Page 25 of Loving Nightmares
“Yes,” Zain confirmed.
Cy appeared next to me with a bottle of water, and I tilted my head back so he could press a light kiss to my lips. Amun tightened his hand on my waist but didn’t react otherwise.
“I am not giving Razar the silent treatment,” I finally said even though that’sexactlywhat I’d been doing, pulling back and looking at my night terror. “I would have just preferred you checked how I was before you attacked Amun.”
Razar rumbled but didn’t respond. He obviously disagreed but had made the wise choice to keep his opinion to himself.
“I don’t mind, precious,” Amun promised, and I honestly believed him. I think he had fun fighting the others, even if he wouldn’t admit it.
Once the last butterfly bandage was secured, I stood and pinned all of them with a look. “Well let’s try to not hit one another until after we figure out this situation.”
“The situation with all the humans in the next room?” Zain asked helpfully.
I nodded and looked towards the observation window. While this wasn’t our normal command center, it was a similar setup and overlooked a room with nearly fifty humans in it. Around eighty percent of them were being attended to by healers, their confusion and fear apparent. While the nightmares that were healers had a more soothing disposition, they were still terrors and inspired a natural reaction in humans.
Which was why we weren’t going in there.
Fear wouldn’t get us the information we needed. Instead we’d identified two men who were ‘leaders’ within War’s command, and they were being brought into the conference room we were in. Both exhibited lower amounts of fear, at least according to Razar, and I was hoping they would be willing to share some useful information.
I knew Saint had ideas on how to make that happen, but for right now we were going to keep it to a casual conversation.
“How have they been reacting to and talking about the nightmares?” I asked, watching as security approached the two men in question. Men who seemed relatively calm and were trying to console and comfort each of the other humans there, probably trying to walk them through what was happening. I noticed a slight bit of caution and fear when security approached them before their gazes darted upwards to the one-way glass.
“Nothing negative, mostly an understandable amount of caution given they don’t remember how they got here,” Blackwell explained. “Which doesn’t bode well for the other information we hope to gather.”
Wonderful.Hopefully they’d be able to remember other details about their time with War.
My jaw tightened as I considered what my mates had told me about War not only having an escape plan, but that his forces were spread throughout the country. This was far from over, and we needed to get a handle on it now. There were way too manynightmares in harm’s way, and just because it was gone from our doorstep didn’t mean we could turn a blind eye.
“Who is staying in the room with me?”
All of them stared at me in confusion, and I huffed. “Guys, they’re going to be terrified—”
The door opened and my mouth shut as security brought in the two men. My mates positioned themselves on one side of the room, clearly having no intent of leaving. As expected, both men paled.
“Hi there,” I said as cheerily as I could manage, hoping to ease their fear. “Thanks for coming up here.”
“Didn’t think we had a choice,” the first man through the door said. I immediately categorized him as not only the older one, but the more experienced one. His salt-and-pepper hair was combed back neatly, and while his uniform had debris, dirt, and blood on it, he stood with authority. Despite his words, he didn’t seem combative, just uncomfortable.
“We all have choices,” I said easily, leaning casually against the table.
The other man just stared at me in shock.
“I’m sorry—” He paused and continued to examine me, his gaze focused on my face. “Are you human?”
“Yes,” I said, not bothering to explain further. “I’m human.”
He blinked, his eyes rounding in surprise as he ran a hand through his hair. “You…you’re in charge here?”
“Part of the team that leads the institute,” I corrected, “but sure.”
“This gets more confusing by the moment,” he breathed out.
“Excuse him, he’s in shock,” the older man said. “I’m Commander Strike, and this is Officer Luis.”
“Nice to meet you both. I’m Arabella, and this is my team here at ISS.” The men briefly looked at my mates but quickly diverted their gazes back to me. I knew they thought it wasthe safer option, but with the way Saint’s shadows were playing across the edges of the room, I wasn’t so sure.
“Is it nice to meet us?” Strike demanded, mustering his confidence. “We attacked your institute, and while we don’t remember how we got here, it’s clear that we’ve hurt nightmares—”
