“You shouldn’t even be here,” Fergus told me, a scowl on his face.
“Neither should she,” I told him. “As soon as she goes, I go.”
“I should have known something would mess this dream up,” he muttered, sitting back with his arms folded. “Something always messes it up.”
I slashed out at Soph and took a chunk off her shoulder. It cut her top, but I saw blood so there’s also real damage. I tried to think how many slices there were in a pizza. Eight? Ten? Depended on the size, right? “How many slices in an extra large pizza, Fergus?”
“Why? Don’t you have eyes?” Clearly, Fergus was in a mood.
“Just answer me,” I told him, avoiding a grab by the demon.
“Twelve,” he snapped. “Happy now? Can you leave now?”
“Almost,” I tell him, jumping forward and slashing twice in a row, getting her other arm this time. Four down, eight to go. If I’m thinking about this the right way. I hope to hell I am. She lunged at me, and this time her hand made contact with my skin. Her fingers dug in as she grabbed hold of my wrist.
Thankfully, it’s not my weapon wielding hand, though my grip on the cutter slackens as her power pulses over my skin, giving me a neon pink all-over glow.
“Just a taste, dream walker,” she said, leaning in and giving me an up close view of her superior little smirk. “It’ll make you beg for more.”
My head was starting to swim, and I was close to succumbing to her power. I could feel it.
Then I saw Fergus at the table, shaking his head at me, and my focus snapped back sharply. Tightening my grip on the cutter, I sliced her arm up until she let me go, and then I grabbed her shoulder and went for her stomach. It was a frenzied attack and I felt a little sick by the time she was sliding out of my grasp, her dreamscape body limp. I was covered in blood. I dropped the weapon and wiped my mouth with a dry patch of my sleeve.
“You ruin everything,” Fergus huffed at me before leaving the room.
Two down. Five to go. I got moving.
Chapter Thirty-Four
My plan to save Fergus first complete, I decided to tackle the rest at random. The first corridor I ran down was lit yellow, and I was surprised for a second to find myself in Celia’s house. It made sense when I thought about it. Selena only named six people, but she has seven demons in this trap of dreamscapes. It only made sense to add a host I’d been trying to save into this mix.
“Celia?” I called out, wondering where she was. The house felt empty, but there was definitely a demon here. My hands crackled with electricity. I had a weapon. I just needed to find the demon.
I rushed up the stairs, instinct telling me it was where she was. What I found was a sleeping woman, pale-skinned and breathing so shallowly the rise and fall of her chest is barely noticeable.
Easy pickings, if everything was normal. I already know that’s not the case, though I’m beginning to think I know why. Fergus doesn’t have anything for a demon to latch onto. Teenagers can attract demons, don’t get me wrong. He just doesn’t have impulses strong enough for them to attach to. It must be why the demon wasn’t part of him in the dreamscape, why it wasn’t using his form.
This is the opposite of that. Somehow. Celia already attracted a sloth demon. I already expelled one from her. Now the demon’s talons reach deeper. A pang of guilt hits me as I look down at her sleeping form. She was starting to wake up in the real world. To pull herself back together. Now she’s being dragged back under by a demon because a sister I’ve barely known for five minutes decided she hates me.
“Keep it together, Tina,” I murmured to myself, letting the electricity build up between my finger-tips before I placed them on her shoulder.
She jerked awake at the touch, glowering at me. I hit her with a bolt, not willing to waste any time. She hissed at me, and for a second I thought she wasn’t going to go down. I sent another jolt through her body and she shuddered, collapsing back onto the bed.
“Three down, I suppose,” I said, hesitating for a moment before leaving. I needed to keep reminding myself I didn’t have any time to waste. I was going to run out of time. I knew that. Time passed differently in dreamscapes. In the waking world it was ticking along faster than I could imagine.
So I ran, and I hoped to hell I was going to make it through every dreamscape quickly enough.
