IF HE CATCHES ME, I’M DEAD.

I ran as fast as I could, darting around trees, tangled roots, and rocks in the forest. The monster snarled as it chased me, the sound closer than before. I wasn’t able to outrun it. The monster was picking up speed while I was getting tired.

The forest thinned ahead of me to reveal a blond vampire on a hill in the distance. I recognized him at once. Hope surged through me. If I could reach him, I’d be okay. He loved me. He’d protect me from the monster. Yet I was still so far away.

Fog crept up the hill to surround the vampire, making him appear almost ghostly. I screamed his name as the monster’s footsteps got even closer. Panicked, I lunged forward, narrowly avoiding the grasp of bony hands that would pull me down to the grave. With renewed effort, I sprinted toward the vampire. He urged me on, snarling warnings at the monster, which wouldn’t stop chasing me.

“Leave me alone,” I screamed, as I was seized from behind in a merciless grip. “No!”

“Kitten!”

The shout didn’t come from the vampire ahead of me; it came from the monster wrestling me to the ground. I jerked my head toward the vampire in the distance, but his features blurred into nothingness, and the fog covered him. Right before he disappeared, I heard his voice.

“He is not your husband, Catherine.”

A hard shake evaporated the last of the dream, and I woke to find Bones, my vampire lover, hovering over me.