Chapter 15
Devon made it through the night, finding it very difficult to sleep, even after Camden’s updates—or because of them. Camden had walked Henry home, and they hadn’t talked any more.
That Henry could see the apparitions was more reassuring than it should be.
It explained so much about his behavior and why he felt compelled to come over.
And to have the pretties term mean the apparitions also made sense.
They were lights, glowing orbs, shimmering visuals that, for him, must have looked very special.
That didn’t mean he had any understanding of what he was seeing, but she was no longer afraid of Henry’s nighttime presence.
As it was, she wasn’t even sure whether Camden came over or had stayed at his house. When she got up the next morning, she found him downstairs, stretched out on the couch, looking at his phone. He looked over at her, smiled, and asked, “Did you get any sleep?”
She winced. “Not a whole lot. The good news is that I have the day off today. In fact, my boss insisted. She stated I was looking a little worse for wear, so told me to take the day off.” She went into the kitchen and put on the coffee.
When it was ready, he stepped out onto the deck with her.
She muttered, “The kids must still be asleep.”
“Are they? Did you check on them?”
“Nope, I did not,” she stated.
“Remember, everything needs to be normal.”
She gave him a look, then went upstairs and called out to the kids. She heard them moving. “Soccer today and softball practice.” She glanced down at her watch, then winced. “We’re already late.” The kids raced downstairs, upset that they were late and that she hadn’t called them earlier.
She didn’t say anything, just helped them get something to eat. “Practices are all at the school today.”
“Good,” Tabby replied. “We can ride our bikes then, and we don’t have to wait for you.”
Tabby’s words had been said with such an intolerance that Devon felt the tears catch in the back of her eyes, as the veneer continued to come off of whatever had been going on for this last year.
Hell, for many years past. The kids who she had thought were coming to love her as much as she was loving them raced out a bit later, heading for their practices.
“I gather this is unusual,” Camden asked, turning to her.
“Normally I would drive them.” And then something else clicked in her mind. “Normally they would ask me to stay and watch,” she added, “but apparently the status quo has changed.”
He frowned and nodded. “Can’t say I’ve ever seen anything like this.”
“I hope I never do again. I’m not sure how we came to such a fake happy end result over all this,” she mumbled, “because this isn’t how I want to live.”
“Of course not,” he agreed, with a nod. “Stefan will get back to me this morning. I haven’t heard from him yet, but I do trust him to get back to me when he has something to share.”
“What can he do?”
He turned to her and replied, “Stefan is way more than he seems. He can walk among the dead.”
Her breath caught in the back of her throat. “So, what will he do? Will he try to find Tabitha and tell her to knock it off?”
He raised his eyebrows. “I hadn’t considered that, but, knowing Stefan, I wouldn’t put it past him.”
She shook her head. “Good God, I do not want to live in a world where all this is possible.”
“No, yet you do live in this world where you have some affinity. Otherwise, these entities would not be here, and your friend would not have seen you as a possible …”
“Possible what? Victim? Host?” she asked somewhat bitterly.
He looked at her and sighed. “I won’t sugar-coat this because that won’t help any of us. You’re not a victim. We can understand why the twins thought this was a good idea, but it won’t be allowed to happen.”
She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and nodded. “Thanks, and obviously she’s had a lot of impact on the kids themselves.”
He nodded. “And they can’t be blamed for that either.
They are first and foremost kids. And, yeah, I know they’re crossing the line with their attitudes and some hateful times coming up.
But they’re still kids, and they’ve still been programmed for this, and that’s what you have to remember.
Have you signed the final paperwork for them to become your wards? ”
“It’s still in process,” she muttered, her tone bitter. “I have a temporary guardianship, but the final is still pending.” She gave a hollow laugh. “And you can bet that I don’t really want that right now either.”
He hesitated and then added, “Don’t make any rash decisions either way right now.”
She slid him a sideways look.
He held up one hand. “I know. Right now you probably want to be forty acres away from them—”
“Forty states,” she snapped. Then she pressed her fingers against her temples and added, “If I could get some sleep, it would help, but that doesn’t seem to be in the cards.”
He smiled and suggested, “If you want to, go back to bed right now. You can. They’re gone, and I’m here, so now you can get some sleep.” She hesitated, and he nudged her. “Go on. Get some rest. … You need it.”
“I need it all right,” she muttered. “I just don’t know that I need to take up your day while I’m off trying to grab some sleep.”
He shrugged. “It’s my day off, and I’m waiting for Stefan anyway.” She frowned at him, and he added, “Go. Just go get some sleep. … Go. Take advantage of a day off. Do something for yourself for a change.”
She made a sudden decision and nodded. “Maybe just for a little bit then.” He nodded.
She raced up the stairs, almost afraid that the kids would come back right away.
She had been so upset and overwhelmed by the sudden changes in what was going on that she hadn’t been able to sleep at all.
It was a foreign concept to even close her eyes now, but, with Camden here, she had no problem with it.
She curled back up into bed, and, before long, she was sound asleep.
But she tossed and turned in her dreams, sensing answers just out of her reach, answers that she needed and couldn’t get.
They just seemed so far out of reach. She kept running through the woods, running through darkness, running through something, trying to get to wherever some common sense would prevail.
She went through a dark closed door. She spun in her dreams, and there was Tabitha.
She stared at her, her initial reaction overwhelming joy.
Only it changed almost instantly as she saw the look on her friend’s face.
She started to back up, but Tabitha followed.
She followed Devon until she was literally running, shrieking, trying to get away from her friend, screaming at the top of her lungs as she raced through this pitch-black darkness.
When suddenly somebody shook her hard, she woke up, her body absolutely trembling in shock, staring at Camden. She looked at him and then burst into tears. “Dear God, it was Tabitha.”
“What was?”
“It was Tabitha. I just saw Tabitha. She was chasing me.”
“It was a nightmare,” he noted.
“No, no,” she argued. “It wasn’t a nightmare.” She took several deep breaths, closed her eyes, and whispered, “Oh my God, you don’t understand.”
“No, I don’t understand. Talk to me.”
Tears in her eyes, she nodded. “Yeah, I think I need to, but could you please call Stefan back?”
He pulled out his phone, but it rang at the same time. And there was Stefan.
He asked, “Is she awake?”
“Yeah, I’m awake,” she replied, “but I don’t know what the hell that was.”
A note of amusement filled his tone as he said, “I do. And now I know why she targeted you.”
“And why is that?”
“Because you walk among the dead too.”