Dream Born: The Dream Mage, #1

By Michael La Ronn

Think dreams aren't real? Think again.  

 

I'm a dream mage. I can control your dreams, manipulate your darkest desires, and destroy your mind from the inside out---all while you sleep. 

 

For the last two years, I've protected innocent people like you from demons who feast on dreams. 

When demons show up on my doorstep one snowy night, so does someone dangerous from my past. 

 

Someone that I've been running away from for a long time. But I'm done running. 

 

It's time to face my past…and end the nightmare that has been haunting me all these years. 

 

Dream Born is a fast-paced urban fantasy with a kickass African-American heroine, lovable heroes, and crazy mindscapes that you'll dream about long after you're finished reading.

V1.0

• Language: English
• Publisher: Author Level Up LLC
• Release date: Apr 28, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386047254

Michael La Ronn

Science fiction and fantasy on the wild side! Michael La Ronn is the author of many science fiction and fantasy novels including The Last Dragon Lord, Android X, and Eaten series. In 2012, a life-threatening illness made him realize that storytelling was his #1 passion. He’s devoted his life to writing ever since, making up whatever story makes him fall out of his chair laughing the hardest. Every day. To get updates when he releases new work + other bonuses, sign up by visiting www.michaellaronn.com/list

Book preview

1

Pro magic tip: demons always show up when you least expect them. As I shoveled a barrier of snow in front of my shop, three of them appeared on the roof, roaring against the wintry moon.

I took a few steps back, the cold snow seeping into my boots.

The demons focused on me, their spinning, blue nebula-like eyes glowing, their smooth black horns dull in the moonlight. Four-legged, with the build of a pit bull and the teeth of a shark, they stalked down the side of the building—an old brownstone in the heart of the city—growling at me. Their claws scratched against the brick and left long white marks.

So it's gonna be like this, huh? I said.

I let down my hood, and the wind blew my hair about. The chill tore through my face, and I could hardly feel my cheeks. My eyes watered in the bone-chilling cold.

Fourth demon encounter this month. The magic suppressant charms weren’t working.

Darius, I said, throwing a snowball against the window. Get out here and see what you did.

Darius’s lanky frame was a shadow in the front of the shop, and he was sweeping the floor. I threw another snowball.

He stuck his half-braided, half-afroed head out of the door, shivering in the cold.

It’s too cold out here to be playing, cuz, he said.

Then he heard the growling and looked up slowly.

Damn, he said, shaking his head. "Why does this always happen around two o’clock in the morning?"

You only have one job, I said, gripping my shovel tightly. Protection spells are not supposed to be that hard.

Ain’t my fault, Darius said, shuddering. You know I can cast that spell with the best of them.

He grabbed a puffy coat with a fur collar, threw it on, and joined me in the snow. His hands glowed with warm fire, and the flames bloomed all the way up his arms, suffusing his face in an orange glow. He yawned.

Darius was my cousin. A wizard.

Not the kind you’re probably imagining in your head right now—you know, the wizard with a pointy hat, a star-swept robe, and a gray beard, but a black, eighteen-year-old wizard who loved South Pole jackets and who routinely forgot to do his chores—namely, casting a protection spell around my shop. A wizard whose magic and lack thereof always got his big cousin into trouble. But he could throw fire and cast spells like a boss whenever the Somnients showed up, so I usually forgave him.

At least these bad boys didn’t show up when the sky was really dumping snow on us, Darius said.

The beasts landed in the snow and inched toward us, breathing smoke and sulfur.

A shrieking sounded from above. Normally, such a high-pitched sound would have startled me, but it gave me comfort.

A brown falcon soared over the street, flapping its wings as it circled the area.

Destiny.

My other cousin. Seventeen.

Not a falcon, but a shifter. And overall, way more adult and responsible.

I took a practice swing at the demons, keeping them at bay. I swung again, noting where best to slash the beasts on the head with the shovel’s sharp metal tip.

"I had planned on spending the rest of the night playing Monopoly and watching Star Trek, I said. Given the determined look on these demons’ faces, maybe I’ll have a little time for Star Trek."

Darius pushed his hands forward, expelling the flames from his body. The flames formed a rushing wall, but the demons jumped out of the way.

Darius cursed.

