I caressed Tess’s face with the tips of my fingers. She had been snoring lightly, but my touch was enough to cause her to shift her head off me, and her snoring ceased. I eased off the bed and stood up. Bending over her, I kissed her lightly on the cheek. Then I pulled the sheet up over her and went into the bath.
I was dressed and sipping coffee while considering what our next course of action would be when I heard Tess murmur. I glanced toward the bed and saw her twisting beneath the sheet. Setting my cup down, I went to the bed and stared down at her.
Her face was contorted in some painful dream. Placing a hand on the top of her head, I felt the emotions pouring through her dream. She was afraid, but it was more for someone else than herself. Odd, I thought she might be having a nightmare about the rapists, but this seemed not to be the case.
Before I could lift my hand from her head, she jerked awake. I left my hand touching her and waited.
Her eyes focused on me in the dim light. “Rafe? What are you doing?”
“You had a bad dream. I was trying to decide if I should wake you.”
“Oh? Okay. Well, thanks, I guess.”
I removed my hand and sat beside her on the edge of the bed. “Want to talk about it?”
“No, well, geez.” She was hesitant. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to tell you. It was about the explosion. The one that killed me and messed me up.”
I nodded and waited.
After a moment of silence, Tess slid up to sit against the bed’s headboard. “It was after the Valkyrie brought me back. I was still confused and disoriented by the blast, but I remember smelling burnt meat. Some of the smell was coming from me, but more was coming from my three buds that’d been killed. The MRAP was burning, so there was the smell of burning insulation, rubber, and diesel, but the smell of cooked flesh was greater and masked the other smells.”
I nodded again and placed my fingers against the side of her neck. The contact let me feel her emotions again and let her feel my empathy for what she was going through.
“The other vehicles in the convoy were stopped, and people were bailing out. Some were setting up a perimeter to watch for snipers, but others were rushing to try to help us. I don’t understand, but no one else saw the Valkyrie and while I thought she’d talked to me for a few minutes, only seconds could have passed.”
I nodded. “I don’t think mortals can see the Valkyries unless they’ve come for them. As for the time, I don’t know. When she came for me, everyone in the area was dead except for me.”
Tess turned her face more to me. “That’s right. You had to go through something similar. You never told me just what happened.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever told anyone just what happened. Walt, bless his soul, never asked and it was too fresh a memory for me to relate before his death.”
Tess put her arms around me and pulled me close. “I’d like to hear about it sometime.”
“Sure,” I nodded. “Anything you want to know, I’ll tell you.”
“Thanks,” she said into my chest. “Anyway, my dream was about that day. It’s repeated a few times since, but it’s always the same. There’s the explosion, I wake up to see the Valkyrie, but in the dream, my teammates are screaming in pain, as they’re burned alive. That didn’t happen in real life, but it’s my dream of what happened.”
“What do you think it means?” I asked.
I felt her head shake a negative against me.
“I don’t know. I rarely have dreams that make any sense. Before this, the only repeating dream I have is being chased by a T. Rex.”
“The dinosaur? Really?”
“Don’t laugh. It came the night after I saw Jurassic Park as a kid. I guess I was about ten when Mom and Dad let me watch it. Something about it bothered me and several times a year the dream repeated. I’m in that glass-top tour vehicle, and Rex is staring down at me. After that, it varies, but I usually wake up before he catches me.”
“I imagine so. That must have been pretty scary for a child,” I said as I caressed her head and back with my fingers.
“It was. At least it was until just after I went into the Army. I haven’t had that dream in the three years of wearing the uniform.”
“Interesting,” I said.
“I know, but now I have this other repeating dream. How do I get rid of it?”
“It was a traumatic event, but one that made you part of what you are today. Go with it. Understand that it didn’t happen that way. That your teammates were dead when you regained consciousness.”
“I do understand it. At least I do when I’m awake. While I’m in the dream, it feels like the truth, not what I remember.”
I kissed Tess’s forehead and eased off the bed. “I made coffee. Are you ready for some?”
“I am. I have a bit of a hangover, and I really need to go, but pour me a cup.”
“Sure thing.”
I got off the bed and Tess hurried into the bathroom. I fetched Tess the last cup of coffee from the two-cup brewer that came with the room. I set it up to brew two more cups into the small carafe and left Tess’s full cup on the counter.
She came out of the bath a few minutes later. She still wore the Army nightshirt she’d worn every night since I’d finished healing her limbs. Tess grabbed the cup and joined me at the table. I’d set a couple of protein bars out in case she was hungry, and she tore the first one open as
