Dream Dark (3 page)

Link had let his head fal against the wal in defeat.

“Mom, I’m not an NFL footbal player, and I’m not takin’ steroids.”

Her eyes had narrowed. “We’l see.”

Now she was about to.

Someone was pounding on the restroom door.

“Wesley Lincoln, are you al right in there? Do you need help?”

“Give me a minute, Mom. It’s not like I can press a button.”

“Don’t you sass me, Wesley.” She was hammering on the door again, and he knew he was going to have to go back out and face her. Five minutes alone in a bathroom was more freedom than he could expect this day.

One breakfast left on the plate and some gagging.

You would’ve thought he’d shot a guy.

Link pul ed the door open. His mom was standing there, between Doc Asher and Wanda Beezer, al looking impatient. Jeez, wasn’t anyone else ever sick in this town?

“Come on, son. Your mother thinks we should have a little talk. And I’l take a look at that arm a yours.” Doc Asher patted Link’s shoulder.

Wanda coughed and held out her gloved hand.

“I’m waitin’.”

Link handed her the warm yel ow cup.

Doc Asher looked at Link from the other side of his desk. “You see, son, sometimes when a boy and a girl—a man and a woman—truly love each other—”

“Are you kidding me, Doc? I think I’ve got that talk covered.” Not that anyone had ever bothered to have it with him, but he’d learned al the facts of life the way God intended, by spying on the girls’ locker room next to the unheated swimming pool at church camp.

Doc Asher leaned back in his chair. “Don’t interrupt. As I was saying, sometimes when a man truly loves a woman, he wants to impress her. Maybe develop bigger muscles. Show off a bit.”

“Are you askin’ me somethin’, Doc?” Link knew his mom had probably already shared her steroids theory.

Doc Asher picked up a pen and Link’s chart off the desk. “Have you been feeling angry?”

Was he for real?

“I don’t know, Doc. Have you?”

“Wesley, this is serious. The abuse of steroids…”

Link stopped listening and started wondering if the serious abuse of your son’s privacy would show up in the container. Until Doc said something that

stopped him cold.

“With al the changes your mother’s mentioned, after I cast your arm, I think I’m going to check for puncture marks.”

Puncture marks? It took him a second to put it together. Doc was talking about needle marks, from shooting steroids. But that wasn’t the kind of puncture Link was thinking about.

He froze. And suddenly he wasn’t in the doctor’s office anymore. He was back in a dark cave at the Great Barrier the night before, during Lena’s Claiming. The fighting had already started, and he was standing between Ridley and John Breed—who looked like some psycho robot. Link wasn’t gonna let John hurt Rid, no matter what. But just as Link was planning to rush him, the guy ripped, disappearing. Link scanned the cavern trying to figure out where John went.

A second later, he knew.

Link felt John’s teeth sink into his neck.

It hurt like hel , and it burned like it, too. He could hear Ridley screaming, pink and blond hair whipping through the air as she jumped onto John. Between the two of them, they threw John off. Or maybe he just let go. But he left something behind.

Two puncture marks, shaped like canines.

Link sat in Doc’s office for the rest of the visit, but he wasn’t listening anymore.

Link doesn’t spook easily, but that same night he climbed through my window and told us everything.

He was scared, and Lena and Ridley tried to explain some of the basic Incubus facts of life to him, even they couldn’t tel him everything he needed to know.

But I knew someone who could.

CHAPTER 3

Your Average Superhero

Link wasn’t crazy about going back down into the Caster Tunnels, but he had questions, and Macon Ravenwood was the only one with the answers. So I offered to go with him. It had taken me an hour to convince him that he wasn’t going to burst into flames the second the sunlight hit him.

Ridley pitched a fit when she found out, and refused to let us use the door in her bedroom to access the Tunnels. I guess it was hard for her to watch Link morph into a Supernatural while she was trapped as a Mortal. If anyone knew how she felt, it was me. I was watching Lena become more and more of a Caster with every passing month. Maybe Macon had a pamphlet down in his study: “So You’re Powerless Now, But You’re Going Out with One of the X-Men.”

Link and I ended up at the fairgrounds again, wandering around until we found the Outer Door.

