The interior of the hospital proved to be slightly confusing for him as he slithered his way through the shadows. The ground floor seemed barren of life outside of the occasional member of the militia. Scott would release his aura in creative ways, not enough to terrify but just enough to steer people away. Something akin to a bad or eerie feeling would steal over them. It happened at the subconscious level, so they did not notice it. The general idea was to keep them moving toward areas where he did not intend to be.

Scott finished surveying the ground floor but found that most of the militia members did not know anything about Ashton. That seemed unlikely, but he continued to search the area. It was not until he reached the central area of the floor that he perceived a stray thought that caught his attention. There was a monster in the morgue.

He focused on the thoughts of the woman in the lab coat then frowned. She was waiting for something. After he spent a moment diving around inside of her thoughts, he realized that she was waiting for him.

If a cloud of amorphous shadow could frown, Scott would have done so in that moment. He was not under the illusion that he was the most powerful being in existence, but this woman’s level of confidence in her cause and the guns of the militia was borderline ridiculous. He could not dive deeper than the surface without the potential of alerting her to the invasion, but what he saw was quite telling.

Scott sank through the floor then drifted toward the general area of the hospital where the morgue should be located. Along the way, he worked out the details of how to escape with Ashton, provided she was still in a position to escape. The doctor’s thoughts seemed to lend him that impression, but he would not know for certain until he found her.

Several minutes passed while he drifted along, and a plan was formed. Once he found the morgue, he slipped out of a meat locker and into the darkness of the underground room. A steady drip from a nearby sink caught his attention briefly, but he soon located his real target.

He flowed toward the sleeping form of Ashton on a nearby table. Her chest rose and fell with shallow but steady breaths. The rhythm of her breathing caused him to believe that she had been drugged, as she slept far too soundly for someone strapped to a table in a cold dark morgue.

His thoughts melded with hers for a moment. Clearly, she was not present in this world.

“Is this what it looks like when we are in the dream world?” he whispered softly.

The complete darkness of the room made it difficult for even his draconic eyes to see her with the same clarity as he would during the day, but with all of his senses focused on her he was able to assess her situation. Badly injured, though in no danger. She would have trouble walking on her own, and even without the anesthetic she would still be weak.

He tried to wake her with soft words and gentle shaking, but she did not wake up. Scott splurged a bit and called one of his healing tonics from his bag in the dream world. He did not have many, as most of his healing items were just from combining grass. The few tonics he actually purchased were more akin to actual healing potions from a game.

Scott looked at the little glass bottle. The things were expensive, but that was not why he looked it over at the moment. His concern was that it might not even work on Earth. It was something that could not exist.

He lifted her up then gently poured the tonic into her mouth. Gently, he stroked her throat so that she would swallow it normally and then he fed her a little more. Once the entire bottle was drained, her shoved it into his pocket and sighed. It would not be nearly enough. Her wounds would certainly heal faster, but they were too numerous. There would be no miraculous instantaneous healing.

A stray thought crossed his mind, but it did not belong to him. Someone was coming.

“The doctor?” he whispered curiously.

Scott slipped back into the absolute darkness and returned to his shadow form. He wanted to see what the not-so-good doctor was up to, and perhaps even force his way deep into her mind if given a reason.

The nearby door opened with a lazy creak. Light spilled into the room just before she reached over to turn on the lights.

“Still asleep, I see?” she asked.

The doctor held her clipboard to her chest and walked over to Ashton with a purpose. “We had a bit of excitement outside the hospital. Perhaps that mysterious Scott of yours will appear soon?”

Scott listened carefully. Now that the woman was speaking so openly and in an unguarded manner, her mind was also more open. He slipped into her thoughts like a black serpent would slip through moonlit grass.

She checked Ashton’s vitals then nodded. “Improvement. Good… Not good enough, but good.”

The doctor glanced toward the door then leaned down and whispered to Ashton. “Seriously. You need to heal faster. I can’t stall these meat heads much longer.”

“Hey! What are you doing?” asked a man from outside the room.

Had Scott eyes he would have blinked. He did not even know the man was there.

A large man with a closer shaved head strode into the room like he owned the place. There was a jagged scar on his right cheek that crossed over his eye. Though, he was clearly not blind.

Scott focused his attention fully on that man. Even now that he was in the room, he could not sense him.

“I’m checking her vital signs,” said the doctor.

“Her?” asked the man with a cruel sneer.

“The monster does seem to express herself as female,” replied the doctor.

“Cut the crap, doc,” replied the scarred man. “There is no sign of that super monster of yours. I’m getting tired of waiting.”

“What was all of that shooting about earlier?” she asked. “Are you sure it is not on its way here?”

“That was nothing more than some rich little girl pulling a prank,” said the scarred man. “If a monster had shown its face, I would have killed it.”

Scott tried to focus his attention on the man again. He did not understand why he was unable to sense his existence.

The doctor started to respond but noticed that there was an odd glow from within the scarred man’s clothes. She mentioned that instead. “Your precious trinket is glowing.”

He opened his shirt then pulled a pendant out from his shirt. “Bright blue… Must be a swarm of the fuckers on the way.”

“I thought you said that thing had a limited range?” asked the doctor.

“Maybe it’s picking up this monster bitch,” said the man.

He stabbed Ashton’s abdomen with his finger. “The evil slut must be getting better. Though, there’s no way something so weak would make my pendant glow so brightly.”

“Are you certain? That item is mysterious,” said the doctor.

“No, it’s our insurance policy,” said the man. “No matter how strong a critter is, their innate racial special abilities are useless against me if they aren’t over level twenty.”

“To think such a powerful item was just lying in the street,” said the doctor.

“Yeah. The only good thing about finding this monster bitch was that some idiot dropped this little beauty near a burnt-out car wreck,” said the scarred man. He eyed the stone, a large clear crystal that glowed brightly in the darkness.

He chuckled then shoved the glowing thing back into his t-shirt. “Someone really did a number on that car. Shot it. Beat it. Burnt it. It’s like they had a personal grudge against it.”

That pendant had Scott’s full attention. His racial abilities were largely exceptional skills and could not be denied. All that really meant for him, though, was that he could not be prevented from using the ability. It did not mean that others could not deny its ability to affect them. In a way it would be similar a water hose that had an exceptional power to produce water. The water flow could not be stopped, but a drainage ditch could be installed to keep the water from flooding the yard. Said water would then be carried off into the world where it might do good or at least be safely ignored.

Highly charismatic people. Creatures of much higher level. Special entities. There were things that could block his efforts to affect them or to sense their thoughts. His actual level was below twenty, despite his stat boosts. So, even though he was not prevented from using his telepathic power, his power could not touch the man. Such an item would be a lot of trouble if they became common. He had never seen anything like it so far. His draconic heart had awakened a new desire.