Her eyes burned and her throat began to tighten.
Fog surrounded her. Engulfed her to the point where she felt like she was choking on it. Her arms waved trying to clear a path. It moved giving her a small vision of light. A taunting vision of a haven, but it closed again before she could stumble through.
She hissed in frustration. The coils moved up her legs, creating the illusion of being held prisoner in this purgatory. “Where am I?” she wailed out into the mist. “What am I doing here?”
Whispering carried itself on a slight breeze through the gloom. “Where are you?”
“Hello?” She called out tentatively in response and held her breath.
Silence.
The breath rushed out of her lungs, as she toppled unceremoniously to the ground and hugged her knees tightly.
“Ally…” the whisper rushed past her again.
She turned in the direction the voice had come from and stood up once more. “Who are you?”
“Come home, Ally.”
She started walking towards the sound. The misty coils parted and let her pass. She gazed around cautiously. The shadow of a man ran past her. She jumped back and swallowed a scream.
“Wake up and find your way home,” the whispered voice pleaded, pulling at her heart strings.
She felt the phantom hands on shoulders as they shoved her towards the ground.
Her body jumped and she bolted up in bed and came face to face with blue eyes gazing at her intensely.
“Hi Vincent,” she mumbled.
“Hello, Alessandra,” he returned with a curious gleam in his eye. “How are you feeling after your rest?”
She almost blurted out the truth, but something told her to withhold it. Instead she replied, “Much better,” apart from the weird dream, she added silently.
Vincent nodded the satisfaction clear on his face.
Ally rubbed her eyes as they landed on the clock beside her bed. She furrowed her eyebrows. “It’s two in the morning. Why aren’t you asleep?” She questioned.
“I’m what you’d call nocturnal,” he drawled nonchalantly.
“I have this vague feeling of being a bit nocturnal myself.”
“You were in a sense,” he confirmed.
She leaned forward in anticipation. “Really? I was right about that? Oh, tell me more please!” Ally begged, clasping her hands together in front of her.
Vincent laughed indulgently at the sight before him. “Alright,” he said, holding his hands up in front of him in mock surrender. “You were a private investigator up until a year or so ago. We met for the first time on one of your assignments.”
“Really?” she asked enraptured. “What a cool job.”
“Yes, you loved it and you were rather good at it I believe. You focused on cheating spouses that kind of thing.”
“Wow,” she said with a grin. “So how did we meet then?”
Vincent eyed her with an intense look. “You don’t remember anything?”
Why is he hesitating? And what is that probing sensation in my mind. Absently, she reached up to touch the part of her head that felt like a thin pole of steel was being thrashed against it repeatedly. Vincent watched her with blatant fascination and then as quickly as it had appeared, the mesmerising intensity was gone from his eyes. With it, so was the probing.
How odd…
“Alessandra?” Vincent prompted, compelling her to return to the moment.
“Hmm…yeah?”
His voice sharpened with annoyance as he repeated the question. “Do you remember any of this?”
“Oh, right. Sorry.” She felt a memory rising to the surface. Two forms began to take form in the fog that was her mind. She held her breath terrified that a single movement could break the concentration. Second by agonising second, the picture in her mind became clearer and clearer. She saw two men standing before her, but ignoring her presence. They both seemed so fixated on the other that she might as well have not been there…Black hair, piercing blue eyes and tight jeans came further into focus.
Vincent…
She looked to the other, he had spiked dark bitter sweet chocolate hair, was devastatingly handsome and he radiated the energy of a predator…but he was someone that she could trust with her life.
How do I know this?
A voice ran clearly in her mind. ‘Alessandra, get in your car and drive! Don’t look back.”
Wonder bloomed in her chest. That voice…I know that voice…It was the same one as in my dream!
He turned to look at her and she gasped out loud unable to control the reaction. Sparkling green eyes held her gaze intently. “Oh my god,” she whispered intently.
“What is it?!” Vincent demanded. “What do you see?”
The probing at her temples was back with a fierceness that had been missing last time. She lost focus and the image turned to a swirl of fog that swallowed the man and the memory back into the mist. Possibly lost forever…
“Why did you do that?” Ally yelled at Vincent. “It was right there!”
He grabbed her arm violently and stared at her with eyes so full of accusation and anger, that she knew it was time to lie again. She felt in that moment that her life may actually depend on it.
“What did you see?” he asked again menacingly.
“Let me go,” she seethed back. “You’re hurting me.” Using her free hand she pushed him with all her might. He flew across the room and slammed into the wall.
Ally sat there stunned with her mouth forming an O.
Vincent got up and dusted himself off then began to stalk back to the side of her bed. Ally shrank lower and lower into herself. “W...w...what just happened?”
She was terrified of the look in his eyes and of what she had just done.
“Well,” he began to drawl. “It seems that even though you forgot that you were in possession of supernatural powers, you’re still able to use them when threatened…Interesting.”
“What?!” she demanded. The rage burning in her belly had come out of nowhere and was overtaking everything. Her vision was beginning to turn red. “You knew I had ‘powers’ or whatever and you never told me? You’ve been telling me to give you a second chance and trust you, but then you go all psycho on me! What the hell is your problem?”
“I was testing you.” The hate had left his eyes and now a profound regret took its place. “I thought that if you felt threatened it might somehow break through. There are so many things that I need to tell you, but without some proof I knew you’d never believe me.”
Ally didn’t believe it for a second. Now that she’d seen the force of genuine emotion run through him. She knew that everything else that he had told her was a lie and that creature that had threatened her was the true face. She withheld the shudder. If his true face was rage and a passion of unimaginable depths, then she was in trouble and she would need every bit of strength to pull off her deception. No matter what she was required to do…she would do it. “What are you talking about? And how did you know that I was in possession of these powers and what are they?”
“I will answer your questions, but please tell me…what did you see?”
She shook head. “I didn’t see anything.”
“That’s a lie and we both know it, Alessandra.” The dangerous glint was creeping back into his eyes, despite his best efforts to control the emotion. “You said ‘oh my God’ that implies something happened.”
“All I saw was the fog beginning to clear and a very fuzzy image of two people standing near each other. I don’t know if it would have gotten any clearer, but we’ll never know because you interrupted me and sent it running in the opposite direction.”
Vincent’s body sagged slightly and Ally had the distinct impression that it was from relief. What don’t you want me to see?
“I’m sorry,” he reached out and squeezed her hand. “I truly am.”
Ally tried to hide her disappointment with a shrug.
He stood up and went to her closet. He pulled out the warmest clothes he could find and placed them on the bed next to her. “Get dressed.”
Ally gave him a look. “Are you mad? It’s two in the morning.”
Vincent flicked a glance at the clock. “It’s two thirty actually.”
Ally waved her hand dismissively. “Where are we going?”
A mischievous glint lit his eyes and a half smile appeared on his sensual mouth. Her heart skipped a beat and then she scolded herself for it.
What’s the matter with you? He’s a bad guy. It doesn’t matter how incredibly gorgeous he is or how perfectly formed his body might be…
He held out a hand and pinned her with a heated look. “Let me show you a new world, Alessandra.”
Involuntary warmth spread through her body and pooled in the bottom of her stomach at the clear desire written in his eyes. She knew the difference between the forced emotions and the genuine ones now and this was genuine... and powerful.
Oh no…I’m in trouble...
She accepted his hand and tried to ignore the potent tension she was beginning to feel between them.