“What happened?” I whispered as my eyes roamed over the space. Being in this dimension sent my red flags up now that I knew demons lie in wait. Dorian said I had to keep my wits about me; I didn’t think that’d be a problem. I was acutely aware of my surroundings and the shadows lurking within them.
“I can jump realities as easily as taking a step. It would have taken too long for you to concentrate and jump, so I took you with me,” Dorian said as he stepped closer to me. His gray eyes swiveled as he skimmed through the darkened landscape. The muscles in his shoulders tensed making my muscles reacted as well. Turning my back to him, I looked in the direction he stared. Soft moans and cries drifted on the air like a haunting melody.
“What’s that?” I said in a hushed tone. Dorian shifted closer, his body so near I could feel the hardness of it against my back. My tense muscles reacted, but not in fear, it was more of a nervous excitement. The feeling could be chalked up to having a big strong man at my back while I was in a scary place—something resembling security. At least I wouldn’t allow my mind to categorize the feeling as anything else.
As I tried not to analyze the way my body reacted to Dorian’s, he stepped around me and placed his massive form between me and the direction of the moans. His shoulder length dark hair blew in the always present breeze. My eyes roamed the width of his broad shoulders and traveled lower where his waist tapered. When my eyes wanted to travel further south and appraise his behind, Dorian turned to face me. Snapping my eyes up, I met his gaze. The smirk on his face let me know I failed in masking my surreptitious appraisal of his body.
“It’s just ghosts,” Dorian said.
Hearing the word ghosts no longer freaked me out. Bridget Downing was my first encounter with the spirit world and helping her was rewarding in its own way. Of course Ian was still free, so justice had not been served yet, but at least now we knew who was to blame.
I hadn’t talked to anyone in the council about Ian, but I was sure they already knew. Murderous vampires didn’t slip under their noses without them having inkling as to who was responsible. Again, I wondered if I should say something about my bond with Ian. I was at the point where I’d been in Moon for so long I’d be questioned and lectured as to why I didn’t tell my council first thing after arriving, but maybe it would be worth it. They would no doubt bend my predicament to act in their favor, and I’d get my ass chewed out, but perhaps it would help if they knew the one particular vampire behind all of this. As far as I knew, the NAWC was only dealing with the VC. The VC wasn’t too interested in capturing Ian Despereaux, which made me second guess my safety during the gifting of my blood. I ran all of my problems around in my head, lending at least a moment of thought to each one, and then snorted in derision at my lame attempt to live a simple and peaceful life. Life should come with a manual because making decisions on my own only led me down the wrong path. That thought bothered me more than all of the others combined. I used to be smart, at least with my choices, but the circuits in my brain must have shorted out within the past month. I hated myself for falling for Ian’s tricks. I hated I wanted to prove I could still be helpful to the FPD and had centered myself right in the middle of the brew debacle. But most of all, I hated that I didn’t seem to know who I was anymore.
“Gwen,” Dorian called.
I blinked a few times and tucked my self-loathing back into the dark corners of my mind where hopefully they’d stay locked up and leave me alone. Looking back and regretting the choices I’ve made was like a mental right hook to the brain. I couldn’t take back what I had done; all I could do was be smarter about future decisions.
“Sorry, I spaced out,” I told Dorian. My eyes absorbed every one of his masculine features. His face was square with a strong jawline framed by his long brown hair. His nose had a perfect slope and just below were his full lips, parted as he took air into his lungs. The rise and fall of his broad chest caught my attention. I dragged my gaze downwards and trailed my eyes along the paths his muscles made under the tight t-shirt. Everything about him was beautiful, even his smoky eyes which freaked me out to begin with, were every bit as stunning as the rest of him. Masculine, confident and—watching me watch him. My cheeks burned with my embarrassment.
He regarded me with a look I’d seen a few other times, an expression I tried to ignore, but at the moment, I couldn’t look away from. I was a woman who noticed attractive men, but I would never act on those feelings. I loved Aiden as sure as the night is long. But Dorian stirred something deep inside of me, and we connected on a level I hadn’t with Aiden. It wasn’t easy to ignore something that profound, especially when it was staring at me like I was the sexiest girl in the world.
