Tears burned in her eyes as she nodded. “You sure do,” she said, her voice choked.
Strangely, despite the sadness, she felt done here in this moment. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him deeply, putting all of her love into it. “Bye, Noah,” she whispered into his ear. “I will always love you.”
“Bye, baby,” Noah said cheerfully, already turning his attention back to the plastic crate, in search of another record. “I’ll page you tomorrow. Love you.”
Chloe drank him in with one last glance before sliding out of the booth. Seth was waiting outside, looking at her expectantly and she gave him a teary smile. “I’m good.”
“I’m glad.” Seth unexpectedly reached out and caught a falling tear from her cheek, cupping her face in his big hand for a brief moment. “I’m fairly sure that your mind didn’t dream him up so you had a real goodbye. When he wakes up again in his afterlife, he won’t remember most of this. What he does remember, he’ll think was a dream.”
Chloe’s face tingled from the warmth of his hand. ‘You’re unbelievably comforting, Seth. Thank you.”
“That’s what hybrid angels do. We comfort humankind who are suffering.” Seth turned around, searching the crowd for Laurie and Nicola. He spotted them at the bar and moved Chloe in their direction. “We need to get our hands on the Book of Secrets before your time runs out.
Luckily, I have a plan.”
Chloe’s heart was beating rapidly as they headed back to her friends waiting but for an entirely different reason. Her body still tingled after Seth’s brief touch and she felt flushed and maybe a little aroused. She ran through all the reasons in her head why being attracted to a hybrid angel in a dream realm where she had no control was a bad idea but still she felt the pull.
******
They had moved to a table in the back of the club to discuss Seth’s plan for getting them out of this mess. The club was fully packed now, the loud music coming from the many speakers around the place vibrating the floor.
“Ok, so we’ve narrowed down the location of the book to two places – your old apartment in Pasadena or your storage unit in Glendale.” Seth looked at all three women as they nodded in agreement. “It would be easier to just move ourselves there using the power of the dream realm but that’s not possible because Alexander’s realm works a little differently than our normal one. He is the only one who has that ability here. So, Chloe and I will go to the storage unit and you two will go to your old apartment. I have a car outside and I’ll drop you off there so that you can begin the search.”
“Finding that book is not going to be easy,” Laurie commented. “What if we’re wrong and it’s not at either place?”
“Then, it’s going to be a dark day for you and every real person in this dream realm,” Seth replied, his tone serious. “As long as the book is out of his possession, Alexander is vulnerable. He’s waited for the right time to bring you here and if he doesn’t get it, he will wreak
havoc. I don’t know that I have the power to stop him.”
“We’re going to be dust here and dead in the real world, aren’t we?” Nicola asked, her voice scared and small.
“I’ll do my best to keep you all safe.” Seth looked at Chloe intensely for a moment. “It’s time. Let’s go.”
Seth lead the way for them as they moved through the throng of people to the entrance of the club. They stepped outside, coming down the stairs to the valet area and the balmy summer heat hit caught Chloe off guard. She hadn’t expected it to be so real but outside under a night sky
full of bright stars was the ever exhilarating Sunset Boulevard. Cars filled with rowdy kids, barely out of their teens, were bumper to bumper and rap and dance music could be heard blaring from each car from a long distance. The Hollywood cruising scene was just as she remembered
it.
Seth lead them to his big SUV parked around the back of the place and helped them inside, Nicola and Laurie taking the back seats with Chloe riding shotgun. Just as he was pulling out of the parking space, a big white truck blocked them in. The driver got out and headed for them.
Laurie gasped from the back seat. “Good God,” she said in disbelief. “It’s Byron.”
******
Alexander
Alexander had fed on the spiritual energy from the girl in the club so he was feeling just fine at the moment, strong and confident in his success. He had brought those three meddling bitches to his realm where he was in control and he had high expectations of retrieving his Book of Secrets very soon. He smiled darkly. Their lives depended on it, after all.
