The Konig Cursebreakers Page 14

  “Those were the two that came at his back,” she mumbled, staring at the empty cup.

  “Did you at least throw your blades?” Jayde asked.

  “One of them — the right one. The high-level— It was just more expedient to jump in and take him out before he saw it coming.”

  Hunter rolled his eyes. She wasn’t helping herself with that admission. Erin could accurately throw both hands at the same time, and her parents knew it.

  “She was flawless. Perfect shots. Every one was perfect.”

  Jayde sighed. “Did you learn anything?” she asked.

  “Don’t pass up on any help you can get?” Erin replied sheepishly. “I imagine I’ll learn to follow orders when it’s beaten into me. Sorry, Mom. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

  “That’s the one! Don’t scare your mother. Okay, I’ll accept that as a lesson learned.”

  Talon shook his head in disbelief. “I won’t. You will face me tomorrow. Hunter, escort your sister back to her room. I expect you to clean your blades and yourself before bed, Erin.”

  She nodded. “It’s your right,” she decided. “In the morning.”

  Hunter felt his heart sink. “Dad, if you need satisfaction, take it from me.”

  “She disobeyed your orders. She makes a habit of it,” his father countered. “Do you deny it?”

  “I should have known better than to stop somewhere isolated to talk. Erin wouldn’t have been in a position to disobey, if I hadn’t stopped. The error was mine. Make me pay for it.”

  “You’re right, but I know something about you, Hunter. You allow Erin to run rule over you until she endangers herself. That ends tonight. Your own pain means nothing to you, but hers will be agony for you. No matter how this happened, no matter how she talked you into it, my decision stands.”

  Hunter felt Erin tug at his arm.

  “Come on, Hunter. Give it up. He’s passed judgment. You can’t claim I don’t deserve it. I’ll survive. They don’t kill Blutjagdfrau. You know that. You can bring me soup and ice cream in bed, if it makes you feel better.”

  He let Erin lead him away, shooting a cold look at his father as he left. Hunter thought Talon was above the brutality of the older lords, but he wasn’t so sure about that anymore. Halfway back to the house, he finally found his voice. Hunter swallowed painfully and sensed the area carefully. “Okay, they’re not ghosting us.”

  “Are you sure? Let’s—”

  “Absolutely. I’ve got three at the garage, moving this way slowly, and one in the house — Damien guarding Sarah, I’d guess. Now... How the hell could you do this? Do you have any concept what he’ll do to you tomorrow?”

  “Of course, I know what Dad intends to do. How can you look me in the eye and tell me you didn’t know this would be the outcome?” she asked calmly.

  “I thought he’d take it out on me,” Hunter protested.

  “You haven’t spent much time around Dad, lately. The closer I get to autonomy, the more erratic he gets — and the more predictable in other ways. He treats me like I’m made of glass. He never would have allowed me to first night.”

  “Mom never did,” he muttered.

  “Mom had so much of Veriel’s blood on her, you wouldn’t have been able to see the seal if they painted it,” Erin countered. “And Mom wasn’t raised a Warrior. She just wanted to give Dad babies. That was her job.”

  “Still, he’s going to destroy you. Why did you lie to him?”

  “Either way, he was going to hurt me. This way, the right person gets the blame,” she reasoned. “Me and only me.”

  “How do you figure that? I knew what I was doing was wrong.”

  “You did me a favor, something you never would have done if I hadn’t suggested it at a moment when I knew you needed to do something crazy. I needed my seal, Hunter. Those overbearing men would never see me as an equal until I had it, no matter how many of them I destroyed and how many times I sent Lorian to ground.”

  “So, it’s worth getting destroyed yourself? Maybe if we come clean—”

  “First of all, it wouldn’t matter if we came clean now. However I talked you into it, remember? Second, I have no intention of being destroyed. I won’t end up like Adam after he fought you.”

  “How can you be so sure? I’ve never seen Dad so pissed at one of us. How can you know what he’ll do?” he demanded.

  “I spar with Dad almost every day.”

  Hunter growled in frustration. “Dad doesn’t give you his best. He holds back on you.”

