Page 50 of Charming Her Monsters

“Yeah.” I look toward the room and wonder about my fur babies. “Can you check on my little guys?”

Arran’s eyes widen even more. “Of course!” My wolfie rushes toward the room and I hear him curse. “The hamster is missing.”

“Maybe that’s what upset Calder?” I suggest. “He seemed to be really into the little ones.”

I hear Arran inhale. Then he’s stripping off his sweatpants as he says to me, “I’ll sniff them out.” He shifts into his wolf and races down the hallway of bedrooms, shakes his head and then rushes downstairs.

“It will be okay,” Flint assures me. “They’ll find them.”

With all my worry, I briefly forgot I’m stuck with my half concrete gargoyle. “I should have had them with me,” I say, tears in my eyes.

“It’s only been a day or so. They would have disrupted your healing, and you need to gain your strength and get some rest.” Flint frowns. “From what I heard from Calder’s room, he was constantly talking to them.”

“I suppose they were probably pent up, unable to talk to me all these years.”

Flint picks up on my guilt and frustration. “Don’t blame yourself. You didn’t know about the supe world. Everyone else before had failed you. Your mother, grandmother, warlock boyfriend. Maybe others you don’t even realize.”

My head spins with that realization. How many other people are ‘in the know’ and let me skip along through life with my ignorance?

I dare to look into Flint’s stunning eyes again. They have been so full of sorrow and sadness, but now when I look, I see something else.

“I guess you are getting used to me?” I cock an eyebrow, wondering what’s going on with my usually taciturn acquaintance.

“Yes, I… I’d like to get over my fear of touching. I don’t want to be like this anymore.”

I swallow down my own nerves, secretly wishing it’s because he wants to do more than just touch me. “Why not?”

“I don’t want to make you uncomfortable. This is the second time I’ve trapped you. It’s dangerous. What if I need to act and I’m frozen?”

“I suspect if you really had to protect me, that something would make you act.”

“Well, possibly. However, I wouldn’t mind giving you a hug… you know…. for friendship. I sensed a few times you were open to doing that with me.”

I don’t say how I’d like to do more than just hug. Horizontal, naked hugging maybe. I’d hug the hell out of him and make him see stars if he’d let me. But I, too, would love a plain ole hug.

“I wish my arms weren’t pinned down, or I’d give you a friendship hug now for making sure I didn’t take a deadly tumble down the stairs.”

“I panicked. I doubt Calder would have let you get hurt.”

“We don’t know that.” I turn my head up to get his attention and make him see my truth. “I don’t mind being here with you, even like this. I don’t know what has caused this condition, but I want you to know that I trust you.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t.”

“Did you hurt someone on purpose? A woman?” I ask, my voice soft. The question is out of my mouth before I have a chance to think it through. This is a problem for someone like me who isn’t used to working with a filter. I usually try to allow all my wild thoughts their due so I don’t censor what comes out. That’s what the editing process is for. But in life, there’s no delete button.

I hope I didn’t strike a nerve with my invasive question.

He tenses, but then shakes his head. “Not on purpose. It was an accident.”

“Maybe it will help to talk about it.”

“You may be correct. Trying to avoid it all these centuries hasn’t seemed to help.”

“Ignoring trauma usually delays healing. I would know.”

“I suppose you have had your fair share of trauma… in just the last few days.” Flint regards me thoughtfully. “You find it helps to speak of your pain?”

“I do. I don’t think it helps to dwell and go over it constantly because then it can become your only story. We all can fall victim to being a victim. I have done it too. Reliving the trauma repetitively can solidify it as our main narrative. But talking about it, and hopefully understanding why it happened or how the experience changed us, I think that can be therapeutic. It allows the space to heal.”

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