CHAPTER SIX #2
Swinging my head around, I tried to pinpoint where danger was coming from. I had a split second to decide if I should dive back in my car and lock the door, or if I should try and haul ass up the rear stairs and get into my apartment. My intuition said I didn’t have that much time. The car then.
I began to back towards the driver’s side door and reached with my left hand, feeling for the door handle. My thumb slid over the unlock button on the key fob when I saw a figure approach from out of the darkness.
“Hey!” I shouted at the tall person in the black hoodie. “What do you want?”
I blinked once, and yet somehow they’d managed to move from across the alley to only a few feet away from me. I didn’t even have time to scream.
“Kate.” The voice was low, masculine, and I recognized it immediately.
“Dex?” My voice came out in a surprised squeak.
He lifted his head, allowing me to see his face. “I’m sorry for the cloaking spell,” he said softly. “I didn’t mean to frighten you. I don’t want to be seen on the security cameras.”
“Don’t want to be seen?” I sputtered. “Are you in danger?”
One corner of his mouth lifted in a semi-smile. “No.”
“Where the hell have you been? What happened to you?” I asked.
“It’s complicated,” he said.
Now that my fear was lessening, anger was taking its place. “I bet it is complicated, Beauregard.”
His eyes widened. “So you know.”
“What your true name is? Yeah, I know.” I poked a finger into his shoulder. “Lorna hired a PI to locate you. When he interviewed me, he told me what your legal name was.”
Dex sighed. “I’m sorry you found out that way.”
I folded my arms. “So am I.”
“Would it be okay if I came in and explained everything?”
My eyebrows went way up. “You really think after what happened and how you left, that I’m just going to let you back in my apartment?”
He stepped closer. “I’m sorry, Kate. Please give me the chance to explain. Once I’ve done that, if you don’t ever want to see me again, I’ll understand.”
My eyes narrowed. “You better have a damn good explanation, son.”
The lights at the rear of the building flickered. “The cloaking spell is about to run out,” Dex warned. “I can stay or go. It’s completely up to you. But whatever you decide, you need to do it now.”
I hadn’t even been aware that he practiced magick and still, my curiosity was getting the better of me. Because I did want to know what had happened. “Fine,” I said, feeling the spell’s energy beginning to wane. “Go on up, I’ll grab the groceries and be right behind you.”
“Let me help,” he said, and turning, he scooped several bags in his arms and went quickly and silently up the rear metal stairs.
I fished out the remaining two bags, closed the trunk, and forced myself to walk calmly to the steps. It wasn’t until I had opened my apartment door and nudged him in ahead of me that the exterior lights bounced back on.
The heaviness that had been in the air was instantly gone; there was a noticeable temperature shift as well. Shaking off the surprise of the depth of his magickal talents, I closed the door and set the grocery bags on my kitchen table.
“Thank you,” he said, reaching up and pulling the hood of his sweatshirt down to his shoulders. “Thanks for giving me the chance to explain.”
I studied him from where he stood on the other side of my kitchen. His hair had grown out since I’d last seen him. It was now curling a bit around his shoulders. His face was a tad thinner too, but his eyes were still that magnetic shade of blue.
And damn it, he was still gorgeous. I steeled myself against it. I wouldn’t let him sway me again with his looks. I’d learned my lesson.
At least I sure hoped so.
“Talk,” I said and began to put away my groceries. The truth was I was nervous and angry at seeing him again. Staying busy would help me calm down. Hopefully.
“The night we were together...afterwards while we were sleeping, I had a precognitive dream.”
I pulled a gallon of milk from the bag. “I thought you didn’t do precognitive. You told me you were a postcog psychic.”
He nodded. “Typically, I don’t. It has to be something huge for a vision of the future to come through. And in this case the dream showed me sitting at a table surrounded by lawyers, a will being read, stacks of paperwork, and worse, me squaring off with my mother.”
I tucked the milk away, shut the fridge door, and gave him my full attention. “Go on.”
Dex tucked his hands in the pockets of his hoodie. “The dream vision woke me up, and as soon I opened my eyes, my retrocognition kicked in, and I realized that my father had already passed.”
“You could have woken me up and told me,” I said. “You didn’t have to deal with that alone. Besides everything else… I thought we were friends, Dex.”
He hunched his shoulders slightly as he continued speaking.
“It wasn’t that I was mourning his passing, Kate.
The truth is that my father was cruel and controlling when I was young, and I never lived up to the expectations he had for me.
He sent me to a mental institution for the first time when I was fifteen. ”
“Oh my goddess,” I said, my heart breaking for him.
“I was seventeen the second time,” Dex said. “My father told the doctors to ‘cure’ my psychic ability and visions with pharmaceuticals and electroshock therapy.”
I recoiled at that news—I’d had no idea. “Dex, I’m so sorry.”