Cursed (The Brookehaven Vampires #4) (48 page)

Oliver’s voice started to relay all that
he’d done the previous day. It was a serious contrast to what my Oliver had actually done. Same thing with Carter. When his voice relayed his previous day’s events, and he stated that he’d met me at the mall, I wanted to call him a liar.

I couldn’t look at either of them. I needed Oliver’s comfort and support, but Oliver wasn’t Oliver, and there was no way I was letting his body (which Carter was currently inhabiting) anywhere near me. It was bad enough we had just
…well, you know…

I thought I might cry.

I realized it had been Oliver’s body, but it wasn’t his mind. It hadn’t been Oliver controlling what was happening.
Ugh! I just had sex with Carter in Oliver’s body!
Dying sounded like a good option.

Needless to say, this was the reason I
couldn’t look at either of them.

My stomach rolled as images of the morning flashed through my mind.

Yeah, pretty sure vomiting is inevitable.

I was even having a hard time looking at Felix. So I rested my head on my knees and closed my eyes while listening to the guys talk. I listened to voices that did not match the words they were saying.

“That bag from your trunk,” Oliver’s voice said. “It had to be that.”

I looked up.

“Tell me about this bag,” Felix said. He was sitting on the couch. He had a small notebook and a pen, and he was jotting down everything they told him.

Carter (Oliver) was pacing, Oliver (Carter) was standing, a blank stare on his face as if he was seeing something the rest of us couldn’t while he described the bag he spoke of.

Oliver’s green eyes focused and flicked to mine for a second. I looked away, reminding myself that it wasn’t my boyfriend behind those eyes.

Carter
’s body stopped pacing near Oliver’s. He then smacked Carter upside the head and said, “You shoved that damn thing in my face, you idiot!”

Oliver
’s body cringed and yelped. “How was I supposed to know it would make us swap bodies?” Oliver’s voice replied, but they were Carter’s words.

This was exhausting. I put my head back on my knees after I watched Carter shake his head in response to Oliver’s words.

“Where is the bag now?” Felix asked.

“Parking lot,” Carter said
, using Oliver’s voice. “Oliver smacked it out of my hand when I had him smell it—”

“Shoved it in my face, you mean,” Oliver interrupted, but it was Carter’s voice that said the words.

I peeked up at them. Oliver was pacing again.

“I didn’t see where it went or pick it up,” Carter finished.

“Well,” Felix began after a moment’s consideration. I peeked over at him. He tapped the pen to his chin a few times, then he said, “We can’t very well go crawling around the parking lot looking for it. Whoever did this cannot know it worked.”

I lifted my head. “That what worked?” I asked. Both of the guys looked at me as I focused on Felix. I wouldn’t make eye contact with either one of them.

“I believe it was a hex bag,” Felix said. We all stared at him. “Voodoo, witchcraft, a curse,” he said to clarify. “It was probably bewitched like the journal. However, this kind of curse would require very strong magic, possibly even dark…” Felix got a sudden distant stare. He was thinking about something, trying to put pieces together.

He focused on me a moment later, but he said nothing.

“How would someone be able to get it in my car? Or on Carter’s costume? How would anyone know Carter and I would even be together? It’s not like we spend a lot of time together,” Oliver said, directing his questions to Felix. He’d stopped pacing and was standing with his arms over his (Carter’s) chest in a very Oliver way.

I looked away again.

“As I have told you, I believe we have a traitor amongst us. One or possibly even more of our own have a hand in this. I will not rest until I find the culprit,” Felix said. He stood.

“But what about them?” I asked, gesturing to Carter and Oliver. “They can’t stay like this. Can’t we have a witch break this curse like we did with
the Avery thing?” I sounded desperate even to myself.

“If we find the bag, we burn it like we did the journal,” Felix said. “I will call Melody and meet with her in private. Until then, you three need to go about your lives as if nothing has changed.”

We all protested. Big time.

Felix cut us off. “Whoever did this has their reasons. This is not their first attempt, as we all know, nor will it be their last. I advise all three of you to carry on until I can figure out what is happening.” He made for the door. “I will drop my keys when I reach my vehicle. When I retrieve them, I will do a quick survey of the parking lot. If I find the bag, this may end within minutes, if I do not…well, I will find out what to do next. I will be in touch.”

“Wait,” Oliver said as Felix was about to open the front door. “You’re not saying that I be him and he be me, are you?”

“You must,” Felix said, nodding to emphasize his point.

“But I work today,” Oliver said.

“And I advise you to hurry. You are already late.”

“Uhhh,” Carter chimed in. “I’m supposed to meet Kiera for lunch and then meet some dude at the church her grandma is insisting we get married at.”

Carter and Oliver looked at each other, and then Carter (who was actually Oliver) looked to Felix and said, “He is not driving my car!”

Oliver (actually Carter) grinned slow and wide.

Felix took a moment, then he said. “Oliver,” and he looked at Carter
’s face, “you have your last blood test today, right?” Carter’s head nodded, and I saw Oliver’s eyes widen at the thought of a needle. “I will log that you were working from home this morning, and that you were having your final blood test. Get that done,” he nodded toward Oliver (Carter). “Go with him, both of you,” he said, his eyes meeting mine. “Then the three of you have lunch with Kiera. Remember, even she cannot know. After lunch, go about your, well, each other’s regular duties.”

He turned to Oliver (Carter). “You need to hold yourself together. Focus on one emotion and hold it.
This will be the easiest way for you to manage. Hopefully we can put you two back where you belong by this evening.”

He left. The three of us were silent and avoiding eye contact for a long moment, until Carter freaked out again. “How the hell do you do this?” he shouted. “I can feel everything each one of you is feeling!”

