I clung to the beautiful fantasy as long as possible, but I already felt it slipping away, dragging me back to reality and away from one of the most vivid dreams I’d ever experienced. I knew keeping my eyes closed wouldn’t take me back to Wonderland, but it was too hard to let go. Longing filled me thinking back to what I’d shared with Dylan in my dream, and I swear I could smell his alluring scent as if being embraced in his strong arms had actually happened.
Growling sleepily, I rolled over, covering my face with my blanket, but just as I made it fully to the other side, pain shot up my elbow accompanied by a dull thump.
What the hell?
Opening my eyes, I realized a barrier had appeared out of nowhere—a blank white wall directly in front of my face. I blinked, disoriented, until it dawned on me that I might not be in my room, which quickly led to the question where the fuck I’d landed the night before.
I slowly turned around, careful not to rustle too much with the sheets in case I was kidnapped and should avoid drawing attention. Roaming my eyes over the room, I realized with relief that I was still in the compound. Every room looked the same, although some of them were furnished mirror-inverted, which was the case with this room and which also explained why I’d bumped into a wall that shouldn’t have been there in the first place.
On closer observation, the room seemed familiar with its simple black and white interior, and it took me only a second to comprehend where I was.
In Dylan’s room.
The realization shot my brain into overdrive, desperate to remember what had happened the night before. Seemed as if I hadn’t imagined Dylan’s scent on me after all.
Oh my God, had I slept with Dylan?
My hands quickly patted down my body. I still wore my top and underwear. No, I sure as hell would remember sex with him unless I’d gotten off-the-charts drunk. Come to think of it, it certainly felt that way, if the dull throbbing in my head and the fact that my vision didn’t work like it should were anything to go by.
Blinking, I tried to focus on the only picture decorating the room, but strange patterns started to appear in front of my eyes. I quickly pressed them shut again.
No, no, no. This couldn’t be happening. If I did have sex with Dylan, then please not like this. He wouldn’t have taken advantage of me, would he? Not with—
“… sleep that long,” a low voice reached my ears. Chris?
“It took her twice the time than the average. She needs to make up for it.” Definitely Dylan. It sounded as if they were talking next to the door, but I couldn’t see around the corner.
A long pause. “Where will she stay for now?”
A deep sigh. “She’ll probably want to stay with Lauren.”
Were they talking about me? Why would I want to stay with Lauren? What the fuck had happened and why—
The dream! It hadn’t been a dream at all.
Everything came flashing back at once. The horrible pain, the unbearable coldness, Dylan, the intensive desire. Dylan had stayed with me. The entire time. Even when—
My vision changed abruptly, my stomach making an awful drop. The closet next to me started to grow a white halo around its contours—brighter in the middle and dulled on the bottom and on top.
What the heck was going on?
I grabbed the bed frame for support as a straight dotted line appeared. It started in the center of the closet, crossing the room until connecting with the bed I occupied.
As weird as it was, the strange pattern seemed familiar. Where had I seen it before?
I let my gaze drift to the other objects in the room. Each one I focused on grew the same lines, only in different angles as if someone was drawing touchable, geometric lines in a three-dimensional way. Tentatively lifting my hand, I patted my face in case someone had put some high-tech, military 3D-glasses on my head. Nope, there was nothing there.
I was so absorbed in my thoughts, I didn’t even hear the door closing and Dylan approaching me. He said something to me, but my attention was elsewhere, fascinated by what my eyes were seeing. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say I was on a weird drug trip causing the strangest hallucinations.
Sadly, I knew what my mind was showing me. I’d seen the same things years ago when I conquered the fence to get to Shawna before she was killed. It had felt as if my brain had turned into a complex calculator coming to my aid.
“Hey!” Dylan yelled, grabbing my arm and clicking his fingers in front of my vision.
I startled, looking at him. He crouched low in front of me with a worried expression on his face. His presence would have calmed me if it weren’t for the lines surrounding him just the same.
“Stay with me, Haylie. I know it’s a lot to take in, but just close your eyes for a second and breathe for me, okay?”
I frowned. Did I look like I was going to pass out? I wouldn’t be surprised.
“Haylie, come on, baby,” Dylan pleaded, putting both hands on my cheeks. “Close your eyes and relax.” I did as Dylan said and breathed slowly, although I didn’t know what it should accomplish. “Good girl,” Dylan soothed. “I don’t know what you just saw or felt, but you’ll get used to it after a few minutes. Just let it come slowly.”
