Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 14. Danse Macabre(91)
I fell asleep in a nest of warm bodies and silk sheets. I'd had worse nights.
I came instantly awake in the pitch black, my heart in my throat. I didn't know what had woken me, but it was something bad. I lay there pressed between Micah and Nathaniel, looking around the room in the dim light from the half-open bathroom door. It was the light Jean-Claude left on for us when we slept over. The room looked empty, so why was my pulse in my mouth? Bad dream, maybe.
I lay there pressed between the men, straining to hear something, but there was nothing but their quiet breathing. Jean-Claude's arm was across Micah's body, but it was no longer warm. Dawn had come and gone, and taken him from me again.
Then I saw a shadow. A shadow sitting on the foot of the bed. When I looked directly at it, it wasn't there, but out of the corner of my eye I could see it: a blackness that began to take on a shape, until there was a dark outline of a woman sitting at the foot of the bed. What the hell?
I shook Micah's arm, trying to wake him, but it didn't work. I tried Nathaniel, and the same thing happened, nothing. Their breathing never changed. What was happening?
I couldn't wake them. Was I dreaming and didn't know it? I drew breath to scream. If it was a dream, it wouldn't matter; if it wasn't a dream then Claudia and the guards would come. But the moment I drew a sharp breath, the voice floated through my mind. «Do not scream, necromancer.»
The breath left me, as if someone had pushed on my stomach. I finally managed a whisper: «Who are you?»
«Good, this guise does not frighten you. I was hoping it would not.»
«Who…«Then I smelled it: night. Night out of doors, night some place warm and soft with the scent of jasmine on the air. I knew who it was. «Marmee Noir» was the least rude of the nicknames the vampires called her. She was the Mother of All Darkness; she was the first vampire, and the ruler of their council, though she'd been in hibernation, or a coma, for more than a thousand years. The last time I'd seen her in a dream she'd been as big as the ocean, as black as the space between the stars. She'd scared the shit out of me.
The shadow smiled, or at least that's what it felt like. «Good.»
I struggled to sit up, and the men slept on, not even moving in their sleep. Was this a dream, or was it real? If it was real we were in deep, deep shit. If it was a dream, then I'd had powerful vamps invade my dreams before.
I put my back against the wood of the headboard. It felt real and solid. But I didn't like sitting there naked in front of her. I wished I had a gown, and the thought was enough. I was suddenly wearing a white silk gown. Dream, because I'd been able to change it. Dream, it would be okay. It was just a dream. The knot in my gut didn't believe me, but the rest of me tried to believe.
I thought of several questions to ask that shadow, and finally settled for, «Why are you here?»
«You interest me.»
It was like having the devil suddenly take a personal notice of you; not good. «I'll try to be less interesting.»
«I am almost awake.»
I was suddenly cold down to my toes.
«I can taste your fear, necromancer.»
I swallowed hard, and couldn't keep my voice from being breathy. «Why are you here, Marmee Noir?»
«I need something to wake me after such a long sleep.»
«What?»
«You, perhaps.»
I frowned at her. «I don't understand.»
The shadow began to grow more solid, until she was a small female figure in a black cloak. I could almost see her face, almost, and I knew I did not want to. To see the face of darkness was to die.
«Jean-Claude has still not made you his, still not crossed that last line with you. Until he does, another more powerful than he can take what is his, and finish it.»
«I am bound to a vampire,» I said.
«Yes, you have a vampire servant, but that does not close the other door.» She was suddenly sitting at my feet. I tucked my feet up, and pushed myself against the headboard. It was a dream, just a dream, she couldn't really hurt me, but I didn't believe it.
She spread a hand wide, and the hand was carved of darkness. «I thought this guise would make me less frightening, but you cringe from me. I am wasting a great deal of energy to speak to you in dream, rather than invade your mind further, yet still you fear me.» She sighed, and the sound of it flittered through the room. «Perhaps I have lost the knack of being human, even to pretend. Perhaps if I have lost the knack, I should stop trying — what do you think, necromancer? Should I show you my true form?»
«Is this a trick question?» I asked.
I felt her frown, rather than saw it, because I couldn't see her face yet.