Nightmare in Steam (Alliance of Silver and Steam Book 1)

by Lexi Ostrow

  “It’s nice to meet you, Willan. Thank you for that, I do think that will help put me more at ease and be a less uptight companion.” She flinched at the sound of the word companion. It sounded as if she was offering herself up to him. Wouldn’t she if he actually asked though? The answer made her nervous and she hastily picked up a tart off a plate set down on the table.

  “Now give me that smile again, make me think you are having fun so I do not throw you over my shoulder and take you to ravish you.” He grinned and waggled his brows.

  She laughed and he smiled, it was a strange way they interacted, as if they truly did know one another. The small morning meal continued on in that fashion. Cups of tea were drunk and she’d even loosened up enough to laugh at his jokes and attempt one of her own, which he politely laughed at. All the while their knees touched under the table and her body heated with an urge to actually go and be alone with this strange man. Her body was humming with need and when he stood, she did as well. God help her when they got back to his train car because the look he gave her as she rose with him sent chills through her that only sent her desire soaring. Three hours to go and if her body had any control over her brain, she would be his before the train stopped in Halifax.

  Chapter 8

  Lucius pushed open the door to the train car and almost ripped it from the wall. He wasn’t the strongest demon around, but with how amped up his body was it hadn’t seemed to matter. For the past hour and thirty minutes he’d sat across from Eliza and had to refrain from shoving everything off the small table and taking her in front of everyone. She was a vision in her blue gown, even if he knew how many laced and hooked undergarments resided underneath. All he could focus on was taking it off of her and undoing all the frivolous bottom pieces. With his teeth.

  He left the car door open, wanting her to feel safe. A strange idea since he was normally in the habit of setting off every fear a person possessed, but he didn’t want that with her. She’d looked at him and seen him, the man from her dreams. It had been a risk he was concerned with. But many do not remember their encounter with him the next morning. But the look in her eyes when they’d first collided betrayed her memories. Delight. Lust. Confusion. Worry. When she’d asked his name he’d felt the blood drain from his face. Telling her his name would have been no problem if he was starting the seduction from scratch. But he wasn’t, he needed to be a different man to her, just for now. And he hadn’t lied. He may have only produced a surname, but she hadn’t pressed for more. So for now, he would be Willan. He just hoped he could convince her of everything he needed to.

  More importantly, that she didn’t react like Felicia did to him.

  “You may close it, Willan. I know I expressed fears prior, and perhaps I am naive, but you’ve been nothing but kind to me. If you wish for privacy in your own car I would not infringe upon it.” She sat down on the side he’d designated for her and went about pulling at pins in her hair. Without warning the blonde locks cascaded down her back and he felt the strongest need to grab her by it and smell the lavender bath oil he could scent from a few feet away. His prick pressed up into his trousers and he debated between fixing it and ignoring it. Her eyes were looking at something in her lap and he used the time to adjust himself. Problem was, the movement of his hand across his hardened cock caused a choke of pleasure from him and when she looked up he couldn’t help himself any longer.

  “Miss Dorley, I think it might be proper if we got to know one another better, since we are traveling to the same destination, in the same car, we might run into each other there and knowing one another would be much nicer.” He sat across from her, his eyes locked onto hers waiting for an answer. He could sense her heart was pounding and that it wasn’t fear. There was a distinct difference in the way the heart jack rabbited when it pounded in fear to the quick, deep beats of someone on the verge of a sexual liaison.

  She swallowed deeply and he watched the muscles in her neck. He wanted to drop his lips to her skin and taste her. But he couldn’t and so he clenched his teeth instead. “I couldn’t agree more. Please, Willan, call me Eliza. I know it’s a bit informal, but as you said, we are sharing a car and should need to know those things, should we need to prove we are a proper couple.” Her eyes blinked rapidly and he didn’t find reason to stop himself as he changed sides of the car, their legs pressed together and even through the cloth of their clothes he felt the heat.

