Dreamer (14 page)

She found her booth and set the briefcase down, checking to
make sure everything she requested was there. Devon moved into the small space
behind her and grabbed her by her shoulders, turning her so she faced him.
Standing this close to him was doing bad, bad things to her self-control and
she really wished she could stop picturing his pierced nipples.

“Did I tell you how amazing you look?” he asked in a soft
voice. The silver of his faux armor gleamed in the fluorescent lights as his
hands slid down her shoulders to grab her wrists just below her custom-made
bracelets. “And this work is remarkable.”

All she could do was watch his big hands wrap around her
wrists and hold them as securely as shackles. If he had been his usual
sarcastic self, she would have known how to respond. When he was being gentle,
charming like this it was all she could do to not melt into a puddle at his
feet.

“It took me three weeks to get the symbol down right. The
inner coil is an intricate set of loops, and if they aren't balanced precisely,
it looks like a mashed-up ball of yarn.”

“Really?” he said in a deep voice and moved a fraction of a
step closer. “Everyone needs balance in their life.”

His hands slipped off her wrists, and he traced the tips of
his fingers over the back of her hand. There could have been a nuclear war
happening around them, and she wouldn't have noticed. A hint of his psychic
scent flavored the air and she had to swallow back a little moan. His aura
brushed against her, a whisper of warm silk on her soul.

“What are you doing?” she asked in a faint whisper.

“Letting you know that I have much to offer,” he said, his
voice rumbling, his teal eyes serious.

“Oh.” The lights overhead flashed on and off, letting the
vendors know that the main doors were opening. He used that brief darkness to
step back and retrieve her briefcase.

Taking it from him, she fumbled with the combination and
tried to get herself under control. He couldn't be serious. She knew how much
he had to offer, but what did she have to offer him? She was a chunky chick who
sold jewelry.

“Do you think you can manage to keep from scaring away my
customers?” she said lightly, trying to break the tense mood.

“Can I call you Kitten?” he asked in a teasing tone.

Shooting him a snide look, she curled her lip at him. “Not
unless you want to spend the rest of your life with a limp.”

“Ohhhh, feisty.” His eyes narrowed, and he glared at a trio
of teenage boys dressed in merman costumes. They scrambled over each other to
move farther away from her booth.

“Stop that!” She spun, and her tail knocked some rings to
the floor.

Bending to help her pick them up, he caught her chin in his
hand. “Let me call you Kitten.”

“No.” She started to pull away, and his psychic scent washed
over her. Warm, liquid desire and heat pulled her nipples to hard points. Oh,
this was so unfair.

“Please,” he murmured and stroked his finger down the pulse
of her neck. When he reached the collar, his breath came out in a soft hiss.
Without breaking eye contact, he hooked his finger beneath her collar and
gently tugged her closer to him. The jewelry lay forgotten at their feet.

“Promise you won't scare any more people away?”

His full lips curved into a soft smile. She would bet every
penny she had that he would be amazing to kiss, all that strength and
domination held in check as he tasted her.

“What are you thinking about, Kitten?” he asked softly and
tugged her closer still. Her lips parted of their own accord, and her heart
hammered in her chest. So close. His lips were a breath away.

“Mom!” a girl shouted from the other side of the table.
“Mom! Look! She has Princess Polly's necklace!”

Shan jerked away from Devon and gathered the scattered rings
with shaking hands.

For the next half-hour, Shan dealt with the steady stream of
customers to her booth. Devon proved surprisingly helpful, deferring to her
when a question about a piece of jewelry came up that he couldn't answer and
charming women into buying more than they intended.

“The green of those gemstones make your eyes sparkle.” He
smiled at an older woman dressed as Glenda the Good Witch from the
Wizard of Oz
.

“You think so?” the older woman said in a breathy voice. Her
sparkly fairy wings trembled as he turned up the charm even more.

