Page 49 of Ghost
I wasn’t even sure what I had been scared about—that fear went beyond the nervousness of opening up to others. And this felt far beyond the fear from the other night in the bath.
This was concerning. “What’s going on?” I wondered.
“It’s gone now.” Damen stood beside Miles, who had moved to the other side of the room. “Were any alarms triggered?”
Titus twisted under me, turning toward the monitors. I wasn’t certain what he was looking for, but whatever he saw didn’t seem to please him. His gruff voice cut into the tense atmosphere. “No, and that shouldn’t be possible.”
“I can no longer follow to where it’s retreated.” Kasai’s presence preceded his voice.
Damen frowned, his expression furious. “Damn it.”
I pushed against Titus’ chest, and he turned his focus back to me. “What just happened?”
“You can feel their emotions?” Titus asked instead of answering my question. His face was a mask of careful consideration, and the hint of something different flickered in his green eyes. “Why didn’t you say so before?”
“I can… It’s not normal?” How was I supposed to know? I assumed that feeling the spirits’ emotions was a perk of being able to see them.
Damen strode through the room, headed toward the monitors. “How do you feel now?” he asked.
How did I feel?
Well, I was straddling Titus. So that was a little bit embarrassing. I was also extremely aware of the way his hands spanned the width of my back.
They were all bigger than me. But Titus—being the largest—had a way of making me feel delicate. I didn’t like this at all. Perhaps if I went through a delayed growth spurt, I wouldn’t feel so helpless.
“Don’t answer that.” Titus grunted. “Damen, she’s fine.”
How didheknow that I was fine? How presumptuous.
“Bianca,” Damen turned back from the cameras and leaned against the table. “Do you have your medication with you?”
How could that still be a priority? “Why?”
“Think about it.” Damen’s eyes didn’t leave mine. “You haven’t taken your medication, and now are knee-deep in the paranormal. Your senses are stronger, and your abilities are growing. What you felt just now—those weren’t your emotions. Titus being able to stop them from affecting you is proof of that.”
What he was insinuating refused to process. “I’ve taken anxiety medication a long time. Of course they’d dull my emotions. That’s why everything would grow stronger, right? Besides, this wasn’t… empath stuff. I couldn’t feel the presence of anything else.”
Damen’s unwavering stare had my words trailing off.
I was wrong. I wasn’t sure how, but that much was obvious.
“Psychotropic medications do not affect an empath’s ability to feel the emotions of others. They only alter your own brain chemistry,” Julian responded. “Nor would you be able to sense spirits now, more than before.”
“But there was nothing else here…” I protested. It was too much to hope I wasn’t going crazy. “And aren’t they the same ability?”
“People are generally only one or the other: a medium or an empath. Not both,” Damen interjected. “Only those with especially unique abilities can do it. If your abilities have been manifesting differently this last week, the cause has to be your medication.”
“But—”
“Where’s your medication, darling?” Julian’s hand—which had been hovering behind me—finally touched my back. “Do you still have any left?”
“The bottle is in my purse,” I responded, everything felt surreal. Numbness crawled over my skin, and I barely noticed when Miles left to get my bag from the kitchen. Nor when he returned.
I knew how this would end. Just like I knew this numb feeling would pass. There was another emotion brewing deep within me. A feeling I never fully embraced out of guilt.
Anger.
“Here.” Miles found the orange bottle, and Julian took it without hesitation. I wasn’t even embarrassed Miles had been digging through my purse. At the moment, privacy seemed like such a foreign concept.
