Dreamer (4 page)

“Daisy!” she said with a cultured tone to her smooth voice.
“How is my favorite disciple of Aphrodite?”

Shan watched as Daisy kissed the older woman's cheeks and
then beamed down at Shan. “This is the little sub I've been telling you
about—Rose.” Daisy pulled Shan to her feet. “Rose, this is my mentor, Alice.”

The woman handed the leashes of her slaves to Daisy who
knelt and gave Shan a slow smile. Apprehension mixed with the mellowing effects
of the marijuana. Something about this woman called to Shan, made her want to
reach out and touch her, not necessarily in a sexual way, though the woman was
stunning, but more like a sense of deep acceptance.

Alice wore full-length black silk gloves, and her hands were
gentle as she turned Shan's face, examining her closely. “She is lovely,” Alice
murmured softly. “Why did you name her Rose?” Her voice was soft, but Shan
sensed something in the tone that made her uneasy.

“Because of the color of her aura,” Daisy said and toyed
with the necklace that Shan had made her. Startled, Shan looked up at her
friend. She had no idea Daisy could see auras, it must have been a new power
that came to her as she advanced through Aphrodite’s ranks, and she wondered
why Daisy had hid that from her.

“It is exquisite. I feel like I've seen it somewhere
before.” Alice took a deep breath through her nose. If Shan didn't know better,
she would have sworn the woman was trying to smell her. “What is your mother's
name?”

The innocent question made her flinch. Even if she heard it
a million times, it would never lose its bite. “I don't know. I was adopted and
I have two fathers.”

Alice stepped back and gave her an apologetic look. “I'm
sorry. I didn't mean to intrude.”

Daisy handed the leashes back and stood behind Shan,
wrapping her arms around her and resting her chin on Shan's head. Normally Shan
hated being reminded of how short she was compared to Daisy, but right now, she
welcomed the comfort of her friend's embrace.

“Take care of her, Daisy. That combination of innocence and
need will draw Doms like a moth to a flame. If anyone gets too pushy, find me
or a Club Sentinel.” The woman tugged at her slaves, and they both stood with
gazes on the floor. Shan felt a little bit of jealousy at the flat stomach on
the woman and the graceful way they moved.

“Thank you, Alice.” Daisy held Shan's hand and led her over
to a loveseat on the edge of the main floor. A swarthy man had a tall and
willowy blonde hung from the ceiling by an elaborate rope harness while slowly
inserting a rather large plug into her bottom as she thrashed and moaned. Shan
gaped before she turned back to Daisy, trying to push the carnal image out of
her mind.

“I didn't know you could see auras,” Shan whispered.

“Don't worry about that right now.” Daisy took a seat and
tugged Shan down to kneel in front of her on the floor. “I want you to be
silent, watch and learn.” She stroked her hand through Shan's long hair. The
movement soothed her, and she relaxed back into the touch.

An odd sensation of energy moved over her. Light, tempting,
it warmed her skin and made her limbs heavy with desire. She had never felt
anything like it before. Turning, she darted a quick glance up at Daisy but her
friend didn’t seem to notice anything. Her attention was drawn back to the
floor again and she tried to figure out what was going on.

The sensation of touch moved over her again, and she rested
her head against Daisy's thigh high red latex boot with a soft sigh. The music
was louder here, a dark and heavy beat that made the scenes on the main floor
take on the air of a performance. As she watched, she realized that for many of
them this was presentation. Sometimes it was for their partner, other times it
was for the small crowd that watched.

The throng ebbed and flowed onto the floor in an endless
wave of heat. Sometimes they went down a set of stairs to a lower level, and
other times they retired to the couches. One thing that she noted with a deep
pang of envy was the way the submissives were cuddled after a scene. Their
Dominants would hold and stroke them, often placing soft kisses on their lips
with obvious affection. The tenderness in the looks the subs gave them made her
ache.

She had no idea how long they had been sitting there when
Daisy shifted on the couch. “I have to use the restroom. Do you want to come or
stay here?” Daisy whispered into her ear.

The soft breath against her skin made her sigh. She felt
weightless, ready to be carried away on the current of energy moving through
the room. Why had she avoided anything to do with BDSM for so long? Why had she
been afraid of this? Unable to find her voice, she settled for shaking her head
and placing a kiss on Daisy's knee. Daisy’s soft hand stroked Shan’s cheek
before she rose and walked away. Shan noted the hungry stares that followed in
her friend's wake and felt a sense of pride that Daisy was here with her.

