Page 4 of Sweet Dreams

“Then you agree to stay away?”

This woman had pulled me into her dreams, consumed my every thought and now she was so close. I bit into my lip, shaking my head slowly. “There’s something, Traum. Something about her that I can’t put my finger on.”

Traum’s hand came down on my shoulder and then he was standing, moving across the room to a pile of boxes that stood at the corner. “Do you see these?”

My brows lowered, “Of course.”

“Every one of them is packed with a file of an Other who is seeking solace here in Salus Glen. Hybrids who have lived their whole lives on the fringes of society, ambassadors from the Underworld, even creatures who have earned their chance to live out their days here in the Living world. It is them you risk by approaching her. I cannot make you do anything. But I can remind you of this.”

I stared at the boxes full of files, the lives that were depending upon our success here in Salus Glen. And standing, I nodded to my brother. “She won’t see me again.”

“At least until we figure this out,” Traum called after me as I reached the door. “I’m trying, Z.”

The door slowly closed behind me. “I know you are,” I said, but I didn’t stop to see if he heard me. My mind was already racing forward.

I had said I would keep out of sight.

That I wouldn’t let her see me again.

But, that didn’t preclude me seeing her. So, until Arafel, the demon prince who was championing our effort here in Salus Glen, assured us that we were going to be able to stay and make this new safe place a reality, I would follow the rules.

At least, most of them.

Chapter Two

Lulu

Humming I leaned in and carefully, gently adjusted my post-it notes one more time. They were perfectly centered between my favorite notebooks, my newly opened spray of colorful pens and directly across from the open laptop screen.

Everything was exactly how I liked it. Down to the millimeter.

The only thing that was missing was a single line of text on the blank white screen of my laptop.

“White screen of death,” I whispered to it, aware that Bruce might hear me from across the room and wonder why I was talking to an insentient object. The screen, thankfully, didn’t respond, save the cursor which blinked back at me, a throbbing reminder that I’d done virtually nothing since starting officially at the Salus Glen Times.

Nothing.

Zilch.

Zero.

Not even a grammar request from Grandpa.

And I was losing my mind over it. Clearly, since I was suddenly distracted by the fact that too many of the purple toned pens were together in the ‘I love Salus Glen’ mug that I’d stolen from the small kitchenette space. I was so focused on distributing the colors more accurately that I didn’t hear my grandfather until he was standing directly in front of my desk.

“Lulu,” he said.

I leaped up, bumping the mug in question and sending the pens scattering across the desktop. “Grandpa Lennon – Editor Lennon?” my words fell out in a rush. “I mean, hi.”

My grandfather curled a brow at my antics before sighing deeply. “Bored already?”

I swallowed and then smiled widely at him. “Is it obvious?”

“Yes,” Bruce shouted across the room, his eyes rolling as he kicked back in his chair and sipped his coffee. “For God’s sake, Lennon gave the girl something to do.”

“The girl?” I echoed giving him a long look.

Bruce set the coffee cup down with a flourish, “Sorry, Lulu. I meant, your new associate would like something to do. And I would like you to give her something to do before I chuck her out the front door for clicking those pens so many times.”