Dreaming of Darkness

Chapter Sixteen

Bailey

Welcome to Salus Glen.

The town’s sign was brand new. There wasn’t even a speck of road dust on it yet, which was rather impressive considering the highway only a few hundred yards behind Traum and me.

“This is the line?”

I asked my mate again. He was in the passenger seat of my car, a bag of Twizzlers on his lap. In his human glamour it was easy to forget he was as new to this world as a toddler, and he’d spent most of our road trip from Kansas to this bayou town staring wide eyed out the windows.

“That’s what the letter says. We are just supposed to follow the main road until we get to the diner. That’s where the sheriff will meet us. He’s one of Arafel’s.”

I nodded, accelerating out of the four-way. Lush foliage surrounded both sides of the single laned highway, green even in November. “I could get used to this weather. Maybe a little more humidity than I was hoping for, but I’ll take it.”

“The climate is most comfortable to demons. We do not typically enjoy the cold.”

Traum turned to me, and I started at his glamor being gone.

“You look like you again.”

“Arafel said it would not be necessary inside of the town limits. The spells Lord Lucifer created cast a sort of filter over the humans in this town. They will see the glamor, but I do not have to use my own abilities to maintain it.”

“Handy,”

I said, noting that we were passing a small neighborhood of homes, each in neat rows.

“Agreed. It was beginning to feel itchy,”

Traum confessed, rolling up his bag of candies and pushing them into the glovebox. Immediately his hand found mine and squeezed. My pulse slowed, my breathing calming as his influence wound its way through me.

We’d been bonded for nearly two weeks now. I’d barely managed to drag myself out of bed after our initial bonding to get to work three days later. And even then, I’d rushed home afterwards to tackle my mate every day.

At two weeks, my body seemed to finally calm its chaos a little bit and didn’t seem convinced that I needed to be impaled on my mate twenty-four seven. Not that Traum had complained. He’d stayed in the living world with me, feeding off our own lust and pleasure while systematically preparing for a cross-country move.

A whole new life for us. An adventure unlike any I’d ever dreamed about. And with a male I could never have imagined.

I had never been happier. Not just now, but with what the future looked like. A home for us. A family to belong to. A place to raise our own.

“I can feel you thinking,”

Traum murmured softly, “Something good.”

I pursed my lips, trying to swallow back the grin I always wore when we talked about our bond. Traum claimed that the bond between us would change and evolve as we did, growing as our relationship would. He told me how his parents were able to speak mind to mind, and a cousin who could actually feel his mate’s emotions from great distances. Others who shared power and strength between the pair of them.

I brought our tangled to my lips, kissing the back of his hand, “I’m just excited.”

“Good,”

Traum shifted in the seat, his enormous frame barely fitting. “Because I believe we are here.”

The diner was old-fashioned, with a light up coffee mug in the window and pale seaform green accepts on the door. “Lotus Cafe,”

I read, pulling over into the parking lot and driving around the back of the building.

“There, that’s him,”

Traum said, pointing at a tall figure dressed in a sheriff’s uniform.

“How do you know?”

Traum tapped the side of his nose. “He’s from the Brotherhood Warriors, I can smell him.”

I blinked, “Well, that’s effective.”

Putting the car in park a few parking spots away from the parked cruiser. Together Traum and I emerged from the car, moving towards the trunk as the tall, thick built man marched up to us.

Without hesitation, Traum stepped in front of me. “Are you Brother Alden?”

The man, who had short-cropped dark blonde hair, grinned widely at us, showing off dimples and a cleft chin. He was all bold angles and muscles physically, but the smile on his face was a dead-giveaway.

Golden retriever, I thought, through and through.

“Sheriff Alden is what they like to call me here in the Glen, but I’ll answer to nearly anything these days,”

The male held his hand out and Traum, who had been educated on human traditions in between mind-blowing orgasms, took it.

The two stared at each other. Alden grinning, Traum with narrowed eyes. Then a breath later, as if a spell had snapped apart, Traum smiled and stepped back. “Thank you for meeting us.”

