by D A Rice
“One last time?” Rei found herself asking. Her hand clutched the back of the chair in front of her as she followed him around the kitchen with her eyes.
Eli spun around to face her, leaning back against one of the counters. “I have a question for you, Rei.” She nodded, and he continued, “I need to know about the dreams you’ve been hiding from everyone.”
Rei cringed, her eyes squeezing shut. How had he known about those? Was his ability to listen so adept that he could know this too? His feet shuffled and when she opened her eyes, he was right next to her, gently cupping her cheek as he moved her head up to face him. Eli ducked his head down to watch her, his eyes shifting back and forth. He waited for her to speak. She smiled shyly, her eyes dropping again with the intensity of his.
“They start off in darkness,” she started in a whisper. He pulled her gently to the couch, sitting beside her as she talked. “It’s hard to explain this darkness, it’s alive somehow. Then I see a wolf, a black wolf with red eyes, emerge as if from smoke. It stalks after me. I try to run, but it doesn’t chase me, just sort of paces.” She met his eyes again, “then he comes.”
“Who?” Eli prompted, stroking hair out of her face. His other hand interlaced hers in comfort and encouragement.
“I don’t know,” she said softly, shaking her head. “It’s this man. He looks young, maybe a little older than us. All I really see are his eyes. He talks to me, tells me he’s there to protect me. He says a wolf is circling. Then he starts to sing and it’s like I can’t look away. I’m trapped. I feel like I’m suffocating, like I’ll never wake up from the darkness.” Rei clenched his hand as she spoke and when she met his gaze, there were tears in her eyes. She breathed, hitched, and tried to breathe again. His hand stilled on her cheek as his thumb caught a tear there.
“How often do these dreams happen?” Eli asked, his other hand raising to cup her face on the other side, his eyes intent on hers.
“I would be lucky to have a night where I don’t have them, these days,” she said and blinked. “Eli, what is going on? How did you know that I had them in the first place? They aren’t like the demons.”
Eli smiled at her, “you’re ok, Rei. You’re safe. You know you can trust me, hold onto that. When did they start?”
Rei shook her head, “before I met you. I’ve always had them, but they became more frequent after we met. Darker. Sometimes I see things in them that I refuse to talk about. Even with you.” She looked down again and he brushed his thumbs across her cheeks in a gentle, comforting caress.
His eyes softened, and his forehead met hers. “it’s ok, Rei,” Eli said again reassuringly. “I would never push you to talk about things you don’t want to. You know that.” He took a moment to allow her to gather her thoughts before saying, “I need to see how you see again, Rei. I need to dream with you. Will you let me?”
Rei met his gaze, the intensity of the moment pulling her spirit taught. Something was going on that she didn’t understand. Something that maybe he didn’t fully understand either. Something deeper than his hacking, or her ability to see demons, or his to know the future. Something that had pulled them together when she needed him the most. He was in trouble, but he was here with her instead of finding a way to leave, as she guessed he’d done so many times before.
Eli never talked about his past, but even she could guess that it was coming back for him. She couldn’t escape the look in his eyes, all that it portrayed. There was fear there, but there was also peace, an acceptance of things to come. There was an unspoken protectiveness there, matched by her own. There was an unspoken connection, a bond that could never be broken. She wasn’t sure where it’d come from, but maybe it’d always been there, pulling them together. She’d always trusted him without ever really knowing why.
She would trust him now as well.
Rei nodded, and Eli bowed his head in a return acknowledgment. “Before we begin,” he said, hesitating as his grin turned sheepish. Rei’s eyebrow raised, her own lips twitching up with the amusement she felt. He let out a small laugh at her look before trying again. Eli’s hands moved from her cheeks to the sides of her head, his fingers twining in her hair.
“Before we begin, Rei...I would very much like to kiss you,” he admitted, his eyes meeting hers with a grin. Rei blinked in surprise, but found herself nodding. In the next moment, he was covering her lips with his own in a small, feather-light kiss.
Then it was over.
