Page 40 of Touched By Destiny

“Honestly, I don’t know. The last few inspirits I’ve resurrected have unique skills, and as I’ve spoken the words of my spell, I’ve hoped it will give them an endless lifeline. But the spell was the same as ever. Did it work? Am I waiting for some sign or spark to tell me I’m successful and I’ve already accomplished my goal? I have all these theories, but I don’t even know if it’s beyond my magic.”

“I guess you wait for them to age and figure it out. If they don’t become skeletal, then you’ll know for sure it worked.”

“It could be a long wait,” Eric said. “I’m impatient and want to know I’ve done it. But I’m working on the premise that no other necro has given an inspirit immortality. Another sorcerer may have unlocked the way to do it. Maybe your necro did.”

Gabriel shook his head slowly. “We want full honesty, right?”

His brow creasing with curiosity and a strange trepidation, Eric took a sip of his beer. “Yes. Absolutely.”

“The day we had sex for the first time? I let go of any restraint. I thought I had nothing left to lose because that morning I woke up with skeletal toes.”

Shock had Eric’s mouth falling open, and he hopped to his feet. His bottle hit the end table with a clink. “You’re dying and you just mentioned that?”

“Relax, Eric. It’s okay. I’m not dying. Our souls touched, and within a day or two, the bones disappeared,” Gabriel said, then closed his eyes. “I thought if I kept my distance from you, I’d go back. Our connection would evaporate, and I’d be nothing more than a hopefully fond memory. I was wrong. But I’m not giving us a shot because I’ve been given immortality. It’s you. I want to learn about you. I’d like to discover if we have whatit takes to build a lasting relationship. I’m terrified. Absolutely petrified, but I’m committed too.”

Eric’s heart was still thumping wildly as his mind plagued him with images of standing in a cemetery with Gabriel’s damn name etched onto a tombstone. “You’re only forty-seven.”

“Nearly forty-eight. And some inspirits only get half of what I’ve had. It’s about the necromancer. You know that.”

“I’m so glad you’re okay,” Eric whispered.

Gabriel reached over to set his beer down and stood. He held out his arms, and Eric rushed into them. With long strokes of his hands along the muscles of Eric’s back, Gabriel soothed him.

“I should be comforting you,” Eric murmured, holding on to Gabriel tightly. “You must’ve been so scared that day.”

“I was frightened, sad, and unable to fight my feelings for you any longer despite how inappropriate I thought they were.”

“Inappropriate?” Eric asked.

“I get paid to ensure you’re safe, not to have sex with you in a hotel room.”

“So, you want to be paid to have sex with me?” Eric teased.

“Not what I meant.”

His terror of losing Gabriel was thwarted by the knowledge that their souls were now linked forever, even if they couldn’t build the relationship of his dreams. No matter what the future held, Gabriel had eternity, and Eric was ecstatic that his long lifeline had granted the inspirit immortality.

“Want me to have you fired so no one thinks it’s weird that I’m sleeping with my bodyguard?”

“I’m not sure I can trust your safety to someone else,” Gabriel replied, pressing a kiss to Eric’s temple.

Their eyes met, and Eric smiled. “Then I guess you’ll have to get over the inappropriateness of our relationship.”

“That wasn’t enough to keep us apart. Did I thank you yet for taking a chance on a resurrected guy without magic or any concept of how to build something meaningful with someone else?”

“I don’t want your gratitude, Gabriel.”I want your heart and soul, Eric thought but kept the words inside for now. “We’ll figure this out together.”

“You’re the only one who could’ve convinced me to give this soulmates thing a shot.”

Eric’s heart filled with joy at those words, and he brushed his lips with Gabriel’s. “I feel the same way about you.”

Chapter 18

Eric’s ghost was nowhere to be found. Frustrated, Eric had tried to open his senses to aid another spirit, but whatever part of him controlled his encounters with the dead preferred a single project at a time. So, until Connor returned and Eric could send him to the side of his deceased partner, they were stuck together.

If the absent Connor wasn’t enough to irritate Eric, he was also having zero success with his crystals. Instead of giving Gabriel a new one that morning, he’d spent the afternoon in his own bedroom testing teleportation. No matter what he did to the crystals, he was taken to the oldest one.

Unsure whether he should keep experimenting or accept that necromancers couldn’t handle more than a single crystal, Eric left the pretty blue-and-white space his mother had designed for him and went downstairs. As he reached the bottom of the wide staircase, he smiled at a gorgeous inspirit with grass green eyes and an exceptional mouth that drove him wild.

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