Cursed (The Brookehaven Vampires #4) (55 page)

“It’s okay, Carter,” Laney said. She turned to face me, giving me a look that was meant to remind me I was not me, but rather I was supposed to be Carter.

Thankfully, Carter also hated Ashton.

“Ashton was just telling me something you might find interesting.” She gave me another look before returning her attention to Ashton. She told him to continue. Once again, I wished I had my ability.

Ashton didn’t look like his regular smug self. Maybe it was because he didn’t realize it was me standing there in front of him with a basket full of junk food. He would naturally assume I was Carter, therefore he would think he could take me, which he couldn’t. He couldn’t even take the real Carter anymore. Even so, I stayed on the defense.

“I was just telling Laney that Avery
’s been spending time with some real shady people. I’m not exactly sure what kind of people they are, if you know what I mean.”

I nodded. I knew what he meant, I wasn’t an idiot. Perhaps Ashton thought Carter was, but I was pretty sure
even the real Carter would know Ashton was referring to those of my own kind and others of the supernatural world.

He glanced up and down the cereal aisle
like he was afraid someone might see him or hear him talking to us.

There was nobody else around.

With the improvements Carter’s recent changes had given him, I could hear fairly well, not as well as my normal self, but better than average. However, Carter’s improved sense of smell was something else. It was more advanced than mine, and in a different way. With Carter’s sense of smell, I could have told you not only how much cologne Ashton was wearing, but to which parts of his body he had applied it. But I won’t. Because it’s gross.

“I think some of them might be witches,” he said. There was an obvious and possibly sincere amount of stress to his tone.

“Why do you think that?” I asked. I hated this guy. I trusted nothing he said. I really wished I knew if he were lying or not.

“My mom called the other day. She’s worried about Avery. She wanted me to see if I could talk to my sister and find out what’s going on. I’ve noticed that she’s been acting different, but I figured it was just boy related or something. I tried to talk to her, but…” he trailed off and shook his head. He glanced down at the soda bottle in his hand. He shifted his feet. His shoulders sagged. If he wasn’t lying, he was good at his game.

“Do you think this is related to what you told us before, about those people you said would kill her if you didn’t give them Oliver?” Laney quietly asked. She was scratching the back of her hand.

I moved closer and took her wrist in my hand to make her stop scratching at the bandage
, but it wasn’t the only reason I moved closer. Ashton was standing too close to her. I didn’t like it.

Ashton looked back up at Laney and shrugged heavily. “I guess it could be, but something tells me it’s more complicated than that.” He leaned closer to Laney, and I about snapped the plastic handle on the shopping basket trying to restrain myself from doing something physical to him.

I tightened my grip on her wrist in case I needed to quickly pull her away from him.

He lowered his voice even more and said, “I think I saw her with Oliver’s brother.”

I went completely rigid at the mention of my own name, and at the confirmation of my brother being back in town. I noticed Laney’s posture had stiffened as well.

“What do you mean you think you saw her with him?” Laney asked.

“I was following her. I saw her talking to some guy, he looked like Oliver’s brother. Then she got on the back of his motorcycle. They got away from me.”

“How do you know what Oliver’s brother looks like?” I questioned, narrowing my eyes on him.

“Unfortunately, I’ve had the pleasure of making his acquaintance.”

Even without my ability, I knew he wasn’t being honest. He knew more, or he was hiding some key information, or he was just full of shit.

Laney and I shared a significant glance. Without a word, I knew she’d noticed the same holes in his story.

“What makes you think she’s mixed up with witches?” Laney asked.

“There was this weird black ash in her room at my parents’ house. I found it on her nightstand, and I also found some strange book and some other weird items inside her nightstand.”

“Like the book that was in your backpack?” I questioned, the suspicion
apparent in my tone.

Laney’s eyes flicked to mine
, possibly in warning.

“I told you, I’d never seen that book before,” Ashton defended. It was pretty convincing had I not known a bit about him as a person. “Oh, I also found this,” he said, and he pulled out a dingy piece of cloth. It was torn and ragged. There was part of a symbol drawn on it, in maybe red paint or lipstick. I didn’t get close enough to tell
, and something in the back of my mind was beginning to fear Ashton knew I wasn’t Carter. I wondered if he might be occupying our time in the cereal aisle of the grocery store for other reasons…

Laney reached out to take the piece of fabric.

Letting go of her other wrist, I grabbed her forearm. “Don’t touch it,” I warned. I gave her a look I hoped she understood.

She did, and she quickly jerked her hand away from the cloth and
out of my grip.

Ashton stuffed the piece of fabric back into his front pocket. As he did so, I said, “Why are you telling us all of this?”

“I’ve seen Avery hanging around your complex a few times. I don’t think she knows anyone else who lives over there, but I’m not completely sure.”

We both stared at him
, neither of us trusting a single word coming out of his mouth.

“Just watch out for her, okay? I don’t know what she’s up to or who she’s hanging out with.” His eyes fixed on Laney’s. Once again I had to mentally restrain myself. “I don’t want anyone getting hurt.” He turned and walked away.

Laney and I exchanged another glance.

When Ashton was out of view, and a
fter a moment of contemplative silence, Laney said, “Milk,” reminding me we needed to finish our shopping and get home.

With a red box of Lucky Charms tucked under her arm, she headed to the dairy section. I followed close behind.

Before heading to the front to pay, I picked out some cheese and grabbed a box of crackers.

