Chapter One
I sighed as my house came into sight. Well, it wasn’t my house. It was technically someone else’s house, and I was just squatting, but since the human population had been decimated and was now roughly an eighth of what it had been six months ago, chances are good that the actual owners of the house were dead. I knew it was risky staying in one place, but I needed a bit of a break from the constant moving.
I’d been at this house for a week. It was a small house in Priest River, which was about fifty-five miles south of where I used to live in Bonners Ferry. The house was isolated and, for now, safe. Safe enough that I could actually sleep at night. Granted I had all the doors and windows boarded up, but at least I could rest.
I walked onto the porch and paused to stretch out my back. Who knew chopping someone’s head off would use so many different muscles? I needed a shower, some food, and then I was going to fall into bed.
After my sister Annie was taken by vampires and Walt had died, I sought out anyone who would help me learn to fight. I didn’t find anyone, but I did find a library. Walt’s words rang in my ears that I was stronger than I thought I was. At the time, I didn’t think I was going to survive. But I had. I was still surviving, and I planned to do so until I found my sister. Dead or alive, I made a vow to find her, and that was what kept me going.
I learned to use a knife. I even committed my very first crime by breaking into a store and procuring myself a machete. It was sharp and I kept it strapped to my thigh. I never went anywhere without it. Tonight, was the first time I used it for its intended purpose. Tonight, I’d killed a vampire. It felt good and terrifying and really gross. I had blood in places I didn’t want to think about.
I was hoping the vampire I’d been tracking would be the scarred one who took my sister, or even the one with part of his head missing from Walt’s bullet. The one who had killed Walt. But luck wasn’t on my side. The one I tracked didn’t have any scars, but he did give me a lead of where I might find the ugly scarred SOB. He said there was a nest in downtown Coeur d’Alene and that most of the humans taken were down there. That was where I was headed next. Cd’A was about forty-five miles south.
I pulled off the string I kept across the door. It was small, but unless you knew it was there, you wouldn’t see it and wouldn’t know to put it back in place. It let me know that no one had opened the door since I’d left ten hours ago.
Turning the knob, I pushed the door open. I was hit with a blast of musty, stale air. I wasn’t about to take the time to clean the place even if the thought of sleeping in a bed dressed in sheets that someone else slept in gave me the willies. Before, I would be too grossed out to even consider sleeping in a bed that someone possibly died in. I did throw away the quilt that was on the bed when I first got here. It was covered in some unknown substance. I’d found a fresh quilt and since the brown goo hadn’t seeped through to the sheets, I put forth minimal effort.
“Fred! I’m home,” I called out. When I “moved in” to my current abode, it came with an added feature. A rat. First time I saw it, I screamed and ran back outside. Then, I chastised myself for being so stupid. I went back in and told the rat it was being evicted and tossed it out by its tail.
During the first night, though, I’d heard sounds coming from the kitchen. I pulled my machete from its holster and crept out into the dark room only to find the rat had not only ignored my eviction notice, it decided to eat the food I was saving for breakfast.
One of the first things the lycans did when they got here was eradicate most of the animals. Domesticated animals were the easiest to defeat and were the first to go. Then, they cleared out the zoos, and finally they hunted down and killed most, if not all, the animals in the wild. I assumed they were eliminating their competition.
Some animals remained, but they were few and far between. I hadn’t seen a dog or cat in almost six months. I figured if this little rat had managed to survive the onslaught of the lycans, it deserved to stay. I named him Fred, though I had no idea if he was in fact a he or a she. Since he didn’t protest the name, I figured we were good.
The little rat came scurrying out and over to me. I guess he figured I was his meal ticket. And he’d be right. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a pack of cheese crackers I’d found in a dumpster. I opened it and pulled one out and broke off a piece. Fred took the snack and scurried away. I stuffed the rest back in my pocket.
I slugged off the backpack and flopped it into a chair. I looked down at it. It had been one of Walt’s backpacks. He’d had two. One for food and one for supplies. I wasn’t strong enough to carry both so I consolidated the contents of both the best I could and took the one that was most comfortable.
