Ghost (The Halloween Boys #1) (74)

My bones, my blood, everything in me burned with fire for her. I needed her. Needed to seat myself deep inside her and stay. Fuck, what had I done?

Claimed.

Claimed.

Claimed.

I fucking Claimed her.

I shifted without thinking, cock inside her, without being able to stop it. I lost control and my demon took over. My true self with no restraint and only instinct enveloped every sense, and there was only her. Only Blythe taking my monster cock so good. I watched those perfect pink lips of her pussy take me as I slide in and out, sending my demon seed deep into her, spilling out of her like pure evil, and staining her milky-white skin black with me. Her red blood still coated my length. Mine. My Claimed.

I would have kept fucking her. I wouldn’t have stopped. She was a virgin, my virgin. My fucking virgin taken atop my grave like some sort of demonic ritual. Well, if it wasn’t, it should be, because goddamn . . .

Making her leave while I shifted back to mortal was for her own good. My smoke went with her, watching her, protecting her. She’d never be away from me. Ever.

But Claiming had sent electricity through my veins that I couldn’t diffuse. I needed her. Needed her again. I tasted her fear from here. Her scream was what sent me . . .

I rattled against the bars of Hell’s Gate. “Open,” I ground out with the voice of many.

You can’t harm her, the gate whispered.

“Yeah, no shit, I’d never hurt her. And why do you fucking care?” I spat as the gates shook and creaked slowly open. “Fucking batshit crazy hunk of metal.”

The forest stilled as I stepped out. I fucking loved being in this form. My height, my strength, my full power was finally fully restored. Though my dick was already hard and throbbing for her again. I smelled her sex. Felt her slick dew still wet against me. I growled again, low in my throat, as I drifted through the forest. My smoke had found her. Blue smoke from Hell’s sacred flames floated under my Claimed, padding her step, protecting her from thorns and scrapes. I involuntarily shifted balls deep inside her. The power that thrummed through my body was stronger than ever before. Maybe Claiming had done that, or maybe Wolf was right and I just needed to get laid. Whatever the case, when I stepped outside the gate, all I wanted was her. A monster chasing its prey.

I was on the verge of tearing through the forest to find her. I’d bind her against a tree, ass up, and fuck her from behind until she’d screamed through so many orgasms the branches shook. But the stench of filth flooded my mouth . . . and I knew someone was near.

“There you are,” I threatened. “Step out, coward. You know I’ve been looking for you.”

It floated out with erratic movements, a dark, shapeless thing. Something the mortals would call an evil spirit, and they’d be wrong. There were no spirits inside the damned. The damned were once the most foul of humans. The ones who hurt women and children, who loved suffering and caused destruction to everyone in their wake. I’d put many of them in this graveyard myself. Though this particular one, I didn’t remember. The damned lost their autonomy, for the most part, when I stole their disgusting souls. No name, no recognizable body, only pain, torment, and every ounce of fear and suffering they’d inflicted on others cast back to them for all eternity. They would find no rest, no peace with me. “Tell me how you got out,” I demanded, feeling its fear mingled with defiance ripple from its darkness.

If it had a head, it cocked it to the side and looked up at me before a muddle of voices took over. They were radio signals. Random waves the damned could grab at like flies and string together. With no voice, it was the best they could do. A loophole in their curse. One I would have closed myself when I realized it, but I’d found that getting an answer out of them was necessary sometimes, like now, so I let the loophole remain. Static buzzed in the air as I heard a dial switch. “We—” a sports announcer said. “Only want!” A salesman. “Her—” A woman’s sultry voice.

I snorted, crossing my arms and giving the gate a kick. Don’t kick me, asshole, the gate rumbled as she opened.

The damned was speaking nonsense. And what would rattle an Archdemon? Next to nothing. But the words . . . Her. Mine.

“Yes, I noticed you all got awfully quiet when she came into the graveyard. I’ll be sure to bind your every fucking sense next time so you can’t even feel her presence. It’s more than any of you fucking deserve.”

“She is—” a woman’s voice said, followed by static. “Not yours—” A child’s gleeful tone. Static.

I’d had enough. My darkness shot out in a flash of night, faster, stronger than even when I’d caught the ghoul. The damned let out a screech like a train slamming on its breaks. My smoke burned and sliced and confined, wrapping around it until it was enclosed in my dark orb of energy.

Just then, a testy voice trotted forward on four paws. “I’ll take it from here and let you get back to your date.”

“Did you enjoying watching, Cat? I always knew you were a little freak.”

She bared her teeth as she batted the large orb into the graveyard like an unholy beach ball. “I left to give you privacy. Though if you’re into someone watching, I’m sure those friends of yours would be happy to. Word on the street is they like her too.”

Cat was always a gossip, knowing everything, hearing everything, talking to everyone and every being. But she liked to stir trouble, too, and say things to get a rise. I ignored her, not allowing the jealousy to spike behind my ribs.