The Torn Soul (The Sheynan Trilogy Book 3)

by Dylan Birtolo

  Some part of him felt guilty as he flitted from one dream to the next, peering at what was going on in people’s heads as they slept. It felt like a violation of privacy, eavesdropping on their thoughts and desires. He was pretty sure that they didn’t even know he was doing it. It felt like the ultimate form of voyeurism, seeing not only what these people did, but what they thought and imagined.

  When his attention shifted away from the individual dream bubbles, Darien noticed that there was the occasional flash in the blackness between dreams. Usually it was a quick burst of light, something that he wasn’t even sure that he saw. But as he studied it and waited for it, it would happen again. A flash of color and light would leave one dream and streak to another, bursting through the barrier until it entered the other dream.

  It had to be people seeing each other in their dreams, like when Alyssa used to come visit him and tried to speak with him in the dream realm. She would suddenly appear, almost as if she was only waiting for a summons. As he thought about her, the view around him blurred and he was wrenched in a direction into the darkness. When everything slowed to a stop, he found himself staring down into a landscape of cliffs and canyons. A hawk perched on the petrified husk of a tree standing at the tip of the tallest peak.

  Without knowing how or why, Darien knew this was Alyssa. She scoured the land below, looking for something. Only her head moved. All at once, she burst into motion, giving a small hop, spreading her wings, and angling down to the floor of the canyon, over a hundred feet below. Like a bolt of brown lightning, she swooped and turned at the last minute, claws extended as they closed around a rat and she swooped back up to the top of the cliffs. As she flapped to gain altitude, she reached down and tore at the tender flesh with her sharp beak. The animal was already dead. This meant it was time to feast.

  Darien reached out to touch the edge of her bubble, stopping when his palm was only a few inches from the surface. He didn’t know if he wanted to make contact. It had been quite a while since they spoke, and he wasn’t sure he could trust her anymore. If the Arm had orders to kill him, he knew Alyssa would follow them with only the slightest hesitation due to their acquaintance. It wasn’t something that he could even call a friendship. They never were close, and she always made it more than clear where her loyalties lay.

  On second thought, perhaps it would be better not to reach out to her. The less she knew about his condition, location, and abilities, the better. She never taught him how to do this, and she had taught him just about everything else he knew about dreaming. Perhaps, this would be better saved as a trump card, not that he had any idea how or when he would possibly play it. And prudence indicated that even with his power, there was a chance that her experience would trump his natural gift. She made a habit of keeping her best cards close to her chest.

  On the other hand, Richard was someone that he could trust. Plus, he knew that the older man was far less proficient at manipulating dreams than he was. If things did become problematic, Darien was confident he could take care of himself in that arena.

  At first, nothing happened. Darien closed his eyes and forced himself to think about Richard, remembering all the details that he could. He tried to remember every line in his face, the scar that was his eye, the way the man exuded power when he walked since he was built like a truck. Darien also called to mind Richard’s anger of the Shadows, his fury, his resentment. More than one memory of Richard pacing around the cabin came to mind over the course of their time in seclusion. But when he opened his eyes, Darien still found himself staring at Alyssa’s dream.

  What did that mean? Was Richard okay? Or did it just mean he wasn’t dreaming right now? Once again, Darien wished that he had a tutor. Some things came so naturally, but other things just didn’t make sense and he felt like a child fumbling while attempting to run before he learned to crawl. Still working by trial and error, Darien shifted his thoughts to Susan, someone he knew almost as well as he knew himself. It took no effort to call her to mind in exquisite detail, but again his view didn’t change and he was left with questions. At least in her case he knew that she was safe next to him in the house on the army base. He assumed she was asleep, but time was odd here, so it was difficult to say. Not to mention, he fell asleep first. Of course, those were all theories that he could test with her given some time.

  Who else could he think of? Darien called Gregory to mind, thinking of the man who was following them and probably trying to find them right at this moment. It took longer to paint a picture of the man in his head, because Darien knew so little about him. And even what he did know was suspect. But again, the view didn’t shift. Apparently, it was not going to be as easy as he originally thought.

  The only other people that he could think of at the moment were Callie and Amber. Since Callie seemed to be the one always taking charge, he focused on her. He imagined her walk, the confidence that she exuded, and her matter-of-fact way of getting things done. He pictured her in his mind, the physical details all coming quickly into place.

  The change was slow. At first it was little more than a vibration that he was barely aware of. He redoubled his efforts, focusing on the image more intently and trying to picture her in his mind as clear as when she dropped him off earlier that day. Even though there was no air to brush past him, he was aware of moving, shifting through the space and picking up speed a bit at a time. He refused to let that sensation distract him, and continued to keep his mental efforts focused on her image. The effort caused him to wrinkle his brow and chew on his bottom lip, fists clenched at his sides.

  And then the motion stopped. Darien opened his eyes and saw that he was looking down at a different world than the one with Alyssa. It was a vast savanna, somewhere that looked like it came out of a picture book for Africa. Dusty scrubland filled most of the landscape dotted with the occasional clumping of thin trees.

