Forever Wicked (Castle of Dark Dreams)

by Nina Bangs

  Bexal showed his first real emotion. “He knows we were once friends, so he’s holding my family in a prison on Effix as a guarantee of my loyalty. If I don’t do as I’m told, he’ll kill them.” He dropped his gaze. “I’m taking a chance being here now.”

  “Will you betray me, Bexal?”

  “No.”

  “I see.” Bourne’s voice softened. “You’ve had a tough time of it, old friend.”

  Bexal took a deep breath before continuing. “Most of us don’t want to be here. The woman Ganymede sent away was one of the exceptions. She loved the hunt. The search for glory was all she cared about.” He attempted a smile. “No one will mourn her loss.”

  Ganymede spoke up. “And what about me?”

  Bexal shrugged. “You’re an annoyance. Zendig has a short temper. You were interfering with his plans for his troublemakers.”

  “Even though his plans have been a bust?” Ganymede paused. “Wait. Can you go back and forth to Effix whenever you want to?” And here he’d thought he’d have to wait seven years to get his hands on his maker.

  “Not exactly. Zendig controls the portal. It only opens if he gives the command.”

  Bourne looked thoughtful. “Thanks for the info, Bexal. Now, I think you should leave. When you report to Zendig, say that Ganymede was too powerful for you and your partner. He got away. But you’ll keep searching. That should keep your family safe.”

  Bexal stood. “I’d like to help you, but…” He looked regretful.

  “Family comes first.” Bourne sounded like he meant it.

  Bexal moved toward the door. “Look, I’d better go. Good luck.” He paused in the doorway. “I hope you kill the bastard.”

  Bourne waited until he heard Bexal’s car pulling out of the driveway before speaking. “We have to deal with Zendig now.”

  “Immediate plans?” Sparkle gripped Ganymede’s hand.

  “I can’t count on my past friendship with Bexal to keep our location secret. Besides, I’ve discovered another security risk. I’ll explain as soon as I decide how to handle it. We’ll need someplace safe that we can protect from an attack and where we can train.”

  “Because?” Ganymede squeezed Sparkle’s fingers as he asked his question.

  “Because we have to find a way to draw Zendig to Earth. He would be too tough to defeat on Effix with the entire population lined up against us.”

  “Secure location?” Mistral leaned forward.

  Bourne scanned the room, meeting each person’s gaze. “We’re going to the Castle of Dark Dreams. Then we’re going to war.”

  Sparkle looked down at Ganymede, tears in her eyes. “We’re going home, Mede.”

  16

  “I’m in the middle of a freaking three-ring circus, and I’m not a happy ringmaster.” Bourne had strong-armed him into leaving his pink house. Ganymede had wanted to stand firm, to tell the Big Boss he was staying right there in Cape May. He’d fight Zendig on his own terms. But too many other people were determined to battle alongside him. Ganymede had to think about them. And the Castle was easier to defend. So here he was, driving across the causeway connecting the mainland to Galveston Island.

  He glanced right, and in the distance he caught a glimpse of the Rainforest Pyramid. Ganymede tried to ignore a sudden twinge that felt a lot like the coming-home bug, a virus he’d never wanted to catch. Because if there was anything his long life had taught him, it was that permanent homes rarely stayed permanent. They gave way to time, war, and death.

  Beside him, Sparkle sighed. She’d been doing a lot of that for the last few days. She flicked her dangly earring back and forth, back and forth, a sure sign of irritation. Okay, so maybe he had done a little griping, but he had reason to.

  Which reminded him of his main complaint. “If everyone hadn’t jumped into my life, I could’ve handled this with only the newbies’ help. I wouldn’t be heading back to a castle where I’m nothing but unpaid muscle.” Wow, that had come out a little harsh, not what he’d meant to say. But now that he’d popped the lid off of this particular can of worms, Ganymede couldn’t seem to shut his mouth. “You’re a businesswoman. You own Live the Fantasy. So I understand why you want to stay in Galveston.”

  Startled, Sparkle stared at him. “What?”

  Ignoring her, he barreled on. “I own a business, too. Remember The Cosmic Time Travel Agency?”

  She looked blankly at him.

