“I’ve finally found you,” he sneered as his claws came forward to rake my shield. I screamed as they hit, knowing he would kill me.
I woke up, gasping in bed, with Ian’s arms around me.
“Serena, it’s ok. I’m here. You’re safe.” He rocked me while I tried to stop crying. I knew I should push him away, but I wanted to feel his arms around me. I wanted to be comforted after the nightmare. I needed someone to help me relax. “It’s ok, sweetheart. You’re with me. I’ll protect you.”
I sniffled into his shirt and tried to move closer. He wrapped his arms under my legs and pulled me onto his lap, whispering to me the whole time. I felt him kiss the top of my head and pull me even closer. I slowly relaxed against him, letting the rhythm of his heart calm me.
Once I stopped sniffling, I lifted my head and tried to stand up, but he held me.
“Not yet, sweetheart. You may feel better, but I need a few more minutes. You scared me. I couldn’t get you to wake up. You kept screaming for help.” He shuddered. “I didn’t know how to help you.”
I put my hand up to his cheek tracing the scars on his face. My breath stilled as he stared down into my eyes. Slowly, he leaned down, giving me a chance to move my head away, but I didn’t. When our lips met, I felt the connection between us strengthen. He gently kissed me, not asking for more than I was willing to give.
I tilted my head and deepened the kiss, letting my tongue find his. Ian took over, pulling my body closer. When we finally broke apart, we were breathing heavily. I couldn’t stop looking at him. He leaned in again for another kiss, and I let him, reveling in the sensations that went through my body.
No one had ever kissed me like this. Not that I had a lot of experience, but this kiss was different. It felt like I was giving him a piece of myself, and he was giving me a part of himself, too. It was amazing and terrifying at the same time. I broke away and scooted off him, even as my body begged me to stay.
“Serena, where are you going?”
“I don’t know. That was pretty intense.” I paced around the bed, my strides stiff with embarrassment. I had never thrown myself at a man like that before.
“Yes, it was. I’ve heard that physical affection between mates is different, but I didn’t really believe it until now.”
“Ian, we’ve already talked about this mate stuff. I’m not your mate. I don’t believe in fate.”
“Well, I think fate believes in you. This was meant to be, can’t you feel that?”
“Even if it was, which I doubt, I don’t want to be told by someone else who I want to be with.”
“It’s not like that, Serena. It’s about finding the perfect fit with another being.”
“Can’t we talk about something different?” I asked, uncomfortable with the topic, especially since it did feel like he was the perfect fit for me.
“Come sit with me and tell me about your dream. It sounded awful,” Ian said, changing the topic.
“I don’t think this conversation is going to be much better than the mate stuff.”
“It might help to get it out in the open.”
I sighed. “It’s always the same. It’s about the monsters. They hunt me down and trap me in an alley. Blood coats the walls, and they jump on me as soon as I fall, trying to kill me.”
“How long have you had this dream?” Ian asked.
“For as long as I can remember. It usually goes away for a while after I move somewhere new, but eventually, it comes back.”
I thought I saw a flash of concern in Ian’s eyes before his expression went back to patient and understanding. “Do the monsters ever hurt you?”
“Not yet, but this was the closest they’ve come. The regular monsters can’t get past some sort of shield around me, but this time there was a bigger monster, and his claws slashed right through it in a couple of swipes. One more swipe and he would have had me, but I woke up.”
Ian reached out and grabbed my arms, pulling me over to him. “I think you need some sleep. I’m going to discuss this with a contact of mine tomorrow. She may be able to stop the dreams.”
“How?”
“She’s a dreamwalker. She can make sure you don’t have any more bad dreams.”
“If she can stop my nightmares, I would be ecstatic.”
“Let’s hope they aren’t nightmares,” Ian said. At my confused look, he explained. “Nary’s call any bad dream a nightmare, but a real nightmare is when a magical being named a maer creates a dream and uses it to feed on a being’s terror. Maers are incredibly difficult to beat.”
“I didn’t realize they were different things.”
“That’s ok. I have a feeling you’ll be learning a lot here. Come on, let’s rest.”
“Together? Don’t you have your own room?”
“I do, but how will I wake you up if you have another bad dream, and I’m not here?”
“I’m sure I’ll be fine.”
“But I won’t. I won’t get any sleep worrying about you all night.” He slowly pulled me closer until he could scoop me up and deposit me onto the bed. He crawled in next to me and put his arms around me, cradling my head against him. I laid there without resisting. I was too worn out to argue.
“Ian, how did you heal so fast?” I asked sleepily.
“Abigail is an excellent healer, and she’s a magi, so she can heal most wounds in a single session.”
“Huh,” I said as I fell asleep.
I woke up and blinked my eyes, trying to remember everything that happened the day before. I tried to roll over and stretch, but I was held down by Ian’s arm across my stomach. He mumbled something and snuggled closer to me. I stopped moving and held my breath, afraid of waking him. I needed a few minutes to think through everything. I remembered falling asleep and having a bad dream.
Ian was here when I woke up. I thought about the kiss and felt myself blushing. It couldn’t have been as good as I remembered. Maybe it was because I was so scared. I wanted to turn around and kiss Ian again to see if it still felt the same. I squirmed, not sure how I should feel about my situation.
