The Falcon Ridge Series Book 4: Art of a Girl

(Chapter song ‘Crazy Train' by Joseph William Morgan)

BASTIAN

I snort awake and raise my head. I look around, and I’m in dark blue light.

‘…Bastian…’

I run a hand up my face and through my hair. “Sam?” I say groggily.

‘…Bastian…wake up…’

I search the blue for her voice that sounds miles away. “Sammy?” I get up off the floor and stand. A light fog rolls around me as I step through the empty space. “SAMMY!”

I walk around and stop when I see a shadow. I train my eyes on it as I head in its direction. I wave the fog from my face and squint my eyes to see better. “Sam?”

“Bastian!!”

I stop dead as I see her form change from standing still to running at me at full speed.

“SAMANTHA!!” I break into a sprint and don’t take my eyes off her as she gets closer.

“BASTIAN! IT’S A TR…”

I slam into something invisible and hard. I bounce off it and fall to the floor.

I hold my head and groan as I look at the barrier. My eyes widen when Sam comes into full view and hits the other side. She sees me and starts bouncing, clawing, and smacking the barrier.

“SAM!” I stand and search the whole thing. It covers every inch of space in front of me and appeared out of nowhere. I touch it where she is. I can’t hear a word she’s saying, but I’m trying to read her lips. “How do I get you out?! I can’t… Baby, I can’t hear you!” I motion to my ear as she hits the barrier made of glass, then she looks behind her.

“Sam? What’s wrong? SAMMY!” I bang on the glass to get her attention.

She turns back to me. She’s mouthing words fast and chaotically. I can’t understand her.

“I…I just can’t…” I concentrate. “It’s… It’s a… It’s a what, Sam?” I place my hands on the glass as I try to follow her lips, but she keeps turning around to look behind her.

“Sam!” I smack the glass, and she turns back.

She’s crying, and fear is all over her face. I think she mouths, ‘help me’ as she tries to break the glass on her side, and the dark behind her starts to fill with red light. Her fists punch the glass furiously as the red light gets brighter. She begs me with her eyes, and I know she screamed my name.

I see the lights change to eyes. I bounce on my toes and palm the glass. “RUN! SAMMY, GET OUT OF THERE!!” I throw an arm out. “SAMMY!!”

She mouths my name, and her chest hits the glass like something hit her from behind. She screams as she's yanked away from the barrier into the darkness. Her outstretched hand is the last thing that disappears.

“NOOOOO!!” I clasp my fists together and slam them against the glass determined to smash it. Each hit results in blue rings flowing out from my fists as they connect, but the glass isn’t breaking.

I press my chest to the barrier and scream her name as both fists punch it over and over.

Then I freeze.

From the black on the other side of the barrier, the laugher grows. Soon, footsteps follow. I pinpoint where it’s coming from straight ahead and take a step back from the glass.

In the blue light and fog, Chase’s form walks into the light. My wolf rises, and my eyes glow. My lip snarls and my fists ball.

He looks me over as he saunters to the barrier with his hands in his pockets and sick grin on his face.

“Keep trying, buddy. You aren’t gonna break it.” He says smugly.

“How come I can hear you?” I grit.

“It’s simple, really.” He steps to the glass and looks me over. “You’re in my world now.” He locks with my glare.

“What are you?” I pump my fists at my sides.

He scratches his temple. “I’m just a product of my father’s creation. I was given a special gift. My father gave me access to your mind, Sam’s and anyone else I choose with one… single… touch.”

‘Dr. Chase Rennet.’

My mind flashes to his smiling face, glasses, and the handshake we shared when I first met him.

‘See you next session.’

‘OK. Dr. Rennet.’

Memory of him touching Sam's arm as he leaves her office.

My eye meets his. “How?”

He glances at me, then paces. “You ever hear of dream walking, Alpha Cole?”

“No.”

He stops. “Dream walking is the practice of being able to jump from one person’s dream to another. I first learned I could do it when I accidently fell into my mother’s dream. She happened to be dreaming of my father at the time. The man she hid from me for 14 years. When I saw him, I had to know what was happening, so I did a little digging, and the more I dug, the more fascinating Draco Torrent became.”

He continues to walk. “When my bitch of a mother refused to help me, I went my own way. I found him. Unfortunately, she was right.” He stops in front of me.

I think back to my conversation with Dinah. “He rejected you.”

The corner of his lip ticks up. “Oh, he did more than reject me.” He curls his lip. “He destroyed me. He destroyed my chance. My chance to be his son. He crushed me to dust and left me with a power I didn’t understand. All because of that little bitch he called Alpha. He fucked my mother, screwed up my life and made her FUCKING ALPHA!” He yells to the glass and point to the side.

I lean to the glass. “So, you’re fucked up because of your daddy issues?” I tilt my head. “Maybe he didn’t want to ruin his pack with his bastard son that's weak and pathetic.”