“Your girlfriend’s a real pain in the ass.” It was so hot I thought I was going to pass out. Link hadn’t even broken a sweat.

“She says she’s not my girlfriend, but Rid’s just playin’ hard to get.” Link didn’t sound like he minded the girlfriend reference. “Right?”

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s different with an ex-Siren.” I pul ed on the heavy earthen door. “Man, could it get any hotter?” My shirt was already soaked.

Link shrugged. “I guess it is pretty hot.”

“You guess?” There had never been a heat wave like this in Gatlin, at least not in my lifetime. Folks were wandering around town melting like Popsicles in the sun.

“I don’t real y sweat anymore. It must be an Incubus thing,” Link said, pul ing the heavy Outer Door open with one hand like he was taking the lid off a piece of Tupperware. His arm had already healed at supersonic speed. “Pretty cool, right? You want to see it again?”

Before I could say anything, he let the door slam in my face. A cloud of dust rose up from the ground, and I coughed. “Thanks, man.”

“Anytime.” He yanked the door open again.

I stared into the abyss below, pausing for a second the way I always did when faced with a staircase I couldn’t see. But Link didn’t hesitate. He jumped, landing about halfway down. Usual y I was the one who went first when we were faced with a potential y dangerous situation.

“You comin’, dude?” Link cal ed from the darkness.

“I’m right behind you.” How often did that happen?

Macon’s study was at the base of the stairs that led down into the Tunnels from his old bedroom at Ravenwood—the room that was Ridley’s now.

“You sure he’s cool with this?” Link asked, reaching out to touch the carved oak door.

Before I could respond, the door swung open and Macon was staring back at us through the green eyes of a Light Caster. “I am nothing, Mr. Lincoln, if not ‘cool,’ as you boys say. Particularly considering the state of the climate in our fair town these days.”

“I—uh…I mean, thanks for invitin’ me down here, sir,” Link stammered. “This whole Incubus thing has kinda come outta nowhere and kicked my butt. No offense.”

Macon dismissed the comment with a wave of his hand. “None taken. Though I’m sure I don’t need to remind you that the term Incubus no longer applies to my current state.”

Link scrunched up his forehead. “Sir?”

“I don’t bite, Mr. Lincoln. Not that I ever did.”

Macon opened the door wider and stepped aside to let us in. “But now it’s not even within the realm of possibility. Why don’t you come in, so we can make sure that you can say the same?”

Link scratched his head, and I doubted he was catching more than half the words coming out of Macon’s mouth. It was going to be a long day.

“You see, Mr. Lincoln, there comes a time in a young man’s life when his body starts to change…”

Macon kept talking, and Link’s face turned beet red.

Guess there were birds and bees in the Caster

Guess there were birds and bees in the Caster world, too.

I was pretty sure I was going to have to do some translating, until Macon final y gave up and said something Link understood perfectly. Something I was pretty sure he had never heard anyone say to him, least of al his own folks.

“Let’s sit down, Wesley. You can ask me anything you want to know.”

The next time Link went to see Macon, he didn’t ask me to come. I felt guilty about it, like I should’ve been there for him anyway. But Lena and I had been apart in so many ways, for so long, that we had a lot of catching up to do. When Link told me he took Ridley with him instead, I figured their train wreck of a relationship was bound to take its course, sooner or later.

“So I don’t have to drink blood?” It was the same question Link had asked Lena the night he told us about the bite, and the same one he’d asked Macon the last time he was there. Link couldn’t seem to get enough reassurance about it.

“Ugh!” Ridley sighed dramatical y. “Haven’t we been over this, Shrinky Dink?” She was sitting next to Link, filing her purple polished nails. She looked total y bored, but she had insisted on coming along.

“Sorry, Mr. Ravenwood. Lena told me some of the basics, but I was pretty freaked out that night, and I don’t remember much.”

“That’s

quite

al

right

and

completely

understandable.” Macon poured himself a glass of sweet tea. “And the answer is no, Wesley. You don’t have to drink blood. May I ask if you’ve experienced any other cravings?”

Link shook his head. “Not for blood.”

Ridley stopped filing.