Heartless (Blue Fire Saga) (11 page)

Leesa opened her eyes, expecting to see Rave lying beside her, but she was alone in her bed. Disappointment surged through her as she realized it had all been just a dream and that Rave was still somewhere far away. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to hold onto the wondrous feeling of rapture engendered by her dream for a few moments longer, but it was gone, replaced by a sweet, wistful longing. She tried hard to recapture the feelings, but they eluded her. The dream had seemed so real, the images and feelings so clear and sharp that she wondered if it might have been one of her magic dreams. She hoped so, because those visions had a way of coming true, and she wanted this one to come to pass with all her heart.

Sighing, she pushed the covers aside and swung her legs over the side of the bed. Sweet dream or no dream, it was time to start her day. She had enjoyed her night with her family and the amazing dream about her and Rave, but she had two midterms tomorrow. The fun was over. Today was going to be a day of studying, and probably most of the night as well. She wondered if she would get enough sleep tonight even to try for a repeat of her dream.

As she got up off her bed and headed for the sink to wash the sleep from her face, she was struck by a sudden, troubling thought. If the dream
had
been a magic one, would the xenorian woman be able to sense the magic? The dream had arisen on its own accord, but Leesa did not know if that mattered. She hoped that such things were beyond the woman’s ability to detect, but if they weren’t, then sleeping here in the dorm was dangerous. She certainly was not going to try to summon any dream—
that
would be using active magic for sure.

Even staying here now to study might be risky, she realized, if the BSI agents were anywhere nearby.

She reached for her cell. Maybe Dominic would know the answer.

14. RELIEF

A
little more than an hour later, Leesa and Cali sat across from each other at their favorite table up in the fourth floor stacks, their books and notebooks spread out in disarray in front of them. For once, they were actually here to study, not to practice magic. Leesa was also here to meet with Dominic so she could tell him about her dream and find out if she might be in any danger because of it. Still paranoid about the BSI agents’ ability to listen in on her calls, she had simply told Dominic that she needed to talk to him, and that she would be in the last place they had seen each other. She said she would be there all day, so he should come whenever he could. The library made a perfect rendezvous point—it was a good place to study as well as the safest place she could think of to meet.

For the first time since they had been coming here, Leesa and Cali did not have the fourth floor completely to themselves. Several other students had chosen the stacks as the ideal spot to cram for their exams; it was totally quiet up here and offered no distractions—unless, of course, you were distracted by the proximity of thousands of dusty old books. The other kids had squirreled themselves away at desks in isolated cubbyholes along the outer edges of the cavernous room. None were close enough for Leesa and Cali to see, and the only evidence of their presence was the occasional slap of a book closing or the screech of a chair sliding across the floor. Leesa expected she would have plenty of privacy to discuss her concerns with Dominic.

She and Cali had not been there long when Dominic materialized from behind the bookshelves and sat down at the table beside Leesa. Both girls were slightly startled by his arrival—they had not heard his approach. Such was the way with wizards.

As usual, Dominic’s dark shirt and khaki pants looked like they were fresh from his closet. Leesa smiled inwardly at the thought—with Dominic’s penchant for staying on the move, she didn’t know if he even had a room, let alone a closet.

Dominic nodded toward the books and papers strewn atop the table.

“It looks like you two have a quite a bit of work ahead of you.” He picked up one of Leesa’s notebooks thumbed absently through the pages. “Or is all of this just camouflage for our meeting?”

Leesa stuck a sheet of paper into her textbook to mark her place and closed the book.

“I wish. We both have two midterms tomorrow. We’ll be hitting the books until pretty late tonight, I think.”

“At least we’ll both be done after tomorrow,” Cali said. “Then it’s a party hearty weekend.” She looked at Leesa and smiled. “Well, it will be for me, at least.”

Dominic dropped the book back onto the table and turned his head toward Leesa. When he spoke, his voice was low—he obviously knew they were not alone up here today.

“So, what is so important that you needed to talk to me even with all this work you have to do today?”

