The Dream Walker (3 page)

Chapter
7

Blake looked around the War Room as he listened to Noah talk. All the Warriors were present: Rayner, Hudson, Jovan, Cohen, Annis, and the newest member of their clan, Nico.

The only one who was missing was Talin, and he wouldn’t be joining them any time soon, as he was six feet under the dirt in the middle of the desert.

It had been just over six months since Talin had died at the hands of The Platoon, and it had been a rough road for all the Warriors. Blake had watched each of them deal with the grief in their own way. Rayner seemed to close up on himself, keeping Faith even closer than usual, as if she was some type of tether to his sanity. Hudson worked out more, cooked more, and spent more time with Beverly and their son, Killian. Cohen had gone and fell in love with the beautiful Annis, and although he grieved, the relationship with Annis had eased him and helped him through it. Jovan and Liberty had actually moved up to the silo in Fernley for a few months because they couldn’t take the deep emotions of the silo in Phoenix.

As far as Blake went, he felt bad about what had gone down before Talin had been killed. He probably could have been a little nicer to the guy, but he hadn’t been, and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it.

Man, what a mess that had been. The Platoon consisted of five guys who were part of the group of beings from SR44 sent to Earth to carry on their species when it became clear that the planet was going to destruct. It was the same group of people that Annis and Nico had come with.

The Platoon’s leader was a crazy asshole named Micah, and his right-hand man, Jael, had gunned down Talin in cold blood. He’d also shot Jovan and Cohen. When it came time for Cohen to do the healing, which consisted of Cohen putting his energy into the injured body and working with the body’s spirit, Talin had insisted to be with his dead
lovren
, to let him die, and they had. Not that he’d given them much of a choice. The dude’s spirit had hovered above his body until his body finally gave out, making sure that Cohen had no energy to work with.

They had gone after The Platoon, searching for them nightly, but it was as if they had disappeared off the face of the Earth. After six months, they had given up and decided that revenge would be served up later when The Platoon least expected it.

Noah worried him. He seemed to be going off the deep end.

A couple of months ago,
Noah had put up blinds over the floor-to-ceiling glass walls in the War Room so no one could see in, giving the place a cave-like feeling. Anyone with a little bit of claustrophobia would not be comfortable sitting in here now. He also became even more insistent that Abby not know anything about their work in hunting the Colonists, and he made a rule that nothing discussed in the War Room was to be spoken outside it.

A week after Talin’s death, Noah had gotten spitfire drunk and confessed that guilt was ripping him up from the inside out for sending Talin with Jovan and Cohen to meet Micah. Talin had been looking for a way out ever since he’d learned that SR44 was no more, that he would never be reunited with his
lovren
. But Noah still felt as if he had pulled the trigger himself.

Blake had tried to talk some sense into Noah, but with no luck. Noah held the weight of Talin’s death on his shoulders, as well as the burden of being the leader of the Six Saviors and their mission of eradicating Colonists.

With that weight came the renewed vow to protect those he loved, especially Abby. Noah had once told Blake that the less Abby knew about what was going on, the better off she was. It was a type of “ignorance is bliss” logic that Blake wasn’t sure he believed in. He preferred to be prepared and know exactly what was happening around him so he was ready for whatever would present itself. That was how he had lived his life, and it had served him well.

Except in the case of Annis.

Man, her wanting Cohen had blindsided Blake with a two-by-four of “duh,” especially considering what an asshole Cohen had been to her, and to everyone. Blake wasn’t sure what transpired, but something had brought Cohen out of his rage and he fell in love with Annis.

Blake should have seen that one coming a mile away, but he hadn’t. He’d been too wrapped up in his own feelings for Annis and wanting her to return them. She used to sit next to him during their War Room meetings, but now she sat with Cohen, their fingers interlace
d,
her eyes glowing a beautiful golden color. It wasn’t just her eyes that glowed, but her whole being did. She was just all shiny with love. It still stung that she had wanted Cohen over him.

Blake and Annis rarely spoke anymore, except for polite chitchat. It hurt him to be in close contact with her, and she seemed to understand that.

In three nights he would watch their mating ceremony, and the thought made his stomach clench. Maybe he would get lucky and come down with meningitis or break one—or better yet, both of his legs—so he didn’t have to go. He really didn’t want to watch her profess her undying love to Cohen for the rest of their years, which would be in the hundred
s.
Annis was just over three hundred years old, and Cohen only had a couple of centuries on her. They would live to be about two thousand, so that was a long time to spend loving each other.

As much as he tried to ignore it and fight it, he had to admit that within the deepest recesses of his soul, he was still madly in love with Annis.

Not only was she the most beautiful woman he’d ever laid eyes on, he felt as though she was as close to his other half as he was ever going find.

He
’d been the first among the Warriors to engage her in the gym, not holding back after the first time she laid him flat on the mats with an uppercut and a roundhouse kick to the sternum. He admired her grace and her golden heart, yet she was just as tough as any of the Warriors. Even though he was half-Colonist, she made him feel as though he was normal, as if he wasn’t really all that bad. She made him laugh and she brought out something within him that hadn’t been present before—a goodness he didn’t know existed.

