Amber Flame (The Flame Series Book 4) (25 page)

She left her bed and went into the well-shuttered living room. It was late in the afternoon, which meant she’d slept soundly for hours.

She reached out with her fae senses. The sound of Fergus’s howls had created a physical ache in her body, something so deep she wondered if she would ever be free of it.

She didn’t understand what she’d heard or why she was feeling this way or even what to do about it.

Except for one thing, maybe the only thing that would be of any help right now.

She lay down on the couch and stretched out. She dropped quickly into her deep meditation and created her dreamglide. She focused on Fergus and found him.

He was asleep in the guest room in his compound. She could see him, covered in sweat and thrashing. He howled in his sleep as well. But because the room was soundproof there was no one to come to him and wake him up.

She couldn’t even go to him in real-time, not until the sun set.

Suddenly, Sharon was next to her.
He looks pretty upset. Wonder what he’s dreaming about.

I have no idea.

Sharon frowned.
Well, do something, would you? He’s in bad shape here.

I intend to. The problem is, it’s highly illegal, but I’m doing it anyway.

Sharon’s ghostly brows rose as she stared at Mary.
Good for you.

Mary ignored her. She still wasn’t sure why Sharon was hanging around, but right now she didn’t care. She slowly dipped the dreamglide lower and lower onto the bed. She stretched out on the bottom of the strange dream-world vehicle until she made contact with Fergus’s body. She began drifting into his mind and his dreams, without his permission. If caught doing something like this, she could be prosecuted and jailed.

She didn’t see specific images so much as a boiling cloud of smoke. She began calling to him softly.
Fergus, I‘m here. Come to me. Be with me in the dreamglide the way you were before Sydon tried to kill you.

Mary?

Yes, I’m here.
Relief flooded her. She hadn’t known what to expect, but her greatest fear was that she wouldn’t be able to reach him.

The smoke cleared and there he was, standing in front of her. She rose quickly to her feet in the dreamglide.

He looked confused as he met her gaze.
How are you here?
He asked.
Wait a minute. This is illegal.

Yep, the same way you originally came to me. I’ve broken into your dreams and now I’ve pulled you into in my dreamglide.

As he watched her, however, she felt something change within his heart. He smiled at her and she could feel the heavy steel door open wide.

“Mary,” he murmured softly. “Thank God you’re here. I need you.”

Before she could do or say anything, he crossed to her and took her in his powerful arms. The kiss that followed melted her all over again. When Fergus was in the dreamglide, the man she knew was all in, nothing held back, no steel doors, no the-pack-comes-before-all, just her and his profound affection for her, maybe even his love.

And she loved it. This was her profound reality as well, that when she was in the dreamglide, she didn’t hold anything back either. She wasn’t worried about the fact she was fae and he was an alpha wolf. All she cared about was feeling the strength of his arms around her, the feel of his muscled thighs, and the pulse of his tongue inside her mouth.

And right now, she had a glimpse of what Sharon had lost when Fergus had become alpha to the Gordion Pack.

Remembering why she’d come to him, she knew she had work to do. She drew back, though she couldn’t quite bring herself to let him go completely. Since the dreamglide was still directly above his bed, she glanced through the opaque floor to where he slept. He looked calmer now, as he should since she was with him. “Why the bad dreams, Fergus? You were howling in your sleep and you called to me.”

“I don’t want to talk about that. I just want to be with you.” He pushed her hair behind her ear. “You’re so beautiful.”

“And you’re handsome as hell, you big wolf, but why were you howling?”

He frowned slightly. “How did you know I was? This is soundproof and you live in Revel.”

“It seems odd to me as well. But your nightmare woke me up and whether you like it or not, we’re connected. So, what’s going on with you?”

He looked down as well this time, looking at himself through the floor of the dreamglide. But he kept a firm hold on her, his arms still wrapped around her. “Jesus, I’m covered in sweat.”

“You’ve calmed down. When I first arrived, you were thrashing. Something’s not right with you, Fergus. You’ve got to figure this out.”

