Destined for Dreams: Book One (10 page)

“What’s wrong?” I ask. My mouth is dry and my words are hoarse.

“What did you see?” Jacqueline asks, leaning between the seats. “Are we going to die?”

Alyssa grips the steering wheel. “Really, you both need to stay calm,” she says again.

Panic seizes my chest. “Just tell us what you saw.”

“There’s road construction ahead and they’re redirecting traffic. Among the workers is an HPA agent marking the cars of any person he suspects could possibly be a supernatural being. It’s the perfect way to track and kill without people being suspicious.”

“What? They’ll know what we are!” My voice rises and Alyssa cringes.

She grabs my knee. “They won’t. I promise. We’re not the normal creatures they look out for. The agent won’t suspect a thing.”

“Why can’t we turn around?” Jacqueline asks.

My chest is so tight, it hurts to breathe. The world is heavy around me, suffocating me with fear and anxiety, and I rest my fingers on the door. It takes all my will power not to fly out of the car and run.

“It’ll cause suspicion. Trust me,” Alyssa says.

I blink back my tears and grip the arm rest. This is a big mistake. I know it. They’ll recognize what I am and murder me like they did my mother. I’m going to die in the front seat of this car. I can feel it.

I stare straight ahead in search of the person I should be most afraid of. A solid wall of cars blocks the street in front of us and we can’t turn around even if we wanted to.

“You’re making me nervous, Nadia,” Alyssa says. “Please, relax. We’re almost through.”

I take a deep breath. “I can’t. I can’t stay here and hope for the best. You need to pull over.”

Alyssa grips the wheel. “Don’t do this, Nadia.”

My mind is already set. I’d rather risk the streets alone than face a potential threat, trapped in a car, with nowhere to run. I couldn’t defend myself if I wanted to. I don’t even know how to fight.

We’re less than five car lengths from the construction zone where it looks like a water pipe burst. I unlatch my seatbelt, fling my door open, and jump out.

HUNTER

“Say something to calm Nadia down, Jacqueline,”
I say.

Nadia thrusts her door open and jumps out. Her wide, frightened indigo eyes peer around and she spins on her toes. She’s crazed with fear and I wish I had my body so I could jump out after her and reassure her that she’s safe.

I’d be lying though. I can’t protect her. My uselessness pains me. If Nadia is caught by the agent, I’ll never see her again, and then what will I do? I need her to help me.

Alyssa unbuckles her seatbelt and shifts to look at us. “Stay here.”

Jacqueline nods. “I wasn’t planning on going anywhere.”

Alyssa jumps from the driver’s side and leaves the car idling in the middle of traffic. Jacqueline watches the two girls argue through the window.

“You should help Alyssa,”
I say.

“Be quiet, Hunter. She told me to stay here.”

NADIA

I cover my ears, protecting them from the hammering sound of breaking concrete, and spin around, not touching my feet firmly to the ground.

A car door slams and Alyssa rushes around the hood of the car, leaving Jacqueline in the backseat. Cars honk and a few people yell, but she doesn’t acknowledge them. She reaches out to grab me and I glide back, finding myself at the mouth of an alley between buildings.

Her eyes glass over. “Get back in the car.” Her eyebrows pinch together in worry.

“Just leave me alone.” I glance behind me.

“Don’t make us abandon the car.” She tugs my arm.

I push her and slam her into the wall. I’m not going to let her pull me back to the car. “I’m not making you do anything.” My heart races. I need to get out of here, but I don’t have a plan. All I know is I’m not getting back into the car. I can’t.

Alyssa frowns and glances toward the street. “Fine, just let me get Jacqueline. We can all go to The Haven by foot and see about getting a ride back home.”

A cold chill slithers down my back. I stare down the empty alleyway. It dead ends into a chain-link fence with another street on the other side of it.

Someone clears their throat and I turn my head in the direction of the traffic. A tall, well-built man with his dark brown hair pulled back into a small bun stands on the sidewalk facing me. “Let the girl go and I won’t kill you,” he says, glaring, crinkling his dull brown eyes.

