Run. Dread clung in Nemia's chest, panic and tears laboring her breaths. The flames from an unknown assailant engulfed the house she'd known her whole life. As the embers were carried on the wind, settling against her skin. There was no pain, not that she would have cared.
'No time, run.' An instinct from deep within twisted her, propelling her heavy legs forward. She didn't want to leave. She wanted to stay, to fight. But she knew there was nothing she could do. Whoever had done this, there was no chance in her touching them. 'Damn it!' Her mind roared.
Running with all her might, not having a wolf to shift to or vampire speed to lean into. She had to do the running on her own. Faster and faster, she got to the tree lines. Her feet skidding to a stop at the sound of a loud crunch of bones from behind her.
There, just outside of the pack house. A humongous black wolf, an old gash across its eye and snout. Below his feet, Alpha Gregory's now limp and lifeless body.
Nemia's heart clutched in her chest. No...
The mark hidden under her shirt started to glow then. Her brows knitting in confusion. The intense light, peaking through the microscopic holes of her T-shirt.
Nemia's mind lurched forward and she bolted up right in the bed. Dorian jumping awake from the disturbance. The mark pulsing against her chest, the light from within her dreams lit the room. Fading away slowly.
"Huh, wh- what is it?" He asked groggily, before registering the frantically beating heart inside Nemia's chest and surely feeling her panic through their mated bond. "Nemia? What's wrong?"
He wrapped his arms around her slender frame and pulled her across the bed, up to his chest. His arms forming a protective shield around her, holding her against his chest.
Nemia shook her head softly, her heart rate slowing almost as fast as it had started pounding. "It was just a dream." She whispered, more to herself than to answer Dorian.
Her fingers searching for the mark on her chest, making contact she realized it was warm. Warmer than usual.
Her mind fell back on the moment her mark started shining through her chest, staring at Malcolm in her dreams. But that didn't happen, not then... Her dream had changed. 'Did he actually fucking invade my dream?'
The mark pulsed as Solis seeped back into her mind. 'I wanted to see.' Solis' voice echoed again in her mind like it had when she shifted yesterday. She didn't wince at it this time, it was no where near as loud. Instead, it was gentle now. Warm and inviting.
No matter, she snarled lowly into her mind. 'Did you like what you seen?' She sat up, pulling herself away from Dorian.
He didn't stop her, he wanted to, but he didn't. Remaining silent, knowing and hearing the discussion in her head. Letting her know in presence that he was there to lean to if she needed.
She flashed a small smile at Dorian before shifting her eyes to stare forward, fixing her eyes to a spot on the door.
'Do you think I'm proud?' There was disdain layered in Solis' voice.
'I've lived through that moment in my life enough, no. I don't think your proud. I think you're slightly demented for making me live through it yet again for your own personal gain.' She snapped back.
'The past two nights I've been free of this dream for the first time in ten years, and then here you go.' Her minds voice layered with a cold hostility.
Solis' mind engulfed her own, the surge in his power spiking in warning. 'How dare you speak to me in such tone!' His voice boomed in her head, echoing off the chambers of her mind.
She didn't cower, shrink from the raging boom. Her mind and soul rearing up, instead, standing tall in the space in her head. Adira's soul twisting into hers, forming one. Their soul staring into Solis.
'NO! How dare you?! Just from being marked as your vessel from birth I have had to go through horrendous moments, over and over again in life. Because of you, I'll never get to know my family.' Nemia seethed within herself, hers and Adira's soul combined made Solis look small inside her.
'You don't get to come in here and make me relive past torments for your pleasure. If I was chosen as your vessel, then it wasn't happenstance. You guided the fates, you uttered the prophecy. You chose me, so fucking respect me.'
There was silence in her mind, her presence towering over Solis. Defiance in her heart. Then, the sound of a slow clap started reverberating within the walls of her mind. Clap. Clap. Clap.
'Finally.' Nemia swelled with pride, not of her own but it was the pride that Solis felt. Rising deep within her chest. 'I did choose you. Not specifically, but I knew whoever would become my vessel would need a certain strength. One that not even the God's, including myself, could contain. A strength in the mind. Your resilience calls to me like the morning's first rays. Your fire warms my soul.'
A warmth spread throughout Nemia. Like Solis was wrapping around her on the inside in an embrace.
'You are everything my vessel needed to be. Plus so much more. I am sorry being connected to me has caused such grief in your life. But the finest soldiers are cut from the roughest of cloth. So yes, I apologize for what has been done; but I do not apologize for what it has made you.'
Nemia and Adira's soul split, the both of them shrinking back in size within her mind. From a raging fire to a small, candlelit flicker. Her arms wrapping tightly around herself in the flesh.
Nemia understood now. At least she thinks she does. It didn't make any of this right, but it's what she had to accept. 'Do we have an understanding about my dreams?'
'Yes. Now rest, you still have a few hours left before sunrise. This memory will never invade your dreams again.' His soul enveloped her once more, a warm and calming embrace. Then, he receded. Leaving her in mind to rest inside the mark. Feeling him slide from her mind, down her neck and into the depths of the mark on her chest.
Dorian's arms were around her waist, sliding her back to him again then. Wrapping around her as if he were a shield.
She could feel his panic when she had stood her ground against Solis. His own thoughts racing during the time but has been to focused on what she was saying to Solis that she had muffled his thoughts in her mind. Maybe the initial strength was starting to wake.
"It is." Dorian answered her idle wonder aloud. "You have a lot of nerve, or carelessness of your life, to talk to a God in the way you just did. I was terrified he was going to smite you down from within." Dorian half laughed, the nervousness strangling the sound.
Nemia gave a almost hollowed laugh in return. "Well, apparently that's what he wanted to see."
Dorian shifted, sliding down the head board to lay all the way down, pulling her along with him. "Even still. Maybe let's not try to invoke the wrath of a god? I don't think I have what it takes to fight one. I will.... But I doubt I'll win." His laugh was lighter, trying to smooth his nerves with humor.
Nemia laughed with him, lifting her head up to look at his face. Her hand resting lightly on his chest. "Don't worry, I'll be good. Maybe. As long as he keeps his word." Nemia's lips curled, stretching over to kiss him on the cheek.
Such a simple, sweet act. Yet a flame ignited in her core.
Dorian felt it, his hand flexing around her waist.
"You better be good." He warned, his voice lower now. Rolling onto his side to face her, keeping her pulled close. His other hand coming to rest on her thigh. The cover rudely blocking the immediate contact of skin.
"But what if I'm not?" Nemia teased, her voice silky smooth. It was hard to tell if she was still talking about being good to Solis, or being good for him.
Dorian's hand flexed, squeezing her thigh. His face and lips inching closer to Nemia's. "Then I guess I'd have to punish you."
Nemia's stomach fluttered and nibbled her lip softly. "Yeah?" She breathed out in a soft rush of air across his face. Her eyes locked onto his.
"Are you tired?" Dorian asked lowly, stopping just centimeters from her lips.
She shook her head slowly, barely. "I can never sleep after that dream." She answered honestly, but that dream was the last thing on her mind now. In truth, this time she probably could have went back to sleep. But her body hungered for something a lot less pure than that of sleep.
"Then neither am I." Dorian whispered, his lips brushing hers.