Page 20 of Deceiver (Soul Chasers #2)

Keagan

W here am I?

I peer through the darkness enveloping me, squinting in an attempt to make out my surroundings, but it’s too dark. The last thing I knew, I was in the guest bedroom taking a nap, but that’s definitely not where I’m at right now.

I keep walking forward as a shiver moves down my body. It’s very cold, and I’m wondering how I got here with no shoes and no jacket, considering the weather was warm when I fell asleep.

Where am I?

Nervous energy ripples through me, making my body tremble, but I push on, hoping I can find an exit and get back to the safety of Wilder’s home.

He’s supposed to be keeping an eye on me. Shouldn’t he know that something or someone took me away? I shake my head. I’ll have to deal with that later. First, I have to figure out where I am and how to get back.

“Hello, Keagan.”

I hear a voice, soft and kind, coming from behind me. I swing around, but there’s no one there. I must have imagined it.

“Come here. Come closer.”

I hear the voice again. This time, it sounds nearer, but I still can’t detect a person. I can’t even quite tell if the voice is male or female. I only know that every time I hear it, I’m drawn to it a little bit more.

“You’re almost there.”

The voice encourages me to keep walking until I find a door. Maybe this is the exit. I open it and rush through, stumbling as my feet land on thick leaves and branches on the ground.

When I look around, my surroundings become familiar—grandma and grandpa’s house. How did I get here? Then the obvious comes to me. I’m not actually here. I must be dreaming, but I won’t will myself to wake up, not if there’s a chance to see my grandparents again.

I step into the house and sit on the comfy couch. It’s the exact same as it always was when I was a little kid. As I sit, the smell of my grandmother’s chocolate chip cookies wafts around me. My stomach growls out of a nostalgic need for my grandmother’s baking.

“Grandma?” I say out loud. “Grandpa? Is anybody here?”

I’m met with silence. There’s nobody home. Maybe my grandparents went out. I get up and hurry to the kitchen to see if my grandmother’s there, but instead, I find a plate of cookies sitting on the stove top with a note. I hurry over to read the note and see that it’s addressed to me.

Enjoy the cookies .

I take one and bite into it, closing my eyes as the buttery goodness melts on my tongue. Oh, man, I forgot how good these tasted.

Cookie in hand, I walk to the other side of the house where my grandfather’s office was.

He was always there when he wasn’t in the garage, working on different projects, but the room is empty.

There’s only a small lamp on the desk, and everything else is far too neat and tidy for it to be my grandfather’s workspace.

My mind reminds me again that this is a dream. My grandparents are long dead. I think I’d like to wake up now.

“Keagan.”

I gasp when I hear my name again. This time, the voice sounds familiar, but distant.

“Who’s there? Who’s calling me?”

I glance around the room, seeing and hearing nothing, before deciding to walk back to the living room and look for an exit. It’s no fun being here if my grandparents aren’t.

There’s a door partly open in the living room, so I step through it, finding a shadowy figure standing in front of a block of trees. There’s something familiar about the figure, something comforting, even though I can’t quite make it out. Curiosity overwhelms me until I walk in that direction.

As I get closer, my legs begin to tremble when I realize who it is.

“Mom!”

I run towards her with my arms open, but she disappears right before my eyes, and I end up falling to the ground, my knees stinging from the twigs now embedded in my skin.

“Mom, where did you go?”

I call out a second time, but she’s not there. I must have imagined her. I don’t like this dream. I want to wake up now.

Retracing my steps and hoping to find an escape from this dream, I finally stumble upon another door. I run towards it, desperate to wake up and get out of this torture, but when the door opens, my breath catches when I see the man before me.

“Dad! Did you do all this? Did you bring me here?”

“I’m glad to see you, Keagan.” His voice is clear and strong again, like I remember it being the last time I saw him. “It’s been hard to get your attention, son. I asked you to get away from that man.”

“I can’t. I’m being attacked and I need him to help me.”

“No,” my dad says, “you need me to help you. That’s why I brought you here. To help you.”

I tilt my head, trying to make sense of what he’s saying. “I thought you needed my help?”

“We help each other,” my dad says. “I’ll keep you safe from that man. He’s a troublemaker.”