He smiled at her, pulling his head away as she stumbled to form words. The warmth he offered spread throughout her body. “Right then,” Eli breathed out, massaging her head with his fingertips, his smile light, but satisfied. “I have an idea of how this’ll work.”
19
Eli prayed he knew what he was doing. He also prayed he was right about Rei. It was hard for him to sort through what he felt about her and what he was being told. One thing he was sure about, however, was that she was in danger. Eli knew some things about the Wolf; he wasn’t what most people thought him to be. There was something almost demonic about the man.
If the Wolf was so interested in Rei, Eli was willing to bet that he wasn’t just messing with her in a physical way. He was in her head too.
Eli’d been part of a few meetings with the Wolf before Arachnid made the decision to kill him. Even then, it wasn’t just the disconcerting mask, or the unwanted attention that had Eli on edge. It was the Wolf’s very presence. Eli’d always felt as if his mind was being clawed from the inside out, pried open and inspected. He’d known it by his predictive sense. The Wolf was like Eli in so many ways, but there was an unfathomable darkness inside him.
Now the Wolf was about to find out that Eli was still alive, and Eli wasn’t sure how the man would react. The Wolf’s instability was as unpredictable as the darkness that ruled him.
Eli was about see just how far the Wolf’s mental infiltration reached within Rei’s mind.
Sitting on the couch with Rei nestled against him, her breaths coming in and out in calm waves, Eli could feel that presence stir inside her. He glanced down at the girl in his arms, marked by God, just as he was. He wasn’t going to let her go without a fight. Taking a deep breath as she began to tremble within his embrace, he pulled her closer, lowering his lips to her ear. “I’m right behind you, Rei. Remember who you are.” He kissed her brows next, then his eyes fluttered closed as her dreams began to overtake him. The last sound on his lips was a prayer.
Eli stood in the shadows of his mind. He could feel it like a poison, pulling in around him, spreading from the girl with whom he shared his dreams. He heard a whimper and jerked his head down to find Rei, curled up in a ball beside his feet, her hands clutching her hair. He watched her for a moment before kneeling down, a hand coming to rest on her shoulder, “Rei-”
“He’s here,” she whimpered, interrupting him as her body shook.
“I know,” he told her softly, squeezing her shoulder in reassurance. The Wolf’s pressure clawed his mind. Eli took a deep breath, pushing back against that presence as he’d done so many times before in Arachnid. “I know he is, but there’s something here stronger than him, Rei. Hold on to that.”
“What, Eli?” she asked him. Her eyes peeked out from under her arms, wide with terror. “What could be stronger?”
A laugh echoed around them before Eli could answer and he stood, his eyes narrowing. He said nothing as another voice spoke.
“There is nothing stronger. You’re broken, my pet. You’re mine and you’ll never be fixed.” His smooth voice came first. The Wolf materialized next, his unmasked blue eyes meeting Eli’s steadily. The other man cracked a smug grin, golden hair dripping down from the darkness that clung to him. “Hello, Ezekiel.”
Eli didn’t respond, his grip on Rei tightening protectively. She began to mumble, “make it stop, make it stop, please. These dreams, they’re hurting me, make them stop!”
“Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf?” The man in front of them laughed, s
napping his jaws at her before his gaze fell back on Eli. “I keep telling her the dreams aren’t out to hurt her. If only she’d give in to them. She believed me once, you know. She’s developed quite the resistance to them since your reappearance, Ezekiel. I’m a little impressed.”
“I had nothing to do with it, I’m afraid,” Eli said boldly, his own grin spreading. “Unfortunately, I can’t hack a mind and just fix things. The courage she has is her own.”
“Don’t be modest, I had her all wrapped up, nice and pretty, and who should appear? Risen like Christ himself, but Ezekiel Stanford.” The Wolf raised his hand towards Eli. As he spoke, his grin turned wolfish, “but this is my world now, Ezekiel.”
Eli chuckled, and the Wolf dropped his hand as his eyes flashed. What light they could be reflecting, Eli didn’t know. “See, that’s where you’re wrong. You may be the big bad wolf, but you are only as big as Rei makes you.” Squeezing her shoulder when he said her name Eli laughed again. “You want her so bad, Wolf, but why?”
