Authors: Ann Mayburn
Aiden glanced out the floor-to-ceiling windows facing the
parking lot. Outside, men and women in Temple Guard and police uniforms were
circulating through the sleeping crowd. Here and there people were beginning to
wake up with confused expressions. “At least we don't have to worry about the
nut jobs outside anymore. What happened? One minute they were acting like they
were getting ready to storm the hospital, and the next second they're asleep.”
“Shan took care of them,” Devon said in a proud voice and
hugged her closer.
“Really?” Eliana examined her with new appreciation. “That
is a handy trick to have. Who's your goddess?”
The elevator dinged behind them, and a pair of nurses stumbled
out. One had her hand pressed to a towel over her face, and blood dripped onto
the floor. The nurse holding her up, yelled, “I need help.” Malik quickly
scooped the wounded nurse into his arms and began shouting orders.
Shan was pushed over to the side in the rush of hospital
staff surrounding the woman. She looked away as they moved the towel over to
see what the damage was. Gripping Devon's hand, she tugged him toward the still
open elevator. “We need to get up there.”
Devon made a whistle, and Eliana's head whipped around to
them. He pointed toward the elevator, and Eliana nodded and mouthed the words,
Good luck
.
By the time the elevator reached the seventh floor, Shan was
pretty sure she was one breath away from puking her guts up. Saliva filled her mouth
in a sickening rush, and her body broke out in a cold sweat. Nausea brought on
by a combination of fear and the steadily worsening atmosphere had her stomach
churning. Devon hadn't teased her. Instead, he kept touching her in little
ways. It took her a moment to realize that he was worried about her as well.
“I wish I could come with you,” he muttered for the tenth
time in less than a minute.
Her reply was cut off as the stainless steel elevator doors
slid back and revealed a slice of hell. The nursing station in front of them
was manned by two Temple Guards tending a wounded man in a torn sweater. The
female guard looked gray beneath her deep tan and kept darting her eyes to the
left. The male guard kept glancing over his shoulder as well, and the side of
his shirt was torn open, revealing deep scratch marks all over his torso. The
man had bloody scratches going down both sides of his face, and the guards were
inspecting his eyes.
Screams, shrieks, and unearthly howls rebounded down the
halls in a deafening cacophony, punctuated here and there by sobs. An almost
physical wave of stink wafted into the elevator, and Shan dry-heaved. Urine,
shit, fear, and desperation took on a tangible scent and tried to suck at her
soul.
“Shield like a motherfucker, Shan.”
She nodded and put all of her concentration into tightening
her shields until they were the strongest she had ever made them. Most of the
smells faded, but the intensity of the screaming remained.
The doors of the elevator began to slide shut, and Devon
jumped, sticking his hand out and shepherding her out of the elevator. The
guards looked up and visibly sagged at the sight of Devon, but they pretty much
ignored her. Not that she could blame them. She caught sight of herself in the
mirrors behind the nursing station and grimaced. Some of her hair had escaped
her ponytail and hung in straggly knots around her face. Her skin was a cheesy
yellow color, and dark circles of shock stood out beneath her eyes. Without
makeup, she looked all of sixteen years old. Her battered leather jacket over a
faded Hello Kitty T-shirt didn't help.
Devon had to yell over the noise. “Do you know where Daisy
Ophin's room is?”
The female guard looked up from taping gauze over the
wounded man's eyes and shook her head. “We just got up here. They called for
reinforcements after one of the kids managed to dislocate both his shoulders
and escape his restraints.”
A bubble of acid rose into her throat, and Shan had to
swallow it back down. The screams were terrible. They seemed to be the
distilled essence of insanity given horrible vocal life. She couldn't imagine
being a parent of one of those children, having to watch someone you loved more
than life itself being taken over by a cruel and evil spirit.
Devon leaned across the counter and pulled up the edge of
the wounded guard's shirt. The two men spoke in low voices while Devon pawed
through a first aid kit and pulled out some gauze and little packages of
antibiotic. A wave of disorientation moved over Shan until it felt as though
she stood on the surface of some strange planet. The wails and screams
increased in volume until she had her hands pressed to her ears.
She didn't even realize she was backing up until she hit the
wall. Glancing up, she found Devon hunched over in a similar pose, his hands
pressed to his ears as his jaw clenched in pain. How could she ever hope to
fall asleep in this mess? It was impossible. She would fail them all. Might as
well get back on the elevator before she humiliated herself and gave everyone
false hope. She was nothing, a little girl pretending to be a woman.