I shake my head. “This is a misunderstanding.” I glide a foot back and immediately regret the action. I was careless for not being more aware of my footing. From the way his eyebrows arch, I know he noticed my fluid, unnatural motion.

“Keep your hands down and walk to me slowly. I’m not gonna hurt you.” His accent is subtle, but noticeable, and creepier with the way he reaches into his long jacket.

I see the glint of a knife before he even shows it. I can’t catch my breath and my world closes around me, making it hard to focus on anything but the sparkle of the blade. This man isn’t just some Good Samaritan. He’s an HPA agent. I recognize his knife. It’s like the one that killed my mother and it’s going to be the one that kills me, too.

10
. CAN'T STAY FOREVER

HUNTER

“Oh, my god.” Jacqueline’s words ring out through the car and she unbuckles her seatbelt.

Nadia pushes Alyssa against the wall and a man in an all black uniform slides from in between cars and walks past us without a second glance. He stands in the mouth of the alley, blocking Nadia and Alyssa in, and he reaches for the knife attached to the weaponry belt hidden under his long jacket.

“Don’t just sit here. Do something!”

“Like what? He has a knife. He’ll kill us all,” Jacqueline thinks.

“No, he’ll kill your friends if you don’t do something.”

Jacqueline opens her door, but doesn’t get out. “He’ll kill me if I do.”

NADIA

I brace myself as the agent struts closer. He smiles and wags his eyebrows as he pulls his concealed knife from under his jacket and twirls it between his hands. He’s trying to intimidate me. I’m not going to give him the satisfaction of seeing me cry.

“Don’t hurt her!” Alyssa rushes the agent with a broken brick. She throws it and hits his chest.

He laughs and grabs her arm. “Do you even know who you’re dealing with? I’m trying to help you.”

A scream rips from my throat, echoing off the walls, and I find myself flying forward. I crash into the man’s back and he stumbles, losing his balance, and we both fall to the ground. The man jerks his elbow behind him and hits me in the ribs and I cry out. The wind is knocked from me and I can’t breathe. I roll to my side and press my back against the brick wall of the building. Loose gravel embeds in my cheek and all I can do is watch as the man jumps to his feet and goes after Alyssa because she keeps throwing whatever she finds at him.

Alyssa dodges the knife with such grace and agility that she could easily run to safety if she wanted to. She manages to slide past him and deeper into the alley. If she’d just turn and run, she could escape, but instead, her eyes shift to mine.

“Go,” I mouth. I’m useless until I can get back to my feet.

In that split second, the man launches at Alyssa and grazes the knife along her arm. She jumps backwards and hits her back on the opposite wall. I watch in horror as the man jabs at her again, almost stabbing her shoulder, but she drops to her knees and rams into the man’s legs, knocking him down.

It takes everything in me to find my footing and get up. The man should have less of an advantage facing two people, but he does have a weapon. I search the alley as Alyssa dances out of the reach of the agent and I spot an empty bottle a few feet away.

I pick it up and smash the bottle over the man’s head. He huffs and swivels, grabbing my arm. I scream and stab the broken bottleneck into his shoulder and he tightens his grip, yanking me onto him.

“I don’t really want to hurt you, girl,” he says to Alyssa.

Alyssa clutches her arm. “Yet you won’t stop waving your knife around.”

The man’s fingers dig into my arm. “Seriously, if you just walk away, no one gets hurt.”

Alyssa stares past the man to me and she holds my eyes while she says, “Okay.” I blink to keep my tears from spilling. It’s what I want her to do, but it doesn’t hurt any less. I’d rather die knowing that my best friend is alive and safe than die knowing that she died with me.

The man relaxes and pulls me up with him, aiming the knife at Alyssa before training it against my neck. The blade is cold on my bare skin and he walks backwards with me against him toward the opening of the alley.

“I’m sorry, Lys,” I say. I close my eyes. I can’t bear the thought of her watching me die.

“Let her go!”

HUNTER

The agent spins while holding Nadia, and keeps his knife trained on her neck. With a single jerk of his arm, he could kill her.

The agent grins. “Now why would I do that?”

