Quicksilver Dreams (Dreamwalkers)

by Adele, Danube

  The woods opened up on a lake that was glassy and tranquil and nearly a mile wide. Tufts of springy clouds dotted the blue sky here and there. The most beautiful part of the picture was the reflection on the surface of the water; there was a mirror image of the forest and mountain on the opposite side of the lake from where I was standing. An amazing detail I caught? There was a reflection of a large moon and a smaller moon in the water, which seemed eerie and otherworldly because it was a beautiful, bright sunny day. I looked up and there they were, right beside the sun.

  All I could do was stare in awe.

  There was the sound of a large splash, and the glassy water suddenly rippled. I became aware of young men laughing and turned to see a pair of older teenagers swinging from a homemade rope swing over the lake, about twenty yards down the embankment. In a stand of trees that were old, large and bent like grizzled men, fat limbs sprang up, and it was to one of these that the swing was tied.

  She wants you, Rye. And she’s got a nice round pair. Maybe she’ll let you play with them a little. The blond boy doing the teasing was swinging back and forth, building up momentum and height.

  Shut up, Nick. The dark-haired boy grinned good naturedly. I could see his features and was momentarily transfixed, trying to figure out how I knew him. He was tall, with wiry muscles and a face that hadn’t yet filled into manhood. His skin was sun bronzed, and only a few black chest hairs were scattered across his pectorals.

  Oh, Ryder, you’re so strong. Oh, Ryder, you’re so handsome. Kiss me! The blond boy, Nick, used a horrid, high-pitched voice to mimic a female and dove off the swing into the water.

  All right! That’s it!

  The dark-haired boy caught the swing and immediately swung into the water, trying to retaliate against his friend, a look of spirited determination on his face.

  Ryder! I realized this was little baby Ryder. Awww.

  Nick, aka baby Adonis (yes the Adonis that stole Cynthia away the other day), managed to get out of the lake and yell truce as Ryder surfaced out in the water. Nick grabbed a towel and wrapped up. He tossed one out to Ryder, who caught it as he came out of the water, shaking his dark hair out like a dog.

  Any word yet? Ryder flung the towel around his neck as he asked his friend the question.

  Going light-years away. It’s official. Nick’s youthful face had a mile-wide grin. What about you?

  Ryder’s face took on a grim look. Yeah. I’m going.

  I take it your dad’s mad?

  Hands braced on his hips, Ryder nodded grimly. We got into an argument.

  You knew that was coming. He doesn’t want to see you go.

  I’ve been looking into being one of the high-court investigators, which I can do while getting my judiciary merit. He finally agreed to let me go because he thinks I’ll follow in his footsteps, from high-court council, like my mother, to high-court representative. And my mom convinced him it would be good for me.

  After a thoughtful pause, Ryder continued, I’m still surprised he agreed. It was really strange. I’ve never seen my dad get this emotional. I mean, when Asily...you know, he went into a rage and punished the ones who killed her. Ryder stopped, as though he couldn’t talk about it anymore. He’s always so serious, holding it all in. He can face down a murderer in high court and not show any kind of emotion, but the thought of me completing higher studies elsewhere is troubling him.

  You’re going far, Ryder, not just a few hundred miles.

  I know. And my grandfather was one of “the lost.” It’s as though our family is being targeted.

  He could be right.

  I don’t think so. It’s her ghost. Asily’s. It’s like she’s always there, but we can’t talk about her. It’s like we have to pretend she never existed.

  She died, Ryder, in this forsaken war. She was his child, your sister.

  The spirits know I’m aware.

  It was the fault of the Brausa. Brutish animals. Abominations. Scorn creased Nick’s fair features, disdain staining his voice as he said the name. We must remember who is at fault. Always.

  There are times I question that. Ryder looked bleak as he stared down at the ground, his youthful face seeming to carry the weight of the world.

  Rye—

  Ryder ran a hand through his dark hair, seeming to shake off the somber tone of the conversation. He put on a friendly face. So I’ll be joining you on Earth.

