by Su Williams
Dream Weaver Novels
Book 3
Breaking Normal
A dark young adult paranormal fiction novel
By Su Williams
© 2014 by Su Williams. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights.
Purchase only authorized editions.
For information contact
Su Williams at
[email protected]
Or
www.dreamweavernovels.com
Cover design © 2014 by Su Williams
Images by Dollar Photo Club
& artist Shawn Foote
This book is a work of fiction. While, as in all fiction, the literary perceptions and insights are based on experience, all names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. No reference to any real person is intended or should be inferred.
Chapters
Prologue
Chapter 1 Saint Anger
Chapter 2 Some Nights
Chapter 3 I Can’t Drive 55
Chapter 4 Damaged
Chapter 5 Calling All Angels
Chapter 6 Hate is Such a Strong Word
Chapter 7 Can’t Remember to Forget You
Chapter 8 Fighter
Chapter 9 Cold As Ice
Chapter 10 Survivor
Chapter 11 What the Hell?
Chapter 12 Awaken
Chapter 13 When You’re Gone
Chapter 14 Life Ain’t Always Beautiful
Chapter 15 Dr. Feel Good
Chapter 16 Rise Up with Fists
Chapter 17 Hello Kitty
Chapter 18 Baby, Don’t Cry
Chapter 19 Hollow
Chapter 20 Barton Hollow
Chapter 21 Once Upon Your Dead Body
Chapter 22 Delirium Trigger
Chapter 23 Sweet Dream (or a Beautiful Nightmare)
Chapter 24 Feathers
Chapter 25 Gravemakers & Gunslingers
Chapter 26 Thunderstruck
Chapter 27 Glory & Gore
Chapter 28 Just a Kiss
Chapter 29 Dirty Work
Chapter 30 Invisible
Chapter 31 Losing Grip
Chapter 32 Uprising
Chapter 33 Justice in Murder
Chapter 34 Let the Bodies Hit the Floor
Chapter 35 (So Much for…) My Happy Ending
Epilogue
Prologue
Sabre
I never believed much in fate—vile loathsome creature as she is. Once upon a time, when her light danced in the eyes of my beloved flaxen-haired beauty—then, so young and naïve—I might have believed. But I watched her light depart the eyes of my darling—watched their celestial blue harden into glaciers.
Yet now, I see that same light dance in Nickolas’ eyes. His whole soul is immersed in hope, despite the girl’s shunning him at every turn.
She blazed into our home, a cyclone of fury and fire, and pillaged his memories as violently as any Rephaim in my lifetime. She ransacked his mind, and perhaps may have left him a broken empty shell, had I not dragged her, kicking and screaming like a banshee, away from him. She knows not yet the extent of her powers.
I watched him crumble in upon himself—broken-hearted, grieved for the loss of her love that he’d finally won, and loathing his own soul for his betrayal. He is not a man to take his promises lightly, but this oath has cost him everything he holds dear—it has cost him her.
Lost and melancholy, he pines in silence, hovers ever near over her cottage—unable to touch the heart that once was his.
Chapter 1 Saint Anger
Nick
She teeters on an edge not even I can bring her back from. All that she is, and all that she’s ever known, lies shattered at her feet. A reflection of her soul. And I—I cast the stone that broke her.
*
Emari
My heart blazed with rage. So hot. So heavy. Cohesive thought betrayed me. He betrayed me. Two words became my mantra, stoked the fire inside me: ‘You. Lied.’ Even sleep was disloyal and I sought retribution. I sought freedom that would not come, because of what I am. Because of what I’d become. Forced t0 live an eternity with the grief that oppressed me. I must find freedom. I must find it anywhere.
“Double Fireball, neat,” I droned to the bartender. I’d searched online for the appropriate terms, so I didn’t sound too inexperienced.
He poured the drink. “I’ll need to see some ID, miss,” he said as he placed the drink on the bar and cupped his hand over the glass, as though to guard it from some wily juvenile delinquent.
I might’ve been a newbie at this Dream Weaver thing, but I could weave believable lies. I slipped the license from my back pocket, held it out to him and wove my tapestry of deceit as my fingers grazed his skin.
“Well, you surely don’t look twenty-one, Miss Sweet, but I’d know a fake ID if I saw one.” His eyes were glossy with the aftermath of my weave.
“Here’s my card. Run a tab,” I told him and handed him my debit card.
“Are you driving tonight, Miss Sweet?”
“No, darling. I’ll be flying home.” I giggled and he nodded as though he got my private joke. Since my plummet to my death, and subsequent reincarnation as a quasi-immortal Dream Weaver, I savored the gift to phase wherever I wanted to go. They were my only moments of autonomy—soaring, drifting, free. Free of imprisonment to my corporeal form. The form that suffered every stitch of pain.
Three doubles and a half dozen Jello shots later, I staggered toward the door. The frigid night air bit at my cheeks as I stumbled to the trees behind Cinola’s Pizza just up the road from my house. I released myself to the inebriation, and shifted and drifted on the breeze in the general direction of home. I didn’t care if anyone saw me, and only the thought of Eddy home alone kept me on course.
