NINE
In this dream, I was lying on a table that was familiar and nightmarish. It was the table that I had found Zane on all those weeks ago at the compound. Tubes were hooked into my skin, and the floor beneath me was covered in blood. I didn't like this table. I didn't like this place. I tried to tug myself free, but nothing would move.
Connie's face peered down at me. That perfect Irish cream color bedecked with freckles. Were we really sisters? Here I was with dark hair and sallow skin, thanks to the tubes, and hazel eyes; she was looking like the pin-up child for the freckled red-head.
"What do you want?" I asked, feeling sick to my stomach.
"I want your destiny."
No. She couldn't have that. She could have pretty much anything but that. I knew what she'd do with my destiny; she'd screw it all up. Magic would be saved for the hands of the chosen few. And, as far as I was concerned, that pretty much sucked.
"You can't have it."
She sneered down at me. "You will use my castoff to create a world I loathe?"
Who the heck talked like that? And seriously, when did Connie talk at all? I had always known her to be quiet. Then again, maybe I had never known her. I hadn't thought that she'd had much in the way of romantic relationships; even Jenny had said she'd never seen Connie with anyone. Apparently, my half-sister had been carrying on an illicit relationship under everyone's nose. Had my mother been involved? Had she pushed it to happen?
"Wow," I said with a hint of snappiness, "sounding kind of bitter there, little sister. You mad that your ex is taking me out?"
She gave me a look that told me she was pissed, but nothing else. "I never cared about him."
I shrugged and laid back against the seriously uncomfortable bed. "Sure. Whatever you say."
“I am not you. I don't drool over the dead.”
A thought snapped into my unconscious mind. “That's weird, because apparently you were drooling over him before I was part of the picture.”
Her eyes went bright. It wasn't the kind of brightness that a vampire could get, but there was magic there, wild and angry and brimming behind her eyes. "I will kill you. I will take your destiny."
I yawned. I added in what little stretch the tubes attached to me, slowly draining my life, could offer. "Yeah. Sure. Whatever. You keep breaking into my dreams and making these crappy promises, and I will just lay here and wait for that to happen. Sound good?"
She howled, and it was the sound of a wolf. The large, sharp-toothed dog that followed her about joined her. The sound of their mingled voices was, in a word, creepy.
"Don't make light of what I could do to you."
I sighed. "I'm not making light of it. I promise. I'm just a little over this constant melodrama. "You don't like what the prophecy says I'll do with magic, and I don't like how you keep trying to kill me. It's all very hum-drum."
"Being flippant won’t get you anywhere."
"Neither will be putting your word-a-day dictionary to use, but here we are."
She began to change. I had seen Dmitri shift when he was losing control; this was both the same and different. With Dmitri, the transition was terrifying but smooth, as if watching someone stretch clay. With Connie, everything snapped and broke. I heard the popping of bones and tendons crackling. Her teeth, as normal and human as mine, fell out of her head as sharper ones burst through her gums, leaving them bloody.
Her skin, pale as a spring morning, began to turn dark. Not human dark, not a pleasant shade of brown, but the dark of shadows between burnt trees. It ate up the creamy flesh and the freckles with it, turning her into the color of coal smudges. Fur burst forth, as dark and shadowy as the rest of her, and her eyes went from their normal human shade to brilliant red.
Fear danced down my spine, and I squirmed against the table. I was suddenly aware of the cold needles stuck into my flesh. The lightness, the flippancy went away.
"You take what's mine?" she snarled, snapping her sharp teeth as she leaned over me. Her breath was terrible, like rotten meat. "I'll take what's yours."
She lowered those sharp teeth to my exposed belly, and opened her mouth wide. I waited to feel the pricking of them against my skin. It was going to hurt. I was sure of it.
The yowl of a cat tore me out of the nightmare.
Maahes was sitting on my chest, his familiar weight a great comfort as he stared down into my eyes. He bent and thumped his head against my face, making me aware of tears streaming down my cheeks.
