Dream Killers - Complete Season 1 (The Dream Killers Book 3)

by S. M. Blooding

  I rubbed my forehead. “Fine. Okay. You help us find the nets, and we’ll take them away to be destroyed.” As soon as I figured out how to free Bess without killing her.

  Polly sighed, her hair feather twitching before she peered out the door. “Come on.”

  We followed her out. The patrons were focused on their cards and dice. I didn’t understand gambling, but it kept them otherwise engrossed.

  She gestured to a dark hallway to our left and went to a small table filled with glasses and bottles. She poured a shot of something dark and knocked it back.

  Olivia skirted past me, ducking into the dark hallway. She nearly blended in, though not quite. Her unicorn hide tunic did a great job of morphing into the shadows, but her skin gave off almost a coppery tone in the darkness. Her eyes seemed impossibly bright, as if they caught all the spare bits of light they could.

  Another woman, dressed similarly to Polly, rose from the lap of one of the gamblers and turned.

  I flattened myself against the corner. My heart raced as I pressed my fingertips into the wall.

  “Hey, Polly,” the other woman said, her voice husky. “Did I see a stranger with you?”

  Crap. I needed to get us out of there, but I didn’t know the lay of the boat. Technically, it shouldn’t be difficult. The hallways should be in straight lines, perpendicular to one another. All we had to do was find a staircase leading up.

  “Probably just another ghost, Cheryl.”

  “That wasn’t no ghost.”

  I swallowed and stepped deeper into the hall.

  Olivia followed, her presence like a warm promise along my right arm.

  The hall branched four ways at the intersection. Directly in front was another tunnel of complete darkness. To the left and right were brown and gold corridors lined with white doors and brass lanterns.

  “Left or righ’?” Olivia whispered.

  Left would take us to the front, and we needed to go to the back. “This way. Look for a staircase.” We went by four doorways, but the end of the hall kept getting further and further away.

  I halted.

  Olivia stepped forward, peering at the end of the hall. “Is it like Gran’mothah’s roots, ya think?”

  I shrugged. “Maybe. Or it could be that Fandora knows we’re here, and is trying to keep us away from her captain.”

  “Fandora?”

  “Like Kelsi. She is the ship.”

  “And ‘ave you met this Fandora?”

  I shook my head. “Zoe healed her though.”

  Olivia placed her fingertips on the wall. “Fandora, m’name’s Olivia. I’m with Zoe. So’s Rivah. We’re her friends, and we know she’s yours. She healed you, yeah?”

  The corridors squeezed tight then relaxed.

  “Yeah, yeah.” Olivia nodded, shifting her weight from one foot to the next. “Look, sweetheah’, we know somethin’s wrong here, righ’? Has to do with the net’s? Maybe one of the dreams was tainted. Filled ya with ghosts.”

  “No,” I said, putting my fingers on the wall. “That’s not exactly it. How did you ladies survive before the nets?”

  The light fixture next to my head quivered.

  “There was a time before the nets. You didn’t need to be fed dreams to survive.”

  The fixture quivered harder.

  “Fandora, if you can hear me, we’re here to help.”

  The lantern crashed to the floor.

  I jumped back as oil splashed along the floor.

  Olivia’s eyes widened and she blinked at the wall. “Rivah.” She flicked my arm, then pointed to the wall.

  A face emerged from the brown and gold paisley wall paper, just lips and a nose at first, then an eyebrow ridge. Her mouth moved, but no sound came out.

  Olivia side-stepped away.

  I touched the wall where the chin should have been. “Fandora?”

  You can see me?

  “You’re barely here.”

  Can you help me?

  “I’m trying, Fandora. I am.”

  I disappeared. I keep disappearing.

  “You can heah ‘er?” Olivia asked.

  I nodded. “How? What do you mean?”

  Olivia took a step forward, her lithe arm outstretched.

  Each time I come close to the surface, he hides me again.

  “What do you mean?”

  Olivia’s fingers touched the gold and brown wallpaper.

