Chapter 16

Ikissed the top of Zain’s head while massaging his shoulders. They’d grown so stiff from the anger boiling within him that I might as well have been kneading cement.

“It’s not your fault, sweetie,” I repeated in a soft voice.

“If I had been there sooner, Peters wouldn’t have gotten injured,” Zain argued, his voice boiling with rage.

“You can’t be everywhere at the same time,” I countered in a slightly chastising tone. “We didn’t even know that a new Nightmare had moved into our city. All that matters is that when you did get there, you beat his ass and saved many lives.”

Zain grunted, somewhat mollified by my comment. In the three weeks, since my man had recovered from his brutal encounter with Tobin, he’d eliminated four more lesser Nightmares that had managed to avoid capture until now. Aside from Darryl who had gone suspiciously quiet, a sense of peace and an illusion of security had begun to set in. And then this Nightmare had jumped the two agents that had been investigating the site of the latest attack. Why he had still been in the vicinity of the crime scene was a mystery to everyone.

The Nightmare’s tendrils had caught Agent Peters on his left side, fracturing two of his ribs. If not for his bulletproof vest, the damage might have been greater, if not fatal. Despite his injury, Peters had valiantly fired at his aggressor along with his partner, Agent Taylor. Their joint efforts had forced the Nightmare to back away, giving them a chance to seek refuge in their reinforced van—the same vehicle the agents used when driving around in the Mist for emergencies. They’d holed up there, waiting for Zain and his team to arrive, stalked the whole time by the interloper.

“Peters still got hurt,” Zain mumbled.

“Yes, he did. But his injuries are not grievous. He will make a full recovery in a few weeks,” I said, in an appeasing tone. I then chuckled and ruffled his hair. “You know, you’re starting to sound like you finally care about your colleagues.”

Zain stiffened, and his head jerked left to look at me over his shoulder. “Do not speak nonsense, female.”

“Deny it all you want,” I said hopping off the mattress where I’d been kneeling behind him while he sat at the edge of the bed. “But I recognize the signs of caring when I see them.”

He scrunched his face, and opened his mouth to argue, but I crushed his lips with a passionate kiss, silencing him.

“I’ve got some errands to run. I’ll be back later. Be nice to your colleagues during my absence,” I said, kissing him one last time before heading out.

I couldn’t quite make out what he mumbled, but it still brought a smile to my face. Zain didn’t technically care for his colleagues. He was incapable of that kind of feelings towards others that weren’t me. And yet, over the past month, he had become protective of them in the same way a spoiled child would jealously watch over his toys. While he might personally abuse them should he be so inclined, woe unto anyone else who mishandled—or simply even touched—what was his. And the members of the agency were now all his… at least the way he saw it.

The day after that night when Zain had finally opened up about the cause of his distress, we had sat down with Director Thomson to discuss the hunt for Darryl. It had upset me that Thomson had not informed my man of the plan. I was also upset with myself that it hadn”t crossed my own mind to prepare Zain for the greater role that the organization had for him.

In many ways, this past month had given him the opportunity to start seeing himself as part of a team instead of a solo predator. That first battle against Tobin had planted the seed. It had also made him realize the extent of his limitations. Although it stung him to admit that he needed help to defeat a rival, it all came down to the way we spun it. He didn”t need help; they were merely more tools to help him achieve his goal. Knowing he would get to lead more Nightmares as his lieutenants with him as the general, and the agents as his soldiers, certainly held his attention in a positive way. Naturally, Thomson remained the man in charge, but Zain would be given the final word on which Nightmares were allowed to join our ranks.

Although he would never admit it, this greatly alleviated the fears that were gnawing at him and that had made him fall into that depression. Reading the literature Thomson had provided me about Nightmares and Wishes made many things so much clearer. The Mistwalkers defined themselves in large part by how relevant and desirable they were to their creator’s needs and aspirations. Even though I had told Zain that our relationship was not contingent on his ability to fight the Nightmares on our behalf, that had continued to worry him.

Now, Zain had a role, something he could define himself by and strive for. He was the pack leader of the Mist Defense Squad, the protector of the humans, and my savior. He didn”t need to be the most powerful as our rules prevented him from taking all the means to achieve that. However, he could assemble the most powerful team to ensure that no enemy who broke our rules could go unpunished. It was not the type of dominance he had hoped for and would always secretly desire, but it was still dominance with him as the apex Alpha.

