The Man of her Dreams: A Paranormal Romance

by Stratton, Nathan

  He didn’t answer that. Instead, he stretched out his hand to her. “There’s no time for this now. Please, Alexis. I ask you again: do you trust me?”

  The fact was that no, she didn’t trust him at all. But right now, she didn’t see what other option she had. There was nowhere else to go, nowhere to turn. She was standing in the midst of ash and smoke and fire, and it was all getting closer and more terrifying by the second. Reluctantly, she took his hand. He looked visibly relieved.

  “Good,” he said. “As long as you stay by my side, no harm will come to you. That’s a promise, Alexis. Now, let’s go!”

  She gasped as he took off into the air, still holding her by the hand. They zigzagged between flaming meteorites and belching smoke. Some of the meteors came so close that Alexis could smell and feel the singe of her hair, threatening to burst into flame if the embers touched it. The heat was intense. As they accelerated upwards, she noticed with a start that Philip had grown a pair of powerful-looking feathered wings – more like an angel than a devil, she thought to herself. It was just one more strange observation on top of all the weirdness that had been happening so far.

  Higher and higher they flew, until they passed through the cloud cover and away from the fiery madness below. They’d entered a deep blue ethereal atmosphere, with stars visible in the distance. It was incredibly peaceful, especially compared to the tumult they’d left behind. Instantly, Alexis felt a profound calm overtake her. They slowed to a halt, and Philip released her hand. He turned to look at her, his face totally relaxed now.

  “It’s all right,” he said. “We’re safe here. You won’t fall.” That much, at least, was already clear: Alexis was floating serenely in the cosmic void. She took a moment to marvel at the new environment, and in the abrupt change in circumstances.

  But suddenly, she snapped out of her daze. “And just what was that?” she yelled at him, anger returning to her voice. “And by the way, don’t think for one second that I trust you, Philip, even if you did pull me out of there. For all I know, you created that mess in the first place.”

  He regarded her somberly. He hesitated a moment, then said simply, “I wouldn’t do that.”

  He motioned with his hand down to the fiery world below them.

  “That down there? That’s the Devil’s work. He’s still trying to punish me for my transgression of last night. But Alexis, I want you to listen closely to this. If we’re together, we’re safe. I need you to believe that.”

  Alexis faltered, her anger diminishing a bit as she heard the earnestness in his voice. She threw up her hands. “Look,” she said, “you have to realize how strange this all is for me. And you really haven’t given me much reason to trust you, so why should I start now?”

  Philip cast his eyes downwards, chastened. “I know,” he said. “I did a lot of damage last night.” He sounded miserable, but when he looked back up at her, she saw strength and resolve in his eyes. “Alexis, I won’t lie to you again. That’s a promise. If you can find it in your heart to forgive me, you’ll see that I keep my word.”

  His plea sounded honest and sincere, but her sense of calm was starting to dissipate nonetheless. She looked around the placid atmosphere, seeing nothing but peacefulness, but she could still hear the crashing and burning in the distance. Her dream – the world she created from her memory – was being destroyed. And still, she couldn’t wake up.

  “Why can’t I wake up from this?” she demanded.

  Philip looked rather upset now. “Because you aren’t in control anymore,” he said softly, his voice filled with true regret. “The Devil is so angry with me that he has taken over your thoughts. We humans don’t control our subconscious; he’s got dominion in our dreams. I’m not sure when he’ll release you back to waking life.”

  Alexis laughed. “Release me? Seriously? I wasn’t the one who made a pact with Satan! How can he keep me here?”

  Philip threw up his hands. “I have no idea! Like you, Alexis, I’m just figuring this out as I go along. But from experience, I can tell you that eventually his attention will wane, and he will let go of your thoughts. He has too many other people like me to deal with.”

  Alexis shuddered at the thought of so many people making pacts with the Devil. She wondered what kind of pact it could have been, to turn a nobleman into an incubus. Something to do with a woman, perhaps? But as she opened her mouth to ask, a burst of flame appeared to her right, startling her enough that she fell against Philip. He caught her with one strong hand and they were off again, flying even higher this time, toward the stars that were winking in the distance.

  “Is he following us?” she called, even as the sounds of the fire below them grew even more distant.

  “He’s trying to, but we’re too far away right now,” he said to her, finally stopping again. Alexis looked around. She was hanging there in the sky, tethered to absolutely nothing, without any sort of recognizable world around her. Even the stars were not what she was accustomed to seeing, but rather pale blue balls of light that seemed to dance and shimmer with a beat all their own.

  She closed her eyes, and when she opened them the ground rushed up underneath her boots. The grass was jewel green and the lake in the distance looked like a flat mirror, reflecting a calm sea of stars. It was the dream-world she’d created last night. I made this place, she realized. Already, she felt safer among the familiar artifacts of her imagination.

  “Be careful,” Philip warned as he dropped casually to the ground. “He will find this place soon enough, and then we will have to run.”

