Cursed (Book 1, The Watchers; Young Adult Paranormal Romance) (15 page)

“Stop,” I mouthed
to her silently tilting my head in Michelle’s direction.

Tara saw the
worried expression on Michelle’s face.  I think she realized she was making it
harder for Michelle to branch out from Nora and have other friends.

“Hey, sorry Nora,”
Tara said, completely surprising me.  “What fool would ask a girl out and then
pull that kinda crap on her.”

Nora seemed to
take this olive branch from Tara and told us what happened.

“He got real huffy
about it too.  Luckily, we met there in separate cars so I didn’t have to stay
around him anymore than I had to.  I just left him there to pay the full bill
and went home.”

We all agreed she
did the right thing under the circumstances.

Ms. Connor led us
in a lively discussion about the battle of the sexes depicted in
Taming of
the Shrew
the rest of the class period.  I was so caught up in everyone’s
opinions I was surprised when the bell rang to mark the end of class.  Brand
was true to his word and waiting for me outside the classroom.

After making sure
I was safely deposited inside my general chemistry class, he told me he’d be
waiting for me afterwards so we could have lunch together. 

When we went to
the Common’s for lunch I saw Tara sitting with Nora and Michelle at a table.  I
thought Nora and Michelle were going to have heart attacks when Brand and I sat
down with them.  Though, I finally found a way to keep Nora from talking about
herself.  Well, from talking at all really.  She just stared at Brand in
complete adoration the whole time.  Poor Michelle just drew into herself even
more.  I tried to get her to join the conversation a few times but soon gave
up.  It was a hopeless cause with Brand around.

Since Michelle was
in our physics class, she walked with us to the room.  I couldn’t help but feel
a little sorry for Michelle.  She was desperately shy and obviously thought
Brand was dreamy.  But who was I kidding?  What girl within a twenty foot
radius didn’t have her eyes locked on Brand?

When we sat down
at our desks, waiting for the physics teacher to show up, Brand turned to me
and said, “I noticed their selling tickets to the Black and White ball.  Would
you like to go?”

“When is it?”

“A week from
Saturday.”

I desperately
wanted to go to the ball, but knew I didn’t have anything to wear.  I might be
able to get my mom to splurge on a dress though.  Since I didn’t go to my
junior or senior prom, she’d been spared the expense of buying me dresses for
those occasions.  Plus, I knew how taken she was with Brand.  That alone might
loosen up her purse strings.

“Can I get back to
you on that?  I need to find something out first.”

“All right,” Brand
looked confused at my cryptic reply.  “What about you Michelle?  Are you
going?”

She simply
shrugged in response, dumbstruck once again by Brand’s attention. 

“Well, hope to see
you there.”  Brand smiled at poor Michelle.  I swear I thought she was going to
faint.

“Maybe,” she
finally replied.  “It depends if things work out like I hope.”

After class, Brand
took me back to my apartment.  Since Dr. Barry was going to be in New Orleans all week, she told me to take the week off.  I was thankful for the extra time
to rest.

We were just about
to get out of his car when Brand’s cell phone rang.

“Hey, I need to
head to the house for a few minutes to handle something important.”

“That’s fine,” I
told him.  “I really just feel like taking a nap anyway.  I’m still kind of
tired.”

He leaned over and
kissed me on the cheek, as usual.

“Will you promise
me not to go anywhere alone?”

“You worry too
much.  But, yes, I promise not to leave my apartment without a chaperone,” I
conceded.

Brand left and I
went into the apartment.  I didn’t realize how tired I was until I laid down on
my bed and instantly fell asleep.  

I had some really
weird dreams during my nap.  There was a lot of yelling and crying going on. 
Then, Brand was there holding me in his arms, finally kissing me on the lips. 
But he would only press his lips against mine for a few short seconds at a
time.  I could feel my consciousness tugging at me, trying to make me wake up,
but I didn’t want to go.  Even if it was only a dream, I wanted to keep feeling
the warmth of his lips pressed against mine.  Desperate to make it last longer,
I ran my fingers through his hair at the back of his head and pulled him down
to me as close as I could.  He responded in kind and held me even tighter;
kissing me back so hard I thought my heart would burst.  The kiss seemed to
last forever until I whispered, “Brand.”

