Eight
Diego
Sitting down in my usual chair in the teacher's room, I placed my paper bag on the table, then took my phone off silent. As if I'd invited it, my phone started ringing instantly, the robotic voice announcing, "Incoming call: Unknown Number."
"Stupid scammers," I mumbled as I ended the call without answering, placing it on the desk as I opened my paper bag and pulled out the sandwich I'd packed.
"Two notifications pending. Text message from Liam. Text message from Liam," my phone chirped again, and my brows furrowed.
Turning the volume low—in case Liam mentioned the Sanctuary, his spider boyfriend, or my shadow boyfriend—I opened the messages, and the voice read them out loud .
Liam : Hey, Diego. If you get a call around lunch time, pick it up.
Liam : Trust me.
"Shit," I mumbled, glad Jess hadn't joined me today. She was eating in the class with her and my students.
My phone rang again as I was wondering if I should call back, and when it turned out to be an unknown caller again, I quickly answered.
"Hello?"
There was silence for a moment, and then he said, "Diego," in a voice filled with relief. I sucked in a surprised breath.
"Shade?"
"Yes! It's me! Isn't this great? We can talk anytime now."
"But how?" Any kind of light hurt him. Even with the brightness turned all the way down, he wouldn't be able to use a phone without causing himself pain, and I didn't want him doing that to himself for my sake.
"Liam found me a phone without light!" he exclaimed, his voice overflowing with infectious delight. I found myself smiling too, and I hoped the other teachers weren't paying me any attention because I was sure I looked like a lovesick fool.
"That is amazing. I'm so glad."
"Me too! Liam said I could call because it's your lunch break."
"It is. You have good timing."
"Shouldn't you be eating?"
"I am," I assured him, then took a hasty bite of my sandwich.
"Mmm-hmm," he murmured, clearly not believing me, and I chuckled. It was so nice to hear his voice. "How about this? I'll talk while you listen, and eat."
"Okay," I mumbled around a bite, and he chuckled, then started telling me about the residents of the Sanctuary. I'd only really talked to Haruto and Zephyr so far—I already knew Liam—so I was curious about the others.
Shade told me about Keoni, a centaur who'd just reached adulthood and was one of the sweetest people Shade had ever met, which was saying something because I thought he was pretty damned sweet himself.
According to Shade, some residents of the Sanctuary were also a bit dangerous. Like Zamir, who was a good enough guy, but also a shtriga, a being who fed on people's life force. I didn't understand what exactly a life force was, but it was clear that it would be best if I was careful around him.
Shade talked about all kinds of beings I'd never imagined could be real, and I could've listened to him all day. But then the warning bell rang, and we had to unfortunately wind down our call so I could get back to class.
Shade promised to come over as soon as he could once I was home, and I ended the call, then quickly gathered my stuff and went back to my class.
My students kept me distracted the rest of the day, and I didn't have a moment's space to think about Shade or what he'd told me, not until I got off the bus at my usual stop.
My phone rang as I walked toward home, and I pulled it out of my pocket. "Incoming call: Shade."
Grinning, I answered the call, keeping most of my focus on where I was going.
"Hey!"
"Hey, I thought I would walk you home," he said, making my chest go all warm and fuzzy.
"Aww, that's very sweet of you. What are you up to?"
"Walking you home," Shade repeated, as if he thought I hadn't heard him the first time .
I paused, and someone muttered before shoulder-checking me, and Shade growled on the phone, as if he'd seen it happen.
"Wait. Are you in my shadow?" I asked, lowering my voice, and he murmured an assent. "I didn't know you could use your phone there."
"Neither did I. I brought it with me, so I thought I'd give it a try."
"This is great! We can talk while you're in there now."
"Yes, this opens up a lot of possibilities."
"It does?" I asked as my shadow tugged me to the side. I had no idea what he'd helped me avoid, but I didn't care. Just the fact that he was looking out for me, that a part of him had been looking out for me all these years, was enough to make my heart squeeze.
"Yes! We can go places now, and actually talk."
"You mean like dates?" I asked as I reached my apartment building, and Shade fell quiet for a moment.
"If you like," he said, and he sounded almost nervous.
Smiling, I stepped inside, making sure the door locked behind me before taking the elevator up to the sixth floor.
"I'd like that. We could go to the movies. They have audio descriptions these days so I can enjoy them too."
"And if they don't, I can just describe them to you."
"You'd do that?"
"Of course. It's still light out, so I'll just stay here, but you can put your phone on speaker and do what you have to. We can keep talking."
"Okay. Just don't follow me into the bathroom," I teased, and he huffed.
