Fantasyland 03 Fantastical (2 page)

Those guys were
hot!

The white hatted guy was blond, blue-eyed
and g-o-r-g-e-o-u-s,
gorgeous
. The gray hatted guy had
dark-brown hair with a hint of burnish, brown eyes and he was
h-a-n-d-s-o-m-e,
handsome
.

And the black hatted guy had black hair,
longer than the other two, very tanned skin, much tanner than the
other two (who were nicely tanned, might I add), his features were
sharper, leaner, stronger but in all his darkness, clothes, skin,
hair, he had light blue eyes. Very light blue eyes.

Oh, and he was h-a-w-t,
hawt.

And the hottest thing about him was that he
had a scar curving from his temple down his cheekbone.

Ultra hot.

Wow.

Yum!

How was it that I was thirty-two years old
and I’d never had this good of a dream? It wasn’t fair. This dream
rocked!

“Heya,” I called to the hot guys.

“Cora, the exquisite,” the white hatted guy
called back, a blinding white smile on his full lips and I liked
what he called me. It was freaking
awesome.

“That’s me, Cora the exquisite,” I agreed,
smiling back.

“Cora!” Aggie chirped desperately, hopping
around frantically.

“
What?
” I snapped at Aggie then went
on, “Quit chirping at me, you crazy bird. I’m talking to the hot
guys.”

“You’re barely dressed,” a hard, rough,
deep, almost impossibly sexy voice came at me and I looked back
down at the men. “Go inside, woman, for all the gods’ sakes, and
cover yourself.”

It was the black hatted man.

I looked down at myself to see I was wearing
the same nightgown as the woman who had danced and tra la’ed
through my room. It was the most material I’d worn to bed in my
life. Hell, it was the most material I’d worn anywhere in my
life.

My eyes went to the black hatted man. “Dude,
I’ve got about seven thousand yards of material on up here. I’m
hardly barely dressed,” I told him.

I watched his brows shoot together giving
him a decidedly ominous (yet mesmerizing and definitely totally
sexy) look and then his eyes left me and his head turned to look at
the white hatted guy who had also tipped his chin down and was
looking back at him.

The gray hatted guy was looking up at
me.

“Are you well, Cora?” he called. “This is
not a man named, ‘Dude’. As you well know, this man is named
Noctorno.”

Oh dear. That wasn’t a great name. Why
couldn’t he have been Dashiell? Dashiell was a cool name. You could
shorten it to Dash and Dash was a super-cool name.

Oh well. It didn’t matter. Usually with any
good dream I had, I always woke up before the really good part. I
just hoped I got to at least kiss one of them. I didn’t care which.
My first choice was Noctorno (regardless of his name). My second
was the dark brown-haired one mainly because I wasn’t all that big
on the white hatted guy’s use of red as an accent color.

“I’m perfectly fine,” I answered. “Thanks
for asking,” I added as an afterthought because it was important to
be polite, even in a dream.

The gray hatted guy smiled a weirdly
surprised smile but Noctorno spoke again.

“If you’re well then you’re well enough to
walk into your room and don proper clothing,” he informed me.

Dream or not, this dude was way too bossy
and, might I add, a bit of a prude.

I put a hand on my hip and felt my eyes
narrow. “What’s your gig? It’s not like I’m flashing you.”

“Gig?” the gray hatted guy asked the white
hatted guy.

The white hatted guy shrugged and asked,
“Flashing?”

Noctorno ignored both of them and growled,
“Go inside and dress.”

“Make me,” I snapped back, bending over the
balustrade.

Uh-oh. Mistake. I knew this because he
scowled at me for approximately half a second then his lips curled
into a supremely sexy, supremely scary, definitely wicked
smile.

And, honest to God, dream or no, I felt that
smile
all over.

Yowza!

Then he straightened in his saddle like he
was going to dismount his glossy, muscled black beast but he
stopped when the white hatted guy said in a low voice, “Tor.”

Mm. That was better. Noctorno was not a good
name. But I could work with Tor.

At this point, two things happened.

