Dreamscape (13 page)

Amelia’s laugh is the most amazing thing I’ve ever heard.
The sound rings through me like a morning sunrise. No sound has ever affected
me like this, and I want more.

I pat Baltek’s head and give him the rest of my food. I
can’t eat now, not when we have achieved such progress. For the first time
since I’ve had her in my realm, Amelia showed signs of true happiness.

If I know her, she is attempting to downplay what just
happened. I will not let her justify her feelings away.

I knock on the door that separates us. “Amelia?” I call,
trying to infuse lighthearted airiness into my voice.

“I’m busy,” she says. “What do you want?”

She’s already accomplished what I set out to stop. I’m
tempted to insist we talk about what happened, but I change tactics. “I’ll meet
you in the training room,” I say. For emphasis, I stop halfway out of her room
and call over my shoulder, “You still remember how to get there?”

“Sure,” she says, her voice filled with relief. “See you in
a few.”

I nod at the door as if she can see me, then make myself
leave. She has to learn to trust me, and me hovering over her right now is
probably not the best use of my time.

Before I head back to the training room, I let Baltek into
the conservatory. He needs to stretch his legs, and this is the only place in
my realm he can do so. Since the curse took hold, it is difficult for me to
maintain more than a few rooms at a time.

Once inside the wide open space, he bounds away, heading
for his usual spot under a large pine. He’s been stalking a squirrel there for
decades. I can’t bring myself to tell him the poor thing died years ago.

I’ve got something new for him to chase, but I haven’t
released his companion just yet. I called her here just before I picked up
Amelia. With the portal open, she was easy to locate and transport. Animals are
much easier to convince than humans. She’s still learning to trust me, though,
which is essential when it is time for one of her pups to replace Baltek. His
line has served me for millennia, and I intend to keep it going.

I’ve considered keeping more dogs on a regular basis, but
time constraints put a burden on my animals. They spend countless hours alone.

Since he isn’t paying attention to me anymore, I leave.
He’ll be happy in here for a while without outside entertainment.

I hurry down the hall, hoping I’ve beat Amelia to the
training room. It’s empty when I walk in, so I take the opportunity to get in
some cardio. I’m three-quarters of the way through the course for the twentieth
time when her scent hits me square in the face. It might as well have been a
blow for how it throws me off-balance.

I manage to recover before I do, indeed, eat rubber, but
it’s clear she’s seen me flounder when I turn around.

Her face is aglow with amusement. Normally this would irritate
me, but somehow, I find the whole thing funny, too. A strangled chuckle arises
from me. It’s clear I need to practice more.

Now that Amelia is with me, I will have plenty of
opportunities for pleasure, I hope.

Instead of teasing me like I think she will, she simply
asks, “So what now?”

I consider this for a while until I come up with something
that will require us to be in close quarters. If I do this right, she won’t see
through my pretense.

“How much hand-to-hand combat have you had?”

She scoffs but smiles. “More than Justine wanted me to.
Why?”

She’s overconfident. This will be entertaining. “That’s
good news.”

“It is?”

“Mmm. Erobos can sneak up on you when you least expect it.
Like us, in the Dreamscape they can take any form, so you have to be prepared.”

“Us?” she asks. “Speak for yourself, buddy. I don’t know
the first thing about shifting forms.”

I have so much to teach her, but this day is for winning
her trust and, if my luck holds out, maybe a small piece of her heart. “That is
another thing I need to teach you,” I tell her.

She lifts up her hand and studies it as if it is a foreign
substance. I laugh, and it lights my soul a bit more. Although I’ve had
companions in the past, they have never affected me this profoundly. Something
about this girl sings to me.

“Come here,” I say.

Her eyes lift to mine, immediately wary. I had hoped
showing her that she knew me already would help speed up the process, but it
may have been a mistake. I’m starting to think I should have waited to reveal
who I was. “Amelia, please trust me.”

She gives a half nod, as though she is only half committed
to the effort. If that’s all she’ll give me, I’ll take it. She walks as if
slogging through setting concrete, each step appearing more difficult than the
last.

I turn up my lips, hoping it resembles a smile, but she’s
not looking at me. She’s staring at her shoes. I shouldn’t be jealous of shoes,
but I somehow am.

She stops two feet away. It’s close enough, but I wish
she’d close the distance between us and let me take her into my arms. My mouth
craves to feel hers. Loss of the worst sort courses through me.

Dreams can be life altering, but one is always aware in the
morning which reality has won the day.

