Predestined

Predestined

by Abbi Glines

Predestined

Copyright © 2012 by Abbi
Glines

All rights reserved. No part of
this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without
written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may
quote brief passages for review purposes. If you are reading this
book and you have not purchased it or won it in an author/publisher
contest, this book has been pirated. Please delete and support the
author by purchasing the ebook from one of its many
distributors.

This book is a work of fiction and
any resemblance to any person, living or dead, any place, events or
occurrences, is purely coincidental. The characters and story lines
are created from the author’s imagination or are used
fictitiously.

Editor:
Stephanie T. Lott a.k.a.
Bibliophile

Cover
illustration
by Stephanie Mooney © 2012
For information on the cover art, please contact
[email protected]

Abbi Glines

16125 County Road 13

Fairhope, AL 36532

Printed in The United States of
America

Dedication

To my daughter, Annabelle. You
have an “old soul” my sweet girl. The wisdom of your choices and
the kindness in your actions never cease to amaze me. I’m so
incredibly proud of you.

The narrow damp
street was uninhabited. Jazz music could be heard from a distance
but the sound was faint. The further I walked away from the
scattered street lights and into the darkness the more the sounds
of laughter, street cars and the traditional vibrant music only
found in the Big Easy melted away. I’d been here before, countless
times. Death was often met on these dark streets. But tonight, I
wasn’t here to take a soul. I was here for other reasons. Reasons I
was just now piecing together. The fury raging inside me was hard
to control. I’d been reckless. Me! A freaking almighty Deity, let
something dangerous slip right past my radar completely undetected.
How could I have let this happen? I knew the answer. Pagan. She
consumed me. My thoughts. My desires. My purpose. I’d been unable
to see anything with the glow of Pagan blinding me from everything
else. Now, I had to find out why and then I had to fix this.
Because Pagan Moore was mine. Her life, her soul, her heart it was
all mine. Nothing was going to stand in my way. No ancient curse.
No soulless boy. And absolutely
no
Voodoo spirit lord.

Chapter One

Pagan

I’d just turned around to watch the
pretty balloons. I liked the pink one best. It reminded me of
bubblegum. I’d been trying to think of something I could promise
Mommy I’d do if she’d buy me one. Maybe clean out from under my bed
or maybe straighten the shoes in her closet. But it had only been a
second that I’d stopped and thought about it. Now, my mommy was
gone. Tears clouded my vision and I let out a panicked sob. She’d
warned me I could get lost in the crowd if I didn’t keep up.
Normally I held her hand when we were in crowds but today she was
carrying an armload of her books. It had been my responsibility not
to lose her. But I had. Where would I sleep? I glanced nervously
around at the people covering the busy streets. The Arts and
Entertainment Festival had brought people from all over to our
small town. Reaching up to wipe my eyes so I could find a police
officer to help me, I sniffled and for a second forgot my crisis
when the smell of funnel cake reached me.

“Don’t cry, I’ll help
you.”

Frowning, I studied the boy in
front of me. His blond hair was cut short and his big friendly eyes
looked concerned. I had never seen him before. He didn’t go to my
school. Maybe he was a tourist. Whoever he was, I knew he couldn’t
help me. He was just a kid too.

“I lost my mommy,” I muttered,
feeling embarrassed that he’d caught me crying.

He nodded then held out his hand.
“I know. I’m going to take you back to her. It’s okay, I
promise.”

Swallowing the lump in my throat,
I thought about his offer. Could he help me? Two sets of eyes
looking for a police officer were better than one, I guess.“Um, if
you could just help me look for a police officer so he could find
her that would be nice.”

He smiled at me like he thought I
was funny. I hadn’t been joking and nothing about this was cause to
smile.

“I really know where she is. Trust
me,” his hand was still outstretched toward me. Frowning, I thought
about all the reasons this was probably a bad idea. He couldn’t be
much older than me. Maybe he was like seven at the most. But he
seemed so sure of himself. Besides, he wasn’t an adult stranger. He
wouldn’t kidnap me.

“Okay,” I finally replied,
slipping my hand in his. His face appeared to relax. I sure hoped
he didn’t get us both lost.

“Where are your parents?” I asked,
suddenly realizing maybe they could help.

“Around here somewhere,” he
replied and a small frown touched his forehead. “Come with me,” his
voice was gentle but firm. He kind of reminded me of an
adult.

I kept up with him as he wove a
path through the bodies in our way. I tried to glance up at people
as we hurried by to see if I recognized anyone but I wasn’t having
any luck.

“There she is,” the boy said as he
stopped our pursuit and pointed a finger toward the sidewalk up
ahead.

