by R. A. Boyd
Silly man. He hadn’t exactly asked her to move in with him, but the not so subtle hints he’d been dropping were making it clear. He wanted her in his space.
The idea to argue and tell him she already had a place to stay popped into her mind, but it was useless. He wanted her here, and she wanted nothing more than to be with him.
Sadness clouded her chest with how happy she was right now. “I sure wish you could have met him,” she said out loud to the empty room.
Grandma and Benjamin would have loved Simon. They would have loved to see her happy. Somehow, she knew they could see her from where they were. They had to. The happiness and joy that steadily grew inside her had to be visible from every plane of existence.
Shaking her head to free herself of the tiny singe of sorrow that attempted to invade her mind, she reached forward and turned on the water. After brushing, bathing, washing her hair, and slathering on enough moisturizer and hair gel to tame her short mass of curls, she made her way down to the kitchen.
She had to stop herself from touching things as she went. It was a marvel to be a witness to all the beautiful things Simon had gathered over the years. Centuries? Vases, paintings, drawings, and furniture told a story of where he’d been. A sealed glass case sat in his family room. It contained ancient looking books, their covers in languages she’d never seen or heard before. A painting showing three scenes caught the breath in her chest. The first scene showed winged people flying in the air; the second, savage-looking beasts with their heads hanging in shame. She wanted to touch the third scene. A group of people standing in the distance with light shining in their chests. It was as if this painting told the story of the Ghost shifters. Their time as angels, their forms as saber-tooth cats, and their time now in human form. Charlie squinted hard to see the date written in small numbers in the corner. 1298. Holy crap.
As she walked through the sitting area, a picture in shades of greys and black with hints of red caught her attention. One man stood alone in a darkened field. He wore battle armor that looked heavy. It covered him from neck to mid-thigh. The crest was a winged animal sketched on his chest. The shape of his face and that tilted smile gave him away. It was Simon.
“Miri’s brother drew that picture after he had a vision of me.”
Charlie gasped, jumped and almost knocked the picture off the wall. Simon grabbed her and the picture, steadying them both as if it were a daily occurrence that didn’t seem to bother him.
“Don’t sneak up on me like that. I could have karate chopped you in the throat.” She bumped his hard chest with her shoulder. “Miri’s family sounds talented. What’s the vision he had of you? Were you in a war?”
Pulling her supple body flush against his hard one, Simon huffed a quiet laugh and kissed her neck. His soft, short beard tickled her, and she cupped his face to keep him close.
“Yeah,” he said, taking her hand in his and guiding her toward the kitchen. “I’ve been in a lot of wars. That picture right there was from the war against Vlad.”
Vlad? “As in the Impaler?” she sputtered, eyes unblinking as she looked between Simon and the picture of him as he guided her away. She kept forgetting he was old. Like really old.
“He was a real son of a bitch. And gross. I mean, who the fuck in their right mind does that shit.”
Questions! She had a bazillion of them.
“Those old books in the glass case?” she asked.
Simon pulled a kitchen chair out for her and helped her sit. She was too busy looking at him and compiling a massive list of questions to pay attention to what she was doing. There was no time to watch where her butt should go and she almost sat down on the arm of the chair.
“Just books I’ve picked up over time. A few of them belonged in Alexandria. It was burnt down before I could take them back.” He sucked his teeth and made a dismissive sound. “It was a real shame to lose all that stuff. Most of the scrolls and books there would have put what humans really think of their origins to shame.”
Alexandria? “As in the Great Library?”
“Which Great Library?” he asked. He put a coffee pod in the coffee machine and pressed the strongest setting.
Aww. He knew how blindingly full of caffeine she liked her coffee. He was getting a blow job when sex was on the table between them.
“Simon.”
“Yep.”
“How many Great Libraries were there? I mean, the only one I know of is the one that stood in Alexandria.”
He opened the refrigerator and pulled out the hazelnut cream. Putting it in front of her he said, “Well. There is one beneath the Sphynx. But they cut it off. It has a direct link to the Akashic Records.” His lips turned down in a frown. “People wouldn’t know what to do with themselves today if they could get to it.”
Mind blown. He’d been beneath the freaking Sphynx? “Is civilizations older than they are telling us?”
“Fuck yeah.” He scoffed, crossed his arms over his chest, and waited for the machine to finish the coffee before he made another cup. “This planet has been here for billions of years, and they want everyone to believe people just started doing shit a few thousand years ago? Great civilizations have come and gone. So have ice ages and planetary catastrophes. People know. They are just too lazy to rewrite the history books.”
Oh, God. Simon was a well of information almost no one on the face of this planet had access to. So were all of this brothers and his sister. Asking him questions was going to be so much freaking fun.
She took the mug he handed her and started adding creamer to it. Mmm. Good stuff.
Over the next hour, Charlie blasted Simon with questions about everything she could think of: ancient structures, the Garden of Eden, parallel universes, and aliens. Aliens! Listening to him patiently answer her questions while she shoveled pancakes, bacon, and eggs into her face left her overwhelmed and amazed. She knew things now. Things that would haunt and intrigue her for years.
