The Dreamcatcher: A Dreamland Series Novella (The Dreamland Series)

by E. J. Mellow

  We’ve been waiting for you.

  — 14 —

  THE GRASS RUSTLED under his steps, the night air cool as it danced by on a soft breeze. Dev glanced up at the approaching tree in the distance, its full canopy a dark spot against the stream of stars flying overhead, and with a frown he focused back on the ground, his mind strangely calm for how unsettled he felt. He was definitely still in shock.

  To think, he was so hopeful leading Molly to Elena earlier, convinced things would finally get straightened out now that Molly knew Terra was real, that the Vigil would simplify everything. He almost laughed at his naïveté. Instead they revealed a secret so large that he was having trouble fitting it in with the life he always thought to be true. The outrage he, and definitely Tim, felt toward their brethren for keeping such a secret from them for so long—that Rae was a part of it—simply boggled the mind. How much more were they keeping hidden in the dark? And what would the Nocturna do if they ever found out?

  “You were rather quiet during that debriefing,” Molly said, stepping closer to him, and he looked up, taking in the way her features finally seemed relaxed, almost peaceful under the night sky.

  “What was I supposed to say?” he asked with a humorless laugh. “Nothing I wanted to say could have changed the situation.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Dev stopped and turned to her. “Do you think I like the idea of you being this person that has to bear the weight of the world on their shoulders? The whole thing’s ridiculous,” he said with a frustrated sigh, running a hand through his hair. “When I knew—when I decided that you needed to know about all this, I never intended for you to have to be this heavily involved. I don’t want you to be,” he finished, watching as her delicate brows furrowed.

  “It doesn’t seem like any of us have a choice.” She gave a weary shrug. And Dev found himself taking a step closer, unable to keep from brushing back a loose hair from her face.

  “I know,” he said softly before dropping his hand. “I’m an ass for not asking this sooner, but how are you feeling?”

  Molly glanced to the distant tree, a swallow bobbing her throat. “I’m freaked out. But doing okay. Considering.”

  A smile tugged at Dev’s lips. “Why am I not surprised? You’re tougher than you look.”

  She snorted a laugh. “I don’t know about that.”

  “No, you are.” He inched forward again. “And I think you know it too.”

  She remained silent, a wariness settling around her as she became unable to hold his gaze. “Molly,” Dev said, forcing her to look at him. “I’ll be there with you. I’ll be there through the whole thing. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

  “You can’t promise that.” She shook her head.

  “No, but I can do everything in my power to try.” Her face softened at that, and her midnight gaze sparked with some deeper hidden emotion. He wanted nothing more than to be the one to pry it free, but instead he pushed the conversation in the direction it probably should go. “Have you figured out what you’re going to do about getting away for two days?”

  “Yeah…I think I’m going to tell people that I still need some rest after the whole lightning fiasco. Say I’m going to my parents’.”

  “What will you tell your parents you’re doing?”

  “Uh, I guess I’ll tell them I’m going on a trip with Jared or something.”

  Dev’s whole body stiffened. “Jared?” The human’s name passed his lips with a forced calm, and he instinctively found himself glancing down to her wrist. “Is this the one that likes to give you presents?”

  Molly tucked her chin in and touched the small, hideous bracelet that rested there. Well, he thought it was hideous anyway. Aveline seemed to enjoy telling him how pretty she thought the silver band was.

  “I guess you could say that.” Molly glanced meekly at him. Her behavior had him wondering whom she was feeling guilty toward, and the thought that it could be him gave him the confidence to say his next words.

  “Do you love him?”

  She blinked. “What?”

  “Do you love him?”

  “What kind of question is that?”

  “A normal kind of question,” he said, folding his arms over his chest.

  She looked at him pointedly. “I don’t think that’s a normal kind of question.”

  He merely shrugged and raised a brow. “Well?”

  “Well, I’m not going to answer that.”

  He smirked. “You just did.”

  “I did not!”

  “Yes, you did. If you loved him, you would have easily said so.”

  Her mouth popped open, and she spluttered to find a response. “So what are you insinuating?”

  “That you don’t.”

  “And…”

  He leaned in close, his lips hovering mere inches from hers, and he was impressed that she didn’t try moving away. “And, that’s good for me to know.”

  Molly appeared shocked into silence, which pleased Dev endlessly. He should have probably felt sorry for this Jared guy, that his plans for Molly would not bode well for him, but he didn’t. There was no denying that he and Molly’s connection ran deeper than a mere folly attraction. When he stood near her, every cell in his body seemed to relax just as they vibrated, their energy calling to one another, something a dimensional barrier couldn’t separate. And from the way her eyes glistened under the starlight, her full lips parted on her shallow breathes, and the stain of pink on her cheeks deepened with every second he kept his attention pinned to her, he knew the feelings were mutual. She would be his, he thought, and he would enjoy every moment needed to convince her.

  “You know,” he began in a smooth voice, “I often think about how sweet your lips tasted against mine.”

  A soft gasp escaped her. “What a thing to say.” She huffed in disgust before stepping back.

  “It’s true.” He followed her with a step forward. “I bet you think about it as well.”