That last thought was so far from how she felt about herself
that she jerked in surprise. The mark on her back began to pulse in time with
her heart, and she opened herself to the call of her goddess. Perfect trust,
perfect love, filled her until she felt like she might burst with pride. Of
course she could do this. She was the Chosen of Chuang Mu, and her goddess did
not choose cowards.
This was Chuang Mu's domain, for what was a hospital if not
a collection of bedrooms? Taking a deep breath, she shouted one word that
glittered on her tongue with divine power. “
Chénmò
!”
The sudden quiet rang in her ears as she lowered her hands.
The immortal pride filled her again, and she gave Devon a serene smile as he
gaped at her. As if a petty demon could ever match the splendor of her goddess.
Chuang Mu had been around since man first set foot on the soil of China and
prayed for someone to protect his sleep.
The mark on her back continued to pulse, and a weary older
woman in a white and green robe appeared out of one of the rooms. In her
heightened state, Shan could see every breathtaking detail of the woman's aura.
Robin's egg blue, it swirled around her as slow gold lightning crept through
its depths. Shan focused her attention on the lightning and had a taste of
something ancient and amused looking back at her.
Clearing her throat, she tore her eyes away from the other
woman's aura and offered a silent apology to whatever goddess she had just
unknowingly poked. Behind her, she could feel the reassuring press of Devon's
power as he followed her down the hallway. Already his body felt like an
extension of hers, and she could see little glimpses of his aura blending with
hers out of the corner of her eye.
They passed rooms with closed doors and the curtains drawn
shut over the windows. As they neared the woman in the white and green robe,
she stepped back so Shan could see past her into the room. Taking the silent
invitation, she paused and looked inside.
On the bed, covered in enough chains to moor a ship, a
gorgeous young woman with her hair done in beaded braids glared back at her. A
great shudder went through Shan's body as she met the girl’s gaze. Instead of
the soft brown eyes she expected, the girl's eyes were a solid black with no
hint of white. On the other side of her bed stood her parents. The handsome
dark-skinned man with silver in his hair stared at them with shock-glazed eyes.
He wore regular street clothes, which made his wife's outfit stand out all the
more. A halter dress made of what looked like a cheetah skin covered her tall
and muscular body. Golden sparkles surrounded her deep wine-red aura, and they
blazed like fireflies. Around her throat she wore a choker of bones and beads,
and an elaborate pattern of scars decorated her cheeks on either side.
No, not his wife. The air around the woman shimmered like
heat off a parking lot in the middle of July. The golden sparkles in her aura
sparked and flared until it appeared to Shan as if the woman was surrounded by
fireworks. Shan's heart slammed against her chest, and the hair on her body
stood on end as the raw and foreign power rushed over her. There was something
animalistic about it, as if the woman's soul had an edge of something that had
never walked on two feet.
She started to sink to her knees, but Devon caught her and
demanded to know what was going on. Unable to answer him, she placed a hand
over her lips without taking her eyes away from the woman. She wasn't a deity.
She was something else. As the woman's tawny brown eyes locked with her own,
she received an answer to her unasked question. The knowledge came to her in
images more than words. This was the child's guardian spirit, passed from
mother to the most deserving woman-child for countless generations. And, right
now, this guardian was furious at her inability to protect her charge.
The guardian lifted a hand with curved golden nails to her
mouth. She closed her eyes and blew Shan a magical kiss that shimmered and
glittered through the air before it reached her. Shan jerked as a spark of
energy hit her aura and blended in. Warmth and heat from a harsh sun blazed
against her skin. The scent of exotic grasslands she had never been to filled
her nose, along with a musk that she identified as being a cheetah without even
knowing why. When the woman smiled at her, Shan saw that her canine teeth were
slightly elongated, like those of a cat.
The magic burrowed its way into her soul. As the blessing
unfurled within her, she understood what it was. The guardian had given her the
instincts of a predator to help her hunt. She opened her mouth to thank her,
but the guardian shook her head and gave the universal gesture for silence. Who
knew how long she would have stood there staring if Devon hadn't pulled her out
of the doorway. The magic of that woman's kiss reverberated within her and
settled into her soul. She stumbled after Devon as her body tried to adjust to
the unfamiliar sensation of savage female power.
A door three rooms down opened, and Nina, Daisy's mother,
peered out. With the same blonde beauty as Daisy, she usually appeared twenty
years younger than her true age of fifty-five. Now, every wrinkle seemed to
stand out in sharp relief beneath the fluorescent lights as she cupped her hand
over her mouth. Tears ran down her cheeks as she looked at Shan with a mixture
of fear and relief.
