Chapter 8

I'min an abandoned warehouse with windows facing the Empire State Building. Huh. Do they even have warehouses in this part of NYC? Somewhere off to my right, a girl is screaming so loudly I'm glad my eardrums aren't real.

I turn to see what's going on. A foaming-at-the-mouth puck is clutching Felix's petite girlfriend in his furry paws as a dozen or so other pucks try to rip her out of his clutches. Poor girl. With hairy bodies, horns, and hoofed feet, pucks look a lot like the depictions of satyrs and demons on this world—only with shark-like teeth. On Gomorrah, pucks have the worst reputation of any creature, in part due to negative portrayal in the media, but mostly because they like to rape, kill, and eat their victims—and not always in that order.

Put another way, Felix's girlfriend is pucked.

"Help me, Neo Golem!" she cries out in a voice that's surprisingly intact, given all that screaming. "You're my only hope."

Seriously?

As if in reply to her plea, the warehouse door bursts into tiny pieces and a huge figure lumbers in.

Ah, right. When Felix got embroiled in saving the world, he and our gnome friend created a robotic power suit for him. Having obviously read too many Earth comic books, particularly Iron Man, Felix made this design—and even chose a superhero name for himself: Neo Golem.

The robot lunges at the nearest puck with a speed something this big shouldn't be capable of. Grabbing the puck by the left horn, he tosses him out the window, where the creature smashes into the Empire State Building.

The pucks let the girl go and circle Felix.

He slams a robotic arm into the stomach of the puck who'd held his girlfriend, causing the creature to fly at the wall and slide down in a broken heap.

A bigger puck gores Felix's shoulder with a diamond-hard horn, shredding metal like tinfoil. But when he rips the horn out, there's no blood. He must've missed Felix's flesh. That's good. From what I recall, my friend faints at the sight of blood, especially his own.

As I watch, Felix retaliates with a kick, hurling the attacking puck at his brethren. They tumble like bowling pins.

"Yeah!" Felix shouts. "You don't mess with Neo Golem."

The robot's chest opens up. In the place where Felix's nipples would be, two giant guns show up—and fire at the remaining pucks.

One spectacular explosion later, Felix is left alone with his sobbing girlfriend.

Wow. I can tell that the last part of the attack was based on a real memory of some fight Felix was in. I'm tempted to check it out, but I'm here for a different reason.

Felix sheds his robot suit and strides over to the girl.

Now this part is clearly pure fiction; his naked body looks way more muscular than his figure would imply in the waking world.

They kiss. Oh, boy. If I don't interfere now, I'm pretty sure I'll find out the X-rated way this damsel intends to reward her knight in shining armor.

Making myself visible, I clear my throat.

Felix's head snaps toward me. As he takes in my face and fiery hair, his eyes grow to the size of saucers, literally so—which is only possible in a dream.

I hastily return my hair to normal and clothe Felix in jeans and a T-shirt with a wave of my hand. "It's me, Bailey. I asked you to take a nap so we can speak, remember?"

Felix looks between me and his girlfriend. To make sure she doesn't distract him, I make her disappear.

Felix rubs his eyes. "What the hell is going on?"

"This is a dream," I say patiently.

He doesn't look like he believes me, so I change our environment to the place where I usually perform talking therapy—a pillowy cloud floating above a soothing ocean.

"A dream?" Felix plops onto the plush white couch my patients like to sit on.

"An unrealistic one, at that." I perch on a cushy, fleece-covered chair that appears conveniently under my butt. "Think about it. The warehouse was in Manhattan, as in Earth, but there are no pucks on Earth. Also, the pucks could've—and would've—killed the girl first, then attacked you. And that You're my only hope bit… Would anyone really say that, outside of Star Wars?"

I can see the dawning comprehension in his eyes.

"Don't feel bad. Dreams are my thing, after all."

He swivels his head from side to side, taking in our surroundings. "Unreal. I was totally clueless."

"It's hard to question dream reality." I let my hair go fiery again.

He looks awed. "It's like being in The Matrix."

Oh, crap, his favorite. If I don't change the subject, I'll get an earful. "I wanted to ask you about this Council that kidnapped me. I have a vague idea of how they work, but I could use more details."

"Hold on." He sits straighter. "How'd you get into my dreams? You're in that limo with the vampires."

I'd hoped he wouldn't question this part. "I had a connection with you already."

"Since when?"

I sigh. "Remember how you fell asleep during that video game design course we took together?"

"Nooo…"

"Well, you did." I change the environment around us to match that classroom, so he can see what I saw that day: his head on the desk, some drool in the corner of his mouth. "See how your eyes are twitching? That's REM sleep. Too good an opportunity to pass up." I pantomime touching his forehead. Of course, when I'd really done it, there was hand sanitizer involved.

"So you snuck into my dream without my permission?" His voice rises, and I worry he might try to wrestle control of his dream world from me—something I can fight but prefer not to, especially with a friend.

"This was right after you hacked my laptop and made fun of my project," I remind him.

"That's different. This is a much bigger invasion of privacy."

"You started it."

He pinches the bridge of his nose. "Fine. What was it that you wanted to know about the Council?"

"Anything you can tell me. Pretend I know nothing."

"Right," he says in a professorial tone. "In that case, the Councils are a form of government. Their main objective is to make sure the Cognizant remain hidden from humans."

"Okay, maybe not so basic." I stand up to pace along our cloud.

"Then I don't know what to tell you."

"How about something that can help me?"

He considers it for a moment. "Councils are made up of the most powerful Cognizant in the region they cover. The New York Council is among the most powerful Councils on Earth."

I roll my eyes. This is going nowhere fast. "So?"

"So don't piss them off."

"That's a huge help, thanks. Any other pearls of wisdom you wish to impart?"

