Aidan smirked. “Lady, if you think I’m going to willingly offer you information about myself without my legal guardian present, you are sorely mistaken.” This couldn’t just be about his status as an unknown. They were stalling for time, and Aidan worried this was going to snowball into something way worse if he didn’t get his phone soon.
“Abilities?” she continued.
“Does anyone actually answer that question?”
“We have ways to force the answers, I assure you.”
“I’m sure you do. But this could all go a lot easier on both sides if you would just let me call my brother. He will answer your questions after we’ve consulted with our family’s attorney.”
“So, we’re doing this the hard way, then.” She lifted a device from her belt. “One tap of this to your collar and you’ll be spilling your mother’s secret recipes along with anything else we want to know.”
“Clearly, you’ve never met my mother.” Aidan laughed, knowing it would only piss her off more. Aidan schooled his features as she stood and walked to his side of the table. He really didn’t want to find out what that thing would do to him.
“Sinclair,” Schreiber said as he returned to the room. “A word?”
“Still with the good cop, bad cop?” Aidan chuckled to cover his sigh of relief.
“We’ll be right back.” Lieutenant Sinclair left with her partner.
Aidan ran a hand through his sweaty hair. He was a confident guy with a lot more experience than most kids his age, but this was more than he could handle on his own. He desperately needed his brother, but if he had to face whatever torture Sinclair threatened him with, he would.
“Looks like a change of plans, sohn.” Lieutenant Schreiber returned alone.
“Is my brother here?” Maybe Liam was already aware of his situation.
“No. You still have some questions to answer first.”
“So, what’s this new development?” Aidan rested his elbows on the table, rubbing a hand over his face.
“Whenever we make an arrest, the basic information gets logged into the system. We don’t have you booked yet, but your name and charges are in the system, along with a brief description of your level of power and general description.”
“Let me guess, someone higher up wants to talk to me?”
“The Senate is sending representatives to question you. You can either let us finish booking you so we can call your brother, or you can wait and let the Senate reps deal with you. I can assure you, they will not be the easier choice here. If you were my sohn, I’d tell you to do whatever it took to make that call to your brother.”
“But to do that, I have to spill my guts about my family and my abilities?”
“Yes.”
“Then you are a very different father than the one who raised me. Nothing you can do will make me talk without family present.”
“Perhaps a night in a cell will change your mind.”
Lieutenant Sinclair stepped into the room through a door on the opposite wall. “Let’s go.” She held the door open for him.
“A night alone isn’t going to change anything.” Aidan followed her down the long, dark hallway.
“Stand still,” she barked.
Aidan flinched as she reached for his collar. His heart landed somewhere in the vicinity of his toes when he realized her hand was empty of the torture device.
“Relax, I’m taking it off for the night.”
Then tension in his arms relaxed. Maybe once the magnetic influence wore off, he could get a message to Allie.
“Inside.” Sinclair pointed to the cell, the bars humming with magnetic energy.
Nope, still screwed.
“Any chance I could just stay in the interrogation room?” Aidan suggested.
“None.”
Aidan closed his eyes and stepped into the closet-sized cell. A wave of lethargy hit him like a bucket of ice over his head.
“This is the real thing, Aidan. The cuffs and collars will separate you from your power, but a cell like this … it will torment you. Take some time to think about spending all your days in this room. And maybe in a day or two, you’ll be more willing to answer a few simple questions.” She slammed the cell bars closed, leaving him in total darkness.
Weakness overwhelmed him, and Aidan’s legs gave out. Crashing onto the cold concrete floor, he shivered. No amount of training had prepared him for this experience. It wasn’t just the separation from his power; it was the fear. Five minutes in this room and he was as weak as a kitten. In two days he’d be worthless. As a strong, powerful Immortal, Aidan didn’t do weak. It wasn’t something he knew how to deal with.
Two days in here and he’d be ready to crack. Hell, he was nearly there now.
After an hour, Aidan shivered in a pool of his own sweat. In a moment of desperation, he searched for his bond with Naomi but came up empty. He couldn’t feel the warmth of their bond anymore and that terrified him more than anything else. She would sense something was wrong.
Stay out of it, Naomi. He willed her to hear him. The last thing he needed was his Syntrophos showing up here demanding answers when no one was supposed to know he was here. Aidan needed his brother Scott, but Naomi had to stay away. It was too dangerous. If the Senate found out about their bond, they would never know another moment’s peace.
After three hours in the cramped cell, Aidan was desperate for the escape of sleep, but the room wasn’t long enough for him to lie down. He could only curl into a ball, clutching his knees to his chest to conserve his body heat, but even that was exhausting.
When Aidan lost track of time, he couldn’t trust what he would do once they let him out. He wasn’t strong enough to face this alone.
“I just want to go home,” he whispered into the darkness.
Chapter Ten
Allie
The Dreamworld, November
“I see the bed is back.” Navid narrowed his eyes at Allie, a playful smile on his lips. He made a habit of visiting her dreamscape just before dawn and she looked forward to his visits.
“I like to read in bed.” Allie sat up, returning her father’s smile with a roll of her eyes.
