Cursed In Love (The Adams' Witch Book 2) (2 page)

The officer nodded and Jennie’s mom led me from the police station. Once outside, her hold on me tightened. “If that happens again, call us right away.”

She looked at me as much as she looked at Jennie and I couldn’t help the smile that formed on my face.

Jennie rolled her eyes. “Yes, Mom. I’m going to take Sarah home, ‘kay?”

Her parents shared a glance, but then her father relaxed. “Don’t be out too late. There’s a surprise for you at home.”

Jennie took my hand and yanked and I followed her to the car.

“Be careful,” Mrs. Shaw yelled after us.

With a glance back, I noticed Mr. Shaw had his arm around his wife’s shoulders. Concern etched their faces and I couldn’t help but wonder what Mom was doing at that moment. Would she see the missed calls from Adams Police and freak? Or would she not even notice?

CHAPTER TWO

I jumped in Jennie’s beat up car and she started the engine. We hadn’t talked about the interviews yet. I was dying to hear what the police asked her and if it matched what they asked me.

Jennie leaned back in the driver’s seat and stared at the clock in the dash. It read 2:00. “I suppose it’s too late to go back to school. By the time we got there, we’d have to pack up and leave again.”

“Agreed.” I kicked my backpack further into the recesses of the legroom in Jennie’s car. “What was the point of all that? I mean, they get us out of school to ask us questions? I’m not complaining about missing class, but why didn’t they wait to talk to us when it ended?”

She shrugged. “Knowing this town, one of them had plans so they fit it in earlier. They’re probably not big supporters of the education system anyhow.”

I rolled my eyes and laughed. “What makes you think that?”

Jennie pulled out of the parking space in front of the station and drove toward my house. Since Mom and I moved into Aunt Rose’s old house for good, she’d taken away my car. One, as punishment for driving hundreds of miles without her knowledge, and two, because she could. Well, that was my theory. She’d said since we now lived in a small town, I didn’t need my own vehicle. Personally, I felt it was a control thing. She didn’t want me to have a vehicle anymore. Which sucked. Because I totally wanted my ride back.

When Jennie pulled up to the house, Mom’s car wasn’t in the driveway. She’d been spending a lot of time out again—self-medicating was my best guess. We’d come to a better understanding as to why she acted how she acted after Dad died, but I still wasn’t one-hundred percent onboard the Cici train. I was relieved she’d loved my dad and maybe that love drove her to do stupid things afterward. But, it didn’t make up for everything that happened between us. Not in my eyes.

Jennie leaned over the steering wheel and peered up. “I still can’t believe you want to live here.”

I rolled my eyes. We’d gone through this a hundred times. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“Because an insane witch bitch lived here.”

“Yeah, but before that, it was my aunt’s place. What better way to gain information about the binding spell than from the library that’s already in the house? If my mom had it her way, we’d have left weeks ago.”

We got out of the car and walked up to the front steps. Jennie sighed as she reached for the handrail. “It’s not like I’m advocating for letting the journal library go. That would be dumb and if that stupid local history group doesn’t stop asking you for them, I’m driving there myself and kicking their asses. We need those journals.”

I unlocked the door and walked into the foyer. Since Mom started decorating, she’d slowly been moving Rose’s country farmhouse look to the background and bringing out more modern amenities. The kitchen now boasted a Dutch oven—whatever the hell that was. Not that Cici knew either. She’d cooked in the thing once.

But the library? Well, I’d banned her from there. That was the one room she couldn’t do anything with. I’d even told her she could re-decorate my bedroom—the same one I’d stayed in when I visited “Aunt Rose” before everything went to shit.

She hadn’t touched my room though. In fact, she didn’t go upstairs at all. She slept on the couch in the front room most nights. I could understand if she didn’t want to take over Aunt Rose’s bedroom, but there were plenty of others to choose from.

We’d hardly spoken about the night Rose died. She’d never believe the truth—that some weird witch bitch used Aunt Rose’s body as a host to fulfill a four-hundred year old curse. What she thought she knew was “Aunt Rose” went ballistic. That I saved her life. And that the townspeople were freaking nuts. I was pretty sure she was the only person in Adams sporting a can of mace.

