Lake

It’s impossible to know what time it is because this bedroom Wish transported us to has no windows. I don’t know if phones die in Wish City, but I can’t check the time there either. My phone is in my coat, which is on the floor somewhere, and Wish is curled up on my chest, blond lashes fanned against his cheeks and breath coming slow and even. I don’t want to disturb him, but I have to piss. Plus, the longer I stare at these windowless walls, the surer I get that there isn’t a door either. My eyes could be playing tricks, but what if when Wish made this room, he forgot about exits? Where’s the bathroom?

“Hey.” I touch Wish’s shoulder, but he doesn’t stir. “Hey, wake up. Wish #2.”

His eyes snap open so suddenly I flinch. “You know I don’t like that. If anything, I’m #1. I’m better.”

I swallow, and my dry throat clicks. “It’s a joke.”

“Not a funny joke.” His elbow digs into my torso as he sits up.

I sit up, too, and rub out the ache. “Can you make me a bathroom?”

“You don’t need a bathroom.” While he’s talking, my urge to piss goes away, but the morning wood stays. The invasion turns my stomach, but frankly, I’m not sure I want to poke the bear right now. He’s obviously not a morning person.

Wish switches on the bedside lamp, and I shove at my dick through the sheets where it’s making an obvious tent.

“Can’t hide from me.” Wish gives me a wicked smile. “Would you like a blowjob, Sir?”

I look for a door, but I was right—there isn’t one. Anxiety makes my heart hammer, and I’m not turned on—not at all—but my dick’s still hard. He’s controlling it. He’s inside me doing whatever he wants without permission, which is so not what a sub is supposed to do.

“I don’t want a blowjob,” I say firmly.

Wish points to my cock, where a wet spot darkens the sheets. “Then why’s it leaking, Sir?”

“Stop. I’m not into this. Stop it, Wish.”

Wish chuckles, and I almost fling myself across the bed and choke him out, but then the sheets dry, and my cock softens.

There’s still no door.

“Can we go somewhere else? I’m getting claustrophobic in here.” My ears and face are burning up, and I’m tense everywhere. I think I prefer the other Wish, who does the same type of shit but on a much smaller scale, and he’s yet to lock me in a room like this one.

Wish pouts and gives me puppy-dog eyes. “But I don’t want to leave yet.”

“I do. I want out.”

“Let’s pick a collar first.” Wish holds out his hands and a tangle of leather strips appears in his palms. He pulls the strips out one by one and lays them on the bed.

I make a fist so I don’t shove them all to the floor.

Wish holds up a white collar with a heart-shaped silver ring in the center. “What about this one, Sir?”

I snatch the collar out of his hand. “No.”

“Okay, what about—”

“No to all of them.”

Wish stares wide-eyed at me.

“I’m not going to be your Sir, and you’re not going to be my boy. I barely know you. I’m not giving you a collar, especially since you don’t know how to fucking listen!” I do shove the collars to the floor this time, and nothing has ever satisfied me more.

Wish looks at me with knives in his eyes then swats me across the face—not unlike how I slapped him when we fucked.

I see red. I launch myself at him, going for his neck, but instead of his flesh, my hands land and slide against rough pavement. I wince and pull my hands toward my body. No blood, at least, though they smart badly.

Universe, I’m in a nightmare. More specifically, an alley under a street lamp. Up ahead, traffic lights throw their beams into the night as cars whiz past an opening between buildings. Instinctively, I cover my dick. Of course, Wish had to send me here naked without my fucking phone.

Damn it! I should have known better than to make him angry with me. In fact, I shouldn’t have gone to meet him at the club in the first place. I should have told the real Wish about that invitation as soon as I read the postscript telling me not to.

I get to my feet and scowl at the roughness against my bare soles. I hope the Universe doesn’t see fit to punish me for my idiocy by throwing some broken glass or a rusty nail in my path. That is, if the Universe has any bearing on Wish City. Maybe this isn’t Heaven at all, but purgatory, a dimension untouched by the Universe’s laws and shrouded only in the whims of one messed-up guy. Still better than St. Louis but still bullshit.

I amble carefully toward the mouth of the alley, one hand on my dick and the other against my crack. Are there cops here? Maybe they’ll arrest me for indecent exposure and I can call the real Wish to bail me out. At least his phone number—1—is really easy to remember.

