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for him swelled deep inside her. He was strength personified.
    Everything about him was integrity and honesty, even in the face of such unrelenting hatred and hostility.
    His eyes burning, he cupped her cheek in his warm hand. "Why are you here with me?"
    Several lies came to her mind, but she didn't want to lie to a man who'd been dealt more than his share of
    them. And since they were in a dream state, there really was no reason to. "Your brother has summoned
    a demon out to kill you."
    He laughed.
    "I'm serious, Aidan. As crazy as it sounds, your brother found a way to summon a god of pain from his
    slumber and he has commanded him to torture and kill you."
    "And you're going to save me." He laughed again, then sobered. "Why would you do that?"
    "It's my job."
    The expression on his handsome features looked less than convinced. "So you just randomly follow the
    god of pain around trying to protect his targets. What are you, the antipain fairy?"
    "Something like that."
    He snorted. "Note to self on waking. Lay off the beer on an empty stomach. This dream is even more
    screwed up than the time I had a donkey and a corkscrew."
    Leta frowned. "Donkey and a corkscrew?"
    "I don't know you well enough to fill you in on those details."
    Before Leta could ask more, she felt that deep sense of foreboding in the pit of her stomach. She looked
    around, but the cabin was the same in this realm as it had been in the mortal one.
    "Aidan—"
    Before she could say anything more, Dolor grabbed him from behind and knocked him to the ground.
    CHAPTER FOUR
    Before Leta could move to protect him, Aidan rolled to his feet to confront the god. The rage that roiled
    through him was so potent that it actually made her gasp as it struck her like a hostile jolt of electricity.
    She threw her head back as it ripped through her like acid. Never in all eternity had she felt anything like
    this. It was hot and blazing.
    Dolor swung at Aidan who blocked the punch with his arm, then head-butted the god back. Before
    Dolor could regain his balance, Aidan scissor-kicked him in the ribs. Twisting around, the god fell to the
    ground.
    She knew it was only Dolor's arrogance that had allowed him to be taken by surprise. He hadn't
    expected Aidan to fight him.
    But that was over.
    Dolor shot a god-blast at Aidan's head. Aidan ducked it, then flipped to pull Dolor off the ground to hit
    him again. But this time Dolor saw it coming. He slung Aidan up into a steel wall that appeared out of
    nowhere.
    Leta manifested her two whips—one for each hand. She snapped them briskly to capture Dolor's arms.
    He hissed in pain before he wrapped his forearms around them and yanked.
    She didn't budge even though it felt as if he'd wrenched her arms from their sockets. "Leave him alone."
    Dolor laughed at her. "You're a fool to protect him."
    "Then I'm a fool." She tried to uncoil her whips from his arms, but he held them firmly in place.
    Aidan shook his head to clear it. He could actually taste blood in his mouth. There was a real quality to
    this fight even though he knew it was a dream. He wiped the blood from his face and frowned as he
    studied it.
    Wasn't it?
    He watched as Leta hurled the larger man into a wall an instant before the man turned and kicked her to
    the ground. He ran for the man and caught him about the waist with his shoulder before the man could
    attack her again. "Don't you touch her."
    The man laughed as he sank his hands into Aidan's hair and wrenched it.
    Aidan growled at the agony but it wasn't the yank on his hair that hurt as much as the images that
    appeared in his head. Images of Heather in bed with Donnie. The lost feeling he'd had the morning they'd
    all attacked him at once and tried to destroy him.
    He cried out as his heart splintered from that one moment in time when all of his delusions of love and
    family had been shattered.
    Suddenly Leta was there, shoving the man back from him. "Stop it, Dolor. Now!"
    Dolor turned on her with a smile.