by E. L. Davis
∞ THE IMMORTAL Defenses series ∞
Destined
E.L. DAVIS
SELF PUBLISHED IN
EDMONTON ALBERTA CANADA
THE IMMORTAL DEFENSES SERIES - DESTINED
Copyright © 2017 by E.L. Davis
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
To my family for always supporting and believing in me.
Especially you mom, for all those sandwiches you put in front of me while I sat and wrote for days on end.
Pep and Gel, your creativity has always inspired me.
∞ PROLOGUE ∞
The snow was melting around the log cabin hiding deep within the gloomy woods. There was a constant dripping from the razor-sharp icicles that clung to the edges of the roof that would drive any normal human being insane. He could tune out all the noise around him and focus on what he knew was coming very soon: her. It was never easy when the time came to find her. His nerves went ballistic, sending shocks through his whole body, and he could feel the familiar pull deep inside his chest that would lead him to her. His whole body could tell that it was time for him to go through the most severe pain he had ever experienced in his life.
The pain was always worth it, just to see her. If he was lucky, he would hold her in his arms at least once and possibly, although extremely unlikely, get to be with her forever. The thought of finally being with her plagued his mind, heart, and soul like a terrible, bittersweet disease. There was no way to tell how things would play out; it was different every time. The Union, for their own sick amusement, liked to keep him guessing as to what they may throw at him.
The pulling sensation was getting more and more severe, and he tried to fight it off. Eventually, he wouldn’t be able to resist anymore, and he would be forced to find her. He got up from the old moth-eaten couch and paced the small cabin while running his long skinny fingers through his thick, dark hair, yanking on it now and then to make himself forget the pull for one second. It was a pointless thing to do; he knew that he could never cause himself enough pain to forget about what was coming. He wanted to see her again so bad, his heart was already aching.
His entire body had reacted to her before he even started to feel the pull. His skin, which was usually pale, had started to gain some color, his normally thin hair became thick and shiny, and his already toned body would urge him to push harder during his daily workouts. All of this happened to make himself more desirable to her. He learned long ago that when his cheeks started to flush, and his skin became slightly darker, it meant the time was coming when he would be forced to find her.
The boy turned to face the only mirror in the cabin, stooping slightly to see his reflection properly. There were dark circles around his striking green eyes and his young face was sad. He gripped the sides of the old sink and nearly ripped it from the wall. Seeing himself like this made it all too real and he couldn’t bear it anymore. In a split second, he found himself at the door of the cabin, about to plunge deep into the woods and let the pull take over and lead him to her. He dropped to his knees and cried out to the heavens, “Why do you keep doing this to me?” For a second, the pulling subsided, but only long enough for him to hear a familiar voice speak in his mind.
“You’re being punished. You know that just as well as the rest of us.” A deep rumble of laughter echoed in his head.
Not being able to resist the pull any longer, the boy darted from the cabin, into the darkness of the woods, and allowed the pull to take over, as he had done so many times before.
“Let the games begin,” said the same voice, followed by the rumble of laughter.
∞ CHAPTER ONE ∞
It was seven thirty in the morning when Alexia woke herself up by falling face first out of her twin size bed. She had been dreaming of something beautiful yet sad. It was as if her fall to the floor had knocked the memory of the dream out of her head. She hopped up off the floor in excitement as she realized it was the first day back to school after winter break, and she was dying to see her best friends Ellie and Cheri.
Every winter, Alexia and her family went on a ski trip to the Rocky Mountains and every year when she got back there was a ton of useless gossip to catch up on. Alexia and her friends were decently popular at Youngstown High School and seeing as this would be their last year of school, they were making the best of it. The three girls spent their summer tanning their slim bodies on the days that it was nice out. On the rainy, cold days, they would stay locked up in Ellie’s room, raiding her oldest sister’s closet full of clothes that she had left behind after moving away from their small town.
The night before, she had laid out the perfect outfit for the first day back: a pair of acid wash skinny jeans, her favorite Rebel Spirit tee-shirt, topped off with her pink Abercrombie sweater. Before pulling the clothes on, she looked at herself in the mirror. Her light blonde hair was surprisingly neat considering she fell asleep with it wet, so she decided she would skip the shower and get right to curling it. Alexia pulled a comb through her hair before beginning to curl the long strands into loose pretty curls. After applying a small amount of eyeliner and mascara, she took another look in the mirror and was satisfied with her reflection and went downstairs to call Ellie.
The two friends lived a block away from each other and had walked to school together every day since the first day of grade ten. The phone rang twice before the familiar high-pitched bubbly voice answered. “Alexia!” her friend squealed. “I am so happy you’re back from your trip! You have no idea what I have to tell you, but you are going to love it. I’m leaving my house right now. I will see you in five!” Before Alexia could even get a word in, the line went dead.
