Page 63 of Possessed By Shadows

Chapter 20

When I could stand up without falling over, I made my way outside to find Micah. I’d had a few seconds of fear, worrying he’d leave me. He’d just encountered my demons after all. A real demon perhaps, that I summoned somehow? Had them take over our living space and chase him from it. Who would want to stay after experiencing that?

But lingering on those thoughts would feed them, wouldn’t it? And Micah wasn’t that fragile. He was one of the strongest men I knew. What an asshole I was for doubting him for even a second.

I found him sitting on the bench under the tree outside, the cat carrier at his feet. Sky had been sitting beside him, but as soon as she saw me, she gave me a warm smile, bounced to her feet and across the distance to kiss me on the cheek. “I’m going to help Dion,” she said, without really offering why Dion needed help, though her presence explained the extra hands I had felt.

She headed inside, leaving Micah and I in the garden alone. He didn’t flinch, though his expression was guarded. I made my way over and sat down beside him, reaching down to reassure Jet, who was sniffing at the gate of the carrier.

“You okay?” Micah asked at the same time I said, “I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry too,” Micah said. “For not pushing harder about Lukas.”

But that made sense. My temporary lapse in judgment, being overwhelmed with emotion, had made that all muddled. Lukas vanished often. Sometimes days at a time. And it had happened enough that he’d not only been kicked off the police force for it, but that his friends tried not to worry too much when it happened.

“I understand. Was overwhelmed. Am overwhelmed. Worried. Terrified for him.” The darkness didn’t rise again, but I held that warmth in my gut like a shield, ready to throw a wall of memories in place to add to it if needed. “I don’t quite know what happened in there…”

“Dion said it’s because the shadows can use you.”

“And you’re not running for the hills?” I half joked as I choked in fear.

Micah grabbed my hand and squeezed it. I stared into his face feeling tears sting my eyes at the thought of losing him, losing everything, my sanity, control over my life, even maybe my freedom if I ended back in the psych ward to keep other people safe from me. Could I control this? What if I kept scaring him? How long would he stay? This time the darkness did begin to rise. He sucked in a breath and kissed me. The shadows vanished in light of him.

“Feels like ants when you get that way.” He wrapped his arms around me anyway, pulling me into a hug.

“Did it happen before this? Like something about me caused you ants?” It sounded funny to say it that way, but the sensation of bugs on his skin was how Micah experienced the supernatural. I saw the shadows, and apparently now could live and breathe them, but he felt it. Since our time in Texas, sometimes he saw stuff too. I hoped I hadn’t done that to him, enhanced his power somehow.

“Sometimes when you have nightmares,” Micah agreed.

“You never said anything.”

He pushed a piece of hair out of my face. “What would it have helped? Other than to make you worry? It always stopped when I woke you.”

“Until last night?” When Precious had begun to morph from my nightmare. “I can’t control what I dream. If you’re controlling a dream, you’re not really resting. That whole philosophy is bunk.”

“Yeah, but Dion brought you back easy enough.”

She wouldn’t always be there. Was it something I could learn on my own? It made me wonder if the stuff we experienced when we went on these ghost hunting things were fueled by me. Like I was some sort of supernatural battery or something?

Micah tugged on my hair. “Hey.”

I looked at him. Those freckles across his nose so beautiful. Did I deserve him?

“We both have our quirks, yeah?” He asked and waved his hand at the garden. “Night noises?”

“What if I’m fueling the spooky stuff? A battery for the scary?”

“Magnet maybe. Might not be only you,” he threw back. “Spooky happened a lot around me before I met you.”

I sighed. “I love your face.”

He snorted. “You’re silly.”

“’Cause I love your face?”

“Yes.”

We sat for a while, holding each other. I sank into the feeling of being there with him. There was about to be a storm of trouble. We had to find Lukas. “I don’t know what to do.”