Page 2 of Dreaming of Darkness

Traum

My grandmother used to tell us of a time when the demons from the underworld were allowed to not only find their human mates but seek them out whenever the bond called to them. The underworld had been thriving, the Lords of the Underworld were young and powerful, and the queens stood by Lucifer’s side.

The incubus and succubus tribes fared the same, celebrating generations of powerful families from our home adjacent to the dream realm. We were creatures born and made for passion. And while we carried on living without our fated mates, it was something most of my kind craved. While we harvested power from the dreams we moved through, real intimacy, like that which was built between mates, was considered sacred.

And when the Lords were in danger, their souls ripped out, it changed everything for us. The boundaries between worlds grew harsh and unyielding. We were no longer able to sense our mates outside of the Underworld, which was partially a gift since we could not have been able to seek them out anyway. It left generations of incubus and succubus with human matches, or maybe even were linked to the seraphim, damned to a lonely existence. A very long one.

When my siblings had told me that Lord Arafel had demolished the laws forbidding incubus and succubus from seeking out their human mates, I had no idea that I would be the first in the tribe to be affected by it. And now, there was more than a little fear running through my veins as I stared at this woman.

The air in her cottage was sickly warm now, or maybe that was just the flush of heat that seemed to throb from every part of my body as my eyes took in every detail.

She was lovely, my human. Not that it would have mattered. My soul would’ve found hers regardless of if she had been a complete graveyard hag. Her hair was dark gold wound up from the top of her head into some kind of complicated knot. The wisps that had fallen free stuck to speckled cheeks that were a soft pink. I longed to slip my claws along her scalp and tilt her face up to mine so I could see every part of her features. And then memorize them. My claws twitched, suddenly hungry for the softness against my skin.

Because that, above all, would be the ultimate award between us.

I could touch her. Really feel her against my own skin.

An incubus or a succubus could only touch a living soul if that soul already belonged to them. This was what my kind meant by soulmates. It is not that we are torn from the same soul, like the Lords of the underworld, we simply are born waiting for our soul’s reflection in another. And until Destiny brings us together, we would wait.

And I definitely did not anticipate destiny bringing me here.

“It can’t be what?”

She whispered back at me, her arms curling around her middle.

I blinked but was immediately distracted again. Something in my chest tugged hard. She was growing distressed. Her lips were soft, parted, her chest rising, and falling quickly as she stared at me for the first time that she saw the demon inside of some kind of image over myself. She was seeing the real me, and she still hadn’t run. Was she concerned? Deeply. But she remained.

My instincts to comfort her rose to the surface.

To my surprise though, it was her that stepped closer to me, those wide blue eyes like ice chips, staring up at me and a face of pure curiosity and wonder.

“What are you?”

She asked me, "Are you real? Because if I’m hallucinating, I’m gonna have a lot to explain to my therapist next week.”

“What’s a therapist?”

I asked her before I could stop myself. This way of communicating would require some practice. Most of my conversations with those whose dreams I entered heard only what I wanted them to.

Clearly this human heard it all.

“Someone who would tell me if I have gone crazy,”

she answered politely, her arms suddenly falling to her side. “So am I going crazy?”

She asked me again.

I shook my head, taking a step away from her. I needed room, this was close– too close. She was too close. The fan above us shifted, and the scent of her, it was overwhelming. She smelled like cherries and vanilla and I longed to press my face against her throat and breathe her in. The thought of it alone made my palms twitch as I considered whether or not she would taste as good as she smelled.

“I can’t decide if I should be freaking out,”

she said, her hands still curling and uncurling nervously as she looked at me. “But something tells me deep down inside that you’re not here to hurt me. Tell me that’s right?”

I was already shaking my head. If only she knew. I would never be able to hurt her. I would tear off my horns before laying a hand on this woman in violence. Incubi were devoted mates, or least we had been back when we’d been allowed to find them.

She would learn–no we would learn together.

The overwhelming urge to wrap my arms around her, to carry her somewhere dark and warm and safe, where I could soothe her with my voice with my venom.

But not yet

I had to explain. Before I lost control completely, or even worse before I woke up. Because I thought, for the first time in my life, something about my mate had pulled me into her real world instead of the dream realm.

