Dark Saviors: The Consequence of Destiny Novella Read online

  Dark Saviors

  The Consequence of Destiny Novella

  Brittany Cournoyer

  Copyright © 2018 by Brittany Cournoyer

  All rights reserved. No part of this may be reproduced, copied or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Any names, characters, places or events are purely the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, actual events, establishments, businesses or locales is purely coincidental.

  The amazing book cover was done by:

  Soxsational Cover Art

  http://www.soxsationalcoverart.com/index.html

  This is a fantasy book that does contain gay male characters with adult language and adult situations.

  Chapter One

  “So that’s how we defeated the witches,” Kimmie explained after chewing up her last bite of pizza.

  “We definitely went out with a bang, didn’t we?” Courtney added.

  “That we did,” Kimmie mused , giving me a huge grin.

  “You two are shitting me, right?” I had to ask.

  “I wish Courtney and I were, but no. Somehow, we were fated to live this crazy life.”

  “So you mean to tell me, that you two, and some other friends of yours who can shift into wolves, went on missions across the country to battle paranormal beings that supposedly exist?”

  They both nodded solemnly. “If you don’t want to believe us, it’s okay. We don’t tell many people, and when we do, they have the same reaction.”

  “So, why did you tell me?”

  Kimmie shrugged and took a sip of her soda. “You seemed trustworthy enough.”

  “You definitely gave off that vibe.”

  I stared at my two dinner companions and tried to process what they told me, and whether or not I should believe them.

  When I’d met Kimmie and Courtney, I’d literally run into them at the grocery store with my cart. I was stuck in my own head, my mind wandering aimlessly somewhere else instead of paying attention to the aisle of the supermarket. Paying no attention to my surroundings, I turned a corner and slammed my cart into the other cart being pushed by the tiny girl with rainbow colored hair.

  I apologized profusely, feeling like a complete ass for being so negligent, and after reassuring me that it was completely okay, she and her friend struck up a conversation with me. We stood there, half-way blocking part of the aisle, for what seemed like hours as we chatted as if we were old friends.

  Something had drawn me to them, and made me want to keep talking to them. Typically I was shy, and had a hard time making friends, unless I was pursued by the other person. But this time I initiated the invite to dinner, using the ruse that I wanted to make up for running into them with my grocery cart.

  They seemed like people who’d mesh well with my best friend, Stephanie, and I already had plans of getting the three girls together. But since they told me they were a “seer” and a “healer,” I’d grown skeptical. It wasn’t exactly a declaration or anything, either. They just casually dropped it into the conversation when we talked about what we did for a living. I took the bait, though, and asked what that entailed. Thus, launching them into a story about battling vampires, witches, and other beings I’ve read about in books and watched on that popular television show.

  I entertained the idea that there might be some truth to what they were telling me, and deduced that they could definitely have a future in writing considering how epic the story sounded, but their facial expressions had me questioning things. They really believed what they were telling me, making me wonder if my new friends were all there or not. Maybe they were a bit crazy after all.

  “So why the hiatus, then?” I asked.

  “Our friends got married and wanted to start families. Josh and Nick already have a son, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t have another one soon. Josh really loved being pregnant, and we all decided to take a break and try to live a somewhat normal life.”

  “What,” I held up my hands to stop Courtney’s explanation. “What do you mean ‘Josh loved being pregnant’? Men can’t have babies like that.”

  Kimmie shrugged. “Fae can.”

  “Oh, of course. I should’ve known,” I replied snarkily.

  Courtney chuckled. “Anyway, after our last mission, we decided it’d be best to take a break for a while. The job became daunting and extremely dangerous. Isaac already clipped his own wings to save our lives, and we kept getting put into situations that were life-threatening. It started to take its toll, so we made the group decision to break apart for a while.”

  “We still keep in touch,” Kimmie added.

  “We do. And we’re open to the possibility of getting back together, but it won’t be any time soon.”

  I nodded, still trying to figure the two girls out. They seemed sane, but how could I believe what they were telling me? Vampires, wolves, witches… those didn’t exist. Did they?

  “You don’t believe us,” Courtney said to me, peering at me with chilling brown eyes.

  “It’s a lot to take in. I need some time to process it. It’s not every day you hear that things you read about in fairy tales are actually real.”

  “We didn’t believe it at first either. Even after Michael and Nick both shifted into wolves in front of us,” Courtney said.

  “Or when Courtney had her first vision,” Kimmie added.

  “And let’s not forget when you projected light out of your hands to heal Michael when he was dying.”

  “Do you miss it?” I asked, feeding into this warped conversation.

  The girls shared a glance with each other before shaking their heads. That answer surprised me. I was expecting them to say, yes, since they talked about it so enthusiastically. We chatted about their missions—as they called them—a little bit longer before they excused themselves to go home. As crazy as the night was, I still had fun with them and hoped we could get together again. I said I’d hope we could it again, and then added I’d love for them to meet my best friend, Stephanie, an invitation they accepted right away.

