Dark Side of Dawn: The Nightmare Chronicles (18 page)

Then the lightbulb went off. Was this another plot by my father’s enemies? Getting rid of Mom would put Morpheus on edge, make him vulnerable and angry. It wasn’t as though they could stop her from entering the Dreaming—could they? She’d be able to return, but it wouldn’t be the same. Morpheus wouldn’t be her whole world anymore. That would seriously piss him off, and
he’d be primed for whatever his enemies had planned for him.

Not only primed, but if they provoked him, he’d give them exactly what they want willingly. Oh, shit.

“I’ll help him,” I reiterated. “I’ll do whatever I can for him.” And silently I prayed to whatever gods from whatever worlds might be listening that I would be able to hold him together—and along with him, this world.

But mostly I prayed that Mom simply wouldn’t wake up.

She squeezed my hand. “Look after yourself as well. They’ll try to get to him through you if they can.”

“I think they already have.”

Mom cocked a brow. “The Warden?” At my nod she made a face. “I’ve never trusted that woman. Don’t turn your back on her, Dawn.”

“I won’t.”

“Don’t turn her back on who?” came Morpheus’s voice from just behind me. I hated when he just appeared like that.

“The Warden,” I replied when he leaned in to kiss my cheek.

“What’s she done now?” He took a seat beside my mother, kissed her cheek, and took her hand in his in one swift motion. He was smooth, my father.

“Tried to blackmail me.” I might as well come clean and tell him everything now. That way the Warden
wouldn’t have a leg to stand on. Of course, both of my legs might be broken by the time my father was done with me.

Morpheus frowned as he sat down beside Mom. He snatched a cookie with his free hand and bit in. “She’s looking to lose her position over this. What’s this blackmail you mentioned?”

I took a deep breath. “She threatened to tell you that I reunited Antwoine and Madrene in payment for Antwoine’s help with Karatos.”

He took it better than I thought he would. He brought his fist down on the table and smashed it completely, and then of course, rebuilt it exactly as it was, right down to my half-empty cup of tea.

I sat very still, as did my mother, waiting to see what he’d do next.

“My apologies,” he said very softly. He looked angry and a little foolish at the same time. “I shouldn’t have reacted like that. I don’t approve of your actions, Dawn. You should have come to me first, but Antwoine helped you defeat Karatos and assisted in bringing you back to me, so allowing him time with Madrene is a reasonable price.”

I was mid-sigh when he continued: “So long as their relationship doesn’t interfere with her other duties, I have no problem with them continuing to see each other—but Antwoine stays where he is.”

So Antwoine remained a prisoner within the Dreaming but he got his girl. “He’s an old man, Morpheus.” And why did I have the feeling like there was more going on than he wanted to tell me? It was like a scavenger hunt being in this world, trying to find all the missing information. All this doubt and secrecy wore me out.

“He’s an anomaly,” he replied. “And a dangerous one.”

I choked on laughter. “Antwoine, dangerous?”

My father didn’t share my humor. “Someday, perhaps, your friend will tell you the whole truth about why he is in that prison I made for him. It’s not just about his relationship with Madrene, or that he attacked me.”

“Are you telling me I shouldn’t trust him?” My chin actually quivered as I asked the question, because I had enough doubts where Antwoine was concerned.

“Of course not. He’s proven himself a friend to you. But I’d ask that you take what he tells you about me and the circumstances of his banishment with a very large grain of salt and allow me to distrust him for both of us.”

Fair enough, but I was still unsettled. I didn’t like thinking Antwoine kept things from me, that my friend might not be what I thought him to be.

“Was her threat the reason you decided to confess to me now?”

I had no trouble meeting his gaze, because I would feel way worse if I didn’t tell him and the whole thing blew up in my face. “Partially. Mostly I decided to tell you because Antwoine just found out that Madrene is Padera’s mother.” Which, of course, was weird because Padera was so white and Madrene wasn’t.

My mother’s jaw dropped. “She is?”

Morpheus glanced at her as he shifted in his chair. “Yes,” he replied.

Mom’s mouth thinned. “I see.”

My gaze went back and forth between them. WTF? “The Warden apparently came to Madrene and started asking about me.” I took another bite of cookie. God, it was good. “Madrene lied to me. She said she’d tell me about Padera but she never did. Now I know why.”

“You don’t know all of it.” My mother’s cheeks were brightly flushed as she turned her angry gaze away from Morpheus. “Tell her.”

I stared at them both again. “Tell me what?”

