“I’d guess the cult is worried about bad publicity.” I still don’t dare tell him the rest. What if he insists we leave? I may never get the answers I need.
We eat dinner and watch a movie on my double bed with his arm around me. Eventually, I drift off to an uneasy sleep.
The dream starts as it often does.
I’m maybe four or five and in a wedding. My older sister is there but she’s too young to be married. My uncle is there, too. All of a sudden, the dream changes and I’m the one about to be married.
A grown-up hand strikes me in a kitchen and a tall body looms. Lecherous eyes glow red like a demon and vampire teeth shine in the dark. Blood surrounds me on the kitchen floor where my sister lies motionless but I’m her. When the vampire kneels to bite my neck, I scream, unable to move.
“Get off!” I wake covered in sweat, a strange man in just his jeans sitting at my side.
“You awake now?” Jack’s warm hand cups my wet cheek.
“Oh shit. Bad dream.” Red vampire’s eyes continue to haunt me and blood refuses to drain away from the floor while Jack waits, rubbing my back.
“Want to talk about it?”
I roll onto my back. “Not really.”
When he begins to stand, I reach out and grab his thigh. “Wait. Don’t go. It’s a reoccurring nightmare. It happens when I’m under a lot of stress. It doesn’t mean anything.”
“Who is Faith? You called out her name.” The concern on his face is outlined by the nightlight in the bathroom. His voice is warm and his thigh even warmer. I can’t help but to sit up so I can better see his well-sculptured abs and inhale his all-male scent.
“Faith is, or perhaps was, my older sister. She married when she was fourteen and me, five. Then, I never saw her again. The elders said her husband took her to another, more restrictive church but I always wondered. My sister was more like my mother and I took the loss hard.”
“Is that really why you’re here? Are you trying to locate her?” Jack really is too damn observant.
I nod. Maybe it’s the intimacy of the setting or the fact I’m still half asleep. Other than my therapist, I’ve never told anyone about the wedding day. “I’ve always had nightmares Faith was murdered and I witnessed it.”
“Holy fuck.” He jumps up and stares, hand rasping over his beard. “Don’t tell me, you’re looking for clues? My God, that’s why you’re doing this documentary, right?”
I stand, forgetting my pajama top is rather see-through until his eyes go to my breasts. Shit. Quickly, I grab the closest thing, a bath towel on the floor, and wrap it around me. “I just need to know the truth.”
“The truth is, you should hire a private investigator, go to the police, the FBI-”
“You don’t think I’ve tried?” I switch on the light, figuring neither one of us will be getting more sleep tonight.
I wish to hell I had left the light off because Jack has the body of a well-honed warrior, complete with a Semper Fi tattoo and two circular craters on his midsection. I must be staring because he throws on a t-shirt. “Sorry.”
I let him think I stared because of his scars because it’s better he doesn’t know how much I lust for him. Even while arguing, I want to throw my arms around him, press my breasts to him, and know what it would be like to have him inside me
After he pulls down the hem of his t-shirt, he stands in front of me and captures both my cheeks with his rough palms. “You can’t go tomorrow.”
With his lips close enough to kiss, I shudder. “Listen. I’m not even sure my dreams are real. They could just be my subconscious manifesting my emotions of how I felt when my sister left me.”
“Or, they could be real partial memories, tired of being ignored.” He looks as if he might kiss me but lets go.
“I suppose.” I lick my lips, eyes on his ass while he paces.
“Fuck. You should’ve told me. Hell, you shouldn’t even be here. Tell me what you remember.”
“Almost nothing. I just have dreams of a wedding, a vampire, and a few flashes of a frilly blue dress. Nothing else, except blood. There was blood everywhere. And fear.”
“Fuck.” Behind him, the view of Salt Lake City is quite unremarkable compared to New York City except for a church in the distance. It’s a Disney-esque Taj Mahal, glowing in a million bright white lights.
I walk across the small room to stare out the window with him. “I’m not changing my mind no matter how many times you say ‘fuck’. It’s taken years to get my uncle to agree to this film. He’s narcissistic and delusional but won’t try anything in front of the cameras.”
“Don’t be so sure.” Dark eyes beseech me but I can’t give up, not when I’m so close.
