by Lyla Oweds
Another pause.
“I don’t care why you think I sound familiar, but you can go fuck yourself.”
With those words, Miles pulled the phone away from his ear and disconnected the call.
“Sometimes I hate that little douchebag,” he growled.
My world exploded around me. “Finn is so angry…”
What was I going to do now?
Chapter Nine
Fear
Damen’s hold briefly tightened before he let go, turning me to face him. His hands remained on my shoulders as a comforting presence. “Who cares, Bianca? What can he do to you anyway?”
While his words seemed harsh, his eyes were anything but. His gaze sought out mine—concerned and wanting answers. But I couldn’t respond, because the answer to his question was ‘a lot.’ I had been so stupid. I never should have mentioned the haunting to Finn at all. It was my fault that it had come to this. I knew all along what might happen, but I had been so desperate I hadn’t cared.
I had only hoped that Finn might have listened, for once.
Then I had picked a fight about my medication. Of course, he was suspicious.
Finn on the warpath meant he’d be seeking answers. And when he wanted something, he was relentless—destroying everything in his path in order to get it.
It was too late now. There was no way he wouldn’t know that I had seen Damen. No way he wouldn’t put two and two together.
No way that this wouldn’t end with the same thing happening to me again…
“Bianca.” Damen snapped his fingers in my face, causing me to jerk back and refocus my scattered thoughts. He frowned at me, his eyes blazing with anger. “What has he done in the past?”
I was stuck in a daze—numb. Cursing myself for my stupidity.
Indistinctly, I realized I’d taken a seat on the couch again. Damen was on his knees in front of me. From this position, my eyes were level with his face, and his arms surrounded me on either side. I could barely see Miles, but he was perched on the arm of Damen’s chair.
Both of them wore concerned expressions. Why did they care so much? We had only just recently become friends.
Would Damen rescind his offer to help me if he knew?
I had not yet revealed everything—but both were watching me, waiting for me to tell them what was wrong. And I knew what they wanted. I had gotten them involved. Finn would blow this up, I was sure. They had to know—at least the history. It was only fair.
“I’m adopted,” I began, my feelings fading into numbness. “I grew up in foster care until I was eight.”
Damen shifted in front of me, and his hands rested on my knees now. Neither he nor Miles said anything, waiting for me to continue.
“I lived in three homes before I was adopted. The last two places were…strict. The couple in the first home taught me to hide the fact that I could sense, or see, things. Hiding my abilities became the only way for me to survive.”
Damen started to say something, but I cut him off. I needed to get this out before I lost my nerve.
“When I was finally adopted, I started a new school. That’s where I met Finn—he was in my class. Finn was always alone too, so I thought that I had found a kindred soul. I sensed he was being stalked by something malicious, and I couldn’t ignore it. If I had, it would have killed him.”
Damen seemed to be more contemplative than concerned. “Do you know what it was?” he asked.
I shook my head and glanced back at my hands. “I never saw anything like it before, but I also didn’t know a lot either. It wasn’t a human spirit though; I did know that. I had no idea what to do, so I tried talking to it. I told it to leave.”
“I’m not sure what happened next, but it attacked me.” I tried to be brave, as I recalled the dreadful events and the fear that threatened to make me puke. “I woke up in the hospital, and it was gone. Finn was there. The doctors said my heart had stopped and Finn found me. We became close friends after that.
“Not long after, it came back,” I continued. “I was afraid to talk to it alone again, so I told Finn what I saw this time. At first, he was interested in what I had to say. So I told him more about me—about being able to see and feel the presence of spirits. At the end of the day, we went our separate ways, like normal.
“The next day—after homeroom started—I was called to the principal’s office. Finn was there, so were my parents…and some strangers.”
Damen’s white-knuckled grip on my knees turned painful, and I squirmed. He released his grip with an apology. He abruptly stood up, the burning anger in his expression barely-contained as he glared into the fireplace.
“I can imagine what happened next,” Miles interjected as he moved to sit on the coffee table in front of me. “And before you say anything else, I want you to know that Damen and I really do believe you. We all believe you. We’ve all felt that same loneliness in our lives. Please don’t allow Finn’s actions to cause you not to trust us.” He took my hand in his, and his deep eyes only reflected genuine sincerity. “We will never abuse the trust that you place in us.”
“I was diagnosed with acute schizophrenia,” I admitted, staring at our entwined hands. “It was considered a serious case, and I was institutionalized. The only way for me to ever leave the facility was to admit that I was sick, to give in to their treatments. So I conceded and did what they wanted me to do. I didn’t want to cause my adoptive parents any more stress or concern.
“But I wasn’t sure about myself or what I had experienced.” I bit my lip, wondering if it had been my imagination. “I felt deep down that Finn really did believe me that day. Something about the way that he responded—it was like he knew. I certainly wanted him to believe me. I was only trying to protect him. So afterward, when a blatant supernatural event happened again, I tried to bring it to his attention to get his reaction. But he would usually reason it away—or just remind me that I was sick. I never knew how he would react.
