Blood Ties (NaNoWriMo 2015)

Fifty-Two

When I woke up again it wasn't much better than the first time. The same flashes were running at warp speed across my dreams. Damon's mouth trailing along my collar bone, the air around us humid, his cool skin a blessing against it.. A female walking towards me, dressed in white, voice soft and gentle "You're safe now," and then the smell of burning flesh, screams that echoed around me and ripped my heart out. Something hot and salty in my mouth, nearly choking me, though I wasn't sure why and fire flaring up in my ribs.

"Ember!" Damon's voice pulled me from the nightmare and I gasped, feeling cold sweat sticking to my skin.

"I'm alright," I mumbled, feeling that annoying and unpleasant fever creep over me again. An after effect of the nightmare was my guess. I hadn't shaken the feeling off yet. Damon was closer to me now, head resting on my pillow, one leg brushing mine he must have rolled over in his sleep. "Just a nightmare."

"Bad nightmare," Damon commented, fingers toying with my hair. "You were thrashing something awful, you actually hit me in the face."

"Sorry," I muttered, rolling over towards him, he was still wearing the button down from earlier, but a few of them had come undone as we'd slept, leaving his skin exposed. I pressed my forehead into his chest, sighing at the contact. "I didn't hurt you did I?"

"I was more concerned about you," he said. "You already know vampires aren't the softest of begins, any harder and you could have broken your hand again."

"Nothings busted," I informed him. "Sorry I woke you."

"It's okay," his arm shifted, wrapping around me and his long fingers traced patterns into my back. The movement made the skin tingle in a strange way and I found I liked it, probably way too much. "What were you dreaming about exactly? Maybe talking about it will keep it from coming back."

"It was weird," I said, mind half in the conversation. The other half was someplace else, some place I really shouldn't have been thinking about given everything that was going on around us. "First I was with you."

"What were we doing?" Damon prompted and I felt myself blush a little.

"Getting distracted," I answered.

"Oh," I heard Damon laugh. "That doesn't so bad to me, why were you so upset? Did I turn into Dracula?"

"No, it changed then. I heard a voice telling me they were sorry, then some woman in white telling me I was safe, and then I heard screaming and everything was on fire."

"That would scare anyone," Damon said reasonably, holding me a little tighter. "Don't worry though, it can't happen."

"Buildings do catch fire," I reminded him and I heard Damon snort.

"Maybe, but now we have this wonderful things called smoke alarms and fire escapes. We'd get out just fine." I freed one of my arms from between us and rapped my knuckles on the headboard. I heard Damon make a questioning sound, sure he had a confused expression on his face, but I couldn't see it in the dark. "Knock on wood," I explained. "With our luck, if we talk about the hotel catching fire it will happen and we will have to escape."

"Superstitious much?"

"Says the guy who threw salt over his shoulder when he knocked over the shaker at dinner."

"Hey!" Damon said defensively. "I didn't do that once and my uncle Albert drowned in a vat of whiskey!"

That surprised me and I felt my eyebrows draw together in confusion."How'd he do that?"

"He worked a brewery," Damon told me. "One day he tripped and fell into a vat and he didn't know how to swim."

"You're making that up," I accused.