Second Skin (Skinned) (13 page)

“You’d need to train first,” Paige said. We all spun to face her. “Like in that old movie,
Dreamscape
.” She looped a frizzy curl around her index finger. “You’d need to learn how to fight in the dream realm before challenging the night mare.”

In some ways it really was too bad this version of Paige had to go. “
Dreamscape
?” I echoed. “Now there’s a classic.”

Matt stared at Paige, stunned. “You can’t remember your parents, but you know key plot points from some 80s flick?”

Paige shrugged. “It’s three days before Halloween, old scary movies are all that’s on TV.”

“Okay,” Matt drawled, shaking his head. He turned to his brother. “She does have a point though. Mom knows a lot about dream interpretation, dream control. If that’s how we take this thing down, she can get Eryn prepared.”

Across the table from me, Alec’s smile was far too smug. Lovely.

Working with Marie meant spending time at the Delacroix ranch because the woman never came to Redgrave. She and the townsfolk mixed like Wade and holy water. In turn, spending time at the ranch ensured I’d be in close quarters with Alec. He’d love that—with me dodging his efforts to slide passed my defenses, muddying the clean break I hoped for.

Alec I could handle. The really scary part of all this?

I’d have Marie walking in my dreams. Dreams where I hunted, killed, and couldn’t hide how much I liked it. Demon or no demon, I wouldn’t be able to control what Marie saw. What I dreamed of hunting and tearing to shreds.

And that her son might just be on the menu.

We arrived at the house a few hours later in a loaner from Whip, a rusted orange Volkswagen peace van. Its miniature tires spun and slipped along the recently plowed road. Alec grumbled about the van’s lack of power steering, its busted heater, and how Matt had better finish repairing the truck, or else.

Matt, riding shotgun, said, “Hey, I’m a healer, not a miracle worker. These things take time.”

When we shuddered to a stop, I grasped the latch and heaved the sliding side door. It clacked on the track, setting Brit and me free. I climbed out of the van, and my breath caught at the view. It did that to me every time. Cast in fading sunlight, the Delacroix ranch was set on a postcard-idyllic country landscape, complete with sprawling two-story home nestled in a tangle of woods. From the wraparound veranda to the gabled windows and lacework embellishments, the entire structure was blanketed with snow and frost. Beyond the gingerbread-esque house lay a vast expanse of wintry fields.

The epitome of
home
.

Something I might never have again.

“Hey, Eryn,” Brit said. She stood at the top of the veranda steps, waiting for me to follow the others inside. “Get a move on, I’m freezing.”

I lingered as long as I could, but when Brit jumped down the steps to drag me inside, I didn’t resist. I crossed the threshold thinking if I was the vampire of our crew, Marie would never have invited me in. But I was wolven. And so Marie had let me into her home, was willing to help in any way she could. Exactly what had she let inside? A fellow hunter? Or a wolf in not-so-chic clothing?

“What you’re asking isn’t easily accomplished, Alec. Dreamwalking involves trust, a willingness to open your mind,” Marie said as we stood in the Delacroix kitchen, the meeting place whenever we descended upon the ranch. She gestured to me, propped in the doorway, not quite committed to entering the room with the others, my arms folded across my chest. “Does that look like a girl who trusts me to walk through her subconscious?”

“That looks like a girl with a stick up her—”

Brit elbowed Matt before he could finish the sentence.

Paige snickered and then pulled out her cell phone. The thing was practically glued to her hands. She soon lost interest in us. I wished I could escape so easily. Of course, I wouldn’t be the one with brain cancer in twenty years.

But chances were I’d meet a violent death soon enough. Really soon if Marie had her way. I met her assessing gaze. “I’m sorry if I don’t seem receptive to the idea. But, Marie, I just don’t get you.” I ignored Alec’s start. Maybe he hadn’t expected me to be so in- his-mother’s-face.

But now that I’d begun, I fired with both guns blazing. “Why help me when you know what I’m capable of? Why haven’t you kicked me off your property? Or insisted that Alec stay as far away from me as possible?”

Matt rubbed his hands together. “Here we go.”

Marie pursed her lips. “Alec knows the danger and is young enough to still be drawn to the fire. But what will be, will be. Nothing I do can will change your destiny. Only you can do that.” She adjusted her wire-rimmed glasses. “In this situation I see no other way. Your skills are needed to keep my town and my family safe.” She quirked a brow. “So let’s get on with it.”

My skin tingled. I looked up. Alec leveled his attention on me for several pounding heartbeats, long enough for my breath to catch at the expression on his face. Part fear, part desire. And entirely irresistible. I pressed my heels into the floor to keep from walking across the room. How easy it would be to stand beside him, to clutch his hand, or forget we had witnesses and just slide into his arms.

To seek shelter there.

I pushed the breath from my lungs in a curse, trying to shock the need for him from my system. Keeping my distance was going to be harder than I thought.

Releasing me from the heat of his gaze, Alec faced his mother. “Eryn has shown courage, coming here when she knows you don’t trust her. She’s willing to try. Can’t you show her some tricks, anything that might throw the night mare off when she challenges it?”

“If we’re lucky, yes.” Marie straightened her shoulders and then went around the kitchen, opening cupboards. She gathered a few bundles of herbs, a clay bowl, and several white candles. “We’ll set up in the guest room. Eryn’s been there before, spent time at rest, so it should be comforting.”

A chill crept up my spine and pressed a cold hand on the back of my neck. Like the night mare had settled in for the ride. “Why would I need comforting?”

Marie paused. Her grip on the candles tightened. They scraped together, jutting at odd angles in her hand. “Dreamwalking is a skill that takes years to master, and you want me to throw you in the deep end. This is dangerous, Eryn. In that realm you’ll learn things about yourself that your waking mind seeks to hide. You can travel to the past, the future, and every time in between. Without some sense of peace to ground you, you could be lost in the dream world, with no way to get back to your body.” She brushed by me and proceeded into the hall.

