The Girl In Between series: Books 1-4

by Laekan Zea Kemp

  Dani threw back the curtains, revealing the stone on the other side. “Are we trapped?”

  “We’re safe,” Bryn said, her hand shaking.

  “Let me.” I grazed her thumb and she jerked.

  She let me splay her fingers, instinct churning my own to a dull flame. Bryn held her breath and I sutured the skin back together, burning a small scar between her thumb and index finger.

  “Pretty sure that’s not sanitary,” Dani said.

  “Pretty sure it just worked,” Felix argued, angling his shoulder toward me.

  “Let me see.” Bryn examined Felix’s wound, mouth tight.

  He shrugged; then winced. “Just a scrape.”

  I ran a flame over the skin and he gritted his teeth. “And now it’s just a scar.”

  “But it could have been worse.” Bryn looked from Felix to Dani. “A lot worse.”

  “Oh, no.” Felix shook his head. “You want to get rid of us…”

  “It’s not going to work,” Dani cut in, her cheek brushing Felix’s scarred shoulder.

  Dust drifted down from the ceiling as Celia’s antique chandeliers swayed, the crows trying to claw their way through.

  “Especially not with those…things still out there. ” Felix batted the dust. “What the hell were they exactly?”

  Bryn stared at the ceiling, the scrape of their claws starting to die down. “Dreams…they were just a dream.”

  Just a dream. I wasn’t sure if she really believed that, not after recognizing Anso’s gaze, not after realizing he’d found her. I waited for a solitary storm cloud, for a shadow, some manifestation of the man who’d tortured Bryn. She waited for him too, staring after every sound. But she didn’t say a word. Not that he was here; not that she was afraid. Maybe he wasn’t. Maybe…

  “We’re not going anywhere,” Dani said. “We’re not leaving you.”

  Bryn stayed quiet and I knew she was only letting them think they’d won. She’d come up with a plan to have them sent back home before they even realized what was happening—a plan that would probably involve me lying to Felix and Cole wiping their memories.

  But I didn’t want to lie to Felix. He’d been the one coordinating the surviving Dreamer’s flights back home, hacking into the airline systems in order to scalp tickets that had already been sold. Getting the Dreamers home safe would have been impossible without him. And what if he really could find the Rogues? What if we needed their help?

  I watched the way Bryn looked at Dani and even though she was the biggest liability here she was the only one who Bryn didn’t stare straight through. She was the only one who made her pause, who made her almost smile. She was a magnifying glass on the girl who’d lived. The girl I’d loved. I didn’t want Dani to leave because I knew if she did, she’d take those last true pieces of Bryn with her. What if I never saw them again?

  A dull pounding echoed, the sound trapped within the stone behind the door or maybe the ceiling. Andre held up a finger, everyone holding their breath as he took slow steps around the room.

  “Did one of the Dreamers escape?” Felix whispered.

  Bryn turned to me. “Sanders?”

  Andre shook his head. “I tied him up myself.”

  “What about Eric?” she asked.

  “Sleeping the last time I checked on him,” Celia said.

  Most of the Dreamers who’d woken back into living bodies were struck with a spontaneous and crippling drowsiness. After they’d emptied themselves of tears, most had fallen asleep. Which was convenient since we were still trying to figure out what to do with some of them, specifically those with big mouths like Sanders.

  The banging came again, louder this time. But beneath the sound was a slight squeak. The crows cawing? The wind whistling through cracks in the stone?

  There was a scream, panicked and distinctly human.

  “Cole!”

  I rushed for the door but Bryn was already there, one swipe of her hand throwing it open and sliding back the stone.

  Cole and Adham fell inside, breathless, the medical supplies Vogle had requested spilling to the floor. They’d been gone for hours gathering medicine, ointments, and other necessities for every wounded body upstairs, including Bryn’s father. Vogle rushed to scoop up the spilled supplies as Andre and I pulled Cole and Adham out of the doorway. Bryn sealed it shut again, stone slamming and making Cole jump.

  “What the hell happened to you two?” I asked.

  “Looks like we should be asking you the same thing,” Cole said. “What’s with the fortress? Were you planning on just leaving us out there to die?”

