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seeking friction.
    She immersed herself in this
break in reality; prayed the fire of his presence could keep the demons away.
    But no good thing lasted
forever, and she was pushing it, falling deeper into this erotic meeting she’d
conjured with no way out. She was getting lost, so lost that when fur brushed
her skin again she didn’t notice it, the hard grind of his body distracting her
until it was too late. Hands, that had caressed her, shredded her skin with
curved claws. Serrated teeth cut into her flesh, tearing to get to her life.
    No!
    This wasn’t what happened,
this hadn’t happened. It’s not how it goes!
    Instead of being a little
girl in a red cape, she was the one thrashing under a mob of furry bodies,
reaching out a bloodied hand to her younger self, pleading with her eyes for
the child to get away.
    The angle was new. Ash put it
down to the lust that had laid her out. She couldn’t feel young under all that
heat. So the demons had given her another body, one she knew almost as well as
her own. One she had cuddled up to, whose shrieks of horror had once been the
soft voice that read her bedtime stories. One whose screams were the soundtrack
to her recurring nightmares.
    She watched her younger self
as she fled, her small slippered feet flashing in and out of the pools of light
cast by the night-lights lined prettily along the hallway. They were princess
ones, illuminating the Disney women against the white of the holiday home’s
walls. All the while, the man who had let death into her house, the man who
bore the brand of a wolf on his chest, the one who was supposed to protect
them, stood by and did nothing.  Darkness came again in a rush of snapping jaws
and she was torn into a twirl of confusion, crimson, almost liquid, flowing out
behind her as she fled in circles that only turned her into the flashes of
spreading red stains that seeped through the darkness.
    Fur brushed against her face
and it was the last straw for her terror. She clawed her way into waking,
breath sawing, skin clammy. The sheets battled back, winding around her limbs
and trapping her in a web of hysteria. Ash was breathing fur in her panic; it
was in her mouth, gagging her, muffling her cries, stifling, killing.
    Her eyes snapped open.
    It was her mutt, just her
damn mutt.
    Her hands wrapped around the
massive head pushing against her face and she inhaled on a choked sob. He lay
over her, crushing her chest and rasping the tears from her face. ‘Don’t let
them get me, pup. Please ...’
     
     

CHAPTER SEVEN

     
     
    S unlight vanquished the shadows and warmed Ash’s back
as she waited for an answer at her neighbour’s door. She ran a restless hand
through her hair, shoving it into even more disarray. The fumble of a chain
sounded, the click of a lock, two deadbolts being drawn ... Jeez, am I
knocking at Fort Knox? ... and then the face of her neighbour appeared in
the crack, cut in half by the security chain.
    ‘Hey. Sorry to disturb you.’
    ‘Ashling, right?’ Liath
closed the door to release the chain and stepped out with a bright smile. ‘Is
everything okay?’
    She nodded, hesitated, trying
to organise her thoughts in a coherent sentence. ‘Weird question, and I know
you said that the dog would help dissuade this, but, does this area get hit a
lot? With break-ins?’
    ‘Break-ins? No, never.
There’s nothing worth taking around here, love.’ Her laughter was light, but
concern shut the amusement down as her eyes caught the fear straining the lines
of Ash’s face. ‘You got hit? Are you hurt? Did they take anything?’
    ‘I’m not hurt.’ Not
physically, though her head and hormones had taken a bit of a spin. ‘And he
didn’t take anything. He didn’t even seem to be looking for anything.’ Nothing
but her, anyway.
    ‘Oh, pet,’ Liath grasped
Ash’s hand and squeezed. ‘Have you called the Guards yet? What did he look
like?’
    ‘Yeah ... um ...’ Ash held on
a moment longer before letting