Dream Weaver (Dream Weaver #1) (17 page)

             
I wheeled around to face Nick. “What the…”

             
Raising both hands in surrender, he waved me off. “I had no idea,” he protested. I surveyed the room and caught Jesse’s eye again. He smiled—blearily, hopefully—probably hoping Nick and I were fighting and I’d need a shoulder to cry on later.

             
“Come.” At my solemn command, Nick fell in step behind me and followed me in silence to the kitchen where I rounded on him. “Is he always so freakin’ Jekyll and Hyde?”

             
“Pretty much.” The corners of his mouth twitched up.

             
I couldn’t help myself, he was so charmingly adorable. We laughed together and I turned my attention to the golden gift Sabre Claus had delivered. “To Emari, From Nick” the card read in Nick’s fluid handwriting. Nick read over my shoulder then scanned the crowded dining room for his friend. With a crooked grin, he nodded his thanks when their eyes met.

             
“Should I open it now?” I asked.

             
“By all means.” Nick took my hand and led me back to the living room. He flopped down on the couch, and pulled me down beside him. He was laughing, playful, visibly relaxed. The persistent hardness of his muscles quelled. Sabre’s presence unfettered Nick’s constant need to be on guard and protect. Whatever Nick shielded me from, the job was easier with Sabre close by, and my heart found a renewed appreciation for this friend of Nick’s. I searched the room for him and timidly smiled. Sabre winked and smiled in return.

             
Nick beamed as he eavesdropped in my head and I playfully slapped his leg. He laughed aloud. He’d never let his guard down to this extent around me before.

             
“So, are you going to open that or hold it all night?” he teased.

             
I returned my attention to the beautiful golden gift in my hands. Gingerly, I began to lift the tape from the underside of the package, but paused as I slid my finger under the wrapping and shot a puckish glare up at Nick. “And you’re
sure
if I accidentally cut myself on the paper and bleed all over the floor that you and Sabre won’t turn into ravenous monsters and suck the life out of all of my guests?”

             
Nick rolled his eyes, but his mouth curved up in an evil smile. He tongued his canines, leaned closer, and murmured conspiratorially in my ear. “Well, let’s just find out, shall we?”

              With a laugh and a playful shove, I continued unwrapping the gift. Inside was a red velvet jewelry box. The box slid into the palm of my hand and the tiny hinges creaked quietly as I lifted the lid.

             
I covered my racing heart. “Oh,” I breathed in wonder. “Nick. It’s amazing.” Inside the box, a pendant that read-“Dream On”-encrusted with what I was sure were diamonds lay nestled on white satin. The lights of the Christmas tree danced across the facets of the jewels, and burst like tiny wildfires. ‘Beautiful’ didn’t even come anywhere close to describing it.

             
“Merry Christmas,” he said and leaned over to kiss me on the cheek.

             
“Is that the handsome brother?” Baby giggled behind us, and effectively rousted me from my stunned enchantment.

             
“No,” Nick grimaced. “
That
is trouble with a capital T.”

             
“Ooooooh!” she squealed, clapping her hands excitedly, “Sounds like fun!” And she skipped away to introduce herself to my slightly manic Santa.

             
“She’ll be ok, won’t she? I mean, he won’t hurt her or anything?”

             
“No. He’s generally pretty gentle. With most humans,” Nick teased. “So? Do you like it?” he asked as he traced his finger along the chain and across the pendant.

             
“Yes! I love it. It’s beautiful. Are they—real?”

             
His lips curled with a smile of a fox. “Did you know that it takes an incredible amount of pressure and heat to create a diamond?” He tucked a stray spike of my hair behind my ear. “Or that a mathematician calculated the precise number and angles of cuts in a diamond to maximize its refractive properties?” The questions were rhetorical. He grinned at the confusion on my face. He trailed his index finger down the line of my jaw. “Yes. They’re real. As real as all the craziness of my life that I’ve subjected you to.” I opened my mouth to protest, but he shook his head and closed his eyes, obscuring the windows to his heart. When his eyes reopened, an incomprehensible pain filled them. “Emari Jewel.” He purred my name. “It’s poetic, in a way. To me, you are a treasure. You have withstood incredible pressure and heat, and yet your love and compassion for others makes you sparkle, in ways you don’t even see about yourself.”

             
I dropped my head, remembering how badly my wrists had ached with the desire to be cut; how desperately I had warred within myself to gain and maintain control over my will when every fiber of my being screamed for destruction. “I haven’t held up very well though, have I?”

             
He lifted my face to look him in the eyes. “You forget. I’ve seen the thoughts of the scalpel that your mind plays with when things get rough.” He turned my wrists up. “And yet I see no scars, no blood. You’ve persevered even when things were at their bleakest.”

             
“I only made it this time because of you. I don’t think I would have been strong enough to resist this time if you hadn’t been here.”

             
“I don’t know,” he whispered, and caressed the tendon ridges on the insides of my wrists, “I prefer to believe you still would have found the strength within yourself to go on. Despite everything that’s been thrown at you, each time you’ve picked yourself up and pressed on.”

             
“But…this is too much. I can’t…” I protested.

             
“Emari, please. You’ve trusted me this far. Trust me now.”

             
Nick took the velvet box and guided me to the oval, oak-framed mirror in the hall; one of the few remnants from my parent’s house that I willingly displayed. He removed the necklace from the box and placed it around my neck, then kissed my temple. His lips continued to brush my skin as he whispered, “Is féidir leat teacht ar an tsíocháin i do chuid brionglóidí.”

             
“Um, okay. I have no idea what you just said.”

             
“Roughly translated from Irish, it means, ‘May you find peace in your dreams.’”

             
I scanned his dark hair and eyes. “Are you Irish?”

