Second Skin (Skinned)

by Graves, Judith

  Alec took a step toward me and then stopped. He nodded, rocking on his heels.

  Sagging with relief, I gave him a shaky smile. “That’s good. That’s better than good. That’s close to awesome.” When he looked away, my smile faded. “Not that I attacked you or anything, but that it was just a dream.” I hoped I wasn’t kidding myself.

  Wade slapped his hands together in a let’s-get-down-to-business manner. “Now that you’ve envisioned the worst, the night mare won’t have power over you in this realm. You can focus on the end game. Killing it.”

  “And how am I supposed to do that? We don’t even know where it is.”

  “It’s just outside this room. My wards have been holding it off, but it’s almost through.”

  And then I noticed the glowing amber sigils on the door, how they sputtered and flashed with the impact of blows from the other side and grew dimmer with each attack.

  “I’m not ready. I don’t know what I’m doing.”

  “Yes, you are,” Wade said. “And so is your wolf. You’ve been repressing her, relegating her to your nightmares. She’s become a master of dreamwalking.” He raised a hand. Energy swirled in his palm, a mini-snowstorm. “In this realm you don’t have to be a witch to repel magic, command the elements, or even will an object to appear. You just have to believe. Try not to let this kill you…”

  He fired.

  Paige squealed as Wade’s energy storm sent her curls flying around her head, standing on end as if she were upside down.

  Frustrated at being lectured and forced into a brief training session like wayward child, I did more than deflect Wade’s energy ball, I absorbed it, sucking the power into my own, feeding it. I shot a blast back at him from my mind into his. The force of it drove him backward into the wall, the soles of his boots sparking along the floor.

  He held out a hand, laughing. “Well done.”

  Wow, I’d done it. I’d blasted him with my mind, taking a simple deflection and turning it into a physical attack.

  A smile played on Alec’s lips. “Now that was a thing of beauty.” Wade made a show of adjusting his leather coat, dusting off his sleeves. “I knew you had it in you, McCain. Now, once the night mare is defeated, I’ll wake us up. I’m the only one who can.” He flashed Alec a cocky grin. “Expending a ton of energy at great risk to myself, I might add. Then we still have to destroy the source to banish it forever.”

  A thunderous roar echoed outside the door. The sigils dimmed even further.

  “Are we ready?” Wade asked, and I guessed the killer smile he leveled at me was supposed to be encouraging, but it came across as more than a bit crazed. “Or are we ready?”

  “I vote no,” Paige said.

  Wade snorted. “There’s no crying in hockey, and there’s no voting in the dream realm. Now, let’s take this fight where we’ll have some wiggle room.” His maniacal laughter lingered in the air as he surrounded us with black smoke. Once more we traveled via vamp mist.

  I'm a Lover, Not a Fighter

  Crimson Cemetery looked as gloomy in the dream realm as in real life. The night sky hovered above us, pressing down, dark and dense, hiding a million secrets. My hackles rose and tension settled in my clenched stomach. Though the snowcapped trees and slanted tombstones that surrounded us were nearly exact replicas of the cemetery we’d spent far too much time skulking around, we were not in reality, and it showed. Here every moonlight-softened angle had a hard edge, every shadow in the undergrowth shifted, restless. Knowing. If you looked at any one thing for too long, it began to look back.

  “Nice location choice,” I told Wade, pushing past my unease. “We know the lay of the land. It might give us an advantage.”

  Wade shrugged. His unopened leather coat shifted with the bitter breeze as he placed his hands on lean hips. “None of that will matter if we don’t stay focused. The night mare will do everything in its power to take control and manipulate this setting. I’ll hold it as long as possible.” He pointed a finger at all of us in succession— me, Alec, then Paige. “We all have to keep our eyes open for any freaky stuff. Doors that appear out of nowhere should not be opened. A mortal wound in this realm, a deathblow of any sort will kill you here and in the real world. Do. Not. Die.” His gray eyes lingered on my face. He cleared his throat and addressed the others as well. “Understood?”

  Alec nodded, while Paige simply bolted behind a four-foot high tombstone and slunk down in the snow.