“Simon, why haven’t you written books? This is amazing. And scary. But mostly amazing.” She took the last sip of her tepid coffee, wondering how he could stay sane with all that knowledge of passing time in his head. Out of all the things he’d told her there was one thing he left out. “What’s really happening? The guys you were fighting when I found you in the alley? Your brother being awake and siding with the people who want to hurt you? It doesn’t make sense.”
She didn’t want to intrude, but she needed answers. This was her life now, and she needed to know everything.
Lacing his fingers together in front of him, he ran his tongue over his bottom lip. “It doesn’t make sense. He may have been crazy when he was put down, but he wouldn’t have turned on us. Not like this. There has to be more. I just wish he would tell us.”
She knew all about why Ronin had been put to sleep and what that sleep would do to benefit him. Charlie shrugged and started gathering their dishes. “Do you think one of the bad witches did something to him? Poisoned his mind and turned him against you? He probably hates himself for what he did to your brother and sister. Self-hatred is venom. It digs its teeth in and makes you do and say things you wouldn’t normally do or say.”
Simon looked at her with his lips pressed into a thin line. “Yeah. You’re right.” He scratched his chin with his thumbnail and nodded. “You are right.”
Gathering all the dishes, Charlie stood and started cleaning the kitchen. Simon tried to stop her but she shooed him away. He made breakfast. She could at least be courteous and tidy up the kitchen.
They talked as she rinsed the dishes and put them in the dishwasher. Today was for them. There was plenty of time to have lunch or dinner with the rest of his family. He wanted her alone and that was fine with her.
His phone vibrated in his pocket, and when he looked down at the screen, a look of frustration knitted his eyebrows together. “Do you mind if I leave for a little bit? Jace wants to go for a run to work off some tension.” His gaze darkened. “He’s going through a
lot right now. His mate rejected him and—”
“Simon,” Charlie said. She walked over to where he sat and touched the side of his face. He leaned into her touch. The contrast of his smooth face and hairy beard made her smile. “You don’t have to explain. I’m just sorry things didn’t work out with his mate.”
He stood and slipped his hands around her waist. “I think he’s wrong. Something must have happened.” He rested his chin on top of her head. “They’ll work something out when they meet next week.”
She pushed her face against him and kissed where his heart beat in his chest. She looked up at him and put her hand to the spot she just kissed.
He grabbed her hand and held it close to him. “I’m so happy you’re here with me.”
Charlie raided the refrigerator after Simon left. She was going to make him her favorite meal for dinner and try to convince him to go to New Orleans with her when everything was back to normal for them. Gumbo and honey corned bread. Just thinking of the delicious combination made her mouth water. Even before checking his freezer she knew she would have to go to the grocery store to pick up the andouille sausage and crab claw meat. Those were things people didn’t just keep in the house. Well, she used to.
Cajun food was her favorite. New Orleans was her favorite place. She would have lived down there if it wasn’t so humid and filled with some of the largest mosquitos she’d ever seen in her life. It was a great place to visit and one of the few places that felt like home. It was also one of the places she avoided like the plague now. Her father knew she loved it there, and she knew he kept a constant eye on it to see when she would come back.
No more of that. Charlie was now confident in her safety. At least from her father. He could play that dumb ass game with her mate if he wanted to. If her dad decided to come for her now, not only was Simon going to put him in the hospital, Charlie knew that Cass and Audra would most likely maim him and show him his innards.
The thought lit something up inside her and brought a smile to her face. She should feel bad for wishing harm on her father, but that bastard had tried to kill her. So what if he was drunk. Alcohol was courage juice. It made people do what they really wanted to. Apparently, her father really wanted her dead. It still caused her pain to know most of her family was gone. The only ones worth being close to were dead, and as far as she was concerned, her father was dead to her too.
“Fuck you, dad,” Charlie muttered out loud. Fuck everyone who had tried to break her. Fuck them hard and fuck them sideways.
She had a new family now. Her father could go crawl in a hole and wait to join her grandfather in hell.
Charlie closed her eyes and took a few shuddering deep breaths, willing away the anger and hurt trying to weasel in and ruin her day.
Nope. None of that. She’d made a point never to cry about her family anymore. Her father, mother, and grandfather didn’t deserve her tears. Her brother and grandmother wouldn’t want her to keep crying over them. Every once a while, the ache of them being gone would seep in. That was okay. It was expected. They were good people.
Clapping her hands and rubbing them together to shake away those thoughts, Charlie started searching through the kitchen drawers until she found a pad and paper. Maybe one of her new sisters would make a market run with her. After writing down everything she needed, Charlie made her way through the kitchen to see what new appliances she could play with later. She loved cooking and baking, especially for other people. Watching them eat what she cooked for them brought her a type of satisfaction she couldn’t describe. She knew she could cook.
The colossal chrome and black stove was begging for her to use it. The refrigerator held the same color scheme as the stove, and so did the appliances. A stainless steel electric mixer sat on the counter. From the looks of it, the beautiful machine had never been used. She would remedy that today. The cabinets were a light auburn color that reminded her of Simon’s hair when the sunlight hit it.
“Where is he?”
