Mike raised his hand and the room suddenly seemed warmer, somehow.
“Very good!” Kyle praised with a beaming grin. “When you get a better hang of it, you can do it without using hand gestures. I, for example, can just will it to go wherever I please by using my fingers discreetly. It’s better for when you need to work without anyone noticing.”
“I just assisted my first ghost,” Mike breathed, his face lighting up with pride.
I kissed the hand that was laced with mine. “I’m so proud of you, sweetheart.”
Kyle rolled his eyes at us with a smirk. “I’m telling Rino I need more praise during work, you two are just too adorable to watch.”
Mike looked confused for a second, then seemed to catch what Kyle meant. “Wait… Are you dating our boss?”
Kyle bit his bottom lip before smiling widely. “I sure am.”
“Damn,” I laughed. “I hadn’t seen that coming.”
Chapter Sixteen
Mike
Dylan and I had been on four successful assignments over the past week and that was good enough for Rino it seemed.
“We can go?” I asked, stunned.
Rino nodded where he sat behind his desk. “You’ve proven yourself capable of freeing ghosts from people and assisting them to move on. I have no doubt you’ll succeed in helping Erik.”
“Thank you,” I said, still feeling surprised. I’d expected at least another week of training. “Are you sure that I can truly handle it?”
Rino smiled kindly at me. “Most mediums would’ve been drained after so many assignments in a row, but you haven’t. After you bonded with Dylan, you’re stronger than most mediums. I haveno doubt you two will be able to handle this without issue. Plus, I have another agenda for you in Denmark.”
“What is it?” Dylan asked, clearly sensing I was beyond words right now. I was that strong after getting Dylan as my anchor?
“The medium community in Denmark is lacking in numbers and have too many cases open. I offered them our help while you search for Marcus. I promised you would deal with four cases, but there might be more,” Rino explained.
We’d already been told he had more cases for us there, but this seemed like his way of asking if we were open to staying there for longer than just those four cases.
“Why are they lacking?” I asked.
“They don’t have enough mediums like we do, their numbers are simply fewer. You’d think that would mean less ghosts as well, but that’s sadly not the case. Imagine how many cases we have in the surrounding towns, then imagine that we were only ten mediums to deal with them.” Rino sighed. “It’s like that in many countries. There are simply not enough mediums, but we help those we can.”
“We’ll help,” I said, so pleased we got to help Erik and those poor overworked mediums as well.
“I knew you would,” Rino smiled. “I have your assignments here. And your plane tickets. Your hotel information is there, too. Denmark isn’t too big, so I put you in central Copenhagen. Erik can guide you to the town he believes Marcus lives in.”
“Should be an hour’s drive from Copenhagen, unless he moved, but I doubt that,” Erik replied, looking torn between elation and dread over the fact he would be seeing the man he loved after all this time.
“So, we just go?” I asked, feeling like I’d gotten to skip a huge exam and was now just given the pass.
Rino smiled patiently. “You just go. I’ll have everything emailed to you both in a few minutes. You decide which of the cases you target first, but I would get them all out of the way before you help Erik.”
“Why?” Dylan asked. “Shouldn’t we focus on freeing him from Mike so he had less of a drain on him?”
Rino smiled softly. “Erik could end up being a great help with the ghosts and then you can take all the time you need to find Marcus. These cases are of high priority. Marcus could be anywhere in the world, especially since he doesn’t have any social media. It could takemonths, if not years, to find him. I would rather have these cases closed and let you focus all your time on finding Marcus after.”
We just nodded and walked out of the mansion, both of us clearly stunned, but also relieved. Finally, Erik would get back to Marcus, and Dylan and I could start our career together however we wanted. Rino hadn’t assumed anything about us staying as mediums after our training, but we’d said we wanted to, and he’d seemed pleased by that. Most mediums preferred to work in the field, but some didn’t want any part of this world and I could respect that. After all, I hadn’t wanted it either. Now that I had Dylan by my side I was actually looking forward to being a full-time medium. Maybe it was because of Erik too. He’d proven to be such a good soul and I wanted nothing else than to help him, and others like him, find peace.
“You won’t like this,” Dylan said, his expression grim as we got into the car.
“Oh, no, what is it?” I asked, sharing a worried look with Erik.
