Dark Spirits (9 page)

“Nathan
, be quiet,” I said, giving him the stink eye. Surprised at my outburst, he closed his mouth. “Look. I’m tired and don’t want to talk about this anymore.” I swayed to the left, and Nathan grabbed my elbow, steadying me.

Anwar was watching me and nodded. “Okay, Ms. Paige. Get some sleep.” He headed for the door, but before he opened it, a thought came to me.

“Anwar,” I said. He paused with his hand on the knob and half-turned. “Do you still see that bright light inside me?” I was curious to know because that dark spirit I’d cast out earlier could.

He stared at me in an odd way, and I felt Nathan’s strong arms enfold me from behind, locking me against him. It made me wonder if he thought Anwar might snatch me away from him.

Anwar’s eyes went out of focus before resting on mine. “Your flesh houses a remarkable light dat baffles those who can see it.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, hoping he’d be more explicit because I felt a strong urge to pluck as much information as I could out of him. I made a face like a clueless, bubble-brained, air-head who didn’t know what the word “baffle” meant.

“What I mean,” he said, trying not to smile, which made my heart sink because I knew at that moment he knew I was playing him. It was that smile and look in his eyes that gave it away. It seemed familiar to me, but I couldn’t quite place it, “is dat nobody knows what it is. Some think it is the magic you have yet learned to wield, and others think it is something differently all together.” He opened the door, and before I could ask him more questions, he quickly added, “Kora may have been a witch, and your father may have had prophetic dreams. But you Paige, is not a witch. You are something much more, but the question is what?” And then he stepped outside.

I went to the window and peeked between the curtains. Nathan followed me, and we watched Anwar stepping off the porch, strolling across the yard to the street. I noticed his Hummer was nowhere in sight, which explained why we hadn’t heard his arrival. Suddenly, he became a blurry line, streaking down the street, disappearing into the darkness.

“Okay, I have four words to say to you,” Nathan said when we backed away from the window, and looked at each other.

“What?”

The corner of his mouth curled. He shook his head and sincerity filled his deep blue eyes. “I am so sorry.”

Chapter Nine

I yawned and then grinned at Nathan.

He was sorry.

I hadn’t realized how desperately I’d longed to hear those words from him until now. The bands around my chest snapped, and I sighed with relief.

We were going to be okay.

His cute crooked smile was still on his face, and in one swift move, he scooped me in his arms.

“What are you doing?” I laughed, locking my hands around his neck. It reminded me of the night he’d told me he was immortal, and I was marked for immortality. He had cradled me in his arms and dashed up to my room. I lost my virginity that night and told Carrie how erotic it had been. To this day, she still teased me about it.

But anyway, this moment reminded me of that night because it felt like we were back to being us again before all this crap happened.

Nathan glanced around the room. “Can you turn the lights off with your mind?” he asked, looking at me.

I yawned again. “I’m really tired, but I’ll try.”

Closing my eyes, I inhaled through my nose. As I slowly exhaled through my lips, I visualized extinguishing the lights in the room. The same prickling sensation I had before when I tried this developed at the back of my brain but weaker. Flickering shadows crossed my closed eyelids and sputtered.

“Keep concentrating,” Nathan whispered. “You almost had it.”

I squished up my face and silently commanded them to switch off. The shadows kept wavering.

Now I was seriously irritated. I wanted to finish talking to Nathan and go to sleep, and I was quickly losing my patience. I decided on a last attempt. Setting aside my exhaustion and all other thoughts, I gave it everything I had, tunneling just one thought through the vortex of my spirit–lights out!

All of a sudden the fizzy sensation mushroomed inside my skull, but then dissipated. The bulbs blinked off, and a burst of energy shot through me like it did last night when I’d shown Carrie and Tree this trick. You’d think it would have drained me since it took the energy within me to do it; however, it had an opposite effect. The energy from the bulbs had to have transferred into me to cause this effect. At least, that was my theory.

I opened my eyes. My body felt all tingly, like all my cells were buzzing.

“Very good,” Nathan said. He held me tight against him, pressing my cheek against his bare shoulder. His sudden movement jolted me, and I felt a rush of air against my face. Within seconds, Nathan was lowering me onto my bed.

“Yay, bed,” I said, lifting myself so I could pull the covers down. I slid beneath them and at the same time Nathan slipped in beside me, his pants already off. He pulled me into his arms. I snuggled against him and sighed.

This was how every night should be.