  “I’m sorry,” Bryn said.

  “What do you mean…to die?” Felix asked.

  Cole looked up at me, remnants of something terrifying still swirling in his gaze. He gripped his scalp, trying to make sense of things. His skin was shocked as white as his barely blonde hair.

  “The crows…” Bryn stood over them. “Did they attack you?”

  Cole furrowed his brow. “Crows? I wish.”

  “Something else attacked you?” I asked.

  “Something tried to kill us.” Cole wiped the sweat from his forehead. “Shit came out of nowhere.”

  “What was it?” Bryn asked.

  Adham shook his head. Just a few hours earlier I’d leaned on his calm. Now he’d never looked more afraid.

  “A shadow?” I asked.

  “I don’t seem to recall shadows having teeth,” Cole said. “It was like…I don’t know. Bigger than a dog but not a bear. It growled like a fucking monster truck.”

  “That’s what it was,” Adham said. “A monster.”

  “What else could be out there?” Felix asked.

  “Are there wolves?” Dani asked Celia. “What about coyotes?”

  “I’m telling you,” Cole said, “what we saw wasn’t an animal. It was…” A tremor raced up his shoulders.

  “It was a loud growl and sharp teeth,” I repeated. “Sorry, but we’re gonna need a little more than that.”

  “Blood.” Adham stared at the floor. “I tried to catch it in my flames and when I turned back it was lit up, just for a second before it ran off. But it was covered in it.”

  “Its own?” Felix asked. “Or something else’s?”

  “Who cares?” Cole said. “All I know is there’s no way I’m getting stuck playing errand boy while there’s shit like that trying to eat my face off.”

  “Here, let’s get you back in your body,” Vogle said, leading Cole and Adham into the dining room that was now Felix’s makeshift hacking headquarters and where Cole’s sleeping body was buried under an old sleeping bag and three layers of quilts.

  Bryn looked out the window, the stone receding a few inches until the moon was all we could see.

  “What’s happening out there?” Dani asked.

  Celia tugged the curtains closed. “It’s happening.”

  “What is?” I said.

  Bryn’s face darkened. “That thing that attacked Cole and Adham…it wasn’t a thing at all. It was a nightmare.” She looked around the room before turning back to the window. “But whose?”

  “Everyone’s,” Celia said. “Every second that ticks by the more nightmares are being unleashed. Every dark thought. Every poisonous part of our beings. Think of the worst thing you could possibly imagine and then imagine it living and breathing and hunting you. That’s what the world will be like. That’s how it will end.”

  “If we don’t leave now,” Bryn said.

  She pulled the list she’d made when we first carried the Dreamers’ bodies inside, the map and coordinates she’d scribbled from her hospital bed the day she’d woken up from Anso’s prison pinned to the back. One column for names, the other for the places she’d read from their memories.

  She tore it into strips, handing one to each Rogue. The moment Andre saw Olivia’s name he couldn’t keep it in anymore, his hands trembling. Her body was still breathing and after spending the entire night just listening to it, he was
finally going to be able to wake her up. They were going to be together.

  Lathan wouldn’t be as lucky. Since we’d carried his Dreamer’s body inside he hadn’t left it. Even through all of the chaos downstairs—Sanders’ cyclone and Devyn’s howling and the pleading and questions of every other Dreamer we’d marched in here—he’d stayed hidden. Grieving.

  Everyone turned as he appeared at the top of the stairs, drawn out by Cora’s name. He didn’t say a word as he took the slip of paper from Bryn, his eyes red and all dried up as if he’d been living upstairs in that tiny dark room his entire life. Andre gripped his shoulder, just as silent, and for the first time in years Lathan leaned against his friend.

  “What about the rest?” Andre asked, looking from the slip of paper in his hand to the rest of the list Bryn was still holding.

  She thumbed at it, pretending to glance at the names. “Your Dreamers are first priority. We’ll split up the rest of the list once everyone gets back safe.”

