I fumbled with my bag, then pulled out my keys, reached under the table, and found Evan’s hand. “Take my keys,” he said without moving his lips. I reached my other hand under the table and grabbed his keys. Evan shifted in his seat and casually leaned against the window. “There’s a back exit by the bathrooms. My truck is parked there; take it to my house.” He motioned for the waitress; when she came back over, he held his cup for more coffee. I was trembling; I was too scared to move. Did he really think Britain wouldn’t notice me leaving – even if it was through a back door?
“Leave your bag here…look like you’re going to the restroom,” Evan said as he casually took a sip of his coffee.
I slid my bag over my shoulder and tucked his keys in my pocket.
“Go…take the back roads….you’ll be there in minutes.”
I held my breath and slid out of the seat, not daring to look toward the window. I casually dodged through the full tables of people to the hallway that led to the bathrooms. At the end of that hall, there was door to the left that had ‘Exit’ written all over it. As I reached to push it open, someone pulled it open from the other side; I was so startled, I had to hold in a scream. The old man on the other side of the door looked at me like I was insane. I looked down and slid by him. Evan’s black Hummer was a few feet from the door. I pushed the alarm button by mistake, then hit it again, frantically trying to silence the noise that was putting a target on me. I hit the unlock button and climbed in. I had to struggle with the seat to move it close enough for me to reach the pedals. Finally I backed out, then pealed the tires to the right. Once on the road, I frantically looked into the rearview mirror. I could feel Bianca...I could feel her right behind me.
Chapter Three
I never went under seventy the entire way to Draven’s. A drive that should have taken fifteen minutes was cut into seven. My heart was beating so fast that I couldn’t breathe, and my stomach was in knots.
Once I turned in the driveway, I stopped a few feet in…I had to calm down. I took in long, deep breaths and told myself I was OK…I was imagining things…they didn’t see me….Bianca didn’t know I was there. I leaned my head against the seat and glanced in the rearview mirror; as I did, Britain’s Aston Martin slowly passed by Draven’s house. My foot was on the gas before I looked ahead. I peeled around the side of the house and threw the truck in park behind the garage, then ran toward the door. It was locked; panic came over me as I stood on my tip toes and reached for the light, for the key I knew was hidden there. I dropped it, then fumbled to pick it up and forced it in the key hole.
Inside, all of the blinds were closed and the house was quiet…so quiet, you’d think it was the dead of night. I locked the door behind me, then rushed through the kitchen to the entry hall and peered out the front window, looking for Britain’s car. He wouldn’t come here…he wouldn’t let Bianca come here, I thought over and over. I reached to my side, wanting to check my phone - but my bag wasn’t there; I’d left it with Evan…my phone was with Evan. I squinted my eyes closed as I thought of the texts that would be there when I got it back – what clever game of wits Britain was playing with me.
I stared out the window for countless minutes. When I saw no evidence of the Aston Martin driving by again, I turned and looked at the sleepy, dim house. I was a little surprised not to find Nana downstairs…she literally lived in the kitchen. I guess she was playing cards at a friend’s house. I could only assume that Aden was out just as late as Draven. They had been rehearsing new songs with a few guys across town for weeks now, and I had no doubt that they were both sleeping soundly.
I climbed the stairs, trying to catch my breath and slow my heart. My plan for today was in shambles. I wanted to talk to Draven…to tell him about Britain…but after talking to Evan, I was terrified to make him angry, to give reason for the nightmares he saw to be darker. I wasn’t sure how much weight I could give to the idea of his emotions controlling the intensity. The one person that would be able to explain if they did or didn’t would be Madison…that girl has always been able to understand others’ emotions…sometimes she understood them better than her own.
I slowly opened Draven’s bedroom door. The only light came from the sides of the drapes that were pulled. I saw him lying in the center of his bed, on his stomach…his shirt was off, and his arms were above his head under his pillow. My eyes moved across every perfect muscle in his back and long, strong arms. The sight of him literally took my breath away.
