“Oh really? Well you’re not too easygoing yourself.”
We stared at each other, neither one of us backing down. Finally, Andre sighed. “I am only agreeing to your demands because I can’t stop you from going. I will pick you up from the dance shortly after the sun sets. And on this I’m not budging.”
“Fine.”
***
The next several hours were a blur of shimmering garments and Shakespearean treachery. The play was just as good as I’d hoped it would be, but once it finished, I was happy to get Andre back to myself.
We exited the theater, the cool night air hitting us. Andre shrugged off his coat and placed it around my shoulders.
“Andre . . .” I was about to object to the pampering—I wasn’t so fragile that a little cold air would do me in—but Andre cut me off.
“Stop fighting it Gabrielle. There are some things about myself that I refuse to change, one of which is offering a lady my coat.”
I slipped the tailored jacket on. “Thank you, oh great knight in shining armor. If only I had a handkerchief to repay your kindness.”
Andre ignored me. Big surprise.
Our shoes clicked along the sidewalk as we made our way back to the limo. “There is dissent in the coven,” Andre said. The topic seemed to come out of nowhere, and I had a feeling I wasn’t going to like what I heard.
I nodded. “You mentioned that a few days ago.”
He ran a hand through his hair. “Right now the coven is trying to figure out what to do about the situation. By my own laws I should be punished severely for my actions. However, I am also the leader of the coven and the only person that all vampires are willing to take orders from.”
I didn’t know how to interpret what I was hearing. “What are you planning on doing?”
“I will work with the coven and comply with whatever punishment they deem necessary.”
Punishment. That word seemed so awful, especially considering who’d be doling it out. Vampires weren’t exactly known for their humanity.
“Will you be okay?” I asked, peering up at Andre.
He looked down at me, his eyes troubled. “I will, though I may have to travel in the coming weeks. It is you I worry about. My actions haven’t endeared you to the coven, and I fear that in the next months some disgruntled vampire may try to pick up where Theodore left off.”
The whole time we’d been trying to solve the murders, this very worry had sat at the back of my mind. I’d never voiced my concern to Andre, however, because I assumed I was just being paranoid. But now that his words hung in the air I had to accept that the very people I’d been trying to protect might want to destroy me.
Chapter 18
I woke up to the chill of night air. The crisp coldness of it burned my lungs and prickled my skin. I sat up in bed, the white sheets falling to my waist. These weren’t my sheets. I rubbed the soft satin of the pearly white nightgown I wore. I definitely didn’t own this. I looked behind me. The wrought iron backboard of the bed curled and twisted into a pretty design. This wasn’t my bed.
I was, however, the only person in it. I knew enough about these incubus dreams by now to become lucid as soon as I recognized the signs.
I gazed around the bed. The moonlight dripped down, casting the night in shades of blue and silver. Evergreen trees rose around me from all sides, swaying gently in the breeze.
Other than the rustling of their leaves, all was quiet.
“Where are you?” I shouted at the forest. He had to be here, the wily incubus who decided to invade my dream.
Leaves crunched as a dark stranger came forward.
But it wasn’t an incubus.
I scrambled out of the bed as the man in the suit stepped out from the trees. I moved around the bed so that it stood between the devil and me.
“Why are you so scared?” he asked. “We are old friends.”
“We are not friends.” My voice broke.
He frowned. “I can hear your heart fluttering like a bird in a cage.” He stepped forward. “There is no reason to be scared.”
“Stay where you are!” I shifted my weight from foot to foot. My hair hung wild about me, and the nightie grazed my thigh. This was a sick, sick dream.
He ignored my warning and sauntered forward.
Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. The scenery remained unchanged. I was stranded in a nightmare, which left me only one choice, fleeing.
Twigs and pine needles dug into my feet as I swiveled and ran.
“You can’t run from me.” His voice was a lover’s whisper in my ear. “You already know this.”
Trees flew by me, but the forest appeared to be unending and unchanging. If this really was a dream and I really was lucid, I should be able to alter it. I closed my eyes and envisioned a cliff.
When I opened them, the trees in front of me thinned out. I sprinted past them and ahead of me the earth dropped away.
It had worked.