Relish: A Vicious Feast Book 2 (13 page)

She lifted her melted-chocolate gaze to meet my black one. Her smile wobbled. “You’re not mad at me?”

“Why would I be?”

She looked beyond my shoulder, the bolt on her eyebrow so similar to Luka’s twitched. I didn’t need to turn around to know she glanced at the two animatedly talking siblings. Demitri joined them. Something about tomorrow’s sound check.

Not waiting for a response, I hugged her. She gasped before she returned the gesture with a tight squeeze. “I never blamed you for Luka’s stupidity.”

“I heard that,” he said.

Phoenix and I stepped away from each other, laughing.

“I’m so happy you’re back. I missed you.” She gave both my cheeks a kiss.

Flustered, I scratched the back of my neck and spoke the truth. “I’m happy too.”

All was right with the world. Then I turned toward one of the many couches in the sprawling expanse of the suite. Messy-haired Dray sat quietly, watching, observing. I gave him a smile and he returned it.

“Welcome home.”

Warmth spread all over my chest faster than a spilled drink. I turned in a tight circle. Luka and Yana continued their conversation about band business, having moved from the door to one of the couches. Demitri and Phoenix stood by the fireplace, sharing a kiss as if all alone. And Dray waited patiently for me to join him so he could regale me with the latest facts I’d missed in my absence. Here, inside an incredibly expensive suite with one of the most popular bands in the world, their screaming fans braving the winter chill outside, was where I belonged.          

C
HAPTER
F
OURTEEN
D
REAMING

The thing pushes my body to run into the dense woods. My hair flaps behind me like a flag in the wind. I shove away low hanging branches. Breathing hard, I ram through the forest without thinking twice about the possibility of slamming into a tree. Or should I say, the thing in possession of me does. It runs to survive. Its anger and fear fills me with roiling nausea. Images of death and destruction choke me.

My consciousness pushes against the possession, but it has embedded itself in too deep. It has taken over and without the help of the old woman with the blade, I’m powerless. So we run.

A man’s voice reaches my ears. He calls out to me, but I can’t respond, not without control. I speak to it. Beg it to release me. It only laughs in my face—vile, slithering laughter.

There must be something I can do. Something that can stop it from getting away. I struggle to no avail. I’m nothing without my body. It knows this as it dodges trees and prickly bushes. The adrenaline pumping through my veins keeps it going, regardless of the cuts the woodland produces on my skin.

I scream in terror. It screams in delight.

It looks over its shoulder, spotting the man giving chase. His hands reach out, groping at air. I feel my heart pumping. I hear my pants. Yet I’m detached from all of it. I don’t give in to the panic bleeding into my consciousness coming from the creature. I think. I concentrate. Attempt to speak.

You…
I form the word. It’s difficult, taking a good deal of strength.

Shut up, whore!
It answers.

The response gives me hope. If I can speak to it then maybe I have a chance.

I let go of paying attention to what’s happening outside myself and gather my consciousness into a tight ball. Sparks ignite like striking flint. Once. Twice. Then the energy I’ve gathered surges, allowing me to form words.

This is a barrier of light.

No evil shall pass

This barrier of might,

 Evil's eyes shall burn

At its sight.

My energy wanes at the first recitation. I must repeat it twice over for the spell to work. I try again, forcing my consciousness to form the words. A maniacal laugh echoes in my mind followed by a quick recitation of the words:

To be protected from you,

This magic charm I will do,

With these words I bind thee,

For you to let me be.

Flames consume me.

I jerked awake. My head lifted from the crook of a broad shoulder. I was sprawled on top of a naked chest. The silk of a negligée served as a thin barrier from complete skin to skin contact. I fought to catch my breath. My heart hammered so hard, it was impossible for the body beneath me not to notice. I lie still. A large, callused hand closed around mine.

“You were dreaming,” Luka said as he brought my palm to his lips. We stretched out on my bed in my apartment instead of one of the Hilton hotel rooms Eli escorted me to after my visit with the band. A thin sheet covered the lower half of our bodies. Morning sunlight slanted in from the window behind me.

