An Inner Darkness Book 5 Bay City paranormal

anything?” “Yeah. It was—”
The bedroom door flew open, cutting Adrian off. “What happened?” Bo demanded, his gaze darting between Sam and Adrian.
    Sam gave Bo a surreptitious once-over. Bo’s voice was calm, but Sam saw the pure terror lurking behind his carefully controlled expression. “Something in Adrian’s closet fell.”

    “There was something in there,” Adrian chimed in. “I saw it.” Sam answered the question in Bo’s eyes with a tiny shake of his head. Later, he mouthed. He didn’t want to discuss what he’d felt in front of Adrian. Not without talking to Bo alone first.
    www.samhainpublishing.com 113
Ally Blue
    With a swift but meaningful look at Sam to indicate he understood, Bo crossed the room to perch on the edge of his son’s mattress. “What did you see, Adrian?”

    “It was the thing. The solid one.” He screwed his mouth sideways in thought. “Or, well, almost. It wasn’t quite solid yet. But it was gonna be in a second.” Sam and Bo glanced at each other. “So this was the same thing you’ve seen before?” Bo asked, watching Adrian’s face. “Uh-huh.” Adrian drew both legs up, wrapped his arms around them and rested his chin on his knees. He stared at his father with solemn eyes. “What was it, Dad? Can we make it go away?”

    Bo gave him a strained smile. “Let’s look at the videos before we start making plans, okay?”

    “But, Dad, what if it’s…?” Adrian scooted closer to Bo. “What if it’s a monster, Dad? Like the one that bit you?” The boy’s voice quavered just a little.

    Bo glanced up at Sam, his indecision clear in his face. His eyes pleaded with Sam to give him some guidance. To tell him whether he should be completely honest with Adrian, or gloss over the potential danger in order to allay his fears. Sam shook his head.

    He wished he had an answer for Bo, but he didn’t. Both courses of action held their own particular hazards.

    Not knowing what else to do, Sam walked over to sit on Bo’s other side. He rested his hand on the small of Bo’s back, fingers rubbing soothing circles just above the waistband of Bo’s jeans. “Whatever you think, Bo,” he murmured.

    Sighing, Bo wound an arm around Adrian’s shoulders and hugged him close.

    “Adrian, I know you’re anxious to stop seeing and hearing things. But we need to have some sort of proof that something was actually there before we can decide what to do.” Adrian squirmed loose of Bo’s embrace. “I saw it. It was there, and it was real. ”

    “Nobody’s doubting that you saw something. All I’m saying is that we need to try and find out exactly what it is you saw.” Bo reached out to brush a tentative hand across his son’s arm. “Sometimes the darkness can play tricks on your eyes. Especially when you’re already scared.”
    114
www.samhainpublishing.com
An Inner Darkness
Sam winced. He knew Bo didn’t want to frighten Adrian, but making him angry was hardly better.
Adrian jumped to his feet, his expression stormy. “I saw it! I see it all the time ! It’s not my imagination!”
Bo stood, one hand held out in a placating gesture. “I’m not saying—”
    “Yes you are.” Adrian backed up, his features contorted in fury. “I thought you believed me, but you don’t. Nobody does.” Whirling around, Adrian snatched a miniature spaceship off the bedside table and hurled it against the wall. It shattered, sending shards of gray and white plastic skittering across the floor.
    Hard on the heels of Adrian’s outburst came a low, rusty noise that raised all the hairs along Sam’s arms. All other sound and movement stopped cold as Sam, Adrian and Bo turned to stare into the closet, from which the noise had come. The walls seemed to bend inward toward a faint, misty whorl barely visible against the tangle of jackets and shirts.
    Sam stared. He felt like all the air had been sucked from his lungs. A horribly familiar pressure throbbed inside his skull. The overhead light flickered and dimmed.
    Through the static in his mind, Sam heard the rough subterranean snarl once more. It was louder than before.
Fuck. Oh, fuck.
    With no time to consider his options—if there even were any—Sam focused on the thing trying to force its way between dimensions and pushed. The presence resisted him.

    Squeezing his eyes shut, Sam shoved with all his strength. For a breathless moment, nothing happened. Then the electricity in the air dissipated, the creeping shadows