“My point is, it would hurt you more, physically and mentally, and even emotionally, if you knew the death was intentional. You said it yourself, Warren, most people wake up before they die in their dreams. And you’re right, it’s like the mind’s way of surviving. No matter how traumatic the dream, no matter how hard the fall, we always tend to wake up before we hit bottom, before we stop breathing. But if something won’t let us wake up, natural or otherwise, then we die.”
He nodded. “And if he could show me that he had taken you away from me…”
“Not just me, Warren. All of them. It’s like taunting you. He’s playing a game, the women, well we’re just the collateral damage. I think it’s somebody who knows of your ability; who has known for awhile, and who might be a little jealous—a lot jealous—of your abilities. If he could have broken you, and then taken everything away from you, then he would have won.”
“He’s still trying.”
“But now you’re ready. You’re stronger. And together we’re going to stop him.”
“No,” he pulled away from her soft touch.
“Yes. Whether you like it or not, Warren, I won’t let him hurt you. We’re going to get this guy.”
“Daya, this isn’t going to happen. I won’t let you…not to protect me.”
She shook her head. “I’m not giving you a choice, Warren. If you need my strength, if you need my help, I won’t hesitate to give it to you. I love you too much to abandon you. I won’t leave you, not in this world, and not in the dream world.”
He pulled her into his arms, holding her tight. “I don’t want to lose you.”
“You won’t. I’ll always be with you, Warren.”
He heard her unspoken words once more. She would always be with him, in his heart, even if she didn’t survive this. He couldn’t think about the idea of her not surviving without feeling immense pain inside, as if somebody was ripping his heart apart piece by piece.
He pressed his lips to her shoulder, kissing her softly as the desire to take her grew within him. “I won’t lose you,” he growled. That was his promise to himself, and to her. He would give up his life before he let anything happen to her.
“Are you ready for bed, baby?” She needed rest, and he knew that. Even though his mind was full and he didn’t feel the least bit sleepy, he would force himself to sleep so that he could protect her in her dreams.
“I am a little tired,” she admitted. “I’d kill for a good night’s sleep…” she laughed. “Sorry, wrong choice of words there.”
He smiled at her, although he knew in order to promise her a good night’s sleep he’d have to do just that—kill.
“Warren,” she touched his cheek.
“Yes?”
“How do I get out of the dream? I mean if I fall asleep while you’re not here...not that I plan to,” she quickly added. “But there are times when I’m just not able to keep my eyes open. I know it’s because of lack of sleep. At work I manage, but if I’m around here, by myself, I know I’ll be out the moment I sit down.”
He exhaled slowly. There was no way out other than waking up, and a dream stalker wouldn’t readily allow that. “You can’t,” he said. “When I’m in your dreams with you—”
“I don’t want to wake up then,” she smiled. “You give me really naughty dreams my love.”
He chuckled. “That’s not the point. When I’m in your dreams with you I don’t hold you there against your will. If I wanted to abuse my power and your trust I could keep you there and not let you escape for hours.”
“But then I’d be able to get out…you said hours, so there must be a limit.”
He nodded. “At some point I’d have to wake up too.”
“So…then he would as well. I’d just have to stay alive until he did.”
She frowned and he realized she realized just how wrong that statement was. A dream stalker wouldn’t permit her to stay alive that long. “Not that simple,” he reminded her. “This guy is good. He doesn’t need to be asleep to haunt your dreams. He just needs a place where he won’t be interrupted.” He stroked a hand up her thigh to her waist.
“You can do that too,” she said more than asked, but he answered with a strong no.
“Yes, you can. Remember before we started dating, when we were making out in the stairwell? I heard your thoughts and that was because you had entered my mind. You can do it whether I’m asleep or awake. That’s not something he can do.”
He thought for a moment. That did explain things. He hadn’t uttered a word yet she’d heard his question and answered him. “No,” he shook his head. “I’ve never been able to do that with anybody.”
“But you did it with me. Try it now. Ask me something.”
“Daya…”
“Come on Warren. Just try it.”
He grinned. “Well I’m not sure I can do it unless I replicate the situation we were in when I did it last time.”
“One track mind,” she shook her head. “Okay, lover, kiss me.”
And kissing her is exactly what he did, taking his time with her mouth, learning it, tasting it as if it were the first time. His tongue danced with hers before dipping deeper inside each crevice he could find. She moaned, soft sweet sounds to his ears.
What do you want me to do to you?
She pulled back just a little. “Make love to me.”
Was she answering his question or making a request? There was only one way to find out. Instead of kissing her again he looked into her eyes. Where do you want me to touch you?
She didn’t respond, she just looked at his mouth as if she were waiting on him to say something.
Or maybe you’d like me to do you hard and fast. Ride you like you’ve never been ridden before. The words were ones he wouldn’t have uttered aloud, not as freely. Her lips turned upward.
“Hard and fast sounds good to me. But as for where I’d want you to touch me…hmmm, I’ll leave that up to you just so long as you make good on your promise to ride me hard.”
“You heard me?” He felt excitement hit him hard.
