by Ashley Ladd
“Who are you?” Chloe whirled, and gasped when she saw the exposed fangs.
“A vampire like your beloved. I am Anika, the woman your ex-boyfriend loves.” Anger and lies contorted Anika’s features. Pure evil gleamed in her eyes as she hovered over Chloe.
Luke crept stealthily closer, preparing to lunge at the deranged vampire.
“Vampire? I don’t believe in vampires or boogeymen.” Chloe stood tall and firm as if she believed that confronting her fears would make them back down.
He loved her all the more for her courage, but she didn’t understand the astral plane, or that in it, monsters did exist and they could kill the unsuspecting.
“Then you’d better start, not that you’ll live long enough to ponder it.” Anika laughed maniacally, her screeching tones shattering his eardrums.
When the vampire flew at Chloe, Luke jumped in her way, shoving Chloe away from the danger. “Run!” He slashed at his enemy with the back of his hand.
“She’ll die a slow, miserable death for this, Lukas. And I’ll make you watch,” Anika hissed, spreading herself thin on the night until she was just a mist that shimmered away.
“Luke?” Chloe stood several feet away, her gaze intense on his face. “She said you’re a vampire, like her. What’s going on?”
“It’s just a dream, Chlo’. Anything can happen in your dreams. It’s not real.” How he wished he could tell her the truth. “Forget this troubling dream. Forget me and go on with your life.”
She shook her head vehemently. “But I don’t want to forget you. I love you.”
“And I love you, but we can’t be together. This is no good for either of us. You must forget me. Forget you saw me tonight. This has been a mistake.”
“Mistake? What’s the mistake? Loving each other?”
“Never that, my love. But our time together is over. We’ve both got to move on, hard as it will be. It’s the only way.”
“But I don’t want to.”
“That’s the dream Chloe talking. Your waking self wants to move on with her life. Let yourself be happy. Let go of me. For your sake.” The words tasted like ashes in his mouth, and though he hoped she’d take heed, he knew they were wasted on him. If only he could be happy without her. Some century perhaps, although the likelihood of that was extremely dim. They had a rare, timeless love.
Chapter Four
Chloe’s dreams changed after that night. No longer were they feverishly erotic. No longer did she feel safe and secure. No longer did she anticipate them.
She missed her erotic nights with Luke. He had abandoned her. Or had she finally given up on him?
Now her dreams were sinister, and she sensed…something evil lurking in the background. She wasn’t sure quite what it was, maybe the monster from the last time Luke was in her dreams, the last time she was in his arms.
Ragged and dispirited, she tried to right her balance. She couldn’t continue in this manner.
Shawanda stomped into the room, and slammed books and papers around Chloe’s desk. “Still sleeping on the couch, doc? You’re going to need a chiropractor if you don’t get yourself an apartment soon with a decent bed. If you’re going to keep that cat, it needs a home, too. It can’t be hanging out in here.”
Startled, the cat that had been asleep curled up on her chest jumped lithely to the floor and crossed the room. It took up a perch in the window and gazed outside as it licked its paw leisurely and rattled the blinds.
“Good morning to you, too.” Chloe yawned widely and stretched her arms toward the sky as she rolled the kinks from her muscles.
Shawanda dropped a folded newspaper on her lap and whistled cheerfully as she straightened Chloe’s desk and freshened the water in her vase overflowing with carnations Shawanda always picked up from the street vendor.
“What’s this?” Chloe rubbed the sleep from her eyes and stared at it, newsprint blurring before her.
“The rental section. I circled some ads for a crib that’ll meet your requirements.”
Chloe cracked a grin up at the mothering nurse as she unfolded the paper and let her glance flicker over it. “You’re not very subtle.”
“I’m making no bones about it. You need a home. If not for your own good, you need to be in tiptop shape for your patients.”
Her nurse had a valid point. “Okay,” Chloe said on a sigh. “I’ll start looking. I just really don’t have the heart, yet.” Even though she was well rid of Gerald, she had been looking forward to moving into the beautiful house they were having built up in Parkland.