  Erin smiled and raised an eyebrow at him. “I know that. I’m not stupid or sloppy. I know exactly what he’s really capable of.”

  “Then, why are you so damned happy?”

  “I hold back on him, too, and he doesn’t know it. If he did, he’d demand I use it.” Her smile widened. “I know what he’s capable of, and he comes up short, Hunter.”

  Erin sauntered into the house, leaving Hunter staring after her, frozen in shock.

  “She’s insane,” he decided.

  Chapter Eight

  January 9, 2025

  Talon stripped off his shirt and weapons belt and tossed them over the gate in the direction of Hunter and Jayde. He was gratified to see Hunter looking so uncomfortable. Talon just wished Erin looked as worried. He might actually believe he was getting somewhere with teaching her proper respect, if she did.

  Erin reached for her own belt, but he held a hand up. “Keep them,” he told her.

  Her hands went to her hips and she furrowed her brow suspiciously. “We haven’t trained like that for years. Blade on blade or skin on skin. What are you up to?”

  “This isn’t training. This is trial. You’ll need them.”

  She nodded. “All right. I have enough control not to cut you.”

  “If you have a shot, take it,” he ordered her. “I’ll take not an ounce less. If you give less, you’ll pay for it.”

  Erin smiled widely. “Okay. I’ll meet you as hard as you like,” she offered with a courtly bow.

  Talon’s eyes narrowed. “What does that mean?”

  “That means when you give me your best, you’ll get mine. Until then, I’ll match you evenly on any level you care to fight.”

  He nodded. It was a bluff. If Erin had more, he’d have seen it in four years. “Deal,” he decided. He watched in amusement as his daughter backed off. She had balls, making a promise like that. This trial was going to be an education for her.

  Talon motioned for her to come to him, but she laughed easily.

  “Your trial. You lead the dance,” she told him.

  He smiled widely in spite of himself. “All right, then.”

  They started to circle, and Erin adopted the cold, serious look she reserved for her challenge matches. Gone was the smiling, easy-going young Warrior from training in the snap of a finger.

  He went at her at her training level, and she deflected everything he threw at her easily. Talon stepped up his attack a few notches without warning, and Erin retaliated and danced away to a crouch, awaiting his next attack.

  Talon looked down in confusion at the thin line of blood rolling down his chest. Erin spilled his blood so quickly and smoothly that he hadn’t registered it until it started to sting. He met his daughter’s eyes, trying desperately to fathom where that speed and stealth came from. It was nothing like what he’d seen of her in training or challenge.

  Erin shrugged uncomfortably. “Want me to put away the weapons?” she offered.

  “You could have made that count, couldn’t you?” he asked seriously.

  She nodded. “Not a killing blow. The angle was wrong for that, but you would have bled out if you continued battling.”

  “Keep your blades,” he decided.

  Erin nodded and adjusted her crouch to prepare for his next attack.

  Talon psyched himself up. He had to treat Erin like he had Jayde when his life depended on her proficiency. He came at her hard and fast. She surprised him. Erin was faster and str
onger than Jayde had been at twenty-four. She matched him easily, stepping up her pace without a hint of Blutjagd.

  He felt himself slip over as the fight intensified, but Erin still fought him in the cold, calculated manner she started the fight with. For the first time, Talon found himself afraid of the possibilities she represented. Erin wasn’t bluffing. He wasn’t at his best, but she still wasn’t trying. How much power did she really have? Even Hunter, who Talon had assumed was the most powerful young Warrior born to date, wasn’t capable of what Erin was doing.

  Talon fell on her in a full rage, and Erin snapped. In a lightening fast move, she swept him down, and her blade hovered, brushing the skin over his heart while her hands shook in her restraint. She closed her eyes and screamed through her clenched teeth as she released her bloodlust, a Blutjagd that would light up the entire range easily, eclipsing everything else of note.

  Erin opened her eyes and sheathed her blades before dropping to her back on the grass with her leg still extended over his hip. Her breathing came in ragged gasps and her entire body shivered convulsively as she tried to release the last tenuous strands of the fury that had gripped her moments before.

