Nightmares in Fire

I don't know what's happening, if Aiden's using this power on me to seduce me, or something. But he feels amazing. My skin tingles because he's close.

Then he buries his nose in my neck and sucks in a breath. My head drops back with the surge of desire he's creating by being so close.

"Screw going inside, are you ready?" he whispers against my jaw.

I nod. I can't get the words out.

I heave a sigh of relief as the air fractures, tingles, trembles. My body feels slack, and electrified.

Aiden's lips find mine, his fingers dive into my hair. The power sucks into him, then rushes for me, fills me. His words, whispered against my lips, penetrate my skin.

Torturing me.

Bringing me to life.

"Venit ad me spiritus vitæ. Spiritus, reple me tenebrae. Fac nobis . . . Venit ad me spiritus vitæ . . ."

My body jerks as if electrocuted. A scream tears into my throat, but doesn't pass my lips. I can't breathe, can't think. Then the pain and terror pass.

As Aiden drops his chin, he continues to whisper against my neck. The power sinks into my pores to circle and lash under my skin, then surge back out to tangle in his.

Back and forth, over and over, until I can't tell where my skin stops and his begins.

Then, finally, wonderfully, and for the second time in my life, I am alive.

*****

"Breathe, Kate. You have to breathe." It's Aiden's voice, I think...?

I blink.

The world is a glowing ball of orange fire. Shape with arms and legs like people dance inside the flames, burning up, screaming. There's a scream from a single voice that is a dozen voices. A hundred. But I'm outside it. I'm alive, feeding it. The screaming doesn't touch me.

I blink.

The fire pulses and grows. Turns from orange, to blue, to white. Becomes heat that grows eyes and hands and becomes a part of me. And I'm a part of it. I am flame. I am heat.

I blink.

Searing hot outside of me morphed into a playful warm that embraces me. I laugh with the only kind of happy I ever want to be. And others laugh with me. Others don't. But I don't care. Around, and around, and around on the carousel. I am the best of everything, and the worst. And only the ones that can enjoy that with me can join me in the fire.

I blink.

There's something touching me. Someone. And others I want to tell the truth to. But I can only do one at a time. And the someone isn't letting up. He's right. This is the way it should be. This is right. This is where I belong. I'm laughing again, pushing away the sick feeling inside, inviting the flames. Because they're ebbing. Cooling. And I don't want that. I don't want my life back.

I blink.

Life seeps out of me slowly, blood through an open wound. I know it's bad, but I can't care.

I blink.

I blink.

I blink.

The fire is back. And no one is happier to see it than me.

*****

Reality returns in stages. Like the tide, it edges up, then retreats. And like the tide, I feel it wash over me, then move away.

The first wave of returning to myself is sound, a rhythmic pound followed by drawn out ripple of water sliding over, around something.

Someone—a guy—shouts close by. Short and sharp. His voice on edge in a way that makes me feel like I need to open my eyes.

Then my wave draws out and I fade for a while, but the next surge offers both touch and sound.

The touch is warmth at my back, shadows everywhere, and the sound is laughter—crazy laughter. Mine and someone else's. And there's fire. Heat and flickering light. And the sizzling touch.

Everything that's me retreats into darkness again, but the next time I'm thrown onto the beach of this high, all of my senses tumble with me, snapping into place, one by one.

I blink.

Real waves rush and pound under the bustle of a crowd. Then there's something hot. I'm reaching for something—someone? I can't tell because my eyes still flutter. I want.

A deep roar.

A girl screams.

A dozen voices laugh.

My eyes fly open.

The ocean's twenty feet in front of me, waves small, but frothing, pounding around a boulder in the sand. On every side feet thump, arms rise, heads throw back, shrieks of pleasure pierce the dark.

"It's too much. Get her out of here."

Harsh breathing flutters in my ear and arms slide around me, pull me along.

I stumble.

"C'mon, Beautiful." Aiden's whispers in my ear, his voice warm. But it's an order. His arm is steel around my waist, forcing my stumbling feet across the sand.

I try to find his face in the flickering light and shadow cast by flames from behind us, but instead find a crowd, a seething mass on every side, wide eyes follow us, cheekbones looking hollow in the uneven dark. We're surrounded.

Aiden takes a grip on my wrist and pulls me between bodies, and around grasping hands. They all laugh and call my name, reach for me—and Aiden won't let me stop even though I want to feel their fingers on my skin.

"W-wait—" I pitch forward in the sand and Aiden catches me, keeps me on my feet.

"Hurry!"

Then we break through the edge crowd and we're running, our names bouncing off the air behind us. The sand gets heavier, spraying under my toes, into my boots, slapping the back of my legs as I run. Or try to. Aiden has a hand at my elbow, urging me on.

I look ahead, expecting to see the dunes, and the dock, and the burned out warehouse but stumble, disoriented. We're on a narrow beach I don't recognize, overlooked by tumbled piles of rocks and a short cliff off to our left. Aiden's pulling me towards a thin path that serpentines between the boulders. When we reach it the ground beneath our feet turns from shifting, to near-cement, sand hard-packed by countless feet.

I'm laughing when Aiden hisses a demand for me to focus. I snap my mouth shut and fly up the path right on his heels, until we reach a parking lot at the top and dash for his car. Still stifling giggles, my skin throbs and tingles, tickled by warm hands.

I feel amazing.

"Get in." Aiden's voice is sharp, dark, and demanding.

In contrast to how I feel, it's his voice that fits the night.

What happened? Why doesn't he feel amazing? Why is he frowning like that?

*****

ENJOYING THE READ? Because this book is complete, it doesn't need powerstones anymore--but my entry for the WebNovel Spirity Awards (2021) does: LOVING THE FORBIDDEN PRINCE. Please consider giving your votes or gifts there instead! And thank you for reading, no matter which book you love!