Firewalkers: Dreamer

by Shiloh Walker

  What had they done to his mama? she wondered.

  Unless Morgan knew, the poor boy would probably never see her again. Ari moved over him, squinting to see inside the dark, hurrying as voices in the hall grew louder. “Hey. C’mon, let’s get outta this dark old place.”

  “Who’s there?” he asked, whimpering, turning his tear-stained face her way.

  “A friend, mon ami. Somebody who wants to help, cher. C’mon, before the nasty boys come back in here and try to scare you some more.”

  “They won’t tell me where my mom is. Will you?” he asked, lifting his chin in defiance.

  “Ah, bebè, if I knew, I’d tell you. But I don’t. Nothing good will happen if you stay here. And that is a fact. You wanna stay here all alone in the dark, in a body that isn’t yours?”

  He looked down at the hands, so much bigger than his own. She could see his lip quivering in the dimness of the room. “No. I don’t like this. He feels…dirty. And at least you didn’t lie to me.” The sigh that came from that childish mind was far too world-weary. Ari wanted to cry with him as he stood and reached out, like the child he truly was, and waited for her to take his hand.

  Wrapping him in her arms, Ari felt the world fall away just as the door to the room flew open and voices started rising, the low boom of a sonic weapon firing.

  She never even noticed the burning in her arm until they had already settled down in Caris’ living room and the boy saw his body there. And he started to scream.

  Ignoring the laser-induced cut on her arm, Ari moved to the boy with Caris, shushing him as she wrapped her arms around him. “It’s all right, bèbe. It’s all right.”

  It was the next morning that Caris found the boy sleeping outside the locked door to the cell where the intruder was kept. It was startling to see the boy staring out at her from the man’s eyes. But a boy he was, never mind that the body was that of a middle-aged man.

  His name was Erik.

  Just Erik.

  He couldn’t remember his last name. Nor his mama’s name, or where they had lived, or how long ago he had been taken away from her. Just that he could make things float with his eyes, he thought. Or he had used to be able to.

  They had done something when they had made this bizarre body switch.

  Or soul switch.

  That was what it was, Caris was thinking as Miguel came ambling through the door, running a hand through his hair, and glancing at her then at the man curled in a ball and sucking his thumb. “Ya gotta admit, that’s an odd sight, amiga,” he mused, shaking his head. “And the boss man is confused as hell about how to fix this one.”

  Caris wasn’t so certain that fixing it would be that hard. They really needed to know how it had been done in the first place, but she couldn’t help but notice, even as the boy slept, he kept inching closer to the door, or trying to.

  They weren’t in their natural state.

  And they wanted to be. Reaching out, she lay one hand on his cheek, and her other on his chest. Unrest, unease, even more than there had been last night. Edgy, awkward…yes.

  “Miguel, you want to help me try something really stupid?” she asked, flashing Miguel a quick glance.

  Miguel’s eyes flicked to her warily. “I don’t like the sound of that, chica. Me, I do stupid things. You don’t.”

  “Well, this might not be too stupid. But I need a safety. You are my safety…just in case. I think they wanna be back where they belong,” she said. “But the man will try to hurt the boy,” she said quietly. “I think I can fix it. But I don’t want that boy being hurt. I don’t want him left unprotected.”

  “You want me to keep them close but apart, right?” Miguel asked, one thick black brow winging up as he followed the path of her thoughts with amazing accuracy.

  “I can’t do this with a shield up. They can’t be apart. But once it happens, you have to shield that man, that sick, soulless bastard,” Caris said, sliding her eyes to the door, where behind it, the man was waiting inside the boy’s body. “I think once they are together, their bodies are going to let it happen naturally. And that man wants the boy dead. I don’t know if he knows anything or not, but he is evil.”

  “I’m here for ya, chica,” Miguel smiled solemnly, looping an arm around her neck and studying the boy/man lying on the floor. “Ready now?”

  “No time like the present.” And if they did it now, while Jax was out hunting and the others were scattered throughout the house, they were less likely to get caught until after they had already started.

