Chapter Twenty-Two
Nomi
“And she’s disappeared again,” I heard Asha murmur under her breath to Emily.
I cursed, throwing hands, ready to scream into the void. That was the third time in ten minutes.
Emily smirked and crossed her arms with her hip out.
“Better that than the other day when she set fire to her room. Or when she made the living room into an ice rink. Fun times. Think she just about gave your beau a heart attack, Ash. Poor guy said it takes a lot of effort to combat Famine’s powers.
If it wasn’t for Ghost Boy, the whole place would’ve caught fire and required Dead Daddy’s shadow voodoo to rebuild.
Just think of all your precious birdy chefs without a home for minutes… ”
Thankfully, Ghost didn’t have any trouble sweeping in to the rescue.
He’d assured me that I only needed to learn to stay visible to visit Felix and that he’d handle the rest, but I really didn’t think a wall catching fire or some part of the room being covered in ice was a situation we could explain away even with how quickly he righted the wrong.
I sighed in shameful woe.
“It’s not her fault,” Asha growled, always quick to defend me, though she needn’t bother. Emily was right. I needed to get better if I wanted to see Felix and Ferguson, and it was my entire motivation since I discovered I’d become Spicy Famine, as Emily liked to call it.
I’d video-called my Old Man the minute they said he was awake and was surprised when he didn’t mention demons or the attack in any way. He didn’t remember anything that happened. He thought he’d taken a fall and ended up in the hospital.
I told him I was in the middle of getting a flight back, but it might take a few days. He’d insisted he was fine and that Maude was looking after Ferguson and Mr. Pugsworth, but he had no idea how close he’d come to dying, and all to save me.
Like his memory had been wiped, so had every person who’d seen or been told I was dead. I wasn’t sure how, but I was grateful all the same. It meant I could go back and see Felix.
Ghost said it wasn’t forever. One day the world would need to know I’d died, but it could come after Felix had moved onto his afterlife. And now that I know the guy and girl who’d be the ones to do it, I could say goodbye when it was time.
I’d been so sure I’d lost Felix in the attack. I thought I’d never get to talk to him again, so I’d spent every second since we got to Death’s realm trying to learn how to control my powers so I didn’t accidentally set fire to things or turn them into bona fide igloos when I got emotional.
Emotion triggered my powers.
I didn’t want to waste a single moment until then, but I’d need to save the world first—as was the way of heroines in epic supernatural tales. Just over here living my Katniss Everdeen fantasies…
Glacies and Ignis flickered with amusement, the cute menaces. They enjoyed it when I lost control. Which was far more often than I’d like.
It’d been a handful of days since I’d escaped Hell. I’d made sure to relay everything Lucifer said in his meeting with the Fallen Brothers to the other Horsemen, but no one seemed surprised to hear it.
From what I learned about what happened to Emily, they all worried there was another motive behind Lucifer’s quick dismissal of her soul.
With only one soul left to take, they all agreed finding Ares was top priority.
But first they needed to find Michael. And before any of that, I needed to be in full control of my power so I could check on Felix and be an asset to them in their search rather than a burden.
Because the Horsemen had gone back on their deal with Heaven and it’d mean war.
Ghost was nearby, watching. His arms were crossed over another gamer shirt, his back leaned against the wall. The heat of his stare was nearly as distracting as his hands on my body were.
In this form, my sensitivity was off the charts. Which led me to banning him from touching me while I trained. When I got better, then I’d use him to practice under high emotion.
My libido after becoming Spicy Famine was out of control, and if he did anything remotely sexy to me, I’d become emotion central.
It was part of the reason I nearly burned down the house.
He’d kissed me, attempted to sneak his hand between my legs for some three-finger fun in bed—we didn’t need to sleep, but I liked to read there—and I’d set fire to the whole place.
“You can do it, girl!” Emily called out, not sure where I was because her eyes went to the left of me.
I was still invisible. Damn. “It took me a week to get blinking in and out of existence down. Now I kick Z’s ass everywhere I go.
” She demonstrated her point for extra impact, sending the unsuspecting Pestilence sprawling out.
“You’re a boss bitch who bakes treats fit for the gods. I know you’ve got this.”
“Hell yeah she does!” Asha whooped loudly, side-hugging the terrifying giant next to her, Death. But honestly? Thanatos was a really good dude. Better than I expected. All of them were.
Ghost pushed off the wall and made his way over to me. I put my arm out to fend him off, but he used it to yank me into his chest. Just as swiftly, he locked his other arm around me.
