Destined for Dreams: Book One (2 page)

Alyssa’s dream boy is perfect. His dark brown hair is cut short on the sides and is styled neatly with hair gel. His almond shaped, coffee brown eyes narrow as he glares at me and his jaw twitches as he twists his mouth into a scowl. He’s tall, over six feet, and tan from hours outside.

The veins in his muscular arms swell as he squeezes the broken bottle and he rolls his shoulders, preparing for a fight he can’t win. Alyssa stares between us and reaches out to touch the boy’s leg. He turns his head to glance over his shoulder, then turns back to me.

I don’t move.

Alyssa clears her throat. “You should leave, Lucas.” She stands and grabs his shoulder.

He tenses. “I’m not leaving you. Can’t you see you’re in danger?”

She smiles softly. “You’re mistaken, babe. It’s not me he’s after.”

Alyssa is afraid of someone—a man. Without mirrors to see myself in the dream world, I don’t know who I appear to be, but since they didn’t run away screaming, I’m guessing I’m not a hideous monster. Alyssa isn’t afraid of monsters—she’s terrified of a man.
I wonder who...

Before he can question her, I glide over the dried leaves and cup his face in my hands. He explodes into a cloud of black dust and I suck in breath after breath of his essence.

My hunger dissipates and I’m left facing Alyssa. She doesn’t run, but just stands there with tears gleaming in her eyes. Her red hair blows in a breeze and she stares at the ground where remnants of her dream boy lie mixed with rotting leaves.

She covers her mouth with her hand.  “You killed him.”

My mouth drops open. Things are clearer now that I’m not starving, and a horrible pit settles in my stomach. I can’t believe I’m standing here destroying Alyssa’s dream. I need to leave, and the only way out is to finish off the dreamer and consume the nightmare.

I cup her face.

Tears spill from her vibrant green eyes and her mouth falls open in a silent scream. Within seconds, she drops to her knees and falls over, pressing her face to the muddy ground. Shining light radiates from her and I inhale the rest of her nightmare as the dream world around me crumbles.

My stomach heaves and my eyes snap open. I’m back in Alyssa’s room and she tosses and turns under her comforter. Before she wakes up, I’m already gone and opening the door to my room.

I feel alive, full, and normal again. I stare at my hands. The color has returned and my skin is flushed. I sit on the edge of my bed and resist looking in the mirror on my vanity table because I don’t know how long I’ll look like myself. I don’t know when I’ll create another nightmare.

Soon.
I never want to starve myself again.

HUNTER

“You’re a terrible host,”
I say.
“The least you can do is take me somewhere fun or hold something more interesting than your diary in front of your face.”

“Shut up,” Jacqueline thinks. She wouldn’t dare speak out loud. Not to me. It would make her look as crazy as she really is, and she wouldn’t stand for it.

“Oh, wouldn’t you just love it if I shut up and went away? Well, Jackie, guess what? You’re stuck with me until you release me back into my body.”

“Don’t call me Jackie. And, Hunter, you know what the deal was. I took you as collateral to make sure Dr. Sullivan holds up her end of the bargain. I want my freedom as much as you do. You’re lucky I let them keep your body.”

My mom agreed to spare this monster her life if she would conspire against her own kind and obtain information about a legendary council made up of supernatural creatures the Human Preservation Agency’s board members want to destroy. To prove to Jacqueline that she wouldn’t harm her, my mother let her take my soul as collateral so that Jacqueline would trust her. Funny though. I’d never trust a woman who traded her own son for some stupid information that may not even be helpful to her.

“Why did you, anyway?”
I ask. I’m as good as dead without a body. Jacqueline could’ve just taken me whole as her prisoner. Instead, we’re forced to share space in her head.

Jacqueline stares at her pink fingernails. “It’s complicated. I expected you to be different, more like your mother. I didn’t expect you to be so...pure.”

If I had a body, I’d frown.
“I’m insulted. What makes you think I’m pure?”

“Enough with the questions.”