Running past Devon, she placed her hands over Nina's and
mouthed the words,
I love you
.
Nina nodded vigorously then took a deep
breath and turned to face the room she’d just come out of. Devon came up behind
Shan and put a hand on her shoulder, squeezing lightly. She placed her hand
over his before moving away from his touch and into Daisy's room.
Her best friend looked like a wax statue as she slept on the
bed. Shan had never noticed before how much animation and life people had even
when they were asleep. Everything that had made Daisy was now gone, leaving
behind a hollow shell. It almost surprised her when she touched Daisy's hand
and felt warm skin. For some reason she felt as though Daisy's hand should be
cold since her body was missing the essential spark that was the essence of
life. Her soul.
Shrugging out of her jacket, she handed it to Devon and
looked up at him. So handsome. She would never be able to look at him without
wanting him. As long as he existed, she would burn for him every day of her
life. His gaze held hers, as intense in his love as he was in every other
aspect of his life. She didn't know if it was because she was goddess-touched,
or if she really was getting better at reading him, but she knew he was
terrified for her.
Standing up on her tiptoes, she brushed her lips against his
and caressed his face with her hands. He trembled beneath her fingertips and
took a deep breath. He stepped away and watched her as if she were the most
important thing in the world. Her heart skipped a beat as she realized that, to
him, she was.
After kicking off her shoes, she crawled onto the narrow
hospital bed next to Daisy. Devon closed the door and stood in front of it with
his dagger unsheathed. Nina moved to his side, and they both watched her. The
familiar scent of Daisy's floral perfume reached her as Shan tried to get
comfortable next to her. So many times they had shared a bed. Giggling and
sharing stolen cookies beneath the sheets when they were five, whispering
secrets about what boy they liked in junior high, groaning at their shared
hangover after drinking her dad's peach brandy. All these memories blanketed
her in comfort as she slowed her breathing. The last sight she saw before her
eyes closed was the love in Devon's eyes that warmed every inch of her soul.
The descent into the dream world happened so quickly she
scarcely had time to process the transition before she found herself floating
in a vast universe of dreams. Billions, trillions, of lights filled the
darkness around her like brilliant stars. Wondrous. If she had a body she would
have been crying at the overwhelming sight. She drifted among the stars like a
ghost, a whisper of breeze in this place without wind. As she acclimated to
this previous unknown reality, her mind struggled to put it into terms she
could understand. No, she didn't quite drift. It was more like she swam. The
dreamers were different currents in a vast ocean, each with its own small
gravity drawing her closer or repelling her farther away.
She tried to focus past the splendor, to remember why she’d
been given the gift of being able to traverse where only gods tread.
Gods...yes, she had been sent here by her goddess to find the man who hunted in
this sacred place for the most innocent of minds. So many dreamers, how did she
know where to start? Her father could hide here forever.
Saying a quick prayer asking for guidance, she tried to give
her spirit a body. She needed to be able to move, to use her senses of smell
and touch, even if they were as imagined as the dreams themselves. The air
pressed down on her as her form took shape, complete with the outfit that she’d
designed while with Chan Mu. Maybe it would help lure her father out of hiding.
She hoped she found him before Epiales found her. He must be furious over
Maria's death.
Nothing about the different sparks gave her any indication
about what was going on inside the dreamers’ minds. Given that her visual
senses weren't helping, she decided to try her sense of smell. The blessing of
the guardian warmed within her as she took a deep breath, and her sensitivity
changed. A million scents assaulted her, and she fought against the tide of
overstimulation, spinning in the darkness. Trees, fudge, ocean, leather, paint,
gasoline—scents raced through her before she could even begin to process them.
Just before her mind broke, the tattoo on her back flared to
life with a slight burn, and Chuang Mu's voice came from all around her. “
Focus on the taste of darkness
.”
She left as quickly as she had come, but the
dreams around Shan still rippled with her presence. The lights bobbed and
churned as if they were ships sailing on a great ocean that had experienced
suddenly rough seas.
Far, far away, an answering swell rushed toward her, this
one filled with an inhuman hatred. Terror threatened to freeze her, but she
opened her mouth and took a deep breath while thinking of tasting darkness.
Once she thought about doing it, it was easy. She
immediately tasted something foul, like spoiled meat, on the back of her
tongue. It was hard to remember that the rules of the dream world were
flexible. After living all her life in a universe governed by reality, she had
to expand her way of thinking. If she didn't, she was dead.
