“Mind thingy?” Niko smirked at her as he came closer, standing on her other side. She was pretty sure all brain function stopped altogether once she realized she was sandwiched between them. Like the bologna in a way too hot for their own good dragon man sandwich.
“Seriously? I don’t even understand that one. What is bologna?” Jayce said it like Ball-oon-ee and it had a giggle bursting out of her before she could stop it.
“What?” he repeated and the quizzical look on his face had her laughing even harder. Finally, she got a hold of herself. Maybe it was just the stress of the day, or accidentally conjuring two red hot dragons into her home, but it had felt especially good to let go for a minute.
As she took a deep breath, Hazel realized how exhausted she really was, and she could see the other two men were too. She guessed traveling from one world to another took its toll.
“You have no idea.” Niko said with a giant yawn as he turned to head out of the kitchen. He was halfway to her bedroom before she’d caught up with him.
“You guys really do have to stop it with the mind thingy.”
Niko just shrugged and looked at Jayce, who also shrugged, and then they both looked at her expectantly.
“What? It’s just weird. And it’s not really fair. I can’t read your thoughts.” Hazel said as she jumped in front of them, blocking them from entering the room. “By the way this is my bedroom, where I sleep. The guest bedrooms are down the hall, at the end.”
They both looked longingly for a moment at her room and it had thoughts swirling of what it would be like if they all slept in there together. Instant heat flashed through her body and she had to look away from them as her face pinkened under their twin heated stares. She knew that they knew exactly what she was thinking.
“Look, just…just go to sleep, okay? We’ll deal with big Mr. Scary Dark spirit tomorrow.”
The men both shook their heads at her before bidding her goodnight and heading to the two smaller rooms that she had pointed out. She was pretty sure there were blankets and pillows in each of them, but there was no way she was letting herself go into the bedroom, alone, with either one of them. Let alone both of them.
“Go to sleep, Hazel!” Jayce’s voice reached her from all the way inside the room making her jump and scurry into her bedroom, closing the door as if that would somehow protect her thoughts from her new nosy neighbors.
Quickly, she got ready for bed, falling asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.
Fire. Everywhere she looked was burning, ash filled fire. The acrid smoke filled her lungs until she was coughing, choking, unable to breath, unable to call for help. A shadow shifted and in the manner of dreams, she knew. Hazel just suddenly had the knowledge in her mind as if it had always been there. The shadow moving ever closer, dancing around her with malicious intent, was Eidolon.
He had no form at first, just a collection of grinding, flame colored bones and melting skin but he neared, somehow drawing closer without seeming to move at all. There was a sense of cold, ageless power that emanated from his shapeless figure and it sent a chill shooting through her. He was so much bigger, so much stronger than she could ever be and her mind whimpered in fear as its mouth opened. It was a black hole, but more than black, like the absence of all things good in the world and his teeth dripped black, oozing lava.
It spoke, the sound of his voice like bone grating on bone, piercing and impossible to ignore. Hazel heard him speak in her mind.
“My darling witch. My deliverer. My rescuer.”
“No, no, no.” She whispered the words over and over to herself, trying to block out the vicious glee that seeped from his voice.
“Oh yes, sweet witch. Yes. Yes. Yes.” Each time he spoke she could feel each syllable stab into her, dragging out again with excruciating pain. She had her hands on either side of her head, pressing, trying to ease the torment, to block out his litany.
“I am coming for you, my tender one. I will spill your blood, I will tear you apart. But I will make it sweet for you, I will make it….Ahh!” the formless, flame filled shape shouted in sudden shock as Hazel focused, building the heat of the fire hotter and hotter, intent on incinerating him. Anything to stop the words, the terrible words, he was spewing.