  There was a moment of silence and I could tell Andre was suspicious. But then he looked back down at the coordinates on his slip of paper; everyone did, gulping down whatever argument they might have thought of making. Maybe they chalked up Bryn’s unease to exhaustion or guilt. Or maybe they knew she was lying but they were too distracted by the possibility of reuniting with their loved ones to care.

  Domingo was distracted by the possibility of something worse. Not finding Stassi’s body dead but never finding it at all. He stood next to Shay, the only other Rogue still searching for answers. He shifted on the balls of his feet and she squeezed his arm, trying to keep him from erupting too. As the other Rogues packed up for their rescue missions, Domingo approached Bryn.

  “I can’t feel it.” He tightened his fists. “I can’t sense it.”

  Bryn’s face fell. “If I touch her…”

  Domingo sighed.

  “It’s too dangerous,” she finished.

  I stood behind her. “She’s right, Domingo. We don’t know what will happen to Stassi if Bryn takes her dreams before we’ve found her body.”

  “I know.” Domingo lowered his voice and glanced at Cole in the next room. He was sprawled out on the floor behind Adham, Felix, and Dani, fighting to keep his eyes open in front of the TV. “But what about him? He can manipulate people’s memories, right? Do you think he could…?”

  “What?” I asked, already worried that Cole reading Stassi’s memories might reveal too much, not just about Stassi’s past but about Cole’s future.

  “Do you think he has enough control over his ability to read her memories without altering them? Maybe he could see where she’s been; reach her in a way that I can’t right now.”

  Cole yawned, eyes watering. Perfect timing. Bryn and I exchanged a look.

  “Where was Stassi while we were…dealing with the other Dreamers?” Bryn asked.

  I scanned the room, trying to remember her place in it.

  “Outside with Shay,” Domingo said. “I was worried about her being around the dead.”

  The ghosts of Cologne had almost driven Stassi mad. Maybe they had. Maybe that’s why any memory of her body had been displaced. But maybe not erased…not completely.

  “It’s a risk,” Bryn said, looking from me to Domingo.

  “Please,” Domingo pleaded, hands empty. No coordinates. No clues. Nothing. He was helpless and so were we.

  The three of us watched Cole as inconspicuously as possible, waiting for his head to slump against the wall and his eyes to finally flutter closed.

  Adham spotted us, skirting around Cole and sending us all looking in other directions. He crossed his arms. “What’s going on?”

  I remembered that time we were patrolling Cole’s neighborhood and Adham had taken Carlisle’s lackeys out at the knees when they’d tried to rough us up. It was just before we’d run off after Cole and his sister, saving them both from Anso’s prison. Despite being a proponent of non-violence, I knew Adham was still willing to use it when necessary. Especially when it came to protecting Cole. I didn’t need him to be my enemy right now. In fact, besides Felix, he was my only other real friend.

  “We’re waiting for Cole to fall asleep so we can use his dreams to help us find Stassi’s body,” I said.

  Adham rolled his eyes, probably annoyed that we hadn’t asked for his help sooner. He pulled out his cellphone and turned up the volume, igniting a piano solo that was as good as sleeping gas. He led the sound to Cole’s ear, one side of Cole’s mouth twitching up before his head fell back into a snore.

  “Uh, what was that?” I crossed my arms the same way Adham had.

  His face was still, unconcerned. “Another tip from my mother.”

  “Your mother the Yogi,” I clarified.

  Adham nodded. “Cole has always had trouble sleeping but after that monster followed him into the real world, he’s been trying to avoid it on purpose. But just because he’s supernatural doesn’t mean he’s immortal. I had to figure out a way to get him to relax.”

  “You mean to hypnotize him,” I said.

  “To help him,” Adham corrected.

  “And us,” Domingo said. “Thank you.”

  “I got him to sleep,” Adham said. “Not to dream.”

  “Not yet.” Bryn gripped the doorway, breaths swelling as she stared at Cole’s sleeping body. I could tell from the way her muscles strained that she was forcing herself in reverse, her hands wanting nothing more than to touch Cole and take his dreams. She fought the urge, stripping his dream-self with her mind instead.

  He manifested in a crash, hands scratching at the floor and the air as he tried to reconcile where he was and how.