  “You helped me out on one of my tours back in 1785. Scotland? Darach Mackenzie’s castle? Remember now?”

  Finally, she nodded. “You still own that company?”

  “Sure.” Actually, he hadn’t paid any attention to the business in centuries. He had people running it for him. Made a nice profit each year. “I’ve been thinking that if I come out of this with all my parts intact I might see what it feels like to run my own company again.” All a lie. He hadn’t been thinking about it at all. Okay, so maybe a little. But only when he’d been really ticked off at her.

  “Where is this time travel business of yours?” Her expression gave nothing away.

  “The home office is in Tucson, Arizona.”

  She nodded.

  “In 2339.”

  “Oh.” She swallowed hard. “So what you’re saying is that you don’t want to live with me in the Castle of Dark Dreams.”

  Ganymede shrugged. “Hey, I haven’t made any final decision yet.” No kidding. It was true the thought of leading tours into the past held a certain appeal. But at the cost of not being with Sparkle? “How about relocating? You could have your theme park anywhere.”

  “Unpaid muscle? Is that how you see yourself?” Her voice trembled a little. “I’ll have to think about all this when things are calmer.” She ignored his relocation question.

  “You really own a time-travel business?” Jerry’s voice held uncharacteristic awe.

  “Yeah.” Damn. He’d forgotten their audience in the back seat. At least the kid didn’t sound as though he’d picked up on the emotional arrows ricocheting everywhere. And Amaya wasn’t commenting. Good. Which reminded him… “Explain to me again why Bourne had me drag you along, fox lady. I hope you brought a few boxes of cookies with you to make up for the hassle.”

  Amaya crossed her arms and just glared at him.

  Sparkle turned to look at the car behind them.

  “He’s still there.” Ganymede knew he didn’t sound thrilled with the fact. “Every time I look in the mirror, I see Holgarth’s death stare.”

  “It’s a long drive from Jersey to Texas. He’s had to make it with Orion, Blue, and Jill in the car with him. Maybe you could cut him some slack.” She ran her fingers through her hair. “I’m beat. We’re almost home, though.”

  Ganymede kept his attention on the road and tried to ignore the sadness he heard in her voice, the sadness he’d put there. Then there was the wistfulness in the word “home.” No matter what he told Sparkle, he felt its pull, too.

  “Well, look who we’re stuck with.” He’d trade Jerry and Amaya for Holgarth’s passengers in a heartbeat. “Their non-stop questions make my brain hurt.” He offered his backseat guests a hard stare in the mirror. “Maybe they could give us a break.” Ganymede envied Zane and Thorn. The sorcerer had teleported himself and the Viking back to Galveston days ago. But vehicles, luggage, and a bunch of cranky people had tied Ganymede to this crappy caravan. Added to this, he was ticked off at Bourne. Their fearless leader was in the wind. He’d said he had “stuff” to do. Right. Ganymede figured the Big Boss just didn’t want to be trapped in the road trip from hell.

  Jerry met him glare for glare. “Hey, I want info about where I’m going. I’m a teen. We always have lots of questions because we pretty much like to challenge everything you old guys say.” He frowned. “At least that’s what it said online.”

  Amaya made a rude noise. “I never volunteered for this. Why didn’t you leave me back in the pink house to keep the old ghost company? I wouldn’t be a security risk there.”


  Jerry turned his glower on her. “Great idea. He should’ve locked you inside and slapped up a ward to keep you there. Then I wouldn’t have had to listen to you whine all the way from New Jersey.”

  Sparkle stopped flicking her earring. She glanced back at Amaya. “Bourne said you’re a spy, that you used the government as your cover story. We haven’t heard your side yet.”

  “I didn’t know it was a big deal.” Amaya stared down at her lap. “I met this guy at a party. We got to talking. He said he believed in the supernatural. One thing led to another, and I told him what I was. He asked if I could sense others like myself. I said yes. He explained he was doing a research paper for college and wanted to find some people with unusual powers to interview for it. He hired me to canvass the neighborhood and ID a few. That was the easy part. But when I reported back to him, he said he needed photos, too, before he approached anyone.” She shrugged. “I needed the money, so I hid behind the bushes and waited for Bourne to come home. Then I took his picture.”