“What’s happening?” I asked, surprised at how raspy my voice was, but then I remembered the pain and the screams.
“The Awakening is over, which means you have a different access to your ability now. I don’t know how it comes through for you, but considering your power and the fact that you’re white as a sheet at the moment, I assume it’s rather overwhelming.”
He could say that.
“Feeling better?” Dylan asked in a quiet voice a minute later, trailing a thumb over my cheekbone.
I nodded slightly, although I wasn’t sure how I felt considering my mind tended to slip away to those few hours I’d shared with Dylan.
I dared to open my eyes, and Dylan’s stormy, appion ones were the first thing I focused on. His body was still surrounded by white halos of lines and angles, only there were less straight and simple lines, the patterns far more complex. I knew why. The other objects in the room had geometric designs, most of them rectangular—his body was not.
“What do you see?” Dylan wanted to know, tilting his head after noticing me observing him from all angles like a tourist taking great interest in an antique statue. I didn’t answer right away, overwhelmed by what unraveled in my mind’s eye. Depending on the angle I looked at him, the lines kept changing along with Dylan’s movements.
It was funny—I could read the lines. I knew what they meant as if I’d studied trigonometry my entire life.
“Haylie?” Dylan reminded me that I still owed him an answer.
“Everything,” I uttered. “I see… everything.”
My eyes drifted away from Dylan’s penetrating gaze to rest on a bottle of water on the nightstand. The object was simple, so the lines were, too, showing me the exact point of its center of gravity if the bright halo contouring it was anything to go by. As soon as I focused on this part, in particular, the now familiar dizzying sensation grew in my stomach, and the line growing from its center to the table’s surface—a tangent showing me where the bottle would hit—flickered up. A second later, the bottle fell over, tumbling over the edge and falling to the ground.
I startled, and Dylan also seemed surprised.
“Did you just do this?”
I nodded. “I can see the angles and the centers of gravity of every object, even of you. It tells me in what position everything stands with gravity. I… I just don’t know how to switch it off.” I hoped my magical vision wasn’t something permanent.
Dylan sighed, propping one knee up while resting one arm on it. “Remember how hard you worked on reaching your ability with meditation and Lisa’s help? Now you need to do the same, only you want to achieve the opposite,” Dylan explained, making me frown. It had taken me many hours and lots of patience to gain this amount of control, and now I had to start anew?
Dylan must have known what I was thinking and added, “It will be easier this time, I promise.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. I might not know much about your ability, but I know how the Awakening works.”
As soon as the words left his mouth, my eyes latched onto his from under my lashes. If we’d gone through my Awakening together as I remembered it, then we needed to have a serious talk. Again, Dylan knew what was going on in my mind, staring back at me with intensity.
“Are you okay?” he asked softly.
I bit my lip and nodded, nervously playing with my bracelets. “Are you? I mean…” I cleared my throat. “Are we? Okay? After yesterday?” My voice was barely a whisper at the end.
Dylan gave me a crooked smile and put his hand over mine to keep me from my nervous fidgeting. “Of course, we are. I promised, remember? But if you’re talking about the night of your Awakening, then I have to tell you it happened two days ago.”
I blinked. “What? I was out for two days?”
“Don’t worry, you didn’t miss anything important.”
“But… two days?” I repeated.
Dylan rose and sat down next to me on the bed. His bulging bicep was on full display as he wore a tight-fitting, dark gray tank top. It made me think back to how we’d fallen apart… both of us. At the same time. I’d made a man reach his climax just by rubbing myself over his jeans.
“It’s not unusual to fall into a long sleep after the Awakening. I was out for twenty hours. What’s a mystery to me, though, is how you could sleep through the noise coming from next door,” he added with a chuckle.
“Huh?”
“Your room is under construction.”
“Why?”
Shaking his head, Dylan laughed at my confusion. “Well, your room didn’t survive your Revival.”
Then it clicked. I recalled the cracks appearing on the ceiling when Dylan had lowered me down while I… well, while I was having the orgasm of my life. I must have passed out soon after.
“Oh my God, is anybody hurt?” I asked in alarm.
“No harm was done, Haylie. Everyone’s fine,” he assured me, resting a hand on my shoulder. The gesture reminded me of how the strap of my shirt had slid down, and his fingers trailed a path along my arm.
“I saved this for you.” Putting a hand into the pocket of his jeans, he retrieved a metallic brown object.
“My hair clip,” I said in astonishment. “Thank you.”
Dylan knew how much it meant to me. His thoughtfulness made me want to hug him, but somehow it felt weird, which was crazy considering what we’d done.