Aggie flitted up into my line of sight and
chirped loudly at me, “
Cora!
”

And the second was the door was flung open
in the room behind me and the blonde woman came rushing into the
room, shouting excitedly, “Is that Dash?”

See! Totally told you that you could shorten
his name to Dash and it would be cool.

“No!” I heard a male shout from below and I
looked down in confusion to see the men wheeling their horses
around with what appeared to be sudden urgency. “Don’t let her see
me, Cora!” It was the white hatted man; I knew when he continued
talking.

“Don’t!” Aggie chirped, flying around my
body in agitation. “Don’t let her see him!”

“Dash!” the blonde woman yelled from inside
the room, she was run-dancing to the door.

“Holy crap, what’s going –?” I started.

“Hee-yah!” Noctorno barked, slapping his
hand hard on the white horse’s rump, so hard, the sound of the
crack of it hurt
my
behind and the white horse took off
running.

“Gods! Don’t let her –!” This was the voice
of the gray hatted man but it came the second the blonde woman
reached the balcony and shouted, “Dash! My love!”

“
No!
” the white hatted man’s horse
had started galloping away but he swung it around, shouting deep
and imperative and started galloping back but I was only paying
scant attention.

That was because the minute the blonde hit
the balcony and shouted her words, everything changed.

Just like that.

Snap.

One second, the flowers were bright, the sun
was shining, the day was beautiful.

The very next second, the skies were dark; a
pall was cast on the house, the flowers, the mountain-hill, the
forest and the river. All that was once vibrant and breathtaking
was now shrouded in darkness and gray.

And what made matters worse was that in the
very instant the darkness fell, thunder rent the air so loud and
eerie I, who had never in my life been frightened of thunder, was
instantly terrified (the immediate change of my surroundings
helped). Lightning cracked through the sky, multiple flashes coming
so fast it was like a strobe.

“Holy crap,” I whispered. “What on
earth?”

“Cora,” the blonde whispered, “what on
earth?”

Trust me to have a cool dream turn to
complete shit.

“Tor, Orlando…
go!
” I heard and
looked down as the blonde’s arms wrapped around me and the wind
came up, whipping our hair and our nightgowns so violently, the
material of our gowns snapped and cracked, biting into my skin
where it hit.

Yes, biting.

And that was kind of painful too.

What… on…
earth?

I held onto the blonde and looked down to
see the gray and black horses were riderless and the white hatted
guy, who lost his fancy hat in the wind (by the way) was
dismounting.

“Cora! Get her away from the window. Close
it tight! Hurry!” he shouted up to us before he darted into the
house.

“Now, Cora!” Aggie chirped before his little
body was swept away by the power of the wind.

“Aggie!” I yelled, reaching out to him as
his little body reeled away. As I watched him go, I knew at once
there was no hope to save Aggie so I had to save the blonde. “Come
on! Get inside!” I shouted over the wind and thunder, the strobes
of lightning flashing eerie on her hair and skin. “Hurry!” I
yelled, pushing her inside, “Now!”

I shoved her inside and was stepping over
the threshold at the same time reaching for the French doors when I
heard it. Over all the noise of the sudden storm, I heard a cackle.
An evil, bone-chilling cackle.

I turned and looked over my shoulder into
the air outside the balcony and at what I saw I screamed bloody
murder at the top of my lungs.

Love Match

We were racing through the forest, me and
Noctorno on his velvet black steed.

And I knew I was not dreaming.

I knew this because I could
feel
the
horse’s power pounding beneath me. I could
feel
Noctorno’s
strong arm clamped around my waist. I could
feel
the heat
and solidness of his body. I could
feel
the branches
whipping at my face, my hair, my body. I
could
feel the
driving, relentless rain beating into my flesh.

I could also hear the ongoing thunder, see
the continued lightning, hear the horse’s hooves thudding against
the forest floor.

And none of this was pleasant.

And all of it was lasting a long, long
time.

I didn’t know where I was. I had no idea how
I’d gotten here. I just knew I was there. This was not a dream.
This was real.

And it was a nightmare.

Lastly, I was fah-ree-king
terrified.

