Laine Jordan - Cursed Love

CURSED LOVE

By Lanie Jordan

Copyright 2011 Lanie Jordan

Cover Art Copyright 2011 Lanie Jordan

Smashwords Edition

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters,places, and incidents are either the product of the author'simagination or are used fictitiously. Any similarity between actualpersons living and dead is purely coincidental. Any use oflocales, establishments, or events are used fictitiously.

I dedicate this story to anyone whos evertaken a risk for love,

and to those still waiting for their chanceto.

To my Sashatasha (aka Sasha Devlin, mynon-twin twin),

Ill DM with you a time/date for our SpaceTime Continuum breakage.

Or our Time Space Continuum breakage. Ah,what the heck; well break both!

(Also, I still dont see whats wrong with anosy kiss. It was just curious.)

And, of course, to my special ladies inMoChat (yall know who you are).

May your Valentines Day be full of joy, hopeand love!

Chapter One

Valentines Day sucked.

Sure, I could be out with friends, but thenId have gotten The Look from the parental figures. The look thatclearly says Im disappointed in you, Amelia Jenkins and isgenerally worse than the words themselves. Its the look I try toavoid whenever possible.

So instead of being anywhere that wasremotely fun, I was peeping-toming it by staring throughthe window of the bowling alleyone of the teen hot spots in town.One of the places where people gathered and love wassupposed to be in the air.

Why? Because apparently I had to hunt down ademonan Evol, or anti-Cupidthat was hell bent on stealing thelove from some unsuspecting guy.

Amelia, honey, my mom had began as she andmy father sat me down to talk an hour ago. She sat next to him onthe couch. They exchanged one of those telling glances, and shereached out, took hold of his hand. Weve got something to tellyou, and I dont think youre going to like it.

Any conversation that started with me needingto be in a sitting position or with the words weve got somethingto tell you was sure to be one I wasnt going to like. I gaped atthem and leaned forward in my seat before jumping up. Oh, God. Areyou getting a divorce? Are we becoming a statistic? I dont want tobe a statistic.

My father let out a startled laugh, erasingthe seriousness from his face for at least two full seconds. No,no. He quickly waved his hands. Nothing like that.

I let out a deep breath and sat back down,eyeing them warily. I wasnt ready to relax just yet. The nothinglike that left a lot of ground uncovered. For instance, they couldtell me I had been adopted or something. Then what is it? Iasked. I shouldnt have. As soon as the words left my mouth, I knewitd been a mistake. It was one of those questions you had nochoice but ask, and then found yourself regretting because youreally, really didnt want the answer once you had it.

And thats when theyd told me the story.Apparently the Carter womenthe ones on moms side of thefamilywere cursed. On their sixteenth Valentines Day, they werecharged with saving a mans love. It seems one of my ancestorsbroke a guys heart back in the sixteenth century, and he decided tosave the world from the Carter womens love and their nefariousways.

Today, the gauntlet was passed to me and itwas my duty to stop the Evol from draining the love from men. AnEvol. The name was kind of funny if you asked me. One letter awayfrom being evil, and love spelled backwards. Coincidence? Ithink not.

It was a stupid curse. Save love or neverfind it yourself. What the hell kind of deal was that, anyway? Andmom, who had supposedly conquered it already, wouldnt tell me howI was supposed to. When I pointed out that little fact, she justshook her head and said, Some things you have to figure out foryourself, Am.

What the heck kind of parenting is that? Iwas up against a demon! Or would be, if I believed in itwhich Ididnt.

Well, whatever. As soon as I got back atmidnight (which was my deadline for saving lovea little on theCinderella side, wasnt it?), I was going to pretend this day hadnever happened.

Tomorrow, they would probably come out andsay something like, It was all a dream. What you were experiencingwas a figment of your imagination, and then tell me I was reallylocked up in the mental ward of the hospital. As much as that ideabothered me, it was sure as hell better than believing inlove-stealing-demons and curses.

Or maybe it was some twisted parenting methodId never heard of. Instead of reverse psychology, it waslikereverse demonology. Or would be like that, if it made anysense. I sighed and leaned my head against the window. I wasgetting antsy. My own stupid jokes didnt even make any sense tome. That couldnt be a good sign.

I was just about to turn away and move on tothe next target area on my non-list list when I spotted a group ofguys. Two had their backs to me so I didnt see their faces, butthat didnt really matter. The boys werent what had caught myattention. No. It was the thing that was floating ten feet behindthem.

My heart slammed against my chest, and Iwondered if it could get whiplash.

I had found the Evol/anti-Cupid thing.

You know whats worse than admitting yourewrong? Admitting your parents were right. Demons were real andeveryone else in the building was oblivious to it.

It didnt look at all like Id expectednotthat I had any real expectations other than something disgustingand slimy. Perhaps a littlebigger. Okay, I expected something alot bigger. Werent demons supposed to be larger than life?

I stood where I was, planted to the spot likeId become part of the sidewalk. If demons were real, then the restof what my parents told me was probably true. Damnit! Now I had toactually figure out a way to stop it.

Okay. All I needed to do, at least until Ifigured that out, was get the Evol away from the group, right?Right. I was debating just how to do that when the two boys thatdhad their backs to me turned around and I finally saw theirfaces.

My jaw dropped with an audible pop andprobably would have hit the ground had it not been attached.Closing my eyes, I let my head fall against the glass once more andbanged it twice, silently wondering how many puppies and kittens Imust have murdered in a past life to deserve such cruel and unusualpunishment.

The Evol was moving in on its intendedvictim, and for a second, I wasnt all that sure I wanted to doanything to stop it. Misery loved company, didnt it?

That wasnt the seriously distressing part,though. No. Not only did I know its intended victim, but Iknew him. As in personally. As in his name was Aaron and hewas a creep.

And he just happened to be myex-boyfriend.

Chapter Two

Didnt it just figure that the love I had tosave was that of my cheating ex-boyfriend who really didnt deserveit? Paying for someone elses mistakes was one thingbut this wasjust downright unfair. I had to risk my love forhim?

My blood boiled.

He cheated on me, broke myheart and this was my thanks. Great. Perfect. Just another way thisValentines Day would blow chunks. Another way Fate could kick me inthe teeth. What did he do to deserve my help? Save some of thosepuppies and kittens I mustve tried killing off?

The longer I looked at him, the more my hearttore to pieces. Seeing him with that other girlInez, one of mysupposed friendshad felt like someone sending my heart through adulled paper shredder. I was still slowly trying to put the piecesback together, but the final product would never look the same.