Fuck, what was he thinking? He couldn’t look at me like that or I’d lose all of my ability to brain. I blinked hard and met his gaze.
“Say something,” I said. Please.
“So it was real…”
“I guess so,” I said. But that only raised more questions. How had he come into my dream? When I’d thought I was conjuring a guardian...did I somehow summon Deckard? How? Why him? We hadn’t even met yet. It had to have been me...
The thought came unbidden to my brain, and it gave me a thrill. I really did have a touch of my mother’s abilities. I was a dream witch.
I was a dream witch, and what had happened between us had actually happened. I’d climbed the dude like a damned tree. And he’d tasted like mint as his rough hands had squeezed my breasts. I’d wanted him, as I wanted him now.
“You said it’s time for dinner, right?” He took a step forward.
I stilled, caught in fuck-or-flight mode. That was a thing, because both were equally likely and equally appealing.
“Yep.” I waited for him to make a move, to touch me, to grab me, to throw me down on the sectional and pick things up where we’d left off in dreams only hours before.
He took another step closer and inhaled deeply. He could sense my desire, I knew he could. He knew exactly what I wanted. This was it, we were going to have crazy sex right here, right now, and it didn’t matter that anyone could walk by and see.
“Smells good,” he said. And walked right the fuck past me, leaving me off-balance and disappointed.
As he reached the stairwell, he looked back. His face was a mask of calm and seriousness, no indication that he felt the same need that I did. Frustrating as hell.
“Valerie,” he said.
“Yes?” My voice was a breathy whisper.
“About your mother,” he said. “Your secret’s safe with me.”
Chapter Six
Deckard
Dinner was spent in awkward silence for most of us, which meant we were forced to listen to Wafflick and Roger’s enthusiastic chatter. I was glad to return to my borrowed room, to true silence, to think.
After the door clicked shut, I crossed the room and took a seat on the edge of the bed.
I’d spent the day searching for evidence—the archives, the meeting hall, the bedrooms I’d been able to reach without detection. So far, there was no proof that anyone in the pack house was involved in the death of the human woman or in the disappearance of the journal. I’d made some calls and talked to the woman’s neighbors. No leads.
The best place to search for suspects was always close to home, and given the magical nature of the incident, that meant here, in the pack house.
My top suspect was the only witness to the theft—Roger, the half-wit.
His room was clean of any evidence, but it was still possible that he was faking the whole stupidity act. Or, it was possible that I was completely off-base.
I’d know more when the Tribunal called about the autopsy.
Speaking of...my phone buzzed in my pocket.
I pulled it out and answered, “Reid.”
“Good, you answered.” I recognized the voice—Miller. This was both the call I was waiting for and the call I dreaded. After what had happened in Springport, Miller held my fate in his hands. With any luck, this was about my current case.
“Yep,” I said. “I answered.”
“Report is in on your victim.”
“And?”
“She appears to have strangled herself, even after becoming unconscious. The question is how.”
“I found a black marble in her pocket.”
Miller was silent.
“I’m told it’s a dream orb. Do you know anything about that?”
“Deck, there’s something else I have to tell you.” There was hesitance in his tone, and it made me uneasy—more uneasy.
If he knew about the dream orbs, I knew exactly what he was going to say. This was the conversation that would vindicate me, yet I still dreaded it.
“The investigation into Springport has been concluded.”
The comforter bunched in my fist.
“Your team...I’ve concluded that you were not at fault in their deaths. We can go over the details after your mission, but be careful. Dream orbs were found on all of the other members of your team.”
I’d seen the one, but at the time, I hadn’t known what it meant.
“Tell me exactly what they do,” I said.
“Apparently the black orbs are a tool for dream witches that offers the witch complete control of the person who holds it.”
I remembered the woman on the floor, the marks on her neck.
“Even after the victim loses consciousness,” I said.
“That seems to be the case. I have other calls to make, but I’ll let you know if I hear anything else.”
“Thanks, Miller.”
He hung up. I set my phone down on the nightstand, stripped to my boxers, and headed into the bathroom to brush my teeth.
Standing at the sink, I heard a sound—a creak. I looked in the mirror and caught the reflection of the knob turning on the door to the adjoining room.
The door opened, and Wafflick stepped through.
“Hey there, partner, looks like we’re bathroom buddies.” He was wearing only a towel and a stupid grin. And in his hand was a rubber duck.
I put down the toothpaste and returned to my room without saying a damned word. And I locked the door behind me.
Once in bed, I leaned my head back on the pillow and stared up at the vaulted ceiling.
The sound of rushing water started, and the door offered little buffer to Wafflick’s offkey rendition of the rubber ducky song from Sesame Street, so I covered my head with my pillow.
Fortunately, it didn’t take long before sleep took hold.
The vampire nest was all but extinguished, and while my brothers celebrated, I didn’t. I knew I was supposed to join them, but something was wrong.
Dread crept up on me like rolling fog, clouding everything else.
The world seemed gray, like I was watching through a filter. Everything was there but also not there.
