Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
DANIEL
“We’re not hooking up!” Skye exclaims. “It’s all a misunderstanding.
” His tragic expression would be amusing if it wasn’t because he’s freaking out over people thinking he’s with me.
Should I be offended? Am I that bad of a catch?
Women never seemed to object… but maybe men have different standards?
I might be freaking out just a tiny bit myself, because that kiss… well, I’m sure now that I’m bisexual. Or at least that I’m sexually attracted to Skye. I had less chemistry with a woman I was in a relationship with for nearly a year. So… yeah. I honestly don’t know where to go with this.
How can a part of my life I was so sure about have changed in less than twenty-four hours?
I shove all those thoughts aside. There’s plenty of time to dwell on them later. For now, Skye looks like he’s about to have an aneurysm.
“We’re fake dating because Skye’s mom is a bitch,” I explain, and he shoots me a grateful look. “But half the town overheard what I said, and now they think we’re dating for real.”
Johnny pops into the room before anyone else can say anything.
“Oh no,” he says, shaking a finger at us.
His orange-and-red mohawk shakes along with it, and I notice he looks a little transparent.
He must’ve used up most of his energy already today.
That actually explains why all the ghosts aren’t here.
Or… they are here, I guess. I just can’t see them.
“We heard all about that,” he continues. “You’s telling people it’s a lie just so you can have private sexy time!”
Skye moans, but I’m used to Carter talking about my sex life—Johnny’s an amateur in comparison. “Any ‘sexy time’ I have, no matter with who, is going to be private, thanks. Or I’ll hire an exorcist so fast, you won’t have time to pop out. Got it?”
He plants his hands on his hips. They sink slightly into his body, which is a disturbing visual. “Don’t you threaten me! This is a family, and secrets are toxic in families.”
“I’m canceling the cable subscription,” Kieran mutters.
“Johnny,” Skye says placatingly, “we’re really not dating. Daniel was doing me a favor, and it got out of hand.”
Maisie pops in beside Johnny. At least, I’m pretty sure it’s Maisie. The figure is dressed from head to toe in black, including a brimmed black hat and a heavy black veil… and about thirty pounds of jewelry.
“What the fuck?” Ewan says, and I shake my head. Something else I’m not thinking about right now.
“There’s no need to tell these lies to cover up your betrayal. Johnny told me what he saw,” Maisie-in-mourning declares dramatically, and I reach my limit. This is getting us nowhere.
“You’re right,” I say. “Skye and I have been secretly dating. We kept it secret because we wanted some time to work things out between us. But you all found out, so we’re just going to have to deal.
Now, can we get back to discussing the potentially life-threatening issue we’re supposed to be dealing with? ”
Maisie sniffs and pops back out. Johnny looks to his left, then tells me, “Carter has questions for you. He says you better make time to answer tomorrow.” Then he pops out too.
I glance around at the ghost-seeing people in the room. They seem to be listening, then Josh says, “Okay, that would be great. Are you sure you have the energy?” A second later, he nods. “Thank you. Come and get me if there are any issues.”
He turns to Kieran. “The ghosts have all gone downstairs. They’re going to take turns overseeing dinner for the guests.”
“Is that a good idea?” Kier asks before I can even get over my shock at the idea.
Josh shrugs. “They were all great today, and the guests we have tonight are low-fuss and love ghosts. Plus, they’re all running low on energy to manifest, so I don’t think they’ll do anything dramatic or problematic.”
I think of Maisie in her mourning costume and wonder what Josh’s definition of dramatic is.
“I guess the guests have your number,” Kieran concedes. “And we do need the time.” In the next breath, he turns a laser-intense stare to me and Skye. “So are you dating or not?”
“Oh my god,” Skye mutters. “I want to die.”
“Not,” I say calmly. “I just made it up on the spur of the moment because I didn’t like Skye’s mom. And then Patrick came, and people were listening, and it got complicated.”
Kieran holds up a hand. “Enough said. We can get the whole story later, but we should probably talk demons and spirits first.”
I hesitate. “Just one quick thing.” Fuck, do I really want to do this? “I’m pretty sure I’m bi. Skye, uh, has been answering some questions for me. In case it might come up. So.” I shrug awkwardly, aware most of that didn’t make sense.
There’s a short silence, then Connor walks over and claps me on the shoulder. “Thanks for trusting us with that. We’re all here if you want to talk.”
It’s surprisingly sensitive for him, but I appreciate it. “Thank you.”
There’s a murmur of support, and Ewan catches my gaze. I’ll have to grab him later for a talk… he might be able to help me with this Skye thing. I don’t think I’d be comfortable talking specifically about Skye with anyone else.
We find places to sit, and I end up on the floor, leaning against the TV cabinet. Skye’s gaze falls on the space beside me—there aren’t that many options—but he chooses to sit at the end of the coffee table instead, and I can’t deny I’m disappointed.
“Okay,” Kieran says, taking charge. “Skye, do you want to tell Con and Gabe what you told us?”
Skye obligingly recounts the details of his encounter with the spirit. Gabe has his iPad out and is taking notes, and he and Connor interrupt several times with questions the rest of us never thought to ask.
“This is great,” Gabe says. “We knew Cato was in charge, but I don’t think anyone knew about the factional split. Do you think the itiner is going to visit?”
Skye shrugs. “Probably? It seemed to want to talk to me again. I think it’s lonely.”
