Dreams of Discovery (Caitlin Alexander Guardian Series, Book 3)

Dreams of Discovery

Caitlin Alexander Guardian Series — Book 3

By Debra Sylver

Also in the series:

In Your Dreams – Book 1

A Dream of a Deal – Book 2

Dreams of Discovery

Debra Sylver

Smashwords edition

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, dialogue and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events or locales is entirely coincidental.

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and you did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.

Copyright © 2015 Debra Sylver. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electrical or mechanical without the express written permission of the copyright holder. The scanning, uploading and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the author is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials.

Cover Design ©Melissa Alvarez, BookCovers.Us

Photography ©Depositphotos.com/ ©lifeonwhite, ©stillfx, ©kunz, ©prometeus, ©Jim_Filim

ISBN: 978-0-9938211-8-9

Table of Contents

Title page

Copyright

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

About the Author

Bonus Excerpt from In Your Dreams

Chapter 1

Your mother is ill. You need to come home. Those words kept running through Caitlin’s head as she threw clothes into a dark canvas bag without paying any attention to what they were. Her dad wouldn’t tell her anything else over the phone, and just repeated his request for Caitlin to come home as soon as she could. That in itself was enough to scare her. Her father had never been one to beat around the bush when it came to imparting bad news. She remembered coming home from school when she was ten or eleven to find him sitting in a chair on the front porch.

Caitlin, Reggie died today at the vet’s, he said simply. That morning the little dog hadn’t been eating and had problems standing up. Apparently he was having a heart attack and they hadn’t known it. Caitlin was shattered. She hadn’t even been able to say goodbye, to tell him that she loved him. She hoped he hadn’t died alone, wondering what was happening and why she wasn’t there with him. Her dad held her as she cried, patting her back a little awkwardly. But even so, it had never occurred to him to soften the blow or lead up to the bad news. He believed that it was best to just come out and say it. And Caitlin respected him for that. So many people were incapable of talking straight, especially about difficult things. So for him to refuse to talk about her mother’s illness over the phone was a sign of just how serious the situation was.

Jaeden was in the kitchen gathering Puff’s necessities—his collar, his leash, and the floppy sock chew toy that he adored. It had once been a sock monkey, but now one arm, an ear, and the tail were all missing, probably swallowed in little pieces by the canine as he gnawed and slobbered the monkey into submission. She kept meaning to replace the toy, but wasn’t sure that Puff would let her. He didn’t seem to mind that it was missing a few parts.

Jaeden had offered to take care of the German shepherd while Caitlin was away, but her attachment to the dog was too strong to give him up, especially when she might need some emotional support.

Caitlin zipped up her bag without a clue what was in it. It didn’t matter. She still had a few old clothes at her parents’ house, and could buy anything else that she needed in Montreal.

Come on, Puff. Let’s go! she called out. Where did that dog go? Damn it, she had to leave. Tears welled up in her eyes as she thought of her mother, the woman who was always there for her, no matter what. She couldn’t imagine a life without—. Stop that. Don’t go there.

Caitlin sensed Jaeden behind her, and then his arms were encircling her. She turned into them and gave up her pretense of control, the tears burst through the hastily constructed dam she had built around her emotions on hearing her father’s words. Jaeden held her as she sobbed, her body shuddering with every breath. His arms tightened and he kissed the top of her head, stroked her hair and made soothing noises in between the kisses.

After a few minutes, although some shudders remained, her tears were dry. However, Jaeden’s shirt was not, and it had accumulated brown-black splotches all over the chest and shoulder. It looked like a two year old had been unleashed upon it with a paintbrush.

I’m sorry, Caitlin hiccupped. I got mascara all over your shirt. She must look like hell. Under normal circumstances, she thought she wasn’t bad looking, sometimes even better than not bad. But these weren’t normal circumstances. Her oval face undoubtedly had splotchy red patches by now, and swollen gray-blue eyes leaking mascara down a track leading to a red nose. She probably looked like a raccoon-eyed, sunburnt Rudolph. Her long blond hair was probably flat as a pancake after Jaeden’s soothing strokes, too. Some women managed to look beautiful when they cried. She was not one of them.

Don’t worry about it, he murmured. I didn’t like this shirt anyway. She snorted in disbelief, her nose still running a little.

Caitlin looked up at Jaeden, risking that he would jump back in horror when he saw her red-eyed, tear-stained wreck of a face.

