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She threw the blankets off herself. Deacon would need to know

about this. He was going to want to make new plans now that theirs

had been thoroughly destroyed.

Ivan still had his protector. Who were they going to use now?

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Chapter Nine

They practiced together all night and well into the morning. Ivan would wait with clenched fists for Eric, and Eric would take

possession of his body. They kept a timer, keeping track of the best  times that Ivan could push Eric out. After Ivan started to relax his  body some more, it almost became a sort of game to them, keeping  high scores and all that.

When Ivan managed to push Eric out for what seemed like the  twentieth time, a little too easily, he snapped at him. “Are you even  trying anymore?”

“I am,” Eric said, shock all over his face as he stared at Ivan for

the outburst.

“Doesn’t feel like it,” Ivan muttered. He was tired as well, so there

was no way he should have the strength to be pushing Eric out of his  body if the other man was actually, really trying to take over.

Eric seemed to know where his thoughts were going in that way  that he did, though. “I’m resisting, but I’m not giving it a hundred and  ten percent or anything. We don’t know how this works, and I don’t  want to risk that, if you can’t get me out, then I can never come out.  Understand?”

He did. It was hard not to when Eric looked at him like that and

cupped his cheek in the way that he liked.

Ivan nodded, and then he yawned.

Eric chuckled. “Maybe you should get some sleep.”

“I’m fine. We can keep going,” Ivan said on another yawn.

“It’s ten in the morning, and I know Opal loves waking you up at

noon for your sessions. Take a nap real quick and I’ll come back

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later.”

Ivan was too tired to resist more than once. Now that he was

yawning, he couldn’t seem to stop. He nodded and stumbled toward  the bed, falling into it gracelessly. If his ancestors could see him  fumbling about like this, they would be ashamed of him.

Ivan was vaguely aware of Eric removing his shirt and shoes for  him, and then pressing his lips to the side of Ivan’s mouth before he  fell farther into the dark pit that was his dreams, feeling pretty good  about his strange abilities for the first time in his life.

* * * *

Eric stroked Ivan’s white-blond hair one more time before he

stood up and left the bedroom. Ivan was doing so well, he could  hardly believe the progress in such a short amount of time.

One morning and already he’d nearly mastered being able to push  Eric out of his body.

Eric had been telling the truth when he’d said he wasn’t giving it a  hundred and ten percent as far as trying to take over, but he had been  giving it ninety percent at least. Ivan was getting better at this.

The only thing that really confused Eric was how difficult it was  for him to even get inside of Ivan’s body. For the first five minutes  he’d tried, nothing had happened. The first time he’d managed it, it  had still caused Ivan some displeasure, and he quickly exited his  body.

Oh, he was better at it now and could do it almost instantly, and  now without hurting Ivan at all, but if it was so difficult for him to do,  then how in the hell had he managed to do it that one time by accident  when he and Ivan were in bed?

Eric ghosted his way over to the cabin where Chris and his brother

lived.

He was almost there when he spotted Opal heading toward the

cabin where Eric had just come from. In her truck.

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He frowned at the sight as she backed the Ford as close as she could get it to the front door.

She looked around when she got out of the vehicle, then spotted  Eric staring at her.

She smiled and waved, her beaded bracelets jangling along her

arm.

Strange woman, Eric thought, waving back and suppressing a growl.

It looked like she was getting ready to knock on the door and wake Ivan up from his sleep, if he even could be woken up after staying up so late. She needed to be told, and told again so that she finally understood, that vampires kept a different time set than humans and werewolves not just because of the daylight thing. Ivan needed his sleep, and she was constantly disturbing that.

Opal started pulling a couple of metal rods out of the back of the truck and leaning them against the side of the cottage door.

Maybe she wasn’t there to wake up Ivan, or at the very least, to keep him awake for long. It looked like she was just dropping those poles off. What they were for, Eric had no clue, but he told himself not to be too suspicious. It was probably another meditation thing.  They were dowsing rods for all Eric knew.

Confident she wouldn’t be able to wake Ivan up if she tried, Eric got back on track, moving toward his brother’s cottage.

He’d been a coward, mostly ignoring Eli. Now, with an apparent reunion so close at hand, he wanted to see him.

Would his twin recognize Eric’s presence if he stood right beside him? Was he happy or sad today? And how was his mate treating him?

Eric should know the answers to these questions, and now he

would.

He stepped through the shut door of the cabin. It seemed Eli was not on guard rotation this morning. Otherwise he would be up by now. As it was, Eric didn’t even hear the familiar kitchen sounds that

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came with cooking breakfast. They weren’t anywhere that Eric could  immediately see, which left only their bedroom.

Eric didn’t want to walk in on anything, and he was about to leave  to come back later when the bedroom door opened.

The blond man with the dual-colored eyes stepped out, naked  from the waist up and a happy grin on his face. His hair was  bedraggled, and it looked as though Eric had come at the right time.  They were finished.

“I like pancakes with my eggs, by the way!” Eli’s voice shouted  from the bedroom.

“Don’t push it!” Chris called back, pulling a large frying pan out  from the bottom cupboard of the kitchen, still grinning.

