As if growing bored, the dragon jerked the limb from her hands. "I want your mind, Erin. I want to feel your fear of me."
He moved even closer.
Before the beast could reach her, a bright light flashed between them, stinging her eyes even more. It grew in intensity until it appeared brighter than the sun. When it finally faded, it revealed another monster.
Erin swallowed in terror. Why couldn't she control this dream? Ever since she'd been a child, she'd been able to wish herself out of bad dreams. But for some reason, she had no control in these nightmares.
It was as if something other than her was directing them. As if she were nothing more than a marionette whose strings were being pulled by the monster.
The newest monster appeared in the form of a giant snake. Only in place of a head, she had a woman's upper body. Her scaly green complexion looked craggy, and her bluish eyes glowed.
The she-snake slithered toward her, smiling a fanged smile as she raked her eerie gaze over Erin's body. "What a tasty little morsel she is."
"She is mine!" the dragon roared. "I will not share her."
The she-snake licked her lips as her long tail slithered across the floor. "She is strong enough for us both." Then she turned toward the dragon, her hideous face a mask of rage. "Besides, I saw her first and well you know it. You found her through me and I won't let you have her."
The dragon attacked the snake.
Terrified beyond belief, Erin took advantage of their combat to pick up a rock and pound at the cave's opening. "Let me out," she demanded between clenched teeth.
She closed her eyes and tried to imagine the wall opening and her running through it.
It got her nowhere. Not until the tail of the dragon whipped around trying to sting the snake. The snake ducked, as did Erin, and in one resounding crash, the tail splintered the wall.
Trembling, Erin ran out into the darkness again. The screaming howls intensified.
"Please," she begged out loud, "please wake up! C'mon, Erin, you can do it." She pinched herself and slapped her own face as she ran, and did everything she could think of to make herself come out of this nightmare.
Nothing worked. It was as if the monsters wouldn't let her go.
She rounded a corner and found herself sliding down a small slope. At the bottom was a boiling pit where the snake-woman waited. The heat of the pit burned Erin as golden-red lava percolated.
The snake rose up before her, smiling. Those demonic eyes with their diamond-shaped pupils watched her eerily. "That's it, little prize. Come to me. It's my turn to feed off you."
Erin turned to run again, but her feet were locked to the ground. They wouldn't move at all.
The snake drew closer.
Closer.
So close Erin could feel the flick of the snake's tongue. Smell the greasy slime of her body and hear the rasping of her scales moving against the rock floor.
Defenseless, Erin closed her eyes and called out with her mind for help. She tried to summon a protector. Tried to imagine a champion who could come and defeat her monsters.
Just as the snake reached her, the cavern shook.
The snake pulled back an instant before a man appeared between Erin and the beast.
And he wasn't just any man. Clad in a suit of black armor, he had incredibly broad shoulders and long jet hair. Erin couldn't see his face, but she could feel the power of his presence. Feel the warrior essence of him as he prepared to fight the demon.
The snake shrieked in outrage, "Stand down, V'Aidan. Or perish from your stupidity!"
Erin's summoned champion laughed out loud at the she-snake's anger. "I'd perish from your breath long before my stupidity killed me, Krysti'Ana."
Screaming in outrage, the she-snake increased to ten times her size. Her massive jowls snapped and she hissed as the cavern walls around them shook even harder than before. Loud crashes sounded as pieces of stone broke free of the cavern and formed into stone men.
Erin's savior turned to her, and her breath caught at the sight of his face. More handsome than anything imaginable, he held eyes that were so clear and blue, they seemed to glow. A shock of jet-black hair fell over his forehead and contrasted sharply with his tawny skin.
Before she could move, he wrapped his lean, muscular body around hers in a protective cloak, shielding her as the monsters attacked en masse.
Erin could feel the blows he took as they vibrated from his body into hers. She didn't know how he stood the pain of it. How he maintained his hold on her.
All she knew was, she was grateful for it. Grateful for the power and strength of his presence. Grateful that he cradled her so gently and that she was no longer alone to face her nightmare.
The warm, spicy scent of his skin soothed her. Instinctively she wrapped her arms around his lean armored waist and held on to him, afraid of letting him go. "Thank you," she breathed, shaking. "Thank you for coming."
She saw the confusion in his gaze as he frowned down at her. Then his face hardened, his eyes turned icy.
"I have you, akribos," he whispered quietly, and yet his deep, accented voice rolled over her senses like a powerful tidal wave. Soothing, warming. "I won't let the snake Skotos take you."
She believed that, until one of the new monsters seized her about the waist with a stone tentacle. She screamed as it tore her from her savior's grasp.
The dark knight created a sword out of air and pursued them through the dark cavern. She watched as he dodged the other stone monsters, as he literally ran down the walls themselves to get to her. He jumped over the thing carrying her, to land before them and cut off the monster's escape.
The creature caught him about the waist with a hard kick and sent him slamming high into the wall.
V'Aidan didn't seem to feel the pain at all as he slid down the wall to the floor. More monsters swarmed over him, but he fought them down. His face was a mask of determination until he stood strong and victorious over their broken bodies.
He narrowed his eyes on the thing holding her, then held his hand out, and a red glow blasted the monster, splintering it.
The knight grabbed Erin then, scooped her up in his arms, and ran with her through the darkness.
Erin wrapped her arms around his neck and held on for dear life. She could still hear the snake calling out.
"I will have her, V'Aidan. I will have both of you!"
"Don't listen," V'Aidan said. "Close your eyes. Think of something soothing. Think of a happy memory."
She did and, oddly enough, the most comforting thing she could imagine was the sound of his heart pounding under her cheek. The deep accent of his voice.
"V'Aidan!" the she-snake's voice echoed in the cavern. "Return her to me or I will make you wish you had never been born."
He laughed bitterly. "When have I ever wished otherwise?" he mumbled under his breath.
Suddenly the wall before them burst open, spilling more monsters into their path.
"Hand her over to us, V'Aidan," a large gray lizard-man demanded. "Or we will see you pay with the flesh off your back."
Still holding her close, V'Aidan spun around to flee but couldn't.
They were surrounded.
"Give her to us," an old dragon croaked, reaching out its claws. "She can feed us all."
Erin held her breath as she saw the indecision in her dark knight's eyes.
Dear Lord, he was going to hand her over.
Her heart pounding, she touched his face, her fingers brushing against his hard, sculpted jaw. Erin didn't want the monsters to have her, but inside she understood his reluctance to help her any further. He didn't know her at all. There was no reason for him to endanger himself.
He's not real.
It's a dream.
The words whispered through her mind. But like so many dreams, this one felt so real. He felt real.
And she had an unnatural desire to protect him.