  “But I have control of the dream again,” she said. “That means that I can get out of it anytime I want to. I could wake up right now, if I so chose to do that.”

  He looked at her with a pained expression. “I hope you don’t,” he said pleadingly. “Not yet. I wish we could talk…”

  Alexis snorted with laughter. “What, are you hoping I’ll fall in love with you?” she asked, and Philip had the grace to blush at the suggestion. He turned and walked a few steps to her right, and she looked at him now out of the corner of her eye. He might have tried to trick her, but despite her fury over that, she was warming up to him just a bit. Despite the whole business of tricking her, he did seem to have a sense of honor and chivalry to him. There was a certain nobility about the man; there was no denying that. She was more confused than ever to think how a man like him could ever make a pact with the Devil.

  In fact, now was as good as any a time to try and find out.

  “So are you going to tell me or not?” she asked him directly, planting her hands on her hips as she looked at him.

  “Tell you what?” he asked, but Alexis could see the unease and wariness flickering in his eyes. He knew exactly what she was talking about, and it was abundantly obvious that he didn’t want to talk about it. He put his hands at his waist and sighed.

  “It’s a very long story, and not a pretty one, I’m afraid. But just know that I did what I did out of love, not out of any sort of… selfishness. I thought I knew what I was doing, and I thought it would be worth it.” He grimaced as though he had been hit with a sudden physical pain. “But it wasn’t.”

  He turned to look up at the stars now, and she was shocked to see the hint of a glistening wetness in his eyes. His sudden melancholy mood hinted at some great tragedy in his past.

  What had happened to the woman he loved?

  Strangely, Alexis felt the ice inside her melt a little bit. She knew what it was like to do something for the sake of love, and then see it all crash and burn. That was the kind of heartbreak that everyone seemed to endure at one time or another – but most people didn’t wind up in purgatory for centuries because of it.

  She tilted her head, looking Philip over one more time. He sure did look like Evan, but she found herself wondering what he really looked like, when he wasn’t inhabiting the body of someone else. She thought about asking him, but even as the thought came to her mind she brushed it aside. She had dea
lt with more than enough emotional trauma today. Looking at someone who appeared to be Evan, even if he really wasn’t, was a big help right now in keeping her sanity in the dream.

  Philip was standing there quietly, watching her as she watched him. The booming sounds in the distance had faced, and the grass was fresh and solidly green, without a bit of change at all. She was firmly in control here.

  “Tell me about yourself,” he said suddenly, and she blinked with surprise. This was the last thing she had expected to hear from him.

  “What do you mean?” she asked. Apparently he already knew enough about her psyche to be able to duplicate Evan almost perfectly, and he had a very good idea of what her dream-worlds were like. So what was he asking, exactly?

  “I know what your dreams are like,” he said, almost reading her mind. “But I don’t know what it’s like when you wake up. What your real life is like… please, if you don’t mind, I would like to know.”

  “Why?” she asked warily.

  He shrugged one strong shoulder. “It’s simple, really. I miss the other world.” His voice was strong and smooth now, but his eyes betrayed the fact that he was hurting inside. She watched him for a while before she answered.

  “Well, okay. My life is… calm,” she began. “Boring, in fact.” She started telling him about her world – and the more she talked, the more he listened, until she found herself telling him almost everything she could call to mind about her life and how she lived her day-to-day moments. She told him about work, about her utter lack of a personal life, about the friends she loved (and those she just pretended to love), and even about the way her house looked and what kind of car she drove. Philip seemed to suck it all up like a sponge, asking questions from time to time that gave her serious pause.

  “What’s a car?” he asked once, and she was startled. She shook her head, unsure of why he was even asking, but then she remembered that he had been in stuck in this prison for centuries.

  She had to laugh. “If you don’t know what a car is, you’d be completely amazed to see an airplane,” she said, and he furrowed his brow at her. She realized she had to explain a car to him first, before moving on to other things. But how? She waved her hand in the air, trying to conjure up some way to explain the things she knew so well.

  “It’s… well, a car is a vehicle. A way to get around. It’s kind of like…well, like a horse-drawn carriage, but without the horse. The thing that makes it go is an engine, inside the car. It goes on roads and takes me places.”

  “But how does the engine go?”

  “With gasoline.”

  Philip raised an eyebrow again. “What’s gasoline?”

  She grinned and continued explaining. Philip was an excellent listener, and she found herself spurred on to tell him more and more, as the hours flew by. By the time she had explained gasoline, then airplanes, then even trains and various other ways of traveling without horses, the sky was starting to turn to light. The booms of the destruction were now completely gone, but she was staring at a sky that was quickly losing its stars. One by one they fell, slowly leaving streaks across the sunrise sky.

  “I have to go soon,” she said, and Philip stepped forward. His voice was urgent as he looked at her with wide eyes.