Suddenly, Ian shifted. He kissed the back of my neck and slid his hand even lower on my stomach. I quickly tried to push his arm away. Instead, I managed to pull him even closer to me.
“Mmmm, this is the way to wake up in the morning,” he whispered into my hair, rubbing his hand across my stomach. I grabbed his hand to stop him and tried to sit up, but he used my momentum to flip me over so I was lying on top of him. “Morning, sweetheart,” he said with a sleepy smile. I couldn’t help but smile back.
“Ian, I have to get up,” I told him.
“I know. It’s going to be a long day. I want to spend a few more minutes looking at you first.” He ran his hands up my back, and one hand got tangled in my hair. He pulled my head down, gently kissing me but making sure I didn’t want to pull away. I couldn’t have pulled away even if I wanted to. I didn’t fight it as he deepened the kiss.
We continued to kiss as he rolled us over, trapping me beneath him. He broke our kiss and looked at me, waiting to see what I wanted to do. I stared at him, but before I could decide, there was a knock on the door. We both froze.
“Serena, are you up yet?” I heard Beth ask from the other side of the door.
“Oh shit,” I said, pushing Ian off me and trying to straighten up my clothes.
“Serena, you better be decent. I’m coming in.”
“You need to go,” I whispered to Ian.
“There’s nowhere to go,” he said, smiling lazily at me.
“Find somewhere. She’s going to see you.” I stopped as Beth pushed the door open.
“Ian, what are you doing in Serena’s room?” Beth huffed.
“I came to check on her last night, but she was having a bad dream, so I stayed in here to make sure she was ok.”
“Uh-huh. You both expect me to believe that’s all that was going on? I knew you liked him,” Beth beamed at me, “but I didn’t expect you to move
so fast.”
“I don’t, I mean we didn’t, nothing happened,” I stammered. “I really did have a bad dream, and Ian didn’t want to leave me alone.”
Beth’s smile vanished. “Not that nightmare again, is it?” I didn’t have to say anything, she looked at me and knew it was the same one. “After last night, I’m not surprised that you had it. It was a scary night.”
“Ian said he may know someone who can help me. That way, I never have that bad dream again.”
“Really? That would be great. So you don’t think she’s crazy?” she asked Ian. I tried to smack her, but she dodged out of the way.
“No, she’s not crazy. We’ll figure out why she has a recurring bad dream and fix it.”
Beth smiled at him. “You two need to get up. Kellan is supposed to come get Serena soon to meet the council. He said food would be sent up shortly. I spoke with him a few minutes ago when I was walking around, trying to find everything.”
“Nothing fazes you, does it? After last night, I want to crawl under the covers and hide. You’re up and about in a completely new place, trying to find friends already.” I shook my head. I admired the way Beth handled every situation.
“We can’t change what’s going on, so we might as well go with it, right?”
“I guess so,” I said.
Ian rolled out of bed and padded over to the chair where he left his shirt. He slid it on and sat on the edge of the bed to put on his shoes as Beth told us about the few rooms she had looked into. Ian walked over, gave me a kiss on the forehead, and left, telling me I would see him at the council meeting.
“What was that about, Serena?” Beth questioned me after he shut the door. “I haven’t seen you interested in any guy since you moved to town, and now you’re shacking up with one?”
“It’s not like that, Beth.” She watched me, waiting for an explanation. “I don’t know what to say. It just feels right. I can’t stop myself from wanting to be near him.”
“Do you still think it’s the drink that’s making you feel this way?”
“I don’t think so. I only had one glass, so if anything was in it, it would be out of my system by now. I don’t know why I like him so much.”
“Maybe he’s Mr. Right. I knew you would find him one day.”
I laughed. “I don’t know about Mr. Right, but there’s definitely some connection between us.”
Someone knocked on my door, and Beth answered it before I could stop her. A man waited with two trays of food. He walked into the room and set them on the table before asking if we needed anything else. Once he was sure we were fine, he left. Beth handed me a cup of coffee, and I took a minute, savoring the smell before blowing on it and taking a small sip.
Demons are real
Kellan arrived as we were finishing breakfast. He waited outside my room patiently while I threw on some clothes, and I headed down to the council meeting with him. He told me about many of the paintings and sculptures lining the hallway as we walked. I doubted I would remember any of it, but it helped calm my nerves.
We came to a set of doors with guards posted outside and stopped. Kellan nodded to them, and they opened the doors. Once inside I took the seat Kellan directed me to. I expected a large group for a council meeting but only six people were present.
Two empty chairs sat next to mine that I guessed were for Ian and Micah. Kellan took the seat in the center of the council.
No one spoke, and I started to sweat, the silence was too loud. Everybody’s eyes were on me, judging.
The door opened, and Ian and Micah walked in. They took the seats next to me, Ian on one side, and Micah on the other. Kellan stood up and nodded to everyone.
“Now that we’re all here, we can discuss yesterday’s events,” Kellan said. “First, let’s start with what happened at the club. Ian, if you would like to inform the council about what you know.”
