Cursed Love (2 page)

I let out a ragged sigh, took a step forward,
and then promptly balked. Maybe it would doom us both to life
without love, but I could not do this. When I turned to retreat, I
heard, “Amelia, wait,” and barely stopped myself from fleeing like
a thief in the night. Maybe the thought was a little cliché, but
they were clichés for a reason, weren’t they?
I could be wrong
about whose voice it was,
I tried convincing myself. Too bad I
knew in my gut that I wasn’t.

I rolled my eyes skyward and silently
questioned (again) why I was being tortured.

No answer came.

The next time I looked ahead, Aaron was
standing in front of me. Immediately, I noticed that none of the
curses that I’d silently, well, cursed him with seemed to have
worked. He still had the same blue eyes with the slightest hint of
gray; the dark chestnut hair that was in spikes on the top of his
head; the somehow-still-perfect crooked nose. I hadn’t really
expected my little hexes to work, but couldn’t he have at least
gotten hit with a thinning-hair stick or something? Nope. Instead,
he was still as handsome as ever, in an I-hate-you-you-scum kind of
way. Just another reason to dislike him.

“What?” I said, quickly putting my hands
behind my back. It was either do that or deck him since they were
still formed into tight fists and wouldn’t unclench.

“Can we talk?”

I was about to refuse and tell him we’d said
all we needed to, but I remembered I needed an excuse to get him
away from the Evol.

Coming from a cursed family really
sucked.

I gave Aaron my best I-don’t-give-a-rats-ass
shrug and said, “Sure. Why not?”

The anti-Cupid cut across the room and was
now heading for us again, flapping his little black bat-like wings
furiously. It was close enough now that I got a good look at it.
His hair was coal black and curly. His diaper—yes, he had a
diaper—looked to be black leather. And, as the trend continued,
even his bow and arrows were black.

The only thing that broke the trend were his
eyes—devil red.

I cocked my head to the side. On TV and in
the movies and books, Cupids always shot their arrows at people,
but not this little guy. He had his bow out, with an arrow notched,
but instead of shooting it, he seemed to pull the arrow back
further and further. A reddish, wispy spiral, almost like a thin
layer of clouds, slowly emerged from Aaron’s chest and went towards
the arrow.

The little sucker.

The anti-Cupid looked at me and grinned,
startling me into a small gasp. His bright eyes were fixed on Aaron
like he was supper. Assuming Evol’s ate supper. But that was
something else I didn’t want to think about.

“Let’s go outside,” I decided suddenly. My
motives weren’t entirely selfless. It was true I did need to get
Aaron away from the Evol until I could figure out how to get rid of
the thing entirely, but more, I didn’t want to be here longer than
I had to be. Tonight would have marked our six months anniversary,
and we had planned to celebrate it and Valentines there, at the
bowling alley.

If I got emotional (which happened
sometimes), I didn’t want to be around a bunch of people. Besides,
having witnesses if I hit him would be bad.

If I was being honest with myself, I didn’t
know which motivated me more: the excuse to get him away from the
Evol, or to get myself away from here. Since the end was the same,
I supposed it didn’t matter. Until I figured out how to stop the
love-stealing, leather-diaper-wearing evil little bleeper, putting
a lot of space between them was the only option I had.

Chapter Three

Heading for the door earned me a glare from
the Evol. Either it had very good hearing, or it understood that I
was taking away its prey.

It followed us to the exit, bobbing and
weaving between unsuspecting people. A few times when I looked
back, I noticed it had to fly above heads or low to ground.
Someone’s foot came precariously close to stepping on him and I had
to fight a grin. Wouldn’t that have saved me a lot of time?

We made it to the exit a few seconds later,
and to my dismay, the little bugger almost caught up with us. Aaron
pushed the door and held it open for me, and as I walked outside,
the Evol tried dodging his way past. I flicked him, sending him
flying in a backward spin.

Aaron looked me at me with an eyebrow raised.
“Mosquito,” I lied easily. It wasn’t really that far from the
truth, I didn’t think. The Evol was a little sucker (though it
sucked love and not blood) and it was a pesky flying thing. Maybe
they were cousins or something.