Aim better, I said. Keep casting like that and you’ll attract more demons.

The flames subsided and the beasts advanced again, growling.

Somnients. Hellspawn from the dream world, and the root cause of nightmares. They showed up in people’s dreams, and without magical intervention, they clawed their way into the world of the living. Of course, they ate their dream hosts. I shivered as I thought of some poor family somewhere, lying in bed with their heads split open, fear in their eyes.

A Somnient leaped at me, baring its teeth.

I stepped back, took aim, and swung my shovel, connecting with the beast’s jaw. The impact knocked it into a nearby hatchback, busting out the windows. Its car alarm blared and its headlights flashed.

Great.

Now we were going to wake up the whole block.

The beast landed on its back. I brought my shovel down hard on the side of its face.

Darius sprayed it with fire, filling the street with the searing smell of cooked demon meat. Smelled like my grandmother’s fried chicken…if she cooked it in fermented, rancid oil. Yum. Not.

Cuz, six o’clock! Darius cried.

I spun around and rolled out of the way just as another Somnient swiped its claws at me.

I swung again.

With a metal clang and a wobble, I connected with the Somnient’s nose, making it recoil.

And then my shovel cracked in half.

The beast recovered and growled, joining forces with the remaining Somnient. For a moment, I could have sworn I heard whispering voices in their guttural growls. Like someone incanting spells in another language.

Darius ran next to me. He extinguished the flames in his hands, replacing them with a cool blue magic.

I’m thinking we need to keep this battle classy, I said, rolling up my sleeves.

I’m thinking the same thing, Darius said, crouching.

I needed to end this battle. Fast.

If it went on any longer, the magic usage would attract other Somnients. They swarmed to magic like sharks to blood. And one demon encounter was all I had the patience for tonight.

You know what to do, I said.

Darius pushed his fists forward, sending a rushing ball of light at the beasts, illuminating the street with a cool, icy blue. The light shimmered, and I covered my eyes.

When the light faded, one of the Somnients fell asleep in the snow, snoring.

The other looked pissed off and roared.

I’m off my game tonight, Darius said.

One is better than none, I said. I’ll handle the sleeping one.

"Hopefully Destiny will be back soon so I don’t have to carry this battle ALL by myself," Darius said.

Still mad at you, I said.

Already I could feel the Somnient’s dream energy. It pulsated through the air like strange humidity. Its energy revitalized me.

I pulled at the air as if there were invisible strings in it. Wisps of magic appeared out of nowhere, and the space around me looked like a photo on overexposure.

I rolled the magic together, and with a giant leap, I jumped into the beast’s dreams, every particle of my body disappearing into the night before the other Somnient could chomp at me.

2

I was falling.

Fast.

Through a pastel-painted, swirling sky that looked like paint mixed with water; it was full of bubbles and gradients of blue, black, green, red, and vomit yellow. Stars peeked through.

I felt a pit forming in my stomach as I plummeted, but then remembered that I was in control.

I stopped in the middle of the sky.

Everything paused around me.

I looked around.

There was nothing.

Just swirling colors as far as the eye could see.

Typical Somnient dream.

You’d think that demons who spend all their time in the dream world would have…you know, interesting imaginations. But instead, all they dreamt about was colors—made me seriously question if they had any brains at all.

I’m a dream mage. I’ve seen lots of dreams. Nightmares. Hell, I’ve rescued people from death and mental derangement from the claws of Somnients.

But this was just boring.

I closed my eyes and sensed the abundance of dream ether around me. It pulsed and buzzed and hummed against my skin. The air was full with it—just what I needed.

I pulled upward, amassing a small amount of energy out of the air. I spread my hands in a crescent, creating a grassy plain ahead of me. Swaying tall grass and flowers sprang up all over the dreamscape. They were vivid, like the most vibrant vegetation you’ve ever seen in your life, ethereal and bright.

Creating dreamscapes was like a jam session. You had to put your whole body into it. You did a little of this with your hands, a little of that with your feet, inserted your imagination, and the world changed around you, like a painting drawing itself on a canvas.

With both hands, I threw more ether into the sky, creating a full moon. I pointed at the sky randomly with my fingers, washing away the nasty, vivid colors, replacing them with a navy sky.

