Cursed. Lisa Childs

no cameras—”

      “Never needed them,” the doctor interjected.

      “Tonight you needed them,” Seth said. Because all of the nurses he’d questioned had claimed that they had seen no stranger—no one suspicious at all—lurking around the place. But they’d shivered as he’d talked to them—as if some cold spirit had crossed their paths.

      Or some heartless killer...

      Despite his leather jacket, goose bumps lifted on Seth’s skin. Maybe it was the coldness of the morgue. Or maybe it was something else that chilled his skin and his blood. He refused to believe in spirits.

      Evil.

      Hell, he knew evil existed. He had already seen so much of it. More likely what had chilled his skin was the thought that had just occurred to him.

      If Maria really was at the station, then someone else was out there. Not acting instead of her but maybe in collusion with her. He should have considered before that she wasn’t working alone. The gruesome ways all the other victims had died would have been hard for her to pull off alone—unless she really was a witch. Or she’d had someone stronger helping her. Probably some hapless male who had fallen for her undeniable sexy charms...

      Seth swallowed nervously as he realized he could be that hapless male—that he had been distracted so much by her looks that he hadn’t thought to put protective duty on Raven. His distraction had cost the girl her life. Along with the frustration, guilt ate at him, clenching his stomach into knots.

      “I need to get back to the station,” he said. To make certain that Maria was still there—that whoever had just killed Raven for her wasn’t trying to break her out of the room in which he’d locked her.

      As if he’d read his mind, the sheriff assured him, “Your suspect is still there.”

      Where Maria Cooper was concerned, Seth would accept no assurances. He had to see for himself. But he didn’t want to just see her. He wanted to touch her, too.

      “I’ll drive Dr. Kohler back to his house and meet you at the station,” the sheriff said.

      “I have to finish up the autopsy,” the doctor said. “I can’t leave her like this...” He stared grimly down at the body.

      “That’ll give you time to finish up the investigation here,” Seth suggested to Sheriff Moore. “Maybe you’ll have better luck talking to the nurses than I did.”

      They might talk more freely to the local lawman than the stranger he was to them. They might admit to seeing something or someone tonight that would explain how Raven had died.

      And maybe now that Seth knew Maria wasn’t working alone, he might have better luck getting her to talk. Maybe she would implicate her accomplice in order to save herself. If her accomplice hadn’t already managed to free her...

      The security at the sheriff’s office wasn’t much better than at the county hospital. So Seth worried that he would find her as he had found Raven: already gone.

      * * *

      “She’s gone...”

      “Who?” Elena asked as she glanced over her shoulder at her sister Ariel, who’d spoken so softly that she’d barely heard her whisper.

      “Mama,” Ariel murmured. She was probably being quiet so she wouldn’t wake Irina. She was sleeping, finally, and hopefully so deeply that she wasn’t able to hear them.

      When they were kids, the three of them had slept together on that lumpy mattress in the camper on the back of Mama’s old pickup truck. As they had then, the three of them slept together now—on the soft mattress of Irina’s king-size bed, though. Elena lay in the middle, as she had all those years ago, a younger sister under each arm as if she could keep them safe from all those horrible dreams she’d had. All those horrible things she had seen each of them endure...

      As she thought of those twenty years without her sisters, Elena’s pain increased. And now she knew there was still one sister out there—still alone, as they had each been alone for so long.

      Because, eventually, Mama had abandoned Maria, too.

      Ariel’s husband, David Koster, had discovered that as he and his best friend, Ty, had tried tracking down Maria. Elena’s husband, Joseph, had other sources who had discovered other things about Maria.

      Like her criminal past...

      Or was it actually in the past...?

      Elena closed her eyes and played out the vision she’d had days earlier.

      Candlelight flickered, casting shadows about the interior of a barn. Dried herbs hung from the rafters. But they weren’t the only things dangling from the worn boards. A noose swung in the cool night air blowing in through the open door.

      A man crouched on the floor, leaning over a woman—trying to save her. The candlelight glinted in his auburn hair.

      The first time she’d had the vision, Elena had awakened screaming. As always Joseph had comforted her, pulling her tightly against his hard chest. His strong arms had held her close, and he’d reassured her that she was safe. But she had known she wasn’t the one in danger. She had thought that the woman lying lifelessly on the ground was Maria. But then she’d had the vision again and she hadn’t awakened that time until later. And then she had been even more horrified.

      A woman crouched behind him. Long curly black hair hung down her back. She wore an old gray sweater and a long skirt. And from the folds of the long skirt she pulled a knife. The backs of her hands were gouged, as if she’d already fought with someone. And then she swung the blade of that long knife toward the man’s back...

      That woman was Maria. Not the one lying on the floor. Joseph’s contacts had confirmed that Elena’s youngest sister had been a con artist. Elena remembered helping her mother run cons—before she, Ariel and Irina had been taken away from her. But Maria had kept running those cons—by herself—after their mother abandoned her. So she’d chosen to be a con artist. Was she now a killer?

      Or had she always been?

      Elena had had other visions. She had seen other bodies. Was Maria so damaged—so evil—that she had taken those lives?

      “No...” Irina murmured the word in her sleep as she shifted restlessly on the bed.

      “She can hear you,” Ariel warned her. “What are you thinking?”

      “I’m remembering a vision.”

      Ariel’s turquoise eyes widened and glowed in the darkened bedroom. She knew about the visions—knew that Elena wasn’t as convinced as she and Irina that it was a good idea to find Maria.

      They were desperate to find the youngest Cooper sister because they were worried that Maria was in danger. Elena was worried that Maria was the danger.

      Maybe to them all...

      Ariel settled closer to Elena’s side, as if seeking comfort. She softly murmured, “I hope you’re wrong.”

      Elena shrugged so that her shoulder rubbed against Ariel’s—offering comfort as she had when they were kids. “I can’t help what I see.”

      And if Maria was what Elena was afraid she was, then they wouldn’t be able to help her, either.

      * * *

      Maria fought to breathe as she waited in the cell, opening her mouth to suck in deep breaths—to fill her aching lungs.

      Was it her fear? Or someone else’s?

      Shortly after Seth Hughes had locked her in the room and left, she’d felt that choking sensation. It wasn’t the too-close walls that were shrinking the already small room. It was the mist that filtered in beneath the door.

      “No,” she murmured around the sob choking her throat. She felt as though that noose were around