Page 31 of Dreaming of His Omega
“Astounding,” said one of them. Several other people, gathered in the living room, murmured in agreement.
I turned to the latest guests, Rosemary and LaMarkus, looking just like they had in my dreams. “Here I am,” I repeated.
“He knows things,” Elarian said. “Things only Traviel should know.”
Rosemary nodded slowly. “It seems as though Vale Valley wanted you to find it.”
“Are you… really a werewolf?” I asked her.
She threw back her head and laughed. “Yes, yes.” She turned her attention to Eric. “Do you remember the phone call he talked about?”
Eric shrugged. “Not that one specifically, but I talk to Cambry often enough.”
“Who is he?” she asked.
“A fellow cat shifter. Cousin somewhere through marriage.”
Rosemary nodded. “And your website?”
“Password protected. I’m positive. He shouldn’t have gotten in.”
“Unless Vale Valley wanted him to,” she said thoughtfully. “But it still doesn’t explain this business with Elarian and Traviel…”
“The train seems pretty far-fetched,” offered someone else in the small crowd. “I mean, Vale Valley has a way of leading people here, but that seems a bit heavy-handed.”
“Tell me about the man again,” Rosemary asked me. “With the purple beard?”
I shrugged helplessly. “I’ve told you everything I know. I saved him from the bus, he said some weird stuff so I brushed it off, and ever since… And then I swear I saw him again right before I left for the train.”
“What weird stuff did he say, exactly?”
I shook my head, trying to remember. “He said I get three of… something. Then said be careful what you wish for, I think.”
“Sounds like a genie,” said LaMarkus. His mother nodded in agreement.
“Whoa, agenie?” I cried. “That…” Of course it was possible. I was sitting in the real Vale Valley with an elf, a werewolf, a cat shifter, and god-only-knew what else. A purple mist blew through the room, heads turned to follow it, it started swirling like a little, purple tornado. I realized abruptly that I had seen the mist before!
And then, he was there.
“You rang?” he asked me.
“You’re… a genie?!” I cried.
He held out his arms and bowed. “At your service. You have one wish remaining.”
“I’ve already made two?!”
The genie narrowed his eyes at me. “Yes. I told you that you were getting three. And I fixed your laptop as a freebie. Didn’t you realize I was being serious?”
“No!”
“Oh. I assumed you…” His eyes narrowed further and I got the weirdest feeling he was peering into my soul or something. “Ah, never mind that. Yes, three wishes, you’ve used two. Your first, you wished to be Traviel in your dreams. Thus, whenever you dream, you appear here as Traviel.” As he spoke, I vividly remembered making the wish, as if I was reliving it. I could see my old roommate, my laptop on the table, still on top of the backpack, wet and muddy from being hit by a bus…
I wish I was him.
Hah. In your dreams.
Yeah… in my dreams.
