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Lee jerked backward, grabbing me, yanking me away.
I was confused at first. Horrified that my grandmother meant to hit either myself or Lee, at the very least, but then I felt a warmth trickling in me. Lee was there to protect me. That transferred quickly to new horror because Lee’s gaze was right on Benji.
He could see him.
“Who—” my grandma started to ask, annoyed, but that quickly transpired to horror. She was staring at Benji too.
Poof!
“Oh man,” Noah muttered. “I miss all the fun.”
“Noah!” I couldn’t stop myself. I’d had enough of his comments.
“Whoa!” He pointed. “She can see him. She can see the little dude.”
“They both can.”
Noah’s gaze shuddered, but he walked around to the side, as if approaching a dangerous animal. One that was wounded and cornered. “Heya, little dude.”
Benji was weaving in and out of color. I could barely see him and there was a crackle in the air. He came back looking like a Living person. He was glaring at my grandma, but he spoke through gritted teeth. “She was going to hit Colette.” His head dipped. “Cole.” He sent me an apologetic look over his shoulder before hardening again. “I won’t let that happen.”
My grandma was sputtering and yelling as she was trying to get to the house as fast as she could. It was at a snail’s pace, but she was still moving along. “Colette! You get away from here. You brought that—that—that atrocity!”
“No!” Benji vanished again and when he showed, he was in front of her.
She cried out again, wailing. This time she tried hitting him with her cane.
An invisible force grabbed it out of her hands and flung it across the yard.
My heart was at the bottom of my feet. I started to go around Lee, but his hand switched to mine, keeping me back. I said, “He’s not going to hurt me.”
“I don’t care.”
Benji’s gaze lessened, switching to Lee and there it stayed. He gulped, visibly scared now. He moved around my grandma, who was crying and had folded down to the ground. She crumbled there. Benji floated through her until he was in front of Lee. He said, quietly, “I’d never hurt her.”
“You already did.”
It took a second before I figured out what Lee was talking about. About siphoning from me? Is that what he meant or no. Was he talking about my grandma?
“Lee.” I tugged on his hand. “What are you talking about?”
He and Benji were in some form of a stare-off. His gaze didn’t move from the eight-year-old as he asked me, “Are there things you need inside?”
“My computer and maybe some other stuff.”
“Go,” he said.
Benji’s head lowered. His gaze fell away.
“What?”
He gave my hand a squeeze. “Go. Get what you need. Then we’re never coming back here.”
Benji seemed to shrink in size even more.
“Lee—” I began, but I didn’t know what I was going to say. There were things happening that I didn’t understand and for me, that spoke volumes.
“Go, Cole.” Lee’s voice gentled, but it was still firm. “Get everything.”
