The Dream Walker (18 page)

Chapter
40

Nico usually loved the poker games they recently started having in the silo, but tonight he wasn
’t feeling it. Sadness tugged at his heart, and he knew it was because of Alaina. He checked his cell phone again; it had only been twenty minutes since he last talked to her. She had told him she was at her boss’s house and would be going to bed soon, and she only had a few more boxes to pack in the morning. Hence, he doubted she would call back. He didn’t think she would call just to say hello, but he could always hope.

On the ride back to her place, he was dying to know if she was thinking of the dream. She blushed when she looked at him, and he wondered if it was because of their time together in her dreamscape. Go
d,
when they were in her apartmen
t,
he wanted to take her in his arms and start it all over again, knowing that reality would be better than the dreamscape. After he made sure there wasn’t a coc
k-
sucking Colonist in her apartment, of course.

“
I’ll see your quarter and raise you a dollar,” Cohen said to Jovan, both their eyes blazing their respective SR44 colors.

“
Big bucks,” Jovan said, taking a sip of his whiskey. “Cohen must have a good hand.”

Cohen shrugged.
“Or I could be bullshitting. But you’ll never figure it out.”

Nico studied Cohen and knew that he was being very untruthful. When Cohen lied, his eyebrow twitched. It was very subtle, but it was bouncing around right now. Nico doubted Cohen even knew it happened.

Jovan reached over and put his hand on Cohen’s arm.

“
Get your hand off me, you cheating bastard!” Cohen yelled, trying to pull away.

Jovan laughed and let go.
“You’re a lying sack of shit, Cohen. You don’t have squat.”

Cohen threw down his cards.
“I’m not playing with you anymore, Jovan.”

“
Oh, come on, Cohen,” Jovan said, still laughing. “You sound like Killian.”

Nico had to smile. Cohen actually did sound like a two-yea
r-
old.

“
And next time you get shot, don’t come to me to heal you either,” Cohen said.

Nico rolled his eyes. He half expected Cohen to stomp out of the room, his fists at his sides.
“Can we get back to the game, please?”

“
Shut up, Spide
y.
” Cohen got up and headed for the bar.

“
Jovan, are you cheating again?” Liberty said from the couch where she was reading a book, her eyes blazing pink.

“
It isn’t cheating, babe. It’s using the gifts you have at your disposal,” Jovan said.

Liberty laughed and shook her head.
“No, Jovan. It’s cheating.”

“
The game?” Nico said. “Please?”

Cohen sat back down and picked up his cards.
“Fine, but you touch me again, Jovan, and I’ll break your fucking arm.”

“
And then you’ll heal it. Whose turn is it?” Jovan asked.

“
Mine,” Nico said. “And I’ll raise you a dollar.”

His thoughts went back to Alaina, and he knew it was silly to think about her. She was leaving, and that was it. She needed to leave for her own safety.

Thinking of her spinning around in the rain made him smile. At that moment, he believed her soul had truly been set free, her smile wide, her hair wild. As he had watched her, he realized he cared for her and wanted to help her; he wanted her soul to be free forever, not just a few minutes out of one day of her life.

He had thought about talking to Noah about bringing her into the silo for protection, but decided against it. Noah would say that Nico didn
’t even really know her, and Nico couldn’t argue, unless he admitted to spending time with her in her dreams. That, he would not do. He couldn’t risk the Saviors questioning whether he would invade their dreamscapes as well.

Nico looked at his cell phone again and decided he would give her a call after he won this poker game, simply to hear her voice.

Noah came in carrying his whiskey and stood next to Nico. Nico put his cards face-down.

“
I’m not going to give away your hand, man,” Noah said.

“
It’s not that I don’t trust you, Noah, it’s just that—“

“Look what I found,” Hudson said from the doorway, sounding very happy.

Nico had no idea what Hudson could possibly have found that would make him so happy. Beverly, Killian, cookin
g,
and sometimes killing made Hudson happy, and he’d seen, or done, three out of four of those in the past few hours.

“
Hello, Noah,” a soft voice said.

All heads spun toward the doorway. Abby stood there, her suitcase in one hand, her purse in the other. Of course. Hudson’s daughter would make him happy, and Nico gave himself a mental kick in the ass for not getting that one.

“Abby,” Noah whispered, and Nico thought he saw a glint of tears in the male’s orange eyes.

They stared at each other for a moment, then Noah put his drink down on the table. Abby dropped her suitcase and they met each other halfway.

