Dark Fates (A Paranormal Anthology)(25)

Tariq smiled. “I thought my day had gone to shit. Thanks so much for bringing the joy. And the pain…”





Chapter Two


Eden Dixon knew she’d made a wrong turn the minute she’d left her distributor. She had over two hundred pounds of soap base, additives, and pigment powder in the back of her SUV, as well as dried botanicals and oils necessary for her natural perfume and soap business. The bumpy road wasn’t helping keep her supplies in order. Fortunately this section of the city seemed pretty empty. No one, save her and a few cars turning down side streets. She figured to turn around up ahead and go back the way she’d come.

Except right beyond the next intersection, some motorcycle gang had parked their bikes in the middle of the road so they could partake in one massive brawl. She stopped her car at the light and glanced around, wondering if she’d driven into a movie set. None of the men involved in the fight looked normal. Many of those wearing leather seemed to have odd lights brighten their eyes. But what struck her as truly odd—the intimidating gang clashed with three giants—each one at least a good head or more taller than her own five eight.

She sat, stunned, and stared at what couldn’t be real. Blood spattered as a nose broke. Limbs twisted in ways they shouldn’t. Screams sounded as bones snapped, and huge fists met bodies with such ferocity she couldn’t believe her eyes. She blinked…and saw the same three guys kicking major tail.

She could differentiate the two groups easily. Though all men looked pretty buff, the ones in black leather looked like bikers, complete with jackets proclaiming them “Greeks.” The other three guys looked more like contestants in a bodybuilder competition and wore jeans and T-shirts despite the cold, wet weather. All the men had dark, swarthy looks to them, with the exception of one or two tanned blonds. But damn if she could see one ugly guy among the sun-kissed lot. That in itself was more than a little strange. Handsome and tan—in Portland.

Two of the giants looked as if they’d taken some damage, and one in particular looked as though he’d seen the bad end of a knife. Blood soaked the back of his shirt, but it didn’t seem to be slowing him down any.

Odd, he looked familiar…

He turned as he executed a perfect roundhouse kick. Holy crap, he was hot. Black hair cut military-short framed a square jaw, straight nose, and sharp cheekbones. She’d guess he had deep brown eyes, though she couldn’t see them from half a block away. At least they didn’t light up like the bikers’ eyes.

From a distance, she watched his muscles bunch and shift as he put a guy in a headlock. His biceps looked rock hard, and she rubbed her throat, wondering if she’d have to testify in a court of law that he’d killed a man with his bare hands. She really should leave, except she couldn’t tear her gaze away from him.

He glanced up, as if sensing her, and the world around her froze.

She saw his mouth move. Then the body he’d held crumbled before him, and the spell was broken. Belatedly realizing she should do something about the fight, she picked up her cell phone and dialed 9-1—

The door beside her opened, and someone hauled her out of the vehicle.

Shocked and not sure what the hell was happening, she started to speak when the giant’s fighting friend, a gorgeous man with dark skin, deep brown eyes, and a smile that melted her insides, spoke to her in a foreign language.

“No, no problem. Oh, just rehearsing. Right.” She heard herself agreeing, sensed he was making her say things, and went along with it, knowing a normal person would have succumbed to his mind control. “My name?” She stalled, not wanting to give him that detail. Her life certainly had grown stranger lately, with all the oddities out after dark and her sixth sense kicking in with more power than it ever had before. “Ann.” Eden. “Smith.” Dixon. Shockingly difficult to conceal while Mr. Gorgeous continued to smile at her.

He patted her on the shoulder with a curiously gentle hand and asked her to go home.

“Just where I was heading. Thanks.”

She forced herself to move at a normal pace, entered her car, then backed her vehicle up and turned it around to drive toward the warehouse she’d just left. She took an alternate route home, and while she did, she carefully watched her rearview mirror to make sure no one followed. Adding an extra forty-five minutes of traffic and driving to her day, she returned to her home just outside the city and let herself inside, locking up behind her.

Eden slumped into her oversized comfy chair and took a deep breath. She let it out, going over the events she’d just experienced. The handsome guy had tried to mind-meld with her or something. Yet he hadn’t been the one she’d swear she knew. If she’d seen the gorgeous bruiser in the bloody shirt before, she’d remember.

Maybe she was confusing him with the guy she used to dream about, the handsome one who liked to promise her a future she knew she’d never have. She hadn’t dreamed of him in years, come to think of it. Not like her recent weird dreams about…about… She yawned and felt her eyes close.

Then the other man was there, smiling, all crocodile teeth and dead black eyes while he whispered a recipe she just had to make. Just for him.

“I’m tired. Can’t I sleep?”

“Later, halimah.” Dreamer—what he often called her. “We have work to do, after all. I’ve waited too many lifetimes for this.” He whispered something else, her true name, the one she’d been born with. Not Eden, Christa, Marguerite, or any of the past women she’d once been. So many lifetimes, all alone, waiting for her other half to come. To fill that void she felt even now.