The rest of the crew fell silent as Marie’s footsteps creaked on the wooden stairs to the second floor.

Alec rocked on his heels, waiting for me to make a decision. “I’m going, I’m going,” I said. I pointed a finger at him, then

at the rest of the crew. “But I don’t want an audience.”

Alec smiled. “You won’t have one. Matt and Brit are taking Paige to visit Kate. Hopefully she can fix the spell before we drop you guys off at home.”

Matt eyed Paige, looking doubtful. “Yeah, or you’ll have to explain why she’s got old-timers disease about fifty years early.”

Paige didn’t even glance up from her cell. She was definitely texting now, her thumbs moved swiftly over the keyboard.

“What about you?” I asked Alec. “Where are you going to be?”

He was all smiles. “I’ll hang out down here. Yell if you need me.”

“I won’t.” I whirled to follow Marie up the stairs.

I lay down on the same brass bed I’d woken up in a few weeks ago. I kept my eyes shut tightly. The strike of a match. The sharp scent of phosphorus followed by melted candle wax.

“Just relax, Eryn,” Marie said, moving quietly about the darkened room. “There’s nothing to be scared of. We’re just going to do a little test of your dreamwalking skills.”

I gave a low laugh. “I never do well on tests.” Well, that wasn’t exactly true. I’d rocked one physics test, but I’d had a little help from Wade.

“Just breath, slowly and steadily. Listen to my voice. It will guide you back to your body once you fall asleep.”

My body was stiff with tension. Sleep seemed impossible. “I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

“What we think and what we do are sometimes very different things.” Marie sounded unconcerned. “Dreamwalking has benefits. If you develop your awareness, you can learn many useful skills. You can even gain the knowledge of your ancestors.”

A flash of canine fangs. The tear of flesh under my teeth.
I shifted on the bed. My heart rate increased. Maybe I didn’t want to know the things my ancestors did. From the little bit of information my mother had told me, wolven history was a bloody mess.

“I’m going to cleanse your spirit, prepare you for the journey.” Though my eyes were closed, I could picture Marie in the room. I was outside my body and looking down on us. Me looking peaceful, rested, and Marie holding the pointed end of a bundle of sweetgrass to the candle’s solid flame. The herbs began to smolder. She guided the smoke over my body in slow, sweeping motions.

“Imagine the smoke passing through you, cleansing, removing the negative energy trapped in your body.”

All this talk of energy and spirits had me biting my tongue. The last thing I needed was a dream-walking, pissed-off Marie, because I told her she sounded like a flake.

The fragrant aroma filled my nostrils, my lungs. I exhaled slowly as if I’d just dodged a silver bullet and couldn’t believe I was still alive. I was in the presence of grace.
Pretty heady stuff.

“Let my voice guide you. For this test I want you to do one simple thing. The moment you realize you’re in a dream, wake yourself up. If you see something impossible, something unreal, wake up. But for now, sleep, Eryn, sleep.”

My heart resumed its normal beat, then slowed. The bed beneath me spun. I was slipping away, losing control. Fading.

Lovely. Alec’s mom had just gotten me stoned.

I gasped, fighting the pull to that other place. I sat upright. My eyes flashed open.

The room was aglow in candlelight. Marie was sitting in a wooden chair beside my bed. Her lips twisted with disappointment, when I slid my legs off the mattress, a direct indication I was done with lying around.

“I guess it didn’t work,” I said. “But at least we tried, right?” I walked to the window and stretched, my muscles knotted with tension. My athame’s leather holster rubbed against my skin. I pushed back the lace curtains. The moon was high in the starry sky. “At least I got in a snooze. I haven’t been sleeping much lately. What time is it?” I turned to face Marie, expecting her to be still seated in the chair. But she stood a few feet away.

Cheeks hollow, mouth gaping. Her eyes rolled back in her head.

Really not a great look.

She groaned and lurched forward. A billow of sour gas hit me as her breath struck my face. Her arms raised, floating in front of her, reaching for me.

“Or,” I said, raising an eyebrow. “Maybe it worked after all.”

I dove under Marie’s arm and unsheathed my athame, moonlight glinting on the jagged silver blade. Marie whirled, bones snapping in her face as fangs filled her mouth, her nose and upper lip elongated. She was shifting.

Like a werewolf.

Like wolven.

Like me.

“Get it together, Eryn,” I said, swallowing back fear. “She’s not real.” I stabbed my athame in the air, inches from Marie’s bestial visage. “You’re not real, you hear me? This is just a dream.”

But I was supposed to do something.

A cool wind swirled up from the wooden floorboards. The candle’s flame dipped, and then rose steady once more.

Eryn, wake up
. Mint tinged the air.

My vision darkened. I blinked hard to refocus. Marie was no longer a mass of flesh and fur. She was herself again. Fully human. About to take me down.

“My son dies because of you.” Marie’s voice was clipped, none of the Zen shaman about her now. She was point-blank and terrifying. “How many other deaths are on your hands? You know you’re a monster.” She became transparent one second—the door behind her clearly visible through her body—and solid the next. “You know I’m doing the world a favor.”

I sidestepped her flickering form, moving for the exit.

She tracked my steps, shotgun in hand. I knew it was loaded with the silver bullets she’d fashioned just for me.

“Time to die, my dear,” Marie said. “There’s no other option.” She cocked the gun and stared down the barrel.

My wolf howled. The sound ripped from my throat even as I dropped to all fours. Pain exploded through my bones. I couldn’t suck in enough oxygen. I was suffocating in my own skin. I clawed at my back, my chest, my arms, shredding my human flesh, revealing the black fur of my wolf.