Nodding, he scanned his thumbprint in and punched in the combination. He pulled the door open. Amy watched as he opened it all the way back on its hinges and she could see straight in. He smiled and held a hand out to her.
“Come on in,” he said.
A wave of relief washed through her. She wouldn’t have regretted mating with him, not now, but it was satisfying that she could now walk into his dream vault. Walking in, Amy looked around and saw that there were only a few things in the vault.
“This is all you’ve put in lately?”
“This is everything new for the past year,” he said. He sounded sad.
“It’s not an accusation. It’s just a question, love. We’re just trying to get to the bottom of this.”
He nodded. “I know. But still.”
She turned and kissed him lightly on the lips. “Would you like to see my vault? I can take you there, right now. And you can see how much your hoard will grow.”
“You can do that…oh, wait. Dreamworld. Right.”
Grinning, she backed off and motioned to the door. “Lock up. I have the feeling that even in your dream, the dragon will get pissed that it’s not been locked up.”
“That he will. I will. Hmm. That’s a new sensation. The dragon isn’t separate from me anymore. It is me. It’s just a different part of me.”
“That’s good, right?”
“Very good.” Max swung the door closed and locked it.
Amy held out her hand, and Max took hold. They were then standing in a small, crumbling chateau, with a few lights and a cool breeze from the open windows.
“Oh.” Amy was disappointed. “Mother had hired someone to take care of this place. I guess they are taking the money and not taking care…” She ran her hand on the peeling plaster. “Damn it. I wanted to restore this. This was so pretty…”
“We can do that.” Max wrapped his arms around her.
“It’s not a palace, but it’s been my family’s home for six hundred years.”
“It looks like something Renoir or Cezanne would have lived in,” Max said. “I think it could be a great little place.”
“It was.”
“Come on, don’t worry. We’ll fix it up. Show me what you’re hiding here.”
Raising an eyebrow, she grinned. “Is that your dragon coming through?”
“A little.” He grinned back.
Opening a door, Amy led him into the now-crumbling and useless kitchen. Broken-hearted, she sighed and pulled open the cellar door. There was no light there, so she summoned some and lit the way down. The cellar was the oldest part of the house and had been a root cellar for hundreds of years. The light followed them to the far corner, where Amy pulled an old, rotting shelving unit away from the wall. It brought part of the wall with it, and another dark room lay beyond.
She motioned Max to follow her. The light revealed a rock hewn room with a steel door in the wall. It was a classic steel safe door, and Amy spun the dial to open the door. Spreading the light in, she took Max’s hand and walked into the vault with him.
She felt his dragon’s delight at all the goodies inside. She’d forgotten how much was in there. The gold bars alone still impressed her. But there were set gems, loose gems, silks, and tapestries. Max walked in and ran his fingers over the different bits of the treasure her family had stored there.
“And, you’d share this with me?”
“Share? No. My part of this is ours. Yours and mine. And it becomes part of our hoard.”
He nodded. “You get the dragon already.”
“Yes, of course. We’re a unit. We work together.”
He stepped up to her. “You will make a fine mate and wife when you’re ready.”
“I am your mate, and I’m okay with that. Give me time for the wife part.”
“As much as you need.”
Amy leaned up and kissed him softly. “Back to sleep with you, love.”
“I’ll be waiting, mój cenny.”
Amy could feel the power drain as they drove closer to the town. She didn’t like the feeling at all and could imagine how people who had lived with their power their whole lives hated this.
“For shifters it’s annoying and dangerous,” Max said. “For others it’s crushing who they are and what they can do.”
Amy nodded. “At least now we know it’s not in your vault. I have to check the others, though.” Looking around, she realized they weren’t heading for his house. “Where…”
“The hotel in New Town,” Max answered. “If Brent is anywhere it’s going to be there. He’ll be under a pseudonym.”
“He’s not stupid, though, Max. He won’t be here. He’ll be nearby. What other hotels are nearby? Can we send someone to check them out so he doesn’t see me?”
“Doesn’t see you?”
“You think he won’t run if he knows I’ve figured out he was here?”
Max paused and then nodded. “Good point. I think we can get Keni and Sia to go after him and see if he’s out there.”
“Yes, please. We have to get to the bottom of these power outages. I’ll put Niko out and dive right in to find out if it’s in his. I can get Henry and Raissa tonight. Was Carl sure that this is all being caused by this Deadening Stone?”
“You can read all the information he brought when we get to the house. But it really sounds like this is the reason.”
“This is why Carl is the Gray Eminence.” Amy smiled. “He’s got so much information in that head of his, he can find things I couldn’t even begin to think of.”
Max grabbed her hand. “You aren’t going to quit the Sectorum, are you?”
“I don’t want to,” she admitted. “But, eventually how am I going to stay if they are in North Carolina, and I’m here?” He clutched her hand and looked over, surprised. Amy shook her head. “Max. I was scared, I still am, but I am in love with you, and I do want this. It was always a question of when, not if.”
“I don’t want you to quit,” he said. “It’s part of who you are.”
“If there’s a way to work this out, of course I won’t.”