Doubt twisted at the edges of my heart because I wasn’t sure if things
were
right with us now. But nevertheless, I hoped for the best.

“Are you too tired to talk?” he asked.

“Actually,” I said, “I feel a little wound up right now.”

“Really?” He sounded surprised.

“Yeah. I think it has something to do with controlling the lights because I felt the same way when I did it last night.”

“Interesting,” he mused.

“So tell me,” I said, rearranging my head in the nook of his arm to get more comfortable. “What are you sorry about, and does tonight change anything?” Above all else, I had to know this in order to decide on what to do with my current situation.

“I’m sorry for isolating and underestimating you.” He took my hand and intertwined our fingers. “I didn’t realize until tonight that I’d been doing the same thing I’d done when we first got together. I’d almost lost you then because of my obsession with protecting you.” He paused in thought, and then continued. “I think I do it because death almost took you from me.” He stilled, and then blew out a deep, disturbing breath. When he spoke again his voice scratched with emotion. “The feeling still haunts me . . . I never knew such grief existed until the moment I thought Aosoth had killed you.”

He fell silent, leaving his words hanging in the air.

“But she didn’t,” I said with reassurance, “and now you don’t have to worry about it.”

“They can still kill you, Paige,” Nathan said, his voice grave. “Yes, you can heal from the cuts they’d inflict on your body, but there are ways they can bleed your body. Not to mention, torture you beforehand.”

“Well, the ‘old one’ wants to keep me alive. The dark spirit who begged Brayden not to cast him out said so.” Nathan’s body jerked in what I presumed was surprise. He shifted to his side and looked at me. Yup, he was definitely surprised. My room was dark, but immortals could see in the dark, and I saw it in his face. Our night vision wasn’t in color though, but it still came in handy. “They were a part of Ayperos’ group,” I added.

“Which ones?”

“The guy who had the binoculars and the blonde chick with the short, spiky hair.”

Nathan flopped on his back, bouncing the bed and groaned.

“What’s wrong?”

He glanced at me and then stared at the ceiling. “I think I might have to push my plans for Aosoth aside, which I really don’t want to do.”

“You might not have to,” I said, feeling a stab of guilt, as if I just ruined a project he’d been working hard on. But then I thought maybe he could still follow through with it, and Brayden and I could formulate a plan for me to find the incantations and destroy them. But as soon as the thought entered my mind, I knew Nathan wouldn’t go for it, especially the Brayden part.

“We have a lot to talk about and some decisions to make.” He looked past me at the alarm clock on my night stand. “But I think we should get some sleep first because it’s after four.”

“You’re probably right,” I agreed.

“I do have to ask though,” he said with a hint of a smile on his face. “Who taught you Morse Code? I was going to ask you when we were on the island, but then forgot about it until tonight.” I could hear the curiosity in his voice and thought it was kind of cute because with everything going on like Anwar’s bizarre behavior and Zeruel communicating with me, he had to know this before we went to sleep.

“We taught ourselves,” I said, yawning.

“We?”

“Brayden, Tree, Carrie, and I. When we used to play war against another group of kids, we thought it would be fun to learn and that it would give us an advantage over them.”

“I hate to include Brayden in this, but the four of you are a unique group.”

I smiled. “Yeah, we are.”

“Paige.”

“Yeah.”

“I have a feeling Tree and Carrie are going to get involved in this whole mess.”

I shook my head. “No. They can’t. They’re human and need to live a human life. Not to mention they’re vulnerable.”

“I agree, but I have a sinking feeling about it I can’t shake.”

“What did you find out with Ameerah?” I asked, quickly changing the subject, not wanting to think about Tree and Carrie joining this war against good and evil.

“The dark spirit in your vision is named Volac, and he’s old. He likes to inhabit children, so it was probably Volac in the little girl. Ameerah knows him and where the barn is you saw in your vision. It’s a meeting place for Volac and his group. She told me he despises the ‘old one’ and Aosoth, and it was what had drawn her to him.”

“Is she still part of his group?”

“No, but she’s on good terms with him and told me she’ll try to reason with him and the others about sparing you any harm.”

“Can dark spirits get rid of their own?” I asked, remembering the question I had thought about earlier.

“No, not that I know of.”

“Then how did Aosoth kill Ameerah’s girlfriend?”

“She was human.”

