Second Skin (Skinned) (28 page)

A pop of gunfire. We jerked apart, tilted our heads to see fireworks. Honest-to-God fireworks above us, gold and silver flickers and shimmers descending in graceful arcs in the starless black sky.

Alec stared down at me. His hand cupped my cheek. “Are you doing that? Incredible.”

“How incredibly cheesy.” Paige gave a dry laugh. “Fireworks, Eryn? I know we can conjure in the dream world, but seriously?”

I was about to blast Paige with a bit of her nightmare I’d witnessed, but a hint of vulnerability in her face held me back. She was dishing it out, but I wasn’t sure she could take it. Still, her mocking tone brought me back to reality, such as it was. We were in the dream realm. I’d been projecting my feelings, and they’d manifested this chick-flick cliché. I cringed, not daring to glance in Wade’s direction. He hadn’t spoken a word, via our mental link or otherwise, and he sure as hell was keeping distance between us.

Then again, he’d just seen me making out with Alec. I tipped my face down, unsure where to look. Where to turn.

The fireworks fizzled, leaving the sky empty and black.

Wade, Alec, and even Paige knew what I’d dreamt. Had seen my worst nightmare played out for them like bad dinner theatre. They’d all stood back and watched. Even Alec.

I leaned into the palm still gently cupping my cheek. I bit down hard.

Alec yelped and scrambled from me, glaring at the impressions of my human teeth on his flesh.

“You bit me,” he said.

“You were hamburger meat the last time I chowed down. Consider yourself lucky.” I sat up, rested my hands on the wood at either side of my hips, and let my legs dangle off the side of the table. “Where are we?”

Alec grimaced. “Ask Wade. He’s the one with all the power.” I met Wade’s gaze.
Tell me
, I projected.

“We’re in a void, a place between dreams.” Wade stalked around the narrow room with Paige trailing behind like a loyal puppy.

He’d answered aloud. His rebuff stung as if he’d physically shoved me aside. Even though I knew it was beyond hypocritical, I wondered at his self-control. If I’d seen him kissing another girl…

My teeth ached at the thought, my wolf seething.

He paused as if sensing my turbulent emotions. Our gazes clashed for a long moment until Alec made a big show of clearing his throat. Wade resumed his pacing.

When I glanced his way, Alec leaned casually back against the wall, looking relaxed. But he held his bitten hand close to his side, and muscles flexed in his jaw.

“We’re in this realm with 150 dreamers,” Wade continued. “I had to find you guys and bring you to a central location. I’ve been smoking us around, avoiding the night mare until you were ready. You needed to work with your wolf. To accept her. If you stopped fearing her, you’d see she wasn’t that bad.”

I hopped off the table, snarling. “Wasn’t that bad? I killed Alec!”

Wade crossed his arms. “No. You and your wolf dreamed you did. Big difference.”

I laughed. “Oh, yeah, huge.” I rolled my eyes. “Except I thought it was real. I made the decision to embrace my wolf. And together we hunted down Alec, attacked him, and fed off his flesh. It was wrong.
I
was wrong.” I folded my arms across my chest, hugging them close. “The only difference is that at least we know why Alec and Marie had those visions.” I shot Alec a glance. “That
was
how you saw it happen, right?”

Alec took a step toward me and then stopped. He nodded, rocking on his heels.

Sagging with relief, I gave him a shaky smile. “That’s good. That’s better than good. That’s close to awesome.” When he looked away, my smile faded. “Not that I attacked you or anything, but that it was just a dream.” I hoped I wasn’t kidding myself.

Wade slapped his hands together in a
let’s-get-down-to-business
manner. “Now that you’ve envisioned the worst, the night mare won’t have power over you in this realm. You can focus on the end game. Killing it.”

“And how am I supposed to do that? We don’t even know where
it
is.”

“It’s just outside this room. My wards have been holding it off, but it’s almost through.”

And then I noticed the glowing amber sigils on the door, how they sputtered and flashed with the impact of blows from the other side and grew dimmer with each attack.

“I’m not ready. I don’t know what I’m doing.”

“Yes, you are,” Wade said. “And so is your wolf. You’ve been repressing her, relegating her to your nightmares. She’s become a master of dreamwalking.” He raised a hand. Energy swirled in his palm, a mini-snowstorm. “In this realm you don’t have to be a witch to repel magic, command the elements, or even will an object to appear. You just have to believe. Try not to let this kill you…”

He fired.

Paige squealed as Wade’s energy storm sent her curls flying around her head, standing on end as if she were upside down.

Frustrated at being lectured and forced into a brief training session like wayward child, I did more than deflect Wade’s energy ball, I absorbed it, sucking the power into my own, feeding it. I shot a blast back at him from my mind into his. The force of it drove him backward into the wall, the soles of his boots sparking along the floor.

He held out a hand, laughing. “Well done.”

Wow, I’d done it. I’d blasted him with my mind, taking a simple deflection and turning it into a physical attack.

A smile played on Alec’s lips. “Now
that
was a thing of beauty.” Wade made a show of adjusting his leather coat, dusting off his sleeves. “I knew you had it in you, McCain. Now, once the night mare is defeated, I’ll wake us up. I’m the only one who can.” He flashed Alec a cocky grin. “Expending a ton of energy at great risk to myself, I might add. Then we still have to destroy the source to banish it forever.”

A thunderous roar echoed outside the door. The sigils dimmed even further.

