Mind Games: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Lillim Callina Chronicles Book 6) (17 page)

“Thes Mercer is trapped in Ancient Egypt,” the girl stated so seriously, I actually believed her. Maybe it was true, maybe it wasn’t, but either way, this girl believed it to be true. “But he can come back from that. That’s not what he needs you for. He needs you for the step after. It’s not the last one, but it’s still a doozy.”

“What?” I asked as my door opened behind me, and the girl vanished without a trace, leaving me staring at an empty spot on the wall.

“Lillim, are you okay? I heard voices,” my father said from the doorway.

“Yeah,” I said, turning in time to see him swing the door wide and step inside my room.

“What happened to your face?” he asked, alarm filling his eyes as he reached out to touch my temple.

“I tripped,” I replied, shrinking back so he wouldn’t touch me although I didn’t know why. Except that was a lie. As I stared into his face, I knew one thing to be true. Getting close to anyone in this world would make it even harder to leave. And I had to leave. Somehow. “I was just going to go clean it up.”

Chapter 20

If someone was to ask me why I was sneaking out of my room in the middle of the night following everything that had
just
happened, I’d have no good answer. Honestly, I wasn’t sure. Everything in me screamed for me to do something to escape the clutches of the monster in my head, but at the same time, that was exactly what the deluded mind of a lunatic would say too. Still, I didn’t feel crazy, and while I knew that was also a trademark of insanity, I had to risk it. If I didn’t, well, could I really risk
that
too?

Someone once told me being a hero was doing the right thing at the right time. Everything else was moot. If I didn’t get it right, I’d be just another stepping stone on Jormungand’s path to destruction, but if I got it right, I’d be a hero. And I was a hero, dammit! Or, at least, I tried to be when it mattered. Besides, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I pushed open my bedroom window as slowly as I could, each creak making my breath catch in my throat as I listened for my parents. They’d gone to sleep hours before, leaving me alone in my room. I’d stared at my ceiling for so long the thoughts in my fevered brain had reached a frantic crescendo, urging me to do something, anything. Surely my parents thought I was still tucked firmly in my bed, but if they looked, all they’d find was a bunch of wadded up clothing beneath my Inigo Montoya blanket.

With the window finally open, I adjusted the straps of my backpack and stared out into the night. There wasn’t much inside of it besides a change of clothes, a couple bottles of water, and a few random snacks, but I felt better having it, even though I only planned on going for a short walk to clear my head. With my luck, I’d wind up being gone for days. If that happened, I wanted food available, even if it was made up dream food.

The moon shined down on me as I climbed outside, and I barely resisted the urge to look up at it as it beckoned to me, whispering sweet nothings in my ears. While I wasn’t a werewolf, I’d fought so many supernatural creatures by moonlight, it felt like a constant, steady companion watching over me.

I padded quickly across our backyard toward the gate, hoping it wouldn’t squeak loud enough to awaken my parents as I slowly undid the latch and slipped outside. Once in the clear, I pushed my earbuds into my ears, turned up my music to a frenzied pitch and jogged down the street, a strange mix of songs I couldn’t quite understand spilling into my ears.

It stood to reason that if I was trapped in my own brain, Jormungand would be able to suss me out no matter where I was, assuming of course, I wasn’t being hidden by my ketchup-haired fairy godmother, but I sort of suspected he wasn’t actually keeping a close eye on me. It made more sense for him to let me wander around for the most part, only interfering when something erroneous occurred. At least, that was my theory. It explained why time and place seemed to jump around, and people miraculously showed up following a strange event brought on by my delusions.

The streets were ominously dark as I turned the corner, jogging out onto the poorly lit sidewalk even though I was a teenage girl. I guess it should have scared me more, but I remembered killing the monster under my bed. I wasn’t afraid of the dark. It was supposed to be afraid of me, and it was time the dark remembered that tiny inconvenient fact.

Still, I had no way of knowing where I was going, but somehow, I was pretty sure I’d wind up where I was supposed to be. I couldn’t say why I felt this way exactly, but I did. If I just trusted in my feet, they wouldn’t fail me. Hopefully.

I kept thinking that all the way until the black Subaru blinded me with its headlights before driving up onto the curb and slamming into me. Pain exploded through my body, filling my vision with a red haze as I flew through the air and smacked into the water-damaged wooden fence belonging to the house on my left. I lay there, trying to remember how to breathe as the car’s door opened and a man stepped out.

