Voices in the Darkness

by Rebecca Royce

  I grinned at Oliver. One night back together, and it was easy with him. “Thanks?”

  He winked at me. The blush that hit my cheeks made me want to groan. A little ability to hide the things I felt would have been nice.

  A thought dawned on me. “Oh, Aaron, I have something of yours.”

  I got up from my perch and ran to my purse. Coming back, I held it out to him.

  Aaron lifted his eyebrows. “Really? What?”

  I shook the stone into my hand. I’d taken it with me everywhere since he’d given it to me. “Thank you for this. I think it saved my life.”

  He stared at the gem in my palm, mouth hanging open. “It did?”

  Maybe I’d taken that too far. “Well. It’s been my good luck charm at least.”

  Colton shifted. “I don’t know if it was the amethyst, but it could just be that you’re a bit psychic.”

  I shook my head. “No, totally not.” I lifted my hand toward Aaron. “I held onto it, and I think it did give me some sort of instinct. That’s how I knew where to find you guys and what to do that night, when I had the idea to bleed on the ground. It all came from this. So, thank you. But it’s yours, and I’m glad to have the chance to give it back.”

  He closed my hand over the amethyst. “This is yours. My gift to you, and… I think it was actually Kelly who had the thought to give it to you. Plus, I like the idea of you having it. Amethysts are good for psychics.”

  “Then maybe you should find one to give it to?” I sassed.

  Sometimes, I just had a feeling about a case. I knew where to look, what boxes to open, where someone would be. That wasn’t being psychic. That was just being good at my job.

  “I still think you’re psychic.” Aaron leaned forward and grabbed my hands. “Whatever you want to call it.”

  “I prefer hunch-listener. Or gut-checker,” I answered. For some reason, being called psychic bothered me. It left too much to the other. Things could be shades of gray, but then I’d drag those things to one side of the spectrum or the other.

  “Gut-checker.” Colton rested his arm across the back of the sofa. “I like that, too.”

  “Are you afraid of it?” Aaron asked. Leave it to him to get right to the heart of things. He had the ability to read me like a book.

  “No,” I answered honestly. “After Erdirg, I’m not afraid of ghosts or whatever urban legend shows up.”

  “You did screech when you saw the ghost,” Oliver reminded me.

  “That fucking thing popped up out of nowhere. And it was in my house. And it had been a decade since the last time one got the jump on me.” I wondered if I was defending myself too much. “It was a ghost. I can be afraid for a minute, but then I get to work. Like with this sleep clinic. I don’t know what I’m going to find, but I’m still going to walk through the front doors. It’s like—what’s that term—a calculated risk.”

  “What sleep clinic?” Colton asked. “You have a case you’re working on?”

  “Yeah. My boss asked me to take a look into some weird shit happening there. The client is claiming possession.”

  “Want some help?” Colt crossed one leg over the other, totally relaxed. We were talking possessions here, but we could have been discussing the weather for as much concern as he showed.

  So—help. That would be different. Hopefully, the guys we used to clear places after I identified what was going on wouldn’t be too upset. Looked like we’d be using in-house help this time. “Do you really want to?” I asked.

  “You’re looking at Master Trappers,” Aaron announced. “Not only is this what we do, but we teach other people to do it. A possession is like the paranormal equivalent of scrambling eggs.”

  “As in, any chef can do it?” I asked, refusing to be insulted. Scrambling eggs was pretty hard for me.

  “Exactly.” Oliver’s phone dinged before the words left his mouth. He glanced down and smiled. “Thorn just landed.”

  “Good thing,” Colton turned to look out the window. “The snow is coming down harder.”

  “A while back, Rick had me go up to Ketchikan to find a runaway. I flew up with a bush pilot through a blizzard, and we had to land on a glacier.”

  Colton’s face paled. It had been pretty scary, but it’d also been exciting. The bush pilot had just laughed, utterly at ease in the cockpit, and I’d taken my cues from her. If she wasn’t worried, then I wouldn’t be. We were still friends, actually, and whenever I had to fly somewhere, Rick would book my ticket with her.