“I heard you, but I’m jealous.”
“Why?”
“Because I can’t do it back.” She brushed her hand down his chest. “You can seduce me without uttering a word and I can’t do it back to you.”
He brushed his finger over her lips. “Baby, you do it every day with just one look.” Kiss me. And she did just that, brushing his lips softly with hers.
“We should do this more often,” she whispered against his lips.
“Kiss?”
“That too,” she smiled. “But I was thinking practice your skill. We can see how far it reaches. Like for instance, if I’m sitting in my office at work would you be able to talk to me? Of course you wouldn’t know if I could hear you, but I’d have a little fun.”
“You’d have a lot of fun,” he mumbled before taking her mouth with his once again. When he pulled back she was breathless. “And trust me, if I’m talking to you in your office it’s to talk you out of those clothes you’re wearing. Be careful what you invite me in for baby because I just might take it all.”
She moaned. “Oh, Warren. I want you to take it all, all of me, right now.”
“I thought you were sleepy,” he slid his hand between her legs and brushed a knuckle over her sensitive folds. She moaned again as she undulated toward him.
Her head fell limply backward. “I’m on fire, Warren. I need you to take me now.”
“Hmmm,” he mumbled as he closed his mouth over her breast and suckled it. He felt her fingers bite into his bicep, urging him to take her now, hard and fast, but he wasn’t ready to oblige. He wanted to taste her, every inch of her, starting with those sweet round breasts, licking her nipples until they were hard and erect, and then he’d nibble on them, one by one, before sucking her into his mouth once again.
Chapter Ten
Daya knew she was in trouble the moment her dream room turned into a medieval dungeon filled with ch
ains and all sorts of torture contraptions. “Warren?” She whispered, as if keeping her voice low wouldn’t awake the beast that awaited her.
“I’m here,” he touched her hand and she felt relief rush through her. She wasn’t alone.
“I want out,” she pulled closer to him, afraid of what would happen if she were even a fraction away from him.
“We’ll get out,” he promised.
“No you won’t.” Within seconds Warren was ripped from her side and knocked into the adjacent wall. She tried to get to him, struggled to move, but felt herself being held in place by invisible chains.
Her nightmare moved closer to her, as if stalking her like prey.
“You are not real and you cannot hurt me.” She put as much resolve in her tone as she could. Despite his laughter she had to remain strong, she had to believe she and Warren would be okay. But Warren hadn’t been able to get up. He was chained down by something, what she couldn’t see, but something held him in place as clouds seemed to start to obscure him. This was her dream, and she wouldn’t lose control. She had to believe it wasn’t real. She had to make herself know it, beyond doubt, if she wanted to survive this.
“I can hurt you.”
“You are not real and you cannot hurt me!” She chanted repeatedly, even as his hand closed around her neck she kept forcing him out of her mind. She thought, for a second that maybe she would fail, but she attempted the techniques White Eagle had told her, strength, presence of mind, face her fears, and then she felt it—her mind separated from her body.
“No!” He screamed as she ran away. Her body was still in his grasp, but the piece of her he needed to destroy was free. She felt him chasing after her, but she reached Warren before her dream stalker could grab her. She placed her lips on his and breathed her strength into him as everything around her went black.
“Daya!” Warren pulled her lifeless body into his arms, holding her tight, crying and screaming her name over and over again. The moment she had separated her conscious body from her dream body he knew exactly what she planned to do. He watched in horror as she ran to him, dropped to her knees before him and breathed her strength, her spirit, into him.
Her strength had been all he needed to free himself from the chains that held him, and once he had he fought the Apache with their combined strength. He struggled, trying to keep the Apache’s magic from consuming him, from consuming Daya’s body. He fought in the old Indian ways; the ways he’d been instructed as a child—with weapons of steal, not lead, with loin cloths and war paint, long hair and all of his heritage. The spirits guided him in this battle.
The Apache was strong, but he was stronger. Good would conquer evil. He would save himself and her. He vowed to protect her, and when he took the scalp of the man who had been haunting her he did just that—he protected her—but not before the Apache performed one last act of vengeance, he made sure the final act of death knocked Warren out of the dream world, taking Daya’s spirit with him.
He couldn’t go back in; he couldn’t save her.
“Daya!” He cradled her close. His heart felt as if it were being ripped from his body.
“Remember,” he heard White Eagle’s voice as if he were standing there in the room with him. “A bird with split feathers cannot sore. Heal yourself and you will fly.”
Warren didn’t know what that meant. He didn’t care. He didn’t want to fly; he wanted to save his wife.
As if suddenly consumed by guilt he wanted to rip his beating heart out of his chest. He looked down at her lifeless body, pushing her luscious hair back from her face and tracing his fingers over her cheek.
“Daya,” he whispered. “Can you hear me?” Something told him this was the way to her. “Can you hear me?” He needed her to hear him. “Don’t cross into that world, my love. I need you here. Please don’t leave me.”
“Alex, did you hear that?”
“Ignore it. Stay here with me.”