He was dressed in all black with a trench coat, reminding me of Neo from the Matrix, but his features were too blurry through my haze of agony to actually recognize him. As he approached my fallen body, one thing was clear. He wasn’t all puppies and sunshine. How did I know? People with good intentions don’t usually step out of their car after hitting someone while carrying a knife.

Fear welled up inside me as I tried to move, tried to get my hands and feet under me, but it felt so hard, so impossible to do anything but lay there. My mind swam in a cloud of confusion, so even though I was at wits end, I couldn’t make my body move fast enough for it to matter.

“Hello, little girl, are you out for a jog?” he asked and made a tsking noise. “It’s so late at night. You should be home in bed.” He squatted down next to me, but his face was still hidden in shadow. He reached out, stroking my cheek with one hand and his fingers were colder than ice. “Fortunately, you’re just my type.” His lips stretched into a grin that revealed a mouthful of sharp teeth. It was the only thing visible through the haze. “I think that’s why my brother picked you after all. He wants to tempt me. He knows I can’t resist someone like you.” He dragged his tongue slowly across his lips millimeter by millimeter, and my blood froze in my veins. What was he planning on doing to me?

“Don’t touch me!” I cried, trying to push myself away from him, but only managed to press myself against the boards of the fence. My vision swam as even that tiny effort caused my brain to throb and the blood to pound in my ears.

“Oh, I don’t think that’s an option.” His lips twisted back into his wolfish grin. He reached out with one boney hand and grabbed me by the collar of my Bruins sweatshirt before jerking me forward. Stars flashed across my vision as I flopped forward onto the grass. I tried vainly to get my hands underneath me, but before I could even stop the world from spinning, the cold kiss of his knife pressed against the nape of my neck.

“What are you doing?” I asked, fear lacing my words as I tried to struggle away from the blade.

“I’m trying to decide if I should kill you and save everyone a whole mess of trouble.” His weight settled on my lower back, pinning me there in the grass. “Killing you would solve a lot of problems, but it’s not really the most fun option. Still…”

As he spoke instead of fear filling me, a revelation entered my tiny, distraught brain. If he killed me, I’d be dead. That much was obvious. But if the ketchup girl was correct, all that would happen would be that I woke up. I was basically invincible. Besides, Jormungand wouldn’t craft a scenario to have me killed. He’d want me alive, and if he wanted me alive, something would happen to resolve the situation, or so I hoped. It wasn’t the best plan, but it felt right even though it made my belly clench in fear.

“Is this where you threaten me? Because let me tell you, getting threatened by knife-wielding maniacs gets old. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.” I tried to smirk at him, but since I couldn’t see his face, it was sort of difficult.

“Has anyone ever told you, you’re horribly cliché?” he asked, leaning close to me so his breath chilled my cheek. “It’s not a super endearing quality.” He pressed the blade of the knife into my throat, and I fought the urge to squeak with pain and failed.

“Hey, what can I say, I grew up on cheesy one liners,” I replied through clenched teeth, and even though it might not matter if I died, my heart hammered in my chest from the possibility that I might be gone forever. Despite everything, I still had my doubts. Maybe the ketchup girl was made up and I was just totally crazy.

“Is that so?” he asked before scraping his tongue across the spot where he’d cut me, leaving a slimy, sticky trail of saliva on my flesh. “Mmm. You taste like strawberries in June.” A shiver wracked my body as I tried to squirm away. It wasn’t super effective. “Still, I don’t think you grasp the gravity of the situation. You’re not quite scared enough.” He ran one hand through my hair and his nails scratched at my scalp, not hard enough to hurt, but hard enough to let me know he could hurt me if he felt like it.

“Why should I be scared?” I asked like it wasn’t perfectly obvious given our respective situations.

“No one is coming to save you.” He spun me around so quickly, I wasn’t sure how it’d happened. One moment I was on my stomach, the next, I was on my back with him sitting on my abdomen, his knees pinning my wrists against the cold, wet grass. “Lillim.”

