by Mary Martel
I sighed as I shoved open the door to my bedroom with so much force that it banged into the wall and flew back at me. I threw my hand out, stopping it with my palm rather than my face. The door slapped against my palm, stinging my flesh. I relished the pain; it cleared away some of my anger and made it easier for me to think straight. It made me less volatile. I no longer wanted to punch any and every person who crossed my path. There were now only two people I would punch if I set my eyes on them and, thankfully, neither of them were currently in my house.
I pushed the door open again, this time with a gentle shove rather than a forceful one. It stopped before hitting the wall as I entered my personal, private space. Or, at least it was supposed to be personal and private, but I knew it not to be always so. Ty came in here often when I wasn’t home to catch him and bust his ass for it. The door and windows were spelled to alert me when anyone entered the room. I knew it to be my nephew because his essence always lingered behind long after he was gone. I never questioned what he did when he came into my room, we were blood, our bond fierce, and I trusted him before all others.
It wasn’t always the case, that blood relations meant you could trust the person you were related to with everything. I had learned that particular lesson as a child growing up under my father’s merciless ruling of me. My brother had been different, the exact opposite of our father, and incredibly lucky because his mother had cared for him above all others, and had worked her ass off to keep father away from son. My own mother had been weak, sickly, and had only cared about saving herself; to hell with her one and only child. I wasn’t bitter about it or anything, and I never once judged her poorly for her actions or the choices she’d made. Her weakness had helped to birth my inner strength, something that was priceless to me, and I could never look down on her for it. I wouldn’t have wanted to trade places with her, though. Between the two of us, we managed to hide the better part of the monster my father was from the world, but it had come at a price.
Ty was exactly as his father had been. He carried his anger around with him everywhere he went and used it like a shield to keep others at bay. He was quick to temper, but it always burned out fast, and he had a soft spot I envied him for. He was more like a brother to me than a nephew and, until Ariel had come into our lives, I hadn’t thought myself capable of loving another human being as much as I loved Tyson and had loved his father before him.
He'd earned the trust I’d placed in him, and it had a whole lot more to do with him as a person than it did the blood that ran through his veins, my veins.
I winced at the thought of blood as the door closed behind me with a soft click and I moved through my bedroom. Blood ties were strong, hard to break, and I feared the damage Rain Kimber might inflict upon my Ariel. She was far too naïve and hopeful where the man was concerned, and it scared me. If he turned out to be an asshole, it would break her heart as nothing she’d been through so far had.
And what the hell kind of name was Rain anyway? A stupid one, if you asked me. Okay, that was kind of a lie. Maybe the name was a little bit awesome, not that I would ever admit to such a thing aloud where others might hear me. Nope, I’d rather chew off my own fingers than admit to anything.
I had wondered at first how she’d known his name when none of the letters had been signed, so I questioned her about it. She’d found his name written on the back of one of the photographs that had only portrayed the man who bore such a striking resemblance to my Ariel, in her false mother’s handwriting. I questioned why she’d written that name down on only the one photograph and the why of it. If he truly were her brother, then why write down his name on the back of a photograph when she already knew who he was? People don’t write names on the backs of photos unless they expected someone outside of themselves to see it. It was almost as if she had known one day Ariel would find it and need to read the name written on the back.
I didn’t understand why she hadn’t simply burned the letters. Why hold onto them for years? And, where had the pictures come from? Had she taken them with her when she’d left home with Ariel, or, had Rain sent them to her along with his letters?
Too many questions floating around, and not enough answers to be had.
Tired, I sighed heavily as I looked down at my bare feet. It was rare for me to walk around barefoot and not wearing cowboy boots that were a light brown and well worn. Well worn because they had been a birthday gift from my big brother on my sixteenth birthday. I had grown up watching westerns, and loved cowboys. Especially if they rode around on horses, robbing trains and got to shoot off their guns.
It was only a few short years after he’d given me the boots that he’d gone and died, and Tyson and I were left alone together with our mutual anger and sorrow. I had stopped wearing the boots after my brother died. They’d hurt too much to even look at.
I’d had other boots, gifts from the guys, to wear, and I had. But never those ones, not until Ariel had come into our lives did I bust them out of their box and put them back on my feet again. She made everything easier, better, more bearable for me. I no longer cared so much about the past, because suddenly I had a future that seemed brighter than it had ever before, simply because she was now a huge part of it.
I glanced around my bedroom as my mind wandered, taking the sparse furnishings in. The house was huge because there were a lot of us, and it took a lot of space to house us, and we needed a safe house; this was it. Even my bedroom was on the large size, though I didn’t need the space, nor did I make use of it.
My twin size bed with metal frame and no headboard or footboard was shoved up against the wall in between the only two windows in the room. On either side of the windows, from floor to ceiling, books were stacked one on top of another all the way up to touch the ceiling. The books had once belonged to my father. They were the one thing of his that I couldn’t allow myself to get rid of or hide away in the storage unit where I didn’t have to see it. It had nothing to do with the fact they’d once belonged to the man who’d sired me, there was no sentimental value to be found there when it came to me and the things that had once belonged to the old man. The value, for me, was in the knowledge written down on those pages, and they were invaluable to me because, with knowledge came power, and I had yet to read all of the books.
