Cursed by the Fountain of Youth Read online

  Staggering to her feet, she steadied herself against the wall, trying her best to keep her weight off her injured foot. It felt as if it weren’t healing. Perhaps she’d lost too much blood. Her leg felt like wet spaghetti underneath her. Limping around, she studied the wall, looking for loose or cracked stones.

  She found one!

  At chest level, there sat a stone that was cracked and partially broken. Jamming her fingers into the cracks, she pulled at the loose chunks. They splashed to the floor near her feet. When she’d gotten all she could out, she felt a breeze. Her heart leaped in her chest. It wouldn’t be long.

  Minutes later, her fingers were raw, and the rest of the block seemed unbreakable. She looked down at the shackles still on her wrists. A long metal spike protruded from the cuff. Taking it in her hand, she began to chip at the rock. It was slow going, but the rock began to flake off under her pounding. She found the mortar was the key; it crumbled away much more easily than the hard stone. She concentrated her efforts there.

  Hours later, the stone began to shift. She pushed at the block and it grated, moving under her pressure. Finally, she could push it through. It landed on the other side of the wall with a deep thud.

  The hole she’d created wasn’t huge, but she should be able to squeeze through. At least, she hoped she could. As weak as she felt and as much time as it took her to loosen the first stone, she didn’t think she could do another. Sinking to the floor, she sat down and tried to gather the strength she’d need.

  Ten minutes later, she felt even more exhausted than she had before. What was wrong with her?

  She needed to get out of here before her weakness made it impossible to even move.

  Getting to her feet proved to be a difficult feat, but she finally did it. Reaching forward, she decided her shackled arms should go through the hole first. When her head came through, she met her fist obstacle—her chest. Most thought being well endowed was a good thing. But, it may very well kill her. If she got stuck in here, she’d die.

  Taking a deep breath, she pushed forward. The jagged remnants of the mortar grated against her—tearing her clothes and scraping her skin while her breasts were flattened painfully against her body. She inched through slowly, biting back cries. She blew out all the air in her lungs and wiggled her body whenever it got stuck. Finally, she experienced some relief when her chest came out the other end. The relief soon turned to horror when she tried to get her hips through. Blowing out air, would not make her hips any smaller.

  Bracing herself for the pain, she pushed hard with her hands, and her body began to scrape through. She felt like she was leaving chunks of grated flesh behind with every push. Her jeans refused to make the journey with her and slid down as she continued to squeeze through the hole. Finally, blessed relief came when she got through.

  The relief was short-lived when she realized that there was nothing to stop her descent to the floor.

  Reaching out, her hands took the brunt of the fall, followed quickly by her head, and then rest of her.

  “Ouch,” she moaned, lying on the ground. Pulling her raw, aching body off the floor, she sat up and looked around. It looked like a continuation of the room she’d been in—except she couldn’t see the other side. Crawling forward, she tried not to think about the possibility that there wasn’t an exit in this room either. There simply had to be one!

  When dark slashes came into view, her heart sank. A few more feet forward and her hopes were completely deflated. There was no exit. She’d escaped one dungeon only to find herself locked in another.

  And this one had no water.

  Chapter 17

  Nick pressed a kiss into his sister’s forehead. The hissing of the ventilator reminded him that if not for that machine, she would be dead. He closed his eyes to hold back tears. Both of the women he loved were in danger. Becca would eventually succumb to her illness. The ventilators couldn’t save her indefinitely. She found peace with her fate. Nick still struggled to accept it.

  But Fae? She was healthy. No, she was more than healthy. She was immortal. But she was not immune to death. She could be dead, even now. Nick held tight to the hope that Thomas had given him. If her abductor knew what Fae really was, he would know she was worth more to him alive than dead.

  Nick looked his sister over. She looked pale, and the spark that always lit up her face had dimmed. She lay unconscious before him, but maybe she could still hear him. He had so much to say. So much on his mind.

