Page 14 of Wicked Dreams

Donovan

In time, I learned a few things. And I didn’t think they were just coincidences. I couldseeher, Olivia in her world. Whenever I stepped into dreamscape, I could make out her form, red hair and all. The sight was blurry and a bit unfocused, but Iknewit was her.

Over the coming days, I became obsessed. She’d barely been sleeping. Whenever she started to dream and I stepped into the room with her, she awakened, a wistful look of longing on her beautiful face. After our time together at the waterfall, it was hard not to lose my mind. It was like she never left me two hundred years ago. We fit together, a perfect match. Time hadn’t changed a damn thing in that respect. My heart still went crazy for her. I’d missed her over the long years, but it was nothing compared to how much I missed her now. It was like the old flame had gasoline poured on it and was roaring out of control.

Not being able to catch her in her dreams had me in knots. I knew things weren’t going well for her at school. She was being bullied relentlessly. I’d gathered that much information just from the short time I’d been with her. It boiled the blood in my veins until it was lava. For days, I’d been silently begging her to fall asleep andstayasleep, so I could visit her in her dreams.

Frustrated, I was sitting in my apartment in Hell when there was a knock on my door, pulling me from all my thoughts of her.

“Abe, what do you want?” I asked, pulling the door open to find him staring at me, his dark skin seemingly darker than last time I’d seen him months ago.

“It’s not whatIwant, Donovan. It’s whathewants. The king.” Abe’s deep tenor greeted me.

“Tell him to fuck off,” I snapped, walking away from the door but leaving it ajar. Abe took it as an invitation and stepped into my sparse living room, closing the door behind him,

“Listen, Donovan,” Abe sighed, his voice gruff. “You did this to yourself. Youknowthat. It’s been two hundred years, man. When are you going to just accept that things are what they are, andthisis your life now? Just do what the king says and get it over with. Then maybe you’ll get to come back here and do whatever the hell it is you do. Maybe then he’ll set you free.”

I snorted at my old friend. Abe and I went way back. We’d come screeching into Hell around the same time almost a thousand years prior. We’d become fast friends, both of us rising in rank together. Until I fell from grace while he watched, horrified.

“You havenoidea the shit I do here.” I shook my head bitterly as I flopped back down on my couch and opened up a Flamethrower, Hell’s version of a beer, and threw it back, guzzling it down like a dehydrated man in the desert.

“Of course, I don’t.” Abe looked at me earnestly. “We barely talk. We haven’t in a long time. You’ve shut me out, man.”

I didn’t say anything as I sat there, looking down at my clasped hands.

“It’s been twohundredyears, Donovan. When you going to talk about it? Huh?” Abe ventured, coming to sit in the chair across from me. “No one even knows what happened or what went down.”

“What do you want, Abe? Story time?” I asked softly.

“I just want to know what the hell happened, man. I want to know why you don’t come around anymore. We lost a good soldier when you left—”

“You know as well as I do that I didn’tleave.” I finally looked at him. He sat silently in front of me, not saying a word. “Aren’t you going to tell me that I need to go see the king and instead of telling you this story?”

“No,” Abe replied with a shrug. “I know you won’t listen anyway. You never did. That’s one of the reasons you’re sitting there the way you are now. In two hundred years, you haven’t spoken about it. There are rumors. Demons saying you slept with the one the king chose to be his queen. Demons saying you’ve been cursed.”

“Why are you really here, Abe?” I sighed, leaning back in my seat. “You’re right. It’s been two hundred years since it happened. And you chosetodayto come ask about it? Why? What do you know?” I cocked my head and studied him. He’d always been hard to read.

“I hear things,” his voice was low as he glanced around my apartment. “Strange things.”

“Oh yeah?” I asked dryly, not wanting to appear interested, but I was burning up inside to know what he’d heard.

“Word in the pits is that the king’s looking for someone. A red-haired someone.”

The hair rose on the back of my neck. I swallowed hard and cleared my throat.

“And?”

“And I think we both know who that someone is, Donovan.” His dark eyes surveyed me carefully before continuing, “I want to help.”

“What?” I crinkled my brows at him.

“You heard me. You know Ihatethat son of a bitch. Since the moment I laid eyes on him, I knew he’d make my eternity a nightmare. Whatever you’re up to, I want in.”

“No way.” I didn’t even need to think about it. There was no way I’d make my punishment someone else’s.

“You know me, Donovan. You know when I set my mind to something I finish it. And I won’t stop until you let me in on what you’re doing. Iknowyou’re up to something. If it’s possible, you’re even more secretive than you were before. Tell me everything. I know I can help you.”

I surveyed him closely for a moment. Abe always had been honest and loyal, which was strange since he’d somehow ended up here. Maybe Hell could change a guy. And Abe always did have connections. He’d never let me down in the past, and I knew he hated our king as much as I did.

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