Our Ghost Adventures

***Zak's POV***

I didn't know what had come over me. Hell, I didn't even know what had happened. My head felt like it had been in a vice and when I tried to look around, everything just burned and I didn't even want to move.

“Zak...” I knew that sweet voice very well. I could also tell that she was afraid...terrified really...of...I prayed not...me.

“Adri, what's wrong?” I forced myself to sit up just a little, ignoring the pain. I realized I was on a couch. Aaron's couch and the love of my life was sitting cross legged on the floor with our baby in her arms. She was wearing one of my large sweatshirts and a pair of sweatpants. She shook her head and stood from the floor. For a moment, I believed that she was going to walk over and run her fingers against my scalp―like she would in any other situation―but she didn't. She walked down the hallway and to where Aaron had a guest bedroom.

I heard movement in the kitchen and tried to turn my head that way, but it just hurt so bad.

“Do you want some water?” the voice was female and it took me a moment, but I realized it was Ariel.

“S―” I had to clear my throat and try again. “Sure.” A moment later, she walked into the room holding a glass of water with a couple of ice cubes in it. I took a sip as she took a seat on the coffee table. “What happened?” I asked after a minute.

“You really don't remember anything, do you?”

“No...Why...?” Lorelei's cry made me turn around quickly, causing pain to shoot up my back and to the back of my neck. I could faintly hear Adrina trying to soothe her. “I need to go―”

“You need to stay put. She needs time...”

“But―”

“Trust me...It took hours to get her to calm down...” Hours? How long had I been asleep. And more importantly, what the hell happened?

“Ariel, can you help me a minute?” Adri's voice called from down the hallway. It honestly hurt a little. I was Lorelei's father...she should have been calling me...

“Yeah,” Ariel shot me an apologetic look before going to see what Adrina wanted.

I knew that Adrina must have had her reasons, though. She wouldn't just be ignoring my existence for no reason, there had to be something there.

***

“Can we talk, Sweetie?” Adrina was lying on the bed in Aaron's guest room. I had forced myself from the couch and everything still hurt terribly.

“I'd rather we didn't,” her voice was quiet and it made my heart hurt.

“Why?” my own voice sounded foreign to my ears. It was nothing above a whisper.

She bit her lip and shook her head. “I―I can't. I can't even...look at you, Zak. I shouldn't hold it against you but...I just...” I noticed the tears flooding from her eyes and I moved quickly onto the bed and went to wipe her eyes but as soon as my thumb made contact with her cheek, she jumped as if I had burned her.

I couldn't do anything but sit there with my mouth agape. She murmured apologies as she scurried from the room. I buried my face in my hands and pushed my hair back. What had I done?

***Adrina's POV***

I felt bad for not even so much as being able to look at my fiancé, but I couldn't help it. In my defense, the last time I had seen him, he wasn't himself. He was possessed by a demon.

“Adri?” I was in the kitchen by this point, I had noticed that mostly everyone staying here had made themselves scarce, which was strange because there were so many people here right now...

“Yeah?” I looked at Aaron as he stood at the counter, cup of coffee in his hand.

“Coffee?” he offered. We both knew that this wasn't why he had said my name. I shook my head, it was the middle of the afternoon. I didn't want coffee right now―not hot coffee anyway. “How...how are you feeling?”

“Like shit,” I replied with a slight shrug. “I...Maybe I should leave, go back to Ohio or even Ireland for a while. Don't get me wrong...I love Zak...but only when he is himself. Right now, I can't even look at him...He's...”

“But, the wedding is in two days...” he pointed out.

“I know...I just don't know if I can focus on getting married and being a happy newlywed couple right now. Maybe we should postpone it for a while...until...”

“Until what? Zak can control the fact that demons are attracted to him? Adri, I just don't want to see things end between the two of you...If you try to talk to Zak, you might see that you can work this out...”

“I don't want things to end either...it's just...I don't know, Aaron.”

***

I walked into the living room after a much needed shower and noticed Zak back on the couch, trying to sleep, it wasn't very late, maybe about 9:30, but even though I had done absolutely nothing today, I was still drained for last night's events, so I was sure that he was as well. I also knew that he was sore, I could see it from him simply lying there. I thought about what Aaron said and I bit my lip. I tried to think of him as the man that I had fallen in love with. His eyes were closed and I silently knelt beside him. I pushed his dark hair from his forehead and I noticed that my hand didn't burn. His eyes shot open and he quickly regained himself and offered me a smile.

