We stared at each other for a long time, and I had no idea why I refused to be the one to break the silence. There was a challenge in the way the dae glared at me, and I answered it by clenching my teeth and scowling at him.
Rob pulled a cell phone out of his pocket and put it to his ear. He met my gaze and pressed a finger to his lips. I kept on glaring at him.
“Find Arthur Hasling. When you do, call me.” Without waiting for an answer, Rob hung up and returned the phone to his pocket. “Having a name will make hunting him down far easier. Then we can deal with him once and for all.”
“Who did you call?”
“Someone who owes me a rather large favor at the moment. Ask your questions. My word is good, and I owe you information.”
“Start with what happened at the college. All I know is Arthur didn’t want the children to be used by the elite,” I said, tucking my feet close to me and snuggling into the blanket. “He decided the problem could be solved with a liberal application of fire. Colby was with me.”
I didn’t understand how my roommate had survived, but I wouldn’t question it. Grateful it had survived, I clutched at the blanket for the soft comfort it offered. A yawn slipped out of me before I could stifle it.
“You’re going to fall asleep and make me explain it twice, aren’t you?” Rob accused.
“Maybe.” I yawned again on purpose to annoy him. “Telling me twice won’t kill you.”
“It might.”
“Excellent. I’ll use it as the foundation of my plan to get rid of you once you’ve outlived your usefulness.”
Rob laughed. “You’re something else, Miss Daegberht. I’m afraid you’ll have to work a little harder than that to get rid of me.”
“Pity. Start talking. What happened?”
“How familiar are you with hurricanes?”
“Hurricanes?” The sudden change of subject threw me for a loop, and it took me several moments to force my thoughts to shift gears. “The storms? We get them here sometimes. What does this have to do with Arthur?”
“You’re aware of the structure of a hurricane?”
“The basics, at least,” I replied. “It’s a big storm with an eye.”
“He fashioned a firestorm similar to a hurricane; the temperatures in the eye were low, with the flame illusionary in nature. Outside of the eye, he increased the heat and lethality, using a hurricane’s spinning formation to suck in air to feed the fire. Most of the survivors were in the eye, close to where he grabbed you, or outside of the storm itself. He lit several of the campus buildings on fire, killed a bunch of dae on his way to the gates, and made his escape under the cover of smoke. It’s unknown how many accomplices he had, unfortunately.”
Rob fell quiet, and for a moment, I thought something across the room had captured his attention. When he shook his head and sighed, I wondered what he wasn’t telling me.
“And?” I demanded.
“Of the children, he kidnapped thirty of them, killed three, and the others escaped. Most of them were critically injured and are still recovering at the hospital.”
I tensed as what he told me sank in. “He killed children.”
When I killed Arthur, I would add interest to the suffering he caused me and give him a taste of what he’d done before finishing him off.
“Yes, he did.”
I wasn’t about to ask for Rob’s help. I was merely guaranteeing I had sufficient backup and the necessary resources to cause the maximum amount of suffering before I ended Arthur’s miserable life. “That list of yours. The one with the cuts and shit.”
“What about it?”
“My feet hurt a lot, and I’m pretty sure I’m dying of some sort of plague. Add those to the list. It’s also going to cost me a lot of money to get good weapons. That should be added, too.”
Rob stared at me, and after a moment, his mouth twitched until he grinned. “Understood. Consider it done.”
“From my understanding, they didn’t cooperate with him, so he lashed out. He gave them a choice to come with him willingly or die. Witnesses claim he was carrying you at the time, making everyone wonder if you were his original target.”
“Why would he want me?”
“You’re unawakened,” Rob replied, and his eyes turned a steely gray-blue. “Most dae probably think you’re an aberration, but Arthur likely realized you could fuel his fire the instant he got near you. He probably consumed his partner during the dawning. Free dae are beginning to learn the consequences of murdering their creators.”
“Their creators?” I blurted. “The dae were created?”