“We aren’t sure what happened at the club. There wasn’t any warning. One minute everything was fine, and then the club was attacked. Usually, we have more warning. We were blindsided. So far, none of the teams we sent out have been able to pick up the trace of who did this.”
He explained what happened and how they had gotten out of it, but he never said that he thought whatever attacked the club was after me. When he got to the part about being attacked, my heart beat faster. I hadn’t realized how close to death Ian had come.
When he finished talking, Micah took over, telling his side of the event, but he kept me out of it too, only saying that I was at the club when it happened. Neither Ian or Micah told the council they had come to my apartment before coming here.
Eventually, Kellan asked me to explain what happened. I told him how I felt at the club and that I didn’t know what was coming after us. I didn’t go into any further detail about what happened after we left the club because it was none of their business, and if Ian and Micah were keeping it a secret there must be a reason.
“How did your human friend Beth find out that we’re magi?” Kellan asked.
“I’m pretty sure she figured it out when we started running from a monster. I don’t think either of us believed it was magic at first. I knew something bad was coming, and Beth could tell something was wrong. Between all of us talking and the city streets cracking, I think she put the pieces together.”
“Do you think she can keep this a secret?”
“Of course,” I replied.
“Otherwise, we can have her memory wiped,” Kellan continued.
“No. She can be trusted.” I wasn’t going to let them wipe Beth’s memory.
“I know it sounds extreme to you, but we try not to let nary’s know about us. They can be a bit unpredictable. It’s better for us to stay hidden.”
“I understand,” I said, trying to stay calm, “but don’t worry, Beth won’t tell anyone. She’s my best friend. She would never do anything to hurt me.” Kellan seemed to accept that and thankfully moved on.
“We’ll have to do a lot more digging to figure out what happened at the club,” Kellan said, speaking to the council.
“What about this girl? What are we going to do with her?” one of the male council members asked, pointing at me.
“She’ll be staying to train with us,” Kellan said.
“Do you think that’s a good idea?” an older woman on the council asked. “You told us she knows nothing. How will she be of any help to us? It would be better to let her leave.”
“What if it comes back?” Kellan asked. “She won’t be able to defend herself if our best fighters couldn’t win.”
“It isn’t our responsibility,” the first councilman said.
Ian jumped up from his seat. “If she leaves, then so do I. I’m not going to let her get hurt. It’s our responsibility to protect everyone. Not only the people inside these walls.”
“It’s not your choice,” the man said, raising his voice.
“It’s not your choice either,” Ian snarled.
“Calm down,” Kellen interrupted them. “Serena is staying with us.”
“This is ridiculous,” the councilman said. “It will be a waste of our resources.”
“Don’t worry,” Kellen said. “Ian is going to help train her, and I’m sure he’ll take full responsibility for her. Right, Ian?”
“Yes, I would be happy to.”
“He’s one of our best guardians. How is he going to protect us if he’s training some stupid girl?”
Kellen put his hand up before Ian could respond. “I’ve heard enough from you about this matter, John. The girl is staying, and she’ll be trained. Ian is correct. It’s a guardian’s job to protect everyone. You forget what we’re fighting for. If you continue to argue, I’ll have to recommend a change in your job within The Guardianship. As a member of this council, you’re supposed to care for every life, not only your own. Now, this meeting is dismissed.”
I watched as everyone around the table shifted. Most members looked pleased to see John get put
in his place. The only member who looked upset was the woman who agreed with John at first. She was glaring at me and didn’t even notice when the rest of the members started to get up from their chairs until John grabbed her arm, and they left the council room.
Only Kellan remained behind. He waited until everyone was out of the room before getting up from his chair and walking over to us.
“Come with me, we need to speak somewhere private.” He gestured to Ian and me. “Micah, please look after Beth until we return. She may get into trouble on her own.”
Micah left to go find Beth. I watched his retreating back, hoping he would keep her safe. The way Councilman John acted worried me. If we weren’t wanted here, we would leave. We only came because Ian made us.
I followed Ian and Kellan through the main building and out the back. We walked past an area with a lot of people fighting. I tensed, ready to run until I noticed everyone was calm. I looked closer and realized they were training.
Some were using swords, while others used daggers. One girl even had throwing stars. No one appeared to be worried about getting hurt. As we walked past the girl with the throwing stars, she locked eyes with me, glaring, until I broke eye contact.
Kellan led us farther away from the main building, through the compound, and down a path into the woods. I was watching Kellan when he disappeared into thin air. I stopped and let out a small scream.
“What the hell?” I asked, moving backward.
Kellan’s whole body came into view. “I’m sorry. I forgot you don’t know anything about this world.” He chuckled. “That must have been quite a sight for you. This is a portal to Maglearos. It’s where my home is when I’m not in the human realm. It’s the safest place for us to talk. We’ll only have a few minutes walk once we cross over.”
I looked at him hesitantly. “Will it hurt?”
“No. You may feel a slight tingling, though.”
“Why?”
“It depends on how much power you have. The more magic you have, the stronger the sensation. It’s like a magical security gate. The more powerful a person is, the more it checks you out to make sure you’re allowed in.”
Demon Hunted Page 5