More demanding now, an intense energy upset the balance on
the main floor. It called to her, drew her in as surely as a whirlpool. Someone
summoned her, and she ached to answer.

Standing, Shan tried to follow her instincts to find where
this delicious tug of desire was coming from. She wandered through the pockets
of deep shadows around the floor, stepping over sprawled legs and gently
pushing away questing hands without really looking. That delicious spark was
closer now, the magnet that drew her.

Pausing at the bottom of some stairs, she hesitated and
tried to reach out with both her mind and body. She’d never tried to
psychically touch someone before but now she was straining for that illusive
connection with all her might. Turning slightly to the right, she came to the
epicenter of the power that shook her to the core.

Amazing.

That was the only word that came to mind as she drank in the
sight of the powerful male body before her. Dressed in black leather, he slowly
walked around a full-figured, auburn-haired woman with her arms above her head
and her wrists wrapped up in black leather restraints that hung from the
ceiling by silver chains. His muscles were a work of art and Shan was pretty
sure she could have an orgasm from just touching his sharply delineated
abdominals. Everything from the breadth of his shoulders to his prowling gate
indicated power and an edge of danger.

Shan forgot to breathe as she caught a glimpse of his face.
His dark hair was cut extremely short in a military style, and his skin was a
natural dark tan. Teal eyes, almost glowing in the lights, looked out from
behind the black mask. And he was huge. Not fat, but with muscles on top of
muscles. The most delicious lips she had ever seen on a man saved his face from
being too masculine. He had a bold nose that somehow gave him an exotic edge
that she loved.

For a moment he paused and lifted his gaze to where she
stood. Blue eyes, the blue of Caribbean waters, locked on to her gaze and
stripped her to the bone. She stood exposed before him, captured by his will. A
sensation like phantom fingers running down her cheeks brought her breath into
a harsh pant.

The woman strapped before him made a soft noise, and his
attention snapped back to her. Shan used that chance to back up the stairs,
watching from a safe distance. She had no idea what had just happened there,
but if that woman hadn't interrupted, Shan would have gladly thrown herself at
his feet.

Taking a deep breath, she tried to gather herself. That
effort took a nosedive the instant the man unhooked a flogger from his belt.
Her pussy clenched with desire and mixed with jealousy. She should be in that
position. She should be the one drinking in his attention, funneling his
demand.

“Do you see anything you like?” a rough male voice said from
behind her.

Startled, she tried to turn, but strong hands held her in
place. “Where is your Master, little sub?”

“I don't have one,” her treacherous mouth said. Instead of
focusing on the man touching her, every part of her being directed her
attention to the man gently flogging the sub, making the woman twist and moan
in her bonds.

The man behind her shifted and the grip on her shoulders
grew stronger. She didn’t seem to sense any menace from him, only…dominance.

He leaned down, his breath warm on her ear, “Who did you
come with?”

“My best friend.” An odd sensation came over her mind,
making her liquid and pliable. She should have been terrified at the thought of
some strange man holding her, but instead, she relaxed against his grip. He
smelled really good.

The dark haired man glanced in her direction again, and she
thought she saw his features tighten with anger. His gaze raked over her and
she swore she could actually feel his annoyance against her skin like burning
embers. The thought of displeasing him made her want to inch away from the
other man's hands.

His voice came from near her ear. “Why are you here?” His
lips brushed her skin and made her go rigid, working on the desire that had
begun to burned the moment she’d entered the place.

His words echoed in her mind, and she found herself
answering with more honestly than she intended. “To find my match.”

The soft vibration of his chuckle made her shiver. The dark
haired man spun the slave on her shackles, inspecting her bottom. It shone with
pink and red stripes beneath the sheer cloth of her dress. The man whispered
something in the auburn-haired woman's ear, and she nodded. Her expression was
of pure bliss, and Shan felt the unwelcome bite of jealousy again. She could
have happily gone over and ripped the woman's hair out.

Surprised by her violent reaction, she looked around for
Daisy, unease crawling over her skin.

“I have to go,” she said and turned to look at the man who
was talking to her, but no one was there. Another blush burned her cheeks, and
she wondered how long he had been gone and why she hadn’t even noticed that he
was no longer touching her. She’d been too busy wishing to be that
auburn-haired woman to notice his departure.

