The Key (Heartfire) (6 page)

"What about you?"

He forced himself to pay attention. She was staring at him inquisitively, with no idea of the illicit thoughts going through his head. Thoughts of all the things he might do to her if they were alone...

Gentle, respectful things of course. But naked. Naked things. Lots of naked things.

He cleared his throat.

"Yes?"

"What about you? I don't know anything about you."

"Right. So, life story, the Cliff Notes version?"

She laughed. The sound was amazing. Like tinkling bells, but softer. He felt a shot of warmth go right to the pit of his stomach.

"If you like."

Kaylia leaned forward and placed her chin on her hands. He couldn't help but chuckle. She'd put him on the spot and wasn't being shy about it.

"Alright."

He poured her a fresh glass of red wine from the bottle he'd ordered. The two glasses she'd already had were definitely loosening her up. He liked this easygoing side of her. Hell, he liked all her sides.

She took a sip and leaned forward again, her head titled slightly to the side. He stared at her long graceful neck. He had a sudden urge to bite it.

"I'm from New England- you knew that already- but I didn't tell you that my great-great-great-great-grandfather is the one who founded our town. It's actually named after us. Westenville."

"Ooooh fancy. Go on."

He grinned at her self-consciously. He never felt embarrassed about his background, but it was a bit weird talking about it this way. He knew she didn't come from a background like his. But if she wanted to know, he'd tell her. He'd do anything this girl asked of him.
 

Like, eat glass. Or walk through fire. Or sleep on a bed of nails.

No joke, he would do it. No questions asked. And no whining either.

It was strange, but true.

"Okay, here's something spooky. Each generation of my family has only given birth to one son. Supposedly it goes back hundreds of years. But we all seem to live to be, um, unusually old."

"That's... really weird."

Kaylia had an odd look on her face. She looked a bit spooked- which after everything that had already happened was more than a bit disconcerting. If knowing each other from the dream world hadn't spooked her, why would this?

"What is?"

She took a deep breath and lifted her eyes to his.

"In my family only one girl is born. They usually live a long life. Except for my mother I guess. She, um..."

She trailed off, looking distressed. Dylan hastened to put her at ease again, as quickly as possible.

He didn't want their mutually weird families to mess up this date.

"It's okay. We don't have to talk about it."

She shook her head, as if dispelling the unpleasant thoughts inside.

"No, it's okay. She disappeared when I was seven. We don't know what happened to her to this day. She wouldn't just run off though. She loved us. Gran and I. We tried to find her, even hired a private detective after the police stopped looking. But we never found a trace."

Her eyes were shining with her emotions. He realized he'd never seen anything so beautiful in his life. Or felt someone else's sadness as keenly.
 

"I like to think... that's she's out there somewhere. Trying to find her way back to us."

His eyes were wide as he stared at her. Kaylia was so proud. Too proud to cry in front of him, even if it seemed like she might want to. She'd been through so much and was so strong. Brave too.

His life had been more than charmed compared to everything she'd told him.
 

And he could tell she was just scratching the surface. Growing up as an orphan... with no idea what had happened to her one parent. It must have been so hard.

"I'm so sorry Kaylia."

"Thank you. Anyway, she's not dead. I would know it if she was. But I can't find her when I'm- you know..."

"Dream walking."

"Yes! That's it exactly. Dream walking. I never called it that before, but it's perfect."

"What do you call it?"

She shrugged gracefully.

"Traveling I guess. Or just- going places. You have a special way with words, you know that? I'm not special like you."

He leaned across the table and took her hand.

"Yes, you are. Only you're even more special. I can barely do what you can do. Plus, you're much prettier."

She rolled her eyes and shook her head adamantly.

"All I can do is draw. I'm a hard worker and my grades always came easy. But that's it. Other than-"

He smiled at her. She was such a funny little thing. Didn't she know how incredible she was? She started fidgeting with her empty desert plate, self-conscious under his frank gaze.