“I’m Bailey Sullivan,”

I said, pushing gently past Traum. “Traum’s fiancee.”

Alden’s grip was warm and full of welcome. “Lovely to meet you, Bailey. The three of us have a lot to talk about, but for now, let’s get you to your new home.”

My heart leaped. Our new home.

“If you want to follow me, it’s just down the road.”

We agreed, piling back into the vehicle a final time for the day as we followed the black and white sedan down a quiet looking, tree-lined street. When I saw it for the first time, I knew it had to be ours. The third house, with a wide, shaded front balcony, practically screamed home. It had soft white shutters set against a pale blue exterior, and a brightly glowing lamp at the edge of the drive and a matching pair against the dark painted front door.

“Home,”

I said, running a hand up the railing on the front porch. “This is our home.”

Alden, who was whistling, apologized as he moved past us with a pair of jangling keys. “Sorry, sorry folks, one second.”

“You are my home,”

Traum said, his voice a croon, “But this place, it feels good.”

I leaned my head against his shoulder, my belly warming at the comments and the soft caress of his hand against the small of my back. I wanted to get him inside. To kiss him, feel his skin against mine as we began this next chapter.

Traum growled, his voice dropping, “You test my control, little dream.”

I sniffed, not sorry at all.

There was a curse ahead of us and then the door swung open. Alden turned, his cheeks a little darker than before. “Well folks, I’ll leave you to settle in this weekend. Your new cell phones are on the counter, my name and information are programmed in. When you have a chance…. or when you aren’t…you know what, just call me next week.”

And then he was gone, stepping lightly across the small front lawn and into his cruiser. Traum and I watched him until his taillights were out of view.

Then we raced up the stairs, Traum’s long legs beating out my ungraceful attempt to beat him. I impacted him as we crossed the threshold and we tumbled inside, straight onto the cool hardwood floors. The door swung shut behind us, sealing us inside our new home.

Traum rolled us, our mouths finding each other and holding as we poured happiness and need into each other. Moaning, I tried to flip him onto his back so I could climb on top, but he resisted.

“Little dream, you’ve been torturing me all day with your sweet smells. And you think that I’m going to let you run this show?”

He clucked his tongue. “Not a chance.”

I pouted but responded by arching my lower body up into his, loving the way his cock was already hard and throbbing against me.

“Fine, you win, I don’t care how…just that it’s soon,”

I said, immediately regretting my words. Traum’s dark brow lifted.

“Soon?”

Traum purred, “Do we need to have another lesson in patience? I thought that I’d made my point the other day about rushing me…but perhaps we should revisit that?”

I moaned, my head falling back to thunk against the hardwood. I knew exactly the lesson he was referring to. I had rushed him, so he had edged me for half a day, then made me count orgasms.

It had been wonderful. And nearly painful in its intensity.

“Traum….”

My big demon was retreating from my form, his mouth pressing into my body as he slowly moved lower until he was perched over my legs, his fingers wrapped in my waistband.

“Do you need something, little dream?”

“You,”

I smiled, “Only you.”

His smirk was perfect. “Damn right, mate.”

And as his hands began to remove my waistband, there was a clatter of sound behind him.

In an instant, Traum was standing at the door, his claws extended, fangs showing. I grunted, throwing myself to my feet too.

“What is it? Why are you like this?”

Traum’s throat was working, his eyes nearly black, “It can’t be.”

“What?”

My adrenaline was pumping, my entire body shivering from his reaction.

“Open the door,”

Traum said, his claws lowering, but his fangs still gleaming in the overhead lights.

I pushed past him, grabbing the heavy handle just as a knock sounded against the other side. The lock gave, the door swung inwards, and I found myself staring face to face with another incubus.

“Zaldi?”

Traum’s younger brother stood in the door, his face set in a serious expression. “What’s going on?”

Trauma stepped to my back, one hand wrapping around my belly and pulling me back into his form.

“Hello brother,”

Zaldi said, releasing a long sigh. “I need your help.”

THE END