It was good to see my old, insufferable, rude, antisocial, and arrogant Zain back.

As I made my way home, I started enumerating the adjustments I”d be making over the next few weeks for when Zain and I left the base to settle together in my house. Thomson had understandably been reluctant to let my man roam free in the city. But as the weeks went by, I no longer had to escort him whenever he left our room, and the security measures surrounding him became increasingly lax. Thomson knew he couldn”t keep me forever trapped in the base either. Furthermore, displaying trust towards Zain was an important step in the relationship between him and the Fourth Division.

Although he acted nonchalant about it, my man was impatient to meet his first two potential recruits tonight when the Mist would rise again. The holding cells to receive Riley’s and Julia’s Nightmares were already prepared, including the bed where they would take their human form, assuming they received my mate’s blessing to cross over.

I pulled up into the driveway of my house, a two-story stone cottage with a black iron fence closing off my large backyard. The street was unusually quiet. Then again, the children were in school and their parents at work. Under different circumstances, I would also have been at the office.

I first went around watering my plants before running upstairs to throw a few more clothes into a bag. I then proceeded to shut down the house in preparation for the Mist. I didn”t have a fully automated system as those were on the very pricey side. However, with the new crazy salary I was earning at the Fourth division, and considering all meals were provided for free at the cafeteria, I”d be saving enough money to be able to get a major upgrade in the next couple of months.

I was still flabbergasted by the abundance of meat served at work. It was only recently that Thomson had confessed that there was no shortage of meat. The government had simply seized the tragedy of the first Mist to do the major overhaul that had been needed on so many levels. The environmental cost of meat production farms had been addressed by reducing the general population”s consumption and upgrading production farms with better systems to convert methane into energy to fuel the farms’ equipment. It also helped to address the issue of people’s excessive meat consumption, bringing it down to healthier levels.

However, the rich naturally still wanted to have their meat. And the producers didn”t complain as the new prices allowed them to bring in a healthy profit with a much lower and far more efficient production.

After securing all the windows on the second floor, I was heading back downstairs when the doorbell rang, startling me. I frowned, wondering who that could be. I hurried to the front door and opened it, stunned to find a rather handsome, dark-haired man staring at me through the screen door.

“Yes?” I asked as greeting.

“Sorry to bother you,” the man said in a rather pleasant and polite voice. “I”ve just moved into the neighborhood. My son was flying his kite with the other children a couple of days ago, and I”m afraid it ended up getting stuck in your backyard. He came ringing, but there had been no answer. I saw a car parked outside, so I figured I’d come check if anyone was home,” he said with a sheepish grin.

“Oh, right,” I said with an apologetic smile of my own. “I”ve been away for business.”

“No worries,” he said, with a look of understanding. “I know what it”s like to be on the go all the time. Would it be okay for me to come in and retrieve it?”

“Wait right here. I”ll get it for you,” I replied.

“I wouldn”t want to trouble you—”

“Don”t worry, I’ve got it,” I interrupted. “I”ll be right back.”

Not waiting for him to respond, I turned on my heels and went out to the backyard through the patio door. For a moment, I had feared the kite might have fallen in my inground pool, but then realized it was much too far from the street to have reached it unless the rope had broken off. I circled around to the side of the house, wondering where it had fallen. I mentally kicked myself for not asking more questions before I left, but I was a little distracted. I wanted to be in and out of the house to run a few errands before I returned to the base. I had some naughty plans for Zain and me tonight in the real world before he snagged me into the Mist.

My heart nearly jumped out of my chest when I turned the corner to see the tall silhouette of the man standing right in front of the gate of the fence. I’d often considered changing it into a large board wooden fence that would give complete privacy. However, the current black iron fence was vintage with some impressive detailing, and the part of the backyard where I normally hung out was hidden from view.

The man smiled and pointed at the side of the house. Only then did I finally notice the kite. It had somehow gotten tangled on the satellite dish of my TV network service. I cringed, realizing how high the damn thing was. Heights and I didn’t get along, and I doubted my ladder would be tall enough to allow me to reach the kite. I lifted a finger towards him to indicate one minute then headed back around to the shed to retrieve the ladder. When I came back and put it down, one glance sufficed to confirm it wouldn”t be enough.

