Dreamer (28 page)

His laughter vibrated against her back. “That's right. So
all you need to do is talk to your goddess and let me and Mentu handle the
rest.”

At the mention of Mentu's name, the crowd made a hissing
noise, part anger and part fear. Shan took in a deep breath, surrounded by
Devon's scent and his heat. He opened his aura to her, and she had to fight
back tears at the pure and wonderful love that enveloped her. Her heart skipped
a beat as she reached out with her energy and pressed into him. He grew firm
and hard against her back and made a strangled noise.

“You love me?” she whispered and wished she could see his
face.

His voice in her ear was barely a whisper. “Haven't I told
you in a thousand different ways?”

He had. It was in his touch, in the way he looked at her as
if she were the only important thing in his world. It was in the way he fought
for her and with her, challenging her to be more than she’d ever thought she
could be because he saw her more clearly than she could ever see herself.

“I love you too,” she said in a low voice, and the crowd
around her moaned in pain.

He removed his hand and turned her to face him. She looked
into his eyes and shuddered. His teal eyes glowed with power and life, battle
and pride, but most of all with love. The edges of his lips quirked into a
smile, and she could feel his delight radiating through his energy. “I know.
Your crappy shielding told me a long time ago.”

She stared at him, dumbfounded. “My shielding isn't crappy!
Just because—”

Firm, hot, demanding, his lips pressed against hers in a
kiss that sent a blast of heat through her body. The pained moan redoubled
around them, and the darkness shrank back. In her heightened state, she
detected a human emotion in all of that mindless hate.

Envy.

Whoever, or whatever, was controlling this crowd deeply
envied their love.

As the power drew back, the way through the crowd surfaced
in her mind in one word that rebounded through her thoughts like a chiming
bell. Pulling back from Devon, she took a deep breath and whispered out a
single word, “
Shuìmián
.
”

“What?” Devon's dark eyebrows drew down in confusion as her
command rolled over the crowd. Shan turned her gaze to the side in time to
catch one of the most astounding things she'd ever seen. And considering her
track record over the past couple days, that was saying a lot.

As one, almost every person in the crowd dropped to the
ground in a deep sleep. They were so tightly packed together that some of them
fell asleep standing up, propped in place by the slumbering bodies around them.
Two or three people remained awake, but their features shimmered and blurred.

“Well done,” Devon said in a low voice and placed a kiss on
her temple. “Remind me not to piss you off.”

“You say that as if it's possible.” She jerked her head to
one of the human-shaped blurs that was rapidly streaking across the crowd in
the opposite direction of them. “What are those?”

“Destruction. The rest were just regular people with a deep
case of hatred.” Devon said the word in a deep tone of disgust. “And I think I
see someone familiar.”

Placing his fingers beneath her chin, he turned her head to
look the other way. On the edge of the crowd, Maria stood glaring at them.
Dressed in jeans and a dark brown jacket, she gripped her hands into fists so
tight that blood dripped from where her nails cut into her palms.

“What the fu—”

“You bitch,” Maria said in a deep voice that rolled
unnaturally through the air as if she were speaking into a microphone.

“What do you want?” Devon yelled and put his body between
her and Maria.

Maria sneered at him, her features contorting into a mask of
hatred. “I want you to suffer. I want every moment of your life to be bathed in
pain.”

“Get in line,” Devon yelled back, and Maria gave a shriek of
anger that drilled into Shan's head in a bolt of white-hot pain.

Shan gripped Devon's hand in her own and stepped around him.
“Who are you really?”

Lifting her chin, Maria said, “I'm a High Priestess of
Epiales.”

Devon shifted behind her as Shan tried to remember her
mythology. She only really knew the gods of her parents’ pantheon and the other
big ones.

Maria glared at her. “The Greek god of nightmares, you
fool.”

“I knew that,” Shan snapped and ignored Devon's soft snort.

Maria squinted and took a half step closer. “Devon didn't
put everyone to sleep. You did. How? My master's power is without rival. He
will peel your skin from your body and keep you alive forever, suffering for
eternity.” Maria gave a decidedly sexual shiver, as if the prospect of eternal
torture appealed to her.

Shan exchanged a glance with Devon, and he tightened his
lips and minutely shook his head. Turning back to Maria, Shan shrugged and
assumed a bored expression. Sometimes silence was the best option, especially
when she didn't know who or what she was up against. With all the sleeping
people between them, she was afraid to say anything to insight Maria. Who knew
what she could do? The last thing she wanted was for innocent people to die
because she couldn't keep her big mouth shut.