"Hey," I said, my voice shaking. "How are you doing that?"
He licked at the tear trail. I could feel the roughness of his tongue, but the water remained behind. I wrapped my arms around him as I sat up, holding him against me.
"That was a weird one, buddy."
He struggled against my grip for a moment before curling in on himself and making a ball in my lap. He started to purr, and I gave him a few shaky-handed pets. I ached. It wasn't as bad as the last time, not by a long shot, but I still felt terrible, like I had the world's worst cold. A glance at my clock told me that I had only been asleep for four hours. I wouldn't even have gotten that if I hadn't been so exhausted that I'd broken down and taken one of the sleeping pills that I found in the cabinet. Who would have thought that a witch would have sleeping pills?
I took a deep breath and shook my head hard enough to clear the cobwebs. "Okay," I said, sliding out of the bed. "It's time to look through the grimoire."
My grandmother's book of shadows, or magical grimoire, was chock full of information about all kinds of magical things. I'd nearly forgotten it since I had Jenny and her grandmother teaching me witchcraft and Reikah teaching me wizardry. Then, I had been pouring over my grandmother's journals. But it was well past time for me to learn something about dreams.
The book was large and heavy, and I kept it in the second drawer of my grandmother's dresser. My clothes didn't even take up half the drawers, so it fit nicely enough. I dragged it out and plopped it on the bed along with myself. Maahes sat next to me, eyeing the pages with feline curiosity.
"What do you think, Maahes?" I asked, as I began flipping through the pages. There was no index, and the book must have had three or four hundred pages, making it hard to navigate. It was made out of hand-stitched leather, with a large five-pointed star on the front. Each point of the star, which sat inside of a circle, was marked with a particular triangle symbol. I knew now that each triangle was associated with one of the major elements; Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. It didn't help that the inside of the book was put together in a whimsical fashion, as if my grandmother had just written things down as she had learned them. "Anything on dreams in here?"
The cat eyed me and then the book. He bumped his nose against it and, by magic, the pages began to turn. They moved fast enough to have my hair fluttering out of my face.
When the pages stopped, it was about two thirds of the way through the book on a page labeled Somniamancy.
"Holy crap," I whispered, looking at Maahes, "how did you do that?"
He looked at me with all the intensity of the feline gaze, and then he sat back, shot one foot in the air, and began cleaning the inside of his thigh.
"Helpful," I said with a roll of my eyes.
While Maahes bathed himself, I turned my attention back to the book, reading aloud to myself. "Somniamancy, or the magic of dreams, is split into several schools of magic. The first is Dream Walking, or the ability to insert oneself into the dreams of others in order to manipulate them or discern something about the target.
This can be done by many witches, and used for good or ill. The next is Dream Prophecy, where your dreams are glimpses into the future or warnings for things to come. Dreams of Prophecy are often naturally occurring in a small percentage of witches. Those who have the gift of Prophecy can cause prophetic dreams by utilizing dream teas. The last, and most uncommon, is the ability to craft a Dreamscape.
"A Dreamscape is another dimension, accessible only by the unconscious mind. A Dreamscape is created by a Somniamancer, and is, in its own way, as real as the world we live in. The scape itself is malleable, as most dreams are, but the pain inflicted in these dreams is real, up to and including death. To die in a dreamscape is to be cut from one corporeal body and thus die here in the terra realm.
"Somniamancers are rare, and their gifts can be used for either good or ill. When used for good, the Somniamancer can help a person suffering from trauma or insomnia get a good night’s sleep and work through their difficulties. It is said that a good night's sleep in the lap of a Dream Mage is the greatest sleep that a person can have.
"However, when used for ill, a Somniamancer's gift can be terrifying. They can trap a victim in a world of nightmares, using a person's fears against them. It is important to note that the longer one is in a dreamscape crafted at their hands, the harder it is to break free of what they have created. It also becomes easier and easier for a Somniamancer to touch one's dreams the more often the unconscious contact happens."
