Black Heart (Cursed Hearts #1)(67)

Saying yes to him would be foolish and she was not a foolish person.

Chapter 24
One month later.......

"I really don't see why yer so angry," Shayne mused as he leaned back in the overstuffed recliner that he’d demanded Tristan buy for him so that he could watch Gilligan's Island in comfort.

Breathe in. Breathe out, Tristan told himself as he clenched and unclenched his hands, struggling against the urge to strangle his friend.

"It's hardly my fault that Marty is pissed at ye, lad," Shayne pointed out with a shrug as he focused on some lame ass 80's monster movie.

"She's. Not. Pissed. At. Me," Tristan bit out through clenched teeth.

Shayne sighed heavily as he shook his head, shooting Tristan a pitying look. "Lad, when are ye gonna learn that when a woman is screaming at ye that yer in deep shit?"

He had to close his eyes and take a deep breath before he answered, truly afraid that he'd do something that he'd regret....eventually.

"For the last time," he said tightly, opening his eyes, "she wasn't screaming at me."

"I could hear her all the way down here, lad. She sounded pretty pissed if ye ask me."

"She wasn't screaming at me, you ass**le! She was screaming my name!" Tristan snapped.

"Yes," Shayne agreed slowly as if he were speaking with a small, confused child, "as she yelled at ye, lad. I'm thinking that after a month of her screaming at ye like that, that ye'd finally get the hint and move on. Ye really should take the hint, lad. It's kind of pathetic at this point."

"For the last time," he ground out, "my wife wasn't screaming at me because she was mad at me, you jackass! She was screaming my name while I was making love to her!"

Shayne frowned up at him. "And ye actually stopped just to come down here and tell me that?"

"No, what I came down here to tell you was that another one slipped by you," Tristan said tightly as he jerked a thumb in the direction of the dumb dead bastard who actually had the balls to ask if he could take over Tristan's body so that he could "Get some of that."

Up until that point, Tristan had been able to ignore the bastard's presence, but the moment the man had laid his hands on him to try and take over, which wasn't possible, he lost it. The ice-cold pain and anguish that seeped into his skin made it difficult to focus on anything other than getting the bastard out of the room and away from Marty. When she managed to ask him why he'd stopped, he was forced to tell her that he heard something downstairs, again.

If it wasn't for their family's tendency to let themselves in and make themselves at home, she'd probably think that he was crazy every time he abruptly left the room when they were sleeping, making love, talking, or taking a shower. He really needed to have another talk with them, but right now he was more concerned by the fact that over the past month spirits had been getting by Shayne left and right and bugging the shit out of him.

When he saw the spirit throw a look of longing towards the stairs, he shook his head, once. That's all it took to keep the man from going to play peeping tom on Marty. If he so much as looked in the direction of the stairs, Tristan was going to bring the bastard down to his knees, again.

While he normally didn't bother with spirits and left the handling and sorting to Shayne that didn't mean that he couldn't do his own damage. There was a reason after all that he could see, touch and communicate with them. Whatever Shayne was, he was, but the human version. He couldn't do as much as Shayne for that reason, but he could do enough to keep them in line when he needed to control them. The problem with trying to control them was that it meant that he had to touch them and he f**king hated touching them.

"I'm not sure how they keep getting past me," Shayne said with a put out sigh as he got to his feet.

"Maybe because you're too busy pouting to do your job," Tristan snapped, tired of this bullshit.

"No, that's not the reason," Shayne said, sounding thoughtful as he looked the spirit over. "I'm more than capable of pouting and doing my job. I'm talented like that," he said, earning a few muttered curses from Tristan as he stepped up to the ghost who looked like he'd been hit by a car. The tire tracks across his back only went to confirm that suspicion.

"Ye shouldn't have gotten near me lad here without me knowing," he said as he curiously watched the nervous man.

"I don't know what you're talking about," the man said, shifting anxiously. "The only thing that I know was that one minute I was taking my after dinner walk and the next I was getting pulled into a bedroom while this incredibly hot woman got on her knees and-"

"Well," Shayne said, quickly cutting the man off when Tristan took a threatening step towards him, "I can see that yer not going to be helpful, so this is where we say goodbye," Shayne quickly explained as he laid his hands on the dead man's chest. A beautiful white light spread over his chest, sending warmth and feelings of love through the room seconds before the man simply disappeared.

"What the hell is going on, Shayne?" Tristan asked as he rammed his fingers through his hair out of frustration.

Whatever was going on was seriously f**king with his life. He'd always attracted spirits, but this past month was f**king ridiculous. Normally he could still lead a semi-normal, productive life, only having to deal with spirits when Shayne was otherwise occupied, but something had changed over the past month. He couldn't remember the last time that he got a full night of sleep, never mind took a piss without an audience.