Cursed (The Brookehaven Vampires #4) (65 page)

I tasted blood, and I was pissed.

I focused on him. He was ready to hit me again. “Stop hitting yourself, dumbass!” I shouted. I spit a mouthful of blood onto the ground beside his feet.

He swung at me again
, but I was quick to dodge and he missed.

Yeah, I get that
I kinda asked for it the first time, but now he wouldn’t stop coming at me.

I knew he couldn’t overpower me, so I hit him back. Yeah, I know, I just punched myself in the face. Brilliant.

We didn’t stop there.

I must admit, it was kinda a good way to release our frustrations. Stupid, yeah, but by the time the cops came—yeah, totally fucked up—we were both worn out, chests heaving, with bloody fists and faces. But I sure the hell felt better. I’m not sure Oliver did though. He stopped speaking to me after we were tackled to the ground and handcuffed before being tossed into the back of a squad car.
Which was probably because we’d tried to run, and like idiots.

We both took off as soon as we saw the lights, but like total flaming morons, we ran smack into each other like something out of a damn
Three Stooges
episode. Had we not done this, we might’ve got away.

At the police station, we were tossed into the drunk tank with the rest of
the night’s losers.

We took a seat on the
cold, concrete floor away from the other losers, especially the super drunk bastard wearing nothing but his tighty-whiteys.

With our backs against the wall, we waited for someone to find us.

And even though he wasn’t speaking to me, Oliver had no problem using my shoulder as a pillow. I had no idea I drooled that much.

Down at the Station

We spent hours trying to find Carter and Oliver. We looked everywhere and called everyone. I was sick to my stomach, and early on in the search, I
began to fear the worst.

When
Felix’s phone rang, my heart totally sank. I just knew something horrible had happened. One or both of them were dead. I just knew it.

“Sir,” a voice said through the speakers of Felix’s SUV, “we’ve located them.”

“Where?” Felix questioned.

I held my breath, my fingers wrapp
ing tightly around the moonstone star hanging from my neck while we waited for the response.

“Police station,” the voice
said.

Felix and I looked at each other, sharing a confused expression.

“They were picked up for being drunk in public. Apparently they were seen quarreling, with each other. A civilian alerted the authorities. The call was not reported to us, therefore the PD got to them before we could, sir.”

“I will take care of it,” Felix said, then he ended the call.

“Arrested?” I questioned.

“It would appear so.”

I finally dropped my hand from my star pendant that I’d been messing with all night. I think I’d about convinced myself that if I rubbed my birthday necklace hard enough, it could grant me a wish. I was tired. And desperate.

Turning the SUV around, Felix hurried to the police station. He looked determined as his foot hit the gas pedal and the SUV lurched forward, increasing speed at a quick pace. I sat back in my seat and made sure my seatbelt was on tight.

The station was about five blocks behind the college, in the opposite direction of downtown, which kind of made no sense considering most of the town’s issues were centered around the bar scene, which was mostly downtown… But the drunken idiot problem probably wasn’t as bad as the supernatural activity…but that was a whole different story.

I’d
never been to the police station. Why the hell would I have? Until I met Oliver, my life was fairly quiet and “normal.” I’d never even been pulled over before.

Felix pulled the SUV into a spot near the front of the station. I hurried after him once he got out of the car and headed to the front of the building.

I followed Felix into the station and up to a counter where a lady in a blue uniform sat behind a thick piece of glass.

Felix flashed some sort of badge that
he’d pulled out of the glove box of his SUV. Then he gave some sort of spiel about Special Forces, and Oliver being an undercover something or other and Carter being in training.

He then told her that she had beautiful eyes,
which made her blush.

I rolled my eyes. Clearly Felix and Levi were friends. I was sure the two of them together had wooed
plenty of women in their many years. What amazed me was why Levi would want this guy to be his sister’s mate. But what did I know? I was just a teenager with boy troubles. These people (vampires) were probably older than dirt, and their ways were probably different than the current norm.

Once Felix was finished flirting with the lady at the counter, we waited for a while.

The lobby was free of others. Rows of scuffed, blue, plastic chairs lined the wall. I considered taking a seat simply because I was exhausted, but they didn’t look all that clean. So I just stood in the center of the lobby, next to Felix, waiting.

When Carter and Oliver were finally released, a male officer who did not seem very thrilled
to let them go escorted the two of them into the front lobby. They looked tired and like someone had beaten the crap out of the both of them. No one spoke until we were in the car.

I rode in the front seat this time. Screw them
! Ditching me and leaving me to deal with Kiera, alone.

As soon as we were locked inside the car and on our way out of the parking lot, I turned in my seat and drilled them.

“What the hell? First off, thanks a lot for leaving me at the bar. That was freakin’ awesome! Ashton showed.
Surprise.
He tried to get me to go with him to find Oscar in some shack. Obviously I told him ‘no thanks.’ Thankfully Rudy was there to make sure I wasn’t forced to take a trip none of us wanted me to go on.” I glared at both of them, then I continued, “Secondly, thanks for leaving me to deal with Kiera. She hit me, just so you know.” They were both staring at me with wide eyes. “And third, what the hell happened to you two?”

“He started it!” Carter shouted. He pointed at Oliver who was in Carter’s battered body.

Then they both launched into what had happened, kind of.

Felix and I both noticed some holes in their stories. We discussed this, mentally, as the guys argued and pushed at each other in the backseat like obnoxious children.

