Dreaming Anastasia by Joy Preble

Author:Joy Preble
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2010-10-14T21:05:42.855000+00:00

SEARING PANIC FILLS ME AS I POUND MY HANDS AGAINST

ETHAN'S chest. His mouth burns against mine, pulling the life from me. His hands are squeezing my neck, cutting off my air.

Stay calm, I tell myself. It's just another dream. This can't be real. It simply can't be. I've seen those movies. I love them--the ones where the hero gets rid of the bad guy by realizing that he's just a vision or a hologram or something. But I can't breathe. I can't think.

"It will be over soon," a voice says. It's not Ethan's voice, but someone else's-someone else's voice vying for space in my rapidly emptying brain.

"Let go." The voice slithers softly into my ears. "It won't hurt so much if you just give in."

I have no breath left to say no. All I can do is shake my head. No, I think. No. I can't die this way.

My hands keep pounding against Ethan's chest. He clutches me to him, his mouth wresting the breath from my body his hands squeezing tighter and tighter around my neck.

It's an illusion. I know it's just an illusion, just a dream. But I still feel like I'm dying.

Ethan's hands squeeze even tighter.

212

"You trusted him," the voice says. "You trusted him, and now see how he's repaying you." At that moment, I know who's speaking: the man who wants me dead, who doesn't want me to reach Anastasia. Viktor, my own distant ancestor, who seems determined to get rid of me. He's found some way to get into my head, into my dreams. Ethan--the real Ethan--would never do this. But that won't matter if I can't stop it. I'll still be dead.

Dead.

I let my hands slide limply to my sides, will my body to go heavy. Viktor takes the bait.

The dream Ethan lifts his mouth from mine just a fraction of an inch. His grip loosens.

Wonderful air rushes back into my lungs.

"I'm not quite as dead as you think, Grandpa," I tell Viktor, wherever he is, and this time, it's my own voice that echoes in my ears. I yank the dream Ethan's arms away from me and shove my fists into and through his chest. The illusion explodes.

Gasping, I sit up in bed, awake and alive.

213

Ethan

CHRIST. I WRENCH MYSELF AWAKE. My HANDS STILL FEEL like

they're around Anne's neck. I'm up and off the bed, shoving on my shoes and jacket even before my legs are steady underneath me.

I stumble into what's left of the kitchen, turn on the faucet at the sink, bend over, and gulp some mouthfuls of water. My throat is dry as dust. He'd used me against her--stretched out his will with magic, burrowed into my head, and made me...

I flip on the light over the sink, the one fixture that still has a working bulb after yesterday's whirlwind, and look at my watch. It's almost morning. Shit. I've got to get to her.

I pull my cell phone from my jacket pocket. My hands shake as I fumble to open it.

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