  Does my captain no longer like me? Does he no longer need me?

  Olivia jerked, staring up at the partial face.

  “Fandora, I really need cleaner details. You’re not making any sense.”

  It’s so dark in here. I haven’t seen the light in so long. It’s so dark in here.

  “Fandora, sweatheah’. Why do ya thin’ yer cap’n no longer needs ya? An’ why’s it so dark?”

  I remember a time before the dream nets, like you said. My captain and I sailed the rivers between the Burbs, gathering people from the water.

  I sucked on my tongue. “Did you have a motor?”

  No. We had no need for one.

  I pinched the bridge of my nose. “When did you get one?”

  After the nets first showed up.

  “When did ya start disappearin’?”

  I glanced at Olivia and nodded. Good question.

  After the nets were applied to the motor the first time.

  “What do you mean you keep trying to come to the—” I interrupted myself before I finished the question. I knew why. “When you come out, the motor stops because then the ship is under your control. Then he calls a fellow dream killer captain, they apply the dream, and you go back to sleep.”

  Yes.

  “I can see you. Does that mean the motor is about to seize?”

  Yes.

  “He has the nets now, Fandora. One of those nets has a dream already in it.”

  The gold and brown lips opened in a silent wail.

  “You’ve got to do me a favor. Okay?”

  I can’t go back to the darkness.

  “I know. Concentrate. I need you to keep the motor on for as long as you can. Can you do that?”

  Not fight the darkness?

  “If that’s what it means, yes. It’s the only way I can free you and get the nets.”

  I don’t know if I can.

  “Of course you can. If you don’t, you will die. Again. Fandora, you need to do this.”

  Her lips closed.

  “And I need you to make the hallway stop changing so I can get to your captain.”

  He is not my captain anymore.

  “He may not even realize he’s hurting you. He may very well be trying to help you.”

  She was quiet.

  “Where is he, love?” Olivia asked. “He has the nets. Show us how to get to ‘im and we’ll take the nets and save you.”

  The partial face paused. I will take you to him.

  The walls of the hall evaporated, and the roar of the engine filled my ears again. Chills cascaded along my skin. I ran down the three steps, bursting into the engine room. “Cable, don’t!”

  He knelt beside the large motor, one net open. He reached in, pulling out the glowing blue ball of Bess’ dreams. “Hello, River,” he said in his low, dark drawl. “I wondered when I’d be seein’ you again.”

  I held out my hand, my fingers outstretched. “You don’t know what you’re doing.”

  “Oh, I think I do, boy. This here is fuel for my boat and if we’re gonna get out of this here squall, we need all the power we can get.”

  “No! Cable, you’re killing dreams.”

  “Oh, I heard all about that. Yeah.” He raised his face, his dark eyes appearing from under the circular brim of his hat. “How you made Bo go all soft, made him stop givin’ us what we need to survive.”

  “You survived before the nets. Cable, you’re killing your boat.”

  His grin pushed out his dark mustache as he shook his head. “You know what, kid, you’re good. So convincing, to
o. I almost think you believe this swill you’re sellin’. What’s in it for you?”

  “I’m trying to save you from the people who want to kill you.”

  “A whole passel of people want to kill me, kid. You think they’ll succeed in the one place I can’t die? You really are dumber’n you look.”

  “The guardians of the sea are quite capable of ending you.”

  “Guardians.” He snorted. “What a bunch of bullshit. You might as well be spoutin’ off about fairies or angels or unicorns.”

  I frowned at him, perplexed. “You’re in Dreamland and you’ve never seen a unicorn?”

  He raised his gaze to mine again, then let out a long sigh. “Look, I don’t know what stakes you got in this game, but I recommend you pull out. Now. While you still can.” He put his free hand on the pistol on his belt.

  “Have you ever used that in Dreamland?”

  His eye twitched.

  “That’s what I thought. So you know. Bullets don’t fly straight here.”

  He clamped his lips shut so tight, they retreated under his mustache.

