Dark Stranger The Dream: New & Lengthened 2017 Edition (The Children Of The Gods Paranormal Romance Series)

by I. T. Lucas

  He extended his hand but she didn’t even look at it. Her pupils were dilated, and she couldn’t move her eyes away even though he could see she struggled to. “No, thank you, I can’t,” she whispered her refusal.

  It seemed he couldn’t compel her to do as he said, but maybe he could compel her to tell the truth.

  “Why?”

  “Because you scare the crap out of me.” Her eyes widened in horror and she slapped a hand over her mouth. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me,” she mumbled behind her fingers.

  Dalhu laughed. “It’s okay. I scare a lot of people. It’s the size.” He waved a hand over his body.

  Syssi shook her head. “Maybe. Do you want me to tell Amanda that you stopped by? What’s your name?”

  “No, I want to surprise her. I’ll come back Monday. It was nice meeting you, Syssi.” Again he offered her his hand, and this time she took it. Holding on, he repeated what he’d done with Hannah.

  Rubbing her temples, the girl was still standing in the same spot Dalhu had left her when he closed the lab’s door behind him.

  “Could you please point me in the direction of Human Resources?” he asked the first guy he saw in the corridor.

  “Sure. I’ll show you where it is.”

  The young man walked with him all the way to the building housing the department he was looking for.

  “Thank you. I appreciate it.”

  “No problem, dude.”

  In the office, Dalhu found an elderly woman whom he thralled easily to search the database for the professor’s address.

  “Here you go, dear.” She handed him the scrap of paper she’d scribbled it on.

  “Thank you.” He thralled her again to forget he was ever there.

  Chapter 29: Syssi

  Syssi held up a card, the picture side facing her and the back facing her test subject. “What am I looking at?”

  “A rabbit.” Michael didn’t hesitate before guessing correctly.

  She picked another card from the stack and lifted it up. “Okay. What am I looking at now?”

  “A locomotive. Can we stop now? I think I’ve proven my telepathic ability many times over. I’m bored.”

  She couldn’t blame him. Michael was a powerful telepath, but the purpose of this experiment was to find out if his ability diminished over time.

  With most talents it did, as Syssi could attest from her own experience. She could guess the first ten coin tosses correctly, but her accuracy diminished with each subsequent toss until after the hundredth she was no better than someone with no paranormal talent at all.

  “Let’s keep going until you start making mistakes. I want to find out at what point you start losing concentration.”

  “Okay, shoot.”

  She lifted another card.

  “House.”

  It was a flower. Syssi rolled her eyes. “I know you’re doing it on purpose. Come on, Michael, you are getting paid by the hour and you are mine for the next thirty-five minutes.”

  Michael waggled his brows. “I can think of more pleasant ways to spend those minutes.”

  He was such a flirt. Michael was cute and he knew it, but he was just a kid. A twenty-year-old business major who also played on the football team and had the muscles to show for it.

  “Me too, but I’m getting paid by the hour as well.” She lifted another card.

  “A man’s face.”

  After another fifteen cards Michael started making mistakes, real ones, and after another ten he wasn’t getting any of them right.

  “Okay, I think you’re done.” Syssi glanced at her watch. Michael still owed her fifteen minutes, but he was useless at this point.

  He leaned back in his chair and stretched his long legs. “When are we going to try real thoughts? I’m tired of the pictures.”

  There was a sequence she needed to follow, but Michael was spent. “We have a few minutes left, but I doubt you’ll be able to do anything. Your brain is fried.”

  “Try me.”

  Syssi closed her eyes and thought about coffee. She was tired, had a headache, and wanted to go home and take a nap. But with Amanda missing in action, she had to stay. And later on she had another obligation.

  “You want to take a break and go have a cup of coffee with me.”

  “Close. I was thinking about coffee but not about having one with you.”

  Syssi frowned.

