Page 9 of Between Bloode and Death (Between the Shadows #5)

CHAPTER

NINE

Val stuttered, “I-I— What is going on?” Her heart raced, the dream lingering at the back of her mind, as it always did. The details changed. Sometimes her father was covered in blood. At other times, he turned into a demon and ate her mother.

Occasionally, Ava tried to kill Talon, or Talon’s father would fight Vladimir while Val stayed back to watch. Then Vladimir would rip his feathers out one by one.

But in all her nightmares, the truth remained.

Vladimir had killed her parents and still wanted to kill her. All for some stupid jewel she’d never been able to find.

“That is one shitty memory, my dear.” The handsome guy in a toga, sitting on her bed, remained.

She blinked. “You’re real?”

“I’m fabulously real.” He winked at her. Something about him shimmered. Not magic, but an aura of power.

“I’m dreaming.” She refused to believe Grizz or Aisha, even on a powered-down standby, had let anyone get to her.

“You might be.” Toga Guy smiled, his teeth bright and even, fortunately. No vampires for—

“Seriously? I don’t have time for this.” The vampire who’d been after her in the bazaar appeared.

Khent of the Night Bloode.

Val stared at him in shock. “What… I don’t… Vampire?”

He blinked at her then gave a slow smile. “Ah. I see. Forget what I said. I approve.”

Toga Guy snorted. “I take it you two know each other.”

They answered at the same time. “He’s a stalker.” “She’s my prey.”

Val glared at the sexy vamp. “Look, bloodsucker. This is my dream. Butt out.”

“I was invited.” He shrugged. “And though ‘My Lord,’ ‘Grand Superior Being,’ or ‘Master’ would be appropriate address from a human, I will allow you to call me by name.”

“Asshole.”

Toga Guy chuckled. “Close. It’s actually Khent.”

Khent frowned. “I did not give you leave to use it.”

Val stared from Toga Guy to Khent and back again. “Um, who are you? Not you, Khent. You, Toga Guy.”

Khent smirked, and Val wished he weren’t so tempting. Even knowing he was a fanger, a lethal blood drinker, she couldn’t deny he made her heart race. Unfortunately, not from fear but from attraction.

Toga Guy just sighed. “Mortals. My name is Morpheus.”

She blinked. “The Morpheus? The god of dreams?”

He buffed his nails on his chest. “In all my divine glory. Impressed?”

She looked him over. “Yes.”

He smiled.

Khent frowned.

Morpheus’s smile grew bigger. “I’m here because we have problems, children.”

She now recognized the aura around him, a divine presence with that otherworldly glow. Most humans would only feel his power, but a necromancer would sense that bridge to another plane, so in tune with her access to the liminality that led to death.

Khent scoffed. “I’m over five hundred years old. I’m no child.”

“But you are. A child of Selene and Ambrogio.”

Val knew the story. Ambrogio, a mortal, had fallen in love with Selene, a moon goddess and Apollo’s sister.

Apollo didn’t like that at all. So he cursed Ambrogio to a lifeless existence without Selene, turning him into a raging beast. But Selene’s love was true, and when Ambrogio hungered, she fed him her own blood.

Thus the first vampires were born. Because they were so powerful, the gods caused them to hate everyone, especially their own kind.

Only vampires of the same clan, family known as kin, could tolerate one another.

Even in the same tribe, reaper to reaper or strigoi to strigoi, vampires were consumed by a desire to destroy those not of their own individual clans.

Thus the gods had hampered the vampires from growing too powerful with an effectiveness that withstood the test of time.

She studied Khent. From what Talon had told her, the reaper lived with vampires from different tribes, which shouldn’t be possible.

Morpheus nodded at her. “Yes, it’s possible. But only because a goddess interfered.”

She frowned. “Are you reading my mind?”

Khent cocked his head. “What did she say?”

“None of your business, reaper.” Val glared at him. “Mind your place.”

That set him off. His eyes turned red. Had they been awake in reality, she would have known genuine fear. But here in a dream, when he attacked and lifted her by her throat, she snapped her fingers and took him to his knees.

“I don’t think so.” Val stepped back, looming over the reaper. “In my domain, I rule.”

Morpheus stared, wide-eyed, then started clapping. “Brava, my dear. That was masterful. Eh, reaper? Who’s the bitch now?” He laughed uproariously.

Khent fumed, his aura so dark it threatened to pull her in.

She felt a frisson of fear despite herself.

He growled at her, “I will drain you dry and puppet your corpse long after your soul leaves this world. I’ll make you kill everyone you treasure with your own two hands while you watch, helpless and terrified.”

As threats went, it wasn’t bad. “Meh. Heard that one before. There’s no one left I care about.”

“Not even your shapeshifter boyfriend?”

“Boyfriend? Please.” Val scoffed. “Hell, killing him would be doing him a favor.”

