Dreamwalking

Prologue

A/N: Some of you will no doubt recognize this. I figured out that it's part of this story, and not a story of its own, so I'm making it the prologue for now, but I might move it later.

            The wind chimes and the percolator sang together as Dara Blake stood at the kitchen window looking out across the frozen pasture toward the creek. The dark shapes that had been there, lurking under the trees, watching the house in the frigid moonlight, were now gone, banished by the bright winter sunshine. But she knew they'd be back. They always came back. 

       They were frustrated, waiting. For years they had stalked her, ever since she could remember really, but they could not get at her here. Not with the Dragons all around her, always on guard, always protecting her. She couldn't see the Dragons, but she felt their presence. Ever watchful, ever near, they never faltered in their vigilance. 

        The Dragons could do nothing against human behavior, however, and the demons that stalked her could whisper suggestions into human ears. They could not make anyone do her bodily harm, but they did what they could through humans, and anything else they could manipulate, to try to break her. 

         They used negative energy, translated into helpless and oppressive feelings and dark emotions to slow her, make her lethargic and depressed, and cloud her thinking. They used humans, convincing them she was unbalanced, to separate her from her children. Anyone else, especially anyone with even a modicum of Magic, was taken away from her by any means possible. They took away any help in any form, turning those she loved against her. And she needed help. She couldn't fight the demons alone but her Magic was the only type that would work against them in this world, and the demons knew it. 

       Dragon Magic was effective in this place, but only for warding, protection, and some healing. On the other side of the Barrier, Dragon Magic was a formidable weapon, but on this side, Council rulings prevented the Dragons from using it to fight. 

       The coffee was perking. She mentally shook herself, poured a cup of the steaming brew, and took it into the other room. She sat down at her computer and tried to continue her work. 

       She thought it was a curse that she couldn't give up. More than a few times in this life, she'd wished she could just go home, to the other side of the Barrier, escape this world and its pain, but she was still here. She had a job to do, and no matter how painful it was, she would do what must be done.