by Amber Flora
They appeared in the center of the sanctuary. This was their home now. Any dreamwalkers left that hadn’t fled all resided here. It didn’t feel like home though. To Cody it felt like a prison, filled with the ghosts of past.
“Cody!” An angelic voiced screamed as it rushed toward the men.
Sweet Kat always concerned for others. Katrina was born to be a healer. He once thought she would choose the path of a priestess, but her healing abilities were just too powerful to be ignored. She was also stunningly beautiful with long golden hair and amber-colored eyes. She was tall, graceful and had the gentlest of touch. Katrina and Cody’s sister Sarah had been friends since they were toddlers. Those girls went everywhere together; it was like he had two sisters. When Sarah died, he kept his distance from Katrina. Being around her reminded him too much of what he had lost.
“Some langer got him from behind,” Mac said, dragging Cody to the hospital wing.
As Cody was hauled through the sanctuary by the Irish boar, he looked around at the remainder of his people. So many were lost the day of the attack. They were so few in number now that they can all fit inside these walls, a quarter the size of Avonya. Mac laid him down on a hospital bed, turning to Katrina.
“I’ve got somewhere to be; look after him, will ya?”
Cody grabbed Mac’s arm as he started walking away.
“I’m at her house.”
Well if that wasn’t a kick in the backside. He was not expecting that. Whatever the informant had told him must have been a doozy for him to hunt her down outside of dream realm. Katrina touched Mac’s cheek with her soft delicate hand.
“Take care of yourself.”
Mac winked at her and looked back at his friend.
“Ah, Lass, you have heart of gold worrying about the likes of me. Heal him quickly; he needs to clean up the mess he made.”
Katrina shook her head, turning her attention back to Cody as Mac flashed out of the sanctuary.
Hours later Katrina’s hands still rested on the stab wounds on his side. She looked tired. Exactly how much strength did it take to summon the healing energy coursing through her veins?
“Kat,” Cody whispered, resting his hands on top of hers.
She looked up and showed a soft reassuring smile that warmed his heart.
“You had me frightened for a bit. You lost a lot of blood when Mac brought you in. I was able to close the wound fairly quickly, but I had difficulty replenishing the energy you lost.”
Mac, Cody thought, as his memory flooded back to him.
“Kat, I have to go.”
Katrina stood up, placing her hands on her hips.
“Dakota Mass, you are not going anywhere until you have fully healed. Whatever you boys are up to can wait.”
He grimaced at Katrina using his full name, which was something his sister would do whenever he had gone too far with one of his pranks.
“If it were not important I promise I would stay here and be a good little patient, but I have to leave dream realm, Kat.” He looked into those beautiful amber eyes once again, taking her hands into his.
“I cannot keep you here, Cody, but do not lie to me. You have and will never be a good patient. Remember the time you and Mac played knights and you broke your collarbone falling off your horse? You were such a pain in the rear. The healer told your father to kick you out of dream realm and take you to a human hospital.”
Cody laughed, climbing out of the bed and wrapping her in his arms. He breathed into her neck, causing her to blush.
“My dearest Katrina, I am in your debt.” he kissed her cheek and stepped back.
“It is my job, you owe me no debt. Just try to take it easy for a while. You are in no shape to rush off and save the world.”
He smiled; Katrina didn’t know it but by her comment someone would think she had the inside scoop of the council's affairs. He gave her a joking salute as he allowed himself to drift back to his body. Back to Ashtyn.
Chapter 2
I sat in a lawn chair staring at my unexpected guest. He was so massive—how did someone get muscles like that. Did he work out every minute he was awake? Hours had passed since I dragged him into the garage. Between the long day at work and the few drinks I had at dinner, just sitting and watching someone sleep was brutal. I wanted to close my eyes, but the words he said kept playing in my mind. “Don’t sleep.” Well, that was nice of him to say, seeing as how that was all he had been doing since I found him. But I couldn’t allow myself to do that. If I surrendered to sleep and he awoke, he would have the upper hand, and the thought of what could happen to me in that vulnerable state had me sipping coffee and watching the strange creature in front of me. I had cleaned and wrapped his wound. At first it looked pretty gnarly and I thought about calling a doctor, but when I went back to change his dressings after the bleeding had stopped, the cut was already starting to heal. Maybe I had imagined the severity of it; there was a lot of blood but it could have just been superficial. I couldn’t shake the feeling ofdéjà vu. He looked so familiar to me. Aside from our run in on the street, something about this man gives me the feeling of home, a stir inside me I hadn’t felt since my uncle passed.
Cody forced himself back to his body. Opening his eyes to an angry but adorable Ashtyn. She had her fierce brown eyes locked on his and her plump soft lips were pursed like she was about to scold him. He wished she didn’t have her wavy brown hair pulled into a braid, He liked it when she let it flow around her face. He arched a brow when he noticed her slender arms crossed with what looked to be pepper spray in her right hand.
“It’s alive,” she murmured to herself as she jumped up from her chair aiming the pepper spray in his direction.
