“God, I’d kill for a nap.” Even his voice sounded tired.
“Then a nap you shall have.” I was still so horny I could barely think straight, but I shoved it down for now. Not the moment.Instead, I used my hand on his thigh to lift him fully up into my arms. He went without protest, arms coming around my shoulders. The trust this man had in me was enough to pull at my own heartstrings.
Brandon caught up to us, brows pressed together in a worried line. “Seiji, you okay?”
“Exhausted,” he explained with a sigh that fluttered along my skin.
“He warned us it might happen,” I told Brandon, as he really was worried. “He’ll be fine, just needs rest. You lot have the ghosts?”
“Sure, we can handle the rest. The beast is dead?”
“Aye. Davina can fill you in.” I headed for the SUV because Seiji needed his nap sooner rather than later.
There were enough Mediums up here to handle the rest. I’d not be much use to them anyway, so no harm in leaving now.
Seiji was my priority.
28
Davina told us all about the beast, and the battle, and explained in more layman’s terms what Seiji had done. After hearing her story, my opinion of Seiji was reinforced: Do not piss off.
It also made more sense why he’d been so exhausted afterward. He’d done an insane amount of work in about six hours. I’d be demanding a nap in his shoes too.
Because of what Seiji had done, though, we had an easy breezy time passing on the ghosts still in the ghost town. With the locker broken, they could freely see and interact with us, andwe had a line formed very quickly to pass them on. With so many Mediums, we were able to parse through the amount in hours instead of it taking us weeks. A godsend, no question.
I owed Seiji so many thank-yous and favors. I wasn’t even sure how to pay him back.
It was coming on night by the time we finally finished. I gave Gwyn an hour break just to ride a horse around because she deserved a treat. She was so excited to finally be on a horse again, it was cute. Made me think I needed to arrange for trail rides when we were home again.
With Miner’s Creek finally cleared, we pulled out, heading back to the ranch. Someone had very smartly put a chicken dish in the Crock-Pot, and all it needed was to be dished up over some rice and put fruit and nuts on top. Hawaiian haystacks, or so it was explained to me. Wasn’t sure how culturally accurate the recipe was but it smelled divine.
I ate my fill—and it was filling—before finally buying a minute to step out onto the back patio and update Sylvia. Brandon joined me for the conversation, both of us quite at our ease on the couch. I was exhausted. After passing all of those ghosts and running around all day, my feet were in danger of falling off. Felt good to sit down.
Sylvia picked up with her usual briskness. “Speak.”
“Hi, boss. I bring you great tidings of awesome joy.”
“Music to my ears. What’s happened?”
I started at the top, telling her what Seiji had done, of the beast, the broken locker, and the ghost town cleared. It sounded so simple listed out, and it felt wrong, as it had been an insane amount of work.
Sylvia’s tone was pure delight. “Wow!Seiji really was the man for the job. And no one’s injured?”
“Remarkably, no. Bit sunburned, but that’s the worst complaint anyone has.”
“Wonderful. I hate it when my agents are hurt. You have done great today, definitely rest up. Now, how is Seiji?”
“Dead tired,” Brandon answered simply. “After watching him work, I understand why. You would not believe what that looked like through the thermal goggles. I watched just because I was curious, and it was like he carried this little mini tornado, then shaped it into a hammer before using it. If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have thought it possible for any human being to harness so much energy at once.”
Truly, that had been a sight to behold. Gwyn was in awe of Seiji after watching him work. I think we all were.
Sylvia sat on that for a full second before stating factually, “So I need to find a way to keep Seiji.”
“Please and thank you.” Brandon paused before adding, “I think one of the stumbling blocks to him being FBI was no anchor, correct? Well, and you weren’t sure you could afford him.”
“I think that was part of it. I’d have to pull his file and read up on it to verify. Why?”
“Boss, I don’t think that’s going to be an issue for much longer.”
