Infernal Father of Mine (10 page)

Unless
. "The Gloom is dreamland," I
said, not quite phrasing it as a question.

"I don't know if that's completely accurate,"
David said. He pursed his lips. "When the tire hit you in the back,
it obviously injured you. That would suggest a physical
representation of a dream."

"I couldn't move the car," I said. "I couldn't
even budge it."

"Perhaps the representation of the dream was
immutable."

"Maybe people's brainwaves recreate their
dreams here," I said.

David tilted his head, as though listening for
something. "A moment ago, we were surrounded by minders. Now
they're gone."

"I noticed that too," I said, embellishing my
situational awareness a bit since I hadn't even realized we were
surrounded in the first place, thanks to my futile heroics. I
snapped my fingers as a light bulb flickered on in my brain.
"Minders feed off dreams. The dream attracted them
here."

"Very likely," he said.

"Maybe that guy lives in one of these houses.
Maybe his dream caused the minders to create his dream in the
Gloom." It seemed too fantastical to be true. Then again, so did
most things when it came to magic.

"It's possible," David said. "It also brings up
a troubling idea."

I already had dozens of troubling ideas running
through my noggin.

He furrowed his brow. "It was still daytime or
early evening when they banished us here. Most people in Atlanta
are still awake. I wonder what will happen when everyone goes to
sleep."

"Oh crap," I said. "This place is going to be
nightmare central."

"I don't know if the physical representations
of the dreams can kill us and I don't want to find out." David's
flippant attitude was gone, replaced with a far more concerned
façade.

"Glad to see you're taking the situation
seriously for once." I bit the inside of my lower lip.

He crossed his arms. "The minders showed up
just before the nightmare."

"They're probably attracted to dreams like
flies."

"If we sense them gathering, we'll need to be
careful." David ran a hand through his hair. "It might mean another
dream is forming."

"How are we—" I cursed and jumped back as a man
on a skateboard whizzed out of the fog. The skateboard wheel hit a
rock and threw him off. He yelped and vanished just before hitting
the ground.

"I hate those kinds of dreams," David said,
looking at the spot from which man and skateboard had
disappeared.

My heart still raced. I didn't like surprises
like that. "I'm going to drop dead of a heart attack if this keeps
up."

David tilted his head again. "I detect one
minder, but not as many as the last nightmare."

Using my own probes, I confirmed his
assessment. "Quick dreams are probably appetizers," I said.
"Nightmare brides and trains, on the other hand, seem like the main
courses."

His lips pressed together. "I
agree."

"We need to get to the Grotto, fast." I tried
not to think about Mom and Ivy and the danger they might be in.
"Have you sensed those men who were coming to get us at the
church?"

He shook his head. "No. Unless they have a way
to track us, I doubt they're anywhere nearby."

Something brushed against my senses, raising
the hairs on my neck. Closing my eyes, I let my incubus probes
wander the fog around me. More and more alien presences swept past,
as if rushing toward a specific goal. I felt my face contort with
each close call.

"Something is about to happen," David
said.

"We should get a move on." I started walking.
"I don't want to get sucked into another nightmare."

"Agreed."

A cluster of minders floated past us, their
trailing tentacles entwining with others. The brain-like shape of
their bodies glommed onto one another, almost as if they weren't
entirely corporeal. Each passing sent vibrations into my incubus
senses even though I had them turned on low. I was afraid to
completely turn off my demonic awareness for fear I wouldn't be
able to reactivate it.

"I think I'm gonna be sick," I said as
uneasiness morphed into nausea.

"Close off your senses," David said. "Don't
keep them bared like that."

I'd feel blind without them to guide me, but it
was better than barfing. Hopefully, I'd be able to turn them back
on later. With great reluctance, I flicked them off. The
yuck-factor all but vanished from my guts. We walked forward a few
more steps and entered clear air. I jerked to a halt. A shimmering
starlit tapestry painted the night horizon. The Atlanta skyline
sparkled in the distance. Hope surged in my chest but died within
seconds as my eyes found a swarming mass of minders sweeping up and
down the streets like ghastly flocks of birds. The creatures glided
down the roads toward the center of town. Even as they did, a wave
of their comrades rushed past them in the opposite
direction.

"They're coming right at us," I said in alarm.
And they were—a wall of cloudy gray forms with wildly waving
tentacles beneath. I stop, dropped, and rolled just as the minders
swooped past. Numbing cold traced along my skin as their
translucent tentacles brushed me.

Elyssa straddles me, fangs bared,
and presses a cold blade against my throat. I feel warm liquid
running down my neck. She leans close.

"You're a monster. You almost
fooled me."

"Elyssa, I love you," I say in a
wheezing voice.

She leans down and whispers in my
ear. "I am your dark light. I will be with you at the
end."

I am suddenly in a room with a
table. Bookshelves surround me. A man sits in a chair across from
me. He is muscular but otherwise looks quite ordinary.

"Good day, Mr. Slade." A slow smile
spreads across his face. "You have passed the test. Your father is
released from the death sentence."

"Underborn." Anger fills my voice.
"You threatened to kill my father just to see if I could pass a
stupid test?"

I hear a roar and spin around.
Vadaemos Slade manifests into demon form and lunges for me. I dodge
a clawed swipe that would have removed my head. Before I can
manifest, he grips me by the neck and slams me to unforgiving
asphalt. A battle rages around me. Monstrous moggies—Stacey's
mutant cat friends—yowl as they trade blows with Vadaemos's
hellhounds. Templars fight hellhound claws and teeth with
swords.

