Charade (Heven and Hell #2)

by Hebert, Cambria

  I smiled. “We used to do that a lot.” It made me sad that we didn’t anymore. I decided right then, that after the scroll was returned and we got home, I was going to do everything I could to put my relationship with my mother back together. She was making a great effort to accept Sam and now his brother, and I vowed to make a bigger effort as well.

  “He’ll be okay,” Sam said, taking a breath and sounding like he was trying to assure himself of that fact.

  “Yeah, I really think he will. At least this way he isn’t alone.”

  He nodded and I glanced down. In his hand he grasped the bronze case that protected the Treasure Map. My breath caught. Sam held out the scroll and I took it, pulling it close to my chest.

  “You dug it up without me.”

  “I figured you had enough on your mind.” He brushed his fingertips across my forehead.

  “Can you feel it too?”

  He nodded. “Just an echo of it through the back of my head, so I know it’s got to be hurting you.”

  “It gets worse the later it gets.” I glanced at the clock.

  “I’ve been thinking about that.”

  “You have?”

  He lifted a golden-brown eyebrow. “Of course.”

  Sam sat down on the edge of the bed and pulled me down alongside him. “Your dreams, the ones the Dream Walker manipulates, seem to only happen when I’m not sleeping with you. Is that right?”

  I thought a moment, having to relive the few dreams that I have had. Slowly, I shook my head. “The first time it happened, you were here.”

  “Yeah, but I got out of bed and was over there at the desk.” His eyes flicked to the corner where I remembered waking and finding him.

  I gasped. “That’s why you’re body was trying to shift! You sensed the Dream Walker.”

  He nodded.

  It all made complete sense. Except for one thing. “Who is this Dream Walker?”

  Sam cleared his throat and the area around his eyes tightened before he asked, “Have you seen him in your dreams?”

  I nodded, the face flashing into my mind, pale skin and dark hair. Mostly, I recalled the power and pull he exuded. Someone wanting power and control could easily be drawn to someone like him. I felt something warm on my thigh and I looked down to see Sam’s hand lying in my lap.

  “Tell me about him.”

  I shifted uncomfortably and got to my feet to pace the small room. “Why?”

  “So I know what to look for when I go in your head to get him out.”

  I stopped in my tracks and stared. “You’re going to go in my head?”

  His lips curved. “I’m already there.”

  I resumed pacing. “True, but…”

  “But?”

  “You have access to some of my thoughts and feelings because of our Mindbond, but the Dream Walker is different than that.”

  “I know. I’m going to try and get in like he did.”

  “But I was unconscious then.”

  “I should be able to get in while you’re sleeping.”

  I couldn’t help but shudder. My head was just too crowded these days. I didn’t like feeling like my head was a playground.

  “Hey…” Sam caught my hand and drew me forward, standing to look into my eyes. “It’s the only way I can think of.”

  “I understand.”

  “I won’t take advantage of you.”

  “I know you won’t,” I said, tilting my head down. I felt ashamed that he thought he had to tell me that.

  He placed his finger beneath my chin and lifted. “I promise.”

  I placed a finger to his lips. “I trust you.”

  “You’ll let me try?”

  “Of course.”

  Sam fell quiet and I was reminded of his request to tell him about the Dream Walker. “He’s very powerful, more powerful than all the others who have come after me,” I said quietly.

  Sam’s movements stilled and his head cocked to one side, so I knew he was listening. “He calls me ‘little one’ and says I belong with him… in Hell.”

  Sam catapulted away from me and began to pace. I shot him a worried look and lapsed into silence.

  Go on, he urged.

  “He pulled me into Hell.” I paused, realizing that Hell was exactly where I had been. I just hadn’t realized it until I said the words out loud. “He showed me his castle. When I didn’t swoon all over it, he became very angry… angrier than anyone I’ve ever seen. The others are scared of him… it’s almost like he rules them.”

