Dark Side of Dawn: The Nightmare Chronicles (6 page)

My heart jumped when I saw the dozen or so, very serious-looking men and women seated at the front of the room, around a large, heavy table. They barely acknowledged my presence. I didn’t know if that was a good thing or not. Was one of them the Warden?

I calmed somewhat when I saw my father. He sat to the side of the Council with two other men I recognized as his brothers, Icelus and Phantasos, princes of unpleasant dreams and flights of fancy. No wonder I
felt freaky. As the royal family of the kingdom, they sat apart from the proceedings, but in a spot where they could see all and be seen by all. It was a comfort having my father there, even if he wouldn’t be able to intervene on my behalf.

He met my gaze and gave me a small, but bolstering smile. I tried to give him one back, but it melted when I saw Verek coming toward me, looking very fierce and official.

“Are you my guard?” I asked when he was within spitting distance.

He nodded, pale eyes serious. “I’m to escort you to the front of the room.”

“Do I need an escort?”

“You don’t have a choice.” His hushed reply had all the sympathy his expression lacked.

Well, there you go. “When you put it like that,” I remarked with forced lightness, “how can I refuse?” He’d offered his arm and I took it. This was all very civilized, and yet not. It was like they were trying to give the impression of being rational creatures, but really were just waiting until no one was looking to pounce.

Bloodthirsty bunch.

The large, rugged Nightmare escorted me to the front of the room, and left me to stand alone beside the table. For a moment I thought the Council meant to make me stand beside this empty seat for the entire
proceedings, but then they stood as well. It wasn’t for my benefit, that I knew. Only my father and his brothers remained seated as a robed figure came through a door in the back corner. Talk about making an entrance!

The Warden of the Nightmare Council was a woman. At first the thought gave me a rush of hope, but when I looked up into that pinched, white face I thought of my eighth-grade math teacher and I knew I was in trouble.

Her eyes weren’t the typical pale blue of this realm. I’m sure eye color meant something, but I had no idea what. Mine were aqua, and I thought them my nicest feature, except when they lightened and the rims went all black and spidery. I didn’t like them then.

The Warden had cold green eyes, complete with black rims, but instead of being spidery, the line was thick and bold, as though someone had drawn it there with a Magic Marker. Weird. Her hair was bright copper, and hung down the back of her violet robe like a ripple of flame.

She was scary, and she knew it. I lifted my chin as she joined us at the table and fixed me with a cold gaze. I held her attention, and though I wanted to look away, I refused to give in.

“So you are the one named after Eos,” she half asked, half accused in a tone that was as scorching as her hair.
“The daughter of Morpheus and a human.” She said human like it was some kind of disease.

“Yes,” I answered with a slight incline of my head—all the acknowledgment she would get from me. I’d be damned if I’d be ashamed of what I was.

The Warden’s peach lips thinned. She could have been a beautiful woman were it not for the bitterness etched in every feature, every aspect of her being. “You have been brought before this Council on charges of willful endangerment of the realm, wanton disrespect for our rules, and reckless disregard for the safety of our kind.”

I scowled. Hell, I glared. “I haven’t done any such things!” The only way I could have sounded more indignant would have been if I’d had an English accent.

Clearly the Warden didn’t like being talked back to. She drew up to her full height—which was a little taller than my own—and shot daggers at me with her eyes. Thankfully, she didn’t try to conjure real daggers. “You endangered this realm by bringing a human into it. A human who was fully aware of this world and totally cognizant of his time in it.”

That was Noah. I had brought him through a portal into the Dreaming when we’d realized Karatos had stolen his ability to dream. “I didn’t know it was wrong,” I replied. “I only wanted to help him.”

She was unmoved. “Your ignorance only proves your
disrespect for our customs and rules. Had you taken the time to learn these things, you would have known better, but apparently twenty-plus years of knowing what you are hasn’t provided you with adequate motivation.”

