“I’ll go to sleep.” He flipped onto his back. “You did it by accident the first time. There are two ways to enter someone’s dreams, one has to be taught, the other is quite simple.”
“I’m listening.” Was I ready for this? For more of the dark? My body shivered uncontrollably with the possibilities.
“The strength of every human lies… within their heart.” Cassius grabbed my hand and pressed it on the pulse in his wrist. “Follow the pulse.”
I frowned. “I’m sorry I don’t understand, what do you mean follow the pulse?”
“Follow it.” He yawned again, and his words became slurred. “I’ll see you in my dreams, Stephanie.”
Something about the way he lifted my fingertips to his mouth as a curved smile spread across his face. The way he tenderly held my hand.
It wasn’t just confusing. It was hurtful, because I knew, that when he was given his powers back, the darkness I saw in his eyes, in his dreams, would consume him once again, and he’d block me away from his life.
He had no room for love.
I waited a few minutes as his breathing became heavy and then another five minutes after that just to be sure.
“Here goes nothing.” I pressed my fingertips to his pulse and closed my eyes. How the heck was I supposed to follow the pulse?
And just as I thought it, the pulse started to call to me, as if a single thread was placed from my conscious into his subconscious.
Thump, thump, thump. The thread tugged me with each heartbeat until blackness burst forth into a beautiful night sky.
A campfire was set up with fur coats laid across the log nearest the crackling fire. A small cabin was in the distance, smoke billowing out of the chimney.
“You made it,” Cassius whispered from behind me, as a fur coat was spread across my shoulders.
Turning, I gasped when I noticed his eyes. They were white, powerful, he looked like he used to. “How did you—”
“My dream,” he answered quickly. “In my dream I imagine myself to be whatever I want to be, in my dream I am still me… and in order to train you, I figured this may aid in getting you there faster.”
Nodding, I followed him over to the fire and held out my hands. “It’s not warm.”
“Nothing, in our dreams will ever be warm.” He shrugged. “Your body temperature drops as we speak, mine to dangerous levels considering your presence in both my dream and in the room.”
I stood abruptly. “You could die!’
“Then I’d control myself if I were you.” He tilted his head, his eyes twinkling with amusement. “Or if you’d rather kill me now I imagine all you’d need to do was think hard about freezing my human ass.”
I smirked. “Human ass?”
“Humans have asses. Asses that freeze. Skin that falls off. Teeth that fall out. Wishes that never come true. Desires that are never acted on.” His eyes rolled to the back of his head as he continued to speak, this time with his voice lowered. “Dark Ones are quite similar. More powerful, yes. But we are unable to save the very creation we are aligned with. How horrible, do you think it is to watch a part of yourself die every day knowing you can do nothing to stop it?”
His white eyes flashed blue.
I think he expected me to answer, but I didn’t know what to say.
“You’ve seen it.” Cassius leveled me with a cold stare as his black hair whipped around his face. “I’ve seen you staring at my skin, frowning as my cells call out to you for aid. You were doing it before I fell asleep, you’ll be doing it for an eternity.”
“Your cells… call out to me?” I gulped.
“All human cells call out to Dark Ones. They see Dark Ones as a way to fix what’s been broken, it is in essence why a Dark One takes humans so easily as slaves, it is also why once a Dark One leaves a human he dies. The want is too great, the power is suddenly lost, the cells incinerate.”
I almost choked. “And yet here you are.”
“Here. I. Am.” His curt use of the sentence had me believing it was the last place he ever wanted to be. With a sweeping gesture, he waved his hands over the flame. It rose higher and higher. “A Dark One is like this fire…” The flame cracked and whipped angrily into the inky darkness. “Humans are the wood that keeps the fire burning, but Dark Ones? We are the very air that surrounds the fire, we can cause the fire to heat, helping those who are cold, or use the fire for bad, allowing the air to set the entire forest alight with flames. As a Dark One you must always control the flame. Always.”
“And if we can’t?” I swallowed, throat dry.