Jack Kursed by Glenn Bullion Read Free Book Online

her. The river flowing, crickets and
frogs singing and croaking, birds flying through the trees, the
hypnotic fire and the wild shadows it created.
    She didn't know how much
time had passed. An hour, maybe two. Her mind wandered as she
reflected on the night's events. She didn't even hear the
footsteps, or pick up his scent.
    "Victoria?"
    She jumped to her feet and
spun to face John. He gasped at the sight of her, covered in blood.
He didn't look perfect himself with his clothes torn and a
bloodstain here and there.
    "John? What happened?"
    "We stayed in the movie theater. We
lost some people, but most of the town is okay. The ghouls, they
just...stopped attacking. They fell over dead. So I got a horse
and-"
    He went silent and his
face fell when he saw Annie's body. Victoria wanted to hug him, to
apologize. But she knew the best thing was to keep her
distance.
    "You...killed her?"
    "I didn't have a choice."
    "Yes, you did. You could have chosen
not to kill her."
    "John-"
    "Was she a full-blood?"
    Victoria's lip twitched,
and John knew the answer before she spoke.
    "Yes."
    He reeled back, like he'd been punched
in the stomach, and leaned against a nearby tree. Emotions played
across his face. She hadn't seen him truly upset in a long
time.
    "How could you?"
    "It was actually quite simple. It was
either kill her, or she would have killed countless people.
Monterrey was just the start. Who knows how much destruction she
wanted to cause? We saved a lot of lives."
    "And those lives will all
be dead in fifty years," he shouted. "But I'll still be stuck here.
This was my chance, Victoria. My chance at finally being free. I
just want to sleep. One night. No, just an hour would do. But
you...you said you wouldn't kill her, and you lied."
    "We'll find another
witch."
    "We've found two after Angela, in a
century, and only one full-blood."
    Victoria said nothing. She knew she
made the right decision. It was never the wrong decision to save
lives.
    "Never speak to me again,"
he said, his eyes hard. "Our friendship, our partnership, is
over."
    "Are you serious? As long as we've
known each other? You would throw all that away, just like
that?"
    "I didn't throw it away," he said,
gesturing to Annie's body. "You did."
    John turned and walked
away without looking back. Victoria knew how important lifting his
curse was to him. But he would get over it. He would heal, and they
would move on. She just needed to give him a week or so.

CHAPTER 3
     
    Year: 2012
     
    Chicago, Illinois. John
hated Chicago. They weren't joking when they called the place the
Windy City. Cold, dirty, too many people. It was like the weather
flowed across the United States, hit Chicago and the Great Lakes,
and then dropped twenty degrees.
    He fidgeted in his chair
and checked his phone for the fourth time since stepping foot in
the bank. Thirty minutes had passed. The twenty-first century was
an amazing time. The world had increased its speed by a number John
couldn't even begin to guess. Gone were the sleepy days of the
mid-twentieth century. Computers, the Internet, ATM machines, fast
food. Technology ruled the day, yet he still waited in a chair at
the bank.
    He looked at the people
around him to help kill his boredom. A grandmother with a toddler
stood at the kiosk next to him, filling out a deposit slip. A woman
in sweats leaned on the counter in front of a teller, withdrawing
money. Judging by the look on her face and her body language, money
wasn't looking so great. A security guard stood at the front door,
hands in his pockets. A man trying to open a line of credit talked
to the associate at the desk behind John. He was the reason John
had lost thirty minutes of his life.
    A quiet snore caught his
attention. He looked at the elderly man across from him, the
husband of the grandmother with the toddler. The man's head was
slumped to one side, his arms folded across his chest. His chest
rose and fell with a steady rhythm.
    John couldn't look away.
Jealousy,