Page 18

Nika

W ithout waiting, I headed to where Silas was perched at the kitchen table, nursing a bottle of whiskey. His sheepish grin greeted me before it faded. As if sensing something was wrong, he was on his feet and quickly in front of me.

“Was it another dream?” he asked, cradling my face.

I glanced over my shoulder, and sure enough, both men were standing in full view of the mercenary. He hadn’t seen them. He couldn’t. Jaw set, I ripped myself from his touch and headed over to the couch where Salvator was laid out. His eyes shot open before I made it to his side.

“Do you see them?” I asked, ignoring Silas when he came to stand beside me. “Can you at least hear them?” Whipping my head the two men’s direction, I commanded, “Say something to him.”

Out of my periphery, Silas’s expression grew increasingly confused, arms locked over his chest. I was too focused on the task at hand to care. I needed to know what was happening and to what extent. Had Salvator and his animal souls separated? Was he no longer connected to them?

The sleepy shifter sat up, his fathomless stare pinning mine. The blanket I’d given him pooled around his naked waist. “Hear who, woman?”

“Ryker and Tometi.” I turned to them, gesturing for them to do as they were told. Both stared at me like I’d grown another head. “Say something to him.”

“What should we say?” Tometi asked.

Salvator’s eyes widened, his head snapping the direction the bear-turned-man now stood. “What the fuck…? Tometi?”

“Don’t forget me, Sally,” Ryker’s wolfish voice hollered.

Again, Salvator’s expression gave him away. His eyes darted to where the wolf-turned-man stood, arms folded across his chest, plenty pleased with himself. On his feet, the tribesman searched the room.

“What in Lilith’s seventh circle is happening?” Silas demanded.

“That’s what I want to fucking know,” Salvator snarled, pivoting but clearly not seeing the two like I did. He’d only located them by the sound of their voice. “Why can I hear them as if they’re standing right in this room, woman?”

“Because we are, duh. And it’s Nika, not woman, you uncivilized brute,” Ryker taunted, suddenly the sentinel guarding my side. He leaned in, blue eyes sparkling. “So I guess that answers our question, pretty girl. Only you can see us.”

He was right. Salvator might hear them, but he couldn’t see them. Silas couldn’t hear or see them. So did that mean no one else could touch them the way I could? Was this because I was a Soul Collector, or was it something else entirely?

Questions I couldn’t answer swirled around my head as the two men in the room argued, and the two unseen strolled from place to place and enjoyed the show.

Silas turned to me and captured my face in his hands again, his voice entreating and soft. “What’s this all about, little rebel? It’s sounding a lot like you’ve both lost the plot. What do you mean those head-squatting tossers are in the room?”

Tometi appeared next to Silas, his face uncomfortably close to the mercenary’s. Which was a feat with how massive Tometi was and how much he’d been forced to bend over to put his face next to Silas’s.

Was he sniffing him?

Tometi scowled but resumed his efforts.

Yeah, he was definitely sniffing Silas—and apparently not a fan of whatever scent he’d caught. Had I not been so overwhelmed, I might’ve laughed at the way Tometi dragged his nose all around Silas, moving from right to left, increasingly disgusted with each sniff.

After he’d satisfied his nose—or unsatisfied it?

—the gentle giant tried to touch the unsuspecting mercenary who I’d all but ignored in light of the curious actions of the bear.

Because hell if I’d miss this determined phantom on a mission to conduct several amusing experiments on the man I loved, his oblivious subject.

Tometi’s eyes narrowed when his hand went straight through Silas and the silver-haired man didn’t appear to feel it. Dissatisfied, he wandered over to Salvator and attempted to touch him. Still nothing. Ryker snickered behind me as I got my head together long enough to answer Silas.

“It’s going to sound crazy,” I said slowly, watching Tometi smell himself then Salvator.

And weird.

“Have you met us, love? That’s all we know.” Silas chuckled, oblivious to the antics going on around him.

My eyes landed on Ryker, and the blonde just shrugged, then dipped in to take a whiff himself. “Smells like secret pining and simmering jealousy.”

Tometi paused, sniffed, then shook his head. “You never make any sense, wolf.”

Ryker slapped the confused bear on the back, laughing. “Don’t worry about it, big guy. Just familiarize yourself with their scents and leave the battle planning to me.”

“A battle?”

“Between men,” Ryker explained, only baffling the giant further.

I already felt sorry for him. At this point, Ryker was doing it on purpose.

“You’ll see soon enough, promise. These two will be at each other’s throats in no time.

