Page 48 of Visions in Blood
My knees went weak, yet my legs held me up, and I continued to move through the house as if on a conveyor belt.I was being given a tour of a horror show.
The worst was in the kitchen.A man had been nailed to the wall with heavy metal spikes.A message had been carved into his chest.
Had enough?
I recognized the man.I’d met him at a dinner party at Oasis.He was the alpha of the Humboldt pack.
I fell.My knees slammed into the hard stone floor before slipping on the sticky red fluid.I caught myself on my hands, the gelatinous gruel oozing through my fingers.The stench made my stomach clench, and I gagged, wishing I could vomit.Nothing came up but dry heaves.Tears blurred my vision and dripped down my cheeks.
Somehow, I crawled back to the great room, finding the single rug without a drop of blood on it until my hands left prints moving across its surface.My feet trailed gore as I continued my search for a way out.
I didn’t want to see anymore, but shutting my eyes wouldn’t block out the cruel, barbaric scene.Then a cool wind, blowing in from the windows, swept away the stench of rot and death.
A woman stood in front of a sliding glass door that led to a patio.The door was shut, yet her long golden locks floated around her lithe form.She wore white in a sea of red.
“This doesn’t have to happen.”
Her voice was childlike.Her blue eyes clear with no sign of sorrow or pain.No.She was smiling, with her arms outstretched—beseeching.
“None of this has to happen.”
I didn’t understand her repeating words.Did she mean this carnage was preventable?Should they not move forward with their plans, or should they not involve the shifters?Perhaps there was a different plan, or a better plan that could shield them from this.I almost laughed.I didn’t even know what the first plan was.None of this made sense.Who could do such a thing in the first place?Then a chortle erupted.Of course, I knew who did this.Didn’t everything lead back to Lorenzo?
Then I saw it, hanging from the woman’s neck.
My necklace.
I threwthe blankets off and ran to the door, stopping long enough to pull on a pair of sweats and a T-shirt.The images continued to blast me, making me stumble down the hall, each one bloodier than the last.
I’d never been to Devon’s room and had only seen him walk from the other end of the second floor the one time.But I didn’t stop until I reached the large double doors at the end of the hall.I hesitated for a second before I inched the door open.A rustling came from somewhere to my left.
I raced in.For another brief second, I hoped he didn’t have company, then my legs moved faster when a beam of soft moonlight cut a swatch across the floor, lighting half the bed.
Devon struggled in a nightmare.Was he still where I’d left him?On the ground at Oasis, the grip of his agony freezing him in place.The sheets were damp with sweat, and I yanked them off.
“Devon.Devon, wake up.”
I grabbed his shoulders, ignoring the feel of hard muscle, the heat of his skin, or the perspiration pouring off him.“Devon, I need you to wake up.”
He continued to thrash, his lips moving, but his voice was too low to hear.I kept shaking him, panic seizing me, making it difficult to breathe.Why wouldn’t he wake?He was so hot, like his whole body was on fire.
“Devon!”This time my shout filled the room.My vision blurred, not knowing what to do or how to help.He should have woken as soon as I did.Right?God damn my dreams.Why had they become so ugly?What happened to those passionate dreams, the ones that made me blush every time he walked into a room?
Then hands grabbed me and pulled me away.Sergi appeared on the other side of the bed as he took up the job of shaking Devon.His own voice calling out his name in a steady mantra—over and over.
“What happened?”
Lucas’s voice was steady, and though my heart beat faster than a hummingbird’s, the anxiety lessened—but not my fear.
“Tell us.”Sergi snapped the order.
“It was a dream.No.More like a nightmare.Something horrible had happened, and Devon blamed himself.So many dead.”
Sergi glanced past me to Lucas, who’d moved me to a chair while Devon continued to live in whatever nightmare I’d taken him to.
“Was there anything different about the dream?”Sergi pinned his eyes on me, and they glowed a soft red.I’d never seen his vamp side kick in, and something told me the red in his eyes would shine like rubies if I was in real danger.And though he was holding himself back, I knew without a doubt, it was taking every ounce of his strength not to tear a hole through the world.
“Yes, it was all different.There was blood and dead shifters in a house I didn’t recognize.”I shook my head, trying to get past the gore, shoving it all aside to see it from a distance.