  Sam stopped pacing and stood with his back to me, staring out the window into the night. He said nothing as I told him about what I saw when I was there and gave him a description of the man we call the Dream Walker. He barely moved at all throughout my descriptions and my stomach flipped a little at the dark mood I could feel beginning to cloak him.

  “He wants the scroll and demanded that I give it to him. Sometimes he seems amused when I tell him no; other times he gets angry and screams.”

  I fell silent for a few minutes. Sam still said nothing and just stared out into the dark yard. Surely, he didn’t need any other details? I did not want to talk about my dreams anymore and I didn’t think he wanted to hear any more. Tentatively, I approached Sam and laid a hand at his side. His T-shirt was soft and worn against my skin. “Sam?”

  “I hate…” he murmured very low.

  “What?” I turned my body slightly, trying to wedge just a portion of myself between him and the window.

  “I hate that I couldn’t protect you from him.” He didn’t look at me when he spoke the words.

  “I don’t blame you.”

  “I want to kill him.” His voice was so low I had to strain to hear.

  My heart began to thud slow and heavy.

  “To rip him apart and scatter the pieces.”

  I remembered the power and control that the Dream Walker exuded and knew deep down that this wasn’t an ordinary demon—he was something more. Something that Sam might never have had to encounter before. It scared me to the bone. How angry would this demon be when Sam broke the thread into my mind? What would his punishment be?

  A small sound caught in the back of my throat and I swallowed it, pushing down the panic. Sam turned his head and looked at me, eyes wild and golden. “Let’s do this.” His gaze shifted to the bed.

  “I don’t want to,” I blurted.

  He sighed, but his voice was hard when he spoke. “We have to try, Hev.”

  “Maybe the Dream Walker will go away when we don’t have the Treasure Map anymore.”

  “Maybe he’ll be angry and punish you.”

  I tried not to react to Sam’s harsh words outwardly, but inside, I was shattering.

  Sam’s shoulders slumped and he sighed and hauled me against him. His chin rubbed against the top of my head as he spoke. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be an ass. But we have to get this thing out of your head.”

  He was right and I knew it. I pulled away and climbed into the bed. Sam stood, watching me with a haunted look in his eyes. I lifted the blankets in silent invitation. He was beside me in seconds.

  “I’m never going to be able to sleep,” I told him.

  He brushed a kiss along my hairline and forehead while his hand came up to rub slow circles across my back. “I’ll wake you when it’s over.”

  “What are you going to do anyway?” I asked around a yawn. It amazed me that his touch was able to calm me this way.

  “Protect you,” he murmured. His deep, raspy voice vibrated my ear.

  Just like that, I fell asleep.

  Sam

  I stared up at the ceiling, frustration welling up inside me. How the hell was I going to get into Heven’s mind, find the thread the Dream Walker used, and destroy it? Earlier, Airis had been so busy trying to conceal Heven from her father that she didn’t stop to answer any of my questions. She just flung “use your Mindbond” at me and that was all. I snorted, not that I was that surprised. Airis wasn’t much he
lp at all for anything these days. I wanted to be Heven’s guardian; the job filled me with purpose and pride. I knew that it wasn’t going to be easy, but I couldn’t help but feel like Airis was just using me as a means to an end. As someone to protect her asset and that she didn’t really care about how I went about it.

  I brushed the thought away. It didn’t matter what Airis thought of me. What mattered is that I was supposed to be protecting Heven, and right now, there was a demon—a Dream Walker—in her head that was causing her pain.

  Hate churned inside me. I felt the darkness that was part of the hellhound rising up, trying to take control. I wasn’t lying when I said I wanted to rip him apart. I hadn’t felt this violent since I faced off with China for the last time. The time I killed her.

  Just like I would kill the Dream Walker.

  But I had to figure out how to get to him first. I had to figure out how to sever the hold that he had on Heven’s mind.