“By humans, yes.” Rob leaned against the back of the couch and stretched out his legs. “It’s more complicated than is easily explained, but I’ll try to simplify it. We’re created from the stuff that dreams are made of.”
“The stuff that dreams are made of,” I echoed, wondering what Rob meant. “That makes no sense.”
“That’s because you don’t have your head in the clouds.”
I was pretty sure I was at least a little high, considering Rob was sitting right beside me and I didn’t mind it too much, but I kept my mouth shut. Instead of making an ass out of myself, I shrugged.
“Of all the species on all the worlds, humans are truly the most interesting,” Rob said, drawing a deep breath to sigh. “So many of them spend so much time grasping for something so far out of their reach they have no hope of ever achieving it.”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“You don’t chase dreams. You make goals, you make plans, and you do it. You don’t ask for help because you are so determined to create your success with your two scarred hands. Hands tell a story, Miss Daegberht. You don’t need a dae.” There was something rueful about Rob’s scowl, and he snorted. “You don’t want one, either.”
“I could see uses for breathing fire and flying.”
“Do you want them enough to rely on someone—something—else to get them?” Rob crossed his arms over his chest and arched a brow.
“Bite me.”
The way Rob smiled and leaned towards me sent a shiver racing from my head all the way down to my toes. “I’d like that. Seems fair, since you’ve bitten me several times already.”
I scooted away from him, sliding along the leather couch. “Figure of speech, not an invitation.”
Rob pouted. “What if I asked really nicely and said please?”
“Why don’t you tell me why I can’t have a dae,” I suggested.
Wrinkling his nose, Rob ceased pursuing me to return to the arm of the couch. “Dae are created from the dreams, wishes, and desires of their bonded humans—from the unobtainable dreams, wishes, and desires of their humans.”
“Wishes?” I whispered, unable to think of anything other than my father kissing my cheek and the words I had said, the wish I had made, and the lives I had destroyed—mine included. “Their wishes became the dae?”
“In the simplest of terms, yes. It’s complicated.”
“Wishes can’t come true.” I swallowed, shaking my head to deny my greatest fear and guilt.
“It’s complicated.”
“So simplify it for me.”
“Wishes can come true if you want them badly enough and believe someone will give you what you haven’t earned for yourself,” Rob replied, and after a long moment of silence, he smiled.
The years once again melted away from him, and his eyes twinkled. I couldn’t tell if it was a trick of my imagination or not. He slid onto the couch beside me. With a low, tired groan, he propped his feet up on the coffee table. “As I said, it’s complicated.”
For a stomach-churning moment, I was five again with the news of my parents’ deaths hanging over my shoulders, evicted from my home to an orphanage within the fringe. All of my doubts, uncertainties, and guilt clawed at me and reopened the old wounds I thought had healed.
“Are you serious?” My voice wavered. “How is that even possible?”
&nb
sp; “You’re willing to accept the emergence of the dae, but you can’t believe how we’re created?” Rob stared at me, and I couldn’t tell if he was confused or amused by me. “Humans aren’t the only dreamers in the universe, you know.”
There was no proof I had killed my parents with my wish. I kept telling myself that until I relaxed and was able to focus on other things. Rob, however accidentally, provided me with the perfect out.
“I guess that means we aren’t alone in the universe after all,” I muttered, wondering how things would change once the world figured out there was a legitimate reason to search the stars for sentient life.
“You’re not. I’ve told you too much at once, haven’t I? You look like I’ve clubbed you over the head.”
At the worry in Rob’s voice, I shook my head. While I didn’t like his attitude, and I definitely had problems with his constant possessiveness, he hadn’t done anything wrong. It wasn’t his fault I had made a wish as a child.
If what he told me was true, it wasn’t his fault someone else had created him with a wish. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to be in a dae’s shoes, to know I was the product of someone’s imagination—to exist because someone had inadvertently willed me into existence.
I couldn’t help but wonder who had created Rob—and what they had wished for, to make someone so egotistical and possessive. Frowning, I considered him for a long moment. “You were created by someone.”
