Cursed-epub
Authors: Ann Mayburn
Cursed
A Novel of The Chosen
By Ann Mayburn
Cursed
A Novel of The Chosen
By: Ann Mayburn
Published by Fated Desires Publishing, LLC.
ISBN: 978-1-62322-072-3
Copyright 2013 Ann Mayburn
Cover Art by Scott Carpenter
Formatted by
IRONHORSE Formatting
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person or use proper retail channels to lend a copy. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. To obtain permission to excerpt portions of the text, please contact the publisher at
[email protected]
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All characters in this book are fiction and figments of the author’s imagination.
Blurb
This story was previously published under the title 'Dance of the Gods' and has been extensively revised and updated.
Locked in a demonic curse, Carmella Ramirez has lost the will to love. Once she was the star of the Ramirez Samba School and lived a charmed life. Now, thanks to an old enemy’s thirst for revenge, she's the school's reclusive seamstress and living in the dangerous ghetto of Rio de Janeiro. But that's the least of her problems. When the sun sets, a succubus overtakes Carmella’s body and uses her beauty to lure men to their death. As the corpses pile up, those controlling Carmella plan to sacrifice her to their demonic god and blame her for the killings.
Her only hope is Sean Kalmus—a world famous musician and warrior of the Celtic god of Music, Maponus. While in Brazil to work the Carnival, Sam’s orders by Maponus to find and rescue Carmella turn into something more than they ever could have imagined when Carmella captures Sean’s heart.
With Sean's help, Carmella will have to call on her strength, his magic and their love to break herself free before she becomes known as Brazil's most notorious serial killer.
Table of Contents
A Thank you from Fated Desires
Excerpt: Ivan’s Captive Submissive
Some say that the age of chivalry is past, that the spirit of romance is dead. The age of chivalry is never past, so long as there is a wrong left unredressed on earth.
—Charles Kingsley
Carmella Ramirez ran a hand over her crimson silk-covered curves and smiled enticingly at the man following her down the alley in the dirty heat of Rio de Janeiro. Her innocent soul slept, blissfully unaware of the murder her body was about to commit. Sure the sinner would follow her, she walked faster down the alley with a little wiggle in her step.
“Hold on, baby.” The portly American tourist wiped the sweat streaming down his face out of his eyes with a red handkerchief. “You gotta give me a chance to catch up to that fine Brazilian ass of yours.”
The succubus using Carmella's body paused and spun on her six-inch black stiletto heel without even the slightest sway of the icepick-thin point. A woman would have been immediately suspicious of anyone who could skip without a wince down a dark alley in her shoes. She could easily read the tourist’s mind, and he thought her ability to walk down the cobblestone alley in heels high enough to give a hooker a nose bleed was merely a reflection of the sensuality that seemed to hang about the stunning brunette like a cloud of expensive perfume.
Dropping her voice to a soft purr, she gave him a smile that sent a tasty wave of lust her way. “It's just a little farther.” She stalked over to him and ran her slim, bronze fingers through his thinning hair. Pressing her hips against his, she gave a thrusting gyration that made him gasp. With a soft breath, she murmured, “I can't wait to show you this club. It is going to blow your mind.”
He panted against her then popped a mint-scented antacid into his mouth. “I'm not so sure about this. I don't even speak Mexican.”
The succubus tried to keep from rolling her eyes. He had to come of his own free will, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t stack the odds in her favor. “Don't worry. I'll take good care of you.” She searched the man's mind for his hidden desires and found the right words to say in order to get him to follow her. “I've never told anyone this…” She traced the man's lips with the fingertips of the stolen mortal body. “But I've always wanted to dress up like a pirate and be punished for my wicked deeds. If you come to the club with me, we could play with their toys. Floggers, canes, maybe a strap to make my ass burn before you fuck me.”
The pulse in his temple throbbed in a rapid beat, and the succubus hoped he didn't keel over right here. His soul was exactly what they needed tonight. Young and newly married, this pitiful man repeatedly defiled his sacred covenant to his wife with whores during his business trips.
“Have you…” The man licked his lips and groped her ass like a pillow in need of fluffing. “Have you been a naughty girl?”
He went to kiss her, tongue first, and she spun away from him with a giggle. “Let's hurry. I don't want all the equipment to be gone by the time we get there.”
Heels clicking against the cobble stones, she moved deeper into the alley and stopped below a small white neon sign depicting two dice hanging over a black-painted door. A couple enormous garbage bins piled with boxes blocked the view to the street. His hands found her ass again as she knocked an elaborate rhythm on the door. The magical warding on the entrance repulsed her, but the lust and passion it protected made her want to tear the steel down with her bare hands. She could shred the metal as easily as soft cheese if it wasn’t for the wards embedded into the building. Fucking magicians were always spoiling her fun.
