The Company of Darkness (29 page)

“Hit me again?”  His lips twitched in amusement, but he didn’t let her go.

“Yeah, maybe.”  She should be hitting him now, shoving him away as she’d done with Ash.  Cady had the power, despite how strong he was.  Maybe it was the knowledge that she could break his hold at any time that kept her there, dying to see what he’d do next. 

“Go ahead.”  His head dipped lower, ever so slowly, giving her plenty of time to hit him or pull away, but all she could do was cling to him, struggling to catch her breath as his lips nuzzled against the corner of her mouth.  “It’ll be worth it,” he rumbled, taking possession of her mouth in a sudden shift that left her breathless. 

God, what was she doing?
  She didn’t even know him, but the man definitely knew how to kiss.  There was no denying the spark between them, the undercurrent of heat that bound her in dark delight.  He took just enough to set her lips chasing after him for more, as hungry for that spark as he was.  His hands traveled over her body with a devastating touch, kneading and teasing every inch of her within easy reach until it was too much and she pulled away, sucking in a ragged breath.

“I can’t…”

He didn’t let her go.  His mouth came to rest by her ear as his hands continued to weave their spell over her.  “I know you want me, Cady.  You wouldn’t tremble like that otherwise.”  His accent was back, sexy as hell.

Cady moaned under his touch, hovering between what felt good and what she knew was right before she shook her head.  “This is wrong.”

“This isn’t even real, remember?”

“It’s real enough to me.”

His hands stilled, and he reached up to tip her face up by the chin.  “You’re right.  It’s real enough.”  With gentle care, he kissed her again and she felt that pull to the dark side, getting swept up in the moment as it quickly turned carnal.  Cady shoved at his chest, sending him flying across the room as she fought to clear her mind.  This wasn’t what she wanted.  He wasn’t what she wanted, no matter how good a kisser he was.

Rikard pushed himself up to a sitting position, rubbing his side where it had collided with the edge of the coffee table.  “That was a nice hit,” he groaned.

“I’m sorry, I just couldn’t… we can’t do that again.  I’m not the type of girl who cheats, not even in a dream.”

“You could be if you wanted to.”  His smile turned lascivious and Cady scowled.

“Is that what you want?  Just to get into my pants?”

“If that’s all you’re offering right now, yeah.”

She had to get out of there.  If walking away was the only way to do it, that’s what she’d do.  Much too quickly he was up on his feet, blocking her path.  “Wait, this is not how I saw things going down,” he admitted.  “Ethan’s my friend.”

“You have a shitty way of showing it,” she said with more vehemence than she’d intended, throwing some of the blame she felt into her tone. 

“I can’t help what I feel and neither can you.”  There was naked emotion there, but she refused to see it, trying to move past him.

“All I feel right now is disgust with myself for letting you get that close to me.”

“I don’t believe that.”

“I couldn’t care less what you believe.”  Cady ducked around him, her hand barely closing around the doorknob when he reached past her to hold it closed. 

“Stay… just for tonight.”  His eyes pressed tightly shut, almost as if he was afraid to hear her answer, but she knew what it had to be. 

“I don’t belong here.  I don’t belong with you.  Goodbye, John.”  Pulling open the door, she almost ran headlong into Virginie, who dimpled into a sunny smile.

“Here you are.  I wondered where you’d run off to.”

It took Cady a second to recover, stumbling over her words at first.  “Sorry, I um… yeah.  That scene at the house was kind of gross, I didn’t want to hang around and watch.”

“What house?” Rikard demanded. 

“It was that guy Foster’s last assignment,” Cady replied.  “It was like a freaky creature feature in there with melted body parts and…” She swallowed back a wave of nausea from just thinking about it. 

“You took her into a dream with a
rakshasa
demon?  Are you bloody insane?”

Virginie’s brow wrinkled in puzzlement.  “It couldn’t hurt us, it wasn’t real.  You know that.”

“Still, there are some things she shouldn’t be exposed to.  Did Alma know you were going to show her that tonight?”

“Well... no,” the dreamer admitted. 

“Best you leave it off then.  Best you leave off anything but the usual trip after you got what you came for, yeah?”

“Fine,” Virginie sighed, sulky at being scolded.  “Do you want to come with us?  We can go back to the beach.”

Rikard shot Cady a considering look but she shook her head.  “Actually, I think I’d like to get back to my own dreams for now, if it’s all the same to you.”

“But why?” Her face fell.  “This is so much more fun, and it’ll be hours and hours yet before it wears off.”

She meant the drugs, and Cady didn’t want to point out that she wasn’t as chemically altered only having taken one pill.  “You can go back to the beach after you drop me off.  Hell, you can take Rikard with you if you want.”

