“What the hell?” Somnus stage-whispered.
“Not yet,” Rachel whispered back, her head held high as she clacked her way down the corridor. “I hope you’re here to fix this mess!” another man shouted at her. “This is insane!”
They walked past a row of cubicles where the lights were flickering on and off and loud disco music was playing from one of the terminals.
“Shut it off!” one man shouted.
“I can’t!” another answered.
Rachel walked past without looking at any of them. Somnus noticed one man’s eyes tracked Rachel as she made her way through the room to the stairwell. As soon as the heavy door closed behind her, she looked at Somnus. “I did this,” she said with a smile.
“It looks like chaos in there,” he answered her. “Why did you do this?”
“Jilly is a sophisticated artificial intelligence unit. She is designed to run this office from day to day without interference from humans. She controls everything from the heating and air conditioning to the top-secret files this place has possession of. She even controls the coffee maker.”
“I think Jilly is having a bad day,” Somnus said, following Rachel down the steps.
“Yes, she is,” Rachel answered as they reached the basement level. “Because someone tried to hack her.” There was a numeric keypad on the wall next to the door and Rachel typed in a series of numbers. The door clicked and then opened for her. “I designed her to act out in the event of an attempted breach.”
Somnus followed her into the cool basement room, barely clearing the doorway before the heavy door closed behind him. “But you said you had to hack into her,” he said. Lights began to turn on in procession, illuminating one row after another of hardware. It was like something out of a movie.
“Nonsense,” Rachel answered. “Jilly knows me.”
“Hello Rachel,” a female voice said from all around them.
“Hello Jilly,” Rachel answered.
“Who is your friend?” Jilly asked.
“This is Somnus and he is vetted properly. He has clearance to be in this room.”
“Please enter your password.”
“All men are whores,” Rachel said with a smile. “What?” she asked Somnus whose eyebrows were raised. “I was in a bad place when I designed this.”
“Thank you,” Jilly answered. “It is nice to meet you, Somnus.”
When he didn’t answer, Rachel elbowed him in the ribs. “Don’t offend her, say hello!”
“Uh, hi Jilly,” he said.
“Are you here because of the attempted breach of my system yesterday at nine-forty-five a.m.?” the computer asked.
Rachel walked to a square table and pressed a button. Tiny rows of blue lights dazzled over the surface before a woman’s face took shape. “I am,” Rachel answered. “Where did the attempt occur?”
“It came from Sector Seventeen, Terminal Six-Two-Two-Five. Would you like to see the video?”
“Holy shit, this is awesome,” Somnus announced.
Rachel was not only stunning, but she was a freaking genius as well. Attractive and smart. His mother would love her. Mate. No, she was not his mate. He needed to get his thinking back on track. No thinking of mates or of that dream he had outside. He continued to watch as Rachel interacted with the program she’d designed. He had nothing but awe for her at that moment.
“Thank you, Jilly,” Rachel said. “You can return to normal protocol effective immediately.”
“Returning to normal protocol,” the computer answered. “Will you be returning soon?”
Rachel patted the top of the console. “I don’t know, but you know how to contact me in an emergency, right?”
“Yes. If there is an emergency situation, all files will be transferred and I will call you.”
“Good day, Jilly,” Rachel said.
“Goodbye Rachel. Goodbye Somnus,” the computer said.
Was he supposed to answer it? From the expectant look on Rachel’s face, he was. “Uh, bye Jilly.”
Chapter Six
By the time Rachel left Griffin Software, two people had been fired and the coffee maker had stopped spewing coffee onto the floor. The sun was setting in the western sky and Rachel was exhausted. She couldn’t believe that Somnus had stayed with her for the whole day. He even laughed at her silly jokes and damn it, she liked him. Never mind that he was to-die-for gorgeous, but he had a strong head on his shoulders and a great sense of humor.
When he announced he had to get to work, she had nodded and thanked him for sticking around. She still didn’t know why he’d done that, and she didn’t openly admit she was sorry he left. He'd left her his phone number for when she decided whether or not she wanted to meet with his aunt to magically search her background. Her drive home seemed to take forever, and by the time she pulled up in her own driveway, all Rachel wanted was to take a bath and go to bed.
It wasn't as easy as that, she realized, as the water filled her bathtub. Rachel sat on the edge, watching the steam rise from the claw-foot tub. Somnus left her with more questions than answers. On the one hand, she really, really wanted to meet his family. Who wouldn't want to meet Angel Knight? But he hadn't offered that. He'd offered to take her to meet his aunt; the woman who was both witch and vampire, and who could figure out what it was about Rachel that allowed her to ward her home and see through magic as if it weren't there.
Rachel didn't care who her birth parents were. The only people she'd ever known as parents were John and Sally Rusher, the couple who had adopted her when she was only a baby. They were wonderful parents and even though Rachel knew that she was adopted, she never really wondered about her birth parents.
Now, she did. Not about who they were, exactly. She didn't care if her father was a mechanic or a lawyer. She didn't care if her mother was a stay-at-home-mom or a business tycoon. But she did wonder about what they were. Witches? Werewolves? Fae? How many times had she'd wished for something and it had come true?
