The Family Curse (Cursed Wanderers Series: Book 1)

Chapter 14 - The Wakefulness of Dread

Chapter 14

The Wakefulness of Dread

 

 

IN THE SHORT PERIOD of time I had to look through the books in the library after Hugo’s informative little talk I had managed to check out Mare. Because in the five type of powerful Essence suprahuman Hugo had told me about, Mare was in the bunch. And a Mare wasn’t a comforting kind of suprahuman, if there was such a thing as a comforting suprahuman. They brought on nightmares to their prey, feeding on the fear in the subconscious. They could control the said subconscious pretty much any way they wanted and there were actual instance were if they were strong enough they didn’t even need the subject to be asleep.

So, that wasn’t comforting at all, especially when thinking that Kostyantyn Brahe could do that. He was the last person I’d trust with my sub-conscious.

Now, of course, I was a smartass, so my automatic response was “And how is you being the female of a horse going to be helpful in any way?”

            The corners of Kostya’s mouth rose. “I totally pegged you as the kind to make sarcastic comments right after almost being killed,” he chuckled, his arms crossed over his chest.

            “Hey, that’s me, always the joker,” I answered evasively.

            “How about we get this done with quickly so we can all go back to bed?” Yelena interjected.

I ignored her. “On Wikipedia they sit on people. Are you going to sit on me?” I inquired.

Kostya fully grinned. “If I was three years old, I had never done this and I wanted to kill you in your sleep, then yes I would be doing sitting on you, but since I’m none of the above, no. I don’t even need to touch you. I could actually be in another room.”

With the way all the adults were looking at Kostya I had a feeling the “in another room” bit was a surprise to them too—and not a good one.

“You can just lie down on the couch there.” He pointed to it with his chin. “That way you can all make sure I don’t kill her in her sleep,” he added condescendingly to the rest of my family.

I twitched a little on my feet. “I don’t fall asleep easily,” I admitted because, well I didn’t, and this might actually take a while. I wasn’t going to give them false hope of a quick fix if I wasn’t going to be even able to sleep.

“Don’t worry, you’ll sleep,” Kostyantyn assured me.

I raised an eyebrow. “Let me guess, another Mare trick?”

“No, I plan on bashing you behind the head with an iron pipe,” he replied, grinning. There were a few gasps in the room, and Matvei took a step forward. “Jesus, I was joking. Seriously, you guys have no sense of humour!” He looked back at me. “Yes, it’s a Mare trick.”

            I scratched the back of my leg with my toes again. “So what?”

            “Just lay on the couch. Or you can just sit on it if you want to have a neck cramp when you get up. It’s your body,” the annoying boy pointed out to me and then looked at the other people gathered around. “And you guys can hold my hand while we all try to get through this like a strong happy family,” he added in a nagging voice.

“Kostyantyn,” half of the people in the room uttered.

He mumbled “no sense of humour,” to no one in particular and gazed at me pointedly.