Page 22 of Purrfectly Haunted

The Lady in Red turns away from the window, her robe dragging on the floor. Her feet are not even touching the ground.

She’s floating, I realise. Of course, she is. Fucking ghosts.

“Nice meeting you, now go play somewhere else,” she says before disappearing through a bookshelf.

I glare and follow her deeper into the library, away from the light of the windows and the sconce. Her figure glows faintly in the dark. I grab my PolterPulse and unlock the safety.

“James...” Ewan whispers urgently behind me.

I grit my teeth. “She has to go.”

She disappears around the next bookshelf and I curse. But when I turn around, I realise she’s floating behind Ewan, who’s unsuspecting.

Her smile is unnaturally wide, stretching her beautiful face. “Oh, my sweet boys, are you really chasing after me?” She laughs prettily.

Ewan is frozen in fear, eyes wild, and his breath clouds in front of him as the temperature drops rapidly in the library. The ExorSquad handbook warns that when the most powerful ghosts appear for a long period of time, they poke a hole through the fabric between the material world and the afterlife, letting the chill of death spill over to our side.

“Didn’t they warn you not to follow spirits in the night?” Her hair is rising around her as if underwater.

Then she puts her elegant hands around Ewan’s face, her nails digging in his cheeks, and I see red. I raise my PolterPulse and shoot. The blue zap hits her in the face, and she lets out an ear-splitting scream as she lets him go.

Ewan stumbles at my feet and I keep shooting at the dark, hoping to hit the mark again.

“Don’t touch him, you bitch!” I roar.

She laughs manically around us. “Oh, you naughty, naughty boys... You asked for it.”

In the following silence, I keep my gun cocked. I don’t have a plan to deal with the Lady in Red, but fuck, I won’t let her terrorise my teammate.

The air in the library is so cold, I don’t notice the flush creeping up in my body immediately. But then I feel it... It starts with a tingle in my toes, and a shortness of breath as my chest feels stuck in a vise.

Ewan whimpers, and I look down. He’s still kneeling at my feet.

“Are you okay?” I ask.

“I feel... strange...”

“Shit, I think she’s toying with our emotions, just like Shirley warned.” I try to take a step, but Ewan’s cheek comes to rest on my hip. “You okay big guy?” I repeat.

He mumbles something I can’t make out.

“What?”

“My skin... feels... too tight...” He’s breathless.

I swallow. “Me too.” I can feel the heat pooling in my groin. “We need to go... Come on, up big boy.”

Ewan tries to get to his feet, but his legs give out. He moans. “Can’t... James...”

The way he whimpers my name doesn’t help my predicament, and my cock swells rapidly. Oh fuck. This is getting dangerous. A wave of desire rises inside me, and I reel as it crashes through me. I bite my lip not to moan out loud.

Ewan has no such restraint, and he makes the sexiest noises.

“We really need to go,” I say without conviction. I feel feverish.

I put a hand on his cheek to stop him from rubbing his face on my crotch. If he gets too close, he’ll definitely feel my cock thickening. And how will I explain that I want to bend him over the couch and—

My thoughts come to abrupt halt when Ewan rubs his face on my hand instead. His lips are soft and so tantalizing. Then he does something that threatens to make me come inside my overalls: his lips brush my fingers, and I feel his tongue.