Jacqueline meanders forward, with her arms raised in a non-threatening manner. “Because she’s not the one you should be afraid of.”

Alyssa jumps on the agent’s back and throws him off balance and he releases Nadia. Nadia falls to her knees and Alyssa runs to her friend.

Jacqueline rushes the agent and grips his arm and digs her nails into his skin. The agent freezes and stares into Jacqueline’s eyes. She glares and tugs him closer to her until they’re only a foot apart.

“I have a deal with Dr. Sullivan,” Jacqueline whispers. “The board will be furious if you mess up their plan.”

The man scowls. “You lying monster.”

“I don’t think he knows, Jacqueline,”
I say.

Jacqueline ignores me. “Are you willing to find out?”

The man pushes Jacqueline and she stumbles back and hits the wall. He jerks his arm up, his knife aimed at Jacqueline’s chest, and when he steps forward, Nadia screams. The world shifts as Jacqueline turns and Nadia throws herself at the agent. She’s inhumanely fast, her feet not touching the ground, but the agent manages to grab her hair. He thrusts her head back, presses his knife to her alabaster skin, and then Jacqueline turns away.

NADIA

My neck stings as the agent’s blade nicks my skin. I should’ve run. Alyssa and I could’ve made it back to the car, but I couldn’t leave Jacqueline. It wouldn’t have been right. If Jacqueline dies, Hunter would die too.

I close my eyes.

“Nadi, no!” I swear it’s my father’s voice.

The man’s chest hits my back and we fall forward and collide with the ground. His heavy weight is yanked off me and I gasp for air. The man moans and I blink a dozen times to regain my vision. The world spins as someone pulls me to my feet.

Alyssa’s green eyes are wide, startled, and stare past me and into the alley. My mouth falls open and my heart nearly explodes at the sight of my father wrestling the man to the ground. My father’s arms are so fast, they almost blur as he fights the man into submission.

Without looking up, he yells, “Run! Get out of here!”

“I don’t want to leave you!” I cry.

He glances at me, his eyebrows pointed in anger. “Alyssa, get her out of here. This isn’t the only agent.”

Jacqueline runs ahead of us and Alyssa drags me from the alley and back to the car. She pushes me onto the backseat next to Jacqueline and then rushes to the driver’s side and hops in. She starts the engine and merges into traffic and even though I can’t see what’s happening in the alley, I stare at the entrance, hoping to see my father come out. By the time we pass through the construction zone, no one has come out of the alley, and Alyssa turns left, leaving my father behind with an agent trained to kill him.

HUNTER

“I think your mother lied about our deal,” Jacqueline thinks. She twists her fingers together. “She was never going to give me my freedom.”

“You don’t know that. The board isn’t always so open with their plans.”

“At least I don’t have to worry about them now.”

I want to yell.
“Must be nice to not have to worry about what happens next.”

Jacqueline ignores me. She shifts in her seat and looks at Nadia. “You saved my life,” she says to her.

Alyssa looks at us in the rearview mirror. “I think we kind of all saved each other.”

Nadia doesn’t say a word. She leans her head back and stares at the roof of the car. Her hands shake on her lap and she doesn’t move. Jacqueline reaches over and touches Nadia’s knee and Nadia glances over at us in her peripheral vision and then looks back at the roof.

Not only did an HPA agent murder her mother, the fight with the agent today rattled Nadia so much that I’m sure she’ll never agree to help me if she finds out that my mom is a board member. She’ll take Jacqueline’s side and I’ll be living out the rest of my life as a body-less soul with the worst luck.

I hate the HPA.

I hate my mom.

I hate my life.

NADIA

We make it back to the compound in time to find Mr. Soto heading toward the guest apartment. Jacqueline stays with him and I stroll next to Alyssa as we walk around the perimeter of the compound.

I can’t stop thinking about how I almost died today. I would’ve died if my father wouldn’t have showed up to save us. I’m confused about Jacqueline, too. She put her own life in danger so I’d have a fighting chance. She didn’t have to do that. Now my head and my heart are at constant battle over whether or not I should visit Hunter again.
You promised him...