On the floor, along the wall, there were a lot of stacks of books. I should have gotten book shelves for my bedroom years ago, but couldn’t bring myself to do it. I had never been allowed to have much in my room as a child, and I had never been given much, so I hadn’t had things to clog up my space with. As I looked around the room I’d occupied for years now, I knew it was something that would always stick with me. The rest of the house could be stuffed to the gills with furniture, large televisions and whatever the rest of them wanted, but this room, my room, would always be the bare minimum.
Ariel and I had more in common than she knew, and the knowledge made me incredibly sad. I didn’t want that for her. I wanted her to be surrounded by nice things, and to have everything she’d wanted.
The problem with this was she wasn’t the type of person to come out and say something when she wanted anything. The guys and I had agreed to just buy her things whenever we felt like it and she would simply have to suck it up. I had never met a person harder to give things to than Ariel. She was a nut, and always so damn stubborn. I mean, weren’t girls supposed to like it when their boyfriends bought them shit? At least, I thought they were. The rest of the guys had agreed with me on it, except for the twins, they’d told me to back off, and were firm believers that when she wanted something or needed something she would have no problem speaking up about it. Part of me wanted to agree with them. The girl had a serious mouth on her that she had no problem popping off whenever the mood struck her (and it struck her often enough), but being mouthy and unafraid to speak your mind were a whole lot different. She had never before been allowed to have wants and needs; she’d been conditioned not to have them. It would take time, I knew, bef
ore she got comfortable enough to ask for things, if she ever did. The twins did not share my belief. They were wrong. I knew her better than that, better than they did. I would never say such a thing to them, but that didn’t make it any less true, I simply didn’t want to hurt their feelings.
The one thing I knew she hadn’t put up much of a fuss over receiving had been the tarot card paintings Ty and I had put up in her room at Dash’s house. I would have given her all of mine if I thought she’d have accepted them. It’s not like I was doing much with them, they were in my closet collecting dust. I had offered them to Ty, but he’d outright refused to take them, and had been offended by the offer. I should just put them in the damn storage unit with the rest of my family’s bullshit, but for some damned reason I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I got a sick feeling in my gut every time I’d tried. So, I left them in the closet with the dust bunnies.
I rubbed a hand across my tired eyes as I lay back on the bed. I didn’t have to look at myself in the mirror to know my eyes were bloodshot, or that I had unattractive dark smudges. I hadn’t been sleeping well for months now. One thing kept piling on top of the fucked-up disaster that had come before it and, for the first time in my life, I was getting close to hitting my breaking point. In all honesty, I had never thought I’d had a breaking point. I didn’t like knowing I had one now, it made me feel weak and vulnerable. Two things I very much did not enjoy feeling; they reminded me too much of the person my mother had been. Dear Old Mom, the ghost of her wasn’t something I ever wanted to think about. It wasn’t anything against her, I just felt the past was best left dead and buried; it did no good to anyone to be remembered. Cold, but true.
I forced my body to relax, to go limp on top of the soft blanket that covered my bed. I wanted to sleep for the sake of being able to close my eyes and to give my brain a long overdue break, but I had something more important to do.
I had been trying at different times throughout the daylight hours and the night time hours. No such luck so far. Either he was shielding like a motherfucker or the man never slept. Had to be the first, everyone eventually had to sleep whether we wanted to or not; our bodies demanded it of us. I refused to think it had anything to do with me being out of practice. Since Ariel had come into my life, I’d been slacking on a lot of things, but it wasn’t like dream walking was something I’d likely forget how to do with lack of use. Truth be told, it was a skill you learned through practice, and most people were incapable of doing it. Tyson and I weren’t most people, it would seem, and neither was Ariel. I hadn’t tested her yet, but I’d bet my life she could walk through dreams that didn’t belong to her. Unheard of with someone who’d never had any training before, but there she was. I had a feeling she was going to be capable of doing a whole lot of things she shouldn’t be able to do.
Just another reason the Council was going to want her. I would have to do everything in my power to make sure she stayed with us and didn’t get lured away by the Council. Adrian was trying to hook her deep, and I didn’t appreciate it, or him, for that matter. What a fucking douche.
A big part of getting her to stay would be finding her bio dad before the Council did, if they were really looking for him at all. Adrian had Ariel doing his dirty work for him. As far as I could remember, the Council never encouraged people to use Blood Magic, because things could go wrong so fast with it. And now here Adrian was, a member of said Council, and not only was he encouraging Ariel to use Blood Magic, but the asshole had actually showed her how it was done. Something about the whole thing didn’t sit right with me, and I still thought they knew something about Rain, and they were hiding it from us.
Ariel was bound to get hurt, and the best way to avoid it was to find Rain before they did. And then I would have to worry about her getting hurt in a different way.