Apparently not.

But he'd be happy to show her.

In fact, he was going to make it his life's purpose.

Kaylia

 
✪

Kaylia stood facing Dylan outside her dorm. She felt awkward, not quite knowing what to do with her hands. He didn't seem nervous though. He was looking at her in that intense way of his.

And smiling. Just the tiniest trace of a smile. But it was there.

She looked away, realizing she'd been staring at his lips.

They'd been walking around campus for over an hour now, neither one of them wanting the night to end. But it was getting late now, and they'd run out of excuses.

Plus after drinking all that wine, Kaylia really had to pee.
 

They'd been talking almost the entire time, sharing stories from their pasts. Some things they seemed to know intrinsically about each other, others came as a complete surprise.

For example, Dylan considered his family's housekeeper Rosa to be his second mother. So while Kaylia had only her Grandmother, Dylan had had an overabundance of mothering in his life. He'd admitted that he'd taken up half of his hobbies and sports just to get away from the house. Not that he minded all the extra love and affection, he just needed to be on his own sometimes. He wasn't soft or spoiled from all the attention though. He just seemed to take things as they came, without questioning.
 

Kaylia was nothing like that. She worried about everything. She'd had to look out for herself and her Gran her whole life. Even before her beautiful mother Catherine had disappeared, she'd been ethereal somehow- a wisp of a woman who seemed to be barely tethered to the earth.

Kaylia had basically raised herself and liked to stand on her own two feet. She'd been like that since she was a small child. She didn't like to ask for help, or even know how to.

Instead of finding these differences unappealing, they'd both been fascinated by their disparate upbringings. Neither looked down on the other or found each other lacking. It was almost as if they were two halves to the same whole.

Once they'd started talking, it was like a damn had burst. But they'd walked quietly hand in hand part of the time too. Just being connected like, palm to palm, had seemed to be another form of communication. It all felt so natural, almost like it did in the dreams.

Now they were face to face. He had closed the gap, standing so close that she could feel the heat radiating off his body. He was so warm and Kaylia was always cold, even in the balmy early fall night.

Dylan was staring into her eyes, moving inexorably closer and closer toward her. She knew he was going to kiss her, had known all night that this is where the date was leading. It felt inevitable as the sun rising and setting but exciting all the same. His hands lifted and clasped her shoulders as she let her gaze drift down to his softly smiling lips.

Her eyelids fluttered shut as she felt his breath across her face. And then his lips were on hers, molding, sliding, seeking. For a moment she relaxed, realizing there was nothing to fear. Her lips softly parted and he dove inside, all gentleness gone.

Kaylia's heart was pounding as the world seemed to tilt. His hands gripped her tighter as hers wrapped around his neck. The kiss seemed to go on and on, as heat poured out of him into her.

She heard him whisper her name reverently as he stared down at her. He lowered his head again and this time the kiss went wild. His tongue plunged into her mouth, seeking and stroking and soothing her.

Her arms were wrapped around his neck as he lifted her leg, molding her body around his hips. She whimpered at the feeling of him pressing against her. His hands held her firmly as the keep deepened even more.

With a gasp he ripped his mouth from hers and bent over in pain.

"Are you alright?"

She pressed her hand against his back. He was burning up, hot to the touch even through his shirt. He jerked away and stared at her, breathing heavily. And then he ran.

Kaylia stood there, feeling as if the earth was shattering around her.

Something was wrong.

Something was very, very wrong.
 

When Dylan had turned to look at her, his eyes looked strange. It took her a moment to put her finger on what it was exactly that was bothering her, other than the fact that kissing her seemed to cause him some sort of physical pain.

And then it hit her. He'd looked like he had in that one drawing she'd done weeks ago.
 

He'd been staring at her with a look of utter terror, but it was more than that.

It was his eyes. His eyes were red.