Even in her emotionally fragile state, she registered that Jaeden was extraordinarily handsome, with blond hair, startling aquamarine eyes, cut cheekbones, a square jaw and a wide, sensual mouth. Although she was tall, topping out at just over 5’10", he was several inches over six feet tall, and somehow managed to make her feel petite, something she hadn’t felt since she was about eight. His body was lean like a swimmer’s, with broad shoulders, slim hips and long legs. Caitlin had seen Jaeden without a shirt before, and the image was seared in her memory—his chest was hard and muscled, and his abdomen looked like something you saw on a billboard. But it wasn’t just his physique that made her feel small and delicate. It was his aura, that subtle, difficult to describe feeling of energy and character that surrounded him. Maybe charisma was a better word. But whatever it was, it felt powerful and comforting at the same time.

He didn’t jump back when he saw her face. Points to him. He did, however, look down at her in doubt. How are you getting to Montreal?

Montreal was only a two-hour drive from Ottawa, so the choice was easy. Driving, Caitlin said. If I leave now, I’ll get there well before dinner.

He shook his head in disagreement, disapproval evident on his face, as he got ready to be all protective. You’re in no condition to drive. I’ll drive you there, and then pick you up when you’re ready to come home, whenever that is. And don’t worry about work—just focus on your family. They need you. We’ll manage without you. The words were an order, and the tone was that of someone who did not expect to be disobeyed. That tone didn’t often work on her, much to his continual frustration.

There had been times in the past when Caitlin had chafed at Jaeden’s protective, and sometimes dictatorial, inclinations. But this time she was grateful for the offer, even one that was a command in disguise. But she knew that she had to be careful about letting Jaeden’s instinct to protect her go too far.

She and Jaeden had a complicated relationship. In this Ottawa, the one she had known all her life, Caitlin was a lawyer for a large global company. Jaeden also was a lawyer, and her company had hired him as an interim Chief Counsel when the old Chief Counsel, Michelle, had abruptly left the company.

So he was her boss, as well as her almost boyfriend. She wasn’t sure their relationship quite qualified as boyfriend-girlfriend yet. Hopefully, he was going to be her boss for only a short while longer, because she really wasn’t into the whole dating your boss cliché. But a little to her chagrin, she was close to living it at the moment.

In the other Ottawa, an alternate reality that she had recently realized existed, they were both Guardians, magical protectors of the peace and enforcers of a Treaty signed by all the major groups of supernatural beings that lived there. The Guardians called that reality Otherwhere. On her first trip there a few months ago, triggered by a blow to the head and a crisis in self-image, she had first met Jaeden. He was the leader of the Guardians in that territory. So he was her boss there, too.

Jaeden was used to leading and protecting the Guardians in his region, and Caitlin was no exception in his mind. But Caitlin was a special Guardian. She had a variety of powers that had manifested themselves almost the moment she had arrived, which was unheard of. And not only did Caitlin’s powers start early, but she was also powerful, even for a Guardian, and that had leveled the playing field a bit between her and Jaeden. From a pure raw power perspective, she was his equal, if not more. However, he still had a strong instinct to protect her that she sometimes found stifling.

During her first visit to Otherwhere, Jaeden and Caitlin had realized that they had feelings for each other. Much of that first visit had been spent trying to resist the attraction they had to each other. She had come to think of them as two magnets. When aligned properly, the attraction rendered them stronger together than they were separately. But when they weren’t aligned, which seemed to occur with some regularity, they were forced apart, each a little weaker.

You don’t have to do that, she protested half-heartedly. She didn’t want to inconvenience him, but at the same time she was smart enough to realize that maybe it wouldn’t be a good idea for her to drive in her current emotional state.

It’s settled, he said, ignoring her protest. Let me stop at home on our way out to grab a bag. I’ll stay at a hotel tonight, and drive home tomorrow.

You will not stay at a hotel, she said firmly. You can stay at my parents’ house. We have plenty of room. She silently hoped that her dad would be okay with that. She knew that under normal circumstances, her mom would be—her mom was always happy to have Caitlin’s friends over and people visiting. Her dad, however, and God knew she loved him, was pretty private and liked his routine. He was charming when he wanted to be, but he didn’t always want to be. She sighed. Her dad would just have to deal.

We’ll see, Jaeden hedged. Your family probably doesn’t need the distraction of a guest right now.

Caitlin grunted. It likely would be exactly what they did need. She was an only child and sometimes they needed other people in the mix to keep things on an even keel.

She had often wondered what it would have been like to have brothers and sisters who could have taken some of the parental focus and attention off her. Although she had tried to live up to her parents’ expectations when growing up, it hadn’t always been possible. She was only human, and she had made her share of mistakes. And as an only child, her mistakes became the topic of many family discussions. The number of discussions had decreased as she grew older and moved away, but she still felt the weight of the need to be good at everything and to succeed at whatever she tried. She had a feeling that having siblings would have lessened some of that pressure. But there was no use wishing for what couldn’t be. And it sounded kind of whiny to complain about it, if she was honest.

