Ghost (The Halloween Boys #1) (56)
I’d always liked the Crows. They were weird as fuck but smarter than they let on. The crows were the only cursed animals at Hallows Fest who knew how to behave themselves, unlike the fawns and bulls and godforsaken wolves. One month to shift into humans and they all went berserk. Not the Crows, though. They carried on much in the same way they did in their bird forms, sitting in treetops, observing every tiny detail of the world below them.
“You’ll keep her out of trouble and get her somewhere safe?” I pressed.
“Ghost, we don’t have time—”
I shoved at Cat with my boot, and she swatted her claws at my ankle.
Raven bowed again, cocking his head to the side, the long-beaked mask and the elongated feathers he kept only making them look like a large bird-human. Ridiculous but in a harmless way. The birds had an affinity for mischief, but they were loyal and honest, and I’d always appreciated that about them, even if many other Hallows attendees viewed them as inferior.
“You have my word. I will protect with all my magic and might.”
He kept his head lowered as I assessed him. Finally, I cut him a nod. “If I’m not back in time to see her home, find Dragon or Wolf. Under no circumstance does a vampire take her or follow her home, got it?”
“Yes, I will see to it.”
It was sufficient but not ideal. Then again, the only threat to Blythe at this point, you know, aside from me, the most powerful demon in this part of the world, was the escaped soul roaming the forest. The ghoul was writhing under the maw of a werewolf right now, as it should be. Reluctantly, I gave up my post to the inky foul and followed Cat deeper into the forest. “How could this be?” Cat panted, jumping over a log as she scurried.
I didn’t have an answer for her. There was a lot going on behind and outside of the gate that I didn’t understand recently. Why was the ground groaning and lifting as if the damned were trying to shove it off their heads? What could cause them to act so bold and come so close to the surface? Was it due to my waning abilities? I had no clue, and if Judas knew, he sure as fuck wasn’t telling me, nor was he around to help.
It was just my luck that every being in Ash Grove would pick the one time in almost two hundred years a woman caught my eye to act like fools: ghouls chasing her, nightmares haunting her, witches meddling, vampires lusting, my powers failing, and now the damned escaping on the same ground she walked.
What in the actual hell was going on?
CHAPTER 20
Blythe
LOVE BITES
Everything is ecstasy, inside... Close your eyes, let your hands and nerve-endings drop, stop breathing for 3 seconds, listen to the silence inside...and you will remember.
Jack Kerouac
Captain Vex looked around at his friends. They eyed him with reverence and loyalty, and though he looked rugged and worn, I could tell that the bearded pirate was sharp and cunning. He’d clearly earned the trust of everyone here. It was all pretend, I told myself, but damn if he wasn’t the realest and truest pirate I’d ever seen, in both dress and actions. His masculine features shone orange in the firelight, showing his handsome, weathered, and tanned face.
He glanced at Scully and nodded, answering a question that was somehow asked without words. “If she’s found us here, where the stories are held and told, she’s ready to hear them.”
Scully looked to me with concern on his bushy brows but jerked a nod before knocking back his drink.
The rambunctious crew settled into silence, with only the crackle and pop of the fire interrupting the quiet of night. “Stories are our treasures, girl. And we have a great many treasures between us. We seek ‘em, keep ‘em, and cash ‘em in when we need it. I’ll give you this, but you’ll be answerin’ my call should I need a story of my own. Understood?”
I swallowed and nodded. Cosplay, a big game.
Captain Vex seemed satisfied with my oath, and he began: “I haven’t gotten to tell this one in a great many years.” He tossed a stick into the inferno. His green and yellow parrot settled into a little ball on his shoulder, as if preparing to listen along with the rest of us.
“People think the Halloween massacre of Ash Grove happened all at once. But that’s not true.” Men grunted their agreements before he continued, pacing around the fire and lacing his hands behind his back. I noticed a long sword dangling at his side. It looked heavy and well used. “Folks were going missing or turning up dead for years,” he continued. “Then that October, in eighteen twenty three, a dozen of Ash Grove’s women would be taken, snatched into the woods never to be found. Daughters, mothers, school teachers, didn’t matter, the women were pulled from their beds, from their chores, never to be seen again. Only thing found was one person a night lay dead in the town’s square until . . . Until on Halloween night, they came. Revealed themselves, they did.”
Silence stretched and I picked up on the sound of water lapping at the lake’s shore.
“Who?” I asked, looking around attentively.
Captain Vex glanced behind me into the forest. What he was looking at, I wasn’t sure. But he answered, “It was a group of wretched monsters or men at that point. It made no difference. They acted as a unit. As if one murderous bastard isn’t enough, these were organized kills. They planned, plotted, and slaughtered the town in cold blood, proudly calling themselves a brotherhood.”