“Your mom still holding the house thing over your head?”

“Yes. If I have to hear one more time that living here was what I wanted, I’m going to scream.”

“If she only knew.”

“Yeah. If she only knew.”

I followed Jennie into the library and we took our usual places on the couch. The journals we’d been reading for weeks were open on the table in front of us right where we’d left them. We hadn’t learned anything useful from them yet. Nothing to do with the curse. Nothing to do with anyone involved in the curse. I’d torn the place apart for anything resembling a Mother Shipton grimoire hoping it would have an easy step-by-step spell reversal spell somewhere. No such luck.

Jennie said that was odd considering magickal families had grimoires—a book of spells particular to a certain line of witches. Apparently there was more than one way to perform a curse and to reverse it, we had to figure out exactly how it was enacted.

We hadn’t been reading for long when Jennie’s phone rang. She brought it out of her pocket, glanced at the screen, and sighed. “What the hell does he want?”

“Who?” I asked.

“My brother.”

Run me over with a tractor. Was she serious? “You have a brother? When the hell were you going to tell me this?”

She swiped the phone to answer it and looked at me with a sideways glance. “About the time he deigned to call me apparently.”

I squinted at the girl who sat next to me on the couch. How could my friend—my only friend in Adams—not tell me about a sibling? And her parents, too. As many times as I’d seen them, they never mentioned a son. “This is un-freaking-believable.”

“What do you want?” Jennie said into the phone, ignoring me. Seconds later, she laughed, and not in an “Oh, you’re so funny way”. Her lip curled in disgust. “Are you shitting me? You want me to meet you. You live in Salem, dumbass.” Her mouth opened for what was sure to be another witty remark, but then her face blanched. “You’re what?” She lowered the phone and stomped her feet into the carpet.

“Not going well?” I whispered.

I was enjoying this. It almost seemed right her brother was pissing her off considering she decided to not tell me of his existence before this.

She shot me a look and brought the phone back to her ear. “Fine. I have a friend with me.” She nodded at something he said. “Yes, that friend. Meet you in fifteen.”

She swiped the phone to hang up and grimaced. It took her a long time to stand as if she were regretting every movement that brought her closer to him. When she finally stood, she stared back down at me. “You ready?”

“
We’re
going to meet him?”

She nodded.

I clenched my teeth at the complete lack of forthcoming information. “What’s up with you two?”

Jennie shook her head. When I sat back on the couch and crossed my arms, she sighed. “We’ve just…never gotten along. He lives in Salem right now. Going to college at Salem State.”

“And
we’re
meeting him right now? Is that necessary?”

She turned toward me, a serious expression gracing her face. “Hope you don’t mind. I could use the moral support. Trav and I were never close, but it’s been about a year since we’ve spoken at all. There was…it doesn’t matter. A thing happened and we haven’t spoken. Maybe you can be a bit of a barrier for us?”

Joy. It couldn’t get any more awkward.

Ten minutes later, Jennie and I walked into Abigail’s Diner. So not my choice. With the whole brother waltzing into town thing, Jennie must’ve forgotten this place was off-limits. There was a very real possibility of seeing Drake and Marlene considering she still waited tables here.

Jennie stepped into the restaurant first. I followed her trying to pretend I wasn’t searching the diner for Drake. A popular after school hangout, about half the kids at school were sitting down at the booths and tables and most eyed us like we had the plague. I never got that much attention. The school rumor mill must’ve been churning already.

Jennie marched all the way to the back, ignoring all the stares. I’d come to admire her for that. The complete lack of caring. Or maybe it was just all the self-assurance. Whatever it was, I didn’t have it. I followed behind like a lost puppy. I didn’t know she had a brother let alone what he looked like so I was completely useless in finding him. And that was besides the fact I was too busy searching for Drake anyway.

Jennie slid into the last booth and I sat next to her without looking. Heads had swiveled to follow us where we now sat. It reminded me of when the whole town had been under Mother Shipton’s spell. I hated being the center of attention in Adams. No good ever came of it.

“Well, that was rude.”

I glanced up and reeled back slightly before recovering myself. A pair of the most piercing green eyes stared back at me. Dark black hair framed an angular face filled with shadows. While I watched, thin lips turned up in the corners in a casual yet mocking smile.

