“Why is that funny?” Amelie asked, confused.
“Because I’m worried about tearing my dress on this bench!”
She frowned. “As you should be—it’s a pretty dress.”
“No, you don’t understand. I’m dreaming. This cave, this fire, you—it’s fake. I know that, and yet here I am, worried about my dress!”
“You think you’re dreaming,” Amelie said slowly.
“No. I know I’m dreaming. Last night I went to sleep, dreamed about you guys, then woke up in my bed—right after you threw that man’s headless body into the fire.” I shuddered.
“Last night … ?” Amelie repeated, looking perplexed. “Maybe you did wake up in your own bed but, here, you disappeared into thin air. And it wasn’t last night. You’ve been gone for over a month.” Her tone and her expression were so convincing that it was a struggle not to believe her.
A puff of wind cooled my shoulder. I turned to see Bishop and Fiona sitting on the next bench; the unexpected and freakishly quiet entry made me jump.
“Finally!” Bishop said by way of greeting, his charcoal eyes twinkling. “You took your time coming back.”
“Where are they?” Amelie asked them quietly.
Bishop shrugged, a serious look flickering over his face. “Hopefully Rachel will prove useful.”
All three turned to me now, dismissing their secret concern.
“So, how does it work?” Bishop asked eagerly.
I frowned.
“Evangeline was just telling me how she thinks this is all a dream and we are figments of her imagination,” Amelie said, her eyebrows raised.
Bishop roared with laughter. “You think you’re dreaming?”
Fiona cuffed him sharply upside the head, the slap echoing through the cave. It didn’t appear to hurt him in the least, though he looked unimpressed. “You’ll swear it’s a nightmare, soon enough,” he muttered, standing up and stalking out of the cave.
“Ignore him, he has an odd sense of humor,” Fiona apologized in that smoky voice, offering me a pleasant smile.
“So why are you dressed up?” Amelie said, chucking another log into the fire.
“I was about to ask,” Fiona murmured, adding, “It’s gorgeous!” Her long, slender fingers reached out and caressed the material, as Amelie had. “It’s been so long …”
I glanced at their frayed clothing but averted my gaze politely. They both laughed.
“We look homeless, don’t we?” Amelie said, holding the corners of her tattered shirt up with beautifully manicured nails. It didn’t make any sense. But of course—this is a dream!
“Isn’t Evangeline lovely?” Amelie suddenly asked someone behind me.
I turned my head to see Caden standing a few feet away, his piercing green eyes on me. My heart skipped a few beats. “Hi,” I managed to sputter, feeling heat creep up my neck to engulf my cheeks.
“You’re wearing slightly more than last time,” he observed, his mouth curving in a tiny smile. “What’s the occasion?”
I felt a second wave of embarrassment flare, remembering that obscene outfit. Now here I was, barely covered again. “My birthday.”
“Oh, I love birthdays! How old are you now?” Amelie asked gleefully.
“Eighteen.”
“To be eighteen again,” she sang dramatically, tilting her head back, her eyes closing as she reminisced.
I frowned, looking at her childish face. She’s not a day over sixteen, is she?
She clapped her hands together in small, quick taps, a mischievous grin on her face. “Oh, goody! You don’t believe me! How old do you think I am?”
I blinked. “I don’t know … nineteen?”
“Nope! Guess again!” Amelie exclaimed, her face bright with amusement.
“Okay … um, twenty?”
She shook her head, giggling wildly.
This didn’t seem like much of a game. “I give up!”
“Well … I’m not exactly sure. But, if we’ve been keeping accurate track of time, I’d say I’m about 752, give or take a decade.”
I frowned, biting my lower lip. “I don’t get it.”
“We’re sorry, Evangeline. This isn’t as much fun for you as it is for Amelie,” Fiona apologized, her face softening with a sympathetic smile.
“Humans never did find this game fun,” Amelie said with a pout, her springy curls bobbing.
Humans? I stared blankly at her.
“Haven’t you figured it out yet? What we are?” she asked.
I glanced at the others’ solemn expressions. If they aren’t humans, what could they be? It hit me then. I started laughing. “Of course! You’re vampires!” Viggo’s twisted adaptation was still fresh in my mind, and now in my dreams.
“We won’t hurt you, I promise!” Amelie said earnestly, dropping to her knees in front of me to hold my hands. “We just want to be friends.” Her eyes darted to Caden, who was watching me with a concerned expression. I noticed Bishop beside him; he must have snuck back in at some point.
“Of course! You are,” I was on my feet now, replaying Viggo’s conversation, “beautiful, emotional creatures. Misunderstood.” I paced around the fire. “And you want to be friends, right? With quiet, meek Evangeline, who has no friends. People don’t even notice me. But you—” my arm swept around the circle in rare dramatic flair “—all you want to do is protect me.” I paused. “So this is how things manifest into dreams,” I mused, more to myself. The events from the day were merging with my … what? Deep inner fears of loneliness, perhaps? Forcing them to the surface in this fantasy of super–powered beings.
I stopped pacing in front of Caden. “And you.” I walked up to him. “Of course you’re in my dream. No guy has ever even so much as blinked in my direction. And here you are, so perfect, and beautiful, and sweet …” Caden’s eyes widened in surprise. “When I see you, I want to …” I didn’t know how to finish the sentence.
Luckily I didn’t have to, as Rachel suddenly appeared out of thin air to wrap possessive arms around Caden’s waist. His arm quickly found its place around her shoulder, albeit stiffly.
A vile bitterness bubbled up in me. “And of course you’re dating the gorgeous but trashy girlfriend that I could never compete with. Typical. Is this what you like?” I blurted at Caden, gesturing callously at Rachel. “She’s not a very nice person, you know.”
