taken her everywhere with me. She was in almost every photograph of me. She hadn’t left my side until we’d gone on a picnic, and I’d accidentally left her behind. We’d gone back for her, but she’d been gone. I’d cried myself to sleep for days.
“A tulpa is a being that is created by another’s spiritual and mental power,” Conah continued. “A consciousness that usually lives inside the creator’s head as a separate entity. Only the creator can interact with it. Except in your case, your tulpa exists outside of your head where everyone can interact with it.”
Tulpa … I stared at Cora. Cora … Lissa … my comfort blanket…
“You think I’m one of these tulpa things?” Cora scoffed.
My mouth was suddenly too dry as memories drifted out of that door. “I slept for days.” I rubbed my temple. “I dreamt of being a child. Of being with Aunt Lara. Of having Lissa back. Of being happy… When I woke up, you were at the door. Three days had passed, but I thought I got the date wrong, and that in my grief, I’d lost time. It didn’t matter because when I opened that door, I knew you were meant to be there. I knew we were connected.”
Oh, God. Oh, fuck, it was true. I’d blocked it out. I’d explained it away. I’d labeled her a ghost and treated her like one. I’d needed comfort, and I’d created it.
“Pfft,” Cora said. “Bullshit. I’m a ghost. I had a life.”
“And how much do you remember?” Conah asked her.
“I was killed. Shot. It was an accident.”
“And before that?”
“I had a boyfriend. We were happy, we … We were so happy.”
“And before that. What about your mother? Your father?”
“Foster homes.”
“What about your foster families?”
Her gaze flashed from side to side. “I … I can’t remember.”
Broken … this is what they’d meant.
“We didn’t want to push you too soon,” Conah said. “We didn’t know how deep the mental fracture was and if we could …”
“If we could trust you to hold out under pressure,” Mal finished for him.
But I had. I’d held out.
“You get so invested,” Conah added. “Like with the younglings at the Academy. You almost derailed their training with all your—”
“Compassion?” Cora said. “I think the word you’re looking for is compassion.” She linked arms with me, and there was no ignoring the tremor that was running through her body. She was shaking despite her bravado. “And Fee gets invested because she fucking cares,” she continued. “It’s what’s going to make her ten times the Dominus you’ll ever be. I don’t know what I am, ghost, tulpa, whatever. But I’m here. I belong here with Fee, and no one fucks with my bestie.”
I lifted my chin and stared down my nose at them, taking my cue from Cora. “I may have been fractured, but fractures heal. They leave scars, but they heal. I may have created a tulpa, but I created a damn fantastic one. One who’s her own person. One I love.” Cora gave my arm a squeeze. “I dealt with my grief, and I dealt with the vamps today, and if you’d simply spoken to me about this when we first met, all the subterfuge could have been avoided. So, let’s get one thing straight. I don’t have to prove myself to you. From now on, you’ll need to earn my trust.”
I strode past them, taking Cora with me, but paused in the doorway. “Oh, and I’m going to need a new comm. Stat.”
Chapter Nineteen
Cyril
A tulpa … that’s new.
I watch as Cora and Fee leave the room, and I’m about to slip away when a sixth sense stops me.
“She healed the Loup,” Mal says.
“I heard,” Conah replies.
“How is that possible?”
“I don’t know, but we need to find out,” Conah says.
“We should tell her,” Mal replies.
“Right now, there’s nothing to tell. It may be nothing.”
“That’s bullshit, and you know it. After what you did today, you need those brownie points.”
“Or maybe it’s you that wants the points,” Conah sneers. “To get you into her bed.”
“Fuck you, Con.”
“I won’t let you use her to sate your appetite.” His voice fades away.
He is leaving the room.
“So nice to know you think so highly of me,” Mal says, and then there is silence.
Secretsss. More secrets. Will these males never learn?
Chapter Twenty
Cora and I didn’t stop till we got to my room, and then I closed and locked the door and turned to her.
She sat on the edge of the mattress, her shoulders slumped and