Predestined Read online

  “Yeah, what if I do?,” I replied in a sour tone.

  “Well, just seems like that’s a funny thing to have a problem with. I mean there are lots of things to dislike. Snakes, for example, or spiders.” He shuddered making me roll my eyes.

  “I can dislike what I want,can’t I? It’s a free country.”

  He cleared his throat and it sounded suspiciously like he was covering up a laugh. I had a good mind to slug him one and see if he thought that was funny. Cause I knew for a fact I could throw a right hook better than most boys on my street. Nope, he wouldn’t be laughing at all after I decked him.

  “I guess you can. I’m just curious as to why you have a hatred against those items. Most girls like them,” the fact he no longer sounded amused but actually confused saved him from my fist.

  “You wanna know why?” I asked, shifting my angry glare his way. “I’ll tell you why.” I frowned, swallowing the knot in my throat. I hated that this actually made me want to cry. Stupid tears were for sissies.

  “I’m listening,” the boy coaxed.

  “Because that’s all everybody talked about today. They all flashed their chocolate hearts around and teddy bears and even stupid bunny rabbits as they walked down the halls. Balloons were tied on their chairs with those dumb cheesy lines ‘I love you’ on them. I mean, really, we are nine, people. We don’t love anybody yet. At least not THAT way. And to make matters worse, stupid butt Jeff gave Miranda, my best friend, a purple bunny with a big ‘ol balloon attached and a big box of chocolate. And did she share one piece of her candy with me? NOPE! She didn’t. Said it wouldn’t be romantic to give away a piece of her Valentine’s candy. Then when I asked to feel the soft fur on her rabbit she shook her head and cuddled it up against her like I had a disease I could pass on to it. How absurd is that? Huh? Ridiculous right. Then I come home and my mom even has a big bouquet of flowers and a heart shaped box sitting on the table from her boyfriend. I thought for sure I’d get a piece of candy then. BUT NO! The box was already empty. She’d eaten it all. Why keep a stupid empty box?”

  I stopped my angry tirade long enough to peek over at the boy through my hair and see if he was looking at me like a whiny baby. But he had that dumb smile on his face again. I guess since he got chocolate today then he thought it was funny I didn’t.

  I turned around thinking I could either slug him or tell him off then go back inside. But he held the puppy dog whose fur looked actually softer than that of the purple bunny Miranda had gotten from Jeff and the box of chocolates out toward me. Confused, I lifted my eyes from them to look at him.

  “This is for you. You can feel the fur all you want and eat every one of those chocolates all by yourself. I brought it to you... that is if you want it.”

  “Me? But, why me? You don’t even know me,” I stammered, wanting desperately to reach out and take the gifts. I really wanted that chocolate.

  “It’s Valentine’s Day and well, I’ve been watching you a long time and you’re the only person I want to be my Valentine.”

  My eyes opened and the gold on the brooch that lay on the table beside my bed glittered with the early morning streams of light. I remembered that Valentine’s Day. I’d been so hurt that no one wanted me to be their valentine. All the girls at school had been given something from a boy. Even Wyatt had given Julie Thursby something. But I hadn’t got a thing. Wyatt had said boys didn’t see me as a girl because I could run faster than them and hit a ball farther than they could. But it had still upset me.

  Leif had known and brought me something. I’d eaten every one of those chocolates before I went to bed that night. Miraculously they hadn’t given me a tummy ache like my mom said they would when I confessed at dinner that I was stuffed from the chocolate. Memories like this one made it very difficult to fear Leif. He really had been good to me all my life. Maybe he didn’t have all bad qualities. The fact remained he wanted to take my soul to hell. Maybe that wasn’t the way he looked at it but that was the way I looked at it. And being near him when he wasn’t in “human” form gave me the creeps. I hated the feeling that crept over me when he was near. The hairs on my arms and neck stood straight up and I instantly recoiled.

