Page 9 of Cursed Love
He did not have surprise or speed on his side, but he had skill. Ryan fought back as images of the woman flooded his mind. If he hadn’t been there, she would be dead. The feelings which hit him with that morsel of truth caused him to strike back with a combination of hits to the face and torso. The ass who’d caught him off guard staggered back with surprise.
Like a man possessed, he blocked each hit and snuck in a few of his own. Ryan hit him in the face and torso, using all his weight in each strike. With a flick, Ryan raised him off the ground and pinned him to the brick wall.
His eyes glowed, and a growl tore through the night. “Enough!”
Ryan snapped out of it, and his eyes widened at the sight. Panting from the exertion, he stepped back and released his opponent.
The man dropped into a crouch, and his eyes glowed. “Seriously?”
“Shit, man, I’m sorry,” Ryan said, stretching his fingers. He did not have to look at his hands to know they were red and cut up. “You caught me off guard.”
“I usually do,” Peter, his longtime friend, said as he cracked his neck. “You know the rules, dipshit. No magic and no change.”
Ryan grabbed the back of his neck and stared at the darkened sky. “I know! I said I was sorry!”
“What the hell is the matter with you anyhow?” Peter asked.
They walked up the stairs to Ryan’s apartment. “All that activity we’ve been noticing?”
Peter grunted and followed him inside.
Ryan avoided Peter’s eyes as he grabbed them both a bottle of water. “I think I figured out who’s at the root of it all.”
This got Peter’s attention, and he leaned against the counter. “So? You going to tell me who it is, or are we going to paint each other’s nails?”
“It’s the girl from the coffee shop,” Ryan muttered and rubbed his face, exhaustion starting to settle over him. With his eyes shut, he could see her face and the fear that had clawed at her.
“What girl?” Peter asked and scratched his stomach.
Ryan leaned his elbows on the counter and stared at his friend.
“Oh…” Peter whispered before a shit-eating grin filled his face. “The plot thickens, my friend.”
Chapter 5
Brandy poured herself another shot and drank it.
It was the fifth one since she had returned home after running the short distance to her apartment. Somehow, she wasn’t tipsy, let alone drunk. She raised the bottle of tequila to her nose and smelled it.
“It smells like tequila…” she muttered.
The man’s words played on repeat in her mind. She wanted to write him off as some nut, but her gut wouldn’t let her believe it. How did he know about the tingling? How did he know what that thing was? How did plunging a knife into that thing not leave a body or even a scorch mark from the flames?
There was no logical explanation for any of her questions. Each question only spurned more. He had called her a charmling. What the hell was that?
Brandy unlocked her phone and typed the word into the browser. After a few minutes, she was left more frustrated. The only results she could find brought up images to a kid cartoon.
When she woke up that morning, she had only heard of powers and magic spoken about in movies and the Salem Witch Trials. Now, some man was warning her to controlherpowers, so she wouldn’t get fileted by a “tubar.”
Brandy drank from the bottle, skipping the small glass entirely. She drank deeply, placed the bottle next to her, and leaned against the counter. She rubbed her hands over her face before gathering her long hair and sighing loudly.
Good luck with that…His words popped into her mind as she stared at the little bit of liquor left in the bottle.
“What the hell is going on?” she whispered after noting her still-sober state. “What if he wasn’t lying?”
Her heart beat faster at the thought. She released her hair and rubbed her palms down her jeans. The incessant tingling didn’t seem to budge. If anything, it only bothered her less.
Brandy thought back to all the weird objects moving and her fight with Greg. She couldn’t deny it had all started after her birthday. It also happened when she was pissed or scared, two emotions she seemed to be experiencing quite a bit since her birthday dinner.
