Page 24 of Obsessed in Blood
“Ah, good Christ.” Remus fell back, shaking his head. “How did you know?”
“I didn’t. Not at first. But then the shared dreams began. They felt real, and it was apparent she remembered them, though it took some time for her to admit it.”
“Were you feeding from each other?”
“No. I’d considered a blood bond, but there hadn’t been any exchange of blood. Everything had been strictly business. But then a dream would come, and I’d find myself somewhere that should be unfamiliar to Cressa, yet she recognized it. And she spoke as if we’d known each other for some time.”
“Prescient dreams?” Remus leaned forward when Devon nodded. “When I was a young pup, there were stories of a species of people who could steal your dreams. But they lived long ago, and most say they were nothing but myths or fables. Stories we tell the pups in the hopes of keeping them close to the fire at night.”
“Cressa thought I was the one creating the dreams, until the night of a ball where she was supposed to steal something for me. A few hours before the event, I had a dream that she would fall out of a second-story window and would require my blood to survive. It turns out she had the same dream, and everything we’d seen came true. Our foresight was unable to prevent it.”
Remus sat back and stared at his drink for several minutes. “She had a dream about the wolves?”
“We both had the dream. It was a birthday party for someone in Elijah’s pack. Then the rogue attack in L.A. happened. From what Sergi reported, it sounded like the dream we had, just a different pack.”
“You didn’t say anything.”
Devon shook his head. “Sergi was investigating the Poppy situation, and we’d only heard of one case in the area. Then Boretsky was murdered, and with my addiction, it would have been too dangerous to keep Poppy on the street.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I’m sorry for not sharing this piece sooner, but I’m not sure how that conversation would have gone.”
“Cressa must have suspected something different about her blood, which was why she believed she was the only one capable of putting the beast to rest.”
“She had a dream that she saved me.” His chuckle was dry. “Even Lyra said Cressa would save me.”
“Lyra? Can she dreamwalk?”
“No. At least, that’s what she tells me. Did you find anything with the bloodwork?”
Remus reached into his jacket’s inside pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. He pushed it across the table to him. “There’s something definitely different in all three samples. The sample from the beast is, as we would expect, the most similar to yours, but the markers are a bit different—elevated if you will—and we see a variant that matches the sample of Magic Poppy you supplied. We’ve never collected blood from your beast before, so we had no baseline to work from. Overall, based on other vampire and beast blood we’ve tested, there is definitely an anomaly in the samples we got from you, which we expect to be the Magic Poppy.
“We compared the blood samples to the dead rogues from L.A. We see the same marker that we saw in your beast’s blood and believe it’s the Magic Poppy. However, with only one sample for comparison, it’s not foolproof. But our conclusion is that vampires on the Poppy killed the rogues.”
Devon stared out the window to the dark sea beyond the lights of town. He had expected these results, but it was quite different to have the truth in black and white. “What about the last sample?”
“That was the interesting part of the tests. The blood you donated after you returned to Oasis didn’t include what we believe to be the Magic Poppy marker. Instead, it was contaminated with a different marker we can’t explain. The lab has never seen it before.”
“Contaminated?”
“It’s not what it sounds like. Any foreign substance introduced to the base sample would make the sample contaminated. That doesn’t mean bad or good—just different. I think it’s safe to say that the additional marker came from Cressa’s blood. At a minimum, we believe it’s what returned you to your normal form.” He shrugged and refilled glasses. “Who knows what other properties the marker might impact.”
“My mental fugue might be a side effect.”
Remus took a swallow of scotch. “That’s more difficult to determine. You were given what was likely an injection of the Poppy and fed tainted deer for a couple of days. Add in the fact you remained in beast form longer than normal. It’s not inconceivable that your brain simply required rest after the experience. Which I believe is what Madame Saldano told you.”
“So, we know there’s something different about dreamwalker blood, though we’re not sure of its effects. It always comes down to the blood.”
“When Cressa returns, we’d like to get a sample of her blood. It might tie up some loose ends.”
“She’d most likely agree to that.”
“Does Lorenzo know anything about Cressa other than she’s your Blood Ward?”
“Like what? He wouldn’t know she’s a dreamwalker.”
“What about her being a thief?”
“I don’t know. Lorenzo had Underwood, Cressa’s stepfather, searching for a medallion. Underwood knew Cressa had it, and also knew she had sticky fingers. I don’t know if he shared any of that with Lorenzo.”
Devon didn’t like where this conversation was going and wasn’t prepared to discuss the medallion. It wasn’t Remus’s fault. He should have already considered all the possibilities and determined contingencies, but he was too busy with how to make the medallion work. The mental fugue was gone. He was sure of it. But it didn’t mean he was thinking smart.
