‘It won’t be bad. I promise you’ll enjoy it. We’ll make our meetings after hours and I’ll give you the contract.’
His fingers wound around the back of her neck as he leaned down to kiss her. He stepped in so close that his chest rubbed against her breasts. The bulge in his pants was painfully obvious as he pressed it on her thigh. Heat erupted through her. Her skin tingled with a pricking energy needing to burst out and away. Just like in her dream. ‘How dare you!’
She placed her hands on his chest, wanting him away from her with every ounce of her will. Energy ruptured from the palms of her hands, flames of heat crackling with the force. She pushed enough to get him away from her, releasing the pent up energy as she shoved him. Only he didn’t just step back, he was lifted from his feet, propelled backwards with the force of her shove, sending him crashing into the wall.
He hit with a sickening thud and a crackle of plaster. He sagged on bended knees, trying his best to stand. His movement were uncoordinated and slow. He clutched at the wall, looking about him, eyes blank and glazed.
Darcy gasped, stepping over to him. ‘Oh my God. Are you okay? I didn’t mean to push you so hard. I mean, I didn’t think I could. I don’t know what happened. Are you hurt? Can you stand?’
He brushed her aside, sliding away and staggering over to his desk, breathing heavily.
‘Adam? Are you alright? Maybe I should call in Jennifer.’
‘No! No. I’m alright. You … you have the contract. If you could send me an invoice for your designs, I’ll make sure they get paid right away.’
Darcy blinked, a frown pulled her brow, ‘I thought …’
‘I know what I said. I was wrong. I shouldn’t have tried that on. You have the contract. Can you just… go now. Please. You can deal with my P.A. for the rest of the business.’
‘I… I’m so sorry.’
‘Just go.’ He slumped in his chair, staring blindly at the desktop.
Darcy gathered up her portfolio, stumbling from the office. Thankfully the foyer was empty. One handed, she pushed the door open and staggered onto the street, gasping in the fresh air like it was life-support. Cars headlights whizzed past, their lights too harsh and bright. Frigid breeze from the passing cars whirled around her legs like fingers of frost.
She started to shake. Uncontrollably. Not only from the freezing temperature outside, but from shock of what happened inside. Her teeth chattered so much she had to clamp her jaw shut to stop the hammering.
Stupid. Stupid. So stupid. Not only had she nearly fallen for the oldest kind of ‘business proposal’ by coming to a late meeting, but how on earth had she been able to push him away with such force. She wasn’t a frail woman by any means, but neither did she have the strength to shove a man double her weight off his feet and into a wall. It didn’t make any sense. She’d acted with super-human strength. Strength she had never possessed in her life.
What was worse was that she had hurt him. Being smashed into a wall had to have caused him damage — broken bones, bruising at the least. Despite him being a low-life of the top-most order, she’d never hurt anyone or anything, even if it meant being trodden on herself. She wasn’t built that way.
But this had happened naturally. As naturally as thinking. She’d wanted Adam away from her, and as though by magic it had happened. Her body had seemed to fill with the energy she required to push him away. Just like her dream. She’d felt the same building force inside her last night. Her body had heated and was filled with a living, pulsing energy lying inside her, waiting for her to use it.
Only in her dream, before she could use it the man with the flaming sword had come to stop her. This time though, she’d actually used it. He hadn’t come to stop it. But he was a dream. There’s no way he could actually be there in reality. But she’d used the energy. She’d hurt someone. And this was definitely not a dream.
She stumbled around the corner of the building. Her little car glinted in the silver light of the moon at the far end of the car park. All she had to do was step through the shadows and get into her car and drive the hell away. She’d never have to come back here again. She definitely didn’t need to see Adam again. Just get to the car and get away. Get home and she could think properly. Reason it all out.
Because there had to be a reason. She hadn’t all of a sudden developed super-powers. Adam was a scum-bag, that was for sure, but the rest of it would have a logical reason as to why it happened. She’d heard of people developing super-human strength in times of need. People lifting heavy objects off people trapped in desperate situations, performing acts of strength they couldn’t achieve under normal conditions. That could have happened to her.
It all seemed so reasonable. So logical. She almost laughed. Almost. She wiped a shaking hand over her brow. It came away damp. She clutched the building for support, her legs feeling so stiff she had to will them to walk.
The shadows swallowed her, so thick they felt as though they were weighted. The damp clung to her, the moisture seeping in through her clothes. Her skin prickled in that aware way when eyes were watching. Lots of eyes.
