Incubus (12 page)

Meical, dressed in his ballroom best, leaned close and murmured, “See anyone you know?”

She turned and grinned up at him. “It's amazing. I recognize everyone here because they all look exactly how I imagined them. Look, there's Mrs. Bennet herself.”

“One needn't look to know she's here,” Meical groused. “You surely heard her the moment we set foot in the room.”

“Do you think she'll cause a scene and embarrass Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy?”

He shrugged, smiling. “I think that's up to you. I'm just your escort for the evening—one who's about to be replaced by the look of that rambunctious bunch headed our way. Is that your Mr. Darcy? You could've imagined him a little shorter and less good-looking, for my sake.”

Before Caroline could respond, the tall, dark and handsome hero of
Pride and Prejudice
bowed and requested the pleasure of a dance with her. Meical bowed and gave her a nudge from behind and away she went to partner the divine Mr. Darcy in a country dance that was just beginning. Never mind that she didn't know the first thing about this dance they were about to do. As the orchestra began, the steps just seemed to come to her.

Incredible what the unconscious mind could supply when needed. And in a lucid dream like this, one had only to want something and it happened. She was in complete control here.

She danced with Mr. Knightley next, and then there
followed a boggling procession of gentlemen, some of whom she only vaguely recalled from her reading.

It didn't seem to matter that she couldn't place them, for they were only too pleased to tell her exactly who they were and what novel they came from, and would even quote her the scene in which they made their debut in the story to which they belonged.

Between dances there was an opportunity to chat with all her favorite heroines. She even took a stroll in the fragrant, twilit garden with Elizabeth Bennet and all of her sisters. She took some punch with the Dashwoods and eavesdropped here and there to find bits and pieces of dialogue in progress, as though she were in the midst of a living recitation.

And all the while, whenever she needed something, Meical was at her elbow, quiet and unassuming, constantly attentive, and oh so perfect for the atmosphere. In fact, he was the epitome of what her imagination had conspired to reproduce in this dream. No one, not even Mr. Darcy, seemed as handsome, as elegant or as appealing to her as Meical did.

He spoke little and only to her. He asked but one thing of her, and that was to allow him the last dance of the evening. But when the time came for him to claim his dance, the dream changed.

Gone were the people, including the orchestra. Yet the music played more sweetly than it had all night. The chatter turned to silence, the happy chaos to peace. It was as though someone had deigned that she and Meical should be the only two people on earth. And no country
dances or reels or anything of the sort would do. For the two of them, it had to be a waltz.

He swept her into the dance as though they were one person.

“You're good at this,” she said, looking up into his twinkling gray eyes. “You're really good.”

He laughed softly. “I doubt I'd be able to hold my own for long if this were real.”

If this were real…

The words made her wistful. “I could live here, you know.”

Meical laughed. “No, thank you. It's too exhausting.”

“No, really. I'm always wishing I could have been born two hundred years ago.”

He shifted his gaze away from hers as they danced into a little pocket of darkness at the far end of the deserted ballroom. “You wouldn't like the squalor. Or the cruelty. Or the ignorance. And certainly not the violence. There is a difference, you know, between fact and fiction.”

She studied his face, even though focusing so hard made her yawn. Under the light of the moonbeams that seeped through the curtains at this end of the huge room, his face looked pale. He looked weary, in fact. He was so serious all of a sudden.

The music abruptly became muffled, and Meical swayed on his feet a little.

Caroline caught his arm. “Whoa. Are you all right?”

“Too much wine,” he murmured with a shaky chuckle.
“You really should dream up a less irresistible vintage. I swear, your Mr. Knightley and Colonel Brandon made fixtures of themselves at the punch bowl. Sots, both of them.”

Caroline laughed. “Let's sit down. Come on.”

Taking his hand, she led him to one of the couches that lined the walls. Meical sank onto the couch.

Caroline looked around them at the darkened, empty ballroom. Her contentment bled away in the eerie shadows. “Okay, all the people can come back now. I promised Mr. Collins I'd listen to him go on and on about Rosings.”

When the ballroom failed to fill with people again, she held her breath and looked more closely around her. The wallpaper had begun to lose details of pattern and color. Not only was the orchestra gone, but the very chairs in which the musicians had sat were nowhere to be seen.

