I pushed my hair back out of my face, that same thought still repeating in my head. That was Dorian, the guy I'd been dreaming about. That was his voice. I was certain of it. He was real.
I slumped down against the wall as the fact that he was real and just saved my life pounded through my brain. I had no doubt that that thing would have killed me if it wasn't for Dorian. It looked like something that enjoyed killing.
Startled by that thought, I reached into my pocket for my phone, not really sure who I was planning to call. When I pushed a button and nothing happened, I realised that the battery was dead and cursed as I shoved it back into my pocket.
My heart almost burst out of my chest when a figure suddenly lurched around the dumpster and came to a stop, bent over with his hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath. I breathed a small sigh of relief when I realised that it was Dorian. I don't know how, but I somehow knew that he wouldn't hurt me. He wouldn't have protected me from that creature if he wanted to hurt me.
He managed to catch his breath then he straightened and his eyes landed on me, trailing from my head down to my feet. I felt the glance like a physical caress and had to fight off a shiver.
I took a moment to admire how incredibly attractive he was outside of my dreams.
I didn't realise that I was staring until I saw a crooked smile creep onto his face, which made my stomach do crazy things.
"Are you okay?" He asked, sounding concerned.
I nodded my head, although I felt anything but okay.
"Good. I need to explain some things to you, but first let me introduce myself," He said as he reached up and pushed his dark curls back out of his eyes. "I'm-"
"Dorian." I interrupted him, then bit my lip hard because I had no idea how to explain to him that I'd been having dreams about him. His eyes widened before narrowing as a frown crept onto his face.
"How do you know my name?" He asked, sounding suspicious.
I took a deep breath before I started to speak.
"This is going to sound really crazy, but I've been having dreams about you." I said as I felt my face flush with embarrassment.
I heard his breath catch, the exact same way it had in my dream, which made my heart stutter.
"What do you mean you've been dreaming about me? I've never seen you before." He said, sounding confused.
I shrugged my shoulders with a sigh, because I was just as clueless as him. I didn't understand how I could dream about him and feel like I know him when I'd never seen him in person before today. I felt a little disappointed that he didn't have the answers that I needed, because it was driving me crazy not knowing what was happening to me.
"I have no idea. I've only dreamt about you a couple of times. In the dreams, we acted like friends and I felt like I knew you. I also dreamt about you saving me tonight, which makes me sound even crazier." I said, deliberately leaving out the dream where we kissed. Things were already weird enough without adding that into the mix. I only realised after I'd said it that I did have a dream in which he saved me from that creature. Last night, I'd woken up from a dream in the middle of the night, my heart pounding. I'd forgotten what the dream was about as soon as I'd woken up, but I could remember it now that it had actually happened.
His eyebrows rose, then one side of his lips quirked up into a half smile.
"You're a seer." He said, a look of recognition and awe transforming his face.
I frowned as the word bounced around inside my head with no meaning.
"What is a seer?" I asked, utterly baffled.
He shook his head with an incredulous look on his face, which made his hair fall in front of his eyes.
"I will explain everything. I promise. First, we have to get somewhere safe." He said.
I already trusted him, even though we'd only just met, so I just nodded my head, agreeing without hesitation as a frown marred my face.
"Didn't you take care of that thing?" I asked, a slight tremor of fear entering my voice.
A sympathetic look crossed his face as he shook his head lightly.
"I incapacitated it for now, but it won't stay down for long. We need to get out of here before it gets back up." He said. His words sent a shiver down my spine and I stood up, taking a deep breath and silently telling myself to be strong.
"What's your name?" He asked, glancing at me as he began to lead the way out of the alley with me following close on his heels.
"Aurora, but everyone except my mother calls me Aura." I said.
He flashed me a smile, which made my heart stutter, then he reached his hand out towards me and I slipped my hand into his, fighting back a shiver at the touch of his warm skin against mine.
"It's nice to meet you, Aura. I wish it could have been under better circumstances." He said, then before I could utter a word, he was pulling me along beside him.
I should have been terrified that I didn't know where he was taking me, but I felt safe with him, which was the most terrifying thing of all.