I sighed as I shoved that thought firmly to the back of my mind where it belonged, there’d be plenty of time to worry about it later.
With little effort on my part, I closed my eyes and blanked my mind. Years of practice meant I was able to concentrate on nothing but the darkness behind my closed eyelids.
There was a time when my mind would have fought and rebelled against this, and it would have taken me hours to relax enough to be about to fall asleep. My father hadn’t been a very patient man, and the only time he ever wanted to pay attention to me was when he had been teaching me how to practice our craft. He’d been a creative bastard, and I was no lover of pain, so it hadn’t taken me long to master the art of blanking my mind and drifting off to sleep.
Today, it took longer than it usually would have, and it didn’t help matters, because I had to work even harder not to get frustrated with myself, because it would have taken even longer if I’d gotten upset with myself.
Failure was never an option.
Finally, my subconscious faded away, leaving me fast asleep.
Everything was gray with fog as I struggled with the heavy weight of my body as it tried to keep me anchored when I didn’t want to be. Something wanted to hold me back, keep me tied to my physical form. I pulled away from it, breaking free of the ties that bound me to that form. My essence moved through the thick gray fog, searching… Seeking.
What had I come here looking for? I hadn’t been thinking of anything specific when I’d drifted away, and it’s the reason I had almost remained grounded and unable to slip away.
I was here for a reason, I just needed to remember what that reason was…
Not a what, but a whom.
Who was I here looking for? To what purpose had I come here to seek out another being?
Ariel’s face flashed in my mind. Her green eyes were darker than usual, almost colder, if her eyes were ever capable of being outright cold.
No, not her. I knew where she was, and I no longer needed to seek her out in her dreams to find her.
A different pair of green eyes flashed, and my heart skipped a beat at the sight of them because they were so similar to Ariel’s, only these eyes were cold. A darkness lurked in their depths, one that set my mind to unease.
Rain, the name whispered through my mind.
These were the eyes of the man who’d sired Ariel. The eyes of her biological father. Only they weren’t the eyes of the young man from the pictures I’d seen of him. These eyes were different, off, darker, if you will. These were the eyes of who he was now, the man he’d become long after those photos had captured his image.
They were real because he was real.
Fear shot down my spine, making my entire body tingle with unease and anticipation.
This was new, and it had never happened to me before.
Dream walking, which had always been revered for the rare talent the Council had claimed it to be, suddenly no longer seemed rare in the slightest.
I was a dream walker as my father before me had been.
Ty was a dream walker because it was in his blood, and he’d worked his ass off to hone his craft and be the very best version of himself that he could be.
Evidence was suggesting Ariel was a dream walker.
And I was starting to think that evidence was right, because the body belonging to the eyes of Rain Kimber were taking shape before me.
Rain Kimber was a dream walker. I would know, because he’d just entered mine.
It was in Ariel’s blood, the same way it was in mine, the same way it was in Ty’s.
The shape finished taking form, the body solidifying.
I growled unhappily under my breath. It had been a long time, years to be sure, since I’d had my dreams invaded. Even pissed, I couldn’t take too much offense. I had just been trying to do the same damn thing to him. I was a lot of things, a hypocrite usually wasn’t one of them. I wouldn’t be adding it to my resume today.
I took in the man before me and had to shake my head. He looked a little young, but there was no longer any doubt in my mind. This man was Ariel’s blood, her father.
He was tall, like me, making eye contact inc
redibly easy for the two of us, which he wasted no time making use of. I could have done without the direct eye contact. The longer I looked into those green eyes, the colder they grew, until what remained closely resembled death.
An invisible gust of wind made its way through the fog, making the black trench coat Rain was wearing billow out around his body, and I noticed just how thin he was. Too thin. Like his daughter, but although we were working hard at fattening her up, it just wasn’t working. Maybe it wouldn’t matter how much she ate, she’d always be too skinny. Maybe it was her genes.
They had the same ash blonde hair color. Rain’s hair was on the shaggy side, hanging down around his ears and forehead. He didn’t look like the type of man who gave a shit that he was long overdue for a haircut.
He stared me down with those cold, dead eyes of his, not blinking, not assessing. He simply stared, waiting me out. He wouldn’t speak first, it was up to me.
I wasn’t impressed so far.
“So,” I murmured, “you’re the mysterious Rain Kimber.” I crossed my arms over my chest and stared back at him. Sorry, buddy, but my eyes could go cold too, and I wasn’t easily intimidated.
He mimicked me, crossing his arms over his thin chest.
“And you’re Quinton Alexander,” he said in a deep, guttural voice. He spoke as if each word was dragged out of him, and each word was rusty from lack of use.
My eyes widened in surprise.
“How do you know my name?” I asked suspiciously. Just who the fuck was this guy, and how in the fuck did he know my name?
“We have a mutual friend,” he told me.
“No, we don’t,’ I shot back with confidence. Outside of my coven, I didn’t have any friends.