Dorian’s gentle features turned hard, and he stepped away. “What is it about him?” he asked. He didn’t need to say Aiden’s name, I knew which him he was referring to. I was happy his back was to me, so I wouldn’t have to look into his agitated eyes. I was ashamed I allowed that closeness to even happen. It led Dorian on, and I betrayed Aiden in the process.
“I’m not talking about this. You’re my teacher, and I’m your student, let’s just leave it at that. Please?” I begged. My body had a tendency to rule while my brain took a backseat to my urges. Luckily, I allowed rational thought to smack my interest in Dorian to the curb. Our little intimate moment still caused damage that couldn’t be undone, but it could have been so much worse. I may have led Dorian on, but in time he’d appreciate that it didn’t go further. If he kissed me, it wouldn’t change anything other than another scoop of self-loathing from me. I didn’t trust him enough to think anything could ever transpire between us. Sure, I was attracted to him, any girl would be, but that wasn’t enough. I assumed the connection we felt was based on the fact that we both dealt with the dead.
Dorian looked over his shoulder. “You won’t be able to ignore it forever.”
*****
We walked down the path in complete silence, the awkwardness between us back with a vengeance. Dorian returned to being distant and cold. The first couple “safe zones” were pointed out, and he explained how to decipher what qualified them as safe. A slight shimmer, like a heat mirage, lingered around the spots, barely noticeable in the thick fog that hung in the air. After that, Dorian just pointed the areas out.
I wanted to say something, anything, that would fix what happened between us, but no words seemed sufficient enough. I ran through the many excuses in my head, and they all came off lame and cliché. “It’s not you, it’s me” and “I just want to be friends” weren’t going to cut it. Nothing I said would make one bit of difference. Dorian let his guard down and so did I. We both knew beyond a shadow of a doubt we were attracted to each other. And that cat could never be shoved back in the proverbial bag. So, I’d have to settle for my lessons to be taught with sarcasm and resentment. With luck, I’d be on my way back to Flora before too long, and Dorian would be back to escorting souls to wherever. We’d go back to being strangers, which was for the best.
“Stop,” Dorian ordered.
Skidding to a halt, I looked up. He was staring at something just ahead. Following his gaze, I caught a glimpse as something dark stepped out from behind a tree. It didn’t have any discernible facial features. The only noticeable things were its limbs.
“Is that a ghost?” I whispered.
Dorian’s fingers wound around my arm, his grip tightening the longer he stared at the black figure. “Demon.”
I stared wide eyed at the demon, scared and fascinated. I expected hooved feet, claws and horns, not an opaque shadow. The demon took jerky steps towards us, sending my fear over the edge and my heart slamming against my chest it moved closer and closer. Its head lurched from side to side as its feet stepped closer and closer. The air around us grew unbearably cold. A cloud of mist formed in front of me as I breathed. Dorian jerked me to the side and broke into a run with me tripping behind him to keep up. The demon let loose a deafening wail behind us, like nails on a chalkboard.
Turning left, we ran down the open field, that would house downtown Moon, but in this realm the buildings didn’t exist. I risked looking back to see how close the demon was and ended up tripping over a stump. My body crashed to the ground, my face smashing into the earth hard. Dorian yanked me up, and we continued to run. The demon was maybe eight feet behind us and gaining more ground by the second. It was surprisingly fast for how jerky and distorted its movements were.
Dorian grabbed me and shoved me into a tall oak tree. I had a split second to scream before I disappeared into darkness. The tree vanished along with the grassy field we were just running through. My eyes fought in vain to penetrate the opaqueness. Shadows upon shadows drenched the space in blackness, a bottomless pit of nothing. I turned in circles, but all I could see was the same impervious dark in every direction. Was the tree a safe zone? Is this what they looked like behind the shimmer? I didn’t have the time or the right frame of mind to observe the tree before Dorian pushed me into it. Fear of the demon washed away any confusion in my mind. I didn’t care where I was so long as the demon wasn’t with me. Then a terrible thought trickled into my mind, and all of a sudden the thick blackness blanketing me didn’t seem so harmless. The demon had also been a black figure, was he here with me? Watching me right now while I swiveled in circles?