“Yeah,” I agree, and pull his arms around me. “But I like you here too. It’s nice being together.”
“It is.” He tips his head down and kisses the top of my head. I close my eyes, heart beating fast and a sick feeling forming in the pit of my stomach.
Sending golems after me? That’s a dick move for sure, but one I can handle. One I can fight and beat.
Which I will.
But losing my guys? I can’t handle that, and I feel like it’s just my fucking luck to finally find my family, no matter how unconventional it is, only to have them taken right out from underneath me.
* * *
“You’resure this isn’t pot?” Jared asks, a smirk on his face.
I cock an eyebrow. “Getting high is the last thing you want when your life is in danger. You need to stay sharp.”
He rolls his eyes. “No shit.”
His attitude used to annoy me, but I’ve gotten used to it and almost appreciate his sarcasm. It reminds me of myself, which probably is a bad thing that I should strongly discourage. Though I didn’t turn out so bad. Well, I guess it depends on who you ask.
“But you’ve brought up a good point. Sage can look and smell a little questionable, and if you burn it in your room your parents will probably accuse you of smoking.”
“So what do I do if ghosts come after me again?”
“Salt circle.” I turn and open a cabinet. We’re in my kitchen, and I’m answering more of Jared’s questions. I grab a canister of salt and hand it to Jared. “And then call me or my friend Gemma.”
“What about your…your other friends?”
“My friends?” I question, though I know exactly who he’s talking about, but I want to see how far he’ll take this. He believed the gargoyles could come to life before I even moved in, and he knows I have a boyfriend living with me. He’s met Jacques before, and—fuck—I can’t even remember if he’s met the others. That’s the state my mind is in.
He knows my friends helped find him, and that Hasan carried him down the path. He was still with him when the ambulance came, needing to be there as a human to make the story look believable.
“They know about the supernatural world, don’t they?”
“Yes,” I tell him honestly. For some reason, I trust Jared. He believes with his whole body and soul. But the less he knows about this, the better.
His brow furrows. “So your boyfriend…what’s his name?”
“Jac.”
“So Jac knows about ghosts and things, and that other guy I talked to, Gil, knows about it too.”
“Yes.”
Jared turns the can of salt over and over in his hands as he thinks. “How did you get into it? Were you drawn to it like me?”
“I guess in a sense,” I answer honestly. I was drawn to proving the supernatural wasn’t real. Funny how things worked out.
“You’re not giving me very good answers here, Ace.”
I laugh and lean against the counter. “I know. Sorry. There are some things I can’t tell you for your own good.”
“When you say that, it makes me want to know even more.”
“Yeah, I can see that.”
“So, the ghosts,” he starts again. “Are you a professional ghost hunter?”
“Nope. And pretty much anyone who calls themselves a ‘professional ghost hunter’ is a fucking fraud, if you ask me.”