Chapter Thirty-Five
The orange lit corridor brought me out to a place I didn’t recognise. A bedroom. I was standing in a doorway looking into a room with a sleeping girl in the bed. She moved in her sleep and I realised who she was. Lucy. My skin started to crawl. This had to be Dawson’s house.
I turned and looked around the landing. The sound of a door banging down the stairs caught my attention. It was quickly followed by hushed talking and a little bit of giggling. I didn’t really think I wanted to know, but I moved forward enough to see what was going on down there.
“She doesn’t care,” Dawson was saying, as he sweet talked some girl in party clothes at what looked like the door to his living room. “We have an open relationship.”
Oh this guy was so dead. I didn’t care if Lucy was pissed off with me. I didn’t even care if she ended up never talking to me again. If he was bait for a greed demon like this, he didn’t deserve another chance.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I asked, moving swiftly down the stairs, flexing my fingers and willing my weapon to appear.
Dawson turned. His unimpressed stare contained a serious demon vibe to it. “Dream walker,” he spat out, confirming my suspicion. “I don’t even know why you try. This soul is already gone. He can’t be saved.”
“Oh, I know that,” I said.
He narrowed his eyes suspiciously. I felt a tingling through my fingers, but nothing appeared in my grip. I felt for electricity, fire, something. Nothing came. Then I closed my fist and bit back a gasp. My nails were sharper than knives. My palm wet, I had to force myself to ignore the pain. I couldn’t let him know what my weapon was.
“Then why bother trying to save him?”
I thought about that for a second. Maybe I should have left. Saved everyone else. If a demon was going to take up permanent residence in someone, he was probably my least favourite person in this messed up mix.
The demon grinned. “That’s right. He isn’t worth it. You should let him go.”
“He’s a prick,” I agreed, coming down the rest of the stairs slowly, as if I had all the time in the damned world.
He wasn’t quite cocky enough to believe me. If I really didn’t care I’d be looking for the exit right now and he knew it. He was waiting for his moment. I wouldn’t let him get it.
I lashed out quickly, as soon as I was close enough. He jerked back, and my nails only just scraped the tip of his nose. He laughed, brushing at the tiny wound.
“That’s not going to do it, dream walker.”
Probably just wasn’t hard enough. I moved back as he attempted to get close enough to touch me. We started to circle each other slowly, each waiting to strike. Every time I did, he jumped back. Every time he did, I jumped out of his reach. We were too evenly matched. I had to think of something else.
“He remembers sleeping with you,” the demon told me, starting in on mental torture since he wasn’t getting the chance to physically grab me.
I rolled my eyes. “My sister, you mean.”
“She said her name was Tina. She told him she’d always imagined going home with him.”
Ugh. I wished he would shut his mouth. I so didn’t need this.
“He thought she’d been too vanilla, so she showed him a trick or two and scratched his back to pieces when they were in bed together.”
I didn’t want to know any of this. It was too messed up.
I lunged, dropping low to surprise him. I barely scuffed his T-shirt. Useless.
He stopped suddenly, moving back. “Neither of us are going to get anywhere if we keep going like this.”
I stopped
moving too, wary as I watched him. “What are you suggesting?”
He hauled off his T-shirt in a split second, showing little scratches on his stomach and chest.
“Come over here and we can have some fun.”
Was he being serious? I didn’t know, but if he might get vulnerable enough to let me strike, I had to take the chance. I stepped forward quickly.
“I’ll let you scratch me up if you let me kiss you,” he said, barely suppressing an evil grin.
“I get to scratch first,” I told him, keeping his gaze and being careful to only let my weapon touch his chest.
He smirked. He thought he had me. I moved my other arm around his back and dug my nails in deep, making in howl in agony. Judged it right, thankfully. He collapsed to the ground and the girl he’d brought home dissipated in front of me. I made for the exit and started to run again, my heart hammering. Three to go. I could make it. I had to.
