It was icy, colder than she had expected it to be; she must have kicked the covers off.
She was alone in bed. She had no idea where Ryan had gone. It was pitch-black and the only dim light came from beyond the glass. She couldn’t hear the rhythmic breaking of the waves. Only that odd scratching.
Perhaps it was a tree branch, scraping the glass. If so, it must be windy, but if it was, the waves should be roaring over the rocks and foaming back again, and she would hear them.
She sat up in bed, shivering, her skin prickled into gooseflesh. What was the noise? She should find out, and then she should check where Ryan had gone. There was no reason for him to have left the room unless, perhaps, he’d gone to find out why the heating wasn’t working.
“Ryan?” she called softly, but there was no answer. Only another scrape; this one harder. It was an unpleasant sound, as if something was cutting into the glass.
Her worry was escalating to frantic anxiety. She climbed out of bed and padded over the chilly floorboards to the window.
Peering through the darkened glass, she saw there was a claw-like branch scraping back and forth over the window.
Only it wasn’t a branch.
As she looked more closely, Cassie saw to her horror that it was a hand. A pale, bony hand with ragged fingernails. The nail beds were etched with something dark, and she thought immediately about dried blood.
Where was Ryan? She was filled with fear at his unexplained disappearance—had he gone, or been taken?
She drew in a deep, terrified breath, ready to scream for help, but before she could, the scrabbling hand smashed through the glass and grabbed her wrist.
Icy cold, impossibly strong fingers clasped her tight.
Then the face came into view—sheet-white skin, framed by tendrils of dripping hair. It looked skeletally thin, as if she’d been underwater for eons before grasping onto life again.
“Jacqui,” Cassie whispered. “You’re alive.”
It was Jacqui but yet it was not. She recognized her sister’s features although they were haggard, dripping with icy water. She had seen those hazel eyes before. But the expression in them was new. A blank, hungry gaze, as if another entity had possessed her and was on the hunt.
The apparition’s lips parted in a grin, showing teeth that were jagged and missing, like the mouth of a shark.
“Yes,” Jacqui hissed. “And coming to find you.”
Then she lunged at Cassie, who recoiled, screaming in terror, struggling to wrench herself away from the death grip on her hand and the glistening, ragged teeth and the freezing air that was rushing in to surround her.
But she couldn’t escape. She was tugged out of the room, over the sill. Broken glass scraped over her skin, tearing it open so that she felt the blood stream out, causing a red glow of excitement to flare in Jacqui’s hungry gaze.
Then she was falling—they were both falling, and Jacqui’s limbs were wrapping around her with hideous strength, binding her as tight as wire as they reached the water and plunged into the dark, bottomless sea.
Cassie’s own screams pulled her out of the nightmare and she sat up, breathing rapidly.
She could hear the sea again, and Ryan was beside her. Everything was all right. She’d had one of her crazy nightmares again, and should be grateful that the earth-shattering cries of her dream had been nothing more than whimpers in reality, because Ryan hadn’t woken and was sleeping peacefully on his side.
Cassie felt weak with relief as the last tendrils of her nightmare released their hold.
She hadn’t taken her meds. There had been no chance to do so. She’d been immersed in the fairytale ending to her wonderful evening, and she hugged herself as she remembered exactly how Ryan had touched her while they had made love, and the words he’d whispered.
She wanted to lie down, press herself against him, and go back to sleep.
But she needed to take her meds now. She couldn’t wait till morning and risk having another nightmare.
Cassie climbed out of bed and tiptoed across the room, taking Ryan’s robe off the hook on the back of the door, because she couldn’t walk back through the house naked.
She switched on the light in the corridor and headed down the hall, past the children’s closed bedroom doors, and quietly into her own room. She took the pills in her cupped hand, went to the kitchen, and poured a glass of water to drink them down.
Then she returned to Ryan’s room, glancing left and right at the children’s doors as she passed.
On the way back, she saw Dylan’s door was no longer closed.
It was wide open, and she could see him inside.
He was sitting up in bed, his face turned to the open doorway, silently watching as she passed.
“Hey, Dylan, is everything OK?” she whispered, but he didn’t respond, just kept staring at her.
Looking at his unreadable, expressionless face and the stillness of his posture, Cassie felt a chill of fear.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
It was pitch-dark when Cassie woke again, and as she opened her eyes there was a crash of thunder.
Hail drummed the window as she fumbled for the light switch and snapped it on.
Ryan was gone. Cassie glanced at the rumpled bedcovers and let out a happy sigh.
She forgot all about the stormy weather as she remembered the feel of his skin on hers, and how she’d been filled with a sense of safety and love as she’d fallen asleep beside him.
He’d left a cup of coffee on her bedside table which was still warm, and her jeans and a warm top were folded at the foot of the bed. She was touched by his thoughtfulness. It meant a lot that she could walk out of the room properly dressed instead of sneaking down the hallway in his borrowed dressing gown. She guessed that, with the onset of bad weather, he had probably rushed off to make sure all was well at the harbor—but he’d still found