  “You couldn’t be more wrong.”

  “Really?” His brows rose at the challenge before pulling her tightly against his chest.

  “Dev, let go!” She pushed against him, her face growing redder and redder. “You…disgust me,” she breathed in a fury.

  “I disgust you, do I?” he asked with a smile, enjoying her wriggling in his arms.

  “Yes, I can’t stand even—”

  Dev cut her off with a kiss, and instantly she stilled, her grip on his biceps tightening. Slowly he provoked her mouth to open, to let him brush her tongue with his, and on a sigh she let him. That’s when the air around them fizzled with heat and their limbs became nothing but reactions to their desire as they pulled, gripped, and ran touches down every inch of the other. On a moan, Molly pulled him closer like she never wanted him to let go, and he let out a low growl. She tasted just as sweet as he remembered, her lips soft and demanding, and right before the moment he knew he wouldn’t be able to turn back, he forced himself away. Placing his forehead against hers, he panted, trying to catch his breath as Molly struggled to do the same.

  Eventually he released her and watched with a satisfying grin as she staggered on her feet. “See, I don’t disgust you in the least.”

  She blinked up to him, looking momentarily stunned as she took in his blithe expression.

  “You dick!” She shoved his chest, her face flushing crimson. “I can’t believe I let you kiss me!”

  He was about to laugh at her ridiculous attempt to deny her obvious desire for him, when the wind brushed the smell of rot under his nose. His face froze along with his heart, and he whipped his head up, immediately spotting three orange forms in the distance, each transfixed on his and Molly’s position. He silently cursed. How did he not see them approach!?

  “Molly,” Dev said in a forced hush. “I need you to stop yelling and get behind me.”

  She spluttered and glared daggers at him. “Get behind you? Are you mental? I have every reason to sla
p you right about now.”

  “You can slap me all you want after you get behind me,” he said while tracking the slow, stalking movements of their adversaries. Three…he could handle three.

  Molly continued to bark at him, and with a frustrated sigh he swung her around himself.

  “Ow!” she shouted and was about to step to his side when her movements faltered, finally aware of the threat. “Oh.”

  Dev rolled his eyes. “Yeah, oh,” he said and readied for the attack.

  — 15 —

  “WHAT SHOULD WE do?” Molly asked in a whisper.

  “We are going to do nothing.” Dev shifted his weight to angle himself in front of her. “You’re going to stay where you are while I take care of this.”

  “Were we not just in the same meeting? Didn’t Elena say I was the one sent to save all your butts from these things?”

  With the sweet mix of Navitas in the air, Dev glanced down to see that Molly had conjured up her Arcus. “Do you even know how to use that for combat?” he asked as she held the device upside down.

  “Yeah, of course.”

  “You’re a bad liar,” he said dryly as he called an arrow from his quiver, slowly nocking it in place as one of the Metus shifted closer. “You haven’t had any training. Once you have, we can reopen this discussion.”

  “Oh, can we?”

  Dev was about to give her a derisive glare, when a movement in his periphery had his attention whipping forward. Faster than an intake of air, he released a blazing arrow into the guts of the charging monster. The Navitas quickly filled its cavity, and on a howl it burst apart with a sickly wet pop, sending burning chunks in every direction and erupting the air with its atrocious perfume of rot.

  “Oh my God”—Molly bent over, coughing—“that’s horrible.”

  “Just another way they can weaken your guard.” Dev readied a new arrow, not taking his eyes off the remaining two threats.

  They tilted their heads curiously as they clicked in their alien tongue to one another, the sound never ceasing to chill his bones. Nocturna and Vigil still didn’t know how cognitive the Metus were, how much they could plan and think, but with each passing year they seemed to advance in some manner. And as if to prove this point, the seven-foot-tall beasts let out a battle wail right before they melted into nothing but fiery liquid puddles.

  “Colló!” Dev breathed in a panic as the demons lapped toward them. “Get to the tree!”

  Molly turned and ran. “What do you do…when they…do that?” she panted.

  “They don’t normally do that,” he said and, without losing forward momentum, swiveled around to let loose an arrow at one of the gaining blobs. As if it could sense the impending threat, it dodged in the nick of time, and with a hiss the arrow was uselessly extinguished into the empty ground.

  Dev groaned. He really wasn’t in the mood for this right now.

  Reaching the tree, Molly turned with a panicked sweeping gaze. “Now what?”

  “Climb!” he yelled as he swiftly pressed one of the buttons on his Arcus, preparing to create a Navitas shield. Using one end of his bow, he dragged it through the grass, drawing a glowing ring around them with the tree as the epicenter.

  “I don’t think climbing will stop them,” Molly said as the blistering puddles closed in.

  “No, but it will keep you a safe distance away from what I’m about to do.”

  “What are you about to do?”

  He answered her by shooting a flaming arrow into the freshly drawn mark. Like a lit fuse, a tall blaze of Navitas instantly rose to circle them—a protective wall of blue-white fire now endlessly pushed from the ground.

  Dev paced the barrier, watching the blurred orange masses on the other side regain their more solid forms. One of the Metus cried in frustration and began to stalk the edge, mirroring Dev’s own movements.

