Chapter Two

No one has manners these days. Every Samhain. It was always what are you doing in my house? Is that a knife? Oh, my God. You killed him!

While vessel number two to bled out on the ground at my feet, a woman who looked a similar age had wandered through the open front door. Her annoyingly loud shrieks drilled through my skull. Seriously, why did people overreact about a little blood?

With a put-out sigh, I wrenched my knife from the gut of vessel number two and went to deal with the noise. Didn’t she realize we’d end up with a complaint from the neighbors? Before I could have any fun, Dalton stepped past me, palmed her skull, and threw her into the nearest wall so hard the crack echoed through the room.

“Did you just come back to ruin all my fun this year?”

I asked, propping my fists on my hips. He lifted a brow and crossed his arms, ignoring the hair and brain matter he wiped across his fresh t-shirt.

“Fine,”

I conceded. “The blow job was fun. But I only get to use this once a year.”

I held my knife up in demonstration. He glanced at the male body on the floor, reminding me of my original purpose.

“Any preference for who we bring back next?”

I reached into my coin purse and placed another coin on the silver fox’s tongue. A fine tremor passed through the corpse.

“Come on, baby.”

With a deep gasp, the body lurched upright.

“Tillie.”

“Zander!”

A sense of warmth suffused my body as he stood and pulled me into a tight hug.

“I should whip your ass for the stunt you pulled last year.”

His brow furrowed and the look on the older vessel’s features gave major daddy vibes. Fuck, I was already wet again.

“I pull a stunt every year, but yes, please. Can we find a coat hanger or electrical cord so I have the reminder for a few weeks?”

Zander groaned, dropping his head to the curve of my neck.

“You’re making me hard, and we really need to find vessels for the others.”

He bit into the tendons of my throat and sucked hard enough to leave a bruise. I whimpered at the pain. It hurt so good, but I needed more. Like he could sense it, he lifted his knee between my thighs, giving me something to grind on as he cocked his head to the other side and bit down again, harder this time. I moaned, rocking my hips shamelessly as I pushed my hands under his shirt and scored his back with my nails.

“Are you going to come for me, my silly Tilly girl?”

Zander growled in my ear. I was close. I just needed… My scalp burned as my hair was back so hard I bowed backward far enough to get an upside down view of Dalton’s wicked grin. Zander pulled me close, grinding his thigh up against my clit, and lowered his head to my breast. The pain of his teeth ripping at my nipple was exactly what I needed to throw me over the edge, and I let my body go lax in their grip as I came apart.

“Fucking beautiful,”

Zander muttered. Dalton’s grip tightened in my hair in agreement before he released me. My dress stuck to Zander’s front as he pulled away and I grimaced at the feel of blood on my hands again.

“You go wash up and we’ll get out of here.”

My men knew me so well. Skipping down the hall, I used the bathroom again and came back to the sound of peals of laughter. Zander was doubled over, shaking with the force of his amusement as Dalton glared at him. He’d found something shiny — was that plastic wrap? Huh. Smart — and wrapped it around his middle, cinching in the entrails that had slipped out of the knife wound.

“Silly Tillie, did you give him a mute corpse on purpose?”

I bared my teeth in an approximation of a grin. I’d seen people do it, but apparently I always got it wrong. It didn’t matter because the guys knew what I meant.

“We all just lucked out this year, I guess.”

Zander chuckled and wrapped an arm around my back, leading me past the woman’s corpse by the door. I hesitated, wondering if we should just use the spare body.

“Forget it. Neither of them will be happy if they wake up without a cock to fuck you. Plus, half her face is on Dalton’s shirt.”

I gave a reluctant hum of agreement and followed him down the outside staircase behind the garage with Dalton coming up behind.

“Where to?”

I looked around the quiet suburban street. Plastic skeletons and cotton cobwebs adorned most front yards. A wooden gravestone had been set up in front of the body donor’s house and I snorted at the unintentional death omen. “Careful what you wish for,”

I whispered, crouching down and placing a hand on the decoration.

“Tills, focus. What’s the plan?”

Always so impatient. I supposed I would be, too, if I was dead for the other three hundred and sixty-four days of the year. It was only on the day, when the veil between the living and dead was at its thinnest, that I could bring them back. And even then, only for a few hours. I missed them so much the rest of the year. Hated that it was my fault they were on the other side. Even more so that for some stupid reason, they wanted me to stay on this side of the veil.

Without them.

It was enough to give a girl a complex, really.

I was jolted out of my reflection by the gravestone beneath my hand tipping under the force of a boot. I scowled up at Dalton, who just rolled his eyes and nodded at Zander.

“There’s a Halloween party happening—”

“No Halloween parties. Remember two years ago?”

Zander offered his hand to help me up, even as he shut down my idea.

It wasn’t my fault that one of the slippery potential hosts lost us in the crowd and ran for help. The guy seriously needed to adjust his survival instinct and get with the program. Luckily, Jeremiah had already woken up in the other body and managed to smooth things over with the police. The thought of Jeremiah finally got my feet moving, and I decided to keep it simple this year and head for the nearest overpass.

The homeless population was a burden on the local government, but I was always quietly thankful to have such a ready supply of vessel donors.

My only condition was that my guys had to shower and scrub themselves clean first.

We strolled down to the riverfront where a network of overpasses ensured everyone got where they were going without the inconvenience of having to view the human refuse and unsavory dealings that happened below them. We found a sleeping bag and tarp, but no body beside the first pylon we passed, so we continued on until a dark car pulled up beside us. The paint was in perfect condition and looked the kind of expensive that repelled dirt. The driver’s side window rolled down to reveal a man with a neatly pressed collar and tie knotted carefully at his throat. His eyes traced over my body like a lecherous caress, taking in my short, bloodstained dress and bare feet. I couldn’t remember where I left my shoes, but it hardly seemed to matter.

“What are you dressed as, sweet thing?”

This was my favorite part of Halloween. No one cared how bloody I got. They assumed it was a costume.

New plan. Jeremiah could wear a fat cat this year.