Guilt ate at me when I thought of Walt. Guilt and regret. Guilt because he’d died trying to save me and Annie from the vamps. Regret because I’d been too timid to act on the attraction I’d had for him. Granted, we’d been on the run and the opportunities to talk alone with him were few, but I regret not telling him how I felt sooner. Now he was dead, and I’d never get the chance.
I allowed myself a few moments to sit there with my memories before I felt the pull of my muscles. My arms hurt. I needed to take a shower. Most places still had gas but the reserves that were stored at the power plant were going to run out soon. Fortunately, there weren’t too many humans who were free and moving about. Most were either captured or killed. At least in this part of the country. I don’t know about anywhere else since there was no television or radio. This war could be isolated to Idaho or just the United States for all I knew, but I had a suspicion the devastation was global.
As was habit, the shower was quick, though I did have the luxury of the shampoo and soap the previous owners used. I also happen to luck out that the woman who had lived here wasn’t too far from my size, and I had a closet of clean clothes to pick from.
But that was all about to change. I would sleep comfortably tonight, but tomorrow, I was going to pack and set off for Coeur d’Alene. I’d pack as much as I could carry and would have to scavenge for the necessities once the supplies ran out. I could afford the space of one change of clothes. The rest I needed for food and supplies.
I ran the comb through my damp hair as I looked at my reflection in the mirror. I looked older than twenty-three. My blue eyes looked dull and my skin pale. I was probably lacking on specific vitamins since I ate what I could to fill my belly, not what was nutritious. I did make a point to brush my teeth, though. The last thing I wanted was for my teeth to fall out from gum disease. Once that was done, I exited the bathroom and walked over to the bedroom.
The windows were boarded up, but I still refused to turn any form of light on at night. A vamp or lycan could probably see the light of a flashlight or oil lamp a mile away. My eyes were getting better at seeing in the dark. I pulled back the quilt and was asleep almost as fast as my head hit the pillow.
I was dreaming. I was back when my sister and I were kids. I’d loved to paint from an early age and was so grateful to my mother who encouraged my creativity despite the devastating mess she had to clean up nearly every day. I was dreaming of the day my sister joined me painting. We sat next to one another at the table and decided to make up a story of what it was like to be inside our respective paintings.
My painting had been of a rainbow. It was a scene with a brilliant sun shining down as the lone cloud spat out the rain that allowed the sunlight to reflect off the water and create the magical rainbow. I imagined Annie and I were birds flying through the colors. We were laughing without a care in the world besides what mom was going to make us to eat for lunch.
I was just about to tell my sister my story in my dream when I sensed a presence that wasn’t supposed to be there. It was an eerie sensation. I’d heard about lucid dreaming, but until now I’d never been aware when I was dreaming. But I was aware now. I knew I was dreaming, and I knew there was someone in my dream who didn’t belong there.
“Hello?” I called out. My voice was no longer that of the eight-year-old I’d been when Annie and I had been painting. I was like I was now. “Who’s there?”
I saw a flash of light and felt a presence before I heard the sound inside my head. “Greetings.”
The voice was male. It was deep and accented like nothing I’d ever heard before. I turned to look around, but I was the only one there.
“Who are you?”
“I am Matthias the Blue.”
“Okay, Matthias the Blue.” I looked straight ahead but couldn’t see anything. All I saw was the field and the rainbow that was, for some reason, still there. “Why can’t I see you?”
There was a flash of light directly in front of me, and I thought I caught the image of a large man before the flash went away. The light was weird. It made him look as blue as his name suggested.
“It requires a great quantity of energy to be seen unless I have an anchor in your world.”
I was a painter and could create abstract images on a canvas that only I could see inside my head, but never before had I experienced anything like this where my brain decided to create a person, complete with a voice and a name.
“I think I need to wake up,” I muttered.
“I wish a word with you before you go.”
“You’ve already said like thirty words,” I said jokingly. When there was no response, I looked around, but I was the only one there that I could see.
“Fine. Why are you here?”
“It is the only way I can interact with your species from where I exist.”
“My species? Where are you from?”
“I exist in the dimension of light.”
“Wow, that’s more than I think I’m capable of making up.”
“I assure you I am very real.”
“Okay, Matthias the Blue, why are you in my dream?”
“I have been searching for just the right human for a very long time.”
“There aren’t too many of us humans left. I wouldn’t think it would take that long.”
