Cursed (The Brookehaven Vampires #4) (56 page)

But Felix insisted I accompany him, claiming it’s what the real Oliver would do. So I went along.

And it was totally awesome to get to be a part of the Brookehaven world! Especially going into the field with Felix.

We were on some sort of stakeout
, watching a pack of Weres, unshifted obviously, so really we were just watching a group of dudes. They were lingering in an open garage: messing around, playing darts, and drinking beer.

Felix told me he thought these particular guys had some sort of connection with the journal Laney
took from Ashton’s backpack, which also meant they might have something to do with our current situation.

Felix
also told me these particular Weres were locals. They weren’t rogue or anything. He also let me know most Weres, local or not, couldn’t be trusted.

I was pretty sure Felix was Were-prejudice
d.

As we sat
in Felix’s SUV, at a distance, in the dark, gathering “intel,” it was hard not to wonder if any of the guys we were watching knew the one who’d attacked me. I knew none of them was that werewolf because Felix killed that guy right then and there when it happened.

I often wondered who the dude was though, and if he’d had any sort of idea what he was doing. I was still unclear if the Weres kept their consciousness when they shifted or if they were just mindless animals.

While sitting there in the dark of the night, hidden along a line of parked cars in front of neighboring houses, I questioned Felix about the Weres and whether or not they knew what they were doing when they shifted.

Between handfuls of candy, he answered me. “Purebloods keep their consciousness when they shift,” his deep voice boomed. “The mixed-bloods are capable of keeping theirs, however, it takes many years of practice and training to get to the point of being able to keep such control.” He popped another handful of Skittles into his mouth. Once
he finished chewing, he said, “Most do not make it that long.”

“Are any of these guys purebloods?” I asked, nodding toward the group we were watching. They were starting to get rowdy.

I knew pureblood Weres were hard to come by, but I didn’t know how rare.

Felix
shook his head. “There are few purebloods left in the open. Their numbers have become so few, most of them have gone into hiding.”

I nodded in understanding, and we went back to watching this group of fools stumbling around and acting like idiots.

As great as pretending to be one of the coven members was, I was beginning to feel that there was a more pressing matter at hand. And although Felix reassured me that if we found the link to the journal from Ashton’s backpack, we’d also find the link to the Oliver/Carter swap, I wasn’t sure I agreed. Although, I did agree Ashton was involved in this bullshit. Which part exactly? That I didn’t know.

After hours of watching a bunch of moronic Weres and getting nowhere,
Felix dropped me off at my—oops, I mean Oliver’s—car in the parking structure across from Zoey’s. I headed straight home.

So,
there I sat, sipping blood from a stainless steel water bottle and flipping the channels on the TV, in the dark, while Laney and my body slept on the couch. For hours.

The sun
was up for some time when Oliver finally stirred. I considered talking him into going for a run. Mostly because he was going to turn me into a lardass before we returned to ourselves. The remains of what he and Laney had consumed the night before were left scattered on the floor, the coffee table, and on the couch. I was not thrilled. Plus I was sorta jealous. Blood was not something I ever wanted to enjoy “eating.”

I glanced away from the TV for a moment when the other version of me woke and stretched. I wished him a good morning.

He responded differently. “Kiera’s mad at you. Well, she’s mad at me,” he said sleepily.

“What did you do?” I asked, giving him my full attention. Oliver was supposed to be smooth. He wasn’t supposed to be screwing up my relationship with my fiancée. If anything, with his charm, he should’ve been making it better.

“Laney,” the other version of me said while yawning.

My eyes widened as I stared at myself.
No, they wouldn’t…
Laney wouldn’t, would she?

The other me laughed. “I mean I paid too much attention to Laney while we were in class.”

“Not funny, dude,” I said to him, my (Oliver’s) usually slow heartbeat taking a few seconds to return to its slow and steady pace. “So not cool!”

Laney stirred.

I lowered my voice, “Remember, you have to work at Shakes today.”

“Great,” he said
. His voice was far from happy.

He sat up
, and his eyes moved to gaze at his still sleeping girlfriend. The way he looked at her…
Ugh.
I’d never seen anyone look at someone like that…

I mean, I loved Kiera, but I was pretty sure I didn’t gaze at her all lovingly and shit.

Don’t get me wrong, he didn’t do this in a cheesy way, or anything. You could just see it, the love he felt for her, in the way he looked at her. I’d noticed this even before he was in my stupid body. I think it was just even more torturous to see the way my actual face looked when he did it. Again, because I didn’t look at anyone like that…

He sat forward as if he was going to get off the couch, but he looked down instead. He’d slept sitting up with Laney’s feet in his lap, and they were still there. He seemed reluctant to move. I didn’t blame him, but I needed him to get to school.

“So, right after your last class. Chicken suit duty and then dishes,” I said, feeling slightly bad he would have to endure my constant torment.

“Your life really sucks,” he said as he slouched back down on the couch. The act didn’t make me more appealing, that was for sure.

Mental note: stop slouching, and I needed to comb my damn hair more often!

“Tell me about it,” I told him. “Worst part about your life is dealing with everyone else’s stupid emotions.”

“That’s far from the worst part. Be thankful you don’t know more about me.” His attention moved to the TV screen, and he kept it there.

I stared at him for a few minutes until he finally rolled off the couch and headed to the bathroom for a shower. I wondered what he had meant. I knew
he’d had some bad shit happen to him, but I didn’t know exactly what or how much…

When he was dressed and ready to go,
with my awesome Mario Bros. backpack slung over his shoulder, and he grumpily told me I needed my own car.