I felt him tense
and let me go.

“Lilly!  Lilly,
wake up!”

Tara’s hysterical
screaming interrupted what had been a beautiful dream.  I opened my eyes and
saw Will’s face first.  He was cradling me on his lap.  Tara stood over his
shoulder with a wild eyed look on her face like something was wrong.  It was
then I noticed we were outside on the grass by the apartment complex’s pool.

“Are you all right?”
she asked, trying to control her hysterics.

“What…” I tried to
make sense of what was happening.  “What’s going on?”
     It was then a couple of male EMT’s came rushing around the building.

“What happened?”
one of them asked kneeling beside us.

“The gas was on in
the apartment when we got here,” Will told him in a calm, detached voice.  “We
tried to wake her up but she wasn’t breathing.  We brought her out here and I
performed CPR on her.”

“We’re going to
need the oxygen,” the first EMT told the other one who made a mad dash back
around the building.  I assumed back to their ambulance.

“Have you turned
the gas off in the apartment?  Was anyone else affected?”

“I did.” Tara said, still shaking from the experience.  “I turned it off as soon as we found it on. 
And there wasn’t anyone else in there.”

“Ok, good.”

The second EMT
came back with a gurney and tank of oxygen.  They had the breathing mask over
my nose and mouth within a matter of seconds.

“We’ll need to
take her to the hospital just to make sure she’s ok.  But you guys did the
right thing,” he complimented.  “Which one of you will be coming with us?”

“I’m coming,” Tara quickly volunteered.

“I need to stay
here and wait for the police,” Will said, looking at me with an odd unreadable
expression.

It didn’t take
long to get to the hospital.  Strangely enough, I ended up with the same doctor
who had treated me after my car accident.

“I didn’t expect
to see you again so soon, Ms. Nightingale” she said when she came to see me in
the emergency room.

All I could do was
shrug since I still had the oxygen mask over my nose and mouth.

A nurse came around
and took a sample of my blood.  We weren’t there but maybe twenty minutes when
Brand and Will walked in together.

“I’m so sorry,
Lilly,” Brand said coming to stand beside me and hold my hand.  “I shouldn’t
have left you there by yourself.”

“What did the
police say?” Tara asked Will.

“They said it
looked like someone jimmied the lock from the outside of Lilly’s bedroom’s
sliding glass doors.  It doesn’t look like it was an accident.”

Not an accident? 
That couldn’t be right.  Who would want to kill me besides my old nemesis Fate?

“Why would anyone
want to kill Lilly?” Tara asked, voicing my own question for me.

“Well, considering
the accident she was just in and now this.  They think someone might be after
her.”

A chill went up my
spine and I held onto Brand’s hand even tighter.

“We won’t leave
her by herself anymore until we figure out who’s doing this,” Brand said with a
reassurance in his voice I needed to hear just then.

The three of them
coordinated their schedules to ensure I had at least one of them with me at all
times.  All I could do was lay there in stunned silence.  So not only did I
have Fate trying to kill me but now a real flesh and blood person wanted me
dead too?  What had I done in my life to deserve this?

The police came by
to see me while I was still in the emergency room.

The lead
detective’s name was Joseph Randall.  He was a man of average height and weight
with dark brown hair and eyes.  Pretty non-descript which I thought was a good
thing in his line of work.

“Do you know of
anyone who has a grudge against you, Ms. Nightingale?”  He asked with a small
black notebook and ball point pen in his hands, prepared to write down my
responses.

“Not that I can
think of,” I said trying to rack my brain for someone who hated me enough to
want me dead.  “To be honest I don’t know many people here.”

“Have you noticed
anyone new at school?  Perhaps a stalker?”

“No, I haven’t
noticed anyone like that.”

He closed his
little black notebook and stuffed it in his jacket pocket.  He pulled out a
stack of cards and handed one to each of us.

“I’m afraid until
we get a lead there isn’t much that we can do.  We didn’t pull any fingerprints
from the door or gas knobs that don’t belong to you and Ms. Jenkins.  If you
think of anything else or something else happens, feel free to contact me
anytime, day or night.”