She scooped the keys from her handbag, keeping a watchful gaze around her. The metal keys jingled at the bottom of her bag. A scrape behind her. The sound of a shoe scuffing on concrete. Darcy whirled about. Nothing. Just black shadows. Her imagination.
Her hand trembled so hard she couldn’t slot the key into the lock. Another scrape. Then a snort. The sound of a breath being pushed out of a snout. Just as in her dream.
She gasped. Twin pinpricks of red glinted in the shadows. To her right, another set of red blinked through the shadows. A fetid smell of decomposing flesh singed the air, stinging her nostrils. The keys slipped from her numb fingers. The portfolio followed, plastic sheets sliding across the rough tarmac. She fell to her knees, hands blindly tapping the ground in search of the keys.
The smell was overpowering. Another scrape. This time just to her right. She glanced over her shoulder. Huge red orbs blinked down at her. She glimpsed a huge black body, outlined by a sliver of moonlight. Don’t worry about the keys. Just run. Run!
Her shoes slipped on the concrete and before she could stagger to her feet, something smashed into her arm and she flew through the air. Disoriented, she blinked through the multitude of stars in her eyes. Her arm was on fire. She gripped it with her hand and felt a sticky, wet warmth. Blood. Her blood. The full reality of her situation gripped her. If she didn’t get to her feet and run, she’d never get out of here.
She pushed off the ground, staggering to her feet. The world spun in a blur of moonlight and shadows. Red orbs floated around her. She wanted them gone. Heat gathered in the pit of her stomach, tingling through her core. The energy. She felt it pulsing inside her. Waiting. She held out her hands towards a pair of red eyes.
‘Sephya! No!’
Before she could stop herself, red and yellow licks of electricity charged out from the palms of her hands. She glimpsed a bulky shape of massive muscled shoulders, longs arms, and a head without a nose before it was engulfed by her flames.
Sharp pain seared through her skin as claws ripped along her back. Blinding agony cracked through her head as her forehead crunched on the concrete. Her world blurred. She managed to roll to her back, working limbs that didn’t want to move. Red and yellow flames rolled through the air, colliding with the mammoth black monsters.
A cry rent the air. A squeal that set the hairs on her arms up straight before she saw a black monster fly backwards and crash into the brick wall of the building. There was a face above her. Concerned blue eyes stared down at her. Familiar eyes. Arms embraced her, one beneath her shoulders, and the other around her waist. Protecting.
‘You’re him,’ she murmured.
‘I didn’t want it to come to this! Not this time!’
He was angry! With her. Just like in her dream. Maybe she just hadn’t woken up from her original dream. That would be the most logical su
ggestion to this whole episode. Well, if her dream man was angry with her, she could be angry back at him.
She tried to push his arms away, but they were as immovable as granite. ‘Get your hands off me. I can make you, you know.’
A hint of humour lit his eyes. Just for a moment then they became serious again. Sad. ‘There’s too many of them. I can’t fight them off. You’ll have to come with me. I’m sorry, Sephya. I couldn’t protect you this time.’
‘But this is just a dream,’ she whispered.
Flames blazed behind his shoulders, stretching behind him, licking the blackness away with swirls of red, yellows, and oranges. Perfect wings of fire. But they didn’t burn her. He stood moulding her to his chest as though she weighed nothing.
She couldn’t help the moan of pain that escaped her lips. Red hot streaks ripped into her. Her back felt as though it were on fire, ripping through her skin deep into her muscles.
‘It’s the poison.’
She focused on his face. His beautiful face. In a way it helped ease her pain. Again, there was the feeling of familiarity. That she knew this man with the wings of blazing fire. The man from her dreams.
A waft of something putrid burnt her nose. Red eyes, too numerous to count surrounded them. In the light from the flames she saw each monster clearly. They were like the ones from her dreams, only these were much, much smaller. Still, their matt-black bodies were powerful machines of bulky muscle, massive shoulders, short and stumpy bodies. At the ends of their over-extended forearms were claws as big as her hand. They swayed back and forth, waiting to pounce, red eyes trained right on them.
‘We have to go.’
The flames behind his back swung downwards. His arms embraced her, as powerful as steel. They lifted from the ground, shooting into the air as straight and as fast as an arrow. Soon, the street lights below became smaller and indistinguishable. The circle of black monsters became a pin-point. Before she could think, they were lost in the darkness of the night sky.
‘Strange… dream,’ she whispered, giving way to the blackness that edged her vision. Sad eyes captured her before oblivion conquered.
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