Overworld Chronicles Books 1-2: Sweet Blood of Mine & Dark Light of Mine (61 page)

I looked in the opposite direction and saw absolute pitch black. In the black stood a white feminine outline.

I am your light in the dark,
said a voice from my memory,
your dark light
. Or had that been a dream too? Wasn't this a dream? It felt terrifyingly real.

After doing some quick calculations in my head, I decided the light in the dark seemed a little better than the dark in the light even if neither made sense to me. I strained with all my might, pulling away from the light and straining for the dark. The shadowy hands slipped from my ankles little by little and suddenly I was free. I catapulted toward the light, my body floating free, weightless as if in space.

And then the hallway burst apart around me, splintering into shards, and I was on my knees in front of Meghan's mother. Life had left her eyes but a groaning whisper emerged. I held my ear to her mouth. Listened hard. But her dying words made no sense.

Images flashed in my mind and I saw the bloody scrap of paper. A number on it. An angel with Elyssa's face whispering a number in my ear. Meghan's mother saying the number with her last breath. That number, what did it mean? Why was it so important? I had to find out what it was.

Someone had to know what forty-three eleven meant.

Chapter 20

A beautiful woman with silky blonde hair gazed down at me. I wanted to touch it, feel it between my fingers. "Are you the angel?" I asked weakly.

"What the hell are you doing near him?" Elyssa shouted.

The woman moved from view and glass shattered.

"That was an antique lamp, dammit!" Shelton shouted.

"Are you okay, Justin?" Meghan's face appeared above me.

"What are you doing here?"

"Ryland brought me back. You strained yourself. Almost killed your fool self trying to help that…that vampire girl."

"Is she okay?"

"She's fine. A little sunburned, but her bone breaks and bruises are healing quickly now that she has blood."

"Blood? Whose blood?"

Meghan smiled. "Elyssa gave her a blood pack."

"You're friendlier now than you were before." I tried to sit up, but my abs felt like they were on fire.

"I'm coming to grips with you," she said. She looked at something across the room and her face hardened. "But not with her."

I turned my head to look, but the pillow blocked my view. "Who?"

"Your aunt."

"My aunt? Who? How?"

"Maybe your father should explain. In any case, I gave you more painkiller brew. Your blood count is rising, though more slowly than it would if you'd get some sleep."

"But I just woke up."

"Whatever state you were in just now, it wasn't sleeping."

Fragments of the dream flickered through my mind. The numbers. I had to find out what they were. "Can you prop me up?" I asked.

"Not a good idea."

"Please. I need to speak to everyone."

She sighed. Reached for me and hesitated a moment before visibly steeling herself. Then she pulled me upright and adjusted the cot I was on so it locked into place. Shelton's hideout was a madhouse and he looked like a patient. His hair was frazzled and his eyes were wide and frenzied. Elyssa glared at the blonde woman from across the room where Ryland and Stacey held my girlfriend in place. A smashed lamp lay in the middle of the floor. Smith sat on a couch, his sister Felicia leaning against his shoulder, her face weary and pale, but not as bruised as I remembered it.

Another man lay on the ground, a pillow under his head, and I couldn't tell if he was alive or dead.

The blonde woman looked at me, her hazel eyes full of urgency. I looked past everyone and saw Dad back inside the metallic circle in the other room. He sat on the edge of the bed and smiled at me. I smiled back.

"You know how to throw a party," I said to Shelton.

He gave me an incredulous look, eyes full of panic. He probably didn't know what to do with this crowd any more than I did.

"Justin!" Elyssa said, struggling against Stacey and Ryland's grips. They looked at each other and nodded, letting her go. She rushed to my side, knelt, and peppered my face with kisses. "You were shouting and trying to move after you passed out. Were you having nightmares?"

I shook my head and was gratified I could actually shake it, even if my neck muscles felt like I'd borrowed them from a two-day-old corpse. "I need everyone's attention," I said. Since everyone was already looking at me—well aside from Shelton who was staring at his beloved antique lamp—it wasn't hard to gain the undivided gaze of everyone in the room.

