Authors: Ginna Moran
Tags: #fantasy, #paranormal, #paranormal fantasy, #young adult, #young adult fantasy, #young adult paranormal, #young adult thriller, #urban fantasy
Hunter's Curse (7 page)
I reach the top of the hill and peer into a forest of tall redwood trees. The trees are taller than the hill I’m standing on and yet I didn’t see them from the valley.
Stop getting distracted. Find the dreamer and leave.
I follow the voices deep into the forest. My boots crunch on dried leaves, turning them to mush. I smack my hands against the reddish-brown tree trunks as I pass. They dry and crack, and dead leaves rain down as if I were standing amid a raging storm.
I pause, leaning against a dying tree trunk wider than a car, and stare through the thick greenery at a couple sitting on a red blanket. Between them lies a wooden picnic basket with a baguette protruding from it. The boy drops a green glass bottle and it clatters to the ground, shattering into a million sparkling green pieces. His mouth gapes open, but he doesn’t scream. Instead, he reaches over and picks up the neck of the broken bottle and points it at me.
I can’t help smiling at his bravery.
He jumps to his feet and steps in front of Alyssa who doesn’t move. She stares at me without emotion. In this dream world, I’m not Nadia Petrov. I’m Alyssa’s worst nightmare. I stop ten feet away and cock my head to the side.
Alyssa’s dream boy is perfect. His dark brown hair is cut short on the sides and is styled neatly with hair gel. His almond shaped, coffee brown eyes narrow as he glares at me and his jaw twitches as he twists his mouth into a scowl. He’s tall, over six feet, and tan from hours outside.
The veins in his muscular arms swell as he squeezes the broken bottle and he rolls his shoulders, preparing for a fight he can’t win. Alyssa stares between us and reaches out to touch the boy’s leg. He turns his head to glance over his shoulder, then turns back to me.
I don’t move.
Alyssa clears her throat. “You should leave, Lucas.” She stands and grabs his shoulder.
He tenses. “I’m not leaving you. Can’t you see you’re in danger?”
She smiles softly. “You’re mistaken, babe. It’s not me he’s after.”
Alyssa is afraid of someone—a man. Without mirrors to see myself in the dream world, I don’t know who I appear to be, but since they didn’t run away screaming, I’m guessing I’m not a hideous monster. Alyssa isn’t afraid of monsters—she’s terrified of a man.
I wonder who...
Before he can question her, I glide over the dried leaves and cup his face in my hands. He explodes into a cloud of black dust and I suck in breath after breath of his essence.
My hunger dissipates and I’m left facing Alyssa. She doesn’t run, but just stands there with tears gleaming in her eyes. Her red hair blows in a breeze and she stares at the ground where remnants of her dream boy lie mixed with rotting leaves.
She covers her mouth with her hand. “You killed him.”
My mouth drops open. Things are clearer now that I’m not starving, and a horrible pit settles in my stomach. I can’t believe I’m standing here destroying Alyssa’s dream. I need to leave, and the only way out is to finish off the dreamer and consume the nightmare.
I cup her face.
Tears spill from her vibrant green eyes and her mouth falls open in a silent scream. Within seconds, she drops to her knees and falls over, pressing her face to the muddy ground. Shining light radiates from her and I inhale the rest of her nightmare as the dream world around me crumbles.
My stomach heaves and my eyes snap open. I’m back in Alyssa’s room and she tosses and turns under her comforter. Before she wakes up, I’m already gone and opening the door to my room.
I feel alive, full, and normal again. I stare at my hands. The color has returned and my skin is flushed. I sit on the edge of my bed and resist looking in the mirror on my vanity table because I don’t know how long I’ll look like myself. I don’t know when I’ll create another nightmare.
Soon.
I never want to starve myself again.
HUNTER
“You’re a terrible host,”
I say.
“The least you can do is take me somewhere fun or hold something more interesting than your diary in front of your face.”
“Shut up,” Jacqueline thinks. She wouldn’t dare speak out loud. Not to me. It would make her look as crazy as she really is, and she wouldn’t stand for it.
“Oh, wouldn’t you just love it if I shut up and went away? Well, Jackie, guess what? You’re stuck with me until you release me back into my body.”
“Don’t call me Jackie. And, Hunter, you know what the deal was. I took you as collateral to make sure Dr. Sullivan holds up her end of the bargain. I want my freedom as much as you do. You’re lucky I let them keep your body.”
My mom agreed to spare this monster her life if she would conspire against her own kind and obtain information about a legendary council made up of supernatural creatures the Human Preservation Agency’s board members want to destroy. To prove to Jacqueline that she wouldn’t harm her, my mother let her take my soul as collateral so that Jacqueline would trust her. Funny though. I’d never trust a woman who traded her own son for some stupid information that may not even be helpful to her.
“Why did you, anyway?”
I ask. I’m as good as dead without a body. Jacqueline could’ve just taken me whole as her prisoner. Instead, we’re forced to share space in her head.
Jacqueline stares at her pink fingernails. “It’s complicated. I expected you to be different, more like your mother. I didn’t expect you to be so...pure.”
If I had a body, I’d frown.
“I’m insulted. What makes you think I’m pure?”
“Enough with the questions.”
I sigh.
“I wouldn’t have so many if you’d tell me what you’re going to do with me.”
Jacqueline throws her journal at the wall and it clatters to the floor. “Hunter Sullivan! If you don’t shut up right now, I will make you.” Jacqueline’s melodious voice echoes through the small room.
She stands up and walks across the dirty carpet to a dusty mirror on the wall. She wipes it with the sleeve of her shirt and stares at herself. Her light purple eyes glow against the golden brown of her skin and the color of her irises shift for a split second and it’s like I can see myself in her eyes. They’re not the windows to her soul, but mine.
“Please, don’t send me away,”
I say.
I regret aggravating her. When she doesn’t want me around, she shoves me into a dark void in her mind. It’s awful not knowing which way is up and being blind and deaf. I feel like I’m dying every time she does it and then it’s like I don’t exist at all.
Someone knocks on the door and she turns toward it. “I’m sorry, Hunter. You know the rules.”
“Please, I’ll be quiet.”
“The answer is no.”
“Jackie, don’t—”
She closes her eyes and I’m blind to the world again. I’m alone, in pitch blackness, and I want to die.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
As always, thanks to my writing and critique partners Jamie Hall and Jan Moran. This story would’ve never reached my readers’ hands without you.
I’d also like to thank my family for their love, encouragement, and positivity.
Lastly, many thanks to the readers who love my stories as much as I enjoy writing them.
ABOUT GINNA MORAN
Ginna Moran is a writer living in San Diego, California. She started writing poetry as a teenager in a spiral notebook that she still has tucked away on her desk today. Her love of writing grew after she graduated high school and she completed her first unpublished manuscript at age eighteen.
When she realized her love of writing was her life’s passion, she studied literature at Mira Costa College in Northern San Diego. Besides writing novels, she was senior editor, content manager, and image coordinator for Crescent House Publishing Inc. for four years.
Ginna is now the Co-Founder of Silver Starlight Designs, where she took her passion of reading, writing, and design and co-created a company that provides design services for authors.
Aside from Ginna’s professional life, she enjoys binge watching television shows, playing pretend with her daughter, and cuddling with her dogs. Some of her favorite things include chocolate, anything that glitters, cheesy jokes, and organizing her bookshelf.
Ginna Moran loves to hear from readers so visit her online at www.GinnaMoran.com. You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. If you loved
Hunter’s Curse
, leave a positive review online for fellow readers.
Ginna Moran is currently hard at work on her next novel.
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