The Company of Darkness (13 page)

Cady didn’t stand a chance.

Dreams.

Trapped within the reaper’s body, he’d made the best of it.  Asherik no longer pined for his natural plane, instead he lived only for those moments when he felt her near.  Those moments were growing faster and brighter with each contact he had with his lady love.  Now he could sense her whenever she was in the room, and when he touched her – through Ethan – he could
feel
her and
hear
her and
see
her and best of all
taste
her. 

It made him restless, and his impatience transferred to the reaper, he could feel it.  It wasn’t quite the control that Ash had enjoyed over host bodies in the past, but it was something to build upon.

Still, he wanted more. 

He lay in wait, hoping, lusting for the moment when his chance would come.  When he could reach out to her without the clumsy shell he lay trapped within.  When he could woo her with his own words, with his own tongue. 

Asherik waited for dreams. 

Always just out of reach, Cady escaped his grasp, never possessing her soul the way Ethan possessed her body.  It teased him, for how long… he didn’t know. 

He hated waiting.

Finally his patience was rewarded, not only with the brilliance of her beauty in his/Ethan’s arms and the glory of her passion beneath him, but with the reward of her oblivion as she fell asleep in his embrace. 

In familiar territory, it was a simple thing to find her, he knew exactly where to look.  All at once he slid into her mind, the exquisite joining robbing him of the power of movement for long moments as he savored the bond, stronger than he’d felt since his imprisonment. 

He found her sitting in the shade, laying out an elaborate picnic, on a red gingham tablecloth.  Dressed in shorts and a skimpy top, he admired her smooth, tanned flesh while she brought out all manner of tasty delights from the voluminous basket.  He could’ve flexed his will to put her in more pleasing clothes, but he allowed her this control, knowing she prized her free will above all else. 

For long minutes he simply watched her, content to drink in her beauty without the filter of Ethan’s thoughts.  The anticipation built until he could stand it no longer and took the form she found the most pleasing.  That of her dream lover. 

He approached, dressed casually in a t-shirt and jeans.  Muscular arms – a punishing strength there – but there was no menace in his stance.  Short hair, neither blonde, nor brown, but somewhere in between.  Tattoos visible on his arms and neck, and a scar that creased his brow.  A tenderness in his blue eyes and the hint of a smile to his lips that stretched into a slightly crooked smile.  He was glad to see her. 

Of all the men she could desire, she’d chosen this form and he’d come to embrace it.  He loved that she’d made him flawed, for sometimes, the beauty was in the flaws.  It meant she didn’t expect perfection from him, and she might forgive him his sins. 

“You,” she breathed, frozen in place.

His smile stretched wider.  “As you made me.” 

“What the…”  Her feet curled under her as if she was about to flee and Ash settled beside her, laying a hand on her arm.  Not hard enough to hurt, but the suggestion of strength was there. 

“Shh, all is well, my love.  I forgive you,” he said tenderly.

“You forgive me?”  Her mouth dropped open, obviously amazed by his magnanimous words.  “Wow.”  Clearly he’d said the right thing, and his chest puffed out until she spoke again.  “
You
forgive
me
?  Are you fucking kidding me?  Why am I having these stupid dreams again?”

Her anger puzzled him, didn’t she know he couldn’t come to her before now?  “Because now I can finally reach you.”

“We bound you.  You’re not supposed to be able to reach me
anywhere
,” she insisted.

“Yes, but you’re close to him.  The closer you are to him, the closer you are to me.”  He picked up her hand to lay a kiss on the back and she snatched it away. 

“I don’t want to be close to you.  I don’t want to be anything to you.  Why won’t you get it through your thick skull?  I could never love a psycho killer like you.”

The words hurt him to the quick, far worse than the sting of corrupted steel, and he recoiled from her disapproval.  “Please, Cady, won’t you love me?  I don’t want to be bad anymore, all I want is to be with you.”

“And I don’t want you anywhere near me.  If I have to stay awake for the rest of my life, I’ll do it, if that’s what it takes to escape you.”

