Ultimate Warriors (2 page)

     
He was a
monster.
A demon from hell or wherever else monsters came
from.

     
She’d
run so far, so long. It had made no difference. He knew her. He’d caught her
now, and his seduction tore at her control, frayed her nerves. Why did he want
her submission? Why did she fight it so hard? It was just a dream.

     
But it wasn‘t.
It had always been real to her.
Real in a way that if she was conquered by him, she would never
recover.
She knew it.

     
Already
the memory of the dream faded to hazy details, but the intensity remained.
Fear.
Lust.
Crowding
her body, seeping away willpower as effectively as a drug.
Nariko knew
she had something wrong with her mentally. And really, it was no wonder she was
fucked up in the head.

     
She was
a monster too.

     
It was
why she’d been abandoned at birth, left to grow up at an orphanage. No one had
wanted her, even as a baby, because they all knew there was something wrong
with her. Physically, she was fine. But evil could be masked by even the most
beautiful, and her face was far from that of an angel’s.

     
Nariko
climbed out of bed and walked into her bathroom, turning on the shower and
slipping inside.

     
She
still felt like she could smell him on her, and she wanted the reminder of the
dream and her arousal out of her mind and off her body.

     
Today.
Today she would see a doctor about these night
terrors. If she didn’t, she knew it was only a matter of time before she went
completely insane. She just hoped it wasn’t already too late.

     
 "The
Doctor will see you now."

     
Nariko
was nervous. She was always nervous in doctors’ offices. Of course, Doctor
Savage wasn’t a "real" doctor. He was a sleep therapist. But she was
still nervous and dreading the visit.

     
When she
was shown into his office, he was bent over searching for something in the
bottom drawer of his desk. "Just take a seat," he said without
looking up.

     
Nariko
looked around at the offerings and finally settled on the couch. The drawer
slammed, drawing her attention back to Doctor Savage as he sat up in his chair
and folded his hands on his desk, smiling at her and displaying a beautiful set
of gleaming white teeth.

     
A shock
of surprise ran through Nariko as she gaped at him. He didn’t look like any
doctor she’d ever seen. Not in real life, anyway. The actors on TV couldn’t
even hold a candle to this guy.

     
He was
blond, his hair a dark gold but streaked with locks of platinum that created
sun-induced highlights lovely enough to make her loathe her own drab, black
hair. His bangs fell across his forehead in a way that inevitably made a person
want to push them aside just for the chance to touch that silky
hair,
and she was not immune. He was sun bronzed, made more
evident by the contrast of his white shirt, which covered a set of shoulders so
broad, she knew they had to be all muscle. That he was all muscle.

     
His dark
brows were heavy and straight over his eyes. Angry eyebrows, she’d always
called them, but on him, they were just enough to offset the perfection of his
face and make him truly arresting.

     
She
couldn’t figure out what it was about his face that made her want to stare at
it. It seemed normal, almost average if she looked at each feature separately,
but there was something there in the combination that seized her attention and
made her heart gallop.

     
She
didn’t know if she could handle being around a doctor this damn sexy. She
wondered if it was too late to get up and walk out the door.

     
"What
can I help you with today Miss … Ms. …." he trailed off, searching around
his desk and picked up a file his nurse had dropped there when she’d escorted
her into the room. "Is it Miss or Mrs. Suzaku?"

     
Nariko
recovered from her initial surprise. She eyed him speculatively, wondering what
difference it made.
"Miss.
Why?"

     
He
reddened slightly. "This is usually easier if we can form a bond of trust,
and part of that is getting to know you."

     
She
relaxed fractionally. "I’m really a lot more interested in getting
something to help me sleep."

     
He
lifted one dark, golden brow. "I don’t work that way, Nariko."

     
Nariko
didn’t know what irritated her worse, his familiarity, or the fact that he just
dismissed her request out of hand. She resisted frowning at him, keeping her
face impassive. "How do you work then?"

     
He
allowed his gaze to travel her length before meeting hers once more.
"Drugs are for the incurable. I’ve found that most patients can be treated
naturally, overcoming the problems that prevent them from sleeping."

     
Nariko
studied him for several moments, lacing her fingers in her lap to keep from
fidgeting. "So I’m just supposed to discuss it with you? Is that how I’m
supposed to be cured from not sleeping every night?"

     
He
lifted his hands outward and shrugged. "Why don’t you explain exactly what
your problem
is.
"

     
Nariko
couldn’t help it. Blood flooded into her cheeks. "I have … dreams. They’re
very … real and very disturbing."

     
He
frowned thoughtfully. "Why don’t you tell me one of your dreams?"

     
Nariko
hadn’t thought it possible to blush any harder than she was already. She gaped
at him, opened her mouth, and closed it several times. "I don’t remember
them, actually."

     
Something
gleamed in his eyes. She was sure it was amusement. "Sexual?" he
asked.

