Upcoming Scenes

Note: This sneak preview contains spoilers...

Sitting at the desk beside her bed, Chase stared down at the work she'd placed in front of herself. She'd thought it might distract her from the evening's troubling events, but her traitorous mind continued to stray back to him time and again.

She lifted a glass to her lips and took a slow sip of the brandy she'd poured. Why couldn't she stop fantasizing about him? Even after her shock in the auditorium, tonight was no different than any of the others. She simply couldn't cast the image of him out of her mind.

Hadn't he seemed as affected by it as much as she had? He'd looked as disturbed by it as she felt in that moment. That had to mean something, but what?

At every turn, she was obsessing over the man who had quite literally stolen a piece of her heart. It simply had to stop. It wasn't bad enough that he'd taken center stage in her thoughts during the day, but he was also becoming the main focus of her dreams at night.

Thankfully, the warm liquor was beginning to do its job. She felt herself beginning to relax enough that she might finally be able to sleep. It was already very late and she had to work in the morning.

She set the glass on the desk and turned the lamp down to its lowest setting. Sliding off of her chair and onto the bed, she climbed under the covers with a small frown. She really didn't want to stop thinking about him. Even after the fright she'd had, the attraction she felt for him remained as strong as ever.

Closing her eyes, she allowed herself the luxury of envisioning him standing before her as she slowly drifted off to sleep.

*    *    *    *

Christ! Now he was reduced to playing the part of a stalker…

Gripping the steering wheel in his hands, Kyle stared up at the building Chase lived in. It was late and he'd been sitting there for quite some time, scanning the drifting thoughts of the building's many inhabitants.

He could easily sense where she was in the building. He'd found her almost as soon as he'd arrived. Since then his thoughts had been racing with indecision. Breaking and entering was a serious crime and nothing he'd ever considered doing before. He'd never attempted using his gifts in the way he was contemplating tonight.

He knew what the Elders were capable of when the human mind was at its most vulnerable in sleep. He did not take his desire to use that knowledge lightly. He simply wanted a chance to read Chase better—to learn if in the deepest recesses of her mind that she might be hiding the same secret from the world as he was. He certainly couldn't just ask her.

In the depths of sleep, hidden truths could often be uncovered with little effort. Thoughts that were tightly guarded during the day were easily accessible to the Greys when the mind was held in its most relaxed state. That was how they often gleaned the greatest amount of information when there was something they desperately needed to know.

He had never tested any of these theories for himself, but right now, he desperately needed to know if Chase was a hybrid like him. She would be the first he'd ever met in his lifetime. There was something more to her than he could see with his eyes. Tonight, he intended to find out what it was.

Measuring the distance from the car to the sidewalk in his mind, he waited until he was sure no one else was nearby. Clearing his mind, he shifted his body through space and in an instant found himself staring up at the building that rose six floors high above him.

Chase's thoughts had dimmed over the past few minutes. He was certain she must have finally fallen asleep. He was plagued with a mild sense of trepidation, knowing how wrong his invasion would be for so many reasons.

Can I really do this? The question rose timidly in his mind. He simply couldn't turn back now. He had to know if what he suspected was true. So, yes… He knew he was going to do it, ready or not.

Releasing a breath to calm himself, his eyes began to darken as he allowed his true form to be revealed. Tracing the path to her room in his mind, he closed his eyes and shifted his entire being into the distance. Silence pervaded the space around him now. As he opened his eyes, he found himself standing in a dimly lit room.

It was a very small apartment compared to some in the area. He could feel that only two rooms occupied the space. There was the bedroom in which he stood now and the one through the door that he suspected was a combination kitchen and parlor. It was simple and clean—and just like Chase, it revealed no secrets to him as he viewed it.

Behind him was a glass door that led out to a small wrought iron balcony. It overlooked the main road that passed by the building. Merely a few feet in front of him, there she lay on the bed. Her mind was calm as she slept peacefully beneath the covers. A small lamp cast a soft glow over the room, dim enough that it did not disturb his eyes.

He stood there as still as a stone, working to calm himself before attempting to open his mind up to hers. He found it difficult to bridge the connection and penetrate her thoughts. He had entered other minds easily enough in the past, but that was generally done with specific intent to influence their waking minds. This process was so much different. Without the ability to look into her eyes, he was left using the power of his mind alone to try and gain access to her subconscious.

Pulling back from her mentally, he looked away from her once before reaching out to try it again. With intense concentration, he felt his brain waves falling in sync with hers. The feel of the connection was at first startling. The rate of his pulse slowed dramatically as he felt his mind relaxing alongside hers, succumbing to the will of it.

Vision came to his mind's eye slowly. Then all at once he was standing in this very same room, captivated by what he was seeing. The room shone around him in broad daylight. He could feel sunlight beaming in through the window behind him. He was completely engrossed in the vision now, feeling at one with her dreamworld. It felt as real to him as anything ever had.

Chase sat at the desk beside her bed, jotting some things down in a notebook. She looked incredibly troubled and he wondered why. Perhaps that was none of his business though. He had come to her dream for a specific reason and it was not to invade the problems of her private life. In spite of himself, he wondered if he could persuade her subconscious mind to talk with him.

Hear me… He allowed the thought to drift like a breeze into her mind. See me…

Her brow furrowed slightly as she paused and he felt the initial resistance of her mind against his suggestion. She was attempting to make sense of the message he had sent. As if accepting it as a natural turn of events in the dream, she merely shook her head and looked back down at her notes. Then her face turned to stare at the door and she stood up from the chair, stunned and pleased to see him standing there. A warm smile passed over her face and as if attached to some invisible tether, she was suddenly standing directly before him.

