A girl Hallie’s age, her hair in ringlets and tears in her eyes.
The same faces were reflected in the rips’ lining the alley.
And then I caught a brief glimpse of Hallie, and she whispered my name. “Dune.”
“I’m here.” I grabbed her hands. “Open your eyes.”
Hallie groaned a little and her eyelids fluttered. When she gritted her teeth and squeezed my hands, I realized what she was doing.
“She’s trying to control the rip. She’s pulling it in.”
In the street where the Mardi Gras parade raged on, a bright light flashed and narrowed. The rips began to fade around the edges. A premonition pushed into my brain.
Suddenly, the rip world began folding in on itself. Inches faded at a time, and then inches became feet. The rips lining the alley disappeared all at once, and then everything was gone except for Hallie. There were a few seconds of peace, and I thought it was over.
I was wrong.
Voices roared. A gravitational pull fought against our hands, tugging at Hallie, snatching at her hair. The force of it moved her across the ground, toward the light, and Lily and Kaleb grabbed her arms.
They were fighting for her as hard as I was, but she had to fight for herself.
“Don’t leave me, Hallie.” I had to yell over the chaos.
Her eyes flew open and locked on mine.
“I’m not ready to lose you!” The whirling air around us snatched my words as they came out of my mouth. But Hallie heard me.
“I’m not ready to go.” She sat up. Her whole body tensed as a scream that sounded like a thousand voices ripped its way out of her. Power surged through the alley, and the roaring ceased.
In one short second, the darkness swallowed the light, leaving us in complete silence.
When I woke up, Dune was in my bed with me, typing one hand. The other was on my hip. “Dune?”
“Hey.” After a couple more key clicks, he put the computer down and kissed my forehead. “What can I get for you? What do you need?”
“You.” I grabbed him and held on tightly. It took less than a second for him to hold on harder.
“You slept for a long time.” He tucked my hair behind my ears. “I think you took about thirty thousand breaths.”
Because he watched every single one.
“Where are the houseguests?” I asked.
“Kaleb and Lily went to find Michael and Em so I could bring you straight home. They’re all back. Probably asleep.”
“I don’t remember what happened.”
“It was a rip world. The whole thing took us over. Not only did you stop your possessions, you got us out, too.”
“How?” I asked.
“I hoped you’d remember. Poe saved Em and Michael from a rip world once, but it was a totally different situation.” His lips touched mine, and he smiled with his eyes. “You saved our lives.”
I climbed on top of him and dropped my forehead to his shoulder. Images of some of the people who’d possessed me flickered in my subconscious, but I didn’t want to recall any of it.
“You cried in your sleep. I couldn’t decide whether or not to wake you up.”
“Bad dreams. The night I was possessed in the ballroom, there were happy moments. Everything I saw in that alley tonight was terrible, depraved in some way. I don’t want the memories, but I have them.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“Not now.” Maybe never.
“Whatever you need, I’m here.”
“You’re here.” I sat up straight. “In my bed. My dad is going to kill you!”
“No, he’s not. Carl is heading up security tonight, and after I told him what happened, he didn’t want you left alone any more than I did. I put the security feed on a loop, just for tonight. We’re safe.”
“Look at you, taking care of me.” I wanted to touch his skin, not the cotton of his T-shirt. I pulled it over his head and was almost disappointed when I didn’t see more tattoos than the one on his shoulder. Then I ran my hands over his chest, and all disappointment left the building. Smooth skin. Defined muscles.
Floaty hearts. Falling. I let my fingertips absorb the warmth of him and hoped it would smother the nightmares.
“Tell me about your tattoo. You said you wanted to keep these memories for life.”
He explained the different parts as I traced over them. “The swirls stand for past, present, and future.”
“Is that a turtle?” I would’ve expected a sea animal to look hokey, but it didn’t on him.
He gave me his crinkle smile, like he knew what I was thinking. “They have remarkable migratory patterns. They always return home.”
I leaned over to place a kiss in the center of the turtle’s shell. “And the word
“It means ‘family.’ The ten stars represent everyone I’ve lost, and the moon is for my father.”
I hoped he didn’t have to add any more stars. My sigh caught on a sob, but I stopped myself before it broke.
“Hey.” He lifted my chin with one finger. “Like I said tonight, I’m not going to lose you.”
“You saved me in that alley; you didn’t leave. You or your friends.” I couldn’t imagine what I would do if Dune weren’t part of my life. “You stayed, and gave me a reason to hold on.”
As if he heard the words I couldn’t utter, he said, “I’m not going anywhere. Not without you.”
I moved to the skin over his heart, placed a kiss there. “I don’t want that, either. Not ever.”
“Hallie.” He spoke my name in a whisper.
He was watching me. Raw, unmasked. All that control conquered. Finally.
“Dune,” I whispered back.
His fingers dug into my hips, holding me back, but his expression didn’t change. “A lot of terrible things went down tonight.”
“Yes, they did. Good reason to claim a stake on life, don’t you think?”
“All I can think about is trying to stop this.”
“Are you saying you don’t want to kiss me?” I traced the outline of his bottom lip, staring at his mouth. “Are you really going to tell me no?”
“Yes, I want to kiss you. I’m not insane. And who could possibly tell you no?”
I had time to smile before his kisses burned down the column of my throat, across my collarbone. He took my face in his hands, leaned back, and brought my mouth down to his.
I let myself sink into the kiss, into him.
When he rolled me over and covered my body with his own, I lost my breath.
Dune thought he was so quiet, sneaking out of bed. When a 220-pound weight lifted, a girl noticed.
I’d slept enough, but I stayed quiet, letting him think I was still out cold. I had a lot to think about, and he’d spent a good part of the past hour making sure I hadn’t thought at all.
When he shut the door behind him, I opened my eyes. His laptop was open on my desk. I didn’t hesitate.
I clicked on the external hard drive that held all the Infinityglass info. I didn’t look at anything else on his computer. I didn’t want to invade his privacy. I just wanted a quick look at the things that pertained to me that I