Dropping her clothes to the floor, Rachel stepped into the tub and sank into the steaming water. She reached up with her foot and pushed the faucet closed, shutting off the flow. The bathroom became eerily silent, but Rachel didn't mind. She leaned back, resting her head against the inflated pillow she'd attached to the end of the tub, and closed her eyes. The water lapped softly at her skin, relaxing her muscles and her mind.
More than once during her life things had gone her way when logically they shouldn't have. Maybe there was something to her past. Maybe she was a witch and just never knew it. Breathing deeply, Rachel willed herself to let go of the day, and just be.
She felt her mind drifting away, getting lighter by the second. Somewhere in the furthest reaches of her mind, Rachel knew she was falling asleep but was powerless to stop it. That was when she heard it. Insane maniacal laughter. It came from not only all around her, but from inside her head too. At first it was one voice, but soon it sounded like a herd of hyenas. Rachel forced her eyes open and sat up abruptly in the tub, splashing water everywhere.
Her heart was pounding in her chest. That was no dream. She knew it—and regardless, Somnus wasn't there. Why would he dream-dust her when she was in the tub anyway? He wouldn't. Pushing herself to a standing position and grabbing a fluffy white towel off the rack, Rachel got out of the bath. She wrapped the towel around herself and went to her room.
She grabbed the first pair of shorts and tank top that were in her drawer and put them on. Then she grabbed her cell phone and dialed Somnus.
***
Baku had been waiting for this particular Dream God for days. He sat back on his haunches and waited just a little bit more. Darius was young and green, making him the perfect target. The Dream God really had no idea just how powerful he was and since he was the only Dream God to make an appearance in days, Baku knew the Gods were on to him. At least once a day one of the gods checked in on their charge. No one had been in the dream realm for several days.
He did take
a bit of sick satisfaction out of scaring the hell out of the human woman, though. A smile split across his face as he remembered her fear, the way it seeped into his realm. There was something special about that particular human. Even though she knew she dreamt, she still faced him head on and she still felt the fear, but she banked it. There was power there inside that little female, and he was determined to find out what kind of power. Baku didn’t think she knew what kind of magic she held, which was fine with him. She wouldn’t miss it if she didn’t know she had it. He turned his attention back to the dream god.
Darius' charge was happy, watching a child play in the sand on a beach. Watching this seemed to make the dream god happy as well. A happy god was a distracted god, and Baku used the opportunity to make his move.
Slinking through the shadows, Baku made his way to the god. He used his own magic to change forms, taking the unsolid shape of smoke. He slithered along the ground until he reached Darius, then twisted himself up and around the god's legs. He moved quickly and, as Darius realized he was in trouble, Baku had already wrapped himself around the dream god like a smoky vice. Darius swiftly turned his attention from his charge, his eyes wide as saucers as he attempted to remove himself from Baku’s grip, but it was no use. Fear, the delightful taste of the dream god’s fear, only empowered him more. Baku could feel the god’s magic pouring from his soul into Baku’s much darker one—watching as his unholy powers drained the life force from him. The more the god struggled, the faster it drained until the spark of life in his eyes began to dim. The human that owned the dream was oblivious to the muffled scream and the fight Darius put up. It was no matter. Baku was the strongest he’d ever been, and he was stronger than the dream god. He laughed, almost hysterically, as he dragged the deity down into his realm to finish him off.
Chapter Seven
The night started earlier and earlier every night since those nightmares had begun. People weren't sleeping well, which meant they were done with being awake much sooner, and then it was off to bed. Humans were oblivious to the hows of sleeping and dreaming, and it was meant to stay that way. Somnus ghosted from one home to another, sending his magic to his charges in hopes their dreams would be peaceful. He didn't have to visit every soul on his list. Some had already been dusted in the last week. His magic lasted for days to weeks at a time, allowing him to have many more charges than he could visit in a single night.
A ball of lead formed in his stomach and two seconds later, his phone rang. Oh no, was it HQ? Had another Dream God disappeared? One glance at his phone and his heart joined that lead ball in his stomach. It was Rachel. He connected the call but didn't have a chance to say anything.
"How in the fuck is that even possible?" Rachel was ranting from the other end. "I know you would never dose me with dream magic while I was in the bath and I sure as hell know you better not be watching me in there!"
"Rachel, slow down," Somnus said, already walking. "What happened?"
"I almost drowned!" she shouted back. "I was in the tub and I was dreaming about that demon again!"
Somnus dropped everything and ghosted towards her.
"And what's worse, I think it's toying with me! I don't think it's something I've made up, but a real demon who wants to kill me! I've seen the Nightmare on Elm Street movies! I don't want to die in the tub!"
Somnus couldn't wait to get there, but the second he arrived, he found himself paralyzed. Not by fear or by any magic he'd ever witnessed, but by Rachel. She was standing in her living room wearing a skimpy tank top and a scandalous pair of pink boy-shorts, her hair dripping wet and her phone at her ear. She continued to rant, but for the life of him he couldn’t concentrate on what she was saying. All he could do was look at the exposed skin of her legs, the rounded swell of her hips, the way her breasts strained against the fabric of her top and the pointed nipples that pushed their way into his field of vision. His body reacted, even though he couldn’t get his brain with the program. His body, however, was reacting on a whole different kind of level than it should have been.