Kyle watched the scene play out from his position by the window. He was fascinated to see her look so at ease as she stared up at the dreamlike image of him that she'd conjured in her mind.

"I thought I would never see you again." Then her brows drew together as she swore to him in earnest, "I didn't mean to run. It just scares me."

What scares you, Kyle asked unbidden as the question left his mind. He could see her face falling in remorse.

"You know," she insisted, daring to touch him as she'd so longed to do. Her hand reached up to touch his face and without hesitation, the Kyle of her dreams pulled her into his arms to comfort away all her fears. A sigh of relief left her lips as she drew into him. She was soaking in the warmth of his body as she again admitted, "I was just so scared…"

Tell me what scares you, he found himself whispering into her mind.

Her eyes lowered and closed altogether, but then a gasp of shock left her lips. All at once the image of him disappeared from her dream.

"No," she cried out in objection. She stood there bewildered, bereft at the loss of his presence. "No!"

Kyle withdrew from her thoughts in that moment, looking upon her sleeping form on the bed. She had not stirred. She was still asleep. He could feel his heart racing though, so deep was the connection between them. Allowing his mind to entwine within hers once more, he willed the scene to continue. Taking control of the environment, he placed himself directly in front of her.

Chase, what frightens you, he repeated himself.

Her mouth hung open at his sudden reappearance, but she shook her head at him in denial, refusing to voice her thoughts out loud. Just as it was in the waking world, she suddenly looked lost and incredibly nervous. It left him rather perplexed.

What was it that made her feel so uneasy in his presence? Genuinely curious, he lowered his head to stare straight into her eyes. He was attempting to instill a sense of peace and serenity within her, but she was resisting him. Her eyes were roaming his face intently, looking anything but relaxed and at ease with him there.

"Just don't," she whispered desperately. Gentle hands took hold of his face then. Her fingers lightly caressed his cheeks as tears brimmed her eyes.

Don't what, he asked, unable to discern her thoughts. He was thrown by the sudden nearness of her. The touch of her fingers on his skin felt too real and the sensation held him riveted in place.

"Don't disappear," she fairly begged him. Then her body was pressing against his, urging him back against the wall. She arched up into him, her forehead brushing his jaw. She rose against him slightly, her lips trailing a soft path along that same spot.

Kyle's heart was beating rapidly in his chest. This was not the response he had expected. Her lips were tasting his skin as she breathed in the scent of him. She was deeply enthralled in the moment, enamored by the simple intimacy as she dared to show him what she wanted.

His ability to think rationally immediately fled south as he stood there, fully in tune with her thoughts and emotions. It caught him by surprise how attracted she was to him and that knowledge left him reeling.

It was just a dream, he tried to assure himself—just a fantasy created by her subconscious mind in the thrall of the dreamworld. Despite that realization, he felt himself unraveling bit by bit as her lips continued to tease oh so effortlessly as she moved closer to his lips. She wanted him to kiss her.

"Chase," he breathed in awe.

Like a splash of cold water had hit her in the face, she flew back from him and whipped around. Her eyes peered into the darkness of the room, staring wide-eyed in fright. Her face turned back to look up at him, but she jumped even further away from him in terror. An image of intense horror spread over her face as she looked at him.

"No!" She shouted at him. "No!"

Cringing and gasping for breath, Chase nearly jumped out of her bed as she threw the covers off of herself. She couldn't have moved faster if there had been snakes slithering under the sheets. Her eyes flew around the room in panic as she reached frantically toward the desk for the nob on the lamp. With a flick of her fingers, the room lit up brightly.

For a long moment she stood there, her body bathed in cold sweat. She slowly crouched down to the floor, trying to make sense of the dream she'd been having.

Such ominous eyes! Midnight black orbs!

The memory of his eyes burned vividly in her mind's eye. The disembodied voice she'd heard in the room had scared the bejeezus out of her. Everything in her being had suddenly registered that she was not alone in her bedroom and when she'd looked back at him…

She closed her eyes and tried to calm herself. It had only been a dream…

God! This had to stop. Whatever her fascination with him, she had to end it now. All the warning signs flashing in her face couldn't have made it any clearer.

"No more," she promised herself. She was done.

Black eyes, she shivered all over again as she hugged her knees in search of comfort. As usual, her inner voice remained unusually silent where he was concerned. Why was it always so quiet when it came to that man?

It didn't matter. She knew without a doubt that it needed to end. She needed no further warnings about that. She was just done…

*    *    *    *

Sitting behind the wheel in his car, Kyle tried to regain control of himself. She had seen him. She had seen him and it had freaked her out.

Somehow she had thrown him out of her mind in the blink of an eye and he'd been unable to do a thing to prevent it. How she'd managed it? He had no clue. A wall had been erected that he could not penetrate as the door to her mind slammed shut. Thankfully, he'd had the presence of mind to shift down to the pavement before she fully regained consciousness.

He'd heard her thoughts as he hit the ground though. His eyes… She had seen them. The sight of him had scared the living hell out of her.

Even with that knowledge, feeling the sting of such instant rejection, he was unable to let that wipe away the memory of everything else that had happened. Just thinking about it took his breath away all over again. From the thoughts in her mind to the touch of her lips against his skin... The plea in her voice as she begged him not to disappear...

The possibility that she could be one of his kind still remained. The power with which she had shut him out of her mind proved she was mentally gifted. It only added to the other bits of mounting evidence he'd already discovered about her. Every fiber of his being told him there was more to her than could be seen with the naked eye.

No, Chastity Sawyer, he swore to himself. We are not done by a long shot…