CURSED 1

MISS ME

“You’re talking about Lena, aren’t you?” I said. “s**t! Wasn’t it going to be

her birthday any day now?”

“We all had the same dream and the same vision, Josiah. In each of them,

Lena fits the image of the twenty-year-old virgin exactly. And as her twentieth

birthday has come closer, the dreams have been out of control for us. Now we

I dream about what is going to happen nearly every night. And just recently, there has

Something else added to the dream. A new twist, so to speak.”

“And what is that?” I asked.

“There is this strong presence of evil. In the dream, Atticai is freeing us all by

receiving the necessary blood. But there is an evil presence interfering that we

can’t quite make out. We’re not sure if it is a fallen Mani or Carni. But there is

something there, and it is exceedingly evil, and we are all on guard because of

it.”

“Does Lena know any of this?”

“She knows only that, on that special night, she and Atticai will be joined

together throughout all eternity.”

“But in reality, she’s not. In reality, Atticai is going to kill her.”

“Atticai is going to fulfill the prophecy, Josiah. He will then save the Mani.

He will fly in like a white eagle. It has been prophesied for thousands of years. Do

You understand how lucky each of us is to be asked to be a part of it?”

“About as lucky as a heart attack. And what if the virgin sacrifice doesn’t come?

according to plan? What then?”

“It has to come to plan, Josiah. Everything needs to come to pass. Every

detail all the way down to whatever evil that needs to be taken care of.”

“Are you still planning on killing me?”

Yari stood up and came over to me. I slipped my hand into my bag and grabbed

the knife. Woman or not, she was a Mani, and I knew these things were tough as

hell.

She said, “If I was, I wouldn’t have told you everything.”

“Maybe you told me everything, so it would make it easier to kill me.”

Yari’s eyes burned through me. I knew then she was in absolute love with

me. Her love for me, I knew, was the only thing keeping her from attacking me,

from fulfilling her obligations to the Triat. Still, I kept the knife in my palm.

“There’s nothing in this world that could make me harm you, Josiah.” She

touched my cheek, and I sensed genuine emotion from her.

I knew I needed to save Lena. But I needed more information. Everything I

Knowing about how to defeat a vampire from novels and movies. And, from

What I was gathering, they had gotten things wrong. Dead wrong.

There was no doubt I cared for Lena. I wanted to save her from this craziness.

shit. I could give a damn if the Mani and Carni lived in peace or not. It was not

my fight. But what could I do? The only thing I knew how to do was to make sure

that there was no way that Atticai became the Chosen One. Because if he did,

Lena would have to die to make that happen. What was I thinking? These people

were crazy, all of them. There was no way I was going to let Lena become a

victim of their agenda, real or not.

I slipped the knife into my back pocket, leaned in, and put my hands around

Yari’s waist. I pulled her in close and looked her in the eye. “But what if I

wanted to harm you though?”

“You want to harm me?” she asked, with a soft and sexy surprise in her voice.

“How would a Tandra have a chance against a Mani like yourself?”

She studied me a moment, obviously debating how much to tell me. Finally,

she said, “There are a number of ways a mortal could defeat a man.” Yari

kissed me gently on the lips. “Why would you want to harm me?”

“Not you,” I said, but that’s all I would say.

She looked at me for a long time, keeping me at arm’s length. I could sense

her inner conflict. After all, why should she tell me their deepest secrets?

especially the one that could bring down the entire prophecy? Did she trust me?

And why should she trust me? Hell, just a few minutes earlier, I was preparing to

fight her. Eventually, she shrugged and pulled me in close. When she spoke, she

did so in my ear: “You defeated Atticai last night. He was forced to transition to

escape. I’ve never seen that happen before. Not from a Tandra.”

“How would I protect myself against your kind?” I asked.

“There is no protection, but there are two ways to defeat us.”

“A stake?” I offered.

“A silver stake,” she corrected. “And you need to pierce a Mani so deadly.

that it goes in through the front and out through the back. Complete

impalement.”

I shuddered. “So, it doesn’t have to be through the heart?”

“If you want maximum chance at a permanent kill, then yes, through the

heart.” Yari reached down and began unzipping my pants with her left hand

while we still bantered face-to-face. Within seconds, she had me free, and in a

tight grip, and after three hundred years, well, let’s just say she was

exceptionally skilled at what she was doing. Blood started to rush away from my

head as my thoughts went in other directions. Downward.

“And what’s the other way?” I struggled to say.

“Excuse me?” Yari had clearly shifted her focus to something else entirely.

I gasped and panted. She was good and mid-stroke, I asked her: “What...what

is the other way a Tandra can defeat a Mani in battle?”

Yari turned me around and sat on the bed. She lifted a leg and was soon

straddling me. Within moments, I was completely inside her. She leaned in and

Our bodies began moving in a slow, sensual motion.

I moaned but, trying to maintain my focus, I repeated my question, in an

abbreviated fashion: “Tandra vs. Mani. How can Tandra win the battle?”

“Well, Josiah,” she said, her voice husky in my ear, “the other way is to

pierce a man’s neck from one side to the other with just about anything. Such a

The wound prevents us from transitioning. A Mani, you see, needs maximum air

capacity to transition. After just a couple of gasps, a Mani will be done.”

“Done?” I asked, wondering if she meant dead.

Apparently so, because she said, “So, there you go, Josiah. How to Kill a

Mani for Dummies. Just don’t let our secret out, or I will have to kill you.”

She grinned and kissed me deeply, and I wondered how much of she

was saying was true. Had she seriously given me the recipe for defeating her?

kind? Just because I was with her? I didn’t know, and I didn’t have much time to

ponder these questions, because soon Yari was doing delicious and dirty things.

to me that I swore I would never repeat to anyone.

And, I’m a man of my word.

TO BE CONTINUED....