Waking Nightmares Read Online Free PDF

girlfriends would have been pissed if their guy didn’t show up when he promised, especially for something like this. And with the too-long silences and unspoken pressures that had been putting a strain on them over the past year, even Peter couldn’t have blamed her. They had a lot of things they needed to sort out.
    But she wasn’t angry; she was worried. Peter Octavian wasn’t the sort of man who broke his word without a damn good reason, and for him, a damn good reason probably had sharp claws.
    Where are you, Peter? she thought, peering out at the crowd. Some of the faces she saw looked restless, and she realized that she must look a little lost on the stage.
    “Cantankerous Bitch!” someone called from backstage, off to her left.
    She turned and saw him there, tall and lanky, that laconic gunfighter stance, and relief flooded through her. He wore a mischievous grin, and no wonder—shouting for a song he knew she hated—but he looked a wreck. His shirt was spattered with what could only be bloodstains and there were scratches all over his face, along with what looked like soot smudges. His night had not gone well so far, but he was there and in one piece. God, she loved him. Whatever distance there was between them, she wanted to erase it.
    With a throaty laugh, she turned back to the audience and grinned. This time, the smile was real.
    “My boyfriend wants me to play ‘Cantankerous Bitch,’ ” she said.
    The audience erupted with clamorous applause and shouts for the song.
    “You think he’s trying to tell me something?” Nikki asked her audience, who answered with whistles and hoots.
    They started to chant—“Bitch! Bitch! Bitch!”
    Nikki laughed and shook her head. The song was supposed to come later in the set, but for once, she wanted to play it. She turned to the band and signaled them, nodding. A stagehand ran out and traded her electric guitar for the acoustic she’d opened with, and she hammered out the first, crashing chord.
    The crowd sang along.
    When she’d hit the last note, she ran to the wings, whipping off her electric. The applause raged, but she could spare a few seconds while she swapped guitars again. She ran into Peter’s arms, smiling, and shook him.
    “Where the hell were you? You scared the shit out of me!”
    His gray eyes brightening, he smiled the lopsided grin that had first made her want him. “You know the expression ‘Let sleeping gods lie’?”
    Nikki frowned. “It’s ‘dogs.’ ”
    “The rule works the same either way,” Peter said, speaking up to be heard over the crowd. “I’ll explain later. Get back out there.”
    Then he kissed her, and Nikki pressed her body against his, thinking about washing all of that blood and soot off him later tonight. How he could make her so frightened, make her laugh, frustrate the hell out of her, and make her want him all at the same time, she would never understand.
    They kissed deeply, the bristly stubble on his face scraping her skin, inspiring her to kiss him all the harder.
    She pulled back, narrowing her eyes, finally figuring out the taste and smell of him, and at last noticing how bloodshot his eyes had become.
    “Holy shit,” she said. “Are you high ?”
    Octavian laughed and pushed her away. “Go. I’ll tell you all about it over a late dinner.”
    Staring at him in amused disbelief, she backed away. “I can’t wait.”
    Nikki took her acoustic from the stagehand who held it out for her, slung it over her shoulder, and ran back onstage, basking in the cheers of her audience. That was life with Peter Octavian—always fighting against the darkness, and finding their way back into the light.

CHAPTER 2
     
    AMBER Morrissey knew a lot of girls on campus who didn’t care if they showed up to class looking like crap. Her best friend, Tami, had been known to roll out of bed, pull on a battered pair of out-of-date Uggs, brush her teeth, and go to class in whatever clothes and whatever condition she’d been