“Of course. It brings out the lovely blue tones.” He held up
a mirror for her, showcasing the spun gold and jade necklace. It was actually
one of Shan's favorite pieces and cost a fortune. If she sold it, she would be
able to add a guest bathroom. It would be nice to have her privacy. She was
territorial about her personal space and considered it sacred.

Shan made herself busy rearranging the display of wrist
cuffs, trying not to crowd Devon as he worked his magic. If he sold that
necklace, she would treat him to a massage afterward.
Oh, yes, wouldn't that be nice?
Her libido purred
. Devon, naked and oiled, beneath her...all
that muscle slick and sliding beneath her body.

Devon took a deep breath, and his voice dropped an octave.
“So you'll take it?”

“Yes, oh yes.” The older woman sighed and fumbled in her
sparkly silk purse.

While the woman dug for her credit card, Devon turned to
look at Shan. His teal eyes darkened, and he whispered, “Shield.”

Blushing, Shan tried to strengthen her shields in a hurry.
Gods, he must think she had no self-control. Struggling to focus on her
business, she gave the woman a bright smile. “Let me get you a box for that.”

“Oh, no need.” The woman smiled at Devon. “I'd like to wear
it.”

Holding back her laughter became an effort as Devon beamed
at the woman, and the older woman let out a trembling sigh. After paying for
the purchase, the woman left with a sad look over her shoulder and melted into
the crowd.

“If she has a heart attack, I'm blaming you.” Shan snickered
and happily added the receipt to her growing pile.

“What are you talking about?” Devon turned that same
charming smile on her, and her knees went weak. Really, it should be illegal to
be this good-looking.

“You know—”

Malik's scent hit her in a cool wave before his voice
stroked over her. “Shan, what a pleasant surprise.”

Devon's eyes narrowed to slits, and she quickly stepped in
front of him. She was not going to get kicked out of here because of these two
fighting. When she caught sight of Malik, her breath went out in a soft gasp.

“Wow,” she said softly. “Nice...umm…outfit. What are you?”

Malik preened beneath her attention, and there was a whole
lot to show off. He wore what looked like a series of leather straps with a
kilt made of brown leather. A large, straight sword was strapped around his
narrow waist, and brown leather boots covered his feet. The straps accentuated
his bare torso beneath, giving a peek-a-boo show of muscled flesh.

“Conan.” He grinned, and his topaz brown eyes grew warm.
“And what delicious creature are you supposed to be?”

“Kitty Noir.”

Devon shifted behind her back. “What the hell are you doing
here, Malik?”

“Why, enjoying the convention. This place is really cool.
You'd never believe some of the stuff they sell here.” Malik's white teeth
gleamed in the overhead lighting. Behind him, groups of convention-goers slowed
to stare at the two men. Shan could hardly blame them. Together they offered
enough hot male flesh to melt any woman's panties right off her body. Speaking
of melting, she made a mental note to strengthen her shields.

“Great. You're scaring away her customers. Leave.”

Malik ignored him and picked up one of her cuff bracelets.
“This really is wonderful work. Do you do custom pieces?”

Moving over to the side of the table to put as much space as
possible between Malik and Devon, she took the cuff from Malik. “Of course.”

He reclaimed the cuff again, sliding his fingers over hers.
While the sensation was pleasant, it didn't have the same effect on her that
Devon's touch did. Even now, she could feel him behind them, warming her back
like the sun.

“I'd love to see what kind of collars you could make.”

“Collars?” she asked faintly. He couldn't be talking about
the kind of collars she was thinking of.

“Yes.” He lowered his head a fraction and looked up at her
through his dark lashes. “A slave collar.”

“Um…do you have a design in mind?” Her heart hammered in her
chest as Devon pressed against her back, his fingers tracing over her neck and
resting lightly on her banging pulse.

“My kitten already has a collar,” he said with a warning
growl in his voice. The hard metal of his costume pressed against her, but the
simple touch of his fingers on her skin made her knees weak.

“Excuse me!” A loud and nasally voice cut through whatever
Malik was going to say.

Swallowing hard, she stepped away from Devon and took a
shuddering breath. Her nipples were hard and aching, and her panties were
soaked with her desire. She was wet enough that Devon could slide in to the
hilt.

