The Dream Walker (11 page)

Chapter 22

Blake held the phone away from his ear as Noah yelled. The guy had been raving for a few minutes, and usually Abby would have put an end to it about thirty seconds into it. Blake missed Abby even more than he originally thought. She kept Noah in line.

“We can’t bring her back to the silo, especially if she’s a half-breed,” Noah said, finally calming. “You and Nico take her to the house outside Phoenix. Drop everyone off at the Black Cuff before you go. I’ll have Abby get the code for the security system.”

Blake hesitated to tell Noah that Abby wasn’t around anymore, because Micah and Simon didn’t know about Abby. He brought the phone back to his ear, thinking of a way to remind Noah about Abby’s absence.

“Shit. Abby’s not around anymore,” Noah said, interrupting his thought
s.
“I’ll call Beverly. Abby showed her the ropes as far as planes, silos, and security systems go. Now get the hell out of there.”

Blake hung up and took off, the tires squealing in the empty parking garage.

“He sounded upset,” Micah said. “And I thought I heard him say something about Abby and Beverly. Who are they?”

“None of your fucking business,” Hudson said from the backseat. His tone sent a shiver through Blake’s body. He knew Hudson would crawl through cut glass while on fire for Beverly or Abby. “And don’t speak their names again, or I will give you a hole in your spine and a third eye on your forehead.”

Blake braced himself for the shattering of bone matter on the windshield, but none came. Micah must have sensed the same thing because he remained very still and very quiet.

“Please. I don’t know anything,” the woman said in a soft voice as she met Blake’s gaze in the rearview mirror. “Just stop and I’ll get ou
t,
and you go your way and I’ll go mine. I won’t report anything. We can pretend this night never happened.”

Blake sighed. He felt for her. She had been sucked into their world, but she was too important to be let out onto the streets never to be seen again. She could see ash, which in his book put her firmly in the descendant of a Colonist line, just as he was. He wondered who the guy was who had beaten her. A Colonist? And who were all those other people? The cut on her lip was swelling, and she gingerly touched it.

He tried to give her the benefit of the doubt that she simply had black stuff on her, but the fact that Micah thought there were Colonists involved led him to think otherwise. Something, and they didn’t know what, had transpired in that room in the church, and they had their best source of knowledge firmly wedged between Hudson and Nico.

“What’s your name?” Nico asked as he stared at her intently.

The woman hesitated for a moment, then turned to Nico. “Alaina,” she whispered.

“I’m Nico,” he said quietly, “and you’re going to be safe.”

Blake stared at her. As far as he was concerned, until she proved otherwise, she was nothing but trouble wrapped in a pretty package.

Chapter 23

Alaina’s body shook as she leaned into Nico. Everyone else in the car was cold and deadly. Yes, she had definitely jumped from the pot to the frying pan. Who were these men, and what did they want with her?

She studied each of them. The driver kept glancing at her in the rearview mirror. The huge man in the passenger seat, stared straight ahead and remained quiet. The man sitting next to Nico was also silent and stared out his window.

Nico and the man with the ponytail next to her seemed fascinated by the black stuff on her arm, and by the fact that she could see it. She wanted to kick herself for not keeping her mouth shut.

Her thoughts went back to what Daniel had told her. The fact that she could see the ash made her special. So, if she were to look at things logically, that made these men “special” as well. Were they killers like Daniel, George, and the others?

“What are you going to do with me?” she asked.

The car remained silent.

She had a feeling that in this case, silence was not a good sign.

They pulled up in front of the Black Cuff, and she had every intention of bolting when they let her out of the car. The man with the ponytail got out, and she scooted toward the open door, and freedom.

“You need to stay in the car,” Nico said as he gently grabbed her arm.

The large man in the front seat also got out, glancing back at her before he slammed the door. She was left with the driver, Nico, and the man sitting next to Nico.

Alaina looked around outside. There were people everywhere, and as far as she was concerned, they were her ticket out of this situation.

“Help!” she screamed, clawing at the door. “Help me! I’m being kidnapped!”

“Get out of here,” the other man in the backseat yelled, “and shut her up, Nico!”

The car took off, and Nico had her in a headlock, pinching the back of her neck. She struggled against him, kicking and trying to hit his face. “Let go of me!” she yelled.

“Alaina, stop it,” Nico said, his voice calm.

She threw another punch, and felt the pain in her hand when it connected with Nico’s nose.

“Goddammit,” he growled, and pinched her neck harder. Suddenly, blackness closed in on her peripheral vision and she felt weak. The last thing she saw before she passed out was the car’s dashboar
d
.

Chapter
24

“
What the hell did you do to her?” Blake asked. One minute they had a hellcat in the back seat, the next she was laid out over Nico’s lap sleeping soundly. As Blake stared at her now, he realized he had seen her somewhere before, but for the life of him, he couldn’t place where.