There, off to the left, was her destination. She flew faster
toward that sparkle of light then stopped. Distance was not a true thing here
in this space between dreamers. Closing her eyes, she imagined herself standing
right at the edge of that dream. When she opened them, she stood before a vast
field of light. Examining it closely, she held her palm out to the glow. No
fire, no burning, just her hand sinking into mist.
The air behind her shuddered as some evil power raced toward
her. Knowing she was no match for an actual god, she held her breath and
plunged into the dream world.
The cheerful clang and tinkle of calliope music and the
swelling murmur of a happy crowd filled her mind before her sight kicked in.
She found herself crouched in the middle of a midway at a fantastical fair. To
the left, a line of brightly colored carnival games stretched on for as far as
she could see. On the right stood an array of marvelous rides. Some were
familiar like the Ferris wheel that stretched into the clouds and a
Tilt-O-Whirl that consisted of giant flowers spinning around each other in a
beautiful dance. Others were creations of color and light that swirled around
the riders in astonishing displays of beauty. A few stalls down from her, there
was a pony ride with rainbow-colored unicorns prancing around in a circle.
Where the hooves struck the packed sawdust, little sparkles rose into the air.
Everything seemed slightly off, a bit larger than she was
used to. It took her a moment to realize that everything was from the
perspective of a child. She was looking at the world as a child imagined it,
from a smaller body where everything seemed larger than life. Of course this is
where Zachary would be, trying to capture the soul of his next victim.
As she crouched against the sawdust-packed ground, she
studied the crowd moving around her. At first glance, they all appeared normal,
people you would see every day at the grocery store or the mall. They seemed to
pay no attention to her, so she stood and dusted herself off. The heavy weight
of a sword strapped across her back was reassuring, and she considered drawing
the blade, but it seemed silly to do so when she was surrounded by so many
happy people.
Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath of the festive air.
Frying dough, the overwhelming sweetness of cotton candy, and a hint of the
tang of lemonade flavored the air. Frustrated, she tried to focus deeper, to
break past the illusions of the dream. There, a hint of decay, of shit drying
in the sun.
She followed the scent, weaving between the wonders of a
child's imagination that she would have loved to explore. After trying to race
forward, she found that, while she could move about the universe of dreams at
will, it seemed as though she had to obey some laws inside of the actual dream
itself. Either that or she didn't know enough yet in order to manipulate the
child's dream.
The memory of Epiales destroying the forest of the previous
dream with his will made her shudder. How in the world was she supposed to
battle him when he could eradicate entire dream worlds, and she couldn't even
make herself walk faster? She unsheathed her sword and felt better, even if
Zachary could probably make it disappear from her hands with a thought.
Off to her left, she heard the high, thin scream of a child,
and the world around her froze and rippled. Her heart pounded in her chest as
the carnival began to melt and distort like rain washed away a chalk coloring
on the sidewalk.
Her boots began to sink into the ground, and she ran forward
on the slippery surface. The scream came again, followed by a man's chilling
laughter. As she rounded the melting shape of a ticket booth, she skidded to a
stop and stared. There he was, the man who had chosen evil and power over her
and her mother.
He was dressed as a clown and held a struggling blond boy by
the wrist, dragging him down the midway toward a swirling tunnel of darkness.
The green pompoms on his feet jingled with hidden bells that tinkled merrily as
the boy sobbed and tried to pull away. Beneath an enormous rainbow-colored wig,
her father had his face painted like a clown with a cheery smile.
The boy kicked at him, and Zachary grunted then cuffed the
boy on the back of his head. The child slumped to the ground as his eyes rolled
back in his head. That broke Shan out of her frozen state, and she yelled,
“Hey!” Probably not the most intimidating thing, but she needed him to stop and
couldn't think of anything better.
Zachary whirled around, and a snarl of such hatred overcame
his face that she stumbled back and almost dropped her sword. With a casual
flick of his wrist, he tossed the child over to the side, where the little boy
curled into a ball and moaned softly. The world continued to deteriorate around
them but managed to hold onto some shapes. In the distance a carousel began to
melt into the ground like a candle exposed to a flame, but the fanciful animals
on their brass poles stayed solid and real, now anchored to nothing as they
spun in a circle.
“How dare you look like her!” her father screamed, and bolts
of black lightning flashed through the blue sky. Beneath his fury lay a
bone-chilling sorrow. Tears streaked down his cheeks over the greasepaint as
his lips curled into a fearsome snarl. Behind him the vortex continued to spin,
making her dizzy if she looked at it too long.