Bishop’s head fell back and he barked laughter.
“Clearly I’ve missed an interesting conversation,” Rachel said, smiling haughtily at me. Her voice didn’t carry the same hostility as the previous night. It was sickly sweet and therefore no more pleasant. “And I would love to hear the rest of this tirade of yours. However, we have visitors that I wasn’t able to deter. Eight of them.”
“Great! Invite them in!” I said, throwing my hands up in the air. “Another one of those monsters, maybe? Is that supposed to represent my ugly inner demon?”
Rachel turned to Caden, grimacing. “Has she lost it?”
“Let’s play it cool,” Caden suggested, ignoring both of us.
“And maybe we should get her out of here,” Fiona added, eyeing me warily.
Caden’s hand—silky smooth and on the cool side—latched onto mine, sending a frisson through my body. He tugged me after him, running toward one of the tunnels and pulling me with him into the blackness.
I ran blindly, unable to see in the darkness, until my foot snagged on something hard and I stumbled, smashing my shoulder against the wall. I yelped in pain.
“Quiet!” Caden hissed, but followed that with an apology.
“How can you see?” I grated through my teeth, rubbing at the burning pain in my shoulder.
He didn’t answer. Instead, he hoisted me up by one arm and continued running. My pain instantly vanished, as if his closeness had injected me with a shot of morphine.
Finally he stopped running and set me down gently. He shoved something soft into my hands. “Put those on,” Caden instructed in a whisper.
“Put what on?”
He mumbled something incoherent. Seconds later a flickering torch illuminated a tiny, low–ceilinged cave. “Change, please,” he whispered urgently, turning to face the exit. I could sense the apprehension in his voice. It was all too familiar from the other night.
I looked down at my hands, which held a ratty pair of pants and a shirt similar to what Amelie and Fiona wore. They’re disguising me. Okay, I’ll play along. I pulled on the pants. Unclasping my dress’s neck strap, I let the dress drop noiselessly to the ground, wishing it had allowed for a bra.
I had my arms through the sleeves of the shirt and was about to pull it over my head when Caden’s body suddenly crushed mine against the cave wall, his arms wrapping around me in a tight embrace.
“Just go along,” he whispered in my ear, close enough that his bottom lip grazed my earlobe, sending ticklish shivers through my body.
And then he was kissing me.
I had only ever kissed a boy once in my life—a chubby, awkward fourteen–year–old named Stewart who was staying in the same foster home as me. The kiss had been the result of a lost bet. It had been a dreadful, open–mouthed fish kiss and I was sure he would swallow my tongue whole. Even I—unseasoned in the make–out department—recognized that Stewart wasn’t going to get far with the ladies without vast improvement. This kiss was nothing like that. It began soft and inviting, only to intensify into urgency. Caden knew what he was doing.
Please don’t wake up right now! I pleaded with my subconscious, enjoying this too much.
“Who’s back here?” a voice called.
Caden’s grip around me tightened. His lips slid off mine as he guided my face into his strong, broad chest, away from the voice. I was relieved that my half–dressed body was well hidden against his.
“Do you mind? We’re busy,” Caden spat toward the voice.
“Indeed,” another voice said. “We’re looking for Jethro. These are his caves. You wouldn’t happen to know where he’s disappeared to?” The lilt in his voice screamed suspicion.
“Don’t know. This place was vacant when we stumbled across it a few weeks ago,” Caden replied, his tone icy.
“That’s odd … Jethro’s occupied these mountains since the war. I’m surprised he would abandon them.”
War? My palms began sweating at the mention of Jethro, the image of those cold, spidery eyes clear in my memory.
“What can I say? I guess they needed a change,” Caden answered, turning to caress my cheek with his cold nose, feigning ignorance. Another shiver ran through my body.
“What’s with all the torches around here?” a second male voice said. “You planning on burning someone?”
I tensed up. Caden’s arms gripped my body more securely. A warning squeeze.
“We like firelight. Now beat it, unless you wanna watch,” Caden said, his lips now running along the side of my neck, as if he were dismissing the two men. My knees buckled but he was prepared for my reaction, holding me upright.
“What’s that?” one of them suddenly hissed.
Caden pivoted smoothly, turning so I was completely hidden from them.
The dress, I thought, panicking. I scanned the cave floor but couldn’t see any green satin.
“It’s called foreplay. If you don’t know what comes next, I suggest you go find someone to teach you. The Council has a bunch of prepubescent girls to practice on.” Caden smirked, acting nonchalant, trying to steer them away from whatever they had noticed. It didn’t work.
“It looked like a wound.”
My eyes instinctively darted to the raw, reddened skin on my shoulder where I’d hit the cave wall. Why would that matter?
“You must be seeing things.” Caden’s voice was light and humorous.
There was a pause. I thought his efforts had paid off. They may have, had the sounds from a violent commotion not drifted in from the main room just then.
“Don’t—” Caden growled, but he didn’t have a chance to finish before being wrenched from me and launched across the room.
A tall man took three quick strides to stand in front of me, his hand reaching out to roughly grip my arm as he inspected my shoulder. His steely blue eyes searched my face, stopping briefly at the light sheen of sweat on my forehead before locking with my own terrified eyes. With his short, strawberry–blonde hair and chiseled face, I would have considered him attractive had he not been looking at me predatorily.
He let out a low whistle. “I’m seeing it but surely I don’t believe it.” He inhaled deeply. “I can’t smell it.” He paused in thought. “Where have you been hiding, little one?”