Virginie gave the fixer a hopeful smile, but he shook his head.  “You two go on.  I’ve a feeling I won’t get any rest if I can’t catch some regular sleep tonight.”

“Oh, alright,” the dreamer sighed.  “Give me your hand then.”

Cady hesitated, not sure if she should say something else to Rikard while she still had the chance.  Instead she gave him a faint smile and took Virginie’s hand.  In the next instant the scene changed, her bedroom solidifying around them.  Cady almost expected the dreamer to vanish again in her eagerness to get to the beach, but instead the blonde perched on the edge of her bed. 

“You shouldn’t have gone off on your own like that,” she said, limpid green eyes watching Cady carefully.

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t stay and watch that stuff.”

“No, I mean, you shouldn’t have been able to slip into someone else’s dream, not on your own.  You should’ve bounced back into your own dreams.” 

Cady wasn’t sure if she should be proud of the feat or worried.  “So that definitely wasn’t my dream then, huh?”

“No.  Did you think it was?”

“I wasn’t sure what to believe.”  In a way that was a relief.  If the whole thing had been in her own mind, she had some serious thinking to do.

“You have a real talent for this, you know?” 

“Oh, do I?”  Cady didn’t like the look in her eyes, a combination of envy and admiration – neither would likely be good.   

“I won’t tell on you, if that’s what you’re worried about,” Virginie assured her quickly.  “But you should be more careful.  It’s dangerous to wander about when you don’t know how to get back to your own body.”

Good to know.  “I’ll have to keep that in mind.  And thanks, for agreeing not to rat me out to Alma.”  The last thing she wanted to do was have to explain her conversation with Rikard – or John.

“Alma doesn’t like it when things go off book.  And I was supposed to watch over you.” The girl bit at her lip nervously and Cady gave her hand a warm squeeze.

“Let’s pretend like it never happened.  All she has to know is that we made contact with Foster and then spent the rest of the night lounging on the beach, okay?”

“We are going back to the beach then?”  Her green eyes lit with excitement.

How could Cady say no now?

“You’ve done very well, the preliminary testing has been real encouraging.”  Alma closed the report she’d been leafing through, regarding Cady with a satisfied smile, like the cat who’d finished the cream. 

Cady gave a sigh of relief on the inside, still half worried Virginie might’ve said something about her taking off to visit Rikard in dreamland.  “Thanks, it has been kind of fun.  I have to ask though, when can I go home?  My brother has to be going nuts by now.”  Though she’d pretty much given up hope of keeping her cushy job.  Somehow she didn’t think they’d accept being kidnapped as a valid excuse not to come in without proof.

“That’s something I wanted to talk to you about.  We think you have the potential to become a dreamer.”

Uh oh…
  Cady licked her lips, searching for something diplomatic to say to combat the swell of panic at the suggestion.  “Well, maybe someday, but I’m nowhere near ready for that.  I’m still getting used to the idea that dream sending is possible.”

“That’s not what Virginie reported.  She said you’ve got a canny knack for maneuvering within the dream world and thought you’d be an ideal candidate.  She also said you’re the sister she always wanted, bless her heart,” Alma smiled, pressing a hand over her own heart. 

Fuck a duck…
so the flaky blonde had sold her out after all.  “That’s beginners luck. I don’t actually have any idea what I’m doing in there.  And I wasn’t able to communicate with Foster’s demons at all.  That part was a total bust.”

“Still, we think that with added resources you could become a powerful dreamer.”

Added resources?  She meant demons, and Cady struggled to keep the panic from her face.  “Sometime in the future, right?  Once I’ve had more experience.” 

“We’d like to put one of the dreamer’s glyphs into you to start that process sooner than later.  The best way to learn is by doing and you’ll learn all that more efficiently with the added power at your disposal.”

“How soon did you have in mind?”

“Tonight.”

There was a delicate balance to be maintained, a game to be played to buy enough time to bust their way out of there, but when Cady opened her mouth, all that came out was, “No freaking way.”

“Cady…”

“No, I’m not doing it.  I’m not ready, you can’t put one of those things into me against my will.”

Alma sat back in the chair, her face lit with amusement at Cady’s outburst.  “Well, of course we can, sweetie.  We’d prefer to have your willing support, of course, but we don’t need your participation to put you through the process.”

“What good will that do you?  Fine, you’ll have bound a demon to me, but I won’t do any more of your experiments after that.  You do need my cooperation to do anything with it and I won’t give you that.”