The intense stare of the man unnerved me. I always felt uncomfortable with people watching me work. But this was all the more irritating in that I didn”t know the man and that he was exuding very strong ‘Why don”t you just let a man do it?’ vibes. I didn”t even bother trying to climb the ladder and headed back inside to pick up a broom. When the man saw me return with it, he gave me a condescending smirk that made me want to punch him in the throat.

“If you let me in, I could handle this for you,” he offered. “I have a greater reach.”

“I”ve got this,” I said in a voice that brooked no argument.

This was now a personal challenge. I would prove his sorry ass that no, a woman didn”t need a man to do everything for her. Sucking it up, I climbed the ladder with the broom clutched in my hand. I silently addressed a prayer that I wouldn”t make a spectacle of myself or become paralyzed with fear at the top. Leaning against the wall, I reached with the broom to try and knock the kite out of there. After a couple attempts, I nearly succeeded, but the damn thing just tilted back into the nook that kept it stuck.

I growled with frustration but refused to let myself be defeated.

“Please, welcome me in,” the man insisted. “And this will all be over in a blink.”

His persistence pissed me off. However, something in his wording rubbed me the wrong way. A sense of unease settled in the pit of my stomach. I turned to look at him. He held my gaze unflinchingly for a few seconds before casting a meaningful glance at the gate.

I didn”t answer, and turned my attention back to the wretched kite. I gave it a couple of solid knocks with the tip of the broom. This time, it almost fell, but the broom slipped out of my hand, and I barely caught myself before I would have fallen off the ladder.

“For fuck sake!” the man exclaimed this time with obvious exasperation. “Just welcome me in your damn house.”

My blood turned to ice in my veins as understanding finally dawned on me. My head jerked towards him. Eyes wide, mouth gaping, I stared at the stranger’s face looking for some feature I would recognize from all the videos I had watched, but there were none. The branding on my chest began throbbing, and the tingle of ethereal energy made my small hairs stand on ends.

I carefully climb down the ladder, my stare never straying from him. A malicious smile stretched his lips, confirming he knew I had realized what he was. For some reason I couldn”t explain, I turned to the kite and pulled on the rope that was now dangling. The kite came falling down, and I caught it before it would hit the ground.

Turning back to the Nightmare, my gaze locked with his. “You are not welcomed inside my house. You”re not welcomed in my backyard. In fact, you are not welcomed anywhere on my property,” I said in an icy cold voice.

His face immediately constricted, but he swallowed back the pain of trespassing to continue staring at me. This time, so much hate burned in his eyes that a cold shiver ran down my spine. That he hadn”t collapsed to the ground, screaming in agony, or attempted to run the minute I had revoked his access to the public part of my residence proved that he was a very powerful Walker. Aside from Darryl, there had been no other Nightmares of this caliber reported in the neighboring cities. So, who the heck was he?

“As for this, you’re not getting it back,” I said, waving the kite in front of him. “As we say, finders keepers. Now, get the fuck off my property.”

“Oh, little Naima, how I”m going to make you pay for your insolence,” the man said.

My stomach churned upon hearing him use my first name. The male chuckled maliciously in response to the shocked expression on my face.

“I know everything about you and about that feeble Dark Desire called Zain,” he said in a voice filled with evil glee. “Enjoy him all you can tonight. By the time the Mist is over, Zain will be no more. And as for you, I will not kill you. I will keep you, feed off you, and teach you not to fuck with Darryl.”

“Darryl?!” I whispered in a horrified voice. “You can”t be him.”

“I am a man of many faces, little Naima,” Darryl said. “I will enjoy feeding on your terror and your pain, and wrecking that tight little cunt of yours. Dream of me, my beauty. Whether you want it or not, I will haunt every single one of them.”

On a reflex, I picked up my phone in my pocket and snapped a picture of the Nightmare who made no effort to hide his face. The cocky son of a bitch even struck a pose. Turning on his heels, he finally walked away towards an inconspicuous silver-grey vehicle parked in front of my house. I ran to the gate and took as many pictures as possible of the vehicle and of the license plate as he drove off.

Feeling faint, I leaned on the wall for support while calling Thomson. He ordered me to lock myself inside the house and not go anywhere until they arrived. I forwarded the images I had captured and took refuge the living room.

I sat on the couch, staring out the window for any sign of their car. By the time Zain, Thomson, and Tate parked in front of the house, I had finally stopped shaking. I had never been one to easily let strangers inside my home, but I finally understood how easily most people would have welcomed in their death.