  Ganymede couldn’t help it, he smiled. “How did that work out for you?”

  She didn’t look up. “He caught me.”

  Ganymede stopped smiling. “So now we get to be babysitters. Freaking great. I wouldn’t complain if I were you. It would’ve been a lot easier for Bourne to just make you disappear. He couldn’t leave you in Cape May. If Zendig’s spy found you, I bet it wouldn’t take him long to pump you dry of information.”

  “I didn’t know anything—who you were or where you were going. And he never mentioned any Zendig.” Amaya sniffed her distain. “Besides, I’m too sly for any of Zendig’s people to catch.”

  “Bourne caught you,” Sparkle reminded her.

  “That was an aberration. It wouldn’t happen again. By the way, are you going to pay for all those cookies you stole from me?”

  “Hey, you stole them from some poor Girl Scout.” Ganymede evaded everyone’s stare. “Fair game. Spoils of war.”

  “I don’t believe it.” Sparkle was staring in the side mirror. “The idiot.”

  “What?” Ganymede didn’t need any surprises between here and the Castle.

  “There’s a pterodactyl flying above Mistral’s truck.”

  Ganymede drew in a sharp breath as rage slammed through him. He wanted to stop the car and rip the shifter from the air. Then he wanted to stomp all over him. Don’t lose your temper. Show Sparkle you can handle a situation without leveling a city block. “And this means?”

  “It means Mistral is stretching his legs at the same time he defies you. You shouldn’t have told him you were the boss the last time we stopped to rest. He never liked authority figures.” She focused on the road in front of them. “I don’t want to look. He’s allowing Ky to drive without a license. Again. After I told him…” Sparkle trailed off muttering death threats under her breath.

  Ganymede might not be able to leave Mistral’s remains as prehistoric road kill, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t get to the jerk. He focused his power and then blasted into Mistral’s mind. He felt the other troublemaker flinch away from him. “Are you crazy? In a few minutes every cop on the island will be showing up to check out a bunch of calls claiming a pterodactyl is loose in Galveston. Do you want to be responsible for what happens next?”

  He heard Mistral’s laughter in his head, but a glance in the mirror showed Ganymede that the pterodactyl had disappeared. In its place was a monkey perched on top of the truck’s cab. It gave him the finger before leaping into the bed of the truck.

  Ganymede shook his head. “Ky is still behind the wheel. I bet he has his two ‘gods’ sitting beside him. We’d better hope no cops see one of their little yellow faces pressed to the window. Have I told you how much your brother drives me crazy?”

  “He’s not my—”

  A thought popped into Ganymede’s head. “What if he is your brother?” The thought expanded. “It takes a lot to kill anyone from Effix. Unless we meet up with someone more powerful than us, we’re pretty much indestructible. We could have family back on the home planet.” He wondered why it had taken him so long to realize they still might be alive. Because it was a dream, and dreams don’t come true for you. So you push them away. He recalled his parents, but only vaguely. It was like staring at them through an old windowpane—a little hazy, a little out of focus, a hope without substance. They probably didn’t remember him anyway.

  Sparkle was silent for a moment. Then she looked at him. “We have to find out.”

  He nodded. Now all they had to do was to stay alive long enough to get some answers.

  As Ganymede turned onto Seawall Boulevard, he caught his first glimpse of the Castle in the distance, its white-washed towers and walls gleaming in the morning light. His sudden fierce stab of affection for it worried him. He was a chaos bringer, a destroyer. Caring too much for people or things weakened him. It was too late to wipe Sparkle from his heart, but he’d have to force some distance between himself and everyone and everything else. If he didn’t, he’d lose his identity. And if he was no longer a cosmic troublemaker, what was he? He refused to explore that possibility.

  Holgarth wore his poor-put-upon-me expression. “Why can no one keep to a simple schedule when I’m not here? It’ll take days to unravel this mess.”

  “You weren’t gone that long, Holgarth. Relax.” Sparkle stood in the great hall watching the beginning of tonight’s fantasies. Even the danger creeping towards them couldn’t dampen her joy at being back in her Castle with Mede.