“
Duck!
” Noctorno barked in my ear but
he didn’t give me the chance to duck. His muscular chest pressed
into my back, pushing me down and I heard a branch whip over our
heads.

He lifted up, taking me with him but I
closed my eyes.

And I saw that… that…
thing
sweeping
away the blonde again.

I opened my eyes and bit my lip hard in an
attempt not to cry.

One of those things almost got me. If
Noctorno hadn’t made it to the bedroom and caught me about the
waist, pulling me back at the same time yanking a blade out of his
belt and slashing at it causing blue sparks to fly out of it rather
than blood, I would be gone like the blonde.

Gone over the side of the balustrade even
though the gray hatted man (otherwise known as Orlando) tried to
hold onto her as Noctorno was busy struggling against my
attacker.

But she didn’t fall to the cobbles. She flew
through the air, held by one of those
things.

And then she disappeared.

Poof!

The white hatted man, the man known as
Dashiell, was too late and he stood on the balcony and shouted his
heart wrenching fury but Noctorno didn’t watch. He battled the
monster that had hold of me until it yelped and slithered away so
fast it was almost like it wasn’t ever there.

“Safety!” Orlando shouted at Noctorno,
already running out of the room, pulling Dashiell with him. “Get
her to safety. The curse is upon us and no matter how you feel
about her, Tor, they want her too!”

“Gods, man, I
know!
” Noctorno shouted
back and carried me bodily out of the room after them, down the
hall, down the stairs and out the front door where he threw me up
on his horse, swung up behind me and away we went.

But I couldn’t think of that. It was too
horrific. It was too frightening.

I had to concentrate on not crying, not
trembling even though I was wet through and only wearing that
damned thin nightgown. I had to try and figure out how one night I
went to bed in my not very fabulous apartment after a day of my not
very fabulous life only to wake up in another
fucking
world!

I mean, I was an administrative assistant!
How did I end up on a horse, in a forest, in a hellacious
thunderstorm with a man wearing breeches, for God’s sake?

As I struggled with these thoughts, the
horse drove ever onward and we rode silently through the forest as
the rain pummeled our skin.

Then Noctorno turned the animal and we
started climbing the mountain-hill. Except here it was less of a
hill and more of a mountain. The terrain was part-scrub, part-trees
and part-rock. We climbed and climbed, the horse laboring with the
effort and our weight but it seemed to know where it was going.

Then suddenly, we were in a big cave.

And just as suddenly, Noctorno was off his
horse and his huge hands were at my waist and he was yanking me
down.

Yes,
yanking
me down. He didn’t take
any care at all and I yelped in surprise and pain as the cold
stiffness of my limbs uncurled and my bare feet hit the shards of
stone that was the cave floor.

Then he grabbed onto my upper arms and shook
me.

Shook me!

My head snapped back and forth and
everything!

“What are you doing!” I screeched, grabbing
onto his (steely, might I add) biceps to try to get him to stop and
to try to hold myself steady.

He stopped shaking me and his dark face came
to within an inch of mine.

“How could you be such a fool?” he barked
and I shrunk away from the fury in his voice and on his face.

“Wh… what?”

“You knew she wasn’t supposed to see him on
her wedding day,” he clipped, his strong fingers still gripping me
tightly.

“How’s she supposed to marry him if she
doesn’t see –?” I started.

“
Prior!
” he spat on another
shake.

“Stop shaking me!” I yelled and he did, only
to get in my face again.

“You knew it’d bring on the curse,” he
growled. “You knew and you just stood there –”

I interrupted him with, “I didn’t know!” and
his scowl grew more ferocious. “I didn’t!” I yelled. “I’m an
administrative assistant! I don’t know anything.”

His brows knitted dangerously over narrowed
eyes. “You knew, Cora, you
knew.
”

“I didn’t!” I snapped. “And anyway, if he
wasn’t supposed to see her, why did you all come riding up all
fancied up in feathers and shit on the wedding day?
That
wasn’t too smart.”

“She wasn’t supposed to be there, you know
that,” he fired back.

I blinked. “She wasn’t?”