Page 8 of A Hunter Cursed
Jeremiah’s lips compressed into a tight hyphen before he said, “I’m sorry for your loss.”
Clearing her throat, Keegan nodded. “Traumatic as that was, they were just the first. When I was fifteen,” she told him, her eyes growing distant, “I’d had such a crush on this boy at school. His name was AJ and he was smart, athletic, cute.” Her lips lifted in a small, sad smile. “I was over the moon happy when he actually asked me out.” Her eyes met Jeremiah’s and then skated quickly away as she grimaced. “A week later he fell down the stairs at his house and broke his neck.”
“Ah, hell.”
Keegan looked up to see Jeremiah sit back slightly in his seat, his mouth opening in preparation to say something more, probably to tell her what others who knew about her curse had told her several times: that accidents happen, that what happened to them wasn’t her fault, so she rushed ahead, the words tumbling out of her, unable to stop them now that she’d gotten started. She had to make him see, had to make him understand.
“Another guy was killed in a car accident on his way to pick me up for a date, a hit and run. Then, the first man I had sex with had a massive seizure in my bed and died before the ambulance arrived. A stroke they claimed, though he’d just turned twenty.”
Without looking at him, she knew Jeremiah was about to say something in response so she held a hand up to forestall him. “The common denominator in each of their deaths was me.”
Keegan absently felt a popping sensation in her hand followed by wet stickiness. She’d unknowingly squeezed the orange so hard, the fruit had burst through its skin.
Grimacing, she threw the pulpy remains back on her plate and wiped her hands off with a napkin. She could have added that her host parents, people she had also loved, had been violently murdered by vampires, but she figured he probably got the point. Angrily, she muttered, “Everyone I get close to dies.”
“I like a challenge.”
Keegan couldn’t help but gawk open-mouthed at Jeremiah in stunned disbelief. Had he not heard what she’d just told him? Didn’t he understand?
Seeing her look of incredulity, he leaned in closer to say, “This has weighed on you, I can see that, and I respect that. I don’t doubt that you think you’re trying to protect me, but life comes with risk. No one knows when death will come knocking. I sure as hell am not going to live my life wrapped in bubble wrap, hiding in a corner. When it's my time, I’m going out knowing that I lived my life to the fullest.” With a firm nod, he took her hand. “And right now, my fullest life happens to include taking you out for a proper lunch.”
Keegan just shook her head, mouth still opened in shock. “You’re crazy, right?”
One strong shoulder lifted in a shrug. “I’m a wolf. Crazy is in our DNA.”
“But the curse,” she sputtered only to be cut off when Jeremiah raised a hand, palm out.
“First, I don’t believe in curses –”
Realizing her hand was still clasped in his, she snatched it back. “Well, you should,” Keegan grumbled.
Jeremiah, however, talked right over her words, adding, “So I’m not going to let the possibility of one affect my decisions one way or the other. And second, I’ve been warned, so anything that happens after this point, I take full responsibility for.”
Her scoffing sound was loud in the cavernous space of the dining hall. “That’s not exactly going to ease my guilt when you end up dead.”
“Would my signing a waiver help?” he asked with a lopsided grin. “I can do that.”
Keegan groaned, covered her face with her hands, and shook her head, but she couldn’t hold back the tiny smile of amusement that was tugging at the corner of her lips. “You really are crazy, aren’t you?”
“Is that a yes?”
Dropping her hands, she looked at Jeremiah, her lips tightly pinched. “I really shouldn’t.”
“Ah, but you really should. The place I want to take you to has great food and the company will be even better,” he said with an exaggerated wink. “You don’t want to miss out.”
Licking her lips in indecision, Keegan looked around the room, hoping the walls would somehow give her inspiration. She really shouldn’t do this. She knew that, and yet, she wanted to so badly she nearly ached with the need to say yes.
“Take a chance,” he coaxed. “Live a little.”
When she still hesitated, Jeremiah added, “How about this. You have friends, right? Friends, that are alive and well?”
“Well… yes.”
“So we’ll be friends.”
Her eyes narrowed as she looked at him skeptically. “Friends.”
“And if it turns into friends with benefits,” he suggested with a seemingly innocent look and a nonchalant shrug, “all that much better.”
