Cursed (The Brookehaven Vampires #4) (35 page)

“Where’s the book?” Felix asked in my mind as we walked down the arched hallway together.

I noticed several people, especially those of the female persuasion, throwing glances his way. Felix was not hard on the eyes—all rugged and manly and huge—there was no doubt there.

Through my thoughts, I told Felix what we had done with the book.

He agreed that it was a wise idea.

It had been Oliver’s idea, of course it was wise.

We passed Ashton as we walked down the hall. Ashton kept his eyes forward like he hadn’t even seen us, or like he didn’t even know me.

I glanced to Felix. He shrugged at me.

Felix informed me that he was scheduled to work some sort of blood drive. “I have to supervise the blood donor truck during the drive,” he said as we reached the end of the hall near the faculty parking lot where he always parked. “You and Carter be sure to stick together tonight. I will be by after your class.”

We parted ways, and I headed toward Carter’s class which would be letting out soon. I figured I would meet him halfway. However, I saw Ashton on my way, and I quickly ducked behind one of the pillars. I figured he had only pretended I
didn’t exist when I was with Felix because, well, because Felix was Felix.

Ashton had to know Felix’s true nature, especially since he
was in cahoots with the enemy.

But now I was alone
, and vulnerable.

I pulled out my phone and sent a message to Carter, telling him to hurry.

He responded a couple of seconds later, telling me he was on his way.

I peeked around the pillar and immediately regretted it. Ashton was talking to a couple of guys not far from where I was hiding. They were standing near a bench
, and Ashton had his foot up on it like he thought he was the coolest. When I peeked around the pillar, he caught sight of me.

I felt like a bumbling idiot as I texted Carter to tell him to hurry, but instead, I sent him this:

Gyro.

Stupid autocorrect!

“Hey, Laney,” Ashton said as he rounded the pillar. “You hiding from something…or someone?” He rested an arm on the corner of the pillar that I looked like I was trying to hold in place with my back pressed to it. He smiled the wickedest smile I had ever seen.

Fear enveloped me.

“Um, no,” I floundered. I stepped away from the pillar, searching for an escape route.

“Laney!” Carter shouted from down the hallway. He was jogging toward me.

I spun away from Ashton and hurried toward Carter. I glanced back to see Ashton watching me go.

“Oh, look,”
Ashton called, mockingly. “If it isn’t my best bud, Carter.”

Carter grabbed my hand and pulled me to him. “I’m nothing to you but your enemy. It would best if you remember that
!” Carter shouted. He was shaking.

Together we hurried toward the parking lot, but not before Ashton had the chance to call after us, sardonic amusement in his tone, “Oh, I’ll remember.”

After leaving the school, we went by the apartment. We only stayed a few minutes, mostly because we both felt uneasy about the book I’d found. There was something strange about it, and the fact it was in the apartment gave us the heebie-jeebies.

We left, grabbing some fast
food before heading back to the school for our night class.

To distract us while we sat in the car, eating dinner
, and waiting for time to pass, Carter filled me in on the dragon assignment I had missed. He made it very clear that he had presented it all on his own since his partner had ditched him.

I laughed at him and apologized, even though I
wasn’t sorry at all that Oliver and I had skipped out on everything except each other.

Then Carter asked me for a favor. “Do you think you could somehow ditch the wedding invite for Ashlynn?”

“Why?” I asked, knowing it was already too late.

I had personally addressed the invitation to Ashlynn
—Avery and Ashton’s cousin. I had also questioned Kiera on why Ashlynn was even being invited. Kiera claimed Ashlynn was not a part of the whole Ashton and Avery “scam” to separate Oliver and me, as Kiera had put it.

Yeah, ‘cause that’s all that’s going on.

Kiera was so naïve. Not that I had a solid idea of what was going on, either, but I was certain it was more than just a “scam” to separate me from my boyfriend.

“Well,” Carter began as he finished the last of his food, “remember that party I had my senior year? I mean our senior year.” He flashed me a food-filled grin.

“Yeah,” I said, rolling my eyes at how nasty he sometimes was. I understood his mistake. I had kind of technically still been a junior even though I graduated that year with the rest of my friends. “I fought with Lilly over that party until she finally caved and let me go for all of forty-five minutes.”

This wasn’t the only reason I remembered Carter’s party. I remembered how Avery had flaunted Tate in front of me, and especially how she made me sound like a child because I couldn’t stay. It
was a stupid party, in my opinion. And not worth it, considering the trouble Carter got into when his dad found out…

Carter stared out the windshield. “Well, I kinda slept with Ashlynn that night.”

I stared at him, slightly disgusted and slightly horrified. Ashlynn wasn’t far off from her cousins. The reputation apparently stayed within the family.

He glanced over. He got what he needed from my expression. “I’m not proud of it,” he said. “I just don’t know how to tell Kiera…”

“Don’t,” I said.

His bright blue eyes met mine
, appearing somewhat surprised.

“It won’t do you any good to tell her, especially now. The invites are already in the mail.”

He put his head back against the seat and groaned.

“Just forget about it, Carter. Ashlynn probably won’t even come.”

It would be beneath her to show, especially if her cousins weren’t going to be there, and they hadn’t been invited. Ashlynn was just as superficial as they were, and if Avery told Ashlynn it would harm her reputation, she wouldn’t show. Plus, Ashlynn had moved after she graduated. She was attending school elsewhere. Carter was probably in the clear.

I hoped.

Merfolk and Other Such Creatures

In our paranormal studies class, Amber was without a co-teacher for the night since Felix, who was supposed to be helping her, had a prior engagement with the blood drive.