The Wolf’s smile only grew more sadistic, “I don’t want her, boy, I have her.” The Wolf shifted his attention to Rei now. “You know how to make the fear stop, Rei. Accept me as you once did. I’ve always protected you.”
Eli shrugged as he stepped in front of Rei, bringing the Wolf’s attention back to him. “Why do you think you have her exactly? Because you have her mind at this moment? Or maybe because you convinced her she was something that she wasn’t. If she can’t trust her own mind during the day, why trust it in her dreams, right? But there’s something you haven’t considered.”
The Wolf’s head tilted in an animalistic way. “I rule here,” he growled low.
Eli only smiled again, “maybe, for now.” Then he dropped to Rei, pulling her up to kneel before him. Her eyes were wild as they looked everywhere but at him. Eli slid his hands up her arms. “Rei,” he said quietly. The Wolf laughed behind him and she flinched. Eli shook her gently and she snapped her eyes to his. “Rei,” he said again, “do you remember what I told you?” She shook her head, her gaze latching onto his like he was an anchor. “I told you that faith can do anything. Do you remember?” She nodded. “Good, remember the angels?”
She was violently shaking underneath his hands now, her eyes searching for something behind him. He shook her gently again, “focus on me, Rei. I’m real. Do you remember?” Her focus shifted back to Eli. The grip in her hair loosened as she began to relax, latching onto the peace he offered her. She nodded again and Eli smiled, “good. Now, listen very carefully, because this is what I want you to do. Only you can make this choice, ok?” He held her gaze before leaning forward and whispering in her ear.
…
Rei came alive with his words. She could feel her eyes burning as if she was awake and Seeing. There was a reason Rei had told no one about these dreams. They’d terrified her to the point of silence. Recently, she’d been sleeping less and less, trying to stay away from them. They gave her peace once, but now she knew true peace through Eli and through the God he served. His words lit up her veins. What Eli’d said was so simple, and it made so much sense. He smiled at her, seeing the change immediately and pulled her to stand facing him.
The Wolf snarled behind Eli, a red aura flowing off him like steam. His eyes shone like a cat’s in the night as his wolfish smile vanished. “You will never be anything but a child of darkness,” the Wolf said in his smooth voice. “I’ve comforted you, girl. You’d give that up in your times of pain?” She realized instantly that he was right.
He’d comforted her in her dreams after rough days battling her own mind, but she’d always known that comfort wasn’t real. The Wolf in her dreams and the one in reality were made of lies. She glanced at Eli. His eyes were solemn, his faith in her palpable. He believed in her to make the right decision in a moment only she could make it. Eli had always trusted her, that was as real as it could get.
“I don’t want to be a child of darkness anymore,” she whispered, her eyes never leaving Eli’s, who smiled and nodded. She found the Wolf’s gaze next. “I have chosen,” she glanced at Eli again, her pillar of strength right now. Rei swallowed and breathed out, “I have chosen to turn on the light.”
Rei closed her eyes, and she saw those beings of light, just out of her reach. Her hand came up as yearning bubbled inside of her to touch their wings. Eli’d told her to reach toward the light they offered. Turn on the light, he’d said. It was her choice whether or not she wanted that darkness nestled so nicely within her. Rei had a choice. What would she choose? Who would she believe in to comfort her?
Her eyes flew open, burning as light burrowed through her and out, cascading into the darkness surrounding them. The Wolf snarled and fell to one knee. Eli stepped in front of her, facing him and shielding her. “The lady has spoken, you no longer have a place here, I’m afraid.”
“What authority do you have?” the Wolf snarled back as that darkness fled inside him. The writhing shadows formed a black cloak over his shoulders and a snarling wolf mask over his face. Glinting darkly in rusted gold, its eyes slanted and its jaw twisted in a macabre way, dripping metallic blood.