She was such a bitch. I managed to keep my mouth shut, even though I wanted to defend myself—and tear a strip off of her. Nothing I could say could change the fact that she was right. I should have learned more about this world. If I hadn’t turned my back on what I was and what it meant, I would have known that it was wrong to bring Noah into this realm.

I would have known that I shouldn’t be able to bring Noah into this realm, which was really what this was all about. I scared them. Well, bully for them. They scared me too.

“And your involvement with that same human put him directly in harm’s way,” the Warden continued. “Something every Nightmare has sworn not to do.”

I knew that harming humans was against what the Nightmares stood for. We were protectors. “I haven’t sworn anything,” I retorted, ignoring my father’s shaking head. “I never asked to be half of this world and half human. I never asked to be a freak. I may have broken your rules, but it wasn’t my involvement with Noah that got him hurt, it was the fact that a Night Terror, working for people in this realm, decided it wanted to cross over into the human world and chose Noah to
be his body. If I hadn’t stopped that Terror, you’d have bigger problems right now than me.”

I was mad—nostril-flaring mad—and the Warden looked at me like I was a bug on her shoe. “You claim that the Terror called Karatos acted on the orders of another?”

I took a deep breath, forcing my temper down. “I don’t claim it. Karatos told me him…itself.” I had to remind myself that the thing that had tried to kill me and Noah wasn’t human.

The Warden lifted her chin defiantly. “Did the Terror reveal the name of his benefactor?”

That was an odd way to put it, since there had been nothing good about what Karatos had done. “No.”

She looked far too pleased. “Then you have no proof.”

I lifted my chin as well. “You don’t have any proof that I acted out of disregard for this realm either.”

I had her there, and from the dislike shining in her creepy eyes, she knew it.

“Indeed,” she replied frostily. “And so we have this inquiry into your actions. The Council plans to watch you closely, Lady Dawn, and discuss your past behavior. If you are found to have acted out of good intent, without lasting effect on this realm, then you will be found innocent and no further action will be taken against you.”

Okay, so this didn’t sound so bad. I hadn’t done anything wrong, so there shouldn’t be any ramifications. So why did I have this sinking feeling in my gut?

“However,” the redheaded witch continued, “if it is determined that you acted willfully, with the intention of harming this realm and what it stands for, then I will have no choice but to pass judgment upon you and see that punishment is carried out.”

“P…punishment?” I sputtered like a stuttering kid on a bad sitcom. “What kind of punishment?” And why did Morpheus look so pale? He was king here, damn it, and I was his daughter! I don’t care how spoiled I sounded, but I was this realm’s Paris Hilton, and the worst punishment I should get was a few days without cable.

The Warden actually smiled at me, but there was no warmth in it, just the opposite. “To disregard the rules of this world is akin to treason. And the penalty for treason is unmaking.”

Thank God Verek chose that moment to take my arm again, because I might have fallen flat on my ass at that moment. Oh shit. I was in such trouble.

The equivalent to unmaking in the human realm was death.

I clung to Verek for maybe four or five seconds before making myself shake off his grip. Sure I was shaky, but I wasn’t about to advertise the fact.

“Shame on you, Padera,” came a soft, whispery voice from the side. “You’ll frighten the poor girl.”

Was that genuine concern or patronization I detected? Like everyone else in the chamber I turned toward that sweet voice, but not before I saw a sour expression touch the Warden’s features. It disappeared as quick as it came as she too, moved to face this new speaker.

Coming toward me was the tallest woman I’d ever seen. Easily seven feet tall, she was super-model thin, with long silvery hair and skin as pale and shimmery
as opals. She wore a long indigo robe that flowed languidly around her feet like moon-touched waves. At the base of her long neck was a tattoo. Small and stylized, it was a beautifully drawn spider, head pointed up, legs out to the sides, reaching for her sleek collarbones.

She stopped directly in front of me. I had to raise my chin to look at her. I’m not used to looking up at women.

