by I. T. Lucas
With a contented sigh, she let herself drift off into the fantasy, letting the dream unfold on its own.
The scene was so real that she could actually feel the warm sand under her feet, and as a bigger than usual wave broke onto the shore, the cold water lapped at her toes.
It was a glorious day, made even better by walking hand in hand with a gorgeous guy.
She leaned on his arm and sighed. “I love walks on the beach, Julian.”
“Who’s Julian?” Logan asked.
Gasping, she yanked her hand out of his. “None of your business.”
“A new boyfriend?”
For some inexplicable reason, she didn’t want to share Julian with Logan even though he wasn’t another entity and was just part of her psyche. For the sake of sanity, it was easier to think of him as separate from herself.
“I said that it was none of your business. Can you go away? You’re intruding on my dream.”
He arched a brow. “Isn’t this our beach?”
They were walking along the boardwalk, the same one he’d transported her to before. But it was her beach, not theirs. The same one she used to hang out at with Romeo.
Maybe she should find a new dream beach. This one had too much bad juju.
“It’s not our beach, and it’s not even mine. Go away. I was enjoying someone else’s company until you popped in and replaced him.”
Why the heck had it happened, though?
Ella had no idea. She hadn’t thought about Logan in days.
“That Julian fellow?”
She shrugged.
His dark features darkened even more, and the sun that had been shining bright a moment ago was suddenly obscured by rain clouds. Scary Logan was back, and apparently his mood was affecting their dream environment.
“Are you having sex with him, Ella?”
Even though he terrified her, she regarded him with a sneer. “Really? You think I’m going to answer that?”
With a snakelike hiss, he grabbed her by the back of her neck. His fingers digging painfully into the soft flesh, he smiled with a pair of fangs very similar to Julian’s. “You don’t let anyone other than me touch you, Ella. You’ll be very sorry if you do.”
“Let me go!”
Surprisingly, he released her. “We are meant for each other, Ella. No one can give you what I can.”
“And what’s that? A missile launcher? I don’t need anything from you, Logan.”
As he smiled, his fangs were almost back to normal. “We will see about that.”
Ella jerked awake and bolted upright.
What a creepy dream. Julian must have scared her with his venom-dripping fangs and his anger more than she’d realized because now she’d given Logan his fangs.
Except, hadn’t Logan had fangs and glowing eyes in the first dream she’d had about him?
Ella scrubbed a hand over her face.
This was bad.
She hadn’t known about immortals back then. Could it have been a prophetic dream?
Or was Logan an immortal just like Julian? Except, unlike Julian, he was an evil one.
“No fucking way!”
Suddenly it all made sense. Logan was a Doomer. That was why he had fangs in her dreams, and why he and Gorchenco had been talking about the Doomers’ freaking island.
Since she hadn’t known about fanged immortals before her rescue, she couldn’t have given fangs and glowing eyes to dream Logan. Which meant that somehow he was getting inside her head while she slept.
Could thralling be done long distance?
That wasn’t likely.
Even Yamanu, the clan’s secret weapon, had distance limits. He could cover a large area, but he needed to be there. That’s why they’d flown him to New York for her rescue mission. If he could’ve done it from the village, he wouldn’t have gone.
But then none of the clan members could communicate telepathically like her and her mother either, so different and unknown abilities existed. Logan could have the special ability to penetrate dreams.
What was she going to do?
Could he see the village through her eyes?
Was she endangering everyone by being there?
Should she tell someone?
45
Ella
After spending half the night freaking out over Logan’s possible identity, Ella had managed to pass the second half in dreamless sleep.
By morning, the entire episode seemed silly.
Fangs and glowing eyes were a trope used in every book and movie about vampires and demons, and she’d watched and read quite a few of those. The Twilight saga alone, which she’d watched twice, once with Maddie and another time with her mother, could explain dream Logan’s appearance.
The island with its secret resort coming up in a conversation between two powerful, rich, and dangerous men shouldn’t be taken as proof that Logan was a Doomer either.
Probably every mafia boss, arms dealer, warlord, and drug lord had visited the exclusive brothel at one time or another, and she wouldn’t be surprised if some of the high-ranking politicians were its clients as well.
She’d learned a thing or two from Gorchenco.
Power was corruptive, and politics, although legitimate, was a nasty business in which only the most brutal and unscrupulous reached the top, regardless of their so-called ideological leanings. Corruption and the thirst for power didn’t care about party lines.
Still, it was possible that Logan was indeed a Doomer, but Ella wasn’t going to run into Kian’s office and tell him about her dream encounters. She could only imagine his response.
He would probably suggest that she visit with Vanessa and get her head checked.
Before she did anything rash, she was going to wait for the next dream visit and test Logan. If she asked him a question to which she couldn't possibly know the answer, and what he said checked out, then she’d have proof that he wasn’t a product of her mind but a separate entity.
But even that wouldn’t prove or disprove that he was a Doomer.
Logan could be a human with special abilities, and maybe even a Dormant.