The ceiling was fuzzy gray, the floor yawned and the windows seemed ever more like the swaying curtains that hung in them, filmy and in constant sickly motion.

Caroline swallowed, feeling almost bereft. “Wow. Maybe I'm waking up.”

“Or perhaps you wanted to be all alone with me.”

She smiled at him, until she felt the heat of his glinting eyes. Yes, he looked almost feverish. “You look awful. Maybe we've overstayed our welcome here in dreamland.”

“I'm sure you have it in you to give us a decent ride
home.” He stood up and pulled her to her feet. “Come on. I think it's this way.”

And as the words left his mouth, while Caroline was watching the floor and walls disappear around them, she suddenly found herself with him in their carriage again, speeding away across the moors, which seemed to be losing their color and shape with every imaginary mile they traveled.

She looked out the window at the miles of nighttime beyond them. There was a spicy, musky scent on the wind. She grinned. “Hey, it smells like you out here.”

“Imagine that.”

The carriage sped onto a stone bridge that stretched across an endless sea. The sky above seemed endless, too. There were two full moons to shine down on them, as if one wasn't enough. The bridge didn't end. It went on and on like a gray velvet ribbon until it disappeared into nothingness.

Caroline looked up to catch a glance at their driver, but there wasn't one. The driver's seat was deserted. The horses were there one moment, and in the next, the carriage was hurtling along on its own. Next the stars disappeared, and then the sea vanished. Only the bridge remained, stretching into nothing.

Caroline drew back into the stable confines of the carriage feeling dizzy and hot. “I feel…really weird…”

Meical smiled, wolfishly. “That's because you're sitting too far away from me.”

And just like that, Caroline somehow wound up sitting beside him. Meical shifted like smoke. He was
suddenly on his knees before her, and the carriage settled into a gentle, rhythmic, rocking motion.

Caroline couldn't take her gaze off him, even when her heart began to pound with the realization that this dream was both more real and more unreal than any she had had to date.

He placed his hands on either side of her on the seat and teased her mouth with a kiss. That kiss washed away everything in the world but his closeness and the motion of the carriage.

Caroline flattened her hand on his chest. “I want to know where we're going.”

“You mean you want to know where I'm taking you.” He kissed her neck. A soft groan sounded in his throat. “Don't be frightened. I won't hurt you. You know, by now, I want only to please you.”

His mouth closed over hers again, and lethargy overtook her, leaving her limp all over, but oh so aware. The carriage pounded on. No one ahead or behind them. No one at all on that long, dark road. Caroline shivered. Here she was, awake in a dream.

Trapped.

What kind of mind game was she playing with herself? What was her subconscious doing to her now?

She laughed tightly. “I'm really doing a number on myself this time.”

Meical eased her lacy skirts up to her waist. Where had her underthings gone? She had nothing on under her petticoats.

“You're just a symptom of my overwrought mind,” she gulped.

He nudged her knees apart and moved himself against her damp crotch. He was so hard and ready, and felt so good.

Caroline arched against him, wanting to wrap her legs around his big body and… “Oh, I should just let you go.”

“No,” he whispered, touching her with his hand. “You mustn't do that, love.”

“But I feel like I'm losing control.”

“Yield to me, Caroline. I'll make you glad you did.”

He slowed his caress until she ground her teeth together. An eddy of pleasure fluttered and teased her, a preface to an orgasm so intense she thought she might die. Tears sprang into her eyes as she felt herself slipping closer to the inevitable.

The ultimate loss of control.

After what she'd been through, it seemed impossible that she would dream about being at any man's mercy like this and not be terrified of it. Instead, it made her want him more.

“I love touching you,” he whispered. “I crave your pleasure, Caroline, night and day. I must have it. I
will
have it.” He slipped his fingers inside of her, thrusting gently while he circled her clitoris with his thumb.

For seconds Caroline shivered and gasped at his touch, while he whispered feverish things to her. His words were enough to send her over the edge. She drifted in a pool of satiation until he lifted her legs over
his shoulders and penetrated her. He thrust in perfect rhythm with the rocking carriage.