“I need to ask you about a dream I had last night.” Leesa hesitated, a bit embarrassed about what she was about to reveal. Her fingers began twirling nervously in her hair. “It was a dream about Rave.”

Cali broke into wide grin. “You’re blushing big time! And doing that hair thing, too. You had a sex dream, didn’t you? C’mon, admit it.”

Leesa felt her cheeks grow warmer. She did not need to remind herself to keep her voice low, not when she was talking about something like this.

“I, uh, wouldn’t call it a sex dream, not exactly. But, yeah, there was some fooling around,” she admitted.

“Details,” Cali said. “Let’s hear some de…” Dominic froze her with a look. “Sorry,” she said meekly.

Dominic looked back to Leesa. “What is it about the dream that concerns you?”

“Well, first off, it seemed so real. And there was magic in it, too. Strange magic.” Leesa smiled at the recollection of the wondrous place called Azure—where in heck had she dreamt that up from? “I don’t know if it was one of my magical dreams or not.”

She pulled her fingers from her hair and clasped her hands together atop the table. She didn’t see the need to add that in some ways she hoped it
was
a magical dream, because it was definitely a dream she would love to have come true.

“And you are worried that if the dream was a magical one, the xenorians might be able to detect the magic?” Dominic surmised. “That’s why we’re here in the library?”

Leesa nodded. “Yes. Exactly. Do you know whether they could?”

Dominic leaned back in his chair. His eyelids drooped half-closed as he thought about the matter.

“I doubt they can sense the dream itself,” he said after a few moments. “The magic of dreams remains inside your head—it does not reach into the real world. The black waziri cannot detect my dreams, and my evil brethren are closely in tune with my vibrations. So, I do not think the xenorians would be able to sense yours.” He leaned forward and fixed his eyes upon Leesa’s. “That is, unless you used your magic to summon the dream. In that case, you would be using active magic. You did not do that, did you?”

“No, I don’t think so.” Leesa pursed her lips. “But I’m not sure.”

Dominic’s brow furrowed. “What do you mean, you are not sure?”

Leesa explained about the message she had sent to Rave through Max, and how Max had replied with four barks and then licked her cheek. She could tell by the look on Cali’s face that Cali was loving this part of the story.

“A few weeks back, I was studying the chapter on dreams in my book of magic,” Leesa told Dominic. “The book said that to summon a dream, you need to concentrate on what you want to dream about as you fall asleep. I wasn’t trying to summon a dream last night, but the last thing I thought about before falling asleep was Max’s four barks meaning Rave had replied “I love you, too,” and that the lick was a kiss from him. I’m worried that might be a form of using my magic to call forth the dream.”

Dominic nodded. “I see your predicament.” He stroked his salt and pepper goatee with the fingers of his right hand. “But there is no need for you to worry, I do not believe. Active magic must be consciously summoned and directed. Unconscious yearnings are like the dream itself—they remain inside your head. No one can detect them. Not the xenorians, nor the black waziri.” He smiled. “In this, at least, you have nothing to fear from the xenorians. You were wise to be concerned, though, and to seek my counsel about it. When in doubt, caution is always a wise choice.”

Leesa breathed out a sigh of relief. “I’m glad to hear that.”

“Now that you’ve gotten all that out of the way,” Cali said, “how about sharing some of the juicy details from your dream?”

“Ha! Fat chance,” Leesa said, smiling demurely. “But I will tell you it involved a sheer gossamer gown and a magical bed hanging from some trees.”

“Really? A magical bed? That’s totally cool.” Cali winked at Dominic. “Our little girl is growing up so fast.”

Dominic could only smile and shake his head in amusement.

15. MIDIGHT MEETING

I
t was nearly midnight when Leesa and Cali finally gathered up their books and headed home from the library. Except for two brief food breaks and a short walk after dinner, they had been studying all day. Leesa was exhausted—she was afraid if she spent any more time studying, she would be too tired to take her tests. She was going to set her alarm early and squeeze in some last minute studying in the morning, but for now, she was done.