The deliciously muscled Dom still called to her like a moth
to the flame, and she risked one more glance before she left this area of the
club. He was in the process of taking the woman down from the shackles. His
massive muscles easily supported her weight, and he handled her as if she
weighed no more than a feather. Dropping to her knees, the woman followed the
dark-haired man as he led them to the steps down to the lower level.

Shan would have happily sold her soul at that moment to be
that woman.

The music began to pound into her head, triggering a
migraine as she worked her way through the club looking for Daisy. She told
herself she was being paranoid, but she began to feel as though someone was
following her. It was like there was someone right behind her, just about to
touch her. Darting a glance into the shadows, she stumbled over a slave
kneeling before his Mistress. Voices raised in protest followed her as she
darted away.

Dread took root in her soul, and she found herself pressed
against a wall, panting. Something was coming after her, and it was almost
here. A foul scent seemed to ooze from the floor, like a backed-up toilet.

Clutching her arms around herself, she then covered her
mouth with her hands—a gesture from her childhood when she used to hold back
the screams from nightmares so she wouldn't wake her parents.

“Rose?” Alice appeared to her left and took Shan’s face in
her hands.

The elegant woman was without her slaves, and all Shan could
do was shiver and stammer out between her fingers, “What’s that smell? That
terrible feeling?”

“Smell?” Alice closed her eyes and took a deep breath. With
a startled shout, she spun around and screamed out. “Destruction!”

All hell broke loose.

The lights
cut off, and the club plunged into absolute darkness. Screams echoed in the
room, combining into a terrifying noise that split through Shan's head. The
noise rebounded through the cavernous space until she was totally disoriented.
Someone almost knocked her off her feet as they rammed into her, and she backed
up until she found a wall. She didn’t want to be trampled in the panic.

Shan pressed herself against the wall and spread her arms
wide, slowly walking the edge until she felt the opening of a doorway. Thin
cloth met her searching fingers, and she identified it as the purple and cream
curtains that covered the entrance to the little alcoves off the main floor.
She ducked into the small room, grateful for the protection, as chaos reigned
in the room beyond. Her instinct took over, telling her that she had to hide.
Unable to see anything, she followed the curve of the wall and almost fell when
she bumped into a calf-high mound of pillows on a slightly elevated platform.

Outside, the screams continued, and brief bursts of light
flared, giving her enough light to momentarily see. A long, thin shriek of
terror rose above the din and froze the blood in her veins. Rather than going
back out, she took advantage of the brief illumination and crawled onto the
platform. More shrieks added to the frantic chatter of her mind that she had to
hide, now!

She pulled the pillows over her body, concealing herself
beneath them as she had hidden beneath her sheets as a child. The same
certainty of childhood filled her mind—the monster couldn't find her if she
hid. Buried beneath the pillows it was hard to hear what the shouts were about,
and she moved so she could see out through a slit between the cushions. Barely
breathing, she tried to figure out what was going on by the noise. Its tone had
changed, and loud yells cut through the cries. She couldn't make out most of
what they were saying, but one word rang loud and clear. Destruction. It didn't
sound as though they were talking about something being destroyed. They were
using it like a name, a title even.

More lights flared, but they were odd colors of sapphire,
almond, and wine-red. A thick and wet roar cut through the yells, and there was
a moment of silence before the screams redoubled. The wall behind Shan's back
shuddered as something heavy fell outside.

Covering her mouth, she tried to think past her terror. Her
parents had taught her a trick when she was little to keep the nightmares at
bay.
I am invisible, hidden in the
shadows, another part of the night.
Repeating the phrase to herself, she
winced as a shrill scream abruptly cut off and ended in a gurgle.

Men’s and women's voices rose in a chant that made her bones
ache, and there was an answering roar from deeper in the club. Something
enormous crashed into the wall next to the alcove, and small chunks of the
ceiling fell down onto her hidden nest. The chanting continued, and a bright
light shone beyond the curtains that hung over her alcove.

Shadows moved in front of that light, and Shan held her
breath. The shapes of the figures outlined by the light looked wrong—distorted
somehow. A foul odor of rot and moldy heat swept into the room, and the curtain
fluttered over to the side. Scarcely breathing, her mind said one word over and
over.
Invisible, invisible
. She was
invisible.

Unable to see past the glaring backlight, she could only
make out a vaguely human shape with a grotesquely swollen torso and legs that
hinged in odd places. It spoke in a garbled tongue, and she could almost
understand the words. Whatever it was saying was cut off as it shrieked in pain
and spun into the room, tangled in the sheer curtains.

