Dream of Me: Book 1 The Dream Makers Series (30 page)

Dair heard the quick intake of her breath as he settled her tightly against him. He leaned down until his mouth was next to her ear. He briefly took a breath, momentarily enraptured by her scent. “Put your arms around my neck, Princess,” he whispered, letting his lips brush up against her skin as he spoke. Dair loved the way she responded to him. It let him know that he wasn’t the only one affected. She was just as lost as he was.

He recognized the song that was playing and began to sing it softly to her. The words were so incredibly perfect for how he felt, it was as though the writer had plucked Dair’s thoughts from his mind as he crafted the song.

“You are beautiful, baby undeniable.

You are warmth, completely sunshinable.

And you’ve captured me.

You are my weakness, baby temptation,

You are completeness, utter salvation.

And you’ve saved me.

I won’t deny it; I can no longer breathe,

Without you beside me,

This world I would rather leave.

I need you baby, like crops need the rain,

My existence was dark,

But since you there’s been no pain.

You are desire, baby irrevocable

You are sensation, totally strokeable,

And you’ve ensnared me.

You are mine, baby unsharable

You are splendor, wholly stareable.

And you’ve humbled me.”

The words poured out of Dair as though he had written them himself and he meant them with every fiber of his being. Serenity was everything the song described and more. To him, she was it. No other existed to him. She pulled herself closer to him and his stomach tightened as he thought about her fate. Dair didn’t want to think about that. He wanted to be here in the moment with his love. He wanted to build memories with her that they could carry with them from this life into the next.

Dair felt her lips on his neck and he fought the urge to pull back and claim her lips with his own. Serenity tested every ounce of control that he never thought he could lose. He would give her whatever was in his power to do so, and he’d even try to give her what was not in his to give. As the song ended, he pressed a tender kiss to her jaw before whispering, “I love you.”

S
erenity wished she had more control over her emotions when it came to Dair, but when he spoke those words with such conviction, she was lost. Pulling back to look up at him, her eyes were slightly blurry with unshed tears. His hands came up to cup her face and his eyes held hers. They didn’t say anything. There were no words in that moment. Dair leaned down until his lips were pressed to hers. The music played around them and other bodies moved as they were still in the current. For Serenity, in that moment with his large hands holding her and his full lips holding hers captive, there was only Dair. He crowded every thought pushing out any distractions. The kiss lasted longer than was probably socially acceptable but she couldn’t bring herself to care.

When he finally pulled away, she saw the sly smile on his sensual mouth. He knew what he did to her. She knew he could feel it, the way her world suddenly zeroed in on him, and he loved it.

“Your voice is beautiful,” she said, finally breaking the intense moment.

“I have a slight advantage; being immortal leaves a lot of time for practice,” he told her with a wink.

Okay, so the wink was just about her undoing. Nothing should be that sexy. Truly Dair should be kept out of close proximity from any female because if he went around flashing that lust-worthy smile and winking, he would create a mob of women desperate to have just a few seconds of his attention. He took her hand and led her from the dance floor to an empty space at one of the makeshift bars. Serenity took the water he had ordered from the bartender and downed the whole glass. She couldn’t help it. Her throat was dry and she needed to occupy her mouth with something before she lost control and occupied it with Dair.

“You alright?” he asked her as he brushed her hair back away from her face. His fingertips grazed her neck causing her to shiver.

She needed to take a breather for just a few minutes and clear the lust induced fog that was clouding her brain. She nodded. “I’m good, just need to run to the ladies room real quick.”

As she started to walk away, Dair caught her hand and she looked back at him. His eyelashes swept down as he gave her a hooded look. “Don’t be long; I’ve missed you today.”

Serenity was pretty sure she whimpered at his words and the emotion his voice held. From anyone else it would have been cheesy, but from Dair it was as smooth and effortless as breathing. The only thing she could give him was a nod. That’s the only thing her scrambled brain could manage. She turned back, letting her hand slip from his, and headed to the ladies' room.

Serenity stood at the bathroom sink staring at the person who looked back at her. Her hands were sweaty and her heart was pounding out a rhythm that she was pretty sure was to the tune of
I love Dair
. It was on the tip of her tongue when he had been holding her and singing to her on the dance floor. Why hadn’t she said it? The only thing she could come up with was fear. She was afraid to care so deeply for him, knowing that she might lose him. As she turned on the cold water, Serenity let out a steadying breath and then stuck her hands under the cool stream. She cupped her hands to gather the water and then splashed it onto her face. Serenity was surprised no steam rose off of her heated skin. It helped, a little. She at least was beginning to feel like she could breathe again, and she might not combust if Dair winked at her again. But there was no guarantee.

Serenity was drying her hands when she felt her cell phone vibrate in her back pocket. She pulled it out and looked at the screen. It was a local number but not one that she recognized. Normally she might not have answered it, but for some reason, she felt compelled to.

“Hello?”

“Serenity,” Emma’s voice came through the phone but Serenity could tell immediately that something was wrong.

“Emma, are you okay? Are you sicker? Do you need to go to the hospital?” Her mind was running a million miles an hour as she considered the possibilities of why the girl would have called her. Serenity immediately thought it had to do with the fact that she hadn’t been feeling well. She hadn’t even considered that it could be worse―much, much worse.

