“And what, you think we should just control everything?” I ask.
“No,” Lorien says. “But I think in a world as lost as this one, every good influence helps. So we’re all grateful that we get to know Joey and be new friends who can give him a different look at the world.”
I sigh because it’s a problem I’ve had no idea how to deal with. Joey was first shown racy images and videos when he was around eight, at school.
I tried to explain to him that those images weren’t good to look at, but I didn’t want to shame his natural impulses.
Luckily, he was repulsed, and from then on, I told him to tell others he didn’t want to look at things like that.
Things for adults.
I try to put parental controls on the internet. But every once in a while, I hear one of his teammates coming through the mic, all of the young boys there yelling that they just “raped” their opponents, and I have to admit maybe Lorien is right.
Maybe this world is just screwed up.
But it’s still my world, and I love the people in it.
And most of all, I’m not going to let my world, and Joey’s world, revolve around someone else ever again.
It would be silly.
I turn to watch Joey as Reve kneels by him on the grass, explaining something that has Joey looking my way with a small smile.
The next moment, blue sparks snap around Joey’s hand, and a glowing miniature blue whip appears in his palm.
He makes a yelp and tries to start flinging it around at imaginary foes in front of him, but the whip disappears, leaving only a few crackles of electricity in the air around his hand.
I jog to the backyard just in time to see Reve smile and pat a happy Joey on the head, ruffling his red hair. My protectiveness wants me to step in, but the moment is so sweet and innocent.
And Joey looks from Reve to me with such pride.
He runs up and throws his arms around my waist and looks up at me. “Did you see that? I had a whip! I’m cool like Reve.” He points, and I try not to feel slightly jealous at his admiration. “He’s a superhero. Now I’m one too.” Joey sucks in a deep breath. “And did you know I always thought I had wings, and I do? That’s so cool. You do also!”
He grins, and I’m grateful for the imagination of a child that takes in all of this and doesn’t even wonder at it.
What would have happened, though, if Reve hadn’t shown up? Would Joey, like me, always have stayed dormant? No whip, no adventure?
I grin, thinking that no matter what, this has been an adventure.
Reve stands and talks to Jerrek for a moment while I let Joey excitedly tell me all about using his whip.
God, I love this little man. I would do anything for him, I think, stroking my hand over his back.
One day, will he grow strong and proud like Reve? It’s so hard to imagine, but it makes my heart hurt and swell at the same time.
My little warrior.
I bend down to kiss Joey on the top of the head, and he pretends not to like it while blushing. Then he runs off to try pulling out his whip again, gesturing wildly in the air.
“See?” Lorien says, catching up to us. “Not a problem. Young warriors love training.”
I smile, relief waving over me. “I guess so.”
Reve joins us, and my whole body sparks just at seeing him. So handsome, so tall. Those teal eyes, that ash-blond hair that hides his true hair.
He’s wearing a white tee shirt today that is absolutely devastating on his pectorals, and his whole good-guy bearing is just really doing it for me today.
To be honest, it does it for me every day. But today, with the sunlight and friends and my son actually happy, I’m just feeling good.
And it’s scary but relieving to just accept that feeling good might be the norm from now on.
“How about a date?” Reve asks, sliding in and putting his warm, reassuring hand on my waist. There’s something so calming and healing about just being around him. His soothing energy. The sense that I am utterly safe with him around.
Even if it’s just his self-control, which both Lorien and Jerrek say is the best of all three of them.
But he still almost lost it with his whip that day. However, I can’t hate him for it. Mark deserved it, and Joey is fine with it, and life is moving on.
So I guess I can too.
“A date?”
“Yes,” Reve says. “Tess and Lorien offered to watch Joey, who of course insists he doesn’t need a babysitter.” Reve’s eyes twinkle with fondness. “He’s going to be a good little warrior, that one. Independent but strong and moral. He knows what’s right and wrong. You’ve trained him well.”
I grin. “I worked hard. I’m not a dream fae you know.”
“Not yet,” Reve says. “You will be.”
My chest tightens slightly, but I just smile. In my mind, it’s too late to be anything but human, but I’m here to enjoy the ride. “We’ll see. What did you have in mind for a date?”
“Sunset drive?” Reve asks. “Show me some of your world when it’s prettiest. Then we can stop and eat a picnic, made by me of course, and just talk.” He wiggles his eyebrows. “See what happens.”
I giggle, shoving at him playfully. But then I run to my room to get ready because, after everything that’s happened, I could really use a date.
14
Reve
I am highly suspicious of my mate’s vehicle.
It makes terrible noises, like metal clinking and rumbling in a cylinder, and it stops very roughly.
It almost smells vaguely of human blood or perhaps rust, as Jen would say.
It didn’t start the first time she put the key in, and she had to press the accelerator multiple times, uttering some prayer to her deity as if pure luck could make this machine go.
It did start but then appeared to have trouble stopping, with Jen slamming hard on the brakes multiple times.
