All around me, people were standing. As far as I could tell, they were all men. Big men. They all seemed to be wearing black suits with white shirts underneath and red ties. The man I had thrown a knife at was clutching his side, the bloody knife at his feet. I muct have gotten him in the stomach or kidney, because he looked to be in bad pain. He was on his knees, pressing the wound.
Something moved in front of me and I turned back to the man I elbowed. He didn`t seem to be hurt, but I hadn`t waited to see what his reaction was when I hit him. He was standing in the middle of the circle, smiling at me. The circle seemed to have gotten bigger and brighter. I didn`t take my eyes off of the man, who was clearly a leader of some sort, but I counted twenty-four candles now.
What was worse, I knew that this was no dream.
The blonde man just stood there with his hands behind his back, smiling. That was going to get annoying. I quickly scanned the room. There must have been about thirty men around me. Normally, I wouldn`t have been worried by that, it was a dream, after all. But there was that feeling of... substance. Like I had really stabbed that man. And the one that touched me..... I shivered. While everything was still I racked my brains for any but of imformation that might help or explain the situation. All I came up with was something about dream-visions that could take you somewhere else while you slept, but it took pwerful and dark magic for that.
The blonde cleared his throat and stepped forward. I lifted my arms to a starting position for throwing knives. I had both knives directed towards him, but he just smiled again.
"Matthew, please disarm her." He said. There was something familiar in his voice.
Before I could even twitch, a man came up behind me and plucked the knives from my hands, tossing them into the darkness. He then grabbed my wrist and pushed up my sleeve. He flung the revealed knives into the dark, but handled my wand with care. He handed it to another nameless man, who carried it to the blonde. The blonde took it carefully and examined it.
My attention was brought back to Matthew, who had pushed up my other sleeve and was ripping the knives from their sheaths. I sighed mentally. What use was five years of practicing with knives if you got disarmed? Matthew went to pull my shirt over my head, but I slapped his hand away. He was trained, but at least he had manners. He took a step back with and amused smile. I pulled the knives from under my shirt. It was odd having to take those out, not many people found them where they were.
I gave my blades to the big man, and he tossed them away. He knelt to disarm my lower body, but I kicked him. He stood up with another smirk. Talk about training. I gave him a look, but sat down and pushed up my pant legs, pulling out eight knives from their homes.
After my weapons were disposed of, I was able to stand up without advancing on me. Matthew had returned to his spot in the circle. The blonde had been smiling through all of this, and now he took a couple steps forward.
"Welcome, Stacey Gray, to my home. I am Jonathan." his voice was deep and had an accent that made him seem from a different time. Why did it sound so familiar?
I looked at Jonathan, my eyes wide. They must have been brown, because that was my "natural" eye color, but I couldn`t be sure. It bothereed me more than I can say that I can`t tell what color my eyes were in my dreams.
"What do you want with me?" I asked Jonathan, my eyes locked on him with instant hatred.
He laughed at me. His teeth were perfectly straight and brilliantly white. His skin had been cold to the touch. He had an old-time feel about him, like he wasn`t from my time. He was a vampire, wasn`t he?
"Dear Stacey, you don`t even know why you are here." Jonathan rolled his head around like he was popping his neck. Something about that was familiar, too. "You are my neice, dear Stacey. I am your father`s brother."