“
Just applied some pressure to an artery,” Nico said. “Hopefully she’ll stay out for a while.”

“
That is so
Star Trek
,” Blake muttered.

“
What’s that?” Simon asked.

Shit. He
’d forgotten about Simon. He needed to go. Blake pulled off to a side street. “Sorry, Simon, this is where you get off.”

“
Are you kidding me?”

“
Nope. Not kidding.”

“
It’s like a two-mile walk back to the Black Cuff!”

“
Sorry, my friend. You should have gotten out the car faster when you had the chance.”

“
But you took off—“

Blake turned around in his seat.
“Look. I get it. It’s hot out and you’ve got a long walk. I can’t go back there now, so this is the way it’s going to have to be, okay?”

Simon stared at him a moment.
“What if I said I didn’t want to go back to The Platoon?”

“
Then don’t, Simon.”

“
And what if I said I want to align myself with the Saviors?”

Blake closed his eyes and pinched his nose. Jesus. Simon was really getting on his nerves.
“Not my place to say yea or nay, man. Just please get out of the car. It’s been a long night for everyone.”

Alaina let out a small moan, and Blake had the feeling that once she awoke, she was going to be really pissed and wouldn
’t hesitate to let them know about it. They needed to get her to the house in Phoenix so that she was contained.

“
Go, Simon. Now.”

The back door slammed, and Blake took off. He checked the rearview mirror to see Simon standing in the middle of the street. Poor dude. He seemed like a halfway decent guy, and Blake almost felt bad for leaving him. Almost, but not quite. He was part of The Platoon, and as far as Blake was concerned, those bastards were bad news, no matter what they said.

His phone rang; it was Noah.

“
You got the code?” Blake asked.

“
Yeah,” Noah said. Blake committed the numbers Noah said to memory.

“
I’ll text you when we’re in. We need Jovan and Liberty to come over tomorrow for a little interrogation on our half-breed here,” Blake said. “We need to be sure she’s telling the truth on everything.” He glanced in the mirror. Nico was staring at Alaina, and Blake swore he saw Nico tenderly touching her hair just for a second. What the hell? The guy looked starstruck as he gazed upon the woman he had just knocked out.

“
Agreed,” Noah said. “I’ll send them over in the morning.”

“
Okay. Sounds good. Oh, yeah—I almost forgot to tell you—I just kicked Simon out the car, but before I did, he said that he wants to align himself with the Saviors.”

“
Oh, hell,” Noah said. “I don’t have time for that shit. We’ve got too much going on. What did you tell him?”

“
I told him it wasn’t my call and to get out of the car.”

“
Good. I don’t trust any of them.”

“
They really haven’t given you a reason to.”

“
I know. Cocksuckers. We’re on our way back to the silo, so I’ll call you in the morning.”

“
Talk to you then.”

Blake gazed back at Nico again. He was staring out the window. “You okay, man?” he asked.

Nico nodded, but didn’t meet Blake’s gaze in the mirror. “Yeah. I’m solid.”

Chapter
25

As Nico carried Alaina into the house, he wasn
’t feeling solid, despite what he had told Blake. He quickly went downstairs and picked a bedroom, opting for the one that seemed the most feminine. After laying her out on the bed, he pulled the covers up to her chin and pulled the desk chair over next to the bed.

There was something about the woman who lay on the bed in front of him now that made him feel like a big pile of go
o.
Or maybe Jello.

He felt very protective of her, even though he
’d barely spoken two-dozen words to her.

Her black hair fanned out on the blue pillowcase, and the bruise on her cheekbone and the black eye were getting darker by the minute. Bile rose in his throat and anger twisted his gut as he thought of the male who’d hit her, and he really wanted to return the favor. Asshole.

Her lips were parted slightly, and her chest rose and fell with each breath. He assumed he would be at the top of her shit list when she awoke, and he didn’t blame her one bit.

As he stared at her, he contemplated his next move. He shouldn
’t do it, but the itch to know her better was strong. No, he definitely shouldn’t walk in her dreams. Talk about invading her personal space. He should respect her, especially during her most private sanctuary, the time when she slept.

It was one thing to use his ability on potential Colonists, but it went against his very moral fiber to walk in others’ dreams, even if he
’d done it before.

He reasoned with himself that if he did, he would be helping the Saviors. He could glimmer a lot from her visions, find out what made her tick, and what was truly going on in her life. Yes, Jovan and Liberty would be there in the morning to use their gift to judge her for truth, but even if someone was truthful, it didn
’t necessarily mean they were telling the whole story. Dreams had a way of showing a person’s true character, what they were really about.

Nico sat back in the chair, stretched his legs out in front of him, and crossed his arms over his chest. Alaina
’s eyes fluttered beneath the lids. She was in REM sleep, the time of dreaming. If he was going to do it, it was now.

