by Black Deja
Aiden’s response was calm, his voice eerily opposite Keith’s own. “That is where you are wrong, Keith. He is not to be owned. You don’t possess a coimeádaí. The keeper owns you. Protects you.” Aiden looked down at Dan, who watched him quietly.
Everything Keith said was true. Dan hadn’t forgotten the many times Keith had proven how under his boot Dan genuinely was. How could Aiden want him after that, still love him when at one time he was nothing but Keith’s rubbish pile?
Aiden continued, and Dan just listened. “Loves you. Allows you to rest.” The light in his eyes pulsed as he spoke to Keith but gazed at Dan. “Your spirit is given life through his blessing it.” Turning back to Keith, his tone even made Dan shiver. The room temperature plummeted, moving quickly toward icy. “You never got that in the hundreds of years you existed, Keith. You were a gift to be given, as I am for my mate. It is true. I had grown tired of fighting, of living, of being without a family. My own brothers would not take me in out of fear of what I could do to them rather than for them. But now… now I have a family, people who will accept me with my mate, take me to live with them in their home.”
Dan looked at Aiden, shocked for a moment. How did Aiden know… but how could he not? His father was Alpha, and Aiden had an entire wealth of knowledge that lay strewn at his feet. It only made sense, and it made his father’s request of bringing his mate home so much easier.
“Dan has given me a home, given me a place, given me shelter. He is strong, and not just for a human. Your control will never make him weak again. Where’s your home, Keith? Where’s your shelter? Who will give you rest when you will not allow it to be given to you? Who will share his power with you, help you channel? Stop you from becoming the thing of nightmares? You’re a monster even among us.”
Keith’s furnace turned to kindling before Aiden’s icy storm, his steps faltering as he retreated from the sharpness of his words. “I don’t need you. I don’t need any of you.” He spun to face the outside of the stage. “Darren, my love. Come to me.”
Darren? Dan had wondered why he hadn’t heard from him. “Shit.” How had he let this happen? In his bubble with Aiden, he had failed the one person who was like a son to him. They all had his number, but only Darren texted him regularly. He hadn’t even given him a thought, had never wondered about the lapse in communication. And now he stood, eyes glazed, barely cognizant of anything around him.
“Ah, you remember him now, do you?” Keith asked as Darren walked toward him slowly, his moves stilted. He had lost the fluidness that often carried him. Such an eager kid, music moved him as it had often moved Dan, as it had his father. Dan wanted to be better than Curry had been to him. And he’d forgotten him. “He’s been so lonely, Daniel. Needed someone to talk to, but you weren’t there. Naturally, someone had to help. Someone he could depend on.”
Dan watched helplessly as Darren neared Keith, who wrapped his arm around him, rubbed his chin against his hair gently, Darren’s tiny curls moving slightly as Keith inhaled him.
Turning to Aiden, Dan asked, “What’s he doing?”
“He’s breathing in his energy. It’s only one of the ways that your force can be harnessed.”
Dan could guess at least one of the others. He looked back, disgusted, as Keith’s hands traveled Darren’s body.
“You never told me about him, did you, Dan? Kept this treasure all to yourself. He’s such a good boy too. Does exactly what I tell him, and he smells so delicious.”
“You asshole! Have you—”
“What, Dan? Are you worried? Where have you been all this time, when he needed someone, needed you? Do you care now? He loves coffee, walks in the park, to be held in my arms at night.” The tilt of Keith’s lips gave away how cruel he could be, his words revealing how deeply he had weaved himself into Darren’s world. “No, I haven’t tasted him… yet. But I will. I wanted you to see your replacement first. Kneel, Darren.”
Instantly, Darren dropped to his knees. He was a puppet, and it nearly broke Dan to see one of his favorite kids so damaged. From what he could tell, there wasn’t a mark on him, no sign of the years of abuse Dan had suffered with Keith.