“I never had a bonded human partner, if that’s what you’re wondering, Miss Daegberht. Not all dae are like Arthur. Not all of us require a human host to survive or to be born. I have not consumed anyone, nor do I have any intentions of doing so.”
“Define consume,” I ordered, although I had a pretty good idea he meant eat. Terry Moore, after all, had become a snack for a pink-winged werewolf.
“While some dae enjoy consuming flesh for sustenance, those who do don’t tend to live very long. Cannibalism is bad form, even for us, for all we’re a bit more liberal in our culinary choices.”
“That werewolf ate Terry Moore,” I reminded him.
Rob smirked. “He didn’t live very long, now did he?”
“Point.”
“You want to know what I eat.”
“You read minds,” I accused.
“I don’t, actually. Some dae can, but I’m not one of them. Since I was created without being bonded directly to an individual, I don’t have the same, ah, requirements as others of my kind. Arthur’s a good example. His progenitor likely desired love or a partner. Considering the name he is using, his progenitor was consumed, and Arthur took over his identity. It’s common enough among weak dae lacking control or finesse, and passion often manifests as fire. Perhaps the original Arthur Hasling longed for someone who was dead. Those sort of feelings turn into a dae who feed on their bond’s pleasure and pain. Most humans strongly desire what they can’t have.”
I flushed and wondered how I was any different. My skin problems always left me desiring what I couldn’t have—someone touching me without me breaking out in hives and rashes.
At the rate I was going, I really would die a virgin—or die trying to lose my virginity. As always, I was left frustrated, annoyed, and curious.
“There are a lot of fire-breathers out there,” I commented, forcing my thoughts away from sex before I opened my mouth and said something I’d really regret.
With Rob’s looks, he probably had a line of women wanting a piece of him, older or not. Lily would probably be vying to be first; men with experience were better at satisfying her.
I wasn’t doing a very good job of steering my thoughts to something other than sex. Instead of yanking my hair like I wanted and snarling at the source of my frustration, I kept still and quiet.
It wasn’t Rob’s fault he pressed my buttons—all of my buttons, particularly the ones that made me want to jump into bed with him and find out about everything my skin condition had prevented for all of my teenage and adult life.
Rob showed no sign of noticing my discomfort and replied, “They are common, yes. Most of them were probably created by a human wanting someone they can’t have. The stronger their bond’s desire, the stronger the dae they birth—and the more likely they’ll end up consumed or destroyed as a result.” Rob sighed and shrugged. “I can only speculate.”
For someone who was speculating, Rob sounded confident enough. I scowled. “How do you know so much?”
“Not all of the dae were born yesterday, so to speak. Let’s just say I’m a bit older than the ones created during the Dawn. There aren’t many like me.”
“Is that why people roll over when you go strutting by like some senile peacock?” I muttered.
“I’m wounded,” Rob gasped, clutching at his chest to slump over the arm of the couch.
“Bullshit.”
He laughed. “You don’t roll over for me.”
“And why should I? I’m not—”
Twisting around, Rob pressed his fingers to my mouth. “You have a choice, Miss Daegberht. You can be my woman, or you can go to the highest bidder. Others would use you at his leisure until you’re drained dry. I don’t consume humans or dae to survive, and the newborns are too stupid to figure out they’re shooting themselves in the foot. Think it through. I’m the better choice.”
I should have bitten him again. Instead, I gawked at him like an idiot, at an absolute loss as to what to say. When I managed to gather my wits, all I could stammer was, “I’m not for sale.”
“Keep telling yourself that if it makes you feel better. Without a dae, you’re at a disadvantage. The stupid ones will think you inferior, something to be consumed and discarded. The smart ones will want you—permanently.”
I pulled away from Rob, scooting along the couch to the other side. “And what about you?”
“I’m one of the smart ones. You’re lovely when you bristle and get upset when I call you mine,” he murmured. “So much pride. You can’t decide if you hate me or not, can you?”