Noah took her in his arms, whispering apologies in her ear. Abby’s hands were wrapped around Noah’s neck as she sniffled and sobbe
d
.

“
Are you going to stay?” Noah asked, taking her head in his hands. “Please tell me you are.”

“
That depends on you, Noah,” Abby said in a quiet voice as she touched the side of his face. “I can’t live like we were.”

Noah nodded and turned to the room.
“I know you all want to say hi to Abby, but it’s going to have to wait. I need to take my mate to our quarters and convince her that I’m not a total jackass and worth staying for.”

With that, he grabbed Abby
’s suitcase, tucked her under his arm, and walked out.

Nico sighed. He was really happy to see Abby back, and he hoped like hell they worked things out. Then the sadness tugged at Nico
’s heart again. He threw down his cards and headed toward his room to call Alain
a
.

Chapter
41

Alaina sprawled out on Peggy
’s yellow couc
h,
glad that Peggy was working at the club. She loved Peggy, but she really needed some time alone.

Stretching out, her muscles hurt from all the packing she had done, but she was almost
finished. Her apartment had come furnished, so there was no need for a truck to move furniture, and she hoped that everything would fit into her Kia tomorrow. It would simply have to.

She had kept her word and called Nico every hour on the hour. If she was honest with herself, she actually looked forward to hearing his voice. He had shown up late in the afternoon with a couple of sandwiches, and they had eaten on the couch among the mess she had made while divvying up her stuff into piles of “Keep,” “Don’t Keep,” and “If I have room, I’ll take it.” The chatter had been light and friendly as they discussed her belongings strewn all over her apartment, and he’d only been able to stay for a few minutes. It was a total dine-and-dash.

Just as she shut her eyes, her phone rang. Rolling over, she grabbed it off the table and looked at the screen. Nico. A smile tugged at her lips.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Alaina, it’s Nico.”

“I know.”

“How’re you doing?”

“I’m fine. Tired, but good.”

There was a brief silence, then Alaina said, “Is everything okay, Nico?”

“Yeah, everything’s cool. Just wanted to call and say hi.”

“Well, hi.”

Nico chuckled. “Hi.”

More silence.

“Is there anything in particular you would like to talk about?” she asked.

“Not really. You pick the topic.”

This whole conversation felt so juvenile and she couldn’t help but smile. Nico had a way of making her feel lighter inside, almost gidd
y,
in a childlike way she had never really experienced.

What did she want to talk about? She wanted more information on what she was.

“Tell me more about the Colonists,” she said.

“What do you want to know?”

“Are they really that terrible?” she asked.

Nico sighed, then said, “Some of humans’ worst criminals have been Colonists.

“Like who?”

“Jack the Ripper, Jeffrey Dahme
r,
and Saddam Hussein, to name the more famous ones.”

Alaina gasped. “Seriously?”

“Serious as cancer.”

Alaina sat up and looked around Peggy’s apartment. “I can’t believe that I could be related to one of them.”

“Just because you had crappy parents doesn’t make you a crappy person,” Nico said in a soft voice. “You’re a good person, Alain
a.
”

“How do you know?” she asked, because really, they had spent very little time together. However, the time they did have had been easygoing, as if they
’d know each other for a long time.

“Call it alien intuition,” Nico said, and Alaina laughed.

“You know, I had a dream about you the other night where you said the exact same thing,” Alaina said.

“What did I say? Alien intuition?”

She laughed and Nico chuckled. Then he was silent for a moment. “I think I like you dreaming about me,” Nico said.

Alaina smiled. “Really?”

“Yeah.” His voice was husky and raw.

Alaina lay back down on the couch, feeling warm all over. She didn’t tell him about the rest of the dream where he took her to places sexually she never thought she would go.

“So what happened in your dream?” Nico asked.

She thought about his mouth on her core, her breasts, his long, thick length entering her . . . “Well, we talked.
”

“Talking
’s good,” Nico said. “What did we talk about?”

Alaina shut her eyes, the images and feelings rollercoasting over her at warp speed, the vision of the tattoo that looked like a closed eye on his chest front and center. Even if she wanted to, she could never, ever, describe what they did in that dream. It was too pure, too perfect, and too intense. She didn’t possess the vocabulary to describe it, and if she did try, her words would only sully the experience in her mind. No, this was something she needed to keep close. It had been phenomenal, and that was the way she wanted to keep it.

“I don’t remember,” she said, her voice barely a whisper.

Nico chuckled. “I’m sorry to hear that. I would
’ve loved to hear about it.”