“Maggie…” My father’s voice held a note of warning, but Mom was obviously too pissed off to care.

Mom fiddled with a napkin. “You never told me who her mother was.”

“Should he have?” I asked, not liking the suspicion that was forming in the back of my mind.

My mother looked at me with a gaze so intense I felt like a butterfly pinned to a board. “Perhaps, Dawnie,
your father hates this Antwoine person because he stole away your father’s lover.”

My mouth fell open. Morpheus cursed and refused to meet my gaze—he was too busy glaring at my mother, who was still looking at me.

I couldn’t find the words. All I could say was, “You and Madrene?”

“Yes,” Mom replied. “Your father and Madrene were lovers for many years before he met me. Antwoine came between them, didn’t he, Morpheus?” The look she shot my father could have sliced a car in half.

There was only one reason Mom would be this angry.
You never told me who her mother was
. Shit on a stick. “Do you mean…” Oh God, I couldn’t even say it.

My father did it for me. “Yes, Dawn. The Warden—Padera—is your half sister.”

“Did you know?” I demanded of Verek as I gazed down the rock cliff he was climbing.

His head lifted. His brow shone with sweat and his cheeks were flushed. He looked pretty good for having climbed almost to the top of a humungous mountain. His fingers gripped jutting rock, muscles in his big arms straining as he pulled his weight up. “Know about what?”

“That Padera is my freaking sister.”

He reached the top and hauled himself up onto the rough stone at my feet. “I knew,” he said as he straightened to his full height.

I stood there, watching in spiraling frustration as he wiped his brow with his forearm. As sweaty as he was, he didn’t stink. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

He shot me a dry glance. “Would it have changed anything?”

“Of course it would have!” Wouldn’t it? I mean, she obviously knew we were related and it hadn’t stopped her from wanting me long gone.

“No, it wouldn’t,” he argued as he brushed past me. He smelled like warm, damp male. Very nice, I’m embarrassed to admit. “It still doesn’t, but now you’ll feel guilty for hating her.”

“I don’t
hate
her,” I insisted. He shot me another look and I rolled my eyes. “Okay, so I hate her.” And he was right, I felt guilty for it—not because she didn’t deserve it, but because it went against everything I believed to hate a sibling.

Verek chuckled, the low rumble seeming to come from his toes. “Don’t worry, Princess. I’ll help you relieve all that frustration.”

I just bet he could. “I feel like sparring,” I said. “Are you up for that?”

He offered me his hand. “Lead on.”

I wrapped my fingers around his much larger ones and “wished” us to another location where we sometimes trained. Verek had it set up like the kind of gym you’d see on TV. I think he’s watched
Rocky
one too many times.

I had put myself into yoga pants and a T-shirt, so I was ready to go. When I turned around, Verek was
standing there in a pair of tight shorts and nothing else.

Good lord, he was going all UFC on me.

I was a Nightmare too, why didn’t I have washboard abs? All right, so I really wouldn’t want to have a stomach that ropey, but a little definition might be nice. I guess it was because in most mythologies, the men were who had all the muscles and the women were soft and curvy. I was definitely soft, and very curvy.

“Come on,” Verek called, “get in the ring. Let’s get started.”

Gingerly, I climbed the steps leading up to the ropes and slipped between the top two. The mat was cool beneath my toes.

“I know you’ve learned some martial arts already,” he said, “so I thought we’d build on that.”

I raised a brow. “We’re going to
wrestle
?”

He grinned—a wolf with sparkling white teeth. “No, Princess. You want to fight, and we’re going to
fight
.” And then he dropped to the mat in a crouch and knocked my feet out from under me with one swift kick.

“Gowf!”
I hit the mat hard, the air rushing from my lungs. Next thing I knew Verek had me bent like a pretzel and was trying to explain what the hold was called and why I couldn’t get out of it. I’m sure it made a lot of sense, but I couldn’t hear him very well over the roaring in my ears.

“Now, get out of it.” Of all the things for me to finally hear, that wasn’t what my ears strained for.

“I can’t.” I gasped for air. “You’re stronger than me.”

He bent down. I could smell the heat of his skin. “Princess, this is your world. Kick my ass.”

“How in the hell am I supposed to do that?”

“Try.” That was all he said, and obviously all he was going to say. He simply went silent and continued to hold me in this damn crazy position.

OK, get out of it. If I didn’t get out of it soon my head was probably going to explode, or I was going to pop a disc. I closed my eyes, concentrated on drawing as deep and as soothing breaths as I could, and then I focused all of my senses inward. Verek was right. In theory I should be able to at least match him. He was bigger, but I was Morpheus’s daughter, and therefore something of a Wonder Woman in this world.

