Cursed (15 page)

“No, Daddy,” she half-lied. “I fell and hit my head in one of the alleys. Kinda knocked me out. Jayden bandaged me up.” She twisted to smile at Jayden.

“Jayden? The kid you’re tutoring from school?”

Her mouth fell open.

“Yes, sir,” Jayden said. “I can’t have my mentor bleeding to death before I pass Algebra.”

“You won’t be doing no tutoring in our home, Addy. You take him to the library.”

Adrienne gazed at Jayden, dismayed. She was grateful her daddy hadn’t just sent him away and to Jayden for letting her dad think she was smart enough to tutor anyone in math.

Jayden winked.

She grinned.

“Come on,” her dad said. “I have to be in to work early and dinner won’t make itself.” He started towards the entrance of their building. “Go home, boy. Don’t you come by again.”

“Daddy-” Adrienne objected.

“It’s late,” he barked.

“I am so sorry, Jayden,” she whispered.

“It’s okay,” Jayden said.

She waited until the door to the apartment building closed behind her father. “You told him I was tutoring you?” she asked.

“Sorta,” Jayden said with a laugh. “Told me no daughter of his would date a black man ever. I figured it was safer to play the stereotype and told him I’d stay out of jail better if I got a good education. He seemed okay with that.”

“Oh, my god!” she said, pressing her hands to her cheeks. “I’m so sorry, Jayden.”

“It’s funny. I’m not black enough to my mom’s family, and I’m too black for your dad,” he said, shaking his head.

“I think you’re perfect.”

He smiled. The look was dazzling, a combination of natural good looks and an inner glow that made her realize how much a stranger liked her to search the gang-run streets of her neighborhood after dark to make sure she was okay.

“I mean, I think you’re …” She drifted off, embarrassed. “… probably worrying your parents by being out with a white girl. No good ever came of that, right?”

“You might teach me to steal or something.”

She laughed, and he grinned.

“Go inside, before your daddy comes back with the shotgun,” he said.

“Thank you, Jayden.” She held his gaze as she backed her way to the door of her apartment building. Adrienne pushed it open and went inside, pausing to wave.

Jayden waved back then started away towards a row of dark cars parked across the street.

Adrienne watched him get into one. Seconds later, the taillights glowed red. He flipped on the headlights then eased out of the parallel parking spot and drove away.

The Red Man stood behind a black motorcycle parked beneath the streetlight nearest to where Jayden had been parked.

Adrienne watched the unnatural being watching her, at a loss as to what it was he sought from her. He made an effort to find her and show himself, but he hadn’t tried to talk to her.

Why?

“Adrienne!”

“Coming, Daddy.”

Adrienne retreated to the depths of the elevator, where her father waited.

“How many times do I have to tell you not –” he began.

She listened to the lecture, mind on the events of her evening. She had more questions for her cards tonight, and she was surprised to realize that she wanted to know more about Rene.

Jayden was still smiling when he merged onto the freeway a few minutes later. Adrienne’s laugh, her beautiful eyes … she made him feel good about himself, something Kimmie and his parents never really did.

He never imagined he could feel so much concern for a person he barely knew. The two hours he spent looking for her made him realize how far under his skin she already was. Maybe it was hearing her sing or maybe it was how different she was. She wasn’t like the guarded, selfish girls he normally dated and definitely not spoiled like his sisters.

She was genuinely sweet, gorgeous, and gifted. He thought of his father’s warning about not drawing attention to himself. The South was still conservative in its view of racial dating. Would that draw attention to him and threaten to expose the family secret? Adrienne was poor, and her daddy was…backwards. Would they make for good media fodder?

She was most likely someone his father wouldn’t approve of. There couldn’t be anything permanent between him and Adrienne, but he could enjoy himself for a while. The rebellious streak in him didn’t want to give up Adrienne the way he’d given up control over the rest of his life to his parents, teachers and coach. No, he could be himself with Addy, and she liked that about him.

His cell rang, jarring him out of his warm thoughts.

“Jay?” It was his mother. “Did you call?”

He clicked the icon on the car’s dashboard to engage the Bluetooth, aware his mother would yell otherwise once she found out he was driving.

“Hi, Mama,” he said. “Yeah I called earlier.”

“I just got off the phone with Grandmama. Went to the grocery store before.”

“Cool,” Jayden said. “She get her AC fixed yet?”