  It took a moment for Nick to switch gears, but seeing the resolute look on Ryder’s visage, Nick spontaneously gave a mischievous grin. He took on that high-pitched voice again. Please don’t go, Rye. I haven’t shown you my very round breasts yet!

  You’re getting it this time. Ryder dumped his towel and the race was on. Nick took off up the slope and grabbed the rope swing.

  Just as he jumped on it to swing, it snapped and broke. He went plunging down the hillside, crashing through the brush to smash against a tree. His shout was suddenly cut off, and Ryder, fear pouring over his face, called to his friend in a panicked voice. He rushed to where Nick lay gasping with pain near the water’s edge.

  Oh, my God! I exclaimed and ran down the embankment. Ryder looked up as I came crashing through the bushes, and his young green eyes looked confused for a moment, as though he recognized me and was trying to place who I was. I could almost see his memory catching up, and then baby Adonis (Nick) faded away into mist, like a projection that was turned off, which was absolutely the most astounding thing I’d ever seen. One moment he was there, writhing in pain and holding his obviously broken leg, and the next he was gone. How the hell had that happened?

  I looked to Ryder, unsure whether to be horrified or confused by the sight, either way hoping to be reassured. But then Ryder transformed before my eyes. If I’d blinked, I would have missed it. One moment he was his teenage self, his face youthful and more slender, and the next, he was the man I’d come to know. He grew tall, over six feet, and broad, with thick, ropey man muscles that ran through his torso and legs. His square jaw filled in, a few lines fanned out from his forest green eyes and across his forehead, and all I could do was stare in awe, until I looked up at his eyes.

  They were frighteningly cold. Menacing. If I’d thought he looked untamed before, it was nothing compared to how savagely angry he looked now. Enraged, even. It was a look no one had ever leveled at me before. It was a killing look. Fear engulfed me. I gasped for air like a fish out of water. My heart beat a quick, frantic warning to escape. You have mylunate. His voice rumbled across the space between us, amplifying, enveloping me in its deep vibration until I felt it shake through my bones.

  What’s that? I barely managed the whispered words. It was hard to think through gut-wrenching panic, especially as he started walking toward me. Stalking me. I stumbled back a few steps in reaction.

  Don’t play fucking stupid with me. You’re dreamwalking. You can’t dreamwalk without continuous exposure to mylunate. What the fuck kind of game are you playing? His voice was a powerful, raspy growl that pounded the air between us.

  I saw a merciless warrior looking at his enemy, not the tender, sensual man I’d locked lips with earlier that day. I barely kept a whimper of terror from slipping out. I backed away, one step at a time up the embankment, my legs feeling wobbly as rocks and gravel gave way, forcing me to catch myself.

  I don’t know what dreamwalking is. I tried harder to scramble up the embankment. I needed space! More space between us, dammit! But the ground refused to give me purchase.

  His eyes narrowed on my movements. His lip curled disdainfully.

  How long have you been working for Grayson? Ryder moved deliberately, one step at a time, closing the distance between us. His eyes drilled holes into mine, and his steps ate up the space separating us. He had no trouble stepping through the soil, as though it were an even trail. He was catching up to me without hav
ing to work at it, and somehow that made my hair stand on end more than anything else.

  Who’s Grayson? I—I work for Alliance, in Hollywood.

  He ignored what I said. What’s in it for you? Were you offered money? Got tired of being trailer trash? He looked over me scornfully, as though he found me wanting. We could have offered you a better deal. You should have come to us first.

  I gasped, feeling like a shard of glass had pierced my heart.

  Trailer trash.

  He’d recognized my classless beginnings, even with all that I’d tried to accomplish in my life to overcome that handicap. Raw pain mixed with powerful fear clogged the back of my throat, and I could hardly respond. I was as invalid to him as I had been to all the people in my life. He could kill me with no remorse, and no one would protest or find injustice in it.

  The thought brought a silent protest and a renewed fight from the depths of my soul.

  I don’t know what you’re talking about, Ryder.

  Don’t you?

  No!

