Hellfire

Chapter Twenty-Four

I was in a deep sleep. A sleep of heat and ice and fire. Lucius' mouth locked against mine, his velvet tongue tasting me greedily, his hands roaming in such a way my body melted and begged for more. He moulded me against him so I could feel his strength and hard lust, his sharpened teeth tugging at my lower lip, and everything about him roaring hunger. And then I was beneath him and all I could see was golden eyes and savage fangs.

The dreams snapped into a nightmare.

Suddenly, Lucius was ripping at my throat, his eyes violently gold, and his teeth as long as knives. Blood-claws flourished as his claim over my fire kept me from defending myself, making me helpless as a rabbit before a wolf. Then I was running through non-descript endless halls, trying to find a safe place to hide or Thorn. He hunted me in the dark of the house. Calling me with sultry, purring tones, begging me to let him devour me. And I wanted to. I wanted to let him. But he'd kill me if I did.

And then something solidified. Everything became sharp, rather than nonsensical. I sat curled up behind the sofa in the living room, staring at the wall covered in paintings as black ice stained with blood began to creep. A painting was there that I hadn't seen before. A woman with cascading black hair stained with grey, skin like winter snow, and a beautiful smile strained by cold, hard blue eyes. I clutched at my legs, watching as ice slid out from beneath the painting. The dream became less of a dream and more real.

She was there. Lady Vortigern. She was creeping around the surface of my sleep, her laughter cutting at me and her black ice snaking beneath my feet. Those eyes grew colder, brighter, and increasingly hateful.

'You won't have my son. Not my Gabriel. He'll kill you. He's loyal to me and only me.'

Claws scraped behind the ice. Movement shimmered - warped and inhuman. She was coming closer. Closer.

Fire began to flicker about me, hissing beneath my feet as I stared at one monster scraping her way through the ice while the other called with the voice of the man I loved. I coughed ash, my muscles tensing as my eyes burned silver.

'I don't want Gabriel.' I growled out. 'I've never even met the man.'

The picture began to shift. The skin melted away, pulling off that beautiful face, to be replaced with a monstrous thing of flesh and muscle, a gaping maw of teeth and stringing spit and flowing blood.

'Liar. You ruined my family once. Not again.' She snarled. 'I'll have him kill you. We Vortigerns stay pure and proud. Your cursed blood won't touch us!'

I huffed out smoke, trembling now not to detonate as she clawed deeper into my sleep. Deeper and deeper.

Until a new cold touched me. Soft and not as savage, but enough to make Lady Vortigern pause.

'Enough, grandmother.' Alistair warned softly. 'Stop dreaming.'

'Alistair?' She called out. 'My baby? Pure and sweet and golden.'

Alistair gripped my shoulder, drawing me away from the sofa as his body rumbled with protection. He kept me close as he watched the wall of black ice oozing blood down its cracks and saw the approach of Lady Vortigern scraping behind.

But my attention jerked to Lucius calling me, my mind torn between pleasure and terror. He was coming closer, his crooning tones lapping over my ears, pooling in my blood, and it made my hellfire simmer brighter. I gripped Alistair's arm, burning him and everything about me. The monsters were coming. They were going to slaughter me.

'Now's the time to wake up, Susan.' Alistair warned.

He cupped my face to force me to look at him, and snapped his fingers below my nose with a flourish of frost.