Trapped between a Demon and a Dragon

Chapter 6

"Lily! Get out of here before he sees you," Harper hisses, glancing at the kitchen to make sure her ex hasn't spotted the other girl yet.. Right now she could hear Misha shutting one of the drawers followed by the sound of the faucet turning on, so she only has a minute or two to get rid of Lily before he comes back into the room.

She picks up a pillow and throws it at the ghost, realizing the ridiculousness of her actions as she watches it sail through her roommate's torso and land gently on the floor. "He doesn't know my roommate is a ghost, so you need to actually go away, not just fade away. Because seeing a phone connected to a call with my brother floating around my living room might come as a bit of a shock. Why are you on the phone with Kye right now anyways?"

"Umm because I was worried, and Kye is my friend so I call him when I am worried about things. Duh." The ghost rolls her eyes as she floats over to Harper's side, the phone in her hand bobbing up and down in the air as she moves. Faint yelps come from the phone, making Harper wince. Looks like the two were on a video call when Harper got home, so her brother is probably feeling a little motion sick right now.

"Seriously though," Lily whispers once she settles down on the arm of the sofa. "Look at that height, those shoulders, and those muscles combined with caramel brown hair. Where do you keep finding these hot guys, and can you get me one? Or give me that one? It can be your Christmas present to me."

"Hey Hey!" Kye sounds annoyed as his voice spills out of the phone's speakers. "Hot guy talk later, Lils. Right now can you turn me around so I can see what kind of mess my sister got herself in? Cause I know she told you she is fine, but seeing is believing when it comes to her. Swear she could be bleeding out all over the floor,and she'd still say that she is okay."

He is not completely wrong. Growing up in a household where her mom declared herself a "boy mom" did teach her early on to downplay her important moments. But she's gotten better at advocating for herself and determining what others might determine to be significant and would want to know about. It's just hard to erase over twenty years of programming. Not that she's ready to open that can of worms with her brother tonight. "Hey! I'm not that bad."

"No, you are worse. I wouldn't even know that you were attacked today if Lily didn't snitch. And don't even get me started on you hiding that you're being stalked."

"Snitching?! I didn't snitch. I was honestly concerned about my second bestie's health, so I told one of the two people who can make her feel bad about her stupid choi---."

"Oh my god, will both of you give it a rest? I got it. I messed up.Can we drop it now? " Harper snaps. The dull ache forming behind her eyes has increased into a pounding sensation that muddled her thoughts and erased any remaining patience. All she wants to do is crawl into bed and pretend the day never happened. "My head hurts too much to deal with this right now, and there is nothing that can't wait until I've had a few hours of sleep. So unless one of you wants to explain all of this to the guy in the kitchen, go away."

"Explain all of what to me?"

Harper's gaze shoots to the doorway where Misha leans against the doorframe, his arms crossed over his broad chest, an icepack and towel in his hands, and a frown on his lips.

"Oh hell no! Har, please tell me that I am seeing things, and that is not Misha standing there."

Harper winces at the anger in her brother's voice. This interaction is exactly what she was hoping to avoid. Although her brother does not like Aeron, he absolutely loathes her ex. The relationship between the two men wasn't always strained; there was a period of time when Kye willingly called the other man one of his brothers. But after that day when he drove to Harper's apartment and the years he spent trying to help her repair the shredded pieces of her self-esteem, Kye swore that he would never let that man hurt her again. Yet, now he is in her living room, and her brother is on the other side of the world.

Misha's eyes flick over to the phone, and a look of surprise crosses his face before it settles into a blank expression. The muscle in his jaw twitches for a moment as he thinks of how to respond to the scene he walked into before he lets out a quiet sigh. "Nice to see you again, Kye." His gaze lifts up to meet Lily's eyes. "And you must be the roommate. Gotta say, I'd normally be more surprised by the ghost roommate twist, but after everything else tonight..."

"Oh yeah, hi! I'm Lily!" Lily squeals, making Harper wince as the noise causes her brain to pound against her skull. The ghost shoots over to Misha and starts poking at the man's arms and chest. "Woah, it's like Thor but in person. Say Kye, why don't your biceps look like this? You should get biceps like this. I bet Yuki would love it if you made your biceps look like this for him."

"Lily, could you please stop talking about his biceps," Harper wearily asks, her eyes drifting shut as she tries to will the headache away. Or force herself into unconsciousness. Unconsciousness sounds so good right now.

As she listens to her roommate fawn over her ex and her brother snapping at both, Harper felt a deep longing for Aeron. If he was here, none of this would be happening. She isn't naive enough to believe that he could have prevented the attack since he didn't even know an attack was possible. If he was here though, the demon would have carried her to their bedroom and cleaned her up before settling the two of them in for a night of comfort and reassurance.

But he wasn't there, he hardly is anymore, and part of Harper is starting to resent him for it.

"Hey." Harper opens her eyes and see's Misha crouching in front of her with the damp tea towel dangling in the space between them. "I know you're exhausted and probably just want to go to sleep. Let me clean up the new scratches on your face and then I'll help you get to bed."

"There is no way she'll let you into her bedroom, asshole. You lost that privilege a long time ago!"

"Oh oh, you can come to my bedroom!"

" "Hell no, Lily!" Kye snaps. " The only bedroom he can see is Dave's. I'm sure the two of them would get along great."

" Umm but wouldn't Dave eat him?"

" Yeah, that's the point!"

Harper reaches up and grabs Misha's shirt, pulling him closer until his chin is nearly resting on her shoulder. "These crazy people are going to cause my brain to leak out of my ears. I disown them. Hide me before they find out."

She tries to convince herself that the flip in his stomach is a result of the incoming migraine and not the little smirk that sneaks across his face as he takes in her words. "Only if you promise to protect me from your brother...and that Dave guy. Don't feel like getting eaten tonight."

"Find me some aspirin and you have a deal."

Misha's smirk grows as he leans forward and whispers in her ear, "Wrap your arms around my neck,legs around my waist, and hang on tight. Also be very quiet. We don't want to draw their attention to us."

After she did as he told, Misha stands and slips out of the room while Lily is arguing with Kye about Misha's physique. As he climbs the stairs, Harper rests her head on his shoulder and lets herself bask in the warmth radiating off of him. For the first time today she feels completely safe, and although she wishes that Aeron was the one carrying her in his arms, she knows that Misha would protect her just as fiercely as her boyfriend.

Once they reach the top landing, Harper points him to the right door and breathes a sigh of relief when they pass Dave's room without waking him up. Misha might have let the ghost roommate thing go for now but explaining a zombie roommate takes more mental prowess than she has right now.

Misha pads down to the open door at the end of the hall and slides in after confirming it was hers. As they walk through the doorway, Harper feels all of her stress and anxiety slip away at the sight of her bed. The desire to crawl in and sleep until everything magically fixes itself is overwhelming.

Luckily, Misha seems to be a mind reader since he headed straight to the bed and gently placed her on top of the covers. After taking off her shoes and cleaning the dirt and debris off her face and arms, her ex places a kiss on the back of her hand before pulling the blankets over her.

"Sleep. We'll deal with everything in the morning."

We. It sounds nice.