Demon Kissed - Katie May Page 0,44

it for the cold one on the other side of my queen-sized bed.

Dammit.

It takes twice as long for me to fall asleep with a cold pillow. But gradually, my brain drifts off, and when I dream, I end up in my favorite place.

The cloud meadow is lit from below with soft pink light, as if it’s dawn somewhere beneath us. My feet sink into the plush clouds under me, and the biggest smile of all brightens my face. I love it here. Something about this meadow just puts my soul at ease.

I glance around, but I don’t see Ziel yet. So instead, I wander over to the tiny thunderheads. I sit down cross-legged in front of a row of them that are smaller than the palm of my hand and watch the lightning dance across their dark little surfaces.

When I’m tired of that, I dawdle through the space, possibly farther than I’ve ever been before. I crest a small hill in the clouds and find a patch of rainbows that are as tall as my hips, growing out of the clouds and swaying gently in the breeze like reeds. A giggle flies out of my mouth unbidden because they’re just so beautiful.

I skip through the rainbows, letting my hands run across their silky surfaces—they feel like ribbons—and then realize there’s another new section of the meadow I’ve never seen before. I rush forward to find a pond filled with stars.

The dark surface of the water glitters, sparkles. Beneath the surface, stars dart like tiny fish, zooming around one another, colliding and making brilliant orange and purple supernovas. I’m awed, as if I’m staring down into a miniature of the universe itself.

“Gorgeous, isn’t it?” Ziel appears beside me.

I’m so startled, I nearly fall into the pond, but Ziel’s thick arm shoots out and pulls me back to safety.

I stare up into his eyes—tonight, Ziel is a handsome Chinese warrior—and smile. “Next time, warn a girl, will you?” I flick his red cape playfully.

“Kinda hard to make noise when you’re walking on clouds,” he replies with a grin.

“You could whistle,” I suggest.

“I don’t whistle.” He bristles as if that is the most unmanly suggestion ever.

“You sure?” I ask, feeling a challenge and rising to it. Somehow, with Ziel, I don’t feel as awkwardly self-conscious as I do in real life. Somehow, maybe because I know I’m dreaming, I feel flirty and fun and all those things that I stumble over like a drunken cow during my waking hours.

I glance coyly at Ziel before I start to saunter through the rainbow reeds. Ziel follows behind, and I’m pretty damn sure he’s watching my ass. I give it a little extra sway as I whistle the theme from The Andy Griffith Show, the only show I was allowed to watch at Grandma’s when I was younger. I deliberately stop mid-song to see if Ziel will rise to the occasion.

He narrows his eyes and crosses his arms. And for a second, a strange sense of déjà vu washes over me. Ziel reminds me of someone else. But before I can put my finger on just who…he starts to whistle.

My smile is as happy as the rainbows I walk through. “Ha! Gotcha!”

“You think you got me? I’ll get you!” Ziel chases me.

I sprint away, laughing and clutching my sides as I scramble up the hill. His longer legs quickly overtake me, and he scoops me up from behind and spins me around, faster and faster until my legs fly up.

“I’m gonna get sick!” I protest.

“No you aren’t! This is a dream. You’ll only get sick if you believe you’ll get sick.” Ziel stops spinning me and instead leaps into the air with me still in his grasp.

I lose my breath, and my stomach plummets. I close my dream eyes and wait for us to fall back down. Only…we don’t fall.

We stay floating in midair.

I glance down and realize we’re still gently rising, drifting through the air like we’re in a hot air balloon. Only there is no balloon. Just us.

I clutch Ziel behind me and feel his fingers dig hard into my hips before he gently releases them and turns me in his arms. I wrap mine around his neck in wonder. “Are you flying?”

“We’re flying,” he corrects.

“No. I know we’re flying. But are you doing it?” Every word I say gets softer as I realize how much of me is touching Ziel. I’ve never been this close to him. All the months we’ve met, and