Page 18 of Jacinth

The cemetery gate’s screech announced my arrival. A shudder worked its way down my neck as I wondered how many spirits were lurking, praying I could remove them from this nightmare. I sent a quick prayer of thanks that, while my gift lay in restoring the soul to flesh, I couldn’t see them unless they were animating a vessel.

I vaguely remembered where the grave was from my last visit. Past a copse of trees, and in a quiet corner. I rounded a turn and froze in shock at the sight of Niko, half naked and hard, thrusting toward a tree. His ass flexed with the effort and the grunting was a soundtrack I could really have done without.

“Come for me, baby,” he muttered and ran his fingers up the length of his shaft.

What the actual fuck.

He had to be wasted. No other explanation made sense. Just when I decided to intervene, he came with a great roar.

“I never, ever want to see anything like that again. Seriously, come on. Home time. I need to bleach my eyeballs,” I said, trying for loud and in charge, while feeling a little queasy.

Niko startled and moved as though shielding someone, which of course meant he gave me a full frontal on his not-fast-enough deflating cock. I recoiled in horror, sheltering my poor eyes from further assault.

“Niko, if you can understand anything I am saying, I need you to put your fucking pants on. Right now.”

“What is wrong with you? Of course I understand you. There. You can look now, we’re decent.”

Tentatively, I peeked from behind my hands to find he was telling the truth. Thank god.

“Orion, what are you doing here?”

“Looking for you, what else?”

Niko shrugged and looked off to the side. “I thought maybe you came here to apologize to her.”

“Who?” I asked, peering around the obviously empty clearing.

“Jacinth. You really hurt her, man.” Niko was still staring over to the left as he shook his head. “He should know... No, you don’t deserve to be treated that way... It’s even worse that you just met. No, that’s on him... Ok, I’ll stay out of it then.”

“You’re high,” I decided, moving to take his arm.

“I’m not fucking high! Will you please, for once in your goddamn life, listen to someone else for once! Do you want the truth? Jacinth is standing right there listening to our family drama. I can see every single ghost, ghoul, and spirit in this graveyard, in both the mortal realm and out of it.

“I have been hiding this shit my entire useless life trying to protect you, because your life is so much easier not knowing that every single spirit I have ever come across has wanted to use me to get to you. The precious golden boy who can perform miracles. Who could give them back their lives if only the recalcitrant little medium would just play nice.

“You have no idea. Because the truth is something you didn’t deserve. Now, I think it’s time to share the burden.” Tears shone in his eyes as he looked back over to the same corner, then let his head drop.

Stunned. I didn’t know how to react. Whether these were drug-induced delusions... or something else. His eyes, while wet with tears, were clear; his pupils normal. Even his emotional confession had been concise. This all led me to believe that... well...

My brother was a medium.

Shit.

CHAPTER 15

Jacinth

I heldhim as he fell apart.

Awkwardly patting him on the back, I wondered how I had managed to make two of the three brothers ugly-cry over my grave in as many nights. As I watched Orion’s pale face, I worried we may just go for the hat trick before the night was out.

How the hell we had gone from the best sex of my life—shut up, you know exactly what I mean—to a lifetime movie, I wasn’t sure. But right now? My boo needed some space.

I brought myself back into the mortal realm and concentrated on the link that had sprung up between Orion and me at a soul level. It was similar enough to the one I shared with Birdie that it was relatively easy to access. I knew I was visible to him by the embarrassingly high-pitched squeal that left him.

Parlor tricks, my ass.

“I think you’d better go. We all have a bit of processing to do, don’t you think?”

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