Dark Empathy by Archibald Bradford (inspiring books for teens TXT) 📕

He opened his mouth to protest, the shock and pain he felt at being stabbed had turned into indignation as he held one hand to his still-bleeding shoulder.

Though he thought better of voicing his complaints when she began to chant again.

She leaned over him, her shawl spilling open and leaving her full breasts naked to his eyes, though they were the last thing on his mind as her bloody fingers reached for his face.

He flinched back even farther, but she stepped closer, now standing over him with a leg on either side so that he had nowhere to go.

With a couple of deft movements she sketched a rough oval below each of his eyes then drew a vertical lines through them, her voice rising and falling in cadence all the while.

Abruptly, her chanting stopped and she stood to her full height, licking his blood from her fingers before spitting it onto the ground.

“It is done.”

His own fingers reached up to his cheek, stopping short of touching the slightly tingling shapes she had drawn on his face.

“What did you do to me?”

She put her needle away and wrapped her shawl tighter around herself before warming her hands at the fire.

“I cursed you.” She said casually.

“Wh-what?!”

Anyone with any sense feared the curse of a Witch.

Painfully, he recovered his crutch and scrambled to his feet to took a few unsteady steps back from her.

“I cursed you.” She repeated, and then turned to face him, her dark eyes mysterious; “Close your eyes and open your mind to the memories of your Truffle. You will see.”

Despite his apprehension, Adrian did as she asked, closing his eyes and conjuring the memories of Cheri.

He drew in a sharp gasp.

Her smiling face, flush from a bout of recent love-making, filled his vision.

He could almost reach out and touch her.

“What, but- I don’t understand.” He said as his eyes opened and found Olena expectantly watching him.

“Try to picture her, as you saw her today.”

He swallowed his nerves, and, bolstered by the flood of bittersweet joy he felt at seeing Cheri so full of life again, did as the elder Witch asked.

Only to discover nothing but a grey fog.

He couldn’t picture her frozen features anymore, couldn’t even imagine what her body looked like all crumpled like it was.

No matter how hard he focused on his Cheri, all that would pop into his mind were pleasant memories of her laughing or telling stupid jokes.

He let out a sobbing gasp and buried his face in his hands, a bit of life having returned to him.

“How is this even a curse?” He asked rhetorically, a shaky chuckle following his words.

“It is. make no mistake.” Her response was solemn, mirthless; “I took something from you, something you can never get back. The fact that it was something you did not want does not change that.”

“I... thank-”

But she darted forwards and placed her hand over his mouth, her expression severe.

“Do not!” Her eyes were narrow and angry as she pressed her hand tighter to his lips, shaking her head vehemently; “To give thanks for a curse is to invite more of the same! You must smother the urge to voice your gratitude, for if you ever speak the words the curse will spread, taking away all memories of your love!”

She held her position until he earnestly nodded his understanding; only once she was certain he would heed her words did she pull away.

In her rush to silence him Olena’s shawl had fallen off her shoulder, once again exposing one of her breasts to his gaze.

He looked away until she had righted the knitted garment.

“Okay, so I won’t say... that. Any other things I should know about?”

She turned back to warming her hands by the fire.

“Yes. But far too many to speak of before the fire dies.”

They stayed in silence for a brief while, until Adrian couldn’t stand it anymore.

“Are you staying in the village now or…”

“I am. My home is not far away, but if the Amazons find a lead it wouldn’t do for them to have to come find me first, so I stay here until this is over.”

“Right.” Adrian sighed.

Her answer had brought them full circle back to the people who killed his team.

The people who killed Cheri.

While she was smiling in the only memories he could summon of her, she was still dead, and her absence left a hollow ache inside him.

There was no curse that could help with that.

Chapter 8: Indecision

Situated five miles outside the city of Garland, the Aegis Academy was a sprawling complex of buildings, towers, waterways and even subterranean tunnels. All designed to accommodate the wide variety of monster girls in attendance with their human partners, not to mention the intensive training programme for prospective Aegis operatives.

Nameless still struggled to find his way around, though Ophelia and Volka being able to fly helped enormously.

It had been a week since the night they had gotten to know Ginger, and indeed many of the other Cadets. Though the orgy she was after turned out to be a pretty mellow gathering, with less than half of the cadets in attendance and the ones that showed up too tired for any sort of shenanigans.

Beyond the intense physical conditioning the cadets endured, the Aegis training was roughly divided into three categories: Monster Girl Care, Lost-tech Applications, and Criminal Law.

Having five bond-mates, Nameless excelled at Monster Girl Care; one of the prerequisites for joining the Aegis was having your tamer license and he passed with flying colours when he challenged the certification test, having been coached so much by Miranda when they were searching for Volka.

That and he cheated outrageously.

Given his abilities, and