Destined for Dreams: Book One (15 page)

She looks at me in her peripheral vision. “Tell me why I should trust you.”

I want to tell her to trust me because I’m not a bad guy and that I would never hurt her, but instead I say, “I don’t know.”

She tilts her head up to look into my eyes. “Do you trust me?”

I don’t even have to think about it. “Yes.”

“I’m dangerous.”

“Everyone can be dangerous.” I shift on my feet and turn to face her. I hold her hand to my cheek. “It doesn’t make you bad, though.”

She smiles. “This is crazy. I can’t seem to keep away from you as hard as I try. Deep down I know that this is just a dream and it can’t be real. We can’t be real, Hunter.”

I tuck a strand of her shimmering, white hair behind her ear. Her words sting, but I keep my expression neutral. I don’t want her to see the pain in my eyes. “You’re real to me.”

She cups my face in her hands. “I wish things were different.”

It’s my turn to smile. Nadia has imagined what life would be like if I weren’t trapped in Jacqueline’s head. It’s what I constantly think about—how life could be.

“They can be. You can help me,” I say.

She turns away from me and faces the ocean again. “I don’t know, Hunter. I just don’t know.”

NADIA

My heart races thinking about all the things that could go wrong if I decide to help Hunter escape from Jacqueline’s mind. First, I have no idea how to help him. Only Jacqueline can free him. And second, I can’t forget about where he comes from. He’ll always be the son of a board member.

Hunter’s hazel eyes reflect the dark clouds looming over the ocean. He brushes his dark hair out of his face before shoving his hands into the pockets of his black corduroy jacket. “I understand. I know how afraid of the HPA you are. I wouldn’t blame you or hold it against you if you don’t help me.” He frowns and presses his lips together. “I’m grateful you’re giving me a chance.”

I turn and meet his eyes. “You know an agent ruined my life.” I don’t know why, but I need to remind him why I’m terrified of the board. It’s not an irrational fear.

He rubs his stubbly chin. “I don’t know what to say. I wish I could make things right for you.”

I press my lips together. “What’s done is done. All I can do is move forward.”

HUNTER

I want to pull her to me, wrap my arms around her, and kiss her hair. I’m starting to despise the HPA. I’m ashamed that my mom is on the board and is okay with all this. I’m livid just thinking about the agency. How they caused so much pain and did something so horrible to Nadia and her family. It isn’t right.

“I promise you that if I get out of here, I will do everything I can to change things. It shouldn’t be like this.”

She stands on her tiptoes and kisses my cheek. I press the spot where her lips were before sliding my arms around her shoulders. She leans into me and rests her forehead to my chest and I just hold her and breathe in the flowery scent of her hair.

Thunder booms over the ocean and the wind picks up, gusting around us. The dream is shifting and growing darker and I know Nadia will have to leave soon. It’s a cruel fate that we can’t stay like this forever. I want to do everything I can to protect her, but I can’t even get myself out of this mess.

She tugs at a few strands of her hair. “You’ve done something to me, Hunter. I should be afraid of you, but I’m not.”

I smile. “I’m glad. I was nervous that you’d never come back. I need you to see that I’m different. Meeting you has changed me.”

She pulls away and peers over the ledge of the cliff. “I’ll always come back. I just wish I didn’t have to go.”

I move closer. “Then stay.”

She stretches up and kisses my cheek again. “I can’t. It’ll be too much on Jacqueline. I can feel the nightmares starting to affect her.”

I want to tell her they are, but I don’t. Jacqueline deserves this for imprisoning me here. I can’t feel bad for her.

A scream rips through the quiet air and I glance over the edge at the soft, tan sand below. Jacqueline runs on the beach, wearing a flowing, purple cotton dress, and two people in biohazard suits chase after her.

She trips and screams again as she gets back to her feet. “Leave me alone! I haven’t done anything!”

“We don’t want to hurt you!” A deep voice echoes over the waves.

Nadia stiffens next to me.

I reach for her hand. “This is a strange dream.”

She plays with her hair with her free hand. “My presence alone is enough to disturb dreamers without doing anything. The longer I stay, the more intense it’ll be for Jacqueline. It’s why I try to get in and out quickly.”

