The Wolf's Curse (Brunswick Academy for Gifted Girls Book 5) Read online

  “It wasn’t me,” he said. “It was my dad. Who I’ve never even met. He was a real asshole. Bad guy. He um… He murdered this witch’s niece? And then he vanished. He did all kinds of terrible things. I don’t know why my mom was with him but she took off when I was a kid anyway, so she was no winner either. Anyway. It’s not so uncommon. If you can’t take revenge on someone who did something to you, you take it out on their kid instead.” He shrugged as if it were an everyday occurrence.

  “Are you sure you’re really cursed-”

  “Yes,” Jordan snapped, glaring down at her. But just as quickly he looked away and stared at his hands again. “Trust me. When I meet a girl, if I’m into her, she might flirt and seem into me at first but there’s always a switch. Doesn’t usually take more than an hour. Suddenly they hate my guts or it’s like I’m invisible-”

  “Maybe you’re just an asshole!” Lilith was trying to joke. She didn’t think that was true. Jordan could be a little rude but she suspected this entire curse story was absolutely true and to live with such a thing must really make a person shove people away when all Jordan probably wanted was to get closer. He screwed up his face and his eyes were shining. He couldn’t tell she was joking and her stomach plummeted. “I’m sorry.” She reached out and squeezed his arm and he looked down at her hand on his skin, as if baffled. “I’m really sorry, I was just joking. That sucks. I can’t imagine…”

  Jordan opened and closed his mouth, refusing to look at her.

  “If it helps,” Lilith said, “I think you’re really cute?”

  Jordan’s head snapped up and he stared at her blankly. She thought he would say something sarcastic or get flustered. She bit her lip, anticipating it. She found herself enjoying the way they got along.

  But instead he jumped to his feet and said, “I have to go. Enjoy the coffee.”

  And then he was out the door.

  6

  Jordan

  Jordan didn’t think, he just took off as quickly as his long limbs could carry him.

  The truth was, he liked talking to Lilith. It almost didn’t make sense how much he liked talking to Lilith, even when she was teasing him. She was easy to be around and yet challenging in a way that he knew was probably good for him, if he was honest with himself.

  Yet he could feel himself already falling. It had happened before and although he’d never fallen madly in love with anyone, it was always miserable and heartbreaking to be truly infatuated with someone, only for them to look at him like he was scum or not look at him at all. He didn’t know why Lilith wasn’t doing that when Jordan could already feel his attraction and fascination with her growing. It was taking the curse longer to kick in, he supposed. Or else Lilith actually hated his guts and only acted this friendly and charming with everyone. He supposed that was more likely.

  But it was just too much when she looked at him with her sparkling dark eyes with the little red sparkles in them that meant she was a humanoid demon (he wondered what powers she had) and told him he was cute. It wasn’t fair and he thought it was a little bit mean. He couldn’t take it and he had to get out.

  Jordan headed upside. It was the middle of the day and a bad time to shift with people everywhere, but he knew too well how to stay invisible anyway. His wolf was stealthy and able to keep to the shadows. Once up in The Ramble, he found that it was rainy again and the park was emptying out. All the better.

  Jordan shifted and his wolf took over, his anxiety and aggravations drifting away as he stretched his legs and ran, the wind and rain feeling good in his thick fur coat.

  He had been running around for about a half hour, feeling free and easy like he always did when he was running in the park but not on patrol, when Lilith found him. She was wearing that cute leather jacket that made her look kind of tough and also sexy, her curls coming loose from her bun as she ran up to him. There was no one nearby on the stretch of green between the trees, and Jordan shifted. It was drizzling and he threw his head back, feeling the rain on his face as he pulled at his t-shirt to get some air.

  Lilith stopped walking and stared at him for a second. He couldn’t read her expression but then she seemed to shake herself and start moving again.

  “Hey,” she said softly. “I’m really sorry.”

  “Huh?” He shrugged. “Oh. It’s fine.” He felt stiff and awkward all over again. He hadn’t expected her to be so nice about hurting his feelings.

