Cursed (The Brookehaven Vampires #4) (75 page)

I watched them as they pushed their way through the crowd, too easily. The crowd seemed to part for the person in the lead as they moved toward the corner.

Shifting my attention, I found Felix holding
a limp Melody in his arms.

“No,” I whispered. Tears were already stinging my eyes. Cyrus held me tighter, probably because I tried to head down the steps again.

The coven had made some headway, and Felix was coming toward us, Oliver and Carter were ahead of him, shoving anyone who got in the way.

“Go!” Oliver shouted as they started up the stairs.

In one swift movement, Cyrus had me off the stairs and out into the cold night. To my surprise, the shack above the basement was demolished. Like nothing-left-but-the-floor demolished.

The others were right beside us, all of them heaving with exhaustion.

“Take her to Ambrose,” Felix said, a desperate quality to his tone. He placed Melody’s limp and unconscious body in Oliver’s arms. “Cyrus, we must get back. The coven hangs in the balance. We must go!” He was back down the hole that led to the mass of confusion below. Without a word, Cyrus was next to disappear.

I noticed several Brookehaven Vampires stood guard outside of the demolished shack. The walls and the roof lay strewn across the floor of the orchard.

The three of us looked to one another. Um, okay… It all seemed too…easy—the three of us getting free…

A shriek
from below pierced the night. It was a horrific sound.

Chills covered my body as I stared at the entrance to the basement. A moment later, people began flooding out of that hole.

Together, the three of us began backing away. Two of the guards that had been standing watch were suddenly protecting us from what might come—standing between us and those who were coming out of the basement.

The ones fleeing were terrified
, and the other vampires that were standing guard sprang into action. More Brookehaven Vampires appeared from the darkness of the trees, assisting the others while the orchard flooded with the war that had been waging below.

Another chill-inducing scream pierced the night
, and the three of us turned and bolted for the car, “Oliver” cradling Melody in his arms, her hair flailing out behind him as he ran. I didn’t want to take any chances—neither did they, but neither of them had a crazed angel after them. I sure as hell wasn’t going to wait around for that sucker to come to.

“I’ll call Amber,” I said. I grabbed my phone from my back pocket. It amazed me that it had not been taken from me. The minions from the basement
hadn’t been the brightest of creatures. Nor were the Weslins.

Climbing into the back of the Challenger, I made the call. Carter settled Melody’s body in Oliver’s lap once he was in the front passenger seat, then he dashed around the car and jumped in, taking off as fast as possible.

Without a care toward what was happening outside, I put my head back and waited for Amber to answer.

I got what I
came for. I was good. I mean, other than the damn burning on the back of my hand and the fact my boyfriend was still in the wrong body. But I would take him being in the wrong body over nothing at all.

*****

Oliver directed Carter to the entrance of the vampire hospital’s parking garage. Making our way to the dilapidated first gate, I realized this way to the hospital was much creepier at night. The guy at the first gate—the rundown section that was meant to deter others—gave “Oliver” a funny look when the guy saw “Carter” holding an unconscious demon-witch in his lap. However, he allowed us to pass without question.

Once through both security gates and past the guards that manned them, Carter pulled the Challenger into a spot in the underground parking structure. He hurried out of the car and around to the passenger side where he took the still unconscious Melody from Oliver’s arms. Once we were all out of the car, we rushed along the path and inside the hospital.

Thankfully, Amber was already there, so we were able to get Melody to her quickly. Plus, “Carter’s” wrists were still seeping and needed to be looked at. The cuffs that had dug into the flesh of his wrists had either been super freakin’ dirty, or his captors had put something on them. Both were high probabilities.

Amber was waiting by the front desk when we burst through the doors.

Wasting no time, Amber, wearing her usual white coat over a beautiful dress, quickly led us through the halls to an empty room.

Carter gently settled Melody on a hospital bed. Melody’s long hair spilled across the pillow and over the sides of the bed.

