Protecting His Windflower (A Spirit Hunters Series Novel Book 1) by Temperance Dawn (best black authors .txt) 📕

Liam’s heart felt like it was going to beat right out of his chest. Was she experiencing the same dream he was? Did she recognize him too? Was she aware of their relationship in the dream? “What is the dream about?”

She took another deep breath and said, “I’m in a dark place. I can hear voices, but I can’t make out what they are saying. And I can’t make out the figures. It’s all blurry. But I know I’m lying down, and I’m hurt and can’t move. And then I wake up. Only when I wake, I can’t move, and I always feel a presence near me.”

Liam’s heart raced. She confirmed that she couldn’t clearly see the people in her dream. So there was no way of knowing if she shared the same nightmare. “What kind of presence?”

“A terrible one,” she confirmed. Tears escaped the corners of her eyes. “I’ve only told two other people about this. One is Lexi. And the other was an old boyfriend I had a few years ago. He was a phycologist, and he thought I was delusional and wanted me to take medication.”

“Fucking dick.” Liam couldn’t believe how insensitive some people could be. Emily’s lips curled into a smile, bringing him a little comfort that he was able to lighten the mood with his comment. “What about this presence is terrible?”

“I don’t know. It’s an oppressive feeling, I guess. Like, it’s angry and wants me to be scared. It’s so hard to explain. When I see the shadow figure—,”

Cutting her off quickly. “Wait! You’ve seen the shadow figure before moving here?”

“Yes,” Emily confirmed. “Only never like what we just saw. It’s never come at me like it did in the bathroom. I’ve always seen it out of the corner of my eye or at a distance, and it was always gone in the blink of an eye. It’s never hung around like it did.”

Holy Shit! He was not expecting this.

“I think it’s the reason why I was never adopted. My foster families never said anything directly to me, but I’ve always felt that whatever this thing is, doesn’t want me to have a family. Doesn’t want me to be with anyone or be happy.”

“What makes you think that?”

“Because every time I have the opportunity to date, the activity around me picks up. The presence follows me wherever I go, and the dreams happen more frequently. They make me stressed and exhausted. And when I move on from the idea of dating, everything around me subsides. As a kid, whenever I was placed with a family and things went great, and I would think maybe this would be the family to adopt me, activity in the house would start, and I would be moved and placed with another family.”

“Have you had these dreams and sleep paralysis since you arrived in San Francisco?”

“Yes.” She squeezed his hand, hard. “At first, maybe just once a week. Lately, it’s been more frequent, every night.” Emily stared at her hands resting in his. Liam used his thumbs to caress her skin.

The knowledge that the presence around Emily had tormented her for years pissed Liam off. And the fact that it had grown more severe simply because she was talking to him made his blood boil. But he pushed that anger aside to focus entirely on the woman sitting in front of him, a woman who he knew his entire life in a dream. But now, she sat in flesh and bone, holding his hand. “Emily, we will figure this all out. I need you to believe that. Okay?”

“Okay.” She sniffed, giving Liam a small nod.

Noticing the room was chilled, Liam took the blanket that was draped over the back of the sofa and wrapped it around Emily. For the first time in his life, he thought, what the fuck was up with ghosts and the cold? He had been ghost hunting for years. Had felt hundreds of cold spots, but had never given any thought as to why apparitions choose to suck the life from a room.

His rational mind told him it was simply the need for energy that they were seeking to manifest some sort of phenomenon. But his protective heart was pissed off at the idea that the occurrence was making the woman he cared about uncomfortable.

Knocking at the front door to the building pulled Liam from his thoughts. “I have to go let Trey and Luke in. We are going to come right back in here. I’ll leave your front door open. Stay right here.”

Not wanting to leave her, but knowing it was necessary, Liam picked up her glass of wine from the table and placed it in her hands, hoping that would help her mind focus on something other than what was happening around her. He walked to the front of the house, cursing himself at the thought that his two best friends didn’t have a key to his building. Making a mental note to correct that soon, he met Trey and Luke at the front door and let them in.

They both held a couple of cameras, and each had a large duffel bag that carried extra batteries, cables, and laptop computers. “Thanks, guys,” he told them.

Both men greeted Liam and stepped through the threshold of the Victorian home. Trey and Luke were both big men. Taller than Liam and more muscular. Luke had a rugged look, light hair and skin, and a beard that he kept slightly longer than Liam’s closely shaved look. He also had a bad boy persona—intimidating looking at times. He was an unyielding warrior who stood his ground but had the biggest heart and his intentions were always for helping and making sure the well-being of their clients was number one priority. “Don’t even mention it. Where is she?” Trey asked.

Liam gestured a few feet away at the open door, and Trey proceeded into the flat where