I paused, keeping my finger on the page. Somniamancer, a dream mage…it wasn't something I had ever heard of, not even in all of the video games that I had played. There were some fantasy books I could think of that had a wizard who could mess with dreams, but that was about it.
Was that what was happening to me? Was some dream mage messing with my head? I scanned ahead a few pages, most which had to do with dream prophecy, no surprise considering my grandmother's gift.
"When a Somniamancer with ill intent turns their attentions on a particular person, the victim may begin to experience bouts of insomnia followed by a deep sleep with strange dreams that leave them feeling more exhausted when they wake up."
Well, I thought to myself, that solved that problem. Someone with dream magic was screwing around with my head. But who? And why? I could make a couple of educated guesses about why. They were part of the Order, and they didn't want me to fulfill the prophecy. Or they weren't part of the Order, but they still didn't want me to fulfill the prophecy.
"Okay, how do I fight it?" I asked the book, using my finger to scroll over the pages, careful not to smudge the long-since-dry ink. "In the early stages, a Somniamancer can be fought via the use of sigils and herbal magic. Drawing protective sigils on your brow, wrists, and across the chest will offer a first line of defense, and stuffing sachets of protective herbs beneath your pillow and body before going to sleep will offer a second line."
"Well, guess what I'm going to learn to do today, Maahes?"
Finished with his bath, Maahes stretched out next to me, rolling over to offer his stomach for a rub. I gave it.
Then, his ears pricked forward and he rolled over.
"What?" I asked, following the line of his gaze.
It was still dark outside, being that it was winter and not even four thirty in the morning, but I could see the shape of a man standing across the street. I remembered, months ago, seeing another man standing out there, the first night that I had moved in.
But, once my imagination stopped running wild, I realized that I knew this shape.
I opened the window. "Wei? What are you doing here?"
He turned, looking at me.
He was so damn pretty, I thought. Why did he have to be so pretty? His rounded face, dark hair, and darker eyes just seemed to call to me, though I'd be lying to myself if I thought my attraction was purely physical. I liked his control and his discipline, two things that I didn't have even on the best of days. I liked that, even after all this time, he still cared about something that happened in his past. I liked how he made me feel safe, and I liked how he made me feel...good.
I sighed. "You know hanging outside sleeping girls’ windows in the middle of the night is a vampire novel trope, right? I mean, that's pretty terrible, even for an angsty vampire like you."
He frowned at me. "I'm not angsty."
I snorted. "You are the angstiest guy I have ever met, and I was in high school while the scene kids were there."
He frowned. "I worried."
"Come inside; it's too cold out there for this conversation."
I stepped away from the window, and, as a mist of smoky brown, he spilled into my grandmother's bedroom.
"Handy," I said once he had formed again. "Can you hear when you are made of mist? Or do you need ears?"
"I can hear just fine."
"So why not stay mist? Unless you wanted me to see you haunting my road."
He shook his head. "It takes a great deal of concentration to stay incorporeal."
"Ah." I crossed my arms and sat on the corner of the bed. Maahes was nowhere to be seen. "So what are you doing being an undead stalker?"
"I wasn't stalking. I was...wandering..."
I raised my brow. "And you just happened to wander my way?"
He shrugged his shoulders. He wore green tonight. He looked amazing in green. Heck, he looked amazing in all the colors that he liked to wear: green, blue, black, or red. Heck, he'd probably look fine in a burlap sack. "It was not intentional." He turned away from me as if he didn't want to look at me anymore.
"Okay."
I sighed and stood up. I surprised us both by wrapping my arms around his middle and laying my head on his back. He went vampire still beneath my cheek, and I held him closer.
"I'm sorry for yelling at you."
He relaxed just a little. "I deserved it."