I quietly slid out of my shoes and let my hoodie fall to the floor, then tiptoed to the end of the bed. I crawled slowly along his side…he never moved. I let my lips rest on his arm; when he didn’t respond, I leaned closer and kissed his neck softly. I felt him smile against my cheek. Then he whispered, “If this is a dream…don’t wake me.”
The sound of his hypnotic voice made my skin hum. He pulled his arm from under the pillow and wrapped it around my side and pulled me against him. His lips were on mine before I could say a word. I took in every movement of his lips as if it were the air I needed to breathe. My arms tightened around his waist as I squeezed myself against his warm chest. The idea of losing him…of him fighting some dark nightmare... it was too much to bear. Tears came to the corner of my eyes; once Draven felt them against his balmy skin, his kiss hesitated, then he slowly pulled away and stared into my eyes.
“What’s wrong?” he whispered as his hand slowly moved along my side.
“I missed you,” I said in a quiet voice that echoed the pain my heart felt in his absence.
“I’m right here,” he whispered as he leaned down and began to move his lips across my neck. The sensation that was coursing through every part of me was almost enough to make me forget my morning…almost.
“I’m worried about you…I’m scared,” I whispered as I let out a breath of passion.
His lips halted, and as his eyes rose to meet mine, I saw them change from an alluring green to the color of coal. Before I could say or think anything, he flew out of the bed and stood staring across the room. Every muscle in his body was flexed – his eyes were fierce and peered at nothing.
Trembling, I raised to my knees. “Draven…,” I said faintly.
He didn’t make a sound – he didn’t even blink. I stood on the bed and moved closer to him. I was eye-to-eye with him, but I swear he couldn’t see me. I reached my trembling hands for his shoulders; I could feel a pulsating anger emanating from his skin.
“Draven,” I said again. When he didn’t respond, I pulled his stiff body closer to me. “Stop…you’re scaring me…I’m sorry – I love you,” I said as I reached my hands for his flawless face.
In that instant, green began to flood his eyes, and his arm raised and threw something across the room. The sound of it hitting the wall was so loud, so sudden, that I flung myself forward onto Draven. My arms were wrapped around his neck; I was holding him so tight, you’d have thought that my life depended on it. In that second, I felt his arms come around my waist. As he buried his face in my neck, his arms tightened around me.
At that moment, his bedroom door opened. I nervously looked over my shoulder to see a young boy, one of the boys that had come home with Evan, standing there. He looked from us to the wall across the room. My eyes followed his to see a black book with decorative metal silver edges logged in the wall; Draven had thrown it so hard that it stabbed the wall as if it were a dagger.
“A book…that’s different. Can I have it?” the boy asked as he took a step toward it.
Draven let go of me as he rushed to the door. “No…out – now!”
“Sorry – geeze,” the boy said, rolling his eyes. “Next time, I’ll just ignore the fact that it sounded like the wall was coming down.”
“Out!” Draven said as he reached the door. The boy locked eyes with me and smiled wickedly as Draven closed the door and locked it.
“Who…what…what’s going on?” I said as I fell to my knees on the bed.
Draven didn’t
answer me. He walked to the wall and pulled the logged book loose. He flipped through the pages, then rolled his eyes before he flung it on the dresser at the foot of the bed. He started to pace the floor as he ran his fingers through his dark hair. My eyes moved over every inch of him. There wasn’t a moment in my life that I hadn’t thought he was the most utterly attractive human being on the planet...but right now…seeing his anger…seeing the raw power he had just displayed…it…it just made him seem near godly – too perfect to touch.
“Draven,” I whispered.
His eyes locked with mine as he kept his pace. “How long…how long have you been talking to him?” he demanded in a low tone.
“A while,” I mumbled.
His jaw tightened as he balled his hands into a fist.
“I…look…all I do is text…I wanted him to think I was asleep – blind…so he would leave us alone...buy us time.”