A day of making love, and a night of good solid sleep, Amy felt more in control of herself and more sure that she made the right choice. Max’s vault was clear and she was pretty sure Niko’s was going to be as well. It was either Henry or Raissa, or hidden in the Leprechauns’ area.
Max changed direction and headed for the old part of town, specifically for Niko’s place. Carl had holed up there with his son-in-law while he was in town, and since the information was there, it was probably the best choice.
Carl was waiting at the top of the stairs with a giant grin on his face. “Welcome back, Amy. I knew you’d come back.”
“Seems I was the only one not convinced.” She smiled and accepted the hug from her surrogate father. “I may have to step down from the Sectorum. Do you—”
Shaking his head, Carl cut her off. “We’ll talk about that later. We have more pressing matters to worry about.” He motioned them into Niko’s house. “You checked Max’s vault?”
“Yes.” She blushed slightly, realizing that everyone knew what she and Max had been up to early in the week. And all the way home, really. “Nothing there. I have to hope Niko will let me in.”
“Only one way to find out.” Niko smiled, then yawned. “I kept myself awake too late last night so I could drop off for a nap, if you’re down for a little dreamwalking. Henry and Raissa are good for tonight as well.”
“You really all bet on my coming back?”
Niko nodded. “You love it here. You’re in love with Max, and we like you. Of course, you were coming back. We’re also getting desperate and you know that. You’re not one to walk away from people who need help.”
Amy blinked a few times and shrugged. “Yup. I can’t argue with that.”
“Where is Keni?” Max asked, walking in.
“She left early when I asked Henry to stop by.” Niko rolled his eyes.
“Those two are ridiculou
s.” Max shook his head. He paused, then clapped Niko on the back. “Ready?”
Letting out a massive yawn, Niko nodded. “Yeah. I need the nap. Let’s get this over with.”
Amy followed him into the living room. “You’re sure you can go down? I can help with a little hypnosis.”
“No, trust me, this will take no time.” Niko yawned again.
Sitting down across from him, Amy cozied herself into the chair and pulled the blanket over herself. “I’ll be waiting.”
“You can go to sleep that fast?”
“It’s a talent I taught myself.”
Taking her usual three breaths, she—
—found herself sitting across from Niko, waiting for him to stir in the dream. She had to wait what was probably ten minutes in the real world. He finally yawned and stretched in the dreamworld, and she quickly flipped into his dream.
“About damn time.” Amy laughed.
“I just fell asleep!”
“You forget that I’m good at this. I can fall asleep almost on command. I’ve been waiting for you to show up.” She stood from her chair and held her hand out. “Let’s go. I’m about ninety percent sure your vault is clean, but I just need to make sure so no one says I’m playing favorites. I also want to see how this works with you.”
Niko took her hand and they were in front of his vault, and he shook his head. “Okay, this time I’ll try not to go all dragony on you.”
“Hurry, we don’t know when another outage is going to show up.”
“Right.” Niko scanned in and punched in his code. He took a deep breath and pulled the door open, wide.
Amy could see right in. “Oh, thank Christ.”
“Right?” Niko said and took a few steps in. “So, my dream has apparently moved everything new to the front. Nothing major in the past year. Just a few gems and bars, and a new tapestry.”
“Anything smell weird? Out of place?”
“Can you smell in a—holy crap, you can.” Niko walked around, sniffing and poking in corners. “No, everything in here is just fine. Nothing foreign.”
“Good. You’re clear. Let’s get back to the real world before there’s an outage.”
Niko nodded and Amy put a hand on his shoulder. She shoved him back to the couch and—
—opened her eyes in the living room again.
“We’re good there,” Amy said. “No problems at all.”
Max leaned down and kissed the top of her head. “Just Raissa and Henry. Who do you want first?”
“Let’s do Raissa.”
Carl pulled out his phone and dialed her number. There was a quick discussion, and he ended the call. “She’s home. She said to give her ten minutes. Should I call Henry and just tell him to hit the pillow?”
“Yes, that’s actually a great idea. I might have to come back out to get to his dream, but I can do that in no time.” Amy nodded, pulling the blanket back up as Niko yawned and started to wake up.
“Did I miss anything?”
“Nope. Nothing. I’m going back for Raissa. Henry is going to sleep now so that we don’t get screwed by an outage,” Amy said. “I’ll be back.”
Three deep breaths and—
—she opened her eyes in the dream again. She moved herself to Raissa’s living room where she sat on the couch and waited for her to appear on the stairs. There was a hint of a shadow walking around, and Amy smirked. She knew that Raissa was serious about her boyfriend in Chicago, and that was probably the hint of him that was always on her mind. It was just about ten minutes when Raissa appeared at the top of the stairs in her robe. Amy stood and walked over.
“Hey, Raissa.”
“Oh, that’s right. How did I forget what was going on so quickly?”
“The dreamworld is like that,” Amy explained. “Hang on a moment, we have to flip to your dreamworld.”
The colors changed and Raissa put a hand to her head. “What the…”
“Everyone has their own dreamworld, and while I can move around in them easily, I have to be in your dream in order for us to see your vault. I don’t know what’s in there, and you do. In my dream, you couldn’t even open the vault.”
