Chapter One
Ice-cold water rained down on my head. Someone was screaming.
“Tessa! Wake up!” The command rolled through my mental bond to Dastien, and I gasped.
Blinking the water out of my eyes, I tried to figure out how I’d gotten in the shower. It took a second for my sight to clear. Meredith’s crystal blue gaze stared down at me.
I reached for the knob with a shaking hand and turned it all the way hot. “Jesus. That’s the fifth night in a row.” My voice wobbled.
Hands held me against a hard chest, and I knew from the feel of him Dastien was holding me under the stream. This had become a necessary part of our nighttime routine.
He kissed the top of my head. “You scared me this time. I almost had to get the doctor.”
“No! Don’t do that. Ever. She’ll come at me with one of her shots.” If there was anything that would turn this bad situation worse, it was Dr. Gonzales and her little messenger bag of horrors.
“Do you remember what you were dreaming?” Meredith asked. She sat next to the tub in our small shared bathroom.
I shook my head slowly. Every night had been like this since I escaped from la Aquelarre’s compound. I hoped it was some sort of PTSD, but the fear that still coursed through my veins made me think it was something more. Something worse.
I only remembered pieces of my dreams—hints of blood and terror—but nothing concrete enough to tell her. My visions had never been so vague, but they’d been changing ever since Dastien bit me, turning me into a werewolf. For a while, I hadn’t seen anything. I thought they were gone for good. Then, the visions came back, but only when I focused on trying to have one. And then—weirdest of all—I’d started seeing stuff that happened in the future.
The only thing I’d seen since Luciana stripped me of magic was about Peru. If I’d gone instead of Claudia, everyone at St. Ailbe’s would’ve died.
I took a deep breath and immediately regretted it. “Do you smell that?”
Dastien ran his hand across my forehead, pushing the hair out of my eyes. “Smell what?”
“Sulfur.”
Meredith and Dastien stilled for a moment.
Shit. If the smell was part of my “dream,” then I was either dreaming of my last run-in with Luciana or whatever she was cooking up for next time. “You aren’t smelling anything?”
“No, cherie. I don’t smell anything but you right now.” He turned the knob, shutting off the water, and then stood up, pulling me with him. “Let’s get into some dry clothes. Then we’ll talk, because pretending this isn’t happening isn’t working.” Water dripped on the floor as he moved. His T-shirt clung to his body like a second skin, showing off each ripple in his muscles. He stripped off his shirt and threw it in the tub with a wet plop before wrapping himself in a towel. Then he grabbed a second towel from the rack and turned to me, holding it open.
I closed the distance between us, and let his warmth sink into me. He was right. Ignoring whatever was up with me wasn’t working. Not even a little bit. But talking about this stuff made it real, and it was so much easier pretending that the last few weeks never happened.
That I’d never gone to stay with the coven. That my powers hadn’t been stripped and stuck in two stupid jars. That Daniel was still alive, Raphael had never been attacked, and Claudia was still here.
Tears welled but I refused to let them fall on principle. A pity party wouldn’t solve any of my problems. I blinked them away as I thought about what could be causing my nightmares.
I followed Dastien into my room.
“Holler when you’re dressed.” Meredith left our adjoining bathroom for her room, closing the door behind her.
“Sure thing,” I mumbled, still too caught up in my own thoughts to really focus on anything. The first time it happened, Dastien and I had torn up his cabin searching for a gris-gris. We hadn’t found anything that looked remotely cursed, so I thought it was a just a really bad dream.
But five nights in a row…
Dastien grabbed a pair of his sweatpants and quickly pulled them on. “Do you want me to help you get changed?”
My cheeks burned. “I’ve got it.” Even if he was my mate, we hadn’t gone through the whole bonding ceremony yet. He was determined not to cross the line until we did, but we were True Mates. Two halves of one soul. So, we already had somewhat of a bond. With it, we could talk silently to each other, feel each other’s emotions, and I could see where he was when we were apart—but that last one wasn’t a normal mate thing. That was an enhancement my witchy-ness provided.
I dug through my closet as Dastien turned his back, a gentleman to the end. After stripping off the wet stuff and tossing it in my hamper, I pulled on a pair of sleep shorts and a tank.
When I turned back, I blinked at the sight of the rainbow tie-dyed throw pillow in the center of my bed—the color was shocking compared to the painful whiteness of my room. Before I became a Were, I needed to be able to bleach my things free of any vision-inducing elements, so white had always been more about practicality than an aesthetic choice. The pillow was the first decoration I’d gotten since I gained control of my visions. Now, I wanted to hurl it across the room.
I wasn’t in control anymore.
Dastien reclined on my bed, and I crawled up next to him, hugging the rainbow pillow to my chest as I tried to hold it together. “We’re dressed,” I yelled.
Meredith peeked in and her hair fell forward. Her current dye job was black with streaks of hot pink. It looked fantastic against her pale, white skin. She was tall and thin, built like a runway model. On any other person, it might’ve been intimidating, but Meredith was my first friend here. My best friend, besides Dastien.
“So, what’s the deal with the night terrors?” She asked.
“I don’t know.” I picked at the seams of the pillow as I tried to come up with an answer that had some substance. How could I forget something that affected me so much? Even now, all I could remember was the smell of sulfur. And the fear.
“What about your visions?”
“Still MIA.” Although, I had a theory about what was happening. Not a great theory, but one in general. Worry gnawed in my gut, but I had to voice my fears. “Maybe having my magic taken out and put back in changed things.”