Gods, what did she say? Since the moment she’d learned who
he was, she had avoided thinking about actually talking to him. In her
imaginings of this situation, they would have an epic fight, she would win and
rescue the children, and he would go away...or something. Now that she’d
actually found him, she was unprepared for the conflicting emotions. As she
stared at him, he spoke some words in a foul tongue that blasted over her in a scalding-hot
wave. She screamed and instinctively shielded herself from the blast, turning
it around and throwing it back at him. It was akin to whacking away a nasty bug
before it landed on her.
The spell hit him and glowed white-hot, momentarily blinding
her. When it faded, she blinked rapidly to make sure what she was seeing was
real. Whatever she had tossed back at him had stripped him of his scary clown
disguise. A man in his fifties stared back at her, the blood draining from his
face as he clutched at his heart. One side of his head was misshapen, sunken in
and shiny with old scar tissue. More scars descended down the side of his face
and twisted deep into his cheek. His jaw seemed out of proportion, and she
realized that the bones must have been broken multiple times and reset.
His mouth moved in a whispered word, and she prepared
herself for another spell, hoping that whatever instinct had saved her the
first time would do so again. When nothing hit her, she frowned and gestured at
him with her sword. “Where are you hiding the children?”
He cleared his throat and whispered, “Liu?”
Oh gods, he thought she was her mother! “Uh, that's not my
name.” Edging closer to the boy, she kept her sword pointed at Zachary “Who I
am isn't important. Where are the children, you kidnapping asshole!”
He bared his teeth at her. “It took you long enough to find
me. Only my death will release the children. Kill me and get it over with. I've
suffered enough.” With his arms crossed, he glared at her in utter contempt.
She reached the boy and checked his pulse without taking her
eyes off her father. Why wasn't he trying to kill her? It had to be a trick of
some kind. The vortex behind him continued to swirl, and she considered the
mass of swirling darkness. Logic would say that it led to wherever he was
keeping the children. Or it could lead to some alternate hell universe where
one of those snake-alligator demon things would be waiting to bite her head
off. Why couldn't Devon be here with her? He would know what to do.
Well, he wasn't here. She was, and she had to find those
kids before the big, bad whatever it was that was looking through the dream
universe for her found her. The little boy behind her moaned, and she tried to
put some steel into her voice. “You’d better tell me right now where those kids
are, or you'll be sorry!” Really? You'll be sorry was the best she could come
up with? Devon would piss himself laughing.
“How could you possibly make me any more sorry than I
already am? You have no idea of the hell I've been trapped in for the past
twenty-five years.” He swallowed hard. “You've heard my terms. Do it or send
someone who will.”
“Fuck.” She edged over to him and poked him with her sword.
“I'll kill you if you don't tell me!”
His laughter was as bitter as jagged glass on her soul.
“That's what I want!”
She was utterly stumped. Part of her wanted to believe him
and return to the real world and have someone disconnect his body like Devon
had said they would. The other part of her didn't trust him one bit and feared
that the moment she left he would simply scoop up the child and she would have
failed everyone. She bit her tongue and came to a decision. This wasn't a fight
with fists, but rather words. Maybe she could shock him into revealing the
truth. “My name isn't Liu, it's Shan. Liu was my mother.”
The words weighed in the air between them, and a burst of
energy radiated from Zachary that brought her to her knees. So much sorrow,
more than she had ever imagined the human heart could hold. All she could do
was scream and scrabble on the ground like an ant being burned by a magnifying
glass. Abruptly, the energy pulled back, and she was left panting as sweat
dripped into her eyes.
He clutched his hands in his hair and screamed into the sky.
Shan stumbled back from him and almost fell over the boy. Zachary sank to his
knees and stared at her. “You're dead.”
A drop of sweat trembled on the tip of her nose, and she
dashed it away. Thank the gods she hadn't tried to fight him. He would have
destroyed her. “No. My mother survived long enough after the car crash to give
birth to me.” Anger flared within her heart, and her words dripped with venom.
“Sorry your attempt to kill me and sacrifice me didn't work.”
“Impossible.”
“Really? I'll tell you what's fucking impossible.” Her mind
chattered in fear that she should take the boy and run, but she couldn't. He
was just one of many, and if she didn't get Zachary to give her the rest, her
failure would haunt her the rest of her life. Fear easily switched to rage as
he stared at her. After all these years of waiting and wondering, she finally
had the one person who could give her the answers to who she was. “One day I'm
a happy, normal girl making jewelry, my biggest concern being my taste in
losers. Something I obviously shared with my mother.”