the blinds closed. "You won't dare fight us in her workplace, will you, V'Aidan? All we have to do is make ourselves invisible to the humans and they won't see or hear anything but her. And her they'll lock up in an asylum as soon as we're gone."
Erin still didn't understand what was going on. But she had a sick feeling that she had been duped from the very beginning by all of this.
If V'Aidan could be real, then so could they.
"What is this?" Erin demanded.
Chrissy's eyes flashed to yellow and it was then Erin knew the truth.
Chrissy was the she-snake from her nightmares.
"Stay out of it, human," Rick said. "We will deal with you after we finish with him."
V'Aidan pulled Erin behind him.
"How very sweet." Chrissy's tone was mocking. "One would think you were Oneroi they way you coddle her."
"He is Oneroi," Erin shot back, her entire body shaking from panic. How could she and V'Aidan fight them here? Like this?
Rick laughed at her words. "Is that the lie you told her?"
V'Aidan held his breath. He didn't want her to find out like this. "Erin, I..." His words faltered as he turned to see the confused look on her face.
He didn't want to tell her the truth. He didn't want to be what he was anymore. She had shown him something better and he didn't want to go back to the way he'd been.
"What does she mean?" Erin asked.
"He's your dragon," Krysti'Ana said mercilessly. "The thing I fought the first night we met in your dreams."
"No." Erin shook her head. "It's a lie. V'Aidan, tell me it's a lie."
He wanted to, but he couldn't. He'd lied so many times that it shouldn't have mattered to him. Yet it did.
"I'm a Skotos, Erin."
Her eyes filled with tears. "It was you! You who made me so terrified I couldn't sleep? You who chased me and... and..." She couldn't even begin to recount the torture he had put her through during those first few weeks. She had thought she was losing her mind. "Why did you trick me into thinking you were Oneroi? Was it just so you could feed from me?"
"At first, I only wanted to get you away from Krysti'Ana. I knew you wouldn't go with the dragon, so I appeared to you as a man. And then later..." His voice trailed off as his eyes went dead.
"You lied to me."
"I know."
She backed away from him. The agony in her eyes sliced him.
V'Aidan clenched his teeth as grief washed over him. "I needed you, Erin. And I didn't know how else to keep you with me." He reached for her.
She cringed and the gesture tore through him. She no longer wanted his touch.
Like all the others, she, too, rejected him.
The hurt betrayal on her face made him feel lower than any of the insults the others had ever dealt him.
"I should have known," she whispered, "someone like you pretended to be could never really want someone like me."
V'Aidan winced at the pain in her voice. "Erin, don't say that. You are the most wonderful person who has ever been born."
"Is that another of your lies?"
V'Aidan closed his eyes. There was nothing he could say to make this right. He'd been wrong from the very beginning.
All he could do now was make sure no other of his kind hurt her.
"M'Ordant!" he called, summoning his brother to him.
The Oneroi appeared between Krysti'Ana and Rec'Sord.
V'Aidan took a deep breath. "I will go with them peacefully if you will keep them from her."
"It is my job, is it not?"
V'Aidan nodded. It was the job of the Oneroi to help. It was the job of the Skotos to use and destroy.
He turned to look at Erin, but she refused to meet his gaze. Judging by the tears she fought, he would say he'd done his job very well this time.
His last view of her was when M'Ordant wrapped his arm around her the way he yearned to.
Krysti'Ana and Rec'Sord grabbed him to take him home.
"I'm sorry, Erin," V'Aidan whispered as they shimmered from her realm into his. "I'm so very sorry."
Erin didn't move. She knew V'Aidan was gone. She'd heard the sincerity of his apology as he vanished. But inside she was all raw emotions. Raw betrayal. She kept seeing the horrible dragon in the cave. Feeling the scaly talons on her.
How could that be the same man who had made love to her? The same man who had made her love him?
The betrayal of