Free Dreams’ Dark Kiss by Shirin Dubbin Page B

minds and through them build bridges to the Dreaming. Soon her perfidy birthed three more ankou into the Waking World. Ankou born of her family’s flesh.
    Lastly, to prove their hopes were gone, she wore Emma’s cloak. Twisting a symbol of motherly love, sewn for her daughter’s greatest triumph, into the child’s destruction.
    Keoni had been wrong, and he cursed himself for a dumbass. He hadn’t seen the lure or the trap. No part of Emma remained. Mommy had tormented her child into nothingness.
    His stomach growled. It reached through the thickened mist, reconnecting him to the Waking World and causing the beasts’ hold over him to waver. His revulsion did the rest. He burst free of the crimson bindings and the web. He’d never bemoan his insatiable hunger again. Awareness returned, and he found himself back in the living room, crouched before the red-cloaked ankou. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, but the gesture couldn’t chase away the foul taste on his tongue.
    Ohana , family, meant everything to Keoni. The ones you loved were to be cherished, protected, not tossed aside as barter for safe passage against your fears. Why would a mother do this? A blur washed over his eyes as if they’d been dilated. When his vision cleared, he discovered his hands closed around the red-cloaked ankou’s neck, tightening without his control. The creature clasped his forearms with its claws to no effect.
    Sweeping the room, Keoni realized neither of the females had the power to drag him inside a nightmare. There had to be a stronger creature binding him, the little girl and Mommy together. That was the great thing about the kami form. It tired out the dream guardians, leaving their corporeal forms exhausted when they awoke, but it made taking out ankou an easier job. Holding a dream guardian in kami form inside a nightmare took more power than the average ankou could muster.
    And there it was. From somewhere behind him the power of a creature Keoni hadn’t sensed before blipped to life on his mental radar. It was on the stairs, if his senses could still be trusted. He didn’t get the chance to turn and test the theory. The creature who had once been Emma bulged. Her body unfurled, billowing forth from her mother’s lap to take on new proportions. Fur of palest green expanded to cover a hulking new body.
    Keoni drew back and coldcocked the creature before it could complete its transformation. The force of his spiritual energy sent it spinning to land butt down in the fireplace. The flames puffed out; the stink of scorched fur marked their passing and darkness took over the room, save his kami’s glow.
    “No way I was gonna stand here watching while you hulked out.” Keoni scoffed. “This is not an action flick.”
    Only protagonists in movies stood around waiting for their enemy to power up and go on a hero-stomping rampage. Lolo. If there was ever a good time to punch an opponent in the face, it was midtransformation when they weren’t expecting it. Kapow. Surprise, bitches!
    Both Emma and Mommy snarled. The motion jarred the cowl from Mommy’s head. It slid back in a slow reveal. With one side of her face lit by the bluish glow of his kami and the other swallowed by darkness Keoni could clearly see why her family had fallen so quickly. He’d never witnessed a more finely wrought nightmare—the face of a were-hyena with double rows of sharp yellow teeth set into the maw and vivid blue eyes rimmed in red. As good a nightmare as any howler had ever devolved into.
    Jay’s whoop erupted into the living room. Having taken out the rest of the pack, the other three members of his squad rushed in to find him.
    The red-cloaked ankou rose to engage, but the other presence—the one with the real power—swooped in from the stairs. The pulse of energy hurled Keoni through a bay window. He crash landed on the front lawn. Glass and bits of wood pelted him. The presence sped over him fast enough to leave tread marks and