She was going to put Chuck and her failed marriage in the past and go have an amazing adventure with a really hot cyborg and hopefully save the Earth from evil invaders in the process.
It was most definitely a fresh start.
Torri walked out of the bathroom feeling happier and more confident than she had in a long time. Vic was waiting patiently for her but when he saw her, he did a double-take and his eyes grew wide.
“Torri, you look so different!” he murmured. “This new clothing suits you very well.”
“Thank you.” Torri blushed and did a little twirl for him. “Come on—we’d better get going.”
She held out her hand for him and Vic took it and entwined their fingers.
“Let’s go save the world,” Torri told him. “And I am never, ever coming back to this house again.”
Twenty-Eight
The first part of the trip to find Vic’s ship was uneventful. They got out of the DC area and into the land surrounding it without anyone trying to stop them. They stopped once for gas as they passed through the sleepy little towns on the outskirts of the urban sprawl and in only a couple of hours they were headed towards the mountains.
Riding in a car at night always made Torri sleepy and it had been a long and exhausting evening. Though she tried not to doze off, her head started nodding and her eyelids were drooping.
No, have to stay awake, she told herself. Don’t want to have a Seeing Dream—need to keep alert.
She tried pinching herself and even opened the window a moment to blow some cold air on her face. But that just made her shiver and she quickly closed the window and wrapped her arms around herself.
“Are you cold?” Vic shot her a look. “Do you need me to warm you up?”
“Oh, could you?” Torri scooted closer and he wrapped his right arm around her as he continued to steer with his left hand. Once again, his warm scent enveloped her and she pressed her cold face to his side, breathing deeply. God, he smelled so good and it felt so comfortable—so right—to be so close to him…
The next thing she knew, she was standing in front of the tall alien doors with their glowing, neon-green markings. And this time, Vic wasn’t there to help her.
Torri gasped in fright as the doors opened and she was dragged inside. The old dread filled her like black, cloudy water and she felt her terror spike as the invisible force pulled her up the steps to the AllFather’s throne.
“At lassst, you have returned.” The AllFather’s glowing red eyes filled her vision. “I knew you could not ssstay away for long,” he hissed. “And sssoon—in less than one of your Earth weeksss—I shall tassste your pain in perssson…”
“Torri? Torri, wake up—wake up!”
A hand was shaking her and someone was calling her name.
Blinking, Torri realized that the big black truck was pulled over to the side of the road. Vic had her by the shoulders and was looking anxiously into her face.
“Are you all right?” he asked, frowning. “You were having a very bad dream but I couldn’t share it with you because I was driving.”
“I…I’m sorry.” Torri shook her head. “Ugh—that was a bad one! It was the AllFather again.” She looked up at him, sudden fear taking her. “He talked to me—he said he would be here in less than a week!”
“That’s not good,” Vic said grimly. “But we still have time. As soon as we get to my ship, we’ll call the Mother Ship and ask them to fold space for us. We can be there in seconds.”
“But we have to get to your ship first.” Torri was surprised to find she was yawning again. Despite the vividness of her nightmare, she was still drooping with exhaustion. “Oh no—I don’t want to fall asleep again! Those night terrors are the worst,” she moaned.
“You don’t need to fear sleep as long as I can sleep as well and Dream Share with you,” Vic pointed out. “Maybe we should stop for the night. My ship is still an hour away, at least.”
“Well, we can’t sleep here in the truck—we need to get out of sight. Wait a minute.” Torri frowned and looked around. They had stopped a few yards from a sign that said, Cumberland Gap 5. “Cumberland Gap? That’s not far from Nana’s cabin!” Torri exclaimed.
Suddenly, she longed to see the familiar A-frame cabin again. She’d spent so many happy hours with Nana and Grandpa Pete there.
“Could we spend the night there?” Vic asked. “We could start again tomorrow. Once we get to my ship and communicate with the Mother Ship, our problems will be solved.”
“That’s exactly what I was thinking,” Torri said. “Okay, just take a left up here…”
Soon they were driving down the winding dirt road and pulling up to the familiar cabin. It rose like a capital A in the middle of a small clearing, with big old oak and maple trees surrounding it. The front of it gleamed with floor-to ceiling glass windows and the capital A had a large rectangle built onto one side of it—extra rooms that Grandpa Pete had added himself.
She didn’t have the key, but Torri knew the trick of jiggling the door handle just right to get it open. Grandpa Pete had sworn he would replace the handle right up until the day he died, but he just somehow never got around to it.
Torri felt her heart throb as she let herself into the familiar space. She could still smell the faint scent of cinnamon from the last batch of canning Nana had done. She had remained active until the last six months, when the cancer was burning through her like fire, and she had insisted on putting up her yearly preserves, even though she had known she wouldn’t get a chance to eat them.
“Think of me when you take a bite of these,” she’d told Torri, as they stored the jars of cinnamon apples in the special walk-in pantry Grandpa Pete had built for her. “And remember how much I love you.”
“I remember, Nana,” Torri whispered, tears springing to her eyes as she looked around at the familiar space. She was glad she hadn’t given in to Chuck, when he pressured her to sell it.
“What are we supposed to do with it? It’s not close enough to our jobs for us to live there,” he’d said. “It’s just a drain on our bank account.”
“I’ll pay for it,” Torri had said. She had made certain the utilities were taken care of, linking them to her private account so the money would come out automatically. Now she was glad she had done so. There was still electricity and heat and running water—all of which she intended to use liberally—even if they were only spending one night.
“This is a lovely domicile,” Vic remarked, looking around at the high, cathedral ceiling of the A-shaped main part of the cabin. “I don’t think you’ve ever brought me inside before when we were Dream Sharing.”
“No, we mostly stayed in the meadow, didn’t we?” Torri murmured. “I think I thought it would make me sad to come inside, because I would miss my Nana too much. It feels so empty without her here.”
“I’m sorry.” Vic put a comforting arm around her shoulders. “You were very close to her, weren’t you?”
Torri nodded.