Martin’s body spasmed. Incredibly, the dead man sat back up. In real life, Martin had hit the ground dead and hadn’t moved a muscle. The police had taken his corpse away after a while. Counselors had told Warren that later.
That wasn’t going to happen this time.
This time Martin leered at Warren, one side of his head blown open. Bloody meat and bone fragments clung to his cheek.
“Thought you killed me, didn’t you?” Martin smoothed a hand across the side of his head. “Well, you’re wrong. Whatever power you’ve got, mine’s better.”
This didn’t happen! He’s dead! A voice gibbered in fear at the back of Warren’s mind. He tried to get up. Back then, he hadn’t moved until the emergency services people had arrived. They’d carried him from the flat in a gurney.
Now, he rose to his feet, but his side felt like it was on fire.
When Martin moved his hand from his head, demon’s scales showed there. Patches of his head were missing. A curved horn jutted up from his temple where the wound had been. When he reached for the pistol, he closed a demon’s clawed hand around it.
Martin grinned. “This is how it should have ended, Warren.” He took aim. “This is how it’s gonna end tonight. And you’re gonna be just as dead.”
“No!” Warren whispered in a hoarse voice.
Before Martin could fire, a woman suddenly stepped into the room. Warren didn’t recognize her. She was dark-haired and violet-eyed. She took in the situation at a glance, then launched a kick that caught Martin’s wrist. Bone snapped with a brittle sound. The pistol flew into the air, turning end over end.
The woman spun again, and this time she put a boot in the center of Martin’s face. Flesh tore from his face and revealed a demon’s features beneath. He fell backward and landed hard against the wall. The shelves containing Warren’s mother’s books fell to the floor.
Inhumanly fast, Martin caught himself and launched himself at the woman just as she plucked the pistol from the air. Then Martin hit her, and they went down across the broken recliner Warren’s stepfather had brought home one day.
The pistol changed in the woman’s hand. When the Martin demon tried to sink his teeth into her throat, she shoved the pistol between his jaws and pulled the trigger. The Martin demon’s head exploded.
The woman grimaced and shoved the demon’s corpse from her. She rolled to her feet and walked over to Warren.
“Hey, it’s going to be all right,” she told him. “You’re going to be fine. That thing is dead. It’s not going to bother you anymore.” She held him to her for a moment to offer comfort.
“Who are you?” he asked. “This isn’t the way it happened. You weren’t there.”
The woman pushed him back and looked at him. “You’re not a child, are you? Not in real life?”
“No.”
“Then all you have to do is wake up. Wake up and all of this will go away.”
“What caused this? I’ve never had anything like this happen.” Warren felt terrified. His thoughts were his own. Only Merihim and Lilith had invaded them.
“My name is Leah,” she said. “I’m being held by the demons in some kind of machine. They’re using me—and several others—to gain access to people’s dreams. I don’t know why. I’ve tried to reason it out. Maybe it’s just a fear tactic. Maybe it’s a way for the demons to monitor the humans left in the city. I’ve tried to stop doing this, but every time I close my eyes, I’m inside someone’s head.”
Warren looked at her and saw how tired she was.
“Where are you?” he asked.
“At the Apple store. At least, that’s where I think I am. That’s where I was taken captive.”
Behind her, Martin started quivering again. She must have noticed the distressed look in his eyes, because she glanced over her shoulder and saw the thing’s head starting to re-form. It looked like it was going to be more demonic than before.
Leah turned back to him. “You’ve got to go. Some people didn’t live through these nightmares. You might be one of them.”
“If that’s true,” Warren said as the fear rose inside him again, “then you saved my life tonight.”
Leah gave him a wan smile. “Maybe. Maybe I only saved you from having a really bad dream.”
Behind her, Martin lurched and jerked as he forced himself to his feet. He moved more slowly now. “I’m gonna get you,” he growled in an inhuman voice. “I’m gonna get you both.”
“Go,” Leah said. “You need to get out of here.”
“How?”
“Just wake up. That’s all you have to do. Just wake up.”
Warren woke in darkness, but he wasn’t alone. Lilith, looking young and ravishing now, sat at the foot of his bed. Voices came from down the hall and let him know the Cabalists were still divvying the demon’s body.
“I came as soon as I saw that you’d succumbed to the sleep trap,” Lilith said.
Warren looked at her but said nothing.
“That woman,” Lilith said, “probably saved your life when she interfered.” She smiled. “Of course, she’s also the reason Merihim’s minions are able to reach inside your mind in the first place.”
“What was that?” Warren asked. His voice sounded dry and weak.
“A weapon. I mentioned it earlier, but I didn’t know Merihim had it working quite so well. It’s become quite dangerous lately. Some of the humans die while trapped in their dreams. Others wake up and hurt still more people.”
Warren sat up and held his throbbing head. The ache between his temples was worse than he’d remembered in years.
“I’ve been trying to find the machine,” Lilith said, “but Merihim has hidden it.”
“She told me it was at the Apple store.”
Lilith examined his face. “Do you know where that is?”
“Yes.”
“Then you have to go there.”
Warren couldn’t believe it. “No. That’s the last place I want to go.” But he thought about the woman and felt bad that she
