Page 18 of Visions in Blood
Healers worked on vampires and shifters, not humans.But after tonight, it appeared to be a foregone conclusion that Cressa wasn’t purely human.
“Yes.”A healer wouldn’t make it any worse than it was.But how bad was it if they couldn’t wake her?
He sat on the bed and nudged her.Nothing.
“Cressa, wake up.I need to know that you’re all right.”He couldn’t remember seeing anything like this before.Holy hells, what was he thinking?He’d never been with a dreamwalker before.How would he know what was normal?Just because this hadn’t happened during any of the previous dreams didn’t mean this was abnormal.
“Cressa, please.”He shook her harder.No response.He glanced at the necklace still lying on the floor.Maybe it had been a mistake to remove it.She could be in shock, or maybe she was stuck in the dream.No.She’d collapsed in the dream before disappearing.
He turned when Sergi picked up the door and leaned it against the doorjamb.“She’s on her way.Shall I start a fire?”
He glanced toward the hearth.Cressa had never asked about lighting it.The mansion had other forms of heat, but this seemed like an appropriate moment.He nodded.“Lucas, can you get a tray?Water, a pot of tea…” He ran a hand over his hair again.“Christ, I don’t know.”
Lucas laid a hand on his shoulder.“I’ll take care of it.”
Once Lucas had left for the kitchen and Sergi for wood, he picked up the necklace.It was cold to the touch as he’d originally expected it to be.If there was anything magical about it, he couldn’t sense it, and it no longer emanated the warmth or energy it had exhibited in the dream.He considered the fact he might have imagined it.It was a dream, after all.Wanting nothing to do with it until after Cressa woke, he placed the necklace on the dresser next to her jewelry box.
He dragged a chair next to her bed so he wouldn’t disturb her but would be close enough in case she woke and needed something.His hand trembled as he caressed her hair before running it over her forehead.Like the medallion, it was cool to the touch, not like the warmth he’d felt barely an hour ago.
He’d been breathless when he’d found himself in the garden.It had been over a week since their last grotto dream, and he’d missed the time they spent there.No one but the two of them, exploring their passion in their own place and time, their problems erased—no Council, no Underwood, no doubt.Had they been prescient or simply wishful?
Something had been different when she’d run to him.He’d sensed it immediately, but when her intense gaze held nothing but adoration and hunger, he didn’t question his luck.She was always happy to see him in their dreams, and there was never any hesitation in her responses to him.Nothing stood between them.
At first, her eagerness excited him, and he didn’t question her assertiveness when she took control.Her passionate kiss rocked him, and all he wanted to do was lose himself in her.Then the kiss changed.If anyone were to ask, he wasn’t certain he could explain it, but he didn’t believe it was Cressa in his arms, ripping his shirt and demanding more.It was like she was drowning, and then a fierceness took over that was so deep, so ravenous, she couldn’t seem to stop herself.
Her kiss no longer tasted the same.Even her scent had been different, and if he hadn’t been staring into her face, he would have thought it wasn’t her at all.Then he was caught in her gaze, and it wasn’t Cressa’s eyes boring into his.He barely broke away, her gaze as strong as a vampire’s.It might have been some form of repressed energy, leftovers from his blood.Or it wasn’t Cressa at all.
That was when he spotted the necklace dangling just above her luscious breasts.All he wanted was to hold her, to run his lips across her breasts and feel her arch into him.It had required all his strength to grasp the necklace, and for a moment he’d felt weak as a kitten, his vampire strengths suppressed.Then he realized there was a barrier between them.Something more powerful than him.When he finally managed to break the necklace free and toss it away, he caught a flicker in her eyes before she collapsed in his arms.
He’d immediately woken, and his only thought was to get to her and make sure she was all right.Nothing else had mattered.
ChapterEight
A knock startled Devon,who’d been so deep in thought he hadn’t noticed the door had been rehung on a still-damaged frame.Holy hells, he’d been so focused on Cressa, he’d dropped his other senses.He should never allow his thoughts to be so distracted, even in his own home surrounded by his most trusted.
“Sorry, sir.The healer is here.”Sergi stepped inside, followed by Madame Saldano, who swept past him and stalked to the bed.
Lucas followed behind them, carrying a tray with cups, a teapot emitting earthy scents, a coffee urn, and a plate of loaf cakes and scones, which he placed on the table near the hearth.Devon hadn’t even noticed when Sergi brought in wood and started a fire.
Madame Saldano stared down at her patient.“When Sergi called, I assumed it was about Lyra.”She set her bag on the nightstand before performing a quick physical on Cressa.Next, she stepped back, closed her eyes, and began to sway.After five minutes, she shook her head and opened her eyes, a crease forming over her narrow nose.She sat on the bed and laid her hands on Cressa’s arms before tilting her head back and falling into a trance.
Nothing she did surprised him.Madame Saldano was a special healer.While she was well-schooled in western and eastern medicine, she’d had limited medical training and never earned a degree.Her specialty focused on magical maladies and cures, and she’d been treating Lyra for years.From what she’d explained to him, the trance connected her to the patient, allowing her to see past the physical and into the mystical realm.
The healer lifted her head then opened her bag, pulling out tiny vials and containers.“Bring me a cup of tea.”
He started to get up, but Lucas was already pouring a cup.He wasn’t sure how Cressa was supposed to drink anything in her current state, and he snorted at his stupidity when Madame Saldano sipped it before setting it aside.
She mixed herbs and liquids together, prattling to herself the entire time.Sergi, who’d left, once again without Devon noticing, returned with a bottle of scotch and one of vodka.He poured drinks, handing one to Devon before settling in front of the hearth next to Lucas.
“She’s in a deep sleep.”The healer’s words, sharp and definitive, snapped him out of his own trance.“The closest I can compare it to is passing out from too much mental strain.What was she doing before she collapsed?”
Devon hesitated.He trusted the healer—to a point.She was sanctioned by the Council and owed them some fealty.He’d never spoken of dreamwalkers to her, not in all the decades she’d treated Lyra.And while the healers practiced a form of patient confidentiality similar to human doctors, it was too dangerous for anyone outside his inner circle to learn of his suspicions that Cressa was a dreamwalker.If the Council found out, the news would spread like wildfire, and the last thing he wanted anyone to know was that a dreamwalker actually existed.They’d take her away, and he could only hide her for so long.Until he knew for certain and understood what that knowledge meant, their secret had to be kept.
“I heard a scream and found her in bed like this.”He didn’t glance at Sergi or Lucas.They understood the dangers as well as he.
“I’ve never seen anything like this happen during one’s sleep.Is she a telepath?”
The question surprised Devon, and he didn’t bother to mask it.“Why would you ask that?
