Bloody Claws (Camren) Book 3

Chapter 16

I stood in a house similar to that of the victim's. I was looking at the same white covered bed. There were symbols on the walls. I was trying to figure out what each symbol meant, but they kept moving, changing. The lines flowed on the wall above the headboard like a kaleidoscope, making me dizzy. Lauren entered the room, her long hair free and unbound. She came to me, wearing a thin dress of black silk. Her cool fingers cupped my face in her hands. She said my name and lowered her head to kiss me.

The kiss began as something gentle and slow. Her hands moved on my body, tracing every curve hidden beneath my clothing.

Somewhere during the kiss, I remembered what I had been doing before she entered the room. I tried to draw away from her and her arms tightened around me. I tried to break the kiss and she pressed into it, kissing me more roughly than she ever had.

Her power became something thick in the air, too thick and heavy for me to draw a breath. I pushed at her chest. She wouldn't budge.

Lauren tangled her hand in my hair, jerking her grip tight. I continued to struggle, to try to break away from her. I stopped struggling when I felt the points of very sharp nails against the back of my scalp.

No, not nails... Claws.

Finally, she broke the kiss, laughing.

The expression on her face frightened me. Whatever it was, whoever it was, was not Lauren.

I tried to speak, to command it to stop, but I couldn't. I was too aware. Every small movement that Lauren made in the dream echoed through me. Every tiny brush of flesh seemed to be magnified, singing through my veins, making my skin twitch and ache to be touched. She kissed me again and this time, I wanted her to do it. I didn't fight. I couldn't. I burned too hot. I threw myself into the flame of her power, hungry for it.

The thing that was not Lauren rose above me, her nude body sliding across mine, and I couldn't remember when or how the dream had shifted. She rolled her hips across mine and the sensation of her wet, hot flesh against me sent my head back, my spine arching.

She caught the underside of my thighs and pushed my knees up, rubbing her body against mine. Her hands and body were slick, too slick.

I felt something wet, like water. It dripped onto the skin above my navel. I moved, trying to sit up. Lauren put a hand on my chest, and, as if she were commanding my body, I froze.

I looked down to find that her hand was covered in blood, not only her hand, but patches of her body were covered in thick, wet blood. I felt it against my skin, soaking into my hair.

The sheets cradling us were no longer white. For a moment, I thought she had bled me, but then I realized she hadn't. The bed itself was bleeding.

Lauren laughed again and a voice in my head said,
"Open your eyes."

I tried to scream as she lowered her head to my body, but no sound came out. I don't know what made me think it, but I knew I did not want her to press her lips between my legs.

I stopped fighting, focusing instead on the fact that I had to wake up. I could feel myself floating, floating in that void between sleep and wakefulness.

A voice that was not Lauren's screamed, "No!" and I was suddenly in the dream again, thrust back into my body and trapped by the weight of some unseen power. My throat grew tight, too tight to breathe.

Something was terribly fucking wrong. I was too coherent, too aware I was dreaming, and yet, I couldn't break the dream. I tried to call to the wolf, but it was as if I had become an empty vessel. She was not there to answer my call.