Tease Page 3

  Philip pressed his chest to my back. His hips mashed to my body as his free hand wrapped around my belly, so I moved when he did. We practiced a few stabs, and then a couple sideways cuts through the air. “Like that. See how much more natural that feels? You never want to give your enemy the impression they could easily best you, which is what you do when you wave your weapon around like a lunatic.”

  He stopped moving my arm with the sword around, and I realized he was rubbing my stomach. He lavished me with too much attachment and tenderness to be the evil villain I knew he really was. I stepped away from him, my expression displaying just how frustrating this whole situation was. “Why me? You could’ve dreamwalked with Mariang or any number of women, probably.”

  Philip sat down on the sand near the perfect blue ocean, waving his hand to the empty spot by his side for me to join him. I sat across from him instead, my back to the gently lapping waves. Our conversation felt intimate, surrounded by the dark of night as we were. “Dreamwalking only exists with Omens, and Mariang knows what I look like. She would never let me get as close as you did. You practically jumped me the first minute after I came into your mind.”

  “That’s because I thought you were fake! Had I known, I never would’ve let you near me.”

  The corner of his mouth lifted to tease me. “You know now, and we’re near enough for all sorts of our favorite things.”

  “Shut up, you. Make no mistake, you’re not getting anywhere near this baby. She’s not yours anyway. She’s mine and Von’s.”

  Philip’s glare was sharp. “You think I don’t know when you’re lying to me by now?”

  “Fine. We don’t know whose she is, but one thing’s for sure – she’s mine. And I won’t let her set foot inside Terraway.”

  Philip waved his hand at my threat. “I can dreamwalk with Omens, having never met you before. I’ll dreamwalk with September as soon as she’s able. She’ll come to me because I can give her a life without the duties she’ll be born into as an Omen. I can give her land, wealth, servants – all of it. I can give you both those things.”

  I scoffed. “You don’t have land. You’re trapped on an island. I’ll pass on eternal incarceration, but thanks.”

  Philip lowered his chin to glower at me. “I own land all over Terraway that civilians exchanged for my rations.”

  “You can give me land that shouldn’t even be yours. Fantastic. If you know me by now, you should know that I’d never take property that people gave up out of desperation.” I bristled, and moved to stand. Standing when you’re super pregnant is frustrating. Add sand to that equation, and I qualified for a Three Stooges type of physical comedy act. Philip steadied me and lifted me up more gracefully. I took a step back from him, my chin level. “Your army tried to kill me when I was in Silo! You don’t give a crap about anything but owning. You want to own me, own September.”

  A fierce light flared in Philip’s eyes. “I didn’t know you would come out and fight with Kabayo’s people. I assumed you’d be safe inside his stone palace, which is where you should’ve been. My lieutenant had orders to take out Kabayo’s army if they didn’t surrender the stone. You were never meant to come to any harm.”

  “You don’t know the first thing about me if you think I’d let people fight while I sit in the palace, sipping margaritas.”

  “You’re still alive. You’re safe. There’s nothing to be upset about. You slept with me of your own free will. I could’ve forced myself on you, but I didn’t have to.”

  I gaped at him. “That’s how you’re playing this off? You’re a jerk! I can’t believe how messed up this whole situation is. You really think this’ll end well for you? You think this is the way to get me to play your game?”

  “I’m not trying to play a game. I never lied to you. You named me Philip. You made the first advance. I’ve never had a woman look at me like you do – or like you did. Ask me anything; I’ve no reason to lie to the mother of my child.”

  I ground my fingers into my temples. “For the last time, this baby’s mine and Von’s, not yours.”

  “Whatever you need to tell yourself.”

  “Fine, you want to give me answers? How can you dreamwalk with me if we’ve never met?”

  Philip didn’t seem surprised that I was cutting to the hard stuff. “Years of practice. A few failed attempts. You’re certainly not the first one I’ve dreamwalked with.”

  “Actually how, Philip. Jeez.”