I shake my head. “Wilder’s not a troublemaker. He’s trying to help me.”

“He’s trying to get rid of me.”

“Well, yeah, because you don’t belong here. We’ve been over this before. It’s good to see you, Dad, but…” My words trail off as my brain goes hazy, like clouds are moving in, blocking my ability to think clearly. What the hell?

“What’s going on?”

“What do you mean?” my dad asks, stepping closer to me.

“I feel weird. Like something’s happening to me.”

“I don’t know. You seem fine.”

“This is a dream, right?”

I glance up, but the space around me is blurry. I can just make out my dad’s form, but he’s not moving closer to comfort me, he’s watching me.

“No, Keagan, this is not a dream. I brought you here because I need you to do something for me.”

“Okay, Dad,” I say, even as my stomach twists in knots. “What do you need me to do?”

“There’s someone I have some unfinished business with. If this works, you can help me tie up all the loose ends I left behind, and then I can rest in peace.”

“Okay, Dad, whatever you say.”

“That’s my boy. It’s really easy. I don’t need much from you right now, I just need you to relax and trust me. Can you do that, Keagan?”

“Relax,” I repeat, moving into a sitting position. “I can relax.”

“Yes, and learn to trust me. I’m not gonna hurt you. I would never hurt you.”

“Never hurt me,” I repeat, even as some desperate part of me tries to push through the fog in my mind.

It’s too strong, so I give in, exhaling slowly and lying slumped against the ground.

“You’re safe with me, kiddo.” My dad’s voice settles over me like a warm blanket, and the shivering stops. “It doesn’t even hurt,” he says.

“What are you talking about?” I ask, vaguely aware that his words don’t make sense to me.

“That’s it, Keagan, you’re doing fine.”

“What? What am I doing?”

Suddenly I feel light, as if I’m floating and gravity doesn’t exist anymore. I glance down at my body, but it doesn’t feel like mine. I’m so weirdly disconnected from reality.

“Just a little bit more.” My dad’s voice reaches me, but I can’t see him anymore.

“A little bit more what?”

I wake with a jolt, gasping for air.

“Keagan!”

I’m breathing heavily, and frantic as I try to catch my breath and orient myself again. I’m standing in the kitchen with a utensil drawer open, my hand gripping the base of a knife, and Wilder is here, holding my shoulders and gazing at me with concerned eyes.

“Are you okay? What happened?”

“Bad dream,” I mumble before leaning forward and putting my forehead on his shoulder. “I’m so glad to see you again. I couldn’t make myself wake up.”

“It’s okay. You’re safe now.”

“Thank goodness.” I glance up. “How did I get in here?”

“I don’t know. Maybe sleepwalking? I only left the room for a minute when I heard the stairs creaking. I found you here.”

I look down at the drawer, seeing several knives inside. A shiver moves down my spine.

“Can I get you some tea? Water?”

“No. I want to go back to bed.”

“Come on.”

He guides me back to the guest room and the two of us get on the bed.

“You’re feeling okay?” he asks.

“Um…” I rub my forehead, and as I gaze at Wilder, the strangest thing happens. My whole body heats and my cock stands at attention. It’s a visceral reaction, but it also startles the hell out of me.

I look down at my own body and pull the blankets up around my waist. Wilder doesn’t seem to notice. Thank fuck for that.

“Something wrong?” he asks.

“No, I just feel…” I clear my throat. “Sorry, but I think I will have some tea.”

Wilder nods. “I’ll be right back. Sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m sure. It was just a dream.”

Once he’s gone, I hop out of bed and bounce up and down on my toes, trying to make this strange burst of horniness go away. Why would I feel horny after a dream like that? Doesn’t make any sense.

I pace the room as thoughts of Wilder naked dance through my mind.

What the…?

I try shaking my head to make the visions go away, but they only seem to get stronger. Now this is weird, and it definitely hasn’t happened to me before. Maybe if I think of something very, very unsexy, it’ll go away. Like root canals. Yes, that’s it.

I squeeze my eyes closed and think about the drilling noise and the smell at a dentist’s office, which is a place I really hate going to, but it has no effect on my body. In fact, the more I try to get rid of the horny thoughts, the stronger they are.

