Cursed by the Fountain of Youth

Chapter 14

Drip, drip, drip...

Fae smacked her lips.

They were so very dry.

Drip, drip, drip...

Taking a deep breath, she coughed. Pain shot through her wrists. She couldn't feel her fingers. Flexing her hands, she tried to get the circulation moving. She scooted back to relieve the pressure on her wrists and shivered at the cold washing over her legs and backside. Was she sitting in a puddle of water?

Where was she?

Peeling her eyes open, she shrieked. A face hovered just inches from her own.

"Are you really awake this time?" the stranger said. "Or am I still General Martin?" He chuckled. No, he wasn't a stranger; he was the man from the tour group, the one who had been watching her. His eyes narrowed, wrinkles sprouting from the creases in his leathery face.

"Who are you?" she asked. Fae blinked as her awareness increased. Cold stones pressed against her back, her wrists were shackled above her head, and she was sitting in about an inch of water with darkness enveloping the air around her.

"Where's Nick?" her voice rasped.

"That's the FBI agent you were with, right?" A smile cracked his face. This man was tall and bony, with white hair cut military style.

She pressed her lips together and glared.

"He's probably waking up in a hospital right about now."

Fae's eyes widened.

"Oh, don't worry about your precious bodyguard. He's fine. Just shaking off the effects of halothane—along with all the others from our tour group. I, on the other hand, happened to be lucky enough to bring along a gas mask."

"Who are you? Why did you bring me here?"

"My name is Lafayette, and this, my dear, is your new home. Get used to it. You'll be here a long, long time."

"Why? What did I ever do to you? I've never even met you before tonight."

"Ah, now that's where you're wrong. We met once before. Many years ago." He rose and paced in front of her, his feet sloshing in the water as he spoke. "The day you were born, actually."

Fae's eyes flew open wide. "My mother was murdered the day I was born."

Lafayette stopped and raised his hands. "Hey, that wasn't me."

Fae frowned and then glanced around the room—trying to see through the oppressive darkness. The only light came from the Lafayette's cell phone, clipped to his pocket.

"I'll admit your mother had it coming," he continued. "I mean, she was actually in the Fountain of Youth. Talk about desecrating a sacred place! There was a time we would have hung her by her own intestines for such an act. She's lucky she didn't have to suffer. But then you were born," he stopped pacing and faced her, "right there in the waters of the Fountain."

"So, what?" Fae asked, doubt heavy in her tone. "Did it turn me younger? How much younger could I get, I was a newborn."

"It didn't make you younger—though you won't age past twenty-two. No, what it did to you was something much more significant. You are the Fountain of Youth."

"You're crazy. That doesn't make...sense..." Fae's voice trailed off as a thought came to her. "That girl in the closet. You were the one who killed her and drained her blood." She blew out a nervous breath as fear clenched her chest. "You really believe what you say."