With all the attention focused on me, I felt nervous. The dreams I'd had were crazy. Surely they were bits and pieces of memories my mom had hidden from me, and my mind was just replaying them in bizarre fashion while I slept. Maybe I wasn't going crazy, though it sure felt like it. For all I knew, my brain couldn't handle the overload of blurred memories and was compensating for them by giving me insane dreams. On the other hand, even if I was going crazy, these people might be able to help me. Or at least make sure I found proper care.

So, I went for broke. "I've been having these insane dreams. Dreams about being little and seeing strange stuff, but more importantly, I keep seeing these numbers in my mind. The numbers forty-three—"

Elyssa's eyes widened. "And eleven?"

My mouth hung open for a moment before I found the presence of mind to nod. "You were in my dream."

"I am your dark light? Or something like that?"

"What? How—how did you know?"

Elyssa's eyes went wider. A lock of black hair fell across her face and I wanted so badly to touch it, tuck it behind one ear. But I didn't have the strength to do it. She looked around the room at the others. "It was a dream! Just a dream."

Although I was surprised, I wasn't shocked or anything. Having led a normal life up until a month or so ago only to endure an odyssey of epic proportions and discover all the weirdness existing right under my nose, dream sharing seemed kind of minor. Judging from Elyssa's reaction, it wasn't so minor after all.

"So the fact we experienced a similar dream is not a normal occurrence, I take it?"

"There are types who can do it," the blonde woman said, "but mostly those who cannot." She smiled at Elyssa. "Do you believe me now?"

Elyssa shook her head. "So what? We had a similar dream. It doesn't prove anything."

"About what?" I asked.

The blonde woman took a few steps toward us. "Far enough," Elyssa said in a low, threatening voice.

The other woman stopped and smiled. "Justin, I am Vallaena, your father's sister. Your aunt."

"What, none of that hierarchical first of house stuff you lectured me about?" Elyssa said. "You're not making yourself dirty by talking to him?"

"I have already sullied myself by speaking to my brother. It is of no further consequence if I speak to Justin."

I was confused. Obviously these two had spoken before and not become BFFs. From everything I knew about my dad's family, this woman could be a very dangerous and unscrupulous person. But she seemed kind of nice to me. And she was way too hot to be my aunt.

"All right, you're my aunt. What do you want from me?"

"I want to protect you, Justin."

"In case you hadn't noticed, I already have a badass ninja girlfriend. What else could a guy need?"

Elyssa smiled at me just before tossing a
see-I-told-you-so
smile back at Vallaena.

Vallaena didn't seem to notice. "It's very important we protect you, Justin. There are indicators you are a person of import. You may be the key to preventing a disaster from occurring."

"You gotta be kidding me," Shelton said. "Who brought Nostradamus with them? Are you talking about a foreseeance?"

"I am," Vallaena said.

Shelton rubbed his hands together. "Let me get some popcorn. This ought to be good."

Blue fire flashed in Vallaena's eyes. "Do not mock me, magic man. You hide behind lies and half-truths, earning money from other people's misfortunes, and have no right to cast judgment on me."

Shelton's mouth dropped. "Who—"

"I know all about you Harry Shelton. I know about Aerianas. Unless you wish me to elucidate further, you will keep your mouth firmly closed."

I hadn't known Shelton for long, but considering his abrasive and uncaring nature, it amazed me anything could turn his face white and render him speechless—well, except for his beloved antique lamp. Elyssa had also gone very still as she watched Vallaena, but I couldn't see her face to know if it was a wary kind of stillness or if she saw something in my dear aunt's face that gave her serious doubts. Vallaena's tone sent a shiver down my back as well. I caught a faint whiff of something, a sweet smell lingering with the odor of burnt tires. But it didn't stink, not in the way it should have. Instead, a part of me liked it.

Vallaena turned back to me in the shocked silence of the room. All eyes were on her. Then Dad caught my eye and shook his head ever so slightly. I guessed he was telling me not to trust her. Or maybe he just thought she had bad manners.

"Back to the subject at hand," I said, trying to grin and possibly lighten the funereal tone of the room, "even if I'm supposed to prevent a disaster, what do you want from me?"

