Curse Breaker

by Karina Espinosa

  She walked in and flopped onto the bed. “I just got out of the shower. It’s nice to see your face again.”

  “Aw, you missed me?” I blinked sweetly at her.

  “Duh.” She rolled her green eyes. “You looked weird as a blond. And honestly, seeing you run with double D’s was just cringeworthy. You’re definitely not meant for big breasts.”

  “Funny,” I deadpanned and went to lay at the foot of the bed. “Where’s your boyfriend?”

  “I think he went downstairs to talk to Bobby, but we got the all-clear to contact Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”

  “Are you sure you’re okay with this?” I winced. We were taking a huge risk for Amy by calling Mason Kincade. If Alexander was right and they really hated vampires that much, then that promise he made to keep Amy safe might not mean anything.

  “If he tries anything, I’ll just eat him,” she replied nonchalantly as she plucked some lint off her pants.

  I laughed, but she wasn’t laughing with me. Damn, she was serious. I’d only seen her drink from blood bags. Never from the vein.

  “Well, then,” I cleared my throat to hide the awkwardness, “let’s shoot our fearless hunter a text.”

  I reached for my phone on the nightstand and scrolled for Mason’s phone number. I decided to send him a text instead of calling. It was better to have things in writing.

  This is Mackenzie Grey. I’m ready to chat. Let’s meet.

  I hit send.

  I set my phone down and was about to strike up a conversation with Amy, when my phone beeped. Amy and I looked at one another, surprised.

  “Well, that was fast,” she joked.

  “It can’t be him,” I grimaced. “That was like, lightning fast. Almost like he was sitting by the phone waiting for me.”

  “Maybe he was. Or maybe he’s just a super-fast texter.”

  I picked up the phone and opened the message. It was from Mason.

  About time. Meet me at Washington Square in one hour.

  I quirked an eyebrow and showed the phone to Amy.

  “We have to tell Jackson.” Amy climbed out of bed in a rush and hustled out of the room. I trailed behind her as we headed downstairs. “Jack!” she called out as we crossed the living room and went into the kitchen.

  Jackson was there with Bobby in deep conversation, but they quieted the minute we arrived.

  “What’s going on?” Jack asked when he saw us.

  “I spoke to the hunter,” I blurted. “He wants to meet at Washington Square Park in an hour.”

  There was surprise on his face, I guess since it happened so fast, but he quickly schooled his features and prepared for a game plan.

  “Alright, you’re not going alone, first and foremost. We don’t know anything about hunters, so we automatically don’t trust them,” Jackson commanded. “Amy, you might want to sit this one out.”

  She shook her head. “No way. Don’t bench me now. If he tries anything, I’ll be ready.”

  “We’ll be in a public place anyway,” I agreed. “There will be tons of people. He won’t make a move with an audience. We’ll be safe.”

  They both nodded, and we went back upstairs to get ready. Within minutes we were dressed, standing by the front door. After swigging my cloaking spell potion, we were off to meet the hunter.

  8

  Jackson drove us into the city, but there were a lot of people milling around Washington Square and parking was tough, so we had to park the car a lot farther from our meet-up spot.

  We were cutting it close to the hour mark when we finally made it. Standing by the fountain, we scanned the surrounding area and different faces, on the lookout for the hunter. I wouldn’t be surprised to know he was already there, scouting us. He seemed like the type.

  “Stay alert,” Jackson mumbled, but we all heard him above the din of the crowd.

  Washington Square Park was in Greenwich Village in Lower Manhattan. There was a big fountain area where people loved to sit and hang out, but its most popular feature was the Washington Square Arch that lit up at night. It was an interesting place to meet, and I wondered why he chose it instead of somewhere more private.

  “Mackenzie,” Mason’s voice sounded from beside me. “Nice of you to come.”

  I turned to face him, struck again by his otherworldly looks. He was truly a sight to behold. “Thanks for seeing me on such short notice.”

  He smirked. “I had some free time.”

  “I see that,” I replied. “I brought my friends.” I nodded over to Jackson and Amy who stood a few feet away, watching us intently.

