Page 6 of Dreaming of Darkness

But now? My instincts roared in my blood. Claim. Feed. Care. Mate.

And repeat until the end of the entire world.

And, fuck, I didn’t even know her name. Now my mind could think of nothing else. Gods, I wanted to taste the word on my lips, but she had been talking. Asking more questions. Fuck, what had she said?

Oh, right.

I shook my head again. “No,” I said, my lips curling before I could stop them. “I’m here because you are mine.”

She laughed, the sound sending a delightful tingle down my spine as she covered her mouth with one hand. “I’m yours? You’ve got to be kidding me.’

I frowned, “I’m completely serious. We are fated to be together. That’s why I can touch you. That’s why I’m here, right now. Only a bond could bring me from the Underworld.”

“The Underworld?” the woman sighed, her laughter subsiding. “Incubuses? Now I know I’m dreaming.”

My chest ached, my claws digging into my palms as she began to turn. My hand jerked out, desperate to stop her. “Wait, please.” If she dismissed me, would I be sent away. I couldn’t. Not now, when I hadn’t gotten anywhere.

“There are so many things I need to tell you. That I want to tell you. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said it like that, but the bond, it yanks at me, right here,” I pressed my fist back to my chest. “I will do better.”

She remained half-turned, eyeing me. “I’m nobody, though. I don’t understand what all of this is.”

“You,” I smiled at her, watching her eyes drop to my fangs in surprise, “Are everything. And please, let me try to explain.”

She was still understandably wary, disbelieving. There were only so many ways to explain to her. Or better yet, show her. Holding my breath so the scent of her wouldn’t overwhelm my instincts, I moved past her, back to the sofa she’d been laying on.

I sat, stiff and awkward at the other end. “Would you join me?”

The woman cocked her head, eyes wide as more light flickered over my form. Apparently, my prowess in the bedroom did not extend to basic communication. But after a long moment, she moved over to join me, mimicking my pose and turning to look at me.

I slowly let out a breath. “My name is Traum, and I’m an incubus. I live in the Underworld with my siblings and overbearing grandmother.”

I dramatically gestured to her, hoping to prompt a similar response. She blinked, then cleared her throat. “I’m Bailey and this is my house and as far as I know I’m a human.” Bailey said that last part with a lift in her voice, as if it were a question.

Wrangling my powers in as much as I could, I reached my hand out to her, like I’d seen so many humans do. “It is nice to meet you, Bailey.”

The sound of her name on my tongue was euphoria, but I forced myself to release her hand from my grip after only a breath. I wasn’t sure how powerful it would be, and I wanted her mind to be completely clear.

“What happens now?” Bailey said, her hands fiddling with her knees.

“What do you want to know first?”

***

Bailey

I shifted on the couch cushions, moving from one hip to the other as I carefully kept the creature sitting on the other end in clear view. He was…fascinating, confusing. It was like watching a rainbow, so beautiful and yet so rare that you spend the entire time looking at it waiting for it to disappear once again.

My hands were tucked in between my thighs as I watched him. I’d been unprepared for the bolt of electricity that had raced from my palm to the center of my chest the moment we had touched. As confusing as it was, it left a warm buzz in my belly as he settled across from me. And then, when I hadn’t known what to ask him first, he had simply started talking. The soft, deep roll of his voice like velvet against my skin.

He told me stories about swimming along the River Styx, and about chasing his younger sister after she painted all over hiswalls. He talked about his grandmother, a matriarch and leader within their tribe with a wickedly sharp tongue. I still wasn’t sure if he had meant physically, verbally or both. But nonetheless, I’d hung on his every word. I’d even chimed in with a few of my own stories, even though they felt dim and colorless in comparison.

I’d listened so intently, so silently that my legs had kept falling asleep. Which ironically, was how I knew that this was no dream or distorted fantasy. This was real. He was real.

“Let me see if I have this right,” I licked my lips, surprised when Traum let out a sharp breath at the action, “You are a creature from the Underworld who serves one of the five sons of Lucifer, specifically the one who rules the dream realm. You were called here, to my house, because we are divinely faded mates, and I am the only human that will ever fulfill that role for you. Did I miss anything?”

Traum smiled slowly at me, all white teeth and fangs. And maybe that made me completely insane, but I still couldn’t help finding him devilish attractive. And I did mean devilish. Because his skin was a bright, ruby red, his eyes seemed to glow in the dim lighting of my living room. And of course, you couldn’t mistake the dark curling horns that rose up from his temples and his hairline.

There was no chance that this creature –this male was anything but inhuman. But still the way he held himself, the way his hands twitched in his lap with every move I made, as if he was actually holding himself back from moving closer or touching me.

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