Page 90 of Savage Hearts

When he can tell I’m about to start pestering him again, he says gruffly, “Yes, there’s a sofa. No, I’m not going to sleep on it. I needto be in this room. I need to hear if you cry out. I have to know if you’re in pain or you need anything. Don’t ask me why, because I won’t tell you. Now go to fucking sleep.”

His eyes blaze at me for a few moments longer until he closes them again and I’m released from their burning power.

TWENTY-SEVEN

RILEY

The dream is horrifically violent.

It starts with gunfire and gets worse, with blood and body parts flying everywhere. I hear screaming and smell smoke. The building I’m in is on fire. I’m trying to run, but my legs are powerless. The walls catch fire, then so do my clothing and hair. My skin turns black and curls off my body like burning paper.

I jerk awake with a strangled scream, my heart pounding.

“It’s okay. You’re safe. I’m here.”

Mal pulls me up and against his chest. He rocks me and murmurs soothing words in Russian as I shake and gasp for air. Clinging to him as the dream fades, I bury my face in his chest.

He says gently, “Next time you have a nightmare, remind yourself that you’re dreaming. It’s not real. Then tell yourself to wake up.”

“That makes no sense. How can I tell myself anything if I’m asleep?”

“Your subconscious will remember I told you. From now on,you’ll be able to wake yourself up from a bad dream. It won’t stop you from having them, but it will help.”

I ponder that, wondering if he has bad dreams, until he says, “I’m going to run a bath.”

“Didn’t you just take a shower?”

“It’s not for me. It’s for you.” He pulls away and smooths a hand over my hair. “You stink.”

I say drily, “That is so not helpful.”

“Helpful or not, it’s the truth. Drink some water.”

He leans over to the nightstand and hands me the glass he retrieves from it. He watches in silence until I’ve gone through half the water, then rises and goes into the bathroom.

I feel around on the nightstand for my glasses. When I get them on, I realize the terrifying moose head is gone.

I find that very, very disturbing. Did I imagine it?

When Mal returns to the room, I point at the blank spot on the wall where the hideous thing used to reside. “Wasn’t there a moose there?”

“No.” Before I can freak out that this is definitive evidence I’ve lost my shit, he adds, “It was an elk.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake.”

“I took it down.”

I consider that for several seconds. “You took the elk head off the wall after I went to sleep?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because you didn’t like it.”

That makes me blink in surprise. “So in addition to being able to walk through walls, you can read minds.”

“No, but I can read faces. Yours is unusually expressive.”