Cursed (The Brookehaven Vampires #4) (78 page)

Carter’s bright blue eyes settled on mine as he stopped. It was eerie, creepy, unsettling, and a million other uncomfortable things to see Carter’s eyes look at me in that hungry way Oliver did at certain, private, moments. Even still, chills covered my body.

He took a step forward
, and I took a step back, my hand releasing his. He came closer, his head lowering, his eyes staying on mine.

“Stop,” I whispered.

He didn’t.

He was right there in front of me. Carter’s blue eyes were bearing down on me. I could feel his breath on my skin. I could smell him—that Carter smell that clearly stated my friend needed a shower.

I tried to step away, but his arms were around me in a quick moment, and his mouth was on mine, working a magic only Oliver knew. It was easy to forget he wasn’t in his own body when he kissed me like that. Even with the stink. And here’s where things got…super weird. I let him kiss me that way. I closed my eyes, melted against him, and my hands slowly worked their way up the arms that held me tight. I lost myself in that kiss.

“I need you,” he breathed.

Yeah, those were the right words, but it was the wrong voice. All kinds of flags went up. A million scenarios quickly flashed to mind.

As Carter’s warm lips made their way across my jaw and to my neck, as his arms held me against his body,
and as I got a feel for what he
really
wanted, I put my hands on his chest and pushed. He didn’t budge or release me.

“Please stop,” I whispered.

“Uh-uh,” Oliver responded, a moan mixing in with the sound as his lips traveled back to mine.

As calmly as I could, which wasn’t all that calm, I tried to pry myself free of “Carter’s” arms while verbally encouraging him to stop. All the while, he held me tight and his warm lips brushed against mine before making their way back to my ear where he whispered again that he needed me.

I knew it was wrong. Yet, I knew it was Oliver inside this man, and that fact alone made the determination I had to get free of his grip less…determined. I was weak, growing weaker with each touch. I missed Oliver.

“Oh, no,” I heard Oliver’s voice suddenly say.

I opened my eyes to find that Carter (in Oliver’s body) and Felix had returned.

I felt like
I’d been caught do something wrong, which was pretty much the case. My cheeks burned as I pressed my hands against “Carter’s” chest and pushed myself away from him. Or, as far as he would let me go, which wasn’t that far at all.

“What?” I
said, directing my question at Carter. My voice was hoarse and my eyes were narrowing. He was holding something back, he and Felix both were. They were hiding something from me.

“Uh…well, um,
uh…”Carter stuttered.

“Spit it out!” I shouted as I watched him shift his weight and run a hand through Oliver’s hair. It didn’t help that “Carter” was still looking at me in that same hungry way, his eyes never leaving mine. Even when I looked away from him, his eyes stayed on me.

“I was super horny last month. Like uncontrollable,” he finally confessed, and he shifted uncomfortably.

I looked back to my boyfriend stuck in my fr
iend’s body. He was registering this information, just as I was. His grip loosened and I quickly stepped away from him.

“What are we going to do?” I questioned, addressing Felix and Carter.

“Well, there’s one way,” Carter said, a mischievous grin appearing.

He was freaking kidding, right?

“NO!” Oliver and I both shouted. Oliver, in Carter’s agitated body, had quickly come to his senses. For the moment.

“I am
not
sleeping with your body, even if Oliver’s in it,” I said. I was unable to even look at Oliver at that moment. Had the others not walked in when they did, had they not stopped us, would we have? Would I have caved? I shuddered at the thought.

“We’ve already done it once,” Oliver’s voice said, another grin in place.

Oliver growled. His fists were tight, and his posture was suddenly ready to pounce. He was ready to go after the man in his own body.

I just didn’t care anymore. I took a seat on the couch,
leaning forward and hiding my head in my hands. “No, we didn’t…” I said.

Technically, I hadn’t been with anyone but Oliver. His body, anyway. My stomach turned.

Lifting my head and looking up at Felix who was propped against the front of his desk, I said, “Can we lock him up?”

“We can try,” Felix responded, “but it might do more harm than good.”

I stared at him. He couldn’t be suggesting… No, these people had lost their freaking minds!

“This is total bullshit, you know,” I watched myself say, as Felix closed and locked the door of a cell down in the tunnels.

Without a word, Felix and I walked away, giving a few minutes to Laney and poor Oliver who was still stuck in my stupid body.

I followed Felix back through the tunnel to wait for Laney. When we got close to the opening, he stopped and rested his shoulder against the wall, his arms folded over his chest. He was just beside the door that led to another tunnel lined with cells. Cells that were full of those idiot followers of that Helos dude. That dead Helos dude. I was glad the guy was dead, but the fact I was still in Oliver’s body, that made my relief fade, big time.

That Habitha witch was down there in one of those cells. I was on board with killing her. Whether it worked or not, I firmly believed she needed to go.

I seriously doubted anyone like Habitha—anyone willingly do the shit that had been done to us over the past few weeks—would have a quality one would need to be kept alive. I mean, she was a part of this bullshit with Oliver and me switching. It was highly likely she and that Helos dude were behind Laney forgetting Oliver and thinking Ashton was a good guy. That alone was grounds for murder. Yeah, firm believer here. The bitch needed to die.

Harsh? Yeah, I know, but I needed out of Oliver’s skin one way or another. Killing the witch had
a high probability of making that happen. So Felix had said.

I mean, it had been nearly a week of this shit. Ha, ha. The fun was over. And according to Ambrose, after a week, this shit was probably permanent.