“You can call me Traum,”

I said, keeping my voice soft. If the legends were true, my voice, it would be alluring to her, calling to the primal part of her that recognized the bond between us, even now. “And you are not going crazy. I’m an incubus.”

I heard her breath catch, but she remained still, nostrils flared. She considered me closely, her head tilting slightly. She took me one more time, skimming from head to toe and back up to my head, obviously noting the horns.

I nearly wanted to pray to the Fates, which was completely unlike me, but having my mates eyes on me for the first time was a new experience.

“Are you here to make me dream, or oh my gosh, am I still asleep?”

she asked, now looking around the room for some kind of sign that all of this was a strange subconscious illusion she had fallen into. She would find none, but still, I humored her, taking another moment to soak in my soul mate's presence while she peered around us.

She was beautiful. My fangs burned, the venom that leaked into my tongue and mouth ready to make her writhe beneath me at our first touch. I forcibly swallowed, trying to focus my mind.

Do not scare her, I chanted internally.

Ten minutes ago, if someone had asked if I would like a mate, I would’ve laughed in their face. My siblings were romantics. They were devoted to the premise and honor of a mate.

They deserved a mate.

Not me.

Fates, I was nothing but a power-hungry demon. I hadn’t even considered what it would be like to share my life with someone.

But now? My instincts roared in my blood. Claim. Feed. Care. Mate.

And repeat until the end of the entire world.

And, fuck, I didn’t even know her name. Now my mind could think of nothing else. Gods, I wanted to taste the word on my lips, but she had been talking. Asking more questions. Fuck, what had she said?

Oh, right.

I shook my head again. “No,”

I said, my lips curling before I could stop them. “I’m here because you are mine.”

She laughed, the sound sending a delightful tingle down my spine as she covered her mouth with one hand. “I’m yours? You’ve got to be kidding me.’

I frowned, “I’m completely serious. We are fated to be together. That’s why I can touch you. That’s why I’m here, right now. Only a bond could bring me from the Underworld.”

“The Underworld?”

the woman sighed, her laughter subsiding. “Incubuses? Now I know I’m dreaming.”

My chest ached, my claws digging into my palms as she began to turn. My hand jerked out, desperate to stop her. “Wait, please.”

If she dismissed me, would I be sent away. I couldn’t. Not now, when I hadn’t gotten anywhere.

“There are so many things I need to tell you. That I want to tell you. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said it like that, but the bond, it yanks at me, right here,”

I pressed my fist back to my chest. “I will do better.”

She remained half-turned, eyeing me. “I’m nobody, though. I don’t understand what all of this is.”

“You,”

I smiled at her, watching her eyes drop to my fangs in surprise, “Are everything. And please, let me try to explain.”

She was still understandably wary, disbelieving. There were only so many ways to explain to her. Or better yet, show her. Holding my breath so the scent of her wouldn’t overwhelm my instincts, I moved past her, back to the sofa she’d been laying on.

I sat, stiff and awkward at the other end. “Would you join me?”

The woman cocked her head, eyes wide as more light flickered over my form. Apparently, my prowess in the bedroom did not extend to basic communication. But after a long moment, she moved over to join me, mimicking my pose and turning to look at me.

I slowly let out a breath. “My name is Traum, and I’m an incubus. I live in the Underworld with my siblings and overbearing grandmother.”

I dramatically gestured to her, hoping to prompt a similar response. She blinked, then cleared her throat. “I’m Bailey and this is my house and as far as I know I’m a human.”

Bailey said that last part with a lift in her voice, as if it were a question.

Wrangling my powers in as much as I could, I reached my hand out to her, like I’d seen so many humans do. “It is nice to meet you, Bailey.”

The sound of her name on my tongue was euphoria, but I forced myself to release her hand from my grip after only a breath. I wasn’t sure how powerful it would be, and I wanted her mind to be completely clear.

“What happens now?”

Bailey said, her hands fiddling with her knees.

“What do you want to know first?”