  “You know I love you.” He choked back the lump that formed in his throat. “You may have been a royal pain, and drove me absolutely insane at times, but I love you, Sis. You know that. You could always read me like a book. I bet you knew exactly how I felt about Fae even before I did, didn’t you?”

  He sighed. “And now she’s in trouble. She’s in the hands of an evil man—a man who has killed people. He already tried to kill Fae once.” He took her hand and gave it a squeeze. He sucked in a breath when her eyes opened.

  “You’re awake.” Nick breathed a sigh of relief.

  Her eyes darted around to the machine at her side and down to the plastic tube coming from her mouth. She looked confused for a moment before recognition saddened her face. She knew the end was coming. And then her eyes went to the door. Her gaze held for a moment before she looked at him and back to the door.

  “What is it?”

  Once again, she looked at him and then back to the door.

  “You want to see the doctor?”

  Her head moved. It looked like she might be attempting to shake it.

  “You don’t want to see the doctor?”

  She rolled her eyes—typical Becca.

  “All right, so you don’t want to see the doctor. Wait. How about you blink once for yes, and twice for no?”

  She blinked hard once.

  “Okay, so you want me to…leave?”

  One blink.

  “Why? Why wouldn’t you want me to stay?” Her eyes went back to that stupid door. Nick blew out a breath of frustration. “I can’t leave you. You really think I’d leave when you’re scared and lying in a hospital bed?”

  One blink.

  Nick scowled and then a thought hit him. “You heard me?”

  One blink.

  His heart felt like it was being torn in two. “You want me to save Fae?”

  A tear leaked from her eye and trailed down her cheek when she blinked—once.

  He leaned down and kissed Becca on the forehead. “You know I love you too, right?”

  One blink and another tear.

  He breathed out a curse. “I hate leaving you.”

  Again, her eyes went to the door.

  “I’ll leave when you’re asleep again.” Two blinks.

  Nick blew out a quick breath. “You want me to leave now.”

  One blink.

  “Why do you have to be so self-sacrificing?” he asked, and then paced the floor. He stopped and sighed. “I’ll do it, but you have to make me a deal. You cannot leave while I’m gone.” He couldn’t bring himself to say die. Becca rolled her eyes and then turned to the door once again.

  “All right, I’m going, but I’ll be back, and I’ll bring Fae with me. Okay?”

  One blink.

  Nick stood unmoving, his heart pounding in his chest. He was literally tearing apart. How could he leave his baby sister while she may be dying? But then, how could he not go and do all he could to save the woman he loved?

  Becca gave another hard look at the door and then glared at him.

  “I’m going,” he said, and then kissed her forehead. “Love you, squirt,” he mumbled as his lip brushed against her skin.

  A moment later, Nick stepped through the door and took one last glance at his dying sister.

  Thomas met him in the hallway and looked at Becca’s door. “I’ll understand if you can’t help in the investigation. We can cover this.”

  “She understands. Let’s get to work.”

  Thomas nodded. �
��Okay.” He took a deep breath. “The name of the man we’re looking for is Demarquis Lafayette. People call him Lafayette. He was second in command to the leader of the Guardians of the Fountain of Youth. The leader was a man named Emeric, and Lafayette was due to take his place. Mason is Emeric’s son. He got to the fountain shortly before we did and found everyone dead. He made the call that brought in investigators.”

  “Mason’s a Guardian?” Nick asked.

  “Was. The Fountain of Youth lost its power. It no longer needs Guardians. But Fae does. That’s why Mason came. Now he feels it’s his duty to protect her.”

  “You do realize how crazy this all sounds, right?”

  “You haven’t begun to see crazy yet. I think it’s logical to say that Lafayette is a person of interest in not only Fae’s abduction, but also the murder of the college student, the victims at the Fountain of Youth, and then another murder in a motel room not far from here.”

  “Another one?”

  He nodded. “It looks like he wasn’t too happy when he realized he’d gotten the wrong girl. He took it out on a prostitute. Broke nearly every bone in her body before he drowned her. A maid found her in a tub filled with not only water, but the college student’s missing blood.”