I was amazed at how comfortable Carter was in my boyfriend’s skin, at how easily he had carried Melody and settled her on the bed. His comfort in Oliver’s body scared me. And considering what a mess Carter’s body was, it appeared Oliver was having no problem being Carter, either. It was like they were getting too comfortable being each other. Like they were accepting this nightmare…

Amber pulled some smelling salts from the pocket of her doctor’s coat. She waved them under Melody’s nose while the boys and I gathered around the bed, watching, waiting. I
didn’t know how to feel. I was distressed, for obvious reasons, but I wasn't sure if Melody’s unconsciousness was that worrisome. I mean, other than being fully unconscious, she didn’t appear as if she’d been physically harmed. I’m sure Helos had meant her harm, but thankfully Felix got to her first.

Whoa!
Those smelling salts, they smelled nasty! They were bad! We’re talking
really
bad. I gagged.

Trying to keep myself from dry heaving, I took a few steps back and covered my mouth—pulling my sleeve over my hand, I cove
red my nose with it. It helped, not completely, but it was better.

Amber eyed me from across the bed for a second, a curious expression on her face. She returned her attention to Melody. From a distance, I did too.

It wasn’t long before Melody’s eyes fluttered. Amber capped the salts and tucked them back in her pocket. I waited a couple of minutes before braving it and breathing the hospital air.

Melody opened her eyes. She blinked
them several times, and then she looked at the faces staring down at her.

“Hi,” she said, her voice hoarse and low. Her expression lit up when she registered who was standing around the bed. “Thank the goddess you are alright!” she said to
the three of us while pushing herself up.

“You take it easy, Melody,” Amber told her, placing her delicate hands on Melody’s arms. “You need to rest.”

Melody nodded, her eyes meeting Amber’s caring gaze. Melody rested back on her pillow and Amber used an attached remote to raise the bed for her until she was sitting up.

“The others?” Melody questioned. She rested her hands in her lap as the bed stopped with her propped in a relaxed
, sitting position.

“Everyone is just fine,” Amber responded. Her words relieved me. Not that I was necessarily worried about Felix, I just knew Helos was powerful and ruthless. “They will be here shortly. You rest.”

Melody nodded again. Her body relaxed. Amber handed her a TV remote, then she called for the three of us to follow. Melody smiled and gave us a little wave as we left. I smiled back, grateful for her help. Had she not stepped in when she did, I feared the night would’ve had a very different ending. Maybe. Which led me to thoughts of those last hooded figures that passed Cyrus and me on the stairs, and that horrid scream we heard before hightailing it out of there.

“In here,” Amber said, gesturing for us to enter a room next door to Melody’s. “The look of those cuts concerns me.”

Amber guided Oliver to the bed in another quiet room. He took a seat, staring down at his still oozing wrists. Carter and I stood near the foot of the bed and watched. I hugged myself, a new fear creeping into my mind.

Amber gathered a few items from a cabinet on the wall over a sink. She placed them on a roller tray
which she moved near the bed before setting to work doctoring the gashes in Carter’s skin. Oliver winced as she poured a liquid over the cuts.

“I apologize,” she murmured, deep in concentration. After applying a few more items: a couple of liquids, an ointment, and a bandage, she said, “Okay, I believe I got it all.”

“Got all of what?” I questioned.

“I cannot say for certain, but I believe his bindings had been doused with a heavy dose of something that is quite toxic to our kind. Given Carter’s nature, the reaction was less severe than it would be for a full vampire.” She wrapped some gauze around his wrists to keep the bandages covered.

I wondered if this was the same toxin the dragon claw Paul had cut Oliver’s body with had been coated in. It had done a number on my boyfriend’s body, and it would’ve been worse had my bizarre, magical blood not fixed him. I wondered if my lineage from Helos was the reason my blood was “magical,” not that I actually had any proof that it was. Maybe the simple fact I was his mate was the reason I was always able to heal Oliver with my blood.