At the end of the alley, I rear back. Here, a busy, four-lane freeway stretches. I don’t know the name, and I’m not close to a street sign. I’m not real thrilled at the idea of walking down to end of the block to investigate, but I guess I don’t have much of a choice. This alley might not stay empty of threats, and I can’t stay here regardless. I need to get to Wish. He apparently doesn’t know there’s a second him walking around with the exact same power, and if Wish #2 is as temperamental as he seems, who knows what he’s been up to? What else besides BDSM dungeons has he been creating?

I inch out of the alley.

A car honks. Someone shouts—maybe at me, maybe not. But I head to the right down the sidewalk, keeping my eyes on the cement. At least it’s not as cold as it was earlier when I was walking to the apartment. If it was, I’d be miserable right now, shivering my way toward hypothermia.

I make it to the end of the block. Sunrise Blvd. and 53rd. Great! I don’t remember seeing either of those streets when I was following the route to Club Neon.

“Woohoo!” A woman in the backseat of a car at the corner flashes me her bare breasts. Before I can do anything but gape, the light turns green, and the car speeds away.

I back up into the shadow beneath an unlit store front’s awning. I don’t know what to do. Should I flag down a stranger, ask to use their phone? Before I died, I could never have done anything so reckless. Strangers couldn’t be trusted. They could have a gun and a defensive attitude even if they didn’t know you were a special.

Here, I don’t know the risks. But maybe that’s worse.

“Excuse me.” A dark-skinned man in a leather coat approaches. “You coming off Love?”

Maybe I’m hearing him wrong, because his words sound like gibberish. “Please, do you have a phone I could borrow?”

He squints at me. “I could make a call for you. What’s the number?”

“1. Thank you.”

The man hesitates. “You looking for Wish?”

“Yes.” I almost specify the real one, but I should wait for Wish to divulge what I know.

“Alright. Give me a second.” The man takes off his jacket and hands it to me, and I use it to cover my waist. Above us, the sky glows with the sunrise. Thank the Universe I didn’t have to walk around in daylight with my dick out.

The man starts the call, but seconds tick by, and he frowns. Is Wish sleeping? I resist the urge to beg the man not to leave me alone if Wish doesn’t answer.

The man takes the phone from his ear. “Okay, come with me.”

“Where are we going?”

“To my car, then to Wish.”

I don’t have any reason to trust this guy other than he hasn’t done anything threatening. Still, I go with him. “How do you know Wish?” I ask.

The man chuckles. “Everyone knows Wish. But I work for him. I’m Mercer.”

* * *

Wish

I wake shivering in a heap of bodies on a hard floor. I ache everywhere. Even though I deserve the pain, I get rid of it with my power. I need to be a leader now and clean up this mess.

Next to me in the dim sunlight streaming through foggy windows, the replica of Lake stirs. “What happened?” Genuine fear clouds his gaze, and his pretty hair is a greasy mess.

I push it out of his face. “Someone must have shot you up before I got here, but everything is okay now.”

He sits up out of the sea of skin and gropes for my arm. I need to put him out of his misery, but I don’t want to say goodbye yet. When I was high, other men and women tried to get at me, but Lake never let them penetrate me. I only took him. And it was wonderful and awful—mostly awful—but part of me wouldn’t mind bringing the real Lake here and letting him ravage me. He wouldn’t even have to be high, but then, the Love whores don’t like it when you show up and don’t take a syringe.

“How do you feel about me now that you’re sober?” I ask the Lake replica.

He winces and looks down between his legs. “My dick is raw.”

I use my power to heal it. “All better.” None of the bodies around us stir, and I make sure they won’t. It’s eerie but peaceful. I don’t want to go home.

“I don’t know how I feel about you,” says Lake.

I laugh. He doesn’t know because I don’t know how the real Lake feels.

I use my power to command a different answer.

“As soon as I saw you, I got butterflies, and they don’t go away no matter what I do. Even sober.”

I cup Lake’s jaw. “That happens to a lot of people.”

“You’re just so beautiful and powerful. It hurts.”

“I know, I know.”

Enough. I make Lake disappear, then the bodies, then the house. I dress myself in a comfy blue tracksuit and leave behind a manicured empty lot because I don’t have the energy to erect something in the Love house’s place. It’s not like Wish City needs another bakery anyway, or a nail salon or bookstore or crystal shop or whatever.