  “It was like riding a roller coaster,” I said, trying to soothe him. “Should we run to get him?”

  “You want to meet him at the airport?” Oliver asked.

  “Yeah,” I answered. “I can show you the town. Maybe we’ll meet a moose.”

  This time, it was my phone to ding. Rick texted me. If I was up for it, he had a job for me that I could do tonight. A one-off assignment that should take a few hours to get done. I chewed on my lip, considering things. I had houseguests I hadn’t seen in a decade. Four of them. But I could really use the money if I was going to get the kitchen cabinets redone this year. Or fix my car.

  “How about this? We go pick up Thorn at the airport. I show you guys around a little bit. Then we can come back here. You guys can rest; you must be tired. And I’ll do a quick non-paranormal job?”

  All three of them spoke at once with some version of, “I’m not tired.”

  I smiled. “You may not be yet, but you will be. I don’t have to do this until tonight. There’s a woman making a worker’s compensation claim against her employer. Says she can’t walk, but it looks like she has been spotted country line dancing every Wednesday night. That’s where I come in.”

  Colton sat forward. “Do you take photos?”

  “I do.”

  It was funny. I actually had more faith in humanity investigating people who were lying than I had back home where I was from. At least here, when people were doing sketchy stuff, they seemed to have reasons for it. Not just random hate with no end in sight.

  I stood up. “Do you think that would work?”

  “Sure.” Aaron smiled. “If you’re up for that. How are you feeling?”

  I shrugged. “I have a little headache. But I’m fine.”

  A thought dawned on me. Rick had left me with one of his cars that I’d used to go to the grocery store earlier, but it wasn’t going to fit everyone. I turned to Colton. “Can we use your SUV? Mine is too small.”

  “For sure,” he nodded. “I’m driving. I imagine you shouldn’t be, considering things. Although, I sort of guess you are, aren’t you?”

  I smiled at him. “Guilty.”

  “Tell Thorn we’ll be there in a bit,” Aaron said. “Lacey, can I speak to you alone for just a second?”

  “Sure.” I rose. “We can talk in my bedroom.” I gestured toward the hall and stairs. There really wasn’t anywhere else to have a private conversation.

  I walked that way, and he followed me into my bedroom. Aaron was maybe a whole two inches taller than the last time I saw him. He’d only been seventeen when we’d last spoken. Not so weird that he wouldn’t have been done growing. I had to look up just a little bit more than I used to in order to speak to him.

  “What’s up?”

  He pressed me into the wall, and a second later, his mouth was on mine. It was hot, demanding, and sudden. I sighed, practically melting into him. I hadn’t seen this coming, but the second his mouth touched mine, I wanted it.

  His body was flush against my own. All too soon, he lifted his mouth from mine. “For ten years, all I’ve wanted was to go back in time and do that. I couldn’t live another second with the regret.”

  It was everything I could do to not immediately grind my body against him and take him to the bed.

  “I never thought I’d get the chance,” I said. “I thought if I ever saw you again, you’d pretend you didn’t know me.”

  “Why did you hide for so long?” He pushed my hair back, kee
ping his hands framed around my face. “We looked and looked.”

  “I was afraid,” I admitted. “Ashamed. This evil inside me blotted out a demon. I didn’t want it to touch you. You’re too kind. Too innocent.”

  He lifted his eyebrows and leaned into me a little. He was hard, and his erection hit me just right. “I was never innocent where you were concerned. I think you might have made some assumptions about me.”

  “Probably,” I admitted. “But you were the nicest person I’d ever met. You treated me like a person, and I know it was partially because of Erdirg, but no one else treated me with a grain of respect.”

  He leaned closer, kissing me again. His lips were soft, and he trailed them over mine, brushing them back and forth before pressing them harder. He tasted like the mint and honey from the tea I’d made.

  I wanted to feel him. Letting my hands wander lower, I gripped his belt loops and pulled him flush against me. He moaned into my mouth before sucking on my tongue. Holy shit. Aaron could kiss.

  Someone knocked on the door, and I jumped. “Sorry!” Oliver called out. “But I don’t want Thorn freezing outside the airport terminal.”