“As long as there’s no hanky-panky going on, I suppose it can stay.”
“Hanky-panky?” Allie’s laughter rang out across the early dawn morning. “No hanky-panky is happening anywhere near the dreamworld. That’s too creepy for me.”
“And that is enough of that conversation.” Navid sat on the bed beside her. “I’ve brought Livia with me, if you don’t mind inviting her in.”
Allie gazed across her dreamscape, expecting to see her sister waiting on the path below. “She’s still in her cell though, right?” It made her uneasy to think of her sister free from the magnetic cell keeping her under control.
“She is in the Yard with me,” Navid said. “She cannot enter the dreamworld from her cell. She needs to touch her power to do so.”
“I see. You’ve been spending time with her here? Probably a lot of time.” Allie hated the twinge of jealousy she felt at the idea Navid might prefer his other daughter.
“It is a reprieve for her, and it gives us time to get to know each other. I have known you your whole life, but my eldest is a stranger to me.”
“But I haven’t known you my whole life,” Allie said. “Not the real you.”
“I look forward to the day when we all know each other so well, we’re sick of the sight of each other.” Navid smiled. “Do not worry, I have much love for both of my beautiful daughters.
“So if she’s out there waiting to come in, does that mean she’s a dreamwalker?”
“No, but she is my daughter and has an affinity for the dreamworld just as you do.”
“Right … but how is she out there if you’re not with her?”
“Quinn is waiting with her. We have come to talk to you about an important matter.”
“She … um. She hasn’t, like, latched onto his gift again?”
“No nothing like that. Believe it or not, it is quite painful for her to do that. She hopes to never use that gift again.”
“How can she walk with Quinn? I thought I could only travel this world with you because you’re my father.”
“So did I, but we’ve done some experimenting, and it seems you can travel with any of my allies in this world.”
“Allies? This sounds serious.
“It is. That’s why we are here.”
“How do I let them into my dreamscape?”
“Invite them.”
Allie stood and crossed the room to the largest open window. “Quinn and Livia, please come in,” Allie called into the lingering darkness. “Feels a bit like inviting vampires inside my house,” she muttered, as she conjured up two more chairs for her guests.
“Your sister is not a vampire.” Navid chuckled. He helped her arrange the four chairs around a smoldering fire pit.
“Nice touch. That won’t burn the place down, will it?” Allie asked. “My tree house is highly flammable.”
“It won’t if you don’t want it to. Care to make it permanent?”
“Yes, please.”
“You have the entire dreamworld at your fingertips, and you decide the best use of it is a tree house?” Quinn stepped off the ladder, shaking his head.
“Hey now, don’t be hating on my dreamscape.” Allie narrowed her eyes at him.
“You can do literally anything you want here, and you made a reading nook?” He eyed her bookshelves and mounds of books on her nightstand.
“My life is exciting enough. When I come here, I want to relax.”
“Whatever, you did the same thing,” Livia said. “Except yours is a castle, not a tree house, and you gave yourself a whole library.”
“It’s for research,” Quinn said, shoving her playfully. “And it was there when I found the castle.”
Of all the people affected by Livia’s actions, Quinn had the most reason to hate her, but over the last year, he’d found a way to forgive her. They weren’t exactly friends, but he seemed to understand her better than most.
“What’s going on?” Allie frowned. “And what’s this about a castle?”
“We’re at war, Allie, and we’re here to recruit you,” Quinn said, taking a seat and leaning back with his arms crossed behind his head. “No way to sugar coat it, that’s why we’re here.”
“War?” Allie sat down with the others, keeping a careful eye on Livia. It was unnerving to see her walking around freely without a collar restraining her power.
“It’s been brewing for some time,” Navid said.
“How can I help? Surely, other walkers would be more useful than me.” Allie glanced at her sister who sat quietly listening to Quinn and Navid explain the situation.
“That’s the problem,” Quinn said. “Walkers are disappearing left and right.”
“At first it was the old ones, like me,” Navid said. “I thought they were going to ground to ride out the controversy in solitude, but I was wrong.”
“Now it’s the younger and weaker walkers disappearing,” Quinn added. “The few walkers we trust are staying in the old fortress. We’re banding together, joining forces to go against Brecken.”
“Who is Brecken?” Allie asked.
“He is a young and powerful dream walker,” Navid said. “Probably the most powerful ever born. The only one who can rival him is Quinn.”
“So this Brecken guy is capturing the missing walkers? Can’t they just … wake up?”
“He is strong, Allie,” Navid said. “Strong enough to keep them here against their will.”
“So, they can’t wake up in their physical bodies?”
“Brecken is keeping them somewhere between sleep and awake,” Quinn said. “When they’re awake, it’s like they’re sleep walking. Alert to their surroundings and interacting in their lives, but not fully present.”
“Left in that state long enough, a walker could go mad—even in the waking world,” Navid added.
“Are there enough of you to oppose him?” Allie asked.
“No. That’s why we need you and Livia,” Quinn said. “You two are rare, natural children of a powerful dream walker. You can travel the world of dreams with an escort, but you cannot fight this war with us.”
