A Curse Awakened: A Weird Girls Novella (2 page)

No kidding. As nurses we should’ve been in high demand, but children weren’t the only ones who sensed we were different. If it hadn’t been for our foster mother begging the director of the nursing department to let me into the program at the tender age of sixteen—and then practically blackmailing her former manager to hire me after I graduated two years later—I wouldn’t have landed a decent job. Taran, Shayna, and Emme had an easier time because of their beauty and ability to portray gentler, more trusting sides. No matter how soft I tried to make my husky voice, or how professional I came across, humans could sense my inner monster, waiting for the chance to claw and nibble. Thankfully, our traveling-nurse jobs had only required phone interviews.

We crossed onto the small path that led into the old soccer field as swirls of orange and red painted the sky. Dusk at the end of September brought an almost immediate chill. My tigress kept me warm enough, but my sisters needed to button their sweaters.

My old canvas sneakers crunched the dry grass of the overgrown lot. This was once a well-kept soccer field until the county could no longer afford to maintain it. A sign near the edge proclaimed the land sold. In another month, construction on a new townhouse complex would begin. Just what Jersey needed, more homes erupting over a tiny plot of land.

On the opposite side, a white Ford F-150 rolled to a stop over the cracked asphalt.

Danny cut the lights and motor. The encroaching darkness shadowed his face inside the truck’s cab, but I still caught his lanky shoulders slumping with relief when saw me. Poor guy probably couldn’t put on muscle if he tried. I smiled. I couldn’t help it. Scrawny, awkward, or not, it was great to see the guy who’d been more than a boyfriend. He’d been an actual friend.

My grin widened. That’s probably why I didn’t nut-punch him when he dumped me.

We walked slowly toward him, until Danny threw open the driver’s door and stumbled to the ground.

Shit.

From one blink to the next, I was kneeling beside him and pulling him into a sitting position. Blood dripped from a makeshift bandage wrapped around his knee.

“I’m okay,” he choked out.

“No, you’re not, Danny.” My small fingers reached to gently touch the skin beneath the black frames of his thick glasses. I bit back a swear. Swollen purple skin reduced Danny’s right eye to a mere slit and the scent of dried blood seeped from his nostrils. “Vampires?”

“Yeah. They weren’t nice.”

My sisters sprinted toward us. Emme and Shayna screamed over Taran’s barrage of cursing, this time in Spanish. Taran pointed as more blood oozed from his leg. “Son of a bitch. Were you knifed?”

“No. They had claws.” He looked at me. “Sort of like Celia’s, only straighter. They could elongate them like their fangs.”

Emme gasped. “Fangs?”

Shayna pried her eyes from Danny’s injuries long enough to answer Emme. “Well, they are vampires, Em.”

“Their fangs seem to be pointier,” Danny added, putting pressure on his wound. “No offense, Celia.”

“None taken.” I motioned Emme closer when blood seeped between Danny’s fingers. “Try to seal the wound.”

She nodded and reached to hold his hand. “I won’t be able to mend it completely, but I can try to stop the bleeding, okay?”

He nodded. With her small hand carefully covering his, her soft yellow light spread from her fingertips until it enclosed them both. Danny scrunched his face in agony, sweat dripping
down his forehead.

“Does it hurt?” Emme asked.

“It burns … a little.”

No, it burned a lot. Emme had tried to heal me once.
Once.
I’d cut my finger chopping lettuce and I could swear she was pouring acid on my hand. If not for my obvious need for stitches, I’d have taken my chances. She’d gained her power to heal and move objects when she reached puberty—the same time Taran and Shayna had acquired their powers. Cuts and bruises faded easily from Emme’s skin pretty much from the moment she sustained them. All it took was a little concentration. It didn’t hurt her to tend to her own injuries. But us? Let’s just say she hadn’t quite mastered her
touch.

She kept her eyes closed as Danny squirmed beneath her. “Just a little more. I’m right at the bone.”

Danny jumped so hard I practically caught him in my arms. Something snapped. “Oh, shit,” Taran gasped. “Did she break his bone?”

Emme whipped back her hand, her skin blanching with fear. “Did I?”

I pulled the dressing off his leg. “No. The bandage ripped when he jerked.” I used the clean side to wipe his thigh. Emme had sealed the wound. The skin appeared mangled but the bleeding had stopped. With time, hopefully the skin would smooth out. Hopefully.