Redford and Garcia stood before me, smiling, laughing.
We’d done this before.
I had to stop it—I had to stop what was about to happen.
The talking stopped. The smiling stopped.
Their gazes flicked to me, both stone-faced.
Their shoulders turned in unison.
This was when I was supposed to run. I had to run...or it was going to happen.
Garcia grabbed my arms, pinning my back to his chest. I struggled, but not hard enough to hurt him, not hard enough to escape. Part of me didn’t know what was coming, or why this was happening, and part of me knew this was inevitable.
“Don’t do this,” I said.
With dark, distant eyes, Redford stepped in front of me. It was him, but it wasn’t. It was like staring into the vacant shell of my friend. He threw a punch, straight into my jaw.
The metallic taste of blood filled my mouth and my face ached in spreading agony.
Again he hit me, and again.
I knew what was going to happen. It had all happened before, some kind of déjà vu loop of suffering, where I lost myself. Where everything changed.
Again he hit me, and again. Ringing filled my ears.
The grizzly inside of me fought for control, tore at the surface.
There was only one way to survive, one way to get out of this alive.
“W…” I tried to speak but the sound that came out wasn’t words, not with my jaw shattered. What the hell is wrong with you? Stop, please.
Blunt force shattered against the back of my knee and I tumbled to all fours. My vision blurred.
Finally, I succumbed. Finally I gave in to the grizzly.
It was a rush of sensation, of cracking bones and burning skin. The shift was my lifeline.
My vision went black and I let the
grizzly take over.
The others didn’t shift, and I didn’t know why. I didn’t know what was wrong with them—all I knew was that I wanted to live.
With claws and teeth, I fought for survival. And I won.
My brothers fell. And it was me who had done it.
It was me who slashed, me whose teeth tore through flesh.
When I stopped, my chest heaved hard with exertion and my heart was filled with regret.
They were on the ground beneath me, bruised and bloodied.
Still, they breathed.
A black marble rolled across the dark grass, glittering in the moonlight.
Grief and confusion mixed with rage as I looked over my friends, and I took a step back. Why had they attacked me...worse...what had I done?
There was blood everywhere.
And it was my fault.
This was when I was supposed to run for help, when I was supposed to shift back and call the Tribunal for assistance. This was when I was to be blamed for their deaths, though the cause had been asphyxiation, and when I’d left, they’d both been breathing.
But I didn’t leave. I looked up, and what I saw was something that didn’t belong.
Someone—Valerie.
She should have been terrified, but I could smell no fear but my own.
She should have run, but she didn’t.
She should have hated me, but the look on her face was one of compassion.
“It’s a dream, Deck,” she said. “Come with me, I’ll take you out of here.”
I shifted back to human form and kept my eyes locked on hers. Her brows were knitted with concern, but it was her pale green eyes that lulled the beast inside of me.
She was so small, so soft, and it was her who wanted to save me.
She held out her hand, and I reached for her.
When we touched, there was a flash.
The world around us changed, everything changed.
We weren’t in that field in Springport anymore, instead we were inside a building, in a bathroom.
I looked around. Everything was gray, hazy, just like it had been, and I was still reeling.
“A dream,” I said.
“Yeah. I think that was yours that we were in,” Valerie said. “This is mine.”
It was a small bathroom, much like the one attached to my bedroom in the pack house. This one didn’t have a second door to an adjoining room. There were white tiles on the floor and white walls behind the gray haze.
I looked to Valerie, searched her expression for a sign of what she was thinking. She’d seen the worst of me, and she hadn’t run. Instead, she’d saved me from my nightmare.
“Can I ask you something?” She squeezed my palm.
I looked down and found I was completely dressed, which was strange, given I had just shifted. But all of this was strange.
“Sure,” I said.
“What was that place?”
I didn’t want to talk about it, but she’d been there. She’d seen. Better to tell her the truth, and to get it over with.
“Springport. It was my last mission, the reason I was on leave before coming here. When it happened, I didn’t see the change coming. I didn’t expect my team… It was like a flip of a switch and I finally know why. My team turned on me because of the same magic that was used on your friend, Ms. Albright. My team died. They were strangled, and I knew I didn’t do that. No one believed me. The hurt I caused, it wasn’t enough to kill them. They should have healed...”
My chest was tight and I looked at Valerie, waiting for her to judge me. Waiting for her to push me away.
“I’m so sorry.” She took my hands in hers and offered me a small, sad smile.
My heart broke a little bit more at her acceptance. She wasn’t going to run. It was more than I could ask for, more than I deserved.
“I didn’t know what had happened until I came to North Bend,” I said. “Now the pieces all fit, but it still doesn’t make me feel any better. And I can’t help but wonder—what are the chances? The black orbs then, and then now…”
“Deckard, I—”
Movement caught my attention, and I looked past Valerie.
Black flesh boiled over the edge of the toilet. What the hell was that? I looked closer. Serpents were falling to the floor.
I pulled Valerie from the bathroom and slammed the door.