     
She felt
really hot. All that blood pounding in her cheeks was starting to make her
sweat. She cleared her throat.
"Um.
Sort of."

     
He was
silent for several moments. "Ah … are you involved with someone at the
moment?"

     
"No,"
she said stiffly.

     
"Is
it possible that your dreams are related to problems you had in a previous
relationship?"

     
"I
don’t think so."

     
"Why?"

     
She
sighed, turning to stare out the window. "Because number 1, I’ve never
been in a relationship at all. I’m a virgin. And number 2, the thing I always
dream of is a demon."

     
She
didn’t want to look at him. She was sure he was trying hard not to laugh.
Either
that,
or he was staring at her like she was
some kind of freak because she was a grown woman and claiming to be a virgin.
He was silent for so long, however, that she found she couldn’t resist turning
to look and see what his reaction was. To her surprise, there wasn’t a trace of
amusement in his expression.

     
"What
makes you think he’s a demon?"

     
Nariko
frowned. "I’m not sure. I’ve never actually seen him. It’s one of those
things you just know."

     
"So
you do remember the dreams?"

     
"I
don’t really want to talk about them."

     
"I
understand that you’re not comfortable when we’ve only just met, and believe
me, I wouldn’t pry if I didn’t think it wasn’t important, but I need to know
the nature of the dreams before I can begin to understand what’s causing them
and help you work your way through them."

     
Nariko
stared at him, feeling a mixture of hope and doubt, discomfort and
embarrassment. It really was getting harder and harder to cope with these
dreams. As uncomfortable as she felt even thinking about telling him, if there
was any chance he could help her to get rid of them, she really wanted to have
peaceful sleep again. She had permanent circles under her eyes. She could
barely remember sleep without nightmares. "I’m just not really comfortable
talking about them."

     
Smiling,
he rose from his desk and moved to the light switch, dimming the lights.
"Why don’t you just relax there on the
couch.
Sit
up if you want
to,
lay down if you want to. Just get
comfortable. I’m going to move to the chair by the window so that you don’t
have to look at me. And when you feel relaxed enough, I want you to tell me
about your last dream."

     
Nariko
nodded. She thought about it a few minutes and finally decided to
lay
down on the couch. She heard his movements as he settled
in the chair by the window.

     
"Before
we get started, why don’t you tell me how long you’ve been having these dreams
and if you can remember anything out of the ordinary that happened in your life
before the dreams started?"

     
Nariko
frowned, thinking back. "They’ve only gotten really bad lately, but I’ve
been having nightmares for about ten years I guess.
Since I
was fifteen."

     
"Did
something happen when you were fifteen?"

     
Nariko
shrugged. "Not that I can remember."

     
"Something
between your parents?" he prompted.

     
"I
grew up in an orphanage. I never knew my parents."

     
He was
silent for several moments.
"An accident?
An injury?
Did something happen to you in the
orphanage?"

     
"No.
Not really." She thought it over for several minutes. She really wasn’t
comfortable telling him, but he was a doctor. "I was fifteen when I got my
period."

     
Again,
there was a prolonged silence. "But you think that’s along about the same
time that you began to have the dreams?
The nightmares?"

     
"Sometime along then."

     
"You
say they’re worse now?
In what way?"

     
"Before,
I used to dream that I was being chased. I never knew what it was that chased
me, only that it was evil and that something terrible would happen to me if it
caught me. But I always woke up before it did. Then, about a year ago, the
dream seemed to change."

     
"How
did it change?"

     
"He
began to call my name. And somehow then, I knew that it was a demon that
pursued me. And it’s gotten even worse. Twice now, he’s caught me."

     
"Why
don’t you tell me what you remember about your last dream?"

     
Nariko
shivered. She felt more comfortable than she thought she would feel. His voice
soothed her, and there was no judgment in it. Haltingly at first, and then with
more surety, she began to describe the dream to him in detail. When she’d
finished, she felt surprisingly better.

     
Doctor
Savage had said nothing, however, and she began to have the uncomfortable
feeling that he thought she was crazy.

     
"What
do you think?" she asked, finally.

     
Doctor
Savage said nothing. She heard him get up from the chair, however. He moved
within her range of vision and reached for the light dimmer once more. She
blinked and sat up as the lights in the room brightened. When she looked
around, she saw that the doctor had seated himself behind his desk once more.
He was studying the file, frowning.

     
As if
sensing her nervous gaze, he finally looked up at her. A faint smile curled his
lips. "I think what you need is someone to teach you how to cope with the
demon."

* * * *

     
Stretching
into the distance like a riotous sea lay a chasm of blackness, interrupted only
by winks in the night like glowing eyes. It was with a sense of terror that I
realized they were eyes, and they were coming closer. My stomach lurched at
that unending blackness crawling toward me as if the very night lived and
breathed evil.

     
The
limits of the precipice crumbled, making me stagger backward, but a cushion of
something unseen kept me from fleeing, kept me there at the edge of some
unfathomable horror.