Ultimate Warriors (4 page)

     
After
what seemed an interminable amount of time, he looked up. "You’re still
having the bad dreams?"

     
Nariko
bobbed her head nervously. "It’s worse than that, though. The dreams are
worse, and this time when I woke up, I had a mark from the dream."

     
Doctor
Savage frowned, clasping his hands together on atop his desk. "I don’t
understand."

     
Nariko
dragged in a shaky breath. "In my dream, the demon bit me. When I woke up
I found this mark on my neck. It looks like a bite."

     
Doctor
Savage stood abruptly and moved toward her. Crouching in front of her, he met
her gaze. "Show me."

     
Nariko
pulled her shirt away from her neck and showed him the mark she’d found that
morning in the mirror. He studied it in silence for some time. "You
dreamed that you were bitten and then you found this?"

     
She
nodded jerkily. "You can even see teeth marks."

     
Doctor
Savage frowned. "You’re certain that this didn’t happen first and then you
dreamed of it, and in your dream, it became the demon
who
had bitten you?"

     
She
stared at him wide-eyed. "You think I’m crazy, don’t you?"

     
"I
didn’t say that."

     
"You
don’t have to. You just said that you thought that I couldn’t tell the
difference between dreams and reality."

     
He shook
his head. "Sometimes things happen to us and they disturb us in a way that
they manifest themselves in our dreams."

     
She
shook her head. "This did not happen to me. I know the difference. Don’t
you see how deep the bite is? How could I not remember that someone had bit me
like this? And then think that I had dreamed it?"

     
He
stared at her for several moments. "So maybe it’s not a dream at
all."

     
She
frowned. "I don’t think I understand what you’re suggesting."

     
"I’m
suggesting that maybe something is happening to you while you’re asleep.
Perhaps you’re not fully conscious of it, but it enters your dream. It’s like,
sometimes the doorbell will ring when you’re asleep, but you’re dreaming, and
in your dream you think that it’s the phone ringing. It’s something outside
your dream, in the real world, that’s intruding into your dreams. And while
you’re asleep, you are interpreting it as something else."

     
Nariko
shivered. Just the implication of his words turned her stomach and sent cold
chills down her arms and legs. "I live alone. I told you I wasn’t seeing
anyone. Are you suggesting someone is coming into my apartment?
While I’m asleep?"

     
"I’m
not suggesting that at all. I really find this disturbing, however, and I think
what we should do, if you’re agreeable to it,
is
that
I should setup my equipment in your apartment and observe you while you’re
sleeping."

     
She
frowned. "Don’t they usually do that sort of thing in a controlled
environment?"

     
He
shrugged. "Usually, yes, but I don’t think there’s anything usual about
your dreams. Would you like to do that?"

     
Nariko
didn’t think it over very long. She hardly knew Doctor Savage, but it made her
feel
tremendously better just thinking about him being there
while she slept so that she wasn’t alone. She nodded.

* * * *

     
"Do
you really think you can stay up all night watching me?" Nariko asked,
looking over the video cameras he’d set up around her bed. She wasn’t sure how
well she’d sleep under surveillance but probably better than her average night
anyway. She had nothing to lose.

     
"I’ve
gone without sleep before. I normally don’t have to worry about it though,
since I usually have technicians and nurses taking shifts as well," Doctor
Savage said, adjusting one tripod.

     
She
arched a brow.
"But none this time.
Should I be
worried?"

     
His head
snapped up from what he was doing, and he looked at her.
"Of
course not."

     
She
couldn’t help herself. She laughed. After a second, he let out an uneasy
chuckle and smiled at her, making her heart skip. Damn, it was going to be hell
trying to sleep tonight with him in the house. She hoped she wouldn’t do
anything embarrassing in her sleep.

* * * *

     
The bed
shifted, dipping as someone climbed into it, sidling up behind me. The warmth
of another person brushed against my air space--aura--heightening my awareness
and bringing me from the deep blackness of dreamless sleep.

     
I turned
my head slightly toward the movement behind me. "Doctor Savage?" I
asked groggily, my voice husky with disuse
..
The room
wasn’t completely dark. Muted light filtered through the blinds covering my
bedroom window.

     
"No,"
he said softly, soothingly.

     
When he
touched my hip, I stiffened, watching as his hand traveled down in a leisurely
caress around the curve of my buttocks. He caught the sheet covering me and
pulled until the edge slid over my hip and pooled on the bed, leaving me bare
save for the silk panties I wore. I could’ve sworn I’d gone to bed in pajama
pants, since I’d never gone to sleep with a man in my immediate vicinity, and I
darn sure didn’t want the doctor seeing me unclothed without a good reason. But
having a man see me now didn’t bother me as much as I thought it would.

     
He
leaned forward, catching the fabric of my panties with his teeth. That’s when I
saw his horns.

     
I
startled, tried to jerk away, but his hands were on me, trapping me, flipping
me onto my stomach until I was pinned to the bed beneath him. The hot, hard
flesh of his thighs closed around my legs, keeping them still while he cupped
my buttocks and roamed over them up my spine. "Let me go!" I said,
gasping, shaking my head until my face was clear of the pillow. I didn’t know
his name, but I knew who it was. I should’ve been fighting, and my body was in
turmoil … but for a different reason altogether.