He didn’t attempt to move; he knew the slightest movement might frighten her into spraying that awful stuff right into his eyes. He wasn’t up for anymore inflictions this evening.
“Who are you and why are you in my home?”
He glanced around at his surroundings.
“If this is the inside of your home, may I suggest you hire an interior decorator?”
I looked at him perplexed and pissed. He was cracking jokes? This guy nearly knocks me over on the street, shows up muttering incoherent sentences and has the audacity to mock me?! Well that just peeved me beyond belief. I took another step closer, shaking the pepper spray at him.
“Answer me!” I yelled, really wishing I had called the police.
If he was dangerous, and he looked every bit of it, nothing, not even the pepper spray in my hand, could stop him. Oh, I was some kind of stupid.
He thought of what he could say. Nothing was going to make sense and he was too weak to reveal centuries of information to a woman who just today was living a normal human life. He had to be careful, play it smart.
“I knew your mother and when I saw you on the street today I decided to stop by and introduce myself. When I arrived I stumbled upon someone trying to break in and chased him around the side of your house. It was dark and when I came upon him I didn’t see the knife in his hand. He got in a lucky swipe and took off.”
He tried to sell his absurd story with a genuine expression but he knew how ludicrous it sounded. He just prayed that the mention of her mother would be his ace in the hole.
The uncertainty showed through on my face. I had never known my mother; my uncle Ken said she died during childbirth and I had no idea who my father had been. This man lying on the floor of my garage looked only a few years older than me, there would be no way he had known my mother. And this guy thwarted a break in? I had lived on this farm my whole life and never had any intruders or vandals. Fear began to engulf me, I spun around and ran to the back of the garage, picking up a baseball bat and holding it up ready to swing a home run.
“Impossible, how old are you? You couldn’t have known my mother. She’s been dead for twenty six years.”
Cody cursed under his breath at his mistake. He had known her mother but how could explain he didn’t exact
ly age the same way she did. He had always suspected that if Ashtyn knew how to properly use her dream-walking abilities and remained in the dream realm long enough that she would stop aging as well. But since no one knew if her father was a human or dreamwalker, it was possible she took on her father’s traits and was unable to stop the aging process. He would have been considered eighteen by human standards at the time of her mom’s disappearance and while he hadn’t had many conversations with her during the years, she was always warm and positive. Deandra had a way of believing in you even when you didn’t believe in yourself. Maybe that was her downfall, but no one ever faulted her for it; instead they loved and worshiped the High Priestess as no other before her. Dreamwalkers would come from all over the world hoping to get an audience with her. Cody’s father, Elias, was the head guard. He once told him there was no greater honor than giving your life for a greater cause. In the end that’s exactly what his father had done. He died so that Ashtyn could live and he wasn’t about to let that be in vain. “What I mean is my mother was friends with your mother, she use to show me pictures of them when they were young. My mother had told me about you and when I saw you today I knew who you were, you look just like Deandra. I just wanted to introduce myself.”
I lowered the bat, looking at him speculatively. I wanted to trust him; I would love to know stories about my mother. My uncle didn’t talk about her much. I suspected it was just too painful for him.
“If I let you in, you aren’t going to kill me and use me as winter coat, are you?”
He laughed and pulled himself up from the garage floor slowly.
“Look at me and look at you, you would be good for one sleeve. That’s about all.”
That answer didn’t exactly put me at ease. He was right, though. Looking at him standing, he had to be a good 6 feet, 3 inches. Compare that to my 5-foot,7-inch frame, I wouldn’t stand a chance. If I had hit him with the bat, I probably would have knocked myself out instead. I opened the door that connected the garage to the inside of the house and led the way to living room. Taking the recliner, I motioned toward the sofa where the giant sat down.
“You know my name, what do I call you?” I said folding my legs underneath me.
“My name is Dakota Mass. You can call me Cody.”
I thought about how insane I was for letting this man into my home. Had I bumped my head and forgotten? Perhaps I had fallen asleep and this was all just one crazy dream.
“How are you feeling?” I asked, pointing my index finger to his side.
He looked puzzled before speaking up.
“Oh, it’s still a little sore, but I’ll manage. Thank you for tending to it.”
“When I found you outside, you said that you were here to help me. You told me not to sleep. What was all of that about?”
I had spent the last few hours trying to figure out his strange warning.
He looked at me with confusion showing on his face.
“I must have hit my head. I don’t think I was in my right mind. If I had to guess, I was probably trying to warn you about the intruder. I didn’t know if he was gone or still lurking around.”
I internally smacked my forehead. Of course, he didn’t want me to fall asleep because he was afraid the intruder would attack me. I smiled remembering all the crazy stories my overactive brain had come up while he slept.
Thanks to Kat, Cody was completely healed, but he had to play it off. It would be quite obvious to her that he was different if he miraculously healed from a stab wound in hours. Until she pointed to his ribs he hadn’t even noticed she bandaged him. This girl was fearless. She somehow managed to get him out of the woods and then tended to his wound. All of this for a man she didn’t know or trust. He had spent his life surrounded by the same people. His job as a guard had allotted him with a great deal of more freedom than most other dreamwalkers but he had never once known someone to be so compassionate to a complete stranger. He had spent so much of his life dedicated to the cause, not allowing himself to feel, but when he was near Ashtyn it was like he was free of his obligations.