  “I’m not letting you kill that dream, and I’m most certainly not going to allow you to destroy your ship.”

  “You don’t know the first thing about my boat, kid.”

  “I’ve met her. Talked to her. Heard her voice. Have you?”

  “I listen to her every day.”

  “Really? How? When you’re silencing her with every dream you feed her?”

  “We need to get out of this squall.”

  “It isn’t a squall, Cable! Look outside. You’re in the center of mountains of waves that aren’t falling, that aren’t crashing onto your boat. You’re in a trap.”

  His dark eyes met mine.

  I didn’t know that, but I’d play that card if it bought me time. “You murder your ship, you destroy any chance you have of escaping the guardians who control these seas.”

  He paused for a long moment, his jaw muscles clenching and releasing, clenching and releasing. “I got no choice, kid.”

  I leapt, trying to catch Bess’ dreams before they were destroyed.

  His hand smashed the delicate ball of her dreams against the side of the sluggish motor. Her dreams shattered like liquid glass, the particles hanging in midair for a moment. They latched onto the motor and dispersed.

  All the breath left my chest.

  I stared at the motor.

  That device of death.

  My dreamer.

  Bess.

  His ship.

  I was going to kill that man.

  “RIVER, DON’T!” BO shouted behind me.

  Rage fueled my limbs, burning down my veins uncontrollably.

  Cable pulled his pistol and aimed it at me, taking a step back as he stood.

  The engine roared with new life.

  Thick arms wrapped around my torso. “Cable, put down the gun,” Bo shouted in my ear. “You know you can’t shoot that in here.”

  “Get your boy under control, Bo.” Cable took another two steps back.

  Olivia sidestepped toward the stair, crouched, her unicorn horn blade at the ready.

  “Olivia,” Bo barked, “don’t.”

  She didn’t glance at him or relax her stance.

  Cable aimed his gun at Bo, then at Olivia, then back at Bo and me. “I’m invitin’ you off my boat, Bo.”

  “You have to stop this,” Bo said, his on arm tightening around my chest and shoulders as I struggled to break free. “We’re trying to help you.”

  “I can’t sail with a broken boat.”

  “You killed them,” I shouted, bucking in Bo’s tight hold. “Both of them!”

  “River,” Bo said in my ear, his voice low and soothing. “Calm down.”

  I burned with self-incrimination and failure. I had to strike at something. I had to hurt someone.

  “Yeah. I get that.” Bo jerked his arm. “But you’ve got to get yourself under control.”

  A broken breath escaped. “He killed her, Bo.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  But I did. Bess and Fandora both.

  “Did ya check ta see if the ship was dead first, Rivah?” Olivia asked quietly. “Or are ya jus’ assumin’?”

  “Olive, don’t egg him on, please.”

  “I’m jus’ sayin’, it migh’ be worth askin’ her if she’s alive.”

  I took in several deep breaths, trying to calm down. I couldn’t fight Bo and Cable, and I needed a better idea of what to do other than “hurt someone.”

  Cable flicked his pistol at me. “What’s the girl sayin’? My boat ain’t dead. Her motor’s working fine. Can’t you hear her?”

  A firestorm of emotion pounded its way to my eye, leaving a trail of heat in its wake.

  Cable jerked, taking a stumbling step back.

  Bo shifted behind me, then changed his grip around my chest. “Get it handled, Riv.”

  Why? Why would I want to? The heat seeped into my skull, then rushed down the back of my neck to my shoulders, along my spine to my lower back, spurring my legs to move. The corner of my lips rose.

  Olivia’s stance relaxed. “Rivah. No.”

  Powerful rage flooded my system. My eyes burned, my fingers twitched.

  Bo let out a startled cry and released me.

  Finally.

  What did I want to do with him? I should be nice. It was in my nature to be nice.

  Was it? Because that’s not what I felt at the moment.

  I wanted to tear him limb from limb.

  I wanted to wrap my hand around his throat and leach the power of his soul from him so he could never return to Dreamland.

  I wanted to throw him into the sea, and let the guardians do with him as they willed.