Now she was just being nasty, and her words pricked at his temper.  She wasn’t even giving him a chance to make it up to her.  But he’d make her see, he’d make her love him.  “I will have you,” Ash growled, grabbing hold of her, he pulled her into his solid embrace.  The construct was good for something, at least. 

“Get off of me!”  Cady shoved at his chest, surprising him with her strength as he flew backwards.  He’d all but forgotten her power in these dreams; such a rare gift among humans.  

Ash rolled to his side, his brow crumpling in confusion.  “I thought… that is… we’re connected, you and I.”

“We were, but that’s over now.  It was never more than your blood, don’t you get it?  I never loved you, that was all in your head.  You only wanted me because I was tainted by your blood.”

He refused to believe that, his feelings were real.  “That might have explained the attraction at first, but all those nights we spent together… you shared a part of yourself with me.”

“You mean those nights when you fed off of me like a parasite?” she bit out, her voice dripping with scorn, and he felt that as deeply as the physical blow.

“I tried to be careful, not to take too much.  Your love sustained me, kept me from killing.  Kept me from giving in to the need and replaced it with a new one.”

Cady rolled to her feet.  “I’m outta here.  Go find someone else to stalk in dreamland.”

“Don’t abandon me,” he cried out, the unfamiliar sensation of tears pricking behind his eyes.  She stared back at him, her expression unreadable.  Was it pity, or was there something more behind her eyes?  Without a word she was torn from his sight and Asherik was banished to the darkness, impotent while Ethan slept on. 

Still… he could feel her there, beside him and it was enough.  For now. 

* * *

Cady awoke with a start, the blood rushing in her ears as she half expected to find the dream lover wrapped around her, instead of Ethan.  At some point he must have gotten up to turn off the lights and cover them with the sheet, and finding herself in a different set of physical circumstances creeped her out, as though maybe she was still stuck in the dream. 

But it was clearly Ethan’s profile beside her, not Ash, and her clothes were still in the same piles on the floor by the window, her phone on the floor where she’d knocked it earlier.  Craning her head, she could see the clock read nearly two a.m., and Ian would be getting home soon if Kelli couldn’t talk him into staying at her place after he walked her home. 

Laying back on the pillow, she breathed in through her nose and out her mouth, with deep calming breaths as she turned over the details of the dream again and again.  Was it just a dream, or was it more?  Ethan had sworn up and down that Ash was safely bound.  He never had any contact or trouble with any of the other five demons bound to him.  Why should Ash be any different? 

He slept on, blissfully unaware of her nightmare or doubts.  She was still getting to know the man that Ethan was.  There were so many sides to him, it was hard to know if any were due to Asherik’s influence or if it was his personality emerging after years of suppression in working for the Company.  What was the old Ethan like, before the Company got their hooks into him?  Was it the paranoid guy who wouldn’t let her call him on an “unsecured” line?  The easygoing one who smiled at her a lot and showed up at her work with flowers, pretending to be a delivery guy?  The tender, giving lover, or the one who liked it rough? 

Or all of the above? 

And then there were the many faces of Ash.  He kept claiming to love her, but the violence simmered never too far from the surface.  There were times when Ethan said or did something that felt uncharacteristic, like pulling her hair too hard or clutching her throat… then again, how well did she really know Ethan?  Maybe that was how he liked it sometimes?

Shit
.  It was a lot to think about.  But she had to think about it on the go.  Sliding out from under his arms, Cady started pulling on her clothes, hunting for the bra he’d flung while she’d been distracted. 

“Hey,” he said softly, his voice thick with sleep.  “Where you going?”

“Home, it’s late.”

Ethan frowned at the clock, the furrow remaining on his brow as he watched her.  “Too late for you to go home on your own.  Why don’t you stay here with me?”

“I used to walk home this late all the time, remember?”

“Uh huh, with an escort.”  He rubbed his eyes, sitting up in bed with his face in his hands.  “Damn, I’m tired.  You really took it out of me, woman,” he smiled, snagging hold of her arm and pulling her back to the bed to fall across his lap.  “But if you think you can walk home, clearly I haven’t done my job right.”