Oliver grinned a little, crookedly even, but it wasn’t the same when it wasn’t on his own lips. “It takes a lot of practice. Sucks though, doesn’t it?” He seemed to find a small amount of pleasure in Carter’s discomfort.

Okay, so this was probably one of the shittiest situations I’d ever been in, but I was getting to drive Oliver’s Challenger!

HELL, YEAH!

I tried to contain my excitement, which was actually kinda easy to do considering I wasn’t just dealing with my own emotions. I don’t know how Oliver wasn’t stark raving mad, because this was some bullshit. Not only was I feeling my own excitement and stress, I was also feeling what Laney and Oliver (well, Oliver in my body) were feeling, and it wasn’t good.

She wasn’t speaking to or looking at either of us, and Oliver still wanted to kill me, or at least maim
me in some way. He was stressed like the rest of us, but he was also feeling very helpless, which he wasn’t showing at all.

Laney, she was a big ball of emotions. I didn’t even want to try to figure out what she was feeling.

So I did as Felix had said, and I focused on one emotion. My excitement.

Together, the three of us headed out, and I had Oliver’s car keys in my hand and his sunglasses on my (his) face. The sun was damn bright to Oliver’s unnaturally green peepers.

Felix hadn’t found the hex bag thing, so he was secretly searching for another way for us to return to ourselves. I was just hoping it was after I got a chance to drive Oliver’s car.

As we got to the bottom of the steps, I said, over my shoulder, “Oh, Carter, remember, Laney always rides shotgun.”

It was a shitty move on my part, but how weird would it look if we were driving around and Laney was in the back while my body was riding around up front. I think that would be a dead giveaway that something wasn’t right in our fucked up little world.

I got a big wave of emotion from my body then, the one that was housing Oliver’s mind, and it wasn’t a good feeling. It scared me. Then I laughed because it was like I was afraid of myself. Ha!

Oliver (well, my body) crawled into the backseat. Laney road shotgun, silently. Oliver, using my own voice, grumbled something under his breath—it might’ve been something about payback, but I couldn’t be sure. Although, the feeling I got from him felt like hatred.

I climbed in, buckled my seatbelt, then placed my hands on the leather steering wheel. I could not help the grin forming.

I inserted the key, and I started the Challenger. Oh. My. God! Having the power to make it roar to life was absolutely mindboggling!

Oliver had a good life. Well, parts of it, anyway. He did have to deal with everyone else’s emotions, and he had a shitty twin brother
—I guess that meant Oscar was my shitty twin brother, for the time being…

I drove across town with a disturbing grin on my face. I knew Oliver was pissed. I could feel it. Laney was overly distressed, and I should have been, but damn! It was an awesome car!

My mood quickly faded when I pulled up to where the blood truck was parked and remembered that it was me, as Oliver, who was having his blood drawn. I didn’t do needles.

I was nervous. To the point of a panic attack. My other self (Oliver) told me to suck it up before I blew our cover. Or something like that, I was too busy trying to focus on one emotion, and desperately trying for that emotion not to be the one I was currently having.

Climbing the steps into the blood truck, the nice vampire nurse greeted me like she knew me, so I smiled back. At least I tried to smile.

“Last visit, Mr. Knight,” she stated. A big grin exposed her big teeth. She had some sort of southern accent.

I nodded in response to her when Oliver elbowed me in the ribs (with my own freaking elbow).

The vampire nurse gestured for me to have a seat. I tried to focus on her happiness—she
really
loved her job… I sat in a nice, leather chair. It looked like it maybe reclined. The blood truck was like a big RV, and had I not been focusing on not freaking out, I might’ve appreciated it more.

I was shaking as the nurse got her needle ready. Panic ensued while her back was turned.

Oliver bent down very close to my ear (which was his own ear) and whispered, ever so quietly, “You are going to get us all killed if you don’t control yourself.”

Okay, no pressure. His words were not helpful and the nurse was coming at me with the needle.

I pressed myself back in the seat as if I could get away from her if I pushed hard enough. The seat groaned and Oliver clamped a hand (my own hand) down on my shoulder. Hard.

The nurse’s smile was fading. I was pretty sure she was beginning to question my (Oliver’s) behavior.

Laney finally broke her silence. “Here,” she said, pushing her way past the other me. She took a seat on an end table beside me and held my free hand to comfort me. She forced a smile as she glanced up into the eyes of her boyfriend—the eyes I was using to look at her.

The other version of me let go of my shoulder and took a step back, crossing his arms over his heaving chest. He was angry, frustrated, and so many other things right then.

Seriously, how was Oliver not batshit crazy? How did he deal with this emotions shit?

I was distracted and the nurse made her move. I squeezed Laney’s hand, a little too hard. She cringed.

“Sorry,” I whispered.

She just shook her head like it was nothing.

She was uncomfortable, I could feel it, and I don’t mean physically, she was uncomfortable with me, because of what had happened between us. Because it was me she’d had sex with. And yeah, my stomach dropped when I thought about it, and when I looked at her. But it was over, and an accident, I guess. Surviving was what we were doing. Until we were back to ourselves. Then I was sure Oliver would kill me.

I kept my eyes on Laney as the nurse drew blood from Oliver’s body. Wooziness was coming.

It’s all in your head.

I focused. Laney still hadn’t spoken to Oliver—the Oliver that was in my body—and it was all my fault. I was the idiot
who’d shoved that stupid bag in Oliver’s face. Had he not gotten near it or smelled it or touched it, we’d probably be who we were supposed to be instead of each other.

Once the evil nurse was finished poking me, she sent me on my way. Technically, she sent Oliver on his way.

Silently, we headed back to the car.

I’d texted Kiera before we’d left the apartment
and told her to meet us at Shakes. I checked the time. We still had a few minutes, so I took the opportunity to do what I could to right my wrong.