This was when I noticed red marks on Dylan’s shoulder blade. Bolting upright, I yanked his shirt to the side to have a closer look at the scratches caused by my fingernails.
“Why didn’t you let Sarah heal you?” I demanded, horrified.
“It’s nothing, really.”
“Nothing? Dylan, they are super deep. They’ll leave scars. Let Sarah help you.”
“No.”
“Come on, you don’t need to prove anything. I respect that you refuse to let Regenerators near you, but this is different.”
“No,” he repeated more sternly, removing my hand from his shoulder to stop me from touching the scratches.
“Why?”
He averted his eyes for a second as if unsure what to answer. A deep swallow made his Adam’s apple bobble before his eyes swung back to mine, glinting with humor. “I’ll keep them as a reminder. They are proof of a sexy Natural inflicting them on me during her Revival. I guess I’m the only man alive who can say that.” His crooked smile threw me off guard. He was saying so much more with those words…
He wanted to keep a reminder of me.
Dylan stood up, combing a hand through his hair. “I got you some clothes from your room,” he declared, pointing to his closet. “I have a meeting with Jimmy in a few. You can take a shower if you want. Oh, and Lauren is bugging me every ten minutes asking when she can finally see you. I’ll tell her you’re awake.” I just nodded, my ability to speak lost for the moment. “Hey, if you need anything or don’t feel well, call me, okay?” Dylan offered after a few seconds of silence.
“Will do. Thanks.”
He pressed his lips together, giving me a short nod. “Anytime. Go to Sarah when you’re ready, and let her heal the cut on your forehead.”
And with that, he left, leaving me in his room with a million thoughts overloading my brain.
Before I could start brooding over every detail that had occurred the night of my Awakening, I jumped out of bed to take a much-needed shower. Taking a glance in the mirror first, I noticed three things.
First, my hair would make a comfortable nest for a horde of hamsters. I would need to use an extra load of conditioner to loosen the tangles.
Second, I looked the same, apart from a bandage sticking on my forehead. Honestly, I didn’t know what I’d expected. You’d think the Awakening would have left its marks on the outside, gathering from all the intense sensations and a near-death experience. The Flare was gone, the color of my eyes their usual jaylior. The only difference was a rosy flush on my cheeks which would remain as long as I thought about Dylan and me dry humping for nearly an hour.
And third, there was a tiny purple mark on my throat—unmistakably a love bite. I didn’t remember Dylan kissing me there. In fact, I was pretty sure there had been no kisses involved at all. Granted, I’d been rather distracted during the last phase of the Revival.
What I did remember, though, was Dylan telling me real women left scratches, not love bites. The irony of it let a hysterical laugh bubble out of me when I looked at the bruise on my throat.
After I took the time I needed to rub myself clean and get my hair straight and shiny again, I wrapped myself in a towel and started combing through my strands when a knock on the door startled me out of my thoughts.
“In the bathroom, just a sec!”
My announcement was ignored because a second later, the bathroom door flew open.
“Hey, what… oomph.”
My attempt to yell at whoever wasn’t patient enough to wait for me getting dressed got strangled by a body crashing into me and giving me a bone-tightening hug.
“Finally, you’re awake!” Lauren whined, not caring in the slightest that I was practically naked.
“You’re squishing my boobs,” I complained, trying to get air into my lungs.
“I don’t care,” she just mumbled into my neck, making me chuckle.
“Hey, there. I’m fine, okay? No need to worry.”
Lauren finally pulled back, and I caught the towel hanging loosely on my hips before it fell to the floor.
“Okay, good,” Lauren said, wiping a traitorous tear away. “Because you need to tell me everything. Right now.”
I groaned. “Lauren…”
“Ah-ah-ah!” she cried out, startling me. “I want to hear every tiny detail.”
“All right, all right. Can I get dressed first, please?”
“Sure.” Lauren grinned from ear to ear, eager to hear my story. I honestly didn’t know what to tell her. I still hadn’t found the time to process anything.
Lauren made herself comfortable on Dylan’s bed. That’s when I noticed two pillows and two blankets lying crumpled on top. The single beds inside the compound were big enough for two people, but the fact that Dylan had obviously slept next to me for the last two nights made my heart do crazy somersaults. He’d had free reign to observe me day and night without me noticing. Hell, he could have done anything in my comatose state.
“Are you having a moment?” Lauren broke through my delirium, eyeing me as I stood there, frozen.
