Sweet Dreams

by Bolryder, Terry

  I let out a breath as I walk over to her, editing her chair so it’s big enough for two.

  Then I reach down and pull her into my arms, holding her tight as I sit down. “Nothing could ever break you, sweetheart,” I say, tucking her head in against my chest as her body begins to shake. “I’m here. Just let it all out.”

  Her cry of pain as she holds on to me and begins to sob rips at everything I am, but I hold her tight, absorbing as much of her pain as I can because I’m her partner.

  I’ve been so foolish, so flippant in thinking my mate pursuit could go as normal even though my mate has grown up in another world.

  I wish I’d been more gentle, more careful, not just rushing in with what I want.

  Because she thinks I’m going to give up on her or that I had some ideal version of her in mind just because I always knew we were meant to be together.

  But that has never been the case.

  As she cries, I brush her hair, holding her and comforting her with soft words as she cries against me, this strong woman showing me a side that’s so soft yet as hard as steel.

  “I love you, sweetheart,” I say. “You’re my dream mate, and that will never change.”

  She looks up at me. “How could you want me?” Her eyes are red and tearful, the green extra bright. “After everything I’ve just said? Don’t you get it? I’m a monster.”

  “He’s the monster,” I say.

  “I must have done something,” she says. “To tempt him or—”

  A growl comes out of me before I can stop it. “No. No, soul bond. All you did was be amazing. Everything else is him.”

  Her head buries against me again. “It’s not like I didn’t feel something for you even the first time you showed up. But it was hard to accept a different world. But what is even harder to accept is that you have been searching so hard for your dream mate when she has been ruined all along. Dirty, used—”

  Unable to hear more, I use both hands to cup her face so she has to look up into my eyes. “Beautiful, amazing, sweet.” I brush a tear away. “Stronger than I ever imagined. An amazing warrior surviving in a broken world.” I smile despite the pain in my heart. “A powerful fighter. And, honey, you’re so much better than I ever imagined. I have never been disappointed with you, not for a single day. Every moment by your side has been everything I ever dreamed of.”

  “But I’m your dream mate, so it was supposed to be easy.”

  I raise an eyebrow. “Who said that? A dream mate means true love, which is worth any fight or effort.”

  She tries to look away again. “But I told you I’m not right in the head—”

  “I’m just sorry I wasn’t there to protect you,” I say, pulling her to me again. “I promise, dream mate, if I could, I would go back and stop it all, save you from anything that hurt you. But I’m so happy you’re here with me because you’re even more beautiful than I ever imagined.”

  “But what happened to me, it’s—”

  I release her, gently setting her down as I stand to pull my robes down over my shoulders. Then I close my eyes and release my illusions, feeling uncomfortably exposed in front of my mate.

  Her eyes go wide, and she sits up a little straighter, curling her legs in front of her as she looks at my arms and chest. “Lorien, what are those?”

  I glance at the marks, some deep and scarred, some light and red, across my arms and shoulders. “Fae warriors, we use illusions to be extra beautiful in our pursuit of our mate.”

  “Who did that?” she asks. “Who hurt you?” Anger flares in her eyes, and I’m glad she at least looks a little less miserable now.

  “Which one?” I ask, looking at the scars. I point to a long one across my chest that wraps around to my back. “That was a scarlath. Huge, poisonous creature. Went right through my armor.” I point to another one. “That was a duel gone wrong.” I point to another. “That was training.” Then I point to the deepest, right over my heart. “This was from taking out one of the worst nightmares the eighth realm has ever seen.”

  She blinks at me, her gaze hardening. “Why are you showing this to me? Are you saying I’m scarred or something?”

  I walk over to sit next to her again and take her hand. “No, I’m just showing you that we’re both warriors. I’m proud of these marks even if I’m not proud of how they look for my soul bond.”

  “I think they’re nice,” she says, running her hand lightly over one, making my skin sear. “Makes you look a little less perfect.”

  I try not to wince, and I smile at her because even though I want to be perfect for her, right now, that’s not what this is about.

  “I fought many battles on my way to you,” I say. “I went up against things no one should face. They left their mark, but I’m still here. Does it change anything for you, soul bond?”

  She shakes her head quickly. “It’s just proof you were strong.”

  I put my hand over her heart. “You’re strong too. You fought and survived a monster from the blackest abyss of humankind. And you’re an amazing woman who helps others. A fighter just like me.” I clasp her hand, not letting her pull it away from me. “Your heart isn’t broken. It’s not even marked like mine. But I know you feel wounded there. But that’s not something that bothers or hurts me. You are who you are. I want you, not who you might have been. I want you, Tess. Strong, amazing, beautiful you. This changes nothing.”

  “You deserve better,” she says in a low voice, though at least she’s clasping my hand back.

  “I don’t,” I say. “You just think that because there’s still a shadow on your heart. But unlike my skin, it doesn’t have to be permanent. You may not think so, but you can still love.”

  “It hurts me,” she says, looking up at me. “Love hurts me, and it’s all you want. And I’m afraid this is all going to end wrong. Just thinking about something long term, my heart starts racing. It feels like you’re going to hurt me and—”

  I clasp her hands in mine. “I’m going to stay until you see that’s not the case. And when we finally conquer the shadow in your heart, you’ll see that I’ve always been yours and you’ll always be mine.”