  “Ah, the vampire best friend.” He eyed her carefully, his gaze as sharp as a tack. “Never fear; a promise is a promise.”

  My jaw ticked. “It better be, or you’ll become the hunted real quick.”

  Those emerald eyes glistened as they turned their attention to me with precision and curiosity, as if he found me quite interesting. I didn’t know whether to be creeped out or not. I was still on the fence with this guy.

  “I wouldn’t dare,” he purred, stepping closer to me. Jackson and Amy inched closer as he moved in. “Now let’s talk. What made you contact me?”

  “The Elders are up to something, and we have to stop them.” I tried to keep it vague. I didn’t trust him enough to give him the full details on what was going on.

  “And what, pray tell, are they up to?” he whispered in my ear.

  I took a step back. The guy was hot, but I definitely wasn’t interested. “Your seductive tricks won’t work on me, friend. You’re losing an uphill battle.” We might be fighting—albeit a stupid and manufactured fight—but my heart belonged to Sebastian Steel. No amount of this hunter’s charm or good looks would sway me from that fact.

  He smirked as if the joke was on me. “What are they up to, Mackenzie?” he reiterated.

  I put some space between us. “Don’t worry about it. Just know it’s not good, and I’m ready to hear what you have to say.”

  “Well, then, I’ve never been a fan of much talking. Let’s see what you got,” he clipped, and then he closed the gap between us and kissed me. Square on the mouth.

  My eyes were wide open, and it took me a split second to react before I pushed him off me and punched him in the face. The commotion startled a few people around us and they moved away, but I quickly realized that was what he wanted. The prick.

  Jackson and Amy rushed to my side, Jack ready to lay another punch, when we saw the gaggle of vampires that surrounded Washington Square. My gaze widened as I looked over at Mason, who was calmly wiping the blood from his split lip.

  That kiss was intentional. It was a signal. We were set up.

  “You son of a bitch!” I yelled, but Mason’s face showed no emotion.

  Jackson, Amy, and I stood back-to-back as we watched a swarm of at least two dozen vampires circle us.

  “If you want to survive, you must kill them,” Mason chided from somewhere to the left of us. His voice was no more than a distant murmur beneath the staccato of my racing heart. All I heard was the blood pumping in my ears.

  “I’m going to kill you,” I growled as I went into a half shift. My canines and claws extended effortlessly as my muzzle protruded, Jackson following suit.

  “Not yet, sweetheart. You’ll see why,” the hunter teased at the same moment a vampire charged for me.

  I readied myself in a fighting stance, but before I got the opportunity, Mason was there with a wooden stake aimed straight for the vamp’s heart. Before I had time to register what was happening, the stake connected and all that was left was ash. A slight breeze blew the vampire remnants away. I stood there, shocked, not understanding what was going on.

  “I told you, Mackenzie. You’re not going to want to kill me.” He smirked as stakes shot out of the sleeves of his jacket and connected with their intended targets. More ash. I shook out of my stupor and jumped head-first into the fray.

  Jackson and Amy were fighting the vampires behind us, while Mas
on and I battled the ones in front of us. I didn’t want to kill them. It wasn’t their fault they were a vampire. I snapped as many necks as I could to temporarily put them down, ducking and diving, swerving around flying fists. Vampires were fast—much faster than most supernaturals—so it took a lot to outmaneuver them.

  My heart sank when I realized there were too many of them. My wolf stirred deep within me, uneasy. She was frustrated, and her self-preservation was kicking in. I tried to tame her, but the building pressure was too much and I let out a mighty roar. The soundwaves alone knocked back a couple of vampires in my path. My eyes turned silver and I was no longer in control. The wolf was.

  I charged forward, slashing my claws at anything in my way. Without hesitation, I jammed my hands into a vampire’s chest and ripped out his heart. He turned to dust around me. Another one charged me, hissing and showing his fangs, and I took two clawed fingers and poked his eyeballs right out of their sockets. As he screamed into the night air and fell to his knees, I flicked his eyes off my claws, letting them roll on the ground. Then I twisted his head, three hundred and sixty degrees, completely removing it from his shoulders.

