Icarians: Poisoned Dreams (9 page)

After they hung up Analeigh hurried upstairs to start on what will soon be Nickie's bedroom for the duration of her visit. She knows that Nickie loves green so she bought her a pale green bedspread , it should go nicely with the off white paint she got for the room. Analeigh worked on the room the rest of the morning. She stopped only when Mercedes and Mason arrived. Then she and Mercedes worked on the bedroom while Mason started on the kitchen. Analeigh was glad for the time alone with her. As they worked she casually brought up her dreams.

"What are the dreams about?" Mercedes asked her.
"Well up until last night they were kinda the same. There is this dark figure after me. One dream Jaxon tried to save me only to become possessed by the figure. Also he turned into a black panther, just like the one that attacked me the other night."
"Well that’s fairly common. I would have had nightmares for months after something like that happened to me." She tried to reassure Analeigh.
"I had that dream before I ever saw the panther. The only time I haven't had a nightmare is the night I stayed at your house, but that’s not all, sometimes I think they are memories of when I was here a long time ago." Mercedes had stopped painting and looked at Analeigh.
"So what was different about last nights dream?" Analeigh hesitated and finally said "You were in it."
"Me?"
"Yeah, but it was really bad and I don't think you want to hear it." Analeigh told her honestly.
"Your probably right but I want to hear it."
Analeigh told her the horrible dream and when she was done Mercedes was very pale and quite. Analeigh felt terrible.
"I'm sorry Sadie I shouldn't have said anything at all."
"No, no I'm fine just a little puzzled that’s all. It's truly odd that you are having the dreams, maybe you should try to remember what happened the night your grandmother died. That might help out a lot." She offered.

"I agree, but how do you make yourself remember something when your not sure you were ever really there?"
"If I were you I would just sit and meditate on what you do remember, step by step, and see if anything happens." Mercedes said helpfully.
"Yeah I will definitely try that, but right now I'm starting to freak myself out. Lets talk about something else." Analeigh suggested smiling.
"So tell me about you friend, Nickie isn't it?"
"Yes, we have been friends for a really long time. She's brilliant, enthusiastic, kind and lots of fun. She’s studying to be a doctor. You guys are going to like her."
"She sounds great.”
They continued to talk for the next hour while they worked on the bedroom. Mason came and informed them that he was finished with the kitchen.
"Your done?" Analeigh was stunned.
"Now don't sound so surprised, you'll hurt my feelings." Mason joked. Analeigh went to look at her kitchen as Mason and Sadie followed behind her.
"I know my kitchen is kinda small but......" She stopped when she saw the room.
It looked like a whole new kitchen. The walls were the pale yellow she picked out, he also put up the wall paper border with beautiful yellow daffodils on it and a white background. Her cabinets were left the pale wood that they were, and the white tiles on her floor where also left but he had put down the area rug she had bought to match the paint. That with the new curtains she got, the room had turned out really wonderful.
"It's beautiful, how did you get it done so fast?" She asked him.
"I didn't think it was all that fast." Mason told her.
"Well, thank you so much I love it. You did a wonderful job." Analeigh said sincerely.

Chapter 11

An hour later after they had gone. Analeigh sat in the kitchen thinking about her grandmother. In the house she could still feel the warmth that her grandmother left behind, but the woods around her house seemed to possess something very dark and evil. She could feel it even as she sat safely inside. Her thoughts where interrupted by a knock on the front door. She saw Jaxon standing outside her door, and felt a little flutter in the pit of her stomach. She quickly answered the door.
"Hey Jaxon, come in." He barely stepped over her threshold.
"That’s ok I just wanted to drop off your car."
"Ok let me get my check book." Analeigh left the room before he could protest.
Every time he saw her she stole the very breath from his chest. Analeigh was incredibly beautiful, her body was just how a woman's body should be. Luscious curves in all the right places. Her legs were toned and long despite her height. Her lips were full, pink and kissable and above all he couldn't get enough of her emerald green eyes. It was pure hell for him not to be able to run his fingers through her long curly brown locks. When she came back into the room he could smell her scent, an enticing mixture of honeysuckle and something else he couldn't identify. To him she was the most perfect creature to ever walk the earth. Analeigh smiled at him now.
"How much do I owe you?" Jaxon didn't want to charge her. He would do anything for her, but he was also aware of her pride. So he told her the amount and she wrote him a check.
"Are you sure you don't want to come in?" He was a stronger man than he gave himself credit for when he answered her.
"No I have to get back to the shop to wrap a few things up before I head home." He got in his car and pulled out of her driveway.
Of course he wanted to stay, but he was afraid if he stayed he would never leave. God how he longed to be with her. He pushed his gas pedal down to the floorboard and sped away into the night as fast as his BMW could take him.

