Something to Curse About by Gayla Drummond Read Free Book Online Page A

giving Betty and me each a smile that melted the worry from his expression.
    “What happened? Last I heard, it was still a standoff.”
    “Cordi happened,” Betty said, stepping closer to my side and putting her hand on my back.
    “I wasn’t scared.” Sean followed that declaration with, “Well, a little at first, but then I wasn’t.”
    Dad chuckled. “You’re a tough kid.”
    “She’s a hero.”
    I looked at Betty in shock. “No, I’m not.”
    “Of course you are. You saved at least fourteen lives.”
    “I’m just someone who happens to have a few talents most people don’t. That’s all. And I was scared, even if Tough Kid here wasn’t.”
    “Scared or not, you acted, and your actions saved lives. That sounds like a hero to me,” she said, a genuine smile blooming on her face. Then she surprised me with a hug. I closed my eyes against another wave of dizziness while returning it.
    “Cordi, what are you doing?”
    I blinked, and found Damian, Dad, Stannett, two uniformed cops, Betty, and Sean staring at me. My dad was the one who’d spoken. “What?”
    “You need to put the gun down, Cordi,” Damian said.
    “Gun? Wha…” Becoming aware of a weight in my hand, I glanced down and found a gun in it, pointing at the ground. “Where did that come from?”
    “It’s mine.” Damian pulled his jacket away enough for me to see his empty shoulder holster.
    “Okay, but how did I get it?” I hated guns, kept the one Mr. Whitehaven insisted I learn to shoot locked up in my desk at the office.
    “You teleported it.” He moved forward once I changed my hold to the gun’s barrel and held the grip toward him. “Are you okay?”
    “Confused, but otherwise, yeah.”
    He took hold of the gun. “You have to let go.”
    “I can’t,” I said from between gritted teeth. “I’m telling my fingers to, but they’re not listening to me.”
    Damian frowned. “You touched him.”
    “Huh?”
    “You touched Chapman.”
    “Oh.” Still trying to make my hand obey, I scowled. If he yanked it free, I’d lose some skin. “You think the curse is passed by touch?”
    “Well, it could be, or at least this particular one may have been.” Damian removed the clip from the gun and shoved it into his jacket pocket. “Let’s not have any accidents.”
    “If the others were passed by touch, we’d have a lot more dead people.”
    Damian nodded. “Yes, we would. All right, I’m going to let go of the gun now. Nobody get excited.”
    It suddenly occurred to me that holding a gun in the middle of a number of armed cops wasn’t the best place to be. That realization didn’t work to loosen my fingers. “Can I sit down?”
    “Good idea.”
    After I sat down on the pavement, I nearly freaked out. “He touched Sean too. Betty and Dad have touched Sean and me.”
    Stannett spoke. “Chapman had Sean’s arm, and Sean’s wearing a long-sleeved shirt.” He turned to Betty, who held Sean. “Did the man touch your skin?”
    Sean thought for a minute then shook his head. “I don’t think so, except with the gun. Is Cordi going to be okay?”
    “She’ll be fine,” Damian assured him. “I don’t think it’s working on her the way it’s meant to.”
    While willing my hand to let go of the gun, I said, “Betty, you touched me and Sean both. Are you feeling okay?”
    She nodded. “I think so.”
    Stannett sighed, looking at Damian. “Well, now what?”
    “I think I’d better call David and take them to the shop. We’ll do a cleansing spell.”
    “On them.” I nodded toward my family members. “If the curse did jump from Chapman to me, I’m the biggest piece of evidence you have right now. You can try something else out, see if you can learn anything, and then do a cleansing spell on me.”
    Damian grimaced. “Are you certain? That could take a while.”
    “Yeah, I’m sure.”
    Boy, was I. The odds of Chapman picking out Sean had to be hundreds to one. I hoped that thought wouldn’t occur to