Page 59 of Damien’s Mate

“What happened?” he asked. The Brock he knew had a quiet charm, most of the time, but he also kept everyone at arms’ length, except maybe Jaeda.

Titan was quiet again for a while, which Damien was used to by now. He waited. Finally Titan said, “I think… to do what Brock did, his heart and mind had to be wide open. The very young are too innocent to really understand the darkness of a human soul, much less the soul of a damaged shifter. Their innocence protects them. And I think—his wolf protected him too, kept him innocent. Maybe for too long.”

“And then he grew up,” Damien said, beginning to understand. The messed-up emotions of a teenager, his own maturing animal. Power and desire, complicated emotions and choices.

And all that darkness in other people becoming clearer and more disturbing, as he understood its ramifications from an adult perspective.

Titan nodded. “The darkness of the damaged predators he tried to heal piled up in his soul, until his wolf couldn’t protect him anymore. And he had his own darkness to deal with.”

The big bear sighed. “But he can still see into people, and he doesn’t have normal defenses. The only way he can handle it now is to shut them out. So his wolf is angry, and Brock is… alone. That’s hard for him.”

“I get that.” Damien toyed with some wood chips on the table. It seemed like being a shifter was more complicated than he’d thought.

He said to Titan, “You see things other people don’t see too, don’t you?” He’d always wanted to ask him about that, what those silver eyes saw when he was looking into the distance—or into another person. “Like Brock?” He knew Titan could see Nick, but sometimes he thought the bear saw other ghosts, too.

“Yes.” Those silver eyes were far away. “Sort of. The same, but different.” That didn’t explain much, but maybe it didn’t go into words very well.

“That’s why you live up here, instead of in the house with the others.”

Titan nodded. “And I make the things I see.”

Yeah, that had to suck. Damien really wouldn’t want to live with some of the things Titan saw. “Some of them are beautiful,” he said tentatively.

“Some.” Titan paused. “Some of them are so ugly I smash them with a hammer. I put the ugliness in the stone, and then I destroy it.”

Damien thought about the sculptures the bear hadn’t destroyed, and didn’t want to imagine what the ones he did destroy were like. “Does that work?” Damien asked.

“I’ll let you know.”

A work in progress, then. Maybe everybody’s life was. Damien asked, “Should we go look for Brock?”

“We’ll let him run first. His wolf will hunt, and kill, and devour, and maybe that will help.”

It did not help.

About half an hour later, Phantom Nick jumped through the wall of the cabin. Behind him came a young boy, maybe twelve or thirteen.

Also partly transparent. Also walking through the wall.

Damien jumped and cut his finger with a chisel. Sheesh, he thought, wrapping a rag around it. How many freaking ghosts lived around here?

Unlike Nick, this one talked.

“You might want to go down to the house,” he said to Titan. “Brock’s wolf is going crazy again, and it pissed Remy off.”

Titan looked up, his brow furrowing. “Where’s Brandon?”

The ghost boy shrugged his see-through shoulders. “I don’t know. His truck’s gone.”

Titan nodded and rose to his feet. Damien put down his tools and went with him. The boy and the ghost panther faded through the walls.

“He another dead crew member?” Damien asked. “How many are there?”

“No, he’s just a dragon who made friends with Nick,” Titan said. “Some dragons can walk between the worlds, although usually not as young as that.”

Walk between the worlds? As a thirteen-year-old? When Damien was thirteen, he’d thought going to the Chicago Cubs stadium with no adults along was a big deal.

“So he belongs somewhere else? The Dragonlands?”