  The atmosphere in Washington Square changed. Fewer vampires approached me, and it wasn’t because we had the upper hand. No, they still had the numbers, but now they feared me and what I could do. My bloodlust ran rampant, and I was ready for more.

  “Come on!” I shouted at them as they stood around and watched me in horror. I was coated in blood, but I didn’t care. “Come and get me,” I growled with a sly grin.

  There was hesitation. Even my friends watched the scene unfold with concern.

  As if they were waiting for someone to make the first move, one vampire sped out of the park with lightning speed. Within seconds, the rest of the vampires followed in his wake.

  I stood there with wild, glowing, silver eyes, my heaving chest thumping rapidly. I had to calm down, but I didn’t know how. My wolf had finally been let out to play, and she wasn’t ready to be locked up again.

  “Kenzie?” Amy approached me like she would a feral animal. “Come back to us.” Her hand slipped into mine and she tightened our hold.

  I began to tremble as I fought to re-gain control. The feeling of the wolf was like fire spreading through my veins, liquid hot and burning me alive from the inside out. I had to put it out before it completely engulfed me.

  I shut my eyes and squeezed them tightly, trying to push the wolf to the furthest parts of my conscious. She wasn’t always like this, but lately she’d developed this hunger—a raging bloodlust—that I couldn’t seem to satisfy.

  The trembling finally stopped, and I felt my silver eyes go back to their normal grey. I shifted back to human and gasped, as if the wolf had just been holding my body hostage. In all reality, she did.

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered, looking down at the ground, ashamed. I couldn’t bring myself to look my best friend in the eye.

  “There’s nothing to be sorry about. What’s important is that you’re safe.” She gave my hand another squeeze.

  “As for you, asshole,” Jackson growled at Mason as he stood to the side, watching the events unfold. “What the hell was that?”

  I lifted my gaze to look at the hunter. Though his outfit was rumpled and he had some blood splatters, overall, he was okay.

  “I needed to see Mackenzie fight, and she did not disappoint.”

  I scoffed and stepped forward. “So you’re saying this was a test?”

  “I wouldn’t say test, per se, more like an observation. You’re a known vampire sympathizer. I had to know if you’d be willing to kill vampires.”

  My mouth hung open, and for the first time in many years, I was speechless. And that, my friends, was a big feat. I always had something to say, but in that moment, I had nothing.

  A vampire sympathizer? What the fuck?

  Amy let my hand go. “Are you kidding me? She killed a goddamn Elder! What more does she have to prove?”

  Mason snarled—he actually fucking snarled at Amy. “I don’t need to explain myself to the likes of you.”

  “Don’t talk to her like that,” I seethed. “You’d better explain yourself to all of us. I don’t have time for games, Mason. Especially when it comes to my life.”

  Mason took a deep breath and steeled his expression. “Neither do I, but I had to be sure. You proved tonight that you’re not afraid to get your hands dirty. So, you and I, Mackenzie, can definitely work together.”

  I looked around at the empty park. The few humans who had been there had dispersed when the fighting began.

  “What do you propose?” I relented. I didn’t fully trust this crazy, zealot vampire hunter, but he was another resource I could use to help defeat the Elders and get me out from under the vampires’ thumbs.

  “How do you feel about being bait?”

  The car ride home was filled with constant bickering—Jackson and Amy ganged up against me, but I wasn’t fighting back. I sat quietly in the back seat of the car, waiting until we were back in the safety of the house cloaked in magic.

  When Mason told us his plan, it started a shit storm. I told the hunter I’d get back to him, that I had to think about it, but I already knew my answer.

  “This is bullshit, Kenz!” Amy yelled as we walked into the house. “There’s no way I’m letting you be used as bait. They’ll torture you!”

  “I’m well aware of that,” I answered softly, in a voice I never used.

  “I swear, Buffy is up to something else. I don’t trust the bastard,” Amy continued. “Right, Jackson? Back me up, here.”