“Don’t be too sure about that.”  Alma pressed a button on the desk phone and two seconds later the door opened, and in strode her brother with a great big smile on his face.

“Ian!”  Cady leapt out of her chair like a shot, jumping into his arms.  He caught her up in a big bear hug, laughing at her enthusiasm. 

“I’ll let y’all have your little reunion,” Alma drawled, slipping past them to the door.  “We’ll talk later, Cady.”

Cady ignored that last part, trying not to worry about what it could mean for them that she’d brought Ian to the campus.  “I’m so glad to see you,” she said, still holding tight to him even though he set her back down on her feet again. 

“Hey, you’re acting like you haven’t seen me in months, it hasn’t been all that long,” he chuckled, prying her arms loose to get a look at her.

Cady let go, standing back to gape at him.  Did he not understand the severity of their situation?  “How can you say that?  Do you realize what I’ve been through?”

“I have a good idea, yes.”

“Then how can you stand there and act like everything’s normal?  It’s
so
not normal.” 

“It’s better than normal,” he said, picking up her hands and gazing earnestly into her eyes.  “Do you realize what a great opportunity we’ve been given?”

We
.  She hadn’t wanted to believe Ethan when he’d told her about Ian’s recruitment, but it was pretty clear now how into it he was.  “Show me.  Show me the tattoo.”

“It’s a glyph.”

“Whatever, show it to me.”  Ian pulled up his shirt and twisted a bit to show her the mark and Cady sucked in a breath.  She could feel it alright, the hub of energy thrumming under his skin.  “Do you realize what this means?  There is a
demon
inside you now.  What the hell were you thinking?”

“Yeah, bound.  I get all the perks and none of the down sides.”

“Ethan was right, you’ve been completely brainwashed.”

“I have not, I’m still me.  I’m thinking clearly for once in my shitty life.”

Cady stepped back as if she’d been slapped.  “I didn’t think our lives were so shitty.  I thought we were happy.”

“Oh, come on, Cady, don’t look at me like that.  We live in a shitty apartment, working shitty jobs, living from shitty paycheck to shitty paycheck.  We couldn’t even afford cable TV for chrissakes.”

“So this is all about money for you then?  And whatever you had to do to your soul to get your hands on some?”

“Don’t be so dramatic,” he scowled.  “I didn’t do anything to my soul.  This isn’t like some B movie where I had to sell my soul to a devil in a red suit.  I get all the perks and none of the down sides.”

“You said that before, I’m guessing it’s something they said to sell it to you.  How did you even get caught up in any of this?  I never said a word to you about what Ethan is, or demons or any of it.”

“Rikard approached me with an opportunity…”

“Rikard?”  Her eyes narrowed to thin slits, any warm and fuzzies she might’ve been growing for the man instantly dissipated, replaced with cold, hard anger.  “I’m gonna kill that son of a bitch.”

“Hey, it was my choice, and I made it,” Ian said, his voice sharp enough to break through her mental plans to break every bone in the fixer’s body.

“Yeah, but Ian, a demon…”

“It’s not that bad.  It hurt going in, but nothing unbearable.  Hell, it was over quicker than getting a regular tat.  I don’t feel any different now except for stronger, more powerful.  And the sex has been…”

“Ick… please stop talking.”  Cady held up both hands, not wanting to go there at all.  “I just don’t think I can do this.” 

“Of course you can.  My little Cady-bear can do anything she sets her mind to,” he added with an indulgent smile.

Instead of making her feel better, the family endearment only highlighted how much things had changed between them.  “You don’t get to call me that anymore,” she snapped.

“Now you’re being ridiculous.”

“When you can start acting like my brother again instead of a Company stooge, then you can use Daddy’s pet name.  For now… maybe you’d better go report to your masters and see what else they want you to do.”

Ian glowered at her, but backed off.  “Fine, I’ll see you later when you’ve had a chance to calm down.”

Alma came in as Ian left, smiling at him in passing.  “Mmm, now there’s a man for you,” she said with open admiration once she’d reached Cady’s side. 

Cady suppressed the revulsion that sprang up when she thought about Alma stalking Ian like a cougar, forcing a tight smile.  “I appreciate you letting me see my brother, I really do.  But I don’t think I can do this.”

Ignoring the question, Alma watched his progress down the hall from her window.  “It really was a stroke of good luck to find him in the first place.  Imagine our surprise when we found out our new asset turned into two.” 

“I’m not your asset.”

“But he is,” she drawled.  “He’s real excited about it too.  Jumped at the chance to join us before we even finished explaining what it is we’d be marking him with.  He’s the type we like to work with, strong, eager, not too bright.  But you’re a smart girl, Cady. I’m sure you can see the writing on the wall.”