Eric didn’t know what exactly it was that was the reason for Chris  preparing his brother breakfast in bed, but knowing they weren’t in  the bedroom screwing gave him reason enough to press on.

He peeked into the room then entered it completely when he saw  his brother wasn’t entirely naked on the bed. He was in his boxers  above the rumpled sheets, leaning back against the headboard with his  hands behind his head and a grin on his face.

The TV was on and he was watching something, but Eric barely  paid any mind to what was on the screen.

This was the closest he’d ever been to his brother since the day  he’d died.

He sat on the bed, still looking at Eli’s face as he watched TV.  Eli’s skin pebbled a little, and he shivered from the sudden cold and rubbed his arms.

“Weird,” he muttered.

Eric couldn’t help himself. “Hey, bro.”

Eli looked around, and then he called out, “Hey, Chris?”

“Yeah?”

“You feel cold?”

There was a pause. “Not in the kitchen, no. Why?”

Eli shook his head. “Nothing.”

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Eric was disappointed. He’d hoped that because they were twins, he and Eli would have some kind of connection that would allow

them to communicate, even in death. Maybe not as easily as he and

Ivan and Opal did, but still, there had to be something.

Eric waved his hand in front of Eli’s face. His brother still seemed

more preoccupied with finding out where that sudden cold had come  from. From what Eric could see, there was no air conditioner in the

room.

“Eli, can you hear me? It’s Eric,” he added stupidly, as though Eli

wouldn’t recognize his voice even if he could hear Eric.

There was still no sign of recognition, and Eric’s frustration rose

up.

Ivan was going to help him with this, to help him actually speak to  Eli, but he’d hoped so much…

Eric stuck his hand into Eli’s chest just to see what would happen.

He yanked it back out again in a panic when it looked like Eli was having a heart attack.

“Oh shit! Eli!”

Eli clutched at his chest, but now that Eric had removed his hand,

it seemed he was just catching his breath after being horribly choked.

“Jesus Christ, Eli, I’m so sorry,” Eric said, knowing his brother  couldn’t hear it.

“Eli?” Chris appeared in the doorway, noticed the way his mate  was breathing and clutching at his chest, and then ran to him.

He ran right through Eric before he could get out of the way, but  what had happened to Eli didn’t happen to Chris, and Eric had only  passed his hand through his brother, not his whole body.

“Baby, you okay?” Chris asked, slight panic in his eyes. He had  the cordless in his hand and looked like he would use it to dial 911

even though police and other human officials were strictly prohibited  from pack land.

Eric could hardly blame him for wanting to go against the rules if  his mate was having what appeared to be a heart attack.

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“I’m fine.” Eli swallowed hard then shook his head. “I just felt

something.”

“You felt something?”

How had Eric done that? He’d never been able to do that before.

He was going to have to ask Opal how much of an impact he could have on people as a ghost. Maybe it was similar to the way Ivan could increase his skills on defense and keeping them out of his body. If  Eric just tried a little harder and practiced, maybe he could have an effect on the objects and people around him.

“Yeah,” Eli said on a long sigh, as though he were enjoying the fact that he could breathe again. “It’s still cold in here. You feel that?”

Chris looked up and around. “Yeah, actually.”

Eric held no hope that the man with the multicolored eyes would be able to see him. Chris had seen him that one time when Eric had

managed to pull him out of the water, but he’d been near death when  that had happened.

Actually, that was something else Eric had forgotten about. He’d  grabbed hold of Chris’s body and pulled him out of the pond. He’d  touched another living person other than Ivan and had managed to do  something for him.

Hope renewed that he would not only be speaking to his brother  soon, but maybe with enough practice would be able to be seen and  heard by them as well, Eric left the room.

“See you later, guys,” he said on his way out. He couldn’t wait  until nightfall when Ivan woke up from his sleep.

He ghosted through the door of his brother’s cottage and then  stopped in his tracks when he noticed the door to Ivan’s small cottage  was wide open.

That wasn’t right. Doors and windows to vampire homes were  never open during the daytime.

Eric looked around, hoping to see if anyone else noticed this  strange phenomenon. The pups and the omegas who took care of  them during the day all went about their business. It was hot out, not a

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cloud in the sky, and Ivan’s door wasn’t the only one left open for a

breeze.

No one here was used to living with vampires just yet. They probably weren’t putting it together that such a sight was out of the ordinary.

Eric ran to the doors. He swore if that idiot lady had let herself into Ivan’s house and left the door open he was going to murder her.

Something blocked him from getting inside, however. When he tried running through the walls, he wound up running into the wall.  Smashing his face and nose with a painful crunch.

He grabbed his face as he fell back on his ass. Thank God he couldn’t break any bones as a dead man.

He got to his feet and glared at the wall. What. The. Fuck?

He put his palm flat against the wood paneling. It was solid. He couldn’t get through. He concentrated and tried again, and still felt nothing.

Okay, something was definitely not right inside there. He slammed his fist against the wall. “Ivan!”

He ran around the side of the house to the front door.

Those bars, the ones that Opal had pulled from the cab on her pickup truck. They were completely blocking the way. They were hardly nailed to the door frame or anything, just criss-crossing over the entrance. Maybe the only reason why Opal hadn’t shut the door was because she couldn’t reach through to grab at it when finished with this weird setup.