             
“No,” he said as he traced a thumb beneath my green eyes and tugged a wisp of my hair. “But you are.”

             
I turned and slid my arms around him, traced the contours of the muscles beneath his shirt with my fingertips. I pressed myself into the safety of his arms, knowing that there was no safer place on Earth for me now.

             
“My dreams will be fine, as long as you’re always here to guide them.”
Okay, wow! Did I really just say that?
Would I really always be able to count on Nick to be there for me? ‘Always’ was a long time.
No one
had ever been with me for always. Besides, I didn’t believe in knights in shining armor anymore. Did I? Yet here it seemed was mine. But, for how long? What calamity would rip him away from me? Or would he finally just walk away in exasperation? For now, I was content with the warmth of his embrace and the safety of his presence.

             
The party continued until after eleven. After gifts were exchanged, people slowly drifted out in groups of two or three until only a small handful of people remained; Ivy, Jesse, Sabre and Nick. Jesse was obviously in no condition to drive, he was barely able to walk. I begged, pleaded, and threatened to strip search him for his keys—an idea he briefly considered until Nick’s dark, indignant glare caught him. He finally relented when I promised to return his car first thing in the morning. Or maybe the two avenging angels standing behind my shoulders cowed him. I may not have looked intimidating, but Nick and Sabre definitely did.

             
Jesse and Ivy turned to leave, but he stumbled and nearly fell, taking Ivy with him. Sabre caught him by the arm and supported him on his Santa-belly, while Jesse muttered and complained that he was completely fine and didn’t need anyone’s help. He kept mumbling something about ‘all figured it’ and ‘all fine it.’ His faded accent amplified with inebriation. Sabre hoisted Jesse’s arm over his own shoulders and hooked his fingers through Jess’s belt loop.

             
Nick and I watched them through the kitchen window as they staggered through the snow out to the car. Ivy ran ahead to open the door.

             
As we piled dishes into the sink, I glanced up and saw Nick’s body stiff with tension. I followed his gaze out the window. Terror seared through my body as I realized Sabre had Jesse pinned against the car, his forearm pressed against Jess’s throat. Jesse was not a small man, and he and Sabre came eye to eye, but something about Sabre struck fear in him that was obvious even to me all the way inside the house. Justifiably, I still had my own reasons to fear this man.

             
“What the…?” I dropped a handful of silverware in the sink with a clatter and started for the door. Nick grabbed my arm.

             
“I’ll find out. You wait here.” He squeezed my hand, and gave me an encouraging smile before he shrugged into his coat and walked out.

             
To my relief, Sabre released Jesse before Nick got to him. Jesse spun, slid into the seat as if it was greased, slammed the door shut and locked it.
Dang! He’s moving pretty fast for a drunk guy.
Something sobered him quickly. Ivy backed out and drove away.

             
Aggravated clouds of mist rose in the cold night air as Nick and Sabre spoke. Nick stiffened and rage rippled across his features. He glanced quickly up at me and just as quickly away before he started to walk away into the night. His body began to sparkle like the new fallen snow, but Sabre grabbed his arm and snarled out a command, his breath rising in short, violent puffs. Nick cast another look at me then nodded, resigned. Then, Sabre drifted away into the night. Nick watched him go, huddled down into his jacket, hands stuffed defiantly in his pockets as though they might misbehave if he didn’t keep them under wraps. He stood there several moments, staring into the darkness where Sabre vanished. Finally, slumped reluctantly, he turned to come back inside.

             
“What was that about?” I asked, as Nick stomped the snow off his feet in the kitchen entry.

             
In a blink, Nick wrapped his cold arms around me, as though one of us might fall apart if he didn’t. His coat was still cold from outside and I shivered. “Oh. Sorry, Em.” As he withdrew to pull his coat off, I could see the seething storm darkening his brow, simmering behind his distracted counterfeit smile. Something tenebrous lurked in his eyes. “It was nothing. Just Sabre being Sabre. Again.”

             
I could understand that. I hadn’t completely recovered from Sabre’s little joke from the other day yet—to forgive is one thing and to forget, truly another. “I see. But everything’s okay, though?”

             
“Of course,” he placed his cold hand to my cheek to reassure me, but ominous clouds brewed in his eyes. His muscles were rigid with tension as I ran my hand down the length of his arm and rested my palm on his chest. I didn’t have to be a mind-bender to know the truth. His eyes and body language spoke volumes and his heart crashing against my fingertips conveyed a library. Something more than what he was telling had happened between Sabre and Jesse. They hardly said a dozen words to one another all night. There had been no hostility between them until Sabre hauled Jess’s drunk ass out to the car.

             
Nick and I spent a few minutes gathering dishes and cleaning up trash in silence. I picked up Jesse’s drink glass, and recalled how upset he was about—everything. It worried me how drunk he’d gotten. Normally, he wasn’t like that. Although, what, really, was normal for any of us lately? I turned on the hot water in the sink to get started on the dirty dishes.

             
“Um, Em? I’m going to need to leave for a while.”

             
“Oh, I see how you are. Leaving me to do all the dirty work,” I teased and shut off the water.

             
His brows descended and hooded his eyes with remorse. He looked so guilty, as if he’d just deceived me in the worst possible way.

             
“I’m only teasing, honey,” I told him. His eyes brightened slightly at my endearment. “Aren’t you staying the night?” Nick had become my constant companion; my friend and confidante each day, my pillow and dream catcher each night.

             
His hands wrapped around my waist and I remembered my dad used to tell me that my mother’s waist was so tiny when they got married, he could reach his hands around her. Nick smiled at the captured memory. “What kind of a guy do you think I am, anyway?” he teased back. “I do have some morals, you know.”