  I didn’t have you pegged for a murderer. Thousands of my people have died to protect our nation, and here you are working to revitalize a war that was all but over. Twenty fucking years gone to shit. Grayson was smart to pick you. Somehow he just knew, didn’t he? The statement was bitter and served to make him even angrier.

  A murderer? I haven’t done anything!

  I won’t play this game with you. You fooled me with your big blue eyes and innocent look. Fuck! His eyes blazed with fury into mine. It ends now.

  Ryder suddenly stretched to gigantic proportions. He was ten, fifteen, twenty feet tall. His teeth became sharp fangs, and his eyes glowed an evil, piercing green. He issued a roar that shook the very ground where I stood.

  My blood turned cold. The flower dropped from my fingers. I froze. A ball of energy surged powerfully from my gut, and the sound of a shrill, terrorized scream tore from my throat. The sound broke my paralysis.

  I ran for all I was worth. It did no good.

  The soil beneath my feet instantly, magically turned into the finest sand. I scrambled on all fours to get up the embankment, but it kept slipping under me. Instead of surging forward, I kept sliding back. A large hand grabbed my heel, and I shook it off frantically, pulling my foot out of my tennis shoe.

  Free again, I tried to get to my feet and run, but the air around me developed the density of molasses. I couldn’t move through it.

  He was coming! He was going to kill me!

  All I heard was the ferocious pounding of my heart in my ears. It roared a freight train through my skull until all I was aware of was the sound of my own screams.

  “Wake up.” A hand shook my shoulder roughly. I came to in a fetal position and sat up with a gasp to see Ryder’s angry face inches from my own.

  “No!” I scuttled back, stopping only when I hit the wall behind me, clutching the sheet to my body as though for protection. I looked around, not recognizing where I was. There were no furnishings, the walls were bare and the closet was open, with men’s clothing folded inside. I squinted my eyes against the early-morning light that fell through the window. Ryder stood up, looked down at me with impatience.

  A dream? Yeah. A dream. Okay. I released pent-up breath slowly, still breathing roughly, trying to get my bearings. Pretty fucked-up dream. The fear started to fade, and my breath grew less tremulous. Pushing the hair off my forehead, I noticed my hands were trembling and had the absurd urge to giggle. If he only knew what I’d just dreamed. Shit. He made for a scary monster.

  Ryder was wearing his pants from the previous night, but they weren’t completely buttoned and hung precariously on his lean hips. They hung open just enough to leave an interesting V shape over his exposed skin. He obviously worked out to get the hard ridge of muscles. Lord. Even as my heart calmed and my breathing became more even, I couldn’t help but be intrigued by the sight. The man was out and out too sexy by far.

  “You’re at my place.”

  “I am.” I agreed, somewhat foggily. “Why?”

  “Your place was robbed.”

  “It was?” It was. Now I remembered. He saw the resignation on my face and must have correctly interpreted it, because he didn’t respond to my question. Shoving my face into my hands, I groaned. “This has been a creepy couple of days.”

  “You ain’t seen nothing yet.” His expression was unreadable. “So who do you work for?”

  I looked up at him, wide-eyed, trying to comprehend what he was saying with a suddenly eerie tingling over my body. Wasn’t I awake? Was this going to be one of those screwy you-thought-you-were-awake-but-you’re-not dreams? “What did you say?”

  “I’m taking up where I left off. Who do you work for?”

  Fear swamped my body like a heavy blanket. “But that’s impossible.”

  “You dreamwalked.”

  “What is that? You keep saying that!” I could hear my voice getting louder as, once again, alarm set in. I stood quickly, my back to the wall, dragging the sheet with me like armor.

  “Where’s the fucking mylunate, Taylor? You have no idea the power you hold!”

  “Oh, my God. You were really in my dream. You had those demon eyes.” I watched him at the same time I wrapped the sheet around me, tucking the ends in front of me. I could feel my panic mounting.

  “Correction,” he snapped. “You were in my dream.”