“I do not just need any human. I need a specific human.”
“And I suppose I meet your requirements?”
“Quite. You are, in fact, my perfect match.”
“First time a guy says that to me, he’s invisible and from another dimension,” I said laughing at the irony. “So, what makes me so perfect?” This was a cool dream, but it felt too much like reality. I wanted to go back to being a kid and painting with my sister.
“You dream in color, you have a warrior’s aura, and you have an innocent heart.”
I busted out laughing. “Dude, you definitely have the wrong person. I haven’t been innocent since I was sixteen.”
“I did not say pure of body. I said innocent of heart.”
“Nope,” I said, cutting him off. “That’s not right, either. Look, this has been entertaining, a little, but I’m going to let you just mosey your way out of my dream, so I can get back to what I actually want to dream about.”
“I have been in your dreams for a while, Ashley Blume.”
That gave me pause. A shiver went up my spine. “How do you know my name?”
“You can tell a great deal about someone by their dream.”
The trepidation that had filled me when he said my name was now replaced with anger. How dare he invade my dreams! They were mine! The one place I still had that wasn’t corrupted with the filth that I had to deal with every day. The one place I could still be me.
“We’re done here,” I announced with as much finality as I was able to muster. Matthias’ presence unnerved me.
“Ashley, please just listen to my proposal.”
I looked around and felt a tad foolish for talking to nothing. He claimed he was right in front of me and so that was where I focused my energy. “I don’t want to hear anything you have to say. Now, get out of my head, or I’ll wake up and make you go away.”
“Ashley,” he tried again.
“What?”
“I can help you find your sister.”
My anger had begun to recede but now it surfaced again. “You’re a vampire, aren’t you? You’re that scarred piece of crap that took Annie, and now you’re trying to get to me with some vampire mind trick.”
I had the image pop into my head of the first Star Wars movie where Obi-wan Kinobe used his Jedi powers on the stormtroopers to avert detection. I could just imagine myself waving my hand in front of this guy’s face saying, ‘I’m not the Ashley you’re looking for.’
“Both vampires and lycanthropes are vile creatures of the darkness. They are the enemies of my race.”
“Yeah? And what race is that?”
“I am a light elemental.”
“News flash. Light isn’t an element.”
“Maybe not where you are from, but I can assure you, I am an elemental being made of light. That is why you cannot see me.”
“But I can see light.”
“What you can see is fragmented light reflected off the surface of objects. I am made of pure light.”
“Whatever. Why am I still talking to you? I thought I told you to leave.”
“Yes, but then you accused me of being a vampire and I simply could not stand for you to think so poorly of me.”
I sighed. “If you’re not a vampire, how do you know they took my sister?”
“I did not until you confirmed it. I just know from your thoughts that she is missing, and that you want desperately to find her.” When I didn’t say anything, he pressed. “I am not a vampire, Ashley, nor am I responsible for your sister’s abduction. I simply need your help to solidify in your dimension.”
“Why do you want to be over here?”
“I am looking for someone.”
“Can’t you just find this person in their dream?”
“It is not that easy.”
“Why not?”
“Because the person I seek is a powerful witch. She can guard her mind so beings like me cannot get in.”
“Yeah? What’s her name? Maybe I can talk to her and learn her secret so I can dream in private.”
Matthias sighed. “You are an incredibly frustrating and stubborn female.”
“I’m being nice right now. You don’t want to mess with me when I’m trying to be difficult.”
He sighed again. “I am sorry you do not trust me, but my intentions are pure.”
“Nobody’s intentions are pure anymore.”
There was a pause. “Is your world truly that bad?”
I snorted. “The vamps and lycans have all but annihilated us humans. They’ve set up camps to keep humans that they intend to breed for food. Those of us not in the camps are being hunted down and eliminated.”
“Despicable beings.”
That was the first indication I got that he was being honest in telling me vamps and lycans were his enemies. He sounded genuinely disgusted and that softened my resolve to tell him to go take a flying leap off a cliff. What if he could help me find Annie? Could I really afford to let an opportunity pass by? But what if he was worse? Better the devil you know, as they say.
“I can help you, Ashley.”
“How?”
