Cursed (The Brookehaven Vampires #4) (36 page)

There were no names in the notes that
were jotted down, and the person only referred to who or what they were observing as “the subject.”

As I continued flipping through the pages, something fell out of the journal and to the floor. I reached over the side of the bed and picked up what had fallen. They were pictures. But they weren’t just any pictures. These were the photos that had been taken from my room a couple of months before.

I was certain I had just gotten my answer about someone watching my boyfriend and my friends. I also came to the conclusion that I was being watched too. There was nothing reassuring about this realization.

There was no guarantee this person was Ashton, or that Ashton
was the one who had taken my photos, but there was also no guarantee that it hadn’t been him.

I shuffled through the pictures and a chill ran through me. This person had pictures of my parents, of my friends, and
of me in this journal. As I flipped to the last one, I found the same picture that I had recently found in Ashton’s room. It was the photo of myself from prom.

The heater kicked on and it startled me. I jumped, and with that little act of movement, my head began to ache. The ache turned into a blinding pain.

The last thing I remember was laying my head down on the mattress and closing my eyes.

The Green-Eyed Stranger

That night, I dreamt of
a guy with gorgeous green eyes and a breathtakingly beautiful smile. He held my hand and kissed me lots. He made me feel perfect, whole, complete. I woke when he said my name, and I was sad as he faded away.

Then I heard it again. “Laney,” the voice said.

From under my covers, I slowly turned toward the voice to find a stranger in my room. “I have something for you,” he said. He had the exact smile and exact same emerald-green eyes that I’d seen in my dream.

I blinked several times, thinking I was still sleeping.

This stranger was holding a single red rose in his hand. My favorite, but how would he know that?

He took a seat on the bed, and when he leaned down to kiss me, I realized I was no longer dreaming.

I screamed and scrambled out of my bed. I surprised the beautiful stranger. He had broken into my room, yet he looked surprised that I was freaking out!

He was probably all looks and no brains.

“Who the hell are you and what are you doing in my room?” I shouted. I stumbled over a pair of my jeans on the floor. I grabbed them and threw them on; embarrassed this guy had just seen me in my underwear.

“What are you talking about, Laney?” His brow furrowed. He was off the bed. He made to come closer, but he stopped and looked…concerned. He was between me and the door.

“How do you even know my name?” I shouted as I inched toward the open bedroom door, hoping I could get past him without incident.

“What’s going on?” A familiar deep voice boomed from the other room.

“Help!” I screamed as I ran for the doorway. Mr. Beautiful-but-not-so-bright chased after me.

I ran straight for Felix. I slammed into him and he held me in his arms, protectively.

Carter was there too. He was standing in the kitchen, but it wasn’t my kitchen.

I looked around. I wasn’t in my apartment.
What the hell is going on?

“What’s going on?” Carter asked from the kitchen, his voice full of concern.

“Is this one of your friends?” I shouted, pointing at the gorgeous and mysterious guy slowly moving closer to me.

I turned in Felix’s grip, facing away from him, but staying glued to him.

“Uh, yeah, I guess. He’s your boyfriend,” Carter said.

My attention snapped to him. I questioned him with a look.

“Laney, what’s going on?” Carter asked, stepping around the bar and coming toward Felix and me.

No, I had to be dreaming. None of this was real. If this guy was my boyfriend, I was pretty sure I would remember.

Still wrapped in Felix’s arms, I pinched myself, hard, and I whimpered because it hurt like hell.

This
made no sense.

I returned my attention
to the green-eyed stranger. He wasn’t my boyfriend, I had never seen him before the dream.

“Laney,” Carter said as he took a few steps closer. “What’s going on?” He appeared worried. They all were, even Felix, and he too was questioning me.

The stranger with the dark, mesmerizing green eyes said my name. I focused on him. He induced this weird fluttering in my tummy. He reached a hand out to me. I pressed my back against Felix.

“It’s okay, Delaney. Take his hand,” Felix said to me.

I looked up at him for a moment, then I said, “But I don’t know who he is, Papa Felix.” I could not understand why Felix would encourage me to go with a stranger. He was my protector.

I returned my attention to the others in the room. They both appeared confused.

“What did you just say?” Carter asked.

I didn’t answer because the gorgeous one reached forward again and tried to take my hand.

I slapped at him, making contact. A weird current pulsed through me. I jerked my hand away. Tingles lingered.

His eerie green stare stayed on me. “Please, Laney,” he pleaded. “Please.” He reached for me again
, and Felix released me.

As my protector, I knew Papa Felix
wouldn’t let any harm come to me. I trusted him.

I took a hesitant step forward. If this guy was in fact my boyfriend, I was sure I would remember. They had to be playing a trick on me.

Just then, just as I was taking another hesitant step toward the green-eyed stranger, the front door burst open.

In the commotion, m
y supposed boyfriend grabbed me and pulled me too him.

“Don’t touch me!” I screamed, but I was torn. I didn’t want him to let me go.

“Get your hands off her!” someone shouted from the open doorway.

It was Ashton. My
real
boyfriend.

The gorgeous, trick boyfriend growled. The growl
didn’t scare me, and even though I was reluctant to leave his arms, I knew something wasn’t right.

“Let go of me!” I shouted. Struggling, I was able to pull my arm free of his grip. I ran to Ashton. He grasped my hand. I felt nothing.

“Who the hell is that guy?” Ashton asked as he looked me over to make sure I was okay.