And here I was without my lasso.

I moved one arm, so that it was braced tighter between our bodies, and then pushed, not just with the arm, but with one leg as well. Verek’s weight shifted as he sought to remain in control and I took that opportunity to use his posture against him. The result had me straddling him, spitting hair out of my mouth as I pinned his arm behind his back.

“How was that?” I asked gleefully.

“Perfect,” he replied in a gruntlike tone. “But you
should know better than to gloat.” And the next thing I knew I was on my back with my legs over his shoulders and my hands locked behind my back, held in one of his.

Good thing my face was already red or he would have seen the scarlet blush flood my cheeks. Did he not realize how sexual this position was?

“Now what are you going to do?” he taunted.

I didn’t think, I simply reacted. I locked my thighs around his neck, and squeezed while lifting my weight onto my shoulders. I pushed up and forward, using my abs to stabilize the movement. I was going to be sore later, but it would be worth it. I sailed into the air, up and over.

And landed practically sitting on Verek’s face. Dear God. I rolled to the side and onto the mat as fast as I could.

He rose easily into a sitting position with a big-ass grin on his face. “That was interesting.”

“Shut up.” Yes, that was the most intelligent thing I could think to say.

He dove for me. He was so fast I couldn’t even react. I cursed myself for being such an idiot as he pinned me once more, one of his big legs over mine as he held my hands above my head.

I could feel every hot, solid inch of him against me. Those washboard abs felt like rough silk against my
stomach. And against my thigh…well, that was hard too. My gaze locked with his, and I knew with total certainty that if I gave the slightest indication that it would be welcome, Verek was going to kiss me.

When the hell had this happened? I had no idea he was attracted to me. I thought he respected me, but found me somewhat annoying or frustrating. I certainly hadn’t expected this turn of events.

Worse, I wouldn’t have expected my reaction. Verek was gorgeous—scarily so. In the human world he’d be an action star or a model—and he wouldn’t even know I was alive. Of course I wanted him to kiss me. I might even be curious as to what it would be like to have sex with him. He was everything most women dreamed about, read about. He was a romance hero come to life, right down to his annoying tendency to think he was right all the time.

But he wasn’t Noah, and that was the problem. My body responded to Verek like any straight woman’s would, but my heart wasn’t in it. My heart belonged to Noah, and that meant the rest of me did too. Truthfully, I didn’t regret it one bit.

So, I can honestly say that I enjoyed jerking my head up to give him the head butt to end all head butts. He rolled off me with a groan, clutching his bleeding nose. He sat up and glared at me over the top of his hand. Blood seeped through his fingers. “No fair,”
he bitched. “You distracted me with your feminine wiles.”

I always wanted to guffaw, and now that I finally had the opportunity, I took it. “And I suppose it wasn’t your intent to distract me with Captain Love Rocket?”

He grinned. “You noticed.”

Then he snapped his nose back into place and I winced at the sound it made. He took his hand away. The bleeding had already stopped. He held out his hand. “Good job.”

I accepted the handshake. “Thanks. You too.”

I should have known better than to trust him. The second his fingers closed around mine, he yanked me forward and I fell against his naked chest with a gasp.

Strong fingers—not the bloody ones, though—held my chin as unyielding lips smoldered against mine. It was like kissing an inferno—a big, sexy, yummy one.

He thrust me aside as fast as he had grabbed me. I felt his fingers wipe away a smudge of wetness on my upper lip. I think it was blood. Was it wrong of me to find that kind of hot?

“Just a little something for you to think about, Princess,” he murmured, oh-so arrogantly as he slowly rose to his feet. “If you decide you want to play again sometime, give me a shout.”

I sat in the middle of the ring and watched like an idiot as he walked away. My mind reeled. What the
hell had just happened? Was this real or had I dreamed the whole thing? And could my life get any weirder or more unbalanced?

The answer was yes, it could. And that also gave me the answer to Verek’s offer as well. I was tempted to play with him, of course, but not tempted enough, although that darker side of my nature—or maybe she was simply the Dreamkin side—wanted to chase after him and run him to ground like a lion after prey.

There was only one person I was willing to risk losing myself to, only one person worth the odds, and that was Noah.

I hoped I hadn’t already outplayed my luck with him.