“Yep, I know that too,” I said.

He was staring down at his (my) feet. “And shoes.” He looked up at me. “You seriously need a new pair of shoes.”

“Yeah, well, it’s not like I make a whole lot washing dishes,” I said, returning my attention to the TV.

He didn’t say anything more, but he stopped at the front door and stared back at Laney still sleeping on the couch. The sadness oozing out of him was super powerful. He heaved a sigh before he finally left to spend another thrilling day as me.

I wondered if Kiera would still be irritated with him (me), or if she’d let it go like she usually did. She was pretty good at misplacing her lady-rage and then pretending it never happened.

Laney woke about an hour later. She looked to the foot of the couch where the other me had been. She then looked to me in her boyfriend’s body and asked where I was. Yeah, seriously confusing.

My response was to tell her, “I’m right here,” but I figured that might piss her off. So instead, I told her Oliver had classes and that he had to work right after.

She seemed disappointed. I knew it wasn’t because it was actually me she was missing. But it was still kinda flattering.

“What are you doing today?” I asked her as she sat up and stretched. My eyes lingered longer than they
should’ve, eyeing the bare skin of her waist as she raised her arms over her head.

I quickly looked away when she noticed my eyes on her. She was still having trouble facing me, and I could feel I made her uncomfortable.

“I’m going to spend the day with Amber,” she said as she pulled the hem of her top down to hide her bare skin from me.

“Doesn’t she have classes to teach today?” I questioned, my attention returning to her.

She nodded and yawned. “Off and on, but she said I could hang out in her apartment during her classes.” She looked at me, actually made eye contact. “Don’t you…well, doesn’t Oliver have to work today?”

“Yeah. Felix said I could pretend to work from home. There are only so many documents we can fake me resigning. And according to Felix, I suck at forging Oliver’s signature.” It didn’t help that Oliver was left handed. I couldn’t write with my left hand if my life depended on it. Scribble, sure. Write, not at all. “Plus, there’s one guy that keeps bugging me.”

“About what?”

“Cars. He wants to have a say in what cars Oliver orders to replace their current coven-issued ones.”

She stared at me blankly for a moment. “Huh, I didn’t realize he was in charge of that kind of thing. But I’m not surprised, I don’t know everything he does for the coven.”

“Neither do I, and I’ve been pretending to be him for a couple days now.”

She actually laughed. She even flashed me a smile before heading off to take a shower. I felt a bit of relief. She was finally talking to me. I just hoped this would all be over soon so we could go back to our “normal” lives.

Like there was anything normal about any of us…

Day Three and the Super Old Vampires

I met Amber after her second class of the day. She had a break before her next class, and she invited me to join her for lunch. I eagerly accepted.

“I could use some decent food,” I told her. My stomach had been uneasy all morning.

“Oh?” she questioned as we took a back passageway from her astronomy room to the English department where she resided.

Yep, a secret passage. The freaking college had secret passageways! I mean, Amber lived under the English department, so why
the hell not?

“Oliver and I ate
way
too much junk food last night. My stomach isn’t all that happy about it today,” I said, without thinking. I blame the fact I was in awe over the new secret passageway that had just been revealed to me. Okay, and maybe the large amount of sugar I’d consumed the previous night had something to do with it. Sugar was not brain food.

Amber stopped just in front of me. She slowly turned to face me. The faint lighting that lined the narrow passageway illuminated her blue-green eyes in a very eerie way. “Oliver consumed junk food?” she questioned, her eyes narrowing.

I started to nod. Thankfully, I caught myself before I did so. “Did I say Oliver? I meant Carter.” I laughed. It sounded strained and awkward, and echoey in the passageway. “
Carter
and I bought a bunch of junk last night and ate it while watching TV most of the night. Not Oliver,” I said, trying not to stumble over my own words. “He was at work.” I smiled, hoping she believed me.

She gave me a questioning look, but she said no more.

I followed her the rest of the way. I stayed silent. I couldn’t believe I slipped like that.

We came out of the secret passageway near our
paranormal studies classroom. There was a small class going on in the English room as we quietly passed by, unnoticed, to the opposite hallway that led to Amber’s apartment.

Amber pulled a large salad that she had pre
-made from her refrigerator. Using some fancy salad tongs, she made us each a bowl. She also had some sort of seasoned rice that she pulled from a container in her refrigerator, and she placed a scoop of it atop each of our salads. She then drizzled an oily dressing over the tops and placed both bowls on her little kitchenette table in her very white kitchen.

We spoke very little while we ate. I thanked her for lunch, and I complemented her on the delicious salad. It was nice to have real food in my system. I hoped it would help prevent another slip
up.

After lunch, I washed the light-blue, glass bowls
we’d used for salad while Amber left the room to gather a few more books and journals that she wanted to share with me. I set the bowls on a towel beside the sink so they could dry, then I wiped down the table and dried the water drips I’d left around the sink. Amber’s home was meticulously spotless. Anything out of place or dirty was obvious.

We took our usual seats on the small, antique-looking loveseat. There were three small stacks of books and journals on the ornate coffee table. I reached over and picked up one of the journals and began flipping through it.

“Delaney,” Amber said as I scanned a page in the journal, “this may be wrong and probably very unprofessional, but I do not plan to have you take the astronomy midterm.”

I looked over at her. Her strawberry-blond hair brushed over the shoulder of her beautiful lavender dress as she reached for a book. She sat back with one of the books from the table in her hands
and placed it in her lap as she kept her focus on me.