Dreaming of You

by Crymsyn R. Hart

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  Amira Press

  www.amirapress.com

  Copyright ©

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  NOTICE: This work is copyrighted. It is licensed only for use by the original purchaser. Making copies of this work or distributing it to any unauthorized person by any means, including without limit email, floppy disk, file transfer, paper print out, or any other method constitutes a violation of International copyright law and subjects the violator to severe fines or imprisonment.

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  CONTENTS

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Epilogue

  About the Author

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  Demonic Obsessions: Dreaming of You

  Copyright © October 2008, Crymsyn Hart

  Cover art by Anastasia Rabiyah © October 2008

  Amira Press

  Baltimore, MD 21216

  www.amirapress.com

  ISBN: 978-1-935348-04-7

  No part of this e-book may be reproduced or shared by any electronic or mechanical means, including but not limited to printing, file sharing, and e-mail, without prior written permission from Amira Press.

  Reality is only a dream perceived by the beholder.

  Dreams are only illusions.

  Therefore, reality can be changed.

  Chapter One

  "If you drink too much, you can kill me too!"

  Tucker's gaze flicked from my wrist to my eyes. He knelt before me supping on my blood because he hadn't brought himself to kill yet. The pull on my veins weighed on my heart, causing it to hiccup. He was infatuated with the blood, but Tucker hadn't learned to live with the guilt and burden of ending a life. It was our nature. Staring into the souls of men and seeing their dastardly deeds, we preyed on the guilty and the corrupt. Tucker had to assimilate our ways or die. The others didn't know I supported his habit, our addiction. It would have to stop or they would kill him.

  Tucker's azure eyes closed in ecstasy. I knew what he felt. What he heard. Our pulses thumped in time with one another. The air tingled on his skin, caressing it like a wayward lover. The night had a life of its own. It hummed, revealing its haunting melody only to those who had the sense to discern the tune. Tucker's body was taut like a guitar string ready to snap at the. The tug on my body had to stop. I wrenched my wrist away from him. Once his mouth was free of my flesh, my heart returned to its slow, almost nonexistent rhythm. The wound healed itself over. The ache of hunger burned in my veins since Tucker had drained me of the blood I'd already taken. I could wait to feed. The luster of the night had dulled now, but I was satisfied Tucker was alive. He'd originally been a kill, a feed to calm the flaming hunger. I had stared into his soul and saw the guilt buried there. That had been enough to know he was mine. However, it hadn't gone the way I planned. I bit him. Then he bit my shoulder thinking I enjoyed roughness. I hadn't noticed, because I was lost to the joining of our hearts, until I felt him pulling. By the time I pushed him away, it was too late and he was my responsibility.

  The others, my family, my traveling companions, were forced to accept him. They gave Tucker a week. It'd been five days. He had two more nights to make a kill. If he did, he would be one of the brood. If he didn't, they'd stake him out in the sun until his skin split and the blood in his body boiled away. I shook my head. I would not allow that to happen to Tucker.

  He'd become a beautiful specimen. The moon highlighted his hair, turning it into burnished gold. His skin was blemish free. He'd been remade to perfection by the hand of God. His eyes were like opals, changing colors in the light. They were distinctive even among my kind. They captured his prey and had me enthralled now. I don't think he knew it yet, but even though I had bitten him, I was falling for him hard.

  "Let's enjoy the night, Tabby."

  My nickname. Not because of my name, but because my hair was streaked orange and white like a tabby cat. I sighed and watched Tucker. He stood before me, awaiting my decision. Something shifted in his face. Those azure eyes tinged yellow. His smile widened showing me a maw of sharpened teeth. We couldn't shape-shift. It was an old wives’ tale, yet Tucker's body began to contort. The snapping and popping of bones alerted me to his changing. What was happening to him was not possible.

  "Anything is possible,” Tucker said before he completely shifted.