One thing she was going to make sure of, though. Every dream encounter from now on was going to happen on “their” beach. Just in case he was a Doomer, she wasn’t going to show him her real surroundings and give him clues as to the village’s location. Also, she was going to be very careful not to mention anything about Doomers or immortals because that would give her away too.
Luckily, up until now, nothing about immortals had been mentioned in their dream encounters. To make sure, she’d gone over every word they’d ever exchanged.
When her phone buzzed, she snatched it off the charging station, hoping it was a text from Julian, but it was from Amanda, reminding her that today was the big day.
Ella was finally getting her makeover.
The good news was that her mother together with Magnus and Parker were going shopping and would be gone most of the day.
Vivian wasn’t going to be happy about the changes Ella intended to make, and it was best she didn’t see the work in progress, but was presented with the completed project. Other than lamenting Ella’s pretty hair, there wouldn’t be much her mother could do after the fact.
When the doorbell rang two hours later, Ella was alone in the house, with only Scarlet for company.
“Hello, darling.” Amanda sauntered in with a big duffle bag slung over her shoulder. “I hope you don’t mind, but I decided to make it a girls’ get together.”
Ella had been expecting Carol and Eva to join, but not Tessa and another woman she didn’t know.
“This is Sharon,” Eva introduced her assistant. “Sharon, this is Ella.”
“Hi.” Sharon offered her hand. “I couldn’t resist seeing Eva’s magic in action.”
Eva shook her head. “I told you that you were going to be disappointed. This is Amanda’s show. I’m here only as an advisor.”
“Where do you want to do it,
Ella?”
Good question. Hair coloring was messy, and Ella didn’t want to chance staining any of the nice furniture or the rug in the living room.
“Can we all squeeze into my room?”
“Sure.” Amanda waved a hand. “Girls, grab a couple of chairs and let’s go.”
“You go ahead,” Carol said. “I’m going to make us virgin margaritas.”
Amanda grimaced. “Why virgin?”
“Because Eva is breastfeeding, and Ella is only eighteen.”
“That doesn't mean we all have to suffer.”
Sharon patted her shoulder. “It’s only ten-thirty in the morning. It’s too early for alcohol.”
“Oh, well. I guess virgin it is.”
Carol headed to the kitchen, Sharon and Tessa each grabbed a chair, and the five of them filed into Ella’s room, with Scarlet closing the procession and promptly jumping on the bed.
Amanda patted the dog’s head. “Since you’re a girl too, you’re allowed. But you need to behave.”
Scarlet wagged her tail.
“I see that we have an understanding.”
Putting her duffle bag down on Ella’s desk, Amanda started taking stuff out. Several boxes of hair color, four different brushes, two pairs of scissors, a hair dryer and a hair curler. Next came up a bottle of shampoo, a conditioner, and miscellaneous other hair treatments Ella could only guess the use of.
“I also brought several outfits for you to try out once we are done with the hair and makeup.”
Eva lifted a rectangular box. “I brought several colored contact lenses. You can change your eye color every day of the week if you want.”
“I’ve never worn contact lenses.”
Eva waved a hand. “You’ll get used to them. And anyway, you only need to put them in when you go out.”
One hour later, Ella looked into the mirror and could hardly recognize herself. “My own mother could pass me on the street and not know it was me.”
Amanda had bleached her hair, colored it pink, cut it short, and then spiked it using tons of hair glue. Smokey-eyes heavy makeup framed her new amber colored eyes, and her brows grew to twice their size thanks to some specialty brow product that mimicked real hairs. Her face had been primed and contoured, giving her a hollow-cheeked appearance.
“What do you think?” Amanda looked at Eva.
“Couldn’t have done it better myself.”
“I have some fake piercings for you to try on,” Carol said. “They look so real I’m tempted to play with them myself.”
“Why fake?” Tessa asked. “Ella can have fun with real piercings as long as she is still human. When she transitions, the holes will close.”
“I prefer the fake ones.” Ella reached for the box. “They don’t hurt.”
First, she put in big hoop earrings, then she added a removable nose ring, and lastly she stuck a glue-on fake diamond on top of her new bushy brow. “I look like a pink goth.”
“That was the idea,” Amanda said. “Now let’s move to the wardrobe.” She pulled a pair of shredded black jeans out of her duffle bag.
“Be careful when you put them on. There are more holes in them than fabric.”
She hadn’t been kidding. And they were really tight too.
Next was a black T-shirt with some band name printed in pink lettering on the front.
“That’s so awesome.” Ella turned this way and that in front of the mirror. “I look like such a badass.”
“You do, darling. But I’m not done.” Amanda pulled out a pair of monster boots from her bag. “Put them on.”
They were six inches high, but since they were basically chunky platforms, Ella had no trouble walking in them. They must’ve been expensive. The leather was soft, and they weighed very little considering how bulky they looked.
“I love it.”
“Now the bangles.” Amanda handed her a bunch of bracelets made from various materials.
“Anything else?” Ella asked after putting several on each wrist.
Amanda shook her head and smiled. “I think my work here is done. What do you think, girls?”
