Page 16

Nika

“ S weet girl…” The husky whisper was unmistakable. “Wakey, wakey.”

Ryker.

“Why are you calling to her?” another voice asked, this one just as familiar. “How are we even here?”

Tometi.

Ryker sighed loud enough that I could’ve sworn he was right next to my ear.

“I don’t know. If I knew that, do you think I’d be here trying to get her to wake up so she can either confirm or deny our existence, hmm?

If you’re not going to do something helpful, just go stand over there and wait like a good bear. ”

“You’re not making any sense, wolf,” Tometi complained somewhere nearby. “Why would she know what happened to us? She barely understands her own power.”

“Sheesh, have you always been such a Negative Nancy?”

“I don’t know anyone named Nancy.”

“It’s a turn of phrase, you big idiot.”

“I still don’t know a Nancy. You never make any sense, and unlike in our hosts’ heads, I can’t tune you out anymore.”

Ryker released a long, suffering sigh, and that was when I opened my eyes with a start, sure it was all a dream until two figures next to the bed came into view—and it wasn’t the figures I expected. Two men towered over me, their translucency giving away what they were.

Not of this world.

One had shaggy light hair and a wolfish grin. He was about Lev’s height, lithe but muscular. The air he gave off was distinctly predatory. His smile broadened when our eyes met, and I sucked in a sharp breath of surprise.

I wasn’t sure how I knew it was Ryker, but everything about him felt that way. Big and fun-loving. Full of life for an animal that’d never truly lived his own. A friend who’d been there for me in the worst moments over the last half year.

The other man was a goddamn mountain. Nothing but muscle and masculinity everywhere I looked. Easily seven or so feet tall with how small the other seemed by comparison. Even Silas couldn’t out-height this giant.

His skin was darker, his eyes a striking amber color.

Short dark hair framed a lethal stare that would paralyze anyone to their spot, and yet, his eyes were the gentlest I’d ever seen.

Simmering with intelligent concentration and affection.

Somehow I knew it was the quiet, gentle friend I’d relied on for months.

Tometi.

I’d never imagined him as a man, but now that I was seeing this one, there wasn’t a question in my mind it was him. He couldn’t be anyone else.

The two looked similar to the way my father had in the dream I’d had before finding his soul—see-through specters who occupied the space between life and death.

They weren’t solid, but they weren’t flickering in and out of existence, either.

They felt more permanent than my father had, and I couldn’t pinpoint why.

Was this a dream?

“Ryker?” I rasped, voice still rough with sleep. “Tometi?”

The shaggy-haired man beamed another heart-stopping smile at me. “Told you she’d recognize us.”

The giant haunting the corner of the room nodded. “And see us.”

“Pretty girl,” Ryker practically moaned the term of endearment, “you have no idea how relieved I am that you can see and hear us. I was so sure we’d never get to talk to you again with that jerk playing host and keeping you all to himself.”

Barely breathing, I stared at the two of them and tried to piece together why they were here, and more importantly, in these very human forms. “How did this happen? Why are you…well, not a wolf and bear?”

“Beats me,” Ryker replied, a little too happy for someone who’d woken up a man.

Well, a ghost man. One who sported a pair of jeans and a tight-fitting shirt under a biker jacket.

And…tattoos? Piercings? Weird didn’t cover the feeling, but it felt like him.

“It’s a good thing you can hear and see us, or I’d go batty with this meathead keeping me company forever. ”

Tometi huffed and crossed his arms in annoyance. It was the first time I’d seen the bear do anything that felt remotely human. The mountain of muscles he sported flexed but were thankfully hidden under regular clothes. Not sure if I could keep my wits about me if they’d shown up in the nude.

“My head is more bone than meat, wolf,” the giant complained.

Ryker rolled his eyes in the most Ryker way possible. “See what I mean? He’s a troll who never gets the joke.”

“I’m a bear,” Tometi corrected, confusion twisting his face in the most adorable way possible.

It was quite beguiling how quickly a man his size became cute.

“Trolls no longer exist. They were eradicated centuries ago, you know this. And they looked nothing like bears. I would know. I fought an army of them.”