"I wouldn't do that," he said, then seemed to think about it. "Not unless you invited me in. "
I shivered at the thought, then turned my phone to speaker as I headed into the bedroom. Placing my phone on my bed, I found some clothes as Pixie meowed from the bed.
"Your cat is going to smack your phone," Shade said, his tone mild, and I sighed.
"Pixie, don't," I warned, and she gave a pitiful meow.
I flicked the bathroom light on, then started opening the door when a loud hiss startled me into slamming it shut again. That had been too loud to be Pixie.
"Shade?"
There was silence for a moment, then a sound of something sliding on the floor.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."
"What happened? Was that you?"
"Ah, yes. Pixie threw your phone, and I was worried it would break, so I caught it."
While the bathroom door was open and there was a shaft of light spilling into the room, along with whatever light was coming in through the windows.
"My phone's not worth you getting hurt over."
"If it broke, we wouldn't have been able to talk," Shade reasoned, and I shook my head.
"I'm going to take a shower. Both of you, behave."
Shade
While I waited for Diego, I entertained Pixie with my shadows. She seemed to find the smaller tendrils fascinating, and kept leaping on them and trying to bite them.
I'd had a cat some years ago. She'd been tiny, a kitten, and as dark as me. I'd found her while hiding in the shadows in an alley one day, and she'd liked playing with my shadows just like Pixie.
I'd taken her into my shadows sometimes, just so I could actually touch her and play with her.
Something about being in there had changed her, given her my ability to travel through shadows.
One day, she'd disappeared into a shadow and never returned. I had no idea where she was, or if she was even alive. I'd tried searching for the traces of my shadow, but something had blocked me. I just hoped it wasn't because she was dead.
I ducked down as Diego knocked on the bathroom door, waiting until he'd closed it before moving up to the very edge of the bed's shadow so I could see him.
Diego rubbed a towel over his dark hair, then hung it over the back of a chair, his movements as easy as if he could see. It was fascinating to see how different his posture and movements were in places he was familiar with versus in places new to him or places with a lot of people.
He didn't need his cane when he moved around his house, and he knew exactly where everything was because he was the only one touching things.
Except for his cat, but she seemed to know to let him know where she was at any given moment.
Had he trained her to do that, or had she just figured it out herself?
"Okay, is it dark enough outside?" Diego asked, and I peered at the windows.
"Yes, the sun's down."
"Finally!"
Diego closed the thick blinds, blocking out most of the light coming from outside and dousing the room in darkness.
I stepped out of the shadows, wrapping my hand around Diego's. He grinned, tilting his head up toward me, and I leaned down to press a soft kiss on his lips before pulling back to ask a question that had just occurred to me.
"Why do you have such thick blinds anyway?"
Diego turned his head away, as if he didn't want me reading the answer on his face, but that reaction was an answer all on its own, and it made my heart leap.
"Diego? Did you do it for me?"
He was silent for a long moment, but then he sighed and turned back to me. "Fine, yes. Even though you disappeared, I never lost hope you'd come back, and I always made sure to have a place you could be comfortable in."
I didn't know what to say. The fact that Diego had waited for me all these years was humbling, and I felt guilty I'd never gone back to him. Why hadn't I even checked in on him?
Because it would've been too hard to leave again, and I'd thought he was better off without me.
"I guess you were never planning to," he murmured, his head lowering as he once again hid his face, though this time, I thought it was his attempt to hide his hurt from me. "If I hadn't tracked you down, I'd have probably grown old and died waiting for you."
I wanted to tell him he was wrong, that I would've come back, would've found him, but I couldn't. I'd had no plans of looking for him, even though I'd desperately missed him.
Diego gave a rough, humorless laugh, then shook his head.
"Good thing I found you," he said as he pulled back, then clapped his hands together. "I'm going to go make us some dinner."
It wasn't lost on me that he was running away to a room I couldn't follow him to, at least not in this form, and he'd left his phone behind, which meant he wasn't going to talk to me if I followed him in his shadow .
Sighing, I sat down on the edge of his bed as Pixie hopped up beside me, rubbing her head against my arm.
"Yeah, I really made your human sad, huh? It's completely my fault, but I don't know how to make things better. I can't change the past."
Pixie gave a soft meow, and I patted her head, which just made her push her way into my lap.
Smiling at her affectionate nature, I rubbed her silky fur as I thought about Diego. I couldn't believe he'd waited for me all these years, hoping I'd come back year after year while I stubbornly stayed away thinking I was doing him a favor.
I might have punished that asshole for hurting Diego, but I was starting to wonder if I hadn't been the one to hurt him the most.
Was there any punishment that could be enough for the pain I put Diego through?