  Before they left, Courtney reached over and cupped my cheek. A gesture that surprised me, but at the same time had me intrigued. I wasn’t a touchy-feely person, but the look in her eyes had me standing still. Her pupils dilated and she had a far-away look in her eyes that I’d never seen on anyone else before.

  “Yes, you’ll do,” she said before patting my cheek and walking away.

  “What the hell was that?” I muttered to myself before shutting the door behind me and locking up.

  I picked up my phone and quickly dialed Stephanie’s number and put it on speaker while I cleaned up my kitchen. I told her about the strange evening I’d had with my new friends, and she instantly agreed they sounded like a couple of nut-jobs. But she also couldn’t wait to meet them.

  The night had gone on longer than I’d anticipated, so after shooting the shit with her a little while longer, I ended the call and went to bed. My entire body felt exhausted, but my mind wouldn’t shut off. The conversations with Kimmie and Courtney still played in my mind, on constant loop, and I couldn’t shake how it felt when Courtney touched me. It was like she stared into my soul and could see my darkest secrets. It was very…unsettling.

  I flipped over onto my stomach and punched my pillow a few times to get more comfortable. I needed sleep.

  “Vampires and wolves,” I snickered to myself as I closed my eyes. “Those girls sure knew how to tell a story.”

&nb
sp; Too bad I didn’t realize at the time that my new friends were telling the truth, and I was about to be sucked into a crazy story of my own.

  Chapter 2

  I really wasn’t ready to go to work, but I was bored and restless. Having Kimmie and Courtney over reminded me of how mundane my life really was. Sure, I had Stephanie, and we hung out quite often, but other than her I really didn’t have friends. I was shy, painfully so. I guess people would call that an introvert? Others would call it antisocial. I’d met Stephanie through our job and she gave me no choice but to be friends with her. She was a steamroller in that way, tearing down my wall so she could step over it and into my life. And for that I was grateful.

  But, after having such a fun evening with my two new, albeit strange, friends, I found myself feeling antsier than usual. While I was usually content with sitting at home watching the television or reading a book, I wanted to go do something. I wanted to call up Stephanie, or my two new friends, and go out for the day. Go exploring, try foods I couldn’t pronounce, and just waste the day hanging out with other people. Those urges were completely out of character for me, and had me feeling very off-kilter.

  Unfortunately, nothing panned out. Stephanie was busy with her family, and Kimmie and Courtney weren’t answering their phones. I found that odd considering Courtney’s phone was practically glued to her hand the entire evening. Not that she was rude and focused on the electronic when she was at my house, but it never left her side.

  I suppose I could have gone out by myself, but who likes to do that? The entire point was to spend time with other people. If I was going to be alone, might as well stay home and save some money in the process. So that’s what I did. I tried keeping myself busy with tasks like cleaning the house, taking out the garbage, and washing my bedsheets—that were already clean.

  Trash pick-up typically happened on Monday mornings, so I pulled the trashcans out on the curb, reminding myself to bring them back to my house before going to work. I tried to fill the rest of my day with mind-numbing television and books, but nothing worked. Finally, I gave up and went to bed, where I slept the evening tossing and turning. It was the first time, in a long time, that I couldn’t wait for Monday morning so I could go to work.

  After dragging my exhausted self out of bed, I slipped my feet into my shoes to go outside and bring the trashcans back up. While most people waited until they were about to leave, I had to learn the hard way to do it ASAP, since some jack-ass hit my cans and blamed me for the minimal damage to their car. After that, and having to pay a small fee for their car repairs, I learned to bring them back up to the house first thing.

  I opened the door; my eyes still halfway shut from exhaustion, and made my way down the sidewalk. When I got to the curb, I was surprised to see the trashcans weren’t there. I frowned to myself as I replayed last night’s events in my head, and I knew I’d brought them out. With my lips still turned down at the corners in confusion, I turned around to head back inside and stopped short. They were already brought back up to my house. What the hell? I knew I was tired, but not that tired, to sleepwalk and pull my trashcans back up. But then, who did it?

  I scratched my head in confusion as I went back inside and racked my brain with who did that for me. It was…nice. But I knew it couldn’t have been my neighbors. I didn’t know them well enough for that. It didn’t matter that I’d lived in my house for over five years. I’d barely spoke a handful of words to everyone who lived on my street—and that was combined. And the guy across the street was a total douche. Did I have a friendly neighborhood trash man?

  I didn’t have time to dwell on it, though. I had to get ready for work. The thought of seeing my best friend ignited a little spark under my ass and gave me the enthusiasm I needed to wake up and get dressed. After stopping along the way to pick up a few of our favorite coffees, I arrived at the office with a few minutes to spare. If I weren’t late to work, or at least pushing the time-limit, then something was wrong with me.

  “Good morning,” I told Stephanie as I walked into her office, setting the cup of coffee down on her desk.