I send Char a message. I used to just make my employees appear when I needed them, or make myself appear anywhere I wanted to go, but it proved to be an unnecessary energy expense. Except fifteen minutes go by, and Char is nowhere to be found, and she hasn’t answered my message. I’m in the middle of calling her when the SUV finally rolls up.

I get into the backseat.

“Sorry, sir,” Char says. “I won’t be late again.”

“And why were you late?” I squint at Char’s neck where a little star tattoo sits. I’m pretty sure she didn’t have it the last time I saw her.

“Traffic was pretty bad on Sunrise Blvd. I’ll leave earlier next time.”

As we set off, I make myself a pair of sunglasses and lean my head back. I’ve got to do something about these Love houses. Maybe if I meditated, imagined a cage around my subconscious every night before bed or something like that.

I chuckle to myself. What a stupid idea.

“Alright back there?” Char asks.

“Yeah, don’t mind me. I’m just losing my fucking mind.”

Char frowns but doesn’t say anything. When we get stuck in traffic on Sunrise Blvd., I make half the cars disappear, and we get to my house ten minutes later.

I hesitate before I get out of the SUV.

“Hey, that tattoo on your neck. Does it have any special meaning, or is it just for decoration?”

“You didn’t hear?” Char beams at me over her shoulder. “It’s for you. Like ‘wish upon a star.’ A lot of us are getting them.”

A warmth spreads over me that I haven’t felt in a long time. “That’s really sweet, Char.”

Inside the house, I’m heading for the shower when I feel my phone buzz in my tracksuit pants. Looks like Mercer has been trying to reach me since 9 a.m. “Shit.”

Found Lake walking around butt naked on Sunrise. Bringing him by

A second later, Mercer’s signature heavy knock pounds through the house.

I should have assigned Lake a tail. I mean, if I could keep an eye on every bit of Wish City all the time on my own, I would, but I can’t. It’s just too big. Which is why I have my security team watch it for me. If Lake took Love after I told him not to—and because I didn’t give him a tight enough leash—I’m going to freak.

I swing open the front door to find Mercer next to a half-naked Lake. Lake has a jacket around his waist but it’s doing nothing to hide his pretty little torso. His dark eyes, fierce but afraid, bear into mine.

“I don’t think he took any Love,” says Mercer.

“Whatever that means,” says Lake and crosses his arms.

I study his eyes, but they’re steadfast, not shifting like he’s lying or lost like he’s been high recently. “It’s the pink drug I told you about. Now, get in here. Both of you.” I step aside to let them in.

Lake looks me over as he passes. “Why are you wearing sunglasses inside?”

I narrow my eyes. “Just got here. Haven’t taken them off yet.” I stuff them into my pocket before closing the door. Then I have Lake and Mercer sit down in the dining room.

I take the seat across from Lake. “So why were you naked?” Speaking of, that nakedness is distracting. I put Lake in a shirt.

He growls. “I’m sick and tired of you doing stuff to me without asking!”

Wow. When’s the last time anyone has spoken to me like that? I show him my teeth. “You want to be naked?” I strip him of the shirt and the jacket still around his waist.

Anger twists his features into a tiny demon’s, and Mercer laughs.

“That was my jacket, actually,” says Mercer.

I make it appear in Mercer’s lap. “Sorry. And you can send me a report about when and where you found Lake. Seems like he needs to calm down before I talk to him, and I don’t want to waste your time.”

“Alright.” Mercer heads for the door.

“Thanks for bringing him,” I call.

Once Lake and I are alone, I raise my brows at him. “You want clothes or what?”

“Yes,” he grits out.

“What kind?”

“I don’t know.” He gestures toward my chest. “Just put me in what you’re wearing.”

I decide not to make some shit joke about us sharing clothes or me taking mine off. I put him in the same tracksuit but gray. “Good?”

“Fine.” He seems to have calmed from his little outburst as his eyes are back to stormy but scared. If I thought he wouldn’t freak out on me, I’d take away his fear.

“Tell me what happened tonight. Were you really at Club Neon?”

“Yes. I was with you. Another you. And he has—”

“Wait.” I hold up a hand. Has my subconscious finally gone too fucking far? “There’s a replica of me at Club Neon?”

Lake nods. “And he has all the same powers, and I don’t think it’s a good thing. He’s temperamental.”

It’s as if the words hit my brain in slow motion. A replica of me? Annoying, but not outside the realm of possibility, I guess. Except replicas are always watered-down versions. They don’t have powers.

“What do you mean the same powers?”