  Figured.

  “I’m a lover, not a fighter,” she called, staring hungrily at Wade’s back. He shuddered with revulsion as if he’d felt her touch crawling along his spine.

  Alec shot me a glance, eyebrow raised. “At least she’s back to normal.”

  “Don’t remind me.”

  A dark figure shifted in the shadows at the edge of the graveyard, slipping from the trees and into the moonlight. A big, red-eyed werewolf. The night mare was sending us a familiar foe. I shifted my weight, automatically assuming a fighting stance. Alec and Wade stood beside me, devil and angel at my shoulders.

  The beast loped forward, crossing the terrain in an easy stride. Rippling muscles under a husk of human flesh and matted fur. Its jaw gaped, great huffs expelling with each breath. The stench of rotted meat and pungent earth preceded it.

  But why send just one when the night mare could invoke an army? As if in answer, the werewolf’s form blurred, multiplied. From either side, another beast flanked it, and then two more formed from the sides of those, and so on until we faced more than a dozen of the things in a fierce line of offense.

  Alec and Wade shared a grim look over my head. Their intoxicating adrenaline spiked the air. I ignored the heady scent, demanding my wolf focus on the matter at hand.

  “Remember, use your imagination,” Wade said out the corner of his mouth. “In this world, if you can dream it, do it.” With that he blasted out a beam of energy, freezing several of the creatures in place. A coating of frost covered their bodies, trapping their breaths as clouds of mist and ice. But the night mare was prepared. The beasts quickly thawed, their frosted backs cracking as they gave great shudders and shook off Wade’s Mr. Freeze.

  Wade picked up a fallen tree branch and handed it to Alec. “Take this, you’ll need it.”

  “What the hell am I supposed to do with a stick?” Alec said, but even as he grabbed the branch, it transformed into a gleaming silver sword. “Now we’re talking.” He charged forward, slicing into the nearest werewolf.

  “Get the picture?” Wade asked, fashioning another sword and presenting it to me.

  The coat I wore was unzipped. I reached inside, thankful my athame was indeed resting in my shoulder holster. I held it high, content with its solid silver blade. The hand that held the rosewood hilt grew meatier, furrier, and sported three-inch claws. “Keep it, you need it more than I do,” I said through a mouth already transforming, my jaw distending, filling with fangs and the strength to crunch through bone. The best of me and my wolf against whatever the night mare had to offer.

  He smirked. “Remind me not to piss you off.” My own wolfish grin felt a mile wide.

  The battle began in earnest. The three of us cut through the beasts as an efficient team. Wade had the most flare. His strength in this realm was clear. He struck with magic, his sword, and fang when the opportunity presented itself.

  One of the werewolves drew me off to the side, clever enough to entice me into the open while another came at my back. I scented it though. Whirling around, I feigned a dodge, shifting my weight. As the were countered, I sprang. Drove my athame into its side, plunging through its ribcage until the silver struck its heart.

  A flare of brilliant white light, and it was gone. No transforming back into the ravaged body of a human victim. Thank God for small mercies. These would be easy kills and wouldn’t inspire the guilt and remorse I battled after taking down creatures in the real world.

  I spun to find two werewolves stalking forward. Tweedledee and tweedledumb.
>
  I charged at the closest, falling to my knees to slide across the snow as if it were ice. I gutted the underbelly of the first, then spun on the snow, aimed my athame, black with the creature’s blood, and hurled it through the air. It struck the heart of the second. It died on its feet and began to dissipate before it hit the snow. I got to my feet and trotted to finish off the first were I’d injured. It lay writhing on the ground, black rot seeping from its wound.

  “Eryn, behind you!” Paige screamed.

  Another were, lumbering forward, ready to thrust its fangs through my skull. Waiting, I let it come.

  Not quite close enough.

  Now!

  I launched into the air, griped my athame with two hands, and as the werewolf thundered under me, I plunged the dagger between its shoulder blades, somersaulted over the its back, and landed on my feet. I turned to see the werewolf sway to a halt and then vanish in a blast of light. No longer wedged between bone and sinew, my dagger dropped to the snow.