If I’m not careful, I’m going to fail to recall my purpose
for putting up with this
training
. Seth has a way of making me forget I
have a brain at all sometimes, and it worries me. No one should be able to
manipulate me this much.

I stare up at him, waiting for him to unleash his wisdom on
me, but I can’t quite hold his gaze. I have to look away, or I’ll do something
stupid.

My eyes find his lips instead, and my mouth responds with a
sigh. The man in front of me is not Jason, but he has Jason’s perfect, full
lips. Totally kissable. Totally lickable. Totally turning into a knowing smile.

I clamp my eyelids shut and take a deep breath. My heart
still races, like I’m climbing the rope ladder again instead of standing
opposite Seth.

I take a casual stance and fold my arms over my chest.
“What did you have in mind?” I ask because otherwise, my brain’s going to give
me ideas I’d rather not explore at the moment.

My attempts to separate Seth from Jason get harder by the
second, and I’ve got to figure out a way to distance myself from him, while
maintaining the pretense of learning from him.

Yeah, right.

Seth takes a step toward me, and I freeze. Frowning, his
voice comes out fierce. “Is this your usual defense for an attacker?”

I clear my throat, hoping it will work on my mind too. “I
didn’t realize you were going to attack me.”

The left side of his mouth tilts into a smirk. “Unlike in
theater, villains don’t usually yell
attack
before doing so.”

“I know that,” I say, disgusted.

His gaze holds a challenge. “Prove it.”

All right. Never let it be said I’m unreasonable. I widen
my stance, throwing my inner foot back.

Before I can swallow, his fist flies at my face. I’ve got
less than a second to react, but my body’s moving before my mind catches up.

I deflect his jab, twist my hand around his wrist, then
whirl across his body to pin his arm up. He doesn’t make it easy for me,
though, and uses my momentum to throw me off-balance. Within two seconds, he’s
up against my back with
my
arm cranked so high my tendons might just
snap. The ache makes me clamp my teeth together, but I will not cry out.

Is that what he wants? For me to show how weak I am? Well,
he has no idea what I’m capable of.

His breath heats my neck, but he doesn’t loosen his grip.
If anything, it’s worse. “Where did you go wrong?”

The scene replays in my mind, but the only thing I did
wrong was allow him to get close to me. Is that it? Is that what he’s trying to
tell me? “I attacked instead of deflecting?”

His stubble brushes my ear and my body explodes in tingles.
Holy crow’s feet, why does he have to be this close? My heart beats faster with
every breath that puffs into my ear.

“Very good,” he says, releasing me.

I glance at him over my shoulder and the way he’s watching
me sets my belly on fire. “Thanks,” I say, ‘cause I’ve got nothing else.

“The Erobos can only take you if you are incapacitated. You
will have plenty of weapons to defend yourself, but the most important thing
for you to remember is to never let them get near you.”

A horrendous thought hits me. “If they can take any form,
how will I know one is around?”

A far-off look crosses his eyes. “Do you remember what it
feels like to get sucker punched?”

I crinkle my face at the mention. If I tell him no, will he
give me one? An old buddy of mine back at school educated me on the subject
Junior year. She hated that her boyfriend kept trying to cozy up to me. I kept
telling her I didn’t want anything to do with him, but she blamed me for what
he did. I cut the thoughts off and answer him, “What, it’s painful to be around
them?”

“Not just painful. Erobos steal life. With your body
anchored in my realm, you will be protected from a full takeover, but they can
still weaken you. They can still lead you to a place where you would be lost
forever.”

I allow myself a double take. “Right. So my body will be
here and the rest of me will be in the Dreamscape?”

“Yes.”

Disbelief pours out of me. “Seth, this might come as a
surprise to you, but what you’re saying sounds like a load of dog crap—Baltek
sized.”

He laughs. “You just wait until I put you on cleanup duty.”

I fold my arms. “Not going to happen. He’s not mine.”

“I was joking with you.” I smirk at him before he says,
“It’s okay if you don’t believe me. I understand. It is hard to visualize the
subtle differences between realities without having a reference. Soon, I will
show you, but until then, you will have to trust me.”

I want to huff at him, but I keep it inside. Let him think
he’s gaining ground with me. He’ll soon learn. All I have to do is be a good
little student and search the Dreamscape for the key to get me out of here.

It’s the idea of being trapped that bothers me the most. If
I knew I had a real choice I might actually be able to make one.

