Wow, bravo me—way to intertwine excitement with gloom.
“Penny for your thoughts,” Cian’s sexy lightly lilting voice mumbles into my now tangled poof of hair. He runs his hand in a lazy pattern up and down the back of my arm.
I look up at him from my position on his chest and smile. Gosh, seeing him in my bed (well, technically his bed, I guess) is so unreal. After the shower last night we tumbled into bed and alternated sleeping, talking, and orgasming—not in that order. I haven’t been able to take my hands off him, partly because I think I’m still in shock that Operation Ghost Cock actually sortof worked, but also because I’m terrified if he disappears, I’ll never see him again.
“I was just thinking… I was wondering why you can’t control the disappearing. Why can’t it be like this always? I don’t want to be afraid that I’ll roll over by accident and you’ll just be… gone.”
It’s not what I meant to say, but now that I’ve said it I need to know the answer as much as I need my next breath.
Cian’s hand stills on my arm and he frowns, “I—I don’t really know how it all works, to be honest. I’ve never been able to touch anyone or turn corporeal before I met you. Lots of things are new since meeting you, actually. The tentacles, for instance…”
My eyes widen and my heart beats faster, wondering at the implication of being the only person he’s ever been able to touch. A smug satisfaction shoots through me at knowing that no one but me has ever gotten to take those magic tentacles on a joyride. “So what changed? I mean, why me?”
I feel his smooth chest rise with a deep breath and he pauses, as if he’s considering what to say. “The romantic part of me wants to say that it’s just your effect on me, and I’m not entirely unconvinced that’s not the truth…”
“But?”
He sighs, “But I’m not sure why I’m able to do any of this since you’ve moved in… I was going to ask my friend, Seth, but I—I never got around to it.” His brow furrows and he winces, “According to my friend my situation has to do with something my best friend did to me before I died.”
I frown and lean up a bit, crossing my arms on his chest and laying my head on them as I study his features. “What did he do?”
“Shebound my soul to hers, and then she disappeared. She never came back to finish the ritual, so I’m stuck like this. I can’t cross over, and I can’t leave this house.”
Ritual?I squint in disbelief, “Like… a witch? Likeactualmagic? Seriously?” Despite my best efforts I can’t keep the doubt out of my tone.
Cian chuckles good-naturedly and raises a brow, “Really? That’s where you draw the line? A ghost with ectoplasm tentacles fucking you all night long gives you no pause, but a witch doing a bit of blood magic is what makes you question reality?”
I purse my lips and hum in consideration, “Mmm, yeah, that’s fair. Okay… Okay, so what now? Can’t you just finish the ritual yourself?”
His handsome face sobers and he shakes his head.
My stomach sinks like a lead weight and I frown, trying to put a lid on the unexpected rage that flares through me. How could anyone do something like that to another person? His best friend? Jealousy coils in my gut at the knowledge that this witch bitch messed withmyghost’ssoul!
“Why the fuck would she do that? So… so you’re just trapped here, forever?” I can feel my eyes fill with angry tears and I bite my lip. I don’t really have any desire to leave this house, but somehow knowing he’s stuck here indefinitely makes my own self-imposed walls feel like they’re closing in tighter.
He nods weakly, “I wish I knew. I thought, at the time, she was trying to help.” I can see the pain in his eyes and my heart splits in two.
“Cian, I—” A flash of light interrupts what I was going to say and I impulsively tighten my hold on Cian’s solid chest.
“Well, well, well…look who’s found himself an anchor. Ms. Haunted Halls, I presume?” A deep voice that somehow slithers through my mind as surely as it booms in my ears fills the room and I scream.
Cian’s head snaps up and he blinks as he sits a little straighter in the bed, “Seth? What are you doing here?”
I scooch up, still pressing myself tightly into Cian, while he pulls the blankets up around my shoulders and wraps me in the safety of his arms. I chance a glance at Cian’s friend—who can apparently just pop up in our bedroom without making a sound! My eyes widen and I gasp, because the mother-fucking Grim Reaper is in my gods-damned house!
“Thisis your friend?” I gape, I can’t help it. I know it’s rude but I mean,come on.
Seth smiles, showing off a row of sharply pointed teeth before he strolls over to the corner of the bed and hops up, casually draping himself across our feet. He looks at Cian and winks, “I’m here, stud muffin, because I heard my name.”
Cian rolls his eyes and I feel my shoulders start to relax now that the shock is starting to pass. That is, until Seth’s swirling otherworldly eyes meet mine and they narrow. I gulp.
His deadly smile is stiff as he continues, “Since we’re asking questions though, I’d like to enquire as towhyin the seven hells I had to sit through the worst coffee date in the history of… ever… with a self-righteous necromancer, when you’ve had thisdelightfullittle solution to all of our problems here the whole time.” He tilts his head unnaturally, sizing me up as ifIwere some kind of threat.
Cian frowns and holds me tighter against his chest, “Would you cut it out? You’re scaring her. Shift,now.” He looks from Seth to me and back again before shaking his head, “Wait, I thought you cancelled the date with the necromancer?”
Seth shrugs, pitch black shadows rolling off his shoulders with the movement, “Eh, by the time I messaged her she had already ordered a latte. Seemed rude.”
He looks over at Cian and I let go of a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. And then promptly suck it back in as Seth’s form blurs with heavy shadows until he’s completely obscured. A beat passes faster than my thrumming heart before the shadows swirlwith a blue light, quickly receding around a new—more human-looking form. My eyes widen as I try to absorb everything that’s happening and process it, but I feel like I’m staring at a puzzle with giant missing pieces.
