Haunted Nights ✅ Completed

Chapter Twelve: A Friend Drops In

A Friend Drops In

At least Daniel had the decency to let her bathe first, if not the decency to leave her alone while she did. Instead, he watched her from the corner of the room as she lathered and scrubbed her body clean, a possessive gleam in his midnight eyes. When she’d gotten every single speck of dirt off and shampooed the worst it out of her hair, Daniel used his powers to drain the tub and refill it with sparkling clean water. Then he waved his hand over his body, his clothes disappearing as he stepped up to the tub and sank into the other end. There was no displacement of water from what Maya could tell, but Daniel closed his eyes against the feel of the water, his long lashes appearing to dampen from the steam.

“Can you feel the water?” Maya asked quietly. Was she seeing things or did he appear little more there? From the look on Daniel’s face, Maya knew he felt it too.  

“Not as well as you can but more than I’ve ever been able to…at least it didn’t disappear,” he replied, his voice holding the faintest hint of wonder.  

Maya raised her eyebrows, “Does it usually?”

Daniel nodded as his eyes stayed closed, “Yes.” 

“But it didn’t now…did you know that was going to happen?”

“No,” he sighed. It was a sound filled with such longing, Maya ached for him. “The heat is…delicious.” Daniel opened his eyes, pinning her with an unfathomable look. “I think it’s you, Maya. Every second I’m around you, you make me more earth bound.”

“What makes you so sure it’s me?” she asked taken aback. “Maybe we really are close to finding your body.”

Daniel didn’t argue the logic of her reasoning, but he knew it had nothing to do with his lost bones and everything to do with the vibrant, living woman who’d entered his barren prison. She had true power – the kind that could work against Isadora’s curse. It was the reason Des had sent her to him in the first place. As his soulmate, Maya’s connection to him ran deeper than anything physical or even emotional, if he were to believe everything his old friend had explained to him over the years. It was a connection that even death itself could not thwart should the bond be accepted by each side – a connection Isadora’s magic was powerless against.

Could he love Maya for eternity? Daniel kept his eyes closed and though she was less than a body length away, he could etch every detail of her lovely face from memory. She was a woman who’d frustrated him over the last few days, but he could not deny his growing need to be around her. He was almost powerless against her pull. Maya was smart, stubborn, reckless, and beautiful. Unlike the women of his time, she was not rigidly confined by social norms or conditions and could blaze her own trail, which she seemed to do regardless of the consequences. Even his own shadows had jumped to save her, unwilling to let Isadora have the woman they’d quickly become attached to.   

And now that Isadora had returned, Daniel knew he would not let the witch have her either. Even after they found his body, for they absolutely would find it, it would change nothing. He would find a way to keep Maya. Des didn’t believe he was truly dead…perhaps that was enough for Daniel to nurture the small seed of hope he felt struggling to grow inside him. He’d thought he was beyond such human sentiment, but the feelings Maya aroused in him were strong enough to make him want to try. Not even the lust he’d felt for Isadora, which had driven him half crazy so long ago, could compare to what Maya made him feel now.

Pushing those thoughts from his mind, Daniel opened his eyes and focused on the beautiful woman across from him.  

“Come here Maya,” he ordered his voice husky yet firm.