We practice for a while without much of a problem on my
part. I’ve been able to avoid Seth until now, but he moves so fast he blurs out
of focus. He catches me around the waist and takes me to the mat.

My chest heaves into his as he pins my hands to my sides.
He’s got me, totally got me. I’m desperate to find a solution, but his lower
body makes moving my legs impossible.

Our eyes connect. His are the color of fresh picked
blueberries. I take a deep breath and his spice intoxicates me. I’m dizzy and
breathless all at once.

He leans down near my ear, pressing our bodies even closer.
“Get out of this one,” he says.

I buck to fling him off me, but it doesn’t even faze him. I
wriggle underneath him, yet it does nothing more than make me ten times more
aware of how perfectly he fits against me. I’ve got to do something fast, or
this will not end well. My body screams at me to stay right where I am, but I
can’t listen to my thundering hormones.

When he stretches his long legs against mine, I make my
move. I use his momentum to twist my legs around his. I’ve gained just enough
force to roll him underneath me.

When I gaze down at him, gloating, his equally cocky smirk
tells me he’s let me pin him. So much for training.

My tongue jets out to wet my lips, and I’m instantly
mortified where I’ve let him take this. My palms clam up and my neck breaks out
in a cold sweat. My heart thuds against my ribs from the look he’s giving me.
He hasn’t said a word, and I’m already melting.

Steeling my will, I make myself jump off him. Before he can
say anything to me, I head for the hallway, throwing over my shoulder. “Got to
make a pit stop. Be back in a few.”

His chuckle follows me out of the room.

I’m still on my back, panting. Amelia can’t know how crazy
she makes me. If she did she’d try to rule me, and I’ve got to maintain
dominance.

Her body pressed against me sent my mind to the clouds, and
I still haven’t come down. If she hadn’t moved when she did I would have
ravaged her mouth the way I’ve wanted to from the moment she arrived, the way I
did when she thought I was another man.

Even with all her reservations, her desire for me is clear,
yet I can’t let that bright thought overshadow the reason I brought her here.
Companionship is only a fraction of what I need from her.

No doubt she is still concocting an escape plan, but I’m
convinced she will change her mind once she enters the Dreamscape, once she meets
my team. Her sense of adventure will surely overcome her fear of me. I want
nothing more than to have her in my arms as I did in her dreams, but I must
earn her trust. She has led a hellish life I have no desire to compete with.

When she doesn’t come back in a few minutes, I debate
whether I should go after her. She’s probably locked herself in the bathroom
again. I remodeled it just for her. In fact, the room was designed with her
specific needs and tastes in mind. If I’d given her too much space, she would
have been even more frightened than she is. It is important for her to know she
has a safe place of her own here. It’s funny to me she has chosen that
particular room as her secret hideout.

The thought of her lounging in that tub makes my mouth go
dry. I set into arm curls to distract myself, knowing it’s not going to work
before I begin. I wait a few more minutes before I leave to find her.

Luckily I have just the thing to coax her out of her room,
but I am not sure I want her to know about the conservatory, just yet. Baltek
has no doubt had his fill by now, so I make a slight detour to collect him,
just in case I decide to show her the one place in my realm that should be my
secret delight. I don’t need him to distract us.

I imagine what she will do when I show her. It would
probably be a mistake to take her at all until she is further along in her
training. If she is anything like me, her first inclination will be to break
the glass to leave. When she discovers she can’t manage to do it, she will become
disheartened. I don’t know if I can take dashing her hopes again.

It took me years before I could step foot in the place
without wanting to slit my throat, and I still only go in when I require light.
The idea that escape is so close yet still unattainable can turn a person mad.

Baltek charges me when I open the door. His big paws bounce
off my shoulders, nearly knocking me over. A rather large stick pokes out of
either side of his mouth, covered in drool. He’s panting while his eyes beg me
to play with him.

I really shouldn’t, but I’ve neglected him. I push him off
me and grab for the end of the stick, but he jumps back, just out of my reach.

“So, it is to be cat and mouse, then?” I ask him.

He drops the stick and barks. When I move to grab it, he
snatches it up before I can get a good hold, and he’s off. I laugh and chase
after him, determined to catch him this time. We’ve been playing this game for
years now, and he has always won. Not today. Not this time.

Light slants through the myriad of windows above us,
casting prisms along the grass and trees. The heat warms my skin, sending a
glow throughout me for the first time in more than five thousand years. Every
part of my realm has come alive because of Amelia, especially me.