Chapter Thirty-Six
The purple lit corridor was next, and I forced myself down it, knowing who I’d be walking in on. Considering a sloth demon had its hooks into Celia already, I knew the lust demon would belong to Jimmy.
I wasn’t wrong. Panic threatened to overtake me as I raced into the night club. I hadn’t found Lucy or Mason. They were going to be the last ones I saved. What if...
No. I couldn’t think like that. I’d have time. I wouldn’t lose either of them.
Now where the hell was Jimmy?
I looked around and found him with that same perfected dream version of me, this time in a booth. One we liked to frequent, though all we’d used if for back then was drinking and flirting. My double was sitting in his lap, and it didn’t look the slightest bit innocent.
I was so ready to be done with this dreamscape. Lucky for me, the demon was turned away from me. I cringed at the moaning Jimmy had me doing as he felt me up. I waited for my weapon before I remembered I’d been wearing it the last time. I looked down. My shoes had become the deadly stilettos.
I removed them quietly and attacked him from behind. It was a quick exorcism, the kind I liked best.
Turning tail and running, I hoped to hell I still had time. Two to go.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
The next corridor was red. Wrath. If Selena was going to throw this demon at anyone, I’d put money on Mason. He gets so mad he can’t speak to me for days. It was hardly enough to attract a demon, but his brother wasn’t harbouring gluttony enough for a demon either.
When I stepped through the door, I found out I was wrong. This was Lucy’s dreamscape. She was wearing down the floorboards in her flat, fuming about someone or something. I looked around, expecting to see someone else. Anyone.
She couldn’t be angry enough to play host to a demon for real. Could she?
She looked up at me and I saw the cold hard fury in her eyes as she approached.
“Where have you been?”
I seriously doubted this was about not being around when she never needed me, but as I started to open my mouth, my words were stolen by another me. Lucy’s dreamscape version of me.
She walked through me as if I was a ghost. I stood back and gaped at her. If Jimmy created a weirdly flawless version of me, Lucy’s unconscious mind hasn’t been quite so kind towards me. I seemed to be a smug, sneery looking bitch with messy hair and dirty looking clothes.
What the hell, Lucy?
“I don’t need to tell you anything,” I heard the smug, dirty version of me say, as if I thought I was the queen of everything.
Ugh. This sucked.
“You’ve been with him, haven’t you?”
Nasty me snorted. “He’s not worth your time.”
I could agree with that at least, if we were talking about Dawson here.
Lucy slapped nasty me hard and I stumbled back before getting right up in her face.
“Try that again, bitch.”
“Oh for crying out loud,” I murmured, looking down at my hands. Where the hell was my weapon? I wanted to put an end to this shit before...
Shit. I felt a pull, the same way I get pulled under the dreamscape when it’s time for that. I can’t be waking up already. A chill rushed over me. I didn’t have time to stand and watch this stupid bitch fight. I ran, heading for the exit and hoping against hope I was going to make it in time to save Mason.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
A million and one thoughts raced through my head as I careened down the green lit corridor. I’d wasted too much time on Dawson. I couldn’t believe that was how Lucy really saw me. How the hell did Mason get stuck with an envy demon?
I entered the room, feeling another gentle tug. I ignored it, steeling myself.
The emerald tinted dreamscape was the reception area of the starlight. Mason was behind the counter and he was frowning at something across the room. I turned to see myself in Jimmy’s arms as if we were a couple, looking at each other as if we were in love. My cheeks flamed up instantly. This was why Mason was so mad? He imagined me having feelings for someone else and it made him insanely jealous.
I guessed at least this version he was seeing of me looked like I do. There were no flaws glossed over, no faults enhanced. He saw me the way I was.
I already knew that, but it made me love him more to see it this way. I just wished I could erase the moment Jimmy walked into the reception and threw a wrench in between us with one stupid outburst.