  “Really, it was insensitive of me,” she said.

  “It’s fine-”

  “Okay, but it’s not,” she said, fixing him with a straight line of a mouth as if to drive her point home. “I won’t tease you like that again. I’ll tease you about literally everything else.” She cracked a smile then and he found himself smiling back, almost against his own will. Her cheerfulness was somehow engaging but not irritating. It was like someone had turned a light on in a dark room and he hadn’t even known it had been dark.

  “You know something weird?” She squinted at him. “And it’s really weird to bring up too. But I thought since you’ll be the one helping me with this mission, I guess, I should tell you.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Well, I was sort of trying to tell you before…” She twirled a curl around her finger and he found himself transfixed. “But the thing is, with my mission to find the element and all that… The thing is, I’m also meant to find my mate.” She shrugged helplessly. “Sounds crazy, right? But it’s part of the mission. I guess it’s like a reward for bringing the magic forces of the world back into balance or something. Anyway, I know this is a very weird thing to bring up, considering what you literally just told me, but I thought you should know in case, I don't know, it comes up. Or something.”

  She was flustered and Jordan just stared at her, trying to think of an appropriate response.

  A really stupid and (he’d thought) long dead part of him felt a flicker of hope.

  What if the curse was broken and he didn’t know it, what if…?

  When Leif came running up the path, grinning from ear to ear and looking like the beefy blonde and all-American gorgeous heartthrob that he was, Jordan felt nothing but gloom again.

  Oh, Jordan thought. Leif will be her mate. Of course.

  Jordan rallied and stood up straight. He was tired of looking like a pathetic loser every time he opened his mouth. Instead he nodded at Leif as he came running up and said, “Hey, this is Leif, by the way. He’s my roommate.”

  “You dick.” Leif gave him a playful shove as he pushed back his perfectly-coiffed blonde hair. “I’m his best friend, but ya’ know, he likes to pretend he doesn’t have one. Too goth for that, I guess.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” Jordan rolled his eyes.

  Lilith grinned at Leif and shook his hand. “Lilith. Nice to meet you.”

  Jordan was already picturing their future family. They would be half-demon and half-wolf and they’d have perfect bone structure and they wouldn’t be gangly like him or have his too-big nose.

  Great.

  Well, if that was how it was going to be, he’d just have to man up and face it and try not be a douche about it.

  He nodded to himself and said to Leif, “I’m sure you can help Lilith too with finding this elemental totem-”

  “Hey, hey, you’re not sucking me into this whole thing!” Leif raised his hands but he was laughing as he said it and Jordan knew he would be as helpful as he could be, he just had to tease the hell out of Jordan first.

  Sure enough, once Jordan put on a big show of being irritated and rolling his eyes, Leif just clapped him on the back and then turned to Lilith and asked how he could help. The three of them walked along as the sprinkling rain finally let up, and she asked Leif all the same questions she’d asked Jordan and they discussed all the dark wizards they knew about already and whether or not any of them might be a more serious threat.

  Finally, Leif ran off to have a late lunch, and Jordan and Lilith were left alone again. Lilith squinted up a
t him and grinned. “He’s nice.”

  They’re going to get married and have a million babies.

  “Yeah.” Jordan couldn’t disagree. Leif was the best. If it wasn’t for Leif, Jordan was pretty sure he would’ve lost his mind years ago. “He is. He’d make a good mate.”

  “Whoa! I’m not saying that,” Lilith said, laughing.

  She looked a little flustered and he raised an eyebrow as they made their way back to The Ramble. “I’m just saying objectively, he’d make a good mate. The fates have chosen well if they chose Leif.”

  She gave him a funny look and then ducked her head, quickening her pace ahead of him. “Sure,” she said. “He’s great.”

  She didn’t talk much on their walk back after that and he wondered what he’d done wrong. They’d been getting on so well but Lilith was suddenly glum and somehow, he found himself caring about whether she was happy or not.