I offered to take a look at it, but she said to wait until after the date.
That the car had never let her down, unlike most things.
And I don’t want to ruin things by arguing with her.
But it seems like the car is going to let her down eventually.
And I get that money is tight due to Joey’s new private school and Jen’s high bills.
But I can literally make her a new car. Or buy her one. Or fix this one.
And yet this is what she insists she drives.
But I try to remember Jerrek’s advice, that I need to respect what Jen wants no matter what.
Still, if this car tries to betray us, I’m transforming it in an instant, no matter what Jen says.
As we stop at a stoplight, I pray that this beast doesn’t break down completely, leaving us at the mercy of any human blowing through the intersection.
Not only do humans pilot extremely fast, heavy vehicles at all times, but there is nothing to make sure they aren’t piloting them drunk, on drugs or otherwise compromised.
There are punishments, yes, for after.
But considering anyone in any condition could be on the road at any time, I don’t feel that safe here.
Even if I could just poof Jen and me out of trouble.
Jen looks right and left, the car stuttering ominously beneath us. The cracked leather seats bounce below me as the engine jerks and sputters, hating idling.
“Please, please let me buy you another car,” I say desperately as she hits the gas and takes us through the intersection.
“With what money?” She glances at me, then returns her attention to the road. “What, are you just going to poof one out of thin air?”
“I’ll have you know that transformations or materializations at this level take the equivalent of a human PhD to master,” I say snippily.
She grins. “Hmm, smart guy, eh?”
I frown. “Smart enough to know this thing is a deathtrap.”
She shakes her head. “No one is allowed to insult Sally. She’s been a loyal
friend to us all.”
I sigh. “Then can I at least fix Sally?”
“No,” she says. “Reve, I told you. I like having you in my life. But you don’t just get to change or fix everything that doesn’t suit you.”
She pulls up to the overlook we were driving to, and there’s a concrete barrier overlooking a gray-taupe beach and a gray-blue ocean beyond it.
The car sputters to a halt, jerking us as it stops, and she happily hops out, carefully replacing the door on its hinges after.
I carefully open my door and shut it because sometimes it feels like parts of this thing are just going to fall off.
“Good girl,” Jen says, patting it as she walks around the back to open the trunk. “Good thing I always have a blanket.”
I grab the blanket for her, then snap my fingers, causing a lunch basket to appear in my hands.
I’m proud of my materializations.
“That looks amazing,” she says. “Like something out of a magazine.”
“Only the best for my mate,” I say.
She flushes, but I see that slight hesitation in her eyes that’s always there when I talk about the future.
But I love looking in those beautiful brown eyes with their curled slightly red lashes. And I love the way her soft body is encased in a red sweatshirt that counters the flaming shade of her hair, the pale beauty of her skin.
I love her profile as she turns to look at the ocean, pulling her sweatshirt around her as we head down the sandy steps that lead to the beachfront.
It’s a cloudy, stormy day, and though I’d like to change it for her, it would probably confuse the human weather people.
And the oracle of this world told us not to interfere too much in human affairs.
Plus, there’s something beautiful about this weather, I think as I snap my fingers so that a soft black blanket appears around Jen’s shoulders.
She smiles at me, pulling it tighter, and then keeps her attention on the stairs.
When she nearly slips on some sand, I grab her around the waist, pulling her close to me. God, I love her curves.
Her soft skin.
Her strong beliefs.
The way she melts against me for a moment every time I touch her and then fires up and seems to feel like she shouldn’t have melted so easily.
But that’s just natural with your mate.
When we reach the beach, the sky is a painting of silver and blue and white, the clouds hovering in white wisps with silver streams from the setting sun and deepening blue from the oncoming twilight.
“I’m glad we had some time to look at the human world,” she says as I take the blanket from the trunk and lay it out on the sand.
We sit down on it together, propping ourselves up on our elbows so we can watch the waves.
The ocean roils, sea mist spraying the air as giant waves curl and crash, sending the tide forward to tickle the sand, dampening it and retreating with froths of foam.
“This is beautiful,” I say. “If I lived in the human world, maybe I would live by the ocean.”
She snorts. “You have to pay for that.”
“I’m sure I could find a well-paying job here,” I say. “With my skills at materialization and illusions.”
“Ha, like you’d just pop cars out of thin air?”
“Sure,” I say. “If they want me to.”
“No way,” she says. “Humans get wind of your power and they’re going to capture and put you in a lab. Or on TV. Or something.”
I look over at her. “So even you admit humans are pathetic and untrustworthy, yet you want to stay here.”
“Not all humans,” she says, looking up at the sky. “My parents were good people, though they died young. There are good people around. But humans as a whole? Yeah, I don’t know about that one. I try just to think about my own little world. Taking care of who I can.”
I suck in a deep breath, ready to do battle. I know I should care more about the date, but someone has to say this. “Jen, using that car is not really taking care of Joey. Or you.”