“I hate to ask this of you, but could you please come to my aunt’s house?” Emma’s voice shook as she spoke and the tears she was crying were evident in the quick intake of breaths that she took in between words.

“Of course, I’m on my way. Are you okay?” Serenity asked again because she needed to know that Emma wasn’t hurt.

“I’m not really sure how to answer that.”

Emma’s words were drowned out by a slurred voice. “Quit your chit chatten, little girl, and tell yer friend to hurry up and git here.”

Serenity’s stomach dropped to her feet as she heard the voice was Rat’s. At that point, she was no longer thinking. She was simply on auto pilot. In hindsight she would realize that she should have taken a few minutes to go and tell her aunt and uncle and Dair, but her only thought was get to Emma. She flew out of the bathroom. Instead of going back out through the large room full of people, she raced toward the other direction, down the hall, and out the back door. The cold air rushed into her lungs as she slammed through the door and into the night. Serenity hadn’t bothered to stop and grab her coat, and as she reached her car she was thankful that she’d taken her car key off the key chain and stuffed it in her front pocket. She hadn’t wanted to carry a purse with her and all her keys were too big to fit comfortably in her pockets.

Her hands were shaking as she reached into her pocket to get the key. The ridges got caught on the fabric and she heard it rip when she forced the key out. The lock was frozen so Serenity had to be careful not to break the key off attempting to unlock the door. Her mind was filling up with horrible scenarios as she leaned down and breathed warm breath over the key hole, all the while praying that she would get there in time. In time for what, she didn’t know. She just knew she needed to hurry. Mercifully, she felt the key finally slip into the lock after her fifth attempt. Serenity was pretty sure something or someone was helping her along because she had never moved as fast as she did in those few minutes. She threw herself into the seat, closing the door and starting the car at the same time. She had it in reverse and was flooring the small car through the ice-covered parking lot faster than she could sing the first ten presidents of the song she’d learned in the fifth grade. For whatever reason, when she was extremely stressed, that song popped into her head and she would sing it in her mind. Weird, she knew.

Her car was on the road to Mildred’s house in a flash, slipping and sliding, but somehow, miraculously, she didn’t end up in a ditch. There were no other cars on the street, which was a massive blessing. Something about the dark night seemed so sinister in that moment. The emptiness of all the parking lots and the lack of people loitering around the stores was eerie. Considering everything within the city limits was practically in walking distance of each other, Serenity was sure that Mildred’s house had somehow jumped up and walked clear across the county as long as it was taking her to get there. Her fingers tapped a beat to the worry that was bouncing around in her head. She wanted to kick herself for not going and getting Emma. Serenity should have known that Mildred would be throwing some sort of sick soiree with the vermin she called friends.

Her hand slammed down against the steering wheel as she shouted, “DAMMIT.” How could she have been so foolish? And now because Serenity had talked herself out of picking the little girl up, Emma was stuck in the hands of those monsters. Where the hell was Raphael she wondered? She couldn’t imagine that he would leave Emma, especially if Mildred’s friends were around.

Serenity’s foot pressed harder on the gas pedal as her destination came into view. She hit the driveway at a speed that caused her low front end to bounce off the uneven concrete. Serenity didn’t care. All she could think about was getting to Emma. She threw the car in park and was out the door without even realizing that she hadn’t shut the engine off. Her feet pounded against the unforgiving frozen ground, causing a jarring pain to shoot up her legs. She ignored it. She also ignored the pain of her shoulder slamming into the front door as she turned the knob and shoved her way into the house.

With all of the scenarios she had built up in her mind, she hadn’t come close to hitting the mark. The scene before her was like something out of a horror movie. The room was dark with only a small lamp casting a low light. Serenity quickly found Emma standing against the far wall with her eyes wide and her body stiff. Raphael stood behind her but she could tell no one else could see him. In that moment she wanted to yell and scream at the angel. What the hell was he doing just standing there? How could he not be getting Emma out of the house while a drunk, high―and who knew what else―mad man waved a gun around muttering under his breath. Rat didn’t even seem to register that Serenity had entered the room. Mildred sat slightly dazed on the couch, her eyes shifting from person to person. She truly didn’t seemed bothered by Rat or his gun. Serenity wondered why people like this were allowed to live. They only existed to hurt others. Their lives seemed like a serious waste of space, and she knew those thoughts were utterly hateful, but she couldn’t bring herself to care as she watched tears stream down Emma’s face.

“Mildred,” Serenity practically growled. “What have you done?” She pointed at Rat and her lips curled up like a vicious predator ready to devour its prey. “Why would you let that man in here with a gun while your niece is in the house?”

Her voice finally jarred Rat from his demented rambling as he stopped his pacing and turned his head slowly towards her. It reminded Serenity of a scary movie she had once watched where a demon had crawled across the ceiling and then stopped to turn its horrible face on its victim just as slowly.  She battled with herself to stand her ground, to not step back away from the evil that stood before her. And that’s what he was―pure evil. There was something in his eyes that hadn’t been there the first time she’d met him. Almost as if Rat wasn’t the only one home, something else had taken up residency in his body and was influencing his actions.

“Pretty, pretty, pretty.” His voice was slightly higher than last time, and Serenity hadn’t thought she could be any more freaked out. She was wrong. “Pretty.” His body turned towards hers as he whispered the word that would now be forever burned in her mind, in that voice. Serenity was sure that if anyone ever called her pretty again she would vomit on them.