Wicked Destiny (21 page)

Epilogue

It’s been a month sinc
e the episode in the clearing. After I passed out Declan brought me back to my place. He felt that being back home might have sped up the process of me pulling through. It didn’t, of course. He explained that after the second day and he wondered if he should actually take me to the hospital just in case something was medically wrong. So by the third day he’d crawled in next to me in my bed and had held my hand as he fell asleep. That’s when we had our first dream date since all the chaos. I told him I had been waiting on him and that he was so late. 

After a couple of exercises
, I finally opened my eyes to find a teary-eyed Shay and one stressed out Declan. I wasn’t even able to get a word out before Shay’s arms were locked around my neck. Even though it wasn’t a great time to joke, I told her, “If you don’t loosen your grip, I’m going to pass out again.” She released me quick and Declan planted a long, single kiss on my forehead while he continued to smooth my hair. Looking at him, I mouthed the words, “Thank you.” That night I think we ordered pizza four times. I felt like I hadn’t eaten in weeks, well, a week actually. So there was lost time to make up for. 

Shay st
ayed with me for about a week more. She was paranoid to leave me alone, I guess, but after a week up under each other, we needed our space. Besides, I was never alone. Declan was with me now. I insisted we live together and he willingly complied. He wouldn’t let me go back to work, though, until this week. I didn’t complain. If I could make a living just lying in bed with Declan, I would. Technically, I could, but we needed to keep things interesting. Jared would stop by and bring me all the printouts and stuff that needed a signature. He could’ve emailed it, but I knew he wanted to see me too. As it turned out, everything I saw with Shay, Jared, and Mindy
that
day with Simon was just an illusion. Go figure. 

Today is the first day officially
back at the club as the owner. Everyone knew now and it was time for me to have a better approach. So I walked to work today. It was Wednesday afternoon and I brought with me all the papers that Jared dropped off. I needed to talk with him about ordering our supplies. I heard footsteps behind me and I whipped around only to find Simon standing there.

“What do you want?”
I asked as I slowly kept backing up.  I was ready to sprint, actually.

“No need to be alarmed
, dear Sloane. I was merely checking up on you.” He smiled as I stopped.

“I don’t need a babysitter
, so find someone else to scare,” I snapped.

“Slo
ane, I just wanted to warn you. Enjoy what peace you have at the moment, because he is watching you.” He pointed to the café on the corner where Crystal and Dee sat watching me. “Please, be on your toes. I can’t wait to see what else you have in store.” He smiled at me and faded away.
Creepy
, I thought to myself.

I kept my eye on the two
vamps as I walked to the club. I sent Declan a text telling him to get here fast. I glanced one final time in their direction and they were gone too. I hurried to unlock the door and then locked it back. Jared was already here. I wasn’t going to bother him with any of it
;
I just wanted to forget about it and concentrate on something human, like running my club. I knocked on Jared’s office door to let him know that I was there and I reluctantly poured myself a shot of patron. I brought the bottle with me as I sat down in the VIP section and pulled everything out of my bag. When I looked up, there was a woman standing in front of me. I looked for Jared, but he never came out of his office. He must not have been here yet.

“I’m sorry
, can I help you?” I knew for a fact I locked that door. She had to have come out of Jared’s office. We were going to have to have a talk about all these girls.

“You are so beautiful,” s
he said.

“Um
, thank you, but what can I do for you?” I was starting to feel uncomfortable.

Declan walked
in and interrupted her. I gave him a look to hurry up look and he walked over to join me.

“Who’s this?” h
e asked.

“I was just trying
to find out when you walked in.” I smiled sarcastically. “She told me I was beautiful.” I laughed a little and looked back at the woman.

“She’s right,” we both laughed.

“I’m sorry. Please, tell me what I can do for you.” I insisted.

“You
really have no idea who I am?” She looked hurt, and when I didn’t reply, she turned to walk out.

It was something in the air and th
e different facial expression. She was fairly young. She only looked to be a couple years older than me. She was quite beautiful also. She had dirty blonde hair, a nice curvy figure, and her skin was flawless. She was wearing a pair of blue jeans and a Nirvana t-shirt. But when she turned away, something flickered in her eyes like lightening. I jumped up and Declan followed.

