Page 47 of Wicked Dreams

“And I said, ‘I won’t stop until I’ve found you.’ I never did, Liv. I’ve searched for hundreds of years for you, baby. Then there you were. The woman of my dreams. In a dream.” He pressed a sweet kiss to my lips.

“What do we do now?” I whispered against his lips. “I don’t remember a lot, but I remember that I loved you. And I know that I do now.”

“We fight for one another. Just like always.”

“And ifhecomes for us? Then what?” I ventured, my body quivering with fright.

“Then we fight him too, baby. And this time, we win.”

Donovan

It was nearly 8 P.M. when we finally managed to pull ourselves away from one another. Letting her walk away was one of the hardest things I’d ever had to do, but I knew I was slowly gaining her trust and her love.

The school parking lot was dark and empty when I dropped her off at her car. I pressed my lips against hers one last time and watched as she climbed behind the wheel and drove off, leaving me alone.

Happiness and excitement coursed through me —things I hadn’t felt in hundreds of years. It was impossible to contain myself. I had to head back to tell Abe.

When I walked into my apartment in Hell, Abe was already there, yanking on his hair and pacing the floor. “It’s about damn time you got here,” he growled when I walked through the dreamscape.

“Why? Miss me?”

“It’s not me who’s missing you. It’shim. What the hell have you been doing that’s got you gone day and night, forweeks?”

“Olivia,” I answered as if it was the simplest thing in the world. “We’re getting closer, Abe. She’s falling in love with me. Can you believe it?”

His lips turned up into a wide smile. “You’re one step closer, my friend. Soon, you know who will be going you know where.”

I laughed as I shook my head and flung myself down onto the couch. “Why are you pacing the floor for anyway?”

“I wanted to know how things are coming along. And I wanted to know why you’ve been gone for weeks. Your absence hasn’t gone unnoticed, you know.” He dropped down onto the chair at my side.

“Weeks?” I sat up and looked at him, my brows furrowed in confusion. “It’s only been a couple of days.”

“Maybe up there it has, but downhere, you’ve been gone for weeks. And the king has noticed. I think he knows something’s up, man. I just wanted to warn you. You need to be more careful. You have to watch yourself, Donovan.”

“Fuck,” I mumbled while massaging my temples, a dull ache starting in my head. I hadn’t realized there was a time difference. Hell, I hadn’t even considered it. I’d been so caught up in having Liv back that I’d pushed my common sense away. “Have you heard anything? Does he know where I’ve been or who I’ve been with?”

“I don’t know, man. It’s not like he’d tellmeanyway. He only inquired if I knew your whereabouts.”

I pushed myself up, pacing just like Abe had been doing.

“What did you tell him?”

Abe’s eyes didn’t meet mine. Instead, he stared down at his hands. “I said I hadn’t seen you. Told him that I figured you were busy doing his bidding.”

“And?”

“And that’s it,” he cleared his throat and peered up at me. “Be careful, Donovan. I can’t stress that enough. Heknows. I know he does. He’s just waiting. You need to be thinking ahead in the event he gets her before you can break the curse. I’ve been doing some research. Talking to other demons. There are stories that the king put this curse on another, way before we were around. He got to the surface and tried to break the curse too. Only the devil took her back to Hell before he could. Andthatleft him stuck at the surface while she was down here. Youneedto finish this no matter the cost.”

“What happened to him? The one on the surface?”

“No one knows. Some say he still wanders the surface. Others say he became a monster that feeds on souls. There are talks that he was blessed by God and given a special place at His side. All I know is that he was never heard from again.”

“And her? The girl?” I asked tightly, my hands balled into fists at my side.

“Torn apart in the pits.” He shook his head sadly. “I don’t want that to happen to Olivia. Or you. This place sucks. I want to tear it down stone by stone,” his voice had become fierce, his dark eyes flashing dangerously. “And someday Iwill, no matter the cost.”

Something about the way he said that sent a flurry of chills throughout my body. But he was right. I needed to break this curse. If the devil was on my tail, I had no choice but to fight back. It was a corner I’d knowingly backed myself into.

---