Zain stormed out of the vehicle and raced to my door. I opened the first door at the same time he was climbing the handful of stairs. Just as I was reaching to unlock the screen door, my man stopped dead in his tracks. He wrinkled his nose as if he’d been struck by a nasty smell. A horrified expression suddenly descended on his face, and his head jerked towards the two agents also running up to the house. They gave him an inquisitive look, seeming as baffled as I felt by his strange reaction.

Without a word, Zain turned back towards me, his face having reverted to one of concern for me. My man yanked the screen door open with such brutality he nearly tore it off its hinges before drawing me into a bone crushing embrace. To my shame, tears of both fear and relief burst out of my eyes, and I began to sob pathetically on his shoulder. Zain carried me inside the house. He sat on the couch, settled me on his lap, and gently cradled me in his arms. He caressed my hair without speaking a word, allowing me to expend the overwhelming emotions that had been choking me since that encounter.

By the time I regained my composure, Tate was sitting at the other end of the couch, and Thomson was extending me a glass of water, which I gratefully accepted. Feeling a little embarrassed, I wiped my face with the back of my hand and gulped down nearly half the contents of the glass.

The men gave me a thorough interrogation about everything that had just happened.

“His power is insane,” Zain said grimly. “That he was able to stand there and converse with you that long after you had banished him says a lot. But how can he have a different face? When was your last video of him recorded?”

“The last one where we actually see his face was before the last Mist,” Thomson said pensively. “Even though he has been quiet for the past few weeks, I doubt he underwent some kind of aesthetic surgery. So, we can only assume that during the last Mist, he chose to be reborn in a new body. But why?”

“It would have made sense if you wanted to hunt incognito,” Tate reflected out loud. “But then why show his face to Naima? Why reveal his identity?”

“Because he wants to send us on a wild goose chase,” Zain said in an angry tone. “And because he also wants to flaunt just how powerful he is. No one recreates a body just for the heck of it considering the energy cost involved. He”s making a statement about his endless resources. He”s telling me to run because I will never be able to defeat him.”

Silence settled over the room with every eye locked on my man. He had stated the last sentence in a factual, almost nonchalant, manner. I hated that I couldn”t read his mind to know his mental state. Over the past few weeks, Zain had learned the art of the poker face.

“I will enjoy watching the light fade from his eyes when I drain the last of his lifeforce,” Zain finally said with such hatred in his voice that goosebumps erupted all over my skin.

I didn”t know how he intended to defeat Darryl, but something had changed in my man. My money was on the fact that the Nightmare had made it personal by attacking his mate.

“What I want to know is how the fuck does he know my name and yours? How does he know where I live?” I asked, still shaken by the events.

“For your address, he might have followed you from the base,” Thomson said, frowning. “Many of the sentient Nightmares have realized the Observatory is a governmental agency. Even though your name isn’t indicated on your mailbox, he could still have gotten it off your mail. But that doesn’t explain how he knows of Zain.”

“Could he have witnessed us killing the other Nightmares that roamed the city?” Tate suggested. “After all, we would have mentioned Zain’s name. And when he stood outside your screen door, he could have felt your energy, recognized it as matching Zain’s and put two and two together.”

I nodded slowly. Technically speaking, it actually worked. But I wasn’t fully sold. Zain, staring at the floor with an unreadable expression on his face didn’t help.

“Let’s take my mate back to the base. Time is ticking. The Mist approaches. I can feel it in my bones,” Zain said in a stern voice.

The others agreed and stood as one. They patiently waited as I went around to lock the rest of the entry points of the house and activated the shutters. Zain sat in the passenger seat of my car as I drove back to the base. Thomson and Tate followed in our wake. My man didn”t say a word during the entire ride back. He wasn”t depressed or beating himself up as I had expected he would. Something was troubling him, and I could see his wheels turning. I had to bite my tongue multiple times not to ask him what was going on in his head. But at a visceral level, I knew he needed this time to sort out his thoughts and therefore left him alone.

When we arrived at the base, Zain didn”t go back to our quarters with me. He waited for Thomson to come out of his vehicle and immediately requested a talk in private. No sooner had Thomson said yes than my man was already heading towards the elevators. Tate and I stared at the two men with confusion.

So much for our kinky pre-Mist evening.