The meaning came over loud and clear alright.  “You’re threatening him if I don’t do what you want.” 

“Sometimes a candidate doesn’t live up to expectations and we have to takes steps to nip it in the bud.”

“But you can mess with people’s memories.  You could send us home if you wanted to.”

Alma shook her head, pity etched across her face.  “Memory loss was never an option for you, Cady, not with unbound demon blood in you.  It’s made you unique, and we want to harness your rare gifts.”

“What about Ian though, will you let him go if I cooperate?”

“Why would we do that when he’s so eager to serve?  But as long as you stay in line, your brother’s always got a place with us here.  Come on now, Cady, it’s decision time.  You’re either with us or against us, and your brother’s fate is wrapped up in whichever way you call it.  Which is it going to be?”

Cady swallowed, trying to come up with anything she could possibly do to stall for time.  “I want to talk to Ethan.”

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea, but you can see him afterwards.”

“I haven’t agreed to do anything yet.”

“Oh, I think you have.  You’ll spend your time rasslin’ around with it, but in the end you’ll do the right thing because you can’t stand losing your last bit of family.”

“I think you and I have very different opinions on what the right thing is.”  But what else could she do?  With both their lives hanging in the balance, how could she say no?  “What will happen to me?  Will the demon make me stronger?  Live longer?”

“It will, but we’ll choose one that’s best suited to help you explore your skills as a dreamer rather than a foot soldier.  One of Virginie’s should do nicely.” 

“How old is Virginie exactly?” Cady wondered aloud, but all she got from Alma was mock offense.

“Now, Cady, I’m surprised at you.  You never ask about a lady’s age.”  Picking up the phone, she said a few words and Cady picked up on Rikard’s name.  “We’ll get you set up in one of the rooms here where you can get some rest until the procedure.  Try not to worry, it’ll be over before you know it.”

“So you’re holding me prisoner then?  No visitors?  Do I get a last meal?”

“If you want to think of it like that,” Alma shrugged, unconcerned with Cady’s insubordinate tone.  “I know this is a bit sudden, but you really have nothing to worry about.”

“Oh no?  How many glyphs do you have?” Cady retorted, her chin coming up pugnaciously.  “None, right?  Or you wouldn’t have been able to breach my protection spell that first day.”

“We all serve to the best of our abilities in our own special way.  Mine doesn’t happen to involve hosting a bound subject, but I’d do it if it was asked of me.”

“How would you feel if they didn’t ask?  If they forced you like you’re forcing me?”

Alma gave her a smile of commiseration.  “I’d probably react like you are now.   But you’ll see in time, this isn’t the end, Cady, this is just the beginning.” 

That’s what she was afraid of. 

* * *

Cady didn’t say one word when Rikard came to collect her.  Didn’t even glance his way as he escorted her up to the bedroom she’d shared with Ethan on the night of her first dream trial.  Not until he stepped into the room after her and she cracked him in the jaw, hard enough to split her knuckles and send a jolt of pain all the way up to her shoulder.   It was worth it though, to see the sting mingled with surprise on his stupid face.  The hurt there made her arm cock back for another blow, but this one he easily caught, cradling her fist. 

“I let you have one shot, but you were on the other side of that kiss too, you know,” he growled.

“That was for my brother,” she hissed, pulling her hand free of his grasp.

Understanding dawned as quickly as the red started to dissipate from his jaw and he shut the door, affording them more privacy.  “I didn’t have a choice.”

“The hell you didn’t.”

“The order came down to bring him in, I brought him in.  That’s what I do, follow orders.  I had no idea Alma wanted to recruit him until after she studied the interrogation tapes.” 

“Why’d you have to interrogate him?”

“You know why,” he said with a pointed look and she caught on.

“Because of Ethan and me.  This is all my fault.”  Cady sank down on the edge of the bed, the strength going out of her legs.  Why had she ever pursued Ethan so relentlessly?  Not that she didn’t love him, but would he have been better off for not knowing her too?  His life would be a lot more boring, but he wouldn’t have Ash in his head wreaking havoc.   

“Did you hurt your hand?”  Rikard’s voice was tender as he reached for her hand, but she pulled away, cradling it to her chest.  The split skin only oozed lightly, but hurt like a son of a bitch.

“I’m fine.” 

He sighed, pulling one of the pillow cases free, he picked up her hand with more force and wrapped it in the soft cloth.  “Hold still now,” he said, resisting her urge to pull away.  Outside of the dream world he was much, much stronger than she was, and she had little choice but to sit and let him tend to it.  “That was quite a punch,” he ventured.