by A. J. Rand
I let the heat smolder in my eyes to match the intensity of the gaze he turned on me. To do anything else would’ve been an insult. Morpheus was an immortal and had been worshipped as a god for many centuries. It wasn’t hard for me to do. The man was hot.
His face split into a smile that displayed beautiful, even white teeth. “Only you, of all mortals could make me feel such heat, Yeshua. By the gods, I miss that.” He opened his arms and I crossed the room to step into his embrace.
“Only you, of all immortals can bring out such heat in me, Morpheus.”
It was a lie and he knew it. Morpheus and I had once been lovers, but now we only danced at the edges of heavy flirtation. As sensitive as I was to energy, it was hard for me not to become intoxicated with power when in the presence of most of the immortals. But I didn’t play with them as I did with Morpheus. He was safe to me. I couldn’t be that sure with any of the others.
He let me free of his embrace and stepped back to examine my hands. “He is a nasty one, isn’t he?”
“So it was you who sent the dreaming.”
Morpheus put on an affronted look. “You don’t honestly believe I would let the guy get this close to you without my protection, do you?”
“It was a little too real for comfort.”
“He rode the dream web and touched into the dreaming. He caught me off guard.”
Morpheus was embarrassed and looked away, offering me a seat next to him on the scattered pillows at out feet. The deep blue of his eyes turned to chiseled ice. “It will not happen again. I hate that I keep placing myself further in debt, even to someone as lovely as you, Yeshua.”
I put a gentle hand on his arm. “Your debt is no larger, Morpheus. I’ve never felt that there was a debt between us in the first place.”
“I know.” He wrapped his fingers over mine and looked at me with sincerity. “Which is why I have no problem being in your debt.”
Morpheus’ debt to me was based purely on his pride. I had come to him years ago, asking for insight into my repetitive nightmares. He couldn’t give me any. My dreamscape, past and future was blocked to him in ways he had never encountered before, with either mortals or immortals. He could step in and send the dreaming to me to help aid me in my work, but he couldn’t actually step into my dream world. The dreamings he sent were the price he paid for the debt he felt he owed me. He had answers for everyone else, except for me. While he hated to be reminded of the one failure in his immortal lifetime, he continued to look for an answer to absolve his debt. I was his greatest failure and his greatest challenge, all rolled into one.
I could feel the trace of his fingers as they slid up my arm to the back of my neck. Morpheus leaned in and murmured against the place on my neck where his fingers rested. “You never want to play any more.”
The warmth of his breath sent shivers of delight through my body. Combined with a self-enforced celibacy and the hazy edges of the opiates, the heat began to rise. I pulled back to break the connection to the energy that surrounded him like a cocoon.
It was hard for me to focus. “Morpheus–”
He sighed and shielded me from his touch.
I breathed with relief. He could have taken advantage of me and I would’ve been pretty much helpless to stop him. At one point in my life I hadn’t wanted to stop him. We had been lovers for three glorious months. There was something to be said for being lovers with someone who had several millennia of experience at his fingertips––literally. The memory sent shudders through my body. But for those three months, I was incommunicado with everyone. That was part of the reason Father David thought of Morpheus with distaste. I had accomplished nothing more than a pleasurable––okay, I admit, a very pleasurable––vacation. Reality had finally crept in and I had cut myself off from him and had gone back to work.
I hesitated, but brought my hand up anyway to caress his cheek. He closed his eyes and moved into the touch.
“Thank you.”
He laughed. “Most women thank me for what I do to them, not for stopping.”
I had to join his laughter. Morpheus wasn’t any more in love with me than I was with him. I only intrigued him because there was a part of me he couldn’t access. That had never happened to him before. Immortals are no different than the rest of us. They even started as mortal human beings. Everyone always desires most that which they can’t have.
“Chaz found the link to the dream stalker and hooked me up.”
It was unnecessary to say. Morpheus had already known. That’s why he had sent the dreaming. But I needed to create a separation between us, to draw the lines back from the realm of pleasure he assaulted me with, just by being in the vicinity.
“Yes.”
“So what do you know? Or better yet, what do I need to know?”
“This one has been working under my radar for sometime. There is more power to him than it first appears.”
Morpheus didn’t like admitting that he had not seen this guy crawl up through the ranks of controlling the dreamscape.
“How?”
He frowned, trying to puzzle it out loud. “I am not certain. There is a true duality to him that hid his face from me, I think. I sense both great good and the depths of darkness from him. It is hard for me to do a true seeing, because he shifts from one to the other so easily.”
It was my turn to frown. That didn’t sound good. “What does this mean?”
“That you need to be very careful with this one, Yeshua.”
“I’m always careful. What makes this one any different?”
“You are rarely careful.” Morpheus chided with a knowing look. “And the power that he calls upon is stronger than I have seen in a millennia. There is more to this one than meets the eye.”
“And you don’t know what it is?”
“I have my suspicions.”
“But you won’t share.”
The look that he gave me was troubled. “Not yet. I am hoping that I am wrong. If I am right–”
“Then what?”