I smiled, but it was a sad smile. "I wish you were okay with being mine."
He breathed out. "I do too."
We stayed like that for a long while. Then, I stepped back. "Okay, time for a lesson."
"A what?"
"A martial arts lesson. You don't think I've given up, do you? There are creepy people after my butt. I gotta be ready for them."
He turned around and eyed me. I didn't understand the look that he gave me, but it felt like he was trying to figure out something. I knew I could figure it out. All I'd have to do is push a tendril of my magic out to him and I'd know everything that he was thinking, but the fact was I was too nervous to know what was going on behind those eyes. I didn't want to know.
"As you wish."
He moved towards the front door, and I paused. "You...wanna fight outside?"
He eyed me. "Is there a problem?"
"Maybe not for you, Mr. My Heart Doesn't Beat, but I'm a living breathing woman, and it's all of twenty degrees out there. I'll freeze my butt off."
He raised one brow at me, and the tiniest glint of humor flickered through his gaze. "Do you think your enemies will care if it is twenty below? Or colder?"
Ugh. I hated that he had a point. "Fine. But if I get hypothermia, you are going to feel really bad."
He nodded. "I will."
I ignored the tiny little jump in my chest that liked the fact that he'd feel bad. It was stupid to feel anything like that, anything even close to that now that I had told Zane that I was going to be with him. I made some comment about putting on real clothes rather than pajamas, and Wei gave me the space to change.
When I was ready, I followed Wei's back outside and towards the small patch of land that was behind my grandmother's place and to one side of the garage. There was a little square of wood, about ten by ten, that would have made for a nice garden if it weren't the middle of winter. As it was, my boots crunched over the frozen earth.
My breath came out in misty clouds as Wei and I began to move together. The beginning of our lessons always started with the Kata. Kata might have been a Japanese word, but it was practiced in forms of Chinese martial arts too. In slow, controlled movements, we took our bodies through a series of strikes, blocks, and turns. It was almost like a dance, but by the time it was over, I had forgotten that it was cold.
I was, however, intensely aware of him. I was aware of the way his lips were parted ever so slightly, the way his braided hair swung nearly the length of his back. I closed my eyes, trying not to think of him, but when I opened them, my eyes had slipped into magic sight.
A witch, and a few other magical beings, could see magic. Most people, if magic was cast around them or even against them, couldn't see anything. But a witch could see the lines that wove through the earth. The last time I had done this it had been mid-fall, and everything had been living. Now, with winter sliding along our part of the world, the lines were foggy and muted. I glanced down at myself and resisted the urge to gasp.
Usually, my magic looked like a snarled bit of thread, sliding through me in shades of gold and pale shimmering blue. I had been working on fixing that, but tonight...tonight, it was different, completely different. There were tinges of green throughout my own cords of magic, and while the source was no longer one big ball of cat-trounced yarn, it was savaged, broken in some places. The few tendrils I had that slithered from me all reached towards Wei.
As soon as it was over, he struck out at me. I moved out of the way.
"Do not let magic distract you," he said.
He struck at my middle, and the air whooshed from my lungs, but I had pulled away just enough that I wasn't completely breathless.
The lines of magic that made up Wei were the same icy blue that interwove itself with my gold, but his had tinges of obsidian and ruby mixed in with his. All the vampires had the red; I think it is the magic that made them what they were, but I wondered what the blue and black were about. As I focused on them, I realized something. I could see where he was going to move just a fraction of a moment before he did it.
He struck, and I blocked. He tried to feint, but I knew where the real hits were coming from. I couldn't seem to land a strike on him either, as much as I tried. His skill was pretty incredible, what with there being a few hundred years of practice and some super natural biology behind it. But with my intuition and his skill, the two of us were locked into a series of movements with neither one of us getting any ground on the other.
"You've been practicing," he said.
"Yes."
