A/N: I can't get these two out of my head. The characters belong to the amazingly brilliant Karen Chance, I'm just borrowing them. Spoilers for Ride the Storm.
My name is Cassie Palmer, and I was surrounded by Fey, again. It was dark and a terrible storm was raging, as a circle of towering, faceless Fey warriors closed in on me. Lightning cracked the sky, illuminating the towering figure of Ares as he breached into our world. And I couldn't move. I stood in the middle of the circle of warriors, paralyzed by fear and watched certain death come. Then a blonde figure with wild hair broke through the circle of Fey and dashed toward me. He was so close, then his feet were dangling above the muddy ground, as one of the faceless creatures suddenly had him by the neck. "Pritkin!" I screamed, finally able to find my voice, but still unable to make my feet move. His face started to turn blue as his dark green eyes found mine. Ares laughed as his footsteps shook the ground. I dropped to my knees in horror as the man I was there to save was choked to death in front of me. Then bright red cherries started raining from the sky and I awoke with a start.
I sat up in my bed in the suite at Dantes, heart racing and unable to breathe. The image of the man I loved, dying in front of me, seared into my eyelids. I looked around the room in horror, trying to shake the images from my mind. God, it wasn't working. I sat in bed shaking and trying to talk myself down. This was stupid, it was just a dream. A really, really vivid one. But with all the horrifying things I have been through in the past few months, this was something I couldn't get over. Right, so not working. I closed my eyes, focusing on the war mage that I just needed to see right now, and I shifted.
Pritkin awoke with a start when I appeared in his room, wild-eyed and still shaking. He bolted out of bed and grabbed my shoulders with his large, warm hands. Brilliant green eyes searched my face, "What happened? What's wrong?" He demanded. I just shook my head and wrapped my arms around is strong, warm, very alive body. My heart rate started to slow as he wrapped his arms around me.
"Nightmare" I mumbled into his chest. We had survived the Fey, destroyed Ares, and saved his soul from fading out of existence. I thought I was past the horror of it, just my luck that my subconscious had decided it wasn't. Pritkin's arms tightened around me and I breathed in his special scent of magic and gunpowder, as I relaxed into him. Our last adventure had lead me to, finally, sort out my feelings for my trusted, war mage partner. It had only been a couple of days since his soul had been returned to the present, since I saved the man that I loved, more than I ever thought possible. There were still some details to work out, especially how to break it to my soon-to-be-former boyfriend/vampire senator, Mircea, that I was done with him, and in love with someone else. Definitely not a conversation I was looking forward to. There was also the small fact that my bodyguards were all vampires loyal to their master, Mircea. It was a tricky thing that was going to require some finesse, something that was not often associated with me. So for now, Pritkin had been recovering in his own room at Dantes, and I was supposed to be working out a plan for how to talk to Mircea, without losing the support of the vampire senate…yeah. My bodyguards would probably notice that I was gone soon, thanks to vampire hearing and the tracking spells I had on me, but for now, I just needed to be near Pritkin. I needed to reassure myself that he was okay, to hear his heartbeat under my ear, and chase away the lingering image of him dying in front of me.
Warm lips pressed into my hair as he rubbed small circles on my back. I leaned back to stare into those emerald eyes. "I lost you," I whispered caressing the stubble on his cheek.
"But you found me," Pritkin reminded me, as his eyes sparkled. "And I'm not going anywhere." I closed my eyes and leaned in to meet his lips as he chased away the remnants of the nightmare.
A/N 2: So I might have written a longer, smutty, alternative ending to this, but I have never written smut before, so if you liked this and want me to post the alternative ending, please let me know.