  Her lips quirk up. “You never let up, do you?” Her hands trace another scar. “I guess we all bring who we are to a relationship. I do want to try if you really don’t think that I’m gross…”

  I press my lips over hers, kissing her deeply as we wrap our arms around each other and hold each other close, warmth spreading through us.

  I’m glad my soul bond opened up to me. I’m glad that finally I can see more of her heart.

  Nothing of this went how I expected, but every time I’m with Tess, I realize this is how it should have been all along.

  Despite the pain of the earlier moment, despite knowing we still have a hard road ahead of us, I’m just so happy right now to be holding my soul bond.

  My dream mate.

  My Tess.

  20

  Tess

  After we held each other for a moment, I told Lorien I wanted him to take me home.

  I’m still exhausted from everything.

  I never thought I would tell anyone about what happened to me, how I became so cold to men. But with Lorien, it’s like I can’t hold back anymore.

  It wouldn’t be fair to him.

  Nor would it be fair to promise things I don’t know if I can give.

  But I do know that in finally opening the darkest part of my heart to him, a little light was able to stream in, and it makes my heart warm whenever I look his way.

  Which is often because I like looking at him.

  But I think this tiny, flickering thing is hope.

  And that scares me all over again.

  Right now, Lorien is with his friends in the dream camp they set up, probably catching them up on everything.

  I like Reve and Jerrek, and I get that the three of them are very close, with norms between them that we don’t see in my world very often.

  And I’m f
ine with it as long as they keep their hands off my mate.

  I blink, sitting up on my computer chair, staring at the cover I’m working on. Accidentally, I seem to have made the hero look like Lorien. I guess I was lost in thought.

  And mate? Where did that come from? I shake my head, brushing loose hair back into my ponytail as I go back to a different layer in my program and get back to making the hero look how the author requested.

  No nipple problems this time, luckily.

  I’m just airbrushing the last pore off his chest when my phone buzzes, and I look down to see a text from Sandra.

  Hey, can you help with something real quick? It’s urgent.

  I pick up the phone and call her, and she answers on the first ring.

  “Hey, what do you need?”

  Sandra sighs. “Look, this is a mess, and I know you’re not a superhero or anything—geez, Jen is going to kill me for getting you involved.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “One of my clients didn’t show up for the hearing today with her kids, and her husband was a no-show as well. I’m worried that something is wrong. I can’t put a finger on what.”

  “Family annihilator?” I ask because that’s the worst-case scenario in divorce cases. And Sandra has good instincts for when things are wrong.

  “I don’t know,” she says. “Possibly. The cops won’t act yet. They say it hasn’t been that long. But I know there’s a domestic violence situation, and the father wasn’t down with the divorce. I’d go myself, but if I leave—”

  “Then you won’t be there if they do show up. Got it.” My heart begins to race. “Give me their address. The husband, the wife… anything you can give me.”

  “Look, I don’t know how far you go with those guys you take on. But this guy—”

  “There are kids involved. I don’t have time to worry about it,” I say quickly. She dictates the addresses, tells me everything she knows, and then hangs up, going to talk to the police some more.

  I stand, running for my coat and heading out the door.

  I’m halfway down the icy stairs leading down from my apartment when Lorien appears in front of me, floating in full armor with his arms folded, causing me to skid to a halt.

  “Where are you going, dream mate?”

  I curse, trying to dodge around him, but he merely floats side to side, and his shoulders are too damn broad. “I don’t have time for this, Lorien.”

  His usually calm face tightens. “You’re upset. What’s wrong?”

  I let out a breath, finally pushing my way around him. “Okay, look. I do my usual stuff with girls from the message boards who have no way to get back at the men who hurt them, but that’s not all I do.”

  He raises an eyebrow, blocking my way again. “What else do you do?”

  “Sandra, she’s a divorce lawyer. A lot of her clients are men who—well, bad men.”

  He cocks his head. “Bad? What does this have to do with you.”

  “One of them didn’t show up for the hearing. He has the kids. Sandra fears the worst, but because the husband isn’t that late and hasn’t made many threats, the police aren’t going yet.”

  “Where do you need to go?” Lorien asks. “I can get you there faster.”

  I blink at him. I guess I thought he would try to stop me. Tell me not to go. Try and talk sense into me. “You’re all right with this?”

  “It isn’t my choice,” he says, a slight grin on his face. “But I’ve always enjoyed fighting nightmares. There clearly aren’t enough warriors putting them down on Earth. Besides, if young ones are involved, we must act.”

  I show him the addresses I wrote down, but he merely shakes his head.

  “I will find it. Let me hold you.” His arms wrap around me, his head lowers, and then with a rush of cold wind that almost stings my skin, I get the sensation of moving very quickly. Then my feet hit hard ground, and I open my eyes to see a road sign with one of the numbers I showed him.

  I run a few steps forward and see a small redbrick house. One story. White shutters faded by age.

  From inside, I hear yelling.