  He sighed, scratching his elbow. “I drank the blood of my master’s wife before she passed. She’s a powerful Kapre, just like her husband. Or was, anyway. It was all decades ago. A century, even. It gave me certain abilities that no one else has. I can do a great many things with people’s minds. It’s how I gained control of my army – taking the mindless undead and bending them to my will. It was harder at first, but it’s easy as breathing now. When your mind is the only weapon you have, you learn to use it well.”

  My mouth went dry. “You can mind-meld people who are still alive, can’t you.”

  “I’m working on it. The rations I gave to the desperate people of Terraway help to dull their minds so I can get in.”

  “You’re seriously telling me all this?”

  Philip shrugged. “Why would I hide it? You’re my wife, or you will be anyways. Besides, it’s not a secret for those who pay attention to the signs. Everyone knows I can control the undead. It was only a matter of time before I tired of them and moved on to the living. And see? You’re a good match for me, because you’d already figured most of that out.”

  I shook my head at the state of things. “I actually told Ezra that this was what I thought you might be up to. You’re right; all the signs were there.”

  “More proof that I won’t lie to you.”

  I chewed this over, tugging on my fingers as I thought. “Okay. So you’re saying I’m mindless? That’s why you could dreamwalk with me, even though I’m not undead? It’s because I’m mindless as a zombie? I’m gullible? Is that it?”

  Philip had the nerve to laugh. “That’s got nothing to do with it, though you did sleep with me rather easily, so I can’t speak to your gullibility.”

  “I hate you so much.”

  He waved off my insult as if it was no concern. “I can dreamwalk with you because you’re an awakened Omen. I’ve done it before, you know. Dreamwalked with an Omen I’d never met. I did it wrong, though. It all works better once the Omen is awakened. I learned how to do it more gently without harming my subject once I figured that out.”

  “Are you kidding me with this? Who did you hurt? How many girls have you knocked up like this?”

  “Jealous, are we?” he teased.

  I shot him a simpering look. “Shut up. How’d you hurt them? What happened to them?”

  “There was only one other that I successfully grew my seed in, but many I’ve tried with.”

  My face soured. “Dude, gross. Way to disgusting up the whole thing. Don’t say ‘grew my seed.’ You sound about ninety when you talk like that.”

  Philip laughed, though I couldn’t tell you why. “I’m well over ninety, actually. I love that you’re not afraid of me. There’s something truly adorable about your ignorance.”

  “I thought I told you to shut up.” I continued tugging at my fingers to keep from scratching at the backs of my hands. “What happened with the one you got pregnant before? Did she carry the baby to term?”

  “She couldn’t handle it. Her body wasn’t as strong as yours is. I didn’t understand what I know now. You need the himila weed to sustain the pregnancy. You need it, or you’ll lose the baby, and when you do, your life force will go out with the fetus. Or at least most of your life force will, anyway.”

  My pulse started to race. “Are you kidding me? Your baby killed the other girl?”

  “Didn’t kill her, but left her brain partially muted. She can’t access her body anymore. She wasn’t awakened when my spies found her and told me they suspected she was an Ome
n. I waited a long time for Ezra to find you, to awaken you properly. I covered myself and dreamwalked with Mariang to give her the vision that led the Manauls to you. She still has no idea it was me who put your family’s name into her head.”

  I gaped at this. “What the crap, Philip? That’s messed up.”

  He spoke as if reasoning out which kind of gardening tools would best grow the ripest tomatoes. His finger was pressed to the dimple in his chin while he spoke. “I think the fact that I waited for you to be awakened, plus you ingesting the himila weed is perhaps the difference that’s helped you to be able to carry my child this long. The other pregnancy didn’t last more than three months.”

  “Oh man, that poor girl. Did she even know about Terraway?”

  “No. She didn’t need to know. She only needed to keep our child alive, but she couldn’t manage even that.”

  “I hate you so much that you did that to some poor girl. Who was she?” I don’t know why I asked. It felt like someone should know the unfortunate girl’s name, to mourn the life she’d had no control over. At least I had Ezra to explain things to me. She’d meandered through a psychic pregnancy alone, no doubt thinking she was crazy.

  Philip paused. “I’ll tell you, but only so you know that I’ve never lied to you. And by the way, she loved me in our dreams, even more than you did.”