Twenty minutes later they were all packed into Jaeden’s silver Audi A8, Puff on a blanket in the backseat in a vain attempt to keep his nails from scratching the leather. The dog was wagging his tail, running back and forth between the windows, crumpling the carefully spread blanket into a big ball that eventually ended up on the floor. Puff loved Jaeden’s car. Caitlin knew that, not just from the wagging tail, but also because he had told her. Puff could communicate with her, at least in Otherwhere. Here in this reality, that she had nicknamed Homeworld, he didn’t appear to be able to.

After stopping briefly at Jaeden’s, they were soon on the highway, on their way to Montreal.

So what’s your dad like? Jaeden asked. The night before they had left Otherwhere (had that really been just last night?), they had stayed up late talking, just getting to know each other better. Caitlin had told him a little about her adoptive parents, but the conversation had been more focused on the more immediate parts of their lives, including work, likes, dislikes, hobbies and stories about themselves.

She had learned some interesting details about Jaeden. He had a father and two brothers, but they all had seemed a little envious that he had inherited the Guardian gene from his grandfather when they hadn’t, so he wasn’t close to them anymore. He was closer to his mother, and even closer to his grandfather. Caitlin found the estrangement hard to fathom. Regardless of her differences with her parents, she had been brought up to believe that family was everything. But maybe, being adopted, she clung to that belief more than other people did.

He’s intense, smart, and can be scary, she smiled.

Scary? he queried. You didn’t mention that last night.

I guess I mean intimidating, she clarified. His voice is deep, and it would sometimes scare me when I was little. He always had high expectations of me. I remember coming home from school once with a B on a test and he asked me what had gone wrong. I love him, but he always seemed a little emotionally removed. My mom was the emotional one. Like I told you last night, she and I had the biggest fights about the stupidest things.

He looked over at her. Lots of teenage girls fight with their moms.

I know, but I was pretty hard on her. She’s small, and I passed her height when I was in my early teenage years, which added to my already insufferable teenage attitude of superiority. Plus, she was young when they adopted me, just twenty-five. When I was thirteen, she was only thirty-eight and looked more like my sister than my mom—and she still does. Caitlin chuckled ruefully.

Twenty-five? That’s young to adopt, Jaeden commented.

Yeah, she had some medical issues, and knew that she wasn’t going to be able to have kids. My dad wasn’t as young—he’s ten years older than she is.

Maybe that was part of the reason for the emotional distance he maintained, even from his family. She had given up trying to figure it out years ago, and just tried to accept him as he was. She loved her father, and knew that he loved her, but they didn’t express it very often. She had learned a lesson from living with her father though—she knew that she wanted someone who wasn’t shy about expressing his feelings.

So your mom is still young—only … fifty-four, Jaeden said, doing the calculation.

Yes, and that’s what makes this so hard to understand. She’s the type of person who takes care of herself. She exercises, eats right, gets all her medicals and is just a generally healthy person. She never gets sick. It’s my dad who eats too much, doesn’t exercise enough and gets the colds and flu. Caitlin shook her head, partially to keep the tears away. I don’t get it.

Maybe it’s just a bad flu or something, Jaeden offered.

Caitlin kept shaking her head. No, my dad isn’t an alarmist. For him to say that I should come home, something must be really wrong. She took a deep breath. I’ll find out soon enough. Part of her couldn’t wait to get to Montreal, each kilometer seeming to pass so slowly that she wanted to scream. The other part, though, didn’t want to get there at all because then whatever it was couldn’t be avoided and would become real.

They made good time, the Audi eating up the road with no police in sight. Caitlin called her dad on the way, telling him that her friend Jaeden was driving her. Jaeden lifted his eyebrow at her description of their relationship, but didn’t say anything until she had hung up the phone.

Friend, Caitlin? he asked. There are many other words you could use for me—boyfriend, lover, boss, leader. He grinned. I think I like boss the best, with boyfriend a close second. No surprise there.

Well, we haven’t slept together, so you’re not my lover, she pointed out, the word ‘yet’ hanging between them like an elephant. I think boss and leader are a little too hierarchical. And as for boyfriend … she shrugged, trying to feign nonchalance. We haven’t even really been on a date.

When they had returned to this reality after her first trip to Otherwhere, and she had found out that Jaeden was going to be her new boss, she had tried to avoid getting entangled in a relationship with him, despite their attraction for each other. But then she had agreed to go to a company gala ball with him. While there, they had met another Guardian leader, Luke Collins, who oversaw the Guardians in the southeastern US.