I hadn't been practicing martial arts, not without him, but I had been practicing magic, and that apparently was giving me an edge. I didn't know it could, but now that I did, I wondered just what else could happen. As I thought that, I sent a tendril of that particular necromantic magic to my fist and hit hard.
It connected with his face. He went flying backwards. He didn't stay down long at all, barely more than a second, but when he stood up, there was a tiny line of red beneath his nose. I hadn't known a vampire could bleed.
"It has been a long time since a person has drawn my blood." He looked a little surprised. To be fair, I was pretty surprised myself.
"Sorry?"
The look of shock in his eyes was replaced by stubbornness and pride. God, there was something so lovely about him when he got all stubborn about something. Maybe it was some wild streak in me, but I liked it.
I was so busy watching his eyes that I didn't see his leg sweep out and take my stance. I tumbled back, but I dragged him with me, sending us both to the cold ground.
His body landed on top of mine, and we both went still. I could feel his masculinity pushing against me and I ground against it, spreading my thighs to feel him that much better. He made a sound like a hungry animal, and I reveled in it. A single drop of his blood touched my skin, and my magic flared. It spilled through me white hot and vibrating. I was aware of everything: the cold ground at my back, the press of his body against mine, every flicker of color in his eyes. I could see every lash of magic through the world around me no matter how small or minute. I could feel them all flowing. I could have pulled them to me if I wanted.
Then, it all pulsed, and I was blind with the power. The world faded, and all I could see were Wei's vampire eyes staring at me, a light of magic spilling out of them like shadows dancing in his gaze. I squirmed again, not just from the feeling of him so close, but from the itchy sensation of trying to hold all of this power inside of myself. It sought something, someplace to go.
Wei's mouth slid along my neck, and I purred.
"Yes, Wei, yes," I gasped, offering my neck to him. I could feel the hard press of his teeth. His hands gripped my shoulders, and he held me down against the unforgiving ground. I could hear my pulse in my ears, fast and frantic, and I knew he could too.
"Lorena," he whispered against my skin.
"Do it," I purred. I had no idea that I wanted to be bitten so badly, but right this moment, there was very little that I, or the magic that spilled through me, wanted more.
He shivered once and pulled away. I hated that. I hated that he could pull away when all I wanted to do was give in. I grabbed him and pulled him back and begged him. What I said I don't remember, but whatever it was, it worked.
The bite was hard, almost violent, but it was bliss.
My magic poured into him, spilled life into him. He went warm against me first, the gold of his skin taking on a rosy hue as his body filled with my blood. I felt his heart pound beneath the hand that I pressed to his chest, a wild beat to match my own. I felt him suck on my neck, and it made parts of me I had too long ignored flare to life, hungry for some touch, some attention. When he pulled his head back from my neck, his teeth red and exposed, the lower half of him ground against me, and I shivered in response.
"Lorena," he whispered again, followed by something in a language I didn't know, but it had the elegant rhythm of Mandarin; then again, it could have been whatever his mother tongue was.
"Wei," I said back, "please."
My body had never felt so alive, and to that point, neither had his. I pushed myself against him, and his hips jerked automatically.
"No," he whispered, pulling back. "I cannot."
"Why the heck not?"
He laughed. I didn't expect it, but he looked down at me and saw the expression of complete and total exasperation, and he laughed. Then, as quickly as it’d started, it had cooled. "Because you do not belong to me. You do not love me."
I growled. "So?"
He pushed a hair out of my face, his lips so close to mine that I was sure he was going to kiss me. "We both know that matters a great deal. I cannot."
"Because of...her?" I said, unwilling to say the name of his long dead wife.
He slid away from me. "Yes, in part. But because you have promised yourself to Zane."
I blinked. Oh, right. I totally had done that. How could I have forgotten? God, what kind of person was I that I forgot a promise that I had made all of seven hours or so ago? A terrible kind of person, that's who. I cursed vehemently and surged to my feet.
"Crap, crap. What are we going to tell him?"
