The Man of her Dreams: A Paranormal Romance (3 page)

“That’s right,” he said, not turning his head.

“Who, um,
were
you?” she asked curiously.  "Where did you live? What did you do? And how did you make this deal with the Devil?”

At these questions, he turned to face her, and the hint of a faint smile returned to his lips. “As a mortal, I lived in England,” he said, and now there was a bit of pride in his voice. “I… was a nobleman, in fact.”

“A nobleman?” she repeated, incredulous.

He smiled. “Count Philip of Sudbury, at your service.”

Chapter 3: The Beautiful and the Damned

Suddenly, the mountains behind them began to crumble, and lightning c
rackled across the sky. Philip stood transfixed, staring upwards with a wary look in his eyes. He seemed to be searching for the cause of the disruption.

The dream was coming apart in a way that it never had before. There was no falling this time, no feeling of escape or slipping away before the dream-world went back to nothingness. This time there was a true kind of terror, one that told Alexis her control was so far gone that it couldn’t return. Someone else was in her head, controlling everything that was happening. The feeling of utter violation left a metallic taste of fear in her mouth.

“What’s happening?!” cried Alexis, her voice coming out as a strangled scream.

At her words, Philip suddenly sprang into action. He leapt into the air, easily crossing the distance between them. He picked Alexis up with one arm and started running down the road. They reached a small boulder about twenty yards away, taking shelter behind it. He placed Alexis down, and she cowered in fear.

“What the hell are you doing?” she cried. “Why is this happening?”

The sky seemed to be falling apart, coming down in cascades of fiery ash and rock. The pleasant blue skies were now almost dark as night, filled with debris and smoke. Philip took Alexis by the hands and looked intently into her eyes, even as the world around them was being reduced to rubble.

“I can get us out of here,” he said, “but you need to trust me.”

Alexis stared at him wide-eyed. How could she trust him, when he had just revealed that he’d tried to trick her? How could she trust anything at all, when her dream was falling apart and she had no idea why? She shook her head.
No way
.
She squinted her eyes, focusing as hard as she could on trying to just wake up and get out of the dream.

“That won’t work!” cried Philip, his voice rising in pitch and volume. He was looking more worried by the second. “You’re not in control anymore, Alexis. We need to get out of here, and to do that, you’re going to have to come with me – whether you like it or not.”

“I can’t wake up?” she asked, shocked. “I am trapped here?”

He didn’t answer that. Instead, he stretched out his hand to her. “There’s no time for this now. Please, Alexis. I ask you again: do you trust me?”

The fact was that no, she didn’t trust him at all. But right now, she didn’t see what other option she had. There was nowhere else to go, nowhere to turn. She was standing in the midst of ash and smoke and fire, and it was all getting closer and more terrifying by the second. Reluctantly, she took his hand. He looked visibly relieved.

“Good,” he said. “As long as you stay by my side, no harm will come to you. That’s a promise, Alexis. Now, let’s go!”

She gasped as he took off into the air, still holding her by the hand. They zigzagged between flaming meteorites and belching smoke. Some of the meteors came so close that Alexis could smell and feel the singe of her hair, threatening to burst into flame if the embers touched it. The heat was intense. As they accelerated upwards, she noticed with a start that Philip had grown a pair of powerful-looking feathered wings –
more like an angel than a devil,
she thought to herself. It was just one more strange observation on top of all the weirdness that had been happening so far.

Higher and higher they flew, until they passed through the cloud cover and away from the fiery madness below. They’d entered a deep blue ethereal atmosphere, with stars visible in the distance. It was incredibly peaceful, especially compared to the tumult they’d left behind. Instantly, Alexis felt a profound calm overtake her. They slowed to a halt, and Philip released her hand. He turned to look at her, his face totally relaxed now.

“It’s all right,” he said. “We’re safe here. You won’t fall.” That much, at least, was already clear: Alexis was floating serenely in the cosmic void.
She took a moment to marvel at the new environment, and in the abrupt change in circumstances.

But suddenly, she snapped out of her daze. “And just
what
was
that?”
she yelled at him, anger returning to her voice. “And by the way, don’t think for one second that I trust you, Philip, even if you did pull me out of there. For all I know, you created that mess in the first place.”

He regarded her somberly. He hesitated a moment, then said simply, “I wouldn’t do that.”

He motioned with his hand down to the fiery world below them.

“That down there? That’s the Devil’s work. He’s still trying to punish me for my transgression of last night. But Alexis, I want you to listen closely to this. If we’re together, we’re safe. I need you to believe that.”

Alexis faltered, her anger diminishing a bit as she heard the earnestness in his voice. She threw up her hands. “Look,” she said, “you have to realize how strange this all is for me. And you really haven’t given me much reason to trust you, so why should I start now?”

Philip cast his eyes downwards, chastened. “I know,” he said. “I did a lot of damage last night.” He sounded miserable, but when he looked back up at her, she saw strength and resolve in his eyes. “Alexis, I won’t lie to you again. That’s a promise. If you can find it in your heart to forgive me, you’ll see that I keep my word.”

His plea sounded honest and sincere, but her sense of calm was starting to dissipate nonetheless. She looked around the placid atmosphere, seeing nothing but peacefulness, but she could still hear the crashing and burning in the distance. Her dream – the world she created from her memory – was being destroyed. And still, she couldn’t wake up.

“Why can’t I wake up from this?” she demanded.