Delicious aromas from the food Shawanda was heating up in the microwave wafted to her, making her stomach growl. She held out her hands eagerly when Shawanda presented it to her. “Eat up. All that fast food you’ve been inhaling can’t be good for you, either.”
Her mouth watering, Chloe peeked inside the bowl. “What is it?”
“Chitlins. Manna from Heaven, girl. Eat up.”
Chloe was doing just that when the doorbell buzzed insistently. The women eyed each other questioningly. When she glanced at her watch, she frowned. “The patients aren’t due for another hour.”
“Probably another walk-in. Everybody knows what a soft touch you are, ‘cept when it comes to me and you make me stay and work with you half the night.” Shawanda trotted to the door and came back with Gerald in tow and a scowl on her face. “He wouldn’t take no for an answer and barged right in. Should I call the cops?”
Chloe set her dish on the table with an angry clang, stood and smoothed her wrinkled clothes over her body. Fed up, she shot a dirty look at her ex. “I thought I told you to stay away from me.”
He presented her with a bouquet of gorgeous red roses. “For you, sweetums. Please, let’s go somewhere private to discuss this misunderstanding. Give me a chance to make amends.”
“The Trojans came bearing gifts, too, boss.” Shawanda flounced away, her nose high in the air. “Call me if the brother starts any trouble. I know karate.”
Gerald glared at Shawanda’s back. “I don’t understand why you continue to employ such impertinent staff. Her employment should have been terminated years ago.”
Chloe tossed the roses in the trash and wiped her hands with exaggeration, wishing she could rid herself of Gerald so easily. “So you came all this way to tell me how to run my business?”
Gerald scowled at the destroyed roses, grabbed her hand, and tried to pull her into his embrace. “I told you that I want us to forgive and forget. The wedding’s scheduled to take place in a month. Mumsy’s beside herself about how to explain our little tiff.”
Resisting his vile advances, Chloe stopped her eyes in mid-roll. “Is this all about your mother? What everyone will think?” She plopped down on the couch, sinking into the indentation she’d left, kicked up her feet onto the coffee table, and folded her arms tightly across her chest. “If you’re worried about what people will think, then you should be thankful you escaped from me while you could. A lowly general practitioner would severely damage your pristine reputation. And my lowly blood would surely taint your heirs.”
Gerald shoveled his fingers through his gelled hair, mussing it. “I didn’t mean it the way it sounded. Give me a second chance. Don’t analyze every syllable that comes out of my mouth.”
She didn’t want to analyze anything about him, except maybe his tracks leaving her door. “If you’ll excuse me, I have to prepare for my patients.”
“Work? I canceled all my appointments this afternoon in deference to you. Surely you can provide me the same consideration.” Gerald hitched up his pant leg and lowered himself into her lounger. “I’m not leaving until we come to an accord.”
He wanted a heart-to-heart? What was in her heart? Did she even know anymore?
Certainly no love for Gerald. She’d been fond of him, enjoyed his companionship until he’d shown her his true character. But then, the other night wasn’t the first time he’d insulted her practice or her for that matter. So perhaps, he’
d never hidden his true character. It was only the first time she’d allowed herself to see it.
But now?
Now her stomach roiled at the thought of spending one more day with him, much less a lifetime in his company. It’d be far better to spend it alone and loveless, than to put up with his whininess and have to kowtow to his precious Mumsy. Not that she felt the kind of romantic, erotic love for Gerald that she’d felt for Luke.
Not even close. Luke had been one of a kind. She’d known her bliss and would have to be happy with the memories. Most people never knew that kind of ecstasy in their lives. She had been blessed.
And now she had a thriving practice, patients who depended on her, an important mission in life. It would have to be enough.
The sadness in Gerald’s eyes threatened to tear her apart. Although she didn’t love him, didn’t even like him much, she couldn’t stand to see him in pain. She didn’t like herself much, knowing that she was partly responsible for his heartache. She should have realized much sooner that she didn’t love him enough to marry him instead of planning a walk down the aisle with him.