The heavy, black metal door swung open, and desire poured out in visible waves that the succubus bathed in with a shudder. To her lust was a cool, delicious drink of power that she craved. She ignored the muffled scream of the man next to her as two brawny men wearing leather masks grabbed him and forced him into the bar. One of them immediately broke the man’s right ring finger while the other cut his earlobe off, making the man squeal like a pig.
The warmth of pain and pleasure made her sigh, and she held her hands out to the doorway, absorbing the lust coming from the busy interior. She wanted to wallow in the orgy covering the floor of the bar. She wanted to throw this body to the pleasure of anyone who would have it, to drink in the lust, to suck every human inside dry of their passion. It would be enough to sustain her for months and give her the power she required to escape her summoner.
Anger at being denied what she needed by mere humans pushed aside what little reason the succubus had been born with. She was a creature of pure hunger and need, and being denied the feast before her drove her mad with rage. Starvation made her ravenous to fill the never ending void in her damned soul and she fought the bindings securing her to the magician’s will.
She began to chant in a foul language damned by the gods of Creation, the words falling from her lips like drops of poison rain. The bouncer yelled in panic over his shoulder, sweat springing out on his brow and rolling down his sunken cheeks. A tall man with dark hair and scars covering his hands pushed a blonde with the body of a porn star off his lap. Against the back wall, the fat American continued to beg and scream as he was shackled and hoisted to dangle from the ceiling. Anticipation shuddered through the succubus as a priest of the demonic god, Guaricana, selected a black leather whip with razor blades at the tip.
The tall man shouted something, grabbing his black cane from the top of the glass and metal bar, and sprinted to stand next to the bouncer as the warding shuddered beneath the succubus's curse.
“I command you to stop,” he growled out and held the succubus's gaze. An angry hiss like a hive of bees swarmed from her slender throat. The bouncer quivered in fear, but the tall man looked bored, despite the slight tremble to his hands. He was her summoner, and as such, his word bound her as long as she accepted the body he offered. A sneer lifted his lip. “The sun will be up soon. You must return the body to her bed.”
She fought against the power of his command. “Please, just let me inside for a moment. I’ll be good.” The distress in her voice was real. To be denied that much lust was painful for a succubus, akin to denying a heroin addict a mixing bowl full of the drug.
The man narrowed his eyes. “Do you think I believe for a second that you won't fuck everything that touches you?”
The succubus walked backward, fighting his order every step of the way. “I
need
!” She tried to explain and held her hands out in a pleading gesture as she begged him to understand the unrelenting hunger.
“And I need you in that body.” He began to shut the door in her face then paused and studied her. “Listen to me well, succubus. I forbid you from taking any sexual release with this body. I forbid you from doing anything that would endanger the virginity of your stolen form. You will return your host to her apartment, and then you will depart the earth immediately until I summon you again. Do you understand my orders?”
“Yes.”
He sneered at her and she wanted to rip his lips off and make him eat them. “Yes, what?”
“Yes, Master,” she whispered and turned without another word.
Once out of sight, she fisted her hands and allowed the command to carry her back to the limo waiting to take this body back to its ghetto apartment. Her summoner would eventually slip up, and when he did, she would beg her true master, Guaricana, to let her be the one to devour his soul.
****
Sean Kalmus yawned while he scrolled through his email, stopping when he saw a message from his patron god, Maponus. The Celtic god of Music preferred modern technology for contacting his worshipers, and Sean appreciated that. Nothing like a magical bird singing a message to you to put a kink in your day while you waited in line at the grocery store. He took a gulp of his now cold coffee and gave himself a mental shake.
Coordinating and packing for the trip to Rio had kept him up all night, leaving him mentally and physically drained. Certainly not in the best frame of mind for dealing with his god. With a sigh, he looked out the window of his home in Ireland, wondering if he could sneak a nap in before answering the email. Faint traces of dawn sent runners of pink over the dark ocean beyond the bay windows of his study, reminding him that a new day had already begun and his chance for rest had passed.
If he didn't read the email right away Maponus had been known to send singing chinchilla telegrams while Sean was trying to have an intimate moment with a pretty girl. His patron god had a weird sense of humor, one of the reasons why they got along so well.
Running his hand through his dark auburn hair hard enough to pull out a few strands, he clicked the email and began to read.
My Chosen,
I have work for you while you're in Brazil. There is a young woman in need of rescue, though she does not know it. You will be in a unique position to help her. She's the first flower of spring, hidden by the snow. Be careful. A High Priest of Guaricana has been using her as his stalking-horse.
Maponus
After reading the letter twice, Sean did a search on the Internet for Guaricana
. A Brazilian devil who is worshiped by whipping young men until the blood flows.
He spun his chair around to face an empty room and threw his hands in the air. “Awesome. Just fucking fantastic. Not only do I have to DJ for the Carnival parade this year, I also get to lock horns with a devil fond of S&M.”
With a sigh, he picked up the phone and called Kell, his best friend and crew chief.