Much better.

Hmm…

But it needed more.

More fear.

I blew into the sky, watched as my breath created thin foggy clouds that rose into the sky and shrouded the moon. Then I blew again and created thick fog that covered the flowers.

Nice touch.

I clapped. Once. Twice. Three times. Four times.

Then I could feel a strand of the ether at my fingertips. I pulled it and shook it like you’d shake an old, dusty rug. Then I kneaded it with my hands and pushed it out.

Suddenly, the air felt warm and hot. So hot it made me sweat.

Perfect dreamscape.

Come on, boring brain, I said, jamming my fist into the grass.

The grass was strangely lumpy. I was touching it but not really touching it. It was the tingly mass of ether, and I was reaching inside, searching, searching, searching…

And then I wrapped my fingers around a smooth surface.

A horn.

I strained as I pulled it up through the dirt.

The Somnient.

The sleeping Somnient.

Well, not really the Somnient. I was in his head. But in my hands rested its dreaming soul. And there’s a saying among dream mages that whoever holds one’s dreaming soul controls their destiny.

I pulled every inch of its sleeping soul into the grassy plain. Then I pulled ether around me and became invisible.

I snapped my fingers.

The beast awakened, and the dream began.

I twisted my hands a few times until a shining orb appeared in my hands. I rolled it across the grass like a skee-ball. It thumped and then turned into a large brown rabbit.

The thing was so cute, with blue eyes and floppy ears. It stood up on two hind legs, twitched its nose, and shook its fluffy tail.

The beast roared and chased after the rabbit.

I chuckled.

The rabbit dashed through the grass and the Somnient took off after it, swiping its claws every chance it got.

At least it was distracted.

It was always better to give the mind something to focus on before I destroyed it from the inside out.

I waved at the moon. Slowly, it began to turn orange, as if it were heating up.

This place shall be purified, I said, my voice echoing throughout the plain.

The Somnient stopped.

The rabbit stopped.

You are sinspawn, I said. You have no right to exist in my world.

The beast grunted, and then ran after the rabbit again.

I hovered into the air.

May God grant you serenity upon your return to the underworld, I said. May one day you wake up and see the blessed goodness of the holy spirit.

The Somnient tracked closer to the rabbit.

May you be exterminated quickly, I said.

The demon jumped.

The rabbit stopped and its eyes widened.

Be gone! I cried.

The moon fired a giant ray of fire into the beast, stopping it in mid-air. It screamed and screamed, filling the dreamscape with a high-pitched whine.

I covered my ears and eyes. I willed the magic to intensify.

The sky began to melt. It grew even hotter.

The beast shrieked.

I screamed as I willed the magic to intensify even more.

Be gone! I screamed. Be gone! Be gone!

The demon exploded in a puff of fire, and its ashes drifted down across the field.

I landed in the grass, panting.

Above, fissures appeared in the moon and it cracked, crumbling in the sky.

The grass died and turned brown. The sky melted in slow-motion, bubbling up and turning into burning flakes that drifted down toward the grass.

The rabbit took one final look at me, twitched its nose, and faded out of existence.

It was time to go.

I closed my eyes and imagined myself disappearing from the dream, particle by particle.

As I focused, I heard someone call my name.

Sometimes the dream world magnified your thoughts upon you. Even as a mage, I had to be careful to avoid opening my own mind so much. I’m sensitive to dreamscapes, even though I can control them. Once, I got caught in a wave of negative energy, and long story short, I almost ended up trapped inside someone’s mind, having to navigate my way through a pop-up nightmare that came seemingly out of nowhere. I try to avoid that whenever possible. That’s why I focus on the task and get out.

I shook off the voice and concentrated on exiting.

Someone spoke again.

Aisha.

Someone was there.

I looked around the crumbling mindscape. There wasn’t much left. The starry sky was crumbling into nothing, and a gray void was swirling beneath me, the tell-tale sign of a dead soul.

Aisha.

That voice.

Deep and sonorous.

I knew it.

I knew it from the deepest corner of my heart. I knew it from a thousand memories.

Soft and familiar, I couldn’t help but smile as a rush of warmth blew through me.

But it couldn’t be.

This was just a dream. It was just…

And sure enough, ahead of me in the center of the gray void,