Scrambling away, she tried to scream, but all that came out
was a high-pitched, almost soundless, explosion of air as the creature landed
on the floor in front of her. With skin like boiled meat, it crawled like a
crab as it tried to reach her. The long jaw unhinged itself as the monster
snapped at her while trying to untangle itself from the sheer curtain. There
was nowhere to run, it was going to eat her alive.

Her rational mind was quickly replaced by the primal, and
the need to survive showed her a way out. The creature shredded at the fabric
that held it, but its feet were still caught. She had only moments before it
was free and she was dead meat. Kicking pillows out of the way, she tried to
run to the exit.

Just as she reached the entrance to the alcove, a strong
hand gripped her and pulled her out. Screaming, she tried to claw at the hand
that held her, but Alice threw her to the ground with surprising strength. The
elegant Mistress Shan had met earlier in the night was gone, and in her place
stood a woman with a long, curved sword dripping with green gore and an
expression filled with an almost feral anger. A ragged tear over the sleeve of
her dress seeped blood, and her teeth were pulled back from her lips in a
snarl. “Run!” she yelled and raised the sword before her, heading toward the
alcove.

A bright burst of light burned Shan's eyes, and her vision
was filled with spots. Struggling to see, she crawled toward an overturned
couch and dry heaved until tears ran down her face. As soon as her stomach
settled enough to move, she scurried to the other side of the couch. On the
floor beneath the tossed couch cushions lay the partial torso of a man ripped
in half.

The secrets of his body spilled over the floor in a
horrifying mess. Turning, she threw up everything that she had eaten for the
past ten years in violent heaves. A hand snatched her arm, and she screamed and
struggled to get away, but it was no use. Whatever had her was incredibly strong.

“Got her,” a man yelled, and she was tossed over a broad
shoulder. “Shit, she's covered in puke. I'm gonna yack.”

“Suck it up,” another man said as her head bounced against a
solid back. The realization that someone was rescuing her, not about to kill
her, made her almost giddy with relief even as she sobbed.

Without ceremony, she found herself shoved out the front
door into a pair of waiting hands under the fluorescent lights of the foyer.
The sounds of a battle came from inside the club, and the lights shook and
dimmed. As she watched Daisy scramble towards her with a silent yell, she
realized the lights weren't dimming. She was going to pass out.

****

“I can't believe you took her to that club!” Her father
Aaron’s angry voice made Shan's head throb. “The Steel Chalice is no place for
a beginner—”

“Now, Royce, it's not like Daisy knew this would happen.”
Calm, but with an edge of resentment, her dad Royce’s voice rumbled behind the
darkness of her closed eyelids.

“I'm so sorry, Aaron.” Daisy sniffled from right next to
her. “I—”

Groaning, Shan covered her face with her hands. Flashes of
the horror at the club burst through her mind, but she didn't want to think
about that. In fact, she didn't want to think about anything. Especially the
fact that her parents knew she’d gone to a BDSM club.

“Honey?” Royce's voice took on the soothing tone that she
remembered from so many sleepless nights as a child.

“Give her some air,” Aaron chided them and helped Shan sit
up.

She wore one of the pink flannel nightgowns her parents had
bought her for Christmas that she’d left behind when she moved out. It reminded
her of something a little girl would wear, all lace and ribbons. Right now, as
long as it didn't smell like puke, anything would do.

“How are you feeling?” Aaron lifted Shan’s eyelids and
checked her pupil response. A High Priest of Brigit, Aaron was a healer who
worked with both medicine and magic. His fine red hair had fallen out long ago,
but his bright hazel-green eyes still sparkled with a mischievous spirit.

“Did you see what happened?” Royce tucked a strand of her
hair behind her ear with a gentle touch from his big, scarred hands. He was
also a High Priest to Brigit and focused on the goddess's patronage of smiths.
It was from Royce that she’d learned how to smith metal for her jewelry making.

Daisy hunched over at the edge of her childhood bed. She
still wore her red latex outfit but it was scuffed on one side like she’d been
dragged across something. Her mascara had dripped down her face from crying, and
she looked like a sad raccoon.

“I'm so sorry, Shan!” she wailed.

“You look like shit.” She sighed and slumped back onto her
Hello Kitty sheets. “What happened at the club?”

Her parents exchanged a glance, and Royce said, “Someone
summoned a pack of wraiths into the club.”