I took a deep breath, forcing myself to focus. I didn’t know how much time I might have left. I had to get rid of the demon. So who was he?
Because I couldn’t believe Mason was jealous enough to act on his feelings. He wasn’t demon bait.
I moved over to the reception desk and cleared my throat.
He tore his gaze from the sight across the room and his eyes widened on sight of me.
“Tina? What...”
“Mason, I love you. You know that, right?”
He opened and closed his mouth a few times before settling for nodding.
“So why are you fixating on something that isn’t even true?”
He hung his head a little, scratching at his neck. “He made it sound like you two had something special.”
I pursed my lips together as my weapon forms in my hand. I couldn’t tell what it was without looking, but it felt metal and heavy. “I used him, and I thought he was on the same page. It was never serious, Mason. I was trying to get over you. It didn’t work.”
That familiar feeling that I was about to be wrenched away seared through me again.
“You have nothing to be jealous of,” I told him, feeling the dreamscape pulse around us.
Selena had set the demon on him when there was little foothold for it to grasp onto. I could already see the green colour fading around us. Mason wasn’t jealous to the point of doing anything crazy. He wasn’t holding onto the feeling at all. The demon was being rejected. He was losing his grip.
I was glad, but at the same time it meant Selena kept her hell spawn toy. I should really grab him before he gets away.
“I’ll be right back,” I told Mason, heading towards Jimmy and the other version of me.
My weapon was a steel arrow. It was long enough and deadly enough to put through the demon’s heart from behind, up and under the rib cage. I was guessing it wasn’t a move that would be possible in the real world, but dreamscapes tended to be a little more flexible. In either case the demon dropped dead. The other me vanished in a puff of smoke, and I turned to find Mason smiling at me as the room returned to the normal colours of the Starlight’s reception area.
“I missed you,” he told me, pulling me into his arms.
I wasn’t sure if he meant after our fight, or when I came back to town, but either way I kissed him back when his lips met mine. I felt the pull again, but this time I was ready for it to take me.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
I woke up in Mason’s bed, tangled up in his covers and with his arm trapping me close. Nothing in the physical world appeared to h
ave woken me, so I had to assume Selena did something to force me awake. To make sure I wouldn’t have enough time to save everyone.
A chill settled over me as I realised I didn’t go back for Lucy.
I’d been thrown by her dream and her awful depiction of me. I hoped to hell that wasn’t how she saw me. I hoped she was only pissed off over yet another boyfriend acting like an asshole.
The more I think about it, the worse I feel. I didn’t like the way men had treated her, but she always seemed to make it my problem. Like there was nothing wrong with those complete pricks. It was just somehow my fault. I was what was wrong.
Shit. Mason was right. It felt like my heart was being ripped out right now. My best friend couldn’t stand me. She blamed me for everything that was wrong in her life. She didn’t really see me as a friend at all. I groaned, closing my eyes and trying to push those thoughts away.
It didn’t matter. None of it mattered. I just had to get back to sleep and go rescue her. I tried, but it was no use. I was wide awake. Selena definitely did something. Don’t ask me what, but I knew it was something.
“Damn,” I cursed quietly. Think, Tina. You can’t let Lucy become demon bait, even if you think she might halfway deserve it now.
I closed my eyes and concentrated on Lucy to enter her dream. Mason moved and I concentrated harder, willing myself to get there. Just help her. You can argue later.
My heart sank just as I opened my eyes and found I was in her red-tinted flat again. She was still arguing with her vile version of me.
Somehow, I didn’t think there was going to be a later on this. Seeing how Lucy really viewed me wasn’t something I could pretend I never saw. We couldn’t go back to the way things were. Not now. Not ever.
I flexed my fingers, willing my weapon to come.
“Now, now,” the softly chiding voice of my sister came from my side.
She smiled at me. “You made your choice, sister.”
Quicksand Nightmares (Seven Deadly Demons Book 2) Page 10