Destiny Gift (The Everlast Trilogy) - By Juliana Haygert Page 0,24

daytime, but there were more sinister individuals haunting the night. Trying to find the raven and keeping an eye out for the bats, I looked around.

The raven flew toward me from out of nowhere. I yelped and fell on my butt.

“Stupid winged thing,” I cursed under my breath. I got up and looked around to see if it would charge again.

The bird was nowhere I could see.

“Damn it,” someone muttered from behind me.

The hairs on my arms stood on end. I knew that voice—Victor.

It was him. It was Victor. God, he was here. I ran toward him, but halted when I saw him crawling to his car, one of his hands over his chest, panting as if breathing hurt too much. I watched, frozen.

He seemed unaware of my presence. Groaning, he kept crawling to his car until he was a few feet from the door. He collapsed on the cement floor, and his whole body shook.

That was when I snapped out of my trance and ran the rest of the way to him, fear and worry heightening my adrenaline.

“Oh my God, Victor, what’s happening?” I asked, hearing the tears in my voice. “Please, talk to me. What is happening?” I knelt beside him.

“Leave me alone,” he croaked, trying to push me away. As if the gesture could lessen the pain, he pressed his eyelids together. “Just go away.”

“I won’t.” I bent over him. As gently as I could, I touched his face to try to steady him, but when my skin touched his, a warm shock passed from me to him. He took a deep breath. His body stopped jerking.

As if suddenly filled with renewed energy, he surged to his feet and retreated several feet. I remained kneeling on the cement.

“I told you to leave,” he snapped.

I flinched. Not in all the months of dreaming about him had I thought Victor would snap at me.

“You seemed to be in pain, Victor. I couldn’t just leave,” I said, finally standing.

“How do you know my name?” he asked, groping at his jeans. He then pulled out his wallet, glanced at it, and stashed it inside his back pocket once more. “What did you do?” He touched his face, where my hands had been a second ago.

“What do you mean? What did I do?” I asked, more confused by the minute.

“Tell me how you know my name.” He glanced down and I followed his gaze. His hands still shook. He hid them behind his back. “Have you been following me?”

“You don’t know me?” My voice, barely audible, sounded both hurt and hopeful.

He tilted his head. “Nope,” he said, then turned toward his car again.

“Wait,” I called as he opened the door. “Don’t go. Please, ju—”

“Gotta go.” He cut me off. A second later, he was inside his car and backing up.

Unable to move or breathe, I watched Victor leave the garage—leave me—as if I were some revolting parasite.

Chapter Nine

I cried myself to sleep.

Raisa noticed I wasn’t well and didn’t force any information out of me. Even if she managed to make me talk, would she have understood?

My alarm clock blared early in the morning, warning me it was time to get dressed and go to class. I didn’t. Instead, I went to the hospital. Perhaps I was just deluding myself, but I had to try again. I couldn’t let Victor, a real flesh and bone Victor, escape so easily. Besides, I knew too much about him and I could use the information to find him.

At least I had an excuse to go there since, with all that had happened, I had forgotten about taking my curriculum in when they had asked for it the previous day.

Once at the hospital, I checked in with the receptionist and handed her my curriculum. Taking advantage of the moment, I asked to visit Bianca Gianni, Victor’s Italian grandmother. The receptionist confirmed my suspicion that his grandma was real too. She asked if I was a family friend. I lied, saying that I was, otherwise she wouldn’t have told me that Mrs. Gianni had been taken for an examination but should be back to her room, on the eighth floor, in about an hour.

So, everything he had told me in my visions was real? Why? I figured I didn’t have time to waste mulling over that. I took an elevator to the eighth floor to wait for him there. He was bound to show up at some point, and I didn’t care if I missed my classes or