I met Antwoine for lunch the next day. I needed something to take the taste of Verek out of my mouth. Crass? Yes, but it was true. Probably it was because he was Dreamkin, but a part of me liked what he did to me and wanted to experience it again.

On my way to meet Antwoine, I called Noah’s cell. I was walking up Madison, the roar of the city buzzing around me making it hard to hear when his voice mail picked up on the other end. Screening his calls? Maybe, but more likely he was working.

I didn’t bother leaving a message. I had no idea what to say that wouldn’t make me sound like an idiot, so I disconnected and shoved my phone in the side pocket
of my bag. If I got the courage up I’d try again later.

What the hell had I been thinking, breaking up with him? We were stronger together than we were apart. Anyone with a brain would know that I only dumped him because I was afraid for him, and they’d go after him anyway. Only now, with his pride bruised, I wouldn’t know about it until it was too late.

Verek had made me realize how much I missed Noah. Verek also made me realize that there was little difference between grappling and foreplay. I was going to have to see if Noah had any mixed martial arts experience.

I ducked into the little restaurant and was just sitting down in my favorite booth when Antwoine arrived.

“This is getting to be a regular habit,” he remarked, sliding in across from me. “You and I meeting for lunch.”

I returned his smile, but it felt a little strained on my lips. “Thanks for meeting me on such short notice.”

“I figured it had to be important.” When he looked at me so full of warmth and concern I couldn’t think the worst of him, I just couldn’t. “What’s wrong, little Dawn?”

The waiter took that moment to show up and ask if we wanted drinks, so I ordered a diet Coke. We knew what we wanted to eat as well, so we ordered our soup and sandwiches too.

When we were alone again, I turned to my friend. “A couple of things. Firstly, Morpheus isn’t going to interfere with you and Madrene.”

To say Antwoine was surprised was an understatement. “Really?”

I nodded. “Provided Madrene doesn’t shirk her succubus duties, he doesn’t care how much time you spend together.” I’m not sure that last part was completely true, but what the hell.

“Well, I’ll be,” he murmured. “I wasn’t expectin’ that.”

I placed my napkin over my lap, smoothing it so I didn’t have to look at him. “Antwoine, I know that Morpheus and Madrene were once together. Padera is my half sister.” Only once the words were out did I look up.

The older man sat across from me, noticeably pale. “Well,” he rasped. “I can’t say that I was expectin’ that either.”

I believed him. “That’s the bad blood between you, isn’t it? You took Madrene away.”

He nodded slowly. I watched as some color bled back into his cheeks. “That’s a bit of it, but Padera was already grown by the time I came along. Madrene wouldn’t have gotten involved with me, though, if she was happy.”

That was true. Just like my mother wouldn’t have
left her family if she had been happy where she was.

“Antwoine…” God, how did I do this? I scooted closer to the table. “I need to know if you or Madrene are in league with the Warden.”

He frowned. “You mean, are either me or Madrene out to get you and your daddy?”

I held his gaze without flinching. “Yes.” I had to know that it really had been a coincidence that he and I met that day in Duane Reade. That he hadn’t been conspiring against me all these weeks.

He smiled. “Dawn, if I wanted to get to Morpheus, I wouldn’t use you to do it. I don’t play like that. You’re my friend.”

I believed him. I admit that I really wanted to believe that he cared about me, that I wasn’t just a way to my father. “I had to ask.”

“Of course you did. And you’re smart to be suspicious.”

He didn’t speak for Madrene and that unsettled me a little. But like he said, I was right to be suspicious. If Antwoine trusted the succubus, then I would as well. After all, Antwoine had said that Madrene had argued with her daughter about me, so maybe the succubus was on my side.

“You know that if you ever do try to get revenge on my father I’ll have to stop you.” Now what the hell made me say that?

Again the kind smile. “I know. Someday you and I might find ourselves at odds, child, but not today. Not any day soon. I hope never.”

I swallowed. “I hope that too.”

He patted my hand. “Don’t you fret over things there’s no point in fretting over. Tell me how you and young Noah are doing.”

Talk about fretting. I sighed and told him what had happened. Antwoine sat and nodded, not saying anything as I verbally vomited all over the place. I kept talking even after the food arrived.

Afterward, Antwoine flashed another of his smiles and spooned a cheesy crouton out of his tomato soup. “That’s love, child. You got to work things out, and sometimes it’s not easy.”

Well, that was simple. Wasn’t it? I guess if Antwoine and Madrene could find a way when they were from two different worlds, if my mother and father could do it, then Noah and I eventually could. At least we had the benefit of being from the same dimension.