Daya looked around the garden. Where was she? The last thing she remembered was running to Warren and placing her lips on his. Why was she here in this garden paradise? Why was Alex here? What was going on and where was Warren?
“Warren?” She walked back toward the gate.
“He’s not here, but I am.” Alex moved closer to her. “We can have what we used to have, Daya. Here it can all be ours. Stay here with me.”
“Daya,” she heard the faint whisper of Warren’s voice getting louder.
“I’m here!” She ran toward the gate and watched as it vanished and then there was nothing more than trees in front of her.
“Daya.”
“I’m here. Warren, I’m here.”
“Stay with me,” Alex yelled.
“No! I want Warren. I want to go. I want out.” She watched in horror as the man she saw to be Alex changed into the man who had been stalking her dreams. The man who was so determined to destroy every dream walker he could find that he’d targeted her to get to Warren. He had ingrained himself in the minds of the people she worked with, trying to destroy her just to crush Warren. He had used people, manipulated them, orchestrated every detail of what went on at her law firm just so Warren would know he was the weaker dream walker. The man had showed no mercy to innocent victims. He was ruthless, and he deserved to die. Maybe he was dead already; in which case that meant she was too. Or maybe Warren was dead, and she was still asleep.
“Then you will die here,” he laughed. The sound was ominous, but she was not afraid.
“You are not real and you cannot hurt me!” She thrust out her hand and watched as he flew backwards into a tree. She didn’t know what was going on, or how she had done that, and she didn’t care. “You don’t deserve to live, not in their world, not in my world, and not here.” She conjured up a swamp where the tree had been and watched as he sank below the tar-like substance.
“Warren!” She ran toward the voice she heard calling her name. “I’m here. Baby, please I’m here.” She kept running, kept searching for the source of the voice.
Daya, wake up! Please wake up? He pulled her closer, pressing her face against the crook of his neck and sobbing. “Please come back to me?”
“Warren?”
He heard her voice and he thought he was hallucinating. He pulled back, looked down into her eyes—eyes that were open and looking up at him. “Daya?”
“I heard you calling me, and then I felt the warmth of your skin.” She reached up and touched his face.
“Oh, baby, don’t ever do that to me again. Don’t ever scare me like that.”
She laughed. “You were scared. What about me? I couldn’t find you. But I could hear you, and then, I don’t know how, but I could feel your breath near my cheek. It was so strange…the feeling was so…surreal.”
He pulled her close and held her, not wanting to let her go.
“How did you do that?” She wrapped her hands around his.
“I remembered something that happened when we were dating. You were in danger and you called to me and I heard you. Well, I hoped that if I called to you, if I kept you from going farther away that maybe you could find a way back to me. I’ve been trying for hours.”
“Hours? It didn’t feel that long to me.”
“Honey,” he kissed her forehead. “It’s Wednesday and it’s almost dinner.”
“Dinner! But we just went to sleep hours ago.” She looked at the clock. “Oh my…”
“Exactly.” It was nearly five o’clock now and seeing as though they’d gone to bed closer to eleven the previous night he knew she understood just how long it had been.
“Let’s not do that again,” she laughed. “He was there,” she said. “How is that possible?”
“He was crossing over himself and he wanted to take you with him…to some place you didn’t belong and wouldn’t be able to escape from.”
“So you did kill him then?”
“Yes. With your help I was strong enough.”
“Well, I guess that means I hel
ped him cross over without me.”
“Thank God for that.”
“So now what? What happens next?”
“The minds he’s been controlling through dreams will slowly regain their pre dream stalker state.”
“My bosses will remember that they wanted me to be partner then?”
“Yes.”
“And you’ll fully remember that I’ll never leave you for anybody—not even Alex.”
He grinned. “I’ve learned that already, Daya. I was a fool to let him make me doubt it.”
“And you’ll grow your hair out?”
“What?”
“You looked really sexy with long hair.”
He laughed. “You remember that.”
“Uh, huh,” she smiled. “Loin cloth included.”
He laughed. “How much do you remember from sharing my mind?”
“Quite a bit…but some of it not so much. Just the feelings of anger and rage, and fear…”
“I was afraid I’d lose you.”
“You won’t,” she whispered.
“I know that now,” he kissed her fiercely. She was his, now and for always.
Epilogue
“Thank you, White Eagle.” Daya hugged him close. “You saved us.”
“No, it is your love that saved you both. He needed to trust completely, and you needed to show him how. Your love did that.”
She knew he was right. The love they had for each other served to protect them, guide them, connect them together. Warren had been right; things had gone back to some sense of normal. Jack the jerk lawyer had been making advances on several women in the office and when the truth came to light, coupled with the partners regaining use of their thinking, he was tossed out on his behind, followed by a few assault chargers…her charges included. She had been offered partner. She asked for the week to consider the offer. She knew they had assumed she would jump at the chance, but now, more than before, the idea of starting her own firm seemed like a good idea. Of course, making partner meant more money with fewer hours—and that meant more time with the man she loved.
The Dream Stalker (Gifted Liaisons) Page 9