  She looked at him miserably. “Sorry, Dad. Almost lost it. I know,” she panted while sweat beaded on her body in the frigid air. “Guess my best isn’t so hot, huh?”

  He laughed weakly. “We’ll take care of that. That’s the level we train at now. You have to be able to control that reaction.”

  Erin groaned as Jayde and Hunter appeared, hovering over them anxiously. “Go away,” she begged.

  “Are you two all right?” Jayde asked.

  Talon touched his wife’s face gently, as she examined the cut on his chest. She was still a vision to him after all these years. “We’re fine,” he assured her. “Our little girl has just been lying to us about what she’s capable of.”

  “I tried to warn you,” Erin offered.

  “Yes, you did, and I thought you were bluffing.”

  “I don’t bluff.”

  “I noticed.” He turned his eyes to Hunter. “Did you know she could do that?” he demanded.

  His son blushed. “No, I didn’t. If I did, how could she hide that reaction? Erin lit last night, but this was nuclear grade lit. Never seen it before in my life.”

  “Automatic response,” she apologized. “The beasts last night were a joke compared to you, Dad. I’ve never allowed myself to go full throttle before.”

  “Allowed?” Talon questioned. “You choose when and how far you light?”

  “Usually. I allow myself temperate outbursts to accomplish what I need. This one hit me harder than usual.”

  “That means you can battle and kill off the scopes. With beasts.”

  Erin darkened. “Yeah, I can,” she admitted.

  Talon looked from his daughter to his son suspiciously. Hunter sat back, rubbing his jaw with his hand, looking at Erin nervously.

  Talon pushed up to sitting. “Spill it, Hunter. You’ve seen her do it, haven’t you?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, I have. She was playing with the high-level the whole time I was battling last night. Erin could have killed him easily before I made my first kill without lighting, but she was out for practical knowledge of how a beast fights. She didn’t light until the other one moved at my back. I swear, when Erin lit, she was so fast and deadly accurate that both of them were dead before I turned my head to look. She lit, killed, and snuffed out as easy as you please, but she didn’t light for herself. That was reserved for when she thought I needed her to do it.”

  “This was information I could have used,” Talon growled at him.

  Hunter nodded. “Once Erin started talking, I realized she wanted to get me out of it, and I couldn’t set the record straight without getting her in even more trouble for the lie.” He shrugged. “So, I let her story stand like she knew I would.”

  “Why the hell did you go along with it in the first place?” Jayde demanded.

  Hunter slouched his shoulders and shook his head with a lost expression. It was always like this. Hunter never really understood why he went along with Erin’s crazy plans, but they worked well.

  Erin sighed. “My fault on that one. We were drowning our sorrows and having a fraternal moment. I didn’t suggest we go hunting exactly. I sort of suggested going for ice cream and seeing if any of the local color was stupid enough to take the bait. Sure enough, they were.”

  “That was an incredible risk, Erin,” Jayde shot at her.

  “My whole life is a risk,” she countered, “and no one ever lets me forget it. I’m obviously not made of glass. I train endlessly, but for what? Every time a beast attacks, I get shoved out of the way so someone else can fight it. I’m not allowed to go hunting them. I’m the Warrior I was born to be, and I’m never allowed to be what I am. It’s too dangerous.”

  Talon met his wife’s eyes with a sheepish grin. “She has a good point. You never wanted more. You battled only when other options failed and you were forced to, so we’ve always treated Erin the same way. She’s not you. Erin was raised to be what she is. You were raised fight or flight.”

  “Are you suggesting we let her hunt?” Jayde demanded.

  “No. That’s far too dangerous, but beasts will still come for her. I think we should let Erin help hold them off. Someday, we’ll be gone, and she’ll have to do it. She should start helping.”

  Jayde nodded her agreement. It was, after all, a point she could not argue. “First things first. She has to learn to control that ten-megaton reaction of hers. It was too difficult for her to channel. Brush up, my dear. Our little girl is going to have to be pushed nuclear on a daily basis until she learns that control.”