He shook his head and looked away, avoiding direct contact with my eyes. Morpheus was spooked––and he didn’t want me to see how badly. A sick feeling started to tickle the pit of my stomach. This was going to get ugly.
“Okay, what can you tell me?”
“Don’t go for a direct attack. Not yet. I need a little more time.”
Yeah. It was going to get real ugly. I pushed up from the pillows cushioning me.
“You got it.”
Morpheus held me back by grabbing my arm. “I mean it, Yeshua. Take care with this one.”
His concerned look was so sincere I had a hard time swallowing past the fear he passed onto me.
“I promise, Morpheus. I will be careful.”
I leaned in to kiss his cheek and then pulled myself up from the floor. I left without looking back, because his words disturbed me. There were times when I could put on a front of arrogance that even I believed. This was not one of them. If Morpheus, revered as the god of dreams, felt fear from something in the dreamscape, I would be a fool to feel anything less.
The door to the antechamber opened as I walked toward it. I took a good, deep breath of fresh air before heading down to the twisted halls of darkness below.
Chapter 6
Just as Morpheus had told me, I was careful. Or at least I was careful on the ride back to my apartment. There was nothing I enjoyed more than riding the major roads and back streets of the city at top speeds. Whenever I left Morpheus, I tended to tone it down a bit. Operating heavy machinery does not mix well with opium. It left me wishing I had scored a second cup of coffee before I left Chaz and Pietra to their devices. But even if I had managed to get it to Morpheus’ place without spillage, it would only have made me drugged and wide-awake. So I took my time on the way home and was extra careful.
I left my bike in the unofficial parking garage of my apartment building and went to take the elevator to the second floor. It was unofficial, because as far
as the city was concerned, the space leased by the occupants of the warehouse was strictly for business use. No one officially lived here, yet all of the spaces were actually apartments. I wondered how much of a pay-off the landlord had to make to inspectors each year. It wasn’t my problem. I more than covered my share of the bribe money with the exorbitant prices I paid on my lease.
It was my lucky day. The elevator was functional. It was a crapshoot as to whether it worked from one day to the next. I frowned as I stepped inside and the doors closed behind me. There was a tangy, metallic taste to the stale air of the freight box lumbering its way to the second floor. It was subtle, so I barely noticed it at first. I knew the smell for what it was. The doors opened on my floor and the smell was stronger. A look down verified what I already knew. Blood.
It was streaked in spots across the floor, drawing a trail around the corner up ahead. My apartment door was around that corner. I stepped out of the freight elevator and moved forward slowly, reaching at the same time to the middle of my back where my weapon was tucked into my belt. I didn’t carry a gun. The things I dealt with were not the type to be taken down with bullets––not even silver ones.
Before I hit the corner of the hall, my fist was gripped tight to nine inches of layered carbon steel, its blue-black, wavy pattern glinting iridescent colors in the faded light of the hallway. It was a special blade given to me by Father David. The grip was smooth oak from an ancient, lightning-struck tree. A band of interlaced silver and gold circled the handle, carved with runes from a language so old that he couldn’t even tell me what they said. Silver crosses made up the guard, protruding between the blade and the grip on either side. At the cross point on both sides, a Seal of Solomon gleamed gold in contrast to the cross.
Father David told me it was one of a set of ancient blades specially made by the church for their elite demon slayers. I just called it my “Companion” and left it at that. My Companion has taken good care of me over the years.
I paused at the corner, preparing myself for whatever I might find. The edges of the opium still tickled a fog across my mind. That irritated me. This was no time for my senses and reflexes to be dulled. The sound of the freight elevator kicking into slow gear made me jump, as it started to move its way back down to the first floor. I didn’t know whether or not it was headed back up to my floor, but I couldn’t take the chance of being sandwiched between two unknown and potentially unfriendly fronts. I had to move now.
I did look before I leapt. A quick glance around the corner gave me a clear shot of a semi-conscious man leaned up against the wall across from my door. It seemed okay for the moment. I stepped cautiously around the corner, my Companion held in front of me. My eyes checked the shadows. There was nothing. I went to reach out with my other senses, when the man turned his eyes toward me. They were glazed with pain and I could tell he was hanging onto to consciousness by a thread.
The blood trail stopped where he sat and was coalescing into a small pool beneath him. There was a pleading in his eyes that called out to me. I was still leery. People in my line of work didn’t stay alive as long as I had by not playing it safe. The sound of the freight elevator moving again reminded me I might not have a lot of time.
I edged toward the man with caution, sending out my feelers as I went. It almost knocked me to my knees when I connected with him. I don’t recall the last time I had felt such power. He didn’t feel like an immortal. He also didn’t have that tarry, slimy feeling of evil, either. I’m not sure what he was.
He lifted a hand to me and tried to speak, nothing came out. The man slumped forward, unconscious, without a sound. A trick? Maybe, but I didn’t have time to work through it all. The elevator stopped at my floor. With my luck running the way it seemed to be at the moment, it meant another somebody headed my direction.
