Cursed Hadley (Lengthened Version) (Cursed Hadley #1)

by Jessica Sorensen

  Chapter 14

  I take a deep breath before I enter my house. I’m worried the Portersons were lying about my sisters believing I’ve been around for the last three days. I mean, how would that work? What do my sisters believe I’ve been doing while I was gone? Could they actually see me, or did the Porterson brothers implant fake memories into their brains?

  And what about my dad? What has he been up to?

  Those questions stir more worry inside me. I throw open the door and hurry inside.

  The house is unsettlingly quiet. Panicking, I rush across the kitchen. “Hello!”

  “What’re you shouting about?” Londyn pops her head into the kitchen, gaping at me like I’m a lunatic.

  “Oh, nothing. I was just wondering where everyone was.” I instinctively press my hand to my chest to settle down my racing heart, but then remember my heart isn’t beating anymore.

  I can’t even startle properly anymore.

  “Bailey and Payton are upstairs getting ready for school.” She steps into the kitchen, securing her hair into a ponytail. “I’m ready to go. I just have to get some breakfast.”

  Pulling out my phone, I check the calendar and realize it’s Friday. “You guys have been going to school every day this week, right?”

  She nods, her brows crinkling. “Yeah... Why are you asking? You’ve been there. You should know.

  “I know, but…” I stuff my phone into my back pocket. “Sorry, I’m a little out of it this morning. I think I need some caffeine.”

  “I’ll make you coffee,” she offers, opening the cupboard.

  “Thanks.” I start for the doorway to go get ready for school, but then pause. “Where’s dad?”

  She shrugs, turning on the coffee machine. “I’ve barely seen him lately.”

  “Is he going to work?”

  “As far as I know.” She glances up at me. “Are you sure you’re okay? I know this week’s been rough with everything going on at school. Plus, I know you’ve been struggling with getting up early to do our paper route. I can do it tomorrow morning if you need me to.”

  So apparently the Porterson brothers planted fake memories into my sisters’ minds. I don’t like the idea. Telling the truth, though, isn’t an option.

  Besides, it’s probably for the best so I can focus on other things. Like taking care of my sisters and trying to figure out a better solution to this whole binding my soul with the Porterson brothers’ thing, one that doesn’t require me feeding from their souls.

  Of course, I have no clue where to start looking for solutions, other than maybe trying to coax Scarlett into helping me and also helping me find my mom. But since Ghost Girl disappears and reappears whenever she wants, I’m unsure how I’m going to convince her to do either.

  An hour later, I’m headed to my first morning class. People are gawking at me, but for some reason, I’m not as bothered as I was before. Maybe because I died three days ago and found out I’m a cursed fire reaper? If that doesn’t put things into perspective, I don’t know what will.

  I’m still worried about how my sisters are surviving the rumors about us. They didn’t say much about it during the ride to school and seemed like their normal chatty selves, joking and talking about the stuff going on in their lives. All their stories of the past few days included me. It was so fucking weird to hear them talk about things that clearly involved me, yet I knew didn’t. It made me feel guilty. I wish I could tell them the truth, but I can’t even imagine what would happen if I did. Plus, they already have enough stress in their lives. The last thing they need is to discover their sister is some kind of weird reaper and doesn’t even have a heartbeat anymore.

  “Hadley, wait up.” The sound of Rhyland’s voice sends both a shiver and a cringe through my body. The sensation is startlingly conflicting, both desire and repulsion swirling through me.

  Conflicted, I start to speed up down the hallway, but end up slowing down, as if pulled to him by an unseen force.

  Goddammit.

  “Hey.” He jogs up beside me and flashes me a charming smile. “For a second, I thought you were going to try to run from me.”

  “I thought about it,” I admit, hugging my books to my chest as I discreetly eye him over.

  He’s wearing the same outfit he was when I woke up this morning, his dark hair styled, and his smile is friendly. If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I never would believe he was a grim reaper.

  He’s a reaper.

  He drinks souls.

