Predestined by Abbi Glines Page A

you think of Bourbon
Street? Everything you’d ever imagined?”
    I could honestly say I’d never
thought of Bourbon Street at all. Not once in my life did I imagine
anything about it. Now, I knew the exact location in Louisiana Leif
had brought me. I turned my attention back to the streets as we
passed by them. Lights broadcasting naked women flashed in windows
and chalkboards claiming to have the best gumbo in town also filled
the streets. Voodoo shops were endless and the small little dolls
I’d always thought of when someone mentioned Voodoo littered the
windows. That was all I’d ever known of Voodoo. A little doll you
stuck needles into when you disliked someone. It was an amusing
thought, nothing more. How off track I’d been.
    “These shops, the Voodoo ones...,”
I began and Leif chuckled.
    “Are owned by regular people
sucking the tourists dry. Not one of them hold any power. I’d guess
if a real voodoo spirit were to grace their doors they’d close up
and leave town. The real voodoo isn’t along these streets. It can
only be found deep in the swamp by those chosen by the spirits to
embody it.”
    Oh fabulous, the evil spirits were
picky. Doesn’t that just make it all better. I didn’t roll my eyes
but the grin on Leif’s face said he knew I was attempting to be on
my best behavior.
    The old French buildings began to
give way to cleaner, more elegant buildings. I wondered how much of
New Orleans I was going to see before I was sent back
home.
    “This is the Garden District. It is
a nicer area. The most well preserved southern mansions can be
found right here.”
    As fascinating as that was I wasn’t
interested in New Orleans neighborhoods.
    “What did you want to talk to me
about Leif? Why am I here?”
    Leif leaned forward and rested his
elbows on his knees. I straightened in my bench seat in order to
keep a safe distance from him. Thankfully he didn’t seem to
notice.
    “I know you understand now what
your mother did. You remember all the times I’ve come to you in
your life. You know it was me that day in the old Voodoo queen’s
home that removed the sickness from your body. Yes, I did it and I
require, my father requires, a restitution for it. All gris gris
comes with payment. Not the monetary kind like the voodoo shop
owners require. Real Voodoo requires something more. The more
difficult the request, the more the payment will be.
    I wanted you to live Pagan. I’d
watched you from the moment you arrived in New Orleans. The nurse
watching over you was the granddaughter of the voodoo queen. She
brought me to see you the first day you arrived. I was fascinated
with your spunk. My father was looking for my mate and I went to
him with the request to have you. He said we must wait. That if it
was meant to happen then fate would play into our hands. When the
doctors said you would not see another day, your mother went to the
nurse and she brought you to the old voodoo queen who summoned
me.”
    He stopped and studied me a moment.
I’d known most of this already, except of course, the connection
with the nurse. After taking a deep breath, almost a sigh, Leif
continued, “A life cannot be spared for free. The cost is a life
for a life. I saved your life and in doing so bought your soul. It
has been mine since the day you were healed. I’ve been near you
ever since.”
    My mother had sold my soul to the
devil. That was what he was telling me. Except it was hard to think
of Leif as the devil. He looked so normal sitting there in front of
me. If only he were a normal boy I could break up with and walk
away from.
    “None of this makes sense. Why did
you become human? Why did you ignore me for years? Why did you
pretend with me? Why do you want me? Why can’t you just let me go?”
The questions spilled out of my mouth. And Leif started to open his
mouth again when an angry sneer took its place. That was new. That
most definitely did not look like the Leif I knew. What had I said
to set him off and,