  “Tell me, then.”

  Philip shot me a look of pity, like I was stupid or something for not knowing all of his past conquests. “I can only dreamwalk with Omens, and you’re genetically set up to be one. So was your sister, Allison.”

  I stumbled backward, the whole world melting into a sandstorm that I couldn’t get ahold of. The beach was suddenly in an uproar, the waves coming from out of nowhere and crashing at our feet as the sand swirled around us in time with my shock, anger and blind rage. I lunged at Philip, not needing a sword to inflict the damage he’d done to my soul with a single sentence. Insults and hurt that came from a long-dormant part of me roiled up to spew at him as I punched and clawed, trying to gouge out his eyes with my fingernails to damage him the way he’d damaged my Allie.

  When he calmly pushed my attack away, I ran to the sword, furious that he wasn’t more afraid of me. “Hani, understand that I loved your sister. We had a great many conversations about you. How do you think I already knew you so well?”

  “You were fake!” I shouted as I drove my sword toward his gut. Philip dodged more easily than I thought he should’ve been able to, countering my rage coolly.

  “Calm down. This can’t be good for the baby.”

  “You took Allie from me! You fried my sister’s brain? I’ll end you!” When my second stab got me nowhere, I took all the lightning and thunder in my soul and conjured up a legit Tyrannosaurus Rex. Rex seemed like the most terrifying thing at my disposal. My monster barreled through the sandstorm toward Philip, who blinked at my new pet with actual fear of the unknown. I guessed Terraway didn’t feature a whole lot of dinosaurs.

  Good.

  “I can show her to you! But if you kill me in your dreams, I don’t know what will happen in real life. Kill me, and you’ll never see Allison again!”

  I held up my hand to Rex. My dinosaur was every bit as fearsome as Jurassic Park had trained me to understand his breed to be. Jeff Goldblum would be so proud. “Take me to her now! Take me to Allie, and then you die.”

  Philip looked up at the scaly creature who dropped a puddle-sized gob of saliva next to him. Rex grunted with hunger, waiting for my command. “She’s in a coma at St. Jude’s Memorial Hospital in California. She’s there under a false name. Jane Doe or something.”

  “Good. Now, you die.”

  Philip help up his hands to stop me from clicking my fingers to my oversized Jurassic puppy. “It was an honest mistake. I didn’t know I needed the Omen awakened for the baby to survive. I didn’t know I needed to give her the himila weed. Look at how well you’ve carried our child. I’m not the monster you think I am. I cared for your sister, and I care for you.”

  “Allie didn’t tell you crap about me, otherwise you’d know that messing with my family gets you nothing but six feet under.” I snapped my fingers, giving Rex permission to unleash on Philip.

  Rex let out a bloodcurdling roar that scared even me as the vibrations shook my bones. My monster didn’t waste any time bending down to tear Philip’s thoughtless head clean off his body, but seconds before he could close his jaws around his prey, Philip vanished into thin air.

  Four.

  How Crazy it All Sounds

  “I’m telling you, I’m going – with or without all of you.”

  Danny jutted his chin out to match my stubbornness. “And I’m telling you, there’s no way. You’re a couple weeks away from your due date. Not exactly the time for a cross-country trip.”

  “Hello, I’m going to a hospital. If I go into labor, I’m sure they know the song and dance of how to deliver a baby in California.”

  “You need your doctor. You need to rest. Bedrest, kid. That’s what you’ve been prescribed, so march!” Danny pointed his finger to the bedroom with imperious authority.

  “I can sit in a car just the same as sitting in a bed. This is my sister, Danny! My sister’s lying somewhere in a hospital without me! She needs me!” The thought of her hooked up to life support with tubes and needles all over her choked me around the throat and threatened my sanity. I couldn’t bear the thought of her alone in a room for years now with no one to brush her hair or tell the hospital her name wasn’t friggin’ Jane Doe.

  Danny held up his hands to calm me down. “Look, you’re getting this information from where? It came to you randomly in a dream? You have to know how crazy it all sounds!”