“I can be an ally to help in your fight against the beings of darkness. I despise vampires and lycanthropes and have been battling them for a long time. I will help you find your sister.”
“What’s in it for you?”
“All I ask in return is that you allow me to anchor myself to you so I can solidify in your dimension.”
“What does that mean, anchor yourself to me?”
“I have a spell I can cast that will bind us.”
“That doesn’t help me understand.”
“We will be bound for the duration of my stay in your realm.”
“How long are you planning to be here?”
“Long enough for me to find the witch and to make good on my vow to you.”
“What happens when the spell ends?”
“We will be unbound. I will go back to my realm, and you will remain in yours.”
“Will it hurt?”
“Not the process, but we will be bound. If we test those boundaries, there could be devastating consequences.”
“Like what?”
Matthias sighed. “We will need to stay close together that is all I know. I do not know how else it will affect you. None of my kind has ever been anchored to a human.”
“Then why are you doing it now?”
“I have been given a task, and that task must be done in your realm. Will you allow the anchor?”
“What if I say no? Will you just do it anyway?”
“I can only bind myself to a willing anchor.”
I never did anything spontaneously. Not even when I was a child. I always had to think of every angle before I could settle on a decision. “Will it put me in danger?”
There was a pause. “No more so than you are already in.”
“I’ll think about it.”
“That is all I can ask. I will retreat now.”
“How do I let you know my decision?”
“I can cast the spell at any time.”
“Do I have to be asleep?”
“No. If you call out, I will hear you. I have been with you for a while. You just could never see or hear me.”
That was a creepy thought to know there’s been some invisible light elemental following me around watching. I thought back over the past several days to see if I should be embarrassed about something. I couldn’t think of anything.
“Okay. I’ll let you know.”
“Enjoy the rest of your dream, Ashley.”
The way he said my name sent a shiver down my spine for some reason. I didn’t even know what he looked like, but his voice was noble and kind of sexy.
I sensed him leave and was left with this inexplicable feeling of loneliness. It had just been me for two months. Ever since Annie was taken and Walt was killed, I didn’t trust anyone else enough to stay with. In this world, it was everyone for herself. If the vamps or lycans didn’t kill you, the filthy conditions would, or else it would be the lack of food or water, or even the other humans who were just trying to stay alive. It had become a dystopian society where it was truly survival of the fittest.
I’d been at this house for a week. It was a small house in Priest River, which was about fifty-five miles south of where I used to live in Bonners Ferry. The house was isolated and, for now, safe. Safe enough that I could actually sleep at night. Granted I had all the doors and windows boarded up, but at least I could rest.
I walked onto the porch and paused to stretch out my back. Who knew chopping someone’s head off would use so many different muscles? I needed a shower, some food, and then I was going to fall into bed.
After my sister Annie was taken by vampires and Walt had died, I sought out anyone who would help me learn to fight. I didn’t find anyone, but I did find a library. Walt’s words rang in my ears that I was stronger than I thought I was. At the time, I didn’t think I was going to survive. But I had. I was still surviving, and I planned to do so until I found my sister. Dead or alive, I made a vow to find her, and that was what kept me going.
I learned to use a knife. I even committed my very first crime by breaking into a store and procuring myself a machete. It was sharp and I kept it strapped to my thigh. I never went anywhere without it. Tonight, was the first time I used it for its intended purpose. Tonight, I’d killed a vampire. It felt good and terrifying and really gross. I had blood in places I didn’t want to think about.
I was hoping the vampire I’d been tracking would be the scarred one who took my sister, or even the one with part of his head missing from Walt’s bullet. The one who had killed Walt. But luck wasn’t on my side. The one I tracked didn’t have any scars, but he did give me a lead of where I might find the ugly scarred SOB. He said there was a nest in downtown Coeur d’Alene and that most of the humans taken were down there. That was where I was headed next. Cd’A was about forty-five miles south.
I pulled off the string I kept across the door. It was small, but unless you knew it was there, you wouldn’t see it and wouldn’t know to put it back in place. It let me know that no one had opened the door since I’d left ten hours ago.
