Predestined (17 page)

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
before. 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.”