“No.” His mother made a sound of frustration. “I don’t think she never will. You wearing your dog tags?”

“Yes, Mama.”

“She said to tell you not to take them off, even for football.”

“I only take them off in the shower,” he replied.

“Not even then, Jayden. She told me what she told you. You never told me she said you were going to die!” His mother was angry. “If I found out you took off those –”

“Mama, can you please stop with this voodoo crap?” he demanded. “It’s not real. I wear the tags because they’re a family heirloom.”
One I don’t need to be ashamed of.

“Don’t you talk about our religion like that, Jayden. She’s trying to save your life.”

“All right, fine,” he said, not wanting to end his night arguing with his mother. “I’m wearing them. Okay?”

“That’s not all she told me.”

God, please, just cut me a break for once,
he pleaded silently.

“She told me who will kill you if you take them off.”

“Fine. Who?” he asked.

“A damsel in distress.”

“What?”

“She said it was on the day of a full moon. A white girl with white hair and eyes like jewels.”

Jayden’s brow furrowed. The description sounded a lot like Adrienne, though it didn’t seem possible his grandmama could know about her. Tara was the only one who knew he liked Adrienne, and Tara wouldn’t dare stoop to the level of talking to his poor relations.

“Grandmama hates white people,” he said. “You sure she’s not just venting?”

“Grandmama does
not
hate white people. The loa Brigit is white and we worship her.”

“So she hates non-deity white people.”

“Will you just listen to me for once, Jay?”

He gritted his teeth, resisting the urge to hang up on his mother.

“Grandmama said grandpapa told her this morning you’d meet this white zombie this week and that she’s from a lost family line sworn to black magic.”

“Is that it?”

“She said this family is cursed, Jayden. The white zombie is gonna kill you, and it’s all your daddy’s fault.”

Of course. Everything is.
“How will I know this white zombie from any other white girl?” he asked, amused.

“Grandmama says the curse took the firstborn in the zombie’s family.”

Jayden gripped the steering wheel, recalling Adrienne’s sister. “How does grandmama come up with this?”

“The spirits tell her.”

“She told me that my great grandpapa would protect me after the zombie killed me. Does that make me a zombie, too? Will I be trying to eat other people’s brains?”

“Don’t be disrespectful, Jayden. The walking dead look and act like normal people. If grandmama has to bring you back with a zombie rite, maybe. If the EMTs bring you back, probably not. Why you ask? You meet the zombie?”

“No.”

He wanted to pry more into the zombie business, but didn’t dare for fear his mother might catch on that he’d met someone who fit his grandmama’s description. He wasn’t about to encourage either of them in their unhealthy obsessions with spirits and spells.

“If you find the white zombie, bring her to Grandmama.”

No way in hell.
While New Orleans was the voodoo capitol of the South, his family brought their traditions over from Haiti. They were the real thing – nothing commercialized or put on for show. His grandmama made voodoo dolls for good luck. There was a reason there were no stray cats in the neighborhood and a whole lot of mummified cat parts in Grandmama’s shed next to the box of chicken feet. Allegedly, cats and chickens were good luck, though their luck ran out when they crossed paths with his grandmama.

Adrienne, who moved to New Orleans from somewhere else, would run the other way.

Out loud, he said, “All right. Thanks for letting me know, Mama.”

“Just be careful, Jayden. You’re my reason for living.”

“I’ll be around to drive you crazy until you’re a hundred years old,” he promised. “Mama, can I talk to you about something?”

“Sure, Jay.”

“It’s about Izzy.”

Silence.

“Would you consider letting her stay with Daddy full time?”

No response.

“She loves it there. Our stepsister, Chelsea, is her best friend. They go everywhere together. She’s really happy.”

“I been good, Jay,” his mother’s voice was hushed. “I done everything the court said and more.”

“I know, Mama.” Already, he hurt for her. “Isabelle is really happy.”

“She needs to know her relations.”

“When she’s older, I’ll bring her to visit everyone,” he promised.

“I’ll think about it.” She hung up.

Jayden resisted the urge to call her back and press the issue. It was hard for him to broach the subject, even harder not to imagine how poorly his mother might handle the topic. Was she lining up shot glasses? Calling the ex who supplied her with drugs?

He had to have a little faith that she’d do what was right. He was giving her the chance to prove she knew what was best for her daughter. Jayden just wanted her to sign away Izzy willingly in hopes of giving his troubled mother some peace.