  “Of course, babe,” he agreed, twinkling those milk chocolate eyes at her. “The guy is a worm. What he pulled tonight could have gone sideways fast if you hadn’t gone ape shit, Kenz.”

  “I know.”

  “Then why aren’t you saying anything?!” Amy shouted at me. “You told him you’d think about it, when your answer should have been hell no.”

  “Because the idea has merit,” I declared. “By letting myself get caught by the vampires, we have an automatic ‘in’. And if we manage to get through to Damon, he can be our connection to the inside.”

  “They won’t treat you like they did Amy,” Jackson clarified. “They’ll torture you just to find out the location of the cure. It won’t be pretty.”

  “I’ve been through worse.” I shrugged. It was true. What was a little more torture to add to my resume?

  “I’ve seen how they do it,” Amy whispered. “Please don’t do this.”

  “I said I’d think about it. For now, let’s focus on recruiting Damon. He’s our best shot at turning some vamps against the Elders.”

  Amy’s jaw was tight, but there was nothing she could say that would change my mind. If I had to take one for the team, I would. Lord knows I’d been through my fair share of shit. This might be a cake walk. Now, I was just talking out of my ass, but a girl could dream.

  “Amy, let’s get ready.” Jackson took her by the arm, nodding upstairs. “C’mon.”

  With a huff, she glared daggers at me before spinning on her heels and following Jackson upstairs to get ready to return to The Third Eye, where they would hopefully find Damon.

  “Trouble in paradise?” Bobby sauntered out of the kitchen and into the living room.

  “Fuck off,” I mumbled, rolling my eyes.

  “Aw, don’t tell me you’re still upset with me, Princess,” he chided as he took a seat in one of the chairs across from me.

  “What do you want, Bobby?”

  He shrugged. “All this hoopla for a vial I concocted. A cure that’s all of a sudden vanished,” he mused. “Tell me, Princess, where did you hide the golden ticket?”

  My grey eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Why do you want to know?”

  “Curiosity.”

  “Curiosity killed the cat,” I snapped with a sharpness that could slice through paper.

  “Touchy, touchy, touchy.” He clucked his tongue. “It must be a g
ood spot. I dare say, practically untraceable.”

  I didn’t like where this was going. If Bobby was inquiring about the cure, it meant he had something up his sleeve. Nothing good ever came of that.

  Since he put the cure together, I imagine he could trace it if he wanted to. And since I wasn’t in a position to trust anyone, especially a witch or warlock, I didn’t put a cloaking spell on it. That meant the only person who could find it would be Bobby. For the right price. If the Elders were smart, they’d pay it, and then I’d be in deep shit. Bobby didn’t give a shit about the cure, he only cared that I stayed alive long enough to cash in his favor. For him, it was an easy deal to make.

  “Remember what team you’re on,” I reprimanded. “Playing both sides could get you killed.”

  He smiled. “Have no fear, Princess. I would never betray you.”

  I snorted and looked away.

  “I mean it, Mackenzie.” All playfulness from earlier vanished, and his voice took on a serious air. It caught my attention because it was the first time he’d ever used my real name. “I won’t betray you.”

  His almond eyes drilled into me with a gravity I was unused to sensing from him. His face was solemn, composed with a weightiness I’d never seen before. For a moment, I almost believed him. It was hard to understand, but the way he looked at me with such somberness, I could tell it was the unvarnished truth. Maybe trusting him made me naïve.

  “We’ll see,” I muttered, not really knowing what to say.

  “We’ll see,” he repeated, never leaving my gaze.

  After a few long seconds, I looked away. It was getting too intense for me, and I didn’t know where this was headed. It didn’t feel romantic, rather, it was more of a protective vibe I sensed from Bobby, which was strange. He was usually the first one to split when things got tough. The one to run when the enemy was near. Which was why this was decidedly odd behavior.

  “You’re acting weird.” I furrowed my brows and cocked my head. “What’s your deal?”

  “I’m always weird, Princess. Haven’t you noticed?”