  Not sure what to make of this, I backed away a few steps. Had the feeding caused a mutation? Was there something in our blood? There couldn't be. Fear gripped my heart and made it thump like a battering ram. The blood ran loud in my ears. Tucker, now resembling a large wolf, advanced on me. He was the size of a small pony but had the build of a bull. I didn't understand. What had he become? In my world, there were no such things as werewolves. A wide smile, revealing rows of deadly teeth, played on his lips. I swallowed hard. I was too far away from the brood to call for help. Vampires were the top of the food chain. As far as we knew, they were myths like in Little Red Riding Hood. Now it appeared I was going to be his next meal. If he killed me, the others would still exile him. It would be a catch twenty-two, but then again, he wouldn't be a vampire anymore, either. I didn't know what he was.

  "Tucker. Don't do this. If I caused this in you, I'm sorry. So sorry. I never meant for you to be a night creature. I didn't know it until it was too late. I fought for you with the others. I've fed you, please."

  The wolf growled low in his throat. I was backed up against the wall of the alley. There was nowhere left for me to go. The hunger pounding in my veins made it impossible for me to call upon the shadows to cloak myself in them for protection. Tucker wasn't old enough to know this skill and I hadn't taught him yet. Vampires had nothing to fear, yet I was facing off with something beyond a fairy tale. I was standing against the man who I thought I knew and could love.

  "Tabby."

  Tucker's voice whispered in my head while he slowly padded forward. It was calm, held no hint that he was going to kill me even though his wide toothed grin said otherwise.

  "What?” I heard my name being yelled at me this time and it was from someone else. My body shivered with terror. I was a vampire. I wasn't supposed to be afraid.

  "Tabby!"

  Someone shouted my name right next to my ear. I stared at Tucker and realized it wasn't his voice. Suddenly something cold was thrown on me, and I...

  I opened my eyes. I was soaking wet and freezing. Above me holding a pitcher of water was Kasandra, my roommate.

  "What the hell was that for?” I yelled. I wiped some of the droplets out of my eyes.

  "Sorry, Tabby, but you were screaming in your sleep. You know, having one of your nightmares again.” The look on her face was one of annoyance. I looked at her clothes and realized she was already dressed for work.

  "Shit. What time is it?” I threw the wet sheets from my body.

  Kasandra checked her watch. “It's almost nine. You'll be late if you don't get your ass out of bed. I thought you were done with your nightmares. Have you talked to your professor about them again?"

  I shook my head and pulled a brush through my orange and white hair. It didn't do any good. My hair had a personality of its own. So many people thought I dyed it that way to make it streaked, but somehow, my hair was naturally this color. I had been made fun of a lot growing up, but once I hit high school, I had become one of the most popular girls in the school. Not that it mattered. I was more into studying than caring that I had a pretty face, a body a model would die for, and all the right curves in all the right places. I was smart, so people looked up to me. I dated one guy through my junior and senior year and made it perfectly
clear I wasn't about to jump into the backseat of his car because he was the captain of the basketball team. I had been named prom queen and graduated near the top of my class. I studied hard, loved mythology, went to school to study ancient cultures, and was now doing my master's thesis on dreaming, how certain dreams were interpreted by different cultures, and which symbols were the same and which were different. I had been lucky enough to get a great teacher who turned my interest in my paper a little deeper.

  "Tabby, did you hear anything I said?"

  "Nope. I was thinking about my dream. And no, I haven't talked to Professor Amonde about my nightmares. I really didn't think he wanted to hear it."

  Kasandra chewed on her lip and checked her watch again. My roommate was a worrywart and didn't like the fact that I wasn't talking to someone about my dreams. She assumed that my nightmares were some repressed shit about my father molesting me when I was a child and that I was finally remembering the incidents in my dreams. My roommate was so Freudian. My father had not molested me, but he had walked out on my mother and me when I was only two. I didn't have any memory of him.

  "So are you going to class or not? You're going to be late!"

  I rolled my eyes. “I heard you the first time, K. If you don't hurry up you'll be late for work.” I felt a smile tugging on my lips. She cursed under her breath and walked out of the room. Kasandra hated to be late. She was the kind of person who demanded everyone be on time. If there was a party, she invited everyone two hours early to be sure they would get there on time. Me, on the other hand, I prided myself at always being fifteen minutes fashionably late.

