She frowned, shaking her head. That’s not true. I just followed where he’d already gone. The dream… She trailed off, suddenly filled with doubt. Her eyes widened and one hand flew defensively to her throat. Dragomir. Are you saying I helped him?

No, of course you didn’t help him, but he found a way inside your dreams.

And I mapped out an entire city for him. More.

He shook his head. Don’t, Emeline. He was silent for a moment, and then she saw the dawning comprehension on his face. He doesn’t know. He knows the passages are there, but he doesn’t know how to access them. Only you do. He needs you. Vadim has no idea of those places he wishes to go. He knows how to get in and out of the underground city, and perhaps to the lake, although I doubt that, but he needs you for the rest. That’s why he’s sought you out from the very beginning. He didn’t know who you were until you went in for psychic testing.

My dreams? My ability to map out the ocean floor and connect it to the rivers and lakes? To all the cities? That’s what he’s after?

It’s more than that. You’re unusual, even among psychics. You can resist his compulsions, you can command dreams, you are so strong that even his poisonous blood can’t kill you. And you can map continents for him.

It would have killed me.

I don’t think so, Emeline. I was inside you, in your bloodstream. He kept forcing the parasites to reproduce because you kept killing them off. Your blood. If he hadn’t been able to get to the parasites, you would have managed to rid your body of them, not the Carpathian way, but by building antibodies that fought them off.

She frowned at him. I don’t understand what you’re saying.

I’m saying you’re of tremendous value to both sides. You know the location of Vadim’s stronghold, or at least you do within your dreams,. You can produce antibodies, which, because you’ve shared blood with me, means I can do the same, so at some point both of us will be immune to his parasites. That means every hunter, woman and child can be made immune. It isn’t just that he thought you could produce the child he wanted, you are the ultimate prize for him.

She shook her head. She’d created a map of the arteries and veins that made up the underground rivers. She had found all the passageways beneath the ground so that one could come in by sea and go just about anywhere they wanted. She knew them all like the back of her hand. Over the years she’d gone back nightly to try to find ways to stop the vampire. Find anything that might convince others of them. She’d never even told Blaze about her underwater dream, not after Sean dismissed it as a nightmare.

She’d been looking for a place to sleep one night when she stumbled across two vampires feeding on homeless people in a back alley. Sean had sent her to Paris, and then he’d been murdered. She’d come home to help Blaze find his killers. She’d come home, already knowing Vadim would get his hands on her and she’d be pregnant with his child by the time the others found and rescued her.

Take me to his underground city.

Her heart jumped. She shook her head. They guard that place. If we go near it, the chances of running into some of them are fairly high. I’ve tried to slip past the guards. Sometimes I make it. Most times I nearly get caught and have to wake up fast.

If we get into trouble, you can wake up.

She didn’t like it. She was uneasy. The passageway to Vadim’s underground city was narrow, an easy place to set up an ambush. She knew Vadim was angry. The moment she’d entered the dream, she felt him in the water. His rage. His need to control her, to reacquire her. She didn’t want to lead Dragomir into a trap. She’d wanted to show him the extent of Vadim’s stronghold.

She knew Tariq wouldn’t abandon San Diego, but once he knew what he was really up against, with the information she could provide, maybe they could find Vadim and plan an attack. She wouldn’t be able to fight with the hunters, but she would at least feel as if she’d contributed something. She’d brought Dragomir with her rather than tell him, so that there would be no question whether or not she was crazy and just having nightmares.

She had taken Dragomir to the deep but thin ribbon of water beneath the ground that fed the lake Tariq’s compound bordered. She turned to swim back toward the main artery underground. As she turned, Dragomir suddenly caught her by the arm and thrust her behind him. To her horror, a shark, mouth open wide, snapped at him, catching his upper arm, spinning around and streaking through the water with him. At once blood turned the murky water red, so Emeline, rushing after them, swam through a red tunnel.

She didn’t dare end the dream with one of Vadim’s creatures holding on to him. Dragomir’s body was deep beneath the earth safe, but his spirit traveled with hers through the water in her dream. She should have been more vigilant. She knew Vadim had put traps throughout the waterways. This had never happened, but then she’d never taken Dragomir with her before. She wasn’t going to get a “do over.” She counted on having the dream night after night to correct any mistakes she made, such as triggering a trap.

She put on a burst of speed. One thing dreaming of swimming every night allowed her to do was to become a very fast and strong swimmer. She might not put her foot in the water when she was awake, but in her dream, she was kick-ass all the way. She also had the advantage of knowing the canals, where they were deep or shallow, where they dropped deeper into the earth, turned abruptly or lazily made an S before straightening out. She knew a few little veins that were just a trickle, with barely enough water to get through. They were shortcuts connecting one waterway to the next.

She hated losing sight of Dragomir. He was used to relying on his Carpathian powers, but in the dream, he didn’t have them. She’d been a young child unknowing of Carpathian powers when she began dreaming about the kelp forests and what lay hidden in them. Cursing herself for ever bringing him into her dream, she took the shortcut, streaking toward the wider underground river that ran out to sea.

She reached down to her leg where she’d strapped a knife. She’d started carrying one after she first saw Vadim when she was a teenager and knew she was hunted. She laid the blade along her wrist, her fist around the hilt. As she swam, the tops of her thighs skimmed the rocks on the floor, scraping skin, but she didn’t slow down. She barely felt the burn as she rounded the corner and slashed at the eye of the beast holding Dragomir in its mouth.

She thrust a second time, this time driving the point of her blade right into the eye. The shark opened its mouth, thrashing wildly, nose and tail wreaking havoc in the water. More blood floated away, creating a thin thread much like a bloody worm trailing through the water. Dragomir caught her around the waist and pushed her in front of him. She held tight to his arm and let go of the dream.

Usually she could force her eyes open and the dream ended. It wasn’t quite that simple now, not with the sun still in the sky. It took a few moments to open her eyes and then she was completely, utterly panicked. She was buried alive. She had to get out. She had to dig her way out. It took forever to get her hands moving, to try to rip away the soil, but already she was choking, breathing loose dirt into her lungs.

Suddenly the dirt over her head opened and she found herself staring at the ceiling of the basement in her house. Breathing heavily, she tried to roll, coughing.

Breathe normally. There is no dirt in your lungs. It is only your human imagination. Dragomir’s voice was gentle and soothing. Turn your head and see me.

She didn’t want to just in case he was wrong and she was alone, buried in the earth. She was lying a good six or eight feet under the soil. It was pitch-black there under the ground, the floorboards of the basement stacked to one side neatly, waiting for the command to rebuild. She could look all the way up to the ceiling, and see with her enhanced night vision.

Sívamet, this is a simple thing I have asked of you.

It was – and yet it wasn’t. Her heart pounded so loudly it sounded like thunder drumming in her ears, but it was Dragomir and she couldn’t find it in her to deny him anything. She turned her head slowly. There he was, his strange golden eyes staring back at her. He was beautiful to her with the scars on his face and that strong, male jaw. Even lying in the dark, rich soil, he looked elegant.