“Okay, I think it’s time for the three of you to have a break,” Felix said. “This is too much, even for me, and I am still me. We’ll go by your place and grab some things, but I think you guys should probably stay out of sight while Ambrose and I search for a solution. You can stay at my place.”

“We can’t. I have to work tomorrow,” Oliver mumbled. “Boss lady said whoever calls in on a Friday or Saturday from now on gets fired.”

“I will talk to her,” Felix said, glancing in the rearview mirror.

“Still won’t work. Hayden and Isaac show up at your place too often. Hayden’s always feeding your cat.”

“Oh, yeah,” Felix responded in a low, deep tone. He thoughtlessly rubbed his fingers over the unusual amount of stubble on his face.

I stared at Felix for a few minutes,
watching him mess with his stubble, and trying to picture him as a cat lover. I was surprised he had a cat, since from my understanding, most cats hated vampires. Except for Gladys’ cat, Steve. He loved vampires. According to her, Steve was an idiot. I thought he was awesome.

“I will figure out something,” Felix said. He was distracted, I could see it in his expression.

Instead of heading home, we headed over to Zoey’s, where Kiera had stayed the night. We would either tell Kiera the truth about what was going on, or Felix would erase the memory of Carter and me from her mind. It all depended upon her.

Missing

“So you’re telling me that you,” Kiera pointed at Carter, “are not my boyfriend. And you,” she said, pointing at Oliver, “are?”

They both nodded. Oliver and Carter were standing, side by side, in front of Kiera who was in her jammies and sitting on Zoey’s grandmother’s dark, plush couch.

Zoey and her grandmother were huddled together at the mouth of the hallway, watching with wide eyes.

I questioned Felix with my thoughts, asking him if it was a good idea that Zoey and her grandma knew what was happening.

“I believe it is already too late to have this concern,” he responded in my head. He glanced from me
, to them, and back. “I can remove the memory before we leave, if I must.”

Kiera’s voice drew our attention back to her and the guys. “Why did you tell me this?” she shrieked, as she jumped up from the couch. “I’ve got too much going on! Finals are next week, and the wedding is just over a month away, and, and Christmas is coming, and New Year’s!”

She was spiraling. She did that when the stress of her life got to her.

“I think the fact I’m stuck in someone else’s body is more important than any of those things,” Carter said to her
, using my boyfriend’s mouth and words.

She stood before the two of them, narrowing her eyes at my boyfriend’s face, and then she looked to Carter’s. Then she let out a very frustrated scream.

Without even looking at Felix, I sent my thoughts to him, and he agreed. Kiera couldn’t handle this problem, not right now. She was already too stressed. I found it ridiculous, though. I would drop everything for Oliver. Hell, I would drop everything, except Oliver, for Carter. But his own fiancée couldn’t handle what the rest of us had been dealing with for days.

I was suddenly very angry.

Carter turned his attention to me. Fat lip and all, his eyes held mine. The poor guy. He knew I was mad at his fiancée. I imagined he was probably a little frustrated with her, himself.

One at a time, Felix led the girls, Grandma Levesque included, back to the bedrooms. And one by one, he wiped the memory of Oliver and Carter tell
ing Kiera they were each other.

He also tweaked the memory of Kiera catching me and “Carter” kissing.

With some strange-looking device, similar to the thing Oliver had put into the manhole to unlock it on Halloween, Felix locked the door to the Levesque home behind us. Then he took the three of us down the steps to the outer door and locked it the same way. After that, he took us back to our apartment.

It was very early in the morning. The sun was just showing itself over the distant mountains as we trudged up the steps at the apartment complex.

Oliver went straight for the bathroom to shower, and I headed into my bedroom to change into my jammies and pull my hair up into a ponytail.

When I returned to the living room, Carter told me what happened after
I chased Kiera out of the bar.

“I know the amount of alcohol he consumed didn’t help, but he’s had enough, Laney. We all have,” he said
, and I noticed the swelling was already going down on his lip.

“I know,” I responded. I was well aware
I’d had enough, and I knew, especially after the last couple of nights, Oliver and Carter had been pushed to their limits as well.

But what could we do? If we had the answer, we wouldn’t have the problem.

We talked a bit more while the shower continued to run, then once Oliver was done in the bathroom, Carter took his turn.

“Hey,” I said softly, as Oliver dropped down on the other end of the couch.

He didn’t say anything. He wouldn’t even look at me.

I scooted closer to him. His face was red in places, his bottom lip was split and fat, and I could already see the hint of purple under his right eye. Oliver’s face had fared much better.

“Hey,” I said again, just as softly, but this time I reached out and touched his arm. He looked down at my hand on his arm and then up into my eyes. “You okay?”

Very slowly, he shook his head.

I pulled him to me and hugged him tight. It took him a moment before he hugged me back, but when he did, I could feel his fingers digging into my back as if he was holding on so tight he’d never let go. But he did. After only a couple of minutes, he pulled away from me and left the couch without a word.

Silently, I watched him go into Carter’s room and close the door. I wanted to follow. I even stood and took a couple of steps before telling myself that he needed some space. I didn’t want to give him any, but I also didn’t want to push him too far. Instead, I got my fleece blanket from my bed and curled up on the couch. It
didn’t take long before I was out.

*****

I woke in the late afternoon. Oliver was ready to leave for his shift at Shakes. He was out the door without a word to me.

I was beginning to think
I’d done something wrong, but I hadn’t.

From experience, I knew this was how Oliver acted when he was mad at or disappointed in himself. But I wasn’t upset with him. How could I be? We were all doing our best to get through this nightmare.