Blushing furiously, she kept her gaze on the ground and
skirted around Devon. At the other end of the table, a trio of two gawky
teenage boys dressed like wizards and a sallow girl with long pink hair held up
one of her rings. Thankful for the distraction, Shan tried to ignore the warmth
that spread through her soul as Devon's words about her being his kitten rolled
through her mind.

“How much for this ring?” the boy with the bad patch of acne
and navy blue hair asked. His friend was dressed in a silvery wizard’s robe
with a rather inventive lighting scheme using Christmas lights. The girl barely
moved, staring off into the distance. Something about her bugged Shan. She
couldn't put her finger on it, but something felt off.

“Forty dollars,” Shan replied. The ring was one of her
signature silver rose pieces and held a small garnet in the center.

Blue-hair boy's shoulder sagged. “Uh, do you have anything
for twenty?” He darted a glance at pink-haired girl, and his face turned red.

Guessing who the recipient of the jewelry would be, Shan bit
the inside of her cheek to keep from smiling. “For a guy or a girl?”

Wizard boy snickered, but the pink-haired girl remained
staring off into the distance. Not at all the reaction she would have expected
from the object of a crush.

“Girl,” blue-haired boy said softly.

“Well, let's ask your friend what she likes. She's a girl.
I'm sure she can help us.”

“Okay,” blue-haired boy squeaked out.

Turning expectantly to the girl, Shan smiled and waited. The
smile fell from her lips as the girl continued to stare off into space. Dark
circles framed her brown eyes, and her lips moved slightly as though she was
talking. A button on her purple velvet shirt was missing, and her fingernails
were chewed to nubs.

“Lara?” The wizard boy tugged at her hand.

Still no response, just the stare off into space.

“Miss?” Shan said again. Devon turned from talking to Malik
and gave her a puzzled look. Shan reached out to touch the girl on the
shoulder.

“No!” Devon yelled a second before the girl grabbed her hand
in a lightning-quick gesture.

Those dark brown eyes turned to her from beneath pink-dyed
eyebrows. “Help me.”

Time slowed, and Shan flinched away from the sheer terror of
her gaze. It was as if the girl was screaming on the inside, but none of them
were able to hear. She said the only thing she could. “Okay.”

Someone grabbed her around the waist and tried to pull her
away from the girl, but their hands were locked together by some invisible
bond. Unconsciousness dragged her down into a deep sleep, and the last thing
she saw were Devon's lips moving as he called her name.

A putrid stink filled her nose, feces and decay mixed with a
musty smell. Opening her eyes, she found herself inside a cage with a dirty
straw floor. In front of her, the pink-haired girl crouched and chewed on what
was left of her nails. The room outside of the cage looked like something out
of a dungeon scene in a bad horror movie. Gray stone walls, flickering torches,
and a rack of horrifying torture weapons.

“I'm so sorry,” the girl whispered. “You were the first
person who’s been able to see me.”

“Where are we?” Shan pushed herself up and found she was
still wearing her Kitty Noir outfit.

“In my nightmare.” The girl gave a hiccupping sob. “At
least, I think it's my nightmare. Some crazy guy with a smooshed face came to
me in my dream and brought me here.” She shivered and wrung her hands together.
“At first it wasn't so bad. I was on a beach with a couple other kids, and
there were all kinds of neat stuff to play with. But then
something...dark...came and put me here.”

“What?” Shan began to examine the bars of the cage. Thick
black steel, it was big enough to stand up and walk around in, but the bars
were far too close to squeeze out.

“Someone is using my body during the day.” She ran her hand
down her face, hard enough to draw blood if she had any nails left. “I can
almost wake up, and I'll be able to see through my eyes, see what my body is
doing. I see my family, and I know that whatever is using me wants to do horrible
things to them. I try to scream, to tell them what's going on, but the thing
using my body pushes me back down into this cage.”