“Call one of us right away if it does,” Connor orders. “We’ll get you a list of things to ask it, in the meantime. But good job. This is much better than what we expected.”
Skye’s beaming, his concerns about the afternoon being wasted banished.
“How did you do?” Ewan asks. “Did you find the gateway?”
Connor scowls. “If we had, you’d know.”
“No such luck,” Gabe agrees. “We did get more instructions from the Collective, though. The team they’re sending should start arriving by the end of the week. I called the motel and got a bunch of rooms for them.”
Kieran’s sigh of relief is audible. “So I won’t have to find room for them here? Thank fuck.”
“I wouldn’t do that to you,” Gabe assures him.
“I would.” Connor grins evilly at his boyfriend. “In fact, I did. But Gabe’s here now, and he’s nicer than me.”
“He really is,” Kieran agrees. “Maybe I should be dating him.”
“Hey!” Connor’s shout is nearly drowned out by our laughter—more laughter than the comment really deserved. It wasn’t that funny. But it feels really good to laugh, and I guess we all need the stress relief.
“What else did the Collective say?” Josh asks when we settle into chuckles.
Gabe pulls a face. “Not a lot. They’re going to send another gatekeeper too, which is good.
It means we don’t have to worry so much about our gateway.
And they’ve put the word out to all our conduits that we need information fast. The problem is, we can’t force spirits to talk to us…
and we need to be careful with how we ask questions.
Most spirits that are here are friendly, but now that we know something’s in the works in the otherworld, there’s the chance some might be spies. ”
Skye sighs. “We already thought of that. Do you think the spirit who found me yesterday was sent to deliberately throw us off track?”
“What?” Josh gasps, but Connor shrugs.
“We don’t know. It’s a possibility we have to consider.”
“This is fine,” Kieran insists. “If we’re prepared for the worst, we… well, we’re prepared.”
I don’t ask how he thinks we’re prepared.
“Do we know much about this head demon?” I ask instead. “You said the faction news was new, but does the Collective know anything about the boss?”
Connor and Gabe exchange glances, and my heart sinks.
“It’s been in charge for a while. And… this is highly classified.
We didn’t even know until this morning,” Connor says.
“But this particular higher demon is the one behind most of the major world conflicts in the twentieth century. It’s considered to be more dangerous than most.”
I run those sentences through my brain a few times. “Wait… I don’t think I understand. Are you saying the world wars were caused by demons? This demon?”
Gabe nods. “Not just those, either.”
“The Korean War?” Ewan asks. “Falklands? What about Vietnam?”
“Yes.”
“The Cold War?”
Connor shakes his head. “Nah, that was all humans. Not enough violence for demons. They would have taken it further.”
“Oh my god,” Josh whispers.
“What about—”
“We’re getting off track,” Kieran interrupts Ewan. “Maybe you can talk about this later? If I remember right, there’s still a bunch of other major conflicts to go through.”
“Sorry.” Ewan grimaces. “Just trying to get my head around it.”
I know exactly how he feels.
A phone rings before Connor can pick up what he was saying, and we look around.
“It’s me, sorry,” Skye says. “I’ll just… oh, it’s Dad. Uh… be right back.” He scrambles to his feet and heads into Josh’s bathroom, answering on the way.
As the door closes behind him, Connor cocks his head and asks, “Why didn’t he go into the hall?”
Kieran shrugs. “Does it matter?”
“A bathroom is a weird place to take a call, especially when there’s a perfectly good hallway right there.” He points to the front door.
This is so surreal. Are we really talking about where to take a phone call right after learning that one particular demon is the reason millions of people died in the last century? And that demon might be planning another mass-extinction-type event?
“Daniel?” Kieran says, and the way he says it makes me think he’s repeating himself.
“Sorry, what? I was…” I trail off. I don’t know what I was doing.
His sympathetic smile says he gets it, though I don’t know what he thinks he gets. There’s kind of a lot for me to be lost in thought about right now.
“That’s okay. I asked if you know if things are okay with Skye’s dad?”
“Oh, yeah. He was going to try to convince everyone that we’re not really dating. Skye tried telling Jennie, but she basically said the same thing Johnny did.”
“I wanted to ask about that,” Josh breaks in. “You told everyone it was a secret because you wanted time alone? And that’s why they won’t believe that it’s not true.”
I wince. “That’s my fault.” I pause. It’s all my fault, really. But I launch into an explanation of what happened, skimming over what Skye’s mom actually said to him, because that’s private. When I’m done, Ewan and Connor are openly laughing.
“You brought this on yourself,” Connor gasps. “It’s like… a farce.”
“Yep,” I agree. “But I’m not sorry.” I glance quickly toward the bathroom door, but it’s still shut. “Don’t tell Skye I said that. He might rip out my lungs.”
There’s a chorus of agreement, and then Josh’s phone chimes. He glances down at it. “Jorge says dinner’s wrapping up. I’m going to go down and check on things… are we nearly done?”
Gabe shrugs. “I don’t have anything else to add. Skye had the big win today, as far as new info goes. Hopefully by tomorrow we’ll start getting updates from other conduits.”
“Let’s leave it there for now, then,” Kieran suggests. “We all need a break.”
The bathroom door opens as we’re all getting to our feet, and Skye stalks out, his adorable face as dark as a thundercloud. “We’re going to have to break up,” he declares. “Probably in public, with as much drama as possible. It’s the only way to convince people.”