Sure enough, there was my mommy
and she was really upset. A scared look was on her face as she
grabbed the arms of people passing by and spoke frantically to
them. I realized she was looking for me. Needing to reassure her I
pulled my hand from the boy’s and took off running in her
direction.

Her big, round, terrified eyes
found me and she let out a sob then began to call my name, “Pagan,
Pagan, Pagan!”

My eyes opened and the ceiling fan
greeted me, the sun streamed in through my window and my frustrated
mother banged on my door.

“You’re going to be late for
school. Now get up right this minute”

“I’m awake. Calm down,” I called
out in a voice hoarse from sleep and forced myself to sit
up.

“Finally, I swear girl, you’re
getting harder and harder to wake up. Now hurry up. I’ve made
pancakes for breakfast.”

“Okay, okay,” I muttered and rubbed
my sleepy eyes. I’d had another one of those dreams. Why was I
dreaming about snippets from my childhood and why was I just now
realizing that the same boy helped me out in each of my traumatic
experiences? I had forgotten about that day at the festival,
getting lost. But it had happened. I remembered it now. And that
boy... he’d been there. Why was he so familiar?

My bedroom door opened softly and
my concerns vanished at the sight of Dank stepping inside my room.
He’d started using my door instead of just appearing out of nowhere
and scaring the bejesus out of me. It was a small request that he
always tried to honor.

“She’s making pancakes... do you
think she’d let me have a few when I show up to pick you up for
school?”

His voice was deep and hypnotic.
Even now, I wanted to sigh and bask in the warmth it sent through
me. I stood up and closed the short distance between us. Stopping
right in front of him I placed both hands on his chest and smiled
up into his startling blue eyes.

“Until Leif shows up you’re not
exactly her favorite person. You know that.”

He frowned and I hated that my
mother was being so difficult. I didn’t like making him frown. But
unfortunately with my exboyfriend suddenly missing my mother was
blaming it on me breaking up with him for another guy. It isn’t
like I can tell her the truth. She’d think I was insane for real
this time and I’d never be let out of the mental house.

“Hey,” Dank said reaching out a
hand to cup my face, “stop it. This isn’t your fault. Besides we
both know I don’t need food. Her pancakes just smell
incredible.”

It can come in handy when he read
my emotions. Then other times it annoys me to no end.

“Well, maybe if you would explain
to me what exactly you meant by ‘Leif isn’t human’ then I wouldn’t
feel so guilty.”

Dank sighed and sank down on my bed
pulling me onto his lap. His blue eyes still held a trace of the
glow that ignited in them when he took a soul at the body’s time of
death. I wrapped my arms around his neck trying very hard to keep
the serious expression on my face. When he was this close it was
hard to think coherently.

“I told you that I’m not completely
positive what Leif is exactly. All I know is he has no soul. That’s
the only thing I know for certain.”

I tucked a lock of his dark hair
behind his ear and decided to give pouting a try.

“Well, what do
you
think
he
is?”

Dank raised his eyebrows and a sexy
dimple producing grin appeared on his face. “Pouting, Pagan?
Really? I expected more from you than that. When did my girl go all
underhanded on me...hmmm?”

I shoved his chest and stuck out my
tongue, “That isn’t underhanded.”

His amused laugh sent shivers of
pleasure down my spine. “Yes, Pagan it is. I don’t like for you to
pout. You know that.”

“PAGAN, GET DOWN HERE AND EAT!
YOU’RE GOING TO BE LATE,” my mother’s voice loudly carried up the
stairs.

“Go eat. I’ll be outside in twenty
minutes to pick you up,” he whispered in my ear before kissing my
temple and standing me up. I put my hands on my hips to argue but
he vanished before I could get a word out.

“Just because you’re Death doesn’t
mean you can get away with being rude,” I hissed into the empty
room just in case he was close enough to hear me.

With an annoyed humph, I headed to
the bathroom to get ready.

“You’re not going to have time to
sit down and eat breakfast if you intend on making it to first
period before the bell,” my mother said frowning as I walked into
the kitchen.

“I know, I’ll just take a pancake
with me,” I reached for one of the pancakes she’d piled on the
plate in the center of the table and felt instantly guilty for
taking so long to get ready. She’d obviously went out of her way to
make a nice hot meal for me to start my day and all I had time for
was to grab a pancake and eat it on my way out to Dank’s
Jeep.

“I’m sorry, Mom. I overslept. Thank
you for this,” I said leaning in to kiss her cheek before picking
up my book bag off the kitchen table.

“I need to get you an alarm clock,”
she mumbled and pulled out a chair to sit down.

“I promise tomorrow I’ll get up
thirty minutes earlier. Put the left overs in the fridge and we’ll
heat them up in the microwave in the morning and enjoy them
together.”

She didn’t smile but instead
frowned into her coffee cup. Dangit, she knew how to make me feel
bad.