“Who are they?” Shan took a deep breath, tasting the fetid
air. If she hadn't had her version of reality reshaped by becoming a
pre-Chosen, she wouldn't have been handling this as well as she was. And, right
now, handling it meant not screaming like a trapped squirrel.

The girl pulled her back to the corner of the cage and
pointed toward the stairway beyond the curve of the wall. “I don't know who
they are. They wear long black robes with cowls that hide their faces. They
only come down here at night.”

Shan snorted. “Creepy black robes? That's not very original,
is it?”

The pink-haired girl stared at her then gave a nervous, broken
giggle. “No, it isn't. Who are you?”

“My name is Shan. I think I'm supposed to get you out of
here.”

“How?” the pink-haired girl moaned. “I've tried and tried.
There is no way out.”

“Of course there is.” Shan tapped at the bars with her
fingers. “The rules are different here.”

“What?”

“Watch.” Shan removed two of the studs from her wristband.
“I'm Kitty Noir, and this is my magical wristband.”

As she said those words, she
believed
them. Her wristband was magic, and she was going to get
them out of this cage. Now she just had to get the girl to believe in her too.
She was operating totally on instinct, trying to listen to that little voice in
her mind that was always with her during her nightmares.

“But—”

“Get on the other side of the cage.” Shan pressed the two
studs to the bars and ran to the other side, pulling Pink-hair after her.
Shielding the girl with her body, she shouted, “Close your eyes.”

Hoping the girl obeyed, Shan tightened her grip as heat
melted the bars on the other side. Warmth rushed over her as if she was
standing in front of an open oven door. The air cooled again, and Shan peeked
over her shoulder. A large gap now stood where there used to be bars.

“How did you do that?” The girl gasped and wiped a dirty
hand across her face.

“I told you, I'm Kitty Noir, and this is my magical
wristband.” Shan gave her a wink. The girl stared at her and touched the fur
ears on her head. To Shan's shock, it felt as though someone was stroking her
ears.

“When you said that, your ears changed. And…and I think your
tail is real now too.”

“Holy shit,” Shan whispered and gave her tail an
experimental lash. It felt like an extension of her body, like moving an arm or
a leg. Her hearing had increased too. She could detect a faint wind blowing
somewhere in the distance and the beating of Pink-girl's heart.

“What else can Kitty Noir do?”

Flexing her feet that had become claws into the straw, Shan
said, “I can climb things now, hear and see better, and I can do magic. Because
I'm Kitty Noir.”

She leaned forward, breathing into Pink-girl's face. “Let's
go home.”

Not waiting for an answer, she leapt through the hole and
had to bite back a squeal of delight. This was amazing. Never had she felt
anything like this. She had muscles within muscles, and her sense of smell and
taste was out of this world. Too bad there was nothing to smell and taste here
but funk.

Once outside the cage, Pink-girl began to cry. “I never
thought I'd get out.”

“I know. That's why you didn't.” Shan opened her mouth and
tasted the air. There, to the left, she could smell...Devon. Wherever her body
was, that's where Devon was.

A low rumble moved through the stones. Pink-girl screamed
and jerked against her hand. “They’re coming!”

“I thought you said they only came at night!” Shan continued
to taste the air, following it along the wall until they came to a portion of
stone that looked no different than the others.

“Yeah, well, obviously they're here now.” Pink-girl crouched
against the wall. “We have to hide.”

“No, we have to get out.” Shan extended her claws and
grinned in delight. “Dig.”

Pink-haired girl wrapped her arms around herself and
shuddered. “What?”

“Dig.” Shan scraped away at the mortar, which crumbled
beneath her claws like hard cheese.

“But I don't have claws!” Pink-girl made a half-hearted
attempt on the wall. Devon's scent increased, and Shan breathed it in deep.

“I don't give a shit. Dig!” The mortar crumbled some more,
and Shan jerked the girl up next to her.

“I can't! We have to hide!” The girl struggled against her,
and Shan felt like shaking her.

Trying to be patient, Shan removed one of the remaining
studs from her wristband. “Use this.”