  Nick swore under his breath. And Fae was in the hands of that lunatic!

  “How do we find him?” he asked.

  “I don’t know,” Thomas said. “We’ve come up against a brick wall.”

  “What about Brigitte?” Nick asked.

  Thomas shook his head as they headed out to the parking lot. “That’s a dead end. And I mean literally.”

  “He got to her?” Nick asked as they approached the exit leading into the garage.

  “Yeah and besides Mason, she was our biggest lead.”

  “How’d she die?”

  “She was poisoned,” Thomas said.

  Nick swore.

  “Lafayette is proving formidable,” Thomas said.

  Frowning, Nick narrowed his eyes. “What do we have to go on?”

  “We have a cell phone bought under the name Marcus DeCruise.”

  “I need all the information you have on that phone,” Nick said.

  Thomas clicked his keys, and a new model Mercedes chirped.

  Nick raised an eyebrow. “Looks like your division pays better than mine.”

  “Like you, I have a few things on the side.”

  “Huh,” Nick said. “I’ll need my personal computer.”

  “Are you a hacker?”

  Nick shrugged. “I know my way around.”

  An hour later, Nick poured over Lafayette’s activities from the last week. He was only mildly interested in who he had called. He was more interested in where Lafayette had been. With two screens open, he was able to get the coordinates and see the satellite images of his exact location just before Fae was abducted.

  Six forty-seven P.M., he’d parked in a handicapped parking spot near the location where the Ghost Tour began. He entered the trolley for the tour at seven o’clock—just behind Nick, Fae, Mason, and Morgan.

  Nick looked at the photo they had of Lafayette. He remembered the man vividly. He was in his mid- to late-seventies, with a yellow tinge to his eyes that let Nick know his liver was in bad shape.

  After the knockout gas was released, Lafayette’s phone stayed in the same general area. He’d stayed there from that time until long after the ambulances had come and gone. Could he have hidden her somewhere at the scene and waited until it was quiet to remove Fae?

  Probably.

  Eventually, he made his way to the airport and got on a flight to Denver Colorado.

  How would he get Fae on a plane? Unless he could coerce her.

  Nick got into the airport surveillance and studied the images of the flight he took. After twenty minutes, he slammed his fist into the desk. He wasn’t there.

  “He’s smarter than you think.” Thomas’s voice came from behind.

  “I don’t understand,” Nick growled. “I looked at baggage check-in, the gate, and even studied every person getting on that flight. He wasn’t there. But his phone was. That doesn’t make sense!”

  Thomas raised an eyebrow. “You’re looking for a young man, right?”

  Nick turned his head slowly toward Thomas, his eyes wide. And then he turned back to the computer screen and cursed. A blur of faces came and went, but then…

  “That’s him,” he snapped. “At the luggage check-in desk.” He blew out a breath. “He has the same bone structure, same height. That man can’t be more than twenty-five!”

  Neither of them spoke for several long moments.

  “So, it’s true.” Nick’s voice sounded hoarse.

  “Yes,” Thomas said, resigned.

  “I don’t believe it.”

  “Believe what you will. It’s true.”

  “Why isn’t Fae with him?” He said, his stomach sickened. Please let her be alive. Nick continued to follow the man at 10x speed.

  “He could be keeping her somewhere around the St. Augustine area,” Thomas said.

  Nick’s eyes widened. “What is he doing?”

  Thomas turned to look at the screen and leaned in. “It looks like he’s leaving the airport.”

  “He never got on the flight.”

  “Just his bag.” Thomas narrowed his eyes.

  “He knew we’d be able to track him by his phone. So, he put it on a plane to throw us off track.”

  “Makes sense,” Thomas said. “He probably didn’t think investigators would recognize him.”

  “But where is Fae? He didn’t go anywhere! He went straight from the Ghost Tour to the airport.”

  Nick’s eyes widened as he and Thomas turned to look at each other. Not a second later, they were rushing back to the Mercedes.