“In retrospect, I shouldn’t have said anything to him this time, either.” I let go of Miles’s hand. “But I thought that if he came with me to my professor’s home—if he heard the noises, then I thought he’d have to believe me. Rational people can’t remain in denial about an obvious truth, right?”
The silence in the room was deafening. I glanced up, unable to miss the barely restrained fury in Miles’s expression, and the blazing anger in Damen’s eyes.
I was suddenly unsure of my confession. Why were they this angry?
Finn had only acted that way out of concern. Surely, they had to see that. He thought he was serving my best interests. After all, he didn’t believe in the paranormal.
Right?
I attempted to alleviate the tension in the air. “It’s not all that bad,” I said. “You can’t force someone to believe. He cares about me; that’s why he gets concerned. His heart is in the right place.”
Damen barked out a short laugh—the first sound that he had made in a while. “Seriously?”
The developing conclusion was undeniable, but that didn’t make it any easier to comprehend.
“Damen?” I forced his name out, scared to hear the words that could shatter my world.
Miles cut off Damen’s response. “Damen, not now.”
Damen glowered at him, but it was too late. That was all the confirmation I needed.
I stared at my clenched fists. “It seems so obvious now. This ‘paranormal experience’ that you guys have is a family affair, isn’t it? Finn knows it’s all real, doesn’t he? Are you all like me?”
I was surprised, however, when Damen let out a soft laugh at my question. “You really do come up with some wild, outlandish theories.”
I blushed, embarrassed. After all, I thought I was onto something.
“But you are actually somewhat correct this time,” he continued.
It took a moment for his words to process, my mind tired and muddled from the events of the day. Still, I didn’t miss the proud gleam in his
eyes as he watched me.
“Wait,” I said. “Really? You’re like me?”
“Not entirely correct,” Damen responded. “You are two for one.”
What was I wrong about, then?
“We have paranormal experiences because our families are involved with certain aspects of the supernatural world,” he said. That explained nothing. “Finn, however, is fully aware of the realities of this world—paranormal included. But we are not sensitives.” As he finished his statement, a dark look overtook his features.
I was in shock as it registered. He knew.
Finn knew that I wasn’t lying—or sick. That the things I saw were real.
…And he still did those things to me.
The world shimmered, and even Damen wavered as my heart shattered into a million pieces. “Why would he do that?”
Miles slid to the side, and suddenly Damen was kneeling in front of me again. “I don’t know why,” he said, holding my hands. “But I’ll be sure to find out.”
“I thought he was my friend.” I sounded so pathetic right now. “He was my only friend. I wasn’t even allowed to talk to anyone else.”
A storm brewed in Damen’s eyes. “Like I said, I—we—will be sure to find out what’s going on with Finn. He’s a jerk, but he usually has a reason behind his actions. Probably not a good reason, but I’m sure there’s justification in his mind.”
Miles took a seat next to me again and leaned forward, catching my gaze. “It’s not like he’s been a very good friend to you, anyway. Based on just this one conversation, he’s more like a jealous, abusive boyfriend.”
I flinched. Yesterday, I would have been overjoyed to hear the word ‘boyfriend’ associated with Finn, but hearing ‘jealous’ and ‘abusive’ mixed with that label left everything tainted.
“I don’t know what’s normal,” I admitted. “I thought he was just protective. That he really cared. I don’t know what to think anymore.”
“Normal is different for everyone. To find your normal though, you need to know what true friendship is like. There is a difference, however, between controlling and protective,” Damen replied. “Luckily, you have us now. And we tend to keep each other in line.”
There it was again. Despite everything, Damen seemed so sure that he wanted to be my friend. “I don’t understand why you want to be my friend.”
Damen’s eyes lost some of that scorching anger at my question. “I’m glad you asked. Let me tell you a story.”
I wasn’t sure what a story had to do with anything, but I nodded anyway. He seemed to know what he was doing.
“Once upon a time, a handsome young man was waiting for his perpetually-late friend. It was the icing on top of a very bad day in a string of bad days. The young man had been bored with his life for a long time. He was full of ideas, but he lacked initiative and had no desire to do anything with them.” Damen’s eyes sparked playfully.
I fought the urge to hide my face, as I started to realize where this story was leading. Miles, on the other hand, didn’t resist. He groaned and covered his eyes.
Damen continued, unashamed at how he sounded. “When his friend arrived—or so he thought—he opened the door to see an angel on the other side. He wasn’t sure what to make of her at first. But when she said that she was friends with the devil, he couldn’t help but be concerned. After all, no one could deal with evil without being burned. The last thing he wanted was for this beautiful girl to get hurt.”
With every cheesy word, my face burned even more.
“Then he saw that she was loyal, brave, and imaginative. Something strange happened. For the first time in a long time, he felt inspired. He wanted to help her—to learn more about her.” Damen paused a moment, and a thoughtful expression crossed his face. “Actually, it was more than a want. He felt as though he needed to be with her. Why, exactly, he wasn’t sure himself.”