The tension is close to combustion, and Sally’s never been very good at managing his emotions. ”

Tometi agreed with a nod, a sentiment he clearly shared.

I didn’t think my life would get weirder than an infamous, masked assassin who followed me around like a puppy or talking to a bunch of dead souls in my head, but I was wrong.

So very wrong.

“I woke up and two men were standing over my side of the bed,” I started.

Silas didn’t let me finish. His sword was out and magic swept the room, on the hunt for an enemy he’d never find.

“I knew we couldn’t trust this two-faced twat,” he growled under his breath.

“Bet Rilas is up to his old tricks. You better prepare yourself, you wolf bastard, because I know it was you who brought them straight to our doorstep.”

Salvator’s answering growl was beastly. “What’s to say you weren’t the one who led them here?

” The angry shifter stood, wearing only a pair of shorts Lev had lent him.

They clung to his thighs for dear life, and it’d be comical if the two weren’t on the cusp of killing each other.

“You’re the whole fucking reason she was attacked last time.

You’ve gotten sloppy, Sparkles . Admit it.

You can’t protect her, and that’s why Rilas was able to find her in the first place.

It’s lucky I came when I did. Who knows what trouble your incompetence might drag her into this time. ”

The air ignited between the two.

“Told you so,” Ryker snickered.

As if impressed, Tometi watched the two ex-Brothers glare at each other. “You must have clairvoyance, Ryker.”

“Not exactly.” Ryker’s face was split by a mischievous grin.

Rolling my eyes, I grabbed Silas’s arm. “Would you just listen? It’s not what you think. They weren’t enemies, obviously, or I wouldn’t be down here acting like nothing happened, would I?”

Silas’s searching eyes paused on me before he sheathed his weapon, acquiescing with a nod. “Go on, love. I’m listening.”

Salvator had his arms crossed, closer than before. His upper lip was pulled back as his eyes darted around the room, seeking out the voices he’d heard from different spots.

Ryker and Tometi were wandering around, making absolute nuisances of themselves.

Neither seemed to care that I was suddenly expected to explain their situation and play mediator between two battling brutes.

This situation was oddly reminiscent of the first time I heard the three talking inside my head.

Also, where was Lev when I needed him? How was he this deep of a sleeper after all we’d been through? The fact that their antics hadn’t woken him up was a problem I’d need to address after everything calmed down.

“It was Tometi and Ryker,” I went on.

Silas’s jaw ticked. “The head squatters?”

“Jealousy doesn’t look good on this three-dimensional Silas, does it, Tome?” Ryker joked, walking in and out of view.

Tometi was leaning in close to Silas again, his face mere inches from the mercenary’s. “I don’t understand what you mean. He looks the same to me. Smells acrid, though.”

“That’s the jealousy, big guy.” Ryker patted the bear’s back and headed over to where their previous host stood, hearing every word. “I never thought I’d see Sally like this. He’s never been a fan of his own reflection. I’m a little annoyed he’s so pretty to look at. And tall.”

Salvator was nearly as large as Silas, so he was easily a head taller than Ryker. The wolf clicked his tongue and did a slow circle around him, sizing up his previous host.

“Do you think he’s prettier than me, sweet girl? Should I see if there’s a phantom way to make myself taller? Stronger? Maybe with a cute but pert backside? Who knows if I can customize this body, but it’s worth a shot,” Ryker rambled off.

I cleared my throat, close to laughing. I’d missed Ryker’s nonsensical rambling despite it being a major distraction on far too many occasions.

“Oi, love. Which of those head-squatting wankers is giving you that smile? And what do you mean they were standing over your bed?” My mercenary was slowly losing it.

I’d have to be careful with what I told him and how I addressed it, or he’d think the worst and throw me over his shoulder like an overprotective brute.

Salvator’s jaw clenched, and he took an unintentional step back as if sensing the wolf nearby. “They have different bodies?”

“Yes. They aren’t a wolf and bear, at least not anymore,” I confirmed, earning a wide-eyed stare from the mercenary beside me.

Silas’s brow pinched together and his pecs flexed several times, an agitated tick he did whenever he was uncomfortable. “So…they’re no longer animals? They’re blokes?”

Nodding, I watched Tometi do the same thing to Salvator that he’d done to Silas, sniffing him and scowling. My lips slid up because the way he smelled him was all animal. “Seems so. And there’s something else.”

“We can touch her,” Tometi said before I got the chance.

Salvator’s voice was a wild sound leaving his chest. “They can touch you?!”