Page 7 of Dreaming of Darkness

It was fascinating.

“No,” he said quietly. "I think that’s a fairly good summary of what I was trying to tell you.”

“I was always an excellent student,” I told him, my cheeks hot as his eyes roamed over my lips for the hundredth time in thisconversation.

His smile dropped slightly, “I don’t know anything about you,” he confessed. I could almost feel the disappointment in his words. “I spent all our time talking about myself.”

“You’re not missing anything interesting.”

“I highly doubt that” Traum said, he moved closer, but just by inches. Genuine interest glowed in his eyes.

I swallowed, “Oh I…. I don’t know where to begin. I don’t have any family to speak of, and I moved here to get away from a chapter of my life that was miserable. I work at a boring deadend job and have no idea what I want to do with the rest of my life. I’ve always done exactly what I thought I was supposed to, and yet somehow, I ended up here just as happy as I had been before.”

“You were unhappy,” he asked, his brow lowered, shoulders stiff.

“I didn’t mean it like that," I said, feeling a little uncomfortable, “I’m happiest here with my books and my house and my drea–” I snapped my mouth shut when I realized what I was about to say.

I can see his hand clenching against his leg again. “Your dreams? Is that what you were going to say?”

My heart pounded, and suddenly I wanted to know what it would feel like to feel his skin on mine again. But still I hesitated. “Like I said, not interesting. Just another human.”

“I’m sorry to hear of your family, I am not sure what I would do without mine.” His eyes are earnest, soft, even as the amber color catches the light from the lamp behind me. Feral. Deadly. Beautiful.

But now they shifted, the conversation between us had waned. Panic rose in my chest as I realized that he might be leaving. I swallowed hard, pushing for a new subject. Anything to keep him here. Mania rose in my chest as I stared over at him. In the same moment that I recognized my desperation, I alsounderstood that it was completely unlike me.

“Are all of the incubus and succubus tribes as close? Like your family, yes?”

Traum’s chin ducked, but I could see the way he relaxed into the sofa again. My body mirrored his, relieved he was staying a bit longer.

“Yes, it is how we are designed. We feed off of passion, but we are at our core meant to love. Love our parents, love our mates, and even if we don’t want to, to love our invasive siblings.”

I grinned at that. “I would’ve loved to have a big family.”

There was a silence again, but this time it hummed with life and warmth. “Maybe you will someday,” Traum said softly.

“Maybe.”

In the distance, I was suddenly more aware of noises around us. Incoming daybreak. Traum stiffened and seemed to notice it as well. Dread rushed through my body as I realized what it might mean. He was a creature of darkness and dreams. And the time for that tonight had come and gone. We’d sat here together, talking and simply absorbing each other, all night long.

Our time was up.

Oh god, I thought, this can’t be it. I had waited my entire life to feel like I belonged somewhere, and the moment this male appeared in my living room, it felt like my feet had finally found ground in a world of shifting sand.

I couldn’t let that go. Not yet.

“I have to go.”

“Why,” I swallowed, trying to calm the vibration in my voice, “I mean, will the daylight hurt you?”

Traum stood slowly, unfolding to well over six feet as I scrambled to my feet as well. “I’m not sure actually. But I do know that our worlds are mirrors of each other. And if your world is waking up then…”

“Yours may be too.” I finished for him.

Traum nodded, moving back to the doorway to my small kitchen. This was where I’d first seen him. Had that really only been hours ago? “Will you come back tomorrow?” I found myself asking, my cheeks warm as I coughed, then spoke again, “I meant to say, would you want to?”

Traum’s chest was rising and falling quickly as he stared at the small space between us. “Bailey….”

“You don’t have to.”

---