“Probably. I suppose this won’t be the last, considering…”
“Considering what?” Lauren pressed, clasping her hands in front of her.
While I got dressed—my clothes were in Dylan’s closet like he’d promised they would be, neatly piled next to his shirts which gave me another moment, as Lauren had put it—I told Lauren everything I remembered, starting with Dylan finding me unconscious. I explained about the pain I had to endure during the Inferno but skipped the part where I’d nearly frozen to death if Dylan hadn’t revived me.
When I came to the juicy details, I hesitated.
“Aw, please. This is the part of the story I’m desperate to hear,” Lauren scolded.
“So, you know that Dylan stayed? The entire time?” I probed.
Lauren laughed. “Everybody knows.”
My mouth dropped open in horror. “Shit,” I cursed, covering my eyes with my hand while plopping back on the bed.
“Don’t worry, there won’t be any rumors. Sarah, Chris, Cole, and I made sure of that.”
“What?”
“Well, we lectured everyone who called Dylan a pervert and you a whore.”
I threw her a skeptical look. “Cole defended me?”
Lauren grinned. “Sure, he did, but that’s beside the point now. So, Dylan stayed with you…?” she questioned, offering me another start for my story.
“Yeah.”
“How was it? Come on, spit it out!”
“It was fantastic,” I mumbled with a shake of my head. “But not just because of him. I mean, the Revival was so intense, I can’t even describe it.”
Lauren shrieked, clapping her hands in excitement again. “What did Dylan do?”
“He held me.”
Lauren’s brows furrowed as if disappointed. “That’s all?” I scoffed. If she only knew… “I mean, no kisses, no grabbing, no—”
“Nope, but it was steamy nonetheless, believe me.”
“How did he react when you… you know?”
“He… got carried away with me.”
Lauren’s mouth popped open like a fish snapping for water. As she wouldn’t leave it as long as I hadn’t spilled every tiny detail, I told her everything from how I’d ended in Dylan’s lap to him shielding me when the ceiling came down on us.
“Dammit, Haylie, that’s so fucking hot! You’re the luckiest woman on the planet. You know that, right?”
I chuckled. “We didn’t have sex, Lauren.”
“Well, it was more sex rather than not.”
Yeah, that was exactly the problem. You’d think for sex to happen you needed to go through the actual intercourse, but in my case, the lines got blurred somehow which seemed to be an everyday occurrence when it came down to Dylan and me. It made things a thousand times harder.
After I’d revealed enough to make Lauren happy and giddy all over, Chris and Sarah joined us, both glad to see me whole and unharmed.
“Finally made it, eh?” Chris grinned, clapping me on the shoulder.
“Yeah. I’m glad it’s over.”
“Not sure about that. I mean, how good must it have been if you broke down your entire room?” Chris mocked. My answer was to punch his arm. He didn’t even flinch.
“Dylan told us he stayed with you until the Glaciation was over, and that he waited during the Revival in his room.” I shot Lauren a meaningful look which she countered with a shrug as if to say very gentlemanly. I had to agree.
“But we all know that’s bullshit,” Chris added with a crooked grin, making me groan in embarrassment. “He thought we’d buy it because all the cameras in this aisle were down, but I wouldn’t have believed him even if he’d bet his Fighter dick on it.”
“Thanks for the visual,” Lauren mocked, rubbing a hand through Chris’ blond locks, who in return laughed and kissed her cheek. Now this made me throw a what-the-fuck look in Lauren’s direction, but she only mouthed me a tell you later. What the hell?
The door opened again, and Jimmy entered. Dylan’s room quickly became crowded.
“Hello, my dear, how are you?” he asked, scrutinizing me from head to toe.
“Good, thanks.”
“Guys, would you let us talk?” Jimmy directed the others.
“Of course. Haylie, come to my room later so I can heal the cut on your forehead,” Sarah said.
“Will do, thanks.”
After everyone left, Jimmy turned back to me. “Are you okay?”
I smiled. “Everything’s fine. I’m sorry about the destruction next door, though.”
Jimmy waved a hand in the air. “Don’t worry about it. It will be as good as new in a few days. I came here because Lisa wants to see you. Do you think you’re up for a little lesson with her?”
“Sure.”
“Great. She’ll meet you outside in the cemetery in an hour.”
“Outside?” Lisa never left the compound, not even her room, as far as I knew. The many different vibes she was now getting overwhelmed her.
“Yes. She figured it would be safer now that your power has grown to its fullest.”
“All right. I’ll be there.”