“Yeah,” he said softly, his eyes a burning silvery blue in the soft moonlight. She’d seen those eyes turn a sizzling green, which was probably his tertiary color, something most immortals had. His black hair was shaggy around his ears, thick and wavy, and he’d grown at least another inch, making him more than a foot taller than she was.
A quivering winged its way through her abdomen, but she ignored it. They could only be friends. “How was it training with the wolf shifters?” He’d been gone nearly six months.
“Good.” He shrugged out of his dark jacket and slid it around her shoulders. “Terrent has a mean left cross, but that’s how a guy learns to duck.” His jacket smelled like worn leather and the forest. Like Pax.
She caught something in his voice but couldn’t place it. “What else?”
“Nothing.” He pulled the coat closed in front of her chest.
Her breath caught, and she covered it with a cough.
“Are you sick again?” He pressed a mammoth hand to her forehead the way her mom had when she was young.
She swiped his hand away. “I’m a vampire. Of course I’m not sick.” Not now, anyway.
“Tell me you haven’t been meeting our enemies in dream worlds.” Now his voice lowered to the perfect vampire-demon growl, which only increased the odd shivers going through her body.
“I haven’t, but I went tonight.” She placed a hand on his chest, finding solid rock beneath her palm. “Ulric yanked me into his world again, and I couldn’t stop him. He also brought a human with him. One who tried to kill Garrett.”
Pax slowly straightened. “Huh?”
“I know. I have to figure out how Ulric reopened the portals I’d closed. I fought him this time, but he’s getting stronger. There’s only one place for us to get information, and you know it.” He brushed his knuckles across her chin, and her breath caught in her chest. “I’m going into the dream world again, either with you or not.” It had been three years.
Paxton’s eyes morphed to that dangerous green, and he fingered the pink quartz necklace he’d given her years ago. She always wore it. “I don’t like any of this. The second I say we’re out, you bring us both out. Got it?”
Excitement sailed through her. “It’s time to bring the gang back together.”
His growl dampened her hope. Slightly.
* * * *
Paxton swung into Hope’s bedroom the way he’d done a million times before, but they weren’t kids any longer. If Zane caught him in her room this time, the demon king would probably just cut off his head. But there was no way he was letting Hope go into that dream world by herself.
Years ago she’d lost the ability, and he’d finally been able to sleep at night. Then it had returned, and now apparently she couldn’t control it all the time.
Not for the first time, Pax wondered if he should just offer to mate her. She’d stop getting sick, and then the Kurjans would no longer want her. But he was fairly certain she’d already decided on a different path. He wasn’t going to let that happen, but it was getting more and more difficult to make his claim. Shutting the window, he sank to the floor with his back to the wall and extended his feet.
She slipped beneath her covers, although the sight of her in her tight yoga pants and thin T-shirt would haunt him for nights. “Remember when you used to climb in with me?” Her voice was soft. Sweet.
“Yeah.” More often than not, he’d had the shit kicked out of him by his father and had run to Hope’s house for warmth and safety, not telling a soul. But secrets always came out, and Zane had learned what was happening. Pax’s father had been shipped off. Pax had been living with his uncle since. Thus creating a shitstorm of new secrets, considering his uncle led a regime obsessed with preventing the final ritual to kill Ulric. They might be right, but his only goal was to protect Hope. He sighed.
“It’s okay, Pax.” She sounded sure and so adult all of a sudden.
He knew that he’d been her first kiss, but he had no idea whether he was the last. Had she been dating since he’d left? If so, he couldn’t blame her. So long as she wasn’t seeing that Kurjan in her dream worlds. “Go to sleep, Hope. Let’s get this over with.” He closed his eyes and forced his body to relax. He’d trained with many more species than just wolves, nearly dying a couple of times, and he knew how to chase sleep.
He was in the midst of a dream about fishing with his uncle in Alaska, catching salmon, when he spun through the air and landed on a black sand beach near a churning gray ocean. This was new. He caught sight of Hope sitting on a rock outcropping. In this place, the prophecy markings on her neck were a lighter blue than normal. “Where are we?” Usually her dream worlds had a lot of pink and purple in them, including the sea.
“I thought they were pretty.” Hope pointed to pieces of a glacier that had rolled onto the sand, where they looked like diamonds against the dark grains.
Behind her was a solid rock wall with a forest of deep green trees to one side. They weren’t identifiable. “Nice trees.”
“Thanks. Made them up.” She craned her neck toward the thick forest. A green book was perched on a branch high up, teasing her like always. It was her book and someday she’d read it, but she could never get close enough.
Pax angled his body in front of hers, watching for movement. There it was. A slight whisper of a tree branch.
Two males strode between two of the trees, and Pax stiffened. “You brought them both?”
She frowned, looking lovely with her deep blue eyes and wild mahogany hair.
