Page 73 of Curse of Immortality
Raising her head, she stared at him trying to get it through her head that he had been the same eagle that had attacked her.
“Let go of me,” she cried and tried to pull away.
“You took it. Now give it back,” he thundered with his voice shaking and still holding her pale skin, which was hurting from his tight hold.
“I will,” she promised and that made him release his strong grip on her.
Althea stared into his eyes and moved back while reaching into her pocket and pulling out the small metal compass. “I’ll give it to you if you give me what is mine in return.”
Damon wrinkled his brow with a warning in his eyes. “How? What are you talking about?”
“You took something precious from me. It’s only fair that I take a small thing from you in return,” she challenged.
“That thing isn’t mine to give. It’s the Cobra’s and if I don’t return it, he’ll…” Damon stopped talking. “Just tell me what you want, Althea, and I’ll give it to you.Anything.”
Looking straight into his dark eyes, she made her demand. “Give me back my privacy and dignity.”
“How can you talk about dignity and steal at the same time?” Damon reached out his hand. “Give it back.”
Stepping back, Althea pulled the compass to her side. “Tell you what, Fader, if you leave me alone for the next, say, five hundred years, then I’ll return this to you. Until then, I hope we never meet.”
Althea raised her hands and used air to push him to fly through the air. Landing on his back, he launched himself back up quicker than a hungry wolf ready to attack. But by the time he got to his feet, Althea had created her portal and was running toward it.
Damon was fast, but Althea entered the portal before he had a chance to reach her. His footsteps followed her trail but where Althea had effortlessly moved through and disappeared, he just fell through the doorframe of sticks and landed on the grass of Hyde Park.
Sitting on the cold grass, he saw the doorway dissolve with all the sticks, twigs, and stones falling to the ground.
The wave of panic that washed over Damon at that moment made him put a hand to his head. Not only had he failed to bond with Althea, but he had also lost the magical object that Charles had entrusted him with.
Thoughts of the Gleaners he had visited over the years made his insides cramp up in fear. No one came back to the Cobra and told him about a failed mission without paying a heavy price. Damon needed to find a way to get back the compass and make Althea spill all the secrets about how that portal worked and what was behind it. But charming her now would be harder than ever because right now, he hated her, and she hated him. She had always been a naïve Earthen in his eyes, but at least he had been slightly drawn to her because of her beauty and sweetness. Now, she was nothing but a liar and thief whose irresponsible actions could cost him everything.
One thing was for sure. The next time Damon saw Althea, he wouldn’t lose any time trying to charm her. He didn’t care if he had to tie her down and make her tell all her secrets, but he would get the compass back and give Charles the information he needed. Anything to avoid the sad fate of a Gleaner.
Chapter 27
The Beginning of the End
“Did you find what you were looking for, miss?” the skinny man with round glasses and slanted eyes asked when Maeve picked up an old necklace in his store after she’d walked around browsing for a while.
“I never do,” she answered with annoyance before putting the necklace back down in its box.
The small pawn shop in the center of London was filled with old heirlooms such as expensive utensils, jewelry, and watches. It was one of the many stores Maeve often stopped by, but never did she buy anything, because they never had what she was in search of.
Her long pale fingers traced over an old and expensive ring with an emerald before she sighed and headed toward the door.
The floors were uneven, and the walls tilted inward in the old building. Even though the owner took good care of the expensive objects in his store, the air was heavy from the smell of smoke and dust that came with most of the old objects.
“Have a good day, madam,” he called out after Maeve, who didn’t reply or even look in his direction as she exited the small, creaking door, making the silver bell ring softly.
Her jawline was even sharper than usual because of her clenched jaw. She was usually a lady of manners, just as Charles had taught her to be, but she nearly shoved a man who got in her way because he didn’t stop for her when she walked toward her carriage. She was too annoyed to have patience with a stupid human when for fifty years she had been in search of something that seemed more and more impossible to find by the day.
As she got into her closed carriage, she shut her eyes, while her chest rose and fell in a frustrated sigh. For the millionth time, she pulled out the small hand mirror she had taken from Edith many decades ago.
She thought back to the day she got the mirror, just as she often did, in the hope that maybe she had forgotten something that could help her now. Going over every detail from that day in her mind, she remembered standing in a rotten house full of garbage with an old and deluded Gleaner who didn’t like cooperating. Edith’s pockets had been stuffed with all sorts of objects and one of them had been the old and scratched-up hand mirror that Maeve now tightly clutched in her hands.
“It shows me where to get my treasures and the story behind them,” Edith had said.
“Let me see that,” Maeve had demanded as she charged toward Edith until she was standing just in front of the smelly old Gleaner, who had held the mirror to her chest.