Taking a deep breath he closed his eyes and focused on Alain
a.
His body relaxed and his mind drifted. Suddenly, he was pulled into her dreamscape.

It was dark. Nico looked around—he was in some type of cave, a place of refuge. A river flowed rapidly through the middle of the cave, and a small light at the bottom of the river blanketed the cave in a soft glow. It smelled damp and coppery, and a chill ran down Nico
’s spine.

He heard soft humming and stepped out from behind a rock. Alaina wore a white dress that flowed down to her ankles and spun out from her torso as she danced around in a circle. Her hair swirled around her shoulders.

She smiled as she ran and jumped over the river, soaring high above it. She looked like a ballerina as one leg extended behind her, the other in front of her, while her arms spread outward as if they were wings. Her dark hair flew behind her while the white dress waved in the wind. It was a magnificent sight, and Nico couldn’t help but smile.

She landed as gracefully as she had soared, and went behind a rock, still humming. He wanted to see what she was doing, but he had to remain hidden so she wouldn
’t see him. He needed to watch her in her own element without distractions.

Alaina came out from behind the rock, pulling on something. Through the soft light, he made out the shape of a man. In dreams, people were always faster, stronger, and physically more capable of things than they were in their real lives, and Alaina wasn
’t any exception. With little effort, she lugged the man to the side of the dark river. Suddenly, the light in the river grew brighte
r,
and Nico was able to see what she was doing.

She waved her hand in the air and a knife appeared. She looked down at the man, who Nico recognized as the guy who had attacked her at the church. Nico watched in fascination as she slit the man’s throat from ear to ear, the blood spattering up on her white dress.

A dripping sound alerted Nico and he turned. It looked like the dark walls were crying as liquid oozed from them. Alaina picked up the body and threw it into the river, then they watched as it traveled away into the darknes
s
.

When Alaina sat down on the edge of the river, the light got brighter, illuminating her soft features. Bringing her knees up to her chest and resting her head on them, she began sobbing. The light from the river brightened further, and Nico could see everything clearly. Yes, the walls were weeping, but they were crying blood. He glanced over at the river—it was red as well.

Alaina’s whole body shook. It took Nico everything he had in him not to go and comfort her, but he had to decode this dream first. As he watched the scene, the light from the river grew more intense. With the white glow, the cave didn’t seem like such an awful place.

Suddenly, Alaina leaned over and looked into the river. She moved closer, staring intently, and Nico wondered if she were going to fall in.

He stepped back behind the rock and accidently kicked a stone. He held his breath, hoping that Alaina hadn’t heard it. However, she turned and looked in his direction, and he backed away from her line of sight.

“
Who’s there?”she called, and then Nico heard her scufflin
g
.

He needed to evacuate, and fast.

“Who’s there?” she asked again. “What do you want?”

Nico closed his eyes and left the dreamscape.

He gazed at Alaina lying on the bed. It was a dark dream, for certain, but after what she’d been through, he didn’t blame her for dreaming about killing the male who gave her that nasty bruise and black eye. He’d probably be thinking along the same lines.

Inhaling deeply, he thought about what he
’d witnessed. Obviously, Alaina had no trouble killing while in her dreamscape, which was sort of natural if she had Colonist DNA. He was certain she was part of their race by the fact she could see the ash left on her arm after the meeting. Based on the darkness of the dream, that also put a point into the tally that she was on the Colonist side of things. People could either get the bad gene or not, and he didn’t know if she was a killer or not. However, the rest of the dream was a bit of a myster
y
.

First the river.

Flowing at a fairly rapid rate, it had been a prominent part of the dreamscape. Rivers usually meant that the dreamer felt their life was passing them by, or on the contrary, it symbolized peace, prosperity, or fertility. Alaina’s dream was anything but peaceful, so he was going to go with the idea that she felt her life was passing her by.

The fact that the river ran red was pretty obvious—it signified violence, which was exactly what she dished out to the male.

The large rocks were a bit puzzling. Usually they suggested stability and integrity, but that didn’t seem to fit within the whole feel of the dream. On the contrary, rocks could suggest unhappiness or disharmony. Yeah, he was going to go with that one.

So what did he have so far? Alaina dreamt of killing someone who had beaten her. He would bet money she was a descendant of a Colonist, but the fact she killed someone in her dream didn
’t mean the bad genes had taken over.

So many different puzzle pieces, but an interesting look into the psyche of Alaina. The only thing he didn
’t understand was the light at the bottom of the river. It usually represented an awareness, or clarity or insight—an answer to a problem. And he wished like anything he could have seen what caught her attention in the river at the end of the dream. Maybe it was the light. What insight did she see, if any?

Alaina slowly opened her eyes. When those pools of blue met his gaze, his gut clenched. They were the brightest blue he had ever seen, and they shone with confusion and fear.

“Where am I?” she asked.