Built to Live

Chapter 4 - Part 2

The VIP room pulsed faintly with the muffled thrum of bass leaking through the red-painted walls. Low, ambient lavender light bounced off the glassy table, where half-empty glasses and the amber hues of whiskey shimmered. I sat sprawled on the leather couch, legs crossed, my fingers curling around a glass of whiskey.

Across from me sat Cora and Bittie. Cora twirled the small fabric between her fingers, the faint stitching of the name barely catching the dim light. Her citrine-colored eyes narrowed as she held it up, her lips pressed in thought.

"This?" she asked, the corner of her mouth quirking upward as she chuckled. "This is gonna be a pain in the ass. Finding someone with no aura? Do you know how impossible that sounds, Agmos?"

"It's like trying to find someone who's never existed. Like—ever," Bittie commented.

Cora flicked the cloth back onto the table as if it were taunting her existence, then leaned back into the seat, arms crossed.

I tilted my glass lazily, watching the whiskey swirl before taking a slow sip. My gaze lingered on the cloth for a moment, unreadable. With a faint shrug, I tilted my head toward the girls, a ghost of a smile tugging at my lips as if to say, 'I know.'

"So," Cora began, arching a brow, "what do you want us to do? Ew—" she squinted, "—you've got that look on your face."

"What face?"

"The one where I usually regret agreeing to whatever crazy ideas you come up with, fool."

I gave a low chuckle and swirled the whiskey again, taking one last sip before setting it down on the table. "Two words—Dreamscape ride." No, it's not a rollercoaster. It's a ritual that no one should fuck around with. While tracking someone without an aura or scent sounds impossible, the silver lining is that they can still unknowingly leave behind a mark in subconscious realms. It's a very delicate and risky-as-fuck Brujeria ritual, and only a tiny portion of people can tap into someone's subconscious. Professional Dreamweavers, Shaw men, Higher deities, the big kahunas. All I need is an object our target has recently come into contact with, and that piece of cloth is my ticket. Even better, I have my go-to Dreamweaver sitting right before me.

Cora looked at me like I was nuts. I'm not surprised; this ain't the first time I've made her second-guess being friends with me. She blinked, then leaned back with a scoff. "Dreamscape ride?" She let the words hang in the air, her voice laced with sarcasm. "Are you drunk? Or just delulu? It was dangerous the last time we did it—did you forget that part?"

Bittie's chuckle broke the tension in the small room. "I remember. I had nightmares for a week. Thanks for that, by the way, Your Highness," she cooed.

"Shut up, your jesterness," I say with an eye roll. "This ain't about me this time. It's about finding her." I gestured toward the cloth still lying on the table. "We find our mysterious chica, snatch the key, and then bounce."

Cora crossed her arms, giving me a pointed look. "And what exactly makes you think this time will be any different? The last ride nearly fried the shit out of my brain, and Bittie here almost had her astral self knocked off the face of existence."

I raised a brow. "I've learned since then. You think I'm gonna make Bittie's same mistake when she tried stealing GoGo boots from her own dream?"

"Hey! Stealing them was your idea in the first place!" Bittie gasped. "You said I can use them in the real world! Those NPCs nearly caught my ass!"

"I was kidding; I didn't think you'd actually believe me. Point is, we ain't gonna make a mistake this time."

"We? Don't you mean you? This is your deity homework. We don't even know who this person is or what their life is like in that realm. This girl could be dangerous, for all we know. I mean, you found Belzar eaten down to the bone," said Cora.

"Yeah, like—what if she eats babies or something?" said Bittie.

"Why don't you just wait until this girl uses the key? It'd be easier to find her like that."

"Oh, sure. In the meantime, I can get some shut-eye and wait for my portal alarm to wake me up. I don't have time to wait for her to take days or longer to figure out how the damn thing works," I say to Cora as I lean forward with my elbows resting on my knees."Look, I wouldn't ask if it weren't necessary, right? In case you forgot, I can't track a dreamscape for shit." Yet. In all honesty, I suck at it, and my first time made me realize my "machoness" nearly killed my astral self. I had to learn the hard way when I dove into it carelessly like a Karen attempting to pet a cougar. According to the girls and my folks, I'm still in fuckin' baby mode with my abilities. "Unless you have another idea, this is the only way to find out where the key is."

Cora stared at me for a long moment, her jaw set and those gears spinning. Finally, she exhaled sharply, dragging a hand down her face with a groan. "You're impossible, you know that?"

"And yet, here you two still stand," I flashed her a slight, self-assured smirk.

"Yeah, yeah," she muttered, waving a hand. "Fine. I'm in. But if my brain melts this time, we're haunting you."

"We?" Bittie said with her mouth agape in an exaggerated disbelief.

"I'm not gonna have all the fun without my bunny."

"Well, I guess I'm in by default."

Satisfaction flickered across my face. I may be a youth-god who doesn't have a lot of leverage, but at least I'm the only one stubborn as hell to make things work my way. Todo el maldito tiempo.

End of Chapter 4