  Thinking back to that Valentine’s Day I remembered the puppy. It was in the attic somewhere in a box. I hadn’t been willing to get rid of it when I’d discarded all my childhood toys. I never could remember where I’d gotten it but it always seemed special to me. Like I wasn’t supposed to get rid of it. I’d actually had a hard time putting it in the attic. Now the idea that there was a gift from a voodoo spirit in my house was unsettling. I needed to get it out. Sure I’d slept with it for years but that was before. This is now. I wanted it gone.

  Sitting up in bed I decided I might need to wait and see if Gee or Dank showed up today. told him I intended to come home last night because I honestly hadn’t. He’d thought I was staying with Miranda again and he said he and Gee would take turns watching the house. I’d left half expecting Gee to pop up out of nowhere but she hadn’t. Then I’d crawled in bed and fell asleep.

  My bedroom door swung open and in stalked Gee, “so here’s the thing. I’m hanging outside Miranda’s house not paying attention to anything all night because I’m bored out of my freaking wits. Then I finally realize I don’t feel you in there. So I do a quick check and guess what? No Pagan.” She swung her gaze over my way as she dropped into the chair in the corner and crossed her legs.

  “So, I come here to check on you and low and behold you’re here. I wasted an entire night in Miranda’s backyard when I could’ve been eating food in your kitchen and watching the bad ass Chuck Bass on the television screen.” She smiled amused with herself. “I rhymed. Bad ass Chuck Bass.”

  Rolling my eyes I stood up and walked over to my closet to grab a sweater. If Gee was here then we could go get that stuffed puppy out of my attic.

  “Where ya going? I just got here.” Gee grumbled.

  “We’re going to the attic. I have a stuffed puppy up there given to me by Leif I need to get out.”

  “What?”

  “Just come on Gee, I’ll explain while we’re looking for it.”

  Dank

  “Dankmar, I need to speak with you.” Dank stopped outside Pagan’s house and turned to see Jasyln. The anxiety on her face was alarming. Transporters typically had no real problems. Gee was an exception because she’d befriended a human. Jasyln was a typical transporter. Her only purpose was to handle souls.

  “What is it Jaslyn? I haven’t got much time.”

  “I realize that sir, but you need to hear what I have to say or um... explain, actually,” she glanced nervously back at the house. “It has to do with your um... the soul you, uh...”

  “It has to do with Pagan, the girl I love,” I finished for her. She hadn’t been sure of the terminology since she’d never felt emotion.

  “Yes, Pagan. You see...” the nervous twisting of her hands was beginning to annoy me.

  “Spit it out, Jasyln. If this is about Pagan then I need to know now.”

  Nodding briskly like a disobedient child who’d just been scolded she stared down at the ground. “You see sir, the boy whose soul I transported. The one that Pagan knew. He, uh, he wasn’t supposed to die. That was not his fate. I didn’t get very far before his soul was taken from me--”

  “WHAT do you mean he wasn’t supposed to die? His body was no longer usable. I was drawn there. His soul was barely hanging on to the body awaiting my arrival. And do you mean to tell me you LOST his soul?” I couldn’t help the roar that left my body. This was not making any sense. Had Jasyln gone crazy?

  “Yes, I know sir, I was drawn there too. But something happened. Another power took him. The power had the right due to a... a restitution.”

  Ice filled my hollow shell as understanding dawned on me. The restitution had taken a soul for a soul. One that would strike close to Pagan’s heart. “No,” I snapped stalking away from the door I’d been going to enter only minutes bef
ore. This could not be happening. Wyatt could not have lost his soul to Ghede because of Pagan. She’d never be able to live with herself if she knew. Yet could I keep this from her? I needed to get Wyatt’s soul back. He might not be able to return to this life but his soul belonged to the Creator. Wyatt had done no wrong. He’d never sold himself to Ghede.

  “Dankmar, sir, that isn’t all,” Jaslyn’s soft whisper raked over me like razors. This could not get any worse.

  “What?” I hissed glaring back at her.

  “The Creator. He wants to see you. Now.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Pagan

  “I think I may expire from inhalation of dust,” Gee grumbled as she shifted another box off the piles of cardboard boxes my mother had placed up here over the years.

  “Oh, stop being dramatic. What’s a little dust? You’ve been in burning buildings.”

