Chapter Six
Mike
I was going to die of embarrassment.
“It’s not that bad,” Erik said, his tone gleeful. “Poor Dylan was just watching you moan up a storm while you devoured that burger like your life depended on it. Nothing to be ashamed of.”
Stupid ghost. If I hadn’t met him, I wouldn’t have known how slutty I sounded when I enjoyed my food. Something Erik had no trouble telling me, mid-bite. Fucking asshole.
Erik just continued grinning widely as I bit into my delicious burger. I tried to ignore the fact that Erik had also told me Dylan seemed to enjoy my “slutty moans”. I did not want to think about my not-so-straight friend like that.
“Coke?” Dylan offered in a raspier than normal voice.
I just nodded, hoping to escape this humiliating situation. As soon as Dylan left to grab the coke from the kitchen, I glared at Erik.
“What?” he asked, acting truly confused for a second before he winked.
“I hate you,” I whispered.
“Nah, you don’t. But don’t worry. I have better things to do than just watch you two. This show for instance.” He gestured to the TV. “I’ve never seen this before. I’ve been bored out of my mind for God knows how long by that waterfall.”
Dylan returned with two cokes, handing me mine with a tender smile before he sat next to me on the couch. He’d either chosen to sit closer, or maybe I was just more aware of his presence now, because the previously spacious couch suddenly felt way too small.
Erik was engrossed in a fighting scene, so I felt like I could finally relax as I began on my fries.
“When do you want to see Pete and Jackson?” Dylan asked suddenly, reminding me I’d forgotten to text my mom.
“Shit.” I took out my phone and quickly typed out a message hoping she wouldn’t be mad.
“You forgot Linda again, didn’t you?” Dylan laughed.
“You distracted me with burgers!” I accused, glaring at Dylan’s beaming smile.
He truly was a beautiful man. He’d let his dark-blonde hair grow out so it framed his face in a sort of surfer dude style.
It looked both messy and styled in an effortless way and I truly couldn’t figure out if he’d styled it or woken up looking like that.
His head tilted in question as I continued to stare at him.
“Your hair is different,” I said dumbly.
He just grinned. “So is yours.”
I gingerly touched my longer locks. “I need to get it trimmed. I prefer it shorter.”
Dylan appeared thoughtful as he looked me over, his gaze a warm trail on my skin. “I think it suits you. But so does the short style.”
“Really?”
He nodded. “Maybe a bit longer on top but short on the sides? Yeah, that would look so good on you.”
I quickly took a sip of my coke. It had gotten hot all of a sudden and I needed something to distract me from Dylan’s penetrating gaze. Had he always been so all-consuming?
Wanting to talk about something safe, I turned to work talk. “I have the weekend off, but then I’m starting my medium training on Monday.”
“You’re going to hate it,” he said in a matter-of-fact tone.
My brows furrowed. “You think so?”
Dylan nodded. “Can’t you remember how Pete was? And he’d even been born with his abilities.”
I shook my head. “I’d already moved out for college when he began training.”
“Oh, that’s right. I’d forgotten about that. Well, Pete was drained and mentally exhausted. He used his weekends to catch up on sleep and banished the house ghosts away from him so he could recharge.”
Mom had never said any of this and Pete had seemed fine whenever I’d talked to him over the phone.
“You think it’ll be worse for me?” Dylan knew less than me about these things, but I weirdly craved his worry and evident care as I went through whatever training my new boss Rino had set up for me.
Dylan shrugged. “I mean, you have way more to learn than he did. But I remember what helped Pete through it. I’ll simply do the same for you.”
“You’d do that?”
Dylan seemed surprised I’d even ask. “Of course? Wouldn’t you have done the same for me?”
“Yes, but…”
“But what?”
“Well, I’m older so…”
“If you’re about to tell me you see me as a little brother, I’ll hit you,” Dylan threatened, his tone a tad too serious for this to be teasing. Also, fuck me. Dylan being all serious was doing things to me. Things I really needed to work through in the privacy of my own bedroom.
“I wasn’t about to say that,” I hurried to say, quelling whatever fire had been in his gaze. “I just meant that it feels natural for me to care for others. Maybe it’s because I’m an older brother and its instinct at this point.”
Dylan shrugged. “As long as you don’t see me as your brother then we’re fine. But, Mike?”
“Yes?”
“It feels natural for me to care for you, too, so please just let me do that, okay?”
That sounded easy enough. Also, the one thing I’d longed for a partner to do for me. Something I never thought I would ever have with another person, especially not from a friend.