Per-ma-nent…

When I tried to think about it, about what we would have to do to adjust our lives, it about killed me. How would my mom and Harrison understand? How would Kiera understand? It wasn’t that I was just stuck in another dude’s body. I was stuck in a vampire’s body. A vampire’s body that was already bonded to another, not to my fiancée. You see what I mean? It was a giant nightmare with no happy ending.

Felix pushed himself away from the wall. Laney was heading toward us. She was hugging herself. She quickly wiped away her tears when she caught sight of Felix and me. She even dropped her arms, as if trying to show us she was okay. I could’ve had my eyes closed and told you otherwise. The emotions coming off of her only added to the dread in my own heart.

I wanted to. Oh god, did I want to, but I wouldn’t. I couldn’t. Not in Carter’s body. Kissing her was one thing, the other… No.

I was too amped up to see past anything but wanting her, but I watched Felix and my former body walk away once I was in one of the holding cells down in the tunnels. Thankfully, one of the cellblocks had been empty, otherwise…
this would have been even…shittier.

As soon as they were out of sight, I returned my attention to her. “Don’t cry,” I said as I reached through the bars and brushed away Laney’s falling tears. It broke my heart when she cried. It tore me apart when I
couldn’t fix what was wrong.

Her hands were gripping the bars. I let one of mine slip over hers.

“Once this night is over, we will figure out what to do next,” I said softly, leveling my eyes with hers—with her deep brown, miserable stare.

She said nothing.

I reached through the bars and brushed the backs of my (Carter’s) fingers against her cheek. Her eyes closed. “I love you,” I whispered.

A sob escaped her. I stretched my arms through the bars and put them around her. I held her as best as I could in that awkward position and situation. Through the bars, I rested my forehead against hers.

Eventually, her hands moved up my arms and her fingers began digging into the flesh of Carter’s upper arms while she cried. We were having a hard time, but I had never seen Laney so emotional. There was nothing I could do. I was helpless, caged, and having desires that would put her in danger. But the thought of what the morning might bring—that in less than one day the switch would most likely become permanent—tamed my urges. Especially with Laney being so upset.

Once she settled, I loosened my grip
, and her hands fell from my arms. I leveled my stare with hers once again.

With the sleeve to her sweatshirt, she wiped away the remains of her tears. Then, without thinking, she found the exposed hem of her tee and twisted it around her finger. Her eyes met mine.

“Go ahead,” I encouraged. I didn’t want her anywhere near me when the moon reached its highest point. “I will be fine. Felix will check on me in a while.”

She nodded, still twisting the hem of her shirt. She stepped forward and, coming as close as possible, she pressed her lips to mine through the
cold bars of the cell. When she stepped back, tears were swimming in her beautiful dark eyes, again.

“I love you,” I softly told her.

She took a deep, shaky breath and let it go. “I know,” she said, very quietly. She attempted to smile at me. It was one of the most pathetic things I had ever seen. “I love you, too.”

I forced my own halfhearted smile and watched her walk away.

Once she was out of sight, I considered ramming my head against the concrete wall at the back of the cell, simply in the hopes of knocking myself out. Anything would be better than the torture I felt inside Carter’s body. Anything.

My Caged Boyfriend

Oliver was in a cage. As if being trapped in Carter’s body wasn’t enough. I get that it was for my own safety, but the idea of it, of
my
Oliver being locked up…well, it was hard to bear. As was what our morning was sure to bring.

Helos was gone and Felix hadn’t started whacking people yet. Well, as far as I knew. However, Oliver and Carter were still in the wrong bodies, so it was safe to say if he was, it wasn’t working.

Come morning, it would be a full week since our nightmare began. I knew it was time to start thinking about the decisions we would soon have to make. It was killing me. I knew I should just be happy Oliver was even alive; that we were all still alive… But how was I supposed to just switch to loving another man’s body? Especially when the body that went with the mind I loved was still wandering around, attached to me, even!

I felt sick, and I just couldn’t think about it anymore.

In the morning, Oliver would have answers to what we would have to do… I would try not to think about it until then…

Although both Felix and Carter suggested I go home and get some sleep, I refused. I wanted to be as close to my boyfriend as possible. There was nothing I could do to help him through the night. Nothing I was willing to do, anyway. Not yet… And Oliver wouldn’t have gone for it if I had been…

Ugh! I wanted my life back! I wanted my Oliver back!

Anyway, instead of going home, I was waiting out the night in an office down in the tunnels with Carter.

The “office” was more of a table with some chairs sitting around it. I guess it was more like a meeting room. It was at the mouth of the tunnels that led down to where the cells were. The cell where we’d left Oliver was free of other prisoners. The other tunnel of cells was apparently jam-packed with Helos’ followers. Minus the vampires. Felix told us that all the vampires, except Oscar, had been taken to Brookehaven to await judgment. I was pretty sure they were all going to die. Yeah, slightly unnerving.

While Felix took a break from sharing Brookehaven information with us so he could check on Oliver, I scooted up on the table top and began examining the vampire killing kit
I’d discovered in the orchard basement—the case Oscar had gathered together after I’d kicked it to him. Felix brought it to the tunnels with us.

Along with the
kit, he’d brought the book we’d taken from Avery and her dad a while back—the one with all the vampire names in it—and he’d also brought the charred remains of the journal that had caused the weird Ashton and me thing to happen… I shuddered at the memory.

Carter
took a seat in one of the chairs at the table. I sat cross-legged in front of the kit and opened it, Carter watching very closely. He didn’t touch anything, perhaps for fear that even touching an item might do him harm, but he pointed at things and asked if I knew what they were.

Because Amber had recently shown me pictures and had given me some details and information on the kits that
were very popular in the nineteenth century, I knew a little. I relayed the information I had to him.