Read Scorned for Free Online Page B

cheek
one last time and my body relaxed into exhaustion.
    “You will not dream, my sweet. I promise you
this.”
    When Roman set me back down on my feet, I
melted down to the porch floor. My pajama pants soaked up the cold
wet from the drenched wood.
    “LeKrista, you must go inside now,” his
voice was deeper than I remembered and strong. His accent had
kicked up a notch and I found it hard to focus on anything else.
“And take your dog.” He spat the word dog like an
insult.
    “But, that’s what he is.” I couldn’t really
understand his distaste. “He treats everyone like that.”
    I heard a low rumble and looked up as Roman
reached down for me. He was laughing at me. He lifted me to my feet
and held me there by my upper arms, his grip firm but gentle. “Miss
LeKrista, what is your surname?”
    “Scott,” I answered. “What’s yours?”
    He laughed again. “Miss Scott, stand
up.”
    I felt something zing through me like a jolt
of electricity. I think I actually heard it buzz as it passed
through me. It entered through my stomach and hit my spine hard. I
jerked and it tried to stretch up my backbone. I felt myself
straighten some and I had strength in my legs again, but something
just didn’t feel right. Roman was frowning at me. Or was he
scowling?
    It felt like someone was trying to stretch a
steel rod through my spine, but instead of steel, they’d gotten the
order wrong and made it of rubber instead.
    “Go inside with your dog and go to sleep.”
Again, that zing shot through me, and I had the feeling
that, whatever Roman was trying to do to me it wasn’t working
correctly.
    “I promise,” Roman said one last time, “you
will not dream.” He brushed the tips of his fingers down the side
of my cheek once more, and this time I did not feel heat spread
through my body. Instead, his previously cool fingers were now warm
against my chilled skin. I blinked, my eyelids refusing to come
back up, and I half smiled.
    “I’d better get inside,” I said, feeling
exhaustion spread through my limbs. Whatever had given me the
strength to stand was wearing off quickly. “My toes are numb.” No,
they really weren’t, but Roman didn’t need to know that. He grinned
at me, leaned in, and kissed my forehead.
    I have a boyfriend. Awkward...
    “Yes. Sleep well, my sweet.”
    “You too,” I mumbled before I stumbled into
the house, silent dog in tow. I don’t remember anything after
that.
     
    I dreamed all night, but instead of the
nightmares I’d expected, the dreams were comical, like the kind you
wake up from and think, “I can’t believe I dreamed something so
incredibly stupid! What did I eat before I went to bed?”
    The glowing, red eyes still haunted my
dreams, but instead of the terrible, starving face they were
attached to before, The Count had stepped off of Sesame Street to
take a staring role. I’m surprised there was even a dream to
remember, what with all the counting and the repeating and the “ah
ah ah!” I woke up in hysterics, laughing so hard there were tears
streaming down my cheeks that I didn’t want to try to explain to
anyone.
    But the headache was gone, and so was most
of the nightmare of the day before. When I woke up laughing,
Pierce’s ringtone singing in my ear, I couldn’t remember why I was
dreaming of glowy-eyed vampires. Or why, for that matter, my feet
were dirty and the foot of my bed was caked in mud.
    “Hello?” I laughed into the phone.
    “What’s so funny?” Pierce wanted to know,
and I recounted the dream in full detail until he was laughing too.
“Girl, you’re stupid. But I’m glad that’s all it was, and nothing
worse.”
    “What are you talking about?” I asked,
confused by his sudden change of direction.
    “Well, after what happened last night I
expected you to have a nightmare or two. Petrice is worried about
you. Gable asked about you this morning too. So did the man next
door.”
    I tried to think. I racked my brain,
convinced I’d