I stared at her, unblinking.
“I know, it’s super creepy,” she said. “It happens every night.”
“The snake man?” I asked.
“Yeah. He’ll be outside waiting for me, or the dream will end. My money’s on him being out there.”
“What if you don’t go?” I asked. “If he’s waiting for you, it’s better to stay here until you wake.”
“No...if we don’t go, the snakes come here. It’s better to go—trust me.”
I nodded. “Okay.”
Valerie walked straight to the side of the room and threw her palm into the wall. The surface shattered like glass, the pieces bursting into nothingness.
She looked over her shoulder at me, with a mix of hesitance and excitement in her eyes, and offered me her hand. “Ready?”
I gladly accepted. “Yes.”
She jumped, pulling me with her, down to a field of grass covered in snakes.
She closed her eyes as we fell. Me—I kept mine open and searched for the beast.
On impact, the snakes flew as the wall had, like shards of broken glass disappearing into the fog.
Darkness rolled in. I reached for the hem of my shirt.
Valerie grabbed my wrist. “Don’t.”
“I should shift for the fight.”
“I never win,” she said. “We won’t win. We should run.”
I let her lead, and we ran, side by side across the field, away from the black fog. It grew alongside us, thicker, closer.
We ran faster.
The earth split and trees sprouted from the ground, years of growth fast-forwarded to seconds. From nowhere, a forest appeared, thick trunks that reached up toward the hidden sky. A gentle buzz surrounded us, like insects chirping in unison. The world was cast in an aquamarine haze, and the black fog...it seemed to be gone.
“We did it!” Valerie’s grin spread from ear to ear. “We actually did it.”
“You’ve never escaped before?”
“No. But this is the first time I’ve tried to run from the start. Usually I fight or try to hang out in the house, or only realize I should run after it’s too late and his snakes are already climbing up my legs.” She shivered and squinched up her face.
I appreciated that this situation was more palatable, but I wasn’t ready to celebrate victory so quickly.
“Maybe it’s having you here, or the clarity I feel,” she said. “I mean, I know this is a dream.”
“Maybe.”
“This is great. If I can escape him, I can beat him.” She held her arms out and looked up at the sky, then spun in a circle.
I loved seeing her so carefree, so happy. But something nagged at the base of my skull, a feeling of wrongness. Maybe it was part of who I was, always waiting for something to go wrong.
“Who is he?” I asked. “The guy with the snakes?”
“I don’t know.” Valerie shrugged. “I call him Snakeman.”
I nodded. “He’s not a manifestation from your past?”
“How many giant snake monsters have you encountered in your past?” She lifted a brow and put her hands on her hips. She was still smiling, but the tone of her voice was getting deeper. I was pushing my luck.
“Fair point,” I said. “But if he’s not a memory, is he a fear, or—”
“He’s Snakeman, I don’t know. I guess I fear snakes the normal amount. I don’t think it’s enough to make that shit up, but who am I to say? He has to be based on something in my head, right? This is my dr—”
Valerie turned and took a step away.
“Valerie.” I grabbed her shoulder, concerned
that something was wrong.
“I see something.” She didn’t look at me, but kept her attention forward instead.
I let her go, and she started walking. I followed.
A few steps and she dropped down to her knees.
On the ground before her was a tome clad in black leather, beneath the fronds of a fern. A cord was banded around the book, and I felt something—power.
She reached out.
“Don’t touch it,” I said.
She looked up at me. “I know this book. I’ve seen it before. But I don’t remember…”
I knelt beside her.
She whispered, “I think this belonged to my mother.”
Chapter Seven
Valerie
Pulse racing, my eyes shot open.
Morning light poured through the sheer curtains of my bedroom window.
Deckard—I needed to talk to Deckard.
I threw back the sheets and jumped out of bed.
The air was frigid, the hardwood like ice on my bare feet. With a turn of the knob, I opened the door.
There, standing in the hall with his hand raised like he was just about to knock, was Deckard.
His white t-shirt stretched over defined muscles, and his jeans weren’t completely fastened, showing off the top of his black boxers. His hair was wild in the best way. Sleep still clung to his gorgeous hazel eyes, and a thick layer of scruff covered his jaw. He looked like walking sex, and I couldn’t believe he was here, sharing these experiences with me.
“That was the real you, right?” I could hardly contain my excitement.
My dreams had been nightmares for as long as I could remember, hauntings by a monster, and I’d suffered alone. But now, I had him.
We’d traveled through the dream world together, and it wasn’t even all nightmares. We’d seen a magical forest, too.
“Yes,” Deckard said. “It was me.”
His gaze traveled down over my form, unabashedly taking me in.
I opened my mouth and shut it again, feeling my skin heat as if being seen by him was the same as being touched.
I really needed to focus.
“We need to go talk to my dad,” I said. “He might know about the book—where it’s from, what it is, where we can find it now. It’s important, I just know it.”
I Dream of Grizzly: A Werebear Shifter and Witch Romance (The Protectors Quick Bites Book 2) Page 4