“Look at how easy it is. This is what you should have been.” Fingers carded through Darren’s hair, drifted down to encase a long brown neck. One finger canted a round chin to the side. “Looking for bruises? See, I know your every thought, your every concern. But no, there is no need, Daniel. You see, the problem with you was that you always fought me, always tried to get away. I had to constantly put you under, constantly waste energy to watch you. Who knew how easy it would be to find another coimeádaí. He’s young, yes, but he’s mine.
“Notice how well he listens to me. I love his mind, so fresh and tasty, his scent aromatic. It’s like dessert each and every day. Much like his young friends, who are no doubt dealing with your pack of wild dogs right now.” Keith’s laugh echoed throughout the auditorium.
Aiden’s grip on Dan’s hand tightened, mirroring his own. True, he hadn’t heard from his family since they left, but he couldn’t worry about them. Dan had to trust his people to take care of themselves and not harm his students as he sought for a way to get to Darren.
“Darren!” he shouted.
Brown eyes flickered clearly for a moment and rested on him. “Mr. T?” Darren’s voice was worried, fearful. He looked around the room as if he was unsure about where he was.
Immediately, Dan attempted to step forward, but flames erupted between them, drawing him to a halt.
“Nuh, uh-uh, Daniel. You’d try to take him from me. I just wanted you to see how happy I was for your gift.” A twist to those lips revealed teeth sharper than a human’s. “Come, Darren. Daniel isn’t quite ready to let you go.” Darren faced his master, who embraced him with a twinkle in his ruby red eyes as he all but laughed at Dan outright. “Mine,” he mouthed to him.
And they were gone.
“Wait! Oh, wrath of the Goddess, Aiden. Where? Where did he take him? Please!” Dan turned to Aiden, fear drenching his words.
Aiden held him tightly, gripping his shoulders. “The Land of Dreams,” he whispered.
When Dan’s family poured back in, they each looked tired and drained. Conner was frustrated and bruised, Shelly disheveled, and Jeremiah was not at all happy with Kristoff, who, of course, was the only one who appeared completely unruffled. The students who followed them were confused and dazed but unhurt, which was all Dan could ask for.
“Danny?” his father questioned while Shelly ran to check him over thoroughly. Little licks of what had to be her power crawled along his skin as she touched him here and there.
“There’s nothing wrong with me, Shelly, but….”
“He has one of Daniel’s students. Darren. We will have to go into the Land of Dreams to find them,” Aiden informed them, standing alert at Dan’s back. “But it is something we must do alone.”
“Yes, I understand. Go now while his trail is present,” rumbled Jeremiah. Dan could see how hard it was for his father to contain his beast, a real testament to his own strength warring against his instinct to protect his son.
Dan felt Aiden’s arms wrap around him as they too disappeared.
SO THIS is what it’s like to be awake in a dream, Dan thought.
Aiden had shed his humanly body, and now Dan looked at his beautiful, shining warrior with pride. He felt more than heard his acquiescence. Aiden took his hand, and they moved hurriedly to intercept Keith.
Aiden called back to Dan, warning him to not let go as they ran through clouds of smoke, struggled through fears made real and terrible visions, nightmares. Dreams, even happy ones, could be horrible, dangerous when you were not the dreamer. Avoiding giant pieces of cake, ducking hideous creatures, leaping over buildings, and flying past superheroes, they raced on.
And suddenly, Keith was there. His claws sank into Darren’s shoulders while he held him, fangs piercing his neck as he drank.
“Give back the boy,” Aiden dem
anded while Dan caught his breath.
“Why should I give him back when you have stolen from me,” Keith hissed.
“Daniel was never yours. Neither is the young coimeádaí you hold in your grasp. Return him to my keeper.”
“Fuck you. You want him? Come and take him, fhaireoir!” The monstrosity that was Keith threw Darren away from him and moved in front of the boy like a dog defending its prey. Flames erupted from his maw, aimed at Aiden, but rather than allowing them to hurt him, Aiden embraced them. His glow became stronger, his wings pouring from his back as he faced down his brother.
