“Shit!” she barked, turning to see him standing in her home. “I’ve told you not to do that!”
Somnus smiled that sexy as sin smile at her and shoved his phone into his front pocket. “I wanted to make sure you were okay,” he offered.
Rachel just stood there, eating him up with her eyes. He was wearing tight blue jeans and a grey sweater that stretched over his torso, hiding his form from her. It didn’t matter. She had a good imagination. His lips curled up slightly and she could see just a tip of fang on one side. His eyes were smiling right along with his mouth, or at least the blue one was. The brown eye was covered by his hair that had fallen down over it. Without thinking about it, Rachel moved and reached up to brush the hair from his face. She caught herself with her hand in mid-air.
“So, if you intend to slap me, you’re gonna have to move a lot faster than that,” he chuckled. Rachel considered it.
“Well, as you can see,” she said, dropping her hand, “I’m fine. I’m just gonna go back to bed. Or maybe I’ll read. Or something.” She leaned over to pick up the blanket on the floor. She guessed she’d dragged it out of the bed with her when she got up.
Somnus was looking at her hard, the smile gone and replaced with something much more intense. His eyes were damn near glowing. She watched him as his gaze traveled over her face then down her neck. She could feel it, as if he were touching her. When she looked down at herself, she realized she’d gone to bed in a chemise and a pair of boy shorts. Yanking the blanket around her, she frowned at Somnus. “Yeah, so, goodnight,” she said quickly, taking herself out of the room as quickly as possible.
Chapter Fifteen
“Why weren’t you watching her?” Somnus demanded.
“I was watching her,” Frankie told him. “She was sleepwalking and you never wake someone who is sleepwalking.”
“But she could have—”
“But she didn’t. And if she had, I would have stopped her.” Frankie leveled her eyes with Somnus'. "Do you really doubt me that much? Did I or did I not manage to keep your ass from getting hurt when all you wanted to do was teleport like Leigh? Who kept you alive every time you jumped off the roof because you thought it would jump-start that power?"
"You did," Somnus grumbled.
"And when you were old enough, who did the spell to reveal your powers?"
"You did," he grumbled again.
"And please, remind me, who was it that kept you from complete embarrassment on your first date?"
"Okay," Somnus said, with no small amount of exasperation. "You did. You did all of that. But this is different!"
"Why, because she's your mate?"
"Yes!" he shouted. "Damn it, yes. Are you happy now?"
Frankie let a satisfied smile creep over her face. "Yes. I am. It's about time you admitted it."
"Damn it, this just makes things so much more complicated," Somnus admitted.
"No, it doesn't," Frankie assured him. "This is wonderful."
"That demon wants her specifically," he reminded his aunt. "How am I supposed to protect her if I can't go into the dream with her?"
"Seriously?" Frankie shook her head. "Just bring her back home. She's safer at our house than anywhere else in the world."
"I don’t think she wants to do that," he said. "She's very independent. Smart. Funny. But really, really smart. Did you know that she designed an artificial intelligence unit from the mother board up? She can do anything she wants with computers. Seriously, anything. I don't see her being the damsel in distress type. In fact, I don't see her wanting anyone to take care of her."
"Pfft," Frankie said. "All women want a big strong man who can and will protect her. But he also needs to know when to use the caveman routine, and when to let her handle things on her own."
"Well, how am I supposed to know when she's fine and when she needs me?"
Frankie laughed. "You don't. You just do what you think is best and hope you're right. You're probably wrong, but you'll do it anyway."
"I'll never understand women," he admitted. "Now, how do I convince her to come home with us?"
Frankie grinned. "We give her a reason to go. You said she's brilliant, right?"
"Completely."
"Then we could use someone to upgrade all of our systems, especially the security systems. They're a bunch of technological dinosaurs," Frankie suggested. "And to be honest, I'm curious about this artificial intelligence."
