Avoiding Alpha

“Tess?” Dastien said. I felt his hand on my arm, but I couldn’t stop sneezing.



“That’s what I thought. Lead her into the living room,” Rosa said.



I couldn’t see. I was sneezing so fast my eyes were glued shut. I could barely get enough air to breathe. I knew I was breathing—sneezing took air—but this was out of control.



I reached out blindly, until I grasped Dastien. “Out.” Sneeze. “Now.” Sneeze. “Now.” Leaving this house was the only answer. It was the incense. I had to go. Right then.



Dastien lifted me, but Rosa started speaking in rapid Spanish. I was sneezing so much, I couldn’t focus on the words, but Dastien understood her. He said something and then put me back down on the couch. “She’s going to help.”



“Incense.” Sneeze. “Out.”



“It’s not the incense, cherie. Luciana cursed you when you went onto the coven’s land. Which was why I didn’t want you to go in the first place.” The last bit was very growly.



Shit. This wasn’t good. I kept sneezing. My abs were getting a hell of a workout.



Something slimy rubbed under my nose and the smell of eucalyptus and mint filled my senses. The sneezing slowed. I could finally open my eyes in between the wracking breaths.



The walls of the house were covered with religious icons. The aged paintings of saints’ faces stared down at me. There wasn’t a bit of empty space anywhere. Even the curtains had writing on them, and I’d bet everything I had that the words were Bible verses.



If I weren’t related to Rosa, I’d say this was the home of a crazy person. After all, I didn’t really know the lady. She probably was insane.



She stood in front of me, close enough that I could smell the rose and faint garlic on her skin above everything else. She held a white egg in one hand as she leaned over me. The shell was ice cold as she rubbed it over my head. She ran it in a circular motion down my body from head to foot as she said the Lord’s Prayer in Spanish. As she moved the egg, the sneezing trickled to a stop.



What the hell was going on?



When she was done, she reached for a glass on the coffee table. We were all silent as we waited for something to happen, but I wasn’t sure what.



The sound of Rosa cracking the egg against the edge of the glass startled me. She dumped the innards into the glass, but something was wrong with it. The yolk was black and the white had turned a cloudy gray.



“Holy shit,” Axel said.



“Watch your language,” Rosa said.



I sat up, swinging my legs over the edge of the couch to get a closer look. “What the hell is that?”



“You, too.” She held the glass up to the light so I could get a good look at it before handing it to me. “That is a curse.”



“What!” I nearly dropped it.



Rosa took the cup from my shaking hand. “Did Luciana touch you while you were there?”



I thought back, replaying the scene in my mind. “No.”



“Did she say anything odd? Make any motions with her hands?”



I was suddenly cold. “Yes. Yes, she did. She said something, but I couldn’t make it out and she waved her hand. It felt like she slapped me, but there was no way for her to have physically done that. She couldn’t actually have reached me.”



“And how did you feel after?”



How had I felt? I’d nearly changed. My wolf tried to claw its way out. But I’d been pissed. It was normal to be easily angered, especially around the full moon. Right? “I…my wolf was upset.” Oh shit. She’d wanted me to feel out of control. Luciana had made the point to tell me she could make me feel better, but when I hadn’t agreed, she’d made sure I’d start feeling worse. She was banking on the fact that if I lost control of my wolf, then maybe I’d go to her.



She was trying to trap me.



“I thought it was normal to feel on edge so close to the full moon,” I said to Dastien.



“To an extent, but you’ve been on the verge of shifting all day. The only time you weren’t was when you were recovering your power after dealing with Meredith.”



I looked back at Rosa. “I thought breaking a curse was hard. Dangerous.”



“I’m old enough to know what’s dangerous. This,” she held out the nasty black-egg-filled glass again, “is an easy one to break. Child’s play. No real harm done, and it would’ve worn off in a day on its own. I only sped things up.”



That made me feel only moderately better.



“So, mijita, what can I do for you?”