The boy was scary beautiful. Or beautifully scary. I wasn’t sure which.

“Shut up,” Jennie said, bringing me out of my study of him. “She’s had a rough couple weeks.”

He sat back and glanced at his sister before returning to me. “I’m just sayin’. It’s not every day you get completely snubbed.”

“You mean it’s not every day
you
get completely snubbed. Shit like that happens all the time to regular people.”

Travis smirked. “Really, little sister? We’re starting the swearing already?”

She shrugged and mimicked his small smile. The attitude alone would link these two together as family. “Just tell me why you’re here. Why’d you want to meet up with me?”

Travis ignored her. Green eyes the color of rough Caribbean seas looked me over. “I’m Travis, Jennie’s brother. I’m sure she’s told you all about me.”

I looked between the two of them. This was going to be awkward. “Actually, I only found out you existed a quarter of an hour ago.”

“Ouch.” He grimaced. “That hurts.”

I doubted it hurt at all. Travis and Jennie must have gotten their self-satisfaction from a family member who wasn’t their parents. Mr. and Mrs. Shaw were down-to-earth, nothing like the two I sat at the booth with.

“Since you’re in the dark and I love talking about me, I’ll tell you everything.”

“Spare us,” Jennie interrupted. “Can you be serious for once? Sarah and I have other things to do.”

Travis’s face turned hard. “So I’ve heard. I’m sorry about your aunt’s death, Sarah.”

Throat thick with emotion, I swallowed hard and nodded. Jennie rolled her eyes. “You haven’t heard everything then. Her aunt—”

“Yes, her aunt was actually an evil witch bitch. Got it. I’m in the know, too, sister. But, that doesn’t mean her aunt was always that way.”

I cleared my throat. Half to stop them from arguing and half to give me a chance to think of something to say. In the end, I went with something simple. “Thank you.”

And just like that…his demeanor morphed back to sarcastic sexy. “Listen, I’m not here to waste anyone’s time either. Mom and Dad called me in to help.”

I stared at Jennie. “Your parents know…everything?”

Jennie shrugged and Travis looked between the two of us. Toward Jennie, he looked disappointed and for a split second, I thought he looked apologetic toward me.

The waitress—thankfully someone other than Marlene—brought Travis an orange juice. We were silent as he ripped the wrapper on the straw, pulled the rest off, and then took a long drink. When he set the glass down, he eyed Jennie incredulously. “You didn’t think Mom and Dad were going to tell me when witches started going missing?”

Jennie scoffed. “It’s one witch. One witch has gone missing, and that’s old news. If you cared, you would’ve been here weeks ago.”

The lines on Travis’s face tensed. A look passed between them. After a few seconds, Travis spoke, but he’d lost all the cockiness and witty banter. “Jennie, the new girl missing, the one from Lovelace, she’s also a Natural.”

“A Natural?”

Travis eyed me, but spoke to his sister. “Why is she acting like she doesn’t know what I’m talking about? Does she not know what I’m talking about?”

Jennie leaned forward, her hands on the table. “Why would she? She’s equal to a Harry Potter muggle for Christ’s sake.
I
have learned to follow the rules.”

Travis ignored the jab and clucked his tongue. “I really wish you’d stop with the cursing, little sister.”

My body tensed in exasperation. Talking to the two of them was like trying to talk with my mother. “And I wish I had a freaking clue what you guys are talking about. Anyone care to make me a member of the club?”

I stared Jennie down. Her body loosened, losing all the tightness her brother had put there. “I’m sorry, Sarah. I should’ve told you.”

“Yep,” Travis said, popping the p. “You should’ve told her.”

“Maybe,” Jennie continued. “But there are certain rules and all that. I—”

“Well, I’ve always been a rule breaker.”

Jennie’s hands clenched into fists on the table. “Jesus. Are you going to let me tell her, or what?”

He waved his hand toward me in an apparent “go ahead” gesture. She sighed and closed her eyes for a moment. “Listen, Sarah. You know about Wiccans and their powers, but what you don’t know is that there’s another type of witch. They’re called—”