  “Morning, hun,” Stephanie replied and took a sip of coffee. She closed her eyes, savoring the flavor, a low hum of appreciation emanating from her throat. “Are you okay? You look like shit.”

  “Thanks for noticing. I didn’t sleep well last night,” I explained.

  “What’s going on?” she asked, her eyes narrowing at me. “You usually sleep like the dead.”

  I shrugged. “No clue. I’ll see you at lunch.”

  “I can’t make it today. I have a meeting with a potential new client.”

  “Raincheck then?” I asked, trying to mask my disappointment.

  “Always.”

  I slunk back to my office and sat down to tackle the mountain of paperwork on my desk. Being a realtor had its advantages, but also its downfalls, too. A funny job to have considering I was the shyest person around, but I loved helping people find their home. Whether it was their first home, or their forever home, watching their faces as they found the one was something I’d never tire of. But the paperwork that came along with it was overwhelming.

  I worked my way through half of the pile on my desk when a rumbling in my stomach reminded me it was time for lunch. After popping my head in Stephanie’s office just to double check if she was at her meeting or not, I set out to the food truck that was usually parked outside our office building. Thankfully, it was there, and I walked over to the person who was manning it to order my favorite gyro.

  While I waited for the guy to get my food, I felt the presence of someone behind me—too close, actually. I looked around at the sidewalk on either side of me, and it wasn’t crowded enough for someone to invade my personal space as much as this person was. I could practically feel their hot breath on my neck, and as an uncomfortable sensation sent shivers down my spine, I stepped closer to the food truck. Only, the person behind me stepped with me. Jesus, how long did it take to make a freaking gyro?

  Finally, the guy handed me my food, and I resisted the urge to snatch it out of his hands so I could get the hell out of there. I held my breath, stealing myself to turn around and face the space intruder. Not sure what to expect, I braced myself for any sort of altercation that might happen, whether it be an impatient person who was angry my order was taking so long, or a pervert trying to cop a feel. What I wasn’t expecting, though, was an empty space. I looked toward my left, then to my right, and no one was there except the occasional pedestrian.

  I quickly spun around and faced the guy manning the food truck.

  “Where did the person go?” I asked, blurting out my question with so much force the other guy widened his eyes at me in surprise.

  “Who?” he asked.

  “The man standing behind me?” Even though I didn’t get a good look at the person, I just knew it was a man.

  “There was no man,” he answered with a quick shake of his head.

  “But…” I trailed off. How did I explain that someone was breathing on my neck if no one was there? I’d sound just as loony, if not loonier, than Kimmie and Courtney.

  I snapped my teeth together and turned around again, trying to shake off the unsettling feeling that’d enveloped me. Typically Stephanie and I would sit outside on one of the nearby benches to devour our lunch, but I no longer had an appetite. I could’ve stashed the gyro in the refrigerator in the break room, but I knew it’d be a weird reminder of feeling that…whatever it was, breathing down my neck. So I threw it in the trash, instead.

  The rest of the day I felt the unnerving feeling that someone was watching me. First, the weirdness with the trash cans, then, the strange occurrence at lunch. Something was going on, and I didn’t like it. Not one bit.

  Chapter 3

  “So are you going to continue to be stingy with your new friends, or are you finally going to let me meet them?”

  I sighed and leaned my head back against the couch cushion. “I told you, I haven’t
heard from them since they came over the other night. I think I scared them away.”

  “I doubt it. You couldn’t scare a wild rabbit away. They’re probably just busy.”

  “Maybe.”

  “Sweetie, if anything they said to you holds even an ounce of truth, think about what all they have to catch up on. They went from being on the road for over a year, to trying to live ordinary lives. That’s a lot of work entering back into the real world.”

  She had a point. “Yeah, yeah, you’re right. Maybe they’re just busy getting re-acclimated to life.”

  “Of course, I’m right. I’m sure they’ll get ahold of you in a couple of days. So stop worrying that pretty head of yours. You keep it up and your brown hair is going to be speckled with gray.”

  I snorted. “I’m not worried.”

  “Sure, you aren’t.”

  Stephanie and I chatted for a few minutes longer before she disconnected the call. I scrolled through my phone for a little while, checking my social media I wasn’t very active on, and clearing out some old emails I never checked. I knew what I was doing, even though I didn’t want to admit it to myself. I was stalling. I really wanted to call, or text, Kimmie and Courtney. I had truly enjoyed the time we hung out, even though I thought they were a little strange.

  Without giving myself any more time to overthink it, I quickly shot off a group text to both girls, asking how they were doing. I held my breath as I quickly typed out the message and pressed send, then mentally kicked myself for sounding like a desperate moron.

  I dropped my phone on the couch and went into my kitchen to make myself something for dinner. I wasn’t a good cook, hell, I could barely cook at all, so dinners I could pop in the microwave were about as gourmet as I could go. I grabbed a meal out of the freezer, not even bothering to read the label, ripped open the box and put it in the microwave. I’d just pushed in the time on the display when my house went completely black.