Page 43 of The Spider Queen
“I must go,” he said, pulling away.
“No.”
“I’ll return.”
“When?”
He didn’t answer as his body began to fade, like a ghost becoming a shadow. I reached for him and caught air.
I woke up sobbing.
Chapter 14
I stretched my arms over my head and slowly opened my eyes. They felt swollen and puffy.
Turning my head, I gazed at the wall. I sat up quickly; my head throbbed with a dull headache, like it couldn’t decide if it wanted to be hungover. Reaching for my glasses on the nightstand, I squinted at the far wall.
It all came into focus and bile surged up from my belly into my throat.
On the wall was a drawing in permanent marker of the man who’d been plaguing my dreams.
“Did I do this?” I asked, even though I already knew the answer.
Yes.
“When?”
Middle of the night. You were asleep. You drew for two hours and then collapsed into bed.
Why didn’t you wake me?I looked at Thane; his color was darker—I’d address that later.
Didn’t want to wake you. Wanted to see what you did.
What if I’d decided to sleepwalk out of the apartment? I could’ve seriously hurt myself.
But you didn’t.
I approached the wall and gently touched the outline of the jaw. I wasn’t an artist—my skills were limited to drawing spiders. This was something else entirely, but I’d somehow captured the intensity of his gaze, the ferocity of his jaw.
I couldn’t let Anita see this. She’d worry. Hell, I was worried. Who drew in their sleep?
Would this have happened if Hunter had slept next to me? Would he have prevented me from getting up and drawing on my wall?
Ignoring the art for the moment, I went to get my cell phone in the living room. I had no missed calls or texts from Hunter. Hurt all over again, I fired off a text, telling him how disappointed I was that our date never happened.
I went back into my bedroom. Glancing at the wall, I shivered when I vaguely recalled what had happened in my dream. That had not been a normal, healthy sex dream. It had been something else entirely.
But what?
I threw on clothes, grabbed my bag, and headed out of the apartment.
Thane’s voice appeared in my mind,Where are you going?
To buy paint.
Why?
Seriously?