  Caris settled down in the basement across from Erik and his borrowed body with a gentle, reassuring smile on her face as Miguel keyed the laz-lock on the shelter open. When the intruder spat out, “Get away from me, you filthy diseased fuck-freak,” Miguel just laughed and flicked a hand toward him. “That’s a funny one, amigo. Now be nice. Don’t make me remember I don’ like you. And before I decide to wrap that mouth shut. I have company for you.”

  The greed and want in those blue eyes was instantaneous. Caris flicked her gaze to Miguel and he flashed her a cocky grin. “Already done, babe. You lemme know when you are ready,” he murmured, sliding his hands into his pockets and propping his shoulder against a smooth black beam.

  The man/boy ignored them as he leaped forward, a hungry, animalistic growl in his throat, only to smack head first into an invisible barrier. Behind it, Erik, in the body they had forced on him, scuttled back, whimpering. Caris slid her eyes questioningly to Miguel and he nodded. She crossed through with a smile and knelt by Erik. “Shhh, he won’t hurt you. I’ll make sure of it. I’m going to make sure he’s good and still and quiet. We just want to get you back where you belong,” Caris whispered, stroking her hand down his arm as his back came up against another black beam. “Will you trust me?”

  Erik whimpered, cuddling his face against her arm. “I don’t like him, or feeling like this. He feels dirty.”

  “Then let’s fix it,” Caris whispered.

  Erik nodded, his lip quivering.

  Miguel strode forward, his lighthearted demeanor dying, his face switching to stone as he prepared to become the protector, leaving the smiling teasing joker behind. His eyes slid to the stolen body of the boy, pinning the evil creature inside as he purred, “You try to harm him, you will die. And I will enjoy it.”

  “Go fuck yourself,” he hissed.

  Miguel blinked, lowering his lashes slowly. Raising his fingers, he trailed them across the barrier, letting it dissolve as he stared into the intruder’s eyes. Whispering, “You remember my words, cabron, or you will know pain like you have never felt as you take your last breath.”

  Caris felt a shiver of fear run down her spine, even though the words weren’t directed at her. So many forgot the danger that lurked below Miguel’s laughing, teasing surface. Even the dark evil inside the boy’s body stilled for the briefest moment before he turned his malevolent eyes on Caris and his true body, snarling, “You should never have tried this—they will make you pay, stupid fools.”

  Caris laughed throatily. “They were the fools, thinking they could do this and we would tolerate it. None harm our children and get away with it. We do not allow it.”

  Turning her eyes to the boy, she nodded gently and said, “Get up. It’s time.” She rested her hands in the middle of his back and stood behind him, a little to the side so she had a clear view of Miguel who was forcibly lifting the struggling intruder to his feet as he kicked and hissed, trying to sink his teeth into Miguel’s hand. “Trying to fight a man while stuck in a child’s body, not a good bargain on your end, zurramato.”

  “I’ll kill you when I’m in my body…” he panted. “Are you sure you want to switch me?” the man inside the boy’s body growled, his voice growing eerily deeper as Miguel forced him closer and closer to his true body.

  Miguel simply said, “I can’t properly rip you apart until you are back where you belong.” With that, he and Caris shoved them together and Miguel stared at Caris’ face, waiti
ng.

  The door upstairs opened and voices flooded the stairwell as Caris waited, watching as the two bodies fell screaming to the floor, smoke pouring from the skin, the eyes, the mouth. Their eyes began to glow and each one latched hands onto the arms of the other. A shocked, pained gasp from the boy’s mouth as the man sobbed, the cry of a poor, wounded boy as he screeched, “Mama!”

  Then the boy’s head whipped around and he was staring at Caris with the gleaming, glowing eyes of a Firewalker child. He shot up out of the scrambling grasp of the man’s hands, the look of a panicked child on his face as he backed away.

  The man was still staring around, rather blindly, his eyes glowing with a colorless, vague glow, like a streetlight through the fog as he swung his hand around blindly, snarling, “Come here, you little snotty brat. I’m going to rip your bloody heart out. Nothing but an animal anyway—”

  “Oops,” Miguel drawled as he moved forward and kicked the blind man’s hands and knees out from under him, sending him sprawling on his face.

  “Fucker!”