“I would have loved you!” His pain was so immense in its depth. “You and I would not have been alone any longer,” Aiden cried as he fought, a white-hot flame becoming a sword. The luminosity was blinding, its brilliance awesome, as he wielded it against Keith. He struck once, twice, and then was jettisoned back by the balls of fire Keith blasted from his scaled palms. One caught its target and forced Aiden’s light to dim, terrifying Dan.
“Fuck you and your pitiful cries for family. Who needs a family, needs power, when I can have this world at my feet? I am God here!” Keith screamed. “They plead to me here. They would have done the same for you had you not hidden yourself away, trying to heal these weak vermin. Allowed your bitch to claim you!”
Dan could feel Aiden’s agony, his sorrow at having to battle another of his brothers. It weighed him down, leaving him vulnerable to Keith and the explosions he used to extinguish Aiden’s light. But no, Dan would not be forced to lose his mate, the entity that was given to him to protect, not even by Aiden himself.
Running forward between Keith and Aiden, he faced the monster that had terrorized him for years, had tried to take away a student he loved like his own son, and now hoped to end his lover’s existence. The fuck that would ever happen!
“And what do you think you can do to stop this? If he won’t fight for himself, do you think he’ll fight for you?” Keith growled as he circled Dan.
“He won’t have to, you asshole. I will fight for him. He’s mine. He’s my family. He’s my mate.” With each word he propelled the demon version of Keith farther and farther back. He felt the power that made him coimeádaí churning within. “What is in him burns in me and is made greater by my love. I was created that he might live to destroy you and others like you.” The tendrils of fog around them floated back and forth. “He may not want to end you, but I have no problem with it at all.” Reaching back, Dan tore the bluish-white sword from Aiden’s grasp, felt the horrible blistering against his skin, and hurtled it into Keith’s body. He raised his arm to protect his eyes as the dream world exploded into red-hot dust that glimmered all about him.
Looking around, Dan saw Keith was gone. Where was Darren? Aiden? He turned around, searching. Was it over? If this was it, shouldn’t he be back on the stage, Aiden with him?
“Daniel?” a soft voice questioned.
He shivered, chills racing over his spine. Turning back to where Keith disappeared, he was able to distinguish a figure. The fog that drifted around her made it difficult for Dan to see. No matter what the vapors attempted to hide, he could see the color of her sable hair, glimpse the olive of her satiny skin, skin that glowed like it once did before her own body sought to cannibalize her. He saw her as she was before he was robbed of the only other person he could always depend on.
Sarai Tolliver looked beautiful, the shimmering dress she wore a rich burgundy, the perfect complement to the healthy sheen of her skin. Her smile was warm and loving, her arms openly inviting Dan to come to her.
“Mom,” Dan croaked.
His mother was standing in front of him, and it was breaking his heart. He couldn’t breathe. All the pain he felt when he was forced to let her go came rushing back, all the tears he thought would never end when her body was placed in the ground cresting over. He had never gone back to the gravesite. Why would he? That empty shell was no comparison to the vibrant woman she once was, a joyful person who embodied life, who made all who knew her feel welcome. That husk didn’t deserve to be honored when her life was so much more than the hull left behind.
But there she stood, mahogany eyes wet with tears, looking at him with such longing, such need, that he didn’t hesitate to step forward. To feel her arms around him once more, it was all he could do not to run to her.
“Oh, baby. My baby boy. I’ve missed you so much.”
His own cheeks were wet as he moved closer, sought the comfort of her arms. Reaching her, he held on tightly, placed his head against her shoulder, and reveled in those tiny hands drifting through his hair.
“My boy. My baby.”
“Mom,” he groaned.
Distantly he heard a voice calling him, but the cotton in his ears was so thick, he could barely make out his name. It didn’t matter. What mattered was that he held his mother in the circle of his own arms, felt her strength. Not the papery, shrunken skin that wrapped bones, but a warm and supple body that embraced him, tears soaking through his shirt, chanting his name over and over again softly.
“I can’t believe it. Can’t believe you’re here.”