~
I lost track of where we were going after the first two blocks, but I counted one more block before he pulled me around the side of a building and towards a black car parked behind it, hidden by a sheet of plastic and a few trash bags.
He hauled the plastic sheet off the car and tossed the trash bags aside.
He unlocked the car with a key that he pulled out of his pocket, then he opened the passenger side door and motioned for me to get in. I wasn't particularly fond of cars ever since I'd had an accident in one when I was 8 years old, in which I'd ended up with a concussion and a broken collarbone, but I swallowed hard, hiding my fear as I climbed into the car and he shut the door behind me. He strode around to the other side of the car and climbed into the drivers seat, then he glanced at me with his eyebrows raised and I somehow knew that he was silently asking me if I was okay. I nodded my head and he pushed the key into the ignition, making me jump slightly in my seat as the engine roared to life.
He began to drive, seeming to know exactly where he was going, despite the fact that it was pitch black outside and impossible to see any street signs or distinguishing features. For a few minutes, I just stared at him, noting how comfortable he seemed in his own skin, driving this car at a blinding speed although it was damn near impossible to see.
"Where are we going?" I asked, unable to take not knowing anymore. I knew that he was taking me somewhere safe and I trusted that with every fibre of my being, but I needed to know where that was.
He glanced at me for a second before fixing his gaze on the road again, which I was thankful for because my heart had stuttered painfully in that moment that he'd taken his eyes off of the road.
"We're going somewhere safe. That's all you need to know right now. I can't explain where until we get there. Do you trust me, Aura?" He asked. Something in his tone told me that it was an extremely important question. I could tell that he wanted me to trust him, that he needed me to trust him, although I had no idea why.
"Yes. I trust you." I said, without hesitation. I didn't even really know anything about Dorian, but I'd never trusted anyone more than I trusted him, which was completely new to me and incredibly terrifying.
He smiled, a flash of perfect white teeth in the darkness and I felt my stomach drop as if I'd gone down a dip on a rollercoaster. No one had ever had this effect on me. I wanted to explore it, but I was also terrified of it at the same time.
"Good. We're almost there." He said. I could tell by the tone of his voice that he was pleased that I trusted him and my heart stuttered in my chest.
True to his word, he pulled into an empty parking lot outside what looked like an old church, complete with towering spires and a rusty bell at the top of one tower a few minutes later. I couldn't stop myself from staring up at the neglected building, my eyes wide with confusion. Why had he brought us here?
He turned the key in the ignition and the engine died as he turned to me with a reassuring smile.
"You have nothing to be afraid of, Aura. You're safe here." He said, his tone filled with complete and utter certainty.
I trusted him completely, but I still didn't understand why we were here.
"What is this place?" I asked as I climbed out of the car and he did the same.
He turned the key in the door, the locks clicking into place with a snick, then he motioned for me to follow him up to the door.
"We're called The Order and this is our headquarters." He said as he pushed the door open, the heavy wood making a loud groaning sound as it moved.
"We? There's more of you? What is the Order-" I trailed off with my sentence as soon as I stepped into the building. On the outside, it had looked like an old church that hadn't seen any visitors in a long time, but on the inside, it looked completely different. It opened into a large room like you'd seen in any church, with pews set throughout the room. There had to be at least two dozen candles glowing throughout the room, lighting it up and making it look like a completely different place.
On either side of the large room were a set of spiralling staircases, leading up into the dark reaches of a balcony that I could barely seen any of.
I vaguely noticed that Dorian was following along behind me silently as I walked across the room, taking in the stained glass windows that were set high into the walls and pictures that had been hung up around the room.
When I reached the base of the spiralling staircase, I looked back at Dorian, asking him silently if this was where we were meant to be going. He nodded his head and motioned for me to go ahead.
I was about to take the first step up the stairs when I suddenly heard running footsteps. I froze in surprise as a small, curvy girl came running down the stairs. Her wild inky black curls swung around her face, her emerald green eyes full of determination.
She froze halfway down the stairs when she saw me, then her gaze swung to Dorian, her eyes narrowing with suspicion.
