The soil beneath my feet instantly, magically turned into the finest sand. I scrambled on all fours to get up the embankment, but it kept slipping under me. Instead of surging forward, I kept sliding back. A large hand grabbed my heel, and I shook it off frantically, pulling my foot out of my tennis shoe.
Free again, I tried to get to my feet and run, but the air around me developed the density of molasses. I couldn’t move through it.
He was coming! He was going to kill me!
All I heard was the ferocious pounding of my heart in my ears. It roared a freight train through my skull until all I was aware of was the sound of my own screams.
“Wake up.” A hand shook my shoulder roughly. I came to in a fetal position and sat up with a gasp to see Ryder’s angry face inches from my own.
“No!” I scuttled back, stopping only when I hit the wall behind me, clutching the sheet to my body as though for protection. I looked around, not recognizing where I was. There were no furnishings, the walls were bare and the closet was open, with men’s clothing folded inside. I squinted my eyes against the early-morning light that fell through the window. Ryder stood up, looked down at me with impatience.
A dream? Yeah. A dream. Okay. I released pent-up breath slowly, still breathing roughly, trying to get my bearings. Pretty fucked-up dream. The fear started to fade, and my breath grew less tremulous. Pushing the hair off my forehead, I noticed my hands were trembling and had the absurd urge to giggle. If he only knew what I’d just dreamed. Shit. He made for a scary monster.
Ryder was wearing his pants from the previous night, but they weren’t completely buttoned and hung precariously on his lean hips. They hung open just enough to leave an interesting V shape over his exposed skin. He obviously worked out to get the hard ridge of muscles. Lord. Even as my heart calmed and my breathing became more even, I couldn’t help but be intrigued by the sight. The man was out and out too sexy by far.
“You’re at my place.”
“I am.” I agreed, somewhat foggily. “Why?”
“Your place was robbed.”
“It was?” It was. Now I remembered. He saw the resignation on my face and must have correctly interpreted it, because he didn’t respond to my question. Shoving my face into my hands, I groaned. “This has been a creepy couple of days.”
“You ain’t seen nothing yet.” His expression was unreadable. “So who do you work for?”
I looked up at him, wide-eyed, trying to comprehend what he was saying with a suddenly eerie tingling over my body. Wasn’t I awake? Was this going to be one of those screwy you-thought-you-were-awake-but-you’re-not dreams? “What did you say?”
“I’m taking up where I left off. Who do you work for?”
Fear swamped my body like a heavy blanket. “But that’s impossible.”
“You dreamwalked.”
“What is that? You keep saying that!” I could hear my voice getting louder as, once again, alarm set in. I stood quickly, my back to the wall, dragging the sheet with me like armor.
“Where’s the fucking mylunate, Taylor? You have no idea the power you hold!”
“Oh, my God. You were really in my dream. You had those demon eyes.” I watched him at the same time I wrapped the sheet around me, tucking the ends in front of me. I could feel my panic mounting.