I didn’t g
et a chance to respond. A split second later, the man the others claimed was my boyfriend jumped Ashton, knocking him away from me.

They took turns punching each other and shoving at each other while I screamed for them to stop. Carter and Felix tried to pull them apart.

This was stupid and ridiculous. If it was a joke, it was
not
funny.

I was mad. “I’m going home!” I shouted. I bolted out the door and ran for my car.

As I ran past my apartment, I realized I had just left Carter’s apartment. But that didn’t make any sense. Why was I at Carter’s? And my stuff was there…

I had no idea what was happening. I hurried down the steps to my car, but I had forgotten my keys.
Shit!

Thundering footsteps pounded down the steps behind me. I didn’t know what to do. I just stood there, frozen.

Thankfully, Ashton was the first one down the steps. He grabbed my hand and told me to run. I did.

We jumped into his car and sped away. I looked back to see the other three guys chasing after the car. They stopped, still in the apartment’s parking lot, when we hit University Boulevard. I watched them until they faded in the distance. The guy who Carter claimed was my boyfriend—the one who made me feel whole in my dream, the one who made my body tingle with a single touch—he dropped to his knees right there in the parking lot. He looked like
he’d just had his heart ripped from his chest.

What the hell
…?

I turned in my seat, facing forward. I breathed a sigh, but it wasn’t of relief. I was totally confused, and what was even weirder than whatever the hell just happened was that my heart ached the farther we got. It felt like something was attached to my heart and pulling it in a different direction
—pulling back to where we had just been.

“Who was that guy?” Ashton asked.

“I, uh, I don’t know,” I told him. I looked over at my boyfriend. “Ashton! You’re bleeding!”

Using the sleeve of his button-front shirt, he wiped at his nose. Blood smeared across the pale blue fabric.

“The glove box,” he said, keeping his eyes on the road.

I jerked open the glove box and found a handful of napkins. I handed them over
, and he thanked me.

Ashton held the wad of napkins to his nose while he drove the familiar stretch
of road to my aunt’s house. I was quiet for the rest of the ride, only responding to Ashton when needed. I couldn’t stop thinking about that guy, about his gorgeous green eyes and breathtaking smile, and especially how I felt when he touched me.

Ashton had never made me feel like that. Not that I could remember, anyway…

I shook my head. It was the dream, nothing more…

But how does a complete stranger enter your dreams?

I scratched at a Band-Aid on the back of my hand. Whatever was under it itched something fierce. I peeked under the bandage. There was this weird scratch, or maybe it was more of a small hole in my hand that looked red and irritated. The weirdest part about it was that I had no clue where it had come from. No recollection at all…

“You okay?” Ashton asked as we pulled onto the gravel driveway at my aunt’s house.

I shrugged. “I guess. A little shaken though.”

“Yeah, me too,” he said
as he parked. He leaned over and kissed my cheek. “Come on. Let’s go see what Lilly’s up to.”

I smiled. “Okay.” I couldn’t remember the last time I had seen my aunt…my smile faded as I racked my brain.
What the hell…?
Why couldn’t I remember…

Ashton waited for me as I got out of the car
. I was baffled.
Why am I missing pieces of my memory?
He took my hand in his when I reached him, then we walked up the steps to my aunt’s house together.

Something did not feel right.

I tried the knob. Of course the door was locked, and I didn’t have my key. I knocked, and after waiting several minutes, we made our way around the house to the back door where a spare key was hidden. As we came around the back of the house, we found Lilly’s car parked under the carport.

Weird. “Maybe she’s in the shower,” I told Ashton.

I retrieved the key that we kept hidden under a rock near the back steps, then I proceeded to unlock the back door.

“That’s not safe, you know.” Ashton
said.

“I know, but there’s a trick to the
back door. Lilly figures if someone did find the key, they would never figure out how to actually get it to work.”

Ashton watched me as I turned the key in the lock, then I jiggled it the appropriate
number of times, turned it again, jiggled it once more, then I pushed down on the handle before it finally unlocked and opened.

“Yeah, that’s
way
too much effort,” he said as I beamed at him. He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and pecked me on the lips. “You’re so damn pretty.”

“Knock it off,” I told him. I playfully pushed him away. I’d just gotten out of bed and had the life scared out of me. I hadn’t even used the bathroom yet. I was sure I looked far from pretty.

“Aunt Lilly?” I called as we stepped inside the house. She didn’t answer, so I called out again. The upstairs shower wasn’t running, and when no answer came, I said, “I guess she’s not here. Maybe she went somewhere with someone.” Even though this seemed wildly out of character for my aunt, it was the only answer that seemed logical.

As we moved farther into the house, I realized it smelled…different. And it felt cold and unwelcoming. Something was wrong. I hugged myself as a chill crept up my spine.

“Wanna make out?” Ashton said, wrapping his arm around my shoulders once again. I couldn’t tell if he was serious or joking.

“Not really,” I told him, throwing him a quick glance. “Your nose is still bleeding.”

“Oh, sorry.”

While Ashton headed into the downstairs bathroom to clean himself up, I ran upstairs to use that bathroom, and to try to make myself look like less of a mess.

While I combed my fingers through my hair, I thought about how “making out,” as Ashton had put it, would not feel right. It wouldn’t be fair to him, because I was pretty sure I would be imagining I was kissing the handsome green-eyed stranger instead.

That just wasn’t right. Ashton was my boyfriend, and I would never do anything to hurt him, even if it was all just in my head. But I knew he would never do anything to hurt me, either. …Right?