  Caris cuddled Erik against her, one ear muffled against her shoulder, covering the other with her hand as the man tried to scramble to his feet, hissing and swearing in a hate-filled, hideous voice. “I’m gonna kill you, you disgusting, perverted freak. Smother that freak of a brat, then I’m gonna gag that pretty little bitch and show her what it’s like to get fucked by a real man, not a fucking freak of nature—”

  Miguel tsked under his breath, stepping outside the shield and turning around to study the man with mock sorrow just as Jax lunged down the stairs with murder in his eyes. “Sorry, my man…I made that man a promise,” Miguel murmured. “He wasn’t gonna scare that kid again. And he just did.”

  Jax rammed face first into the faintly gleaming shield and swore as it singed him lightly. “Drop the shield, Miguel,” Jax purred softly, stroking his hand over the air just above the shield, the crackling energy between him and the shield painting the air red.

  “No, amigo.” Miguel paced forward, cocking his head and studying the man inside the small bubble as the other Firewalkers from upstairs gathered around them.

  “Miguel, drop the shield.”

  “He won’t, Jax,” Caris said as she rose, cradling the boy and studying his face, lowering her shields completely, as she so rarely did. Before Miguel did what couldn’t be undone, she needed to make sure.

  The guileless eyes of childhood, pure love, pure hope, pure innocence and joy, somewhat shadowed, but still there, shone back at her, out of an angelic, sweet face. Eyes bright with tears, bright with fear, he reached up and wrapped his arms around her neck, cuddling closer as he turned his face away from the man who had stolen his body for so long.

  “Shall I show you the things I can do to those who defy me?” Jax growled, moving closer to Miguel, fangs dropped in anger.

  Miguel’s eyes were gleaming, shot through with bolts that resembled lightning as he moved to the barrier.

  In a soft warning voice, Caris murmured, “You don’t want to touch him right now, Jax. He’s dangerous. This is one of his more unpleasant stages.” She passed by him, stroking one hand down his arm before she headed for the stairs.

  A rough growl slid from Jax’s throat as he moved closer to Miguel, his dark blue eyes flashing with rage as he reached out, fingers extended for Miguel’s throat. But miniature bolts of lightning leaped out at him as the space narrowed to inches, singing his skin, streaking down his arm, sending him to his knees. Swearing in pain, he cradled his arm to his chest.

  “By the Suns!” Jax swore, falling back and staring up at Miguel who was focused on the shield, not even aware of Jax. The surface of the shield was now laced with streaks and dancing bolts of lightning. The orb started to shrink, closing in on the man within, who was now rising and staring with bleary, but seeing eyes at Miguel.

  “Lemme out of this…this fucking cage,” he rasped, curling his lip, tossing his head arrogantly.

  “Shut up,” Miguel said flatly, tossing his raven hair out of his eyes. His gaze narrowed and one black brow lifted as a different kind of shield formed, this one flat, over the man’s mouth, keeping him silent as the shield continued to tighten around him.

  The door swung shut behind Caris and Anni mewled in her throat, closing her eyes and turning away, taking to the stairs as the lightning dancing on the surface started to leap across the shield, flaying the man’s skin, burning him.

  Jax moved away, settling on his heels, watching as the lightning started to engulf the man, slowly, slowly. It was a slow, painful death, not a death by fire, or by blood loss, but slow, excruciating death by suffocation. The orb shrank down upon him, slowly smashing his lungs, crushing his chest.

  Once his heart no longer beat, Miguel released the shield and let it fall. The corpse fell limply to the ground, crushed, blood oozing from a hundred tiny cuts.

  With a small, solemn smile, he said, “You were warned.” The lightning fire of death still danced in his eyes as he turned and stared at the other Firewalkers before crossing the room. They parted around him and let him go through, careful not to touch the flesh of his still deadly body.

  It was later that night, hours after Morgan and Dustin had returned, hours after they had explained what she and Miguel had done, that she settled beside Sage on the couch, folding her legs up under her and propping her chin in her palm. He was pale still, face shadowed by a heavy growth of beard, his hazel eyes weary and shaded by pain.

  “A healer is going to be taking a look at you,” she said firmly.

  Sage slid her a sideways look. “No,” he said implacably. “I’m tired, and my head hurts. That is all. I don’t need a healer.”