Somnus cut his eyes to the door that separated him from Rachel. She was sleeping, hopefully peacefully. "She might do that," he said. "In fact, it would be a good distraction from all of this."
"And," Frankie added, "Our house is warded from any and everything. She'll be much safer there."
"Do you think her dreams could actually hurt her?" he asked.
"I do," Frankie told him. "If she were a normal human woman, I'd say no. But she's not. She has a lot of power hidden inside her. You said the dream gods were disappearing?"
Somnus nodded.
"And who do we think is behind it?"
"A nightmare demon named Baku," Somnus told her. "Angus filled me in. I don’t know how he got to know that, but apparently he's the one causing all this ruckus. The general thinking is that he’s doing something to the dream gods, and I suspect he wants Rachel too. Maybe because of all that power she has."
Just the thought of the demon doing anything to Rachel made his blood boil and made him want to maul the son of a bitch on principle. He'd told Rachel she was safe in her dreams, but had he lied to her? Now he wasn't sure. The only way to keep her safe was to either take her to his family home, where the likelihood of the demon getting to her was far less than at her home, or withhold the dream magic from her. But…humans had to dream.
"You're growling so loud you're gonna wake her up," Frankie said. "Let's get some rest ourselves and discuss it with her in the morning."
***
Somnus woke several hours later to find the house pitch dark. He could hear someone moving around in the kitchen, and the aroma of coffee drifted through the house. To his left, Frankie was stretched out in the recliner, having laid it all the way back. A cashmere throw blanket had been laid carefully over her. He realized he'd fallen asleep on the sofa and someone had covered him as well.
Pushing to his feet, Somnus stretched the muscles of his back by lifting his arms high over his head. His spine snapped and crackled and he decided he was getting old. A shadow crept past the entrance to the kitchen and then a light turned on in the hallway. Rachel was creeping down the hall, using her phone to light the way. He wondered what time it was. A quick look at his watch told him that it was nearly two in the afternoon! How long had he slept? How long had Rachel been awake without alerting either one of them?
"Could you think a little louder," Frankie grumbled. "I'm trying to pretend to sleep."
"Sorry," he chuckled.
Frankie sighed and tossed the blanket aside. She sat up in the chair and smiled. "That woman of yours is a caregiver if I ever saw one."
"Yeah?" he asked.
"Yeah. She got up at stupid o'clock this morning, covered all the windows and covered us both up."
Somnus felt the pride for his woman swelling in his chest. Here she was, in danger and constantly berated by bad dreams, and she was taking care of him and Frankie. Her ability to compartmentalize was nothing less than amazing. Hell, he wasn’t sure, if the situation was reversed, that he wouldn’t be sitting in a corner drooling or something.
But not his mate. No, she was a strong one.
“I’m sorry,” Rachel said, tiptoeing into the room with a mug in her hand. “I tried to be as quiet as I could, but I had a job to get to and I needed coffee.”
“What kind of job?” Frankie asked.
“I was writing an algorithm for Bridal Warehouse’s online store. They want to see what dresses are looked at the most versus what’s selling, and see if I can find a happy medium.”
“What does that mean?” Fran
kie asked. “Hey, can I get in on some of that java?”
“Of course,” Rachel told her. Frankie went into the kitchen and returned only seconds later, a steaming mug in her own hand.
“So you were explaining to me about the happy medium?” Frankie reminded her, taking a careful sip from her mug.
“It means they want me to write a program that will help them decide what prices to increase and which ones to decrease. I’ve also included buying trends and seasonal sales as well.” Rachel sipped her coffee and then looked at Somnus. “Oh, I’m sorry, do you want some?”
“I can get it,” he told her with a smile. She was truly amazing. Now that he’d openly admitted she was his perfect mate, he couldn’t find a fault with her. Not one. Not the way her hair stood on end as if she’d run her hands through it repeatedly, not the way her glasses were perched on her nose as if she’d forgotten she was wearing them, not the coffee drip stain on her tank top and certainly not the way her legs were on display from the short shorts she was wearing.