  I groaned and threw the wet blanket from the bed. Already I was shivering from the pitcher of water she had thrown on me. Today, I had one class and then I had to study in the library. The first draft of my paper was due in a month, and I still had only written about half of it. Then again, my thesis depended on my research. Professor Amonde had taken an interest in my approach to dreaming. He had steered me away from writing about how different cultures saw dreams to what entities might be walking through those dreams. These vampires, werewolves, daemons and anything else that went bump in the night were actually the archetypes that people had created.

  I glanced at the clock. I was going to be late. It didn't matter how fast I took a shower, threw on sweats, and pulled my hair back into a ponytail. I didn't have to work tonight. I was going to pull an all-nighter studying for my test and then going over some more research. I had gotten into the subject. Professor Amonde had been the first one to get me thinking along a different path. From there, I had taken it deeper, delving more into the unconscious. Was there any credence behind the idea that the unconscious actually held the pathway to a different realm where dreams and reality blended? It was a little bizarre, but I kept it to a minimum in the paper so he wouldn't think I was a crackpot.

  Finally, I forced myself out of bed. I padded into the bathroom and stared in the mirror. My hair was still a wild, untamed beast, even if I brushed it a million times. The white and orange strands stuck out at odd angels and tickled the inside of my ear. Dull brown eyes with dark circles under them stared back at me. I might have gotten a whole night's sleep, but my body didn't feel like it. I felt drained. Maybe it was a throwback from my dream. I ran the tap and splashed some cold water over my face to get in gear.

  When I opened my eyes again, I glimpsed my right wrist. The same one that Tucker had drunk from in my dream. Horror ran cold through my veins. On my wrist was a perfect impression of teeth. A crescent-shaped wound of human teeth. The same one from my dream. As a vampire in my dream, I didn't have any fangs. I had just had regular teeth. I ran my finger over the imprint. It was tender to the touch, but the indentation could have been an old scar. I began shaking.

  This is ridiculous. This is all something that I brought back from my unconscious. It's not real. Okay, this is way too weird. It was a dream. It was only a dream. The light flickered above the bathroom sink. I felt a cold breeze on the back of my neck. My eyes darted over to the shade covering the small window. It wasn't moving. The light stuttered again. Something was in the bathroom with me. There was something watching me. God. I'm losing my mind.

  "Tabitha."

  I jumped and spun around. There was no one behind me. I listened hard. There were no footsteps, and the warped floorboards of the apartment were eerily silent of their normal creaking. There wasn't even a whisper of a breeze. Something was going on here. There could have been another person standing next to me, his or her body heat rubbing against mine.

  "Who's there?"

  I heard laughter purring next to my ear. A puff of breath. I spun around again. The light flickered and finally went dark this time. The bathroom door slammed shut of its own accord and shook on its hinges. I was plunged into complete blackness. Suddenly, hands wrapped around my waist. I couldn't move. I gripped the countertop hard and when I tried to pull away, my body was frozen. The hands were also attached to arms. I could feel the bend of elbows on the sides of my stomach and the hardness of a torso pushing against my back. One of the hands left my waist and moved the hair from the side of my neck. Terror held me in its grasp. There was someone in the house. The person was going to rape me or kill me.

  "W-what do yo-ou want?” I blurted out.

  "Shh, Tabby. I won't hurt you.” The voice in my ear was the same one from my dream. It was smooth, and sweet, like melted caramel His fingers twirled around my hair. I felt the tip of his nose ride the side of my neck as he inhaled. “You smell so much better than you do you in your dreams."

  "T-Tucker?"

  He chuckled low in his throat. He ran his fingers through my hair. I was beginning to relax in this stranger's arms. Playing with my hair was one of my downfalls. His other hand rested lightly on my stomach. The warmth from his palm seared through the thin fabric of my T-shit and warmed my belly.

