Chapter 2
Present Day
Nova.
I can’t get her name out of my head as I pretend to walk away, knowing as soon as I hit the property line, I’ll vanish. I’ll be sucked back into the house, unable to leave this fucking hellhole.
And hellhole it may be, but it just got a hell of a lot more interesting with Nova coming to live here. She saw me. She talked to me. I don’t know how. Not a single person has seen any of us, not even Rhea. No matter how hard we’ve tried to. I think Koda tries to kill Rhea on a daily basis.
How in the hell are eleven ghosts going to hide from a girl who just talked to one?
Or at least that is the conclusion we’ve come to—we’re ghosts.
An unsettling question enters my mind. How does Rhea plan to hide her psychotic activities from her sister? Just last night, Rhea killed another one, chopped him up, and got off all over his dismembered body. He’s still freaking out, which is why I had opted to stay out front at all. I was escaping the goddamn screaming.
I hit the property line and feel the whirring that pulses through my body, jerking me back into the house, to the spot I died. Rhea’s bedroom.
I glance around. The others must’ve calmed the new guy down finally. It’s quiet in the house, not a single one of the others in sight.
I sneer down at Rhea as loud knocks on the front door echo through the tiny house. “Fucking cunt,” I mutter under my breath, watching her sleep with steady, unworried breaths. You know who sleeps like a baby following murder and corpse dismemberment? Psycho-fucking-paths. “I don’t know how you and that sweet girl out there are related.”
“Who’s here?”
I glance at Theodore and try to keep from rolling my eyes. He’s the oldest of us, so he naturally considers himself the boss. I mean, he is old enough to be any of our dads. He’s definitely got the silver fox thing going on with his salt-and-pepper hair.
“Sister,” I answer, jerking my head at Rhea.
“She has a sister?” he asks, his forehead crinkling.
I nod. “Her name is Nova.” I hesitate before adding, “She could see me. She talked to me.”
Theodore’s eyes flare wide. “What did she say?”
“Asked if I was Rhea’s boyfriend,” I snort.
I hear Nova pound harder on the door, and it makes me grin. Girl is giving that door hell. Rhea stirs a bit at the noise.
“So it’s not us,” he murmurs. “We can be seen—at least by this little girl.”
I conjure up the image of Nova in my head, my thoughts heading south, below the belt, as I consider the subtle curves of her body. Perky little tits; a nipped-in waist; a full bottom lip that she kept seeming to unconsciously sink her teeth into; and radiant green eyes that lit up with humor when she was teasing me. Those same fucking eyes that dilated with hunger when I approached her, fighting every instinct I had to touch her.
Because I can’t. My hand would have gone through her, just like it does any other living person we try to touch. She would have known the second I touched her, I wasn’t real. It killed me to move my hand away. I had wanted her. I wanted to kiss her, hold her, fuck her senseless. I’d wanted everything with her I had never wanted with anyone when I was alive.
Seconds. It had taken seconds of being around Nova to want her.
I didn’t know ghosts could get boners, but here we are.
This is definitely not a ‘little girl’.
The window rattles with a series of knocks, Nova’s voice calling out her sister’s name. “Rhea! If you don’t get your butt up, I’m going to…I’m going to…I don’t know what I’m going to do, but you’re not gonna like it! I promise you that! Wake up!”
I bark a laugh, clapping my hand over my mouth in case she can hear me. Theodore stares at the window like it might be the devil himself lurking outside it.
Rhea lurches up with a gasp, blearily staring at the window as Nova continues knocking and talking through the glass, hidden behind the curtains. “Oh, fuck,” she snarls, kicking the blanket off her nude body. She scrambles to pull on clothes. “I’m coming!” she shouts. “I’m sorry! I’m coming!”
I blink in surprise. Rhea is sorry about something. That has to be a joke. The woman feels no remorse for anything.
As the knocking stops and footsteps move away from the window, there’s more pressing matters at hand than Rhea’s bullshit apology.
“How are we going to hide from her?” I murmur, watching Rhea dart from the room. Theodore and I follow her at a stroll, watching as she seems to check every room with a scrutinizing glare. When she freezes and picks up a little shard of bone from the new guy off the bathroom floor, I realize she’s making sure she’s left no evidence of her murders behind before her sister gets in here. I’m torn between disgusted and relieved.
If she’s ensuring that Nova doesn’t suspect her of murder, she’s probably not planning to murder Nova.
“We stay in here until we know what’s going on,” Theodore announces, gesturing to Rhea’s room as we watch her slam the door shut on it.
I nod, ducking back into the room through the closed door, resisting the urge to follow Rhea so I can see Nova. When I do, I’m greeted by the others, including a very naked new guy.