His body reacted as he looked at her, and suddenly all he wanted to do was kiss the hell out of her. Kiss her until she couldn’t think. Kiss her until she couldn’t breathe.
He wanted to bite the vein that ran through her pretty neck and take her into himself, marking her for the whole world to see. He wanted to give her his own blood, giving himself to her fully, for always.
Frankie cleared her throat and said, “I was thinking, since you know so much about all of this and we’re a bunch of old people, maybe you could upgrade our system?”
Somnus snapped out of his own fairy tale and marched his horny ass to the kitchen. He poured the coffee into an empty mug, silently wishing there was bourbon to add to it. How the hell was he supposed to function now?
“I don’t know,” he heard Rachel say from the living room. “And you’re not old.”
“I’m seventy-five,” Frankie told her.
“You look pretty great for your age,” Rachel laughed. He listened to the women talking, only half paying attention to what they were saying. “I can upgrade it from here,” Rachel continued.
Something in Somnus snapped and he darted back into the living room. Was she insane? Didn’t she know her own life could depend on her coming to his home? “You’ll come to our house,” he stated frankly. “You’re in danger here and the nansy-pansy wards you have won’t keep that demon out.”
“Excuse me?” Rachel said, cocking her hip to the side and resting her fist on it. “You don’t get to tell me what to do, and you certainly don’t get to insult me in my own house!”
Frankie chuckled but didn’t say a word.
“That demon wants you. He wants your power and you’re just gonna sit here and serve it up to him on a silver platter!”
“It’s none of your business what I do,” she reminded him loudly.
“It is my business!”
He could see the anger boiling under her skin. He watched as she purposefully controlled her breathing and forced herself to calm down. “You have no right to tell me what to do,” she bit out between clenched teeth. “You don’t get that privilege.”
“You’re being stupid,” he barked at her.
“Stupid?” she shouted, having lost the leash on her anger. “I can assure you, I am anything but stupid and I am not about to stand here and listen to this shit from you!” She accented the last word with venom and pushed her hand out in front of her.
A wave of energy blasted across the room, hitting Somnus and knocking him back on his ass. He wanted to be proud of her, he wanted to apologize, he wanted so many things in that single second, but the next thing she said was a game changer.
“Go tell your mate what to do!” she shouted, a sheen of tears covering her beautiful eyes.
He felt his own heart sink in his chest. What had he done? He picked himself up and looked at her. He hadn’t wanted to make her cry. Not ever. Lord, if he went the rest of his life without seeing that pain on her face again it would be too soon. He’d done that, and he was a shit. Finally, he spoke. “I’m sorry,” he said sincerely. “And I was protecting my mate. You’re my mate.”
And then, unable to stand that look anymore, he ghosted away.
Chapter Sixteen
Rachel couldn’t believe what she’d just heard. Surely Somnus had hit his head or something. She wasn’t his mate. She was staring at the spot where he had just been, unable to process what just happened. She had thrown him back without touching him.
“So, that just happened,” Frankie said from the sofa.
“Did I just?” Rachel started to ask, but didn’t finish.
“Yes, you did,” the vampire told her. “I told you there was power in there.”
“I didn’t think I had any power,” Rachel said absently.
“But you knew,” Frankie told her. “I saw it. The way you controlled yourself. This isn’t the first time that’s happened, is it?”
Rachel walked over to the sofa and sank down into the plush cushions. She dropped her head in her hands and let the tears fall. “No,” she mumbled. “It’s not.”
Frankie scooted closer to her and placed a comforting hand on her back. “What happened the first time?”
Rachel used her breathing to calm herself once again, and then decided to tell the story she had spent so long trying to forget. “I was in high school,” she began. “I had it all. Good grades, a hot boyfriend, captain of the cheerleading squad… but I had one hell of a temper. I could turn on a dime. Well, one day, I heard a rumor that he was cheating on me. I didn’t wait to find out if it was true or not, I just blew up. I screamed at him. I screamed at her. I wanted to fight her but she wouldn’t do it. It was afternoon and everyone was out front waiting for the busses to go home. I told her she was a skank and that I hoped she choked on the next dick she tried to swallow.”
