The creature nuzzled into my hand. ‘The tall ones tried… to make slaves ofGaladrias.’
The Galadrias called the sentries “tall ones” because of their humanoid, elongatedbodies.
‘You fought back?’I asked, confused. The Galadrias never took sides, didn’t getinvolved.
Her eyelids fluttered as she struggled to stay conscious.‘Galadrias fond of humans. Galadrias think for themselves… would rather die than beslaves.’
With a final sputtering cough that sent fluorescent fluid all over my legs, shedied.
I sat back on my heels and looked out at the landscape. What the hell was happening? Things were changing. The sentries were trying to enslave the beautiful gentle Galadrias, and they were fighting back? That was unheard of. They were skittish and if in conflict, they just took to the skies. They didn’tfight.
I sat there stunned, saddened and utterlyconfused.
“Psst. Let’s move out,” Brisk whispered to my right, and I gathered myself. Sitting here in shock wouldn’t help us survive this night. This blood was still warm; the sentries that struggled with the Galadrias must have left recently and might be back. I looked over at our group. It was weird to see Tatum fully formed in the dream war, as opposed to the spectral ghostlike person that was Lucy. She was a woman now, and atarget.
I stood and shook off as much of the blood as I could. My team needed me to be strong, and now more than ever I wanted the plasma cuff thing to work so we could get a break. This war was finally beginning to wear me down, and I was losing my will tofight.
“Maxine, Brisk, sweep our path and take the lead. Nox and Ronnie, bring up the rear. We’re going to be on the move tonight. We can’t stay here.” I barked the orders and my team fell in line. I would stay in the middle of the group, right with theclients.
We started moving and my gaze flicked over to Lucy, who clung to Tatum’s arm. Technically Lucy couldn’t be physically hurt in the Dream War, but mental scars were often deeper than those of the flesh. If we left her behind after just losing her father, and she had to ruminate alone with her thoughts—hearing scary noises and seeing scary things—she’d wake up a completely different person. I was going to try to preserve some of her innocence, if I could. Give her the illusion of family and safety if only for tonight, because it was probably the worst night of her life. Then we would most likely never see heragain.
“Hey, what happened back there?” Damien whispered, as he stepped up besideme.
My eyes were razor sharp as I scanned the horizon. I didn’t like change. I wanted the Dream Wars to stay the same so I could prepare and know what I was dealingwith.
“Sentries tried to enslave more Galadrias. They foughtback.”
He looked impressed. “I’ve never seen themfight.”
I shook my head. “Me neither. They’re gentle creatures, like elephants or dolphins.” I knew his opinion of them wasn’t very positive, by the way he’d reacted when he’d seen me talking to Dawn lasttime.
He looked at the ground. “I’m sorry. You seem to like them… so I’m sorry you had to see that backthere.”
I gave him a side eye and nodded, unsure what else tosay.
After a while of walking, I looked at his arm cuff. “You think it’ll work thistime?”
He glanced at the rough hunk of carbon fiber that had clearly been quickly stitched together. “It has to,” he sighed. “I’m overthis.”
I chuckled. “I’ve been over this since the day they landed.” But that didn’t change the fact that we were stuck in thissituation.
Ronnie gave a low warning whistle and I froze, dropping to the ground and yanking Damien down with me. The others caught on quickly so we were all crouching. We were somewhat hidden among some foliage, but it would not be a good place for battle. I couldn’t see well beyond the large pods trees, and my reach wasn’t good to use myswords.
My eyes flicked to the back of our line, to Ronnie and Nox and what they may have seen or heard. Ronnie was crouched low, gun in her hand, peering around one of thebushes.
“Oh my God!” Ronnieshrieked.
My eyes widened. “What is it?” I whisper-screamed. Why the hell was she being so loud if there was an impendingthreat?
Ronnie stood then. “It’s a cat!” she squealed with pure joy andwonder.
Jesus.I sat back on my heels and groaned. “You made me think we were about to be jumped by a squadron of sentries. I’ve used up all my adrenaline for the night now,” I told her, still trying to get my heart to stoppounding.
Brisk and Maxine were too far ahead to hear, so Brisk was looking at me questioningly. I stood and made the announcement to everyone. “It’s just a cat,” I saiddismissively.
I freaking hated cats. They were psycho. I knew there weren’t many left on Earth and they should all be treasured and blah blah blah, but we’d had a cat for a few months until the ghouls got to it. All it ever did was knock over my water glasses and lord over the apartment like it owned theplace.
“My baby!” Ronniecooed.