  Something bothered her about this exchange and it wasn’t Michael’s flirting. She had a weird sense of déjà vu, as if she’d had the same conversation with someone else today. An image flitted through her mind. A giant of a man, dark, scary, smiling at her and asking her out.

  Syssi shook her head. She was losing her mind. As if the dreams weren’t enough, she was now having waking hallucinations. Maybe it was the headache’s fault. She’d been having a lot of those lately. She should get it checked out.

  Or maybe she just needed to start getting out more, preferably to do something outdoorsy. The two things she was short on were guys and fresh air. Combining the two sounded like a plan.

  “You know what? Why not? Let me invite you to a cup of cappuccino.”

  Michael’s eyes widened in surprise. “Really? You’re not just saying it?”

  Syssi smiled. “Nope. How do you like it? Lots of milk or lots of foam?”

  He looked confused. “Are you going to order it?”

  “I’m going to make it. We have a cappuccino machine in the kitchenette. So, how do you like it?”

  “However you make it is fine.” The disappointed look on his handsome face tugged at her heart. She shouldn’t have teased him like that. But they were playing a game. It wasn’t as if Michael believed she would ever say yes.

  “Come on, you can watch me prepare it.”

  Making her way to the kitchen, she stopped by Hannah’s desk. The postdoc was slumped in her chair, eyes closed, rubbing at her temples.

  “You have a headache too?”

  Hannah nodded.

  “We need to call maintenance and have them check the ventilation in here. I’ve been getting way too many of those lately.”

  Hannah opened her eyes. “I think you’re right. I never get headaches, and this one came out of nowhere. It was right after that guy left.”

  Syssi narrowed her eyes. “What guy?”

  Hannah frowned. “I don’t remember. Now that I think about it, there was no one here. I must’ve imagined it.”

  Syssi got an uncomfortable feeling in her gut. “Was your imaginary guy huge?”

  “How did you know?”

  That uncomfortable feeling had just gotten worse. “A lucky guess.”

  Syssi continued to the kitchen with Michael following closely behind. “What’s going on, Syssi?”

  She waved her hand dismissively. “Nothing.” This was too weird even for a place that dealt with paranormal phenomena and extrasensory perception.

  Michael put a hand on her shoulder. “I can sense your feelings, Syssi. You can’t hide it from me. You’re worried about something. Spit it out. There is nothing that would freak me out at this point.”

  She was tempted. After all, as a fellow talent, he wasn’t going to think she was crazy or make fun of her. And it wasn’t as if she had many opportunities to talk about her premonitions with others.

  “It might be a coincidence, but I don’t think it is. If it were only me, I would’ve blamed lack of sleep, or poor ventilation. But both Hannah and I have a headache, and we both have a vague impression of a huge guy visiting the lab but can’t remember it. The more I try to focus on that fleeting image, the more it dissipates.”

  Michael closed his eyes, his forehead furrowed in concentration.

  “What are you doing?” she asked after long moments had passed and he didn’t even twitch.

  “Feeling.” He opened his eyes and sighed. “Sometimes, I can sense a residual of intentions. There is something here, I can feel it. But it could’ve been left by anyone; even you
or Hannah or Professor Dokani. Not David, I can always feel his imprint clearly and it doesn’t belong to him. The guy is genuinely full of himself. None of his posturing is a front.”

  “What is it, then?”

  “A powerful yearning.”

  “Yearning for what?”

  Michael shrugged. “I don’t know. It just feels like a need. It’s kind of sad. Lonely.”

  Shit, was it her?

  It wasn’t Amanda’s, that was for sure. Most of the time the woman was upbeat and cheerful. It couldn’t have been Hannah either. The postdoc was a social animal with tons of girlfriends and more guys chasing after her than she knew what to do with. And it wasn’t David, who thought he was all that. So it had to be either one of the test subjects, or the mysterious visitor who had or hadn’t been there.

  Or maybe it was her.

  Syssi had thought she’d managed to get over the melancholy that had assailed her this morning. But apparently, the yearning she’d felt for her dream lover hadn’t gone anywhere.