“Did someone not show him how to cover up?” I grumble, looking away from him. I got an eyeful anyway. The guy is gangly and hung like a damn horse. Even I feel inferior and I’m well above average. If he knew what Rhea did with his dick after she killed him, he’d probably start screaming again.
“I was so worried about you!”
Nova’s voice floats to us and several of the others stiffen, their heads whipping around to the doorway.
“Stay,” Theodore snaps. “She can see us. Keep a hand on him,” he adds, pointing at the new guy.
The curious aggression rolling off Koda is worrisome. Of everyone, he’s the one who will fuck with Nova if we can’t get him under control.
I hear Rhea’s voice responding to Nova, but not what her words are. Everyone seems to hold their unnecessary breath, straining to hear the exchange. It’s not long before their voices get closer.
“I know it’s not much,” Rhea says. I exchange a look with Theodore at the lilt in her voice. Usually Rhea is damn near monotone with her lack of emotion. “But you’re welcome to use anything here. Except…just don’t go into my room, okay? I like my privacy.”
“Of course,” Nova agrees. “I get it. I won’t go into your room at all.”
I frown. She’s so fucking compliant. I don’t like it. Not with someone like Rhea around.
“And don’t bring anyone back here,” Rhea continues. “I just want it to be the two of us together when we’re home.”
“Okay,” Nova says slowly. “What about Jimmy? He was here earlier.”
I feel all the eyes on me as I stare at the closed door, wondering how Rhea will take this.
“Who’s Jimmy?” she asks after a pause.
“He’s not your boyfriend?”
“I don’t have a boyfriend.”
“Oh. I thought…” Nova’s voice trails off, full of confusion. “Maybe I misunderstood him.”
There’s a reason I told Nova my name was Jimmy, not James. Only close friends and family call me Jimmy. Rhea only ever knew me as James. It was quick thinking on my part, when we spoke earlier, to give her something different from what Rhea would recognize. Just in case.
“Anyway,” Rhea says, not sounding concerned in the slightest. “Just don’t bring anyone back here. Especially boys. I’ll have to chop their dicks off if they try to touch my baby sister.”
Every man in this room chokes, but Theodore throws his hands out, reminding us to quiet ourselves. The sad part is, I’m sure Nova doesn’t realize her sister is probably serious.
“Rhea!” Nova gasps.
Okay, maybe she does know she’s serious.
“What?”
“Don’t say that! That’s a terrible word! You shouldn’t say the D-word.”
Oh, for Christ’s sake.
I’m torn between thinking that’s adorable, and wondering how the fuck this girl is eighteen and afraid of the word ‘dick’.
“Nova, Dad isn’t here. You can say whatever you want,” Rhea scoffs. “I won’t tell.”
I almost can’t make out the return whisper. “I can’t.”
“You will,” Rhea says, sounding distracted. “He’s not here to hit you. You’ll start living a little more now that he’s not around to watch your every move. This is your room.”
What the fuck.
“He hasn’t hit me in a while,” Nova replies, but her voice is strained.
Rhea snorts. “How long? A week?”
I dread the answer.
“Three,” she answers. “But…”
“But what?”
Rhea’s voice is sharp, commanding, and I hate the fact that I’m right there with her. But what, Nova?
There’s quiet and then Rhea sniffs. “Oh. It’s just bruises. They’ll fade.”
“Okay,” Nova whispers, her mood plummeting so hard and fast it’s a tangible thing in the air around me.
I close my eyes. It takes all of my self-control to not pop the fuck into existence in front of Nova, so I can see these damn bruises her own father put on her. If only I weren’t dead. I’d find her dad and put some bruises on him.
“Moving on,” Rhea breezes, totally unaffected by Nova’s change. “Your room. Bathroom. My room, there. I’m going to get some more sleep before I have to go to work in a couple of hours.”
Nova doesn’t respond to her before the door swings open and Rhea slips in. The new guy trembles, but doesn’t move or make a sound, watching her as she locks the door behind her with the rest of us. Silently padding to the closet, she opens that door, gazing inside. She steps into the shallow area and reaches up, her arm drifting from right to left, before she sighs contentedly. She plucks a jar off the shelf, the heart inside starting to blacken around the edges despite her attempts to preserve it.
It’s not my heart. She figured out how to better prepare them for storage by the time she made it to me. This is one of her early attempts. Either Chris or Theodore.
She shuts the closet and then strips before crawling back into bed, nestling the jarred heart between her breasts.
“If she can see us, I want to play with her,” Koda announces, startling everyone. Everyone except Rhea. She’s oblivious and already half asleep.