Caroline clung to him, utterly open to him now, sensitive to his every move. The climax he'd just given her was nothing compared to what was building inside of her now. His hushed voice echoed in her mind like a thousand whispers. He was inescapable.
You are mine. I am yours. Give me your pleasure. Give it all to me, and I will give it back to you, sweeter and deeper than you have ever imagined.

A ringing in her ears rose above the rush of the wind outside the carriage. The ringing grew louder. What was it, that sound? It was so familiar, but so out of place. Her awareness sharpened as it grew more insistent.

That was her phone ringing.

The entire world, all but the pleasure of Meical's lovemaking, unraveled before her eyes like a tapestry on a moldering wall. She opened her eyes wide and for a breath of a moment saw Meical above her in the firelight as he thrust into her, deep and hard.

“Let it ring,” he whispered. He moved more swiftly. “You will not wake. Come on, Caroline…please…you're so close…”

Terror and pleasure ran together. Both poured out of her in a scream. Just as she climaxed, Meical's gaze swallowed her and darkness consumed everything.

H
e'd been so deep into loving her that he hadn't felt it all slipping out of his control, until he sensed her waking.

The phone stopped ringing, but the damage was done. Meical fought to keep Caroline unconscious while he got her back into her nightshirt and tucked her into bed. He needed much more from her. He barely had the strength to keep her under, much less make her forget what she'd seen in the brief moment when she'd awakened. He managed to thrust her into a fitful sleep, confident that on some level, his tigress knew exactly what he'd done and wanted to punch his face in for it.

She deserved the chance to do precisely that.

Meical dropped himself into Caroline's armchair, released her from his control and braced himself.

She came awake, battling her covers. “Meical!”

“I'm here, Caroline,” he murmured.

She sat up and stared at him, breathless and pale and beautiful. He knew the moment she realized what he'd done, what he'd been doing all along. Her cheeks turned crimson and her perfect mouth parted. Her soft, half-gasped sigh went through him like a spear. He wanted to hold her so badly.

Her voice came out in an icy whisper, full of so much pain that he wished he could die, then and there. “That wasn't the first time, was it? It's been you, every time. Every dream.”

He rested his elbows on the armrests of the chair and nodded. “From first to last, yes.”

Tears slipped down her cheeks, glittering in the firelight. She wrapped her arms around herself. “Just so you could have sex with me?”

“Did I once make you feel that way?” He leaned forward in his chair, barely able to resist reaching for her. “I love you. I need you. And I know you need me, too.
That's
what the dreams were about.”

She shook her head. “It doesn't matter how good it felt, how fun it was or how much I enjoyed it. You did it without giving me a choice. That wasn't just selfish, that was criminal.” She ground her teeth together, her eyes afire. “You used me.”

“I used
your dreams,
” he countered. “And I accept with my whole heart the consequences that will come of it, but don't ask me to apologize. When I think of how happy, safe and loved you felt, I know I'll never regret a moment of it because that's exactly what you did for me, the first time you touched me.”

She folded up in a ball and cried. Meical would have happily gone up in flames. He rose and pulled the blanket closer around her. She kicked it away.

“Caroline—”

“I never want to see you again!”

Meical stood looking at her a moment, cut to pieces by the sound of her sobs. A warm, wet muzzle nudged the palm of his hand, and he looked down to find Dash beside him. He picked her up and deposited her on the bed, and she curled up close to Caroline.

He turned and walked to the door, but paused to look back at her. “The dreams were only fantasies, Caroline, but what we shared when we were together was real. And you did say, though it was only in a dream, that you wished I could be yours for real.”

She stopped crying. Was she listening?

“I can only hope that you meant it,” he murmured, “because that's all I'm taking with me, besides the memory of loving you. I know in my own heart, even if you choose not to believe it, that our love was real. There's no way I could conjure love like that, not even to save my life. I didn't have to. It's all inside you. You're running over with it, enough for a man to feast on for the rest of his days. You just needed a safe place to rediscover it. When you did, you made me feel more alive than I've ever felt. And for that I thank you with all my heart.”

 

The sound of the door closing behind Meical wrung a half moan from Caroline. She let his words wash over her. Her heart ached to believe him.

