Page 59 of Possessed By Shadows

Didn’t make any of it less terrifying.

What if it wasn’t what Lukas had been searching for, but the spiritual remnants of Lukas himself? Newly murdered for only God knew what reason, and now forever bound to this piece of shit place?

And sitting there realizing my brother had been taken by a person, had been missing for days, all to find whatever this lump of blackness was, infuriated me. Everyone had said not to worry. He would come back on his own. Everyone had discounted my concerns because Lukas came and went as he pleased. Even Micah.

That was why Micah had called Dion to do a cleanse. He knew that strong emotions could change the energy around us. He had seen Precious react to the fear of my dreams, beginning to lose her sweetness to the rise of something dark. But anger was far beyond the wafting stench of fear. It fueled some of the most terrible things we’d ever seen. From the constant nest of fire ants on Micah’s skin each time we got close to the Lalaurie Mansion, to the writhing mass ofDeathI’d seen on a battlefield in another land, anger twisted everything.

And I couldn’t help the way it rose inside of me. I’d always been known as the laid-back guy, a bit high-strung with anxiety maybe, but never quick to anger. It was part my size, part the time in the military, and part my personality, keeping me on an even keel. A lifetime learning to bury it, rationalize it, but this was too much.

Lukas had been missing a week. Taken by a living person. No one knew where he was. No one, but me, had seemed to care at all. Not even my father.

I gripped the table, my lungs feeling like they had a thousand-pound weight on them, and dark spots peppered my vision. Not a panic attack exactly, more an opposite of that. A rage attack? Was that a thing?

I couldn’t recall ever being this mad, or feeling this betrayed before, like I’d been screaming in the wind for nothing. Since that first day he’d not shown up for work, my senses had been tingling with worry. Everyone telling me it was fine.

My time in the psych ward had been much the same. Everyone assured me in honeyed and patronizing tones that I wasn’t crazy, while adding messages to my chart, and prescribing heavy psychotics. Total betrayal, and I was tired of being everyone’s punching bag. Lied to, locked away, treated like I was insane. I was so fucking mad right now. And yet, helpless.

Was there any chance to find Lukas alive? What was the rule? Most people were dead within twenty-four hours of abduction? Could I live knowing he’d been murdered? Yes, Micah had become my life, but Lukas was my twin. Not as close as I’d like us to be, but still he’d been the only family to look at me and accept me for all the madness I was. Maybe he hadn’t trusted me with all his secrets, but he hadn’t let me die on the streets alone, unloved, and insane.

I bowed over the table, sucking in air, and trying to find some ray of hope in all of this. I could feel Micah hovering, close by, but afraid to touch?

Tears streamed down my face, hot, filled with anger like every pore of my body was in that moment. I think if he’d tried to touch me right then, I’d have lashed out, maybe ended everything we were. Self-destruction at its worst because I felt worthless, helpless, and broken. After months of normal, building a solid life among people I had believed needed me, loved me, and didn’t think I was nuts, was it all a lie? It was whiplash of the worst kind. Chaos of emotion like I had never felt before. Fear, pain, anger, denial, a well of growing darkness building around me as it filled with more and more raw dark energy.

I saw red. That phrase had never made more sense to me than at that moment. The rage darkening my sight to narrowed dreams of blood.