  "Yes, Tabby. It's me."

  "But how is it possible? You've been in my dreams. Dreams and reality can't cross.” I wanted to see his face. I needed to know if he was there or if this was all something from my unconscious mind that I had somehow carried over into my waking life. Or maybe I was still. If that were the case, I hated dreams like this. I never wanted to be stuck in a dream thinking I was awake, and the next minute, poof, I was awake.

  "Dreams are only gossamer and can be spun however I wish them to be. Just like reality.” The hand teasing my hair slipped down over my face ever so gently. The lines of his palm pressed against my flesh almost stamping themselves on my cheek. His hands were big, with long fingers. The nails weren't sharp as they trailed down over my skin. At that moment, I smelled him. The scent of earth and musk clung to him. It made me lightheaded. I felt a pressure between my eyes, like a headache beginning, then a fog descended over me and I fell back against Tucker's body.

  "What are you doing to me?” He still hadn't answered my earlier question but at the moment I really didn't care. I was content to just be in his arms.

  "Only introducing myself properly. I've watched you dream these past couple of months. Participated in them even, but now I wanted to see you for myself. Your fear of me is unwarranted. I would never do anything you didn't want me to. But there are so many things that I want to do to you. Will you let me?"

  I swallowed. The fog was still in my thoughts, weaving around my brain, trying to get into the smallest crevices and learn everything about me. I released my hold on the bathroom counter and let him support my weight. What did he want to do to me? Would I let him? My head fell back against his shoulder. No matter how much I tried squinting in the darkness, trying to see even an outline of him, there was nothing except the onyx of shadows. I couldn't even see myself in the mirror. As my head rested on his chest, I heard the double beat of his heart. Two beats to my one. He drew in long breaths. My weight didn't seem to matter to him.

  The hand on my cheek swept lower as if memorizing the curve of my neck. His fingers tickled the hollow at the base of my throat
tracing my collarbone. They were so soft and light butterfly caresses against my flesh. Whoever Tucker was, whatever ever he was, he was stroking my desire. It had been a long time since I had been with a guy. I had been so wrapped up in studying, working, and just living that it seemed my body had forgotten what it was like to have a good lay. And what he was doing to me was eating away at my self-control.

  "Will you, Tabby?"

  I heard the wanting in his voice, felt it against my back. His dick was hard, and but he wanted to claim me. I drew in a ragged breath trying to think through the haze. To make sense of all of this. “I—"

  "Tab, you in there?” Kasandra's voice ripped through the fog in my mind and brought me back to reality. I opened my mouth to say something to her, but the door burst open. Suddenly, the room returned to its normal appearance. The light above the sink was back on. I lost my balance, whacked my head on the side of the counter, and landed on my butt on the cold tile floor.

  Kasandra scrambled down next to me, trying to help me up. I looked up at her and my hand went to my head. The pain was so severe I wasn't sure if I had a concussion or not, but I knew I was going to have one hell of an egg. Glancing around, Tucker was nowhere in sight. Weird.

  "Oh God, Tabby, are you all right?” She offered me her hand. I took it and got up slowly. “How many fingers am I holding up?” Kasandra asked once I was on my feet.

  I was dizzy, and my feet a little spongy, but I was doing okay. She was waving her hand in front of my face. I knocked it away. “I'm fine, Kasandra. I have to get ready for class. What did you want anyway?” I pushed past her and started walking down the hall toward my room, trailing one hand along the wall to steady myself. Her high heels clacked on the wood floor as she followed me.

  "Class? You're in no shape to go to class. You have to go to the hospital."

  "I'm not going to the emergency room. I'm fine!” I grumbled, entering my room. I tossed aside a pair of unwashed jeans looking for a clean pair. I went halfway through the pile and realized all of them were dirty. I brought one to my nose and sniffed. It didn't smell bad. These would be okay. I started to slip them on and almost fell. Okay, so my balance was a little off. I flopped down on the bed and when I did, my head spun. Okay, so going to class was out, but I was not going to the doctors.