  A cat, about three feet long with reddish tan fur, sat on one of the branches. Her ears were curved back and up with small black tufts of hair on them, looking almost like a pair of horns on the animal’s head. She stood with her paws close together, looking at a group of antelopes grazing in the distance as her tail twitched back and forth with sudden motions.

  A flurry of activity caught Darien’s attention as another of the cats jumped up out of the brush near the antelopes. They scattered, trying to stay together as they ran from the sudden threat, but the predator knew this trick. She swerved and worked herself in between a few of the prey animals, separating a small group from the herd. She repeated this maneuvering until a sole antelope bounded towards the tree where the other cat waited.

  The antelope passed under the tree and the cat leapt, landing on the antelope’s back just behind the head. She dug in with her front claws and raked with her back while her mouth bit down hard on the flesh underneath her. Within just a few steps, the antelope crumpled to the ground and slid through the dirt, twitching its final death throes.

  Darien watched as both cats ate their fill of the carcass. Curious, he reached out and placed the palm of his hand on the edge of the dream bubble. There was a slight resistance, similar to what he felt when he left his own dream world. Darien pushed harder, increasing the force a bit at a time until his hand slid through. Once that piece of him penetrated the dream, the bubble flexed and expanded, moving around his body to incorporate him into the dream. He felt the tug of gravity, but exercised his will to remain floating in the air far above the predators who lounged near their recent kill. Now that he was inside, he could smell the dry air and the wet blood of the kill, and hear the other antelopes running in the distance, their hooves pounding on the hard-packed ground.

  One of the two cats had to be Callie, otherwise why would his thoughts have brought him here? As he hovered, the two animals below him began to converse. Darien understood the words they used and could even identify the tree climber as Callie.

  “I have to say, I’m getting tired of this babysitting mission. How much I long to
be out on the prowl and hunting down our targets. Sitting in one place for too long playing guard duty just makes me…”

  “Ants in your pants? Fidgety? Stir crazy? Cabin fever?”

  Callie’s tail twitched a couple of times and her back raised as she stared down her companion.

  “Yes. All of that.”

  “Well, you know the boss and he knows our skills. I’m sure it won’t be too long until we’re back on the hunt again. For what it’s worth, I agree with you. I could use a good chase.”

  Amber stood up and twitched her back end, leaping at something that Darien couldn’t see and pouncing on it. She growled, a low sound he could feel even this far above her. She paused for a moment, sniffing at the air.

  “Do you smell that?”

  Darien didn’t wait to hear a response. He propelled himself backwards, jerking out of their dream and catapulting to his own, shuddering to a halt right before he slammed into the ground in the middle of the clearing. His breath coming in ragged gasps, he forced himself awake.

  Chapter 15

  When Darien woke, he was restless. Glancing over at the clock, it read five in the morning, but he knew that trying to go back to sleep would be a moot endeavor. Instead he opted to get out of bed as quietly as possible, shifting his weight to the side until he was able to slide out without waking Susan. She tossed a little bit, but after a few mumbles, went back to sleeping.

  He crept out of the bedroom, closing the door behind him with the handle turned so the latch wouldn’t loudly click shut. Once he was in the hallway, it was a little easier to move without fear of waking Susan. He walked to the front door, shrugging into his sweatshirt and shoving his feet into his running shoes. Since he was up, he might as well be productive and get out of the house. The last thing he grabbed was his pocket knife sitting on the small stand next to the door. He never left the house without it. You never knew when a knife would come in handy. It was a habit Susan had drilled into him while they stayed at the cabin.

  Not surprisingly, several soldiers were already running along the trail that ran along the border of the military base. Darien didn’t know if they were in basic training, or if this was part of their regular regimen. He waited until the closest group passed and then jumped onto the trail behind them. They outpaced him, but he was in no rush. A second group came up behind, so he hugged the right edge of the trail and let them pass.

  He still wasn’t used to the fact that even a few hours before sunrise, the military base was a flurry of activity. It was something that made sense to him logically, but it still was a shock whenever he witnessed it. Whether it was physical conditioning or taking care of duties on base, a whole hive of people were active at this hour. It served as a nice distraction as he made his way around the perimeter.

  After some time, he noticed that he had a shadow. A single soldier was running behind Darien, keeping a good distance away, but maintaining that distance. Darien slowed his pace so the other soldier could pass, but the man slowed to match. Clearly he wasn’t getting rid of this escort any time soon. Trying to push it from his mind, Darien continued his run all the way around the long running path that wound through the base until he was back at the house. Only when he turned down the street for his block did the soldier run at his own pace. Looks like the military was taking an interest in their comings and goings. The only question was whether the soldier was following army orders or the agency’s. Either way, the end result was the same. He was just surprised it took them this long to assign someone to watching them.

  The house was quiet and empty when Darien walked in. He glanced over at the mat next to the door where they had been storing their shoes. Susan’s were gone, so she was probably out for her run as well. He wondered if she would get her own shadow, or if that was an honor reserved for him. For now, since he was the first one home, it was time to make some breakfast.