“He can create things out of nothing. I wouldn’t agree to collar him and be his fucking Dom, so he sent me to an alley without my clothes or phone or anything. If your guy hadn’t found me, I don’t know what I would have done.”

My temples throb. “Did you say Dom?”

Lake flicks up a cautious gaze. “Yeah. We...yeah. He made some collars and tried to make me pick one. I told him no.”

I rub my temples and take some big, deep breaths. Two of me, he says. And not only is the copy walking around with my powers, he’s also trying to get people to collar him. My stomach roils; I might actually throw up. Lake saw me as a submissive.

“Were you with him last night when I called you?” I ask.

“Yes.” Lake’s eyes go gooey with concern. “Are you okay?”

“Don’t ask me that.” A blush creeps over my skin, but I turn it off. I hope I was fast enough for Lake not to notice, but he’s watching me so closely. What would he think if I told him about his replica? How I let him tear me open with his cock?

“Wish...”

Lake and I lock eyes, and the throbbing in my temples metastasizes to between my legs. I need to find this other Wish and make him disappear, but I need to know what they did first. I need to know how Lake saw me and what I have to make him forget. Not that I’ll try to mess with his memories—that’s too dangerous, and I’ve never tried it—but I have to smooth this over somehow.

“Did you fuck him?” I ask.

“Yes,” says Lake.

“Did you like it?” It’s not a question I need to ask, but I… I want to know.

Lake’s Adam’s apple rolls in a slow swallow. “Yes, I did. But neither one of you likes to give up control.” No fear squints at me from Lake’s eyes now. “He wanted me to take him, but he wouldn’t give in. I had to hurt him first.”

My arousal is like a flood. I’ve never hung on anyone’s words like this, and I don’t tamp down my cock as it grows in the tracksuit, but only because Lake can’t see it under the table.

Universe, I’m a mess. I’m being a huge mess in front of Lake, and I can’t stop. “I’m not like him,” I whisper.

Lake’s gaze goes smug and skeptical, and I can feel him knowing it’s a lie. It’s taking a lot more energy than it should to keep the blush from my skin. If I could rid of the humiliation wreaking havoc in my gut, I would.

“In BDSM terms, I’m a switch,” I say. “But I lean towards dominant.”

“Okay.”

I feel like he doesn’t believe me.

“Did you make the other you?” he asks. “Did you feel like you needed to do that to get my attention or something?”

“No! I didn’t—I didn’t do it on purpose!” I had to have made my replica, though. Everything in Wish City starts with me, so it had to have been my subconscious. My rebellious, dream-ruining, embarrassing, fucked-up subconscious.

I thought keeping my power in check would be easier. It felt easy when I was making the first square miles of Wish City from Earth. But if I can’t even make the choice not to give my creations powers, what good am I? Anything could happen. Anything could go wrong.

My arousal dissipates under the weight of everything I’m responsible for. “I don’t know how to fix it, Lake.” The dangerous words just come out. I may as well say outright I’ve failed to make the specials’ Heaven I promised everyone. I’m nearly as out of control as when Fiend had me in a coma, and that was my fault, too. My power made Fiend, and my subconscious let him free without my knowledge. I managed to get him under control, but that was different. I could take away his emotional pain with my power. I can’t do that with mine.

“Hey.” Lake’s soft voice guides me back to the present. “Can’t you use your power to get rid of him?”

“The other me? Sure.” I bang my forehead on the table and laugh. “He could come back, though. Stuff comes back all the time when I get rid of it. Like Love. I’d really prefer to have every syringe crushed and every Love house decimated, but they always come back.” I hit my fist on the table.

“Do you think the other you is responsible?”

I slowly lift my head and find Lake’s eyes searching mine. It’s not a crazy idea. But that would mean the other me has been here for a long time, since before I got here and Fiend was running things. Months.

I don’t notice I’m breathing too hard until my lips start tingling, and I groan. I’ve got a headache now, and I try to search Wish City for my replica, but everything’s cloudy. My head’s too tired.

“Wish,” Lake says in that same soft voice. “We’ll figure it out. Everything will be okay. You’re not alone.” He’s trying to be soothing, but he’s making fists, and I can hear his breath going fast like mine. “Can I touch you?” he asks.

“You’re the one who doesn’t like to be touched—not me.”

Lake gets up from the table so quickly his chair scrapes the floor. Fear and anticipation twist inside me, and I get to my feet without thinking.

