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Then he was on her again, targeting her weak spots.
She sucked in a breath as agony rippled up her ribcage thanks to a solid body shot. God, it was hard to dissociate from the pain, though that was probably because there was no adrenaline to dull it.
She breathed through it as best she could as they once more locked horns. Warm, crimson liquid dripped down from the cut above her eye, obscuring her vision. Which was how the tricky bastard managed to catch her off-guard. A vicious punch to the face sent her head whipping to the side.
Shadows crept around the edges of her vision. Wynter blinked hard several times, battling the dark smudges away. She flexed her jaw, tasting blood in her mouth. Which only served to piss her off. She spat at him.
He spluttered as red-stained saliva spattered his face. Taking advantage of his distraction, she drove her fist into his throat and sharply brought up her knee, connecting with his balls.
The breath gusted out of his lungs. His face contorting with pain, he hunched forward. She hit him again, slamming her palm into his broken nose.
He swore harshly, shooting daggers at her.
Her fist clenched, she lunged—
And bolted upright in bed.
Her eyes widened as reality hit her. Oh, that cowardly motherfucker had retreated. Again.
Cain stirred, blinking rapidly as he focused on her. “What’s wrong?” he asked thickly, bracing himself on one elbow. “Bad dream?”
“You could say that.” She took stock of herself. She had no pain or injuries—that had all been confined to the dream realm, which meant that Saul had no wounds either. Ugh. “I’m gonna rip that prick’s cock off, I swear it.”
Cain lightly squeezed her hip. “What prick?”
“Saul,” she practically snarled. “He invaded my dream, trapped me in it, and then tried to kill me.”
Cain went utterly still, alertness creeping in fast. A familiar indefinable something moved behind his eyes. He fluidly sat upright, wholly focused on her in that intense way he had. “Say that again.”
Wynter quickly explained what happened. “He thought he’d have the upper hand that way. When things didn’t go as he’d planned, he retreated in typical Saul fashion.”
Cursing, Cain drew her onto his lap so she straddled him and then buried his face in her neck. “I’ll kill him.”
“Okay. But not until I’ve ripped his cock off—I was totally serious about that.”
The following afternoon, Cain called the other Ancients to his Keep. As they sat around the long dining table, he told them of Saul’s most recent attack on Wynter. His voice was cool and calm, giving away none of the anger that slinked around his bones. His woman had been trapped in a dream, where she’d been viciously attacked . . . and he’d been sleeping beside her, blissfully unaware.
Beside him, Azazel let out a low whistle. “Bold move.”
Cain grunted. “Saul thought that if both he and Wynter were stripped of power he’d have an edge. He was mistaken. She’s trained in hand-to-hand combat, not simply fencing and magickal combat.” Cain couldn’t have been more thankful for that.
Azazel’s mouth tipped up. “Your witch is badass.”
“More like ‘lucky,’” Ishtar sniped beneath her breath.
Cain forced his expression to remain blank, but his inner creature fired a hard glare at her. She truly had some nerve to casually stroll right into his dining room, not a care in the world, and make sly little remarks when she’d so fiercely betrayed him.
Since arriving, she’d repeatedly cast him confused looks from where she sat at the other end of the table. She was no doubt wondering why he hadn’t confronted her over the visit she paid Wynter. They’d get to that soon enough.
“He must be able to dream-walk,” said Lilith, sitting on Cain’s other side. “A substantial ability. It isn’t simple to hijack a dream. Especially if you’re doing it from afar. You are essentially hacking into a person’s consciousness—something which has no physical properties and so, in that sense, is much like an online cloud of information—bypassing their mental barriers.”
Sitting directly opposite Cain, Seth frowned slightly. “But if he has the ability to stroll into a person’s dreams, why didn’t he hijack hers sooner?”
“Killing her in a dream would only place her in a coma,” Cain reminded him. “Saul wants to eliminate her.”
“That he’d be willing to settle for putting her in a coma says that he’s realized she isn’t an easy enough target for him to take out,” said Azazel. “Took him long enough.”
“Should we worry that he might attempt to walk in our dreams?” asked Inanna.