“Then what can we do?” Allie asked.
“There are ways you can help us distract our enemies. Brecken’s walkers are powerful. Much more than they should be,” Navid said. “He promises them more power and more time in the dreamworld. We don’t know how, but he delivers on that promise.”
“They torment dreamers, feeding off their fear to make them stronger,” Quinn added. “That’s where you two come in.” He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “We battled with Brecken’s crew recently, and it didn’t go well. We lost a few of our best crew because we were fighting our enemy while also trying to protect the dreamers Brecken uses to strengthen his walkers. It’s our duty to protect dreamers, but he uses them to slow us down. We can’t afford to let that happen again. Next time we face him, we hope you two can protect the dreamers so we can focus on the fight. We will teach you how to guide the innocent dreamers back to their own dreamscapes.”
“Won’t Brecken’s people just target us?” Livia asked.
“That’s the beauty of this plan.” Quinn grinned, his teeth gleaming white against his dark skin. “Since you are not walkers, they can’t touch you,” Quinn said. “Brecken won’t be able to influence you as a dreamer or as a walker.”
“So he can’t harm us at all?” Allie asked.
“He cannot touch a hair on your head,” Navid said. “If he tries, you will simply wake up and leave Brecken and the dreamworld behind. He cannot keep you there. Otherwise, I would never ask this of my daughters.”
“But there’s a lot you need to know before we can proceed,” Quinn said.
“Yes, the dreamworld is a fluid place,” Navid continued. “It reacts to the walkers who take command, traveling this world and shaping it to fit their needs. We are kings here, with everything we could ever want right at our fingertips. It’s a seductive power that slowly drives us insane if we are not careful to mind our thresholds. I can safely stay in the dreamworld for three hours without a break. I can go a little longer than that if I take much longer breaks between my visits here. Most walkers have a threshold much shorter than mine. Quinn can stay here for several hours without a negative effect. In that way, he is one of the strongest walkers I have ever known. You and Livia are anomalies. You are here as dreamers, but you remain cognizant of what happens here. You have an infinite threshold we can use to our advantage.”
“And how will we protect these dreamers?” Allie asked, glancing at her sister who remained impassive. Livia already knew all of this, which meant Allie was the last to know. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that.
“We will train you,” Quinn said. “But you will not be directly involved in the battle. Only a walker can face another walker.”
“Remind me what Allie-rule number one is?” Navid interjected.
Allie rolled her eyes. “Stay in my dreamscape. Don’t ever leave my dreamscape, under any circumstances, and don’t listen to the dreamers whispering in the winds.”
“Very good. Now here is Allie-rule number two of the dreamworld,” Navid said. “Do not engage with a walker you do not trust. Ever. You will lose. Period.”
“Why are they Allie-rules,” Allie muttered. “Shouldn’t they be Allie/Livia-rules?”
“I’m older and wiser. I don’t need to be constantly reminded of what I can and can’t do in these circumstances.” Livia’s severe tone pissed Allie off, but when she glanced at her sister, she saw a shadow of a smile and realized Livia was trying to be funny.
“Hey, I can follow directions.” Allie nudged Livia’s shoulder. “Most of the time.”
“We can’t break the rules this time,” Quinn said. “Brecken is changing the way this world works. He bends the enti
re dreamworld, morphing it into something the old ones can’t even recognize.”
“Here, our only limitation is our imagination,” Navid said. “Most walkers are not armed with a multitude of gifts in the waking world. For those like myself, Quinn and Brecken, being a walker is just one of many gifts, marking us as the most powerful Immortals of this realm. One of Brecken’s strongest gifts is his imagination.”
“The things that guy comes up with…” Quinn shook his head. “He’s really messed up.”
“His walkers make such rapid fire changes during battle, only a skilled dream walker could keep up with them,” Navid said.
“One moment, you’re facing a pack of rabid wolves, and in the next instant, you’re free falling off a cliff into a bottomless pit,” Quinn said. “You have to think fast to counteract the imagination of the one you’re facing. And it’s like they know all your worst fears and use them to torture you.”
“Just like a boggart?” Allie chimed in.
“Exactly,” Navid said.
“You read the books?” Allie sat up straight, grinning at her father.
“I knew you loved them, so I read them years ago.”
“A boggart?” Livia frowned.
“You know, like in Harry Potter when Professor Lupin teaches Harry how to face the Dementors. He uses a boggart to train him because they turn into your worst fear.”
“Dementors? What is she talking about?” Livia asked, eyebrows raising.
“It’s one of her coping mechanisms.” Quinn scratched his head. “Whenever she’s trying to wrap her mind around something new, she compares it to Harry Potter. I don’t know why, but it helps her.”
“The boy wizard,” Allie said, scowling at her sister. “He saved wizard-kind from the dark lord.”
“O-kay, if you say so,” Livia said, looking uncomfortable. Allie imagined her sister didn’t have much experience with the simple joy of escaping her world through the pages of a book.
“I swear, one of these days, I’m locking everyone in the underground until you read all seven books and watch all eight movies.” Allie slumped back in her seat.
Emerge- The Betrayal Page 9