I sigh.
“I wouldn’t have so many if you’d tell me what you’re going to do with me.”

Jacqueline throws her journal at the wall and it clatters to the floor. “Hunter Sullivan! If you don’t shut up right now, I will make you.” Jacqueline’s melodious voice echoes through the small room.

She stands up and walks across the dirty carpet to a dusty mirror on the wall. She wipes it with the sleeve of her shirt and stares at herself. Her light purple eyes glow against the golden brown of her skin and the color of her irises shift for a split second and it’s like I can see myself in her eyes. They’re not the windows to her soul, but mine.

“Please, don’t send me away,”
I say.

I regret aggravating her. When she doesn’t want me around, she shoves me into a dark void in her mind. It’s awful not knowing which way is up and being blind and deaf. I feel like I’m dying every time she does it and then it’s like I don’t exist at all.

Someone knocks on the door and she turns toward it. “I’m sorry, Hunter. You know the rules.”

“Please, I’ll be quiet.”

“The answer is no.”

“Jackie, don’t—”

She closes her eyes and I’m blind to the world again. I’m alone, in pitch blackness, and I want to die.

2
. THE OUTSIDE WORLD

HUNTER

“Come back, Hunter.”

I’ve lost track of time after counting to three thousand, six hundred and two seconds. Sometimes I shut my mind down and envision being somewhere else. I may not have a body, but I can still imagine things. It’s all I have left.

“Just release me. Death would be better than this,”
I say.

“Oh, Hunter, you don’t mean it. If you did, you would’ve died already.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve anchored you to life through me. You’re not a prisoner. You can leave whenever you want.”

Really? She is delusional if she doesn’t think I’m her captive. And the choices I have? They’re crap. Die or hang out in her head with no control over anything. It’s like I’m watching TV through her eyes, stuck on a channel I hate.

“Where would I go? I don’t see my body anywhere.”
My sharp tone makes her sigh.
“You know you’re a dead girl if I ever get out of here.”

“I would’ve been dead if I didn’t take you, so what’s the difference? I had nothing to lose.”

Bad things happen when someone feels they’re out of options. I know this because I remember how fragile Jacqueline looked at the termination facility. She was hunkered in a corner, surrounded by two agents, both from the Special Abilities Task Force, and she was about to die. Fortunately for her, my mom had other plans. Unfortunately for me, I was with her and Jacqueline wanted someone my mom would want to see alive again.

“Do you even feel slightly guilty?”

“Not really.”

“No wonder the board wants to eradicate the world of supers. You all are really monsters.”

“I feel the same about you, Hunter.”

NADIA

I sit in the pale morning sunlight. The grass is greener than I remember and the sky is decorated in puffy white clouds. A forest nymph, dressed in a silky green gown, tends to the large garden. Her sunflower yellow hair is pulled into a ponytail and tied with a vine and I wonder if she’d help me manage my hair. Nymphs are some of the most beautiful creatures I’ve ever seen and they’re good at what they do. This one can manipulate nature and can encourage any plant to grow at any time. Our gardens always flourish in her care.
Why couldn’t I have been born a nymph?

“Nadia,” a musical voice calls. It’s the last person I want to see.

I don’t turn or acknowledge Alyssa. I’m embarrassed by my actions and I wish I could crawl into a hole and hide—maybe a grave would be more suitable. A shadow blocks the sun and I stiffen. Alyssa isn’t going to leave me alone. She never has. Besides my father, she’s the only other person in the world I’d call family.

“Why are you ignoring me?” she asks.

I tilt my head up and stare at her upside down. “Oh, hey, Lys. I didn’t hear you. What’s up?”

She plops down next to me. “You’re a terrible liar.”

I blush. Nothing gets by a seer. “Why are you even asking me? You know why.”

She blows her blazing red hair out of her face. “Because you’re my best friend and I’m not all knowing. Things can be interpreted wrong.”

My eyes shift to the forest nymph. She kneels in the dirt and lowers her head until it’s an inch from the ground and whispers something. I press my lips together and try to gather my thoughts. I hate talking about this. I hate it.