He touched my hot face with his finger, lifting my chin until our gazes met. Despite the playfulness of his story, nothing in his eyes indicated anything less than complete sincerity.
“But there is something.” His speech slowed as his gaze turned contemplative. “I can’t place my finger on it, and it should be impossible. But there is definitely something.”
Miles shifted, and I tore my gaze from Damen. Miles wore a strange look, and I wondered if Damen’s flirting had made him uncomfortable.
I knew that I felt weird about it, in any case.
However, Miles only seemed confused—no hint of annoyance or embarrassment. “Me too,” he said. “That’s strange. It’s familiar, but not.”
I blinked at the two of them. What were they going on about?
Miles shook his head, then looked back to me. “We should exchange numbers. Since we are friends and everything.”
“Oh.” I glanced at my lap, ashamed again.
“It’ll be more convenient to be able to contact you. And since you live on campus usually, you’ll be seeing a lot of me,” Miles grinned. “I might be a senior, but I live close to the library.”
That was interesting. I’d figured that he lived here, with Damen.
He nodded knowingly. “It’s too far to commute with my classes and study schedule. So it made more sense for me to have an apartment there. I do have a secondary room here at Damen’s. Julian and Titus do as well, actually. In any case,”—Miles pulled out his phone—“you’re stalling. What’s your number? If you don’t feel comfortable, you can—”
“That’s not it.” I didn’t want him to get the wrong idea. But it was embarrassing… “This isn’t exactly my phone…” I felt like such a loser. “It’s Finn’s phone. He has access to my calls and texts too. I know that he reads them, so he’d see…They said it’s for security. I wasn’t allowed to get a phone before he helped me.”
You could have heard a pin drop in the following silence.
“I’m sorry,” I continued to watch my fingers touching. “I’ve been trying to save up my own money—for living expenses next year and so that I could buy my own phone. But there’s only certain kinds of work that I can do…”
“What do you mean by that?” Damen interjected. “Don’t worry about the phone. But just in case…Miles, you turned it off. Right?”
Miles nodded, his face carefully blank.
Why would he have needed to shut off the phone? I didn’t have a chance to ask before Damen stood up and returned to his spot by the fireplace. “You’re eighteen, right? Your parents shouldn’t need to give you permission to do anything.”
“I don’t have my driver’s license. Also, I don’t have a copy of my birth certificate or social security card. No one at the university office will give me a copy. They said it’s against school policy. And my parents don’t trust me with that information,” I explained. “Brosnan isn’t my given name. Honestly, I don’t know what it is, and I have no idea where to start looking.”
Damen was scowling as he rubbed his temples. Miles wore a similar expression. He pulled out his phone and began typing without a word.
What was—
“Does Finn know that you have no identification?” Damen asked, his tone passive. “How did you even enroll in college? There’s no way that they aren’t involved then…” he muttered—probably not expecting me to hear that last part.
They were getting tired of me already. After all, this was pretty pathetic.
“Finn knows,” I told him. “He said that it’s normal to be protective of girls, especially considering my history. I know that the paperwork exists, but Finn and my parents took care of my enrollment here. I only had to choose a major.”
Damen rubbed his hand down his face, and my heart clenched.
They were going to turn me away. I was too complicated.
Miles’s phone vibrated. He checked it briefly before glancing up at Damen. “He says he’s free for a late lunch.”
Who was he? Instead of elaborating, Miles put away his phone and turned toward me. “Don’t worry, we’ll get
to the bottom of this—and your ghost, too. In the meantime, if you can’t use that phone to contact us, then we’ll get you another.”
“But…” Breath catching in my throat, I stared between the two of them. “You can’t just—”
“Shush.” Miles put a finger to my lips, silencing me. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but—like Finn—we can afford it.”
Yes, I might have suspected. It was obvious, despite the exterior of Damen’s home. But I couldn’t help but feel like a burden.
“If it makes you feel better, we’ll put you to work. That way you can earn your phone,” he stated, the corners of his mouth upturning slightly. “You can help me carry equipment and assist Titus with set-up and monitoring.”
Titus—the mafia lumberjack? He was the techie? I thought that security guys were supposed to be brainless muscle.
Though, he was terrifying, hot muscle. But still…
Plus, that meant I’d have to hang around him. My heart thudded from trepidation. It was unlikely, but I still couldn’t get over my unexplainable terror of being eaten alive.
Then something else occurred to me, and I turned to Damen in shock. “You actually have ghost-hunting equipment?”
Chapter Ten
Element
I glanced around the dimly lit restaurant. The crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, inlaid gold on the walls, and luxurious linen on the tables—everything drew my gaze. After all, there was nothing else for me to do, since the three of us were waiting for the fourth in our party to arrive.
The atmosphere made me nervous, but Miles and Damen appeared to be perfectly at ease, as if they came here all the time.
And they probably did.
Miles sat next to me—our backs to the entrance—and Damen took the open seat across from him. I was still trying to come to terms with being a guest in such an elegant place.