Turning the knob, I pushed the door open. I was hit with a blast of musty, stale air. I wasn’t about to take the time to clean the place even if the thought of sleeping in a bed dressed in sheets that someone else slept in gave me the willies. Before, I would be too grossed out to even consider sleeping in a bed that someone possibly died in. I did throw away the quilt that was on the bed when I first got here. It was covered in some unknown substance. I’d found a fresh quilt and since the brown goo hadn’t seeped through to the sheets, I put forth minimal effort.
“Fred! I’m home,” I called out. When I “moved in” to my current abode, it came with an added feature. A rat. First time I saw it, I screamed and ran back outside. Then, I chastised myself for being so stupid. I went back in and told the rat it was being evicted and tossed it out by its tail.
During the first night, though, I’d heard sounds coming from the kitchen. I pulled my machete from its holster and crept out into the dark room only to find the rat had not only ignored my eviction notice, it decided to eat the food I was saving for breakfast.
One of the first things the lycans did when they got here was eradicate most of the animals. Domesticated animals were the easiest to defeat and were the first to go. Then, they cleared out the zoos, and finally they hunted down and killed most, if not all, the animals in the wild. I assumed they were eliminating their competition.
Some animals remained, but they were few and far between. I hadn’t seen a dog or cat in almost six months. I figured if this little rat had managed to survive the onslaught of the lycans, it deserved to stay. I named him Fred, though I had no idea if he was in fact a he or a she. Since he didn’t protest the name, I figured we were good.
The little rat came scurrying out and over to me. I guess he figured I was his meal ticket. And he’d be right. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a pack of cheese crackers I’d found in a dumpster. I opened it and pulled one out and broke off a piece. Fred took the snack and scurried away. I stuffed the rest back in my pocket.
I slugged off the backpack and flopped it into a chair. I looked down at it. It had been one of Walt’s backpacks. He’d had two. One for food and one for supplies. I wasn’t strong enough to carry both so I consolidated the contents of both the best I could and took the one that was most comfortable.
Guilt ate at me when I thought of Walt. Guilt and regret. Guilt because he’d died trying to save me and Annie from the vamps. Regret because I’d been too timid to act on the attraction I’d had for him. Granted, we’d been on the run and the opportunities to talk alone with him were few, but I regret not telling him how I felt sooner. Now he was dead, and I’d never get the chance.
I allowed myself a few moments to sit there with my memories before I felt the pull of my muscles. My arms hurt. I needed to take a shower. Most places still had gas but the reserves that were stored at the power plant were going to run out soon. Fortunately, there weren’t too many humans who were free and moving about. Most were either captured or killed. At least in this part of the country. I don’t know about anywhere else since there was no television or radio. This war could be isolated to Idaho or just the United States for all I knew, but I had a suspicion the devastation was global.
As was habit, the shower was quick, though I did have the luxury of the shampoo and soap the previous owners used. I also happen to luck out that the woman who had lived here wasn’t too far from my size, and I had a closet of clean clothes to pick from.
But that was all about to change. I would sleep comfortably tonight, but tomorrow, I was going to pack and set off for Coeur d’Alene. I’d pack as much as I could carry and would have to scavenge for the necessities once the supplies ran out. I could afford the space of one change of clothes. The rest I needed for food and supplies.
I ran the comb through my damp hair as I looked at my reflection in the mirror. I looked older than twenty-three. My blue eyes looked dull and my skin pale. I was probably lacking on specific vitamins since I ate what I could to fill my belly, not what was nutritious. I did make a point to brush my teeth, though. The last thing I wanted was for my teeth to fall out from gum disease. Once that was done, I exited the bathroom and walked over to the bedroom.
The windows were boarded up, but I still refused to turn any form of light on at night. A vamp or lycan could probably see the light of a flashlight or oil lamp a mile away. My eyes were getting better at seeing in the dark. I pulled back the quilt and was asleep almost as fast as my head hit the pillow.
I was dreaming. I was back when my sister and I were kids. I’d loved to paint from an early age and was so grateful to my mother who encouraged my creativity despite the devastating mess she had to clean up nearly every day. I was dreaming of the day my sister joined me painting. We sat next to one another at the table and decided to make up a story of what it was like to be inside our respective paintings.
My painting had been of a rainbow. It was a scene with a brilliant sun shining down as the lone cloud spat out the rain that allowed the sunlight to reflect off the water and create the magical rainbow. I imagined Annie and I were birds flying through the colors. We were laughing without a care in the world besides what mom was going to make us to eat for lunch.