“Hello, Dawn,” she said, her voice a little richer than it had been.

I tilted my head. “I’m sorry, but I don’t know who you are.”

There were a few murmurs following this statement, as though people couldn’t believe I actually said that.

The woman only smiled. “I am Hadria, priestess of Ama.”

I didn’t even know the Great Spider, weaver of dreams, had priestesses, although I suppose it made sense. “I’d say it was nice to meet you, but I’d hate to do that and then be proven wrong.”

More murmurs, but Hadria only laughed, revealing strong teeth just as white and shimmery as the rest of her. She glanced over the top of my head. “She has your bravado, Morpheus.”

I glanced over my shoulder at my father, who smiled at this giant of a woman. “Are you surprised?” He stepped forward. “Why are you here, old friend?”

Friend. Okay, so maybe she wasn’t so scary after all.
Hadria’s dark purple eyes—pupilless and swirled with silver—fell on me once more, and while her smile faded just a little, I wasn’t anxious. “I’m here to deem what your child is capable of doing.”

“Verek already does that,” I spoke up. “He’s my trainer.” I didn’t want to lose Verek. He was the one person other than my father that I knew I could trust. Don’t ask me how I knew it, I just did.

Hadria angled her head—all the better to look down at me, I suppose. “I’ve no wish to deny you of your training, Princess. I’m here not to train you, but to gauge your power.”

My spine stiffened. “Because I’m a threat?”

Her smile was patient. “Is that what you are?”

Man, I was in no mood for mind games right now, but I was still a little too intimidated to mouth off. Energy rolled off this woman, wrapping around me like a giant hand. She was strong—powerful. And I knew her bad side was not one I wanted to be on.

“The Warden seems to think so,” I murmured. “A lot of people seem to think I’m out to destroy this world.” Maybe that was a little melodramatic, but it was the truth, right?

The priestess bowed her shoulders, lowering her upper body until we were eye to eye. Within the indigo depths of her gaze, I could see swirls of silver and blue. She had no pupils that I could detect. Weird.

“I hope destroying our world is not your plan, Daughter of Morpheus, because there are some of us who are depending on you to save it.”

“Unmade?” Noah set a bottle of beer on the table in front of me—the same table we’d had sex on earlier. It didn’t seem so sexy now. And yes, it was clean. “What the hell does that mean?”

I wasn’t much of a beer fan, but I took a drink of the cold, bitter liquid anyway. “It means that I will cease to exist in the Dream Realm. I’ll be dead.”

He paled. “I thought that was impossible.” He sat down across from me with his own beer. He was in a baggy black T-shirt and the Iron Man pajama bottoms that I had found for him at Target. His hair was mussed up, but his dark eyes were alert—and worried. “You’re immortal there, right?”

“Technically.” I took another drink. “It’s tricky. I can be unmade in that realm, which will be a death to the person I am now, but my essence lives on, and will be remade into something else.”

“Like what?”

I shrugged. “Anything they want.” I hoped to God they didn’t decide to put me into the mist.

“You’ll still be Morpheus’s daughter, won’t you?”

“I’ll be part of him, just like any other being in the world.” I met Noah’s gaze. “I won’t be me, Noah. I’ll be
whatever they want me to be.” My voice rose, trembled a little. A month ago I hadn’t wanted anything to do with my father’s world, and now…Now that I was faced with the prospect of losing all that I was there, I was scared.

Never mind that my own people seemed to hate me. Never mind that I didn’t fit in. I liked what I could do in the Dreaming. I liked feeling like I did there. Without that, I wouldn’t be me in this world either. I had always known that I wasn’t human and it shaped the person I’ve become.

What if I changed so much I didn’t recognize myself? What if Noah didn’t want me anymore? What if no one knew me anymore?

Don’t lose it. Don’t lose it
.

I lost it. Just for a second, and just a little, but I lost it all the same. I couldn’t stop it. Tears filled my eyes and fear grabbed me by the throat and shook. I sobbed once. Then twice. And then I had my head in my hands and my palms filled with tears.