  “Yeah, well, I have to go into those. It’s my job. However, my job does not say I have to do manual labor in an attic with a human.”

  Laughing to myself, I opened the box she’d just gotten down from the rather dangerously tall stack my mother had made. I mean, I get that she was trying to preserve space in here but a stack of boxes that almost touched the ceiling wasn’t exactly a smart move.

  “Do you want me to look in this one?” Gee asked as she got the next box down.

  “Yes, please.”

  “And it’s a white stuffed puppy right?”

  “Yep... well, maybe not exactly white anymore. It was well loved so the fur may be a little discolored now.”

  Gee grumbled to herself as she began rummaging through her box.

  I shifted through the items I’d packed away only eight years ago because I’d been unable to haul them off to the local Goodwill. A small purse with sequined letters that said Las Vegas made me smile. My mother had taken me on a writer’s convention with her there once. It had been one of the last times she’d taken me with her. I always got bored but on the Las Vegas trip I’d found a friend... I think. Shaking my head I pushed it aside and found a Backstreet Boys t-shirt I’d gotten for Christmas one year. God, I’d been such a dork. A shoebox greeted me next that I knew without looking held all the letters I’d written back and forth with Miranda during school. They were full of insightful things such as “Do you think Kyle likes me?” or “Did you see the way Ashley’s butt looks in those jeans, she needs to go on a diet,” or my favorite, “Do you think Mrs. Nordman has a new chin hair today?” Yep, that shoebox was priceless. Unfortunately there was no stuffed puppy dog. Frustrated, I closed the box up and shoved it to the side.

  “Well that one was a bust--” I slammed my hand over my mouth to keep from hooting with laughter. Gee was posing in front of the tall mirror that had once been in my ‘princess’ bedroom. But that wasn’t the funny part. Gee had found my dress up clothes I’d not wanted to part with back when I was ten but didn’t want in my room anymore either. She’d put on my Tinkerbell dress with a pair of Snow White plastic heels that her foot didn’t come anywhere near fitting into. On her head she was wearing the veil headpiece that had gone with my Jasmine costume.

  “How do I look?” she asked twirling around faster than a human would be able to making the Tinkerbell skirt float out in front of her. I’d always twirled in that dress too trying my hardest to get it to stand out so perfectly.

  “Fabulous, you should so wear it for work,” I chirped then let out a trill of giggles.

  “Dank wouldn’t know what to think If I showed up looking like I was ready for a trip to Disney World. He’d be afraid to send the soul with me.”

  I sank down on the box behind me unable to stop laughing at the ridiculous sight.

  “You’d scare him... to death!” I began laughing harder at my own little pun.

  Gee started to say something else when a woosh behind me turned my laughter into a small squeal.

  “What the heck, Jaslyn? This isn’t a party,” Gee complained and I eased some realizing Gee knew the gorgeous pale redhead that had appeared in my attic. Her perfect translucent features were so similar to Gee’s when she was in “transporter” mode that I quickly put two and two together.

  “I’m sorry, Gee,” she stopped and slowly took in Gee’s wardrobe with a confused frown on her face.

  “Quit gawking Jas and tell me why you’re here,” Gee snapped. The dress-up clothes disappeared from her body and she was once again dressed in her jeans, hoodie and boots.

  “Oh, um, yes... well, uh Dankmar needs you.”

  Gee’s attention shifted from the transporter to me. “What about Pagan?”

  “Oh, uh, he didn’t say. He just said he needed you.”

  The frown on Gee’s face told me she wasn’t so sure about this. But if Dank had sent for her then it must be important.

  “I’ll go spend the day with Miranda. We can look for the pu-- the thing later,” I piped up.

  Gee nodded at me, “Okay, well go on down now before I leave. You don’t need to stay up here by yourself.”

  “Okay.”

  I headed for the stairs then glanced back at Gee to ask her to please let me know if something was wrong but she was whispering with Jaslyn in a pretty intense conversation so I left them alone. Gee wouldn’t be gone long. Dank wouldn’t let her be. Besides, Dank was fine. He was Death. No need to worry.