But then that was it, wasn’t it? She couldn’t be here, couldn’t be in his arms, holding him, touching him, because she was dead. No matter how much he wanted this to be real, cancer had taken her away. It had broken Jeremiah’s heart and left him grieving for years, refusing to take another mate, to love another the way he had loved this woman. Dan was with her when the last breath had left her body, as she gripped his hand tightly in her own, as Jeremiah lay next to her, begging her to not leave him, to never let go. He heard Jeremiah promise to watch out for her boys, to always love them.
His mother was gone.
I could give you this, Daniel.
The words crawled over his body, little pinpricks perforating his soul.
I could give her back to you, make your family whole again.
Promises were whispered in his ear, followed by a phantom lick along his nape.
“My baby. I’ve missed you so. It was so dark, so cold where I was. You’re so warm, Daniel. So warm.” Tiny caresses along his arms, on his back. “How is Jeremiah? I want to see him, see my husband. My mate, Daniel.”
Sarai—or the thing that was his mother—held on tighter, refusing to let him go. The more Dan tried to move back, to force her to release him, the more steel her arms gained, until he was wrapped and struggling for freedom. And Dan thought the beatings Keith had given him hurt. No pain was worse than being this close, to touch her and not actually have her. He sobbed, the ache was so great, the pain of loss destroying him all over again.
You’ve only to submit to me, Daniel. Be my coimeádaí. Be to me what you are to the watcher. I can give you this. Make it real. Make her real.
Dan’s wail was tortured as he nearly fell, but his mother or the creature held on, crooning to him, pleading with him.
“I want to go home, Daniel. Take me home. It was so dark, so cold. Take me with you, baby. Don’t make me go back there.”
His cheeks were wet, his breaths jarring as he choked on his grief.
Your every wish, Daniel. I could do this for you. Let me do this for you. Forget. Let him go.
“I love you so much, Daniel.”
He was growing weaker, losing. It would be so easy to just say yes. He could have his mother back. His father could stop looking around for a woman who would never come home again. It would be so easy… if he could let Aiden go. But he couldn’t. He loved Aiden. He needed him, and Aiden needed him just as much. He could hear it then, hear his name being chanted again and again, stronger now, feeding him energy, clearing his vision.
“No, baby. Don’t do it. Don’t make me go back. Let me come home.” The thing began to shriek and scream, began to tear her own hair from her scalp, claw away her skin, bones falling away broken and soaked in brackish red blood. “No! No! No!”
Dan watched in horror as chunks of her body fell, dripping in viscous liquid to th
e ground, watched as maggots flooded out of her eye sockets. He stood frozen as worms dripped from her lips while she howled and ranted, her head rolling from her body, until she drenched the earth in her decay and was no more. He gathered himself.
“You fucker! You fucking asshole!” Dan shouted as he rose, spinning around and around, looking for Keith, watching for the beast, the other form of the man he’d once thought he loved. It was all a lie, everything. But no, not everything. Aiden was not a lie. Aiden loved him, was calling to him.
A rush of red hit him without warning. Flying backward, he was slammed onto his back, the air whooshing from his chest. Before he could move, Keith was there in his other form, his shoulders on fire as he sank his talons into him, his wickedly sharp fangs shining, his forked tongue seeking entry.
“Mine,” he growled. “You were mine.” There was a wet sucking to his voice as he brought his head closer to Dan, a grimace of pain on his face, if that was even the word for the monstrosity bearing down on him. “I will kill you before I let him have you, bitch. I will fuck your pretty hole and your little cunt over there.” Darren? “And cleave your skin from your bones before he will ever get the chance to hold you again.”
Acid splayed across his cheek as that forked whip found its mark, dancing over him, caustic as it tormented his body. Dan screamed. He kicked viciously, trying to wound, to hurt.
“Then, I will rid the Earth of its watcher. There are others more deserving, others who will feed my power and die happy to do it. You never appreciated me, were never grateful.” Dan’s face was sliced open as Keith reached back and struck him, his skin ablaze. The coppery scent assaulted his nostrils.