Darkness drifted from Maria, pouring from her skin in oily
smoke and surrounding her in a small storm. Her eyes went blank, and her lips
moved as if she was having a conversation. As quickly as it appeared, the
darkness sank back into Maria, and she considered Shan with a carefully blank
expression. That scared Shan even more than the threats.

Maria reached into her purse, and Shan and Devon exchanged a
confused look. Using both hands, she pulled out a squirming blue mass that
slithered and constricted on itself before placing it on the ground at her
feet. Devon tried to put Shan behind him, but she couldn't see, so she pushed
him away and whispered, “What the fuck is that?”

“I'm guessing it's a nightmare demon.”

A dark incantation flowed from Maria's lips, and she bit her
forearm hard enough to draw blood. The blue mass on the ground struck out at
her lightning quick and latched onto her bleeding arm. Maria's lips pulled back
from her bloody teeth, and she moaned in pleasure while fondling her breast
through her shirt.

“That is all kinds of fucked up,” Shan muttered in disgust.

Energy blurred and shivered around them, creating a nebulous
darkness. Shan had to shield her eyes from the burn; she had never realized
that darkness could somehow blind you. The crowd remained slumbering around
them, and she caught some movements from the corner of her eye, but it was the
police and Temple Guards carefully picking their way through the sleeping
bodies.

A moment later, the darkness lifted, and she cautiously
raised her head. Maria still stood at the edge of the crowd, but now an
ice-blue demon that resembled a pony-sized snake crossed with an alligator
coiled around something on the sidewalk behind her.

The demon snatched a sleeping man from the crowd and wrapped
him in its coils. To Shan's horror, she watched the demon's jaws open impossibly
wide as the man began to wake up. He shrieked and tried to free himself from
the demon's grip, but his efforts got him nowhere. With a liquid grace, the
demon tore his head off and placed its mouth over the stump, drinking down the
blood with horrible sucking sounds.

Gagging, Shan tore her gaze away from the horrible sight and
found herself looking right into Maria's eyes. The other woman bared her teeth
in what could never be mistaken for a smile. “Look at your protector, all ready
to come play with my demon. What are you going to do, Devon, when you discover
that for every wound you inflict it only gets stronger?” She ran her hand
through her hair. “I'll have it hold you while I torture your bitch, do all the
things to her that you didn't have the balls to do to me.” Maria gave a giggle
that mixed with the sucking sounds from the demon. The man's body had become
strangely shrunk and leathery, reminding Shan of a piece of jerky.

Devon shrugged and said in a snide voice, “I could have
taken a shit, and it would have given me as much satisfaction as sex with you.”

Maria screamed a stream of curses at him that would have had
even the roughest sailor blushing. With Devon’s shields locked down tight, Shan
couldn't get a read on his emotions. Not that she could have felt much beyond
her own fear at the moment. No magical words were waiting on her tongue, and
her goddess was silent.

The demon released the now drained corpse and hissed at
them. A dark shadow dropped from the edge of the building behind Maria, and
Shan jumped. A sword held by the shadowed shape flashed through the air and the
tip burst through Maria's heart. She stared down in disbelief as Malik jerked
the sword upward and twisted. Blood welled between her lips as she tried to say
something.

With a look of disgust, Malik jerked his sword out of her
body, and she crumpled to the ground. The look in his eyes was utterly savage
as he cleaned his sword on her corpse. The snake demon began to lose its form,
and the rays of the rising sun shone through its coils like smoke. Shan gasped,
and Devon made a pleased rumble.

“You knew he was there, didn't you?” she whispered.

He gave her a look of disbelief. “Of course. I was trying to
keep her distracted while he got into position. Kill the summoner, kill the demon.”

The air made a popping sound as it rushed to fill the space
where the snake demon had been. Thankfully, the corpse's head had been flung
out of sight. She didn't think she could have handled any more gruesome shocks
at the moment. Bile rose from her stomach, and she spat on the ground. Behind
her, Devon turned her away from the corpse. “You're not going to puke like a
scared little girl, are you?”

Gritting her teeth, she hissed back, “Not unless I can aim
for you.”

Voices and movement drew her attention. A few feet away from
them, Malik leapt over the sleeping people with a grace that left her gaping.
He reminded her of a tawny cat, all muscles and sinuous movement. Reaching
their side in a few careful jumps, he crouched next to her and gave her a wicked
grin. “Hello, beautiful. Nice aura. Sex goddess?”

Devon growled at him before she could answer. “Chuang Mu.
Chinese goddess of everything that happens in the bedroom.”

Straightening from his crouch, Malik ruffled her hair. “So
you're the little Sandman. Nicely done.” He ignored Devon's muttered threats
and stared in the direction of Maria's corpse with a feral grin. “I never did
like that bitch. Any idea who she serves?”