  A whirl of black smoke, and Wade landed beside my blade, scooped it up, and turned it over in his hands, careful to avoid the silver blade. After a moment, he tossed it to me. Or more like he whipped the dagger at my head.

  I caught it by the hilt, before it struck me between the eyes. “Hey, I could have missed that,” I shouted, my features

  settling back to human now that the direct threat had passed.

  “I doubt it,” Wade said, suddenly at my side, his body crowding mine. His fingers slid along the back of my hand, awakening hungers buried deep within. Need. Want. Everything I’d fought against.

  I scented the intensity of his emotions—candied mint rising off his flesh. I leaned into his solid form, returning the pressure for a second. For longer than I could afford.

  Then pulled back.

  “Whoa, this dream realm stuff is”—I shot him a grin, downplaying the surge of emotion and deflecting it with the distance humor provided—“heady stuff. And you, my friend, have got serious moves.”

  I have others I could show you. Wade’s voice settled in my mind like warm honey. I retreated another step. He followed.

  Bloodlust still high in my veins, the battle retreated, fading into nothingness. My wolf was restless, enjoying the game of cat and mouse. If I wasn’t half wolf, I might have started to purr.

  “Guys, I think we got them all,” Alec said in the distance. “Eryn? Wade? Where the hell are you?”

  Pressing my palm to Wade’s chest, I gave a little push, forcing him to retreat. I walked back toward Paige and Alec, sucking in the cool night air, hoping it would ice the slow burn Wade had started. After a few seconds, I heard his frustrated curse and then the crunch of his footsteps in the snow as he followed.

  It was like I had a dial permanently set on crash and burn. Lighting up the night with Alec and then smoldering in Wade’s arms. This back and forth between the two of them was going to blow up in my face. But good.

  “So…” Paige drawled, “that’s it? A few teeny werewolves is all the night mare’s got?”

  “Easy for you to say,” Alec snapped. “How was the view behind the stone? Or were you too scared to peek?”

  “She helped,” I said, and Paige shot Alec a triumphant look. “If screaming is helping.”

  Paige sneered at me. Still, she was right, that had been way too easy. A sucker punch had yet to be delivered.

  Paige’s breath hitched, her expression changing from lip- twisted snark to open-mouthed shock. Eyes wide, she took a step forward, tilting her head in confusion as a man strode from the tree line.

  “Is that…?” she faltered.

  But it wasn’t Marcus, though he and the man steadily approaching shared many similar features. Height, weight. That warm, open smile.

  Our battle with the werewolves had been the night mare toying with us, playing by our rules, giving us a false self of confidence. Now the real battle would begin, because I’d come to understand what the night mare was really after.

  It didn’t just want us weakened. It wanted us broken.

  The man held out his arms, never taking his eyes off me. “Dad?”

  Dark with a Side of Cheese

  Alec cursed. He darted in front of me, preventing me from running forward and throwing myself into the man’s waiting arms.

  It’s not him, Eryn. Wade’s steely eyes met mine for a long moment as he too put his body between me and the demon sauntering toward us.

  The demon wearing my father’s skin.

  For a heartbeat or two, I allowed myself to stand protected behind their human/ inhuman shield. Paige clutched my hand. The moon glimmered low in the sky, edging the frosted tombstones with silver, highlighting the wrongness of the moment.

  When loved ones died you buried them. You moved on.

  They weren’t supposed to reappear on a day when it was impossible to tell what was real, and what wasn’t, and say, “I know it’s been a while, but my girl wouldn’t hide behind a few love- struck boys.”

  It even sounded like him.

  Wade hissed and spat. Alec lifted his silver sword.

  “Eryn, it’s me, kiddo. Come on, no hug for the old man?” The pull to rush to his side grew, a physical force I clenched my muscles against. The barrier provided by Alec and Wade kept me hidden while I fought the emotional pull. My knees locked as I kept my legs ramrod stiff, resisting. After a few hellish months without word, or rumor, or bodily confirmation—my father stood a few feet away, gazing around forlorn. Looking for me.

