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I look at Valerian. “He doesn’t need to eat because he gets sustenance from my blood.” I make Pom’s furry bracelet form temporarily show up on my wrist. “In the waking world, he’s a looft.”
Valerian examines Pom with even greater curiosity. “You mean like the para—”
“A symbiont creature that lives on moofts,” I say quickly. The last thing I need is Pom freaking out over the use of the p-word.
Valerian nods sagely, catching on. “That’s what I was about to say.”
I beam at him. “Exactly.”
“And Pom is how you jump into dreams so readily,” Valerian says. “Clever.”
“Yep.” Keeping my tone as casual as I can, I ask, “How did you know?”
Valerian frowns. “A lucky guess.”
Right. Sure. Nothing to do with the forbidden topic of Soma.
“The werewolf.” Valerian looks around. “He’ll show up here when he’s in REM sleep?”
“Yes,” I say and don’t bother adding, “Another very lucky guess?”
“Where would he be?” Valerian examines the sleepers in the nooks around us.
On a hunch, I teleport myself to the floor where the nooks have been empty for a while now.
Yep. “There.” I point at the one where Hans showed up, still in wolf form.
Valerian takes the spiral stairs in the middle of the tower, which probably means he can’t teleport like I do.
“Do you know how this part works?” I ask when he reaches me.
He smiles. “You touch me and him at the same time, then go in.”
More proof he’s known some dreamwalkers—and this time, he’s inadvertently taught me something I’ve never tried. Normally, I’d jump into the dream of person A, come back to the tower of sleepers with said person, then jump into the dream of person B.
If this way works, it will be more efficient.
He closes the distance between us and stands in such a way that I can reach him and the wolf with ease.
My heart rate picks up the pace again, my physical awareness of his proximity as intense as it is in the waking world—only here, there are no germs, and I’m fully in control.
I run my tongue over my lips. “So I can touch you anywhere, right?”
His ocean-blue eyes kindle with dark heat as he leans in. “Actually”—his voice deepens—“there’s a specific way I’d like you to touch me.”
“Pom, sweetie, can you give us some privacy?” I ask, my eyes not leaving those sensual lips just a few inches away. “The thing with the werewolf will be scary anyway.”
“Fine,” Pom huffs and disappears.
Valerian clasps my hand and places it on the werewolf; then, before I can have a coherent thought, he kisses me.
Wow. It must be the knowledge that he can feel the kiss this time that makes this hotter… because it is. More than once, I feel like we’re beginning to float off the ground—a hazard of the dream world.
After what feels like an hour of bliss, he pulls away. “He might leave REM sleep,” he murmurs, gazing down at me with heavy-lidded eyes. “It’s important that we go in.”
Right. Dreamwalking.
Without letting go of the werewolf’s fur, I slide my hand under Valerian’s shirt and reluctantly plummet into the wolf’s dreams.
Just like the last werewolf I did this with, this one is having two dreams at the same time—one for each of his natures. I’m not sure what Valerian sees, but from my point of view, the two dreams are juxtaposed, like two hologram flicks.
One dream is like a violent nature show. Hans is in wolf form, ripping a mooft into shreds.
What an asshole. Moofts are protected species that are pretty much extinct—no good werewolf would hunt them, even in their sleep.
In the other dream, Hans the man is wearing a mooft mask and is in a meeting room, talking to more masked people.
The interesting thing here is that this feels like a memory.
First things first. I can’t deal with two dreams at once.
Just like I did when I fought Hekima, I float out of my body and create a second Bailey, this one with fiery hair. Straining my bodiless self, I will myself to enter both bodies.
Wow. It’s easier this time. Much easier. I guess that power boost is a gift that keeps on giving.
Wolf Hans stops eating, raises his bloodied muzzle, and sniffs the air.
Puck. The last time, a werewolf was able to detect me this way.
Luckily, Hans shakes his head and resumes eating.
Valerian appears next to the version of me watching the werewolf.
“I’m making sure he doesn’t detect us,” he says in a conversational tone.
Right. I almost forgot about Valerian, but he didn’t forget to make himself useful.
He gestures at Hans. “Can you make sure he keeps dreaming this for a long time to come?”
I nod and set the dream on a loop.
“Good,” Valerian says. “Now can you take me to the more interesting dream?”
So he’s only here in the wolf’s part of the dream. Interesting.