Carter looked down at his (Oliver’s) wrists. There was a faint red welt on one of them. It was the wrist the cuff had been around. Oliver’s vampire skin was having its own reaction. Amber noticed the mark and had him join her at the sink so she could rinse it off and make sure things
wouldn’t get any worse.

I looked down at my own wrist, the one that had been shackled. The cuff
hadn’t actually touched my skin because of my sweatshirt. With my hands still pulled into my sleeves, I lifted the one that had been cuffed and sniffed where it had been. I quickly pulled it away. That was not laundry detergent. Nope! That was some weird, nasty stench!

When I dropped my arm, thinking
about how my wardrobe was beginning to take heavy damage with my new life, I found Oliver’s (they were actually Carter’s) eyes on me. I forced a halfhearted smile.

Amber and Carter were done at the sink. They moved back toward us, and my attention shifted to them.

Returning her attention to Oliver, Amber wiped something across the streak of blood on his face. He jerked away from the cotton ball pinched between her fingers. Another cut was revealed on his cheek from under that dried blood. It wasn’t a bad cut, but Amber doctored it anyway and added a little layer of ointment to prevent infection.

“You okay, Delaney? Would you like me to check you for any reactions or marks?” Amber questioned as she began cleaning off her tray.

“No, I’m okay. Thanks.”

Her blue-green eyes settled on me. “You let me know if you change your mind.”

Trying not to furrow my brow, I nodded. The bite mark on my neck had stopped bleeding, there was no reason to make a fuss over it. A shower was all I needed. And some sleep, food, and the real Oliver.

Amber was soon gone, off to fix someone else, and leaving the three of us there in an awkward quiet.

“We need to talk,” Oliver said after a long, uncomfortable stretch of silence.

“Yeah,” I quietly responded.

“I’ll just go, uh, take a walk, or something,” Carter said. He headed out of the room and closed the door behind him.

I took a seat on the hospital bed beside the body that would possibly house my boyfriend’s consciousness for the rest of our days. Both of us stared down at our hands sitting in our laps.

“Can I assume that man, Helos, was your mother’s father?”

I nodded.

“How long have you known?” he quietly asked.

“Felix and Amber told me last night, when you disappeared,” I responded, without looking at him.

From the corner of my eye, I saw him nod in response. “I’ve heard his name before. I know very little of him, other than he is troublesome.” He looked over at me. “I had no idea, Laney.”

My eyes met his for a moment. A moment of uncomfortable acknowledgment.

“Anything else?” he questioned softly.

Like what
? Like the fact I knew who my father was, and that I had a brother? No, Oliver already knew all of that, everyone did. I was the only one in the dark. The only thing he hadn’t known was that I descended from a super wicked sorcerer, or some shit like that, and that my mom wasn’t from our world. Oh, and maybe he hadn’t known about my magical powers. I sure as hell didn’t. Maybe that little tidbit was a new one to all but Oscar. Oh, yeah, and did Oliver know about the Weslins? Did he know Ashton’s dad was my mom’s…angel?

I shook my head, trying hard not to freak.

Understanding that I was not yet ready to talk about or deal with the rest of my new knowledge, he just brushed the fallen strands of my hair away from my face and tucked them behind my ear.

“You are a force of nature, Laney,” he said softly and tenderly. “You are
my
force of nature.” He wrapped an arm around me and pulled me against his side.

I relaxed against him. “Not afraid? Not freaked out?” I questioned, without looking at him. I was. I was fully freaking out.
I’d inherited magical powers from a crazed grandfather… Did that mean Helos was right? Was there something dark inside me?

“No,” he said. “The only thing I’m afraid of is losing you.” With Carter’s hand, Oliver lifted one of mine and kissed the backs of my fingers. Was it time I got used to this? Used to him being in Carter’s body? “And grasshoppers,” he said, moving my hand away from his warm lips.