I draw my zipper down and tug open my underwear. My dick is harder than it’s ever been in my entire life, I swear, but I have no clue what about this situation is making me react like this.

In an attempt to distract myself, I turn around and walk to the window, peering outside. It’s evening now, so I must have taken a pretty long nap.

I open the window and lean towards it, resting my forehead against the screen.

Out of nowhere, the ravens appear in the trees, flocking around the house like they’ve been summoned.

“Hey. Hey, birds,” I say to them.

The biggest one lands on the windowsill, doing the same thing it did before—tilting its head back and forth and studying me. When it lets out a loud screeching sound, flapping its wings wildly, I startle, jumping away from the window.

What? What did I do?

Wilder walks back into the room behind me, setting the tea down on the nightstand. “What happened?” he asks, walking over to the window.

“I don’t know. It just started making this noise, like it hated me or something.”

I noticed the concerned expression on Wilder’s face, but he just nods. “Come over here and drink some tea.”

“Okay, thanks.”

I walk back over to the bed and sit on the edge, lifting the mug and sipping the hot liquid inside. “I feel really weird, Wilder. I think something happened to me in that dream.”

“What do you mean?”

I figure the only way I can really explain what’s going on is to tell him the truth.

“I know this is gonna sound super weird, but look.” I gesture to my crotch and obvious bulge. “Do you see this?”

He looks down, his eyes going wide for a moment. “Yes.”

“Yeah, well, it came out of nowhere. I don’t know what’s going on. I tried to think of really unsexy things, but it won’t go away.”

“Interesting. You’ve never had that happen before?”

“No. I’m not twelve years old anymore and popping random boners for no reason. Normally, I require some sort of stimuli. A lot of it, actually.”

“Your dream wasn’t sexual in any way?”

“No, not in any way at all. I was at my grandmother’s house and I was eating her famous chocolate chip cookies.”

“Wait. You ate something in your dream?”

“Yeah. Why? Is that bad?”

“Not necessarily. What did you say you ate?”

“Just a cookie. It tasted real too, and just like I remember.”

“How did you find them?”

“There was a plate of cookies on the stove, and a note that told me to eat them. So I did, because they smelled just like the ones my grandmother made, and they tasted like it too.”

“Did you see anyone else in your dream?”

I nod. “I saw my mom and my dad.”

“You saw your dad?”

“Yeah. He was young again, like I remember him from when I was kid.”

“I see. Did you talk to him? Interact in some way?”

“I think so.” I try to remember that portion of the dream, but I’m coming up blank. “Actually, I’m not sure if I talked to anybody or if I just saw them. It’s all kind of hazy now.”

Wilder nods, but his expression is tight, worried.

“I was outside for a while, and then it was like I was in my grandparents’ backyard, and the smell of her cookies was all around me.”

“Anything else you can remember?”

I close my eyes for a moment, trying as hard as I can to recall fragments of the dream, but nothing else is coming to me.

“I don’t think so.”

Wilder offers a tight smile. “Sounds like a very vivid dream. It’s not surprising, given everything you’ve been through in the last few days. But let me ask you, do you always have vivid dreams?”

“No, not really. I usually don’t remember my dreams.”

“Hmm, okay.”

“Do you think it means something?”

“I’m not sure. I’m simply taking in information.” He scratches his chin. “Get some rest.”

“I don’t think I can.” My stomach rumbles loud enough to hear it. “Oof. I guess I’m hungry.”

Wilder nods, smiling slightly. “Why don’t you freshen up and come back downstairs?”

“Was everything okay while I was napping?”

“Yes. It’s been the quiet house I’m used to. I think whatever Calliope did, it definitely helped.”

“Okay, good. I’ll be right down.”

“See you soon.”

Wilder leaves the room, and I take another few minutes to sip my tea and try to recall my dream, but it seems to end when I was eating the cookies.

It probably doesn’t mean anything anyway. I bet it happened because I’ve got my family on my mind with all this weird stuff going on. That’s all. Still, it was nice to see my mom, even if it was only for a few fleeting seconds.

I try to remember if I interacted with my dad or if he was just there, but it’s almost like I keep running into a wall that blocks my memories of the rest of the dream.

Oh well. I need to shake it off. Probably wasn’t that important anyway.