  How was I supposed to turn away from that? For the first time in forever joy welled inside me instead of rage, fear, guilt, betrayal. Did it matter that it wasn’t real?

  Did it really?

  Paige let out a gasp. I shot her a glance and then looked down at our linked fingers. I’d sunk my claws into her skin. I grimaced an apology and released her from my grip, willing my claws to recede and my human form to solidify.

  “Your mom warned me you’d give me trouble, but then, she always did know you best.”

  “Shut up, she doesn’t want to hear your lies,” Alec said, taking a threatening step forward. As he did, my father appeared in the gap between the guys’ shoulders. He shifted to meet my gaze.

  “That’s right, Eryn. Your mom’s here too, waiting for the all clear. Shall I call her? She’s dying to see you.”

  And I heard it then, an underlying smugness as the demon said the word, dying. I shook my head, clearing away the sentiment, the emotion. This was a demon. Not my dad. This thing had tricked a girl into cutting her own eyes out. Had immersed us in our worst fears. Now it was rubbing my face in it.

  Eyes burning with unshed tears, I let my wolf surface. My jaw ached as bones shifted and cracked, teeth elongated. A snarl exposed my fangs. How dare it pretend to be my father? Use his image, his love against me?

  Fury blinded me, and my wolven vision automatically kicked in. As I blinked away the disorientation, I experienced a series of flashes. The dreams I’d drifted aimlessly through. Going wolfy on the pirate ship, taking a rifle from a dead boy’s hands, witnessing Paige as she lost herself to the pressure of fitting in.

  I wasn’t helpless. Battle demanded loss on both sides. And I’d be damned if I’d waste another moment trying to mold myself into the image of others.

  The only weapon I ever needed was inside me all along. My wolf. She was part of me. We wanted the same things. And right now we wanted the night mare decimated.

  “Stay back,” I told the crew. “It’s mine.”

  I bent my knees, muscles tight, and then launched into the air, clearing Alec and Wade with a foot to spare. I landed in a low crouch, sending up an explosion of iridescent snow. I straightened, standing to my full height, about a foot from the demon. The partial shift gave me a few extra inches, but the demon in my father’s form was taller still. Mom used to joke we were her giants. I could almost hear the laughter in her voice. Could almost see my father hold her tight.

  Damn the night mare for making them
both seem so close. “Oh, there she is.” The demon smiled my father’s smile. Then put a mocking hand to its mouth. “My what big teeth you have, Eryn. Whatever have you been up to since Mommy and Daddy left you for dead?”

  That stung. The thing knew everything about me, even my fear that my parents would be horrified at the changes I’d undergone without my father’s anti-paranorm cocktail of drugs. I let my facial features settle into more human-ish proportions.

  “Eryn, get behind us. It wants to feed off your power,” Alec said, reaching for me.

  The hulk has a point. Wade growled in my mind.

  “It won’t get near me, I promise.” I wasn’t sure anything would get near me again. I felt drained, numb. Ready to do what was needed.

  “So confident, Eryn, with your loyal companions behind you,” the demon said. “I think I’ll let you live long enough to see them die.” He didn’t so much as blink and yet immediately, Paige, Alec and Wade dropped to the snow, clutching their heads and groaning.

  I flew to Paige’s side, gripping her shoulders. “What’s wrong? Tell me.”

  “Knives. In. My. Head.” Paige’s face twisted with pain. “Killing. Me.” She curled into a fetal position.

  Alec and Wade were in pretty much the same state, folded over themselves, their muscles locked in pain.

  I tried to access Wade’s thoughts, but he blocked me out, sparing me the torture they were enduring.

  “Eryn, get out of here. Run,” Alec moaned.

  I straightened and took a few steps away from my writhing friends.

  But I wasn’t going anywhere.

  “Stop this now, and I promise your punishment will be quick,” I said, facing the demon. I forged a reinforced iron wall of protection around my mind, all those times I’d shut Wade out of my thoughts feeling much like practice for this—the ultimate test. I spun and faced the demon. My dagger glinted in the night as I thrust it upward and raised my left arm ready to block his attack.