Philip looked rather upset now. “Because you aren’t in control anymore,” he said softly, his voice filled with true regret. “The Devil is so angry with me that he has taken over your thoughts. We humans don’t control our subconscious; he’s got dominion in our dreams. I’m not sure when he’ll release you back to waking life.”

Alexis laughed. “Release me? Seriously? I wasn’t the one who made a pact with Satan! How can he keep me here?”

Philip threw up his hands. “I have no idea! Like you, Alexis, I’m just figuring this out as I go along. But from experience, I can tell you that eventually his attention will wane, and he will let go of your thoughts. He has too many other people like me to deal with.”

Alexis shuddered at the thought of so many people making pacts with the Devil. She wondered what kind of pact it could have been, to turn a nobleman into an incubus. Something to do with a woman, perhaps? But as she opened her mouth to ask, a burst of flame appeared to her right, startling her enough that she fell against Philip. He caught her with one strong hand and they were off again, flying even higher this time, toward the stars that were winking in the distance.

“Is he following us?” she called, even as the sounds of the fire below them grew even more distant.

“He’s trying to, but we’re too far away right now,” he said to her, finally stopping again. Alexis looked around. She was hanging there in the sky, tethered to absolutely nothing, without any sort of recognizable world around her. Even the stars were not what she was accustomed to seeing, but rather pale blue balls of light that seemed to dance and shimmer with a beat all their own.

She closed her eyes, and when she opened them the ground rushed up underneath her boots. The grass was jewel green and the lake in the distance looked like a flat mirror, reflecting a calm sea of stars. It was the dream-world she’d created last night.
I made this place
, she realized. Already, she felt safer among the familiar artifacts of her imagination.

“Be careful,” Philip warned as he dropped casually to the ground. “He will find this place soon enough, and then we will have to run.”

“But I have control of the dream again,” she said. “That means that I can get out of it anytime I want to. I could wake up right now, if I so chose to do that.”

He looked at her with a pained expression. “I hope you don’t,” he said pleadingly. “Not yet. I wish we could talk…”

Alexis snorted with laughter. “What, are you hoping I’ll fall in love with you?” she asked, and Philip had the grace to blush at the suggestion. He turned and walked a few steps to her right, and she looked at him now out of the corner of her eye. He might have tried to trick her, but despite her fury over that, she was warming up to him just a bit. Despite the whole business of tricking her, he did seem to have a sense of honor and chivalry to him. There was a certain nobility about the man; there was no denying that. She was more confused than ever to think how a man like him could ever make a pact with the Devil.
In fact, now was as good as any a time to try and find out.

“So are you going to tell me or not?” she asked him directly, planting her hands on her hips as she looked at him.

“Tell you what?” he asked, but Alexis could see the unease and wariness flickering in his eyes. He knew exactly what she was talking about, and it was abundantly obvious that he didn’t want to talk about it. He put his hands at his waist and sighed.

“It’s a very long story, and not a pretty one, I’m afraid. But just know that I did what I did out of love, not out of any sort of… selfishness. I thought I knew what I was doing, and I thought it would be worth it.” He grimaced as though he had been hit with a sudden physical pain. “But it wasn’t.”

He turned to look up at the stars now, and she was shocked to see the hint of a glistening wetness in his eyes. His sudden melancholy mood hinted at some great tragedy in his past.

What had happened to the woman he loved?

Strangely, Alexis felt the ice inside her melt a little bit. She knew what it was like to do something for the sake of love, and then see it all crash and burn. That was the kind of heartbreak that everyone seemed to endure at one time or another – but most people didn’t wind up in purgatory for centuries because of it.

She tilted her head, looking Philip over one more time. He sure did look like Evan, but she found herself wondering what he really looked like, when he wasn’t inhabiting the body of someone else. She thought about asking him, but even as the thought came to her mind she brushed it aside. She had dealt with more than enough emotional trauma today. Looking at someone who appeared to be Evan, even if he really wasn’t, was a big help right now in keeping her sanity in the dream.

Philip was standing there quietly, watching her as she watched him. The booming sounds in the distance had faced, and the grass was fresh and solidly green, without a bit of change at all. She was firmly in control here.

“Tell me about yourself,” he said suddenly, and she blinked with surprise. This was the last thing she had expected to hear from him.

“What do you mean?” she asked. Apparently he already knew enough about her psyche to be able to duplicate Evan almost perfectly, and he had a very good idea of what her dream-worlds were like. So what was he asking, exactly?

“I know what your dreams are like,” he said, almost reading her mind. “But I don’t know what it’s like when you wake up. What your real life is like… please, if you don’t mind, I would like to know.”

“Why?” she asked warily.

He shrugged one strong shoulder. “It’s simple, really. I miss the other world.” His voice was strong and smooth now, but his eyes betrayed the fact that he was hurting inside. She watched him for a while before she answered.

“Well, okay. My life is… calm,” she began. “Boring, in fact.” She started telling him about her world – and the more she talked, the more he listened, until she found herself telling him almost everything she could call to mind about her life and how she lived her day-to-day moments. She told him about work, about her utter lack of a personal life, about the friends she loved (and those she just pretended to love), and even about the way her house looked and what kind of car she drove. Philip seemed to suck it all up like a sponge, asking questions from time to time that gave her serious pause.

“What’s a car?” he asked once, and she was startled. She shook her head, unsure of why he was even asking, but then she remembered that he had been in stuck in this prison for centuries.