I was just about to tell my sister my story in my dream when I sensed a presence that wasn’t supposed to be there. It was an eerie sensation. I’d heard about lucid dreaming, but until now I’d never been aware when I was dreaming. But I was aware now. I knew I was dreaming, and I knew there was someone in my dream who didn’t belong there.
“Hello?” I called out. My voice was no longer that of the eight-year-old I’d been when Annie and I had been painting. I was like I was now. “Who’s there?”
I saw a flash of light and felt a presence before I heard the sound inside my head. “Greetings.”
The voice was male. It was deep and accented like nothing I’d ever heard before. I turned to look around, but I was the only one there.
“Who are you?”
“I am Matthias the Blue.”
“Okay, Matthias the Blue.” I looked straight ahead but couldn’t see anything. All I saw was the field and the rainbow that was, for some reason, still there. “Why can’t I see you?”
There was a flash of light directly in front of me, and I thought I caught the image of a large man before the flash went away. The light was weird. It made him look as blue as his name suggested.
“It requires a great quantity of energy to be seen unless I have an anchor in your world.”
I was a painter and could create abstract images on a canvas that only I could see inside my head, but never before had I experienced anything like this where my brain decided to create a person, complete with a voice and a name.
“I think I need to wake up,” I muttered.
“I wish a word with you before you go.”
“You’ve already said like thirty words,” I said jokingly. When there was no response, I looked around, but I was the only one there that I could see.
“Fine. Why are you here?”
“It is the only way I can interact with your species from where I exist.”
“My species? Where are you from?”
“I exist in the dimension of light.”
“Wow, that’s more than I think I’m capable of making up.”
“I assure you I am very real.”
“Okay, Matthias the Blue, why are you in my dream?”
“I have been searching for just the right human for a very long time.”
“There aren’t too many of us humans left. I wouldn’t think it would take that long.”
“I do not just need any human. I need a specific human.”
“And I suppose I meet your requirements?”
“Quite. You are, in fact, my perfect match.”
“First time a guy says that to me, he’s invisible and from another dimension,” I said laughing at the irony. “So, what makes me so perfect?” This was a cool dream, but it felt too much like reality. I wanted to go back to being a kid and painting with my sister.
“You dream in color, you have a warrior’s aura, and you have an innocent heart.”
I busted out laughing. “Dude, you definitely have the wrong person. I haven’t been innocent since I was sixteen.”
“I did not say pure of body. I said innocent of heart.”
“Nope,” I said, cutting him off. “That’s not right, either. Look, this has been entertaining, a little, but I’m going to let you just mosey your way out of my dream, so I can get back to what I actually want to dream about.”
“I have been in your dreams for a while, Ashley Blume.”
That gave me pause. A shiver went up my spine. “How do you know my name?”
“You can tell a great deal about someone by their dream.”
The trepidation that had filled me when he said my name was now replaced with anger. How dare he invade my dreams! They were mine! The one place I still had that wasn’t corrupted with the filth that I had to deal with every day. The one place I could still be me.
“We’re done here,” I announced with as much finality as I was able to muster. Matthias’ presence unnerved me.
“Ashley, please just listen to my proposal.”
I looked around and felt a tad foolish for talking to nothing. He claimed he was right in front of me and so that was where I focused my energy. “I don’t want to hear anything you have to say. Now, get out of my head, or I’ll wake up and make you go away.”
“Ashley,” he tried again.
“What?”
“I can help you find your sister.”
My anger had begun to recede but now it surfaced again. “You’re a vampire, aren’t you? You’re that scarred piece of crap that took Annie, and now you’re trying to get to me with some vampire mind trick.”
I had the image pop into my head of the first Star Wars movie where Obi-wan Kinobe used his Jedi powers on the stormtroopers to avert detection. I could just imagine myself waving my hand in front of this guy’s face saying, ‘I’m not the Ashley you’re looking for.’
“Both vampires and lycanthropes are vile creatures of the darkness. They are the enemies of my race.”
“Yeah? And what race is that?”
“I am a light elemental.”
“News flash. Light isn’t an element.”
