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I stared at the ceiling, twirling a piece of Valerie’s hair around my finger. Her breath rose and fell in the cadence of sleep, but I couldn’t stop the litany of questions today dredged up. Sleep wasn’t in the cards for me, so I slid out of bed and put on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt.
With a pair of flip-flops on my feet, I snuck out of the house, easily finding my way to Long Sands Beach. The full moon tempered the darkness, and I climbed down the stairs to the sand and started walking the beach.
I strolled, not worrying about the time or the tide; it was low, so the expanse of beach was at its widest and the water was seasonably warm. I followed the sand from one end of the beach to the other and turned back. Damian stood ten feet away with his arms crossed.
“You scared the hell out of Valerie,” he said, his voice carrying on the night air and his expression one of stern unhappiness.
I stopped and turned toward the water.
“What happened?” I asked, and turned my hard stare in his direction.
Damian let out a laugh and stepped into place next to me. “You aren’t ready for it, kid,” he said.
“I’m only a couple of years younger than you. Why are you always so fucking condescending, like I’m a child and you’re some ancient old man?”
Damian crossed his arms and stared out at the water for a few minutes. Just when I thought he wasn’t going to dignify my outburst with an answer, he slid his gaze to me. “That’s because I am.”
“You are what?”
“I’m old. Older than you can fathom.” He looked back in the direction of the house. “You’re only operating on hours, days and years right now.”
“You’re twenty seven, right?” I asked. That’s what it said on his driver’s license; he turned back toward me, shaking his head. “So, what, you’re like, thirty?” I guessed.
He laughed and started toward our homes. Naomi and Damian lived next door to us in an equally secluded fortress. I caught up with him.
“Do you know what your brother and I do?” he asked.
I shook my head. They were in and out, but I never thought to ask what they did. I knew what I did lately. I spent my days relearning the English language as well as the basics of self-defense.
“We own a private detective agency that specializes in paranormal activity,” he said without breaking stride. He slowed after a few paces. “Do you understand what that is?”
I stared at the sand, trying to decipher the word and I looked up at him. “You research things... like me,” I said.
“No. You are psychic. That’s a bit different from the things we look into.”
“Oh,” I said and stopped. “What does this have to do with your age?”
Damian stopped as well. “Everything,” he said. “As far as my age is concerned, think beyond your limited understanding of time. Think decades and centuries.”
I narrowed my gaze and clenched my teeth. “I don’t appreciate you messing with me,” I said and stalked off.
“Monsters are real,” he said, and I stopped, spinning around and staring him down. “Monsters, ghosts... other things,” he added.
My hand went to the pendant under my shirt and my conversation with Raven crossed my mind. Damian’s gaze dropped to it.
“Raven’s hex pendants do protect us.”
“I’ll ask one more time. What the fuck happened to me?” The anger inside was building and my body started shaking with the ballooning power.
Damian stared me down. “You took on Lucifer yourself.”
My brain stalled and pain bit through my skin, dropping me to my knees and crushing the air from my chest. My hands clamped the sides of my head trying to stop the freight train bearing down on my mind, and I had the sensation of being lifted into the air just before everything went black.