It was always sunny when I dreamt about Luka. I kinda liked it.

“I’m still dreaming,” I responded, attempting to untangle my hand from his. He held on until my palm spread flat above his heart. Its steady beats helped in calming the racing of my own. “What the hell is going on with me?”

“I never knew your dreams could be so intense.”

I pushed up enough to scowl at him. “If you’re my subconscious then you should know about them.”

“Hey,” he scolds. “I’m new here.”

“Some help you are. And why the hell am I on top of you with your arms around me?” As if to prove my point, his arm around my waist crushed me closer to his side. This time I gasped for a whole different reason. My curves followed the contours of his hard muscle. In that moment, I couldn’t see myself being anywhere else.

“This is your dream, remember?” He kissed the top of my head and sighed. “I’m just happy I get to hold you again. You left me pretty frustrated on the couch the last time.”

“Ditto. But I wasn’t about to have sex with you in my dreams.” I slapped at his chest half-heartedly, my mind still on the other dream. I resettled myself against him, squirming closer. I needed the heat he provided.

“I’ll have to work just a little harder then.”

“That’s not the only thing hard about you,” I said based on the part of his anatomy touching my thigh.

He must have caught the half-heartedness in my attempt to change the subject when he said, “You’re not distracting me this time.” When I didn’t respond right away, he resumed our previous topic I hoped to avoid. “That other dream. It’s different from the others. It’s like you were fighting against something.”

My cheek rubbed against his peck when I nodded. Might as well go along with it. This was just a dream after all. What harm could talking things through be? I sucked in a breath and let it out slowly before responding. “It’s the same dream with the man chasing me. That much I know. But it’s a little different now. Like the perspective is different. I’m not the one panicking anymore. It was like…” I shivered. Luka drew soothing circles along the line of my spine. It helped me say what I couldn’t earlier. “It was like something was inside me, controlling my body.”

His hold around me tightened. “Just let it go. Listen to my heartbeat. That is real. Hold on to it.”

My forehead creased. “But you’re only a dream.”

“I’m a better one.”

“Right.”

As if feeling my need for a subject change, he said, “So you took the job.”

His phrasing sounded more like a question to my ears. I chafed. “Don’t judge.”

When he chuckled, his body moved against mine in the most delicious way. My nipples hardened to painful peaks, but in such a comfortable position, I was too lazy to chase after the desire. Instead I ran my foot up and down his shin, reveling in the feel of the prickly hair there.

“Why did you refuse when in the end you’d say yes anyway?”

His question pulled me further away from naughty thoughts. “Because I was stupid enough to think I could run away.”

“You’re not stupid.”

“I feel that way sometimes, especially knowing how weak I am against you…I mean the
real
you.”

The dream ended before the Luka of my subconscious could respond. I sat up in the massive bed I remembered falling into after my all-nighter. All the photos for Rebel were now safely in Diana’s inbox. Dawn barely crept into the heavy curtains I pulled closed last night after Eli led me to one of the rooms reserved for the support staff of the tour. Did I actually think they’d give me a suite? Fat chance of that. I worked for them, so it was only natural I’d be relegated to the same accommodations as the rest of the staff. Hey, the room was still in a five star hotel, so I couldn’t complain. I wouldn’t have stood for preferential treatment anyway. The fact that I got to travel for free and got paid doing what I loved was more than enough. Except, I secretly hoped when I said yes to this whole thing that I’d at least be on the same floor as Luka. I guess my dreams would have to do.