His unibrow furrows. "Well, yeah. Think about it: The very fact that the Enforcers took you to see the Council is good news."

"Oh?"

"Without the Mandate, your standing in our community is shaky at best. They could've just killed you on the spot, and no one would've said boo."

I halt my pacing. "Some government."

"Before going to sleep, I tried using my powers to figure out what they want. Unfortunately, their computers aren't connected to the human internet."

He tried to hack them? Is he nuts? "Don't do anything that'll make them come for you next."

"Nothing I can do, anyway." He studies me. "Do you seriously have no idea what they might want?"

"No clue. I only know a couple of people from this Council, and the most powerful of them isn't even on Earth at the moment." I run my fingers through my fiery hair, sending embers flying. "There's Kit—you know, the shapeshifter? We met at the rehab where I work. I think she likes me, and she's on the Council. Maybe she can help? I doubt she's behind whatever this is."

Felix nods. "Kit's good people."

I strain my memory for anyone else on the Council. "Hey, maybe it's—"

Before I can finish my sentence, Pom appears next to me, his fur light orange.

Felix's eyes widen improbably yet again. "What is that?"

"I told you about Pom." At Felix's blank stare, I clarify, "My looft."

"The fuzzy bracelet?" Felix eyes my currently naked wrist.

I grin. "In here, Pom looks like this."

Pom bends his short, chubby legs in a curtsy. "Nice to meet you, Felix. This dream isn't as bad as Bailey made it out to be."

Felix studies him warily. "Thanks… I think."

"I think it's best you wake up now," I tell him.

"But—"

"No reason to bore Pom with our problems," I say pointedly.

An actual lightbulb appears over Felix's head; I'm not sure he realizes he's inadvertently summoned it. "Got it. But before I go, can you show me some cool dream stuff?"

I smile and snap my fingers to take us to my palace.

Felix looks around, agog. "Cool… Reminds me of Peach's castle from Mario, but with Escher and Salvador Dalí influences."

I snatch a Penrose-triangle clock from the air and let it melt into my hand. "You're not far off. I changed this place a bit after we took that course. Video game design made me a much better dreamwalker."

Felix looks up at the ceiling, a part of the palace so old I don't even recall making it. Consisting of multicolored glass, it's a mosaic depicting a mandala shaped like an archery target. He then stares at the walls and the floor. "What's with the crazy color scheme?"

I grin. "They're known as ‘forbidden colors' because their light frequencies automatically cancel each other in our eyes. But we're not really seeing through our eyes here, hence red-green and blue-yellow, as I imagine those shades to be. I'm thinking of adding ultraviolet and infrared accents as well."

Eager to show off further, I take us to the memory gallery and explain how I use it.

Felix looks enviously at a painting of a surprise birthday party Mom threw for me when I turned twelve. "I'd pay a million dollars to revisit some of my childhood memories."

"I could make it happen for you," I say. "Just not today."

"Of course." He grins. "Thanks for showing me this."

"You should take him to the tower of sleepers," Pom suggests. "It's my favorite spot."

I grab Felix by the shoulder and fly him to the tower.

"Trippy," he breathes when he sees the nook with another version of him sleeping and another version of me standing over him with my finger on his forehead.

"That's you and me in Pom's dream, my gateway to the dream world in this case," I explain. "We're now in the same location, of sorts, but in your dream. Hence the extra bodies. When I exit your dream, I'll be in that body—and I'll get back to my real body in that limo after I'm done in Pom's dream."

"Like I said, trippy." He looks up and squints at a nook a floor up. "Wait, hold on… Is that Ariel?"

Crap. I forgot they're roommates. In hindsight, I shouldn't have taken him here. What if Ariel doesn't want him to know she's a patient of mine?

"You seriously need to wake up," I forcefully tell him. "Now."

He intuits my concern. "Oh, don't worry. She told me you're helping her."

I give him my best poker face. "I can neither confirm nor deny."

"Well, I want to thank you anyway. Ariel's been through a lot, and ever since she went to rehab and started your treatments, I noticed real progress with all her issues."

I wince internally. "Please, let's not talk about my hypothetical therapy sessions."

"Understood. Just keep doing what you do. I don't need to know what it is."

I sigh. "Anything else?"

"Sure." He looks around again. "How do I wake up?"

"Just wish to do so."

He closes his eyes, which I didn't tell him to do, and gets a constipated expression on his face—but clearly doesn't wake up. After a few seconds, I grow bored and push him from the dream world with a small jolt of my powers.

Both Felixes shimmer into nothingness. On my end, the version of me from Felix's dream disappears, and I find myself in the body next to the empty bed where Felix was a moment ago.

Pom flies up and lands on the pillow. "So. Are you going to help Ariel now?"

"Might as well." I head over to her nook.

"Good," Pom states. "I like Ariel."

Of course he likes Ariel. Pom's male, after all. Sort of. Maybe.

On Gomorrah, we call Ariel's kind of Cognizant ubers. That's not because they chauffeur everyone around—our cars drive themselves—but because they're uber strong and uber attractive. The term among Earth Cognizant is strongmen, which is dumb because female ubers are just as strong as males, and because the label doesn't begin to cover their extraordinary looks.

Reaching Ariel's bed, I look her over. With her glossy dark hair and lightly bronzed skin, she's striking even for an uber. Her face, with its strong nose and finely defined jaw, is so symmetrical you'd think a video game designer had toiled for years to craft such perfection, and her body is what humans on Earth label "an impossible standard of beauty."

I'm actually glad Felix noticed her here. This might be my last chance to provide therapy for anyone, and Ariel isn't just a patient anymore. She's become a friend.

"Stay invisible," I tell Pom.

He nods disappointedly.

I touch Ariel's melted-candy-smooth forehead and sink into her dreams.