  “A wonderful point, Eliza. If we are to be able to pull that off, well then perhaps-” He didn’t wait for permission. His lips touched hers and his body exploded with passion. She went still for a moment and he feared he’d made a mistake. But she sighed and leaned into him and her mouth didn’t hesitate to open as he ran the tip of his tongue over the seam of her lips. She cried out then and pressed closer to him. Her breasts connected with his chest and he let one hand wrap into her hair. The other however, trailed down the bodice of her dress and stopped on her thigh. He was careful as he pulled at the blue dress fabric. He feared any movement that was too quick would alarm her, send her running.

  But she made no move to stop him. Only small moans of pleasure and panting came from her. His cock was ready to burst, but if he was going to seduce this woman, who was of good breeding, then he was going to have to see to her first. There would be time after, once she accepted him for him to sate his needs. He knew from her dreams she would be more than perfect wrapped around his cock when the time came.

  Lucius slipped his hand under the gown and slid it up her thigh. It was covered in stockings of course and he cursed the idiot that felt women should wear so many layers. He nipped at her lower lip as he did his best to tug aside the frocked underwear she had on. His finger moved over her and he found her wet, ready and his for the taking. He pushed a finger inside her tight body and she arched off the seat, even as her mouth sought to tangle faster with his. She was needy and he was going to give it to her. His finger moved in and out in a slow pace, dragging across her clit and wiggling while inside her, touching the spot that held the most pleasure. She was mewling then and his own hips were bucking as he added a second finger. She was tight, so tight he groaned himself knowing the reality of how her inner walls would grip him when he finally sank into her body.

  The lavender smell was intoxicating and he pulled his mouth free from hers and dropped to the floor of the car. He had no reason to think she’d let him taste her, but he was too far gone to stop himself. Her whimper sliced through the compartment when he pulled back and he quickly tugged her dress up.

  “Willan!” Her voice was strained, infused with lust and a pleading for him to continue.

  He knew she wasn’t a virgin from their dreams, but knowing he could do this to her sent a buzz through him. He hooked his thumbs in the underwear and pulled them down to her knees before leaning forward and placing a kiss across her core. She bucked against him and he could picture the need in her eyes as he licked a path from top to bottom and suckled her clit. She tasted sweet, not quite like the chocolate she smelled of sometimes, but still a rich taste on his tongue. He growled low and slammed his tongue between her folds, driving it in and out and swirling it inside her. Her hips were bucking now, riding his tongue and as he darted it in and out of her wet heat, he ran his thumb over her swollen bud, increasing her pleasure. His own cock throbbed and pulsed with need and he had half a mind to stroke himself as he went, but his mind was too addled with the delicious taste of her to see to himself.

  Her breath was coming out in hard pants and her hips were bucking so hard against the seat to reach her orgasm. He gave her one last lick, and rubbed her clit, back and forth, faster and faster until her cry broke across the train car. It wouldn’t have been so bad if his own hadn’t been louder than hers, as his body came from the sheer act of watching her come. His own breaths were ragged and he wasn’t sure he could handle anymore. He was getting ready to slip out from her skirts and see that she was all right when that same loud buzzing noise went off from before. She
tensed and her knee knocked him in the face. He pulled back and the look on her face warred between pleasant and terror. She hadn’t been ready for him, not mentally. His urge to claim her faded, like water thrown onto a winter’s fire.

  “Eliza, I’m sorry.” The damned shrill noise came from one of her bags again and she jumped back from him. He knew it would be a guild device, but she was trying hard to not check whatever it was. Lucius could only hope it wasn’t a device that was going off letting her know she was with a demon. He’d planned on telling her that later, after a few days of getting to know one another. She looked pale as it went off a third time and the smallest sensation of fear gripped around him. He stood up and walked out of the train car. He wasn’t sure where he would go, with an impossible to hide bulge in his pants, but he needed to give her space for a few moments.