I took in his state. Emme’s efforts had also diminished the swelling to his eye. His injuries were barely noticeable now, but it didn’t erase the fact that those vamps had pounded my poor defenseless friend. “Where’s your dad?”

Danny bowed his head. “They took him—the vampires. He’d been acting funny on the phone over the last few months, but he’d grown worse. When he didn’t return my calls last week, I thought maybe he was sick and not telling me, so I flew out from California.” He removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes as if too tired to continue. “That was two nights ago. I found him pale, distraught, and acting bizarre. He kept saying the Mafia was after him and we needed to run.”

“Son of a bitch.” Taran stopped her agitated pacing. “
The
Mafia?”

Danny shook his head. “No. He mistook them for Mafia, but I think at best they’re vamps with Mafia ties. There’s this female among them that seems fixated on my father. I think she’s been drinking from him. It’s odd. She’s odd. The whole thing is … 
odd.
”

Shayna grimaced. “You mean aside from her drinking blood?”

Danny tried to stand. “Yeah. I don’t know if vampires can be mentally ill. From what I’ve researched so far, they’re immune to diseases. But nothing I’ve read mentions anything about being immune to insanity.”

I steadied him with my hand. “Why have you been reading up on vamps? I mean, I know since you’ve learned about us, you’ve been curious, but … I’m not a vampire.”

He sighed, watching me with his dark sad eyes. “Believe it or not, I thought I could help you. You and your sisters have something special.”

“Ah, no, we don’t.” Taran glared his way. “At best we’re atom bombs ready to detonate.” As if to make a point, a puff of blue and white smoke from her fire popped and sizzled above her head.

Danny returned the glasses to his face. “I don’t agree. There’re not a lot of books available here in the U.S. about the supernatural—the real kind, I mean—
weres,
witches, vamps, those types of beings. But I’ve purchased a few ancient volumes from old libraries in Europe, where most legends stem from actual truths. I haven’t been able to find much about what you are or what you could be. In fact, I’m positive you’re different from any race of humans or preternaturals on earth.”

“Yay for us,” Taran muttered.

Danny offered a sympathetic smile. “One thing I have learned a great deal about are curses and magic in general.” His gaze skipped to each one of us. “I think you’re all in a bind.”

“No shit,” Taran snapped. “I’m surprised we haven’t killed each other.”

Danny held out a hand. “No, that’s not what I mean. I think you’ve been bound—in the magical sense. Sort of like a noose or tie that holds your powers back, and therefore your control.” He focused on me. “Celia, I think you can manage your powers best because your tigress gives you added strength. Picture a pit bull on a leash. You’re going to pull harder against it than another, smaller breed, making it harder to hold you back.”

Shayna inched forward. “Um, Danny, maybe you should watch the dog references.
I
understand what you’re trying to say, but Taran’s a little touchier.” She motioned to Taran with a jerk of her head. “Know what I mean, little guy?”

Taran narrowed her eyes, proving Shayna’s point.

Danny’s mouth popped open. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to insult you, ladies.”

I barely heard his apologies, my ears homing in on the rumble of motors. Two cars entered the dead-end street leading to the field and to us. The roar of their engines didn’t sound familiar or appropriate for the area. We were in blue-collar territory and these vehicles were definitely not your standard beaters. And instead of slowing down when they entered the narrow street, they sped faster, like cheetahs who’d found a herd of wounded gazelles.

My tigress growled a warning. Taran’s blue eyes blanched to white, her magic sensing another’s approach.

Danny jerked around upon seeing the first car barrel up the small incline. “It’s the vampires.
Run!
”

Danny raced across the field. Emme followed. The rest of us remained, confusion and surprise cementing us in place. I’d never seen a vamp. Never smelled one, never heard one. And when Danny told me a few years back that they were real, I didn’t find it too hard to believe. After all, if my sisters and I could exist, why couldn’t other supernaturals exist, too?

That said, I was dumbstruck by their appearance. Taran, Shayna, and I gawked as
GQ
model types in black suits emerged from two souped-up red Porsches. There were seven, three from one car, four from the other. They removed their sunglasses. A blond who resembled an edgy James Dean grinned my way as the aroma of sex and chocolate overtook my senses. “Well, what do we have here?”