“Okay,” I agreed.
“Why am I so nervous,” I whispered, staring at the mansion-like building from my car.
Erik sat next to me, eyeing the building we were about to enter. “Likely because you’re so new to this.”
I shook my head. “I’m not though. My mother and younger brother are both born mediums. I grew up with ghosts.”
Erik nodded thoughtfully next to me. “Maybe, but you couldn’t see or hear us before you met me. It’s one thing to know we exist; it’s another thing entirely to see that for yourself.”
“I’d hoped I’d never get the ability,” I confessed. “Life seems simpler without the burden of always seeing and hearing stuff others don’t.”
Erik smiled softly. “I don’t envy you. And I’ll be patient as you work through your training. Nothing I can do for Marcus now anyway.”
“You know,” I began, thinking this might be what was best for Erik. “The other mediums can help you, too. They can free you from me and take you on themselves. Then you wouldn’t be stuck with a newbie medium who barely knows what he’s doing.”
He shook his head. “I don’t want anyone else to help me. I like you, Mike, and I like Dylan, too. I also feel somewhat responsible for you getting your abilities. I’d like to see this through with you, no matter how long it takes before I see Marcus again.”
His confidence in me and his slightly guilty expression gave me the willpower to finally open the damn car door.
The door to the mansion opened up as we approached and my new boss Rino stepped out with a wide smile on his face.
“Took you long enough.” If it weren’t for his smile I would’ve thought he’d been angry that I was delaying the inevitable, but he seemed to just be teasing me as a way to ease my worries.
I wasn’t his first newbie medium, so he’d likely learned through experience what to do with us.
“Apologies,” I replied, feeling my cheeks heat. “I had to mentally prepare myself.”
“No worries.” He waved me inside and gave a nod to Erik and that small gesture was enough for me to respect my new boss even more, the simple way he showed that Erik mattered too.
“We have around five ghosts in the mansion, all helping us train the new mediums. Their presence alone will drain you, which is our first step in the training course.”
“You’ll be the one mentoring me?” I blurted with surprise. Rino was the top dog, the one that most mediums rarely got to work with. Why on earth would he waste time on someone like me?
“I will,” he responded, tone calm and collected.
“But why?”
He smiled as he led me through the mansion. “Because your mother is a great medium and Pete is a dear friend of mine.”
“Pete?!” I had no idea Pete was that close to Rino. Maybe that had happened after he resigned as a medium? I would need to speak with my brother as soon as possible.
“Yes, your younger brother Pete. My boyfriend and I are close with Pete and Jackson. We spend a weekend at their mansion each month.”
A weekend? Oooooh. Fuck. How the hell was I supposed to look Rino in the eye knowing he was a member of my younger brother’s BDSM club?!
Rino smirked. “You take a minute to think that over.”
Nodding, I swallowed the thousand questions I feared would blurt out of my mouth if I wasn’t careful. I didn’t even want the answer to most of them.
Erik didn’t comment as he followed closely behind, his silent presence was a comfort as we were led further into the unknown.
“Firstly,” Rino began as he sat behind his desk, his gaze firmly on me. “I want you to know the basics.”
I felt like I knew what could be deemed as “basics” but I wasn’t about to tell my new boss that, so instead I nodded my head, acting eager to learn more.
“You already know you can communicate with all ghosts, no matter what,” Rino began, stalling my thoughts. “Therefore—”
“What?” I said, still stuck on his words.
“Hmm?”
“You said I could communicate with all ghosts?”
“Well, yeah,” he replied, eyeing me curiously.
“Is it because of my previous work as an anthropologist you believe I can talk to all of them? Because languages have never been my strong suit.” I hoped he wouldn’t be disappointed by that.
“Mike,” he said, his tone full of fondness and a tad amused. “As a medium, you speak with ghosts’ souls, there’s no language barrier.”
“A what now?”
Rino laughed, deep and rich. “You communicate with their souls, meaning that no matter what language they spoke before dying, you can talk to them. It will all likely sound English to you, but it’s simply your souls communicating.”
“Seriously?” I exclaimed, bewildered over this new knowledge. “That’s so cool!”
He laughed again. “It truly is. You never questioned how you were able to speak with Erik?”
I blushed at that. “I just thought he spoke English…”
“I do,” Erik confirmed. “But I didn’t even register what language we spoke together. I had no idea about how we communicated either, I just spoke.”
Rino nodded at that. “You will never meet a ghost you can’t talk to, no matter if the ghost couldn’t speak when alive. In death they can communicate with all mediums. No. Matter. What.”