“That’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind kind of shit.” Felix’s voice is full of awe. “Makes sense, though—you do deal with the subconscious. Still, scary.”
“Yeah.” I pocket my phone. “And the bit about hiding his own or other people’s dreams inside someone else’s dreamscape—that’s just as crazy. It would give dreamwalkers a way to hide information so that only another dreamwalker could find it.”
“Not the best method,” Felix says. “What if the person who has information hidden inside their dreams dies?”
We both fall silent. It’s obvious he’s thinking what I’m thinking: Could Leal have hidden something inside the dreams of the other victims, something that someone killed them to hide? But if so, who?
I head for the door. “I think I’d better get more information to work with.” Another yawn threatens as I walk, and I instinctively pat the vial of vampire blood in my pocket.
Wait a second. It’s too soon for another hit, so why am I even thinking about this? Is this a craving? The start of an addiction?
I’d better keep a close eye on this.
Performing the bellows breath technique to wake myself a little, I reach for the door knob.
What the hell? It’s locked.
Did Kain do that?
That’s just great. Now I need to do the opposite of bellows breath to fight my panic.
“He said he’d be back in an hour,” Felix chimes in, as if reading my mind. “You don’t have to wait long.”
“Still.” I eye the cooing doves. “These cannibals have a taste for dreamwalker flesh. We’re probably delicious.”
“Cannibal doves would eat other doves, not people.”
“Thanks, Felix, that really puts my mind at ease.” Before he can reply, I say, “In any case, the good thing about having Pom on my wrist is that I’m always ready to go into the dream world. Since I’m stuck here, I’m going to test out some of the things the dead dreamwalker was talking about.”
Raising my hand so that Felix can see, I touch Pom’s fur and slip into a trance.
Chapter Fifteen
The yummy scent of manna fills my nostrils as I appear in the lobby of my dream palace.
Pom pops up next to me. “I’ve missed you.”
I grin at him. “We’re attached, you know. But yes, I’ve missed you too.”
Pom turns purple, and his ears flap in a sort of happy dance.
I tell him an edited version of the events that have transpired so far, which boils down to getting “hired” to solve a case for the New York Council.
When I get to the part about Valerian, he says, “I can tell if he really looks the way you think. I can see through any illusion.”
I look my furry friend up and down, which doesn’t take long, given his small stature. “How?”
He floats up to my eye level. “I see through your eyes when I’m awake. Pretty sure the illusionist would have to target me with his powers to make us both see the same thing.”
“See through my eyes, right. Perfectly normal behavior for a symbiont. Not something a parasite would do at all.”
“Indeed,” he says, oblivious to my sarcasm. “And it can be useful.”
I snort. “Not really. You said you have to be awake. You’re almost never awake.”
His ears turn the color of carrots. “But you can wake me up.”
“I can? How?”
“By mentally shouting for me.” A lightbulb appears above his head. “Why don’t you wake up and try it right now?”
Intrigued, I exit the dream world and open my eyes back at the lab.
Pom, I mentally shout. Pom, wake up!
Then I look at my wrist.
The way to tell if he’s awake is that his fur will start to express his emotions instead of mine. Oh, and on a rare occasion, he’ll deign to speak as a voice in my head.
The fur is light orange, which could be his curiosity or mine. There’s not a peep from him in my mind.
Pom! Pom, wake up.
No reaction.
I touch his fur and draw myself back into the dream world.
“What happened?” he asks when I reappear in the palace. “You didn’t do it.”
“I shouted from the top of my brain like a lunatic.” I shake my head. “I don’t know, Pom. I don’t think you can be roused.”
He huffs. “With all that lack of sleep, your mind is just too muddy.”
“Sure, blame it on me.”
He gives me a furry frown. “It’s a wonder you can function at all.”
I just barely hold back an eye roll. “You know what? Let me tell you the rest of it.” I proceed to explain about the bits of dreamwalker diary—my reason for coming here in the first place.
“Do you have a link to a werewolf to see this inner wolf business?” he asks when I’m done.
“Afraid not. I’ve never worked with their kind. I guess I’ll find out what they’re like when I have to deal with the werewolf on this Council.”