by Liam Lawson
“Whoever put that curse upon you, they may have been doing you a huge favor,” she said.
I scowled and lifted my head. “I doubt that.”
She shrugged. “It’s possible. We won’t know for certain until we get the reports back from the lab.” She stood up and collected the now empty glasses and tray. “I have to go finish packing. You kids have fun.”
I was too mortified for fun. Naturally that meant the girls chose that moment to grab me beneath my arms and with preternatural strength, they hurled me into the deep end of the pool.
I came up sputtering and indignant, ready to give them what for. At least until they joined me in the water. They came up, pressing me against the side of the pool with their bodies and took it in turns to kiss me. Slowly. Sensuously. Until my brain was much and my brain surrendered control to the smaller head.
“You know,” Thomas said from the side of the pool, still recording us with his tablet. “Y’all could make a killing doing that naked for the camera.”
He was forced to flee as the girls splashed water at him and leapt from the pool, chasing him back to his own yard and slamming the gate behind him.
I leaned my head back against the edge of the pool and let out a deep sigh. My life was weird as ever, but things were definitely looking up.
In retrospect I was a fucking idiot for jinxing us like that.
Chapter Two
Riddle me this, what does every beginner level class have that every student hates? The answer: group projects. Prof. Hardin had just assigned us one and by happy coincidence I’d ended up in Soraya’s group. Hardin seemed more than a little miffed when he realized how that had worked out—he’d intended the groupings to be random and definitely knew that Soraya was the only reason I was passing his class—but left us well enough alone to get started, warning us that we’d have to find time outside of class to work on this and that he was giving us today just so that we could coordinate our efforts. How the hell this asshole was related to Eleanor was beyond me.
He sat watching us with cold eyes from behind his desk at the front of the class, checking over some papers with a red pen. I admit I was not the best student, but he seemed to really have it out for me ever since I turned down his offer to let him study my curse. To clarify, I wanted my curse broken so I could actually use magic like a normal person. Prof. Hardin wanted to keep my curse around and study its effects on me and my magic and had been less than forthcoming when he already had the means to break it. Means which, unknown to Prof. Hardin, his assistant Lilian She had provided me with. He’d been less than pleased to discover that I had gone and broken it on my own.
Why Lilian had bothered to help me I don’t know, especially since if Hardin found out it would probably cost her job as his TA. Not that she really needed it from what I knew about her, which wasn’t a lot but still a hell of a lot more than everyone else in Woodhurst, let alone Forrester University. Lilian was a tall, elegant Chinese girl a few years older than me, and easily the most terrifying individual I had ever met.
Let’s break it down from the top. Remember those meth dealers Scarlett used to run around with? Lilian ate them. Because she turns into a giant fucking snake. Also, she used to be their boss. So, there’s another reason to be afraid. I’d seen her work some form of water magic similar to my fire magic once. It had been brief and was probably the single most impressive display of raw magical power I had ever seen. With a flick of a single finger she had conjured a blast of water with enough force to knock a grown man off his feet and throw him several yards back. A finger. And did I mention the giant fucking snake thing already, because if I did really I feel that it needs to be repeated. Drugs, murder with a possible touch of cannibalism, and more magic than I could shake a stick at. Fucking scary.
She’d helped me. She probably wouldn’t be so nice if she knew I’d burned down her meth lab back before I knew any of this stuff about her. There was no way, looking at her now as she fretted about the classroom that anyone would be able to tell what a powerhouse she was. Several students asked her questions and she had to ask them to repeat them several times. Then after giving an answer she’d stare out the window and completely lose track of what was going on around her until something forced her back to reality. I’d never seen her like this. It was enough to make her seem normal.
“Quit staring at her,” Soraya snapped at me.
I blushed and turned back to her group. “I’m not staring at anyone.”
“You are,” Soraya hissed. “Are you thinking of adding her to your harem?”
“No!” I answered too fast and too vehemently. The two other members of our group stared at me.
“Whatever,” Soraya said. “Focus.”
Naturally that was when Prof. Hardin chose to call me up to the front of the class.
Soraya groaned. “What did you do now?”
“No idea,” I said, offering an embarrassed shrug before answering the summons of the dread overlord. I mean seriously, he was acting like his desk was his personal fortress and his chair a throne.
“Sir,” I said when I reached him. My adoptive father, piece of work that he was, liked manners. All men in authority had been ‘Sir’ to me since I’d been thirteen and taken out of foster care.
“You’re not doing well in my class, Mr. Marshal,” he said.
No surprise there. But didn’t need amazing grades. I just needed to pass. Nobody looked at grades after school, just the degree you’d earned.
Apparently, my thoughts must have shown on my face because he scowled. “I don’t think you realize the severity of this, Mr. Marshal. You are teetering on the edge of failure.”
Failure? How? I’d done every assignment and passed. Not well, but I had passed. The only thing I could think of that would be dragging me down was the hands-on work we’d done a few weeks ago, at which I had totally sucked. I could work my affinities without any problem, but the harder I tried to follow the formulas laid out for my purely human peers, the less my magic cared to do what I told it to. But those grades had been mostly centered around participation, or so I’d been reassured by Lilian when I’d voiced my concerns to her. She was still my TA after all, even if I thought she might turn around and eat me if she suspected I knew the truth about her.
