Narcissus in Chains chapter eight...and nine.

We open with a purple prose dream sequence.

I have mixed feelings about dream sequences. Part of me--the reader part--sometimes likes them. Like in Misery, where Paul Sheldon dreams about Annie Wilkes, and also the piling thing while under Norvil (if you do not know what I mean you have never read Misery). The dream sequences in Rose Madder were also good, but I didn't like that book much. The dream sequences in the Dark Tower series were cheating. But I want you to note the theme here: In looking for good dream sequences I went STRAIGHT to Stephen King. I am trying to think of another good author who uses them, and I'm having a lot of trouble. Rose McKinley in Sunshine, maybe, but those were less dreams and more summeries of dreams.

As a writer, I hate them. They're either cheating the plot or filler for the sake of filler. When they're done right, they work, but oh God are they so seldom done right. Most of the time they're like every dream in the Twilight series. Silly, pointless, and filler.

Dream one: Anita is both the hunter and the hunted. Dream two: Anita is sexing up Jean Claude on Narcissus's big bed. Dream three: Anita is being doctored up by Richard. Dream four: Cold water. Seriously. And then she wakes all the way up and is told that her body is healing and ran a high fever, so a doctor put her in an ice bath and the ice bath almost killed her and Jean Claude brought her back and uh...something something shapeshifter. It's not clear. The point is, they think the fight with the shapeshifters has finally infected Anita with some strain of lycanthropy. Jean Claude tells Richard, "You know what must be done" and Richard says "If I do it I've lost her"...and then Anita passes out again.

And that's the end of the chapter.

WHY. WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY?

Nevermind. We'll do chapter nine too.

Anita wakes up in an bed full of naked people.

...

There's lots of talking about how happy and safe Anita is, and how this is definately the wolf pack she's snuggling with. Also a detailed description of the guy she's spooning. Somehow, she still manages to have this not make a lot of sense.

He had rich brown curls cut short in the back, but long on top, so the curls tickled my skin as he made a small movement in his sleep.

Did you seriously just describe a reverse mullet?

And then we meet the guy she's spooning with. You ever want to know what a Gary Stu sounds like when you describe him?

His face was too triangular, almost too delicate, crossing that line into androgyny, the nose perky, a little less than perfect, his mouth wide, bottom lip thick and pouting. It was a sensual face. But it was the eyes that made the face, or ruined it. My first thought was that his eyes were yellow. But there was a thick ring of gray green around the pupil; the overall effect was a deep golden yellow-green set in a tanned face. They weren’t human eyes, and don’t ask me how I knew, but they weren’t wolf eyes either.

Geesh.

The guy's name is Micah. He is also, apparently, hung like a horse. Micah is the leader of a clan of were felines, and he was invited into Anita's territory by one of her people, the same stupid broad who dumped Nathanial off at this damn club in the first place. It takes about three seconds for things to devolve to the pointing guns at each other part. And apparently everybody sleeping with Anita was a way to help her heal.

And then Anita's arm starts giving her trouble. Micah offers to heal it for her, because he can "Call flesh". Meanwhile two of Anita's wereleopards show up and they know what "calling flesh" means, and are suitably impressed. They have to almost hold Anita down to get her to let Micah heal her arm. The healing must be done with the lights off, for some reason, and Anita is...not at all freaked out about being in a locked room with no light and an awful, awful lot of strange men.

Again, it is very confusing. There's a lot of pawing and patting, and comparsion of blood to food--"Exotic candy" in one sentence, "Icing" in another. We cut to Jean Claude in a jail cell at one point...and then all of a sudden we cut to the sexy-sexy.

Only it's not so sexy-sexy. Jean Claude needs power, and as he's locked up in a jail cell he can't get it himself, so he uses Anita to seduce Micah so he can feed off the power of Anita having sex with Micah, and also off Micah's blood. So basically, she's having sex against her will with Micah because Jean Claude has told her to.


This is a rape scene.

And it's also the end of the chapter.

I'm going to go take a shower now.