  And he wants me to drink from him.

  I crinkle my nose.

  He chuckles confusedly. “What’s that look for? Do I smell or something?”

  I shake my head. Honestly, he smells nice, like curses and death and desire…

  What the fuck? How do I even know what those things smell like?

  The corners of his lips tilt downward. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing.” I start to walk away, but he captures my arm and steers me toward an alcove.

  “You’re not okay.” He releases my arm and assesses me closely.

  “Yeah, I am,” I insist, squirming under his relentless gaze.

  His frown deepens. “You just found out you’re dead and a cursed fire reaper. There’s no way you could be okay.”

  “I’ve dealt with a lot of shit in my life. Being okay is my specialty.”

  His brow meticulously arches. “You’ve died and met reapers before?”

  Well, he has me there. Partly anyway. “No to the first. Yes to the second.”

  His gaze searches mine. “When you asked us if we were the ones who collected your mom’s soul, did you actually see reapers collect her soul? Or did you just speculate some did?”

  I give myself a beat to collect myself before I reply. “I saw them. Not their faces, though, so for all I know maybe you guys were the ones to do it.”

  “We weren’t.” He tucks a strand of my hair behind my ear. The feel of his fingers grazing against my cheek makes me feel both needy and repulsed, mostly the first though, much to my dismay. “We’re a lot of things, but we’re not liars.”

  I laugh hollowly. “Blaise has lied to me about a ton of shit.”

  “That’s not true. He may have done a lot of shitty things to you, but he never lied about it.”

  “His eyes glowed during class and when I asked him about it, he said I was crazy and maybe needed to be admitted to an insane asylum.”

  He offers me an apologetic look. “I’m sorry he did that, but he was just trying to protect what we are.” When he inches toward me, I step back, my back bumping into the wall. He sighs. “I’m not going to hurt you.” He ravels a strand of my hair around his finger, seeming mesmerized by the movement. “We may be death and we may be cruel sometimes, but we’d never do anything to hurt you.” He places a hand against the wall beside my head, leans in, and lowers his voice. “We want to protect you, but in order for that to happen, you have to let us. You shouldn’t have run off this morning. It’s dangerous for you to be on your own, especially when we don’t know what’s after you.”

  “I ran off because you guys want me to feed from you,” I hiss. “Do you know how weird that is?”

  “I can imagine. Although, weird for you is probably normal for us.” He unravels his finger from my hair and places that hand on the wall, pinning me between his arms. “Although, having you plop into our lives is far from our version of normal.”

  “Maybe you should just forget about me then,” I suggest. “It’s not like you actually need me around.”

  He wets his lips with his tongue. “There’s a fine line between need and want.”

  “That doesn’t even make any sense,” I grimace in frustration. “And up until you guys figured out what I was, you didn’t even like me.”

  “Now, that’s not true. I liked you the first time I laid eyes on you. I even flirted with you, even when I thought you were just a gorgeous human.” He skims his finger along my jawline and my eyelashes stupidly flut
ter. “You look gorgeous today, by the way.”

  I give him a blank stare. I’m wearing an old T-shirt and a pair of shorts, I brushed my hair with my fingers, and I didn’t have time to put on any makeup or take a shower.

  “Now I know you’re lying,” I say. “I look like a girl who died three days ago and just woke up from the dead.”

  “You don’t think that’s gorgeous to me?” His lips quirk. “Remember your audience.”

  I smash my lips together as a smile threatens to break through. What the hell is wrong with me? He’s not funny or amusing or…

  He grins. “You’re even more gorgeous when you’re pretending not to smile, but I’m really curious what you look like when those pretty lips of yours turn upward.”

  “Oh my God, cheesy overload.” I push against his chest, shoving him back just enough so I can duck underneath his arm. “I need to get to class.”

  His fingers fold around my wrist. “I know you don’t want to deal with this right now, but you can’t wander around alone. It’s too dangerous.”

