Death's Curse Undone

Prologue

Prologue

It was the spring of 1583 and Jonathan Charlus Black was dying.

As he lay on the floor, gasping, a bitter hate rose within him for the Veela who stood before him. Kiera, his wife, his Veela mate, and his murderess.

Memories rose within him, of how she'd always held him in her thrall, separated him from his friends, used him in bed, drained his coffers,... and cuckolded him. Which was what had brought them to this point. A Veela could not survive rejection from his or her mate but there were ways around that, ways involving the Veela allure and Potioneering talents, ways Kiera had known. However, any compulsion can be broken if the will or the emotion involved is stronger than it and seeing his wife spread out in submission to another man, in his own house, in his OWN damned bed had broken the compulsion for him.

He had begun his rejection, and Kiera had stabbed him before he could complete it.

Jonathon Charlus Black died knowing his murderess would survive as his only heir.

Jon slowly came to in white formlessness. He rose, finding himself naked and unblemished and surrounded in white light. Before he could think any further, a dark, formless, menacing creature approached him. Jon cowered a little but a gentle and confused voice spoke from the heart of the creature.

"Jonathon Charlus Black, why are you here?"

"I do not know,", Jon replied, somewhat uncertainly, "the last thing I remember is being stabbed by my wife."

"Your WIFE?!", exclaimed the voice incredulously, "Were you not assigned a Veela mate?".

"I was.", replied Jon, "It was she who did this."

The creature paced. "This is wrong - you're not supposed to be dead for another 20 - something years." It whirled to fix its eyes (or what felt like eyes - there was only the sensation of being stared at) on Jonathon. "A Veela should not be able to harm its mate, leave alone outright murder! You were meant to die of a manticore attack on vacation! Tell me how this perversion came to happen!"

Jon told him (he'd decided that the creature was a 'him') the entire story, after getting dressed in a robe the... surroundings, he had no idea if it qualified as a room or a hall or whatever, manifested for him and sitting down cross-legged on the smooth and warm floor.

At the end of the recital, Death was in a rage.

Jonathon watched in fascination as the creature, it had admitted to being Death, stormed up and down muttering to himself in some unknown language, the tone making it more than clear that whatever was being said was in no way complimentary.

Finally it came to stand in front of the dead wizard. "You shouldn't be dead right now so you can appeal for wrongful death in the Courts of Dis. However, I should warn you that there is a very long waiting line and it is likely that your great-grandsons will be greybeards ere you get home to live out the years still due to you. Also, coming back from death is not exactly a common phenomenon so you would likely be hounded mercilessly without any protection from family. For these reasons, I would offer you an alternative, should you wish to take it. Will you hear it?"

Jon considered his options. The painting Death had given him of his prospective future should he attempt to return to the mortal world was extremely unattractive. Meanwhile, the idea of an alternative intrigued him - what could be worth 20 years of life?

"What is the alternative?"

"A boon. You can ask for one boon, one boon that will affect ONLY the mortal world and NOT in a deadly fashion. I will grant this boon, using the extra 20 years worth of life force that I will receive from you to power it and you will enter the afterlife normally - just as if you were meant to die today."

Jon gaped at him, disbelieving. A boon? A boon that he couldn't even use for himself now that he was dead? But then it filtered through, what Death was offering him.

'A chance to influence the mortal world from the great beyond.'

Jon remembered Kiera's treatment of him. Remembered the look of impassive disgust on her face as he had lain, gasping and choking on his own blood. And he knew exactly what he wanted to ask.

"Are you sure?", asked Death, one last time. "Yes.", said Jon, resolute, "I want her descendants to be full Veela, minus the wings and the claws and the whole other form of course, and I want them to be treated like I was. I want their mates immune to their allure. I want them desperate to please their mates... Merlin be their slaves for all I care - I was her fucking lapdog! I want them to hurt - to feel the mental agony that I felt at even a whisker of disapproval, a breath of censure. I want to create a brand of submissive Veela, a brand for which meeting their mate shall mean only suffering and pain, a brand that all the world will know to be from Kiera's bloodline.". "You know,", said Death, "if we are to do this we will have to make the bloodline impervious to rejection. And that will affect the mortality issue.". "You could make it so that rejection causes them unbearable, exquisite pain but they still must keep going back because giving up on their mate is their death sentence?", Jon offered. "Yeah, that should work.", said Death, standing and contemplating and organising the curse in his mind. In a minute, he realised something and turned apologetically to Jon, "I'm sorry, Jon, but we don't have the power for this - a constant curse requires a constant sacrifice and as you already fathered your son on Kiera we don't have a constant sacrifice.". Jon looked simultaneously betrayed and enraged. Death hurried to continue, "Its not so bad, we just need to come up with a way for the curse to be undone by someone at a later date.", he winked, moving in further, "We can make it very, VERY difficult.". A slow smile spread across Jon's face. He sat thoughtfully for a bit and then looked up at Death, "In the end, the desire to use and abuse their Veela mate shall only be a compulsion for the mates of Kiera's descendants, right?", Jon asked. "Yeah, a pretty strong compulsion but still only a compulsion.", agreed Death. "So let's make it that if one of the mates can overcome that compulsion to have a loving relationship with his or her Veela then that mate's descendants by their Veela shall be exempt from the curse. What do you say?" Death pictured the curse in his mind with this exemption and smiled, "Can do.".

Seven months later, Jacob Daniel Black came into the world as the first bearer of Death's curse.