The only thing I
could think was if we needed to call Detective Randall again I would probably
be dead.

Luckily, I didn’t
have to stay in the hospital very long.  I was allowed to check out at around five
that evening.  I rode home with Brand in his car and Tara rode with Will.

“I never should
have left you,” Brand said with a lot more guilt than he should have.

“There’s no way
you could have known what was going to happen,” I tried to reassure him.  “I
just don’t understand why someone would want me dead.  I hardly know anyone
here.”

“Do you have any
schoolmates from your high school here?  Would one of them have a grudge
against you for something?”

“Well, sure there
are some kids from my old school here, but I haven’t talked to any of them
since school started.  Anyway, I didn’t talk to them that much when we were in
high school together.  I doubt they even know I’m here to be honest.”

“My trip couldn’t
be happening at a worse time,” Brand said in frustration.  “I need to go out of
town tomorrow, and I’m not sure what time I’ll be back.”

My heart sank. 
“Where are you going?”

“I got a lead on
someone I need to see before he disappears again,” the odd secretive tone of
his voice worried me. “Tomorrow will be my best chance of catching him.”

I didn’t like the
idea of Brand not being around, but decided not to make a big deal out of it. 
It was obvious he didn’t want to leave me either.  I didn’t want to guilt him
into staying when whatever he was doing seemed so important to him.

“Would you stay
with me tonight?”  I asked.

“I’ll do anything
you want, Lilly.  You should know that by now.”

When we reached
the apartment, Tara pretty much took over.  She ordered me to go take a shower
while she called in for pizza.  I was glad to shed my clothes.  They still held
a slightly sulfuric smell to them from the gas.  When I walked back into the
living room, I noticed Will was gone.  Brand was standing by the kitchen
counter looking at the roses Will had sent me as an apology for scaring me the
night of the plane crash.

“Nice flowers,” he
commented dryly.

I didn’t feel like
I needed to say who they were from.  I was pretty sure he had figured that part
out on his own.

“Where’s Will?” I
asked.

“He went home. 
He’ll be watching you all day tomorrow until I get back from my trip.”

I had wanted to
thank Will for saving my life.  Though, that wasn’t exactly something new.  It
seemed like he had been trying to keep me alive since I was eight.

Tara, Brand and I
ate the pizza she ordered and watched a little TV.  My best friend was
uncharacteristically quiet that evening.

I ended up falling
asleep on the futon with Brand while we were watching a movie.  The next thing
I knew he was carrying me to bed.  After he laid me down and put a blanket over
me, he turned to leave.

“No,” I said in
sudden, irrational panic.  “Please, don’t go.  Stay with me?”

Brand pushed the
door open as far as it would go.  I could only assume it was for Tara’s benefit so she wouldn’t think anything was going on that shouldn’t be in my
bedroom.  He took his shoes off and climbed into bed with me, cradling me close
to his warmth.  He started to hum the tune I heard playing in Abby’s house the
night my car broke down.  It didn’t take me long to fall into a dreamless
sleep.

When I woke up the
next morning, Brand was gone.  I could hear Tara in the kitchen banging a pan
on the stove then cracking eggs against the side of a bowl.  With the reminder
of breakfast, my stomach gave an involuntary growl.

I walked into the
living room and sat down on one of the stools at the kitchen counter.

“When did Brand
leave?” I asked, watching Tara whip the eggs in the bowl frantically with a
whisk.

“Not too long
ago.  Maybe half n’ hour.”

Tara didn’t look
up at me when she said this.  All of her attention was diverted to the eggs in
the bowl, which had been whisked so much by now foam was appearing.  I knew
something was up.

“What’s wrong?” I
asked her.

“What’s
wrong
?”
she repeated whipping the eggs even faster.  “Well let’s see.  I’ve almost lost
my best friend twice this week and we have no idea who wants you dead so bad. 
That’s what’s
wrong
.”  She slammed the bowl of eggs on the kitchen
counter in front of her.  It only took a second for the tears to appear.