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“Like school. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have Introduction to Dream Traveling, courtesy of the Council.” I winked at him.
Klaus rolled his eyes and waved me off as he started toward his own class. Corri flew off his shoulder and right into the classroom to find my desk. I slammed my books next to where she’d sat her tiny butt, raising some of her pixie dust in the air.
“Introduction to Dream Traveling,” I mumbled, displeased. I would have loved this course if the circumstances had been different. I would have gone mad over it last year, when I discovered my dreams weren’t always just dreams, but glimpses into parallel dimensions. Not this year, though. Not now, not ever. Not anymore.
The professor was new, and… surprise, surprise! She was human. The first human professor Grim Reaper Academy had ever hired. Not many humans knew about the supernatural world, but there were some who’d been let in on the secret. Married to a Russian vampire, Camilla Ivanov was one of them. She was petite, with long brown hair and big, curious eyes. She had a small, shy voice that was barely audible, especially if you sat in the back of the class, like me and my guys, and she seemed more eager to learn things from us, the supernatural ones, than to teach us about dream traveling.
The Council had decided to introduce this class into our curriculum after I told them all about my gifts. My former gifts. Now, I couldn’t dream jump to save my life. The constant nightmares were all that was left of my previous abilities. I couldn’t lucid dream, which meant that every time I had a nightmare, I was trapped. I couldn’t become lucid inside it and change the course of events. I didn’t have out-of-body experiences anymore. I’d put my head down at night, and my mind would go in circles for a while, and then completely blank. The first night I slept without having the usual nightmares, I woke up after midnight, shaking with dread. I felt like I hadn’t slept at all. At least, with the nightmares, I had the certainty that something was still happening as my physical body rested and recharged. They were horrible and haunting, but they were something. The more I got used to being a revenant, the less nightmares I had, and I wouldn’t have admitted it for the world, but I feared the day when they would stop completely, the day when I’d get used to making blood sacrifices to stay young, strong, and alive, when all of this madness would turn to routine, and the nightmares would go away forever, leaving my slumber empty. When my sleep was devoid of any images – even bloody, horrific, painful images, – I’d wake up in the morning feeling useless and helpless, feeling like something had been taken away from me. Feeling like someone had been taken away from me. That someone was my mother, and that something was my unique ability to find my way to her.
So, yeah. Introduction to Dream Traveling. What a cruel joke. While I appreciated the Council deciding to add a new course on my account, I couldn’t ignore the fact that it was pretty useless in a school where most students couldn’t dream. Not many hybrids attended Grim Reaper Academy, and those who did, could rarely remember their dreams, anyway. Valentine Morningstar was an exception. Aside from him, no one could say they knew of any other hybrids who could travel consciously from one parallel universe to another while dreaming. So, what was the point? Professor Ivanov was just answering this exact question. If only she spoke more loudly… It was as if her throat chakra had been abused, or something. I unfocused my gaze until I could see her aura. Well, what do you know? Still killing it at aura reading. Around her throat, her light blue aura had tiny, red puncture wounds. Figures. She’s married to a vampire. He was probably still snacking off her blood, now and then. I wondered when he’d turn her into a vampire, so they could truly live happily ever after.
“She doesn’t want to,” Paz whispered in my general direction, leaning over his desk.
“You’re poking through my thoughts again,” I hissed.
“And hers, too.” He gave me a lopsided grin. Fuck it. I couldn’t resist him. “They’re trying for a baby, and vampires can’t breed. She has to be human to get pregnant.”
“Shh…” I couldn’t care less about Professor Ivanov’s personal life. “You wanna poke inside her head, be my guest. I wanna pay attention.”
“What? You’re suddenly a diligent student?”
“Gotta raise that worth score, and I figure it’s easier to do in a class where I’m the only one who’s actually done the practice.”
Speaking of practice…
“This will be our first and only course together,” Professor Ivanov was saying. “There will be no Advanced Dream Traveling, and no practice lessons. I’m sure you already know why. Sadly – and I personally believe this is such an immense loss, – supernaturals can’t dream. Consequently, they can’t dream travel and visit any of the parallel universes out there. Before we begin today, I feel like it’s important to remind you that you should never feel bad about this. Even though humans can dream, very few actually know what their dreams mean and what they can do with them. Most humans dream jump to other places involuntarily, and they never know they even did it. I know that many of you feel like this class is a waste of your time, but I promise you, it’s not. Not when the most feared Grim Reaper in the world is out there and has the ability to travel through parallel dimensions. At the very least, we should all try to understand what he’s doing and how he’s doing it, even if we can’t do it ourselves.”
“Can you do it?” I found myself asking.
Her big, brown eyes scanned the room. She smiled when she saw who I was. Blue eyes, blue hair, and a fuckton of tattoos. I was impossible to miss. I hadn’t felt like wearing my uniform blazer today, so the snake on my arm was in plain view. It was still hot outside, a lovely September d
ay, and I wasn’t hiding anymore. I was who I was, and they would all have to get used to me. It wasn’t like I was the only one with tats in this school, but I was the only one who had so damn many. Neither of my boyfriends had gotten a tattoo yet. Not even a tiny one. Pretty fucking weird for a false god and a demon, at the very least. I could understand Sariel not wanting to ruin that perfect archangel skin of his, and Francis was just not the type.
“Y-yes,” she finally answered. “I can do it. But not as consciously and gracefully as you, Miss Morningstar.”
There was something bitter in my mouth. The curses I wanted to throw at her stupid face. Why would she say something like this? Didn’t she know… Shit. She doesn’t know. Of course she doesn’t. It was a well-kept secret. The Council had decided that shouting the truth from the rooftops would help no one. Headmaster Colin knew, and he’d been ordered to keep it to himself. For all the other professors, I was still human and still a pretty damn good dream jumper. They had to believe that I could travel to other universes, because Morningstar could, and someone simply had to be able to track him down, chase him from dream to dream, world to world, bring him to justice…
“Mila,” Francis nudged me discreetly.
I snapped out of it and forced a smile. “I’m sure I have a lot to learn from you.”
That made Camilla Ivanov blush. “I would love for you to help me teach this class. What do you say?”
I shrugged. “Sure. Whatever you need.” Easy worth points. Just think about easy worth points. Don’t think about how much this sucks… pretending you’re someone you’re not… But hadn’t I done this all my life? Pretended I was someone I was not?
“Alright, let’s dive right in.” Mrs. Ivanov broke eye contact and buried her nose in her papers. I was grateful. “Today, we’ll talk about three types of dreams, lucid dreaming, and the differences between them.”
I tuned out the world and tried to pay attention. Even if it hurt, even if it felt like I was studying a piece of my very own life that had become history too soon. By the end of the class, I was annoyed and cranky. Professor Ivanov awarded me 50 worth points, but I didn’t feel like celebrating. I just wanted to get out of there.
I walked to the next class, Psychology, with Paz, GC, and Francis in tow.
“Word gets around fast, doesn’t it?” It was a rhetorical question. “Dream jumping, parallel universes…”
“Don’t worry, goddess,” GC tried to reassure me. “They don’t know anything… the important stuff.”
“About my mother?”
“Absolutely not,” Paz said, and the certainty in his voice almost convinced me. “Everyone knows what the Council chose to make public: that dream traveling to parallel dimensions is a thing and Valentine Morningstar can do it. So can you, because you’re his daughter and you’re human. That’s it.”
