Gray rolled over, so that he was on top this time and pulled himself up as high as the surprisingly-strong grip allowed. “What are you doing? Stop touching me. We’re not friends.”
“No, we’re not. I’m your shadow,” it repeated as if that was supposed to explain its bizarre behavior.
Gray inhaled the cool, plant-scented air. “So let go. Don’t touch me.”
The creature took its time but eventually pulled away and sat in the grass with all four hands on its head. “I need my body.”
Gray glared at his knees buried in the cold, dry sand, and scowled when the reality of the situation dawned on him. “Your body is in a chest in this lake? Is that what you’re saying? It’s underwater?”
“Yes. I need it tonight. Those are the bones Baal wants me to wear.”
Gray ignored the creepy cannibalistic form of speech the shadow used and looked at the sickle-moon reflected on the smooth surface of the lake. “So get it yourself.”
The shadow turned its empty face to Gray. “Without the contents of the chest, I’m not solid enough. It would fall through my hands.”
Enough. That was the grain of sand that started an avalanche.
“Motherfucker,” muttered Gray, shooting to his feet and kicking sand in the shadow’s direction. It flew right into it, as if the creature was a ghost, even though Gray had certainly felt its touch. “So what? We have to spoil everyone’s night because of you?”
The thing elicited a low growl. “You can always not get me my body and let your gargoyle friend die.”
The words felt like a punch to the gut, and for a brief moment it crossed Gray’s mind that if he’d died in the fire, he wouldn’t have to deal with any of this crap, but he pushed back the longing for absolute peace, because his friends still needed him here. “We will definitely not become friends.”
Chapter 3
Jake had been trying to shift for an hour now.
Crouched in the grass, he looked like a wild boar about to give birth to a litter of piglets. Gray spotted a red sheen to his cheeks, and the veins bulging under skin were equally hard to miss. And like a good partner, Vars was there to hold his hand.
“That’s it, Jake. You know you can do it. We’ve been practicing this so many times.”
“I can’t do it when everyone’s looking!” Jake exhaled deeply and fell forward to all fours.
Weirdly enough, the shadow mimicked the gesture opposite him. “How about you try focusing really hard?” it said in that raspy tone that sounded more like breath inside a tube than a voice in its own right.
Vars’s presence was to be expected, since Jake had confessed to Gray he found it easier to turn when his lover was there to help him through the process, but Knight and Elliot shouldn’t have come. In fact, Gray had specifically told Jake to keep the request to himself, but apparently, a ghost told them what was going on, and they wouldn’t miss out on something so exciting. Easy cop out.
“Wow, that is some top notch advice, Shadow,” Knight said and whistled. “What next? You gonna tell him to close his eyes and visualize success?”
The creature glanced back at him. “Would that be wrong?”
Vars exhaled, rubbing Jake’s back. “Where is he getting all those clichéd ideas?”
Elliot grinned, watching from the safety of Knight’s arms like the most outspoken of scarecrows. “If this guy is Gray’s actual shadow then maybe that is what really populates Gray’s mind? He’s always so serious, so composed, but deep down he likes reality TV and Easy Cheese.”
Jake sighed. “Easy Cheese… as if! He never let me have it when he was training me up!”
Gray counted to ten and rubbed his face. “It is nothing like me. And stop calling it a ‘he’.”
Knight chuckled. “Come on, Gray. Shadow’s obviously a he. Just look at him.”
The shadow got up from its knees and stretched its arms, as if it wanted to demonstrate how big it was.
Elliot nodded, eager to confirm everything his lover said, like a one-man choir to Knight’s solos. “He does have a nice masculine shape.”
Gray looked at Shadow’s black silhouette. “Too bad he has arms growing out of his sides.”
Knight snorted. “Just think about the things you could do if you had four ar—” he stopped mid-sentence, for once seeming flustered as he brushed back his hair. “Sorry, Gray, I didn’t mean…”
Fortunately, Shadow was there to deflect the attention from Gray. “Am I a ‘he’?”
“No,” said Gray in the same moment the Knight-and-Elliot team said ‘yes’. What the hell was up with those two?
Elliot assessed Shadow from head to toe. “Then again, I don’t really want to push this on you. I don’t want to be like those doctors who decide on the genitalia of intersex babies. You’ll know what you are at some point. Probably.”