With a tired sigh, Shan began picking her way over the
sleeping people. “Epiales, the same god of Destruction that my birth father’s a
Chosen of.”

****

It took them longer than usual to reach Daisy's floor. Armed
guards, both private and public, crawled over every inch of the hospital. If it
hadn't been for Malik’s and Devon's presence, Shan never would have made it
past the front door. As it was, they had to argue their way through every
checkpoint. A final group of guards stood waiting for them at the entrance to
the elevators. Sleek and deadly, they radiated menace.

Eliana stood in the center of all that muscle, dressed from
head to toe in black. A small curved sword was strapped to her waist, and a
knife was sheathed to her thigh. Next to her was a very good-looking man with
dark reddish hair and deep green eyes. He stood slightly behind Eliana but
managed to radiate a protective menace all the same.

Scents assaulted her as Shan neared them—orange blossoms
blending with a hint of spice that reminded her of the woods in the fall.
Easing her shields down a tad, she gaped at the sight of Eliana’s and the man's
auras. Hers was a silvery blue and his was the same dark green as his eyes,
each was lovely in its own right, but that was not what left her gaping. What
astounded her was the way their energy was streaked with slow gold lightning and
how their auras blended into each other. It was beautiful watching their energy
swirl together, and on an instinctual level, she knew that they were deeply in
love.

The man stepped forward, placing himself in between them and
Eliana. The short woman scowled and stepped around him, planting herself in a
protective stance. Eliana looked like a house cat trying to protect a bear. The
man narrowed his eyes at Eliana before turning his intense gaze on them. His
jaw dropped, and Devon muttered behind her while Malik snickered. The man
looked from her to Devon and back again then shut his mouth and whispered
something in Eliana's ear.

Eliana squinted and stared too then threw her head back and
laughed. Devon herded Shan forward until they stopped a few feet away,
respectful of the guns held in the other guards’ hands that were trained on
them.

“At ease,” Eliana said, and the other guards lowered their
weapons and resumed scanning the lobby. “Who wears the leather pants now,
Devon?” Eliana asked with a barely suppressed giggle.

Turning to look at Devon, Shan caught his dark frown before
he noticed her watching and shifted his features back into his usual arrogant
mask. “Shan, this is Aiden. The poor man who has to deal with Eliana for the
rest of his life. Pity him.”

Eliana flipped Devon the bird and said to Aiden in a sweet
voice. “Aiden, this is Shan. Pity her. She has to spend the rest of her life
with a man who wears his pants so tight they pinch his balls.”

Shan choked on a laugh as Devon's aura radiated irritation.
His voice dropped a few octaves as he said, “Oh yeah? Well you—”

Shan was careful to keep her laughter inside as she pulled
down Devon's head to whisper in his ear, “If I'm a good girl, will you wear
your leather pants for me?”

It must have been the right thing to say because Devon's
aura went from irritated to extremely aroused in an instant. It flared with a
deeper red at the edges and sensuality seemed to pour off of him, making her
skin tingle. He fisted his hand in her hair and tipped her head back, nipping
at the side of her throat. Gods, his touch felt amazing. It felt as though her
body had grown new nerves and every one of them was dedicated to pleasure. She
wrapped her arms around his back and delighted at the feeling of his muscled
strength. Someone coughed, but she ignored them. All that mattered was Devon
and the soft stroke of his tongue trailing along her skin.

Aiden spoke up in a deep voice. “Devon, please shield
yourself before I have to hose you two down. We have enough problems without
your little Chosen of a sex goddess turning this place into an orgy.”

Shan tore herself away from Devon with a blush burning her
cheeks. It took some effort to convince her body that now was not the time or
place, but when her shields slammed back into place, she felt much better. She
pushed away from Devon and scowled at the smug smirk on his face. Ignoring her
resistance, he pulled her back to his side and kissed the top of her head.

Malik's laugh held the edge of a roar as he moved around
them to give Eliana a hug. “Thanks for holding down the fort while I was
outside. Anything new?”

Eliana shook her head and fingered the hilt of her sword.
“Same old, same old. Six-year-olds with the strength of twenty men snapping
their restraints and trying to rip their mothers' throats out. A teenage boy
managed to throw his father out the window before we could stop him. Luckily,
they were only on the second floor, but the dad still has a broken arm. Oh, and
another kid tried to chew his hand off in order to get out of the restraints.
One of Danu's Chosen managed to subdue him, but I hate to think what will
happen if more demon-possessed kids learn that little trick.” Eliana rubbed her
eyes and let Aiden pull her into his arms. Despite the size difference, they
fitted perfectly together. Shan wondered if she looked that way in Devon's
arms.