The night sky was starless and a cold breeze blew into their faces, but Leesa noticed neither. She was too busy concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other. When she got this tired, her limp sometimes became an issue and she had to be careful not to trip. Cali seemed to sense this, because she had hooked her arm inside Leesa’s without saying anything. Arm in arm, they trudged back to their dorm, too exhausted to even talk much. The walk seemed longer than Leesa remembered, but finally she saw the dorm up ahead. Plenty of windows still glowed yellow, mute evidence that lots of girls in her dorm were still awake and cramming for their exams.

As they approached the corner of the building, a dark form suddenly detached itself from the black shadows against the wall and glided toward them. Leesa’s heart felt like it had jumped up into her throat as adrenaline shot through her veins. She took a quick step back, unsure what to do, flinching as an equally startled Cali grabbed her forearm and squeezed.

They both recognized the newcomer at the same time. Clad entirely in black, Stefan’s pale face seemed almost to float in the darkness. His black eyes were like holes in his face, and his soul patch looked like a tunnel into his chin.

“Stefan, you scared the crap out of me,” Leesa scolded, her heart still racing. At least she was no longer exhausted, she thought, not with all that adrenaline surging through her veins.

“I’m sorry,” Stefan said. “I’ve been waiting for you. My kind prefer to remain invisible while we wait—especially if we are waiting for a girl who has a volkaane for a boyfriend.”

Leesa breathed in a slow, deep breath, tying to slow her pounding heart. Stefan was as handsome as ever—the second handsomest guy she had ever met, after Rave, of course. His sensual, sexual pull was undeniable. As always when she felt it, Leesa wondered if the attraction was simply from his exotic looks and lean athletic body, or if there was some special vampire thing behind it. It didn’t matter, though. No matter how mesmerizing Stefan might be, she had given her heart and soul to Rave, and nothing was ever going to change that. Stefan wanted her—he had made no secret of it. He had even bargained Bradley’s safety to get Leesa to agree to become his vampire consort. She had agreed, but thankfully the deal had fallen through when Stefan tasted the taint of
grafhym
in her blood. Still, he had followed through on his end of the bargain and released Bradley. That by itself was enough to put her in his debt, but he had also saved Cali from Edwina and had been one of the vampires who had dispatched the black waziri less than a week before.

So she stilled her temper and resisted the urge to chastise him further for scaring her half to death.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

“I need to talk to you.”

“Ahem,” Cali coughed. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

Stefan turned toward Cali and flashed his most sensual smile.

“Of course, how rude of me.” He took Cali’s hand in his and raised it to his lips.

Cali thrilled to feel of his cold lips against her skin. This time, however, Stefan did not stop there. He let his fangs extend slightly and pressed the points into the back of her hand, skillfully keeping the pressure soft enough so he did not break the skin. Still, a streak of icy pleasure and pain flowed into her.

Cali’s eyes widened in shocked surprise at the unexpected sensation.

“What was that?” she managed to ask.

Smiling, Stefan let go of Cali’s hand. “Just a little reminder for you that some things should not always be trifled with.”

Cali looked down at her hand and saw two tiny indentations left behind by Stefan’s fangs. Her skin was still tingling. The pain was gone now, but the pleasure lingered.

“Wow. I’ll say.”

Leesa had used the brief interlude to gather her thoughts.

“We can’t talk here,” she told Stefan. “It could be dangerous.”

Stefan’s eyes flicked back and forth warily and he sniffed the air. “Are Rave and his friends nearby? I do not sense them.”

“No, the danger isn’t from Rave.”

Leesa doubted there would have been trouble even if Rave were here. The first time he and Stefan had encountered each other they were getting ready for a fight to the death, but she had stepped between them and forbidden them to fight. That had been the scariest moment of her life up to then, but somehow, she had succeeded in stopping them. Since then, Rave and Stefan had formed an uneasy alliance, using her as the middleman. Rave and two of his volkaane friends had helped Stefan destroy two super vampires whose powers had been magically enhanced by the black waziri, and Stefan had repaid the favor last week. Still, she thought it best to keep the two natural enemies apart, especially since they might think that whatever debts they might have owed each other were now canceled out.