  He had just finished frying up some bacon and the house was filled with the rich odor of sizzling meat when Susan walked in the door. He heard her kick off her shoes and come sprinting into the kitchen, sliding on her socks so that she came up behind him and could embrace him from behind.

  “Good morning. Thanks for cooking breakfast.”

  “No problem. I figured I might as well take care of it since I was already done with the morning workout.”

  “I know. I was shocked to see you up and gone already when I crawled out of bed. Is everything okay? Did you not sleep well?”

  “I had another dream. First one in, honestly, I don’t know how long. I learned a new trick, I think. I left my dream and saw the ones other people were having. It was weird. It was like I was floating in between all of these other dreams and could just peek into them whenever I wanted. And then if I thought about someone, I found myself staring at their own little dream world. I found Alyssa, hunting in her hawk form.”

  Susan dusted her fingers over her plate, trying to shake off the last of the bacon crumbs into the scrambled eggs that she still hadn’t touched. She liked to eat her meals one piece at a time, rather than mixing it together. It was one of those quirks that Darien had learned to appreciate.

  “That’s awesome and freaky at the same time. Could you see what I was dreaming about?”

  Darien shook his head. “No, I couldn’t. I don’t know if it’s because you aren’t a shifter, or if it’s because you weren’t asleep or dreaming or whatnot. I did look for you, but I couldn’t see anything. I also looked for Richard, but again came up blank. I thought it might be good to check on him

  “But I did manage to stumble on Callie and Amber having a shared dream experience. I’m sure that this won’t be much of a surprise, but they’re both shifters. They shift into some kind of cat that’s about this big with pointed black-tipped ears. They were working together and hunting an antelope when I spied them.”

  “A caracal.”

  “What?”

  “A caracal. They’re called the smallest of the big cats. They live in Africa and usually live alone or hunt in pairs. Seriously, how do I know more about animals than you do considering you’re the Sheynan? You should be the expert.”

  Darien stood up and gathered their plates, jerking Susan’s out from underneath her before she was finished. He had a smile on his face as he did it, playing with her. She reached out and stabbed at the eggs as they retreated, almost getting Darien’s hand in the process.

  “All right, miss smart stuff ‘I’m the big hunter’ and all. Caracals. It makes sense because they were working together and took down the antelope like it was nothing. Anyways, I found them, but didn’t learn too much. They mentioned being sick of guard duty, which I can only guess meant me, and wanting to get back out on the hunt. That’s about it. I think one of them caught my scent, so I left and forced myself to wake up just in case they tried to follow me. I didn’t want to take any chances. So, I went for my morning run a little early. I tried not to wake you.”

  “It isn’t a problem. You know that I would’ve gone with you if you’d asked. I don’t mind early mornings. I think that’s the first time that you’ve ever gotten up before me.”

  Susan cleaned her fork, then stood up and pushed Darien away from the sink. Darien didn’t even attempt to argue. He was well used to her rule that whoever cooked got to get out of the cleaning. Right now, he was more than happy to obey. He went back to the table and leaned back in the chair, propping his feet up on the corner.

  “On the run this morning, I got a nice little surprise. Guess who gets a military escort now? Yes indeed, we’re the big winners. I saw somebody following me on the trail, keeping pace. When I slowed down, so did he. I didn’t even try to outrun him because we both know that would’ve been a joke. Maybe Erik’s dad’s visit raised some eyebrows. Do you know if you had anyone following you?”

  “Now that you mention it, I think so. There was someone keeping pace with me the entire lap, but I just thought it might have been someone with the same stride as me. It does seem odd that they
were the only other person on the trail. It wasn’t Callie or Amber though. It was someone I haven’t seen before.”

  Susan stopped washing dishes and put both of her hands on the counter in front of her. The water continued to run, splashing as it filled up a cup and bubbled over.

  “I guess we should get used to being watched then.”

  “We weren’t alone in the wilderness. Would you really expect any different here? And this is part of what worries me about Karl’s offer. This is the normal life he was offering. Do you ever think it would really be that normal?”

  “At least here we don’t have to worry about the Shadows or the Arm.”

  “True, but they could be watching us still. It isn’t like you can really animal proof anywhere. Unless, like he said, you wanted to live in a plastic box or something like that. For all we know the Shadow and the Arm could be right here.”

  Susan shut off the water and turned around, leaning against the counter and gripping it with her hands. Her fingers curled to the point where her forearms visibly flexed.

  “What could the Shadows or the Arm do with us on a military base or under their protection? Even if they know things, they can’t exactly just come waltzing in.”

  Darien leaned forward so that his chair smacked against the hard floor. He chewed on his bottom lip and gestured with his right hand as he spoke, the motions frantic.

  “They don’t have to come waltzing in. How is working for the government any different than working for one of them? It is the same deal. Teaming up with one group to try and keep the others at bay, all while that one group keeps me under lock and key. It’s just another form of the gilded cage. Granted, with the salaries they’re offering, it’s a hell of a cage, but that simple fact still hasn’t changed. What could possibly be worth that?”