  The wizard scowled at a passing customer who was trying to put on his costume as he ran to take his place in the fantasy. “These people were never late while I controlled things.”

  “‘These people’ are paying guests, Holgarth. Don’t intimidate them.” Sparkle concentrated on keeping herself in her happy place. She’d dug out her highest stilettos. They had enough glitter to send a fairy queen into spasms of shoe lust. Her clingy black dress shimmered in the flickering light thrown by all the torches. Too bad the flames were fake. Modern fire codes were mood killers. She held her hands up to the light. Perfect nails shining with fresh coats of Delicious Desire.

  “Hmmph. I’ve made a list of all the things you’ll need to address. You’re the owner of the park; perhaps you should take more interest in disciplining your employees. They’ve grown lazy and disobedient while you’ve been playing in New Jersey.”

  Sparkle waved him away. “Leave. You’re bringing me down, Holgarth. Go hassle someone else for awhile.”

  He cast a malicious glare her way as he turned to go. “You’ll be sorry when this entire pathetically run operation collapses around you.”

  “Yes, yes. Blah, blah, blah. I’m sure you’ll have everything whipped into perfect shape by tomorrow.”

  Sparkle ignored his parting outraged sniff as she returned her attention to the hall. She’d missed this. Live the Fantasy was her baby, an adult theme park where ordinary people could role-play in extraordinary ways. They could become a pirate, a cowboy, or an astronaut for an excitement-filled half hour.

  But the Castle of Dark Dreams was her favorite attraction. Here she watched customers act out their fantasies of knights and ladies, demons and vampires, along with a healthy dollop of sensuality. When they ended their fantasies, they could retire to their authentic castle bedrooms to continue the action. She smiled. Sparkle was the queen of sex and sin, and the Castle was her playground.

  She scanned the room, ignoring the Castle employees in their medieval costumes, the visitors eager to throw themselves into their roles, and the line by the door waiting to sign up for the next fantasy. Sparkle took this moment to admire her favorite room in the Castle—her great hall. Its stone floor, soaring ceiling, walls covered with colorful tapestries, shields and banners, along with a few suits of armor tucked into corners hadn’t come from a fancy modern designer. It had come from her memories of other times in faraway places. Once she’d sat at a long table just like the one resting on the dais near the huge fireplace
.

  “Remember that night in France?”

  Mede’s husky whisper close to her ear made her gasp. Or maybe it was the sexy promise in the way he said ‘that night’ that caused it. “There were so many, Mede. Remind me.” She swallowed a nervous giggle. Cosmic troublemakers didn’t giggle. But for some reason, tonight felt like the beginning again, back when their relationship was new, he was new, an exciting unknown.

  His soft chuckle raised goose bumps along her neck and sensual hopes in her heart.

  “A castle in Aquitaine. The lord insulted you. But before I could separate his head from his shoulders, you did your thing.”

  She could hear the smile in his voice. “And what did I do?” Jeez, did she really sound that coy?

  “I’m not sure, but suddenly the lord and his knights rushed out of the hall into the garden. When I took a look outside, they were all trying to have sex with the rose bushes. It was a…prickly relationship. Everyone not involved with roses ran away. We were alone in the great hall.” Mede skimmed his knuckles down the middle of her back. “You were amazing.”

  Sparkle leaned into his touch. “Mmm. Feels good. Sitting in the car all that time made me stiff.”

  “Me too.” His reply was a sexy suggestion, his breath warm against her neck. “Remember what we did then?”

  “Tell me.” She sucked in her breath as he reached around to draw slow circles over her rib cage. Strands of his hair touched her cheek—soft, tempting her to turn to him, to bury her face in his scent of sea breezes and wild yesterdays.

  “We swept everything off the lord’s big-ass table and then we stripped naked.” He continued his circles of discovery around each breast. She pushed his hand away. “Our guests wouldn’t understand.” Sparkle could feel his frown.

  “When did you start caring what other people thought?”

  She had no answer to that, so she directed him back to his memory. “What happened next?”

  “I picked you up and laid you on the table.”

  Sparkle turned to punch him lightly on the chest. “I climbed onto the table. You’re such a control freak.”