He'd shown her from the start how easy it was for him to slip past her defenses and pull down her shield. Now he'd shown her how easily he could invade her dreams. Her body.

His actions said he was a monster. But the feelings behind those actions, the emotions that rose from the very heart of him——what did they say about him?

She'd been probing his emotions while he talked to her. What lay beneath all his words was love. Real and timeless. Unchanging and certain. As powerful as he was. All for her. That's what hurt the most. His love was real, but instead of waiting for her to trust and accept him on her own terms, he'd manipulated her into sharing herself with him.

Why? What possible justification could he offer for taking her like that, when all she had needed was his patience?

She would never know.

Tears burned her eyes again. She found her nearest crutch and went to the fireplace. Sinking down on the floor where they had lain together, she closed her eyes and gathered every tendril of emotion that remained in the room.

What they had shared, even in such a short time, was so strong. The walls throbbed with residual passion, anguish, devotion and hunger, more powerful to her inner senses than the mingled scents of flesh and pleasure. But it was the embers left after those flames had gone that she wanted now, glowing all night long and forever in her heart. They were enough to start a
lifetime of fires. Caroline found the warmth of Meical's love and wrapped it around her like a blanket.

 

Grabian was an idiot. Neshi bobbed in the ceiling's shadows above Caroline, invisible to her, and listened to her litany of woe over the fool. Shifting his focus, he tracked Meical's progress through the woods. He wouldn't last the night. The only thing he could do for Grabian now was end his suffering before it began.

Neshi ground his fangs together. To come so close to realizing everything he'd worked for!

A nebulous vibration of energy caught his attention. It was close, faint, but certainly not weak. Definitely human. He held his breath, tracing its origin. Caroline Bengal?

His heart skipped a beat, and he froze, as the realization dawned on him slowly. He'd labored over the reformation of Meical's body, as he had done before with his other subjects, monitoring the enlivening of each of Meical's functions—except for one.

He had wasted no effort in that quarter, of course, for it was known by all their kind, restoring that particular ability lay beyond the realm of magic, medicine and all the wisdom of the ages. It simply wasn't possible.

Yet here before him, hidden and unknown as yet, was the quickening proof that his herbs and magic had worked a cosmic miracle even he had not anticipated.

Neshi closed his eyes. What in the name of Ra had he done?

He shot upward through the ceiling of Caroline's cabin and into the night sky, materializing as he rocketed
higher, faster and faster until the wind made his eyes blur with tears.

High above, he halted his ascent and floated into a cloud, allowing the gusty, rain-soaked air to buffet him in circles while he thought.

If he told Grabian…

But the fool was poised to leap in the wrong direction, and he might consider this an even bigger reason to end it all as quickly as possible. He couldn't be trusted with the knowledge.

He'd grant Grabian a boon. He'd give him a chance to make a wrong decision and survive it. Hopefully Grabian would come to his senses and make the choice to live. Let Grabian choose his own path, but by the blood of Osiris, Neshi wouldn't let him forfeit his existence easily.

He took a moment to monitor Grabian and satisfied himself that his runaway creation was not yet at death's door, and then, closing his eyes, called to those he needed to help set his plan in motion. He had his response in seconds, wrapped in a dulcet kiss of thought that made him smile.

Now, for the other. Looking down at the world below him, Neshi sifted through the thousands of heartbeats that rose to him on the night wind. Where in that mishmash of human life could he find a suitable underling for the task at hand, a human who would elicit the correct response from Grabian? There really was only one that would do. And in fact, he would do splendidly. Neshi had only to locate him.

His searching inner eye reached as far as a tiny halo
of light on the side of the highway beyond him. Toby's Bar and Grill. He grinned. Naturally.

In the mass of human life that seethed beneath that roof, amid the sweat and perfume and the clanging music, the one he sought sat soaking his witless brain in alcohol. Neshi estimated it would take fifteen minutes to lay claim to that ill-gotten wretch's life. Less, if he gave no heed to the cretin's discomfort. Grabian wouldn't get far in that amount of time. The Alchemist dove into the ocean of night that separated him from his prey.

 

The clang of Caroline's cell phone ringing sounded like a cannon going off in the darkness. She lifted her head from the floor and glanced at the clock on her living room wall. Four in the morning. John never called at this hour.

