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Last time, I’d been too nervous and fascinated, and I had next to no recollection of the layout other than a hallway, a computer room, and tables full of cool stuff. My fingers wiggled around in the darkness, reaching for anything I could touch that would give me a hint of where to go.

My first contact was a wall, and I slid my hand along its surface searching for a light switch. Coming up short, I kept my fingers there, using it as a guide while I cautiously and slowly stepped forward.

Something wooden crashed against the floor as I let out another grunt. I had walked into a piece of furniture. Fumbling, I found the surface of a table and switched to using it as my guide.

Then I knocked another thing over. Something glass, it sounded like. I stepped on another piece before I could stop myself, and it crunched under my boot. The racket was surprisingly loud and I froze, holding my breath.

With a sigh, I stayed still to think for a moment. None of this was going as planned, and I was almost ready to just curl up into a ball on the floor and remain there until daylight.

Why was I bothering to be quiet when there was no one here? I was in the middle of the woods, in a deserted building. Stomping my foot, I swung around. Sleeping on the doorstep was better than this shit.

I made it about two feet when I heard, “You’re noisy enough to wake the dead.”

CHAPTER 3

Kiam

The woman yelped in my face and shoved her arms out, smacking me in the chest. Snaring her wrists with one hand, I spun her around and gripped her throat with my other. No sooner did I have her in my clutches than I realized she wasn’t there.

She was here... but not. Her spirit was present, not her physical form. The projection felt as solid as any other body I’d touched. Of course, I’d heard of this happening, people leaving their bodies or lucid dreaming and finding themselves in another Realm. I even witnessed it. To have it happen in the Third Realm, the human Realm, was another matter.

Hundreds of years ago, when I was still human, I’d lucid dreamed a couple times. Perhaps more, but it had been a while, and I had no idea where I went. The woman in my clutches likely hadn’t strayed very far from home.

Her heart was pounding in her throat, the beat of her veins pulsating against the edge of my hand. She wasn’t nearly as scared as she should have been. The scent of her fear was mild, similar to the creamy amber and vanilla scent of her skin and nothing like the pungent scent I’d expected.

Leaning in, my lips brushed her hair and I froze. The strands were as soft as silk. I’d handled plenty of women’s hair before, but nothing compared to this. Was she even human?

Dropping her wrists, I tore off my gloves and grabbed her forearm so I could touch her skin. Incredibly soft, again.

She wrenched herself away. “Super nice of you to let me breathe again, dickwad.”

“Enjoy it while you can.”

She stumbled around, stretching her arms forward. She didn’t reach anything but dead air as she tried to find her way. “Why is there always somebody in this house?” she muttered.

At first, I was concerned, but then I realized she didn’t know we had already met earlier in the day. “Leave this house,” I ordered.

She knocked over a lamp, and it clattered to the floor. The glass shade cracked into two pieces, and I skirted the shards as I followed her. She was like a bull in a china shop.

“Fuck. A little help here?” she whined. The tips of her fingers brushed my arm, and she snatched her hand back. “You’re right there, why don’t you help? You got a phone?”

It was amusing, watching her flounder about. I had half a mind to nudge the broken lamp in front of her shoes. She was unbearably cute, even though she was an annoyance.

“Why are you in here? This isn’t your house or you would’ve already called the cops.”

After some more searching, she took hold of the edge of the wall. Her relief penetrated the atmosphere, settling over me like a warm blanket in the cold of January. She thought the hold she had on plaster and timber was an anchor, that it would give her some security and authority.

Too bad she didn’t know I was going to cut the rope.

With a flick of my wrist, the wall disappeared. “What the hell? This is some bullshit,” she muttered.

The next thing I did was crouch down in front of her and thrust two fingers against her forehead. She disappeared instantly, leaving me in peace and with the ghost of her satiny skin lingering in my mind.

The woman was the first human to set foot in this building in hundreds of years. No one else had come anywhere near the property—not that it was easy to get to. My seclusion was purposeful.

I had been with my friend, Lukas, in a place called the First Realm—a Realm full of pureblooded vampires and a race of demons called Kakians, when my home alarm system had been tripped. At this point, I was pretty sure the beautiful blonde woman was responsible for my quick departure.

My connection to the crows had alerted me that someone or something was poking around, so I came back. Nothing had been disturbed but I did find a woman with white blonde, flowing hair dressed entirely in black perched on the top of the security wall.