  * * *

  Her head was spinning around and around, the train car barely able to come into focus. What had she just done? “More importantly, why do you not feel guilty about it?” Her voice was breathy and she could feel her heart pounding so hard in her chest she thought it was going to explode out. The shrill awkward chime of the communicator went off for the fourth time and she shook her head, trying to clear the lust induced haze and failing. “Who on Earth could bloody be calling me? No one even knows I took this damned thing!” Which wasn’t entirely true – Felicia and Greyston did know.

  She hastily unzipped her bag and shoved her hands in, carelessly shoving clothes aside until she found the brass device glowing a faint green from the bottom of her bag. She snatched it up and pressed one of six buttons on its face. To anyone else it would appear to be a watch with a few more dials, to anyone in the Alliance it was sometimes the only thing between a dead hunter and a dead demon. They worked the same way as the magnets that lined the streets, only they resonated between magnetic pulses that could be assigned to the crystals by polarizing them. The process was the only one at the guild she’d never understood, probably wouldn’t ever understand either because it wasn’t her area. But nonetheless, the devices worked and allowed a very distant and sometimes broken, sounding communication between people.

  “Felicia?” That was the only excuse for someone calling, the only person who’d known she had illegally taken Alliance tech out of the guild that morning.

  “Eliza! Thank goodness I’ve reached you. Why have you been ignoring your communicator?” Her friends’ tone was laced with both relief and annoyance and Eliza felt her own annoyance bristle at the idea she had to answer to anyone, especially when she’d just been discharged from her life for an unspecified amount of time.

  “Well think about it. I am on a train to Halifax…a train that by design mimics our technology and half of London rejected as bollocks and magic when it was first unveiled. Let’s think about why I wouldn’t pick up a device that was allowing me to talk to a woman over two kilometers away!” She hadn’t meant to raise her voice, Felicia was most likely only worried, but it had happened anyway. Thankfully Willan had closed the door as he left and no one could hear her crazy shouts.

  “Right, sorry. Look I need to talk to you. Are you alone?”

  Eliza didn’t respond, she let the stupidity of the question hand in the air. Felicia was impulsive but rarely so addled minded.

  “Dumb question. You wouldn’t have answered. Have you been alone this whole time? No compartment mates of any kind?”

  “That’s an ironic question. I actually lost my ticket betwixt the train carriage and the ground the first time my communicator went off, in public. Luckily there was a nice gentleman ready to step in and help. Without him, and I presume thanks to you, I would have been waiting for the train tomorrow and been knocking on your door for a place to stay.”

  “Eliza, it’s important. What’s the man’s name?”

  Bile churned in her gut, what could be so important that Felicia’s voice hitched in pace?

  “Willan. I suppose that could be his proper name or his surname, I didn’t think to ask. It hadn’t seemed important.” But perhaps you should have before you allowed him to kiss you in such a place. Eliza almost missed Felicia’s response as her head swam with images and sensations of what she and Willan had just done. It was unlike anything she’d ever experienced and though she should run screaming from the compartment all she wanted was for him to come back so she could explain to him she wasn’t angry, but perhaps he would consider courting her properly.

  “Fuck! Bloody fucking hell. Greyston this is all your fault! Now she’s alone with him!”

  Eliza was fairly certain the last part wasn’t meant for her, but the first?

  She tried to keep her voice calm and steady, throwing it all into a tizzy had never helped in the lab and it wouldn’t do any good in a crisis either. “Felicia, who am I stuck with and why is this a problem?” She had misjudged Willan and she somehow knew it without Felicia telling her. But what could Felicia have known of the man?

  “Eliza, that man; tallish, shaggy brown hair and eyes that look like they’re solid black?”

  She said nothing.

  “Eliza, damnit answer me now!”

  “Yes.” The word came out soft, barely audible even to herself and the train car spun again. Something was truly wrong with this man and she’d not only allowed him to touch her in the most intimate fashion possible, but she’d been wanting more of it.

  “His name isn’t Willan. Well, not completely. It’s Lucius Willan. Eliza, he’s a fucking demon.”