  Chapter 30: Dalhu

  Dalhu couldn’t believe how easy it had been to obtain the professor’s address.

  Too easy.

  For centuries, the clan had been hiding from Navuh’s vengeance, keeping their existence secret and leaving no trail that could lead back to them. Until this recent stroke of luck with the programmer, the Brotherhood hadn’t been able to locate any of their hideouts.

  It would have been careless of the professor to have her address recorded in a database that was so easily accessible. Then again, the programmer had been easy enough to find. As long as their true nature remained hidden, Annani’s clan members could live and work among the humans, trusting that their anonymity would keep them safe.

  His gut churning with anticipation, Dalhu parked his rented Mercedes in front of the Santa Monica condominium complex. It looked exactly like a type of place a wealthy clan member would choose. Only a few blocks away from the ocean, the luxurious complex was gated, and there was a guard on duty.

  A weak thrall sufficed for the guy to let Dalhu inside the complex grounds.

  The door to the professor’s residence was naturally locked, and as far as he could tell there was no one inside. Perhaps the professor had gone out.

  He could wait for her to come back.

  The problem was how to enter without breaking the door or the door knob. He needed her to enter her home without suspecting anything was wrong. Any sign of trouble would send her running.

  Dalhu circled around, jumping the six foot gate leading to the condominium’s backyard with ease. First, he checked for alarm sensors in the windows. There was no wiring in the screens, but it didn’t mean that there were no sensors on the window frames. His best bet was to find a fixed window. It wouldn’t have a sensor, and if it wasn’t visible from the front door, he could break the glass to get in and still have the element of surprise.

  From the back, the only access was a sliding door that for sure had a sensor on it. He found what he needed on the wall facing the side yard. One of the bedrooms had a window that was made of three panels, with only the one in the center openable. The two on the side were fixed glass and although narrow, they were big enough for him to slide through.

  Picking up a good-sized rock, he tapped the glass with it, counting on the heavy drapery hanging on the inside to absorb the sound of the falling shards.

  The window cracked. When no alarm sounded, he took care of the rest of the glass with a few more taps. The opening was low, and Dalhu stepped over the sill, careful around the jagged edges protruding from the frame.

  As Dalhu pushed the drapery aside, he found that the bedroom he stepped into was vacant. No furniture at all. The next room over was the same, and when he reached the living room, Dalhu had to concede defeat.

  The professor hadn’t been careless, she’d been smart. She might have owned this condominium, but she obviously didn’t live there.

  He needed to go back to that lab and search Dr. Dokani’s office until he found something. Anything. A receipt from the dry cleaner or a car mechanic was all he needed to find her real residential address. Chances were that the professor had her laundry delivered home and her car picked up for service and returned.

  Tonight, he would send men to search the lab and go over every piece of paper they could find.

  Chapter 31: Syssi

  At four o’clock, Syssi collected her purse and waved to the postdoc. “Bye, Hannah, have a great weekend.”

  “How is your headache?” Hannah asked.

  “Better, but it’s still there. How about you?”

  She shrugged. “I’ll live. Are you going to the old people’s house?”

  “Of course. It’s Friday, and my girls are waiting for me.”

  The girls ranged in age from late eighties to mid-nineties, and yet she often thought of them more as girlfriends than grannies.

  Syssi chuckled. They sure as hell didn’t behave like anyone’s grandma.

  Toward the end of her life, her Nana had lost her eyesight, and Syssi had been reading to her whenever she’d visited. Her Nana’s three friends had soon joined, and Syssi had found herself reading to the four of them. With few exceptions, she’d been visiting the Golden Age Retirement Home every Friday afternoon for the past three years, even after her Nana had passed away.

  The three had become her substitute grandmas. Hattie was the oldest and fully blind, but she didn’t let her disability slow her down and was the ringleader of the group. A gutsy and spunky Holocaust survivor, she had enough stories to fill the pages of at least twenty books.

