your potential sorrow to keep himself from doing the irreparable.”
“He will kill himself,” I whispered, understanding dawning on me.
“Once again, I want you to go into this with your eyes wide open so you don’t get blindsided,” Thomson said in an apologetic tone. He turned to look at the desk behind us. “I have left an agenda here for you, with notes on the training program you are to put him through. These are his temporary quarters. He has a full, private bathroom through that door at the back, and clothes in the closet next to it.” Thomson added, pointing at the two doors at the back of the glass cell. “You may let him out of this room to perform all the activities in the schedule. But he is not to go anywhere without you by his side.”
“Naturally,” I said with a nod.
After a few more instructions, Thomson left me to go over the information he had provided me in a tablet. I settled behind the desk, suddenly feeling like the weight of the world rested on my shoulders. Despite that, anticipation bubbled inside me as the muscular shape of my Nightmare grew more defined by the minute.
Chapter 9
Zain
Cool air over me pulled me out of the endless void where time and space had lost any meaning and in which I’d been roaming. I felt heavy, pinned down to the soft cushion beneath me by an invisible force. Although fairly warm, the wall of flesh around me constricted my sense of freedom in the most disturbing fashion. But its outer layer, that fragile tissue called skin, felt unpleasantly cold.
The silence of my ethereal senses crippled me. I hated not instantly perceiving the presence of others on a wide radius, even through walls. This feeble nose perceived no particular scent of either threat or ally. The only thing clearly tugging at me was the pull of my bride’s brand anchoring me.
I lifted my eyelids only to close them immediately as a blinding light stabbed at my overly sensitive eyes. I batted my eyelashes a few times while those stupid human eyes watered, further blurring the vision I was trying to clear. Eventually, the damn things settled allowing me to see the high, white ceiling of a large room. At first glance, it seemed similar to the one I’d entered the previous day.
Turning my head to the side, a strange sensation exploded in my chest at the sight of my woman, head bowed, reading something on an electronic device. I felt hot and cold all at once, a strange fire awakening in the pit of my stomach. I attempted to lift my head, but the wretched thing weighed a ton. I lay it back down and began to contract the numb muscles of my limbs, getting them to awaken for the first time.
As thrilled as I felt to have my bride nearby, this wasn’t how I had wanted to first present myself to her: weak, pathetic, and uncoordinated. The next time I lifted my head, I heavily leaned on my elbows to push my torso up, then on my palms to get me into a seating position.
“Zain! You’re awake!” Naima exclaimed as I was struggling to turn my body and get my feet down so that I could sit at the edge of the bed.
With a Herculean effort, I eventually succeeded, my hands resting on the bed on each side of me to help me keep my upright, sitting position. I lifted my eyes to look at my woman. She had come to stand by the glass wall that trapped me within this space. I couldn’t resist smirking at the awe in her eyes as she gazed upon the beauty of my human vessel. She had fantasized often about this body, and I had made every effort to reproduce it exactly as she’d envisioned it. She tapped something on the tablet in her hand, and the sound of a fan resounded in the room. I realized she was evacuating the Mist that had lingered in the room to ensure my safe birth.
“How are you feeling?” she asked with a hefty dose of worry in her voice.
I liked that… a lot.
I attempted to answer her through mind-speak as I usually did, but I couldn’t find my psychic voice.
“Okay,” I said in a rough and scratchy voice from lack of use.
Fuck me, even talking demanded effort. What kind of lame ass vessel did I get conned into entering? I swallowed back my frustration