Page 46 of Witch of My Heart

“I wouldn’t have noticed it if I weren’t looking for it,” Liam said and swore under his breath again.

“What the fuck is going on? You guys are freaking me out!” Cord cried out, his pitch rising with each word.

Without thinking I held my free arm out for him to leap into. It didn’t make any sense. He was still in human form, but Iknewhe was about to leap into my arms. His shift came fast and a second later, I held him against my chest with one arm and was ready to dig my nails into my palm with the other.

That was something no one knew about my blood. Okay, maybe someone knew it – the someone I was looking for. My blood was hungry when I drew it in anger or with an intention. It ate or carved. It acted with every intention I gave it.

“Blithe, go easy,” Duke said, turning to face the window again.

His words sounded as if they came from under the water. He said my name again, but I couldn’t stop to chat with him.

“What’s going on, mate?” Bobby asked Liam.

“A shade. Not the natural born sort. Just an emotional trauma shade, I think,” Liam said.

“Explain that again,” Bobby said, but I didn’t need to stick around for Liam’s long drawn-out explanation.

“Can’t believe I didn’t see the fucker sooner,” I hissed under my breath to Duke as he opened the back door, and I stepped outside.

Still holding Cord against my chest, I followed him out. This is something our sires had prepared us for. You didn’t grow up with carriers like our dads and all the baggage they tried so hard to never let us see without a shade or two. Uncle Jonah once described it as an emotion too heavy to carry, but too lonely to live on its own. That’s why shades followed those whose emotions gave birth to them around and caused mayhem. Sometimes they faded away in a few days. Sometimes they’d linger for months watching from the edges of life until they lost their ability to stay whole. Other times, they chased those theycame from as if constantly running back to a home that no longer held space for them.

There were plenty of ways to deal with these shades when they popped up and we had plenty of practice from them creeping around both of our childhood homes from time to time. It wasn’t until my teenage years that I discovered by accident the easiest way to destroy one.

“Cousin,” Duke nodded and glanced at Cord.

“Fine,” I sighed and handed my mate off to him. “Stay with Duke. He won’t let it touch you.”

“I’m on your heels,” Duke said as I started toward the grey cloud that hovered just above the rosebush at the edge of the backyard.

Sometimes shades ran. Sometimes they fought. Other times they stayed still as if begging to be set free. They weren’t people. They didn’t have souls. They were just a bit of emotion too big to stay where it was born – a bit of pain that couldn’t be fully processed so that it found somewhere else to go.

“What’s it going to be?” I asked the cloudy shade as I approached the rose bush.

For a second, a woman’s face floated phantom-like in its center. Cord wasn’t imagining things. Ginger Barrel was close enough – in this form made from fear and nightmares – to touch our unborn children. It wasn’t her in any real way, but a shade of fear that put on her face, so it had a name of its own.

“What’s it going to be, sweetheart?” I asked again as the face faded away.

From watching Dad, Jonah, and even Fred on a few occasions, I knew it was best to start off gently if the shade wasn’t trying to fight you. After all, the fear was once a piece of Cord. Its absence didn’t harm him but allowed itself to haunt him. I crouched down next to the shade, ready for it to dart, even as I dug my nails into my palm. My wolf pushed out his claws,making it easier to break through my flesh. Blood pooled around their edges.

“Rest, Fear, you’re not needed here,” I whispered the rhyme my dads once taught me to keep nightmares away.

Then I plunged my hand into the grey cloud of fear made nearly solid by trauma and magic. A blood curdling scream filled the backyard and echoed out through the woods and the village. The shade’s form evaporated to nothingness. I wiped my bloody palm on my hand before standing up and turning to face everyone watching.

“Mate,” Cord said, shifting as he leapt out of Duke’s arms.

He crashed into me, and I pulled him into a tight one-armed hug as I waited for the scratches on my palm to heal. They burnt – in a good way that whispered of blood and magic.

“That’s what was making me think she was coming back?” Cord blinked up at me.

“Only sort of. It was born of your fear that she would,” I whispered to him, still holding him close. “It certainly didn’t do any good at allowing you to heal from that fear, though.”

“Thank you for killing it,” he whispered and buried his face in my chest.

It took me a moment to realize he was starting to cry. I wrapped my other arm around him, not caring if the blood still lingered there or not. Then I spun us around so that my back was to our friends and family. Maybe my dad would’ve chased them all off or been able to get Cord into the house without anyone knowing. Only, I wasn’t my dad and I had to do this the way I knew how to.

So, I let Cord cry into my chest. Duke and Starry lingered while Bobby and Liam left us to our privacy. Xi landed from the sky to check on everyone, but I still didn’t bother to look over my shoulder. Duke was there and I trusted him to protect thismoment for Cord and me. After all, similar shades haunted his carrier as well as mine.

“Can we stay here tonight?” Cord asked me once his tears ran dry. “I don’t feel like going anywhere.”

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