“Wait!” I shouted.
She stopped and slowly turned around.

I walked
up to her, not believing for a moment what was going on. There was no possible way. This woman was only a little older than me, but here she was and how was that possible? I was too stunned, and from the looks of it, she knew I was grasping realization. She shook her head, and then I heard her in my head.
Yes,
she said, and I immediately jumped.

“Who is this
, Sloane?” Declan asked. 

I turned to look at him.
“It’s my mother.”

And w
e both looked just as confused.

###

The Wicked End

For now…

Read on for a sneak peek of book 2, Wicked Bound!

Wicked Bound

Prologue

I’m lying
in the tall grass as the sun warms me from the morning breeze. I smile to myself as I breathe in the smell of morning dew and a whiff of honey suckles. It’s been a while since I have been able to visit the clearing without fear of something coming after me. So I didn’t mind lying here for a minute or two without looking to see if I am actually alone. I fold my hands behind my head and smile a little bigger after realizing no one wants to disturb my piece of heaven, because they would have hell to pay. I mean that quite literally, of course. Although I haven’t used my powers since that night, I know they are still there. They remind me of an annoying person tapping on my shoulder, letting me know that even though I chose to ignore them, they are still there. I refuse to get pulled in again.

I l
ie there thinking about Declan and wonder if I can pull him into the dream, but instead I hear laughter. I open my eyes thinking I must be hearing things, until there it is again. I sit up and look around. The grass is at eye level as I sit there, so I have to stretch my neck to see over it. And just over the hill I can see something running through the grass. I’m sitting on my knees and I see her. It’s the little girl from my last dream. She’s picking flowers and skipping in circles, all while entertaining herself. I can’t help but smile to myself. I can see the top of her head bouncing around as she trots through the weeds. I get to my feet and dust myself off. I start to walk towards her, but she catches sight of me and freezes. It’s like she’s scared, but then she starts to walk towards me. I go to meet her halfway, but she throws a hand up and uses her other hand to put her index finger over her lips, telling me to be quiet and still. And I obey her. She’s smart for the age she appears to be.

She’
s picking wild flowers as she walks towards me, and she is so beautiful. She has long, curly blonde hair and her skin tone looks as if she was left at the beach and her eyes look purple. I can’t help staring at them. What is she? Just as she gets about thirty feet from me, she stops. She smiles at me and waves. I, of course, wave back and smile.

Just as she i
s about to continue to me, there is a whistle in the air. We both look in the direction it’s coming from and, in a flash, she takes off running. I try to keep up, but she is so fast. There is a man standing in the distance motioning with his arms for the young girl to hurry. As she gets close, he bends down to scoop her up. Her laughter fills the air and echoes around me and I don’t stop running because I have to know who these people are. I watch him turn with the little girl in his arms and begin to walk away. She’s waving bye to me over his shoulder and I’m running to top the hill with them as he already starts walking down. When I get to the top and looked down at them, the little girl starts pointing at me as if she’s telling the man to look. He stops in his tracks and starts to turn his head in my direction. Just as his face is coming into view, he bows his head and resumes walking away. 

I start to run towards them
, but I loose my footing and begin falling. I feel like Alice in Wonderland. The fall seems to last forever, although I never hit the ground. Something or
someone
stops me. There I go again. I vowed to not use my powers in dream and in reality, but this time it isn’t me. When I finally open my eyes that were shut so tight from anticipating the fall, I see the little girl’s eyes glowing and her hand stretches out to me. She stops me from falling.

She
starts to fade away as they keep walking away. 

When they
are gone, so is the hold she has on me and I meet the ground. 

Just as I brace
for the impact, I wake up.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

There are so many people that fall into this “Acknowledgement” category.  First, thank you to my family for putting up with the extra house work and the lack of attention while working on Wicked Destiny.   It was certainly not for nothing.  To my friends Mindy, Shay, Donna and Crystal, thank you for allowing me to bring my characters to life. Our fun-times downtown certainly helped bring the story to life.  To my friend, angel, and my personal cheerleader Peggy Martinez, you have certainly kept me going and pushing me to get this book finished when many times I wanted to give up.  Thank you for everything.