"The truth," he said matter-of-factly.
Right. There was that. There was a conversation I really didn't want to have. Hey, Zane, I know we just started this potential relationship, but I totally got to second base with Wei, or is fangs third base? I dunno, you're the vampire. You tell me. Nope. Definitely not.
"Ohhh, this is gonna suck." The word 'suck' brought a blush to Wei's cheeks that I would have found amusing were it not for the ache in my neck. Man, that was going to be one hell of a hickey. "Not funny."
He grinned. "It is a little funny."
"Where the heck is this sense of humor coming from?" I demanded. "My Wei is all stoic and grumpy-faced, but you are sitting there with a ‘cat ate canary’ grin."
His dark eyes flickered up to mine. "You are what you eat."
Now, it was my turn to blush. Dirty innuendos. Dear god. All I wanted to do was take him into the house where it was warm and see how far that teasing could go.
"Okay, if there is no chance of me getting you out of those pants, you are going to have to chill out with the dirty jokes. Pervy puns are the best way to get me naked."
He grinned, and I could see amusement dance in his eyes. "Forgive me, but your magic is...potent."
"I don't even know what that means." I remembered the way the magic had spilled out of me and into him, the way life had poured into him. I couldn't quite resist the urge to reach out and touch his cheek. "Holy crap, you are alive. You are breathing."
He nodded. "I am; my blood...flows."
I did not look down. Ohhh, I wanted to. But I don't think my very loose relationship with control could handle knowing that he was still ready for more. "Dude."
He stood up and bowed. "Forgive me, Lorena; it has been many, many years since I have felt life in my veins, and your life is tinged with magic."
I remembered what Zane had told me about the dietary preferences of vampires. "Do you like witches?"
He raised one brow. "In particular? No. I have no great preference for a particular taste of blood. At least, I didn't think I did." He eyed my neck with naked hunger, and all I could do was think about what else ought to be naked. I clapped a hand over my wound.
"Dude...yes or no?"
"Hmm?"
"You are telling me no, but you keep making jokes and telling me about your blood flow. Be honest...yes or no?"
He thought about it. I could see the thoughts flying over his face. The raw desire followed by aching need followed by that streak of stubbornness that I knew too well.
"No," he finally said, sounding more like Wei than he had in the past few minutes, "no, I cannot. I will not. I'm sorry, Lorena. I should not have...teased. Your blood is like a heady wine, and it made me forget myself. It made me remember a me that has long been dead. I cannot have you. I will not have you. It would only end in heartache."
Before I could argue, he turned into mist and vanished into the softening night.
"Damnit!" I cursed, stomping one foot against the cold ground. I was mad. I was so damn mad, and I wasn't sure why. So what if I didn't get any action from Wei the grumpy vampire? Okay, Wei the usually grumpy, weirdly complicated, sometimes funny vampire. Who cared? I still had Zane, and if Zane decided that me fooling around with Wei was a deal breaker, which I would totally understand, then there were still Alan and Dmitri. I could get action.
Yeah. Sure, I could.
I stomped inside and went immediately to a mirror. A large bruise was on my neck. It was the same dark blue as a midnight sky, but there was a softness around the edges that told me it would heal. With a snarl, I poured some antiseptic on it--who knew where that boy's mouth had been? -- and then slapped a Band-Aid on it. Good enough.
Then, knowing that I had lost a pretty decent amount of blood, I went to the kitchen and made myself a glass of juice, which I finished in three long gulps, and a sandwich. I poured myself another glass of juice and plopped down at the kitchen table.
Screw Wei. No, I amended, no screwing Wei. That was half of my problem. I took a large bite of my sandwich and grumped privately. I did my best not to think about that smile, the dance in his eyes, the dirty jokes. Man, who knew that all of that was hiding beneath that perfectly frigid mask? Well, point of fact, I did. I had known there was more dancing beneath all that veneer. I'd just ignored it because he hadn't wanted to show it.
