Striding over to stand in between Ripp and the two humans that made up the rest of the team was the Orb I’d briefly met at the RV park the night I’d hooked up with Lincoln. He looked exactly as he did then, but more easily visible now that we were in the daylight. His purple skin gleamed with grooves, like he was completely made of wood. His short orange hair was morekept that it had been last time, brushed to the point where not a single fault could be detected. He was wearing a different shade of green, more sea foam green than the one the other night, but the matching green jeans remained the same.
“Oh,” He said when his eyes found me. “What’s this?”
“This is Krueger,” Jane explained. “The newest member of the haunt team.”
When he locked his eyes with mine, there was this glance of…well, I wasn’t quite sure what it was. I could tell that he recognized me as the guy he’d met that night he’d been visiting a co-worker, but there was something else underneath it that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. More than that, I was unsure why his gaze was making my heart absolutely thrash inside my chest.
Jane was a quick study, looking from me to him and back several times before she addressed it. “Do you two know each other?”
“We met briefly the night I went to visit Khalice at her new home.”
Co-worker. That’s right, he’d said he was visiting a co-worker. But as I glanced at Khalice, I couldn’t exactly picture her and the fabulousness she radiated living at the RV park by specific choice.
“Temporaryhome.” Khalice said with the gruffest of sighs. “I have no qualms with how others choose to live their lives but living on wheels isn’t exactly my idea of living.” She looked at me with little more than a smirk. “No offense, human.”
“None taken.” I nodded. “I’d heard people say that a family of stellymn lived at the park but I hadn’t seen you around.”
“We know how humans are with stellymn and keep to ourselves.” Khalice nodded. “We’re only at the park because Chrizel just turned thirteen and manifested his abilities.” Her sigh was heavy, but she continued when the confusion at herwords crawled across my face. “Stellymn abilities don’t usually display until the teenage years. So as you can imagine, I was horrified that my son was unable to control his manifestations and burned our entire fucking house down.” She crossed her arms. “My promised had the bright idea to move the family into the RV and I was too fearful of what humans would say about our burned down house to protest his suggestion.”
The way she said ‘my promised’ was lost on me, but Jane leaned over toward me. “Khalice’s promised is what we would consider her husband.”
“Got it.” I grinned.
“I swear if we don’t find something suitable soon, I’m going to eviscerate Jgel for making someone as fabulous as me cramp into a certified vehicle as a home.” Khalice scoffed.
“Anyway,” Jane said, trying to steer the conversation back to me and the purple Orb. “Did you two get a chance to speak at the RV park?”
“Not really,” He answered for both of us, and his hand cut through the air in the form of a proposed handshake. “I’m Arze. It’s nice to officially meet you, Krueger.”Arr-zuh. His name echoed in my head, my heart doing double time as I closed my hand around his.
I felt a heat I wasn’t prepared for as his skin collided with mine. His timber touch felt both cool and course in the best way against my flesh, and when we shook hands, I made the mistake of looking into his orange eyes. He was handsome. No, he was hot. I’d only ever hooked up with a petrylle and a stellymn as far as Orbs went, but they paled in comparison to this guy. I wasn’t even sure what the name of his species was. But I knew that the three assembled here were among the most feared by humans for how inhuman they looked.
Clearly I wasn’t having the same reaction, my dick jumping in the confines of my jeans once he reeled back his hand as the handshake came to a natural end.
Clearing my throat, I said, “Nice to meet you, Arze.”Ugh, his name on my tongue even sounded hot. No, I wasn’t doing this. I was here to get inspiration for my novel, not to gawk at my new co-workers. I’d just told Lincoln that I wasn’t interested in messing around with anyone, but my body was defying the memo by any means necessary. I looked away from him and made sure to give the rest of the team an equal look. “Nice to meet everyone. I appreciate the warm welcome.”
Now I was just as warm as the said welcome, feeling my body reacting to Arze in an overwhelming way that I wasn’t quite understanding. No one else seemed to notice, thankfully, and Jane stepped forward.
“Well, now that that’s settled, I’ll have them show you around the maze and house while I finalize the paperwork. Sound good?”
“Sounds great.” I said back, smiling and watching as Jane gave me one final nod and started her way back to the house.
Khalice chuckled to herself, her arms firming around my shoulders. “Oh, I have a feeling you’ll fit in well around here, Krueger.”
Yeah, I had the same feeling. And so did my dick.
Chapter 9
After calmingmyself from the intensity that the interview had to throw at me, I was a bundle of nerves the next morning. Today was my first official day on the job and I wanted to make a good impression.
So I started my morning the way I normally would knowing I had a really important evening. I went for a run. I wasn't a pillar of exercise prowess by any means, but a good run was always the best way for me to not only stay in shape as much as possible, but it was also the best way for me to clear my head. Maybe it was specifically this place, surrounded by the bite that was finally being ebbed into the air or all the oranges and reds and browns of the trees as autumn pulled them into their eager grasp, whatever it was, I felt rejuvenated and completely at peace by the time I started heading back to the park.
There were several trails that lead to more dense forest from the park, making a hike or a run super convenient. I hadn't meant to spend over an hour running that morning, but I was enjoying myself so much that I hadn't realized how long I'd been running until I’d already decided to head back.
Of course, on my mind during my run was Arze. I was so captivated by him, and there was no rational reason why. Hewas the only thing I'd yet to fully clear from my mind, but I was okay with having a work in progress. My stomach churned as I thought about my novel at those words. Okay,twoworks in progress.
I'd already written more last night. I'd decided to sort of scrap what I had before, not feeling where it was going. Now, I was three chapters in to my new vision: a horror novel about a man falling in love with an allegedly dangerous demon.
Obviously, I had ample inspiration lately.
