Lisa Childs - Cursed

“Was that when you struggled?”

“Struggled?”

“The table was overturned, the cards scattered across the floor.” He caught her hands in his and stroked his thumbs over the scratches on the backs of them. As if she felt the same jolt he did, she jerked her hands from his. “Is that when she scratched you, or was it when you tied the noose around her neck?”

She shook her head. “No. I found her like that...when I came back to the shop.”

“So you left the shop, too? You chased after her?”

“Not right away,” she said. “I made her the amulet first. Then I tried to find her—to give it to her.”

“Amulet?” The dried plants hanging, like the rope, from the rafters, and the crystals and candles hadn’t been just for ambiance. She used them, as witches had centuries ago, to cast spells.

“I made it of herbs and crystals to ward off the evil and protect her from harm.”

“It didn’t work.” Harm had befallen Raven. And from the last words the girl had said to him, he had his prime suspect sitting across the table from him. Their knees touched again, his sliding between hers. The warmth of her body emanated through their rain-damp clothes, and heat rushed through him.

Another image flashed through his mind.

Her hair tangled across his pillow. Her nails digging into his shoulders, then clawing down his back. She clutched at him, her body tensing beneath his. She cried out his name. “Seth!”

He blinked, forcing the thoughts from his brain. He had been focused on the case—and on finding her—for too long. Had he—as some of his colleagues had suggested—become obsessed? His obsession needed to be justice. Not her. He coughed, clearing the thickness of desire from his throat, and asked, “What were you saying?”

Her brow furrowed with confusion, but then she repeated, “I couldn’t find her—to give the amulet to her.”

“You did find her,” he pointed out. “Or had you stayed at the shop the whole time, waiting for her?”

Had Maria been there already when Raven had called him? After hearing the terror in the girl’s voice, he’d driven as fast as he could and also had called Sheriff Moore as he had left the motel, hoping the older lawman had been closer. Still, Seth had beaten him to the Magik Shoppe.

She shook her head again, making her wild curls cascade around the shoulders of her worn sweater. “It wasn’t me. Someone else must have been there. Someone else hurt her. I tried to help her. That’s why I had the knife. I cut her down.” She shivered. “You’ll see—when she wakes up, Raven will tell you everything.”

“I hope like hell she can,” he said. The girl had mentioned having evidence to prove that Maria was the one he had been looking for, the killer he was determined to stop. That was why she’d gone back to the shop, to find him that evidence. She’d risked her life for it. But what he’d found on her didn’t prove that Maria was a murderer, just that she was Maria Cooper. There must have been something else...

He pulled his cell from the inside pocket of his leather jacket, checking to see if he had missed any calls. “I left a message for the hospital to call me as soon as she regained consciousness.”

“And they haven’t called.”

Regret trapped his breath in his lungs. Had he been too late? Had his efforts at reviving her been unsuccessful? “No. They haven’t.”

“She’s not dead.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure,” he replied. “What the hell did you put on her throat and in her mouth?”

“Those were herbs that I use for healing,” she said. “The mixture should have restored her breathing and reduced the swelling in her throat.”

He held up his cell phone. “I don’t think it worked,” he said. “Or I would have a call by now.”

Maria gazed around the small room as if searching the corners for something. For what? And she insisted, “She can’t be dead.”

“You better hope like hell she isn’t, because I can put you at the scene. In addition to your DNA that I’m sure was under her fingernails, I’m an eyewitness.” He had her. He finally had her. And now the senseless killing would stop.

“I didn’t hurt her. It wasn’t me.” She gestured at the photos. “I didn’t hurt any of them.”

“You’re the one. Raven confirmed it to me on the phone.” Even without that confirmation, he had been certain. She was the only thing all the victims had had in common; she was the last person every one of them had seen. “Raven also said she had proof.” And he needed to find out what that proof was. He needed to talk to the girl—needed her to live—so that he could officially close all those other cold-.case files. “I should call the hospital again.”

But a call wouldn’t be good enough. If she regained consciousness, even for just a second as she had at the barn, he needed to be there to question her. “Actually, I should go to the hospital.”

She nodded and stood up again. “I want to go with you. I want to see her.”

“I can’t let you go,” he said. “I have a material witness order for you. I don’t have to release you until you answer my questions.”

Or until she called a lawyer who could get her released. He could question her for only so long without charging her. And he didn’t have enough to charge her. Yet.

He hoped Maria was right and that the girl wasn’t dead. But he wasn’t sure how anyone could have survived a hanging. He doubted that the herbs put in her mouth and on her throat had actually been a healing potion. They were more likely to have been poison.

Maria settled back onto the chair. “I’ll stay,” she said as if she had a choice. “Please check on her.”

He slid his phone back into his pocket and reached for his keys. “I’m going to lock you in here.” Because he had no doubt that if he didn’t, she would be long gone by the time he returned.

But he waited for her protest. Maybe she would even ask for that lawyer now.

Instead she nodded in agreement. “That’s fine with me. I want to stay until you get back anyway. I have to know how she’s doing.”

Seth studied her beautiful face and wished he could read her mind. Did she want the girl alive or dead? Did she really believe the girl would exonerate her? Or was she afraid that Raven would implicate her, and she wanted the young woman as dead as her other victims?

* * *

It was so much easier than he had thought it would be—easier even than killing them in Maria Cooper’s little magic shops. Maybe a big-city hospital would have had better security, but here in Copper Creek he had no problem moving freely around the building, which was more urgent-care center than actual hospital. The lights low, as patients slept, he hovered in the shadows, as he had earlier that night in the barn.

He had been there when the girl had placed her hysterical phone call to the FBI agent. For him that call had confirmed that she really was a witch. How else would she have known, just as she’d told the FBI agent, that he would be too late to save her?

She had seen her future. Her fate. At his hands. And since she could see the future, she was definitely a witch.

But the girl hadn’t seen that Maria would come back to the shop. Neither had he.

Usually when the cards came up as they had, Maria Cooper took off—leaving everything and everyone behind her. Except him. She would never be able to leave him behind. He always knew where she was—unlike the FBI agent who’d been trying to track her down for years.

But Seth Hughes couldn’t save her—just as he hadn’t been able to save the girl with that hideous tattoo painted on what must have once been a pretty face.

Maria had been the one to cut her down—just seconds after he had strung up the girl and knocked the chair from under her. He would have grabbed Maria then, but he’d known the FBI agent was on his way. He couldn’t risk getting caught before he’d completed his mission.