“Baby―” he started but I shushed him.

“Zak, I love you very, very much, and that's why I want to tell you what happened...Why it's hard for me to look you in the eye right now...” Slowly, I explained what had happened in the upstairs hallway and then I told him about how I had tried to escape...Billy ended up coming up there and getting punched by the demonically possessed Zak. I also told him about his own exorcism. He looked at me with wide eyes and his hand gripped mine tightly and he kissed my knuckles and I saw his eyes begin to water a little. I would be damned if I didn't admit how terrible it was to see that the man that I loved so much it hurt to see him so angry at himself.

“Adri I...” I could tell that he was trying to be strong, but he kept faltering. I pressed a kiss to his forehead, whispering to him that he loved him.

“Come on, you need to sleep in a proper bed,” I helped to pull him from the couch. “We've only got two days before the wedding.”

“You still wanna get married?”

“No, I've decided that because of something not in your control I'm just going to never speak to you again and move to Russia,” I said sarcastically. “Zak, I will always love you and I will always want to be your wife.” He looked at me with his loving blue eyes and I nearly melted. “Come on then, we need to get some sleep,” we headed down the hallway together and we entered the guest bedroom. Aaron had set up an air mattress in his office―which I had begged to take, but Carlin and Daren refused to allow me to. Nick, Veronique, and Annabelle had gone to stay with Billy because there wasn't much room left around here.

“How the hell did I ever get so lucky?” Zak asked, looking at me, still with his loving eyes.

“I've always wondered how I was so lucky too,” I gave him a small smile and grabbed the small bag from beside the bed that contained only a few articles of clothing for each of us, I had specifically requested that someone grab them from our house because I just couldn't do it. “Here, you should probably change. You're still wearing your jeans, even...”

“Thank you, Sweetie,” he smiled only a little has he tried to gingerly pull his shirt over his head, I saw the pain wash over his face and I frowned.

Because of the height difference, I stood on the bed and pulled the shirt off of him. I noticed the purple and blue bruising covering most of his torso and I raised an eyebrow at him. “How the hell did this happen?”

“I don't―I don't know,” he gave a shrug and decided not to question it further. I also noticed three long, deep scratches stretching from below the tattoo between his shoulder blades to right above the top of his jeans.

“Did you know that you also have three scratches?”

“I do now...I suppose that's expected.”

“It shouldn't be.” I bit my lip with worry as I realized something. “I can't go back into that house...I...I can't.”

“Do you wanna move? We can move...” he offered as he undid his belt to change into sweatpants.

“Is that too much to ask?”

“Do you want to stay in Vegas or...?”

“Would you be mad if I said no?”

“Sweetie, in two days, we're going to be married―equal partners―and I'm not happy if you're not happy.”

“But your family is here...Aaron, Billy...”

“That was why you moved here with me, you uprooted yourself for me, I can do that for you. To make you happy.”

“I don't―”

“End of story, okay? We'll move. Where do you want to go? Anywhere.”

“Anywhere? I don't know...somewhere warm...”

“Desert, beach, what?”

“Desert is your favorite climate, isn't it?”

“We're talking about you, Sweetie. You don't like the desert, do you?” I shook my head. “Pick anywhere and that's where we'll go.”

“Zak...Stop making me make all of the decisions.”

“I owe you.”

“You don't owe me.”

“Alright, I'll start naming places, just tell me, yes or no. California.”

“No.”

“Florida.”

“No.”

“Georgia.”

“Maybe...maybe we could go to Georgia. How about this, after the wedding, we start looking at houses?”

“Sounds perfect.”

***Zak's POV***

I found what would be the only flaw in our plan, I hadn't seen any of it before, but now that Adrina had changed into a thin tank top―with the dim lighting from the moon coming into the room, I could see the large bruises and marks across her back, I had to make a decision, if she wasn't going to do what needed to be done, I would. I had to, for not only her safety, but for Lorelei's as well. If being without me was what that would take, than so be it. I loved them too much for them to be hurt by my hand.