The way he said my name let me know one thing. This wasn’t accidental at all. He was here for me specifically. He had targeted me, but how could that be? Surely, Jormungand wouldn’t be assaulting me. So who would go out of their way to accost me in a dream world? Unless, unless this was real, and I was a hopeless crazy idiot. The thought made me want to scream. If it was true, I was caught in the hands of a madman with no way out.

“That just means no one is coming to save you from me,” I snapped back, trying to ignore the fear slithering up my spine and threatening to wrap around my throat and strangle me. It was a near thing, let me tell you.

He laughed, loud guffaws splitting the night air as he leaned in close to me so his amber eyes gleamed in the moonlight. “You’re spunky. I can see why my younger brother chose you.” He tapped my cheek with the flat silver blade of his knife. “But you cannot beat me, Lillim. Not here and not now.” He smiled, and this time I could make out his skeletal features by the light of the moon.

“Fenris,” I whispered, and my blood went cold. I wasn’t sure how he’d come here, but if this was really him, I was in trouble. I didn’t know the how or why of it, but for him to have invaded my dream world didn’t bode well.

“I thought you might recognize me given enough time.” He shrugged and his long white hair flopped around his face. “I’m something of a rock star after all.”

“I’d ask for an autograph, but I’m a little indisposed at the moment,” I replied, fixing him with my best glare. I knew it couldn’t actually melt steel, but I’d like to think it’d give him a good inner wince.

“I know your bluster is all for show, but even still it’s gotten old.” He pressed his thumb into my forehead and rubbed it around hard enough for pain to shoot through my brain and explode like a firecracker. “Let me lay down some key facts you seem to be missing. You cannot kill me, only a son of Odin, and a very specific one at that, can. You are not him unless you’re hiding some extra assets I’m unaware of.” He grinned at me. “Perhaps I should check.”

His hand snaked down my face, trailing along my flesh and leaving a slimy trail in its wake. Panic filled me as I stared into his eyes and realized a horrible truth. He wanted me, in that way, and right now, he was trying to decide how best to go about it. As dawning filled my eyes, Fenris laughed again, but this time the sound slithered over me, and a shudder I couldn’t help racked my body.

“You wouldn’t dare,” I said, knowing he wanted to dare, knowing he very much would dare, especially if he thought he could get away with it. And he would because there was no one coming to stop him. No one at all. I was all alone. With him. It made me go cold and vacant inside.

“Perhaps.” His palm stopped just above my breast, and he paused, drumming his fingers on my chest. “But here’s the thing. I can do whatever I want, and my idiot brother will never know the difference. He may be in control of your body, but he’s inherited too little of our father’s craft for illusions. Sooner or later, you’ll break out, that much is obvious.” His hand closed over my flesh, and I wanted to kill him with every ounce of my being. “It would be better if I left you on this street broken and unable to resist. It’s what he should have done from the beginning.” He leaned down close to me and pressed his lips against my neck, teeth nipping at my flesh. “I’ll do my best to enjoy it. You should too.”

“Okay,” I said, and my voice sounded hollow and empty. “You’ve made your point.”

“My point?” he asked into my neck, his cold breath making goosebumps sprout on my flesh.

“I’ll be good. Just let me go.” I almost managed to keep the quiver out of my voice. He laughed, and the sound nearly broke me. It was like the scritch, scratch in the night, like the spider crawling down your spine.

“Or I don’t care about you being good, and I huff and puff and blow your house down anyway.” He pulled back and grinned at me as he kneaded my breast. “That was a big bad wolf reference in case you missed it.” He leered at me and licked his lips. “How do you like it, Lillim? Rough? Slow and sensual? However you like, I can oblige you.” I shut my eyes, trying to simultaneously hide from his gaze and ignore his touch, but it did no good. “You don’t know, do you? Well, I can fix that. I’m ready to teach you lots of things little Miss Dragonslayer.”

He stopped groping me and tugged at the hem of my sweatshirt. His hand slid up underneath both that and my t-shirt. The touch of his fingers on my bare stomach, slowly climbing higher and higher broke everything inside me. No. I didn’t care what he was. This was not allowed.

My eyes snapped open as a rage-fueled scream shattered the night. I writhed beneath him, trying to throw him off, and he met my gaze. Power slammed down on me like an anvil, shattering my resolve in an instant and pushing me down. I felt myself falling, slipping away and going limp beneath him as his fingertips slid beneath the edge of my bra.