He was the there when I phased under the carport. I could feel him hovering near, skulking behind the trunk of the massive blue spruce at the corner of the yard. Him. The liar. The one who betrayed my trust. I spun to face him and whirled in like flaming blizzard in front of him. Gathering his shirt in my fist, I slammed my knuckles into his chest. He cringed.
“Stay. The hell. Away from me!” I screamed in his face. His features twisted with misery, but I didn’t care. I didn’t give a damn about his pain, his despair or his apologies. He’d caused me enough pain in a few short months to last a lifetime. “Understand?!”
“Emi. Please,” he begged.
“Don’t call me that.” I shoved him away and bobbled on my feet. He lost the right to call me that.
“You’ve been drinking,” he accused.
“So what if I have. It’s none of your business.”
“Please. Don’t destroy yourself like this. This is all my fault.”
“Damn straight, it’s your fault. You burned the bridge. So just…” the booze was befuddling my snark. “Just—go away.”
His mouth fell open with a retort, but I didn’t wait to hear it. I faded away and into my home, and left him there with his mouth hanging open.
Nick
My treachery is more than she can endure. I should have told her. Should have been forthright. But I didn’t, and I wasn’t, and I can’t even explain to myself why. I can make excuses that not even I believe. It was easier in the beginning, before I fell in love with her, to justify my secrets. The more I lo
ved her the harder it was to confess. The stakes just grew too high.
I thought the savagery of the Rephaim was brutal, but when it’s someone you love that extricates something that should have been theirs…I still shuddered at her ruthlessness. Her words echoed in the emptiness of my heart. You lied! In her heart, I am judged and found guilty of deception. And the secrets and promises I fought so hard to keep have destroyed us both.
Rhianna’s ‘Take A Bow’ pierced the crisp air around me, and even I questioned my own sincerity. Then, Disturbed’s ‘Deceiver’ rumbled from her home that vibrated the halo of mist enshrouding it. I wondered if she was building a playlist of songs she’d searched out about lies and deception. When she reached back to the 1980’s with ‘Fake Friends’, I was sure of her playlist, and received her message, blaring loud and clear. But still I couldn’t leave. I couldn’t take the chance that she might hurt herself, destroy herself—because of me.
Chapter 2 Some Nights
I huddled beneath the old blue spruce and allowed the morning mist to settle upon my skin. The mountain in the distance still blocked out the sun, but the day’s first pink rays glowed at its crest. It pricked something like hope in my crushed heart. But I remembered my deception and that tiny spark snuffed out. Only the finest thread within me still clung to the belief that one day she’d forgive me—one day she’d understand why I hid the truth from her. And that one small thread was spun of iron. I couldn’t—I wouldn’t let go. She was my destiny, and my heart was set on her alone. I gazed at the pinking sky and let the light wash away a bit of the darkness that clung to me.
Crash!
A scream. Her scream. I leapt to my feet and phased on the fly like one of her movie monsters. Another crash. Another scream. I filtered into the cottage, and ducked in time to avoid a flying vase.
“Emari!” I held my hands out to her, like pacifying an armed fugitive.
“Get out!” And she lobbed one of her Storyteller figurines, a gift from her parents, at my head. It shattered on the wall behind me, and all the little heads exploded like shrapnel across the room. One pinged against Eddyson’s crate, where he cowered in fear. I scowled at her.
“Emari! You’re scaring Eddyson.” I went to the pup’s crate and lured him out, then hefted his body into my arms. He was getting almost too big to hold anymore.
“Get out,” she seethed, but she wasn’t screaming anymore. Her eyes darted to the trembling beagle pup, and his paint-dipped tail tucked between his legs, twitching with stress.
“Emi, please.” I tried again.
“I told you, don’t call me that.” Her voice rumbled, dark and feral.
I sighed. “You scared the hell out of me. What happened?”
“It’s none of your business.” But her eyes flashed with the desire to confide—even in me.
“I just want to help.”
“Help?” She cackled a maniacal laugh, something so foreign from her sweet lips. “You call lying to me about my parents help?”
“No, Em. I don’t. I should have told you,” I confessed and petted Eddyson’s ears, hoping to appease my guilt. It didn’t work.
“Yeah,” she snorted. “Yeah, you should’ve.”
“I made a promise to your father I was bound to keep.”
“Ha. You didn’t have any problems breaking your promises to me.”
“I never meant to hurt you.” But I knew she wasn’t buying it. I didn’t have to be in her head to know that. I took a cautious step toward her. She stepped away, until she understood my intent. I extended the pup toward her. She snatched him from me and retreated to the couch, then folded herself around him. His eyes peered up at me, wide and imploring. “Em? He’s still afraid.”
She buried her face in his pelt. “Yeah?” she murmured. “Him and me both.”
“I won’t let Thomas hurt you,” I promised. “No matter what.”
She scoffed. “Thomas? At least he told me the truth.” I didn’t have an argument for that. She toppled sideways onto the couch, still clutching Eddy to her chest.
“I’ll just go, then. If you’re okay.”
“I’ll never be ‘okay’.” Her voice was whisper soft and broken.