“Are we ready?” Wade asked, and I guessed the killer smile he leveled at me was supposed to be encouraging, but it came across as more than a bit crazed. “Or are we ready?”

“I vote
no
,” Paige said.

Wade snorted. “There’s no crying in hockey, and there’s no voting in the dream realm. Now, let’s take this fight where we’ll have some wiggle room.” His maniacal laughter lingered in the air as he surrounded us with black smoke. Once more we traveled via vamp mist.

I'm a Lover, Not a Fighter

Crimson Cemetery looked as gloomy in the dream realm as in real life. The night sky hovered above us, pressing down, dark and dense, hiding a million secrets. My hackles rose and tension settled in my clenched stomach. Though the snowcapped trees and slanted tombstones that surrounded us were nearly exact replicas of the cemetery we’d spent far too much time skulking around, we were not in reality, and it showed. Here every moonlight-softened angle had a hard edge, every shadow in the undergrowth shifted, restless. Knowing. If you looked at any one thing for too long, it began to look back.

“Nice location choice,” I told Wade, pushing past my unease. “We know the lay of the land. It might give us an advantage.”

Wade shrugged. His unopened leather coat shifted with the bitter breeze as he placed his hands on lean hips. “None of that will matter if we don’t stay focused. The night mare will do everything in its power to take control and manipulate this setting. I’ll hold it as long as possible.” He pointed a finger at all of us in succession— me, Alec, then Paige. “We all have to keep our eyes open for any freaky stuff. Doors that appear out of nowhere should
not
be opened. A mortal wound in this realm, a deathblow of any sort will kill you here
and
in the real world. Do. Not. Die.” His gray eyes lingered on my face. He cleared his throat and addressed the others as well. “Understood?”

Alec nodded, while Paige simply bolted behind a four-foot high tombstone and slunk down in the snow.

Figured.

“I’m a lover, not a fighter,” she called, staring hungrily at Wade’s back. He shuddered with revulsion as if he’d felt her touch crawling along his spine.

Alec shot me a glance, eyebrow raised. “At least she’s back to normal.”

“Don’t remind me.”

A dark figure shifted in the shadows at the edge of the graveyard, slipping from the trees and into the moonlight. A big, red-eyed werewolf. The night mare was sending us a familiar foe. I shifted my weight, automatically assuming a fighting stance. Alec and Wade stood beside me, devil and angel at my shoulders.

The beast loped forward, crossing the terrain in an easy stride. Rippling muscles under a husk of human flesh and matted fur. Its jaw gaped, great huffs expelling with each breath. The stench of rotted meat and pungent earth preceded it.

But why send just one when the night mare could invoke an army? As if in answer, the werewolf’s form blurred, multiplied. From either side, another beast flanked it, and then two more formed from the sides of those, and so on until we faced more than a dozen of the things in a fierce line of offense.

Alec and Wade shared a grim look over my head. Their intoxicating adrenaline spiked the air. I ignored the heady scent, demanding my wolf focus on the matter at hand.

“Remember, use your imagination,” Wade said out the corner of his mouth. “In this world, if you can dream it, do it.” With that he blasted out a beam of energy, freezing several of the creatures in place. A coating of frost covered their bodies, trapping their breaths as clouds of mist and ice. But the night mare was prepared. The beasts quickly thawed, their frosted backs cracking as they gave great shudders and shook off Wade’s Mr. Freeze.

Wade picked up a fallen tree branch and handed it to Alec. “Take this, you’ll need it.”

“What the hell am I supposed to do with a stick?” Alec said, but even as he grabbed the branch, it transformed into a gleaming silver sword. “Now we’re talking.” He charged forward, slicing into the nearest werewolf.

“Get the picture?” Wade asked, fashioning another sword and presenting it to me.

The coat I wore was unzipped. I reached inside, thankful my athame was indeed resting in my shoulder holster. I held it high, content with its solid silver blade. The hand that held the rosewood hilt grew meatier, furrier, and sported three-inch claws. “Keep it, you need it more than I do,” I said through a mouth already transforming, my jaw distending, filling with fangs and the strength to crunch through bone. The best of me and my wolf against whatever the night mare had to offer.

He smirked. “Remind me not to piss you off.” My own wolfish grin felt a mile wide.

The battle began in earnest. The three of us cut through the beasts as an efficient team. Wade had the most flare. His strength in this realm was clear. He struck with magic, his sword, and fang when the opportunity presented itself.

One of the werewolves drew me off to the side, clever enough to entice me into the open while another came at my back. I scented it though. Whirling around, I feigned a dodge, shifting my weight. As the were countered, I sprang. Drove my athame into its side, plunging through its ribcage until the silver struck its heart.

A flare of brilliant white light, and it was gone. No transforming back into the ravaged body of a human victim. Thank God for small mercies. These would be easy kills and wouldn’t inspire the guilt and remorse I battled after taking down creatures in the real world.

I spun to find two werewolves stalking forward. Tweedledee and tweedle
dumb.

I charged at the closest, falling to my knees to slide across the snow as if it were ice. I gutted the underbelly of the first, then spun on the snow, aimed my athame, black with the creature’s blood, and hurled it through the air. It struck the heart of the second. It died on its feet and began to dissipate before it hit the snow. I got to my feet and trotted to finish off the first were I’d injured. It lay writhing on the ground, black rot seeping from its wound.

“Eryn, behind you!” Paige screamed.