Wicked Destiny (7 page)

“I can leave if you need to be alone.”

I didn’t even open my eyes. “I thought you told me you weren’t going anywhere? Have I asked you to leave? No, I haven’t, so shut up and lay back. I’m tired now.” He did as I said and laid back on the couch, stretching out his legs. I laid my head on his chest and covered us up with the throw blanket. Immediately, I drifted off.

Chapter 6

I know I’m dreaming, because I’m standing in front of the lake again. I was cold; being dressed in a silk nightgown will do that. Why do I wear these things in my dreams knowing I would never wear them in real life? Apparently shoes are out of the question, too. I turn to go inside my old apartment, but I’m locked out. I hear something galloping through the woods and I step off the porch to see what it is. And unfortunately, I can’t see it. Whatever it is, though, it’s coming fast and it’s very large. I run up the side stairs to see if I can get in through my bedroom’s sliding glass door, but it too is locked. I race down the stairs and to the main house. Everything is locked up and now I’m beginning to panic. I have no shoes; I’m in this dress like nightgown and something is chasing me in the middle of the night.

I begi
n to run through the woods and away from the house, especially the cabin. It doesn’t matter, because I know these woods better than anyone. After all, I grew up here. As I’m running, I begin to hear the snapping of trees and whatever is chasing me is coming fast. It starts calling out my name, “Sloane,” in a very creepy and melodramatic tone. I break out of the trees and into the open pasture. I get to the middle of the clearing and I stop. I realize then that this is my dream and I’m in control. I stand there waiting, and as it comes barreling down towards me, I throw my hands up and screamed out, “Stop!” Well, it stops alright and right in its tracks. It’s total darkness. I can’t see anything that resembles a person, or even a very large person. Just as I straighten up, looking into the black abyss, it grabs me by my throat and squeezes. “You. Are. Mine.”

I jumped up
and grabbed my throat, desperately gasping for air. I was fear-stricken and didn’t know where I was, more less who was actually with me. Viktor reached for me and I began to scream and fight as if I was being attacked.

“Sloane, look at me!
Look at me, Sloane. It was a dream. Baby, please breathe for me!” He had my head between his hands as he looked me straight in the eyes so that I knew it was him. I took one big gasp of air.

“It had me…
It said I was his… I couldn’t breathe.” I began to cry in his arms as he held me.  I never had a nightmare before and I could go without ever having another one.

“Shh, I got you. Nothing is going to get you.”
He rocked me until I fell back to sleep.

I d
idn’t dream at all after that. Whatever that was, I hoped I never met it again. I slept until two in the afternoon and Viktor must have finally put me to bed. But there was no sign of him when I awoke. Looking up at the ceiling, I thought about everything that happened and realized I needed to stop saying things couldn’t get worse, because they could and would.

I got up and did the bathroom routine and came out to the living room hoping to see
a sign of Viktor, but I didn’t. He must have cleaned the place up before he left. I walked into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator and there was a glass of orange juice with a note on top of it:

Drink up! I won’t be long.
I had to take a call and didn’t want to wake you. Tonight will be better, I promise. Call Shay to see if she wants to have dinner before you go to work. My treat. -Viktor

So I did what I was told and then went to my closet, realizing I had a new outfit in the bag from yesterday’s shopping trip. Shay and I bought matching pants and these pants were something else. I couldn’t even begin to tell you what fabric they were made up of. It wasn’t pleather, or even leather. They were really shiny, though, and felt like velvet when you slipped them on. I bought a red halter top to go with it and Shay got a blue one. Now that the outfit was laid out, I needed to get ready. Before I jumped into the shower, I sent Shay a text telling her to meet me at the Cannon Brew Pub. I waited for an answer, but nothing came through. She must’ve been in the shower too.

I took care of all the grooming necessities and I finally got a text back from Shay saying her parents were in town and she would just see me a
t work. So it was just me and Viktor tonight.  After touching up my make-up and getting dressed, I took one final look and was satisfied. The knock at the door told me it was Viktor. I answered and he stood there behind a bouquet of roses of all different colors.

“I didn’t know which ones were your favorites
, so I told them to put all of them in there.” He handed me the flowers and I gave him a peck on the cheek. I hurried to put them in the empty vase that sat on my counter in the kitchen, and then we were off.

We got to the
Cannon Brew at about six o’clock. It was packed, but not too bad. It was loud enough to ask questions that were bothering me from yesterday, especially the comment he made about the things that go bump in the night. That thing in my dream, yeah, I wanted to know what it was so that I could avoid it at all costs.

“Do you remember when you said there were actual thi
ngs that go bump in the night? Well, what did you mean by that exactly?” I couldn’t hold back anymore. I at least made sure we were seated.

“Well, we already established Angels
, but there are demons, fairies, vamps, weres, and witches. Everything that’s good and evil, you name it, and it’s real. Some of your friends, too.”

“Wait, what about my friends
? Shay?”

“No, Shay is very much human, but Dale and Mindy are
both supernatural beings.”

“Supernatural beings?”

“Mindy is a succubus and Dale is the male equivalent called an incubus.”

This was just mind-blowing. I
owned one of the most prominent nightclubs in town and two of my employees weren’t even human. I guess it was something I was going to have to start adding to the application. 

“Is there anyone else I need to know about?”

“Well, as a matter of fact, your friend Jared is in line for an Imp position.”

“
A
what
position?”

“An Imp
. He’d be like a recruiter for souls. He’s in the right job field to do that.”

