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“It was Hakim. He took your blood and warned you to stay a virgin because he was conspiring with the demons all along. We suspect his alliance with the reapers was to cover his true agenda. He was working with the demon king the entire time.”
Riley nibbled her lip. “He died recently, didn’t he?”
“Yes, why?”
“I stopped getting the letters,” Riley said.
“What letters?” Colton asked.
“Once a month I would get a letter, proving that my stocker was watching me. He would mention my father. He knew exactly when dad was put in the home. Sometimes, he would warn me. Usually when he saw me out with friends. I stopped going out and distanced myself from everybody I knew except dad.”
Colton grabbed her shoulders gently. “He’s gone. He can never touch you or harass you again. Despite what you’ve told me, you seemed to have put the trauma behind you.”
“Not really. My dad got me a psychiatrist, and I have had sessions with her every week since I got out of the hospital. I thought I was healing, but the visions started a year ago. Dr. Henry thought that the trauma was resurfacing because of my father’s illness.”
Colton rubbed his chin. “You and Dannika were both human a year ago. She was having episodes that she believed were hallucinations. We think that was the early development of her foreshadowing. A latent psychic ability. That doesn’t explain how you two could connect prior to being shadows.”
“Perhaps we are both psychic? Or were when we were human,” Riley said.
“Maybe. We need more information on your background. Is there any chance we could talk to your father? We will use the guise of being human. His illness will make that easier.”
Riley’s eyes brightened. “Yes. I think that’s a great idea.”
Colton smiled. “I had a feeling you would.”
“I would really like to see him, but I have to warn you. He has good days and bad ones. Sometimes he thinks I’m my mother, other times, he thinks I’m a nurse. On good days he remembers me and knows he’s in a care facility.”
“I understand. Right now, he is the only lead we have.”
Riley glanced out the main window at the rustling leaves. “Even if we catch him on a good day, that doesn’t mean he will know if mom had Haitian ancestry. He has episodes. If we stress him, then we will lose any chance of getting any useful information. He retreats quickly when he can’t handle a situation.”
“Is it violent?”
Riley’s eyes widened. “No. Though that can be a result for patients with his disease, he just retreats mentally.”
“We will be careful, and try to get the answers you need without being too forceful, or causing him any unnecessary distress,” Colton said.
“When do you want to go?”
“Are you tired at all? You are yet to sleep.”
Riley shook her head slowly. “On the contrary, I feel like I drink four cups of coffee. Should I be tired?”
Colton put his arm around her. “Not necessarily. Your transition is new. Let’s burn off some of that energy. Where is a good place to enter the care facility? Preferably where no one else would see us. While your father is not likely to notice the differences in you, the humans we encounter will be adversarial.”
“Why?” she asked.
“While they see us as human, they sense the predator in us. It’s Mother Nature’s warning to stay away from us.”
“Okay. Then we should take a pathway straight to his room. He sleeps a lot, so the nurses will only come in to administer his medication, and that’s not for another few hours.”
Colton kissed her forehead before wrapping his arms around her. His body shifted to mist enveloping her in a dark cloud, before her body dissolved. Their molecules mixed in a kaleidoscope of dark passion. While their bodies were non-corporeal, their emotions were stronger.
She felt his anger. The feeling of guilt, for not being there to help her when she needed him. Her mind caressed his, letting them know without words that nothing that happened was his fault. But whatever lay at the end of this tunnel, they would face together.
His shadow took control of hers, entering the pathway in a split second. They raced towards the care facility, switching from one stream to another, a zigzag of tunnels that ran between the shadows. She grabbed her chest as they coalesced in her father’s room.
He lay on a simple bed with metal railings. Both were up, indicating he’d had an issue and needed to be confined. Guilt was a bitter enemy, and whatever had happened, her father had faced it alone.