“Do you think you’ll be able to qualify for a new scholarship if you’ve failed a class in only your second semester?” he asked.
I’d only been able to pay my way this far because the curse I’d been under had qualified me for a scholarship. When I’d unthinkingly broken it, I’d lost my qualification. Next semester there’d be no scholarship to help me out and as much as I was enjoying working with Eleanor, my pay was mostly being given a place to stay rent and utility free. I was saving up from my weekend yard work gig, but there was no guarantee I’d have enough to pay for next semester just from that income.
“I’ll get by,” I said.
He made a sound in the back of his throat. “The sad thing is I believe you. You’ve a gift for acquiring talented friends.” He glanced past me at Soraya and I blushed.
Then I felt stupid for blushing. She helped me get by, no doubt, but I was pulling my weight. I wanted to puff my chest out and stare this man down, punish him for talking down to me. My magic rose inside of me, answering my heating emotions, and I squashed it down. I don’t know what it would have done but putting a spell on my professor was a surefire way to fail the class, if not get myself expelled.
“How’s your arrangement with my sister working out?” he asked all of a sudden.
I blinked. That was out of left field.
“Good,” I said.
He snorted. “Good. I guess she treats her guinea pigs well. Enjoying her sweet tea?”
What the hell? I knew that the Hardin siblings didn’t get along, didn’t even speak to each other, but I hadn’t thought it would be like this. Which I guess I should have. I don’t have good luck. Yes, I am involved with a pair of gorgeous women and have some rea
lly cool magical abilities, but they’re all intertwined and creating a complicated mess. Why should my living situation be any different now? It hadn’t been simple or easy in foster care or after I’d been adopted. Why the hell had I been stupid enough to get my hopes up now?
A hand fell on my shoulder and I looked down into a mass of wavy locks. Soraya had joined me. “Hey, class is over. Come on and I’ll catch you up.”
We left Prof. Hardin fuming in his seat and made our way to Happy Burger, our usual hangout after his class. Happy Burger had hands down the best burgers in Woodhurst and just as hands down the worst mascot. Someone had tried to make a black and white smiley face on a hamburger, but the result looked like a pedophilic snowman. It was nightmare fuel, plain and simple, but the food was good enough to keep us coming back.
“You were right about him and his sister not getting along,” I said.
She gave me a look that said, quite clearly, ‘I told you so.’
“I know,” I groaned. “But I didn’t exactly have a lot of options at the time.”
She rolled her eyes. “You are the luckiest bastard alive, you know that?”
Sure as hell didn’t feel that way. She had been paying attention, right? Between the meth dealers and a motorcycle club comprised of werewolves, to say nothing of my broken curse, my life had been in a constant state of danger and flux all semester.
In all fairness things were finally looking up for me. “Got to say, the pool in the backyard is nice.”
She groaned. “Only. You.”
I grinned, then my grin faltered. “I thought that the Hardin siblings don’t talk to each other.”
“As far as I know they don’t.”
“Then how did Hardin know I’m living with Eleanor?” I asked.
She shrugged. “Welcome to small town life, Caleb. Everybody knows everybody’s business.”
That was a disturbing thought.
“Except…” she trailed off, biting her lip. She was adorable when she did that.
Soraya Cabal was one of those girls that didn’t know she was beautiful. Her face was elegantly leonine, and impression only strengthened by her mane glossy black curls. She was short and exceptionally curvy in the best possible ways. Not that anyone could tell because she wore heavy, frumpy clothing that hid them and hung from the widest parts of her body. The effect was that she looked kind of chunky when in fact she was a knockout. And she was brilliant. Generous. And I was staring at her lower lip.
I jerked my gaze away when I realized what I was doing.
“Except?” I prompted.
“I feel like I barely see you anymore, we’re not hanging out like we used to.”
“It’s kind of been a crazy semester,” I said.
“Yeah, you keep digging yourself into trouble,” she said.
“I’m pretty sure trouble goes looking for me,” I said.
“Whatever, I get it. Emergencies are emergencies, those aren’t what I’m talking about. Outside of our Happy Burger routine, we barely see each other anymore. You’re always with Absinthe or Scarlett now.” She wasn’t looking at me anymore, preferring to stare straight ahead.
We reached Happy Burger and went in, inhaling the wonderful aroma of burgers and fries. It was a shame the mascot outside was so creepy because the food was amazing. At least it wasn’t a clown, but the grinning cheeseburger looked like it needed to stay at least 500 yards from schools and playgrounds.
“We hung out yesterday,” I said. “We watched Firefly.”
We made our way to our usual booth. “Yeah, but that’s the exception now, not the rule. When was the last time before that that we just hung out like we used to?”
I tried, I really tried, to remember and couldn’t. “Uh….”
“Exactly,” she said. “I just feel like we’re drifting apart and….”
Her head whipped around, whipping her hair behind her in an arc as she stared out the window. “Okay, my turn to pull the emergency card, Caleb. Got to run.”