He released a breath, thoughts on his grandmama’s latest bizarre prediction.

A white girl with white hair and eyes like jewels.

The description was too accurate for his comfort. He could convince himself it was a coincidence, except for the information Adrienne told him about her sister dying.

He shook his head, spooked for no reason.

Jayden finished the drive to his dad’s and pulled into the smaller garage behind the house. His two young sisters weren’t on the couch waiting for him, which meant Tara had probably dragged them kicking and screaming to bed despite her insistence earlier it was his turn.

Selfish and vain, Tara still had a streak of goodness in her. Sometimes, he forgot she’d come from a background as screwy as his. Tara’s biological parents were both dead. Her mother died of cancer when she was young, and her father passed soon after Chelsea was born. Cherie Washington had adopted the little girl left to her by her dead husband then married Jayden’s daddy, who adopted both girls as his own.

Tara was a good person, if snobby.

The sounds of low talk and scent of cigar smoke came from his father’s study, an indication the dinner party was running late.

He continued down the hallway to the kitchen and automatically checked the refrigerator to make sure the chef had prepared the lunches for the two young girls before he went to his room.

Alone in the quiet room, he flung himself onto the bed and stared at the ceiling. His thoughts fluttered between Adrienne’s incredible smile and his mother’s uncanny warning.

He’d never believed in that voodoo crap. He wasn’t about to tonight.

Rousing himself from his thoughts, he set his football gear by the door and went to bed.

After a grueling football practice and fast breakfast, Jayden was ready for a nap. He made it though his first period before going to the Coffee Corner. Mickey was there with a cup in his hand already.

“That thing’s bigger than you,” Jayden teased.

“I’m not going to make it,” Mickey groaned.

“Tell me about it.”

“Where were you last night?”

Jayden smiled mysteriously. He wasn’t certain how to answer, because there was no easy way to explain he’d spent two hours walking around the Iberville Projects looking for a girl no one knew he was interested in.

Mickey perked up. “Kimmie?” he guessed.

Jayden shook his head.

“Who?”

“Let me get my coffee.”

Jayden went through the line then met Mickey’s gaze. He nodded his head to the side, indicating Mickey should follow him.

Mickey did.

“You know the singing angel?” Jayden asked.

“No way!”

“Nothing serious. Just tutoring her.”

“So … you’re not asking her to Homecoming?”

“I hadn’t thought about it.”

“Kimmie would make your life hell.”

And Adrienne’s.
Jayden considered, aware it was going to be hard enough for Adrienne to fit in as a scholarship student without Kimmie turning the school against her.

He shouldn’t have to be concerned with what Kimmie thought. It bothered him today more than usual. There were a lot of reasons not to pursue Adrienne: his father, Kimmie, school, the drama of his personal life. Yet he was drawn to her in a way that seemed too strong to resist. Something about her was special.

“Maybe I’ll ask her,” Mickey mused.

“No.”

Mickey laughed. “Okay. Off limits. I get it.”

“Ugh. I just want to play football and graduate valedictorian so I can run away to college. I don’t need more girl drama,” Jayden said.

At that moment, he saw Adrienne, walking with Tara down the hallway. Suspicious of his stepsister’s intentions, he caught her eye and lifted an eyebrow. She grinned.

Jayden scowled. His eyes went to the small form of Adrienne, whose face glowed. Her long hair was in a braid down her back.

“Earth to Jayden,” Mickey teased, waving a hand in front of his eyes. “You’re right. No drama.”

Jayden batted his hand away, aware he stood in the middle of the hallway, gaze on Adrienne.

“She’s just so … pretty,” he said.

“She’s cute. She’s no Tara, though.”

“Dude, I have to live with that. Trust me – you couldn’t handle it,” Jayden said with a smile.

“I’d put up with hell for a chance.”

I know the feeling.
Jayden’s eyes strayed once more in the direction Adrienne had gone. He’d ignore the strange warning his grandmama gave him and Adrienne’s father’s racism for a chance to date her.

“Later,” Mickey said, breaking away.

“Later.” Jayden shook his head and headed down the hall.

“How about today?”

He turned at Kimmie’s voice. She stood a few feet behind him, her dark eyes taking in his face closely.

“You still don’t want to date me?” she prodded.

“What? Did you buy a new spell?” he asked.