Blood drive…
I could just imagine. I pictured creeper vamps like Oscar lingering about, hiding in the shadows, just waiting for a fix.

Anyway, Amber was such an amazing teacher. I could not wait to get started learning from her outside of the classroom. That was, if I ever got the chance to take her up on her offer.

Our topic for the week was merfolk. I was seriously interested in whether or not we would have a guest speaker. I made myself laugh quietly when I pictured a little kiddie pool set up in the classroom with a mermaid in it.

We took our usual quizzes. I was sure I failed the dragon quiz considering I had fully skipped out on the dragon studies. However, like I said before, had I been given a quiz on all things Oliver, that I would have passed.

I was lost in my thoughts, thoughts of Oliver’s gorgeous green eyes staring into mine, intense and loving. The way his hair felt between my fingers. The way his skin felt against mine, the way his body warmed mine…

“Laney!” Carter hissed. He snapped his fingers beside my ear. “You might
wanna pay attention.”

My eyes shifted to the side to look at the man who had just pulled me from my Oliver-dreaming. He narrowed his eyes as I glared at him. Then he nodded toward the front of the small
, gray classroom where Professor Amber appeared to be waiting for the class to finish their merfolk quizzes.

I looked down at my desk to find the blank quiz staring back at me.

Crap!

Quickly, I wrote my name on my quiz and began answering the questions.

The tug I felt—the strain in my chest caused by the distance that separated Oliver and me—was distracting. Even with the interest and excitement of learning about merpeople, the strain was there, reminding me that the other half of me with missing. I wondered how Oliver was doing, and if he too was struggling with our distance.

As I
turned in my test, I was pretty confident I knew nothing about mercreatures.

Jack, the curly-haired talker
, was excited to see me back in class, and once Amber was done with her lecture and we were set free to study in groups of our own, he asked lots of questions about Zane.

I scratched around the bandage on the back of my hand while keeping my eyes on my merfolk b
ook and not answering his angel related questions.

Jack finally dropped the subject when Carter told him to cut it out. That boy could not take a hint.

After class, Zoey and Kiera hurried out, telling us they had some wedding show on TV they wanted to watch. I felt a little hurt that I hadn’t been invited. I would’ve declined and made something up, but still, to be invited would have been nice.

Carter waited for me while I talked to Amber for a quick minute.

“It is nice to have you back,” Amber said as I approached the front of the class. She was standing behind the desk, looking down at the quizzes that she was shuffling through. Her eyes met mine for a moment before returning to the papers.

“Thanks,” I responded, feeling somewhat uncomfortable that she knew Oliver and I had completed our bond while away.

I then asked her about getting together for private paranormal studies lessons.

Her gaze fell on mine once again while her hands stopped shuffling through the quizzes. She seemed rather happy about my interest.

We made plans to talk more after I took the astronomy midterm that she kindly reminded me I still needed to take. Fair enough.

Carter and I stayed close to each other as we headed out of the building. Felix was in the parking lot, his big beefy arms crossed over his chest
while he leaned against his large, black SUV.

“Hey,” I said to him. “I thought you were meeting us at the apartment.”

“Drive ended early. I figured I would make sure you two made it home safely.”

Felix followed us home
, and once inside the apartment, he had me get the book from the fridge, and we called Oliver.

“It appears to be someone’s journal,” Felix said to Oliver, who I had put on speakerphone.

They spoke more about the book while I flipped through it, Carter right beside me.

The book contained notes and drawings. There were instructions on how to kill certain creatures. For example: vampires, werewolves, and even fae-types, like elves and faeries. Not the little fairy creatures Hayden had shown me, actual people-sized Faeries.

Carter and I exchanged a look, both of us wondering if we had ever encountered any fae.

Oliver and Felix finished their conversation, and Oliver told me he was unable to get an early release, but that he would see me in the morning. I was looking forward to it. I was also looking forward to the argument that was sure to ensue when I informed him, once again, that we
shouldn’t have returned.

“See why we cannot coexist,” Felix said, looking over at Carter and me huddled together on the other end of the couch with the journal. “If more humans knew about our existence and the existence of other
paranormal races, they would stop at no means to end us. I have seen it before.”

Felix looked sullen as he turned from us.

Carter and I exchanged another look, then Carter turned on the TV to distract Felix for the evening. It seemed to work. Although, Carter was easily distracted as well. Perhaps this was a trait in the Ryant line.

After a while, I wandered into my bedroom to change into my jammies and read more of the journal I had taken from Ashton.

Distracted by the book, I only shrugged out of my jeans and took off my bra before crawling under the covers. The journal contained information on many races, one of which was dragons. It claimed a dragon was recently seen on the outskirts of “Treeville.”

Uh, creepy! What the hell would a dragon be doing near “Treeville”? And should we be worried? Oliver had once told me that if we saw a dragon, we had bet
ter hope it was a friendly one.

Really wishing I hadn’t missed the dragon studies now.

I smirked to myself.
Yeah, right. It was so worth it.

The journal made a mention of fae living
among the other supernatural creatures in town, and it also mentioned there being no known way to kill an angel, besides another angel.

All of this information gave me the chills. It also made me want to talk to Amber and get started learning about all supernatural creatures as soon as possible.

I flipped through the book, looking at the entries and the drawings, and desperately wondering if the information was true, and if so, who did the information and the journal belong to? Ashton? It seemed unlikely. It was too organized and most of the writing was too neat. Was there someone who was documenting the inhabitants of “Treeville”? Had they been watching people I knew? People I loved? Oliver? Or even Carter?