Page 80 of Cursed

“How did you know?” I pull back and rein in my emotions.

“When they were brought in, I felt their energy somehow linked to yours. A coven?” she surmises. “I gave them medicine in hopes they could find a way to break out.”

“What about a female?” Rourke asks urgently.

She shakes her head. “I heard a rumor of someone important to the management, but I haven’t seen her.”

“I have so many fucking questions, but let’s get us all out of here first,” I say. My mind is in a spin, and my heart is spasming with pain. I can hardly believe what I’m seeing. “Take us to our coven mates.”

“Of course.” She gives Rourke and Branden a sad smile in greeting and leads us down the empty, dimly lit halls.

“So you’ve been a prisoner here?” I ask.

“Yes, they used my healing abilities to mend their victims for maximum potency when they drain them.” She sighs, “I’m more useful alive than dead. Not that I call this living. I missed all these years with you.” Her voice is thick with emotion when she stares up at my full height. “You are all grown up. And look just like your father.”

I don’t know if I can take more of this. All this time… she was here. “I’m sorry. I would have come for you if I’d known.” Then I wonder if, deep down, I had known, since I was obsessed with stalking this place.

She stops and points to a patient room door. “Here.”

I peek through a small window in the door and gulp at the sight. Hollis and Landis are curled up together. Huh.

Reaching for the handle, my mother stops me. “It has a spell over it. To keep the incubus contained.”

“Can you unlock it?” Branden asks.

My mom nods. “Once I do, the creator of it will be alerted. Mr. Shade,” she says with a shudder.

That incubus bastard has fed off her, and I rage inside. But that’s for another time.

“You have no idea where Shayla is?” I ask. When she shakes her head, I figure we might as well risk being exposed and break them out while we are here. It will be that much easier to find Shay.

My mom takes a snake-like key and presses it to the door. The wards flash and then dissolve. I throw open the door.

Landis and Hollis disentangle in a frantic hurry and leap into fighting mode, both stark naked.

“Took you guys long enough,” Landis recovers quickly, standing casually as if being naked in a prison were an everyday occurrence. “I had to comfort the poor professor.”

This guy…

I roll my eyes, but it gives me some sense of normalcy to hear the incubus make a joke. “Come on, asshole. We need to find our mate.”

“Happily.” Landis slips on his pants and shirt.

Not dressing, Hollis glowers at my mother. “Who the hell is this?”

“My mom,” I say, still in a daze about it.

His eyebrows rise almost to his hairline, but he quickly files it away, not having time to process that. He scans her neck for the mark to ensure she isn’t Mannyx.

“It’s really her,” I say and pull my mother to my side.

Hollis grunts. “Fine. Let’s get our girl.” He shifts into his wolf. Apparently, he thinks that this form is more effective. He’s a huge beast, so I can’t say he’s wrong. He probably doesn’t have enough magical reserves to help as a mage, but his teeth will rip out the throats of our enemies just fine. And perhaps he’ll be able to sniff Shayla out.

24

HEART RENDING

ROURKE

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