Page 34 of Obsessed in Blood
ChapterTwelve
Devon watchedColantha contemplate the portrait on the wall. He’d selected the library after Colantha had returned everyone back to the study. Most took the experience in stride but, surprisingly, Simone appeared the most rattled and had asked to return to Oasis.
He released the rest of the cadre, who scattered quickly. Now, Colantha’s vampires stood just outside the doors like sentinels. “I hope you don’t mind the library, but I suppose any room would do since you could move us someplace more to your liking.”
She gave him a small chuckle. “I don’t dreamwalk as much as you would think. At least, not for personal reasons. I spend many hours training young and old dreamwalkers alike, and after a while, it’s nice to stay in one place.” She moved toward the bookcases and stopped on occasion to read the spines. “I must say you have a great deal of rich history here.”
“My parents were the collectors. Now that Lyra is back with us, I imagine she’ll pick up where they left off. It complements her painting.”
“An artist? How marvelous. Are any of her works here?” Colantha scanned the walls.
“No. We considered it a security risk.” When Colantha gave him a curious look, he indulged her. “Now that the Council is aware of Lyra, you might as well know the story.” He waited until she took a chair across from him. “Lyra’s presence in the manor was a guarded secret until she had to fill in for me.”
“When you were addicted to the Poppy for a second time?”
He nodded. “Lyra was in the accident that killed my parents, along with her fiancé. I’d been away for several years, and with the death of everyone close to her, she fell into a deep depression. When she recovered, she claimed to hear voices and suffered from nightmares she was convinced were real. This went on for a decade, maybe longer.” He ran a hand through his hair and stared at the decanter of scotch Lucas had left on the coffee table. “When the nightmares ended, it was just the voices, but the trauma left her in somewhat of a childlike state. I was concerned for her safety outside the manor, and I refused to put her in a sanitarium, though that’s what the other Houses believe I did. All that began to change when Cressa arrived.”
Colantha leaned over and lifted the decanter, pouring herself a glass. When she lifted the decanter toward him, he nodded, and she poured him one. “Tell me why you think that.”
He sipped the scotch, running a hand along his pants, not sure how to explain it. “Lyra didn’t come awake all of a sudden, but there were longer periods of coherent thought. She told me Cressa would save me from my beast. I hadn’t believed her.”
“She mentioned she’d dreamwalked before Cressa?”
He rubbed his eyes, sorry he’d agreed to the scotch. He was so tired. Lucas would need to call for another donor. His worry over Cressa was taking a toll. “That was news to me. I hadn’t been aware of it.”
“What about the dreamwalk she had with Cressa?”
“Lyra has a penchant for taking things that don’t belong to her. It grew worse when she was ill. She never hid what she took and never apologized. When she was caught, she would smile and let us return the item to its owner. If she really wanted the item, she would just take it again. The medallion was one of those items. She found it in my safe and put it on.”
“And she had no ill effects?”
“None.”
Colantha leaned back and nursed her scotch, tapping a red-painted nail on the armrest. “Why did you believe Cressa was a dreamwalker? Our species is rarely spoken of. We keep our secret well-guarded.”
He stared at the picture of his father over the fireplace. Had his father known of the dreamwalkers? He’d always wondered what it would have been like to sit in his father’s study and discuss the myth of dreamwalkers over finely aged scotch. But that would have been impossible since Devon hadn’t even considered dreamwalkers until after his father’s death. It didn’t make the desire any less real. “I believe I’d gone back east. Northeast I should say—Vermont. There’s a small House that keeps to itself. Most vampires don’t know how wealthy they are, but they do know how eccentric. Quite odd is what you would typically hear at vampire gatherings. But they’re smart and, as far as I know, the first vampire House to have business partnerships with shifters.
“I’d met the House leader’s youngest son, Charlie, when I was in Europe. We had similar ideas of how vampires could grow as a society, even with the decline of the fertility rate. After my father died, and I became House Leader, he invited me to his home. One night, we got drunk on absinthe.”
Colantha laughed out loud. “No one ever believes me when I tell them it’s possible to get a vampire drunk. I’ve always said they simply haven’t tried hard enough.”
Devon grinned, remembering the evening. “We snuck down to the cellar, looking for what we thought would be a decent bottle of wine when Charlie tripped over something on the floor. It was a carpet that covered a trap door. Being bold on drink, we found flashlights and followed the stone stairs. It wasn’t nearly as dusty as I assumed it would be and, as it turned out, housed a comfortable room with electricity, fine Persian carpets, and aged leather couches. The walls were filled with books.
“We just happened to find one that mentioned dreamwalkers. There wasn’t much. Just that long ago there was a species that could share their dreams. And if the vampire wasn’t sufficiently prepared for the experience, they could go mad hearing voices, trapped in a living nightmare.”
Colantha drained her glass. “And based on Lyra’s behavior, it reminded you of what you’d read.”
“I spent years looking for any reference to dreamwalkers no matter how minor. At one time, I thought I’d found something, but it was a dead end. Then Cressa walked into my life, and she unwittingly drew me into a construct.”
“From what she tells me, that was the first time it ever happened.”
He nodded. “Based on her reactions to those first dreams, I believe her.”
“The one thing I’ve yet to understand is the strong connection between the two of you, but for now, we’ll take advantage of it. I will create the construct, and you will be the anchor that draws Cressa out. We must use her bond with you to counter the mesmerizing. She’ll require strong memories that can link to her reality. I’d like to meet with Lyra and Cressa’s friend. Ginger, isn’t it?”
Devon nodded. “When?”
“After dinner. From there, we’ll decide when to make the attempt.”
