Free Days of New: The Complete Collection (Serials 1-5) by Meg Collett Page B

this dream…
    …Namely, he was awake.
    The scent hit him then, wafting into his noise like a familiar brush across the lips. Sophia’s scent, like fresh cotton hanging out on line to dry in the summer sun. Sophia’s voice. The feel of Sophia’s body against his. They’d been together only one night—one amazing night—but he would never forget the way her skin moved against his, the way she called to him in the dark.
    Clark bolted up in bed, flinging the sheets back and looking down the naked length of Sophia’s body. She was slender, but her curves still swelled in a way that had his mouth watering even now. Sleepily, she rolled over, looking up at him with her wide-set pretty eyes.
    “Hmmm,” she murmured. “Say you love me,” she purred, shifting up against him, pressing those wicked curves to his bare chest.
    His heart hammered; the words were in his mouth to answer her, natural and instinctual. But his brain yelled at him. Her hand slid up and over his shoulder, into his tousled hair. Her touch was agony. Something vital was breaking apart inside him. God, he’d missed her. He wanted nothing more than to curl up beside her and loose himself to whatever was happening right now.
    “Will you say it, Clark?” she asked again, nearly begging as she rose up to kiss him.
    “You’re dead,” Clark whispered. It was the hardest thing he’d ever had to do, but he turned his mouth away from her. The pain splintered inside him and pressed against the confines of his skin, threatening to rip him apart. His eyes watered with tears; his voice cracked as he spoke, “I saw your body.”
    Her eyes widened, filled with delicate tears to match his own. “I’m right here. I’ve always been right here.”
    “No,” he said, his teeth clacking together as he began to shiver. He shoved out of bed, stumbling and tripping over the sheets that ripped at his legs. “No, you died.”
    She followed him, crawling down the length of the bed, stalking him as he backed away, fear gripping his heart now too. His hip hit the desk, sending waves of pain down his body. He groped for a light switch but couldn’t find it. If he found the light, he reasoned, he would see things clearly, see it wasn’t really Sophia in the room with him.
    Something bad was happening. Something Clark couldn’t control. Something as far from a dream as possible.
    “Say it!” Sophia screamed. “Say you’ll love me. Always .”
    “You’re dead!” Clark shouted back.
    She slid off the bed, her pale body moving like moonlight across the floor. “But I’m alone, Clark. Please don’t make me be alone.”
    “Get away from me!” He cringed back as she reached for him, his back slamming into the bedroom wall. He’d missed the door, and now she blocked it.
    “Clark!” Sophia wailed. “What’s wrong with you?”
    Something slammed inside the apartment. Clark surged forward, shoving Sophia away and running toward the bedroom door. He made it out as she screamed behind him, but his foot snagged on the ancient rug, sending him crashing face-first into the stone floor. He bit his lip, sending blood dripping down his throat. Sputtering and gasping for air, he crawled away, glancing over his shoulder.
    From the darkness of the bedroom door came another deeper, thicker shadow. It laughed a low, building laugh that threaded up Clark’s spine and squeezed. The hairs along his arms stood on end. He knew that laugh.
    Lucifer .
    If Clark looked close enough, he could see a form inside the bedroom, a shadow tucked into a shadow. It breathed; it was alive. Clark knew it was Lucifer, watching the nightmare come to life for Clark. Lucifer was doing this to him, and he was in the room with Clark. This was real.
    The light came on.
    Clark blinked into it, shielding his eyes from the glare.
    “Clark?”
    It was Zarachiel talking. Shivering uncontrollably, Clark glanced up at his friend, who stood in the apartment’s front door with a handful of other Descendants