  “Not yet, please,” he said, and she stared at him as he came toward her. She was still a bit wary, but was now comfortable enough that she let him approach her without the need to bolt as hard and as fast as she could. When he was within arms’ reach, he stopped and stared into her eyes. The intensity of that gaze made her knees feel a little weak and made her breath a little short.

  “Before you go… Alexis, may I kiss you?”

  Alexis laughed out loud. The sound burst from her without any conscious thought, a reflex that came from being so shocked by something so ludicrous. The contrast between his chivalrous tone and the absurdity of their situation was just too much to handle. She barely trusted him to stand there in front of her and not bring the fires of hell down upon them. She was now supposed to give him a kiss? What planet was this man from, anyway?

  But then she remembered the way he had kissed her in the last dream. He had been more aggressive than Evan, more sure of what he wanted, and she couldn’t help but think about the way that her body had gone all liquid – and how, in that moment, she had wanted him more than anything else in the world.

  “You may,” she said. He smiled, and closed the distance between them with one long step. She looked right up into his eyes, only inches from her now, and then her gaze fell to his full lips.

  “Wait,” she said. “I would only like to kiss you on the condition of honesty. No hidden agendas, and no tricking. Just a kiss.”

  Philip smiled, but said nothing, and just gave her a silent, solemn nod. He reached up and brushed her hair back from her forehead. The touch of his skin against hers sent a small, pleasant shock through her body, a wave of pleasure that reminded her even more strongly of the way he had kissed her until her knees gave out and left her in his arms. Before she could collect herself and say what she meant to say, Philip leaned down and closed the final distance between them, pressing his soft lips firmly against hers.

  It was a short kiss, but sometimes those were the sweetest. Alexis pulled away after just a moment, and Philip didn’t chase her. He just waited there, to see what she might do. But the pull of desire was already too strong, and she wound up leaning forward, pressing her lips to his again. What in the world am I doing? she wondered, even as her hands came up to his broad shoulders and his own arms went around her waist.

  Philip pulled her tight against him. Even though the clothing they both wore, she could feel the strength of his body and the way she melted against him, every curve of her body fitting every hard angle of his. Her hands delved into his hair and she sighed when his kiss deepened, his tongue dueling with hers. A small part of her brain wondered how much of her common sense she had just taken leave of, but the rest of it wondered how much further she was willing to go.

  As if he’d read her thoughts, his hands tightened around her in that moment. She gasped as he pulled her body in against him. She suddenly felt how hard he was, the arousal that one simple kiss had triggered in him. It was the purest form of a compliment, and it showed the full sincerity of his desire.

  She was about to say something – but before she could, there was a sudden booming sound in the distance. Alexis shut her eyes, hoping it would pass, but almost immediately there was another, louder sound. The wind began to blow, and when she opened her eyes and pulled away from Philip, the ground was undulating like an earthquake was rattling it from deep inside. The dream was collapsing – and fast.

  Alexis began to panic, and looked at Philip with wild eyes. He grabbed her arm, jarring her back to her sense.

  “Wake up,” he yelled at her over the din. “Close your eyes and wake up!”

  She paused a moment longer, hesitating, scared and on the verge of falling through the abyss. “Wake up!” Philip yelled again. Nodding, she shut her eyes, not knowing what to say to him.

  “I will find you again!” he called to her – and then, the world went quiet and black.

  Chapter 4: To Hell and Back

  Alexis gasped as her eyes flew open, and she sat straight up in bed. Her heart was pounding, and her chest ached when she drew in a breath. She could almost taste the sulfur and feel the burn of the superheated air as it had swept past her in the dream-world. Pulling herself from that dream had felt almost impossible – it had simply felt too real this time. She swung her legs over the edge of the bed and touched the cool floor with her feet. She stood up, her eyes searching every corner of the room. She felt oddly as though she had to protect herself – but from what, she wasn’t entirely sure. The Devil? The dreams? Philip himself?

  She snapped on the bedside lamp and light instantly flooded the room, chasing away the shadows that had seemed to cling to the walls, lurking along the floor and in the corners. Alexis put a hand to her ches
t, against her racing heart, and closed her eyes again. “Calm down,” she whispered to herself. “Calm down, you’re home, you’re safe, you’re fine.”

  But Philip wasn’t safe – not safe at all.

  The sudden realization made her eyes snap open again. She could get out of the dream, but it had become his reality after so many centuries in the dream-world. When she went away, what did he do? Where did he go? Obviously he wasn’t conjured up by her – he was there, all the time. Did he have a place to hide? Would he have to face the Devil again, now that she was gone and her dream-world had collapsed along with her departure? What a strange thing she was feeling… was this pity? Curiosity?

  …Love?

  So many questions, but not nearly enough answers. Alexis looked back at the clock: it was five minutes before she had to get up for work. It was the first time in a long while that she’d actually woken up before her alarm. She reached over and turned it off before it had a chance to sound.