  “You’re alright.” I knelt. “Cole, look at me.”

  He looked right past me, examining his body on the floor. “Am I…shit, am I dead?”

  Adham crouched too. “No. Sleeping.”

  Cole screamed. “But I was just…we were just at the hospital. And then that thing…that…” he shook, “that monster. No. You have to wake me up. What if I made that thing? What if it finds us here? What if I dream up something worse?” He thrashed. “Put me back in my body!”

  “Cole.” Bryn’s voice coaxed in him a stillness as soothing as Adham’s piano. “We need your help.”

  Cole held Stassi’s hands, her memories so vivid behind his eyes they made them dance—pupils dilating and changing color. The passage of time was marked by his every sigh and stuttering breath; every race and slow of his pulse. I could feel the chill of every ghost that had ever haunted Stassi. Cole’s pupils turned glassy and still as he felt them too. He blinked, Stassi’s memories letting go of him, the blue of his eyes swirling back into focus like storm clouds. But he didn’t let go of her. He gripped her hands, staring…waiting. Hesitating.

  “What did you see?” Domingo asked.

  Stassi stared back, her eyes still locked with Cole’s.

  “What’s wrong?” Bryn asked.

  “Nothing,” Cole said. He faced Domingo, frowned. “I saw nothing.”

  Domingo rose in temperature. “What do you mean nothing?”

  Cole sat up, wary. “I saw some memories but most of the ones from the last year or two were scrambled and chaotic.” He looked away, confused. “I didn’t see her body.”

  Stassi slipped from Cole’s grasp and hugged her knees instead.

  Domingo gripped her shoulders, pulling her against his chest. “We’ll keep trying. We’ll find it.” Her tears slipped down his neck and into his jacket. “I promise.”

  I helped Vogle carry the medical supplies upstairs to the guest room where Bryn’s father was still paralyzed. The shadows’ attack had left him petrified, his pupils glassy white, his lungs not even grasping for air. Bryn sat on the bed next to him as Vogle set up his equipment and administered an IV, the needle stirring nothing. Bryn’s touch fell just as silent against his skin, the color already starting to fade. He was stiff, a statue with marble bones.

  “Do you think he’s…comfo
rtable?” Bryn asked.

  Vogle let out a breath, stalling.

  “I guess there’s no way to know for sure, is there?” She pinched her eyes shut, helpless.

  “He’s alive,” Vogle said. “That’s all that matters.”

  “For how long?” Bryn asked.

  Vogle didn’t answer. I couldn’t either. Time was irrelevant now that the world was in flux, nightmares crawling out of the bowels of every hell dimension we’d never even known existed until a few days ago. Bryn’s father’s survival was irrelevant now too. People had already died—Bryn’s grandmother, Sam…Carlisle—and more still would. All any of us could do now was say goodbye; preparing for the permanence of it while hoping for a miracle.

  Bryn took her father’s hand, waiting for one to manifest right before her eyes. When it didn’t she squeezed them shut again. “Can I have a minute?”

  I hesitated in the doorway, waiting for something in Bryn’s eyes to plead for me to stay. When she kept her back to us I followed Vogle back downstairs. Even though it was selfish, part of me was thankful to not have to be in that room with the man I’d done nothing but read about when I was stuck in Bryn’s dream-state. He’d left her, over and over, and now he was here and he was helpless, just another thing Bryn felt responsible for. Maybe that was why she wanted a moment alone. Because as much as she’d always hated him, she loved him too. But if she could still love the man who’d abandoned her, who’d broken her heart so many times…what was stopping her from feeling the same for me?

  “How is she?” Shay stood in the dim light of the kitchen, one hand on the curtain over the window even though we were sealed inside again.

  “I don’t know,” I said, honest. “How are you?”

  She dropped her hand. “I keep waiting for something horrible to come rushing out of the darkness or drop down from the sky. An atomic bomb or a swarm of hornets or Anso. I can’t sit still. Like I’m itching for it.”

  “We all sense the danger.”

  “You sense it.” Her voice dropped. “I want it. I want to hurl myself straight into it.”