She's standing in the center of a stone arena, wearing leather armor and splattered with blood, as she demolishes the creatures. It's not even a fair fight. She moves so beautifully as she kills that it's hard to pull my eyes away. Undead watch in chilling silence from the sidelines, hideous visages of rotting flesh and eyeless sockets that are unable to make a sound. Everything is nearly colorless, and the sun overhead is so dim that it may as well be a full moon.
Once the ghouls are dead, a banshee is brought out. Then a strange, bony monster I've never heard of. Then another. On and on the bouts go, and Maven's face is unlike I've ever seen. It's as if she's in a trance, utterly lost in the bloodshed.
Even when a wendigo finally manages to sink its claws into her back, ripping through her skin until she's a bloody mess, Maven has no reaction. She's mindless with the need to kill.
I change her dream quickly, weaving and adjusting until she's in this same exact room, in this same situation. All her matches are at her side—only in this dream, I lay wrapped around her. And, of course, she's entirely naked because I'd always have her naked if it were possible.
My keeper blinks as she gradually adjusts to the new surroundings and then kisses my jaw. "You're changing my dreams again."
"I only want you to rest peacefully, love."
"Resting in peace is for other dead people. It's okay to let my dreams be."
"You're not dead. If you were, I would be haunting you in the Beyond instead."
Maven hums and begins kissing her way down my jawline, turning in my arms to press herself against me. I shut my eyes, enjoying every one of her touches. Still, it's difficult to be muchmore engaged than that when I'm also carefully unraveling the tendrils of panic and anxiety that start to unfurl from her psyche with all of this contact.
Maven grinds against my straining erection, humming thoughtfully. "Someone's excited."
"How can I help it when you sleep so beautifully?"
She pulls away slightly to study me. "Are you this hard because of the dream, or…"
"Or?" I prompt, distracted by the tantalizing friction of her squirming against me.
"Or is it because I'm asleep?"
Godsdamn me, is it that obvious? I look away, toying with the ends of her hair.
"Anytime I'm near you, I'm desperate. But if your sleeping body is a temptation that I would gladly sell the remaining fragments of my soul to worship…does that bother you?"
She turns my chin to make me look at her, and the sultry, curious sparkle in her dark eyes makes my heart stutter. "No. Actually, I'm…intrigued. Is this something most people do?"
I swallow. "No."
Maven considers that and returns to kissing my jaw. "Their loss. Like you said, I think we both enjoy being fucked up. So if you want to use me in my sleep, you have my permission."
Gods above.
I exhale slowly, trying not to frighten her by showing how desperately I want that. But what if I'm influencing her dream to make her say this? I hesitate, checking to make sure that's not the case.
None of my power is seeping into her subconscious. This is all Maven.
"You're sure, love?" I rasp, my cock aching as excitement pulses through my veins. She has no idea how much I want thisor all the fantasies she's giving the green light for. "You're giving me permission to take your gorgeous body when you're asleep?"
She kisses me in her dream. "Yes. Fuck me while I dream about you, Nightmare Prince."
I moan at the unfiltered arousal perfuming her entire dream. I could feed on this every single damned night, and having her explicit permission to adore her sleeping body to my heart's content is the single greatest thing I've ever been given?—
But the first time I fuck Maven, I want it to be in the mortal world and not in her pretty dreams.
"Hold that thought, darling," I whisper, kissing her and slipping back out of her dream.
From Limbo, I watch as she makes a soft sound of need in her sleep. It makes Decimus roll over, his own dream wavering as he nearly wakes.
I roll my shoulders back and pop my knuckles. It's been a while since I’ve intertwined dreams. And never sex dreams.
But like a maestro, I grasp Frost's vague dream about kissing and interweave it with Maven's. Then I work at Decimus's and finally Crane's. By the time I'm done merging their dreams, all of Limbo around me is thick with want and desperation. Silently, I check back into the conjoined dream and find?—