I thought about my options. I could call the police— even if Cody wasn’t a dangerous guy someone did stab him and leave him for dead outside my home. Or I could ask him to leave, but the thought of sending this man away injured didn’t seem like the humane thing to do. Plus, this man had a lot of explaining to do.
“ I think we need to call the cops. You were attacked and that psycho is still out there somewhere.”
He moved a little on the couch and winced in pain, holding his side.
“Yes, we should. It’s just … ”
I rose to place a cushion behind his back, hoping that would ease his pain a little.
“Just what?” I asked, looking down at him..
“I’m in a good amount of pain and I feel a little woozy. I don’t know if I can get through the hours of interrogation tonight.”
Who was this guy? What grown man said woozy?
“Maybe we should take you to the hospital,” I suggested, feeling bad for the guy.
What if he were bleeding internally? It wasn’t the brightest idea to let a man with a stab wound go unattended.
“Would you mind if I just laid down for a bit? I think I just need to sleep it off.”
I bit my lower lip. Was I really considering this? Letting a strange man sleep on my couch? Dammit! I was.
“I suppose that would be all right, but first thing in the morning we call the police, and if your wound gets any worse, we're taking you to the hospital.”
I wasn’t keen on the look he gave me when I offered to let him spend the night. While he had deep touchable dimples, that was the look of a silent joke, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know the punch line.
“I will be keeping my bedroom locked and a baseball bat next to my bed, so don’t get any ideas, Mr. Mass. The bathroom is down that hallway. It’s the first door on the left, and, well, you saw the kitchen when we walked in. I have tea and water in the fridge if you need something to drink.” He stood up and stretched his arm out to shake her hand.
“Ashtyn Lane, it is a pleasure to finally meet you. Thank you for your hospitality.”
I shook his large hand, which seemed to swallow mine, and went to the hall closet for more blankets and pillows, laying them on the recliner.
“Goodnight, Mr. Mass. I hope you feel better in the morning, and thank you for your bravery tonight.”
I turned and walked into my bedroom, closing the door and turned the lock. Thousands of thoughts crept through my mind. Had I met him before? Maybe his mother brought him to visit when I younger. That couldn’t be it. Even as a child I’m sure I would have remembered him. If what he was saying were true, why had Ken never told me about my mother’s friend? Maybe they had a falling out and lost touch before I was born. … I couldn’t shake the feeling that this encounter was no accident. I don’t know why but when I laid my head on the pillow I wasn’t afraid of the stranger sleeping in the other room. I felt a calm come over me that made my eyes heavy, and I drifted off to sleep.
Cody couldn’t help but smile when she spoke of him rescuing her from a home invasion. Okay, so he told a little white lie, but it was better than the truth. He had to find a way to approach the subject. He didn’t think it would go over too well if he blurted out that she was born of an immortal dreamwalker who also happened to be the High Priestess of their realm and people were after her because her mother may or may not have hidden valuable information in her dreams. He would wait for her to fall asleep and find Mac; he needed to give him the information the informant had told him. Mac was a great strategist; if anyone would have a plan it would be him.
“How the feck should I know? You’re on a whole new playing field now, Lad. Mind yourself you don’t get in over your head. It has never been the plan to approach her in the human realm.”
Mac paced back and forth rubbing the top of his head like he always did when he was deep in thought.
“I
had no choice. They will come for her in whichever realm they can. We have to be ready.”
He had not intended on Ashtyn actually seeing him in the human realm, but after the sneak attack on him in dream realm he wasn’t really given an option.
“I have to tell her. Maybe it’s for the best. She has a right to know the truth and if we can explain the circumstances to her she might remember something.”
Mac stopped pacing and glared at his friend.
“You’re in for one hell of a ride my friend, and you better be talking to the council real soon about your half-baked plan.”
Cody gave him a sly smile.
“Oh no ya don’t. I’m not cleaning up your mess.”
He looked off into the distance and could see Ashtyn fishing in the pond. She was always at peace in dream realm, a completely different person than the girl who was ready to attack him with a bat. He wondered how she was able to get him into the garage. The girl had determination, he had to give her that.
“I can’t leave her right now, she needs me.”
Mac looked at his friend with understanding. While the council had assigned Cody to watch over Ashtyn when they received word the Credo had found out about her, Mac had a slight suspicion he had already been doing so. He knew how devoted his father was to the Citizenry and to Deandra. When Cody’s father died helping Deandra escape, Mac knew he wasn’t going to give up the fight to restore dream realm to its previous glory. That is why he joined the guard, he could care less about the council or the Credo’s goal of global domination. There would always be war, save one generation for another to repeat history, but he couldn’t let Cody fight alone. He promised his father he wouldn’t abandon him and Cody was the closest thing to a family Mac had ever known.
“All right, ya horse, I’ll talk to the council, but you owe me.” Cody slapped his friend on back and Mac flashed out of sight.