And he thought she had felt the same about him, or could at least grow into those feelings, and he
’d never been so wrong about anything in his miserable fucking life.

So yeah, this mating thing made him sick.

Blake sighed and tuned back in to what Noah was saying. “So, according to the crime charts from the Phoenix PD, it looks as if there’s a significant uptick in crime over the past couple of months. It’s like some sort of cluster or something.”

“How does it break down by crime, Noah?” Hudson asked. Today Hudson wore a deep rust-colored silk shirt and a pair of Hermès jeans. Some of Hudson
’s good taste was starting to rub off on Blake, and he could now tell his Hermès from his Levi’s 501s.

Moving up in the world, and all that.

Hudson’s black hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and he spun a baby pacifier absent-mindedly between his fingers. His son, Killian, was two years old, and Beverly was trying to break the pacifier habit, or the binky addiction, as Hudson liked to call it. To her face, Hudson agreed with Beverly that it had to stop at some point, but when Hudson was alone with the kid, he had no qualms of handing out the rubber tips. Hudson said as long as his boy was happy, that was all that mattered, and he could suck on the damn thing until he was thirty-two as far as Hudson was concerned. Blake hoped they broke the habit before then.

“Blake, can you please pull up the graph?” Noah asked.

“Sure,” Blake said, going over to the bank of computers in the corner. Somehow, he had been shoved into Talin’s role as computer guy, and he was thankful that he’d paid attention when Talin buzzed around cyberspace. Once or twice before Talin’s death, he’d actually called Blake over to the computer and shown him something on one of the programs he’d designed. Blake didn’t have anywhere near the mad skills Talin possessed, but he got around the box of bolts and wires pretty well.

He hit a few keys and the large white screen lit up.

“So, as you can see here, murder is up slightly, as is breaking and entering. But what disturbs me is this,” Noah said, getting up and tapping the area of the screen that sai
d,
“animal mutilation/death.” Noah sighed. “We all know what that usually means.”

Everyone nodded.

“The murderers usually start with animals and work their way into their full killing potential,” Jovan said, running his hand through his chin-length blond hair.

“Exactly. And that’s what concerns me. What’s going on here? Why have animal deaths and mutilations tripled in the past months?”

“That doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s Colonist activity, Noah,” Blake said.

“It’s worth checking out, half-breed,” Hudson murmured while he spun the pacifier through his fingers.

Blake sat back and said nothing. Yes, he was a half-breed. That meant he was part Colonist and part human.

A Colonist was base evil from the planet SR44. The Six Saviors had been sent to hunt down the twelve Colonists who had escaped from SR44 over two hundred years ago. The Colonists had mated with human women, producing half-breeds, such as Blake. Sometimes the progeny got the evil genes, sometimes they didn’t. Blake had been fortunate that the bad DNA had skipped him and he had no desire for children, so his daddy’s lineage stopped right here, which was a good thing in his opinion. His father had been a mean S.O.B., and the last straw for Blake was when his father killed his mother twenty-one years ago. Take out a box of Crayolas and color him surprised when he’d shot his father in the heart and the fucker disintegrated into a pile of ash.

“Have there been any crime scene photos taken?” Rayner asked.

“
Don’t know,” Noah said. “I’ll call my guy at the Phoenix PD and feel him out.”

“
Wouldn’t you rather do that to Abby?” Jovan asked with an arched eyebrow.

“
Do what?”

“
Feel her out?”

Laughter broke out, and Blake couldn
’t help but chuckle as well. It seemed like sex was always on the brain with these guys.

“
Okay, enough,” Noah said, his face serious. “And for the record, yes, but don’t be a pig, Jovan. Let’s get back to work.”

Noah just wasn
’t any fun anymore.

They discussed the best course of action if they did get crime scene photos, and then Hudson excused himself.

“I’ve got a mating ceremony to prepare for,” he said. “We’ve got Beef Wellington on the menu, and that takes a lot of preparation.” He gave Annis a wink on his way out.

Blake
’s gut clenched.

“
That’s it,” Noah said. “Anyone else have anything to say?”

Don
’t mate him, Annis. Marry me. I love you.

No one said a word.

“Meeting adjourned.”

Chapter
8

Nico crouched in the alley, the air frigid, as summers in San Francisco tended to be. Once that fog rolled in, man, it got downright nippy.

He wore his Under Armour compression shirt, the black material hugging his body like a second skin, yet wicking away the sweat and keeping him warm all at once. A highly functional piece of clothing, and Nico made a mental note to order more.

Annis came toward him carrying a pallet over her head. She wore jeans, combat boots, and a tank top. As she approached, Nico had the urge to help her, but refrained. He knew Annis preferred to do everything herself, and if she needed assistance, she would ask. Silently, she placed the pallet on the ground.

“It’s so cold,” she whispered, and crouched down next to him, shivering.

Nico nodded, glad he had done research on the San Francisco weather patterns.