  Something tugged at my chest like someone jerking on a leash.

  I swiped at my chest and continued to stalk my prey.

  “I’ll shoot,” Cable warned as he backed away.

  “No, you won’t.” Bo ran into my field of vision, his blue coat flaring around his legs. He halted between Cable and me, his arms spread wide. “Whatever this is, River, you have to stop it. It’s just like your eyes.”

  “I don’t want to.” The power intoxicated me.

  Power? Just power?

  With a long blink, the world opened before me. The ship’s lines became a running series of glowing blue symbols I’d never seen before. Whispered voices tugged on my ear, filling my head with knowledge.

  This fold in time and space had been created through the energy of a shattered star as a last-ditch effort to keep the virus contained. The original species had gone extinct. Life had altered.

  The star’s power surged through the fold of time, contracting and expanding like a heartbeat trapped in a loop. It grew longer and shorter, longer and shorter. The space had become fragile, the containment threadbare.

  A shooting line of orange light raced under the floor, running away from the motor. The light pulsed sluggishly, dissipating through the walls of glowing swirls that could have been characters. The light coalesced at a single point.

  A heart. A beating, pulsing, six-chambered heart.

  I turned to the motor. The glowing blue symbols lost all logical flow. Characters were flung into all parts of the room in a continuous spray.

  I tipped my head to the side. At the very center of the noisy motor grew something dark. It devoured everything it touched.

  Bright cerulean blue rays fought against it, shards of light shooting upward before sinking into the growing, shifting shadow. Bess.

  I reached out to help her, grab her, something.

  Her light blinked out.

  She was gone.

  I swung around, intent on exacting my vengeance.

  Cable didn’t exist in the world of glowing characters.

  Bo stood like a pale mirror, his features reflected back. His lips moved.

  Forming my name.

  River.

  I held my arms out in front of me. They
glowed orange, powerful surges shooting from them in all directions.

  “Rivah.” Cool hands cupped my cheeks.

  Olivia. I searched the area directly in front me, but she didn’t exist.

  No, wait. A refraction of light. The green lines of characters marching by reflected onto something and became a rainbow array of other colors.

  She was the absence of green.

  I reached out, touching where I thought her face should be. Warmth teased my fingertips along with the smooth feel of satin skin. My orange light flared across her face, bringing her sharp features into focus.

  A frown burrowed between the brows of her orange, pink, and blue face. The colored light shot across the rest of her body, bringing her into focus. “Rivah, are you alrigh’?”

  The burning rage evaporated the moment I’d noticed the life weavings.

  The life weavings.

  With each gobbling bite of the shadow infection, the light of the ship faded.

  I held my fiery hand up in front of my face. I flared with the same color as Fandora, the single color that was strangely absent in Dreamland. Absent why?

  Dreamland was trying to destroy all remnants of its existence. Something about this ship could hurt her, possibly destroy her, or keep her better contained. Dreamland wanted the ships dead. The shadow? Eating light? Eating dreams?

  Devouring the hope the dreams contained?

  I pulled on the power of my soul and shoved my hand into the motor. I reached for the darkness, wrapping my fingers around it, choking it as it continued to devour.

  The thing reached up with rubbery-like projections, latching onto my arm.

  A drop of darkness raced up my arm.

  What did it intended?

  My soul-fire destroyed it before it’d gone past my elbow.

  I raised the temperature of my flame with each breath.

  The deafening noise of the motor sputtered and lurched with a mechanical grinding.

  Tightening my hold, the darkness diminished.

  Tendrils of light fled from it, racing from the shadow in countless locations. The escaping light halted in mid-flight, rounded on me, and arched into my body.

  I spasmed as the needles pierced my skin. Hope infused me. Fear fed me. Rage spurred me. Happiness drove me.

  The darkness imploded with a whisper of a scream.

  I removed my hand from the motor. The dispersed lines of strange symbols righted themselves, creating new roads of lines, running from one end of the room, to the next, gaining speed with each passing second.