He slams the glass. “THAT CROWN IS RIGHTFULLY MINE!! FUCK ALEXI!! THE DRAGONS… BELONG… TO ME!!” His anger pours off him, his hair flies around his eyes and his eyes glow red. He stops. Collects himself and fixes his hair. He turns his head to me. “But… I digress.” He smiles and continues to pace.

I watch him walk back and forth. “My power. I learned what it was and what I could do. At first, I learned that I just needed a face and location. I could search. Essentially, follow the bread crumbs to the head I needed. Alexi was the first. It was through her that I found my father. Then I found my father’s head.” He stops and stares at me with a smile. “The stuff that man dreamed about. God… You could write a whole clinical study on that man’s mind. It’s where I also learned of the labs. I decided, medical science and criminal psychology was for me. I put myself through school and through various dream leaps I came across a particular head that was very interesting.”

I raise a brow. “Whose?”

“An Alpha by the name of Adrian Fredericks.” He smirks. “He didn’t know it at the time, but I saw everything. I know everything. I know where all the labs are and what they have in them."

My lips fall. “Wait… Fredericks… He knows about Alliance labs?”

“He doesn’t know about them, Bastian.” He steps close. “He runs them.” He whispers than turns away.

“You’re lying.” I growl. There’s no way our head Alpha would be involved in human experiments.

“I’d say go ask him, but…” He turns. “I doubt he’d tell you and I’m not going to either.” He walks up to the glass. “Those labs had something I needed. The chemicals they put in my father to make me what I am. I got them and was able to enhance my reach. I reached Samantha. When I saw her wolf 10 years ago, I had to have it. I had to have her powerhouse in my ranks, so I baited it. I poked it, then I discovered that when I touch my target, I can live in their heads rent free. It’s amazing.”

I slam my fist on the glass. “YOU DESTROYED HER!”

“NO, BASTIAN! I MADE HER BETTER! I MADE HER SEE THE TRUTH! SHE’S A TORRENT JUST LIKE ME!” He slams his finger into his chest.

“You’re nothing but a whiney bitch with a new toy and no friends. An egomaniac with no one to worship you.” I laugh. “You literally are the saddest thing I’ve ever seen.”

“I may be sad, Bastian. But I have your girl and her wolf will kill you before you get a chance to touch her.” He smiles. “I can control every aspect of her and you right from here. The dream state is my oyster. I can control what you think. What you see. Even what you feel. Your dreams are mine and if I wanted to, I could even drive you into a psychotic break.”

“So, why don’t you?” I stare him down.

“Where’s the fun in that? I want to see your sorry attempt to rescue Samantha. I’m sure she's eager to see you.” He smirks. “Just be careful. I can turn anyone I want against you. It helps when you spend 10 years studying dream control.”

“I don’t believe that.” I shake my head slowly.

“My father gave a man the ability to turn invisible. Another had the ability to create fire. A woman he bit had the ability to bite a man and turn his body into an explosive. My ability…isn’t that unbelievable.” He lifts his chin and stuff his hands in his pockets.

“Seems like a pathetic power to me.” I cross my arms.

“It was. Now… I’m the God in your head. Who do you think erected this barrier?” He raises a brow.

I look around the barrier and back at him. “What do you want?”

He chews his cheek. “I want what all Dragons want, Bastian. For you and your Alliance to burn in hell.”

He swipes his hand quickly across the barrier and I step back.

The barrier lights up and peoples screams fill the space around me. An army of thousands march across the country sides destroying everything in front of me. The giant wall becomes a like a transparent monitor and on it, houses burn. People run for their lives. Forests go up in flames.

“For every dragon death, thousands of Alliance members will die because of it. And at the center…” He moves the pictures and stops it.

“No.” I breathe as my eyes widen.

He steps through the barrier and through Sam’s body as she tears people limb from limbs. Terror fills me as he closes the gap.

“Your precious Sam is the best weapon the Dragons ever had. The garbage my dirt bag father filled her with made her the most dangerous, insane war criminal this world will ever see and when I get in her head and push the right button…” He tilts his head and glares. “She’ll slaughter every one of you without a second thought. She’ll sit at my knee like the good dog she is. She’s mine and none of you will be able to turn her off.”

My anger rose and the inferno in my gut exploded. With the loudest growl I ever made, I swung at his fucking head. My fist goes through him and he disappears. I stumble and look around to find him.

The room fills with laughter.

‘You’re too late, Bastian. Even if you try, she'll never leave. I own her and there’s nothing…you can…do about it…’

His voice and laughter fade into the black.

I wake with a snort, sit up and wildly look around my room. I take a second to clear the fog. “Shit!” I rip the blankets off and run out of my room.

“RIVER!!!”