“Will this work?” she asked in a low voice.

Nico nodded as he sat down on the pallet. To dream-walk, he needed to be a little comfortable and sit on something beside the cement.

“What do you need me to do?” Annis asked.

“Just watch the east end of the alley. Cohen’s in place on the west end, right?”

She nodded.

“That’s it.”

Annis stood and went to the east end of the alley. Nico waited until she was in place, blending in with the shadows, acting as the lookout so he wouldn’t be disturbed.

He took a deep breath and leaned his head back against the brick building. Focusing, he thought about the layout of the building he had studied and concentrated on apartment 4A.

Mike Cisco, age forty-two, lived in 4A and had been arrested last week for exposing himself at a park. The Saviors normally wouldn’t care, but the computer program Talin invented that scoured through arrest records around the world had flagged Mikey-boy.

Blake had transferred Mike’s name to the program that built his family tree, and it had traced Mike’s lineage all the way back to Jack the Ripper, a Colonist. Annis, Cohen, and Nico had been sent to check him out, or more specifically, get into his head. Well, Nico was going to try to get into his head, and Annis and Cohen were his bodyguards.

Nico skipped through the heads of a couple of Mike’s neighbors. One was dreaming of fairies, the other of elephants. Fairies usually meant the dreamer was searching for help or advice, and elephants could mean an array of things from needing to let go of the past to the dreamer requiring more patience with others.

He wasn’t going to stick around to find out.

Finally he found Mike.

As Nico was sucked into Mike’s dreamscape, the pull once again stopped just before he entered. Nico stepped in.

Large piles of dirt standing over six feet tall were scattered about, and Nico crouched down behind one of them. He held his interpretation of what the piles of dirt meant until he could catch a glimpse of what else was going on.

Surrounded by the dirt, Mike stood naked, staring at himself in a foggy mirror. His belly protruded under a hairy chest, his chins hidden by a big, scruffy beard. Nico noted he could see the reflection in the mirror, which was a good thing as it meant that Mike was being truthful with himself, but the fog symbolized he was questioning his self-identity.

Suddenly, a little brown puppy appeared, yapping. Mike bent down and patted the puppy, smiling and laughing as the little guy licked his face.

Another male appeared and stood on the precipice of the dream. Mike saw him and slowly stood. The puppy kept yapping.

“I’m trying,” Mike said.

The figure nodded.

“Can you wait for me?” Mike asked.

The figure nodded and disappeared again.

Nico took it all in, trying to fit the pieces together. The piles of dirt could symbolize where Mike had acted less than honorably, which he had when he flashed his junk to an undercover officer in the park bathroom.

The puppy represented playfulness and a carefree nature. The fact that the other male appeared right after the puppy led Nico to believe that the male made Mike feel those things.

The foggy mirror and Mike being naked were a little trickier.

Then it hit him. Of course. Mike must be trying to accept his own homosexuality, and he was asking his would-be lover to wait for him to do that. Usually when a person saw himself naked in a dream, it either represented how he or she acted in their waking life. If the person looking in the mirror was homosexual, it simply symbolized who they were, their true natures. The fact that the mirror was foggy, or questioning his self-identity, led Nico to believe that Mike was trying to accept the fact that he was gay, and that he had someone in mind to return his affections.

Nico had serious doubts this guy had gotten any of the bad Colonists’ genes, as he would expect the dreams to be much darker, more ominous.

Stepping out from behind the pile of dirt, Nico decided it was time to confront Mike and see what else he had to say.

“Who are you?” Mike asked, obviously surprised at Nico’s presence. The dreamscape started to spin, and Nico knew Mike was trying to get to consciousness.

“Don’t wake up, Mike. I just have a couple of questions for you.”

Mike nodded hesitantly, and the movement stopped.

“Have you ever thought about killing anyone?” Nico asked.

Mike looked at him indignantly, which seemed like it would be a hard thing to do standing there naked, but the male pulled it off. “Of course not,” he said, his tone harsh.

Nico sighed, wishing Jovan could accompany him in his dream-walking and gauge Mike for truth.

“You ever had kids?” Nico asked. “Or wanted kids?”

Nico’s gut was telling him that Mike didn’t have any Colonist genes, but it didn’t mean they weren’t dormant within him and could be passed down to another generation.

“No. I detest children. I never want any.”

“Good. Keep it that way,” Nico said, moving back toward the way he’d come in. “Nothing wrong with being gay, my man. Embrace who you are. You’ll be a lot happier.”

There was a beat of silence.

“Thank you!” Mike called. “I will!”

Nico looked over his shoulder and the fog cleared from the mirror.

His eyes opened, his head only slightly throbbing. He stood and walked down the alley.

“Hey, man,” Cohen said as Nico approached. “Anything?”

Nico shook his head. “Nah. No Colonist offspring with bad DNA—just a confused gay guy who hates kids.”

Cohen nodded. “Good. Let’s go get Annis and head back to the hotel. The chill in that fog had my balls so tight, I’m practically singing soprano.”