I watch Jacqueline’s nightmare unfold. She’s slowing down as the sand gets softer under her feet until she’s knee deep in it. Her cry is loud enough to get under my skin. It’s hard to watch her struggle to escape the two people, but I can’t save her from herself.

“Please, get away from me. Please. I don’t want your help.”

The two people swoop in, unfazed by the sand, and one of them grabs Jacqueline by her dark brown, curly hair. She screams, jerking back, and a clump of her hair rips from her scalp, leaving behind a bloody wound.

My stomach churns.

“I have to go, Hunter,” Nadia says, her voice barely above a whisper. “Jacqueline has been through enough tonight.”

“Ouch! My fingers!” Jacqueline screams.

The biohazard man reaches to grab Jacqueline again and falls back when her skin peels away in his grasp. She cries out, waving her bloody hand, trying her best to keep the people away from her.

“Stop fighting. You’ve been contaminated. We need to take you back to the lab,” the man says.

“Goodbye, Hunter. I’ll try to see you again soon.” Nadia’s lips are cool on my cheek, but I don’t turn away from Jacqueline.

The air shifts and the dark sky cracks, sending pieces of clouds into the roaring ocean. Within seconds, the world collapses. Nadia’s presence disappears and I’m alone with Jacqueline again.

I miss Nadia already.

15
. DESTINED FOR DREAMS

NADIA

I’m out of control. Visiting Hunter every opportunity I have makes me a bigger monster than Jacqueline. I promised myself that I would only give nightmares out of necessity, like when I’m starving, but now I barely even think about it—I just do it.

Hunter has changed me. The world doesn’t feel so dull, but colorful and vibrant, full of life and happiness. I’m frightened by how much I enjoy visiting him, seeing him, touching him. No one has ever known me in the dream world. He sees my nightmare inflictor side and he’s not scared. He likes me, and not just because I can help him. He genuinely cares about me. I can feel it. It’s so tangible because it is part of his soul. That kind of connection with someone is rare.

I watch the stars fade in the early morning sky. People should be waking up soon and it should be safe enough for me to go back inside. I want today to be normal, like any other day. I want to get ready and get back to the routine I’ve slacked off on. I need to do something to get my mind off Hunter and it’s better that I at least start to help out around here again before people start whispering behind my back more than usual.

I squeeze my eyes shut to force the image of Hunter away.

I need to focus on me right now and whether or not I can make the decision to help him. I need to think about what would happen after. Can I live my life in more fear than I do now? Can I forget about him and move on like all this was just a dream? Can I live with myself if I decide not to help him? These are some heavy decisions and I wish someone else could make them for me. I need someone besides myself to blame if things go wrong or aren’t the way I want them to be.

All these questions on my mind make my stomach flip. It’s hilarious how I can even consider things turning out well. I’m toxic. I survive off giving people nightmares. I don’t even know if I’m capable of being with Hunter in real life. Look what happened with my mother.

I hear the door to the dorms creak open and I crawl closer to the building and into the shadows. I’m not up for company and I don’t really want to deal with facing anyone.

“I said I was sorry. I’ve had a lot on my mind. Give me a break.” A familiar voice echoes in the quiet morning.

“Are you sure? I haven’t been getting good sleep at all.”

I press my back to the wall. Jacqueline stands in the middle of the walkway, clutching her head. She’s talking out loud, and with the way the conversation sounds, it’s not only to herself.

“Yeah, okay. You’re right.” She takes a few steps. “Of course I feel guilty. I’m not some heartless person.” She spins on her feet, facing me, and moves her hands to her eyes and rubs them.

“Okay, yeah. Dang it, Hunter. Shut up.” She pauses. “Shut up!”

She’s getting careless by talking out loud. Her sanity is the most fragile after a nightmare and it may take her a while to recuperate from the last one since I was in her head for so long. I watch her walk in a circle, crossing and uncrossing her arms. Her dark brown curls are a mess and she’s wearing black yoga pants and a burgundy T-shirt, the most casual I’ve seen her. Her feet are bare and she runs her foot over the edge of the cement and into the grass.

It takes everything in me to open my mouth, and finally after awkwardly watching her for another minute, I ask, “Who’s Hunter?”