  “Right,” Aaron whispered. He kept his eyes shut for a minute, like he was trying to gather himself. “Thorn. We don’t want him to freeze, so that’s why I can’t keep kissing you. He’s my friend.” He opened his eyes and smiled. “But really. How cold is it? He’ll be fine.”

  I giggled before slapping a hand over my mouth. Had that sound come out of me? It was light and happy, and while I wasn’t quite the emo-angsty-bad-girl I used to be, I wasn’t someone who giggled very often.

  Aaron held out his hand, pulling me toward the door and downstairs. From the hall, I could make out Oliver and Colton bundling up. “I started the car with this nifty remote car starter.”

  “I didn’t think that SUV was an economy rental.” I shoved my feet into my boots.

  When no one answered, I glanced up from zipping my jacket to find the guys staring at my feet.

  “What?” I asked, looking down. I picked up each boot, checking the bottom to make sure I hadn’t stepped in dog poop or something. “What is it?”

  “What are those?” Colton asked.

  “My boots.” I’d think it was pretty obvious.

  “Do they keep you from flying away when you’re in space?” Aaron asked.

  Oliver took up where Aaron left off. “Are they heat resistant so when you walk through lava fields, you aren’t burned?”

  “Shut up.” I lifted the bench where I kept all my winter gear. Inside were mittens, hats, and scarves. Most of them were gray, black, or white, so I handed them out to the ungrateful brats who were still chuckling about my boots.

  Colton snapped his fingers. “They contain magnets so you can walk up the side of a building.”

  I flung a scarf at his face. “Yeah. Yeah. Very funny. But we’ll see whose toes are toasty warm and which cheechakos are slipping all over the ice.”

  “What’s a cheechako?” Aaron asked as he opened the door. A gust of frosty wind burst through, and he shivered. I glanced down at his leather boots.

  “Sorry. You’ll have to hang out in Alaska to learn all our secrets.”

  He smiled, looking past me toward Colton and Oliver. “That’s my plan.”

  We got in the almost fully warmed up rental car, and I directed them toward the airport. They’d all come from there, but I knew some back roads that got us there more directly. Colton drove, and I sat next to him in the front seat. Aaron and Oliver both stared at their phones in the back.

  I watched them periodically from the rearview mirror, and one-time, Oliver caught me and winked. I blushed again. My turning red all the time was becoming a problem. When we finally arrived at the airport, I directed Colton away from the lower ramp pick up. It was too low for most big cars—I’d almost gotten into trouble with that once—and we went instead to the middle one where passengers could wait once they had all their stuff collected.

  I’d thought I’d been prepared to see Thorn. I’d had reunions with Aaron, Oliver, and Colton already. Hell, I’d made out with two of them. But seeing Thorn stole my breath for a long moment.

  My earliest fantasies had been of Thorn. And there he was. Sitting on top of his luggage, not bundled up enough for the weather, and so fucking beautiful. His hair was shaggy but not long, and at some point, he’d grown a neatly shaved beard that covered his face. But his eyes were the same.

  He stared down at his phone, not looking up as we approached. That was right. He’d have no way of knowing this car. My heart beat too fast.

  “Lacey.” Aaron leaned forward. “Roll down the window and call out to him. Tell him we’re here?”

  “What? Oh, okay. Sure.” I did just as he instructed, lowering the window, which immediately dropped the temperature in the car ten degrees.

  Still, I stuck my head out the window and called out. “Thorn. Hi, it’s us.”

  He jolted, nearly falling off his suitcase before he caught himself and stood up. He met my gaze, and his smile was huge.

  I couldn’t help it. Embarrassment would hit me later, I was sure of it, but I took off my seatbelt and was out of the car as soon as Colton pulled over.

  He opened his arms, and I walked into them like it was the most natural thing in the world.

  He wrapped me up against him, and even though I could hear his teeth chattering, I held on like I had every right to do so.

  “It is so f-fucking good to see you, Lacey.”

  I smiled. “Come on. Let’s get you in the car. I’m… Well, I’ll tell you all the things I need to say later. Come on. Take the middle in back so you can get warmer faster.”