She and Jaeden had had a sizzling encounter in her kitchen after the gala, but Luke had interrupted before it had gone too far. The next morning, Caitlin had found herself back in Otherwhere. She didn’t think of the gala as a date. It had been more of a work event; at least that’s what she was telling herself.

She looked over at his profile, deciding to throw him a bone when she saw his unhappy expression. But I do consider you my friend, Jaeden, and more. I just didn’t want to get into it with my dad over the phone.

He smiled, his eyes going from unhappy to teasing. I get it, Cat. Just teasing you. I can handle friends with benefits, at least for now.

She punched him in the arm, at the same time smiling at the nickname. He had started calling her Cat when he learned that she could shift into a lioness as one of her Guardian powers. There was one time she had shifted into other animals when one of the other Guardians had scared the crap out of her. But she hadn’t been able to do it since. Every single time she tried to shift after that, her form was a lioness.

Too bad she couldn’t shift into a bird here—she could have flown to Montreal. That would have been hard to explain to her parents. But Guardians didn’t have powers in their original realities, only in Otherwhere. Here in Homeworld, she was pretty normal, except faster and stronger than she used to be. The Guardians didn’t know whether her shifting power came from a were or a walker, but whatever it was, it had the bonus side effect of lending her speed and strength in her human form, and seemed to also help her heal faster.

I meant to ask you about how our early warning system seems to work here, she said, changing the subject. Guardians got a tingling feeling in their heads when other Guardians were nearby. It didn’t work between Caitlin and Jaeden anymore, but had warned her when Luke Collins had shown up at the gala ball. They had all sensed each other as soon as Luke had walked into the room.

Jaeden looked sideways at her. I didn’t know that it worked in this reality until you and I met here. I do know that it doesn’t work between you and me now that our mind-link has started to kick in.

The mind-link also muddied their relationship. Caitlin had become a dreamer only recently. ‘Dreamer’ was a term sometimes used to describe Guardians because they only visited Otherwhere when sleeping in their original reality. No matter how many days passed in Otherwhere, it all fit into the time spent on a night’s sleep in their original reality.

Caitlin’s obvious power had made her a target for some of the other magical groups in Otherwhere—the witches, the vampires, the shifters, and the faeries. They had all been hoping to fulfill an ancient prophecy that foretold that a child of a Guardian would be born wielding powers of all the magical beings, and would bring together good and evil under his or her rule.

Since two Guardians couldn’t produce a child—nobody knew why—each magical group thought it was going to be the one to bring the Guardian child of the prophecy into the world.

Because there were so very few Guardian females, Caitlin had attracted a lot of attention when she had first arrived. Different groups had tried to kidnap her. Some had tried to woo her. In order to stop the kidnapping attempts and the courting, she and Jaeden had performed a mind-linking ceremony so that the Guardians could formally claim Caitlin as one of them without having to wait the normal period of time.

Eventually, she and Jaeden would be able to sense each other’s strong emotions through the mind-link, but that had not manifested itself yet except in one startling way. When Caitlin had been a prisoner in Faerie during her second visit to Otherwhere, she and Jaeden had been able to communicate telepathically, but only when she had been in her cat form. It kind of freaked them both out, but it had been a lifeline for her during the ordeal.

As you become used to being around specific Guardians, it will stop working with them, too. Like during your last visit—you didn’t feel it in the house when the others were around, right?

Caitlin shook her head. No, she hadn’t. But come to think of it, it would have been nice to have it working when Victor, a Guardian with powers of a vampire, was around. At Jaeden’s grim expression, she realized that she must have said that out loud.

That’s why we call it an early warning system. It’s there to tell you when Guardians you don’t know or aren’t expecting are close by. That can be very useful. She didn’t know whether he was referring to it being useful for him or for her.

But that makes it seem like other Guardians are the enemy, like we need to be warned about them, she objected. It would be more helpful if it worked to warn us of other magical beings like witches, weres or vampires, wouldn’t it?

He shrugged. I guess so, but that’s the way it is. I can tell you that it has saved my butt before, when I first started dreaming. He stopped. As if she was going to let him leave it at that.

What do you mean? she prompted, hungry to know more about Jaeden and his past. They had been through so much together in such a short time, but she felt that they didn’t really know each other. Even though there was no doubt in her mind that they were attracted to each other, there had been little time for the getting acquainted phase that generally initiated a normal relationship. They had met, and then immediately had found themselves in the middle of plots and rescues. They had barely caught their breath before the whole Faerie Queen escapade happened. They always seemed to have to focus on the issues in front of them, with no time to just relax with each other. Until last night. But that had only been for a few hours.

Jaeden maneuvered through a tricky area of traffic before answering. "When