  I wiggle my hand from his grip and spin around to face him. “I’ll take my chances.” I turn and start to walk away again, but he snags the hem of my shirt. I huff out an aggravated exhale. “Will you let me get to class?”

  “I will when you agree to let us protect you.” He tows me toward him then steers me back around to face him. “You want to be around for your sisters, correct?”

  Fuck, he as me there.

  I reluctantly nod. “Yeah.”

  “Okay then.” He draws me closer to him. “Until we can figure out what’s after you, I think it’s best if one of us is around you at all times. And I think you should consider feeding from us now rather than later.” His gaze drops to my lips. “We could do it right now, if you’d like. I can get my brothers to meet us in the car.”

  I promptly shake my head. “I’m not ready to do that yet.”

  “Hadley,” he starts, but I cut him off, holding up my hand.

  “Look, I’ll deal with you guys keeping an eye on me until you can figure out what’s tormenting me. But I’m not ready yet to accept my fate of remaining dead and permanently bonded to you guys.”

  “You know there’s not another alternative.”

  “I’ll look into that myself.”

  “And you’ll be severely disappointed and will be wasting time.”

  I shrug. “What can say? I like to find out things for myself.”

  He sighs heavily. “Blaise is right. You’re very stubborn.”

  All I do is shrug, because he’s right and I’m not about to change that about myself.

  He sighs again then steps by me and out of the alcove. “Come on. I’ll walk you to class.”

  I want to be stubborn and remain in the alcove, but his remark about being around to take care of my sisters rings in my head, so I follow the reaper.

  Chapter 15

  By the time I arrive to class, Blaise and Jaxon are seated at their desks. Before I walk in, Rhyland draws me back to him.

  “Be safe and stay near Jaxon and Blaise,” he whispers. “Alex or I will be here after class to walk you to your next class.”

  “Is that really necessary? I’m sure I’ll be fine for the two minutes it takes me to get to class.”

  “Hadley, look at me.” He waits for me to comply then carries my gaze, his eyes darkening with swirls of shadows. “Everything you thought you knew about life was never real. There’s more darkness and evil in this world than you realize. You need to understand that.”

  I swallow hard as his eyes darken more, shadows covering his face. “What are those shadow thingys all over you?”

  He doesn’t answer, simply grazing his knuckles along my cheekbone then nudging me into the classroom.

  As I trip in, Blaise and Jaxon glance at me and Blaise’s gaze momentarily flashes. I remember how embarrassed he was this morning when I mentioned how his eyes flashed the other day. I wonder why.

  Just another question to add to my list.

  Their scorching gazes are intimidating, but I elevate my chin and proceed down the aisle, planning to take a seat a few desks away from them. But as I pass by Blaise, he grabs the hem of my shirt and steers me into the desk in front of him.

  Then he slants forward, leaning over my shoulder and whispering, “Didn’t Rhyland tell you that you need to stay by one of us at all times?”

  I set my books onto my desk. “Sitting a few desks away from you isn’t going to hurt.”

  “It’s that kind of thinking that’s going to get you hurt,” he warns. “You need to stop thinking like a human.”

  “I am a human,” I instinctively say.

  He lines his fingertips over my pulse—or where my pulse used to be—on my neck. “You are, huh?”

  I grit my teeth, frustration bursting through me. “I used to be.”

  “See, that’s where you’re wrong.” His lips graze my ear as he speaks. “You never were. You were always a cursed fire reaper. You just didn’t realize it.”

  “I think my mom might’ve,” I mutter as I open my textbook.

  He stiffens, then reaches around, cups my chin, and angles my head toward him.

  “What do you mean?” he demands lowly.

  “I…” I trail off, noting how many people are watching us. “Can I talk to you about this later when we don’t have an audience?”

  “She’s right,” Jaxon mutters, his gaze skimming the classroom. “Now’s not the time to be discussing this.”

  Blaise peers around then sighs. “You’re right.” He releases my chin but doesn’t lean back. “After class, come with me and Jaxon. We need to discuss some things.”

  I shake my head. “I’m not ditching class.”