I glanced over my shoulder as we walked and
he was still fluttering around, trying to find a way out. With any
luck, it’d take him a while.

At the end of the block, Aaron stopped
abruptly under a streetlight. Dingy, yellow light washed the
sidewalk beneath us. He turned to face me, his face impassive.
“Why?”

A chill crept down my spine. “Why what?”

“Why did you break up with me?”

We were standing on a corner, under a
streetlamp. Besides making us the butts of so many bad jokes, he
really wanted to have this talk
now
? I spread my arms. “You
want to have this conversation here?”

“Fine.” He turned a slow circle, his gaze
falling on the park across the street. “We’ll go sit over there,
then,” he said and stalked off before I could respond.

Defeated, I frowned and followed. This wasn’t
going at all as planned. Not that I’d had a plan, but if I’d had, I
was sure it wouldn’t have been this. And Aaron definitely wouldn’t
have been the guy whose love I was supposed to save.

He stuffed his hands in his pockets and
entered the park ahead of me, his walk slow and casual, controlled.
Stopping shy of the entrance, I released a deep breath and
continued to watch him, trying to ignore the pangs in my heart.
Tonight wasn’t supposed to be like this. We were supposed to be
together
together. We were supposed to be celebrating and
having a good time, instead of heading for…I didn’t know what. A
fight? A can-we-still-be-friends talk? I didn’t want to be a party
to either of those.

I ran my hands through my hair and let out
another deep sigh as I pushed myself forward. The wind blew, and a
bone-chilling cold sent a shiver down my spine. Unable to stop it,
I shuddered. It wasn’t only from the cold, though that seemed to
suit my mood. Things were all screwy and I didn’t have any idea how
to fix them.

Maybe, just maybe, they weren’t meant to be.
Everyone said things happened for a reason, so maybe tonight was
one of those things. Maybe our breaking up had been one, too.

By the time I caught up with him, he was
already sitting on a swing. I sat down on the free one next to him
and, more out of the habit than want, slowly began rocking back and
forth.

The silence was thick and closing in on me.
Keeping my gaze straight ahead, I said, “What did you want to talk
about?”

“I’ve missed you,” he said, his tone
soft.

The snort left my mouth before I could even
think to stop it. “You what?” My voice was a complete squeak but I
didn’t care. I turned slowly, and stared at him openmouthed. “You
cannot be serious.” He couldn’t be.

His eyes locked on mine and I couldn’t force
myself to look away again. “I am. I miss you.” He sighed. “I’ve
missed
us
.”

“There is no
us
,” I replied coldly.
“Not since you lied and cheated on me.” My lips curved into a
sneer. “Or did those pesky details slip your mind?”

“Damnit!” His hands tightened around the
swing chains like he hoped to strangle the life out of them. “I’ve
never lied to you, and I sure as hell didn’t cheat on you! And for
the life of me, I don’t know why you think it.”

The boom in his voice almost made me jump.
I’d known Aaron for three years and not once in that time had I
ever heard him sound like that. He rarely even raised his voice. “I
don’t think it—I know it. Unless, of course, you have an evil
twin.”

“How? When did I cheat, Amelia?”

I stopped swinging and set my jaw. “We had
plans to go out for the weekend. Then you canceled, claiming you
had to go with your sister somewhere. Which, by the way, was all
fine and good. But then,” I continued, my tone getting increasingly
louder, “when I went to the store, I saw you. Only you weren’t with
your sister.”

He shook his head. “I don’t remember that.”
All anger died away from his face and voice, and he sounded
confused. He looked it, too. I had to give him credit for that. But
then, he’d been playing innocent since it happened and I didn’t
really expect him to quit now.

“I saw you, Aaron, with my own two eyes! You
were with Inez. At the jewelry store. Two weeks ago.” Man, was I
playing verbal Clue?

He scrunched his brows together. “Amelia, the
only place I went that weekend was to the—” He broke off abruptly,
as if some light bulb had just flashed on in his mind. “Oh.”

“Yeah. Oh,” I said, giving him a nasty smile.
“Forget that already, too?” I didn’t know what was worse—him lying
and cheating on me, or him needing the reminder about it. And for a
second, I almost—
almost
—felt bad for Inez, which ticked me
off even more.