“Maybe not where you are from, but I can assure you, I am an elemental being made of light. That is why you cannot see me.”
“But I can see light.”
“What you can see is fragmented light reflected off the surface of objects. I am made of pure light.”
“Whatever. Why am I still talking to you? I thought I told you to leave.”
“Yes, but then you accused me of being a vampire and I simply could not stand for you to think so poorly of me.”
I sighed. “If you’re not a vampire, how do you know they took my sister?”
“I did not until you confirmed it. I just know from your thoughts that she is missing, and that you want desperately to find her.” When I didn’t say anything, he pressed. “I am not a vampire, Ashley, nor am I responsible for your sister’s abduction. I simply need your help to solidify in your dimension.”
“Why do you want to be over here?”
“I am looking for someone.”
“Can’t you just find this person in their dream?”
“It is not that easy.”
“Why not?”
“Because the person I seek is a powerful witch. She can guard her mind so beings like me cannot get in.”
“Yeah? What’s her name? Maybe I can talk to her and learn her secret so I can dream in private.”
Matthias sighed. “You are an incredibly frustrating and stubborn female.”
“I’m being nice right now. You don’t want to mess with me when I’m trying to be difficult.”
He sighed again. “I am sorry you do not trust me, but my intentions are pure.”
“Nobody’s intentions are pure anymore.”
There was a pause. “Is your world truly that bad?”
I snorted. “The vamps and lycans have all but annihilated us humans. They’ve set up camps to keep humans that they intend to breed for food. Those of us not in the camps are being hunted down and eliminated.”
“Despicable beings.”
That was the first indication I got that he was being honest in telling me vamps and lycans were his enemies. He sounded genuinely disgusted and that softened my resolve to tell him to go take a flying leap off a cliff. What if he could help me find Annie? Could I really afford to let an opportunity pass by? But what if he was worse? Better the devil you know, as they say.
“I can help you, Ashley.”
“How?”
“I can be an ally to help in your fight against the beings of darkness. I despise vampires and lycanthropes and have been battling them for a long time. I will help you find your sister.”
“What’s in it for you?”
“All I ask in return is that you allow me to anchor myself to you so I can solidify in your dimension.”
“What does that mean, anchor yourself to me?”
“I have a spell I can cast that will bind us.”
“That doesn’t help me understand.”
“We will be bound for the duration of my stay in your realm.”
“How long are you planning to be here?”
“Long enough for me to find the witch and to make good on my vow to you.”
“What happens when the spell ends?”
“We will be unbound. I will go back to my realm, and you will remain in yours.”
“Will it hurt?”
“Not the process, but we will be bound. If we test those boundaries, there could be devastating consequences.”
“Like what?”
Matthias sighed. “We will need to stay close together that is all I know. I do not know how else it will affect you. None of my kind has ever been anchored to a human.”
“Then why are you doing it now?”
“I have been given a task, and that task must be done in your realm. Will you allow the anchor?”
“What if I say no? Will you just do it anyway?”
“I can only bind myself to a willing anchor.”
I never did anything spontaneously. Not even when I was a child. I always had to think of every angle before I could settle on a decision. “Will it put me in danger?”
There was a pause. “No more so than you are already in.”
“I’ll think about it.”
“That is all I can ask. I will retreat now.”
“How do I let you know my decision?”
“I can cast the spell at any time.”
“Do I have to be asleep?”
“No. If you call out, I will hear you. I have been with you for a while. You just could never see or hear me.”
That was a creepy thought to know there’s been some invisible light elemental following me around watching. I thought back over the past several days to see if I should be embarrassed about something. I couldn’t think of anything.
“Okay. I’ll let you know.”
“Enjoy the rest of your dream, Ashley.”
The way he said my name sent a shiver down my spine for some reason. I didn’t even know what he looked like, but his voice was noble and kind of sexy.
I sensed him leave and was left with this inexplicable feeling of loneliness. It had just been me for two months. Ever since Annie was taken and Walt was killed, I didn’t trust anyone else enough to stay with. In this world, it was everyone for herself. If the vamps or lycans didn’t kill you, the filthy conditions would, or else it would be the lack of food or water, or even the other humans who were just trying to stay alive. It had become a dystopian society where it was truly survival of the fittest.
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