Raven's Desires (Night Hunters) (2 page)

Dreamwalkers did not need sleep. They did not need food. Some lived a regular life as a human, eating, sleeping and aging to the human eyes while staying young forever. They never aged and as far as he knew could not be killed. Dreamwalkers were the perfect specimen for a prison guard. There had to be over a thousand demons in this prison and maybe only twenty dreamwalker guards. Many dreamwalkers had no life. Working in this prison all day and night was their life.

They did not go out and socialize with anyone because there were not as many dreamwalkers on this earth as there used to be. Rumor was that most of the dreamwalker population went back to their dimension because the rising of Anarisan was near. Anarisan was one of the most dangerous creatures of this universe. It didn’t matter what the dreamwalkers were doing or why
—
all Arcadia’s managers cared about was that the few that were here controlled the other demons.

“I’m not sleeping,” Kristian hissed dangerously.

“You had better not be. I would gladly open the shutters again. Your buddy Shane was scorched the last time we opened it.”

Kristian used what little energy he had, jumped up from his seated position and charged the bars.

His fangs emerged again. His fingers gripped the bars tightly
—he wished
his fingers were around this dreamwalker’s neck instead.

“What the hell did you do to him?”

The dreamwalker tilted his head and the sides of his mouth curled into a creepy smile. His eyes turned a dark red color. Kristian blinked his eyes, his second mistake of the night besides charging the dreamwalker when he knew he was too weak to fight. When he focused his eyes again the dreamwalker was no longer in front of him. Kristian felt his body being turned around. Strong fingers caught him in a deadly grip around his throat as his body was slammed against the bars, knocking the breath from his body.

“Don’t ever charge me, vampire. I could snap your neck like a twig. Your friend fell asleep and did not move when the shutters opened. You know the rules. No vampires are allowed to sleep during the day.”

The dreamwalker smiled again. “You wanna know something vampire? His flesh looked like charcoal when I last saw him. Just like you are going to look one day. Deep fried.”

The dreamwalker tightened his grip around Kristian’s throat. Kristian didn’t have enough energy to fight. He only wished for a quick death. He didn’t need to breathe as often as humans but he knew that if the dreamwalker kept applying pressure his neck would snap soon.

“Etan, let him go,” Jasmine, his angel of light, ordered.

Etan gazed past Kristian but did not let go of Kristian’s throat.

“Now, Etan, it’s an order.”

“He charged me.”

“I don’t care. He could not do any harm to you. This vampire is too weak to do anything but bare his fangs. Now don’t make me say it again.”

Etan growled before releasing him. Kristian’s legs collapsed under him and he went down to the ground hard.

“You are babying them all too much, Jasmine. They are here because they are hard core killers. They murdered humans. The worst crime that any creature could commit. Don’t let them think they deserve better.”

“That’s why I’m here to rehabilitate them
—to
have them know right from wrong, so they will go out in the world and not kill again.”

“Vampires will never learn, and you are crazy to believe that they will never kill again. They are animals! They only know about blood. They don’t care if they kill humans to get it. In fact, I heard that some say they enjoy killing the humans because the last drop of blood is the best.”

“Shut up, Etan! Why would you say that in front of him?”

“Why should I be quiet? If you are rehabilitating them, then they should be able to hear about killing and blood without going crazy with need. You are helping them remember. If you are so good at helping, then this vampire should be able to handle a little blood talk. Don’t you think?”

A wind passed through Kristian, making him shiver. He opened his eyes to see Jasmine push Etan in the chest. He went flying back through the air. To anyone it would seem it took little or no effort for her to push him. In reality it didn’t. Jasmine was more powerful and stronger than Etan. She was older by at least two thousand years giving her leadership over Etan in the dreamwalker’s laws and here at the prison.

Etan smiled. His body faded before going through the wall.

“Damn it, he knows I hate when he does that.”

Jasmine swept her golden hair away from her face then turned to Kristian. She sighed at him. He had not moved from his spot on the floor. He looked at her, then down to himself. His once blue inmate’s uniform was torn and tattered. Dirt and grime lined every inch of it. Jasmine, on the other hand, stood there with a white t-shirt on and a pair of jeans looking like she did every day. Beautiful.

Kristian could handle the showering whenever the guards felt like letting him shower. He could handle the minor torture of letting them have blood once every two weeks. But stopping vampires from sleeping during the day was the worse punishment of all. Sleep was how they recovered. They healed quicker when they slept. What could take two months for a bruised eye on a human could take a couple of hours of sleep with a vampire. But if you deprived sleep when vampires naturally slept, then the healing process took longer than usual.

The reason why no sleeping was a rule was to keep them tired so when night came, they slept. Which worked in the long run. It kept down the escape ratio. Arcadia had a magical force field around it that was supposed to keep all inmates in unless they had been freed. But sometimes the barrier got weak. He noticed it
—
everyone did. It got weak mostly on his side of the prison around two in the morning and that’s when he felt that someone could escape.

“Sorry vampire, I did not mean to be gone for so long. I sense that you are very weak,” Jasmine whispered before walking up to him, grasping his arm and lifting him as if he weighed next to nothing.

They faded through the bars as she moved. This dreamwalker looked to be a nineteen year old female that couldn’t lift a twenty pound weight. And here she just lifted him and was carrying him with one arm down the hallway as if he weighed lighter than a feather.

As he passed by the cells, he observed many of the vampires and other demons. Most were in corners hiding from the sun. Others paced back and forward talking and growling to themselves. Pain went through him knowing that his brothers were suffering like this, but most of them deserved it. They killed humans for fun. They did not live by the Council’s law. Those who were killers he didn’t feel pain for, only those who were trapped in here and innocent like him.