Her gaze is sharp. “What do you mean? Nothing has happened to us.”
“So far,” I say. “But it’s honestly not safe.” I sigh. “How about a compromise? You let me get a job and earn the money, and I can buy you an actual car.”
She frowns. “I can’t let you do that.”
“We’re dating, right?” I ask. “We’re together. I mean, I agreed to stay here in the human world with you as long as I could.”
“True,” she says, considering it.
“Look,” I say, reaching over to gently brush her hair back and graze her cheek with my thumb. “You’re so precious to me. I don’t want anything to happen to you or Joey. And I know you hate giving up control, and you have good reason. Because someone betrayed you and used it wrong. But I promise I mean no ill will, and I expect nothing for it. But please, please, for the love of all that is holy in the human world, let me get you a car.”
She laughs, then rolls over, pinning me with her smaller body. “All right, all right. I know when I’ve lost. But you seriously don’t owe me anything, Reve. Least of all a car.”
“Then it will still make me feel better knowing that you and Joey are protected.”
“All right,” she says. “But you have to earn the money and not just poof it, okay? I don’t want anything unethical, and I need a regular car on human roads.”
I nod. “I’ll do it the old-fashioned way. A way of showing you I’m trying to fit in your world.”
She sighs happily. “After today, I can really see a future for us here.”
I frown slightly, not wanting this to turn into an argument. I still can’t believe anyone would want to willingly stay in this dangerous world. “I’m glad you can see a future,” I say carefully.
“I do,” she says. “It’s a little scary because I never expected this to happen. I expected to stay alone. I expected to just go about life as usual. But everything turned upside down. And the worst part is I like it.” She smiles at me.
“Why is that the worst part?”
“Because I still don’t think I deserve it, any of it, after what I exposed Joey to,” she says.
My heart pounds painfully at what she’s been through. “What Mark exposed Joey to.”
She nods.
“Hey, tell me about Sally,” I say, leaning back on the sand, hoping to relax and distract her. Her ex is a horror, but he’s in the past. I’m her future. “Why do you love that car so much when it’s so broken down?”
“I guess she’s a little like me,” she says. “She’s been through a lot, and she just keeps chugging.” She sucks in a breath, looking nervous. “Plus, she’s the reason I was able to leave Mark in the first place. I was so young and poor. I had Joey at eighteen, so you do the math. Mark found me when I was working full time at a grocery store after both of my parents died.”
I nod. “You had it rough.”
“So of course I believed Mark and his promises. And by the time I realized it was all lies and he’d manipulated a young and impressionable girl, it was too late. I was already pregnant.”
I just keep listening.
“I never thought about not having Joey. I felt deep in my heart that I wanted him, and I would take care of him at all costs. But Mark didn’t want him. He saw him as a bother, someone to take away my attention. That’s when he went from yelling to being actually verbally abusive. When Joey was old enough to understand what was going on, I was ready to leave, but I had no idea how to.”
“I see.”
“I had no family. No friends then. But one of the customers at the grocery store mentioned he was trying to get rid of his ex-wife’s old car, and when I asked the price, he said free if I could get it off his property in two hours. So I did.”
“I see.”
“I packed up that night, took off to a motel, and was free from there.” She brushes back a red lock, her beautiful hair windblown from sea breeze. “The res
t is history.”
“I’m grateful to Sally, then,” I say. “And to you for being so enterprising. That was brave of you.”
“It was, wasn’t it?” Jen grins at me. “I did okay. And Joey’s okay. And I’m here with you.” She smiles as she lies flat on her back, gazing at the sky again. “I guess everything worked out just fine.”
I stare at her, still sad that I can’t take the pain away. That I wasn’t here to protect her when she needed me so long ago.
But this isn’t about me.
“Tell me what you want now,” I say, rolling over to prop myself over her with one hand. “We can talk more about the past or the future. Or eat our picnic or—”
She wraps her hands around my neck, beaming up at me. Then she pulls me down for a kiss as sea breeze blows around us, cooling our skin.
She pulls back and smiles up at me, looking radiant, so beautiful I can barely breathe. “Anything with you is heaven,” she says. “It has been since you arrived.”
Then I kiss her because I don’t know what else to say.
All I know is that I love her, and I’m going to show her in every moment I can.
15
Jen
Kissing Reve like this, on a cloudy day by a turbulent ocean, with cool sand beneath my back is the most real things have felt for us.
It’s the opposite of the lush, vibrant dreamscapes Reve creates for us in my dreams.
It’s real, and as Reve deepens the kiss and heat rises in me, my hands fall from around his neck to grab the blanket beneath us, brushing the malleable sand.
It’s not the most comfortable position. No silk or down mattresses or regal setting. We aren’t on clouds.
But just here with the real sky above us, on a date, kissing, laughing… it’s like the youth I wish I’d had.
I feel like a teenager here with him, and it makes me feel slightly guilty because I gave up a normal youth when I decided to be a mom.
In Her Dreams Page 10