I worked my way around the man, but he didn’t move. Taking up a crouching, defensive position several feet past his immediate reach, I faced the direction of the new threat and waited. My heart was pounding in my chest and the adrenalin started pumping through my veins, helping to metabolize the remaining opiate haze in my system. The sound of footsteps crept slowly to the corner. Whoever it was, they moved with caution. That’s all right––I was ready for them.
Blond spikes tipped with black showed around the corner before the rest of the face. The tension fell away. It was Chaz. I stood up and took a few deep breaths to slow my pounding heart. When I looked up, the kid was coming around the corner with a concerned look on his face, his eyes darting from my Companion to the bloodied man and back again.
“Yesh, did you––?”
I shook my head and took a step closer to the unconscious man. “No. I found him this way.”
“Who is he?”
“Now that seems to be the question. I’ve never seen him before.”
“Then how––?”
“How about holding back on the questions while I check him out?”
Chaz opened his mouth and shut it again without another word.
Since the man was unconscious, I took advantage of a full probe with my non-physical senses. The level of power I had first sensed was still evident. There was nothing evil about the man, not in a demonic sense anyway. But there was definitely something wrong. It was nothing I could put a finger on. He felt familiar, but not. There was a struggle going on between his physical and metaphysical self––like they kept wanting to separate, and yet stay together at the same time. I had been around death before––that last moment of life where the spirit separates from the body and leaves to wherever it may be headed for the afterlife. This wasn’t the same. My confusion must have shown in my face.
“What’s wrong, Yesh?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know, kid. Let’s get him inside and see what we can find out.”
“Are you sure it’s okay––?”
I stood up the rest of the way and tucked my Companion back into place. “No. But it’s probably the only way we’re going to get any answers without having the guy die out here in my hallway.”
I unlocked the door to my apartment and swung it open. Chaz and I turned as one to get the man situated between us. We worked well as a team. At least I got a clue on where all of the blood was coming from now. It was oozing out from beneath the jacket covering his back. Chaz moved toward the couch once we got inside the door, but I shook my head.
“No––I want him in the bedroom. There’s more room to lay him out.”
The kid looked at me like he didn’t agree, but he didn’t argue.
Once inside the bedroom door, I moved to hold the guy up against the wall. “Run and grab the extra shower curtain from the bottom drawer in the bathroom, will you?”
Chaz helped me get the man propped into a place where I could hold his weight up by myself, and then ran to do what I had asked. Just because I wanted to lay the guy out, didn’t mean I wanted to ruin the sheets and mattress of my bed. Looking back across the apartment, I winced at the trail of blood we had left behind. That was going to involve a bit of scrubbing. I hoped the blood came out of my living room throw rug.
The kid was back quick, ripping open the box and shaking out the plastic curtain as he came. He tossed the box on the floor and spread the curtain out on the bed. It didn’t cover the whole surface, but it was enough, as long as we were careful about it. He came back to help me move the man the rest of the way into the room.
“I need him sitting up first.” I told Chaz as we juggled the dead weight between us to the bed. “We need to get his clothes off so I can see what the problem is.”
“You got it.”
A few minutes later, we had the guy lying face down on the bed in nothing but his briefs. We were both staring at his back, perplexed.
“I don’t see––” Chaz started and then moved in to look closer. I sat down on the bed, just as confused as he was. Blood was seeping slowly out of the man’s back, but it looked more as though it were oozing out of his pores in strips. T
here were no physical wounds that broke the surface of his skin that would give cause for the bleeding.
“What’s happening to him, Yesh?”
I shook my head and leaned closer, running my hands just above the surface of his skin. “I have no clue. Get me some wet cloths to clean this up?”
Chaz was back out of the room in a flash. He was good that way. He might be annoying sometimes, but he was the best I could have asked for in an assistant. Especially a self-appointed assistant I had never asked for in the first place. He kept a cool head in a crisis and did what I asked without question. It was the in-between times when I couldn’t always get him to shut up. But I dealt with my issues. It was a small price to pay for good help.
The man moaned and turned his head toward me. His eyes were still glazed with pain. I tried to put on my best face of reassurance, but I really wasn’t good at it.
“Hold in there, fella.” I tried for a smile. My bet was that it looked more like a grimace. “We’ll see what we can do for you, but I need you to keep still.”
He stared at me for a long moment before nodding. Even that small movement seemed to cause him a lot of pain. I adjusted my position to get closer to his upper back, where the majority of the blood seemed to seep out of his skin. I heard Chaz in the doorway behind me and I went to reach without looking for the cloths I knew he would have ready.
Something caught my eye and I moved my hand instead toward the neck of the man on the bed. With his face turned toward me, it had brought a raised mark into view on the right side of his neck. I looked closer. It appeared to be runes of some kind, but not quite. The markings looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t place them. I frowned, reaching out to run my fingers over the surface. The man jerked as though burned and his voice rasped a warning in my ears.
“Don’t––”
But it was too late. Blackness slid across my vision, the room fading away around me.