The need for sleep hit Kristian hard and he could not keep his eyes open. He knew he could sleep now and would be safe with Jasmine. He needed to try again to open up his mate’s mind, to make her know who he was. If he could then he knew that his days in this prison would end.

* * * *

Kristian opened his eyes, and the first thing he noticed was he was standing in front of Raven. She sat in a chair, her eyes closed, her body relaxed.

He moved closer to her, his heart pounding with excitement. It had been so long since he had seen her. Standing directly in front of her, inhaling her scent, he realized how much he truly missed her.

Kristian didn’t know if it was a dream but he did not care. He stood over her and reached out, touching her hand. Raven’s body jerked but she did not wake.

He looked around the room, noticing that he stood in darkness. It was just him and his mate here. A thought came to him that he had to be sleeping, but it felt so real. When he touched her, he could feel her body jerking. He could hear her breathing. It couldn’t be a dream, could it? His soul must have traveled to find her and he had.

Now that he had found Raven, touched her, he had to get her to remember him and the love they shared. He wanted to have her in his life again.

“You have to remember, my love,” Kristian spoke softly, his hand cupping the right side of her face.

Raven’s hand covered his and he sucked in a breath from her touch. She smiled in her sleep before her hand fell away from his.

Kristian knew entering her mind could make her forget him but he had to take that chance. He could not lose her now that he had connected with her after so long. They’d become one and he would be able to unlock the part of her brain that had been locked about him.

Remember me, Raven.

Remember me.

Remember me.

* * * *

Raven Nowles jumped into a seated position in the chair. Her hand immediately touched the side of her face she felt someone touching. Her eyes widened with fear. She looked around the room, sensing that someone was there, someone had touched her. But how could she sense anyone here when it was only her in the room?

She sighed, then lay back in the chair, trying to relax. Today she felt edgy and she didn’t know why. All day she did things to keep her mind busy. First thing this morning, she went to the gym and worked out for hours. After the workout, she decided to go into work early and get some paperwork done for the bookstore. Nothing seemed to work to keep her mind occupied.

After hours of getting nothing accomplished, she thought about her life over the past years. She remembered walking into this book store ten years ago, confused about why she wanted to work in this particular bookstore.

Alec had taken one look at her and hired her on the spot, saying she had the potential he was looking for. For months she worked her ass off, coming in early, staying late. In no time, she went from stock girl up to manager. She enjoyed going to work every day and putting in the hours. The customers who came into the store were so nice and friendly. Yes, half of them were in their sixties but they were so sweet. The communication and the fun she had in the bookstore made her enjoy working.

Alec had been like family ever since…since she could remember. She did not remember much of her childhood lately. Maybe it was not a good one. Maybe as a child, something bad happened to her and she locked it away in her mind. She did remember little things every now and then. Like her as a young child sitting in front of a cake blowing out candles, while other young children cheered around her. She remembered turning around watching a couple kissing in a booth behind her at some café. She was older then, but the image was blurred. She wondered about that image a lot. The one with her in the booth smiling. For some reason she felt more attached to that time than any other image she imagined. Sadly, whenever she turned around to talk to whomever sat in front of her in the booth, the image was dark to a point she would stop thinking about it.

Raven felt that something had happened at that time in her life. Good or bad, she still wanted to know who it was she spoke with and why watching that couple made her smile.

Raven let out a long sigh. Sadness overtook her as it did every time she thought about the person in the booth.
Damn it!
This was what she was trying to prevent all day. She didn’t want to be sad. She wanted to be happy. Raven tried to think of things that made her happy. Like Alec. Even though she could not remember much about her past, Alec kept her happy in the present. He made her happy even if he had this uptight look about him. First thing she noticed was he only wore dark colored clothes. She never saw Alec in anything colorful. Nothing light colored like browns, greens or any color that a man could wear and still look manly. No, Alec only wore dark, blood red, and black clothes.

Along with his strange taste in clothes, he didn’t smile that much. He did smirk if you told him a funny joke. He did give a creepy smile when he greeted people, but to Raven it seemed fake. Oh, and he always did that disappearing thing that freaked her out sometimes. One moment he stood in front of her and if she blinked, he would be gone without a trace. Out of all the unusual things about Alec, the most was that she only saw him at nightfall. She was really tempted to ask him if he was a vampire or something. Not that she believed in those things. Raven thought it would get him to smile if she did, but the moment she thought about asking she would shake the thought from her mind. She knew if she asked Alec about him being a night walker he would probably fire her on the spot
—
or worse, admit her to some psycho ward where they would dope her up on meds all day and night until she stopped thinking that creatures of the nights were real.

All in all, Alec did make her smile all the time. They did have very intelligent conversations. He said things that would make her smile and he seemed to know exactly when to do it. Like now, if he were around he would tell her something funny to lift her spirits. Alec had more good parts about him than bad. Not that the clothes he picked were considered bad
—
the fact that he did not want to change his image just a little made it bad. How many black suits could one person own? With Alec, it had to be a lot. More than he needed that is for sure.

Raven sat back in her chair, closed her eyes and concentrated on relaxing her mind. She’d learned that deep meditation helped her to relieve stress a lot. For hours she would sit here and think of herself on some far away island with no one around. The thought of lying on the beach, watching the waves rush onto the shores, rolling onto the sandy beaches would ease the first of her stress. The birds chirped happily in the skies as they flew by. Raven would be on a beach lounger looking out over the ocean as the sun descended over the horizon. It was a beautiful thought, just beautiful.