“Mira,” I say slowly, trying to redirect. “I’m sorry I let Connor threaten you last night. I’m sorry I didn’t intervene. I was bleeding and in pain and the scene was pretty suspicious. It won’t ever happen again. Iwillprotect you.”
She pauses. For a moment, her eyes soften. Something approaching hope sparks in them, and it causes hope to rise within me in return. Then, her eyes shutter again, and Mira ducks out of my hold.
“Nobody can protect me,” she says. “Nobody can promise to protect anyone. There are scores of unseen variables that people don’t actuallyconsiderbefore making false promises.I’ll go on protecting myself. Just try not to make that too difficult for me.”
She turns and strides into the bathroom without saying anything else. I grit my teeth, gazing at the ceiling. I want to follow her and try to have an actual conversation, but that won’t help right now. I’m injured; she’s functioning on no sleep. We can circle back to this later, when both of us are in a better state of mind. First, I need to figure out how the fuck I’m going to move forward with her.
I’m pouring myself a cup of coffee downstairs when Seamus strolls into the room, shirtless, his chest glistening from his morning jog. He gives me a nod, setting about fixing himself a cup. He leans against the counter across from me while I stir my coffee, staring into the liquid blankly.
“How’s the shoulder?” he asks.
“Better,” I mumble. “Doesn’t hurt as much. The doctor might be overcharging by about 48k, but he’s damn good.”
“Glad to hear it.” Seamus pauses to sip his coffee. “So,” he says after a beat. “Mira.”
“I will rip your balls off if you try to make a move on her,” I say, looking up.
Seamus rolls his eyes. “Don’t worry about that one, mate. I get it; she’s yours. Even if I didn’t get it before, I certainly get it now—you’ve got dibs and you won’t share.” He sips his coffee. “Thing is, you need to actuallymakeher your girl, and you have no experience doing that.”
“I’ve fucked plenty of women,” I say flatly.
“And how many have you dated?” Seamus questions. “Right, none. I’ve fucked more women than I can count and have dated several of them. Short flings, but still. I understand the art of wooing. You don’t, because you’ve never had to. So.” He takes another sip. “You want my help?”
“No.”
“Excellent, you’re getting it anyways. Mira’s not typical, which means the usual shit of buying her nice, random things won’t work. She’s tuned into energies.”
“You make it sound like magic,” I mutter.
Seamus shakes his head. “Nothing magical about it, mate. There are people in this world who can feel things that the rest of us can’t. You and me, we can sense it if someone’s deathly scared or dangerously angry. It’s like a…” he pauses to look for the word. “Like a vibration in the air, almost a frequency. It’s palpable, right?”
I consider that for a moment before nodding. “Yeah, I guess.”
“Right. There are people who don’t just feel those intense vibrations, they feel all of it. Joy. Sadness. Happiness. Misery. Anxiety—everything.”
I feel my brows furrow. “How do youknow all this?”
“Had an aunt who was quirky. She could always,alwaystell what someone was feeling. She knew your secrets before you did. Scared the fuck out of my family, but I was always fascinated with her, and she was kind enough to explain things to me.”
I feel my lips twist. “Okay.”
He nods. “Okay. So, you and I feel the energies of extreme negative emotions in the air. People who are much rarer, like your girl, feelall of it. It’s overwhelming. It never ends. My aunt described it as a pool of tar she was forever cursed to wade through.” His eyes slide away. “She killed herself a few years ago.”
Jesus. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
“You’ll recover. She’s not the first or the last. Your girl seems stable, and she has her coping skills, but keep in mind that she is naturally more vulnerable to stress than you are. Not just her stress, but everyone’s. She’s vulnerable to a whole spectrum of emotions, but the bad ones—no matter how subtle—will always land the hardest. So, to a person like that, what do you think would be a meaningful gift?”
I blink slowly. “A sabbatical in a monastery?”
“Fucking Christ, no.Nature,idiot. Things surrounding nature. Aunt loved to be out in the mountains; your girl clearly also likes the mountains. That’s not because they’re pretty, it’s because of the energy foundthere. Even hardened fucks like us know the soothing vibes that come from nature, yeah?”
I try to follow along as best as I can. “Yeah.”
“So,naturalthings. Clothes and cars and jewelry are all good and fine, but not deeply meaningful. Girl like that? Research the crystals known to be calming. Better yet, ask her which one she likes or uses—I’ll bet you ten grand she has her own collection. Get her a necklace with those. Support her when she wants to go see her wolfor fox pack or whatever. Take her on hikes. And fuck her as often as you can; I gather there are few better ways to release one’senergies.”
I mentally make a note to research what he’s talking about, and gently bring it up with Mira. “I don’t think she wants me to touch her.”
“Show her why she should.”