And she was up and off, out the restaurant before I’d even had a chance to finish processing what she’d said. Well that sucked. I mean, it was totally fair, and I had no right to complain considering how often I’d done this to her lately, but it still sucked. Scarlett was in school until the afternoon and Absinthe had started a new job at a tattoo and piercing parlor. What the hell was I supposed to do with my afternoon now?
I stared after Soraya. “Huh, so that’s how that feels.”
Chapter Three
Scarlett once told me that there wasn’t much to do in Woodhurst apart from sports and parties. At the time I hadn’t thought much of the comment. Now I understood the truth of it.
I’d never thought that a track meet would gather so much attention. I mean, it’s basically a bunch of people running in circles around other people who take turns doing the same stunt over and over. In a small town like this, those stunts, such as spinning in circles to throw a weight, tossing a javelin, or pole vaulting, were minimally represented and not exactly impressive. I don’t mean to sound pessimistic or arrogant, but I could have done what these students were doing, and I hadn’t had any training. It gave the whole thing an anticlimactic aura.
But I wasn’t there for those events. Hell, I wasn’t there for any of the main races either. Absinthe and I had come to support Scarlett, who had started killing it on the track team since I’d made her go back to high school to finish off her senior year. Part of the school’s requirement had been participation in a sport, and she’d started track because I agreed to run with her in the mornings. Even without the supernatural enhancements Absinthe and my magic had given her, Scarlett was fast. Now, she was preparing to participate in several events for the chance to go to State. I didn’t really get how it all worked, if that wasn’t already obvious, but I could hear the capital “S” in State and understood that to be her ticket out of town if she chose.
My stomach fell. I knew that she wouldn’t choose to leave me. That wasn’t arrogance, it was reality. With our bond I wasn’t sure that she actually could leave me. I certainly didn’t have the money or the grades to transfer to a better school out of state. What would happen if she got offered a scholarship? Neither of us were good students but didn’t she deserve the chance to compete with the best if the opportunity presented itself?
The enthusiasm of the crowd pushing in on us from all sides ripped me from my reverie and back to the present. I sat with Absinthe to my right and Scarlett’s mom, Ms. Estrada, “Call me Valencia,” to my left. Soraya was supposed to be here with us but was nowhere to be seen. I’d asked Valencia about it, but she’d waved off my concern. The resemblance between her and Scarlett was unmistakable, though Valencia was possessed of both softer, fuller figure and face. It was easy to see where Scarlett had gotten her good looks from.
Valencia had given me a huge hug when we’d met up at the high school, thanking me for talking her baby girl into going back to school and for being such a good influence. She’d then given Absinthe a much colder reception in the form of a single once over and a question. “How old are you?”
Absinthe took it in stride. “Twenty-six.”
Valencia pursed her lips and didn’t speak to Absinthe any further. Apparently, I was a good influence and Absinthe, the twenty-six-year-old biker chick who was just as stuck with me as Scarlett, was not. Considering Scarlett used to run around with a couple of meth dealers who’d probably been at least Absinthe’s age, I didn’t think much of her judgment. Then again, maybe Valencia thought that Absinthe was going to steal me away from her baby girl and ruin all the good I was being attributed with doing. I should have felt worse for Absinthe than I did but I’ve got to confess, it felt pretty good to be treated like the good guy for once and not a total fuckup.
Especially in light of the way Scarlett’s friends were glaring at me. They sat on the other side of Valencia, occasionally throwing me a death glare. I came to find out that they all thought that I was cheating on Scarlett
with Absinthe, and unlike Valencia, blamed me. I made it a point to ignore them.
Track meets, it turns out, are giant waiting games. Sure, there’s always an event going on, but if you’re only there to watch one person, then you are going to be waiting a damn long time. Scarlett though was in several different races, which wasn’t necessarily unusual, I was told, but to be in such a broad spectrum of events was kind of odd. Of course, I knew why she was able to pull it off. I had to wonder if the judges did though. Not all supernaturals were allowed to compete in human sports and some even had their own leagues. Maybe she could get away with it because, as far as I knew, there had never been a cu sith-werewolf hybrid before.
Every time she’d go up, we’d cheer, and I swear Absinthe and Valencia were competing with each other to see who could cheer for Scarlett the loudest. They’d just got ready to scream their lungs out for Scarlett once again when Soraya showed up. And she wasn’t alone.
Two tall men accompanied her, one black, one Latino, and both well-dressed, though not so much that they stood out from the crowd. The Latino man wore gold jewelry and touched up his black attire with touches of red. His face held familiar leonine features that drew my attention away from his companion. Soraya’s father.
I didn’t know much about Angelo Cabal, other than he specialized in contract magic like Soraya wanted to, and that he’d left Valencia a few years ago. He’d left Soraya behind as well, to be raised by her stepmother. For some reason Soraya idolized him. As evidenced by the huge grin she wore as she came up to us.
“Caleb, my dad’s here.” She was practically bouncing in place.
I met the man’s eyes and extended my hand for a shake. He took it, and had a firm grip, but something about it felt slimy. He laughed as my hand slipped away and looked past me to wink at Valencia.
“Hola, Bay.”
“Angelo.” She bit off the name. “What are you doing here?”