Charlie slapped her hand over her mouth and jumped as Miri’s voice echoed through the room. She whirled around and saw the woman standing in the doorway of the kitchen. Her long dark hair was mussed and her clothes were wrinkled. In place of her lovely tanned skin was the pale pallor of sickness. Her chest heaved as she pushed labored breaths past her pursed lips. Could ghosts have panic attacks?
“Miri. What’s wrong?”
Charlie rushed over to her, and for a moment she wondered if she could touch her to try and calm her down. She was a ghost and had just materialized. Could she touch her now? She’d just appeared in the kitchen like she’d been there all along.
“Charlie,” she said, gripping Charlie’s hands within hers.
Miri’s hands were cold and felt wrong, almost like a gust of icy wind wrapped itself around the parts of her that Miri touched. Her eyes darted around the room, looking at things Charlie couldn’t see. And from the frightened look on Miri’s face, Charlie didn’t want to see what she saw.
“What can I do?” Charlie asked. She needed to get Simon.
“He tried to take it from me. My family tried to help, but he could see it shining inside me like a beacon.”
Simon’s soul. He had warned her that it was coveted. Simon needed to get home now. What the hell was his phone number?
“Miri,” Charlie said, taking hold of her cold hands and leading her to a kitchen chair. She pulled it out for her and urged her to sit. “I’ll go look for him. He’s out jogging with Jace.”
Miri shook her head so violently Charlie was afraid she would hurt herself. “There’s no time. I have to—” Her head shot up. She quirked her head to the side as if she could hear something Charlie couldn’t. “You have to keep it safe. Yes. You have to.”
“I don’t know how. I’m sure I can get him to…”
Charlie’s words trailed off as a speck of light began to form in the center of Miri’s chest. It grew from the dim glow of a faraway lightning bug to a brightly burning light bulb. It grew and grew and grew until Charlie had to shield her eyes from the blinding light.
She knew that light. It was so familiar to her. She narrowed her eyes as it intensified, unable to look away from it. As if she had stared at the brilliant Sun shining in the midday sky too long, dark spots began to rain in her vision. The light traveled from Miri’s chest and began to make its way to Charlie.
She wanted to shy away from it. It was so bright. It seemed as if it should burn her with its radiance, but it only emanated a coolness that calmed her insides. Charlie tried to speak but Miri grabbed her, cold fingers digging into the warm skin of her bare arms. Miri muttered words that Charlie couldn’t understand. Hell, she could barely hear them. But she could hear the light. She could hear it. It was speaking to her.
The light flashed and changed in form, growing and diming, glowing like dying embers of a fire and then gleaming like a newborn star. Simon’s beautiful soul hovered in front of her body, and when she opened her mouth to say hello to it, it drained into her. Brightness filled her vision as the light of the world began to permeate her body. It was a blanket of fire and life. It enveloped her, sinking into her skin.
Charlie sputtered as all of her senses kicked into overdrive. She could feel everything, experience everything as if she were made up of the world itself. The wood grains of the table beneath her hands were alive, moving yet completely still under her fingers. The wind outside called to her, asking her to come and join it in its journey across the earth. She could hear the blood inside her arteries and veins, traveling through her body to keep her cells full of what they needed. It was everything. It was love. Oh, God, his soul was love. She could feel his grace merging with his soul deep inside her. They caressed the parts of her that made her who she was; love, happiness, fear, and dejection that her father would want to kill his only living child. Hope and readiness to take on the world with Simon by her side.
She let out a moan of joy and agony that her grandmother and brother had
loved her so much. Her breath came in quick bursts as she fought to fill them with oxygen. Simon’s soul was all-consuming.
She was living and dying and living again.
Charlie wrapped her arms around her middle and slid out of the chair, falling to her knees as Simon’s soul found a home inside of her. It needed him but was jubilant to be inside of her. Inside of his mate.
A low hum filled her ears, and Charlie didn’t know if it was her making that magnificent sound or if it was Simon’s soul communicating with her. Soothing her. Everything was filled with that sound. What was it?
“Do you hear it, Miri?” she asked. Tears trickled down her full cheeks. She lay on the floor beneath the kitchen table, arms holding her together so she wouldn’t fly apart. Simon’s soul was so big. So big.
“I’ve listened to it every day for decades. It’s magnificent,” Miri whispered. She moved a few hairs from Charlie’s face that were tickling her eye. “Keep it until he gets back. Claim him as yours to return it to him. I’ll draw him away. I’m so sorry I wasn’t careful.” She bent down and kissed Charlie’s forehead.
With a barely audible pop that clogged Charlie’s ears, Miri vanished.
Chapter 11
“You wanna talk or something? That’s the best I can offer you. Charlie might skin me alive if I come back looking like I picked a fight with you.”
They’d run nonstop for over an hour, and all Simon wanted was to get back home to his mate. He knew his sisters were being as patient as possible and were trying to give them space. But that shit wouldn’t last too much longer. They’d be banging on his door, asking her to come along and do whatever girly crap it was they did when they went off together. It was a toss-up with those women. They could be making smelly-good lotions and soaps in the community hall with Paige, or they could be in town keeping douche bags in their place.