  I chewed on my lower lip, wishing I didn’t have to offer up the entire confession. “It wasn’t exactly random. Philip, I mean Sama, came to me in my dream last night.”

  Any traces of friendship that had been blooming between us turned icy by the time my sentence hit the air and crackled between us. Boston’s hand in mine turned stony, and Graham, Alton and Mariang all gasped. “He what?” Danny asked in a deadly low tone, his fists clenched.

  I threw out my free hand in exasperation. “I can’t exactly help it. And I tried to kill him in my dream, but he like, evaporated out before I could end him. He told me I wasn’t the first Omen he’d tried to get pregnant, that he’d done the same thing with Allie.” My heart tugged painfully. I tried to rip my hand from Boston’s so I could scrape at my skin, but the smarty only clung tighter. “Sama got my Allie pregnant, but something about her not being awakened first, or not having the stupid weed fried her brain. Fried her brain, Danny! That’s why he’s been giving me the himila weed. It’s how September’s stayed healthy.”

  Danny took a step back and rubbed his forehead as he processed the new information. “But Mariang was the only Omen for years before you came along. We didn’t even know you had a sister until you told Ezra that first day we met you.”

  “Somehow Sama knew Allie could be an Omen before anyone else did, so he got into her mind and got her pregnant before she could be awakened.”

  Danny spun on his heel and yanked out his phone, calling Ezra from the kitchen. I stood in the middle of the living room, wishing I was standing next to Allie. Allie who hadn’t abandoned us. Allie who loved me. Allie who needed me.

  Mariang came to life first, standing and wrapping her arms around me. “I’m so sorry! I’ll help you get to her however I can. We’ll find her.”

  “St. Jude’s Memorial Hospital in California. She’s Jane Doe!” I cried, utterly woebegone. “No one even knows that she’s loved, that she belongs to a family.” I squeezed Mariang as tears started to fall, our bellies dueling for space in our hug. We both felt September reach out to press her hands to Mariang’s baby, which made us cling tighter to each other. “Allie needs me, and I won’t lie around while she’s scared.”

  “We’ll find her. We’ll find her. Dad’s not going to rest if o
ne of his children is out there and needs help.”

  I nodded, knowing she wasn’t just trying to make me feel better. “Thank you. She needs to meet you. Having you on my side? It’s made all the difference. She needs you in her life. She’d love you.” I stomped my foot to the floor when Graham’s hand rested on my back. “And where’s Ollie? He needs to be here!”

  Mariang nodded, releasing me. “I’ll go talk to Dad, make sure he orders Prince Langgam to bring him home today. They’ve been in touch, but Prince Langgam’s insisted Ollie’s been a great help to him down there. The country’s in an upset, and Ollie’s good in those kinds of crises.”

  “This is more important. I need him here right now.”

  Five.

  I’ll be in Bed, if Anyone Needs Me

  “I don’t know why you’re looking at me like I’m a human clock or something. He’s your brother.” Danny had regressed back into his surly self, which was a comfort in its own way – knowing that some things were constant in a world of change.

  “I’m looking at you because you’re just so darn pretty. Like an ad for fabric softener or something. Downright sunshiny.” I was on the couch nestled between Alton and Graham. It was the most adventure I’d had in a while – moving to sit on the couch. Let me tell you a little story about bedrest: it’s boring. Making Danny even angrier was a welcome distraction from the monotony of reading medical journals and watching TV on the tablet in bed with everyone except Von.

  “Deal with her,” Danny groused to Mariang, who was doing yoga in the corner with Boston. Well, she was doing yoga. Boston was drinking a beer while standing on one foot. Not quite the same thing.

  “Ollie’s on his way,” Mariang reassured me, and then sighed dreamily. “I was thinking of Solomon.”

  Danny’s ears perked up. “Who’s Solomon?”

  “If it’s a boy. What do you think of Solomon Daniel Vandershot?”

  Danny shrugged. “I feel about as enthusiastic about Solomon as I did with Jeremiah, Kyle and Frederick. Whatever you like is fine. Just make sure when you shorten it, the nickname isn’t obnoxious.”