Julian arrived as she was turning off the lights for the night. Aida grinned as she ran over and threw her arms around his neck. Lifting her off the ground, he crushed her against him. “How did your day go?” he asked.
“It’s a lot better now,” she told him. “But it was good. How about your day?”
The joy on her face lit his heart in ways he hadn’t believed possible until recently. “I started doing some freelance IT and analytics. It’s time I get back to work.”
“I didn’t know you were looking for work.”
“If I’m going to live in this city, I’m going to have to find a way to support myself. It’s not cheap here, you know, and I doubt Kyle and Cassidy will put up with me freeloading off all of you.”
She laughed as she stepped back. “You’re not going to mind-meld our landlord?”
“Mind-meld?”
“It’s a thing, and you know you can do it.”
He laughed as he slid his arm around her waist and pulled her close again. “No, I am not going to mind-meld your landlord.”
She rested her hand on his chest and leaned against him. “We’ll have to go out and celebrate.”
“I’d rather go home and celebrate with you.”
He couldn’t resist kissing her again but broke it off when the door to the storage room opened and Nicolette strode out. She froze when she spotted them, and Aida pulled away from him.
“This is not the place,” Nicolette said sternly.
“I’m sorry,” Aida apologized. “It won’t happen again.”
“Hmm,” Nicolette huffed.
“I have to get my things,” she said to Julian.
“I’ll wait for you outside,” he told her as Nicolette continued to give him the eye.
Julian waved to Nicolette as Aida hurried into the back, and he walked out the door. Stepping outside, he dodged a couple strolling down the street as they enjoyed the warmer air of the first day of May.
He walked to the end of the block before turning and heading back toward the gallery. He had just arrived again when the door opened and Nicolette stepped outside. She gave him another stare before stalking down the sidewalk.
Through the windows, he watched as Aida finished turning off the lights before walking over to the door. She had her head bent as she searched for something in her purse before pulling out her keys. She smiled at him as she set the alarm and exited the building.
“You sure you don’t want to celebrate?” she asked while she locked the door. She pulled on the handle to make sure it was locked before putting her keys in her purse and turning to him.
“Oh, I intend to celebrate,” he said as he pulled her close and kissed her. “But I plan on it being just the two of us when I do.”
“That sounds like the best kind of celebration to me.”
• • •
Julian woke to the weight of legs straddling his thighs. Still groggy, he couldn’t figure out what was going on until he realized Aida was on top of him. A lazy smile spread across his lips. When she passed out earlier, he assumed she was finished with him, but obviously, she wasn’t.
He went to grasp her hips when he realized she was muttering something.
“I can’t. I can’t. I can’t,” she whispered frantically. “I have to. I have to. I have to.”
He frowned as he settled his hands on her thighs; she must be having another nightmare. Her hair tumbled around her bare shoulders to shield her breasts; her eyes were open, but the glassiness in them made it clear she wasn’t registering anything.
Could people sleep with their eyes open? He had no idea, but she must be doing something like that as she stared unseeingly at him.
“Aida—”
“Why did you forsake me?”
“What?”
What kind of a question was that, and why was she using such an old-fashioned word?
“I have to. I have to,” she muttered.
“Aida, listen to me. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.”
“I have to,” she moaned.
The forlorn tone of her voice broke his heart, and the sadness behind those two words rattled him more than her strange conversation and deadened eyes.
“It’s okay,” he soothed as he rubbed her thighs. “You’re okay. You’re here, with me. You can wake up, love.”
He was afraid to grab her and shake her awake; he’d heard somewhere you shouldn’t wake a person who was sleepwalking, and maybe this was some strange form of sleepwalking. Whatever it was, he couldn’t take the chance of harming her by doing the wrong thing.
“I have to. I have to. But I can’t,” she whimpered. “Do it!”
The voice that snarled out of her with those last two words was more like the voice of a demon than a human. A chill ran up his spine as she continued speaking in that distorted, animalistic tone.
“You must be punished for what you did.”
“What?” he demanded as those words caught him off guard.
He put his hands under him to sit up… and that was when he saw the stake in her hand as she lifted her arms over her head and grasped the weapon in both hands. Thrown off by the sudden emergence of a stake, he reacted slower than he should have as he fell back and twisted to the side to avoid the blow aimed at his heart.
But it was already too late.
“No!” Aida screamed as she plunged the stake into his shoulder.
Julian forgot all about the pain that came with having the stake plunged through his flesh before digging into his bone as her screams resonated through the room. She released the stake to slap at the sides of her head while she whipped it back and forth. He had no idea what was wrong, but she was falling apart.
“Aida!” he yelled as he used his good arm to grasp one of her hands and pull it away from her head. His other arm remained useless as whatever she’d struck in his shoulder had paralyzed something inside it. “Aida, listen to me!”
The door flew open, and light flooded the room. Julian hissed when Aida’s naked body was illuminated. Before the intruder could see too much of her, he spun her to the side and threw the blanket over her as she continued to scream and batter herself.
“What the fuck is going on?” Kyle shouted as he ran into the room behind Cassidy, who had taken two steps through the doorway before stopping.
Julian struggled to restrain Aida with his one hand, but she was like a wildcat beneath him as she thrashed and screamed. When she tore a handful of hair from her head, a moan escaped him as blood trickled from her scalp.
Unable to grab her other arm, he shifted to put more weight on her. If he put much more on her, he might hurt her, but she was already doing that to herself. Releasing her hand, he grasped the stake and tore it free as she raked her nails down her face. Blood streaked down her face as she peeled her skin away.
“Oh, Aida, no,” he whispered.
He caught her wrists with his hand and pinned them to the mattress. Being restrained only made her kick harder as she bared her teeth before shaking her head back and forth like something possessed her.
“Help me with her,” he commanded.
Kyle covered the five feet of distance in less than a second and grabbed her ankles to pin them to the mattress.
“Did she do that to your shoulder?” Kyle demanded.
“Yes,” Julian said as he maneuvered so he could pin her arms down with his knees and free his hands.
His shoulder hadn’t healed enough for the feeling to return to his fingers, so it remained hanging limply at his side. Aida kept her eyes squeezed shut; she’d given up on trying to break free and lay limply beneath him as she panted for air and whimpered.
“What is the matter with her?” Cassidy asked as she came to stand beside the bed.
“Aida, look at me,” Julian said.
“I… I can’t. I have to. I can’t. I have to,” she repeatedly muttered before screaming again.
Julian placed his hand over her mouth as her hips bucked beneath him. She was only a mortal, yet the strength running through her was far more than he expected.