"I am the first of House Slade. I wish to officially take you under my protection."

"She wants to do it before Kassallandra has the chance," Dad said.

"Uh, who?" I asked trying to figure out how to spell such a fancy name.

"Your father's betrothed," Vallaena said with a wicked little smile.

"She's the one who attacked us at the restaurant," Elyssa said. "She's the one sending the hellhounds."

"Flaming red hair?" I asked.

Her eyebrows shot up. "How did you know?"

"I caught a glimpse of her hair back at the house when all this mess started."

"This mess, as you call it, started long before this," Vallaena said.

"Kassallandra wants to put me under her protection?" I said. "She has a funny way of doing it."

"Anae Kassallandra also wishes to exact a measure of revenge on your father for abandoning her and…" She shuddered and looked like she was about to become ill. "Marrying and mating a human."

"Is she his sister too?" Dad had told me some nasty things about spawn breeding. Men were rare and had to mate with a lot of females to keep the bloodline going, even if it meant doing it with their own family members. I didn't want to think about how many uncle-daddies or aunt-mommies were in this family.

Vallaena shook her head. "She is from another house and young like your father, Daevadius, and also a direct descendant of the patriarch and matriarch of her house. The marriage was to unite the firsts of our houses by blood."

So Daevadius was Dad's real name? It sounded cooler than David though a lot more pretentious.

"She's leaving out the good part," Dad said. "Not only would I mate with Kassa, but also her mother and sisters while she would mate with my father and brothers."

"Gross!" Felicia said about the same time others chimed in their exclamations of revulsion.

Meghan heaved and I was sure she'd just thrown up in her mouth. I knew I felt like doing it.

"Why bother with marrying?" I asked.

"It is a formality," Vallaena said. "And before the rest of you judge us, you should know our blood is not weakened by a small genetic pool. We operate on a completely different level than those of human stock."

"In other words, your crap don't stink," Ryland said with his trademark wolf grin.

"I didn't come here to engage in a symposium on Daemos breeding rituals," Vallaena said. "Justin, if you accept my protection, then Anae Kassallandra will have to go through proper political channels to get you."

"Either way you cut it, it sounds like prison to me," I said, shaking my head. "I'm not interested. Why don't you use your power to stop Kassa instead?"

"Her power comes from House Assad. I cannot force her to stop. And since you are considered Castratae, there is no political solution unless you ask for asylum."

I really wanted to get up and pace, think about this crazy situation, and come up with a great idea to get out of it. Unfortunately, I wasn't as good at getting out of messes as I was at getting into them. That was why I had Elyssa. She could usually reach into her pouch and pull out a tissue, a candy bar, a sword, or whatever the situation called for. But she didn't have her pouch with her at the moment.

"I need to heal and think," I said. "But I've got to say this foreseeing thing sounds pretty thin."

"The number you and Elyssa spoke of, forty-three eleven."

"Yeah, what about it?"

"That is the name of the prophecy. Foreseeance four-three-one-one."

Chapter 21

My mind flashed back to the scene after the green demon had killed Meghan's mom. I saw the bloody scrap of paper in Meghan's trembling hand. Her current self in the here and now looked down at her own hands as if seeing the same thing, as if suddenly recalling something terrible she'd forgotten. I knew the exact feeling. Elyssa's hand tightened on mine.

"Let me see this foreseeance," I said to Vallaena. "I want to read it for myself."

"I don't have it," she replied. "I explained to Elyssa that every variation of it which has been spoken and recorded has vanished over the years."

"Sounds like a conspiracy," Smith said.

Felicia groaned. "Oh crap, not this again."

"Conspiracies exist!" He threw his hands in the air. "Why are you so opposed to the idea?"

"Can't you just let our parents rest in peace?" Felicia jerked herself off the couch, face red. "Not only did I become an orphan, but I lost my brother because he's so damned obsessed." She stormed away, though not far since the hideout wasn't very big.

Smith looked embarrassed. "People conspire all the time. I mean, who wouldn't want to at least find out who murdered their parents?"

"Who were your parents?" Dad asked.

"The Nostis."