“Unbelievable,” Tessa said. “That’s even more drastic than my makeover.”
Eva nodded. “I agree. No one is going to recognize you, Ella.”
Looking in the mirror, Ella liked what she saw. The question was whether Julian would too.
“What do you think will happen if I go out into the village looking like this? Am I going to trigger the intruder alert?”
“You might.” Tessa chuckled. “You’ll have to reintroduce yourself to every person you meet.”
Sharon shook her head. “I’m worried about your mother. She’s going to faint seeing you like that.”
“I can handle my mom. After the initial shock, she’ll get used to it, especially since this makeover is supposedly for my safety.”
“Supposedly?” Eva asked. “I thought that was the entire purpose of this.”
“It was. But I like the new look. It’s so drastically different from the good-girl-next-door one I was ready to get rid of. It makes me feel cool, like an individualistic badass who is not scared of anything. The only thing I’m missing is a tattoo.” She arched a brow at Amanda. “Any chance you do those too?”
Amanda laughed. “No, darling. Tattoos don’t hold on immortals.”
“Bummer.”
“You can have a fake henna one,” Carol offered. “It will hold for a couple of months. Where do you want it?”
“On my face.” Ella smoothed her hand over her left cheek. “A vine that will start around the eye and continue down to my neck.”
“That’s going too far,” Eva said. “You don’t want to encourage close inspection of your features, and a facial tattoo will make people want to take a closer look.”
There was some logic to that, although she already looked weird enough to attract attention, but at least it would be for a different reason than before.
She was no longer as pretty, which was precisely what she’d wanted to achieve with the makeover. Her beauty had brought her nothing but trouble.
The only thing she was worried about was Julian’s reaction.
“Any of you know where Julian’s house is? I want to surprise him with my new look.”
Tessa cleared her throat. “Maybe you should text him first and let him know that you’re coming.”
“Yeah, that’s a good idea,” Sharon said. “And include a selfie with your text.”
Amanda, on the other hand, smirked like a she-devil and wrapped her arm around Ella’s shoulders. “Let me show you how to get there.”
46
Julian
As the piano playing abruptly stopped, Julian lifted his head from the article he was reading and glanced at his roommate.
“Are you expecting a visitor, Julian?” From his bench, Ray had a good view of the path leading to their house. “Because someone is walking this way.”
“Who is it?”
“No one I know, but she’s hot.”
Ray didn’t hang out much with other immortals, but he could probably recognize each of the village’s residents. The only newcomers were Vivian and Ella, whom he might’ve not met yet.
Hot could apply to both mother and daughter. Except, neither had a reason to come visit him.
Suddenly worried, Julian got up and rushed to the door, yanking it open and leaving his visitor with her hand up in the air ready to knock.
“Hi, Julian.”
He gaped. “Ella?”
The voice was the same, the body shape was the same, but that was it. The disguise must’ve been Eva’s work. The transformation was so complete that he would not have recognized Ella on the street. Even her unique personal scent was barely accessible under the heavy perfume she had on.
Brown contact lenses with a tint of amber covered her blue eyes, and her hair had been cut short, colored bright pink, and spiked. Two large hoops pierced her ears, a much smaller one was threaded through h
er nostril, and a fourth one through her brow.
The tight black jeans, black punk-rock T-shirt, and monster shoes made her look much thinner and taller.
Despite the godawful getup, she was still beautiful, but he’d loved her old, softer look and hated the new, edgy one.
Smirking, she turned in a circle. “Do you like?”
He rubbed a hand over his face. “It will take some getting used to.”
Her smile faded, but then she shrugged. “It’s good to know that you’re honest. May I come in?”
Damn, he’d kept her on the front porch instead of inviting her in.
“Of course.” He threw the door open.
“Hello,” she said to his roommate. “I’m Ella.”
“Ray.” He got up and offered her his hand. “I don’t know what you looked like before, but this is hot.”
She beamed at him. “Thank you.”
Barely managing to stifle the growl that had started deep in his throat, Julian coughed.
Ella pulled her hand out of Ray’s and turned to Julian, handing him the plastic bag she’d brought with her. “Your clothes. I totally forgot to return them. I’m sorry it took so long. But better late than never, right? They are washed and ironed, so you can put them right back in your closet.”
Apparently, when embarrassed, Ella talked a lot.
“You ironed my socks and boxer shorts?”
That wrested a smile out of her. “Just the T-shirt and the sweatshirt.”
“Do you iron all of your T-shirts?”
She scrunched her nose. “I do. Is it weird?”
“Not at all. I do that too,” Ray said.
Liar.
The dude was supposed to be his friend, or at least stick to the bro code. It wasn’t cool to flirt with his roommate’s girlfriend.
Glaring at him, Julian motioned to the couch. “Would you like to sit down, Ella?”
She shifted from foot to foot. “In fact, I came here to take you up on your offer to go out. I’ve been cooped up in this lovely village for far too long, and I need to do some shopping. But I don’t have my fake driver’s license yet, and I’m also afraid to go out by myself, so I thought you could take me.”