Khent’s eyes narrowed.

Morpheus watched as if enthralled. “Vastly entertaining. We really should be discussing the danger, but this is so much more fun. Continue.”

Khent’s glare felt like daggers piercing her brain.

An eagle-owl attacked her out of nowhere, and she snapped her fingers again.

The bird turned into butterflies.

“Very pretty, human,” Khent said in a low voice. “But we won’t be in this dreamworld forever.” His smile showed very sharp fangs. “You have to wake up sometime, and I’ll be right there waiting for you.”

“Oh please. If you’re in my dream, it’s daytime. I just need to wake up, find you, and stake you. And you’re done.”

Khent’s low chortle was both evil and for some reason turning her on. Bizarre, because Khent wasn’t Val’s type. She didn’t go for the bad boy, and especially not the boogeyman of the magir world. Hell, of the human world too.

Morpheus chuckled. “Yes, but they’re so much more fun when they’re naughty.”

She flushed, wishing he would stay out of her thoughts.

“Ha. Forget it. You’re too much fun.” The god batted his lashes at her, and she couldn’t help smiling.

“Hey, human.” Khent’s words were icy. “I’m talking to you.”

“I have a name, fanger.”

Khent hissed at her.

She forced a yawn, enjoying herself. In reality, she’d never get the nerve to taunt a vampire. But her dreams had to be good for something besides nightmares.

“Well, Tina, I have a few ideas of how we’ll share our time once we’re both awake.”

“My name isn’t Tina.”

“You don’t say.” He obviously hadn’t believed her before. “Then what is it?”

“Nice try. But—”

Morpheus interrupted, “It’s Valentine Darkmore. Isn’t that a great name for a necromancer?” He gushed over her. “I swear, your kind gets more creative every century.”

She flushed. “You had to tell him my name? I thought you were on my side. After all, humans worship gods. Vampires don’t.”

Khent snorted and crossed his arms, as if being on his knees didn’t matter in the slightest. “We don’t worship anything. When you’re this superior, you can only venerate yourself.”

She and Morpheus shared a look.

Khent scowled. “Your jealousy does you a great disservice, god of sleep.”

“It’s god of dreams, Khent.” Morpheus huffed and waved his hand. “But I’ll allow it since she’s kicking your ass.”

Khent suddenly leaped to his feet and grabbed Val by her shoulders, holding her up on her tiptoes. “Try to lock me down again, female, and I will drink you dry.”

She deliberately projected an air of calm, refusing to show the vampire how much he scared her. Too close, too powerful, and too tantalizing with that thick dark hair, those ripe lips, those dark eyes blazing with hints of red…

The bastard growled again, the rumble of his wrath vibrating through her. He opened his mouth, his fangs out.

Then he kissed her.

And boy, was it a kiss. He stole her thoughts, desire consuming her from the inside out.

She lost the ability to reason, kissing him back with all the suppressed hunger inside her. He ran kisses from her mouth to her cheek and down to her neck, where he sucked with a delicate pressure that set her entire body ablaze.

“What—what are you—”

Fangs nipped her throat, and she swore he groaned her name as his tongue feathered over her pulse.

Time vanished, every sensation centered where they connected, body to body. The feel of his suddenly naked flesh against hers had her listless and submissive, needing to obey her future lover.

The room grew dark. She lay on a bed with black silk sheets. A random thought about their vanishing clothes was there and gone, because Khent lowered himself on top of her, his eyes hooded as he stared into her soul.

The feel of him, hot, heavy, and thick between her slick thighs, made her lose her mind.

“Khent, please.”

“Much, much better, my little deathmaker.” His cruel smile had her arching her neck, begging for another bite. “Now we’ll share our own little death together, yes?”

He nudged her thighs wider. Val didn’t know when she’d ever been so aroused. She could barely think about anything but feeling Khent inside her. And then he thrust, and they were one…

Val bolted upright, breathing hard, and had no idea where she was until a pretty blond shifter called her name.

“Val? Val?” The woman, Misty, waved a hand in front of Val’s face. “Are you okay? I heard you moaning in here. Or groaning. Either way, it didn’t sound like a pleasant dream.”

Val was shocked to find herself breathing hard. The last memory she had was of a surprisingly warm male body blanketing her. Her neck throbbed, and she put a hand over it, surprised to feel her neck wet.

“What happened?” Val pulled her hand away to see a red stain on her fingers. What the…?

Misty frowned. “Looks like you’re bleeding.”

“What?” Val shot out of bed on shaky legs and moved to the mirror on the wall above the scarred dresser.

And saw a bite mark that shouldn’t have been there.

Where her fantasy vampire had bitten her.

What the hell did that mean? And why did arousal, not fear, fill her at the notion her dream might not have been just a dream after all?