After Jaxon left, Analeigh went upstairs to get ready for bed. She thought about Nickie, and how exciting it was to have her coming. Nicole’s room was complete thanks to Mercedes help. Her thoughts quickly turned to Todd and the fact that she had agreed to let him come.

Todd was good-looking and had a boyish charm about him, and she had thought once that she was in love with him. Shortly after he broke up with her she realized that she was wrong. If Nickie is right and he really did want to get back together with her, she would have to let him down as gently as possible. She wasn't in love with him but she didn't want to hurt him either. She had definitely moved on from Todd Davis.

As Analeigh lay in bed she thought about all the things she would have to do the next day before Nickie came. Soon she was fast asleep and dreaming.

'She was running through an open field looking for her house, but the house her grandmother left for her was gone. The sun was bright and hot shining down upon her as she ran, causing her to sweat. Without any warning the sky opened up and the rain poured down heavily making mud under her feet, but still she ran in search of her house. Her lungs would surely burst if she didn't find it soon. Analeigh jerked to a stop when she heard the sound that he always brought with him. Horror ran through her body in waves. He had such power over her making it impossible for her to run away. Without turning around she knew he was crawling slowly to her from behind.

The rain still poured from the sky as she turned around in time to see his dead evil eyes glow a crimson red like the devil himself. She could see the souls he had stolen hanging from him like demented trophies. With a casual twitch of his hand two others she hadn't known were there were on her, grabbing her arms and legs, they picked her up. She felt as if they were flying, they were moving so fast. Analeigh screamed as loud as she could, but she knew it wouldn't do her any good, they had her and no one would save her.

The evil beings stopped only when they reached their destination. She looked around. They were still in the woods, but she had no idea where. They stood in front of a very old rock house. The roof appeared to be falling into the house itself. The rocks that made the house were crumbling and breaking apart. She tried to plead to them not to take her inside, but they laughed vile laughs.

It wasn't them that made her go inside the terrible house, It was he himself. He lightly touched her back and she knew she was on fire, knew her skin was melting right off of her body. Without control she walked into the house she dreaded. Analeigh closed her eyes for a split second not wanting to see what waited for her inside. As the door shut, her eyes adjusted to a very dim light, she looked around the room. Her eyes landed upon a hideously mutated elderly woman.'

Soaking wet Analeigh fell out of bed, she quickly got up and ran to the bathroom were she heaved her evening meal into the toilet. Breathing heavy she rinsed her mouth and threw cold water on her face. Leaning against the bathroom door frame looking into her bedroom trying to catch her breath, she spotted muddy foot prints on the floor. Gasping she flattened herself against the wall, her hand covering her mouth. She looked around the bedroom and cried out as she realized that the muddy foot prints were her own.