He was watching them right now in the parking lot from his vantage point and was pleased to see them accompanied by the hybrid bastard Seth. Angels, especially hybrids, weren’t all sweetness and light and he knew that Seth may be his undoing if he didn’t stay strong and keep one step ahead. He almost looked forward to fighting him again, feeling superior as his recent victim’s energy coursed through him.
Alexander was focused particularly on the one named Nicola. She was a fiery little piece of ass, of course, but still she had aroused him sexually and piqued his curiosity. She may be of some use to him later. He hadn’t been the Dream King for over two centuries without learning
how to manipulate a situation to his satisfaction.
He had never believed in or had time for love and so, when presented with an opportunity to sell his soul to Hell for his dream power, he had taken it greedily with both hands. Here, in his dream realm, he wielded great power and had done much to further Hell’s treacherous agenda.
He had also become capable of extreme cruelty.
Alexander had seen a great many changes in Los Angeles over the past two hundred years but mankind’s capacity for fucking each other over for money, power, and sex never changed. This simple truth guaranteed that the Dream King’s position in Hell’s hierarchy would never be challenged. He would always be needed as an agent of darkness.
If those three bitches failed to return his Book of Secrets, they would discover first-hand just how dark things could get.
******
Laurie
“Quick, let me out,” Laurie said, her breath catching in her throat as her heart did somersaults. Byron, here after so many years of not seeing his face? She whispered a quick thank you to God for miracles, answered prayers, and all that as she scrambled to get out of the back of Seth’s SUV.
“Alexander may have conjured him up from your memory, Laurie,” Seth warned her from the driver’s seat, unlocking the back doors. “He may be just a part of the dream.”
Laurie listened with half an ear as she stood outside of the vehicle, watching Byron get out of his truck. She took him in as he walked towards her. He was a big man, all muscle with dark brown skin and a shaved head. He looks exactly the same, she thought in wonder.
“If you’re going to give my engagement ring back, you need to do better than leave it with my mom, Laurie,” Byron said as he came to stand directly in front of her. “That was pretty chickenshit.”
Because she couldn’t think beyond this moment, she took his hand and kissed it gently. Things in this dream realm were playing out as they should have in the real world two decades
ago. “I know and I’m sorry,” she said softly, brushing back long blonde strands of her hair playing in the breeze.
Byron’s eyes were red-rimmed from recent tears. “I get it, though. Maybe we are too young to get married right now but we can still raise our baby together as a family until you are ready. See, I know that all I want is you, whatever way I can have you.”
Laurie’s eyes widened and she instinctively placed her hand on her belly. She had put her baby son with Byron up for adoption the moment he was born all of those years ago and never looked back but here in the dream realm…what, a dream baby? This had to be the most unreal
shit she had ever experienced and she was prepared to chalk it up to Alexander’s cruelty and simply go along for the ride
. She had no clue where Byron or her son were in the real world but being them one last time was worth it.
Byron was scrutinizing her face and gestured at Seth’s SUV. “Who’s this guy?”
Laurie cleared her throat nervously. “This is Seth, a friend of, uh, Chloe.” She looked back to see Chloe giving her the hurry up signal. “We have to go, Byron. You and I can talk later. I feel like there’s a lot unsaid and I don’t want to leave things this way. You deserve an explanation.”
Byron nodded but before he could comment, Seth was out and coming around to where they stood. “Hey, Byron,” he said, extending his hand to him. They shook hands and Seth spoke again. “Laurie, I’ll take Chloe with me to where we need to be. Maybe you and Nicola can go
with Byron to your apartment and the three of you can search for the book.” Seth gave her a meaningful look.
Just as he had done with Chloe and Noah, Seth was giving her a second chance to say a
proper goodbye to Byron. She gave him a bright, genuine smile. “Thank you, Seth. That would be great.” She turned to Byron. “We borrowed a very important, expensive book from Seth and misplaced it. We really need to find it. Let’s go?”