“Ah, but you don’t look like a bear anymore, friend,” Ryker sassed. “You’re devilishly handsome now.”

I snuck a glance at the giant. His mouth was pursed and he glared down at the body he now inhabited, not at all in agreement.

“I’m neither devil nor anywhere near as handsome as I once was.

Females would travel great distances to spend their heats with me when I roamed this earth.

Where’s all my glorious fur? This skin is no different than being naked. ”

“How are you this old and still not get it? Maybe for animals, but humans and those like them don’t like fur, obviously. Smooth is popular. Females find it hot,” the light-haired man explained, both amused and annoyed.

“I don’t see how temperature has anything to do with it. I was far warmer in fur than this hairless form.” Tometi flexed his muscles and checked his body for any sign of fur. “How do they keep their females warm during hibernation without it?”

Ryker scoffed. “Easy. They don’t hibernate.”

“A flaw in their biology,” Tometi said, disappointed.

“Have you been sleeping under a rock all these years we’ve been in Salvator’s head, or any others for that matter? He’s never hibernated, and he’s kept plenty of females warm.”

Tometi shrugged his massive shoulders. “That’s an odd thing to ask. I’ve only ever slept in caves, not under rocks.”

The conversation had derailed significantly.

The fact that Tometi took everything literally was part of his charm.

I’d noticed he’d tune out most conversations, and sometimes he’d understand the odd idiom or turn of phrase, but mostly he didn’t get it.

He didn’t seem to be learning them either, which only made him cuter somehow.

But the defeated look Ryker gave me stopped me from saying anything about it.

I couldn’t hide the smile, though. It crept across my face before I could stop it. If it weren’t imperative I find out what the fuck was happening, I’d be curious to hear more about trolls and Tometi’s thoughts on his new form versus his previous one.

But one thing was certain as they continued to grumble at each other, both stubborn and refusing to back down: I’d missed this comedy duo more than I could ever express.

It was surreal to see them together in a way that felt human and animal all at the same time. Ryker had always been expressive in his voice, but it was fascinating to watch that personality come through in both his gestures and expressions. He’d never been so Ryker until this moment.

“How did this happen?” I asked before we could go off track again. They probably didn’t have a clue—I’d heard as much before opening my eyes—but it felt important to ask. “Do you guys remember the transition from Salvator’s head to…this?”

Ryker shrugged as if none of it bothered him.

“No idea. Just sort of did. One minute we’re chattering away to annoy that grumpy asshole into coming to talk to you, and then we’re like this.

No bright light. No magical humming or chanting.

Just poof, phantoms roaming this plane in bodies we’ve never seen before. ”

I blinked at him. “Did Salvator see you?”

“He was asleep when we appeared like this, so not sure. Probably not or he’d be raising hell.” Ryker ran a hand through his translucent locks that still somehow beamed color.

Unlike my father’s form in the dream, the colors weren’t faded.

If anything, they were vibrant. I could distinguish all the shades and colorations of their bodies despite the translucency.

And one color that struck harder than the rest was the blue of Ryker’s eyes.

A clear sky on a shiny day. The color gleamed under a thick line of lashes.

My eyes naturally went to Tometi for confirmation.

“It’s as Ryker says. I’ve never seen these forms. It happened in an instant.

I have no recollection of any moment that would’ve made us this way.

I was never a man. I’ve always been a bear, even before I wandered as a soul seeking hosts.

This is magic I don’t recognize or understand. ”

It had to be weird for them to appear as men when they’d never once had a form outside of their hosts that were.

They still kept a lot of their animal mannerisms in what they did—shifting in agitation, smelling the air, eyes skittering about the area in caution, pulling back their upper lip to show their teeth in moments of discomfort.

But they weren’t animals anymore. They were men, and equally gorgeous in their own right. It hit differently because they’d been in my head for so long. For some reason, it felt like they’d been this way from the beginning, like they were never animals to me at all.

My expression must’ve given me away because Ryker stretched his arms and hopped from one foot to the other with a happy whoop. “But I like it! It’s a new adventure, and now I stand a real chance at wooing our girl here.”

Wooing me?

“You stand no chance,” Tometi rebuked firmly.

“Says you.”