Dark Ice (11 page)

Would she dream of him if she did? Or would she awaken and find him gone? He had lived in her dreams and now he was here in her reality. She couldn’t risk him disappearing. That figment of her imagination was now a powerful man wrapped around her and she wanted to keep him there. She had fallen in love with him in her dreams and it had only taken hours to fall in love with him once he entered her world. With him by her side hopefully now the nightmares would end and her man would stay a man.

Chapter Ten

The knock echoed through the quiet house and Lea awoke with a jerk. Damn it, she must have fallen asleep. With her heart in her mouth, Lea hesitated a moment before turning her head. Relief flooded her senses, Dane lay next to her, still a man. He shifted in his sleep, moving his large hand to rest against the side of her stomach.

Her heart lurched at the sight of him. Asleep he looked almost peaceful, his dark eyes closed, the lines of his face somehow softened. His perfectly formed lips parted on a soft sleepy sigh. Lea had a sudden urge to run her fingertips over their form as she remembered the feel of his lips on her skin during the night.

She heard the sound that woke her again and felt Dane’s fingers tense and flex into the soft flesh of her stomach, but he didn’t wake up. Even though he appeared peaceful, the aura of powerful danger still surrounded him. She doubted he would ever escape from it.

As gently as she could, Lea moved Dane’s hand, the dead weight of it surprising her. Dane growled softly in his sleep. She got up from the bed as another knock rent the air. Grabbing a dressing gown she hurried for the front door in the semi darkness.

The clock in the hall sat on five minutes past five and she creased her brow in sleepy confusion. Who would be at her door this early?

Lea peered through the front door’s peep hole. The street lights still illuminated her front porch, but she couldn’t see anybody.

Lea secured the safety chain and unlocked the door, opening it a fraction. The cool night air swept over her face and woke her up completely. She surveyed the empty porch and squinted at something small sitting under the jasmine vine. Straining to see, Lea tried to make out what it was, but it was too far in the shadows, concealed from the street light.

She shut the door with a soft click and took off the door chain before opening the door to step out onto the porch. The flower’s scent wafted over her as she bent down and picked up her day planner. The night air was still, but a now-familiar shiver went up her spine.

How did her organizer get out here? She carried it everywhere but during yesterday’s events she must have left it somewhere, where she couldn’t even guess, unsure when she had it last.

“You left it at the bar.”

The instant the first words interrupted the silence of the night, a strong hand reached up to cover her mouth. Her scream turned into a silent muffle. She knew the voice in an instant and pure dread twisted her stomach and made bile rise to her throat. Sebastian yanked her into him and her back hit a solid wall of muscle.

“You still stink of the bear,” he growled low in her ear. “But we will soon rectify that.”

He pushed her toward the open door and she stumbled inside. Before she could turn and shut the door on him, Sebastian was inches from her face, an evil grin distorting his handsome features.

“Pity the bear’s so far away. It could have been fun with him here to watch.” He shoved a hot calloused hand into the opening of the soft dressing gown and caressed her naked stomach. “But by the time I’m finished with you, he’ll only just be learning about your lengthy drawn out death. And I’ll be long gone.”

“That’s what you think.”

Danes menacing words sent a chill through her. She flung her head to face him. He no longer looked like the man she just made love to. His dark eyes were feral and an animalistic snarl bared his teeth. He seemed powerful and deadly. He’d thrown on his jeans, but his bare chest showed every muscle taut to breaking point.

A howl rent the air and Lea managed to pull her attention away from Dane. She baulked and stepped back, the backs of her knees hitting the edge of the sofa. A large wolf stood where Sebastian had stood only moments ago. Memories of the youth club massacre swept through her mind and she whimpered.

Dane stepped toward her and the wolf, now at her feet, snapped its teeth, thick saliva dripping from its jaws.

She felt a rush of air, hot and strong, sweep across the room. A massive white polar bear growled deep and low. The sound vibrated deep within her and she knew without a doubt it was Dane.

The wolf snarled again and she scrambled backward until her body hit the wall. Dane bounded across the room in two leaps and swiped at the wolf. It howled in pain as Dane’s gigantic claws opened up its flesh and it moved backward, tipping over the lamp table. Blood squirted across the carpet and the bear growled again.

The wolf bared its fangs and leaped at Dane, sinking both its claws and teeth deep within its thick coat into the flesh below. The grunts of pain and effort mingled together as they struggled and the stench of blood filled Lea’s nostrils, making her gag. Crimson sprayed across the room. Both the wolf and bear now covered in red. The wolf went for Dane’s throat but he reared up to his full impressive height and dislodged the wolf with a swing of his huge paw.

A yelp escaped the wolf as it hit a bookshelf, knocking it sideways before he fell to the floor and lay still. Lea held her breath, unsure whether it was dead and this horrific nightmare over. She looked at the polar bear standing on its hind legs, massive in the confines of her living room. She could see his chest heaving rapidly and she wondered if his heart beat as hard and fast as hers.

His white coat was pink in sections with blood, dark red seeping through his own wounds. He stood there a moment before going down on all fours, the weight of the move making the house tremble as knick-knacks fell from the shelves. Dane stalked over to where the wolf lay sprawled across the floor. If it was alive or dead, Lea couldn’t tell. Dane moved his head over the wolf, paused and then turned his body to shield what he was about to do from her.

Lea’s stomach twisted at the sound of bones crunching, the sound of fiercely strong jaws snapping shut against something hard. A new smell filled the air, one she vaguely remembered from the night at the club. The smell of death.

Nausea and confusion threatened her, but nothing overrode the panic and adrenaline coursing through her muscles, making them ache with tension. Her legs weakened and threatened to send her to the ground.