I sighed, scratching a fingertip down my patch. I curled into a ball on my side in an attempt to catch the last strings of sleep. I didn’t need to be officially up for another couple of hours. Less than five minutes later, I was on my back again staring at the ceiling. This sucked balls. Wired after two equally weird dreams, I shoved at the stifling comforter and stumbled into the shower. Banking a couple hours sleep wouldn’t be enough to function properly for the rest of the day. I’d gone on less, but I needed to be firing on all cylinders if I wanted to keep up with Vicious. No point in running myself ragged this early on in the final leg of the tour. So, after getting dressed and checking if my patch was on tight, I tucked my keycard in my pocket and left my room in search of coffee. The dining room should be open by now. If not, then I’d find a café. Or maybe they were still giving out the free stuff outside. Hmmm. I paused. Interacting with the fans. Did I really want to brave that sea of crazy this early? Maybe they’d mellowed some after a long night. It would definitely make for interesting shots.

The weight of my camera around my neck solidified the sense of familiarity seeing the band again brought. Each step toward the elevator reeked of my newfound confidence. I punched the down button and waited for the cab to arrive. Yana expected me to be at sound check for behind-the-scenes photos, but that wasn’t until ten. With time to kill, I could explore what Canary Warf had to offer after my stint with the fans. Maybe I could even walk all the way to the O2. It wasn’t that far from the hotel. Surely there would be lots to explore at The Dome.

When the doors parted, the sight of Luka in a cable knit sweater and jeans greeted me. My throat closed when my gaze took in his slicked-back curls still damp from a recent shower. He was in the process of running his fingers through them. Those rings he wore glinted in the light raining down on him. I had the photo snapped in less than five seconds. It took everything in my power not to rush into the cab just to get a whiff of him when I put the camera down.

He said my name with that sexy lopsided grin of his.

“Luka,” I said, suddenly annoyed. My forehead actually hurt from crumpling tightly as I stepped into the elevator. “Shouldn’t you be more careful,” I added when I reached to press the Lobby button only to find out it was already lit. I jabbed at it again anyway.

“And why should I do that?” I could feel him smiling at me. The shivers running down my back said so.

I met his gaze through our reflection on the polished elevator doors. “You don’t know who you’ll run into. What if someone else was standing by the door instead of me? You never know what a fan might do. They are not all like Danika, and still I sensed the crazy vibe from her.” Images of musicians shot to death polluted my mind. Totally not helping. My fingers twitched. I was unsure if I wanted to stay still or start pacing.

He leaned against the far wall and tucked his hands into his pockets. “I was coming down to see if you wanted to have breakfast with me. If you were still asleep, I would have just returned to my room. We have the last three floors covered, so there wasn’t a chance anyone would get to us without security knowing.” He indicated the camera watching our every move at the top corner of the vestibule.

My mind shut off the second he mentioned going to my room. It took the ding of the doors opening for my system to reboot. “So you were willing to take a chance on me being awake instead of just calling my room to make sure?”

“I’d rather see you in person. Anyway, you were already standing by the elevator, so I lucked out. You’re still the same old workaholic that I remember.”

I would have argued with him if he hadn’t been telling the truth, at least partially. Instead I stepped out onto the marble hallway and said, “I was actually getting some sleep when…” I dropped my gaze, unsure how to finish the sentence. 

He reached me within a couple of steps and closed his hand around my arm. “The dreams?” he asked, his lips touching my ear. The entire side of my body he stood beside flushed. Totally not the time to be turned on; so, I nodded and stepped away from his intoxicating scent. Instead of letting me get some fresh air, he pulled me back into the elevator and inserted his keycard so it took us to the penthouse suites.

“I thought we were going to grab breakfast?” I asked as the doors closed and the cab shot up the building.

“There’s someone I want you to meet first.” His lips disappeared into a tight line.

I wanted to press him for info, but from the way his gaze glazed over I knew his mind was somewhere else.

For the entire ride, Luka kept his hand on my arm, like I would run away if he let go. Why would I? I promised I’d work for him, so why the sudden overreaction to my confirming I was awake this early because of one of my dreams? It wasn’t like he hadn’t experienced this side of me before. If I remembered correctly, he’d been on the receiving end of a morning wakeup call as a result of one of the dreams freaking me out.

The doors opened and Luka pulled me out. I expected us to head toward the suite he’d brought me to last night. Instead we went the other way.

“Luka, where are you taking me?”