  “That’s not possible! People can’t just do that! And you became a monster! You were going to kill me!” I could feel myself losing it. Horror was setting in. My eyes whipped around the room looking for a weapon, a window, anything. I started edging along the wall toward the door. Only quick breaths were coming in and going out. My body was screaming for flight.

  “You can do anything in dreams.” He flared his nostrils, his face set in fierce lines.

  “I don’t understand this! Any of it. I don’t know who you are or what you want, but I’m going home!”

  I dashed for the door.

  Ryder caught me around my ribs. His powerful arms halted my forward motion midstride, my breath exiting in a sudden hiss. He pulled me back against the rock wall of his chest, and then it was on! I fought for my life. I elbowed his gut and heard a deep grunt. I reached backward to scratch at his eyes, but his arms repositioned to bind mine to my sides. I tried to head-butt him in the chin and kicked at his shins, which had him growling deep in his chest but did little if any damage, because the damn sheet hampered me!

  “You’re going to hurt yourself,” he snarled in my ear. He was just too big and too strong. He was nearly wrapped around me, and I could feel him overpowering me with sheer strength.

  “Let me go.” I bent over and tried to bite his arm.

  “Dammit!” he thundered, and he loosened his grip. I stomped his bare toes with my heel and lunged for the door as he hollered, but he was standing on my sheet, which thwarted me again. During my moment of hesitation, he tackled me to the bed and pinned me with his body.

  “Get off me. You are absolutely crazy. This is kidnapping. You’re holding me against my will.” The weight of his chest alone had me pinned helplessly to the mattress, but I still tried to kick him off.

  “Hush up.”

  “I want to go home.” We were both breathing heavily as he wrestled my legs between his own, binding them tightly so I couldn’t move.

  “Not until we settle this.”

  “Settle what? What is there to settle? You’re some weird superhuman freak, and I want you to leave me alone.” But he wasn’t even listening. He was talking to himself.

  “A ring, piercing... I need to find it,” he muttered. Putting both of my wrists into one of his large hands, he held them down above my head with little effort, though I struggled to get them free.

  With his free hand he gently chec
ked my lobes, my fingers, my neck, my wrists, but found nothing. He even went so far as to check my mother’s charm bracelet carefully. Then he pulled the sheet aside and in a single motion yanked my T-shirt up and away from my breasts. I gasped, shocked motionless, staring down at them, bare to the sunlight slanting through the window.

  “What the hell are you doing? You goddamn perv!” My nipples puckered with sudden exposure, but missing whatever he was looking for, his eyes continued south. Mortified, I snarled, “Is this how you get your kicks? Get off me! Let me go!”

  “It has to be here,” he said in a steely voice.

  He looked down at my belly button, just above my floral cotton thong. I was lacking whatever item was on his scavenger-hunt list and his eyes traveled back up.

  “Where is it?” he growled.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about!” I yanked on my wrists angrily, which only made my breasts sway under his sharp eyes.

  That’s when things changed.

  Caught by the movement of my breasts, his eyes dropped to them. They lingered reluctantly. Heated against his will. He wanted to fight his attraction to me but couldn’t, which suddenly had that absurd heat curling in my lower abdomen again. What was that? Was that my own heart fluttering in response? Was he going to touch me?

  The thought was making my blood thicken, which was really confusing, considering I thought he’d been trying to kill me in my dream. My sense of helplessness and naïveté infused the strange energy swirling between us. Reluctantly, Ryder pulled the T-shirt back down over my breasts and took a deep breath.

  As I thought about it, he’d only been trying to contain me in this physical scuffle. He’d been trying not to hurt me.

  His eyes turned angrily impatient, as though he’d caught himself doing something he wasn’t supposed to. He looked into my eyes searchingly and snarled, “Open your mind.”

  “What? What does that even mean?”

  “You built a wall in your mind. A brick wall. Tear it down.”

  “A wall?” I flashed back to the previous night, when I’d been at the club with all the voices swarming in my brain. I’d looked at the wall and imagined it containing the noise. I could see the wall in my mind when I shut my eyes. Holy cow! That was some serious Twilight Zone shit. But how could he see it?