  Carefully, I slid my shoulder out from beneath her head and rolled to the side, looking down at her sleeping face. Blond hair fell over her forehead and I brushed it away, noting that even in sleep, she did not look relaxed. I’m going to fix this. I told her. If I hadn’t insisted she learn to swim, that demon wouldn’t have gotten a hold of her at all.

  But that wasn’t true. This would have happened one way or another. I had a feeling that I wouldn’t have been able to stop this. The hound in me has been restless, unsettled, knowing that there are undercurrents at play that we didn’t understand. Knowing that there is a charade somehow going on around us—I just haven’t been able to see past it. Not yet anyway.

  But before I stripped away the charade, I had to first tear away the thread that was left in Heven’s mind. I looked back at her sleeping face. She had been through so much that I didn’t have the heart to tell her I had no clue how to get that thing out of her mind. She depended on me, trusted me.

  I blew out a breath and forced my body to relax. Being angry and hateful wasn’t going to help me get to sleep or even get into her mind. The Mindbond gave me a great deal of access to her, but I didn’t think the bond we shared would allow me to walk straight into her mind.

  Yet, that demon had done it.

  How?

  Heven had been unconscious. Airis said that she had to be for him to get in. So I guess it would be easiest for me now as she slept. I felt like I was taking advantage of her as she slept, but I had no choice. Besides, she knew what I was doing, so I wasn’t exactly busting in uninvited.

  I would just have to trust that the Mindbond we shared was enough of an opening to let me in.

  The only way I would know was if I tried it.

  I exhaled and wrapped my arms around her, something inside me easing at the way she shifted toward me, completely trusting me, even in sleep. I closed my eyes. She smelled good… like strawberries. As I relaxed, I opened up the Mindbond as far as I could, dropping any barrier that I might hold up to keep my thoughts my own.

  Let me in, Heven. Open up, I urged with my mind.

  I felt her mind give way, and instead of pushing in, I backed out slightly. The last thing I wanted to do was scare her or hurt her. That would only make this harder.

  So I lay there, taking even breaths and counting her heartbeat, feeling her chest rise and fall as air moved through her lungs. After a short while, I began to talk to her, murmur thoughts from my mind to hers. She sighed and snuggled closer and I knew that this was the moment I needed to act.

  With closed eyes, I pushed my mind and my thoughts out toward her, feeling the bond we shared and the invisible wall where it stopped. I kept pushing—gently—continuing to tell Heven that she was safe and that I loved her, and I felt the wall give way as I entered a part of Heven’s mind I never had before.

  I was assaulted.

  * * *

  The human mind is a complex thing. I always thought that our Mindbond was something extremely unique. Something that completely opened up Heven to me. And in so many ways, it was. But I had no idea how much of her mind was still closed off. I almost felt like I was tangled in a spider web in the dark. I resisted the urge to shake, to fight off the spidery threads that brushed against me, afraid that I would somehow hurt Heven.

  I never imagined the inside of Heven’s mind to be a dark place. She’s such a bright spot in my life, and while I knew she faced a lot of challenges and had been through so much, I never once believed that it hampered who she truly was.

  I still didn’t.

  I focused and tried to make out what was in the darkness. There was nothing there.

  Heven. I spoke her name, a mere whisper from my mind to hers, testing her response.

  She didn’t make a sound; she didn’t speak a word, yet I was overwhelmed.

  Assaulted by feelings, by thoughts, and by images. Suddenly, the darkness gave way to a curtain of light and I felt as if I were watching a movie. A movie in which I was the star.

  It was a memory.

  We were at Bubble Maineia, sitting in a corner. I knew the place had been packed, but seeing this from her side, I hardly noticed anyone else but… me. I watched myself lift the chocolate drink to my lips and take a pull from the straw and the feeling of longing with a touch of lust swept over me. She wished that my lips were on her instead of the straw. I saw my lips moving, but didn’t hear the words; then I laughed. Joy and happiness rained over me and I felt the breath leave my chest a little.