Typical Ellie, not even letting me get a word in. I wonder what she has to tell me. I hope she’s not getting all gushy over some other loser guy that I have to save her from. That’s Ellie for you, always getting into something that she thinks is totally awesome and cool and it ends up being lame or boring. Yup, either that or I bet she shows up with some crazy new haircut or something. While thinking this to herself, Alexia didn’t even hear the doorbell ring the first time. When she heard the pounding on the door, she snapped out of her thoughts and got up to open the door.
There stood Ellie, the same as Alexia had left her, happy, stylish, and, as always, ready to burst into conversation. Her brown hair was pin straight, and her brown eyes were lined with thick black eyeliner, although not in a trashy way. “I missed you so much!!” Ellie pulled Alexia in for a big bone-crushing hug and motioned for her to put her boots on. “Speaking of missing so much, you missed so much!”
“Really? I didn’t think it was possible to miss anything in this town. So, lay it on me. What is it you’re dying to tell me? I can see it on your face you’re ready to yap my ear off.” Ellie smiled while Alexia set the alarm to her house and shut the front door.
“Well, first, I must say I am proud to have this kind of information before anyone else even has a clue.”
“Okay, well, are you going to tell me, or are you going to make me guess?” Alexia asked as the girls started down the slippery sidewalk that was surrounded by half-melted piles of snow. Ellie’s long brown hair blew behind them in the wind m
aking her look like she was in photo shoot. Alexia had always been slightly jealous of how pretty her friend was. She had much fuller lips and her hair was several inches longer.
“Alright, so I haven’t even told Cheri this, just so you know. I wanted you to be the first to know because I figured you are going to get first dibs anyways, so…”
“First dibs on what, Ellie? Spit it out already. You’re making me so anxious!”
“Okay, let me explain then! So, my mom had to go over to Principal Digger’s house to discuss my grades and stuff for graduation.” Alexia had a confused look on her face, which caused Ellie to say, “Just listen, I promise it all ties in together. So anyways, she had to deal with a bunch of that stuff and while she was there she said that two people came to her door with enrollment forms to Youngstown High!” When Alexia didn’t look impressed at all, Ellie stopped walking and smiled at her friend. “They are two new boys enrolling into our grade!” As soon as Alexia heard the word ‘boys’, the look on her face changed immediately. Ellie pushed past her friend with a satisfied grin on her face and continued walking.
“Seriously!?” Alexia hurried to catch up with her. “Do you know how old they are? What color is their hair? Are they brothers? Where did they move from? Did they have an accent? Oh my gosh, could you imagine if they had some kind of sexy accents or something!?” At any other High School, the arrival of new students wouldn’t mean a thing, but in their small town, having new students, especially two guys, was big news.
“Slow down there, Alexia, all I got out of my mom is that two new boys enrolled into our grade. But considering our homeroom has the least amount of people, I guarantee they are both placed there.”
The girls were arriving at school just as Ellie had finished dishing out all she knew about the new boys. Nothing had changed about the school, not that Alexia had expected change. The same oak trees lined the small field behind the old brick building, and the same stone steps led up to the same old creaky doors with paint peeling off. She wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but she would miss this place when she graduated. No matter how grungy it looked from the outside, it was her kingdom. School was the one place that she had some sort of control.
They were walking up the steps when Cheri came barreling down and embraced her two best friends. “I am so glad your back, Alexia. Ellie said she had something super awesome to tell us but couldn’t share it with me because she had to tell you first. Which, by the way, Ell,” she said as she turned to face Ellie, “was so not cool of you! I have been so curious and driving myself nuts about what it could possibly be!”
Cheri had been speaking so fast that when she finally stopped talking her face was red from lack of oxygen. Cheri was your typical high school girl who loved to dress her best, wore a little too much make up around her light brown eyes, and talked way too much and way too fast. Today, her blonde hair was pulled back into a messy bun which exposed her perfect heart shaped face. “Come on, don’t keep me waiting anymore, Ellie!”
“I have two words for you: new boys.” Ellie smiled as if she had just released top secret information.
Cheri smirked and laughed. “Already ran into them in the main office, and I have two words for you: hot-ties!”
“That’s one word, Cheri,” Ellie replied. “And seriously, like what level of hot are we talking about here? Like, hot like Sham Samson?”
“Or hot like Cam Riley?” Alexia wanted to run to the office and find the boys. She couldn’t bear not knowing what they looked like or how they acted. She wanted to know them both so badly already, and she hadn’t even seen their faces.
“There is no comparison, you guys. You have to see them.” The girls had made it to their lockers now, which were around the corner from the office where Cheri had said she had seen them. “Hurry up before Digger takes them to get lockers!” Cheri was bouncing up and down like a kid in a candy store. She wanted to show them so bad, so she could know which one Alexia would claim as her new guy.
“I don’t think we have to hurry. Turn around.” Ellie was staring past Alexia and Cheri. The two girls turned around to see the principal and two of the most gorgeous guys they had ever seen walking their way. Cheri was right, there was no comparison to any guy that had ever walked their halls.