  “Come on, friends,” Dev taunted. “Why don’t you step on over?” He readjusted his grip on his Arcus and waited for the monsters to show their next move.

  “Dev…” Molly called out behind him, and he turned to see her complexion had turned as pale as milk and her fingers were digging into the tree’s trunk as if that were the only thing keeping her standing.

  He was quickly at her side. “Are you okay?” he asked, letting her place some of her weight on him while maintaining an eye-line with the Metus.

  “I don’t know…I feel…I feel really good. Too good.”

  “Um…” Dev frowned, unsure what that even meant. “Okay?”

  “I think it’s all the Navitas.” She gestured to the blazing ring around them. “I don’t know how to be around so much. I don’t know how to explain it—except that I want it.”

  “You want it?”

  “Yes,” she said and squeezed her eyes shut. Dev muttered a curse. He hadn’t thought about Molly having a reaction to the Navitas, but it made sense. With having such a sensitive connection to the source, of course she’d respond to being near such a high amount of raw energy. He regarded the blue-white fire that encircled them and watched as the tall flames burned like endless torches up toward the sky, reducing their enemies to blurred red splotches on the other side.

  “I’d put out the barrier,” he said, “but then it would let in the Metus. I need to take care of them first.”

  The words had barely left his mouth when one of the nightmares boldly leaped over the wall. It nicked its left foot, singing it off, but that didn’t stop it from continuing toward them, dragging its leg uselessly behind and leaving a dead grass trail in its wake.

  “They’re getting braver,” Dev said, stepping forward and placing himself between the creature and Molly. “That, or stupider.” Slowly he approached the monster, and with an easy swat of his Arcus, knocked away every pathetic attempt it made to hit him with a chunk of its melting flesh. “Molly, don’t move from that spot,” he instructed as he spun to block another fireball. “Is that all you’ve got?” Dev goaded. This was serious Nursery play.

  “Dev, hurry!” Molly shouted before she yelped. He turned to see the second Metus had slunk to the other side and jumped the barrier.

  Clever, he thought. He had been baited and distracted while the other silently advanced on Molly. He should have known something was up from the half-ditched attempt the other made in attacking him. They were definitely getting smarter, and this was very, very bad.

  Yelling Molly’s name, he realized with agonizing frustration that he’d have to kill the one in front of him first before dealing with the second. He begged the elders that he’d do it in time. Swiveling back around, he blocked out the charging howl of the farther creature while dodging the swiping claw of the nearer, and with a twist of his body he sidestepped to be behind it. With lightning-fast reflexes, he sliced through the air with his Arcus and cut the thing’s head clear off. He didn’t give himself time to watch it burst apart, for he was already turning to seek out Molly.

  He saw her backpedaling from the last monster that stalked her. Dev could practically see the thing salivate, and his blood turned to ice as he ran forward. No, no, no! He would reach her. He had to. Molly’s skin was ashen as she came to an abrupt stop, about to hit up against the Navitas wall, a mouse trapped, and Dev moved to deactivate the barrier, when the ring flamed to extreme heights, momentarily blinding him. Like a vacuum, Molly’s body arced forward on a jerk, and the whole circle channeled into her back. Her mouth opened in a silent scream as her hair whipped about, caught in an invisible tornado, and Dev reached forward, desperate to end whatever torment was now happening to her, when the world abruptly tilted, warping forward and then snapping back. In a strange splice of time, Dev saw a glimpse of Molly with white glowing eyes and a tightly wound ball of Navitas floating in her hand right before she lobbed it at the Metus. In the next second he was knocked back by a blast of searing-white light and shimmering red dust.

  He groaned as he rolled to his side, his ears ringing while the sickly sweet scent of Navitas and death mixed around
him. What happened? Sitting up, he peered around the quiet field. Not even the night creatures were making a sound, as if the land were momentarily in shock. Rubbing his bicep that suffered a blow from his fall, his hand suddenly stilled. Molly! Staggering to his feet, he swept a gaze over the vicinity, registering a dark form a distance away.

  Running forward, he gathered her into his lap. “Molly?” Dev said in a panic, jostling her gently until she opened her eyes, and he exhaled in relief. “Where are you hurt? I don’t see any bleeding. Is it internal?” Dev smoothed away the hair plastered against her face and scanned every inch of her with worry. Her cheeks and clothes were brushed with dirt, but otherwise she appeared okay.

  Molly’s gaze took a moment to focus on him, “So much for trying your hardest to protect me,” she rasped out.

  Dev blinked before frowning. “You’re making a joke right now?”

  “It would seem so,” she said with a grunt as she tried to sit up. He reluctantly let her.

  “Well, I’m not laughing.”

  “It would seem not.”

  “How can you joke?”

  “How could you have played around with killing them? For the love of Terra, Dev! You don’t have to worry about impressing me. I’m impressed! I will always be impressed!”

  A grin broke across his face.

  “What?” she asked in a huff.

  “There are a few things,” he said. “First, you used a Terra phase. Second, you said you’ll always be impressed with me.” She rolled her eyes, which only made him smile wider. “But seriously, you’re okay?”