Warm blood smeared on her mouth and cheeks. “Open your mouth!”
She kicked and bucked, slamming her head into his nose and springing to the other side of the carriage when his grip loosened.
“Don’t touch me!” she shouted, chest heaving as her hair fell wildly around her face. She scrubbed away his blood and spit on the floor. “You’re an animal!”
His eyes flashed and a growl ripped through the cab. “That’s right. A predator. You can’t escape me.”
Her lips trembled as her teeth chattered. The temperature plunged and her lungs chilled. The leather upholstery cracked as ice and frost crawled up the walls. The damp blood on her clothing hardened as her body convulsed with shivers.
“This ... is a dream.” Colder and colder the air turned until symptoms of hypothermia set in. “You’re ... not real.”
He shrugged, seemingly unaffected by the cold. “Dream or not, you brought me here. Only called mates share dreams.”
“N—no.” Her throat worked to swallow as the frigid air cut into her bones. “I belong to ... Adam.”
He lifted a brow. “Careful, pet. You wouldn’t want to anger me.”
She tried to yell at him, but her words slurred into nothing. He laughed at her weakness. Slow, shallow breaths pulled from her lungs. Her pulse seemed to forget how to beat and her eyes grew too heavy to keep focused.
“There you are. Rest. Your mate will take care of you.”
Warm hands turned her face. A phantom touch skated up her leg. She was too weak to open her eyes. “No...”
“I’m not Adam and I’m not asking.”
She shivered as her legs were exposed to the cold. His lips pressed to hers and her brow tightened. She tried to turn her face away, but his hand held her jaw.
“This can happen with or without your cooperation. Either way, it ends tonight.”
Her body weakened, as feeble as a rag doll, and he lifted her to his lap, pushing her knees to the side so she straddled him. Her head lulled back, her teeth clattering as her blood froze.
He turned her head, exposing the side of her throat that wasn’t bleeding. “You’re quite the little donor. Just a prick.”
The pierce of his fangs through her skin ripped a scream from her battered throat.
“Anna! Wake up!”
Her body jerked with the sense of falling and her scream rung through the air. Arms caught her, shaking her violently.
“Open your eyes!”
Daylight filtered through the curtains of Adam’s bedroom and she scrambled to sit up, her hands frantically checking her throat for injury.
“Adam?”
He caught her hands, chafing them in his. “I’m here. You’re freezing.”
“Oh, God.” She crawled onto his lap, hugging her body to his. He caught her in his arms as her legs wrapped around his waist and she pressed her face into his neck. Her eyes closed and she breathed in the familiar scent of his skin.
“You’re safe, ainsicht. Whatever it was, it’s over. I have you.”
She couldn’t catch her breath as it hitched in her lungs, and she gasped for air. That wasn’t just a dream.
He rubbed a hand up and down her back. “Shh... Breathe with me, Anna. Feel my heart beat with yours.”
Disoriented, she listened for the familiar thud and focused on the familiar rhythm. Last she recalled they parked her car inside an empty barn. She couldn’t remember coming to his room or falling asleep.
Her mind spun like a merry-go-round of nonsense. She didn’t know the time or day. She had no idea how long they slept. Daylight was her only clue and that meant Adam wouldn’t be able to go out for at least a few more hours.
“I think something’s wrong.”
He drew back to see her face. “What’s the matter?”
She didn’t know anything about what was happening to her, but Adam said there could only be one mate, only one immortal sharing her dreams. “I don’t think these are normal people nightmares.”
“Is that what this was? A nightmare like the others?”
His relationship with his brother was already strained. And with Adam’s jealous nature and the whole incident in the field, she sensed he wouldn’t take her dreaming of Cain easily. She didn’t want to make matters worse.
“Tell me what happened in the dream, Anna.”
Her gaze cut away. “I was walking down an old street. It was cold and foggy and dark. A carriage arrived and at first I thought it was you.”
He stiffened. “I’ve no recollection of this.”
She swallowed. “I know. It wasn’t you. It was someone else.”
“Who?”
She hesitated, but there was no lying to him, not about this. “It was Cain. And I think he shared the dream. I couldn’t have dreamt that on my own.”
“That’s impossible.”
“Is it? I saw him, Adam. He said things I never would dream up on my own.”
“What did he say?”
She tried to recall his exact words. “It was more an assumption, the way he touched me.”