Shayna leaned closer to me. “Um. Why aren’t they sparkling? Shouldn’t they, like,
sparkle
?”

I don’t think the so-called creatures of the night appreciated the reference. They hissed and stalked toward us. “Grab some wood,” I muttered.

“Already got some,” James Dean said, his eyes never leaving mine.

Okay. Direct eye contact from a male. That was a first. If I weren’t already scared out of my mind, I might have also been skeeved by his comment. As it was, my beast licked her chops, perceiving his leer more as a challenge. I swore in my head, knowing she’d found him more appetizer than threat.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Shayna crouch and lift three broken sticks from the ground. As the sun set behind us, the last trickle of light traced along the lengthening sticks. Shayna transferred the metal from her gold necklace into the pieces of wood, morphing them into long, sharp needles. She clutched two tightly in one hand while twirling the other between the fingers of her opposite hand.

That gave the vamps their first “oh shit” pause. My protruding claws gave them their second. “What are they?” a dark-skinned vamp asked, his nails and his incisors protruding in response.

James Dean smirked. “Don’t know. Don’t care. But this one is mine.”

I didn’t see him move. All I felt were his hands at my throat. His thumb teased my
jugular as his light eyes drilled into mine. “You won’t scream. You won’t fight,” he commanded, hardening his voice. “You’re just going to feel real good.” He widened his mouth and drove his fangs toward my neck.

My claws punctured through the crotch of his designer pants and twisted as the point of a fang traced against my skin. A sound somewhere between a garbled choke and squeak tore through his throat. Another vamp yanked me by the hair, trying to wrench me off. I took James Dean with us, squeezing tighter.

“Rob,”
James Dean choked, sounding more little girl with a sore throat than vicious bloodsucker.
“No.”

The hold on my hair loosened. “Huh?”

I used Rob’s hesitation to drive my free hand through his belly, digging through his torso while my right wrung Jimmy Dean’s sausage—a crude and outrageous tactic perhaps, but considering the prick tried to bite me, I didn’t care about being polite.

Taran screamed. Something smoked. And heat smacked against my face. I would’ve panicked if another vamp hadn’t howled back in agony. Shayna’s grunt followed another deep-throated hiss just as my claws felt the first beat of the vamp’s heart. I thrust my hand up and was rewarded with a stream of warm ash, blinding me.

“She killed Rob!” someone roared.

James Dean wrenched from my loosening grip, wailing. I jerked up and wiped the ash from my face. Another vamp fell against me with two of Shayna’s needles jutting from his sternum. He writhed against me, trying to pull them from his chest.

I did what any other tigress would’ve done in my place—I wrapped my legs around his waist and tried to yank his head from his shoulders.

And, well, didn’t that piss him off.

He hissed, nailing me hard in the ribs with his elbows. I lost my breath with every impact. Panic and pain made me pull harder while my claws hacked into his neck. The last crunch of his vertebrae rang in my ears before a rain of ash streamed over my chest and shoulders. I heaved, spitting out the bits of the vamp coating my tongue.

James Dean staggered back, clinging to his blood-soaked pants as he wrenched open his car door. He retreated, snarling while his furious face took in the scene down in the field.

Blue and white flames encased Taran’s form as she dashed after a vamp with one of
Shayna’s needles sticking out of his eye. She wasn’t fast, but at that moment, neither was he. Shayna chased behind another vamp, who was already partially decapitated from the sword she’d transformed from a branch. Three vamps were re-dead. Two soon would be. The one who’d seen enough was hauling ass in his red Porsche. That left one more.

Too bad he was the biggest and baddest of all.

The other vamps had been more lean. This vamp was all muscle and had Emme and Danny cornered against an old oak at the far end of the field.

My legs pumped across the waist-high grass as he lifted Danny and Emme by their throats. Unlike “Rob,” this guy wasn’t dumb and he wasn’t slow. He sensed my approach and dropped them, dipping his heavy body low as I leapt.

I collided into the ground several feet away. He kicked me in the gut before I could rise, making me flip. I rolled with the momentum and the stomach-lurching nausea burning its way up my throat.

My tigress eyes replaced my own and a snarl shook my chest.