A wind of heat and powerful energy ripped through the room again. She looked up. Dane, the man, stood over the wolf’s body. Blood splattered across his body and soaked into his jeans. He bore the wounds of the fight, teeth marks punctured his chest. Scratches from the wolf’s claws cut across his shoulders, arms and stomach. Their dark red wounds evident against the tawny contours of his tight hard muscles.

But it was the remnants of blood smeared across his face that made bile once again rise to her throat. She reluctantly looked down at his hand that lay by his side. Blood and gore covered the back of his hand. The hand that touched her so intimately only hours ago. She instantly knew what happened. When in bear form, he leaned over the wolf and tore its throat out. Before turning to face her, he had attempted to wipe the evidence from his face.

One quick glance at the wolf, dead at Dane’s feet confirmed her thoughts. Lea’s legs finally buckled. She closed her eyes and stayed on the floor, childishly hoping this was all a dream. She’d come to look forward to her dreams, but now they were mingling with nightmares. She didn’t know what she wanted or what to believe.

She felt Dane walk toward her and she scuttled backward, unable to stop herself. Afraid, but not sure if she was afraid of him or what she had just witnessed.

“Don’t be afraid of me, Lea,” he spoke into the silence. His voice mixed with a strange combination of pleading and audacity.

“Afraid of you?” She opened her eyes and glared at him. “I’m terrified.”

Dane stepped back, anguish crossing his bloodied face before he hardened his features.

“What are you?” she whispered.

“I’m a versipellis. A shape shifter,” he answered, crossing his arms across his broad chest. The wounds on his shoulder and over his stomach ripped open, fresh blood pouring down his skin, but he showed no sign of pain, or even noticing it. Those black eyes were focused steadily on Lea.

“I’m a polar bear, rare in our world. This was a man. An evil one. One who was also a wolf,” he motioned his head toward the lifeless form on the floor, a look of disgust on his face. “This is where your were-wolf legends started. We can change form from animal to human and walk around undetected in your world.”

Lea shook her head, trying to take in the words he was saying. None of it made sense. Fear and shock fogged her brain. She couldn’t think and she couldn’t stop shaking. She wrapped her arms around herself, trying desperately to calm down.

“So what you were in our dreams is what you are in reality?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“Were the dreams real?” Now there was a pleading in her voice she couldn’t hide, she wanted desperately to understand. The psychiatrist in her needed it. The woman who loved him demanded it.

“I don’t know if our dreams were real.”

Lea swallowed and placed her head on her forearms. Dane didn’t know either, it left them both in the dark. She’d promised herself she wouldn’t let herself slip into the darkness of the unknown again. She fell deep into despair after the massacre killings and it had taken all her strength to claw her way back to the light. The dreams with Dane had been instrumental in her fight to find herself again. She wouldn’t allow herself to be swallowed up in the shadows again.

She stood up, fearful her legs wouldn’t hold her. Wobbling she stepped toward Dane. He didn’t come to her, but he unfolded his arms and kept his steel gaze on her.

“I fell in love with you in those dreams,” she said, her heart almost shattering with the effort.

Dane closed his eyes, his chest once again heaving rapidly. “I already know I love you.” He opened his eyes and she felt the familiar thrill of adrenaline mixed with fear at their intensity. “You have plagued both my dreams and waking hours since I first saw you in the club.”

“That was you. It was all real,” she whispered almost to herself.

“Yes, it’s all real.”

He said it so matter-of-factly, but her brain couldn’t conceive the notion. How could it all be real? The club, the dreams, this man. If this was the man in her dreams, the man she made love to, she loved him. Without a doubt. But did that love come with a price she was willing to pay? She looked at his blood splattered form and that of the lifeless wolf that had once been her friend’s fiancée. Was it a deadly price she would have to pay for loving this man?

She looked up and sadness creased his handsome face. Lea reached up a trembling hand and cupped his cheek. He took a sharp breath, seemingly shocked that she would even touch him after the events of tonight.

Unbidden sadness filled her heart; a hot tear escaped and tumbled down her cheek. Dane cursed and removed her fingers from his face, his large hand engulfing her small one. She felt the loss of connection with him the instant he dropped her hand.

“I can’t let you do this.” He stepped away from her and she felt his emotional barriers go up like a physical wall. “In our dreams nobody was hurt. I thought I could love you as I truly am. There was no danger from my world. But this,” he gestured to the dead wolf. “This would have killed you given another second, just because you bear my scent. Imagine the danger you would be in if others of my kind knew I was here with you.”

“You were the one who came looking for me,” she reminded him, knowing where this speech was heading and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to hear it.

“To protect you!” Dane ran a hand through his white blond hair in agitation. “It was a mistake being here with you tonight.”

“It was a mistake making love to me?” she asked as her heart cracked at his words.

Dane winced but continued on.

“A mistake I will not make again. You are better off without me in your life. Waking or otherwise.” Dane continued to hold her gaze with defiance in his own.
 

She was unsure if his eyes were glassy and wet, or if it was her own tears affecting her vision. His ebony eyes that had looked on her so tenderly only hours ago, turned dark and hard. His expression almost goading her to contradict him.

Dane finally looked away. He turned from her, bent down and picked up the wolf’s body as if it were almost weightless. He flung it across his shoulders, the huge wolf almost engulfing half his body with its size.

He walked to the door, opened it and scanned the front porch and the surrounding perimeter as he did so. Soft bluish light filled the living room. The fresh chilly air sent the acidic smell of blood wafting through the room.

Dane twisted his head and looked at her, the power radiating from him a distinct reminder of the animal he’d been moments ago. A myriad of emotion traversed his face.

His voice was as hard as his gaze as he ground out, “I don’t want you.” He turned and headed out the door. Lea wasn’t sure if she heard the final word that hit her on the slightest whisper.