My cheeks burned, and the heat of my embarrassment spread down my neck towards my chest. “What the hell do you mean by that?”
Rob followed me across the couch, leaning over me when he had me cornered. “You’re flustered and have no idea what to make of me.”
It was true, which served to unsettle me even more. “What the hell!”
“You wanted to know how I feed, Miss Daegberht. While I can eat the same things you do, they don’t sustain me.” Placing one hand on the back of the couch and the other on the arm behind me, Rob stared down at me. He didn’t touch me, but I was aware of how close he came to me.
I shivered, and while I opened my mouth to say something, I couldn’t force out a single sound.
“I could walk by you on the street and have a nice meal without you ever knowing about it or coming to any harm,” he continued, smirking at me. “Anyone can ease my hunger. All I need is to be near someone with strong emotions. You’re like a fire, warm and bright, and whenever I stand in your radiant heat, I’m satisfied.”
My eyes widened, and my shock was replaced by growing dismay. “You’re serious. I’m food to you.”
“You’re not food,” he snapped. “I enjoy when you’re happy—and it’s the little things, like the way you enjoy silk or the softness of your blanket. Scents, like the vanilla. You have so many emotions, Miss Daegberht, and you do nothing in half measures. I don’t even know what I’m sensing half the time with you, but I know this: your pain is vile, and when it’s so strong it’s all you feel, I want to kill him even more for what he did.”
Rob’s distress baffled me. Why did he care? He didn’t know me. He hadn’t known anything about me when he had stepped out of my refrigerator and staked his ridiculous and infuriating claim on me. For no obvious reason, Rob’s breath came hard and fast. He closed his eyes, and his cheek twitched. There was something wrong with me, because his pained expression bothered me. I reached up, brushing the tips of my fingers against his cheek
.
He froze at my touch. After drawing several deep breaths, he asked, “What are you doing?”
I stared at my fingertips. They weren’t red, they didn’t itch, and they didn’t hurt. No hives, blisters, or rashes formed. “It really doesn’t hurt.”
With a grunt, Rob shoved himself back, sitting beside me on the couch and watching me with a frown. “Your reactions are really that severe and instantaneous?”
“Always,” I whispered, staring at my hand in search of the telltale rashes. While paler than normal, a consequence of my battered health, my skin remained unblemished. Was it because Rob was a dae?
That wasn’t right; Arthur was a dae, and his touch hurt me.
Colby had also touched me, and untangling my legs from the blankets, I examined where my macaroni-and-cheese roommate had rubbed against me. Thanks to wearing thick jeans, my legs suffered the least, and I saw no evidence of any new scars. “Are you sure I’m not on drugs that stop the reaction?” I demanded, glaring at him with narrowed eyes.
“You’re not. Antibiotics have no effect on allergic reactions, and it wasn’t wise to keep dosing you with medication you didn’t need. The painkillers should be wearing off soon, too.”
I did feel far more clearheaded than I had when I had first awoken.
Guilt smothered my pride. Without Rob’s help, I’d be in a lot of trouble—or dead. Swallowing several times, I mumbled, “Thanks.”
“I gave you my word I wouldn’t get you hooked again.”
I shivered at the memory of the sensual enjoyment of the painkillers and reaching the most elusive of highs. The need to experience it again grew, and I swallowed, clenching my teeth together so I wouldn’t ask for more drugs.
I wanted to so much it hurt.
Anger was better than the cravings, so I focused all of my attention on what Arthur had done—and what Rob wanted with me. “What makes you different from Arthur? I was food to him. You eat, too. Like him. Emotions. My emotions.”
“I am nothing like Arthur,” Rob stated, his tone so cold I flinched. “Dae like him steal everything from their humans, dulling their emotions, and stealing their ambitions. Of course, bonded humans are resilient, so they thrive despite feeding their dae.”
The Dawn of Dae (Dae Portals Book 1) Page 21
