Ghost (The Halloween Boys #1) (59)

“Do you have a ride home?” I asked when we got out.

“I’ll walk over to Ames’s. Sure you don’t want to join me? Kiss and make up?”

I huffed a laugh. “There won’t be either of those happening, ever.”

Wolfgang grumbled, looking up to my window above the dim shop. “He’s not going to like you staying here, that’s for sure.”

“Because I’m right down the road from his place at the church?” My heart dropped. Ames would be mad I lived right down the road from him. I guessed he really was done with me after today.

Wolf didn’t reply, only backed away, blowing out a puff of smoke from the cold air. “Night, Blythe. I’m around if you need me.”

I gave him a weak smile of thanks before letting myself inside the shop. My room was warm and cozy. I immediately stripped out of my lacy, tight things. pulled on a loose cotton AC/DC shirt, and tied my hair into a messy bun. I’d only been at the top of Magia for a few hours, and it already felt more like home than anywhere I’d ever stayed. Thirst dried my mouth as I padded to the supply cabinet, hoping for water but super-hoping for soda. To my delight, when I opened the door, it was fully stocked with both water bottles and six packs of my favorite root beers. My eyes weighed heavy as I took a few sugary gulps. What a fucking day.

I collapsed on my new bed, utterly spent and exhausted. I was haunted by skeleton masks, dripping fangs, and crows that knew too much detail. My dreams were unsettled swirls of Ames’s straining forearms above my ears, the smell of his ragged breath . . . and the fear of not seeing him again. He won’t like you staying here, Wolf had said.

It was done. Whatever I thought we might have had was gone before it started.

Maybe it was for the best. I wouldn’t be here long anyway.





CHAPTER 21





Ames





NIGHT OF THE HUNTER





Let life be beautiful like summer flowers and death like autumn leaves.

Rabindranath Tagore





The week I spent without her, I stood outside her window every night, all night, watching the street to make sure she was safe. Watching her window, hoping to catch a glimpse of a bare shoulder or her golden-brown hair. When she left and I couldn’t follow her, I stayed glued to my phone, following the blue dot as she drove. When I had therapy clients, I sent Onyx or Wolf to watch her, though they were way too fucking eager to do so. When she came in for her appointment with Dr. Omar, I took my lunch break so I didn’t make her uncomfortable. She wanted nothing to do with me after my failed attempt at having her, my clumsy stupidity in confessing that I wanted her. The truth was, I had never wanted a woman the way I wanted her. When I said it, I didn’t only mean fucking her, though I did want to do that. I wanted her goddamn soul. And I realized what a horrific thing I was asking her: to give her soul to a demon, a devil, a monster. I didn’t deserve her. So every moment she put distance between us was for the best. But I’d still follow her. I wasn’t sure I could make myself stop. I had to know where she was and what she was doing at all times.

When she got her morning breakfast with Onyx, I was there in my car outside across the lot.

Blythe had left my apartment for all of an hour before the busybody-ass witches sunk their claws into her. I liked Yesenia but wasn’t thrilled about her abuela, Marcelene, having access to Blythe. Access where I could not go at night. Her apartment was warded heavily, and I couldn’t break through if I tried. Blythe was in a place I couldn’t reach. And if it weren’t for the fact I’d already caught the ghoul that was chasing her, I’d hunt Marcelene down and have a word. I didn’t give a fuck if she was the coven’s crone. She’d release Blythe to me; I’d make her. But she’d been fucking with me for years. This was nothing more than another power play designed by her and the other old bats. They wanted to piss me off. But it didn’t hurt Blythe, not really. In fact, though it pained me to admit, she was safer staying at Magia than she’d be probably anywhere else, aside from the church with me. That goddamn shop was a fortress of energetic shields meant to keep my kind away.

And then there were the nights she threw anxious glances at me at Hallows. I dressed closer to the demon I was, and I kept the unsavories away from her and made sure someone was there to walk her to her car and take her home. But I dodged before she stared too long, and I couldn’t stay and dance with her like I so desperately wanted. The damned was still missing and the graveyard was still an epic pain in my ass. The ground shook and rumbled so much now that Cat slept in a nearby tree instead of her usual spot atop the marble tomb.

I’d texted Judas. I need your fucking help. When will you be back?

He’d replied a day later. When I find what I’m looking for.

Thanks for the help, prick.

My thumbs would hover over Blythe’s name, wanting to message, begging me to call. But I didn’t. I would go back to being the demon that followed her, but I wouldn’t bother her with more. She didn’t need it. What she needed was to heal. Though Wolfgang, Onyx, and I were still working on a way to tell her that her stepdad was now dead. Or who she thought was her stepdad, who was actually a ghoul pretending, was dead. Well, worse than dead, actually, but she didn’t need to know that.

It turns out Onyx was right. She didn’t need to know about The Halloween Boys and what we brought on Ash Grove. Blythe didn’t need to see the evil that lurked beneath our nice guy masks. My black pit of a soul fought that fact. It wanted to show her, wanted her to see us and know, but it was for her benefit I didn’t. Blythe didn’t deserve to live in a world of monsters like us. She needed a fresh start.