Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
GABE
“Gabe, wake up!”
I’m already starting to sit up even as my eyes open. Unfortunately, that just means my skull cracks against Connor’s jaw. We both make undignified squealing sounds.
The bedside lamp clicks on, forcing my watering eyes to blink as I clutch my head.
“What the fuck?” Tom mumbles. “Connor? Why are you sneaking around in the dark?”
“I was trying not to wake you,” Con mumbles, hand pressed to his jaw. “I need Gabe. Norval found the document.”
That wakes me all the way up, and Tom sits up abruptly, tossing back the covers.
“Whoa,” Connor says, and I remember we’re both naked.
“Get out.”
He puts a hand over his eyes and backs toward the door. “Just saying, congratulations, man. You’re punching above your weight.”
I throw a pillow at him, but it collides with the door as he pulls it closed. Tom’s chuckling as he pulls on his jeans, and I let the warm feelings rush through me. I really am punching above my weight, and not just because he looks amazing naked… every inch of him.
“Hurry up,” he says. “Three in the morning isn’t a good time to dawdle.”
He’s got a point. I get out of bed, grab the nearest item of clothing, which happens to be sweatpants, and yank them on. When I turn around, Tom’s staring at me.
“What?”
He swallows. “You’re just gonna wear those? With no underwear? Just… those. Covering your cock.”
I glance down at the cock he’s referring to and see his point. I’ve never worn sweats without underwear before, so I didn’t realize the dick print would be quite so… explicit. The last thing I need is Norval commenting on it—and he would.
Cursing, I yank them off, find underwear, and then pull everything back on. Tom sighs mournfully. “I liked the other way better.”
I choke back a laugh. “Come on.”
Connor’s waiting in the living room, but he’s alone. “Where’s—”
“Up at the house,” he interrupts. “I thought it would be better to do this there.”
“So why didn’t you just call?” We follow him outside, where I hesitate for a second. The fall evening is cooler than I expected, and Tom and I are both still shirtless.
Meh. The house isn’t far.
“Because Kieran and the ghosts were arguing over whether we should wake the others, and I didn’t want to get sucked into that.”
“You left your boyfriend to argue with eight stubborn ghosts and ran away like a little kid?”
He nods. “Yep.”
I want to shame him for that, but I’d probably do the same. As though he knows what I’m thinking, Tom glances over. “You’d regret it for the rest of your life.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I pick up the pace a little and bask in the sound of his laughter.
Connor swipes us in through the employee entrance and leads the way to the library, where light is spilling into the hall. Inside, Kieran’s leaning over the table, reading something while Norval hovers beside him. The other ghosts are clustered opposite.
“Hey,” Connor says quietly, and Kieran looks up.
“Oh look, it’s my beloved, the coward.”
Con snorts. “I’ll own that. So you won?”
Kieran nods. “Let everyone else get some rest. There hasn’t been enough of it lately.”
Can’t argue with that. I walk toward the table. “Is that…?”
Kieran steps back. “Not much of it makes sense to me,” he admits.
“Wait,” Tom says, stopping beside me. “Is that the actual document? How did it get here?”
Norval harrumphs. “What’s that supposed to mean? I said I’d bring it, and I brought it.” He glares at Tom. “I’d have thought a grandson of Giuseppina would be better mannered.”
On cue, Tom’s grandmother tsks and comes forward. “Tommaso, why with no shirt? You are nice young man from good family.”
Connor coughs, and I glance over to see him practically choking on repressed laughter.
“It’s the middle of the night, Nonna,” Tom says with more patience than I’d have. “I was sleeping.”
Her hand goes to her throat. “With no pajamas? What if there was a fire?”
I stare fixedly at the document on the table, not really seeing it but not wanting to be drawn into the conversation.
“Then the firemen will see my bare chest. Could we worry about this later?”
His grandmother sniffs, not impressed, but they all turn their attention toward me.
“Well?” Tom asks. “Is it doable?”
I focus on the paper. It’s old—according to the date, nearly a hundred years old. I push aside my anger that the council has hidden it away all this time. Maybe they had a reason. Maybe it’s too dangerous to use.
My eyes skim over the words, and then I go back to the beginning and read the whole thing again, carefully, before raising my gaze to meet Norval’s.
Tears shine in his. It’s ridiculously simple.
So simple, in fact, that I’m sure this document isn’t the only record of it.
This can’t be the only time in a thousand years of the Collective that someone thought of this.
No. It’s been suppressed for some reason.
But that’s an issue for another day, when all this is over.
“Con, you wanna…?”
He sucks in a deep breath as he realizes what the question means, then comes around the desk to read the document. “Yeah.”
I brace myself and wait for his nod. We don’t need any preparation—I could recognize Connor’s energy profile anywhere. I mentally reach out to him, and when he reaches back, I glance down at the document again. The steps are simple, but I don’t want to fuck them up.
There’s a peculiar kind of mental click as our energies merge. I don’t know how to describe it, exactly, but I immediately have more power available to me. It doesn’t feel like I’m attached to Connor, though. It doesn’t feel like his energy, necessarily, just energy.
“What does it feel like for you?” I ask, and he shakes his head.
“Nothing. I felt it when you… latched on, but that’s it. Are you still attached?”