“T
o hell with that. He’s gone!”

The look on Viktor’s
face scared me a little. It was a cross between shock and
who the hell do you think you are?
There was no way that there were going to be any recruiting going on at my place.

“Are you going to fire Dale and Mindy too?”

“No, because they aren’t taking a person’s soul.”

“Maybe not their souls
, but they take years off of people’s lives.”

“
What?
You know what, I’m leaving. This is too much.”

Our food had
n’t arrived yet, but I needed to get Shay the hell out of that club. I called her cell and her phone went straight to voicemail. I left a message and made sure I told her not to come into work tonight, that I would explain later. As soon as I stepped out onto the sidewalk, it was like the world stood still. I turned to see if I was the only one seeing this, but all I saw was Viktor walking towards me.

“What did you do?”

“Nothing, they aren’t hurt.”

“Then stop it.
Unfreeze them or whatever it is that you did.”

“The only way you can stop someone from making decisions is to freeze time itself.”

“This isn’t right. How can you see logic in watching people sign their souls away for something worthless?”

“It is not for you to decide.”

“Then what is your job, Viktor? You aren’t exactly walking the straight and narrow, so what’s in it for you?”

“My job? You know what my job is.
I’m a consultant.”

“Yea
h, but a consultant of what though, exactly?” I cautiously took a step back.

“Please
, don’t fear me, Sloane. I would never hurt you.”

“Why me
, Viktor? Why are you here with me? What’s in it for you?”

“Sloane,
you’re overreacting. Please come here, because I’m about to unfreeze everything and you are standing in the middle of the road.”

             
Looking around, I noticed I was standing between two cars. At the end of the road I could see everything slowly starting to move and something was wrong with my legs at the moment.  They wouldn’t move and Viktor must have sensed the panic because just as soon as the cars came to life, like a flash, Viktor had me in his arms and we were standing on the other side of the street from the restaurant. My arm clung to his neck and my face buried into his chest.

“I told you, I will never harm you
, Sloane. I’m damned only because I didn’t choose a side.”

Glancing
up, I couldn’t hold back the tears. Everything just became too real and I didn’t want to be anywhere but there in Viktor’s arms. For some odd reason I felt safer there than I did in a long time. 

“What do I do now?
I can’t just allow this to continue in my club.”

“Sloane,
it’ll happen no matter what. Here or at another place, it’s going happen.”

“Does anyone get hurt?”

“You have your mishaps, but regardless of what’s to come in the end, these people are happy because they get what they want. They bargain for what will make them happy.”

At that moment I couldn’t talk anymore about what just happened
, or everything else. I needed a shot of something fast. I started to gather my footing and righted myself. At the same time, I needed to see for myself. 

“I better get in there and figure out how I’m
going to get through tonight. Will you be here all night just in case?”

“You know I will.
Even when you think I’m not there, I am.”

“What do you mean by that?” Viktor stepped back and disappeared
, and then reappeared. 

I searched the
faces in the street to see if they’d just seen what I just saw and, surprisingly, no one did. Everyone kept going as if nothing had happened. 

“Ok
ay, this is just TMI right now. Please, no more tricks. I’m not sure what I might do next.”

“That’s fine.
I’m going to grab us some sandwiches since we didn’t get to eat. See you inside?”

“Yea
h, that’s fine.” He gave me a quick kiss on the cheek and he was off. 

             
I walked into the club about an hour earlier than normal and I took a look around. I thought about shutting the club down, but then I realized it wouldn’t fix the problem. I walked to the closet, trying to figure out if there was anything for me to do. As I put my purse up, I heard employees walking in. I peeped my head out to see who it was and I saw Jared heading to his office and the DJ walking to his booth. I knew then that I would start with Jared. Walking out of the closet, I made my way to Jared’s office.

“Hey
, Sloane. Want to hear something special before work?” asked Stan, the DJ, stopping me in my tracks.

“How about some Linkin Park and Sleeping With Sirens?”

“Coming right up.”

I
finally stopped right in front of the office door, confused about whether I should knock or just barge in. What was I afraid of? In reality, I was his boss. He didn’t know that, of course, but he was about to find out. So, I walked right in just like I owned the place.

“Something wrong
, Sloane? You’re a whole hour early.”

“I need to talk to you.”

“Sure, what is it? Man problems?” He smiled at me.

“No it’s Imp
problems.” It certainly got his attention.

“Imp problems? I’m not following.”
I strolled over to him and leaned over the desk he sat behind.

“Oh
, I think you do, and I suggest you do your recruiting elsewhere or you will find yourself out on your ass.” 

“I think you fo
rgot who your boss is, cupcake. If anyone will be tossed out on their ass, it will be you. So before you piss me off any further, I think you should leave.”

Oh
, he had my blood boiling then. Without even thinking, I reached across the desk and snatched him up by his shirt. I dragged him clear across his desk and slammed him to the floor.  The look of terror in his eyes gave him confirmation that I knew exactly what Imp business he had going on. I picked him up and slammed him back against his desk.

“Now that I have your undivided attention
, let me make this clear to you. I am the silent owner of this place. You answer to me and me alone. This is your final warning. If you want to stay, do your recruiting somewhere else on your own time, and not mine.” 

I turned to walk out
, and for once since everything’s been going on, I refused to worry about the color of my eyes and freaking people out. For the first time I felt inside my own element. As I grabbed the door handle to leave, I sensed Jared coming at me. I spun around to look and he was already there, grabbing me by my face and pinning me.