What if Mrs. Hicks had suffered complications? Sandy and Ray would need her.

Weary of heart and stiff from head to toe, she sat up and scooted across the floor to the table where she'd left her phone. Her thoughts shifted in too many directions, from facing the day without Meical to the prospect of explaining to Sandy and Ray that their mom wasn't coming home as soon as they'd been told she would. She picked up the phone and said “Hello” before she realized she'd failed to check the caller ID.

“Good morning, Caroline.”

An unfeeling, cultured voice. Terror rose inside of Caroline so swiftly that it nearly cut off her next breath. “Burke.”

“Don't hang up,” he said. “I assure you, the sheriff
won't get to your friends the Calvins before I do, and by the time he finds their bodies, I'll have paid you a visit. So, let's keep this between us.”

Her mouth went dry. Where was he? She closed her eyes and probed the vicinity around the house. His sick soul stood out, like red on black. He was less than a mile away and headed in her direction.

What would buy her some time?

Relying on the power of the inner shield Meical had built within her, she braced herself for the plunge into Burke's tainted soul. His delusions remained unchanged. Yes, there was a lot there to use against him. If he'd been sane, she'd be dead.

She took a deep breath. “I know you can hurt my friends. You don't have to prove it to me. It's me you're after.”

His smooth, calm tone of voice sliced through her like daggers. “I can see you're going to be reasonable. We've danced around with this long enough. We have to give Rivera what he paid for. But how I do that is your choice. I want to make it painless for you, so I'm going to give you a chance to cooperate with me.”

Caroline responded in a passive voice, “But I know what a sportsman you are, Burke. Deep down, you don't really want me to cooperate, do you? It will be more satisfying for you if I give you trouble.”

The arousal in his voice was audible enough to gag her. “Yes, you do know me. That's why I'm going to enjoy you so much. You're as skilled in your discipline as I am in mine. There's a lot of psychology to what I
do. You're going to like that part. Just don't think you can play me.”

“I know I can't get away with that. You'd see through it. I'm only asking you to consider a few things. Someone as powerful as you doesn't need to threaten nonhostiles outside his target's perimeter. Isn't that right?”

“Your behavior will determine how safe your friends are.”

“I understand.” She switched the phone to her other hand and wiped her sweaty palm on her jeans. “But powerful people don't have to lie. If you tell me you won't hurt my friends, I can believe you. Can you show me that kind of power? Can you give me your word you won't hurt them, if I give you my word to keep this between you and me?”

She held her breath and waited. He could just as easily prove his power by driving straight to the Calvins' and killing them while she listened. If she'd learned anything from staying one step ahead of him it was the fact that he never made idle threats.

“Your terms are acceptable. You have my word. Your friends are safe.”

“I believe you,” she murmured.

Caroline heard the sound of his car pulling up in the driveway and slipped behind a chair. He left the motor running and stayed in the car. Good. That meant he didn't want his fun to be over too quickly. That was her only hope. If he got out of that car, it meant he was finished playing.

At this proximity, she could pick up on his emotions more clearly. She felt the fraternal twins of abuse, waiting
to send him over the edge. Suppressed rage and abject terror. The first would get her killed in a heartbeat; the second was her only viable weapon against him.

But she needed a better battleground than this cabin and more time to prepare for a confrontation.

“Powerful people can compromise,” she said evenly. “Like your willingness to give me a head start. I've shown you how well I understand you. Isn't that worth something?”

“You know I can't let you go.”

He turned off his motor.

“No, no,” she said. “I'm not asking for that. I'm asking for time to prepare my defenses.”

She sensed his surprise at her boldness, followed by suspicion. “I think I've made it clear, if you go to the police, I'm going to have to kill all your friends.”

Wrong turn. Don't challenge him.
“I know the police can't keep me safe from you.”

“No, they can't. And if you go to them, Caroline, or try to get help of any kind, I'll have to hurt you for it when I catch up with you. And someone you care about will suffer.”

He said it so deliberately…what was he hiding from her? Caroline tried to reach deeper into him, but she couldn't get past her own fear. She had to stay calm. She had to get rid of him long enough to think. And she had to be sure she didn't give him a reason to retaliate against her friends.