  “You won’t be ditching.”

  “What? Are we going to somehow discuss these things in like two minutes? Because that’s all the time I can spare without being late.”

  A grin curls at Blaise’s lips and then he trades a look with Jaxon, whose eyes are dancing with amusement.

  “Hadley, Hadley, Hadley, you have so much to learn,” Blaise taunts me with a grin. When I scowl at him, his grin grows. “Just come with us. I promise you won’t be late for class.”

  I don’t want to, and plan on declining his offer, when a girl approaches my desk with a wicked grin on her face.

  “Is it true?” she snickers. “Did you really used to sell yourself on the streets?

  “What?” I blink at her in confusion.

  “Slut,” someone coughs out and people laugh.

  My fingers curl into fists as I rise to my feet, an unfamiliar darkness stirring inside me. “Where the hell did you hear that?”

  She steps back, worry flashing across her expression. “Everyone just knows it.”

  The darkness builds, taking me over, a hunger burning at my throat as I start to swing around my desk and stalk toward her. “How?”

  She stumbles back, bumping into a desk. “I-I’m n-not s-sure.”

  I reach for her, my lips purring with hungry desire. But then fingers wrap around my arm and poof, I’m gone.

  Chapter 16

  One minute I’m about to… Well, I think I was about to try to drink that girl’s soul, and the next I’m sitting in the Porterson’s SUV with all four of the Porterson brothers.

  I gasp as I struggle to get my bearings.

  I’m sitting in the backseat with Blaise on one side of me and Alex on the other. Jaxon is in the passenger seat and Rhyland is driving. The road and fields outside are unfamiliar, the land too flat and desolate to be anywhere near Honeyton.

  “Where the hell are we?” I straighten in the seat and glance behind me only to find the same flat fields behind us. “And how did I get here? One minute I was in the classroom about to…” I gulp as I remember exactly what I was going to do, how hungry I felt.

  “Oh look, she’s coherent again.” Alex slides his arm along the seat behind me. “Welcome back, princess.

  My jaw ticks.
“Don’t call me that.”

  “Call you what?” Alex grins.

  My lip twitches as I snarl, “How did I get here? And where are you guys taking me? I mean, one minute I was…” My throat blazes with hunger.

  “About to feed from that girl,” Alex finishes for me. “Yeah, we know.”

  “Is that why you guys dragged me out of the school? Because I was going to… feed off that girl?” Oh my God, I really am a reaper.

  “We didn’t drag you out.” Blaise sweeps my hair away from my shoulder. “We teleported you. Took a lot of our power too, and we’re going to probably have to recharge, so you’re welcome.”

  Normally, I’d be all over smarting off but right now I’m too terrified, of myself mostly. “Where are we going? Because it doesn’t look like we’re anywhere near Honeyton and I… I can’t leave my sisters by themselves.”

  “Until you learn how to control your hunger, they’re not safe around you,” Jaxon says quietly, staring at the road ahead, his voice strangely cold. “If you would’ve just sat down and talked to us for a minute before you ran off this morning, we would’ve explained that to you.”

  I hate being reprimanded, but the way Jaxon does it in a quiet, but firm tone makes it complicated to argue back. It doesn’t help that his tone carries a drop of heartache. It also doesn’t help that I suddenly know what heartache sounds like.

  “I don’t want to hurt my sisters,” I say quietly. “But I can’t bail on them.”

  “Even if you can get control over your hunger, Honeyton isn’t safe for you anymore.” Rhyland cracks the window open, letting a warm breeze gust into the cab.

  The air smells strange, like ash and magic and darkness, which makes absolutely no sense. How do I know what magic smells like? Why can I suddenly smell strange things? Because of what I am?

  I sink back in the seat, massaging my temples. “Why am I not safe anymore? Because some girl called me a slut? If so, you should know, I’ve been called and can handle much worse.”

  “It’s not because of that.” Blaise fixes his finger underneath my chin and angles my head up to look at him. “Don’t you remember what happened after that?”