Wednesday Night

After Michael left, Midir sat, deep in thought, for a long time.

I don't get you. You love her. Yet you let her be hurt.

He hadn't known about the nightmares. Hadn't sent dreams of his own to her in weeks. She'd been so upset by his appearance here. It hadn't gone as planned. The big gesture, the show of devotion, the willingness to play in her world, if that's what it took. Hell, live in her world. Give it all up....

Though perhaps he hadn't been clear about that.

But she'd made it clear she wanted him to stay away. So he'd respected that. Just the one dance. Just the one taste. He hadn't even bothered her at Daniel's party. But thinking back, he nodded slightly to himself. She'd been tired. Her eyes, not as bright. He'd growlingly assumed that the boy had been keeping her up, but he'd been wrong. The boy had been easing her into sleep. Protecting her. Standing guard against a force he couldn't truly understand. And he hand't known. Hadn't done anything for her.

That ended now.

He pulled out several crystals, setting them in a circle around him. Lit some incense. He didn't need any of it, of course. He'd read something in a book on some "New Age" shop about spells being prayers with props. Maybe for humans not strong enough to work without the invocation of some deity or another. He needed no such assistance. He was the deity that said humans prayed to. Or had prayed to. Few remembered him in this modern world. A shrug. No matter. He had no need of their worship for his existence or power. He reached out along the threads of the web, plucking this and that one, reshaping them randomly for fun. The apartment bent and remoulded itself. The furniture changed color. Music started playing. The crystals flared with light. There. That thread. Tracing from his heart, a silver cord, faint from disuse, but there.

He closed his eyes and followed it to her. Sleeping. Good. But frowning, her breathing too rapid. He slipped inside. She was huddled over a body, sobbing, beating its chest, trying to make it breathe. He frowned as he watched it flicker. Him. The boy. The Sorcerer. All of them dead. She was covered in blood. A soft laugh from behind him.

"I wondered when you'd show up."

"A bit trite, these dreams, don't you think? Beneath you?"

"She's unraveling. It's fun to watch."

"Don't you ever get bored of this? What does it accomplish?"

Soft fingers trailing down his neck, a kiss to the side of it. He suppressed the shiver of dark pleasure she sent spiraling through him. "It pains you. That's enough."

"It isn't even about her, is it? All these centuries. You and me."

"Hmm...it's a little about her." She slid in front of him, violet eyes shining in the dark. His hand caressed her cheek and she purred, leaning into the touch. He leaned in, brushing his lips over hers. She moaned. He stepped back and backhanded her. Hard.

She looked up at him from the floor, tears in her eyes, and something murderous.

"Leave her be, Fuamnach, or you will regret it. We're not alone this time..."

She smiled, a cruel, cold smile. "Oh, I know. More people to play with. The boy is sweet, isn't he?"

His fingers closed around her throat, lifting her. "Stay away from him. And from her."

She laughed and freed herself with a thought. "Can't make me. Can't stop me."

He pulled the power of the universe around himself, sliding a shield around Keelia's core to protect her, then he struck. The force of it knocked her out of the room. Out of the dream. It shimmered around them as he knelt beside Keelia on a floor that turned to grass, the body fading away. His arms slid around her, holding her as she cried.

"It's all right, love. You're safe. I'm here." She looked up at him, confused.

"Midir?"

"Shh...it's just a dream. All of it, just a dream. I won't let her hurt you."

"You said that before."

"We have help this time." He brushed her hair back from her face, soothing the tears away. "You've made powerful friends, love."

"You shouldn't be here."

"I'll leave in a moment. Michael's going to bring you some things love, stones, a necklace. Leave them in place where he puts them. Wear the necklace at all times. They'll keep you safe should she be able to breach the shields I'm raising."

"Shields?"

He tapped her head with his finger. "Just to keep her out. Nothing else. Nothing to...change anything, I promise. Will you let me?"

Sh stared at him, torn, then nodded slowly. "The dreams?"

"Will stop."

The shields were already up, but he went through the motions for her, brushing his fingers over her head, taking the opportunity to play with her hair. He kissed her softly when he was done, sighing slightly when her arms wrapped around his neck and she kissed him back hungrily. So easy to deepen the kiss, to slide his hands under her shirt and touch her soft skin. To drink in her pleased murmur as she pressed closer. To roll her beneath him on the soft grass, fingers stroking and sliding over her. To melt their clothes away and feel her arch into him, silently pleading.

Her leg wrapped around him as he slid into her with an easy thrust. She moaned his name softly as she moved with him, her body soft and responsive underneath him. It lasted moments and millenia at the same time, suspended out of time as they were. When they shattered, colors and stars flew around them, the tenuous hold on the dream sliding away to leave them nowhere and everywhere, and just within each other. She whispered his name as he kissed her softly. He slid them into her bed, still in her head, and held her until she faded to sleep, petting her soothingly. More shields then, cocooning her in his dream arms, in safety. He drifted around her home, sealing the doors and windows. The things he'd given Michael to place there would cement the seals in place. Back by her bed, watching her sleep, a soft smile on her face. He brushed phantom lips over her forehead, then rode the thread back to his penthouse and his body.

A shuddering sigh as he came fully back to himself. The crystals were blacked out, burned in the fire of the magic he'd woven. He felt alert, energized, and at the same time so very worried.

Denied torturing Keelia in dreams, there was no telling what Fuamnach would try next.