Free Supernatural Seduction (Book 2 of the Coffin Girls Series) by Aneesa Price

jerk of the wagon startled her.
Sophie hoped that she hadn’t somehow missed her chance to escape.
But, the sounds of men shouting and again, that dying yell, told
her that the wagon was perhaps being held up. She knew that this
part of France was notoriously known for its highwaymen and a
covered wagon usually carried merchandise to villages for trading
purposes. Would they leave the wagon alone once they found out that
all it carried was dead bodies? She prayed that they would. Then
she’d still be able to escape.
    Men approached the back of the wagon and
Sophie made her way softly into the pile of bodies, pushing aside
her nervousness, and ignoring her pounding heart. She had to
pretend to be dead again. But she was too late. Just as she was
about to lay down, the cover was pulled back. Sophie looked up into
Sylvain’s face.
    “Sophie, wake up,” Sylvain’s voice broke
through her nightmare. After having seen his face in her nightmare
and now here in the present, Sophie instinctively edged away from
him.
    “It was just a nightmare ma petite
chérie ,” Sylvain soothed. “You’re in the hollow and you’re
safe.”
    “It was you,” she accused him.
    Sylvain blinked in confusion. “Sophie, it was
a nightmare. You’re in the hollow, now with me. I haven’t done
anything,” he said, in an attempt to bring her back to reality.
    “I know where I am,” Sophie bit out
irritably. There were so many emotions going through her at the
moment that she didn’t know what to do. Logic had been replaced by
instinct—the same instinct that had kept her alive in France
centuries ago.
    “I don’t understand,” Sylvain stated,
puzzled. He’d heard her cries from his room down the hall. Although
he had his own wing apart from the guest wing of the castle, his
friends often slept close-by when they stayed over. It made the
mammoth place feel more homely. Sophie had never stayed over by
herself before though and looking at her in bed—beautiful and
broken, he questioned his sanity. One part of him wanted to pull
her into his arms and comfort her, the other wanted to play dirty.
Yet, despite the throbbing need located in the area of his crotch,
he wasn’t a blackguard and willing to take advantage of a guest who
was both in a fragile state and under his protection. When Sophie
continued to stare at him, blue eyes brimming with unshed tears, he
repeated, “I don’t understand. Please explain to me.”
    Sophie took a deep breath and faced him, no
longer afraid, the fugue following her nightmare having evaporated.
“I was in a wagon in France with the bodies of executed witches. My
mother was amongst the dead. You’re the one that stopped the wagon
and killed the guards. I had forgotten what my savior had looked
like. I’d blocked it, from my mind. In my dream, my nightmare, I
saw his face and it was you.”
    Sylvain seemed to recall something as he sat
back on the bed, thinking. “I did much in those days,” he said,
cryptically. “Tell me more of what you remember.”
    Sophie huffed in frustration. What was a
monumental moment in her life, didn’t even register with him. She
took a breath and enlightened him. “You told me not to be afraid,
and then led the wagon to a deeper part of the forest. It was not a
well-traveled path. After salting the dead and burning their
bodies, you gave them each a separate burial. You’d brought a
sympathetic priest from a nearby village to bless the graves. You
gave me food, something to drink, and clean clothes. You also
showed me to a nearby stream where I could bathe. You said…”
    “I said that you’d feel better once you
washed the smell of death off of you,” Sylvain interjected, long
lost memories returning rapidly. “That was you?” Sylvain asked,
regarding Sophie. “Well, I know, now, that it was, but in all the
times we’ve been together, I never would have thought that the
frightened, traumatized girl had been you.”
    “And, I never would have thought that