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The atmosphere of the dream instantly darkened as the air grew cold and stale.

“This isn’t real.” Amaliya hesitated. “Right?”

Bianca closed her eyes, tears sparkling along the edge of her eyelashes. “I’m still here.”

“Bianca?” Amaliya lashed out, trying to grab her hands, but darkness flooded over Bianca, consuming her. “Bianca!”

Amaliya awoke again.

Sitting up, she pressed her hands to her face to discover she’d been crying in her sleep.

Chapter 4

The second Amaliya stepped into the gaming store, every eye in the place turned toward her and all conversations instantly ceased. Benchley rocketed out from behind a long counter toward her while his sister yawned dramatically and continued tapping away on a laptop.

“Hey, Amaliya!”

Benchley’s voice filled the store. The noticeable lack of talking was starting to annoy Amaliya, as were the pointed stares in her direction. Wearing black jeans, a Black Sabbath tank top, and high heels, Amaliya knew she looked hot, but the attention she was getting was ridiculous.

“Haven’t y’all ever seen a woman before?” Amaliya muttered.

One half of the store was filled with books, collectible dolls, boxes filled with miniature armies, and things Ama

liya would label as nerdy. The other half of the store was crammed with long tables covered in small buildings, foliage, and figurines surrounded by human males and only one or two females. The boys and men were of all ages, from a kid who looked around ten to an old wizened man in a wheelchair. Half of them needed a shower desperately.

“Neck beards, return to your games!” Alexia shouted from behind the counter.

The rumble of voices started back up just as Benchley reached her. “I didn’t know you were coming to the store tonight.”

“Neither did I,” Amaliya confessed. Sweeping her hair back from her face, she glowered at a guy who was breathing heavily while staring at her. “But I need to talk to you. It’s important.”

“Yeah, totally. Let’s talk in my office.” Taking her arm, Benchley rushed her toward a door that opened to a small office. “Ignore the weird looks. Most of these guys have never seen a girl that looks like you in real life.”

Amaliya narrowed her eyes. “So that gives them permission to be totally weird?”

“No, no. It’s just...” Benchley shook his head, then ushered her inside the small cramped office.

The walls were covered in posters for a variety of games sporting scary looking men with huge weapons. A few movie posters were thrown into the mix, most of them sporting sexy women in leather. The desk was covered in books, notebooks, paper clutter, a laptop, and then a much bigger desktop computer with a wide screen monitor. On the screen a spaceship was floating in space. Like the rest of the store, the room smelled like a guy who needed to take a shower and put on fresh clothes. It was the smell that inhabited most of the dorm rooms of the college guys she’d dated.

Sitting down on a folding chair and crossing her legs, Amaliya stared at Benchley. “Well? Why the freakout?”

“Some of the guys out there are totally cool. Good paying jobs, steady relationships, the works. But some of those guys, this is their life. Sitting in this store and playing games. Maybe they lost a job and can’t find another. Maybe they had a bad life and gaming is the thing that makes it better. And some of them...some of them have no clue how to interact with another human being because they were never treated like a human being. By anyone. I will talk to them about the staring though. That was totally uncool and creepy.” Benchley sat in his battered office chair and scratched at his beard nervously. “Honestly, Amaliya, I’m somewhere down the middle of all those guys. I have a rotten track record with broads.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t call women ‘broads’. That could be your problem.” Amaliya folded her arms over her breasts and arched an eyebrow.

“Good point.” Benchley’s one eye kept twitching and he kept looking everywhere but at her.

“Are you okay?”

Laughing nervously, Benchley said, “Uh, I’m a little...uh...scared.”

“Because I’m a woman and in your office?”

“No. More like because you’re a vampire and a necromancer and could kill me with your pinky.”

The words stung even though she knew he hadn’t meant them to hurt. “You’ve got a point. But we’re friends, so I’m not going to eat you.”

Benchley’s face turned a shade of red that was pretty impressive. “Cool.”