“Weird,” Raissa said. “Let me get my keys and we’ll drive over.”
Amy held out her hand. “Don’t have to. I can just move us there. I was just there with Niko.”
Raissa was skeptical. She took her hand. “Just move us there?”
Doing that just, Amy smiled at the lady dragon. “Just move us there.”
“Oh! Damn! That’s crazy!” She looked around the cave and shook her head. “Okay. Well. Let’s do this. What am I looking for?”
“Anything new. Anything that doesn’t smell or feel right.”
“Can you smell in—oh, you can.”
Amy laughed hard. “You all ask the same questions!”
Raissa walked to her vault and carefully scanned her thumbprint and punched in the code. She looked around and Amy suspected that just like her, she was waiting for the dragon to take over and push her away. But there was no resistance, and Raissa pulled the door open.
“Just the last few months, right?” Raissa asked.
“Yes, just about six months.”
Swinging the door open, the vault beyond was a blank, except for a few items that appeared near the front on a shelf. Amy walked in, but realized a second later that Raissa wasn’t next to her. She was still in the door, staring in.
“Raissa?”
She shook her head. “No. No way.”
“What?”
She lifted a weak arm and pointed. “I didn’t put that in here. That’s not mine.”
Amy swung around and looked at the shelf.
The Deadening Stone sat in the middle.
Raissa was sitting on the couch in her living room, her head in her hands.
“How did it get in there?”
“I’m more concerned about how we get it out,” Carl said. “No one magical can touch it, and I don’t want to risk your dragon’s ire by going in there myself. I know you don’t completely trust me.”
“There are thousands of non-magical people in town,” Max said, putting a hand on his forehead.
“And how many of those know about the magicals?” Keni asked, folding her arms.
Niko’s head snapped up. “My grandmother.”
“What?” Carl and Raissa chorused.
“Of course,” Max agreed. “Lola is human!”
“Your grandmother hangs out with the vampires,” Raissa said.
“But she hasn’t been turned. She’s still human.” Niko shrugged. “Even if she does benefit from...well. That.”
Amy laughed. “Well that? She has their blood. Is that going to affect her humanness?”
“She hasn’t been turned,” Niko said. “I’m sure that Rigel will want to soon, but not just yet.”
“Call her,” Carl instructed. “We have to work this out with Raissa. We have to figure out how Lola is going to get into the vault without being a dragon biscuit.”
Raissa cringed. “How am I going to hold back? She has to get it out of there, but I can’t let her in.”
Amy put her hand up. “What if I pulled you into the dreamworld just long enough to let Lola grab it? Just a few minutes tops.”
Carl shook his head. “That’s a trick Amy. There aren’t many dreamwalkers—”
“She’s already done it,” Keni said.
“What?”
“At the accident. It’s how we know Brent is here for sure. Instead of chasing him, Amy dropped into the dreamworld and yanked him in.”
Carl stared at her, astonished. “That was a legend.”
Max smirked as Amy shrugged. “I thought so too. Until I yanked him into sleep and had words with him.”
Tapping his finger on his chin, Carl studied her. She was a little uncomfortable with his glare, but she didn’t look away. Finally, he broke his own silence. “If you can do that, you might be able to go into memories and find out wha
t Raissa remembers about who could have put the stone in there.”
She twisted her lip. “That’s kind of invasive, Eminence. Dad always said that we shouldn’t trip into memories.”
Raissa grabbed her arm. “No. Amy, I want you to. I want to know who the fuck has enough influence over me to get that stone in there. If that means you have to screw with my brain to find out and give someone time to get the stone out, then we’ll do it.”
Amy took a deep breath and nodded. “Fine. At the very least we can get the stone out of there, even if we can’t find out who did it. So, Niko, you can call your grandmother and get her back here?”
“On it,” he said. “She’ll probably be back in a few days.”
“Good. In the meanwhile, what do we do with Brent?” Sia asked.
There was silence for a moment. Carl leaned forward on the table. “Let’s let him be. Just tail him once we find out where he is.”
Amy started giggling, then laughing. “I’ve got one better. Let’s pull a Mother of Dragons on him.”
Raissa seemed to be the only one who got it, as she started laughing along and leaned forward. “I am so in on this.”
Brent was staying outside of town, like Amy suspected. They had a few of the magicals in town take turns tailing him. It wasn’t hard because he was absolutely not tuned into the magic at all.
Amy even took a turn following him, practicing with her newly gained powers from Max. Max hadn’t really liked her taking a shift tailing her ex-fiancé, but after a little convincing—which also involved a bit of fellatio—he finally backed off.
She was not happy with what she saw. He thought he was being sneaky, but he was as gentle as a buffalo during a stampede. There was no missing him. Still, he tried to sneak around, and he was plucking people’s magical things from all over the town. She and Keni and Niko and a few others witnessed him taking crystals and other personal magical items. He tried to cat-nap Poppy’s familiar, a cat she called The Fuzzlord, but he was having none of that shit and Brent wound up going to the urgent care for some stitches and antibiotic.
No less than he deserved.
Keni and Brindy managed to get into his room and remove the items as he stole them. They returned them, and they watched him take them again.
Skydance Page 21
