she shouted as her muscles clenched, riding his rhythm.
“Demi-god,” he said, full lips quirked in that bewitching smile she so loved.
“My demi-god,” she said, before capturing his mouth for another long, lingering kiss.
He reared back. Gazes clashed, held as their hands gripped. Stars sparked as the wave broke over her, through her, their cries of shared passion joining in the night, a magical note of joy.
Chapter
Fourteen
Lianna came to, wrapped in his arms, legs tangled, her face pressed against the warm strength of his chest, his breath brushing over her crown. She looked up. Their gazes met. He smiled and pressed a kiss to her forehead, then one to her lips.
She settled back against him and revelled in the sensation of being here with him.
Home. Love. Fulfilment. She’d never thought to have any of these things and yet Bas gave them to her every time they were together and promised a lifetime more when she was finally free.
There was a little slither of guilt that she’d broken her vows – but there had been no stopping this once they’d met. One look and they were lost in each other. It didn’t even have anything to do with the cupid’s arrow he’d loosed at the woman behind her but had accidentally hit her instead. She’d never needed Bas’ assurances that he hadn’t ‘done an Eros and Psyche’, as he called it. That bolt meant for another had never worked on her. All it had done was made her turn and see him. The fact they were soulmates had taken care of the rest.
Still, it made her a little nervous. The timing was terrible – she had only a few months left of her service. She should have held back, but she couldn’t. Neither of them could. And now there was one month to go until she could be with Bas openly and honestly.
One month more to be in Clodia’s control. One month until she could remove these horrid golden armbands that ceded her powers to Clodia while she was in the service of Vesta. She touched one now, cold where it should be warm.
Clodia said their Goddess had given Lianna the powers of a High Priestess by mistake, that she was too weak-hearted and not intelligent enough to hold her own among the cut-throat Senate and High Priesthood of Roma. “I’m doing you a favour,” she’d told Lianna time and time again as she’d sapped her of her power to use in the Goddess’s name, to increase the hold she held over the Senate and the people in her machinations to make the Coven of the Temple Vesta a true power. To stay in power herself. She should have stepped down years ago, but Lianna’s power enabled her to keep her youth and position – and if Lianna had to put up with a bit of pain and Clodia’s temper tantrums about power being given to the undeserving, she was happy to do it if it meant she never had to become like Clodia.
Power corrupted. She almost wished at times she could get rid of hers. If she had, then she wouldn’t be in this position now. She would never have been a Vestal Virgin and would have been able to be with Bas free and clear right from the moment they met.
“Not long now,” he murmured, speaking her thoughts out loud as he often did.
“I just hope she doesn’t turn her eye to Esta.”
He nuzzled her neck, his erection brushing against her side. “She won’t. Esta isn’t powerful enough to tempt her. She’ll be looking for another Goddess-touched witch like you to use. Esta will be safe. And you will soon be free and have full control over your powers. I can’t wait to teach you a thing or two.”
“Really,” she said, rolling over him and taking him inside her again. “Perhaps you could teach me now.”
“Perhaps I could.”
After their passion was spent for a second time, she snuggled down, cuddling Bas’s head to her chest, rubbing her cheek against him.
He yawned. His hand brushed over her stomach, then froze. “Lianna.” He bolted upright, lines of confusion furrowing his brow. He moved his hand over her stomach again as his eyes met hers. “Lianna. There is life growing in your womb.”
“What? No. That’s impossible.” She sat up, shaking her head. “I’ve spelled precautions. I should not be able to fall pregnant until I release them.” The dregs of power she had access to were strong enough for that.
He ran his hand over her again. “I’m not wrong. I can feel him. Our son. Growing even now.”
She grasped at her stomach. “Impossible.” But it wasn’t. She felt what he felt. The spark of life inside her growing where it shouldn’t be able to grow. How was this possible? She closed her eyes and checked her binding spell.
It had a break in it. A black thread of Clodia’s control had snaked out from the armband and sliced through the binding. She was no longer protected against the seed of a demi-god.
“No. No.” This was proof she’d broken her vow.
“It will be okay. It is just taken. You will be free before anyone knows.”
“But the babe … it will grow faster than usual because of who you are. I will show in a few weeks.”
“I’ll help to keep the babe hidden. It will be okay. Soon you will be free and then we will be together in full – you me and our son.”
She wanted to cling to his words, to hold onto them and never let go, but realisation hit her, making her feel sick. “You don’t understand. She won’t let me go. She never intended to. She did this on purpose. She’ll use this to bind my power to her forever.”
“I won’t let that happen.
“How? She’ll sense your interference. And she’s too clever not to have thought of every single plan we might make to get out of this. Oh Goddess. If she accuses me of treason and I am buried alive, she’ll be able to syphon off my power and I won’t be able to stop her. She made certain of that.” She touched one of the gold bands on her arms then clutched her stomach. “This is the proof she needs so that she can do it with nobody able to stop her. To take my powers for her own. I knew she seemed too accepting about my time under her power coming to an end. She meant for this to happen.” Her gaze slammed into his. “Oh, Bas. Is she the reason we fell in love? Your bolts never miss their target – so why did you hit me?”