Jacqueline spins on the balls of her feet and stares at me with wild eyes. Her lavender eyes shift to hazel and back again and she brushes her untamed hair back with her hands. “What?” she asks, peering into the shadow to see me. “Oh, Nadia, don’t mind me. I was just talking to myself.”

I stand and walk closer. “You told Hunter to shut up. Who is he?”

She looks ready to run. “I don’t know.”

“How’d he die?” I ask. If I thought confronting her about Hunter would help him, I’d press harder since it was her slip up, but she looks like she’s willing to murder someone to keep her secrets safe, so I play along with her lie.

She pauses for a minute, relaxing. “Oh, uh, I haven’t asked.” Her eyes shift to hazel again and she blinks until they revert back to normal. “And I honestly don’t want to know. It’s morbid enough as it is.”

Jacqueline’s sneakier than I thought and if I didn’t know who Hunter really was, I’d have believed that she was a necromancer speaking to the dead. “Is that why you’re not sleeping well?”

She frowns. “I—I guess. I thought maybe you could tell me.”

I raise my eyebrows. “You don’t think that I’d actually...” My voice trails off and I look at the ground. “Of course you would. Who wouldn’t? Always blame the nightmare inflictor when you can’t sleep.” As the words come, anger slithers into my mind even though it shouldn’t. It’s not like I’m innocent. I’m lying. But thinking about Hunter trapped in her head irritates me. “You do know that people are capable of creating their own nightmares? You talk to the dead, that’s enough to give even the most fearless person bad dreams.” I don’t meet her gaze because now is my chance to erase all doubt she’s had about me. I need her to keep trusting me. I can’t risk her mentioning her sleep issues to the council. Who knows what they would do.

“I’m sorry,” she sputters. “I shouldn’t have said anything. I just—my past is haunting me and I feel like I’m going crazy sometimes. If it makes you feel any better, I don’t even care what you are.” She sounds so sincere. I believe her until I see Hunter’s hazel eyes flash through. Her eye color shifts when she’s having an inner debate with him. I bet he’s calling out her lies. It’s what I’d do if I were in his place.

“You’d be one of the few,” I say, tucking my hair behind my ear. I shift on my feet when silence falls between us.

Finally, after a long minute, Jacqueline nods. “I completely understand. Most people are terrified of me as well.”

And they should be
, I think.
I should be.

HUNTER

“Can you blame them?”
I ask.
“You’re the scariest super I know.”

Jacqueline growls in her mind. “You haven’t seen scary, Hunter.”

“I’m pretty sure I have.”

“They’re probably scared of the dead people,” Nadia says. She looks so human with her blond hair pulled up into a high ponytail. Her indigo eyes complement her deep blue shift dress, opaque black tights, and knee high black boots. I wish I could cup her face again...kiss her if she’d let me.

Jacqueline straightens her shoulders, bringing her attention back to Nadia. “You think so? People should know that the dead are harmless. It’s the living that people should be afraid of.” Jacqueline touches Nadia’s arm and it reminds me that I’m stuck inside Jacqueline’s head and that I’ll never get to be with Nadia in real life. We are destined for dreams.

“That’s not what I hear. My father is great friends with a necromancer and she says that no one can keep a secret around her because the dead see everything.” Nadia twists her lips to the side and Jacqueline’s eyes shift to the ground. “Sometimes secrets are all a person has.”

Panic rushes through Jacqueline’s mind. “Oh, no. What if the necromancer comes here? I didn’t realize there was another one around.” She isn’t keeping her personal thoughts from me. It’s annoying because I want to respond, but it’ll get me sent to the void again.

Jacqueline blinks a few times before asking Nadia, “You know another necromancer? Where is she?” Her voice cracks.

“She’s not too far from here, but she doesn’t have connections to the council and probably never will. I can get her information if you want.” Nadia stares up at the sky.

It takes a lot of effort not to laugh. Jacqueline is so uncomfortable, her anxiety is palpable, and I’m enjoying how Nadia is purposely pushing her buttons. I like to think she’s doing it for me. Jacqueline really didn’t think her plan through and sooner or later, she’s going to get caught in a lie by someone other than Nadia. And when she is, I hope I’m already back in my body.