He shook his head from side to side as he kept his pace. “Time…we’re out of time – our chance to leave here has come and gone.”
“It’s not gone…just delayed.”
He stopped his pace and stared at me. Instantly, almost defensively, I raised my imaginary glass wall in my mind; I didn’t want him to see me right now…obviously, he had already seen more that I would have ever wanted him to.
“It’s gone, Charlie.”
“Austin will come back. That Landen guy is probably still here…I think you need to calm down.”
He tightened his jaw and let out a deep breath. “You were right…we are dangerous…I’m dangerous, and another dimension doesn’t deserve the darkness we’d bring…we aren’t leaving here – not now…I’ve seen too much.”
My eyes locked with his; I focused on him, wanting to see what he’d seen. Draven slowly stepped forward and crawled onto the bed next to me. He reached his hand for the side of face and pulled me within inches of his eyes. “I’m not letting you see…I can’t…I just can’t,” he whispered. I leaned closer to him and let my lips rest on his; he kissed me back with a powerful force full of passion and anger. We fell back on the bed. I wrapped my legs around his and pulled his face gently away from mine. “I may not be able to see it…but I can feel it…tell me why you’re so scared…mad.”
His eyes fell from mine as he rolled to my side and stared at the ceiling. I lay there, trying to calm my beating heart, trying to resist the urge to just fall into his embrace and leave my worries and questions for another time.
“I don’t know what’s happening to me…how to explain it,” he said quietly.
I rolled to my side and pulled myself up on one arm so I could see his intense green eyes more clearly. “Tell me what just happened…that book - where did it come from?”
His eyes moved to mine. “Listen…I know seeing hasn’t come back to you, that you’re not as strong or confident as you were before that demon came into our life…so I don’t even know if I can explain it….I don’t know if I understand it.”
“I’m not an idiot. You know my memory is just under the surface. Explain it…if I don’t understand it, I’ll tell you…it can only help make me stronger.”
He slowly turned his head from side to side as his eyes moved to the ceiling. “Fine…when I heard you say you were afraid, I saw you...I saw you in the driveway...the rearview mirror...his car…you running in the house and staring out the window, waiting for him to come.”
His eyes moved back to mine, and I held my breath. I was waiting for him to ask me why I was in his dad’s truck. I ignored the pause he gave and nodded for him to go on.
“Seeing is different for me now….I don’t have to look at someone to see a memory; if I’ve seen it before, it’s now mine and I call it back at will. I can ‘see’ it again without the person showing me.”
“Every memory – it’s now yours?” I mumbled.
“Yeah…” His eyes moved back to ceiling. “It’s like having a library of memories – doorways to step through. The night of your accident, you showed me everything, every word he ever said to you...his house here...everything.
“Just now, I was mad that he was following you here…I used your memory – the one of his house – and I went there, to find him. On his desk in his study, I saw his phone, and I read the texts you sent him back and forth today…” His jaw clenched, and his eyes were fierce. “I grabbed the book on the desk and smashed the phone as hard as I could. He must have came home or heard me, because he opened the door and I flung the book him…then I was back here….back here with you.”
My entire body was numb. My arm fell from under me, and I stared at him. “Are you sure? Are you sure that happened – that it’s not just an illusion, your mind toying with you?”
He turned his head to the side and looked at me. “Go look at the book,” he said firmly.
I hesitated, but my curiosity overtook me and I pulled myself up and crawled down the bed and reached for the book. I opened the heavy leather binder, and inside I found photos of me, me and Bianca, me and Britain. There were words on the pages, but I couldn’t read them…they almost looked like they were in Latin. My trembling hands dropped the book, and I slowly looked over my shoulder. Draven had his arms behind his head beneath his pillow; he was staring at me with a mix of anger, jealousy, and fear.
“How long have you been able to do this? When did this start?” I asked as I slowly crawled to his side. When I reached his chest, I laid my head there. He pulled his right arm from beneath his pillow and held my side as he continued to stare into my eyes.