I deflated under the weight of blame, and took a tentative step toward the door.
“I can’t sleep,” she muttered so quietly I wasn’t sure if she intended for me to hear.
I pivoted to face her again. “At all?”
“No. Not at all.”
“Emi…” Her eyes hardened. “Em,” I amended, “that’s not normal. You should still be sleeping at least half as much as you used to.”
She huffed a humorless laugh. “Yeah. Well…”
Her pain drew me to her like the gravity of a black hole. I’d willing go into the void for her. I knelt beside her. She winced away from my hand as I reached to touch her.
“Please. Don’t,” she whispered. But the words prickled with warning. Not so long ago, my touch delivered her. Now, it imprisoned us both.
“Emari. I just…” The words throbbed in my throat and refused to be spoken.
She closed her eyes and tears pooled at bridge of her nose, then spilled over and merged with the stream from her other eye. My fingers ached to wipe them away. My heart convulsed. She buried her face between the pup and the couch cushion.
“Please. Just go.”
As you wish warred on my tongue, but it felt more like a catalyst to her anger than an appeasement. I nodded and faded from the room.
Emari
I laid on the cool living room floor in my sneering skull pajamas. My cheek floated in a puddle of my own drool. Time passed. I didn’t know how much. The gaping fissure of my chest throbbed. The numb was gone. I wanted it back.
*
Aw…the numb has returned. The guy at the liquor store was easier than the bartender to manipulate. Weak-minded mortals! I could conquer the world! Ha! Who the hell was I kidding? I couldn’t even capture a minute’s sleep without several drinks to knock me out. And that was unconsciousness—not slumber.
*
Vomit splattered in the toilet and a cold droplet rebounded back into my mouth. My stomach wrenched in disgust and heaved again. I rolled onto the cool tile floor and groaned. Fucking light weight! The cold hardwood floors chafed my knees as I crawled to the living room and collapsed in a heap next to Eddy. And then, my world went black.
*
Nick
“Emi, honey?”
She lay still and silent on the cold hardwood floor, her body wrapped around Eddyson, an empty bottle of something 180 proof under her limp hand.
“Oh, baby. What have you done to yourself?”
I picked her up and my heart surged with something like relief just to touch her again.
“I’m not Baby,” she murmured.
I wanted to scold, but she felt so good in my arms. Even before I released her onto the bed, my heart clenched at the separation.
“Eddy. Come, come. Snug up.” I patted the bed next to her and the pup leapt up beside her. He tugged and dug a cozy nest beside her and, after turning a couple of circles, he flopped down. I pulled the rocking chair closer to her. Her words from the other night echoed inside me. I can’t sleep. That was not normal. Newborn Caphar slept half as much as they did before the change. She should’ve still been sleeping three or four hours every twenty-four hours. But, not at all? No, there was definitely something not right about that. I was sure passed-out drunk didn’t count the same as REM sleep—sure that alcohol couldn’t replace delta waves. My fingers trembled as I reached to brush her hair from her face and take a quick dip into her brain to gauge her conscious state. Her brain waves tumbled, sluggish and erratic as ocean surf. Definitely, unconscious didn’t create the same waves as sleep. She was utterly empty of delta waves. That was it! She hadn’t…fed. She hadn’t visited anyone’s dreams to gain the sustenance they supplied. I wracked my mind for any way to share mine with her. The waves were fragile as gossamer thread. I couldn’t
reach inside myself, draw them out and inject them into her. My body’s own electrical impulses consumed them. Sabre must know something.
I watched her gaunt, pale face and bruised-looking eyes until the sun peeked over Mt. Spokane. Never did her conscious state slip from unconscious to sleep. Not the sleep she so desperately needed. When she stirred in the pink light of morning washing over her, with a heavy reluctance, I evanesced from her room.
*
Emari
The ghost of him faded from my side. Him…the one I hated…the one I once loved…still loved…but could not trust.
Some circles might call it the spirit of rebellion, but I never hung with those kind of people. There I was, an emancipated woman. I could do what I damn well pleased. And no one—not Uncle Adrian and Celeste, or Nick and Sabre—no one could stop me.
*
Nick
An unfamiliar truck roared into Em’s driveway, music blaring some thrash metal band. I hadn’t seen her leave. My only contact was reaching out to touch her mind, and I avoided that for fear I’d only infuriate her more.
The truck skidded to stop, and Em spilled out, laughing drunkenly. “Thanks for the ride,” she called through the open window.
“Here, let me walk you to the door,” and some guy slimed out of the truck and staggered to Em.
“It’s okay. I can make it.”
“I insist,” he slurred. “You got anything else in there to drink?”
She giggled. “Of course I do.”
His arm draped round her neck with enraging familiarity as he leaned on her for support. My insides prickled with jealousy and rage. Em unlocked the door with some difficulty, they stumbled through the door and just before she slammed it shut, she leaned back out and flipped me the bird. Her laughter grated my insides. Was she coherent enough to know what she was doing? Her tender heart was naïve to the ways of some men. Especially the kind that would pick up a drunk, underage girl and insist on accompanying her home. Was she willing to sacrifice her honor just to spite me?