Sitting forward, she folded her hands on her knees and gave him her full attention. “My heart’s not in this. I don’t love you the way I should love a husband.”
Gerald’s complexion paled, draining of all blood. His knuckles whitened where his hands clenched the arm of the chair. “You don’t mean that. It’s just the anger talking. Wedding jitters.”
She closed her eyes, feeling like an enormous heel. After several stressful moments, she looked at him again, hope against hope that he would take this well. His creased forehead told her it wasn’t to be. “I honestly don’t love you. I thought friendship and companionship would be enough for now, that eventually love would grow between us, but it’s not happening. I know now it’s not going to happen.”
Gerald leapt to his feet and was towering over her in three long strides. “You’re still pining after that Delaney fellow. He’s a ghost! He’s not coming back.”
Gerald’s unkind, if logical words stabbed her in the heart. “Don’t you think I know he’s dead? That I don’t remember every single day of my life? That’s the problem. I can’t forget. He’s more real, and what I feel for him still is more real, than what I’ve ever felt for you. I want to feel love again and you deserve to be loved like that, too. It wouldn’t be fair to either of us.”
Gerald’s face contorted in rage. “You’ve been leading me on? You told me you loved me!”
“I did…do love you, but not the way you deserve.” Not the way she deserved.
She rose to her feet and crossed to the window. The cat mewed and rubbed against her hand.
“I see you’ve let that mangy cat inside now. I should call the Health Department. Or maybe I should just take him to Animal Control.” The sneer on Gerald’s lips leapt to his eyes. He snatched the cat and sprinted for the door.
The tomcat screeched and clawed frantically at Gerald’s face, drawing blood, forcing Gerald to drop him in a heap at his feet. Then it tore off across the room, its eyes glowing oddly silver in the dim light.
A look of utter amazement etched comically across the doctor’s countenance as blood clung to his fingers after he touched his torn cheek. “That does it. He’s going to the pound tonight. Or maybe I’ll just tie an anchor around his neck and sink him to the bottom of the ocean.”
“No! Don’t you dare touch my cat.” Chloe dove for the cat.
The vile Gerald scooped up the struggling, spitting creature first.
The door burst open, and the vampire from Chloe’s dream stomped inside. A legion of wicked-looking dwarfs hobbled closely behind, big ears sticking out, long hair billowing behind them. The raven-haired woman pointed a talon-like finger at Chloe and leered. “Take her back to the manor. Alive.”
Chloe gasped, her heart ready to burst from her chest and her respiration became shallow. She faced off against the trespasser, planting her feet wide apart. “You can’t be real.”
One of the hunchbacked ogres batted Chloe’s feet out from under her, so that she fell to the floor and thumped her head. Intense pain slashed through her, stealing her breath.
The cat let out a horrible screech and before her eyes, transformed into Luke, just as he always looked in her dreams.
Blinking, Chloe couldn’t believe her eyes. She had to be dreaming. Cats didn’t transform into humans. Luke was dead. The vampire was a figment of her dreams. Yet Gerald and Shawanda also stared openmouthed at the ensemble.
“Who are you?” Chloe finally found her voice and gouged the fiend in his eyes, making him howl as he retreated.
“I know karate!” Shawanda threatened, shrieking and swinging her leg in a high kick.
The vampire merely chuckled and flew into the air, avoiding the blow easily. Hissing, her fangs burst from her gums. She punched the nurse, reeling her backwards into Gerald who was cowering in the corner.
Furious, Chloe threw the phone at the cackling vampire who ducked so that the phone smashed through the window. “What do you want from us?”
“I want you to leave Lukas alone. He’ll never be mine as long as you’re alive.” The vampire swooped down on her, scooping Chloe into her strong arms.
Luke delivered a deadly chop to the attacker, making her drop Chloe. Cursing loudly, he caught Chloe just before she hit the floor. “Are you okay, darlin’?”
Confused, dazed, Chloe shook her head. “Yes. No. You were a cat…you flew in the air…”
“Shhhh. I’ll explain everything as soon as I take care of Anika. Will you be okay for a moment?”