Noah’s chair scraped against the floor and then I felt his hands on my hand, pressing me into the firm wall of his stomach. I wrapped my arms around him, heedless of the soaking my tears gave his shirt, and let myself have a good cry out. Just long enough that I didn’t feel overwhelmed by it anymore.

Noah didn’t try to shush me, or stop me. I liked that. I hated it as well, a part of me seeing it as his need to be cleansed by a woman in need’s tears. That wasn’t it, and I should know it.

I pulled back and wiped my eyes. Sure enough, the front of shirt was soaked, but it hardly showed on the black fabric.

I sniffed. “Sorry.”

He wiped at my cheeks with his thumbs—one of which had a little dried paint under the nail. Burnt umber, if I wasn’t mistaken. I looked up at him, and found him watching me with such softness that my heart cracked, I swear to freaking God.

“Have you been painting me again?” I asked, taking the hand with the paint on it in mine. He’d already painted one portrait of me. “The Nightmare” hung on his bedroom wall.

He smiled. “Maybe.” Then he squatted before me. “You OK?”

Another sniff. I needed a tissue. I grabbed a napkin instead and swiped at my nose. “I will be. Maybe it won’t be so bad. Maybe the Council will side in my favor.”

“Or you could tell your father to grow a pair and tell the Warden to leave his baby girl alone.”

I chuckled. “I don’t think that would go over well. Be
sides, he can’t do anything. Even he isn’t above the law.”

“He’s got your mother living with him. Tell me that doesn’t break at least one rule.”

“It doesn’t. She’s there as a dreamer, even if she never wakes up. It might not be ethical of him to fall in love with a human, but there’s no rule against it.”

Noah frowned. “There was for Antwoine and his succubus.”

He was right. Antwoine was a mentor of sorts to me. The only human in New York other than Noah to know that I was a Nightmare. Years ago Antwoine had fallen in love with a succubus named Madrene. My father had forbidden them to be together because it was against the rules, he said.

Was it all right for a Nightmare and a human to be together? Then again, I didn’t count. I was half human.

“Maybe he could do something,” I allowed, “but lately he’s had enough to worry about with my family trying to wake my mother up and his subjects conspiring against him.” Some of my father’s people, like Karatos, weren’t happy with his rule, his human wife, or his half-breed daughter.

“You think he should let you suffer to save his own ass?”

I sighed. Every part of me that could slump did just that. “I think he needs to do what’s best for his kingdom, and his position as king.”

Long, warm fingers touched my face—so softly tears burned the back of my eyes again. “You’ve said a lot lately about people doing what’s best for them or other people. What about you?”

“He’s the only one with the power to unmake me.” I swallowed hard over the word. “If he can find a way to stop it, he will.”

Noah leaned forward and kissed my forehead. “I hate that I can’t do anything to help you when I’m the one who got you into this.”

I looked up. “I got me into this, not you. All I need is to know you’re there for me, that’s all.”

A bitter smile curved his lips. “Once again you have to do it on your own.”

Color me defeated. “Trust me, I wouldn’t if I didn’t have to. I really hate being put through a court marshal by myself.”

“You have whatsherface on your side—the one with the freaky eyes.”

So he hadn’t forgotten Hadria or her prediction. “Yeah. I sensed a shitload of power from her. Maybe she has some pull. The Warden would be really sorry that she had me unmade before I could save the world.”

That got the grin I wanted from him. He stood and offered me his hand. “Let’s go to bed.”

Yawning, I stood as well, taking his hand. “That sounds good. I want to go into Amanda’s dreams.”

“Yeah?” He sounded surprised. “Haven’t you been through enough tonight?”

I leaned against him as we walked through the living room, toward the stairs that led up to the loft. “I made a promise to her. I have to keep it.”

Noah was silent for a moment, but he squeezed my hand. “You think helping her might help your case with the Council?”