“A while…I didn’t start moving deeper into a memory until just a few weeks ago.”
“What happened a few weeks ago?”
“I don’t know…I was playing one night…trying to come up with the right song. I started thinking about what happened – Britain, that girl you’re so scared of; then out of nowhere, I was in his house….I didn’t understand how I was there and tried to focus and bring myself back, but when I focused, I didn’t come back; instead, the house around me crumbled, and I was standing in the middle of nowhere – in the middle of hell….dogs….demon dogs with red eyes chased me….I told myself it was a dream and not to be scared, but as I ran I fell, and when I fell it hurt – it was real…I was terrified.”
“How - how did you stop it?” I said in a broken voice. I was fighting tears and anger.
Draven’s arm tightened around me. “I thought of you…if I only had one thought left, I wanted it to be of you. I closed my eyes and remembered your touch…your voice…the smell of your hair - then all of it was gone. I was in my studio, holding my guitar – it was as if not a single moment had passed.”
“Are they doing this to you? Is Britain doing this to you?” I asked as I raised my head. I was prepared to leave. I would book a flight to Montana, find Austin and Landen, and be gone before the sun set.
Draven reached for my shoulder and urged me to lie back down. “No…it’s not them…I’ve been in other memories that had nothing to do with them. Sometimes I’m not in a memory at all; the nightmare just begins, and I have to endure it.”
“Do you always get out by thinking of me? How long does it last? How long does it feel like it lasts?”
He leaned his head forward and let his lips rest on my forehead. I felt a warm sensation ease through my body. “You always bring me out…but…sometimes it’s so dark – so wickedly real, that it takes a while for me to focus on you, to let you bring me back. I think...I think whatever I’m fighting knows you’re my weapon because…because a few weeks ago, the nightmare that came to life was about you – I was chasing you…”
“Chasing me where?”
“I don’t know…when I saw you there, I thought maybe you were there. You ran, and I followed - but after talking to Grayson, I think it’s a lure…this nightmare is trying to lead me somewhere dark, and in this illusion or vision...it’s using you as bait. It’s not you, though...I know it’s not you. I’ve come to your house while you’re sleeping and watched your dreams
….before this moment or this morning, you had no idea what I was fighting.”
“Who’s Grayson – that boy?” I said as I looked to the locked door.
“No, that’s Winston. Grayson is his older brother…their sister, Monroe, is here, too. Dad didn’t tell you their names?” he asked bleakly. I knew then he was mad at his dad for even mentioning this to me.
I looked up at him. “Don’t be mad at your dad for talking to me. He didn’t come to me; I ran into him, and I’m glad I did. All he wanted to talk about was you anyway.”
“He’s been threatening to talk to you for a while; it was only a matter of time.”
“Why didn’t you talk to me? Why didn’t you tell me? I thought you were mad at me for not leaving with Austin.”
“I was mad, but that wasn’t fair. Even if I convinced you, one day you would have figured out what was happening to me; you would have killed me for bringing it to another world.”
“You’re wrong. I want to go now – I want to run. She’s doing this…somehow, Bianca is doing this to you.”
“Your judgment is clouded…you’re wrong. I’m no different from Winston, Grayson, or your dad – and Bianca has no reason to want them.” His eyes were full of guilt.
“Your dad said they could see like you…how? Do they have nightmares that chase them? How do they get out?”
Draven pulled himself up and leaned against his headboard. I leaned across him and stared into his eyes.
“When it first started, they thought of their mom…but now they have a song they focus on to pull them out.”
“Where’s their mom? That girl looks young.”
“She is; she’s only fifteen. Grayson has custody of her. He’s twenty two. Winston just turned eighteen.”
“Where is the mom at – with their dad?”
“They never knew their dad. Their mom…their mom is missing.”
“What do you mean, ‘missing’?”
Draven looked down as his entire body tensed. “They think she’s trapped in a nightmare – trapped in that place I keep getting called to.”