The guy on the left of Mrs. Digger was tall and looking right at Alexia. His dark hair was spiked up in a very high fashion kind of way. He looked like he took good care of his body; his arms were thick with muscle and, even though you couldn’t see his stomach, you could tell that he was the type of guy to have a ripped six pack. His clothes were crisp and clean, his jeans weren’t super baggy or tight like some guys at their school wore, and he had a plain white tee-shirt under a sexy black leather jacket. Right off the bat, Alexia liked his bad boy look and wondered if he had the attitude to match.
The other guy looked a lot like the first one; they could have been related but he had a completely different air about him. He was also tall with dark black hair that stuck up in a cute way, but it didn’t look like he had made it look that way on purpose. He was also built and had tanned skin. His dark jeans were slightly tighter than the first boy’s and he had a black belt through the loops. What looked like a band tee-shirt was half hidden by his black zip-up hoodie. He didn’t look like a bad boy, maybe more of the rocker type, but either way, Alexia was blown away by both of them.
As they were about to walk past the three girls, the second boy noticed Alexia staring and his tanned skin seemed to go slightly pale as he flashed her a smile and continued walking until the principal stopped only a few lockers away from them. The bad boy wasn’t even paying attention to the principal anymore; he had his eye on the group of girls watching them.
“Demetri, are you paying attention?” Mrs. Digger said, flashing him a dangerous glare. Before he turned around to face her, he gave Alexia a wink that made her stomach fill up with butterflies. She waved foolishly and turned back to her friends.
“Walk now. Please walk away with me now.” Alexia was blushing, and she rushed away with her friends to the closest bathroom. Cheri pushed the door open and let out a high-pitched squeal.
“Didn’t I tell you they were both so hot? Did you see the way the one in the leather jacket was looking at you? What did Digger say his name was?”
“I think it was Demetri,” Ellie responded before turning to Alexia. “Somebody already has their eye on you, Alexia. So what did you think of them? Who do you think you’re going to go after?” Alexia was staring at herself in the mirror. She looked pale, which never happened. She felt weird, like she was experiencing déjà vu or something.
“Alexia, are you okay?” Cheri asked with concern.
“Yeah, I’m fine, just a little shocked I guess.” Alexia shook her head a little, trying to clear her thoughts. “They were both really attractive. I don’t know which one I’ll try to talk to first.”
“Well, at least we have Stacy Mudet’s back-to-school party to show them both how we like to have fun.” Ellie was all smiles while Cheri looked at Alexia with a frown.
“Alexia, what’s wrong with you? You’re always so stoked for this party, but now you don’t seem excited at all. This is going to be the best one ever because you are going to invite both of those gorgeous guys and then when you see which one can actually keep up with you, he will be all yours.”
She was right. Stacy’s back to school parties were amazing. Her parents were always out of town and her big sister would buy a bunch of alcohol for everybody. It was the place to be, and since Alexia was a party girl, she was always there. At the party in September when school had first started back up, Alexia had gotten so drunk with Cheri that Ellie had pulled them both back to her house in Stacy’s little sister’s red wagon. Of course, she had taken several embarrassing pictures of them as blackmail.
Alexia snapped out of it and smiled at her friends. “As long as I’m not being wheeled home in a shiny red wagon again…that would not help me out with either of these gu
ys.” They all laughed and then the bell rang, warning them to get to class. “I hope they’re both in our homeroom. Let’s go!” The three of them ran from the bathroom to their first block class.
∞ CHAPTER TWO ∞
It turned out that the second boy’s name was Roman, and both he and Demetri were in Alexia, Ellie, and Cheri’s homeroom. Not only did they share first block together but second as well. Alexia had tried her best not to look at either of them, but she found it extremely hard. They both sat on her left side; Demetri was directly beside her and Roman was in front of him. Whenever she chanced a glance over their way, she felt like she had just missed them both looking at her. Maybe she was being overly hopeful. Right before second block had ended, she accidentally knocked her pen off her desk; to her surprise, both boys practically dove to pick it up for her. Roman was faster and when he handed it back to her, their hands brushed briefly, and she instantly flushed and felt burning hot. She whispered a quick thank you and was saved by the bell. She darted from her desk before she even heard him say, “You’re welcome”.
At lunch, the girls sat at their usual table in the small crowded cafeteria. Alexia had told Ellie and Cheri about what had happened and they both laughed at her. “Come on, you guys. I made a fool out of myself already. They probably think I have some kind of disorder.” Alexia was picking at her salad, completely uninterested in eating. “I was just so shocked by how instantly my body burned up when he touched my hand. I mean, I’m used to blushing but that was intense; my whole body was hot.”
“Okay, I can tell you feel like you have screwed up, but honestly, you’re making a big deal out of nothing. This may be a good thing, you know.” Ellie was always good at making her feel better when she was sick or sad, but this time Alexia was just getting annoyed.