Dylan

✪

He'd almost hurt her. In that moment, when he'd look at Kaylia, he'd seen something to devour. Just for a split second, but it had been there.

Eat. Bite. Tear.

His conscience had reared up almost as quickly, telling him no. Not her. Never her.

The horror of his feelings terrified him. He had to get away before he did something terrible. He had to get as far as he could from the source of all of it.

Kaylia.

He ran through campus, not returning to the athlete housing. He ran past the neat rows of townhouses and straight into the woods. Only when he was miles from campus, out of breath, bent over and heaving did he stop.

He had never run that fast in his life, or been more afraid. Nothing scared Dylan Westen. Why should it? His life had been charmed.

The strangest thing was, he had a feeling that was about to change.

He wiped his lips on his sleeve. His arm came away wet. He'd been drooling.

Jesus Dyl, one kiss from a pretty girl and you start drooling?

He wanted to laugh at the joke, the idea was so ridiculous. But for some reason it just wasn't funny.

It wasn't funny at all.

In fact, at that moment, it was probably the least funny thing he'd heard in his life.

It took him over an hour to walk back to the edge of campus. He'd gone even further than he'd realized. His roommates were in bed by the time he crawled under the covers. He didn't shower, preferring to have the scent of the forest with him.

That night, when he dreamt, he returned there.

Chapter Nine

Kaylia

 
⚔

Kaylia hadn't seen Dylan since their date. He hadn't taken any meals at the field house, at least not when she was working. She wondered if that was something he would do: find out when she was working somehow and stay away.

He was definitely avoiding her for some reason. And it hurt. It hurt her to the core.

But that wasn't even the worse part.
 

She hadn't even seen him in her dreams.

It had been over a week now. The only glimpse she'd gotten of Dylan had been in English lit. She'd spent the entire period excruciatingly aware of his nearness. Three times she'd nearly caught his eye. He'd been watching her surreptitiously but turned away the moment she'd looked.

Their eyes caught for a split second before he looked away again.

For that brief moment though, the look in his eyes had been utterly bereft. No, devastated. He looked as if she'd done something wrong. Something to hurt him.

What the hell was going on with him?

Kaylia waited for him after class but he must have gone out through the fire exit. He was that desperate to avoid her apparently. She had a terrible feeling in her chest. It was as if someone had reached inside her and put a block of ice inside, where her heart should be.
 

Snap out of it Kaylia.

He didn't like her anymore. That was all. He was a rich gorgeous guy and she was... her. A mousy little thing. There was no reason for him to like her to begin with other than their odd connection.

And yet... he had liked her. A lot. She knew he had. But something must have turned him off. Her breath must have been bad, or her kisses had left him cold. It happened every day. It was a simple story that happened every day all over the world and no reason to cry.

Except, it wasn't just a simple story this time, and she knew it.

Kaylia worked yet another shift at the field hall, working herself harder than usual once she'd realized he wasn't going to show up. She volunteered to carry the heavy crates full of produce, stacking them in the cold room. She kept hoping that if she worked hard enough, she'd wear herself out so she could sleep. Every night this week had been the same. Fitful sleep with no traveling and no visitors.
 

Even Charisse was starting to notice the bags under her eyes, silently handing her an eye mask and concealer this morning. They might not have anything in common other than their gender, but Charisse wasn't the selfish brat she had seemed at first. She certainly had a soft spot for her waif of a roommate.

Wearily Kaylia walked back to her dorm. She showered and climbed into bed, finally falling into an uneasy slumber.

That night when she slept, something different happened.

This time she dreamed, but she couldn't control where she was going.

She was being dragged toward something. Every instinct told her to fight it, to grab onto the earth beneath her, to hold on as hard as she could. When she woke up, her fingers and toes were clenched.

Dylan

⚔

Every night since their date he had the dream. Every night, it was the same. He was alone, in a cold dark room. It was stone. Underground somewhere. Chains held him down, with shackles around his wrists and ankles.