“I’ve learned some new tricks since I saw you last,” Eli smirked, taking a step forward. “But this isn’t me. I have a feeling that Rei, here,” he motioned back towards her glowing figure, the light still pouring out in a rush, “will learn a lot more than me.” He smiled back at her, his eyes full of admiration and pride. “This girl’s got a fire within her. She was chosen. Funny thing about fire, no matter how dark it gets...” Eli glanced at the Wolf with a knowing smirk on his face before finishing his thought. “If you start a fire, the darkness will always run.”
Rei felt a surge of glory and joy, peace and mercy, rush through her veins. She collapsed to a knee, head back and arms out as it all came flooding through her. Rei could feel her creator there. She could feel Him wrap His arms around her. This was something real. Something she’d seen in Eli, time and time again. The Wolf howled in pain as he was surrounded and then flushed from her mind altogether. Rei fell forward, and Eli caught her, pulling her into his lap. “That’s the way,” he said gently.
Rei smiled, remembering a Bible verse she’d learned from her mom a long time ago. “The truth,” she added, closing her eyes as peace surrounded them, settling her mind.
Eli brushed a strand of hair out of her face whispering, “and the life. Welcome to yours, Rei. He made you new. Accept that.”
...
Fenris snarled as he swept his work station clear in frustration. He was losing her, and fast. That boy. How could he be back? Fenris had always known something was off about Ezekiel Stanford. He’d known there was something deeper to the hacker. Fenris had even known the possibility of Ezekiel being the second witness was plausible.
When Ezekiel refused to conform to his wishes, he knew the boy couldn’t live. Fenris didn’t want the witnesses strong and he didn’t want them together. Most of all, he didn’t want their faith in something other than him.
He stormed across the lab in his basement and up the stairs, yanking the door open at the top. Fenris was close to making another Titus drug. The road the drug paved for him into a mind made things so much easier for him to control. Nicole was proof enough of that. He needed it now more than ever to tame Rei’s mind once more and infect Ezekiel’s. Fenris would have them on his side, or not at all. He growled low.
He’d come to her in her dreams as a comforter and protector. He’d promised her that her life would be easier if she let his darkness wrap her like a blanket, and she had. When Ezekiel showed up, he could feel the faith in her growing. Faith that there was more to her then she was being told and more to the world. Mental illness was an easy way to get her under the drug’s influence. When he’d recruited Dr. Heek to this task, her gifts had made diagnosing her easy.
It‘d taken a lot of lies to keep her coming back. When she’d thrown the drugs away, Fenris had grasped her mind in her dreams, worming his way in.
He’d made her wonder if her reality was everything she thought it was. When Ezekiel had come, he’d ruined years of progress in a matter of weeks. His faith had grown substantially since Fenris had seen him last. Ezekiel’s mind had also grown. It was now a fortress when it had been a chain link fence.
Fenris would crush that. He’d crush it in both of them.
Fenris Lovinski stepped into his living room and picked up one of his secure phones. “Damion,” he said after just one ring, his voice cool, “we have a change of plans.”
20
“Ezekiel Stanford is the Recluse,” Agent Montoya said as she pulled herself up the last part of the fire escape. Her voice held a shocked disbelief She found Detective Jackson sitting in the window with his feet resting on the platform there. Jackson shrugged, running a hand through his hair as his gaze shifted behind him. It was about five in the morning and he’d been there all night with his team.
He’d called in reinforcements immediately upon Ezekiel’s disappearance. His field crew was going through the Recluse’s home with a fine-toothed comb. No one had been able to find a sign of the hacker in the dumpster below but Jackson wasn’t surprised. If the Recluse was Ezekiel, it would seem he’d escaped death once before. With Ezekiel’s prior cooperation with law enforcement, he was enough of a reliable witness for Jackson to pick apart the apartment behind him without a warrant. They had gone through the necessary avenues to get one on file anyway. Not that there had been much to find in the home so far, Jackson thought wearily.
Montoya sat on the fire escape beside him. After his team, she’d been the next person he’d called. “B3oW0lf back from the dead… huh,” her voice was quiet as her eyes found her hands. Jackson knew how she felt. Ezekiel had been notorious until Arachnid had screwed him over. A lot of things that hadn’t made sense before clicked into place in Jackson’s mind. He had the full picture now.
