“Let me come.” She’d never fought with demons. Magic should help.
“No.” Conn stepped back. “I gave my word to your aunt to keep you safe, darlin’. You’re a lot like Dage. He hates the mantle of his position, too.”
With two long strides, Conn opened the door. “Soldiers will be here in a minute to take you to headquarters. If we’re raiding, our mates are underground. You might as well explore. You’re going to be there a while.”
Then, he was gone.
Chapter 17
Janie clutched her teddy bear closer to her chest, her eyes drooping. Mr. Mullet wasn’t doing a good job of keeping her awake. They were snuggled underground again ... where the earth sometimes whispered to her. Pony pictures drawed by Uncle Dage covered her bedroom walls, and a pretty dollhouse Uncle Conn had made sat in the corner. Her mama whistled in the other room, sewing socks for the baby ... but they looked more like orange holders. She really couldn’t sew.
Janie needed to stay awake until her daddy came home ... he and her uncles had hurried off to fight again, and she had a bad feeling. The kind of feeling she got after eating too much cotton candy and too many hotdogs.
Soon enough she found herself wandering along a wide golf course just like the one a pony had played on during her favorite television show last week. With a shrug, she gave into the dream. Might as well make the grass purple, and the trees made of licorice. Yum. Even the air smelled yummy.
Where in the world was Zane? Her best friend, her only friend since she left home, they met in dreams. When they both slept. She searched the area ... then found him. Her laughter echoed across the distance, where he stood in a big sand trap made of ... what was that? Oh no. Cotton candy.
He smiled, jumping out of the pink mess. But his smile didn’t seem right. His pretty green eyes didn’t smile, too.
She ran, meeting him near a shiny flag blowing in the wind. “What’s wrong?”
He lifted a dark eyebrow like her daddy did. Then he dropped to sit so she wouldn’t have to look up. Zane turned eleven a while ago ... and grew way taller than her. It wasn’t fun being only five years old. She sat next to him, biting her lip. “What’s wrong?”
“I have to move.” He rubbed his jaw, sadness coming off him.
“Oh.” She patted his big hand on the purple grass. “I just moved, too. You might like your new home.”
“No.” He shook his head, sending long dark hair flying. “My father, we don’t know where he is. His unit has disappeared.”
Janie’s chest ached. Zane’s daddy worked as a soldier with the vampires, fighting against the bad Kurjans. “Maybe they’re hiding out to catch all of the bad guys. Your daddy will be home soon, Zane.” Please let Zane’s daddy be all right. She remembered how scary it was living without a daddy ... she didn’t have one until Talen showed up. Now she had him. The world was safer with him.
“I hope so.” Zane’s smile seemed lopsided. “Until he returns, we’re going to live with my mother’s people. Her family.”
Janie didn’t ask where his mama’s family lived. They’d agreed a long time ago not to tell. Well, Zane said they needed to keep secrets, just in case. So she didn’t ask. “Do you like her family?”
He shrugged. “They train as hard as my people, so that’ll be good. I’ll keep training.”
Her head ached. Sometimes she saw the future, but she didn’t get to choose when. Even stuff she didn’t understand had rules. She didn’t like rules. “Do you have to move far away?” Okay. She really wondered where Zane lived.
He shook his head. “How is Mr. Mullet?”
She’d described her bear, a present from Aunt Emma, to him once, but had never been able to bring Mr. Mullet into a dream. “He’s good. I asked him to keep me awake, but he didn’t.” She eyed the tops of the trees turning a sunny yellow. “I’m not sure why I can’t bring him into the dream. Honest, I don’t think he wants to come.” She’d brought other goodies to show Zane, and she always wore the horseshoe necklace he’d given her for her last birthday.
“Perhaps bears don’t like dreams.”
“Yeah.” She’d been wondering about something. “I saw a movie last week with vampires as the bad guys.”
He frowned. “A scary movie?”
“Kind of.” She had a television in her room and couldn’t sleep that night. Her mama didn’t know she’d watched it. “They had big fangs and drank blood.”
“Oh.” Zane rubbed his hands on his jeans.
“Do you have fangs?”
“Yes. Got them last year.” He opened his mouth and his side teeth lowered down. Sharp and white, they could cause a big owie.
“Do they hurt?” She wanted to touch one, but didn’t think Zane would like her fingers in his mouth.
“No.” The teeth went back into his mouth. “Though it took a while to get used to them. I kept cutting my lip.” He grinned.
Janie snorted. “That’s funny. But you drink blood, right?” Yuck.
He shrugged. “Well, humans need blood when they get hurt, and you give them that with needles. So yeah, when we are injured and need blood, we just get it faster because we can use our fangs.”
“In the movie, the vampires needed blood to live ’cause they couldn’t make their own. So they fed on people.”
“Don’t believe movies, Janie. We make our own blood, as do you. Though, our blood will heal a human because of the extra stuff in it.” Zane stood, holding down a hand to help her up. “I need to go right now, and it may be a while until I have a chance to fully sleep and dream. For some reason, it takes me longer to get into this world than it does you.”
Janie pushed her lip out. “You’ll be back, right?”
“I will. For now, my brothers need help, and my mother is worried. I need to take care of them.”
Janie nodded, standing and squeezing his hand. “You’re my best friend, Zane. Forever.” In fact, someday they were going to save the world. Probably. Well, if things went the right way in life.
“You’re my best friend too, Janie Belle.” He’d given her the name the first time they met, saying “Janet Isabella” sounded too grown up for his new buddy. “No matter what happens, remember that, okay?” He blocked out the dream sun, and she fought a shiver. It was good they were on the same side.
“I’ll remember.” She let him go, watching him walk down the purple grass until disappearing.
A tickle made her neck itch. She sighed. It had been at least six months since Kalin tried to get into her dreams. Kalin was a Kurjan, a bad boy, and someday he and Zane were gonna fight. She wanted them all to be friends. A nice girl would try hard to be Kalin’s friend.
She let him inside her dream.
He’d gotten even taller. She tilted her head, letting him walk across the grass toward her. The Kurjans had pasty white skin, either purple or red eyes, and reddish or black-red hair. But Kalin’s eyes were green, his skin not totally pasty, and his hair black with red tips. Usually.
She waited until he got closer. “What happened to your hair?” It was all black with no red. It matched his lips and ... yep. His fingernails. “You look like one of those scary people on the grownup channel.”
He smiled, flashing sharp teeth. “Yeah. I dyed my hair.” As he came closer, the smell of salty ocean came with him. Weird that she never smelled Zane in a dream. He probably smelled like something really good.
Kalin shrugged. “Yeah. It’s pissing my people off.”
“Huh.” Janie shuffled her feet. “You said pissing.” Bad boys said bad words. Though for some reason, the black lipstick made him seem less scary than last time.
“Um. Sorry.” He dropped right where Zane had sat. “How are things?”