I hadn’t thought of that. Why hadn’t I thought of that? Probably because my brain had a tendency to turn to mush when it was overloaded. “Maybe. I guess it can’t hurt.”

Then again, with my luck, it just might.

I didn’t plan on spending a lot of time in Amanda’s dreams. Not only because I had other things on my mind—I wasn’t
that
selfish—but because I wanted her to be able to heal herself, to regain her strength and confidence on her own and take back as much as she could of what the rapist had taken from her. She wouldn’t thank me if I just handed it back—not in the long run.

Noah insisted on staying up while I went in. I wasn’t sure whose benefit his attention was for, and I told myself that it was for both Amanda and myself. Maybe even a little bit more for me, because I knew he was worried I was going to get in more trouble for this.

I didn’t open a portal. I was too tired, and that would
be noticed by my father and possibly others. I wanted to keep this as far under the radar as I could, so I was going to enter the Dreaming like any other human—in my sleep.

I stretched out in bed, with the blankets tucked up around me and Noah reading beside me. And then I willed myself into sleep by humming a “dee-dee-dee” song in my head that my mother used to sing as a lullaby when I was a child. It was a great focus for me and pulled me into the world with relative ease—so long as I managed to keep my mind clear of other thoughts, which wasn’t as easy as it should have been.

As darkness reached for me, the trappings of this world slowly dropped away, pulling me through the mist. This time neither tooth nor claw came at me. As the mist cleared I found myself standing on the street. I was uptown—a street where most of the buildings were walk-ups. It was late, I could tell, because it was relatively quiet and many of the buildings were in darkness except for the outside lights.

Raising my face to the glow of the streetlight above, I took a moment to savor being so isolated and alone in this city. I could see why Amanda thought she would be safe. And I understood why her attacker chose this neighborhood. It was hard to imagine anything bad ever happening here.

The soft scuff of heel on pavement got my attention
and I lowered my chin before opening my eyes. I didn’t have to adjust to the darkness—I could see perfectly. I was practically omnipotent in the realm of the human subconscious while in the dreaming state. It was that whole “goddess” thing at work. And for now, I kept myself shielded from Amanda as she came down the steps of her building in a pink tracksuit and ponytail.

She looked so young and cute and fragile. And whole. She didn’t look anything like the battered woman I’d seen in the hospital and I suddenly didn’t want to be there.

But I couldn’t leave her. So, I moved from my spot beneath the light and fell into step beside her, slowly revealing myself and allowing her to notice me. I clothed myself in jeans, sneakers, and a sweatshirt so I wouldn’t look out of place.

“Dawn?” Her steps faltered. “What are you doing here?”

“Walking,” I replied. “Can I join you?”

Amanda hesitated as memory and dreaming collided. I felt her confusion and indecision. Part of her knew this was not how it happened, and yet another part wanted to rewrite events.

“Um, okay.”

I fell in step beside her, and accompanied her down the street, where it suddenly seemed much darker and much less inviting. That’s where it had happened. I was
seeing the surroundings the way Amanda’s mind now interpreted them.

It was obvious Amanda didn’t want to go there, but she began to slowly walk toward it, pulled by her memory. She might not want to go, but her mind knew she had to.

I didn’t talk. Really, I wanted to ramble like an idiot, but I was scared that I would say or do something that would do her more harm than good. I hadn’t gone into someone’s dreams for the purpose of guiding them in a long freaking time, and I didn’t want to mess up.

The night grew darker, the lights more dim. Suddenly the night didn’t seem so inviting as it had. Then Amanda grabbed my hand. Before I could clutch her fingers with my own, she was pulled from me. I saw a flash of an arm in a black jacket, and then she was pulled between two buildings. I could hear her cries, but they were muffled by a thickly gloved hand. There was no way anyone in these buildings could have heard her. I wouldn’t have heard her in the middle of nowhere, let alone in a neighborhood of a city that “never sleeps.”