“If I remember I’ll tell you,” she said with a yawn.

“Sounds good, and you’ve been a busy girl today. I’ll let you go now, okay?”

Alaina hated to hang up, but she was very close to sleep. “Okay, Nico. Will I see you again tomorrow?”

“You can bet on it,” Nico said.

“Are you a poker player?” she asked, her eyes closed.

“A little bit.”

“Maybe one day I’ll take you on,” she said. “I’m a pretty good bluffer when cards are concerned.”

There was a beat of silence, and she thought for a moment that Nico had hung up.

“I hope that happens,” Nico said. “Good night, Alaina.”

“’Night,” she said. She set the phone back on the table and knew in her heart that she would never play poker with Nico. Being with Nico just wasn’t in her cards.

Chapter
42

The next night, Nico walked the streets with Simon, sweating like every drop of fluid was trying to evacuate his body in record time.

Summer in Arizona.

Right.

It didn’t help matters that he was dressed in jeans, a T-shirt, a lightweight nylon jacket, and full body armor, when he really should be wearing . . . well, hell, he’d be sweating even if he wasn’t wearing a stitch of clothing.

The more he walked, the hotter he got, and the more he wanted to come up on someone breaking the law, even if it was jaywalking. He was beyond cranky and looking for anyone to take it out on.

Thank God Simon tended to be the quiet type.

Noah and Micah had agreed that teams were a good idea. It prevented one side from blindsiding the other, and more would get accomplished with more males out on the street. Nico had specifically requested to be paired with Simon, as he didn’t talk too much. Right now, Nico preferred silence that allowed him to be with his thoughts of Alain
a
.

They were walking through a couple blocks of an abandoned part of downtown Phoenix, where there were only streetlights to illuminate their way. The buildings were run-down and non-functional.

“I bet those places are teeming with drug dealers and their customers,” Simon said quietly.

Nico shrugged. He didn’t give a shit. His hearing was his most valuable asset, so he was keeping quiet. Plus, he liked thinking about Alaina, naked and spread out before him, without interruption.

Up ahead they heard a cat howl, and both stopped in their tracks, trying to get a better read on where the sound was coming from. Then, another hiss and another howl. They ran over to a doorway of a building.

Nico almost expected to see someone torturing a cat, but what he did see took him by surprise. He laughed. “Cats screwing.”

“I don’t like the species,” Simon said, a disgusted look crossing on his face. “There’s something about them that makes me uncomfortable. I feel like my skin is crawling.”

Nico laughed, and they moved on.

After a moment, Simon said, “Did you tell the Saviors I wanted to align myself with them?”

Nico shook his head. “No, but Blake mentioned it to Noah.”

“And?”

Nico stopped and turned to Simon. “And nothing. We’re working with you guys on this Colonist thing, and that’s as far as it’s going to go.”

Simon studied Nico for a moment, then looked down at the ground. “I know where the SR44 females are.”

A chill went down Nico’s spine. The SR44 females had been missing for over a year now, and Nico had often wondered what had become of them. He knew Micah believed it was his duty to carry on the race, so Nico assumed things hadn’t been pleasant in the least bit for the female
s
.

“
Are they okay?” Nico asked.

“
They’re alive.”

Sometimes, that wasn
’t necessarily a good thing.

“You need to let the Saviors know so that they can get to them,” Nico said.

Simon slowly shook his head. “No. Not until I’m promised protection from Micah.”

Nico took a step back, surprised. “You’d put your own needs over those of the females?”

“I have to, Nico. Micah is crazier than ever, and I fear that my life is going to end.”

“Why?”

“I just do, Nico. Didn’t you feel that way when you were the low man on the totem pole?”

Nico did remember feeling so desperate he had pulled a gun on Cohen, insisting that they take him with them when they escaped Micah. However, he also didn’t recall Simon being that helpful toward him when he was forced to fight Jael in one of Micah’s sick and twisted sparring matches.

“Yeah. And I remember you were about as helpful to me as a broken bone.”

Simon nodded. “I know. I felt bad about it, but there was nothing I could do.”

“Of course there was!”

“Like what? Interfere with Micah and Jael’s games? Get myself killed?”

Nico shrugged. It was self-preservation on Simon’s part, and Nico understood that. It still didn’t make it any easier to swallow.

However, if Simon could take them to the females Micah was harboring, maybe it would be worth it to have Simon on their side. It was something to think about and bring up in a discussion with the Saviors.

“Let’s keep going,” Nico said.