“What is—” The pink-haired girl's voice faded off to a sigh
of awe as the stud grew into a sharp dagger.

“I'm Kitty Noir, and that's my magic blade. Now dig!”

Fear moved across the room like a cool mist, wrapping around
her ankles and stroking up her leg. Pink-girl must have felt it too because she
began to jam her knife into the rock even faster. They didn’t waste anymore
time on conversation, instead hacking at the wall with everything they had.
Gritting her teeth, Shan dug her claws into the space around the heavy stone
and then pulled. Bright white light poured out of the spot, wavering like heat
off the pavement on a hot summer's day.

“Greg!” Pink-haired girl shouted. “I can see Greg!”

Shan had no idea who Greg was, but she could see Devon and,
behind him, Malik. “One more rock and we're out.” Trying not to become
distracted by the look of pain and fear on Devon's face, she jerked at the
rock. “Help me.”

Sobbing, Pink-girl helped her tug the final rock away.
Without thinking, Shan shoved her through the hole a moment before the fetid
scent of the room deepened. There was a loud bang that shook the walls, and
Shan crouched, preparing to jump.

Darkness filled the empty torture room, bleeding out of the
walls and floors in wisps. Unable to look away, Shan felt her mind almost
shatter under the strain of looking into the essence of nightmares.

Who
are you?
the darkness whispered in her mind.
I know you. You are….familiar
.
A
terrible scream of fury, grief, and insanity split the darkness in threads and
veins of red. Shan didn't need any more urging than that. Throwing herself into
the light, the voice of the nightmare followed her and faded.

You
are your mother's daughter.

Taking a great gasp of air, Shan hissed as she fought the
arms that held her.

“Shan!” The panic in Devon's voice made her eyes flash open.
He peered down at her. He had scratch marks running down his neck. As she
watched, they began to bleed.

“Did I do that?” she asked and tried to lift up in his arms.

Instead of answering, he ran his free hand over her face.
“Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” She reached up and touched her ears. Instead of
fuzzy points, they were their usual round skin shells. “I had a tail.”

“What?”

As her mind cleared, she became aware of the crowd around
them. “How long was I out?”

“About fifteen minutes. You and Pinky over there grabbed
hands, and we couldn't make you let go.” Malik squatted next to them, and Devon
held her tighter.

Struggling to draw a breath, Shan said, “Devon, he's not
going to snatch me away. Lighten up.” Growling out a warning, he eased his hold
enough for her to squirm upright. She caught a familiar flash of pink from
behind Devon's broad back. “Let me go.” She could feel the reluctance in his
every move. Searching his face, she realized how upset he was. “Hey, I'm okay.
After this, we'll have some ice cream and a massage. My treat.”

Malik snickered from behind them, but Devon's shoulders
relaxed. “Deal.”

His hand trailed in hers as she made her way to Pink-girl,
and instead of letting go, his warm fingers wrapped around her hand. That
little action made her want to giggle, but she held that immature impulse at
bay, barely. He totally overwhelmed her, making her body so aware of him that
it was like he was the only real thing in the world. She didn’t like how much
power he had over her and tried to release his hand, but he wouldn’t let her.

“Hey.” Shan smiled at Pink-girl, now being held by Blue-boy.
“Are you...okay?” She gave Blue-boy a significant look.

“Uh, yeah.” Pink-girl flushed to a shade a few colors darker
than her hair. “Mr. Jensen said we had some major god’s power around us.”

Malik chimed in. “We couldn't separate your hands until
whatever god held you together released you both.”

“What happened to you?” Blue-boy asked and stroked a
hesitant hand over Pink-girl's forehead.

“I…” Her eyebrows, also pink, drew together as she
concentrated. “I don't know. A second ago I knew, and now it's gone. I think it's
a god thing.”

“Oh. Okay.” That answer seemed to satisfy Blue-boy.

“My mom is a High Priestess of Dionysus.” She grinned up at
Blue-boy. “Greg is used to god stuff going on around me.”