  It was as if the train car slammed to a halt. She felt her body jerk and slip from the seat in her shock. Blackness threatened the corners of her vision and she squeezed her eyes shut tight, hoping to stop the dizziness from taking hold. Lucius. It was the man from her dreams. It was truly him and somehow they’d connected in reality. And he was just as wonderful at making my body turn to jelly with passion as in the dreams.

  “Eliza, did you hear me! He’s a demon. You need to get away from him right now.”

  “Felicia I heard you. I’m having some problems. What kind of a demon is he?” Maybe he was an Incubus like Greyston, she could think of worse ways to die than being seduced and having her energy completely drained. It would explain the nature of their interactions and her intense need for his touch.

  “A Nightmare Demon, Eliza.”

  “A What?”

  “Exactly. According to Greyston there is a Fallen Angel named Seraphina who eradicated all but five or ten of them in the last century. I’m sure there will be a briefing about her, she’s a player it would have been nice to know about a long time back.” Eliza could almost picture the glare Felicia must be giving Greyston at this exact moment. “All Greyston knows is that they’re capable of killing - both while asleep and while you’re awake if they aren’t distracted. They get inside your head, access what terrifies you most and they let it get you, Eliza. They open up a Pandora’s box of fear and they let it come and consume you. It’s how they eat. Like a Kappa Demon. The soul lets off an energy as it leaves the body and apparently not only do they need the energy, but they can capture the soul. They can claim it and make use of it however they see fit.”

  A chill raced over Eliza’s body. It almost sounded as if the Fallen angel had done the world a service getting rid of such a powerful bunch. Lucius hadn’t given her nightmares; quite the opposite. Did it matter though?

  “But, then why hasn’t he killed me? I hadn’t said it before but, well he’s most certainly been in my dreams.” She heard Greyston laugh through the communicator followed by an intake of breath and she wondered what was going on. The power would drain out quickly and they would be disconnected, leaving her with so many unanswered questions.

  “Eliza, you aren’t going to like this. Trust me, I didn’t at first either. Eliza, you’re Lucius’s mate.” The world stood still for the second time in a span of minutes.

  “M..m..mate?” She wasn’t one to ever stutter, but the idea, it disgusted her and yet at the same time explained so much. �
�Felicia, Greyston is a demon and you’re with him. You wouldn’t be calling to warn me so I know what I’m getting involved with, would you?”

  “I wish, Eliza. I really do. But Lucius is not a good guy. He’s a gambler and a whore among men. But most importantly he came to meet you in your dreams to murder you. You were lucky the mating bond kicked in so to speak or who knows what he would have done. He works for Seraphina. He kills for her, all the time. Humans, Eliza. He kills humans for the supposed Queen of the Demons.”

  She couldn’t stop herself, her head turned away from the communicator and she retched. Her shoulder’s heaved and she couldn’t bring herself to care about the crushed velvet seat or the lush expensive carpeting beneath her that was now covered. “He’s a trained killer? He’s exactly what we hunt. What you hunt.” She hadn’t been speaking to Felicia, not really. Her mind was spinning, going up and down with thoughts and possibilities and they all led back to the fact that she’d engaged in promiscuous activities with the monster they hunted, with what preyed upon the citizens of London and worldwide.

  “Eliza, you need to get away from him. I don’t know where he is and I don’t want to know what you’ve done. I know what a mating feels like and I don’t blame you if something did happen. I blame myself for not going to the train station myself to meet you the minute Greyston kicked him out for fucking with my dreams.”

  Eliza felt as if she’d stepped off a cliff and fallen into a bottomless pit. Detail after detail left her brain running and her stomach churning with disgust.

  “I’m sorry, Eliza, but you can’t be with him. Get away from him once you get to Halifax. I’ll try to persuade Master Agardawes to send a team or two to bring him in. He’s a lackey for the person responsible for letting demons out onto Earth, into the streets of London. He needs to be brought in.”