He grew very still and she felt him draw in a deep breath. “I remember now. I was chasing you through a forest of thorns. You were in danger, but every step I took cut me up a little more. I was bleeding and in pain and knew I could never reach you because you were moving too fast and you couldn’t hear me call to you.”

“Are you sure it was me you were chasing?”

“I know it was.”

“What was I wearing?”

He met her gaze. “That’s the odd part. You wore an amber trimmed tank and black leathers.”

“Like your wolf pack. Was I injured or anything?”

“No.” he shook his head, but she could see the wheels turning. “You represented something in the dream.”

“I’d like to think I’m someone or something you care about very much. What were you thinking about when you fell asleep?

“You and the Gordion Pack. The future.”

“But what else?”

She felt his hold on her diminish and though she didn’t want to let him go she drew her hands from around his neck and took a step back.

He started to pace. “Do you remember the sniper incident while you and I were being shot at outside Warren’s compound?”

“Of course.” She repressed a shudder at the memory of Fergus almost getting killed again.

“The part of me that has new fae senses could feel something bad moving through the entire territory. You told me you felt it as well.”

“You’re right, I did.”

“That’s what I was thinking about as I drifted off, something terrible that’s here, in our world. I guess it took hold.”

“Fergus, I hate to say this, but in real-time you’re not facing up to something critical, life-threatening even, and I don’t think it’s about me.”

He looked like she’d slapped him across the face. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“Don’t you get it? Something’s going on here with you, something astounding. And I guess I think it’s the same for me, I just haven’t figured out what it is for either of us.” She shook her head slowly, then continued, “When I got home earlier, I saw all the pictures I’d left on the floor of my family room. My sister and my parents are all gone and this is Five Bridges where I’d been called to fetch a near-dead wolf from the Graveyard because a psychopath tried to kill him.” She tossed up an arm. “I don’t know what I’m saying or even what I mean. But I suspect our coming together is meant to be bigger than just oh-so-fabulous sex, don’t you think?”

His expression softened. “Well, I’m not sure. It’s been great with you, so why can’t that be enough?” He glanced around. “We could keep meeting like this, in the dreamglide, the way we used to.”

He tried to take her in his arms again, but she wouldn’t let him. Instead, she held tight to his shoulders to keep him at a distance, but she met his gaze straight on. “We were both living in denial back then. Now we each know more. You’ve walled yourself off from intimate relationships to keep your pack safe, I get that and I understand why. And I’ve … well I’m still not sure what’s going on with me. Also, you’re lying in a bed of sweat-soaked sheets. That’s why we can’t go back to our secret dreamglide sex.” She huffed a sigh that sounded hoarse and wolfish. She pulled away from him at the same time. “And I’m sensing my life is about to pivot a full one-eighty any second now.”

Fergus was scowling again, that look he’d get when he was thinking hard. “I don’t want to let you go. That’s what I know in this moment, in the dreamglide. I feel as though my life depends in every possible way on being with you. That any happiness I can ever have in Five Bridges is about my relationship with you.

“But once I leave this space, I know my real-time self will take over and my commitment to the Gordion wolves will become everything again. And I’ll have to let you go.”

Mary took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. “Fergus, you do whatever you feel you must. I’ll do the same. Be well.”

With that, she dissolved the dreamglide. She watched him reach out his hand to her and probably protested with a loud, ‘No’. But she felt the need to disengage. They were connected, yet not well enough. And each of them had to figure this out.

As she returned fully to her couch, she realized again that she hadn’t been unconscious at all. She felt the power of it as well, that she had no problem being fully aware of her surroundings in real-time while she was in the dreamglide. It was an amazing ability to have. Fergus, having been asleep when she drew him into the dream-world, had remained asleep. Otherwise, he too would have been conscious in both places.

Still lying on her back, she stared up at the dark wood beams angled at the apex of the ceiling. A French, bird-cage lighting fixture hung above her.

