“Sure, but first, I have something to say,” Sykes said as he sauntered to where the three of us stood and elbowed Bran and Izzy out of the way. “Give me room.”
He gripped my shoulders and looked me straight in the eye as if trying to read my thoughts. Thankfully, he couldn’t. His love and concern flowed to me though and I bit my lower lip to stop myself from saying something reassuring. Bran was in the room, watching Sykes with annoyance. Sykes had never bothered to hide the fact that he loved me. Maybe not as passionately and completely as Bran, but he loved me in his own way.
“You are going to be okay,” Sykes vowed.
“Of course she is,” Bran retorted.
Sykes ignored him and added, “You remember me, right?” He peered at me. “The guy you secretly have a crush on.”
I giggled.
“Don’t believe anything they,” he jerked his thumb to indicate Bran and Izzy, who were shaking their heads at his antics, “tell you about me. Remember this face.” He pointed between his eyes and turned his head left then right to give me side profiles, blond hair sweeping his broad shoulders. “This is the face of your number-one fan.”
I chuckled and immediately regretted it. “Thanks, Sykes.”
“See? She remembers me.” He smirked.
“Of course I do, silly.”
The smile disappeared, his hazel eyes darkening. “As soon as we come back here, we’re going after the fiends that did this to you and making them pay. No one hurts one of us and gets away with it. Meanwhile whatever you don’t remember, I’ll be available for mind-blends, memory retrieval, or whatever you want so you can relive everything you’ve forgotten through
Tear prickled the back of my eyes, but I managed a nod. Bran snickered, but this time I shot him a censuring look. He wore that arrogant look that said the gates to Tartarus would open before he let Sykes mind- blend with me. Ignoring him, I hugged Sykes. “Thank you.”
“Okay, no slobbering over me.” He teased, then leaned back, shot Bran a defiant look, and planted a kiss on my forehead. “Let’s go, Izzy.” He added in a gruff voice and teleported.
Izzy gave me a tiny smile. “He was really worried that you wouldn’t remember us. David Lee lost most of his adult memories.”
“Who’s David Lee?”
“The Damned Human the demon attacked in New York.”
“I could never forget you guys, Izzy.” I hugged her too. “Your voices pulled me out of that dark, horrible… place.” The words poured out of my mouth, yet when I tried to grasp the memory to support it, all I got were white-hot slashes of pain across my skull.
“You remembered something?” Bran asked urgently, his eyes searching my face.
I tried again to search for the shadow of the memory and winced at the pain on my temples. “I don’t know. Maybe.”
“How much have you forgotten?” Izzy asked.
Bran shook his head. “Let’s discuss that later, Izzy. She needs to rest.”
She shrugged and left. I released a breath I didn’t know I was holding, sat on my bed and glanced at Bran. “What kind of demons are we dealing with?”
“We don’t know.” Bran settled beside me and covered my hands with his. “Today was the second time we met them. First encounter was a week ago. We told the Cardinals what happened. Something about the demon bothered them enough to put us on a lockdown while they searched for them. You picked up on their unease right away, though.” Bran tucked a lock of my hair behind my ear and tilted my chin. His emerald eyes were shadowed. “How much have you forgotten?”
“What year and month are we in?”
“August. You’re turning seventeen in about two weeks.”
I’d lost about four months. “The last thing I remember is entering Valafar’s booth on Jarvis Island.”
Surprise flashed across Bran’s face. “That’s not bad.”
“Compared to the guy Izzy said lost most of his memories, I guess I am lucky. Still so much has happened. Are Kylie and I still friends?”
“Yes. You grandfather didn’t erase her memories yet, so you two do
“Stuff?”
He grinned. “Girl stuff—you know, shop, talk, watch movies. We’ve even double-dated.”
“Really?” Only Bran could put up with Kylie’s incessant chatter for me. Kylie was my best friend, but our friendship almost got destroyed when I froze a cup in front of her then tried to B.S. my way out of telling her the truth by claiming it was a Gypsy trick. In the end I had to tell her who and what I was when we learned she had the ability to channel our energies and thoughts, and hear our telepathic communications. Humans called people like her psychics. We preferred the term ‘mediums’. Humans weren’t supposed to know about our existence, but her case was different.
Something else occurred to me. “Did we get the List?”
He smiled. “Yes, and we’ve canceled most of the contracts. We have fifteen more to go and those are all Runners.”
“Runners?”
“Humans who’d rather run than cancel their contracts.”
“Why would they do that?”
He chuckled. “Because they can. We’ll discuss all that later. Right now, I have to go.” He cupped my face and gently brushed my skin with his thumb. “I know your head still hurts, so rest until we get back. Maybe you might get more fleeting memories like you just did.”
I hoped so. “Okay.”
He pulled me into his arms. “We’ll find out what’s wrong with you and fix it, Sunshine. I promise.”
That was something about the men on my team. They always believed they could fix everything. Maybe this was something I had to fix by myself. “Are we going after the demons?”
He shot me a determined look. “Oh yeah.”
Panic followed his words and I immediately felt terrible. No matter how strong or evil a demon was, I’d never been scared of hunting until now. Not knowing what I could or couldn’t do didn’t help either.
“About mind-blending, I was going to suggest it before
I wasn’t too sure about the mind-blend thing either, but I wanted him gone so I could take inventory of my powers. “Okay. No one but you.”
“You are giving in without a fight?” he asked in disbelief.
I smiled. “No, I’m trying to get rid of you.”
He chuckled. “You wish.”
“So I can rest,” I finished.
As soon as he left, I set out to confirm something I thought I’d seen when I teleported, something that had me a bit worried. Visualizing the kitchen, I willed myself there.
My teleport was definitely different. I could slow down and see other psi energies around me while I was in my energy form. I studied the kitchen. The energies pulsed and grew stronger until I recognized objects. Two cups sat side-by-side inside the sink, indicating Grampa and Aunt Janelle had been home earlier. Flowers on the kitchen counter and dining room table filled the air with their fragrance. A new garbage can was by the garbage disposal. I couldn’t identify it until I materialized. It was a blue recycling can, probably put there by Aunt Janelle. As an Earth Cardinal Guardian, she loved nature and was big on saving the earth.
As I teleported back to my room, I slowed down again. Moving through the wall felt weird and ticklish. Something was different about my bedroom too. I hovered near the ceiling and drew from my old memories until something clicked—I had moved my furniture around. I materialized and walked around, noting the changes. The lime and lemon cover was new and so were the dresser, lamps, and the draperies. I even had a DVD/VHS player.