“No problem. Get Nicola out and into my truck with you and I’ll take you back to your place.”
Nicola tugged on Laurie’s arm as they walked back to Byron’s truck. “It’s incredible that both you and Chloe get to see guys who meant so much to you. I wish I had somebody in my past who meant that much to me.”
Laurie picked up on the sadness in Nicola’s voice and wrapped one arm around her shoulders as they walked. “Be grateful, Nic,” she said, as she teared up. “At the end of the day, it’s just a bunch of avoidable heartache.”
******
Seth
Being alone with her for the first time, Seth couldn’t think of a single thing to say. They sped along on the freeway, about ten minutes out from the storage unit in Glendale and he felt like his jaw was locked and if he did speak it would be nonsense. He admired Chloe greatly and had from the first moment she had come to his attention when he had been
assigned to protect the Trifecta as young teens. He had been attracted to her since her prom night.
He knew how to be wise, helpful, strong, and a good protector but romance had always seemed an impossible thing to master. Crazy, he mused, how he had once thought that he was above love when he was a newly born angel a little over a three hundred years before.
Chloe broke the awkward silence first and he wondered if she, too, felt the attraction. “So, do you just live in Alexander’s sick dream realm and help people out?”
“No. I only visited his dream realm again to help you and your friends. I’m also here for the Book of Secrets because it’s the key to controlling him. Once I return it to the heavens, to the angels, Alexander won’t be the master of anything.”
“Stalking and disintegrating people to dust in their dreams is a little twisted, don’t you think?”
Seth gave her a grim smile. “A lot twisted but that’s just who he is. He doesn’t just feed on spiritual energy. He feeds on fear and manipulation. These things are crucial to his survival and to him remaining the Dream King of old fables.”
“If you don’t live here all the time, where do you live?”
“I live a few miles away from your old apartment in Pasadena. My body is sleeping peacefully in my condo right now,” he answered. “A hybrid angel’s job is to serve God and humanity on earth, sort of like a guardian angel.”
“Were you once completely human and then you died?” Chloe looked genuinely fascinated and his heart beat a little faster.
“No. Never totally human. I was created by God with human stuff as well as with angelic abilities before Alexander took his first breath as a baby over two hundred years ago. All of this was done to teach heavenly beings about the human experience. I can’t die but I can feel pain. My heart can break like anybody else’s. I’m not impervious to the pain of a broken relationship or the agony of seeing humans die.”
It was completely silent in the SUV as Seth exited the freeway off-ramp and made a right turn, towards the mountains. He dared to look over at Chloe, who was peering out of window and wearing a big smile.
“I haven’t been here in so many years. I’d forgotten how beautiful this part of California is.”
Seth pulled into the long concrete driveway of the storage unit rentals lot simply named U-Store and looked at Chloe, who directed him to go around to the next row of storage units. She seemed to have little trouble remembering which one was theirs and pointed to a unit at the very
end of the row.
“I’m sure this is the one,” she said, as he stopped the SUV. The both got out and came to stand in front of the locked garage door of the unit. Seth waved his hand and the old lock fell away. He lifted the garage door and flipped the light switch on the wall. Chloe followed him inside and a small smile curved her full lips.
“Look at all of this stuff that we ended up selling in the real world.” She ran one hand over a large, dusty, sturdy wood table. “Most of the stuff…well, we collected a lot of junk but things like this table….” Her voice trailed off as she looked around the storage unit.
Seth was content to just watch her wander around but he knew that the clock was ever ticking a countdown to sunrise. He needed the book in hand long before then so they had better get moving. He cleared his throat to catch her attention. “Let’s start going through some of theseboxes.”
Chloe nodded and the two began the daunting task of sorting through the packed boxes.