Frankie didn’t say anything but squeezed Rachel’s shoulder, silently encouraging her to go on.
“Anyhow, she started wheezing and then choking. Everyone saw it. She dropped to her knees and her face turned blue. They said she had an asthma attack, but I knew the truth. I made that happen to her.”
“Was she okay?” Frankie asked.
Rachel shook her head. “She died at the hospital. They said she had a severe asthma attack and they couldn’t get her airway open. What seventeen-year-old has fatal asthma?”
“You don’t know that you did that,” Frankie said softly.
Rachel turned her head and looked at her. “I know I did it,” she said. “I vowed to never get that angry again. I went to therapy twice a week until I learned to control my anger. I did very well, too. Until today.”
“You didn’t hurt Somnus,” Frankie said. “Well, maybe his pride, but it’s good for him.”
“I don’t want to be like that,” Rachel admitted. “I worked so hard to become the woman I am. I can’t go back to that.”
“And you won’t,” Frankie promised. “Because we’ll teach you how to use it. We’ll teach you how to control it. Come with us. Make a few bucks and learn to embrace whatever magic you have.”
Rachel sniffled and nodded, knowing Frankie was right. There was no denying it anymore. But there was one thing that was still hard to swallow. “Does he really think I’m his mate?”
“Yes,” Frankie laughed. “Everyone else knew before he did.”
“Azerial welcomed me to the family.”
“Yes, she did,” Frankie said. “And we will all protect you.”
Rachel nodded but then she thought about it. “No.”
“No?”
“I want you to teach me to protect myself.”
“You got it. Can we leave first thing in the morning?” Frankie asked. “I’m gonna need to feed anyway.”
Rachel reluctantly agreed.
***
Why do I bother going to sleep? Rachel thought as she ran through the same city streets yet again. The demon was hot on her heels, and even though she knew she was dreaming, sh
e was helpless to stop herself from running and screaming.
She banked hard around the corner of an abandoned building and skidded to a halt. The freaking clown from the movie IT was standing there with its creepy face and that icky smile. He was holding a long knife, a hunting knife of some sort, and he intended to use it.
Rachel screamed, this time genuinely afraid for her life. She hated clowns, and she hated that one most of all. As she ran, crazy laughter filled the air all around her, and she knew the demon was doing this to her.
Rachel wake up! Somnus’ voice called to her. She ran toward it, her heart thundering in her chest. Sweat poured down her face and she ran faster. Rachel! Wake up!
“I’m trying, damn it!” she shouted into the air.
You’re never going to wake up little female, the demon growled from all around her.
Fuck that. Rachel saw the river bank ahead of her and she had an idea. If she couldn’t wake herself up, she was going to scare herself awake. She pushed herself harder, running for the edge. The drop off was about fifty feet and that’s where she was going. She didn’t even slow down when she got there, just leapt off the edge. She could feel herself falling, watching the water rushing up to meet her. What if this doesn’t work? she thought to herself. Too late now. She closed her eyes hard and took a deep breath.
Rachel sat straight up in her bed, gasping for air.
“Rachel, are you okay?” Somnus asked, his mismatched eyes right in front of her face.
She wanted to answer him, but she could still taste the river water in her mouth. She leaned her head over the side of her bed and spat. Then the coughing started.
“What happened?” Frankie asked, bursting into the room.
“She was dreaming,” Somnus told her.
“The demon,” Rachel managed between heaves. “He was chasing me. Clowns. River.”
“Why in hell did you dust her?” Frankie demanded.
“I didn’t!” Somnus yelled. “How is this even happening? She shouldn’t be spitting out water!”
“No shit!” Frankie said. “Dimittere eam!”
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