He grasped her hands. “I don’t know. But it didn’t work, so even if she was involved, it has no bearing on this. You are my soulmate.”
“That is just a lucky coincidence. I know she did this. She meant for that bolt to hit me so I would fall in love with you. She didn’t need for us to be soulmates.” Her stomach rolled and she swallowed down bile, trying not to show how truly frightened and panicked she was. “I know she did this. She made it so I would break my vows and now she’s going to use it for her own gain.” Goddess – if she could do this to one of her own Coven, then what would she do to anyone else who got in her way? Tears streaming down her face, she pushed away from him. “You have to go. Save yourself.”
“I will never leave you and our child.”
“But you must.” She shoved at him, trying to get him to leave their bed. “It is our only chance. I fear she will soon discover this pregnancy through whatever magic she has spelled these armbands with. She will strike quickly. I need you to be safe from her machinations. I need you to make sure our child is safe.”
“I’m a demi-god. What can she do to me?”
“This.”
Lianna swung around at the sound of Clodia’s voice behind her. The High Priestess stood in the doorway, eyes gleaming in the red glow of the gem she wore around her neck. “No!”
Bas made a choking sound. She turned to see him frozen in place, mouth open, eyes popping like he was choking.
“Stop. Stop! What are you doing?” She scrambled off the bed, legs tangling in the sheets, and landed at Clodia’s feet to look up into eyes of madness. “Please. Please stop this. I’ll do anything you want. Just don’t hurt him. Don’t hurt our child.”
Clodia cackled. “I have you now.” She gripped Lianna’s arm, fingers pinching, and hauled her to her feet. “You thought you could leave me and have it all – a man, a child, a happy life and the power that was meant to be mine too?” She leaned in, her spittle sizzling on Lianna’s cheeks as she spoke. “You will never have your true love and perfect life. They, like your powers, belong to me now.” She put her hand over Lianna’s stomach. “He’s already quickening.” Lianna looked down to see her stomach expand, the child inside her growing ten times faster than a human babe because of the powers that lived in his cells. “The child of a demi-god and a Goddess-touched witch. The power will make him even more valuable to me than you and he’ll be in my grasp so very soon.”
“No!” She cried, trying to engage her powers, to save herself, Sebastio, their child, but Clodia lifted the glowing red gem, its red-heart pulsing with a sickening throb, and she was falling, falling …
… “Wake up. Wake up, you silly bitch.”
Her cheek stung as a slap sounded in the air. She blinked, pulling herself up and out of the vision.
“Wake up. Faster.” Another slap.
Head ringing, she raised her arms in protection, peering through them to see who was hitting her. “Grandmama?” Violetta had slapped her?
“I am not your grandmama. By the Goddess, are you too stupid to see?” She lifted her hands as if to showcase herself. Her perfect bob was a crackling halo around her head, and her features kept flickering between her own and someone else’s.
“Clodia.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Clodia?”
The ancient witch wearing Violetta’s face smiled viciously. “Yes. Your grandmama came snooping around my temple the night she arrived in Roma. So eager was she to help break my curse, to try to gain back more of Esta’s memories, that she stupidly came to the temple ruins at the witching hour and called on the spirits. The moment she did, she opened herself to me and I slipped in. I’ve been with her, controlling her, since before you arrived.”
Jules pushed herself upright from where she’d slumped on the floor. The room swayed around her as she gasped, “How were you still there?”
Clodia chuckled, low and raspy. “I’ve been haunting the place, knowing you’d be back one day to break my curse. And here you are.”
“But why take Violetta?”
She sniffed. “She was easy pickings. I’ve been pretty convincing, don’t you think?” She patted her hair. “Even the cupid didn’t know it was me.” Her smirk made icy fingers crawl up Jules’s spine.
“What cupid?”
Clodia snorted out a laugh. “Your son, of course. Tamuel. Sorry, I mean Tomaso.” She chuckled. “Clever cupid escaped me all those years ago somehow even though he was but a new-born; and he almost escaped me now. I would never have guessed who he was if he hadn’t used his magic to whisk Sebastio away from the Forum two nights ago. He didn’t even think to mask his magical scent. So like his father.”
“His father?”
“Your lover, of course. Sebastio. Bas. Bastien.” She pointed at him – he stood frozen on the bed, back arched, fur ruffled, mid-hiss. “He’s not the servant you thought he was. There was never any servant – that was just a false memory planted to make it so you never remembered who he was. Although, given all the visions you’ve been having, I thought maybe you had guessed. I guess my curse is not as weakened as I thought.”
“Weakened?” Was she crazy? “It’s stronger than ever.”
Clodia snorted. “You’re stupider than Lianna ever was. And more gullible. The curse hasn’t been getting stronger. If it had, you would never have seen the things you’ve seen in your dreams and visions and you wouldn’t have been able to speak to Bastien, let alone be friends with him. Violetta had started to suspect how weak the curse was becoming, but thankfully I got to her before she could mention anything. And then it was a simple matter to make you all think it was strengthening with the help of all this lovely magic she has access to. Do you know how delicious it’s been, using your beloved grandmama’s magic against you?” Her smile was horrible – Violetta’s face moving in a way it never had before. “It was so much fun to make things harder for you. You always had it too easy.”