  * * * *

  January 11, 2025

  Sarah stretched luxuriously and headed to the bathroom for a hot shower and her morning routine. She thanked several of Kohl’s gods that there was a boxed toothbrush — obviously for her use, since she couldn’t see her suitcase. One of the hazards of her drugged state was that Sarah didn’t care much about more than the most basic hygiene. After a shower, washing and brushing her hair, and brushing her teeth, she felt roughly human again.

  The clothes she wore in had been washed and placed on the top of the dresser. The rest of the clothes stacked with them appeared to be for her, but they weren’t clothes she had ever owned. They couldn’t be Erin’s or Jayde’s, she decided. What little she saw of the two women confirmed for Sarah that they were each about five inches shy of Sarah’s five-foot-ten height. It still amazed her that while the Warriors were all well over six feet, the female Warriors were so tiny.

  She sighed and pulled on the clothes she was sure of, determined to ask what happened to her own things later.

  In the kitchen, Kohl rose from the table with a smile. “Ah. I told them when you slept through the dose it would be over soon. Safe for a hug?” His tone was so hopeful that she found herself grinning at the childlike need he had to hold her.

  Sarah nodded gratefully and wrapped her arms around his broad chest. “How much time did I lose?”

  “The battle was four nights ago.”

  “Four? For that little touch? What kind of a powerhouse was that beast?” she demanded, her analytical mind taking over. Sarah did research that stunned the other Warriors, both with her senses and with pure logic and science.

  “Actually, it wouldn’t have taken as long if we had your medication sooner.”

  She looked at him in confusion.

  “The beasts destroyed our supply, and Damien had to bring more.”

  Sarah put a hand to her head, trying to make sense of some of the darker moments of the first two days. “That explains a lot. I knew Hunter was caring for me, because there was no medication, but I couldn’t seem to hold onto why that was.” She smiled at Hunter. “Thank you, by the way. I don’t know if I ever said that.”

  “Repeatedly,” he assured her. “Feeling better?”

  “Much. I’m just starving.”r />
  A young woman with black curls close to her scalp stood. Sarah gathered that it was Erin. “What can I get you?” she offered. “I’m a fairly decent cook. Better than most of these guys, anyway.”

  “Please, don’t put yourself out. I’ll just make myself a bowl of whatever cereal is handy and a glass of juice.”

  Erin nodded and grabbed down a bowl, spoon, and glass. She moved to another cabinet. “Total Raisin Bran, Boo Berry or Fruity Pebbles?” she asked in a voice that declared she’d like to throw the Fruity Pebbles out the window, personally.

  “Raisin bran, thanks.”

  Erin handed the box to her and left Sarah to make her food as she asked.

  Kohl assessed her as she carried her food back to the table. “How much? Eight pounds?” he asked.

  “Not that much, I think. The solid food helped a lot.” Sarah avoided Hunter’s eyes, remembering vividly how arousing taking food from his fingertips had been — and how arousing it had been when she baited him. Her dreams had been full of nothing but his hands on her for days.

  “Well, let me introduce you to our hosts while you eat. You know Hunter.”

  She nodded with a mouthful of cereal and felt her cheeks heat. Yes, Sarah knew Hunter. Not as well as she’d like to know Hunter, but she couldn’t deny that she knew him. She knew what it felt like to be cradled in his arms, to be anchored against his rigid member, what his lips felt like on her cheek and his skin felt like beneath her lips and hands. She swallowed and took another bite, willing her mind to safer subjects.

  “This young lady is Erin. Her father, Talon, and her mother, Jayde.”

  Sarah opened her mind to them and started cataloging their shimmers while she ate ravenously. Talon’s was familiar. She must have seen him earlier but not cataloged him when she did. She made note of the silver and gold swirl with red flecks for later identification. Jayde was burnished gold shot through with green and white flecks. Sarah identified her quickly and moved onto Erin since she knew she cataloged Hunter the first night.

  Erin, she remembered. Sarah must have identified her already. She stared at the startling gold with flecks of red and white in awe, her breakfast forgotten. The shimmers told her so much, and Erin’s was a riot of conflicting emotions and hidden agendas — and fear that she kept carefully hidden.