The Dawn of Dae (Dae Portals Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

should be seen not heard,” I complained, grumbling curses under my breath. Hallucination or not, there was no need to be rude to my guest—invader, really. “Did you get lost trying to find City Hall?”
    “I’ve finished my business there. Thank you for the directions, Miss Daegberht. You were very helpful. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have other things I must attend to. Do have a good morning, and take care of yourself. Remember, you belong to me now.” He strode across my kitchen to my refrigerator and stepped inside. He even shut the door behind him.
    “What an asshole,” I muttered. It was a good thing he was gone. My imagination was pissing me off. Were all good-looking guys jerks? Was that really how I thought of men?
    I sighed. Then I blinked as his words replayed in my memory.
    Morning ?
    I jumped to my feet, staggered, and fell against the counter, smearing the wet fake cheese all over the place. My kitchen lurched around me, and I shook my head to clear it of vertigo. I recovered far faster than I had any right to, considering how drugged I had to be to create a hot, older man and sentient macaroni and cheese.
    I swayed on my way to the living room, snatching up my tablet with my orange-coated hands.
    The device informed me it was a little after nine in the morning. I stared down at myself, registering the coating of neon-orange product all over me and my clothes. Maybe it was a hallucination, but I couldn’t leave feeling so filthy.
    Spewing curses, I ran for the bathroom, shedding drying cheese as I went.

    One of the perks of being a merit-based student was my apartment’s location. The front door of the building was directly across the street from the side entrance to the college. I could go to and from classes with little risk of encountering anyone, so long as I dodged the unending stream of cars heading deeper downtown.
    I had exactly two minutes to make it from one side of the campus to the other if I wanted to be on time and prove to Terry Moore and Kenneth Smith I wasn’t to be taken lightly—and that I was capable of overcoming anything the drugs threw at me, including the miniature three-headed giraffe crossing the street with me.
    “Good morning,” I mumbled in the off chance it was a real person.
    “Top of the morning to you, Miss,” it chorused, dipping all three of its heads. Two were wearing top hats between their horns. The third wore a tiara.
    My imagination had a fixation on the British, apparently. Rob hadn’t seemed like quite as dapper a fellow, but I recognized the similarities—except for his belief I was his property.
    I wondered what that said about me.
    Breaking into a sprint as soon as I navigated through traffic, I beelined for the main administrative building. I made it without running into anyone, which surprised me. Mind-altering drugs had a tendency to erase reality and replace it entirely.
    Melting walls, ghostly figures, and noises only I could hear had been a way of life before I had gotten clean. The realism of my hallucinations without the numbing high of the narcotics accompanying them disconcerted me.
    I made it to the steps of the administrative building with thirty seconds to spare. A menagerie clustered on the steps. A cat taller than me stood on its hind legs, talking to Canadian geese with human faces. I wasn’t sure what language they were speaking, but it wasn’t English. To my disappointment, it wasn’t nearly as sensual as the language Rob had used.
    I dodged them, earning a couple of glares from the other strange critters my brain had conjured.
    A werewolf with pink wings crouched by the doubled doors, watching me with yellow eyes. Wisps of smoke coiled from its nose. I wiggled through the crowd, determined to make it to the dean’s office without betraying the fact I was on some sort of drug.
    I made it two steps into the building before I bumped into the dean.
    He was still a human, although his eyes had turned a vivid purple. Red rimmed