“No,” I snarl, being mindful not to speak too loudly. “You’ll leave Nova alone.”
“Does someone have a crush?” he says, smirking. “She even hotter than Rhea? Maybe I’ll go invisible and watch her shower a few times before I scare her.”
“Leave the girl alone,” Theodore orders.
“Fuck that,” Rohan spits. All of us turn to him, surprised. He hasn’t spoken in almost the entire time he’s been dead, nearly two months. “If we can’t get to Rhea, we go after Nova. We’re ghosts. We might as well act like it.”
There’s a chorus of agreement from three others—Chris, Ezra, and Jeremiah.
“She’s not like Rhea,” I argue. “She’s innocent.”
Koda curls his lip at me. “So were we.”
“Two wrongs don’t make a right,” Theodore says, sounding like the father figure he’s trying to be. “The girl has done nothing wrong, but you would be doing something wrong by harming her.”
Rohan shrugs, exchanging a look with Koda. “We’ve got nothing better to do.”
They both wink out of focus, their three cheerleaders going, too.
“Fuck!” I growl, charging toward the door. I slip through it despite protests from Theodore, immediately searching for any signs of movement—Nova or otherwise. No one is in the hallway.
I make my way to the other bedroom, peeking around the corner through the open door. I hold back the sigh of relief when I see her sprawled on the full-size bed, her eyes fixed on the ceiling. I want to get closer, to study her, but I can’t risk being seen.
Something Koda said sticks in my mind. Go invisible. What did he mean?
“Fuck, yeah. She is hotter than Rhea.”
Speak of the Devil.
I shoot Koda a panicked look. “Shh!” I mime, holding my finger to my lips.
“She can’t hear me, man,” he says, dismissing me. “Just like the clothes. Think about being invisible in all the ways.”
“How do you know?” I mouth.
“I tried it before. When I hitched a ride with Rhea.”
I stare at him. “What?” I ask aloud. I freeze and check if Nova heard me. She’s motionless, still gazing above her. “What?” I repeat, barely whispering.
Koda dismisses me with a wave. “I’ll explain later. Just try it. Picture yourself invisible to the living.”
I try because…why the fuck not? Just like I conjure clothes, I picture myself unable to be seen by Nova. “Now what?”
He smirks. “Walk in there. If she sees you, it didn’t work.”
I glare at him. “Seriously?”
Shrugging, he strides into the room. I grit my teeth as he walks straight up to the bed and stares down at Nova. Wanting to be closer in case he tries something with her, I step into the room, keeping my steps silent. When I’m next to him and she doesn’t pay any attention to us, I know it worked. She can’t see me.
My stomach lurches when I study her. Her hair, still bound in a ponytail, trails across the bed. Her eyes are bright and shiny with unshed tears, like she’s holding them back out of spite, and her lips are set in a thin line. But it’s the glaring purple finger markings on her arms that disturb me, visible now that her sleeves are pushed up to her shoulders.
I let out a soft growl at the sight of them. Her father is so fucking lucky I’m dead and can’t beat his ass.
At the same time I make the noise, Nova flies upright, her ponytail bouncing against the nape of her neck, her eyes wide. Koda and I both freeze, despite his nonchalance, but her eyes don’t land on us. They dart around the room, searching.
“You didn’t hide your voice,” Koda drawls without looking at me, watching her freak out. “Fuck, I swear I know this girl from somewhere,” he adds in a murmur.
I think carefully before I answer him, masking my voice. “She feels familiar to me too, but I’ve never met her before.”
Nova lays back down, on her side this time, with her back to the wall. She’s shaken, her eyes still alert and watching. She shivers after a moment, her hands coming up to rub at her arms like she’s suddenly caught a chill.
“Doesn’t change anything, though.” Koda kneels next to the bed, right in front of her face. “Maybe fucking with her will run Rhea out. At least it won’t get any more crowded in here if they leave.”
“Koda, don’t.”
He grins at me, keeping his eyes on me as he opens his mouth. “Nova,” he whispers.
I reach toward her but don’t move as she lets out a little shriek, crawling up the bed to huddle against the headboard. Koda moves without moving, reappearing behind her on the other side of the bed. The overhead light seems to flicker in response to his activity.
“Behind you,” he says, whispering again.
I expect her to run, but she doesn’t. Nova curls in on herself, covering her ears with her hands, her eyes closed tight.
“Not real, not real, not real,” she chants, rocking herself side-to-side. “Not again. It’s not real. It’s all in my head.”
Koda chuckles. “Seems the girl has had other encounters with ghosts. This is going to be fun.”
This time when he disappears, he doesn’t manifest again where I can see.
Leaving me alone with Nova, and no way to console her.