His eyes widened so much I thought they’d pop
clear out of his skull. Within seconds, he was smiling and doubled
over from laughing. “Wait.” He sat up, holding his sides.
“
That’s
what this whole thing is about? Because you saw me
and Inez together?”

I frowned. “What the hell is so funny about
cheating on me?” He wasn’t helping his case any that was for sure.
After I’d seen him, I’d barely resisted the urge to walk straight
up to him and punch him. But if he didn’t stop laughing, I was
seriously going to rectify that decision.

When tears started rolling from his eyes, I
stood up and shoved him. The laugh died as he fell backwards from
the swing and landed with a dull thud that sent clouds of dust
flying up. I turned and walked away.
Stupid, no-good, cheating
jerk!

“Amelia, wait!”

I spun around as he ran towards me and as
soon as he was within striking range, I shoved him again.
“You—you—” I couldn’t find an adequate word for what he was.
Shaking my head, I sighed. “Just leave me alone, Aaron. I want to
hit you, but I really don’t want to.” Never mind the fact that made
no sense. I didn’t care.

“Amelia.” He grabbed my arm. “Amelia—let me
explain. I did not cheat on you with Inez, and I didn’t even lie to
you.” When I glared, he cleared his throat and muttered, “Okay,
technically I did lie, but not about anything important.”

“Oh? And what exactly
is
your
definition of ‘important’?” I asked quietly.

He took a quick step backward when my hands
went to fists again. “Just let me explain. Please?”

I crossed my arms over my chest. The first
thing he said that I didn’t like, I was out of there. Love be
damned; his or mine. “You’ve got two minutes, Aaron. Make it
good.”

“Can we sit down? Okay,” he said when I
continued to glare, “sitting is a no.” He dragged his hands through
his hair. “I did not cheat. On that I never lied. Yes, I was at the
jewelry store and yes, Inez was with me, but so was my sister. We
met her there; she was already inside.”

I raised my eyebrow. “Okay…?”

His gaze lowered as he reached into his
pocket and jiggled change. “I went in there to…” He sucked in a
breath and then exhaled it deeply. “I went in there to buy you
something.”

What?

I blinked once. Then twice. “Huh? What?”

“I wanted to get you something for our
anniversary, and for Valentines Day.” He looked up. “I didn’t know
what you would like, so I asked my sister and Inez to go with me. I
wanted to make sure I didn’t buy you something stupid. This,” he
said, pulling a velvet box from his pocket. He shoved it at me
awkwardly, like it might self-destruct.

I opened my mouth to say something but no
sound came out. When I tried again and still no sound emerged, I
gave up and looked down, running a finger over the surface of the
case. I pulled the lid up. And then I burst into hysterics,
laughing and crying at the same time. It was a silver necklace with
a pendent. The pendent was…I couldn’t fathom the words. It was a
small silver heart. Shooting through the heart was a single arrow,
the tip made of a black stone.

Onyx.

My heart leaped and I wasn’t sure my ribs
could contain it long. “I’m sorry,” I sobbed, the word bubbling out
of nowhere. “I don’t know what to say.”

It was beautiful and ironic. And I didn’t
deserve it.

“You should have trusted me.”

The words, spoken so softly, hit me like a
lead fist and went straight through my chest to my heart. He was
absolutely right. I should have trusted him.

It was a sorry excuse, but because he’d never
lied to me before, when I found him in the middle of one I
just…went crazy. I turned into one of those chicks I disliked—the
jealous ones who never trusted their boyfriends and always thought
the worst for absolutely no reason. This would have been
avoided—could have been—if I’d just listened or at least given him
a chance to explain before I went nutso and broke up with him.

“I know,” I sighed. I looked up, met his gaze
and, knowing I had to do it, closed the gift box and handed it back
to him. “I don’t deserve it.”

He gave me a crooked smile that made my heart
tumble. “No, you probably don’t.” Reaching out, he took my hand and
then yanked me forward. “So you’ll just have to spend a lot of time
making it up to me, won’t you?” I stared at him, speechless, which
only made him laugh. He ran his fingers through my hair and gave me
a noisy kiss on the forehead. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”