******
Laurie knew within five minutes of being alone with Byron in her old bedroom, searching her closet that she had made a mistake in letting Byron and their child go. She was almost sure and extremely hopeful that he was really sleeping somewhere in the world and in this nightmare realm with her. He sat on the floor going through box after box while she did the same seated on the bed. Nicola had begun her search for the mysterious book in her old bedroom across the hall.
“Where is your mind, girl?” Byron flashed her a big smile as she jumped a bit, startled. She had been lost in thought, absently rifling through the same box for the past few minutes.
“Are you thinking about the baby?”
Laurie nodded, her smile small and secretive. “I think it’s a boy.”
“Boy or girl, this baby is part of us and I’m already in love.” He handed her another small box. She sat on the bed with him doing most of the work, as Byron had insisted in her delicate condition. “And, I’m still in love with you.”
“It’s not that I didn’t…don’t…love you, Byron,” Laurie said with a sigh. “I don’t think that I even know who I really am at this point, let alone ready to be a good wife and mother to him.”
“I know who you are. You’re my Laurie – good heart, more intelligent and steady than most people our age, and resilient. I couldn’t ask for more.”
Tears watered her eyes and, in the next moment, she was reaching for Byron, overcome with stark emotion. She knew that she didn’t want anyone else and if God granted her wish, she
would search the world for him when they woke up. Byron caught her in his arms and kissed her with so much passion she could barely breathe.
He parted her lips with his tongue, caressing her hair and stroking her back. He leaned her back on the bed, moving his hand down her thigh. She broke the kiss.
“We belong together, don’t we?”
Byron nibbled her earlobe. “I knew that if I backed off, you would see that.”
Clothes came off in a flurry and soon, she was straddling him wearing not a stitch. She marveled at the perfection of his body, his smooth dark brown skin covering his defined muscles.
He was hard beneath her, resting at the juncture between her thighs. She pushed down, taking him inside of her slowly, letting out a deep breath. This was her familiar territory.
He cupped her soft breasts in his larg
e hands, stroking the nipples until they stood out.
She rode him hard and fast in response, resting her hands on his chest. He grabbed her hips, moving her at a slower pace until they both finished, Laurie collapsing on him as the orgasm
rippled through her body. She glanced over at the clock on her nightstand. Four hours to sunrise.
“This was…wonderful, but we really need to find that book,” Laurie said breathlessly.
“We left Nicola looking for it all alone in her room.” She kissed the tip of Byron’s nose as he cradled her slight baby bump in his hands. “We’ll pick this up again later.”
******
“This is beyond frustrating,” Chloe commented, her tone both impatient and weary. Seth turned away from the box he was searching to nod at her in response. Boxes, boxes, so many damn boxes. Just when she thought that the previous box was the last one, Seth uncovered yet
another one. She suddenly dropped the box she had just searched and kicked it fiercely. She covered her face with both hands, trying to hold back angry tears. “I’m going to die. I accept that now.”
Seth put the box in his hands on the wood table and quietly went to her. He embraced her tightly. “Don’t write your future so grim. You will not die, Chloe. I will not let you die here in Alexander’s mad kingdom.” He moved her back, reaching down with one hand to gently wipe
away her tears.
“Thank you for giving me the chance to say a real goodbye to Noah. That was very kind.”
The corner of Seth’s lips lifted in a half- smile. “Don’t give me more credit than I deserve. I’m not as altruistic as you think. If you knew my other motivation for helping you bury your dead ex, you would probably be disgusted with me.”
Chloe shook her head as she looked up at him with bright eyes. “I have gotten to know you better than you think, Seth. You could never disgust me. I’m listening- tell me what your true motivation was.”
Their eyes locked and Chloe’s heart dipped inside of her chest as his intense gaze swept over her face, seemingly cataloguing every feature. Her tongue ran across her moist lips and his eyes followed that movement. She was instantly overcome with feminine knowing. Seth wanted her and his interest went far beyond duty to protect. She stroked his face tenderly with her fingers. She could feel his taut body shaking slightly. He closed his eyes for a moment.
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