When she’d become an
alter
fae woman and had moved to Five Bridges, she’d created her home to be at ease as much as she could. She’d set up a veterinary practice, had kept a low profile, and assisted Officer Brannick of the Crescent Border Patrol in helping abducted women escape Revel Territory. She’d grieved the loss of her sister, but she hadn’t made any real friendships and she hadn’t dated seriously at all.

She’d lived a ghost’s life, a very small life since she’d come here. So small, she hadn’t even been willing to acknowledge to herself in real-time that she’d had an affair with Fergus for several weeks before she rescued him in the Graveyard.

She’d once been told she had enough raw fae potential that she could one day serve on the Revel Board of Sages, the central fae governing institution of her territory. But she hadn’t lifted a finger to acquire a requisite mentor or anything.

Then Roche had abducted her. Fergus and Brannick had helped her escape Roche’s prison and now she was here.

One of her cats leaped up on her stomach. She petted him all the way down his back and up his fluffy tail. He was yellow-striped and had been brought to her by one of her pet owners. He’d somehow found his way into Revel Territory from the human part of Phoenix but had been emaciated to the point of death. She’d brought him back from the dead.

She loved animals.

It seemed somehow fitting that now she loved a wolf.

But how odd to think that she was part wolf herself. She might have left Fergus early this morning, for rational reasons. She’d even planned to pick up her life once more.

Yet even the fae part of her had grown in strength since she’d connected with Fergus. He’d awakened something in her that stimulated every other part of her life, not just her desire to be with him. She loved her sensual connection to the new, partial wolf she’d become. She loved that she’d worked beside him in a true partnership and that she’d served essentially, more than once, as his bodyguard.

When the cat jumped off her lap, she rose to a sitting position then glanced around her family room. Plans began to move through her mind. She’d give up her practice and hand it over to her capable assistant who had already passed her exams. She might even give her house away as well because her instincts told her that she’d soon be leaving Revel, maybe even by nightfall.

She gave full scope to her faeness and directed all her attention to Savage Territory and to Fergus. She faced south and as if a switch had been flipped, she felt the pull of the territory.

She belonged to Savage now. She felt it in her bones.

She’d never once thought something like this would happen to her. But from the time Fergus had entered her life, extraordinary forces had been at work. She’d crossed some mystical threshold into unknown terrain but which felt right, though scary as hell.

She believed now that her fate, no matter which direction her relationship with Fergus took, had become entwined with Savage Territory.

As she focused all her fae energy south, toward Savage, her former sensation of dread began to hum. The territory became fixed in her mind and in her heart, the land of wolves, of packs, of too many shifters crammed into a small human space and bound by barbed wire and searchlights, and of evil men like Sydon.

She closed her eyes. She could feel all the packs of the land, writhing in their constraint.

She felt Sydon’s energy as well, one that fed off so much prevalent discontent. She could feel him like a virus that had already spread thickly through the veins of the territory.

It all came back to Sydon.

And her fae senses told her that the fate of the territory rested on her ability to locate him right now.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

MARY FOCUSED HARD on Sydon. The sense that events would soon move at lightning speed had settled deeply within her. She knew in her bones she couldn’t wait.

The times had come.

She brought a strong past image of Sydon into her mind. She saw him sitting on the floor of the Gordion dungeon cell where he’d been put after Fergus shot him in the leg. She could see him as he’d been in that moment, facing away from the barred cell door, very still as though in a trance.

Holding the image steady, she entered her dreamglide. At the same moment, Sydon’s current location began to take shape.

She could feel him now, in the southern part of the territory, well underground and beneath one of the Savage Strip clubs, a place called the Naked Wolf. The name made her shudder. She was pretty sure this was the same club where the female Gordion wolves had ended up.

She put her dreamglide in motion. With another thought she moved within a few feet of him, off to the side of what looked like an expensive office.

As she turned the opposite direction, she could see that Sydon’s space was at the head of a long series of adjoining rooms, each with a wide entrance and pocket doors kept open. The work areas looked formal, even elegant with wood paneling. The style seemed like a strange choice for a killer like Sydon.