  Nick and Thomas stepped up to the Castillo de San Marco. It looked less eerie but more imposing in the daylight. The gray-stoned structure rose from a wide lawn and simple, trimmed grass. There was only one way in and one way out.

  “She has to be here,” Nick said. “How far can an old man carry a full-grown woman?”

  “Fae doesn’t weigh much,” Thomas said, “so I’m guessing as far as he needs to. Too bad the place is closed at night, and they have no one on duty after dark, so it’s unlikely someone saw something here.”

  Nick looked down at his phone. “I wish this was more precise. According to this, he didn’t move from this spot. But the range is a hundred yards. She could be anywhere.”

  “Let’s go inside and see if we can find any clue as to where she was taken,” Thomas said.

  Nick walked into the Castillo de San Marcos and felt as if he’d stepped into another age. The place smelled ancient and the temperature dropped, raising goosebumps on his skin. His senses heightened, and he felt…

  Well, there was no way to describe the feeling. Something was off about this place. He’d never felt anything like it. Nick didn’t believe in ghosts, but if he did, he’d say this place really was haunted.

  They wandered for nearly an hour when Nick came to a sickening realization. They had explored every inch of the place, and found no sign of any secret, unexplored room or place to hide someone.

  “That’s disappointing,” Thomas said.

  “We need to go again,” Nick said somberly.

  “Okay,” Thomas said without hesitation.

  Three hours later they had combed the entire building—inside and out.

  “Perhaps he had an accomplice,” Thomas said.

  “If he did, we’re screwed.” Deep in his gut, he felt she was here—somewhere nearby. But short of taking apart this historic fort brick by brick, he was at a loss to figure out where.

  Chapter 18

  Fae awoke shivering. Cold seeped through her damp clothes and permeated into her bones. She couldn’t complain too strenuously. Not only did it help her to realize she was still alive, it also dulled the pain. She hurt in so many different places, she felt like one large open wound. Usua
lly, she healed quickly, but this time, she wasn’t recovering. Maybe her loss of blood had something to do with that.

  Her eyes blinked open, and she could see that faint light she’d seen before. After fruitless searching, she had to admit there was no logical place it could be coming from.

  “You’re awake.”

  Fae jerked—her eyes wide. She was hearing voices again. She struggled to push herself off the floor. Weakness overwhelmed her.

  Looking around the room, she sucked in a startled breath. In the corner of the room, a faint flicker of an image materialized out of her imagination. It was a young woman. Fae couldn’t see her clearly. She could only make out her general shape, but then the figure raised her eyes—eyes that Fae could see clear as day.

  “Who are you?” Fae whispered, afraid she would disturb the spirit.

  “My name is Dolores.” The woman’s answer blew across Fae’s skin, bringing with it the faint smell of perfume.

  Fae swallowed and squeezed her eyes shut. She’d never believed in ghosts. But here she was, talking to one. Opening her eyes, she frowned, disappointed to see the woman remained.

  “Why are you here?” Fae asked.

  “There’s no way out.”

  “You’re a ghost,” Fae muttered. “You can move through walls.”

  Confusion passed over the ghostly countenance. Then she blinked—her eyes taking on a far-off look. “They didn’t find you.”

  “Who?” Fae’s heart sped up. “Who didn’t find me?”

  “They came for you.”

  “Who? Who are you talking about?”

  Dolores’s image began to fade as sadness darkened her countenance.

  “No!” Fae shouted. “Don’t leave. I need to know who came.”

  Seconds later, Fae sat in complete darkness. The sound of dripping water tormented her through the opening in the wall. Soon, her thirst would drive her to squeeze back through—if she even had the strength to. She blinked back tears. Gently pressing on the open abrasions on her hips, her fingers came away dripping wet. Those scrapes should have healed by now—yet they hadn’t. She oozed blood from more places than she could count.

  “Nick,” she said, wishing desperately that he could hear her. “Please don’t give up on me. You’ve got to find me.” Her voice broke and tears began to fall.