***

Bailey

I shifted on the couch cushions, moving from one hip to the other as I carefully kept the creature sitting on the other end in clear view. He was…fascinating, confusing. It was like watching a rainbow, so beautiful and yet so rare that you spend the entire time looking at it waiting for it to disappear once again.

My hands were tucked in between my thighs as I watched him. I’d been unprepared for the bolt of electricity that had raced from my palm to the center of my chest the moment we had touched. As confusing as it was, it left a warm buzz in my belly as he settled across from me. And then, when I hadn’t known what to ask him first, he had simply started talking. The soft, deep roll of his voice like velvet against my skin.

He told me stories about swimming along the River Styx, and about chasing his younger sister after she painted all over his walls. He talked about his grandmother, a matriarch and leader within their tribe with a wickedly sharp tongue. I still wasn’t sure if he had meant physically, verbally or both. But nonetheless, I’d hung on his every word. I’d even chimed in with a few of my own stories, even though they felt dim and colorless in comparison.

I’d listened so intently, so silently that my legs had kept falling asleep. Which ironically, was how I knew that this was no dream or distorted fantasy. This was real. He was real.

“Let me see if I have this right,”

I licked my lips, surprised when Traum let out a sharp breath at the action, “You are a creature from the Underworld who serves one of the five sons of Lucifer, specifically the one who rules the dream realm. You were called here, to my house, because we are divinely faded mates, and I am the only human that will ever fulfill that role for you. Did I miss anything?”

Traum smiled slowly at me, all white teeth and fangs. And maybe that made me completely insane, but I still couldn’t help finding him devilish attractive. And I did mean devilish. Because his skin was a bright, ruby red, his eyes seemed to glow in the dim lighting of my living room. And of course, you couldn’t mistake the dark curling horns that rose up from his temples and his hairline.

There was no chance that this creature –this male was anything but inhuman. But still the way he held himself, the way his hands twitched in his lap with every move I made, as if he was actually holding himself back from moving closer or touching me.

It was fascinating.

“No,”

he said quietly. "I think that’s a fairly good summary of what I was trying to tell you.”

“I was always an excellent student,”

I told him, my cheeks hot as his eyes roamed over my lips for the hundredth time in this conversation.

His smile dropped slightly, “I don’t know anything about you,”

he confessed. I could almost feel the disappointment in his words. “I spent all our time talking about myself.”

“You’re not missing anything interesting.”

“I highly doubt that”

Traum said, he moved closer, but just by inches. Genuine interest glowed in his eyes.

I swallowed, “Oh I…. I don’t know where to begin. I don’t have any family to speak of, and I moved here to get away from a chapter of my life that was miserable. I work at a boring deadend job and have no idea what I want to do with the rest of my life. I’ve always done exactly what I thought I was supposed to, and yet somehow, I ended up here just as happy as I had been before.”

“You were unhappy,”

he asked, his brow lowered, shoulders stiff.

“I didn’t mean it like that," I said, feeling a little uncomfortable, “I’m happiest here with my books and my house and my drea–”

I snapped my mouth shut when I realized what I was about to say.

I can see his hand clenching against his leg again. “Your dreams? Is that what you were going to say?”

My heart pounded, and suddenly I wanted to know what it would feel like to feel his skin on mine again. But still I hesitated. “Like I said, not interesting. Just another human.”

“I’m sorry to hear of your family, I am not sure what I would do without mine.”

His eyes are earnest, soft, even as the amber color catches the light from the lamp behind me. Feral. Deadly. Beautiful.

But now they shifted, the conversation between us had waned. Panic rose in my chest as I realized that he might be leaving. I swallowed hard, pushing for a new subject. Anything to keep him here. Mania rose in my chest as I stared over at him. In the same moment that I recognized my desperation, I also understood that it was completely unlike me.

“Are all of the incubus and succubus tribes as close? Like your family, yes?”

Traum’s chin ducked, but I could see the way he relaxed into the sofa again. My body mirrored his, relieved he was staying a bit longer.

“Yes, it is how we are designed. We feed off of passion, but we are at our core meant to love. Love our parents, love our mates, and even if we don’t want to, to love our invasive siblings.”

I grinned at that. “I would’ve loved to have a big family.”