Ashton was just leaving the store as we made it to the front. He hadn’t purchased anything, not even the bottle of soda
he’d been holding. I was sure this meant something. What, I did not know. It could be that he was telling the truth, or that he was flat out lying. It could be him who was mixed up with magic users, or maybe there were no enchanters at all.

Laney and I discussed all the possible theories on the way home.

“I never thought of Ashton and Avery as having a normal relationship. I knew he was protective of her, but only to an extent. Not to the point where he actually cared about her wellbeing,” Laney said. “And I definitely would have never thought of their mom as a concerned parent. I figured she was too busy spending money and getting another facelift. Who knew?” she finished, and she actually smiled at me. It brightened my dampened spirits.

After we got home, I called Felix and relayed all that Ashton had told us. True or not, the information needed to be looked into. Especially if Oscar was lurking about. I knew Felix assumed my brother had returned, but we’d had no proof. Not that Ashton saying he was back was actual proof. It was still a lead.

I felt anxious. I couldn’t protect Laney the same way I could if I were myself. So as an extra precaution, I requested another set of eyes be placed in the area. Felix agreed, but I knew he felt differently.

Felix seemed to think Carter was capable of keeping Laney safe. Maybe he was right, but I want to take that chance and find out differently.

Laney and I sat on the floor beside each other and ate our cereal at the coffee table while the TV played in the background. We talked more about what Ashton had told us. Even though Avery was still a touchy subject for us, and Ashton was always a bad subject, I didn’t mind because Laney was actually talking.

While we talked, I commented that I could understand why she had an addiction to Lucky Charms.

She shoved me playfully. “It’s not an addiction. I can stop anytime I want,” she defended. She tried to hide her beautiful smile from me, but I saw it.

“Sure,” I
joked.

She laughed, and it was the best damn sound I had heard in days.

I wanted to tell her how much I missed her, and how much I loved her, but I knew such words coming from Carter’s mouth, and hearing them in Carter’s voice, would cause her to close up again.

We left our empty cereal bowls on the coffee table and moved onto the couch with two grocery bags full of snacks and junk food sitting between us.

Being stuck in Carter’s body and in his life was up there on the list of terrible things I had experienced in my life, but being able to sit on the couch, watch bad TV with my girlfriend, and eat like a regular person, was probably one of the best. Even if it wasn’t my body sharing the experience.

During a commercial break, I said, “It freaks me out that
he’s out there with my car and my body.”

“In that order?” she asked, her eyes meeting mine (Carter’s), an eyebrow rising
, and the hint of a smile appearing as she pulled another Red Vine from its tray.

I grinned crookedly at her. I knew she knew how I felt about my car. “Maybe,” I said, but my smile faded as I added, more seriously, “It’s even worse when you’re with him.”

“Do I at least top the list?” she questioned, the hint of a smile still playing at her lips.

I felt myself grin in response, but she turned away. I think it made her uncomfortable that we were acting like us. But we were us, I just wasn’t me…

Digging in one of the grocery sacks, Laney pulled out the bag of chocolate chips. “Oh! Your cookies!” she announced with some excitement.

She jumped up from the couch and hurried to the kitchen. I followed, asking what I could do to help.

Together, we began gathering and mixing the ingredients. I found every ingredient she asked for as she read off the recipe from the back of the chocolate chip bag. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough eggs. I offered to make a run to the store, but Laney had another idea.

“You know, I seriously doubt I could even come close to your mom’s cookies,” she said as she dumped the ingredients together. She was about to use the mixer when her dark brown eyes held me in place for a moment.

Although I liked the way she was looking at me, I also knew it wasn’t actually me she was looking at. I shifted uncomfortably in response to her stare.

“I say we just eat the dough.” She grinned and then turned away and started the mixer.

Once the ingredients were combined, minus the eggs of course, Laney tucked the bowl in the crook of her arm, grabbed two spoons from the drawer, and told me to join her on the couch again.

The cookie dough was good. That’s a given though, right? We ate a lot of it. We also ate a lot of the other junk food
we’d purchased. My stomach was beginning to protest. I wasn’t sure if it was due to the contents, or the amount thereof. Either way, it was time to put the candy down.

Eventually, Laney lay back on her end of the couch with her head propped on the arm. She put her feet in my lap as I sat on the opposite side of the couch.

I looked at her questioningly.

She
told me that this was something Carter always did—putting her feet in his lap. Although I appreciated it at the moment—that they had this means of contact—I wasn’t okay with it in general. He didn’t need to be touching her, at all. That being said, I kept my mouth shut and took advantage of that little act of contact, resting one hand on her socked feet in my (Carter’s) lap. My other hand had decided it wasn’t ready to stop stuffing my face with the crap food I hadn’t eaten for years.

We sat there all night, watching TV, enjoying each other’s company, and eating junk until I gave myself a terrible stomachache.

Eventually, we fell asleep on the couch together, Laney with her feet still in my lap.

We didn’t even wake when Carter came home.

I was super-stealthy-quiet when I came home during the night. It was late, and Laney and, well, my body w
ere asleep on the couch. The TV was on, the volume low, and I left it that way so I’d have something to do the rest of the night.

Oliver’s body didn’t require the sleep mine needed, but I didn’t have as many things to keep me busy
on sleepless nights as him. But it had been an interesting night, that was for sure, and had I been tired, I probably would’ve been too wired to sleep.

Felix wanted to take me along with him on some
sort of coven related job. He told me it would be more convincing that everything was normal if I joined him considering Oliver was Felix’s field partner, even though I, as Oliver, was on probation and scheduled to light duty only. AKA: boring desk work, which meant endless hours of solitaire.