Page 82 of Cursed Touch
“What’s wrong?”Carter asked.
“I think we’re close,”she said and closed her eyes a moment.
Digging deeply like her mother had shown her, she prepared to face the demon she sensed in the next room. “Do you think he knows?” she whispered when her gaze landed on the metal door.
“Maybe? I know Volark did, but he also kidnapped Ryan to draw me in.” Brandy cleared her throat. “Ready, ladies?” she asked a moment later when they circled the door.
“No, but I’m ready for this shit to be done.” Vanessa dropped her hands to her sides and shook them before readying herself by pointing her palms toward the door.
Serena chuckled. “Fair enough. Brandy?”
The door hinges flared a hot red before the weight of the door bent them, and Brandy sent it flying into the room.
“What the… Who’s there?” a man demanded, his voice thick and dark.
Vanessa sucked a deep breath into her lungs and stepped forward. She felt them at her back and knew they would keep her safe. Without a thought, vines ripped from the ground and pulled him to his knees. “I’m here, Olsabir. I heard you were looking for me, so we thought an introduction was necessary.”
Olsabir met her eyes. White hair capped his head, and his black pits for eyes stared at her from his oval-shaped face. He wore an impeccable gray suit as he raised his chin in her direction. The man—no, demon—reminded her of any of the hundreds of politicians she had seen.
“And who exactly are you?” he asked, as elongated teeth took the place of the pristine white ones that had been there only moments before.
A vine crawled up his leg, to his arm, and finally wrapped around his neck. “Vanessa Rayne, the woman you’ve sent tubars, humans, and lycans after.”
His brows pinched together. “No, there must be some sort of misunderstanding because the Vanessa Rayne I was after was ahuman,” he said, spitting out the latter as if it left a bad taste in his mouth. “And it’s clear you arenot.”
Georgia snapped her teeth at him, spittle dripping from her mouth.
Vanessa chuckled. “Maybe if you’d done your homework, things would be clearer.”
She heard a noise at her back and stiffened, the vine tightening around Olsabir.
“It’s just us,”Carter said.
Her heart stuttered and she sucked in a breath, focusing on the bastard before her.
“You have a lot of friends,” Olsabir said, his gaze roving the room. She felt him push against her hold and stand to his feet. He peered down, a sickening smile touching his lips. “Hmm…”
Vanessa did not know what he did exactly to warn her. Perhaps it was the slight shift of his right shoulder or maybe the sudden stillness which overtook him, but when he attacked, she pulled back on the vine wrapped around his neck. His eyes rounded with surprise, and a smirk tipped her mouth upward.
“What should we do?” she asked the group at her side.
Metal glinted from her left. “Drive this through his heart, and he’ll stop being a problem,” Serena announced.
“If we let him live, he’s only going to continue being a problem, not for us but others,” Ryan stated from Brandy’s side.
“One of us can do it if you don’t want—”
“No,” Vanessa snapped, interrupting Brandy. She put out her hand toward Serena and accepted the cold metal. The dagger’s handle was heavy and intricately woven with a beautiful design. “I got this.”
A hand on her shoulder stopped her. She turned at the familiar weight and met Carter’s eyes. Neither spoke, sharing only a look that spoke volumes. For a moment she worried he would kiss her, diminishing her position before the demon, but he only nodded and dropped his hand.
Power surged through her at his support, and she raised her chin before turning on her heels. Vanessa pulled the vines tightly, securing Olsabir in place as she took a few steps toward him.
She debated asking him for his last words but decided quickly they were of no consequence to any of them. “Should’ve done your homework,” she whispered and sent the knife into his heart via a gust of wind.
Surprise barely registered on his face before he burst into flames like the other demons she had seen her friends kill. The vines that had held him lay limp before she absorbed them back within her.
Vanessa still did not understand how she could call them, but she knew they were as much a part of her as the hair growing from her head.
