exactly the solution we seek. But that can only work if we have your full collaboration. Zain is clearly coming for you.”
“He’s coming here to kill me?!” I exclaimed, straightening in my chair.
“No, no!” Thomson responded quickly, lifting his hands in an appeasing gesture. “Mistwalkers never want to kill their creator, especially when they cross over. You would be his anchor in this world. If you die, there is a chance he would fade away with time, unless you had bound him to our world, and he’d become human enough to survive on his own. Zain is a psychopath. He wants—”
“Rewards,” I interrupted, seeing where his mind was going, as relief flooded me.
“Yes!” Thomson said with a smile. “And both you and your emotions are his rewards.”
“But he wants my fear,” I argued, not too crazy about that thought.
“And both your attention and admiration,” he countered. “Your gratitude and focused attention on him rewarded him far more than demonstrating his dominance by killing that fairy.”
“So, you want me to manipulate his impulses into getting him to…?” I asked, my voice trailing off.
“I want you to convince him to join his forces to ours to fight the Nightmares,” Director Thomson said forcefully. “We're losing this battle. The entire middle drawer of this cabinet is filled with the files of my agents who died at the hands of a Nightmare in the past fifteen years. Half of them occurred in the past six months since the Thornhill Killer entered our world. And the deaths are accelerating.”
I stared at him, lips parted in both shock and understanding. “But… But why my Nightmare?” I asked, confused. “Zain is still unpredictable. I agree that he might be controllable with the right rewards, but wouldn’t a Wish be safer and more appropriate? You don’t recruit psychopaths or sociopaths in law enforcement.”
He nodded with a friendly smile. “That was our initial thought as well. But Wishes are… too nice. They have the same simple desires and needs as your everyday person on the street. It takes a different type of person and a different type of dedication to want to become a police officer, join the military, or become a firefighter. And even then, we don’t need a good cop or soldier, we need a ruthless predator to combat fire with fire.”
“So… The Mist Squad Project… You want to form an army of them,” I said, matter-of-factly.
“Yes,” Director Thomson said with a sharp nod. “We want them to hunt down existing Nightmares already on the loose, eliminate new ones as they are born during and after the Mist, and help police the streets when we can't during the Mist to protect potential victims like you almost were.”
Before he was even done speaking, I already knew I couldn't walk away from this. Of all the things I had imagined this project would be, this would never have been it.
“Where do we start?” I asked.
Director Thomson grinned, a triumphant expression descending on his features. “First, we go say hello to your Nightmare who has decided to play along.”
Chapter 4
Zain
I hovered in front of the open door, taunting me, beckoning me. My Naima had gone within, and I wanted to be near her again. The wretched window was cheating me out of her emotions, which were rightfully mine to revel in. She was even more beautiful than I remembered when I’d first seen her all those years ago. She had been so close, almost within my grasp. I should have gone after her first instead of yielding to my rage at the sight of that vermin brutalizing what was mine.
I once more glanced at the endless corridor ahead of me. I had seen others go in before like that little Spark and never return. I had no doubt this was a trap. The others have been too stupid, but I was not. Granted, I had sufficiently gorged both on Beasts and weak Wishes. Worst case scenario, if I was locked within, I had enough energy to pierce through the Veil and return to the safety of my world. But that would delay my plans to crossover into the Mortal Plane.
My prey had never been so close than in those few moments with her hands pressed against the glass. I wanted to touch her flesh, taste her fear, drink the flow of her emotions. If I could brand her, then this slight delay will have been beyond worth it.
That last thought convinced me to proceed.
I entered the dark corridor, unfazed by