“What?” She searched her mind, trying to remember
information from her basic mythological creatures class in college. “Wraiths,
those are high-level demons.”

“Yeah.” Aaron's thin lips pressed into a line until they all
but disappeared. “Whoever summoned them meant business.”

“But why would they want to attack a BD—a club?” She blushed
and looked at the ceiling, wishing she was not having this conversation with
her parents, in her childhood bedroom. The glow of the dark stars in a protective
hex pattern still hung over the bed. When she was little she used to have
terrible nightmares and Royce had gotten the stars to try and help her sleep
without bad dreams. It hadn’t worked, but she kept them up there because to
Shan it was a visible sign of her parent’s love.

“They were hunting for someone. From what the Temple Guard
could tell, they only attacked people who got in their way.” Daisy shrank under
the glares of Shan’s parents but continued. “How did you manage to escape?”

“Alice.” Shan swallowed past the bile in her throat at the
memory of the man torn in half.

“Alice who?” Royce asked.

“Alice Montgomery,” Daisy answered, and the men exchanged a
shocked look.

“I didn't know she was into that kind of...stuff.” Aaron
darted a glance her way, and his ears turned red.

“Not that there is anything wrong with it,” Royce reassured
her quickly. “You're a grown woman who is free to explore her—”

Shan covered her face with her hands. “Father, if we could
never discuss this again, it would be too soon. Let's pretend I was at a normal
bar doing normal things.” She peeked through her fingers. “How do you know
Alice?”

“Oh, she's a….high priestess of Medb.” Aaron got up from the
bed and fiddled with the curtains.

“You're lucky she was there.” Royce joined Aaron at the
window and gave him a quick hug.

“There were a bunch of war deity worshipers there,” Daisy
piped in. “Seems that they are naturally aggressive and need to dominate...”
Daisy wilted again under everyone's glare. “So yeah, anyway, Alice saved her.”

Aaron came back over to the bed and gave Shan a kiss on the
forehead. “I need to get to the temple, honey.”

Glancing at the pink Hello Kitty clock next to her bed, Shan
arched a brow. “At four a.m.?”

Royce and Aaron exchanged another mysterious look. “There
were some complications from tonight's attack. A meeting of the Celtic High
Priests and Priestesses has been called.”

Shan sat up higher on the bed, trying to stifle her groan as
her aching muscles protested the action. “What do you mean by complications?”

Daisy scooted next to her on the bed and wrapped her in a
hug. “This wasn't the only attack.”

“What do you mean this wasn’t the only attack? Dad, what’s
going on?”

Royce whispered something to Aaron, and he nodded. Aaron
looked out the curtains one more time before turning and facing them. He looked
from Daisy to Shan, opened his mouth like he was going to say something, then
shook his head. “Don’t worry, you’re safe here. I've got to go. I love you.”

She reached out and grabbed his hand, comforted by how big
and strong it was, how familiar. “Wait, if it’s safe here shouldn’t you stay?
Is it unsafe where you’re going?”

Royce came over to the bed and gently stroked Shan’s tangled
hair. “Sweetheart, your Dad will be fine. He can take care of himself.”

“You can say that again,” Daisy muttered.

Aaron leaned over and kissed Shan’s cheek. “I love you, but
I really have to go.”

Distracted by Daisy's statement, Shan gave him a kiss back.
“Love you too, Dad. Be safe, okay?”

“Always.”

Royce looked at them and shook his head as Aaron closed the
door. “You two get into more trouble…”

Daisy tensed next to her, and Shan patted her hand. “There
was no way for Daisy to know this would happen. She was trying to help me.”

Daisy squeezed her. “Besides, there were two other attacks
tonight. One at a grocery store and another at the college. We could have very
easily been having a boring night shopping for brownie mix or attending a
lecture with the same results.”

Shaking his head, Royce’s thin lips curved into a smile.
“Trouble.”

Knowing her father didn’t mean it, okay, maybe he meant it a
little bit—and with good reason, Shan looked away from her father and examined
her friend. Poor Daisy was looking a little worse for the wear and Shan pushed
back her friend’s long, blonde dreadlocks so she could see the bruise forming
on her friend’s cheek. Shan scooted over so Daisy had more room on the
queen-sized bed. As Daisy kicked off her boots and cuddled under the blanket,
Shan saw the bruises on Daisy’s leg that her pants had hidden. “What happened
to you?”