“Are you even listening to me?” she yelled at him. She’d turned to face him, having seen his arrival, and there was fire in her eyes. Man, she was hot when she was mad. He saw a flash of something in her heated stare that made a little red light in the back of his head go off, but he couldn’t focus on that. Her scent was invading his senses, filling his mind with images of her and flashing back to the dream he’d had in the truck.
“Somnus!” she shouted, breaking him out of his own head. “Are you okay?”
“Yes,” he said, giving himself a mental slap down. He needed to pay attention.
“How is that even possible?”
Surprisingly, he remembered most of what she’d said to him. “Actually, it is possible,” he explained. “When I dust someone, the magic lasts for several days. I couldn’t possibly visit each and every one of my charges every time they fall asleep. It’s physically impossible. That’s how people dream when they’re asleep at their desk, or in your case, in the bath.”
“So, you didn’t do this to me?” she asked.
Somnus shook his head. “I would never do that,” he vowed. “I’ve only ever wanted my charges to have good dreams. Nightmares are a necessary evil, but I don’t control that. All I can do is start you in a good place, but where you go from there is all you.”
“Why in the hell would I keep dreaming about this thing?” Rachel asked, more to herself than to Somnus. “I don’t have any repressed issues, I don’t think. I think I’m pretty happy with my life. Or at least, I was until this shit started happening. How can I make it stop?”
“You can’t,” Somnus told her. “You have to dream. I don’t think this thing, this demon, is a figment of your imagination, though. I think it’s a nightmare demon.”
“Those are real?”
“I’m real, why wouldn’t a nightmare demon be real?” Somnus paced her living room, doing all he could not to look at her. He needed to focus, not be distracted by her choice of attire. “I need to visit headquarters and see what Angus knows.”
“Headquarters?” she asked.
He nodded. “Heaven.”
Rachel’s eyebrows rose but she didn’t ask about that. “Who is Angus?”
Somnus laughed. “Angus is the last person you would expect to be in charge of the dream gods,” he answered. “He is a fourteenth century Scottish bloke with red hair, a kilt and a battle ax.”
“I see,” she said, but Somnus could clearly see that she didn’t.
“If this is a real demon, I want to know why he’s taken an interest in you,” Somnus continued. “Come with me to meet my family. Let’s find out what’s going on with you that makes you so special.”
“Have you considered that maybe I’m just weird?” she laughed nervously.
“Yes,” he answered, “But there is something else. I can’t put my finger on it, but it’s there. If anyone can discover who you really are, it’s Frankie.”
“I hate flying,” she announced.
“I can ghost us there,” Somnus offered. When her face paled, he backpedaled. “Or we could fly. What do you say?”
“When?”
“The sooner the better,” he told her.
Rachel walked from one end of her living room to the other and back again. “Well… I guess I could use a vacation…” she finally said.
“Great,” he told her. “I’ll book us on the first available flight!”
Chapter Eight
Rachel hadn’t realized that when Somnus said that he would book the first available flight, he had meant that he would use his family’s personal jet. They had taken off before the first rays of light touched the horizon and landed only five hours later at LAX. He offered again to ghost them to the house, but Rachel needed the time to think, and insisted on a rental car.
“Are you nervous?” Somnus asked Rachel with a teasing smile. She was secretly starting to like it when he smiled at her like that. It was as if t
here wasn’t a care in the world and it made her want to feel that way too.
“No,” she lied. Of course she was nervous! What if they didn’t like her? What if she went all fan-girl on Angel Knight? What if she made a fool of herself? What if they did find something and she was part-demon or something? There were too many what ifs, and not nearly enough self-confidence in her for comfort.
“You’ll love them,” he promised as she turned her rental truck into the driveway.
A heavy set of wrought iron gates blocked the way with a small shack off to the side. There was a keypad on the side of the driveway, but Somnus instructed her to go past it. When they were in front of the guard shack, she stopped and rolled down her window.
The man walked out from inside, his unnaturally blue eyes glinting in the sunlight. “Can I help you?” he rumbled.
Rachel’s stomach jumped up into her throat and tied itself in a knot, leaving her unable to speak.
“Ma’am, unless you have an appointment, you need to turn around and leave,” the man said.
“Are you always this much of a dick to new people?” Somnus asked from the passenger seat, leaning around Rachel so that the guard could see him.
“Only on Tuesdays and Thursdays,” the guard replied. “And when snot-nosed little brats appear at the gates.”
“Do you kiss your momma with that mouth?” Somnus asked him.
“Really, Somnus,” Rachel finally managed to say. “Behave.”
“Why would he start now?” the guard said, his face softening and a slight smile lifting the corners of his mouth.
“You gonna let us in or what?” Somnus asked.
“Sure thing, but why didn’t you call?” the guard asked.
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