Page 5 of Guarded By the Nightmare

“Better to leave him guessing than to have him waste his time, attempting to thwart us.” I glanced over to Royce. “Are you through?”

His hands clenched into fists. “Not until I’m rid of you.”

I flowed over to the hourglass he’d thrown, picking it up and setting it onto his table for him. The magical sand inside of it was flowing in the exact same rhythm as the sands on Mina’s arm, so he would know when I was close to killing her—and when I’d managed it, as I would be forced to return.

“No one would like that more than me,” I said. It was the truth, I hated my confinement, and I cursed the day I met the progenitor of Royce’s line. “But until then, I’ve been hired.” I brought myself closer to Mina’s level. “Come, my queen. Let’s go someplace more private to discuss our terms.”

5

MINA

Sylas offered me a gallant elbow.It appeared solid enough, but as much as I wanted to make a show of leaving the room, especially after the bald man had been so condescending, I wasn’t ready to touch my newly acquired monster just yet. It was strange enough when he’d touched me, pressing his finger against my lips for silence. The contact had made my heart burst out in a brief staccato, like maybe it’d known that it was his already.

That all of me was; it was the bargain I’d made.

But I just walked beside him instead, out of the room, and into the hall.

“If you come back here, I’ll try to save you!” Royce—because I knew who he was now, the great-grandson of the Hourglass Killer’s first recorded victim—shouted after me. “Before the sand runs out!”

“Don’t look back. It’ll only encourage him,” Sylas murmured.

I had no intention of it, not when I could only barely believe that this was happening. I’d had hopes of finding out more information when I came here—but I in no way, shape or form had been planning onleaving with the Hourglass Killer in tow, as the gun rattling around in my purse testified.

I’d spent the whole summer in the stacks at the university library, trying to put two and two together, and while Sylas Veil’s help was not part of my original equation, I would be an idiot not to take him up on it—because otherwise my grand plan had been hoping that the aiming skills I’d acquired in the archery class I’d taken at summer camp when I was eight would transfer over to the Glock 19 I’d just gotten off the waiting period for.

I knew I was going to get the death penalty for my revenge either way—so why not go with the sure thing?

But just because I already knew about him didn’t mean I knew what he was. I wasn’t an expert on monster studies by any means, and there were a lot of different kinds out there.

“So...what are you?” I asked, as we waited together for the elevator to arrive.

“Your worst nightmare,” he said sarcastically. I wasn’t sure if he was being serious or not, after the elevator arrived and he wouldn’t join me in it. “Don’t worry, I’m not abandoning you.”

He began to sink into the ground in front of me, as the doors closed—and when they opened again, several floors down, he’d beaten me there.

“Do you have any other tricks?” I asked him, crossing my arms. My new mark itched, and I really wanted to look more closely at the sand pouring down inside.

“Several,” he said, leading the way across the lobby, so quickly I almost needed to jog to catch up. He didn’t walk, per se; it was more like he drifted at speed.

“And you can’t tell me any of your other names?” Maybe they’d have a clue for me as to what he actually was, other than a death-dealing serial-killing smoke-monster that’d apparently been alive for a century.

“Give it time,” he said, moving in front of me to hold open one of the Monster Security Agency’s glass doors. I walked out into the cool night air, and spotted the almost full moon hanging in the sky.

“But I only have a week,” I pointed out to him as he joined me.

It felt like he was ignoring me—but his head was lifted up to the sky too. He took a slow spin, his dark face illuminated by moonlight and streetlights in turns—which was strange, because their light also flowed through him a little like he wasn’t even real all the way—but I could’ve sworn I saw the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed while he did it.

“You used to be human, didn’t you?” I said aloud, and he stilled, his head swiveling down to respond.

“Not in a very long time,” he said, before turning my question back on me. “But what do you think you’ll be when I am through with you?”

I blinked, unsure how to answer.Surely something awful, if he was asking.“A...ghost?”

That made him laugh. “No, my queen. You will merely be dead. So you may think of me as your Nightmare, for as long as we are bound together—and as for any other names I possess, you will learn them when I make you scream them.” He then looked casually around. “Did you have a mode of transportation?”

It took me a moment to switch gears in my head. “Uh, yeah. Over there,” I said, and meekly led the way.

I felt faintlyridiculous beeping my little Fiat open for him a few blocks over, where I’d managed to score free parking. “This is it.”

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