“They are determined to wait you out.”
I turned my head to find Nero sunning himself beside me. And he was completely naked.
“This is another dream,” I sighed.
Apparently, the red bikini I was currently wearing hadn’t been enough to clue my mind into that little reality. I didn’t even own a red bikini. And I sure hadn’t brought any swimwear along for this mission.
“I might be a dream, but the monsters waiting out there are very real.” Nero turned onto his side. One hand held up his head. The other stroked gently down my face. “I don’t want anything to happen to you, Leda.”
I chuckled. “Since you’re just a figment of my imagination, your statement is somewhat self-serving.”
In fact, his whole presence here in my dream was very self-serving. Especially since my dreaming mind had made him naked.
“I said I was a dream,” he replied. “That doesn’t mean I’m only a figment of your imagination.”
“I’m confused.”
“That tends to happen when you don’t get enough sleep.” He brushed his hand across my forehead, and I winced. “And when you don’t tend to your injuries. Pandora, you know better than to go to sleep with a head injury.”
“I have a thick skull.”
He grunted. “I hadn’t noticed.”
I rolled onto my side, facing him. “Where are you, Nero?”
“Where you need me to be.”
I sighed. “I need you here. With me.”
“That’s why I came.” He reached over to rest his hand on my hip.
My pulse quickened. “But you’re not really here.”
“I’m close enough.”
“We’re just talking in circles.”
“I’m here to help you. You have a problem.”
“I have more problems than I can count, Nero.”
“I was referring to the monsters waiting on your doorstep.”
“Mind coming here to help me out? Between the two of us, I think we can take them out.”
His laugh was a growl, roughed by lust. “You are the most glorious angel I have ever known.” He leaned in closer, his hard, hot chest burning against mine as his fingers untied the bow holding my bikini string together. “You don’t need my help to take care of a few monsters.”
I gasped, my fingernails digging into his back. “But it’s more fun to do it together.”
He pulled me up to my knees. His fingers flicked away what remained of my tiny bikini. “We’ll be together again soon. You only have to get past the monsters.” His hot breath sizzled against my neck.
My impatient body tensed in anticipation. It had been too long since Nero had touched me like this.
“How do I get past the monsters?” I asked.
“You compel them.”
“But there are so many of them.”
“There were almost as many last year on the Elemental Expanse, and you compelled them all.” He trailed a line of kisses all the way down my neck. “You are far more powerful now.”
“You helped me then.”
“You can do this, Leda.” His hands closed around my hips. He lifted me easily onto his lap, my legs straddled on either side of him.
Emotion and lust swelled inside my body. My wings burst out of my back, and they were as red as my discarded bikini.
“Do it just like we did it before.” Nero kissed me, short and rough. “You have all the magic you need. Take control over the monsters. Then compel them all to run toward the invisible barrier that protects this place. The moment they hit it, the monsters will die.” He cupped his hands around my face. “And you will be free to come to me.”
I rested my forehead against his. “Where are you, Nero?”
“Go to Pandemonium,” he said.
And then I woke up, breathing heavily.
Calli was looking down on me. “Nightmare?”
I sat up quickly. “Not exactly.”
“I see.” She gave me a knowing smile. “Dreaming of a certain archangel?”
I didn’t answer, too embarrassed to share my naughty dream with her. Calli was a pal, but she was also my foster mother.
“Sorry I dozed off,” I said instead.
“You needed your rest.”
I had needed to rest, and I still did. Lately, I’d been feeling more exhausted after I slept than before. There were simply too many things for my mind to process.
“I should check on our wounded,” I said, rising to my feet.
Angel followed my lead.
“Most of them are already awake,” Calli said.
I looked at the sky. The sun was already high in it.
“It’s nearly noon,” Calli told me.
“You should have woken me.”
“I went looking for you around dawn this morning and found you sound asleep on the beach, Angel curled around your head. I tried to wake you just enough to walk you to one of the beds in the cabin, but you wouldn’t budge. So I left you there.”
I’d expended a lot of magic yesterday to hold off the monsters, so it was no surprise that I’d slept away half the day. I wished I hadn’t fallen asleep on the beach while on guard duty, though. Angels were supposed to be more responsible than that.
“How is everyone holding up?” I asked Calli.
I hadn’t had the energy left in me to heal them with magic last night, but I was going to give it a shot now. Just after I took care of something.
“Where are you going?” Calli asked me.
“To eliminate the monsters.”
Maybe my conversation with Nero had been nothing more than a dream, but that didn’t mean the idea my mind had put into his mouth wasn’t valid. I’d used my siren magic to compel monsters before, and I could do it again. I had to do it if we were ever going to get out of here.
Calli walked beside me, saying nothing as I approached the invisible border to the sanctuary. I stopped and closed my eyes, reaching out with my magic. Last time I’d tried to compel a whole horde of monsters, I’d had Nero’s magic to draw on. This time, I was on my own.
I allowed my Siren’s Song to flow toward the monsters like a cascading river, my magic gaining power with every wave, with every ripple and rumble. I sought out the beasts’ minds, and I was surprised to discover that there was only one. One mind. One magic. One forest.
The horde’s consciousness was very singular, very simple. It acted on instinct. Unfortunately for us, that instinct was telling the monsters to kill us all. I couldn’t fight that instinct. It was too powerful. I could only pour more fire onto it, supercharging their primitive drive to kill.
So that’s exactly what I did. I wrapped my magic around the monster horde, strengthening their resolve to kill us until they could not stand by and wait any longer. They had to get us now. The monsters charged toward us, united in a single destructive purpose, and slammed themselves against the sanctuary’s invisible wall.
A long silence followed the cacophony of death. Calli didn’t comment on my control over the monsters, and I didn’t try to explain it. We merely stood there, not saying a word as we watched the tree monsters’ remains slowly fade away.
I answered my ringing phone.
“Leda, I’ve been trying to call you for hours,” Nerissa said.