  Clara was the youngest. She could see well enough to move around but not to read or even watch television. Leonora was sweet and motherly and could see just fine, but she loved hearing Syssi read even though she was partially deaf. Which meant that Syssi had to be real loud.

  Embarrassing as hell, given the types of books the three loved to hear her read; raunchy romances with lots of explicit sex scenes.

  They’d even made her read Fifty Shades of Grey to them.

  All three books.

  She had to admit that it had been fun, though. The old girls had laughed so hard she’d feared for their lives, and eventually she’d loosened up and laughed with them.

  It was easy to forget that two generations separated her from the three. Sitting in one of the girls’ rooms, door closed, Syssi often felt like she was in a college dorm, having a good time with her friends.

  “Hello, ladies.” She tried to peek at the book Leonora was holding in her lap. “What are you hiding in there?” Not that anything could be worse reading out loud than Fifty Shades. Other than straight up erotica, that is. Hopefully the old loons wouldn’t go that far.

  “Sit down, girl, and tell us about your week first,” Clara said, patting a spot beside her on Hattie’s bed.

  Syssi dropped her purse on the night stand and with a sigh flopped down next to Clara. Sometimes she suspected the girls were looking forward to this part of their get together more than the reading. Nosy busybodies.

  “Nothing special. The new job is exciting and challenging. I’m learning new things every day.”

  “How is that boss of yours treating you? Is she nice?” Hattie asked. Out of the three, it seemed she had taken Syssi’s Nana’s dying wish most seriously; looking after Amelia’s granddaughter as if she was her own.

  “I have no complaints. Most of the time she makes me feel like I’m her darling. There was this one day, though, that I saw another side of Amanda. When someone pisses her off, she can get bitchy as hell.”

  Clara patted her knee. “Everyone gets moody from time to time. What you need to keep in mind is that it is probably not about you, and there is no reason for you to get upset. The best thing you can do is to get out of the line of fire. You don’t want to get hit just because you are there and make an easy target.”

  “Amen to that,” Leonora said.

  “I know, and I didn’t take it personally. It
was just such a departure from her usually upbeat, cheerful personality.”

  Clara sighed. “Don’t be fooled by appearances, girl. Lots of folks put on a happy face to cover for a sad heart.”

  “Mm-hmm.” Hattie nodded in agreement.

  Was Amanda sad? Not likely.

  Her boss was too excited and optimistic about her research, too busy being dramatic, and too sexed up to have an inclination toward melancholy.

  “I don’t think she is a sad person. She just got mad over something. Not a big deal.”

  As Leonora leaned closer and smiled, Syssi knew what was coming next.

  “Now that we’ve covered work, we want to know if you met a nice young man, or even better, a naughty one.” Leonora winked, an exaggerated one complete with a twisted mouth like some character from an old gangster movie.

  “Someone to get your heart pounding and your blood pumping?” Clara added and waggled her brows.

  Syssi shook her head.

  “Anyone at all?” Hattie asked.

  She was going to disappoint them the same way she did every Friday since she’d broken up with Gregg. “No.”

  In unison, the three let out a sigh and sagged.

  Leonora shook her head. “I was so sure that this week you were going to meet someone and finally end your self-imposed celibacy. In my days, a girl had to get married if she wanted some action between the sheets. But women today have the pill and all the other contraptions to keep them from getting nasty surprises. Get out there and have fun, girl. It is time.” Last Friday, Leonora had read Syssi’s future in her tarot cards, like she had been doing every other week or so, and had decided Syssi was about to meet someone. “All three cards were there. You had the lovers, the two of cups, and the ten of cups.”

  Syssi had agreed to Lenora’s readings for the fun of it, not because she really believed that cards could predict her future. But evidently Leonora felt differently. Still, arguing the point with a ninety-year-old was not only futile but potentially hazardous to the woman’s health. It was much better to just roll with it. “Maybe the timing was wrong, or maybe I met him but didn’t realize that he was the one. And besides, the week isn’t over yet.”