  Caris smiled sweetly and sidled a little closer. “Yes you do. And you’re going to let her treat you,” she whispered in his ear. “I will make it worth your while.”

  He snorted. “Don’t tempt a dying man,” he muttered, letting his aching head fall back to the cushions of the couch.

  She rested her head on his shoulder, the familiarity soothing her. Sage had been there…for years. Since she had been a child. Morgan had found her parents, found her. And Sage had been with him since he had been a boy. She and Sage had been friends since childhood. Connecting her mind to his was like coming home.

  Truth or dare? she teased him in silent communication.

  Too tired for games, darlin’, he told her, turning his face to rub his cheek against her hair. Besides, I don’t want that pretty-boy savage of yours to come back here and kill me.

  She smiled against his shoulder. He likes you. You’re safe. Okay…don’t wanna play, then I’ll make it easy and give you the truth, real quick. And it’s daring, so that makes it more fun. You understand fantasies, don’t you, Sage?

  She felt his body tense with surprise and shutters started to slide down in his mind. A glancing thought, but of whom, she couldn’t quite grasp before the woman was gone. Yes I understand fantasies, baby. Why are you asking?

  Because I have one…

  Sage’s breathing was ragged by the time Caris had finished whispering her thoughts into his mind. Lids low over his eyes, his chest heaving, he slid her a narrow look and said gruffly, “You’re evil.”

  A soft, husky chuckle escaped her lips as she bent down and kissed his forehead. “Just think. If you hurry up and get better, you just might be able to join in the fun. And of course, there is a healer en route. Kelly should be—”

  “No.” Sage jerked the sheet covering his lean hips up until it covered his face. “I don’t need some healer sticking her hands in my head. Tell her to go back.”

  “Can’t. We’re calling our people out of the cities until we know what’s going on. We’ve lost about twenty agents over the past few weeks.” She caressed his belly through the sheet, smiling as she felt him groan. “C’mon. This is Kelly. You can handle her. And she’s gonna be here any minute.”

  “I don’t need her healing me. I just need some rest.”

  “
You want to keep dealing with the headache I know you have? The one I can feel just by touching you?”

  Before he could answer, the door crashed open and Kelly stood there, her wide-set hazel eyes flying to the still covered Sage, her full mouth firmed into a flat, grim line, her glossy red curls spilling out from a high ponytail. The low-slung cargo pants on her hips revealed a pierced navel as she strode across the room and yanked the sheet off of Sage, glaring down at him.

  “Your bedside manner leaves something to be desired, Sugar,” Sage drawled up at her.

  “Don’t get your dick in a twist. I’ve seen your scrawny naked body before,” she snapped, staring at him, feeling her heart tighten and tears threaten as the pain he was dealing with battered at her shields.

  Sage glanced down. “I’ve got my shorts on. Your sensitivities aren’t gonna be abused,” he drawled.

  “Nothing you have is likely to scare me,” she sneered. Forcing the bravado up was something to keep her mind distracted as she knelt beside him and took his face in her hands. “Damn it, Sage, you know better than this. Are you trying to kill yourself?”

  “No. I was trying to keep from being killed.” A spasm jerked through him and his back arched up as hot healing energy jolted down his spine. He didn’t mention that he could have gone to Morgan, or just stayed away. Those options really hadn’t been options anyway. “Damn it, Kelly!”

  The healer ignored him, focusing on the tattered, frayed passages in his mind. Stroking the pads of her fingers down his temples, Kelly swore softly. “You know better. Damn it, you know better. How many times have you bitched at me? Stupid, arrogant, bossy…” she continued to rail at him as she moved through the fine web of his mind.

  Sage lay panting, gasping for air, under the deft touch of her hands. He tuned out the nagging voice with the ease of years of practice. Just before the heat of healing in his mind expanded, Sage opened his eyes and stared up at her. With an evil grin, he teased, “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you, baby sis?”

  Kelly clenched her teeth and focused, unable to snarl at him as she flooded him, focusing on funneling her power through the link between them and shoving her psychic “hands” into his mind and repairing the tattered edges, smoothing down the grayed, burning wounds caused by excess use, and filling the emptied reserves.