“This is so weird,” Kieran mutters.
“Yeah,” I say, responding to both of them.
“Do something,” Con urges.
Uncertainly—there’s not really anything discreet I can do that requires more energy than I usually have—I open a small gateway and then immediately close it.
Connor makes a small sound. “Okay, I felt that,” Con says. “It was as if I did it, but I didn’t. I mean… the power draw felt like it does when I open a gateway. But I wasn’t doing it. How did it feel to you?”
I consider it carefully. “Normal. But… I think that might be because it’s such a small task? I would barely feel something like that under regular circumstances. And I can definitely tell I have more energy to pull from.”
“So you guys are linked right now?” Kieran asks, eyes darting between us. “Can you, like… sense each other? Share thoughts?”
“No,” we say in unison.
“We’re completely separate,” Connor adds. “I can sense Gabe, but no more than usual. Hang on.” He pauses, then says, “Did you hear that?”
I roll my eyes. “No.”
“Probably just as well.”
“I don’t get it, then,” Kieran muses. “I thought maybe the Collective suppressed it because it required an invasion of privacy or something. But if you’re still completely separate…” He shrugs.
Connor and I exchange glances. He’s right. “There might be some other downside,” I warn. “Maybe larger tasks are dangerous.”
“We need to play around with it a bit more. I also want to try the link over distance. If you’re going to use this, you’ll need to be able to link with people from miles away.” Connor makes a face. “Plus you know me better than anyone. Would it work as easily with someone else?”
Hattie clears her throat. “This is all very interesting, but it seems there’s nothing else that can be done tonight, and you boys need some rest.”
I blink. Am I being sent to bed like a schoolboy?
“Rest,” Tom’s grandmother repeats. “And pajamas so you don’t catch cold and die.”
“Nobody’s going to die of a cold, Nonna.” Tom’s exasperation makes me want to smile. “But if you guys have done as much as you can, bed sounds good.”
“With pajamas,” Giuseppina insists.
“They don’t need pajamas if they’re going to have sex,” Carter points out helpfully, and Tom’s face flames. My own gets a little hot too. I don’t need to talk about sex with my boyfriend’s grandmother.
Luckily, Kieran intervenes. “Let’s respect personal boundaries, please. Remember some things aren’t appropriate for a work environment.”
“At least someone’s having sex,” Maisie mutters.
“Definitely time to sleep,” I declare. “Okay, Con, let’s see how disconnecting works.
” I scan over the document again, then release the light connection between us.
Same as before, it’s the sensation of something clicking out of place, like a marker cap being pulled off.
“Whoa.” I put my hand down on the table as a wave of disorientation washes over me.
“Gabe?” Tom’s at my side in an instant. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” I manage a smile as my head clears and catch his skeptical expression. “Seriously. I got a bit lightheaded for a second.” I’m pretty sure it was the sudden adjustment to less power that did it. I glance across at Connor. “You?”
He shrugs and shakes his head. “Nope. I felt it when you detached, but that’s it.”
That fits with my theory, and I make a mental note to explore it more tomorrow.
“Bedtime,” Tom orders, still hovering. “Any headache? Still dizzy?”
I lean over to kiss him, affection swamping me. “No. I’m fine, I swear.”
“I trained as a nurse,” Maisie says with an eagerness that concerns me. “I could examine you.”
“Hard pass,” Tom declares before I can even finish processing the horror of that.
Giuseppina smacks Maisie on the arm. “He is my grandson’s boyfriend!”
“And you ain’t ever trained as a nurse,” Johnny adds. “Least, this is the first time you mentioned it.” For the first time, I notice that his mohawk is pink tonight, and the variety of tattoos on his skin are all pastels and rainbows.
“I could be a nurse!” Maisie squawks. “I know human anatomy better than anyone!”
Kieran looks at the ceiling. “Oh my god.”
I decide it’s time to make a move. “We’re going.” I grab Tom’s hand and head for the door. “You can put that somewhere safe, right?” I call over my shoulder to Connor. He’s already picking the document up off the desk.
“Yeah, I got it.”
Tom stops dead. “Wait. Hold on. Nobody answered me before. How did it get here?”
Norval huffs. “I brought it.”
“Yeah, I get that, but—”
“I’ll explain,” I promise. “Walk.” I do not want the ghosts getting involved in this conversation. We’ll never get to sleep.
We escape the house, leaving Connor and Kieran to deal with the ghosts, and step out into the cool night. Tom shivers a little, and I wish I’d listened to myself earlier and gotten us some sweatshirts. At least it’s not far.
“Okay, so… how’d Norval get the paper back here?” Tom asks as we cross the lawn.
“It’s a thing some ghosts can do. Someone wrote a paper on it once.
If the ghost had paranormal abilities when they were alive, like a hunter, and has been dead for a long time, they develop more power to influence things around them.
Norval probably would have had to be fully manifested, put the paper inside his clothes, and then travel directly from the archive to here.
And the paper would have traveled with him. ”
Tom side-eyes me hard. “But if he’d de-manifested before traveling, what then?”
I shrug. “It probably would have stayed in the archive.”
“I’m hearing a lot of ‘probablys.’”
“Yeah… nothing’s an exact science when it comes to ghosts.”