Trying to fight full fledged panic, she went back into the bathroom and washed her feet. When she was finished in the bathroom she went on a search for her cell phone. Analeigh didn't know anyone else to call except the very people she didn't want to bother especially at two thirty in the morning. She went downstairs dialing Mercedes number on the way. She answered on the first ring.
"Hello?"
"Sadie can you come over?" She said trying to keep her tears out of her voice.
"Are you ok, Analeigh?" Alarmed Mercedes quickly said.
"I'm fine something just scared me." Analeigh sobbed hating the way she sounded, hating the vulnerability and fear.
"I'll be right over."
Analeigh sat down on the stairs and waited. What must have been minutes but seemed like seconds she heard Mercedes at the door. She rushed to answer it, not wanting to be alone for even a second longer.
"I'm sorry Sadie, I just didn't know who else to call." Analeigh tried to explain.
"What is going on?" Sadie asked concerned.
As soon as she arrived Analeigh felt much calmer. Then she heard something outside.
"Is someone here with you?" She asked.
"Yeah Jaxon came to make sure there was no trouble."
"Oh God." Analeigh said miserably.
"I didn’t mean to alarm everyone."
"It's ok Analeigh just tell me what is going on."
Finally Analeigh explained what had happened, then she took Mercedes upstairs to see the foot prints.
"You must think I’m crazy. I think I'm crazy. I don't know what the hell is going on here, but I've just about had all I can take."
"I don't think you are crazy, and I don't blame you for being scared." She said looking at Analeigh. "I'm scared for you Analeigh." Mercedes said after she saw the footprints.
Jaxon decided to make his entrance then. Analeigh then realized that she was just in her night clothes, which consisted of a thin t-shirt that barely covered her panties. She reached around him and yanked the robe off the back of the door. Once she put it on she excused herself, and let Mercedes explain to him what was going on. Mercedes looked at her brother after Analeigh left the room.
"What are we going to do? He's getting to close to her. If Victor has this much control over her now, right under our noses, think about when he actually comes after her." Jaxon looked at his younger sister.
"I don’t know, right now he is playing with her, with all of us. Analeigh has friends coming to stay with her right?" He said running his hands through his hair.
After Mercedes shook her head yes he went on "Then I should take that time to search for Victor again."
"You need to stay here with Analeigh. Let Mason and me go. You know I'm a good tracker, and I will be safe with Mason. We can even gather a few others to go with us." She begged.

Jaxon didn’t like it at all. "I don’t want you to go anywhere. It’s just as important to me that you are safe as well as Analeigh."
"I understand your worried, but I'm not a child Jaxon. I am an Icarian the same as you."

Jaxon understood probably better than anyone her need to help and do something, anything.

"You need to give me a chance. Give me two days to see if we can even begin to track him." She pleaded with him.
Jaxon knew he had lost because she was right. Jaxon let out a heavy sigh. "Fine but you have to promise that if there is any danger you will let Mason deal with it." Sadie rolled her eyes. "Of course he will be the one to deal with it. I won't do anything stupid." She promised.
"When you return we will decide when to tell Analeigh." Jaxon told her.

When they came back down she was in the kitchen drinking a cup of coffee. Analeigh still felt a little shook up, but she felt somewhat better. She watched as they entered the room, Jaxon looked very grim. Mercedes spoke first.
"If its ok with you Jaxon will sleep down here to night, we agreed that we would all feel a lot better if you had someone stay here with you, at least for the rest of the night and I can't do it. I have somewhere I need to be in about an hour."
"No you don't have to stay here." Analeigh offered, but Jaxon was already fluffing a pillow on the sofa.
"Don’t worry I don't mind." Jaxon said with a smile.
"Well you don't have to sleep on the sofa, I have a bedroom already made up." Jaxon was relieved that she didn't argue anymore, he was too tired.
Sadie excused herself and left Analeigh alone with Jaxon. She was happy to have someone to stay with her, because she didn't want to be alone. She just wouldn't have chosen him.
"You want to tell me what happened?" Jaxon asked her. He was looking at her with those intense blue eyes.
"If you don't mind, I'm tired, I'll just show you to your room." She told him and turned away from him.
Analeigh stopped at the bottom and waited for him to follow. The staircase was suddenly to small, their arms brushed together every other step or so creating a hunger in her she had never felt before. At the top she led him into the bedroom across the hall from hers.
"This is it. You know where the bathroom is, just let me know if you need anything."
She looked up at him, he was still looking at her with those incredible eyes that seemed to see deep inside her. She walked closer to him in hopes that he would move aside, instead his large frame continued to block the doorway. When he did move he moved closer to her until he was standing just inches from her. She breathed in his arousing, spicy after shave and trembled when he lightly ran a finger across her cheek.
"You let me know if you need anything." He said in a deep, sexy voice, then he stepped aside to let her pass. Analeigh almost stumbled out of the room. Why does he affect me so profoundly? She asked herself when she got into bed knowing she wasn't going back to sleep and it had everything to do with the gorgeous man in the next room. Finally after laying in bed for hours she rolled over to look at the clock it read six thirty am. She sighed and got up. Analeigh walked over to her closet and pulled out her jogging clothes. She was lacing up her tennis shoes when she heard Jaxon moving around in the next room. She stepped out into the hall and lightly tapped on his door.