There was a silence again, but this time it hummed with life and warmth. “Maybe you will someday,”

Traum said softly.

“Maybe.”

In the distance, I was suddenly more aware of noises around us. Incoming daybreak. Traum stiffened and seemed to notice it as well. Dread rushed through my body as I realized what it might mean. He was a creature of darkness and dreams. And the time for that tonight had come and gone. We’d sat here together, talking and simply absorbing each other, all night long.

Our time was up.

Oh god, I thought, this can’t be it. I had waited my entire life to feel like I belonged somewhere, and the moment this male appeared in my living room, it felt like my feet had finally found ground in a world of shifting sand.

I couldn’t let that go. Not yet.

“I have to go.”

“Why,”

I swallowed, trying to calm the vibration in my voice, “I mean, will the daylight hurt you?”

Traum stood slowly, unfolding to well over six feet as I scrambled to my feet as well. “I’m not sure actually. But I do know that our worlds are mirrors of each other. And if your world is waking up then…”

“Yours may be too.”

I finished for him.

Traum nodded, moving back to the doorway to my small kitchen. This was where I’d first seen him. Had that really only been hours ago? “Will you come back tomorrow?”

I found myself asking, my cheeks warm as I coughed, then spoke again, “I meant to say, would you want to?”

Traum’s chest was rising and falling quickly as he stared at the small space between us. “Bailey….”

“You don’t have to.”

Traum stepped forward, until I could practically feel the heat from his body as I stared down at the heavy boots he wore. “Bailey, look at me.”

Slowly, I let my gaze move up his body, over the dark pants, the soft white shirt, the gaping collar exposing more of that deep red skin. And then finally I was staring him right in the eyes, the pupils there blown black and wide.

“I would love to come back tomorrow. And every night until the Lords stop me. But I don’t know how this works. I’m not even sure how it worked this time. But I promise you, you are mine, and I will find a way to come back and convince you to love me.”

My mouth opened in surprise, “Whether that be in five days or five hundred.”

I huffed out a short, surprised laugh, covering my mouth with my hand as I looked up at this living impossibility.

“Okay,”

I said, my heart pounding in my ears. “I’ll be waiting.”

Traum nodded, his jaw clenched as he began to step back into the doorway. I reached out, brushing my fingers over his shirt as he moved. “But first….”

Traum’s soldering gaze found mine.

“Kiss me goodbye.”

This time I could see the tick in his jaw as he visibly shuddered. “I can’t do that.”

Rejection was choking me. “What?”

And then Traum is there, a hand on my belly, turning me, until I faced away from him, my body plastered against his front. His grip was firm, holding me there as his breath coasted over my shoulder, up to where it met my neck. Everywhere it touched, heat blossomed.

“What I am, what I can do – a single touch of my skin on yours will make you shake and beg. A kiss will send you straight over the edge. And my saliva,”

Traum paused, his pants like fire against my skin, “there is a venom in it; venom that will bind you to me in every way. And if I were to feed from you, in the old ways, then I would never be able to let you go.”

His hips ground against me, making me acutely aware of just how hard and thick he was against me.

“Until you are ready to either risk it all, or tell me that you are ready to be my mate, then I suggest we keep clothing and distance between us.”

I moaned, my bottom half shifting against him again, suddenly more desperate to feel the hard lines of him again.

Traum’s hands moved, finding my hips. “You have no idea what it is like to feel you against me, so eager, so wanton, mate. But….”

He pressed me away. “To have you now and never again, will be the end of me. So we will wait.”

He dropped a closed mouth kiss over my clothed shoulder and then stepped back. I turned, feeling dazed as I watched Traum stand in my doorway. He offered me a small smile, but I can see the tension in his eyes, the way his mouth is tense and thin.

He was worried. My stomach lurched at that realization.

“Goodbye,”

I whispered.

Black fire bloomed around my doorway for just a second. Traum gave me a quick wink, “Goodbye, Bailey dear. I’ll be back.”

And then he was gone, leaving me staring around my living room completely sure that I’d either gone completely nuts, or met the love of my life.

Whichever it was, I was in for a hell of a ride.