Free Predestined by Abbi Glines

of power at being
able to handle this situation myself. Instead of waiting on Dank to
set the bitch straight I was doing it.
    “Don’t,” the girl backed up against
the wall and I kept my angry glare fixed on her loving her
horrified expression. This was fun.
    “Pagan, stop.”
    I froze at the sound of Dank’s
voice as he stepped in between the two of us. The sweat on his
chest had soaked into his shirt and it clung even tighter to his
skin. Then he turned and looked back at the other girl.
    “What’s going on?” I heard him ask.
What? Why was he worried about her?
    “She attacked me, I was just trying
to talk to her and she just attacked me,” the girl blubbered in
tears. She was crying? Dang, she even sounded
believable.
    “I didn’t touch her.
She--”
    “Not now, Pagan,” Dank interrupted
me and I stood there gaping at him and the girl he was apparently
consoling. Had I just stepped into some alternate universe? None of
this made sense.
    “She... she hissed at me,” the girl
stuttered, pointing one of her long red nails in my direction.
Well, maybe I had done that. But she’d called me a slut.
    “She called--” I began and once
again Dank cut me off.
    “Wait, Pagan.”
    Confusion quickly turned to anger
and I didn’t wait until he finished talking to the girl and
listening to her mouthful of lies. He should be asking ME if I was
okay. Not her. I wasn’t going to stand around and listen to this.
And I sure as hell wasn’t going to stand there and try to defend
myself to him if he wasn’t going to even give me a chance to talk.
I stalked toward the back entrance expecting Dank to get a clue and
follow me but once I opened the back door that we’d entered when we
arrived he still hadn’t come after me.
    Hurt, furious, and confused I
stared out into the night. I didn’t have a car. Dank wasn’t coming
after me. And he’d just completely blown me off and left me to hang
in there. Tears blurred my eyes and I started to wipe them away and
decided to leave them alone. No one was here to see me
cry.
    “I’ll take you home,” Leif’s voice
startled me. Spinning around I found him leaning up against his
truck watching me.
    Not wanting him to see me cry, I
wiped at the tears running down my face. I couldn’t get in a truck
with Leif. He was an evil spirit after my soul. The concerned frown
on his face reminded me of the boy who’d come to the hospital to
see me after my wreck. He’d been so worried he’d slept outside in
the waiting room all night. My entire life Leif had been there when
I needed someone. Nothing about him was ever scary. Never once did
he let me down. I glanced back at the closed door wishing Dank
would walk through it but nothing happened. Anger burned my throat
and my heart ached.
    “Sure, thanks Leif. I could use a
ride.”
     
     
    Dank
     
    Letting Pagan walk off hurt and
upset had almost been impossible. But the more distance she put
between herself and the soulless creature in front of me the
better. The anger and pain rolling off of her had been so
distracting. I needed to figure out what this thing was. I couldn’t
do that with Pagan distressed behind me. I’d wanted to wrap her up
in my arms and reassure her but I couldn’t give this thing a chance
to get away.
    “Who are you?” I growled, glaring
down at the blonde.
    She smirked and straightened up
from her cowering stance once Pagan rounded the corner.
    “No one you know Dankmar,” she
replied and ran a long red fingernail up my shirt, “but we could
change that.”
    I slapped her hand away with enough
force that she gasped in pain. Good. I wanted her to hurt. She’d
been too close to Pagan. And my foolishly brave girl had been
glaring her down like she could take on a demon from Hell with her
bare hands.
    “You’re beneath me,” I reminded her
in a cold flat voice. “Now tell me why you were near my Pagan.” I
demanded.
    She shrugged and crossed her arms
over her chest, “I did what I was told to do.