“I never thought about that,” I said. I didn’t know why it never had occurred to me. I mean, my grandmother Kora had an intimate relationship with the “old one,” and my father was a product of their relationship. I remembered when Nathan discovered that information and told me, I’d gone into a panic attack thinking maybe the “old one”and I were somehow related, and there was darkness inside me. But Nathan assured me the dark spirits were dark because they chose to be. It wasn’t an inherent thing. We had free will, and it was up to us on what path we wanted to take and what type of person we wanted to become. My grandmother abandoned my father right after she’d given birth to him in a motel, and he’d grown up in foster homes, not knowing anything about his family history.

“Ameerah is helping me because she knows I’m going to be brutal with Aosoth for what she’d done to you, and she wants to watch before she gets her own hands on her.” He yawned. I wanted to continue this conversation, but Nathan’s breathing slowed to a drowsy pace. He was on the cusp of dreamland, and I could feel myself slipping as well. “We’ll talk more about this later,” his groggy voice said.

I closed my eyes, and then I was out.

***

I awoke to the feeling of something soft and warm on my cheek. My eyes fluttered opened to Nathan’s gentle smile. He was leaning over his side of the bed, his hands planted next to me, dipping the mattress with his forward motion. He kissed me on the cheek again.

“Good morning.” His eyes shifted past me, “or rather, good afternoon.”

I followed his gaze to the digital clock. It read 12:22. He pushed himself off the bed, and I noticed he was already dressed in blue jeans and a white T-shirt. I threw the covers aside and step out of bed, wondering how long he’d been up and asked him. I felt disoriented, almost like I’d just closed my eyes. It reminded me of when I had my tonsils out and an anesthesiologist had put me under before the surgery. One minute I was out and the next minute–it seemed–I awoke in the recovery room with no recollection of dreaming. Just blackness. It was a weird feeling I didn’t care for.

“I woke up an hour ago and wanted to give you more time to sleep.” Nathan followed me to my dresser, and when I reached to open a drawer, he stopped me. I turned to him, and he placed his hands on my arms. The urgency in his touch startled me to attention. “Before we start this day, I want you to know I’ve been a fool not to include you in on what I’ve been doing.” He shamefully hung his head and lifted his gaze on me. “I know this is no excuse, but I’ve been a loner most of my life, and I’ve never been in a committed relationship before. So this is all new to me. However, I’m not sorry for being protective over you. Therefore, if we’re going to work together like we should, you’re going to have to accept it as my way.” I slowly nodded, already knowing that about him.

But then his eyes hardened, and they swelled with defiance. His expression locked in stubbornness. I’d seen this look before, which meant he wasn’t playing around. “I will not lose you, Paige, and if anybody harms you, I’m going to flip, and you’ll see a side of me you may think is monstrous.”

My heart skipped a couple beats and fluttered. I knew he had a brutality tethered within him. He’d mentioned it before, and it made me feel good because his love for me was so great, he’d take on anybody or anything just to protect me. And yeah, it annoyed me sometimes, but so what. I’d put up with it in order to do battle by Nathan’s side.

A small, teasing smile formed on my lips. “So you’re saying you’ll Hulk out?”

He laughed. “Exactly.”

I shrugged like it was no big deal. “Okay,” I said, thinking about him being brave and strong enough to fight against those who would do me harm and how it created a warm, stirring sensation inside my belly. I suddenly felt small and fragile against him. An image of his muscular, hard body–all six feet one of him–seductively pressed into mine in protection, love, and heated passion, flashed across my mind.

 “Your eyes are turning bright green,” Nathan said, sounding amused.

His words jarred me back to him. I blinked, and when I realized what he’d said, hot blood rushed to my face. I looked down, closed my eyes, and breathed through my nose.

What a pain in the ass. That was one thing I hated about being immortal. No, two things. The first was people could tell when you were getting turned on. The second was your emotions were on high speed. I wondered if I’d ever get them under control.

I glanced at him. “Sorry.” I looked away and stepped back, my face still hot. “I was just thinking how you make me feel”–I cleared my throat– “when um . . . we’re together and stuff.”

Nathan ran his fingers through his hair and peeked at me sideways. There was a glint in his eyes from his enjoyment at me being all hot and bothered. I wasn’t sure if I was annoyed by it or not, but I didn’t have time to decide because his strong hands cradled my face, and I lost my train of thought.

“There’s no need to be sorry or embarrassed.” He brushed his thumbs against my hot cheeks. “Although, I think your red cheeks are adorable.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah. Whatever. It’s still embarrassing, and I hate I can’t control my emotions.”

“It takes practice, Paige. How I do it is I replace a thought with an unpleasant one. But even for me now, it’s sometimes hard to stay on top of.”