  I knew that Heven loved me. I felt it every day. I saw it in her eyes. But this. This was more than I imagined. To see myself through someone else’s eyes, to feel what she felt without her emotions mixing with mine was… it was the purest feeling I have ever known.

  The memory died away and I was once again left in the dark. I stood there, the threads of her mind brushing against me and feeling extremely precious. Something caught my eye… a glint of gold. There, where the memory had replayed in front of me, was a shimmering golden thread.

  Our thread.

  I recognized it immediately. It was part of me too, and as I watched it grow and elongate, it stretched toward me. My first instinct was to move away, to not disturb the thread that helped to bind us together. What if it broke? But the closer it got, the warmer I began to feel and I couldn’t help myself. I reached out and wrapped a finger around the thin gold.

  It was much, much stronger than I thought it would be. It looked fine and delicate, shimmering gold in the dark, but it felt like steel. I tugged at it and it didn’t so much as move. On instinct, I moved closer until I felt a warm glow pour throughout my mind and spread to each of my limbs.

  Our connection was growing, solidifying.

  She was mine.

  The hellhound in me growled in possession and satisfaction. The human side of me realized that I was being archaic, but the animal in me didn’t care.

  As the connection of our thread washed over me and strengthened, a million other threads and chords revealed themselves to me. Every single one was a color of its own. It was beautiful. They illuminated the darkness and revealed to me who I always knew Heven was.

  Absolutely stunning.

  But I wasn’t here to be in awe of her true inner beauty. I was here to get rid of what didn’t belong. I began to make my way through the millions of sparkling threads, carefully navigating them, only touching them when necessary and with the utmost care. When I did touch one, I got a sensation of what the thread was for.

  The blue thread seemed to store the words to all her favorite songs. The green thread was for her love of nature. I came to a thread that was duller than the rest; it didn’t glimmer like the others. My adrenaline surged. I found it! To be sure, I reached out and wrapped my palm around it.

  It wasn’t the thread the Dream Walker left behind. But it was the thread that seemed to hold her physical pain. The minute my hand wrapped around it, I got an intense pain in the back of my skull. I dropped the thread like a live wire and swore.

  Is that what he was doing to her? Is
that the kind of pain she has been walking around with?

  It ended now.

  As stunning as they were, I tuned out all the other threads. I stopped thinking all together and I felt. Heven’s mind was a pure place, so I searched until I felt a glimmer of something that just didn’t seem to belong. I moved in that direction, no longer needing to watch out for the other threads. It’s like my mind knew where to go and how to get there.

  When I reached the spot where I felt the thread should be, I expected to see it, looking like an intruder, sticking out like a sore thumb.

  But the space was empty.

  I made a sound of frustration. It should be here!

  I felt as if I was standing right next to it. My skin prickled with the sickness of it. The hound in me was restless, urging to get out, to defeat the presence it had detected all along.

  I knew it was here. It must be camouflaged.

  How did you destroy something you couldn’t see?

  I began to move forward, not giving up the search when a humming sound filled my ears. My insides began to vibrate and I cringed. Suddenly, I felt as if I was being electrocuted and I was blasted backward to fall through the darkness.

  * * *

  Damn it. No matter how hard I tried, the thread was just out of reach. It was there, yet invisible. I sat up in the bed, pushing at the covers, irritated that I had been so close only to be knocked out of her head. Not only was the Dream Walker’s thread camouflaged, but it was somehow protected.

  If I could only see it, I knew I could take the pain of tearing it away. And there would be pain. The hairs on my arms and legs were still standing from being blasted only moments before. There was a fine tremor in my hands and I felt slightly sick.

  I turned back to the bed and looked down at Heven. I would endure just about any pain to take away what was being done to her.

  I knew what I had to do. I didn’t like it, but it was the only way.

  I leaned down and pressed a kiss to her temple, then stood, moving away from the bed. It made me sick to know that with every step I took away from her, the easier it would be for her mind to be invaded. But the only way I was going to destroy that thread was to see it, and I knew that I would be able to see it if the demon was using it.