Chapter 19 Part 1

    
    Now that things had settled into some normal type of pattern Skye realized that she didn’t mind the houseful as much as she had thought she would. Chase and Maury shared the guest room in shifts as they took turns sleeping in the front room to guard the door. With their extra sensitive hearing they could be up and at the door before whomever it was reached the bottom of the stairs. From Angels usual spot just outside of the kitchen there was no way anyone would get past her without a full wake and shake. When Skye asked why they needed to guard the door in the first place Maury told her that in case Gertie tried to wander or initiate the exchange of souls they would be ready, both men awake and alert in an instant.

    The fact that Georgia had made another appearance rattled them and in turn they decided that if she returned again the first thing she would try to do while she had control would be to try and leave the house in which case they would be there to stop her. When she asked Chase if she was now a prisoner in her own home he told her that she was no prisoner, but she now went nowhere without an escort.

    Gertie turned out to be a big help despite the words and curses she would spit out against Maury every time he was near her. She would cook and clean, she set up Jack in a corner of the kitchen temporarily and would sleep in the den just off of the kitchen. The room was too small to fit both her and the cage in the tiny space. Gertie had mentioned the attic and staying up there but Skye didn’t feel comfortable with that since the witch was not supposed to be there for long there was no reason to set up house for her. 

    Skye even began to get used to the smell of Sage in the house as well as other herbs Gertie put out every day. Something began to change in the banter that Gertie and Maury had begun the week with and for a minute Skye thought the old witch might have a thing for the young-ish Guardian, until she came into the kitchen one night and heard them fighting almost to the point of coming to physical blows with each other.

    At that point Skye removed Gertie from the room as Maury made obscene gestures until they cleared the area.  Skye glared at him over Gerties shoulder and all he did was glare at the back of Gerties head and his tense muscles threatened to tear through his shirt. Chase never gave any reaction to the fighting between the two. He was always looking into the age old curse and noting the events in another Journal much like Deacons, both were close at hand. The front room had been turned into a makeshift headquarters. Every now and then one of the others would show up and either add or take away information but none of the other men were ever near Gertie.

    Skye had put off going in to work or seeing Anna and Leigh over the course of the week and knew that pretty soon her best friend from up the street was going to show up at her door with a lot of questions if she didn’t physically see her soon. Making sure she talked to both of them every day made her feel normal too. Like nothing had changed. She told them both that she had unexpected family in from out of town, the same story she told Savannah and Kyra so they left her to her own devices  for the remainder of the week. The shock from both of them was not hidden and if she knew Leigh at all the curiosity was killing her at the thought of Skye with more family. She would want to see it with her own eyes.

    Up in her room, staring out of her bedroom window at the girls playing in the yard but not really seeing anything, Skye wondered how she was going to go on living like nothing was wrong. She hadn’t told Dominic about the bank foreclosing yet because the shame kept her quiet. She could tell that her new bodyguards knew something was wrong but neither of them felt the urge to ask any questions and she was thankful for that. Letting out a loose sigh she crossed her arms over her chest and had to remember to breathe as she tried to think about how to solve this problem that was ticking away day by day.

    Georgia was becoming a constant in her head, always trying to poke through the fabric and trick Skye into setting her free but a lot of the time Georgia seemed content to watch what was going on through Skye’s eyes. At first the feeling of sharing a mind felt like an intrusion but now it was beginning to feel like a part of her. Maury had told her a few days before that he knew when Georgia was watching because Skye’s eyes would become flecked with gold.

    “They feel safe.” Georgia mused.

    “Well,” she corrected “Not the large one, I have dealt with that one before.” The sound of her voice softened “He is not the brute he makes out himself to be but make no mistake he is ruthless and has no remorse for the things he does.”

    Curiosity beat at Skye then and she wanted to know more. Thinking about Chase bothered her,especially when there was someone else in her head that would analyse her thoughts as something other than innocent curiosity.  Never had Skye spent so much time with the two men that were quickly becoming part of her household. Besides the time that Cyrus spent with them learning things that he considered private, the girls spent a fair amount of time with them too. Savannah was always behind Maury as he told her stories and Kyra would sit for hours of endless silence with Chase either reading or drawing.

    It just dawned on Skye that Kyra wasn’t drawing in the sketchbook that her father had given her. Skye’s heart sunk a little more and guilt grew anew in the space left behind.

   She felt Georgia’s attention refocus on her; she could feel the interest in her feelings and why she felt that way. Like tendrils of smoke through her mind she could sense the soul sifting through her memories and an image of Deacon drifted up. Shock rippled through her and Skye immediately got angry; before she knew it she threw up a wall so fast that Georgia didn’t know what had happened and for that matter neither did Skye. Both of them were shocked and Georgia retreated quickly to her corner of Skye’s mind in complete confusion. It didn’t last long; Skye knew that although Georgia was confused, she wasn’t rattled, she was too calm.

    On the outside Skye was trembling so fiercely that she couldn’t see straight. Her vision became hazy as the scene she was looking at out the window started looking farther and farther away. She felt the tug like a rope pulling her backwards and sound warbled in her ears, in that second she clued into what was happening. Georgia had found her weakness, it was in her emotions and Georgia latched on holding on for dear life. In her grief that refused to lessen or go away, the grief that stayed with her every second of every day. Once Skye made the connection she fought close off herself and to pull herself forward, swimming against the current trying to get closer to Kyra and Savannah playing outside in the yard.

    She focused on them with everything she had but she was losing her grip. The other soul dug in and hung on, she wanted out just as much as Skye wanted to stay on the surface and she screamed inside her head, screamed for Georgia to let go and crawl back to where she came from and that only made Georgia pull that much harder.