I liked that guy. I liked that glimmer that I had seen of the man that he had been. I also liked when he was hiding it all away behind that cool emotionlessness mask, probably because I knew how deep that still ocean seemed to go.
Oh crap, I thought. I liked him. I really liked him. Not just his body, but everything else. I liked his stupid complications, and I liked the way he tried to hide himself because he was afraid of feeling too much. I liked the way he could go from hot to cold and back again with just a few words from me. I liked that he made me feel the same things. I liked that he was my mirror, opposite and similar all at once.
"Crap." I tossed down my sandwich. I was falling in love, and I really didn't have time for that. "Crap." I said again with more emphasis.
I heard a car pull up, and I turned to look out the window. A moment later, Jenny and Reikah came towards the front door. They weren't paying any attention to me. Instead, their fingers were laced together, pale brown and darker brown, one set of nails perfectly manicured, the other completely lacking in paint or lacquer. Their giggles were bright, cheerful, and soft.
They paused on the doorstep, but the door itself was thin enough that I could hear their conversation.
"Thank you," Reikah said, a little breathlessly.
"For what?" Jenny asked.
"For listening to me, for not...pushing. For just accepting me."
"I like you, Reikah. I don't know why, since you drive me nuts, but if you need to figure yourself out, take all the time you need to do that. You want to snuggle and hold hands and dance outside the school until four in the morning? That's great. That's all I need."
"Promise?"
"I swear."
There was a long silence, and I turned my head to peek out the window, feeling like a terrible person but not terrible enough to stop myself. They were standing in the moonlight, oblivious to the cold, their foreheads pushed gently together. If I had a camera, I would have taken a picture; they looked that beautiful.
"Will...will you kiss me goodnight?"
Jenny's eyes flicked open. I could almost feel the hope from here. "Are you sure?" she asked.
"I've never been kissed. I'd like to...from you."
Jenny's grin was a mile wide. "You want me to give you your first kiss?"
"Please?"
Jenny didn't say anything else. She dropped Reikah's hand and tilted her head. I looked away. I could be a little bit of a voyeur, but I had to draw the line somewhere. I steadfastly focused on my sandwich and silently rooted for them. Here was hoping their relationship could work out because, as far as I could tell, all of mine were headed down the garbage disposal.
A few moments later, I heard the car again, and Reikah came inside. She didn't notice me; there were stars in her eyes and her makeup had long since faded. She looked lovely.
Unable to resist, I cleared my throat loud enough to make her jump. "Young lady," I said, doing my best mother hen imitation, "you had me and your father worried all night."
She gave me an embarrassed look that bordered on mortified. "Have you been awake all night?"
"No," I said honestly, "but clearly you have." I used my foot to push out one of the other chairs. "Details. Give them."
"Are you serious?"
"One hundred percent."
She eyed me. "Is there another sandwich?"
I smirked and tore mine in half, offering her that. She took it and then opened a bag of chips. "You went to the grocery store?"
"Zane took me. He says I need to eat better."
"He's right."
"He says I need to sleep better too, but that's not happening." I took another bite and added a handful of ranch-flavored Doritos to my plate. They weren't super healthy, but I didn't care. Ranch Doritos for the win. "Tell me everything."
She did. She told me about the pageant, the songs, the dinner, and how after everyone went home, a few of the teenagers gathered in the parking lot and turned on their cars to dance together and laugh.
"She was so much fun; I had an amazing time," Reikah said, pushing her now empty plate away from her. I stood up and gave both plates a rinse off, and started to do the other dishes while I was there.
"I'm glad."
"She kissed me goodnight."
"Oh?" I said, feigning ignorance. "How did you feel about that?"
She shrugged, but there was a blush on her cheeks. "I don't know. Complicated."
I nodded. "That's okay. You don't need to have it all figured out right now. Jenny's awesome. She'll wait for you."
