Free Jaden (St. Sebastians Quartet #1) by Heather Elizabeth King Page A

She didn't even live here. Not to mention the fact that she thought she saw ghosts and had one following her around. This couldn't go anywhere.
    "This is me," she said, breaking the silence. "Thank you for walking me home."
    "Will you be all right?"
    She nodded. "I'm actually better than I've been in a long time. Maybe we can find the cause of these nightmares. I can't even imagine what it would be like to go to sleep without fear of what I'll see once I close my eyes."
    "I can't imagine."
    "It's amazing what a human can get used to."
    They started up the walkway to the front door. Wildflowers grew along the path. He couldn't see the pinks, yellows, and purples, but he knew come sunrise, Edna's front lawn but be full of color.
    "If you're worried about being alone—"
    "No, I'm fine. Thank you."
    With that, she went inside, then shut and locked the door, leaving him standing on the front steps feeling stupid.
    Clearly, this attraction was one-sided. She gave no indication of interest in him. She had been preoccupied, but still. Not a fluttered eyelash, not a sly smile, nothing.
    He started back toward the street and back toward home, thinking about the night. She had seemed a lot more engaged before she'd seen that last painting, the one that had made Bria faint.
    Could there really be some mysterious figure out there, stalking these women? Who? And where was he from? How could a man appear to each of them as—he couldn't even get his mind around this—as an apparition, then control their dreams? Tyler had come down on Nico for being so resistant, but it was crazy. Kenda didn't think they were lying; he just couldn't see how it was happening.
    He lived a few houses down from Edna and was turning into his yard when his cell phone rang.
    "Hey Kenda, are you still with Jaden?" Hayley asked from the other side of the line.
    "I just left her. What's up?"
    "Shoot. She left her purse."
    "No problem. I'll come get it and bring it to her."
    "You don't mind. It's late."
    "Hayley, after tonight I'm far and away from sleep. I can't get my brain to shut down. I might as well be useful."
     
    *****
     
    Jaden made herself a hot cup of tea as soon as she was inside. She didn't know what to think about. She had met women who had the same nightmares as her. She'd learned early on not to talk about the Man in White, or about her dreams. Mentioning the man would get her sent to her room and her video games taken away. And she couldn't count the doctors her parents had sent her to after she'd started having the nightmares. She'd had all kinds of diagnoses and been put on an assortment of drugs. Some made her sleep, which was horrible if she fell into a deep sleep on the night of a nightmare. Others prevented her from dreaming, which should have been fine, but she never felt fully rested when taking those. She'd spend her days feeling like a zombie. When she'd become an adult she'd made the tough decision of going off the drugs, all of them, and facing her dreams. There had to be a reason why she was having them. Tonight, she felt closer to finding out what that reason was.
    She took herself and her drink out past the deck and to the pool. Instead of sitting on a lounger she sat at the edge of the pool, dangling her legs over the side.
    There was also the man, Kenda. She'd been attracted to him immediately. But they were from two completely different worlds. And she didn't mean the fact that he was white and she was black. He was rich, like Aunt Edna. But not just rich, he carried himself like a man who'd never had to do without wealth or privilege his entire life. His brothers had the same feel of wealth and privilege about them. The way they carried themselves, their grooming, their confidence, these were men who had the world at their fingertips. What could she expect to have in common with a man like Kenda? She'd grown up poor and been in and out of hospitals and doctor's offices most of her life. When you had a ghost as your constant