  At the door to her quarters she seemed to rally and said, “Thanks for being helpful. And introducing me to Leif. I think he’ll be helpful too.”

  She sounded stiff and formal. It bothered him. He much preferred it when she was loose and easy with him. “Sure… I’ll do whatever I can,” he said seriously. “Just let me know and I’m there. Whatever you need. Not everyday I get to work with a Brunswick girl.”

  Lilith gave him a warm smile, her tongue between her teeth, and Jordan’s heart felt like it flipped around in his chest.

  Oh no.

  “Thank you.” She stood on her tip toes and kissed his cheek and tossed him another flirtatious smile before skipping up the stairs to her quarters and disappearing inside.

  He was so screwed.

  That night, Leif had patrol and Jordan had the night off. He had an urge to go bother Lilith. But he had to think that if she needed him, she could come find him. Instead, he ate a dinner of sardines and crackers and camped out on the couch under a blanket to mess around on the internet, resisting the urge to pick up a coding job. He’d decided he was on a vacation from coding now that he was helping Lilith with her mission. Anyway, he had a nice little stash of money to play with whenever they went upside. He browsed Twitter and knocked around the magic web to the hidden social networks of magic folk that lingered among the humans.

  But his mind kept wandering into daydream. He pictured taking Lilith somewhere fancier than his favorite cheap pho place. He could take her to one of those fancy clubs Leif liked or to one of those restaurants he never went to with the candles on the tables and the guys playing violin where you ordered everything separately on little dishes. The thought made him smile.

  “Don’t be stupid,” he muttered to himself. He shut his laptop and rubbed his eyes, thinking he should turn in for the night when there was a knock on the door.

  Jordan groaned as he got up, his long limbs straining. He’d been sitting still for hours without realizing it and he stretched and yawned and scratched his stomach as he lumbered to the door.

  “Hey, it’s really late so…” He opened the door and his jaw just about hit the floor.

  The landing outside was deserted despite the city below still being lit and although there were fewer people around, a lot of business still stayed open in the Underground and there were magic folk bars, clubs and even shops that stayed open in the wee hours, catering to the nocturnal among them, which meant that someone could have been around to see Lilith who was standing at his door half-naked.

  Lilith had let down her hair, her wavy locks soft and fluffy around her pale little face. Her petite and curvy figure was showing an excess of skin. She was wearing a black lace teddy and a sheer robe open over it. Her plump breasts were pushed up high, practically shoved in his face and that was not to mention her thighs...

  “Lilith?” His voice cracked when he spoke and he cleared his throat. She was wearing a deep red lipstick which he noticed when she licked her lips and stepped up into the doorway, leaning into him. “What’re you...what...What is happening?”

  “I just wanted to see you.” She spoke breathily and stuck her bottom lip out in a little pout that made his cock jump, the sight of her alone making it swell in his jeans. She pressed her hands to his chest, standing on her toes to come up to the level of his mouth that she stared at as she whispered, “I feel like we have...unfinished business.”

  “Wh-what are you talking about?” He felt like he had googly eyes, like his brain was turning to mush. Not to mention that he was getting hard and if she got any closer it was about to get embarrassing.

  None of this made sense at all. Girls never did this, not ever. Even the ones he’d had sex with treated it like a business transaction. They didn't come on to him. He had no experience with this and he wondered if he’d fallen asleep on the couch. But this was no dream. He could feel her hands on his chest and he found his own sliding around her waist as her toothy red-lipped grin widened and she pushed in even closer so that he stumbled back until his legs hit the couch.

  Jordan sat down, dazed, and Lilith climbed on top of him, straddling him.

  She had a strange look in her eyes. Her pupils looked a little off somehow, almost crooked. But it was hard to concentrate on that as she squirmed in his lap, rubbing against his hardening cock, and pressed her breasts up against him.

  “Um...uh, Lilith, I don’t know if-”

  Lilith cut him off with a kiss and he squeaked in surprise, his eyes shutting as he breathed in and held her tight. Just as quickly he pulled back, staring at her in confusion.

