Ghost (The Halloween Boys #1) (42)

I shrugged. “It’s not like they can leave and tell anyone. And we haven’t had a new batch of townspeople in a long time. Blythe is the first who’s passed through in, what, seven years? It’s been us and the originals for what feels like eons.”

Onyx snorted. “Right, so you can see why it’s not fair that you call dibs without claiming her.”

“Since when do you think I give a shit about fair?”

Onyx considered me for a moment. “You seem to be concerned about what’s fair for Blythe. I’ve never seen you care about a girl so much.”

“Don’t read into it,” I warned. Though I could see it in his eyes as well as he could mine. My resolve was slipping in regard to the town newcomer.

We walked out slowly, seeing Wolf leaning on Blythe’s car, scrolling his phone as gray rain sprinkled around us. “You’ve found loopholes. Ash Grove lets you leave for court in neighboring towns. You could find willing partners,” I said eventually.

“I can get laid, sure, but you know as well as I it gets old. Sex and no relationship, never bringing them home, never being honest about what we are. Knowing that if we ever risked claiming them they’d be fucking doomed? I wish I could get in contact with my parents, find them somehow. If Judas could find a way to break this wretched curse . . .”

He was right, and I couldn’t argue. Onyx had more reason to want to leave than Wolfgang and I: his family he’d worked so hard to regain memory of. But here we were. Stuck.

We stopped in front of a pissed off Wolf. “Well?” he asked impatiently. I envisioned a large ball of shadow fur and suppressed the smirk that threatened to cause him to shift right there on Rose Street.

“Dragon and I agree we can give it a little more time. There’s no need to scare her right now when we can catch this guy if we pull our heads out of our asses long enough.”

Wolf huffed and began pacing. “Starting with you,” he growled, pointing at me. “And you.” He pointed at Onyx. “What the fuck did you do with your sex hands?”

Onyx put a hand to his chest in mock offense. “My sex hands? You mean my half vampire gifts?”

I put a palm over my mouth and pretended to scratch my jaw as Wolf walked over, towering and brooding over Onyx, who didn’t as much as flinch. I’d pay good money to see them battle it out both in full shifted form. Somehow, though, that had never happened. “You know as well as I do,” Wolf said lowly, “vampires are the most deviant, sex-obsessed maniacs on this planet. That’s why you all have the touch: to seduce your lovers into bed.”

Onyx tsked. “I’m only half vampire, and that half is very offended you think me some sort of nymphomaniac. I am a consent king. Many vampires are. Our touch is to enhance sex with willing partners, not to coerce people into things they don’t want to do. That’s no fun. Besides, who wouldn’t want me?”

Wolf waved a hand to the backseat of Blythe’s car. “She just talked my ear off asking if you had a girlfriend or boyfriend, how old you were, your interests, and other things I was too mad to answer. Now she’s sleeping off the effects of your sex touch. Sounds real consensual to me. And her finding out was the plan. You don’t take it upon yourself to break the fucking plan without telling the pack.”

I raised a skeptical eyebrow at Onyx who only gave a lazy shrug. “I made her happy and calm . . . and maybe believe I was as attractive as her first crush, whoever that may have been. Harmless, it’ll wear off, so wipe those murderous looks off your faces. You’ll continue to be on a level playing field to throw yourselves at her. She was getting scared, and I freaked and made her happy.”

“Will she remember the newspaper?” I asked.

“No, any human would forget. She’ll only remember coming here, browsing, and waking up from a nap in her car.”

Wolf huffed and stomped around the vehicle, slamming the car door as he took over the driver’s seat.

Onyx looked at me, emerald eyes glowing slightly again. “I’m going to find this fucker. I’m done with this shit. We kill him and we move on.”

“Agreed. We’ll split up. One of us stays with Blythe, the others comb the town. Demons can be creative in where they lurk but they’re messy. He’ll fuck up and leave clues.”

I glanced into the backseat at my Little Ghost sleeping peacefully. I couldn’t even be mad at Onyx because he made her happy for a moment. Even if it was artificial. The look on her face . . . She deserved happiness. And I may have been a rotten, evil, damned soul . . . but I could save her. Today may not have been the day she discovered us. Perhaps she never needed to. Could it be that for once in our existences, we could make a friend who didn’t have to be mortified by learning about who we were? About what we did to this town?

I may have been a demon, but I was her demon now. And I wouldn’t rest until my graveyard echoed with the sounds of her stepfather’s wails of pain and terror. The thought lit a flicker of joy in my murky consciousness. Wherever this fucker was, he had the three deadliest beings in the world on his ass. And we never missed . . . demon or not.





CHAPTER 15





Blythe





CHAINS IN THE CHURCH ATTIC





Be afraid. Be very afraid.