It doesn't matter. I am about to
die.

I squeeze my eyes and wait for the
end.

The pressure on my throat vanishes.
I feel cold metal along my bare back. When my eyes open, I see a
plain concrete ceiling. I try to move, but my arms, legs, and even
head are secured.

"Mine at last," Maximus says. He
walks around me, inspecting me like a prized pig. "With your blood,
I will turn the world into my own vampire nation. I will be the one
in control, not Daelissa."

"Let me go," I say, trying to keep
fear from my voice.

He leans close. Blood-scented
breath reaches my nose. He whispers in my ear. "You are my little
mouse now, boy. You are mine forever." He lunges for my
neck.

I scream. I struggle. All to no
avail. His fangs sink into my skin. Ecstasy and fear flood my
entire being. Maximus rears back, blood—my blood—running down his
face. He laughs, and I know I will never escape.

Ivy looks up at me with big blue
eyes. "I love you, big brother."

I stand in a stone-lined hallway at
Arcane University. Students flow around the two of us in the busy
corridor. "I love you too, sis." I lean down to hug her, but she
vanishes along with the world around me.

A voice speaks in the void. "The
final choice must be made." Images of a burnt world, of a new
world, and of a world rotting like an apple flash before my
eyes.

I blink my eyes open and look into
the blue eyes of my mother as she cradles me in her arms. I try to
speak, but only baby noises emerge.

"Is he truly the one?" Mom
asks.

Another face appears. "He will
serve, and he will die." My father places a hand on Mom's shoulder.
"Don't get too attached, Alysea."

My father leaves. A tear trickles
down my mother's cheek. "I won't let you die, my son." She sings to
me. I recognize the tune but can't remember where I last heard it.
My eyes grow heavy. I cannot keep them open a second
longer.

"Ah!" I shouted and looked wildly around. The
minders had moved beyond us. I saw my father lying on the ground
next to me. His face was absolutely white.

Before I could ask him what he'd seen, he shook
his head. "What a ride."

"A ride?" Those visions had replayed some of
the most emotionally traumatic parts of my life. But what David had
said to my mom about me hurt the worst of all. Had it been a dream,
or memory?

He looked back the way we'd come from. "Looks
like the fog won't be an issue anymore."

I followed his gaze and watched as the line of
minders erased the gray haze. "What the hell is going on?" I asked,
feeling even more perplexed than before.

"I'd really like to know that myself." David
pushed himself off the ground and stood. "On the other hand,
without the fog we can find the Grotto a lot faster."

"Yeah, but those men can find us more easily
too." I regarded him once more, unable to decide if I should ask
what he'd seen.
My own father told Mom I would serve and die. He
told her not to get attached!
The thought made me sick to my
stomach, and I lost all desire to question him. Had it truly been a
memory from my infancy, or just a minder-induced nightmare? I
looked north and pointed. "It's that way."

"Let's go," he said, and took off at a
jog.

I tried to run at a supernatural rate and only
succeeded in tiring myself. "I hate this place. I hate feeling
normal."

A bead of sweat trickled down David's forehead.
"You and me both."

It felt awful to have no super powers.
Considering how dangerous dreams made this place, we'd be hard
pressed to avoid every surprise. "We're doomed."

He smirked. "Since we're already doomed, I
might as well mention we don't have food or water."

That troubling thought hadn't occurred to me.
"There aren't any people to feed from either," I said.

"Yep." His eyes turned back toward the section
of town known as Buckhead where the Grotto sat buried deep
underground beneath a fancy shopping mall. "To top things off, we
have something else to worry about."

"Great, what else?"

"The fog will return." He motioned around us.
"It seems when the mortal world sleeps and dreams, the fog
clears."

"So we have until morning to reach the Grotto,"
I said, trying to judge the distance in my head. "It could take us
hours to walk there." My heart was already hammering from the jog
even though I was in pretty good shape.

"That would be my guess," David said as we
crested a hill. "Somehow, people dreaming or sleeping clears the
fog."

"Don't Arcanes study the Gloom?" I said.
"Wouldn't they know about this kind of stuff?" Before he could
answer, another thought smacked me upside the head. "Harry
Shelton's dad—"

"Jarrod Sager," David said.

I decided not to ask him how he knew the
deceased Arcanus Primus was Shelton's dad. "Yeah, that guy. He was
pushing—"

"The Gloom Initiative," my father interrupted
again without even glancing my way as we trotted down a residential
sidewalk.

I clenched my teeth to hold back a smart
remark. "Surely they know all about this stuff if they were really
studying the Gloom."

"Perhaps. The project was shrouded in secrecy.
Apparently Daelissa thought she could find a way back to Seraphina
through this place—"

"And bring through her army," I said,
interrupting him for the hell of it, though I had nothing
constructive to add. I wondered if she could the initiative was
still active.
Was that why she sent us here?

"Why are you so reluctant to tell me the truth
about you?" I asked, using a tactic Elyssa had applied many a time
when she wanted to catch me off guard with random
question.

"I don't think you're ready for it yet," David
replied.

"I put on my big-boy panties a long time ago,
David
." I glared at him to put extra emphasis on his name.
"You're the one who's been acting like a child. After Mom left us,
you got stinking drunk every night and left me to figure out why I
could suddenly seduce any woman I wanted. Do you know how hard it
was for me to resist abusing that ability? Do you know how close I
came to dying because I didn't have a clue about the Overworld or
Templars, or how most supers regard demon spawn as evil
monsters?"

"I knew all along what you were going through,"
he said nonchalantly.

I almost tripped over my own feet. "You
what?"