  Dank

  “What’s going on Dankmar?” Gee demanded as she arrived with Jasyln at the graveyard outside the small funeral home in Pagan’s town. I’d been surveying Wyatt’s grave to see if there had been any traces of activity. His soul had not been left to roam the earth. The only other place it could be was with Ghede in the Vilokan. If so, it was completely off the radar. Finding him would be near impossible. No Deity or being created by the Creator had ever been to Vilokan. The island under the sea was for the Voodoo spirits and the souls they claimed while on earth.

  “Wyatt. His soul wasn’t meant to be taken. He was never on the books.” It still sounded unbelievable when I said it. Even after speaking with the Creator. Choices had been made. With the power of restitution on Ghede’s side this could grow worse.

  “What?” Her incredulous tone didn’t surprise me. I’d had the same reaction. This had never happened. And if I didn’t find a way to stop it the Creator expected me to hand over Pagan or her mother to Ghede. Neither of those were an option.

  “Ghede, he took Wyatt’s soul as payment for the restitution. The Creator doesn’t believe he’s going to stop there. Wyatt was just to warn Pagan or warn me. It won’t be enough to make up for taking Pagan from his grasp.”

  Gee sank down on the headstone behind her, “Oh, shit.”

  “I don’t want to tell Pagan this yet. Not if we can fix this without her knowing. The implications of Wyatt’s death would be too much for her to deal with. She’d sacrifice herself without question. I won’t allow it. I will stop this.”

  Gee nodded in complete agreement. I knew I’d be able to count on her. Jaslyn on the other hand was ready to offer Pagan up on a silver platter. She didn’t understand but still it made it hard to have her near me. I wanted to take my anger out on someone and her indifference was placing her in the way of my wrath.

  “Where is Pagan now?” I asked, jerking my scowl from the cowering Jaslyn back to Gee.

  “She’s with Miranda,” she assured me.

  That was good. I needed Gee right now. We had to find a way to penetrate Vilokan. Hell would have been so much easier.

  Pagan

  A day of shopping wasn’t easy to convince Miranda to agree to but she needed to get out. After forcing clothes on her body and shoving her into my car, we’d headed to the mall. Four hours later she was showing signs of life again. I was extremely grateful.

  “I need a coffee,” I announced as we stepped out of our third shoe store in an hour. I’d managed to find two pairs of shoes I couldn’t live without. One was a pair of yellow backless sandals that had a little heel. The other were beige colored boots that w
ould match perfectly with my beige leather jacket. Best part was they were on sale. Miranda, however, hadn’t bought a thing. We were slowly getting there. She’d actually tried on some shoes in the last store. I’d forced her to but at least she’d put them on.

  “Me too,” Miranda responded, turning toward the Starbucks instead of going to the next wing of the mall where Wide Mouth, Wyatt’s favorite coffee shop, was located. I understood, and honestly, I wasn’t sure I could deal with going into Wide Mouth right now either.

  “What ya want?” I asked reaching for my wallet.

  “I don’t know, just get me whatever you’re ordering,” she said with a wave of her hand and walked over to find a table.

  I couldn’t order her what I was getting. I always ordered a caramel latte with whipped cream and so did Wyatt. I moved out of the way so the people behind me could order and I studied the menu up on the board behind the counter. It had been years since I’d had anything other than a caramel latte. I wasn’t even sure if I knew something else to order.

  “I hear the hot chocolate is incredible,” Leif whispered in my ear. I knew he was actually here instead of just talking in my ear from the warmth of his chest behind me. He was also in human form because my arms weren’t covered in goose bumps.

  “I’m a big girl. I prefer coffee,” I snapped without looking back at him.

  He laughed softly, “Yes I know. Caramel latte with whipped cream.”

  Tensing I glanced over to where Miranda was sitting. She was watching us with an amused yet sad look in her face. I knew seeing me with Leif reminded her of Wyatt. Yet another reason to stay the heck away from him. If he’d only take the hint and leave me alone. I would never agree to give him my soul. Screw the stupid restitution or whatever it was.