  It was like kissing a dead fish. Or maybe something worse. Like kissing greasy and faintly rotten fish.

  “Who are you,” Jordan said flatly. His heart started racing.

  This was not Lilith. He wasn’t sure what made him absolutely positive about it, except that everything within him already knew that kissing Lilith must be a life-changing experience.

  This kiss tasted like snakes writhing against his mouth.

  “Oh, what do you mean?” Whoever this creature was, they pressed a finger to their mouth like some cartoon of a little girl and pouted again. “I’m your little Lilith. Your pretty Brunswick girl.”

  “What are you doing?” Jordan babbled. “What are you… What is this for? Why are you-”

  “Oh baby, I’m just getting started.” Lilith's eyes seemed to rattle around like some googly-eyed doll’s. It was eerie.

  “What are you?” Jordan demanded. He was starting to get pissed. It would be useful to get some kind of information out of this creature but he was having an urge to shift and maul them until they revealed themselves instead.

  The Lilith who was not Lilith threw her head back and laughed. At first it sounded like Lilith’s laugh, and then it became an ugly cackle, as if some monster were gargling motor oil and rocks. As quickly as Jordan could shift into a wolf and back, the Not Lilith transformed into a winged goblin, its toothless black mouth fixed in a rictus grin, its beaked nose nearly touching Jordan’s. He yelped and scrambled away from the goblin even as he squinted.

  The goblin’s eyes were all wrong like Lilith’s had been.

  He wondered if this was not the creature’s true form either.

  He was about to ask it to reveal its true self but then it skittered away, half-flying to the door before it disappeared. Jordan stood and ran to the door and looked down the landing to his right and then to his left.

  But the goblin was gone.

  7

  Lilith

  Lilith was having a very pleasant dream that made her smile in her sleep, yet when a pounding on her door woke her up, she couldn’t remember what it was about. For a moment, she experienced the muddled confusion of waking up in a strange place in the dark and not remembering why she was there until the last two days came rushing back to her. She stumbled to her feet, her senses acclimating to the musty and mysteriously herbal smell of the room. She was wearing a short pajama suit in green with a purple llama pattern all over it and she considered digging her robe out of her suitcase but it was warm in the r
oom and she wasn’t baring very much skin anyway. If anyone thought her pajamas were goofy, they could just go stuff it.

  Lilith rubbed her eyes and staggered over to the door and threw it open, being met with a very startled-looking Jordan whose hair was adorably messed up. He was still wearing his black t-shirt and black jeans he’d worn all day but seeing him looming in the doorway with his broad shoulders and all in black at three in the morning made her almost uncomfortably warm. She cleared her throat and tried not to give too much away as she blinked up at him.

  “Helloooo…What’s up?” There must be an emergency, she thought quickly. Why else would Jordan suddenly show up? She had a casting kit that Freya had helped her make with basic herbs and a mini cauldron and-

  “Something weird just happened,” Jordan said, brushing past her as he stepped inside. He paced around the room which suddenly seemed far too small for his lanky frame.

  “What? Like totem weird?” Lilith stood and watched Jordan quietly flip out until he finally stopped in the middle of the room and stared at her.

  “This is going to sound...strange. And it’s… Shit, it’s embarrassing.”

  “Embarrassing?” That piqued her interest in an entirely different way and she raised an eyebrow. “Do tell.”

  “Okay, but first of all, this was not my fault,” Jordan insisted, wagging his finger at her. “This was completely out of my control.”

  “Okaaay…” Lilith frowned. “Just tell me already, doofus.”

  “Some shapeshifter or something just tried to seduce me.”

  Lilith’s eyebrow shot up. “Excuse moi? A shapeshifter?”

  “She...they...looked like one thing and then it kissed me and then it turned into something else.” He sat down on her couch and shut his mouth, as if that was all the detail Lilith might need.

  “Vague much?” Lilith said with a snort. “I’m going to need a bit more than that, I think. Who did it look like when it tried to seduce you?”