  He didn’t argue, and I wasn’t surprised. It really was cold out here, and now officially dark as well.

  5

  We only had to stop for a moose once.

  I sat in the back, having given up my spot to Oliver because I wasn’t quite ready to let go of Thorn yet.

  I still wasn’t embarrassed about launching myself at him. This was my friend, and I couldn’t get enough of him.

  Colton and Aaron hung out the windows, snapping pictures of the very bored moose while I held onto Thorn’s hand and studied him in the dim light.

  “Do I look different?” he asked.

  He did. They all had a quiet confidence that they hadn’t had before. It was like Oliver had said, they’d sort of been faking it as teenagers, but it was clear that they had come into their own.

  “You do,” I answered. I reached for his face, stopping at the last minute. I hadn’t asked permission. It was like no time had passed, but it wasn’t cool for me to hang all over him. He took my hand and brought it to his face for me.

  “Don’t hesitate to touch me,” he said. “All I want is to feel your skin.”

  I swallowed. Wow. Thorn had always been honest. I was glad he hadn’t lost that.

  “Did you see that?” The heat suddenly blasted as Colton rolled up the windows. “That guy was huge! And the rack! He was taller than the car.”

  “Do you remember that site in New Hampshire?” Thorn asked. “The one the locals thought was a UFO?” He leaned over toward me. “Methane. Not an alien spacecraft.”

  Colton groaned. “How could I forget? All my gray hairs are from swerving to avoid that thing.”

  I nodded along with them, feeling totally lost and a little left out.

  Aaron glanced over at me. “So, Interstate 91 is supposed to be this hotbed of alien activity. People report it all the time.”

  “When did you branch out from paranormal to sci-fi?” I teased, trying to hide my hurt feelings behind a joke.

  “We haven’t,” Aaron replied. “But sometimes, alien sightings are actually ghosts or ancient creatures. In this case, it was swamp gas and a moose who’d taken to kneeling in the middle of the highway to lick the salt off the roads.”

  “Oh no!”

  “Does that happen here?” Thorn asked.

&n
bsp; “No,” I replied. “I don’t think so. I’ve only seen dirt and gravel spread on roads. I should look up why. You’re lucky you didn’t hit it. I’ve seen trucks accordioned by moose.” It wasn’t pretty. “Those animals can weigh a thousand pounds.”

  “No freaking way,” Thorn replied. It was too dark now for me to see his face, but I could almost feel him smiling at me.

  “Way.” I quoted one of our favorite movies from our childhood before I changed the subject. “So, there’s a nice little Italian restaurant across from the sleep clinic. What do you say to eating out?”

  Thorn squeezed my hand, and Aaron grabbed the one that sat on my knee.

  “I think that’s a perfect idea. I’m starving.”

  “Good. I can scope out the outside while we’re over there and then leave you guys home before I go out and catch my injured mark dancing.”

  Colton shook his head. “Just one problem I thought of.”

  “What’s that?” I leaned forward so I could see him slightly better and didn’t miss the way he glanced over and down briefly to my slightly exposed cleavage. I’d been zippered all the way up, but now that the heat was up full blast, I’d pulled it down. I smiled. Colton must like the little touch of cleavage.

  “You are concussed, and you aren’t supposed to be driving. I know you have been but…” His voice trailed off. “How about I take you?”

  I actually wouldn’t mind the company. I was just going to get a few quick photographs in the bar if the woman was very un-injured and dancing. “Are you exhausted?”

  He shook his head fast. “Nope.”

  “Okay then. Sure, take me.”

  Aaron squeezed my leg. “Better you have company anyway.” He pointed to my head. “In case the pain gets worse.”

  Thorn furrowed his brow. “I hate to say I’m thankful for the concussion, but that is how I found you. We wouldn’t be sitting here now if you hadn’t whacked your head. But… be careful with yourself.”

  I swallowed, not at all sure what to say. I had Rick in my life, and he more than gave a damn. I was his family. And friends all over Alaska I could have a really good time with. But I didn’t know that I’d ever felt as warm as I did right then, and it had nothing to do with the heater in the car.