Page 18 of Wicked Dreams

As my black blood pooled to the surface, my fleshed burned, causing me to scream in pain. The heat radiated from my heart and swirled around every inch of my body until I could no longer hold onto consciousness.

I shook the memory from my mind as I stepped foot into the room I hadn’t been inside of in two centuries. The devil sat before me on his black throne with his red eyes locked on me as I approached him and dropped to my knees.

“My king,” I addressed him.

“Donovan.” He nodded his acknowledgement. “It’s been many years, my old friend.”

“That it has,” I agreed.

“I see you’ve adapted to your new lifestyle well. You’ve been delivering many souls this past week especially.”

I shrugged. “What else is there to do? I might as well fuck myself into exhaustion. That’s what you wanted, isn’t it? Besides, you can’t take her from me in dreams.”

His red eyes narrowed as his lips formed a tight line. “I see you still haven’t learned your lesson —” He shook his head. “—dreaming about the one you’ll never touch again.” A sneer appeared on his face from no doubt thinking about the eternity of pain he was forcing me to live.

“The only lesson I’ve learned is that you’re a sick son of a bitch who gets pleasure out of watching others suffer.”

He laughed. “Hello!I’m the king of Hell. You think I got to where I am by playing with kittens and creating rainbows?” He let out another chuckle. “No! I got here by toying with twisted souls and creating demons to deal on my behalf.” He stood from his throne. “You forget that this—” He motioned around the room— “is supposed to be a punishment. You were denied entrance to Heaven. I was kind enough to accept you and bring you into myhome. And you paid me back my stealing my queen? You expect mercy? Fromme?”

My teeth ground together on their own, causing a bout of pain to flare up in my jaw. I kept my eyes forward, no longer giving him what he wanted: a fight.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. “I want these souls. It’s time I found myself a new plaything. It’s your job to deliver.” He passed me the paper and I grabbed it from his clutches, not bothering to read it. “In case you don’t know how this works, you have their names. Concentrate on that, and you’ll find them in dreamscape. I’d say enjoy, but honestly, I hope you don’t.”

He turned and walked back to his throne. “You’re dismissed.”

I stood, shoved the paper into my pocket and turned for the door.

“Oh and, Donovan?”

I spun around to face him, pure hatred boiling beneath my skin.

“You have one month.”

Olivia

Oh God. I was falling. My hands came out to stop myself. They landed on my desk with a thump, causing me to open my eyes and jump in surprise. A few students snickered as my face heated.

I’d fallen asleep in class.Again. It had to be the sixth time this week. I was exhausted. I hadn’t been sleeping. It wasn’t because I didn’t want to. I very much did. But the dream with Donovan had been sorealthat I couldn’t bear to go back in only to wake up to find it was just a dream. I couldn’t count the number of times I’d prayed for him to be real.

After only three dreams with him, I was hooked. I wanted him. My heart ached after waking up and remembering he wasn’t real. I didn’t want to get attached to something that wasn’t there. I needed to be out in the real world, trying to make it through.Survive.As much as I wanted to go back to my dreams, I knew I shouldn’t.

A flash of his beautiful face and his hand reaching out to me filled my sight before the clanging of the bell sucked me back out of dreamland. Sighing tiredly, I quickly grabbed my books and rushed off to my locker to deposit them.

Gym class was next. I hated it. It wasn’t that I was bad at sports. In fact, I was rather good at them. It was just I preferred to remain in the background like always. I caught shit for my athleticism just as I much as I did for anything else.

With a groan, I trudged off to gym, telling myself today wouldn’t be so bad. The entire week had been crap. While I hadn’t spoken to Brent, I’d heard the rumors. Apparently, in a drunken haze, I’d gone upstairs with him and screwed his brains out. Oh, and I wasn’t very good at it.Figured.

“Hey, slut,” Jasmine Marcel sneered at me as I entered the locker room. I didn’t acknowledge her. She was Brent’s opposite. If he was king dipshit, then she was queen bitch. Her gaggle of equally bitchy cronies sniggered as I passed by. I caught myself from hitting the wall as Chasity Bolton’s foot came out and tripped me. My face burned as the girls burst into fits of giggles.

“So pathetic,” Jasmine tittered with her friends. Feeling humiliated and less than human, I began changing clothes.

“Brent said your tits are fake,” Jasmine called out to me.

“Whatever,” I muttered, pulling my gym shorts on.

“He also said your pussy is dry, and he felt like he was fucking a hallway.” The girls burst into peals of laughter as my face heated once more. I paused long enough to take a deep breath before tugging my t-shirt into place.

“Hey, Olivia!” Brenda Cameron, a dark-haired beauty who oozed cruelty, shouted out to me. I turned to look at her and was hit with a face full of water from her sports bottle.

---