Lake pulls me into a kiss. His mouth ravaging mine is just what my tingling lips need. His tongue is like silk, and his hands feel like armor clutching my back. I could weather anything with his compact body wrapped around me.

He breaks the kiss and pets my mouth. His pupils are huge.

“What has you turned on?” I ask. Because this situation? It’s not sexy.

“Comforting you.” He takes my head in a fierce hold and stares into my eyes. “The other you has a crush on me. Talked about it like you had one, too. What’s the truth?”

An ache forms in my stomach. When will the humiliation end? “That’s ridiculous. You and I just met.”

Lake smirks and raises a brow.

“Screw you,” I mutter.

“Aw,” says Lake. “He said you like me ’cause I’m ‘pretty and small and hard.’” He puts his lips to my ear, and I shudder violently. “Do you think I’m pretty?” he whispers.

I pulse with need. Lake is so pretty, and he’s touching me, but he’s not close enough.

“What are we doing?” My voice comes out a pitch higher than normal.

Lake massages the back of my neck. “I’m getting in your head. Testing a theory.”

“What theory?”

Lake brushes my nose with his. “That the other you is like Id, and you’re Ego. That was the gist I got from him, anyway.”

“Id and Ego?” I think I might have learned those terms in high school psychology, but I don’t remember what they mean. So much has happened since then. Will Lake think I’m a dumbass because I don’t know?

He traces my cheekbone down to my jaw. “He’s the part of you that only cares about sex and pleasure and need.”

I chuckle. “I care about those.”

“Yeah, but he doesn’t give a shit about the consequences.”

Lake’s theory fits with my theory about Love: that it represents what I long for but can’t have. But I’m so tired of psychoanalyzing myself. What does it matter if I can’t fix any of it? “Maybe. Test the theory some more, will you?” Lake seems to have more answers than I do. He’s better at thinking and talking and doing.

“I came inside of him.”

The words dance in my head like rogue pin balls. “What?”

“It was the best orgasm I’ve ever had. Way better than with you.”

I don’t have it in me to stop the rage-fueled flush sizzling over my skin. I shove Lake away, and he stumbles into the table.

He rights himself with an antagonistic grin on his face. “You’re so Ego.”

“Whatever. I was just bored when you got here. That’s the only reason I want you so bad. This is a fling. It’ll pass. More specials will come.”

The light goes out of Lake’s expression.

A heavy knock thuds through the house. Is Mercer back?

I leave Lake looking hurt and head for the door. On my way, I check my phone. Mercer usually messages me before he comes over, but he hasn’t sent anything. Yet a look through the peephole confirms it’s him.

I open the door.

Mercer grabs me, yanking me outside and down the front steps.

“Lake!” I scream.

Lake comes running, but he hesitates on the stoop, watching with wide eyes as Mercer takes me away.

I fight the hold, and I throw my power at Mercer, trying to make him weaken or disappear, but it doesn’t work. Then I spot the black star tattoo on his neck, and panic makes me nauseous.

“You didn’t get that for me, did you?” I shout.

He looks at me but doesn’t say anything. He shoves me into the backseat of his car and doesn’t budge despite how hard I kick him.

I look for Lake out the window. He’s standing a few feet away, and he nods at me.

And just what the hell is that supposed to mean? Am I supposed to feel reassured? Because I don’t!

As Mercer drives us away, I try to transport myself back into the house. Doesn’t work. I try to search the city for my replica, for where I might be going, but it’s not even foggy anymore; it’s just not there. I try something simple: changing the color of my tracksuit, and my whole head smarts with a sharp, cutting pain. My upper lip itches, then blood drips onto my thigh, soaking into the still-blue polyester blend.

My power. It’s blocked. It’s like Seraphim’s was when he got to Wish City, and Fiend had me strapped in that hospital bed and paralyzed with drugs.

I wipe at my bleeding nose and drop my head against the plush backseat. “Are you taking me to my replica?”

Mercer doesn’t answer.

“Are you taking me to the wilderness to kill me? Come on, Mercer. Char at least had the decency to lie!”

“We’re going to Club Neon. Wish would never have you killed. He loves you.”

My eyes well up. “My nosebleed says differently!” Universe, how hard would Lake be right now if he could see me like this? He’d give me that gooey look and tell me everything will be fine, but it won’t. I don’t have special powers of intuition, but still, I can feel it. This is going to be bad.

Wish City is finally reaching its breaking point, and I can’t save it.