"How did your date with Zane go?"
I shrugged. "Well, I promised him that he was the one I'd fulfill the prophecy with, but when Wei showed up after I woke up from a bad dream, I had a martial-arts-infused make-out session with him, so I'm going to file it all under the 'it's complicated' subheading and hope for the best."
"It sounds as if you have things to figure out too."
"Truth." A thought hit me, and I perked up. "Hey, what do you know about Somniamancy?"
"Dream magic?" She frowned. "That's Markus' brand of magic."
And just like that, a puzzle piece fell into place. My mind began to race. "Markus? You mean Creepy Dude? My mom's boyfriend slash, the leader of the Order slash, my sister's father? That Markus? He does dream magic?"
"Yes."
I frowned. "Wait, I thought he was dead. I was almost sure of it. When we left the compound...he was...well, he was really hurt."
I was having trouble remembering all the ins and outs; memory was weird that way. We had all gotten into this great big fight, and I remember Wei stabbing him in the side with a blade. I mean, as far as killing blows go, getting blooded by the sword of a three-hundred-and-forty-four-year-old vampire was pretty permanent, right?
I'd read enough comics to know better.
"Dangit, he's not dead, is he?"
She shook her head. "It's not likely. Not only is Markus very gifted with magic, but there are several healers in the Order. They would not have let him die."
"Yeah, cults are fanatical that way."
I sighed and put my chin on the table. "I was reading my grandmother's grimoire today. I think he's been attacking me with my dreams. They've been weird, and my sleep is all messed up."
Reikah shook her head. "That's not easy to do. He would need a connection with you."
"How could he make a connection?"
She thought that over. "He would have to be touching you for one. He could make a poppet of you, but as a witch, you are not as prone to that as a normal human. Or you'd have to be exposed to his connective sigils. Those could do it."
It all hit me like a brick. "Connective sigils!"
She blinked at me. "What?"
"I thought...oh god...I'm so stupid..." I pulled my phone out of my pocket, a little surprised that it wasn't broken or anything, and scrolled through my old messages. Then, I paused. "Can you look at the sigils and not be harmed?"
"If they are sigils meant for you, they will do nothing to me."
I showed her, and all I needed to see was her face paling. "Oh, Lorena...these are very powerful. How...when..."
"I've been getting them for a while. But that doesn't make sense. I got the first weird dream before the first message was sent."
She shook her head. "He could have been dream walking the first time, looking to get information about you. Scare you. After that..." she shrugged. "We need to do something."
"What do we need to do?"
She thought about it. "There are few ways to keep a Somniamancer out of your dreams. You'll need sigils and herbs..."
"Yeah, I read about those..." I brought out my grandmother's grimoire and showed her the page that I had marked. "Here."
She nodded. "Those are good starts, but we will need more. I'll need time, but I can add to these, personalize them, and make them more powerful. I'm quite good with sigils."
I thought back to the black paper lesson. Yeah, she was better with them than I was. "Okay, so when do we start?"
"Tonight. I need time to rest and prepare. I'm sorry it can't be sooner, but, Lorena, you cannot fall asleep. If this has been going on for as long as you say, he is stealing parts of your essence every time you rest. There may come a time when you do not wake up." She sounded legitimately scared.
"It's fine. I've got coffee and Netflix. I can stay up for days.
She frowned. "Perhaps I should call Jenny."
I shook my head. "Please don't. She's got to work, and she just had an amazing date. Please don't scare her with this. It won’t help anything, not really.
I could tell that Reikah wanted to argue, but ultimately, she nodded. "If you insist. But please, stay awake, whatever you have to do.
"I'll enlist Maahes’s help."
She frowned. "Ahh, yes, cats. They know everything about staying awake"
She had me there, but what could I do? I sent her off to bed for rest and settled down with my laptop and the largest cup of coffee I could manage. It was a great plan, I thought; it was too bad that everything was about to go crazy.