Page 56 of Sweet Nightmares
“Gentlemen, how may I help you today?” Nightmare asked, tone dripping with sickly sweetness.
One of the twins stepped forward. “You were recently visited by Jonathan Harker, an associate of ours.”
“Why yes, we remember him.” A vicious smile crept across Nightmare’s face. “And who are you?”
“We are the Lords Ashbrook. Sent to retrieve the English Ladies.”
“Ah, but they have no interest in being retrieved.
“Because you have ensorcelled them.”
“Have I?” Nightmare disappeared and reappeared behind the second twin, but as he reached out to grab him, his hands slipped right through the man as he had become a ghost. Translucent and uncatchable.
“As you can see, we are monsters much like you,” Lord Ashbrooke said. “Now, release the girls to us or begin a war.”
A war did ensue, and all three of Nightmare’s brides were brutally murdered.
Nightmare held his limp blonde bride in his hands, a stake plunged into her heart.
It didn’t make sense to Jane because all vampires in New Swansea had Blood Paintings, which protected vampires from dying this way. Was that not the case in this other world?
Nightmare growled and met one of the dark-haired twins’ gazes. He held up an amulet almost as if taunting Nightmare, who growled louder. And as he was distracted, the other twin appeared behind him and plunged a dagger into his back where his heart should have been.
Nightmare looked over his shoulder as if not bothered one bit by being stabbed. “I don’t have a heart.”
As the words left his mouth, his form began to disappear, his body being forced back into his mirror.Without an anchor Nightmare was forced to abandon his castle and return to New Swansea and the Looking Glass.
The memory shifted once more to show Helene entering Nightmare’s mirror.
“Being a dark Lady does not look good on you,” Nightmare said, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. “It’s very brave of you to enter into my mirror where you hold no power.”
Helene looked terrible. Her eyes were sunken, her skin pulled far too tight, and shadows rippled under her skin, protruding from her veins. She had been so infuriated aboutlosing most of her magic that she turned to dark and tainted forces to restore her magic. It corrupted her.
“I always hold power.”
“To what do I owe this pleasure, Helene?” His words were poison.
“I want you to make me the most powerful within all of the lands, far more powerful than the Ashelles.”
Nightmare narrowed his eyes. “And what is it that you would give me?”
“My soul.”
A flash of disgust flashed over his features. “I do not want that tainted thing.”
“I can tell you a vision of your future.” She wiggled her nose. “I know you’d love to know.”
“That would not be worth the prize.”
“Fine, then give me the ability to read minds, and I will tell you the prophecy I saw when I first fucked you.”
Nightmare paused for a long moment in thought. “I will grant you this magic, but no more. And you will never return to my realm.”
“A deal is a deal.” Helene held out her hand Begrudgingly, Nightmare took her hand, and indeed, they did shake on it. Then Helene said, “Thousands of years from now, a redheaded Ashelle witch will replace the heart I stole—and she will destroy you.”
The memory was wrenched away as real-life Jane was suddenly thrown off balance and pinned against the wall. In the process, she dropped the memory stone to the ground. Blinking up at a furious Nightmare, his hand around her throat.
“How dare you?” The vein in his forehead bulged, as did the ones in his jaw and neck. Fury dripped from him like spilled ink.