Cady laughed, wrapping her arms around his shoulders to accept the kisses that came next.  There was no sign of darkness within him, and under the power of his touch she started to lose the dread that lingered from the dream.  “I really do need to get home though.  I have to work tomorrow.”

“Then you should stay here and get your rest,” he tried one more time and she groaned, torn between doing what she wanted to do and what she knew was the smarter choice.

“Hey, I’m not taking the walk of shame into the office tomorrow,” she laughed, trying to sit up, but he held her fast.

“Then we’ll wake up early and go shopping for new stuff.”  He kissed her again almost desperately.  “Or better yet, take the day off and spend it here in bed with me.”

“I can’t believe you, of all people, want me to ditch.  Aren’t you all about the job?”  She raised a single brow at him, and all at once she saw the transformation come over him.  The playful tilt to his lips melted away, a stiffness infiltrating his shoulders. 

“Shit.  I forgot about my transmission time.”  Returning her gently to an upright position, he rooted around for his phone.  “I need to call this in.”

“How bad is it?” Cady frowned, watching him pull on his underwear and pace back and forth before the windows as he dialed.  Instead of answering, he held his finger to his lips and she fell silent, listening to the exchange as he identified himself with sector numbers and whatnot. 

“Negative, technical issues have been resolved, am on stand by for new transmission time,” he said woodenly.  “Copy that, transmission to commence in fifteen.”  He glanced at the clock on the bedside table.  “No, nothing to report.” 

“So?” Cady asked when he put the phone down.   

“We’ll see.  Nobody came on the line to ream me, so hopefully nobody even gives it a second thought when they read the report.  I can’t believe I completely missed the transmission point though, what a stupid mistake,” he frowned, sitting in front of the electronic equipment.

“I’m sorry,” she said in a small voice, slipping on her shoes.  “I didn’t mean to distract you that much.”

“Oh, hey…”  He leaned back to catch her hand, giving it a squeeze.  “It’s not your fault, it’s mine.  I’m the one on the job, and I’m the one who forgot all about it.  I can’t believe I didn’t set an alarm or anything to remind me.”  He shook his head. 

She felt a tad better about it, but hated that defeated look on his face.  “I’ll get my stuff together and get out of your way so you can get back to work then.”

“No, don’t run off yet.  Listen, give me twenty minutes to get this stuff batched and uploaded and then we can get back to bed.”  He kept talking when he saw the protest about to leap to her lips.  “Or, I can see you home safely.”

“You don’t have to do that.  I can get home by myself, I’m a big girl.”

Ethan pulled her close, pressing a kiss to the ridge of her ribcage underneath her breasts.  “But you’re
my
girl and I’ll worry about you if you go out at this time of night.  Just let me do this one thing and I’ll make sure you get there alright.  I’ll even follow along behind out of sight if you’d prefer it.”

Cady had to smile at that and nodded, sitting on the edge of the bed to watch him work.  He finished prepping the files and took the time to wash his face and get dressed before it was time to upload.  By then Cady had her shoes buckled and phone tucked away in her purse. 

The file transfer went down without a hitch, and for the life of her, Cady couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about, recording an empty set of rooms.  But she didn’t ask him about it, knowing he’d put her off and say it was safer for her not to know anything about it.  Ethan walked her home, hand in hand, until he left her at the corner, promising to watch her safely into the building before heading back to the hotel.

Finding the apartment dark and empty, she mentally kicked herself for exchanging Ethan’s bed for her cold one.  They traded a few texts as she got ready for bed, but when she lay under the blankets, sleep wouldn’t come.  It wasn’t that she missed Ethan (though she did), and it wasn’t that she found it creepy sleeping in the apartment alone (she didn’t); her thoughts kept returning to one thing.  If she closed her eyes and surrendered to sleep, would Ash be waiting for her?  And should she have mentioned it to Ethan?