“I—I’m sorry.” It’s the best I can do.

Alyssa arches her brows. Her green eyes shine in the sunlight, like two glittering gemstones, and she smiles. “Don’t ever apologize to me. I was worried about you.”

“Don’t be. I know what I’m doing.” It’s always like Alyssa to check in on me and see how I’m doing, especially when my father is out on business. She’s always been this way since she found my father and he brought her here over a year ago. She’s my age, seventeen, but you’d think she was going on thirty.

She rests her hand on my knee. “You were starving yourself.”

I meet her gaze. “I was not.”
Please, let it go.
“I’m fine, really. I was just experimenting.”

I reach out and rest my hand on hers. She twists her lips to the side, and I expect her to argue some more, but instead she just nods. She turns away and stares at the forest nymph for a few seconds before saying, “There are a lot worse things you could be.”

I crinkle my nose. “I live off terrorizing people in their sleep. How can I be any worse? You know it’s going to be hard for me to resist you now, right? Your dream was amazing.” I swallow, my mouth watering at the memory. My cheeks flush and I shift uncomfortably.
Control yourself.

Alyssa smirks. “It really was terrifying. Maybe next time try not eating Lucas.”

I cringe. If I didn’t know her, I’d think she was unaffected by the situation, but the way she stiffened when I touched her assures me that she really is bothered by the nightmare I created for her. I don’t blame her though. If I continue, she’ll hate me for it. A person can only go so long, dreaming about the death of someone they care about, before it affects them in real life.

“You knew what to expect, Lys.” I push my blond hair from my eyes.

She stares at the sky. “I was kidding. It’s not that big of a deal. I see a lot more horrible things in my visions. Lighten up, Nadia. You’re not a monster.”

She’ll never understand. Now that I fed from her dreams, I won’t be able to stop unless I move on to someone else. Her dreams will call to me. They awakened the monster within me and its hunger will consume me until I let it have what it wants. It’s how nightmare inflictors choose their victims. It’s easiest to prey on the people closest to us; the people that allow us in.

“How can you say that after last night?” I ask. “Who did I appear as anyway?”

“My Uncle Drew.”

I don’t ask why her uncle would be her worst nightmare and she doesn’t explain either. Alyssa doesn’t talk about what her life was like before coming here. All I know is she ran away from home and convinced my father to bring her here. She knew everything—who the council was, what it did—everything. My father convinced the council to let her stay and the compound has been her sanctuary since.

I push to my feet and offer Alyssa my hand. I can’t sit here and pretend what we experienced together was okay. “Want to get out of here?” I ask after a minute. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to stand the sun. I need to take advantage of it while it lasts.

Alyssa beams a smile. “Are you serious? You never want to leave.”

I shrug. “I guess not being confined inside during the day does something to you. Think we can make it?”

She takes my hand. “Of course. You know I always see everything coming.”

HUNTER

“Where are we going?”
I ask.

“None of your business. You’ll find out soon enough.”

Being stuck in Jacqueline’s head is pure torture. I miss doing simple things like blinking and glaring. I imagine I’m doing them, but it’s not the same. I never get over the disappointment when Jacqueline doesn’t move her arm when I imagine I’m moving mine.

“A little hint?”

“Somewhere far enough that I have to take a train. Now, be quiet. I’ll let you stay around if you behave.”

I’m surprised she’s not pushing me into the void. I’m relieved, too. For once I’ll get to see and hear real people instead of only being let out when we’re alone in the abandoned apartment.

“You have a deal. You won’t even know I’m here.”

“I doubt it.”

NADIA

We sneak out the back gate of the compound. It’s mostly used by the forest nymphs going back to the forest. A spelled talisman opens the gate, and since there’s always one available, we don’t have a problem getting out.

“I hid my car not far from here,” Alyssa says.

I scrunch my brows. “You drive?”

“I can teach you. Maybe your father will let you get your license since you’ll be eighteen in a few months.”