“Long as one of those things doesn’t try to devour me.” Chloe couldn’t stop staring at Luke. He couldn’t really be here. Or maybe she was dead. If so, this obviously wasn’t heaven. And yet, what could be more heavenly than to be held in Luke’s arms one more time?
“You’ll be okay for a few moments? You’re not going to faint on me?”
She touched her fingertips to her spinning head, feeling like she was being sucked into a force five tornado. It felt heavy but she wasn’t in danger of passing out. “Yeah. I think so.”
Luke brushed a kiss across her lips shooting volts of electricity through her and laid her back gently. “I’ll return shortly.”
“Promise?” On second thought, she wasn’t at all fine. She was talking to a ghost and envisioning vampires and all manners of monsters. It was probably all a bizarre dream, but it had a very real quality to it that alarmed her.
“Promise.” His eyes glowed silver and he lifted his head and howled, an earsplitting, inhuman sound that sent chills through her.
“Damn you to hell, Anika! I will have your head for this.” The vigor in Luke’s voice made Chloe blink and shrink back from him.
Anika hovered high overhead, her eyes glittering darkly. “As you are so fond of telling me, Lukas, we’re already in hell. Your threats mean little to me.” She dissipated into mist and shimmered away.
Luke swore under his breath and turned to Gerald and Shawanda. He approached them furtively but non-threateningly. He waved a hand over their eyes, which instantly glazed over. “You need to sleep now. When you awaken, you will think this was a dream.”
Chloe absorbed his words, turning them over in her mind. Luke controlled dreams? So, maybe she hadn’t been hallucinating. Maybe all her fantasies had been real, cloaked in the auspices of dreams. Struggling to her feet gingerly, her head still reeled and her heart raced. A jumble of emotions threatened to tear her up. “You promised me an explanation. Am I dreaming? Was I dreaming all those other times? Are you real?”
Luke rejoined her, supporting her to the couch in her private office. “Let me settle those two and I’ll be right back.”
Fear that he wouldn’t return grasped her and she grabbed at his hand that felt very durable and not the least bit transient. “Don’t leave. Explain first. I don’t understand. If you’re real, why have you pretended you were dead? Why did you leave me?”
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“Okay, I won’t leave.” To the dwarfs Luke snapped and he tilted his head at the sleeping humans. “Take those two to their homes and leave them there. Report to my lair when you’re finished. You have thirty minutes. If you fail, if anything happens to them before or after you deposit them home, your existences will be forfeit.”
The slaves trembled but nodded and then slinked out of the room, carrying their charges.
Chloe hung on his every word, knowing there was no way she would like the answer. The best scenario was that he was in the Witness Protection program. Or maybe this was all a horrible dream. Or maybe she’d been in a coma and was just now awakening.
But the Witness Protection program didn’t enable cats to shift into humans or vice versa. It couldn’t help people to fly…
Luke sighed and claimed the seat beside her, his weight on the cushion forcing her to lean toward him. Enfolding her hands in his, he stroked her knuckles with the pad of his thumbs. He gazed deeply into her eyes, his expression kind and reassuring. Love blazed in them, stealing her breath. “What I have to tell you will be hard to believe…”
“Try me.” She considered herself a forward thinker. As a woman of science, she was open to many possibilities. It was impossible that all the secrets of the universe been revealed yet. She firmly believed that humans still had much to learn, much to comprehend. “Have I been in a coma?”
Luke cracked a smile, his chiseled lips curling up on the ends. “No, darlin’. Nothing’s happened to you.”
The husky way he called her darlin’, and the magical touch of his hand, made her tremble as they always had. “Then what’s going on? If I’m to believe my eyes, you changed from a cat to a human. You flew.”
Luke nodded, his gaze mesmerizing. “Remember the case I was working when I died?”
When he died… He didn’t look dead and he certainly didn’t feel dead. Her heart certainly couldn’t tell he was dead. Erratic, it skipped several beats and raced whenever he touched her. What was he saying?