  I run for the house, but Lorien grabs me by the shoulder, holding me back.

  “I know you could deal with this, but won’t you let me use magic instead? It’s my job to fight nightmares.”

  My fists tighten. “In this world, it’s my job as well.”

  Lorien nods, looking forward, his profile sharp and even. “Together, then. I will cloak so I can help from the side without him knowing.” His aurora eyes are soft as they meet mine. “Be careful, dream mate.”

  I nod, then run forward up to the front door where I look through the windows and listen for what’s going on.

  When I hear yelling and things breaking, I start kicking the door hinge, making it crack. I need to get to the screen and—

  In a moment, the door disappears in a puff of smoke, and my leg falls forward after kicking through nothing.

  “Hey, Suzy? You in there?” Sandra sent me her client’s name. I try to sound casual like I wasn’t trying to bang down the door.

  “Oh! Don’t come in!” a strained, feminine voice calls. “We’re good here, a bit busy. Please come back another time.”

  I hear something said in a low male voice and then what sounds like the cry of a child.

  I’ve had enough.

  I run through the narrow hall and into the living room, afraid for what I might see.

  What I see is Sandra’s worst suspicion confirmed.

  The man who must be the husband has one of the children, a gun to his head, and as his eyes turn to me, I notice they’re black with rage.

  Sweat dribbles down from his buzzcut, and a snarl moves over his lips as his eyes flick from me to his wife and he slowly cocks the gun. “You told someone, bitch?”

  “No!” Suzy says, taking a step forward and then halting with her hand over her mouth. “Brad, please. I’ll stay. We’ll try to work things out.”

  “No, we won’t,” Brad says, pacing and letting the gun away from the child’s head for a moment.

  The child, a girl of no more than eleven, stares up at me with haunted eyes.

  Eyes I recognize.

  On the couch, several children are sitting with two other men, watching.

  Suzy is trembling as she looks my way. “Please, just go. I know you mean well, but it’s only going to make him angry.”

  The men on the couch look over at me. “Nah, she should stay,” one of them says, running his eyes over me lasciviously. “Once we teach your bitch wife a lesson, we can—”

  And then they’re simply gone. They were there, then gone. The two kids look around, and one cries out, but the man with the gun just looks like someone hit him in the back of the head as he staggers forward, releasing the girl.

  I jump forward, grabbing her in my arms to quickly shove her toward the mom as my hand reaches for the man’s gun.

  Just as I grab it, he disappears too.

  I gasp, stepping back and looking around almost as if the men could reappear at any moment. Where is Lorien?

  “Suzy, go. Get to Sandra,” I say. “You got a car?”

  Suzy nods as her other children run to her, and all three sob in relief. Suzy’s eyes are wide with confusion. “Where did Brad go?”

  But then her face goes calm, and she simply nods, picks the youngest kids up in her arms, and carries them all out to the car parked in front of the house.

  I watch her pull away, breathing a sigh of relief.

  It’s not the first attempted annihilation I’ve encountered. It still will never fail to shock me that anyone would murder their children to punish a spouse.

  A commotion from the backyard has me running to the sliding door that leads out.

  On the ground, all three dream fae are punching the absolute shit out of the men who were on the couch and Brad.

  Lorien’s on top of Brad, straddling him as he delivers punch after punch, punch after punch, a sickening
crunching sound rending the air. “Why are you like this?” he cries out, fury sharp in his voice like needles. “Why? Why hurt women and children in this world? How can you just run free, nightmare? I swear by all my power that I will—”

  “Lorien!” Reve grabs him under the armpits and starts dragging him off Brad while Jerrek, whose victim is already unconscious, comes over to help.

  Lorien swings his arms, trying to escape from both of them. “Let me go! I’m going to kill him.”

  His hair is mussed, he’s wearing human clothing soaked in sweat, and he’s never looked less like a fairy.

  As his eyes turn to me and take me in and his gaze softens just slightly, I’m not sure he has ever been hotter.

  I thought he’d be too sweet to get his hands dirty. He poofed away the men who attacked me, and when he poofed these away, I assumed he dealt out some dream fae punishment.

  Something perfect and logical and fair.

  I look down at Brad’s hamburger face and gasp in shock at Lorien’s savagery.

  “Don’t judge me,” he says softly, a stricken look covering his face as he looks between me and his friends. “I…” He takes a step back. “I lost myself.” He looks at Jerrek, wide-eyed. “What am I supposed to do in this world? He had a weapon trained on children to threaten his soul bond.”

  “Not his soul bond,” Jerrek says firmly. “No one would treat their soul bond like that.”

  I swallow. “This doesn’t happen that often, but it does happen.”

  “I’m sick of this,” Lorien says, whipping away from all of us. “Why is there so much injustice in your world?”

  Reve is kneeling over Brad, looking him over. Then he waves a hand, and to my amazement, the man heals, slightly until he looks a little less dead. He lets out a ghastly moan.

  Jerrek walks over to him and grabs his hand, and the next thing I hear is a crunch. “He’ll never hold a gun again. That’s for certain,” he says pleasantly, and Lorien looks at him and calms slightly, giving him a smile.