     
"Is
this not what you crave?" he asked, leaning over me until his warm breath
brushed the back of my neck. His fingers slipped under my panties, teasing the
under curve of my ass cheeks, lingering near my cleft.

     
I sucked
in a sharp breath, unable to speak for the anticipation choking me, making my
heart pound in a raging gallop.

     
He
rubbed a sensuous circle, his touch feather light, never quite roaming the
direction I wanted him to go to so badly. "Stop torturing me," I
said, squirming beneath him, digging my hands into the mattress like claws.

     
He
chuckled, adjusting himself until he’d freed my legs to sit between them. It
should’ve been an embarrassing position, having him looking at me this way, but
all thought of shame disappeared when he snapped the sides of my panties and
tore them away. I jumped, shocked when he ran a finger up my slit.

     
"I
am no more good or evil than any of my kind. We each serve our own purpose. You
should not relent so easily, Nariko. You’re stronger than this." He stopped
at my core, fingering the edges of my tight hole.

     
I didn’t
feel strong. I felt weak and needy, and I damn sure didn’t want a lecture. I
was having trouble concentrating on his words. All I could think about was
having him ram that finger inside me and assuage this ache I’d been feeling for
what seemed like forever.

     
Biting
my lip, I pushed back, trying to urge him to do more.

     
"Onyx
seeks to gain power from you," he said, tormenting me with his nearness.

     
I
growled against the mattress.
"And what about you?
What do you want?"

     
"You,
Nariko," he said, and I felt his breath brush over my bare cheeks.

     
I froze,
holding my breath, waiting for him to say or do something. Even my heart seemed
to have locked into place.
Anticipating.
Begging.
Emptiness gnawed.

     
Something
hot and wet swiped one cheek. I jerked, trying to see what he was doing, but I
could twist around that far. I didn’t need to see anyway. I knew what he was up
to. My body felt singed, my nerves so high strung the stroke of air could set
them off.

     
He pried
my lips apart. Cool air grazed the moistness, sending chills up my spine, and
then the probe of something hot and wet slipped down the slick path, jarring
me, sending me whirling into a frenzy of heat and need.

     
He found
the entrance to my vagina, edged it, teasing, provoking me to curse him and
groan, struggling to do something--anything.

     
He
seemed to enjoy torturing me as much as Onyx. I was going to go crazy from all
this want, this unappeased, unending arousal.

     
"Do
you want my tongue inside your pussy?" he asked, muffled, his breath
striking my slit.

     
His
words were eerily similar to the other demons, but I was too far gone to care.
I just wanted to come. I didn’t care anymore who made me do it. "Yes.
Please!"

     
He
grinned against me, his lips a soft stretch against sensitive parts, then
swiped a swath up and down my slit like he had to devour me before I melted. My
muscled jumped and quivered.

     
He drew
back a moment, holding my labia apart as his mouth hovered near. "Mmmm.
Very good," he murmured, and then his tongue slipped through my creamy
seam to my core, thrusting inside. It was long, longer than I had anticipated.
It seemed to unfurl inside me, move like it had a mind of its own, like it
could see exactly where I needed it to touch.

     
Almost
immediately, he found my g-spot. I nearly screamed at the sharp pleasure that
stabbed my inner muscles, making me push back against his face until I was sure
I’d smother him.

     
He
gripped my hips, digging his face into my slit, stroking deep inside me as he
rubbed his chin against my clit.

     
I
gasped, arching my
back,
the sheer uncomfortable-ness
of the position did nothing to assuage my fervor.

     
Swells
of ecstasy rippled through my muscles, churning around my clit. His tongue
withdrew with a smack, and he angled his head until he could reach my clit. He
nibbled the base and parted lips, not quite doing as I needed and wanted,
barely touching me.

     
"You’re
killing me!" I wailed, squeezing my eyes tightly shut, frustrated beyond
measure.

     
He
smiled again, and then plucked at the bud, sucking it into his mouth as he
thrust his fingers inside my vagina. I jerked against him at the sudden,
intense pleasure that spiked through my body, whimpering, begging for more. I
couldn’t ever remember being so aroused.

     
I was
panting for breath now.
Desperate for the culmination of
pleasure hovering just beyond my reach.
The small, wet noises he made
only increased my arousal.

     
He
suckled my clit, moving his fingers in and out of me in a mock fucking, stroking
the tender patch of my g-spot.

     
I
shuddered violently. Overcome by the torturous pleasure rasping from his mouth,
radiating from his fingers. Tingling, knee-weakening, heart stopping ecstasy
vibrated through my body.

     
I cried
out, my muscles gone limp as I jerked with each debilitating wave. I couldn’t
feel anything anymore, only a vague sort of numbness that left me incredibly
sleepy and fulfilled.

     
He moved
off of me, but I was so worn out, I didn’t stir. I couldn’t seem to even open
my eyes.

     
He
stroked the back of my neck, kissing my temple. Strangely enough, I couldn’t
smell myself on him. "If ever you need me, Nariko," he whispered,
"Call my name, Xalen. Call and I will come."

* * * *