"Where the hell were you? Who is this?" She asked, sounding beyond pissed off.
A surprising stab of jealousy shot through me as I wondered who she was and how she knew Dorian.
Dorian sighed, sounding a little exasperated.
"I went to get some air, Lucie. You don't have to know my whereabouts at all times." He said, his tone chastising, as if he were talking to a child that hadn't done as she'd been told.
She glared at him as she put her hands on her hips, her expression full of defiance.
I felt a small flare of admiration towards her for the fact that she wasn't giving up. She was standing up for herself.
"You didn't answer my other question. Who is she?" She asked, her gaze landing on me, quickly scanning me from my head to my toes before he gaze met Dorian's again.
He muttered something under his breath, but I couldn't quite catch it, then he sighed in what sounded like resignation.
"Lucie, this is Aurora. Aurora, this is my sister, Lucie." He said, waving a hand at each of us vaguely, sounding completely uninterested in this conversation right now.
I was astounded for a moment by the fact that he had a sister, although it shouldn't have been that much of a surprise.
Lucie's gaze landed on me again, her eyes narrowed as if she were trying to figure me out. After a moment, she frowned, looking perplexed.
"Where did you find her?" She asked, looking suspicious.
I tried not to be offended at her tone, but deep down inside, I wanted her to like me because she was Dorian's sister. The thought surprised me and I quickly shoved it to the back of my mind, keeping my expression neutral.
"I found her being attacked by a Wraith." Dorian said, his tone as sharp and lethal as a knife. I flinched at the memory of that horrible creature, making a note of its name in my mind.
Lucie's eyes widened, her face paling as if she'd seen a ghost.
"A Wraith? That doesn't make any sense. Wraiths never attack humans." She said, her voice filled with confusion.
I frowned at the use of the word human. I felt like I was only getting half of the story, like I didn't understand it because I didn't know everything.
Dorian shook his head, frowning.
"She's not a human. She's a Seer." He said.
Lucie's eyes widened even more, making the green stand out impossibly. I startled at the statement that I wasn't a human. This had to be a joke. I was a human in every sense of the word. How could I be anything else?
"How do you know? I don't sense anything from her. Seer's are incredibly powerful. They'd give off a power signature of some kind." She said, sounding unconvinced of what Dorian had said.
Dorian ran a hand through his hair, letting out a sigh of frustration.
"I've been having dreams about Dorian. I'd never seen him before tonight. He said that makes me a Seer." I said before he could, wanting to explain myself rather than them talking about me like I wasn't here.
Lucie looked surprised once again then she bit her lip with a thoughtful expression on her face.
"The only explanation for her powers not giving off a signature is that they must have been blocked by something or someone. If that were true, it would have been done when she was a child." She said, tapping a fingertip against her temple absentmindedly, as if it helped her to think.
"That's the only explanation I could come up with too." Dorian said, sounding just as perplexed as his sister.
I'd had enough of them talking about me like I wasn't in the room with them.
I cleared my throat loudly and they both turned to look at me with their eyebrows raised as if they'd forgotten that I was there. I suddenly noticed how alike they looked, the resemblance startling. I pushed that thought aside as I frowned.
"Can someone please tell me what the hell is going on?" I demanded, my patience slipping to non-existent.
They both looked a little surprised by my attitude, then I caught the identical half smiles on their faces. They liked that I'd stood up for myself and shown some backbone.
"First of all, welcome to The Order. We should go and see Nik. He'll want to know about this. He can also help to explain everything." Lucie said, flashing me a smile that caught me by surprise. I couldn't help but smile back, a feeling of warmth blooming in my chest at her act of friendliness.
Lucie turned and began leading the way up the stairs, with me following behind her and Dorian falling into step beside me.
"Who is Nik?" I asked him quietly, genuinely curious.
"He's the leader of The Order. We have to get our missions sanctioned by him and he represents us in the world." Dorian explained quietly, his voice whispering over my skin like a physical caress.
I fought off a shiver as I prepared to meet the leader of The Order. I just hoped that he wasn't as terrifying as I was imagining him to be.