The girls whistled loudly. I’d kill to see what they saw. It probably looked all kinds of insane to watch Ghost hug nothing but air. The way the other women laugh told me it was as funny as I imagined in my head.
But Ghost didn’t care. He bent his head down and put his mouth right next to my ear. “I have an idea, little wisp. Do you trust me?”
I was breathless. “You know I do.”
“Then we’re going to work on our control,” he murmured, his lips brushing my lobe and sending delicious shivers racing down my spine. “In bed.”
“I heard that,” Emily whispered. “And it was so damn hot. Told you he was a freak.”
“I’ll never doubt your freak detection abilities ever again,” came Asha’s soft promise.
I closed my eyes, and the world tilted and shifted. Unlike in my mortal form, I didn’t get sick after instantaneous travel. A mercy, for sure. When I peeked at our surroundings, I realized we were back in the kitchen where he ate me out.
Ah, memories.
“Why are we here?” I asked, eyeing the infamous kitchen where I showed Ghost he wasn’t the only one who knew how to use his mouth.
My Horseman’s lips twitched. “I didn’t bring us here.”
I blinked. He blinked. We both blinked, and I growled in wanton shame. “You mean I brought us here?!”
Amusement reached his eyes, but the rest of his expression remained stoic. “You did.”
The shame!
Pivoting, I hedged, “And when you said in bed…”
“I meant sex,” he supplied crudely, but that was my Ghost.
“You want your nice house to burn to the ground?” I teased, a little hot under the collar at the mention of training and sex.
We hadn’t done much in the realm of sexy because I was afraid of making Death’s realm a frozen wasteland or burning his very pretty gothic castle straight out of a monster movie to the ground and displacing all his weird bird minions.
When Ghost fingered me, I’d set fire to our room, so the farthest we’d gone was making out and dry humping. My libido couldn’t handle another almost, so I’d tried to stay away from him.
And despite him coming all the way to Hell to get me back, we hadn’t exchanged the big L word. I didn’t need it. The way he devoured me with his eyes every time I glanced at him said enough. And come on, the guy took on Hell to rescue me. Can you say swoon.
Ghost lifted me, and my legs automatically locked around his waist. “No, little wisp. We’re going to work together to find your control, and I need you under me to do it. Like your cuties, the balance between us needs to be struck. Mortals might call it Yin and Yang.”
If I hadn’t known better, I’d think the whole balance thing was a dig at me.
“Sounds like an excuse, but you had me at sex,” I giggled. “Control me, Ghost Daddy!”
His husky laughter made me smile as he walked us to the bedroom, eyeing a few things along the way—taking inventory for when I burned the place to ash, probably.
I combed my fingers through his silky white hair and peppered kisses all over his face.
He still rarely showed expression, but he’d been far more expressive and talkative with me when we were alone.
And when I was open about how much I adored him, his face softened and his red gaze became so affectionate it made my romantic heart squeal and swoon.
My Ghost was truly the handsomest of all men.
He pinned me to the bed, his hands skating up my sides.
Like feeding me, Ghost took way too much joy in dressing me.
So, of course, I was in another sundress.
Have it his way and I’d never wear panties, a bra, or pants again and I wasn’t mad about it.
For a guy meant to be calculating, his motives were pretty obvious.
My Ghost liked easy access, and he wasn’t even the slightest bit sorry for it. Neither was I.
I hummed and arched, overpowered by the bliss of his touch. Heat exploded out of me as his tongue traced my neck. My eyes shot open in panic, the smell of fire sweeping into my sensitive nose. But Ghost hovered over me, his hand already between my legs.
“Trust me to balance it, little wisp.”
A wild noise left my throat as his fingers pushed inside me and his thumb dashed across my clit. “I do trust you.”
“That’s a good girl,” he whispered, his fingers crooking and pressing.
The distinctive smell of fire faded away, a gentle coolness swelling through the air.
He pushed the skirt of my dress up and it collected around my waist. Then his head dropped between my open thighs and his tongue lapped where his fingers drove inside me.
A sharp, keening cry fled my mouth, and ice grew across the bedding and walls. I sucked in a sharp breath, tensing.
“Breathe, Nomi. I’ve got you,” he murmured before sucking hard on my clit and rolling it between his teeth.
My nerves were set on fire. And even as the ice grew, Ghost didn’t stop. Neither did his fingers or mouth. But I really didn’t want him to.
I needed this, so I did what he asked; I inhaled a shaky breath and trusted him to know what to do. The ice faded away to nothing. Wave after wave of ecstasy washed over me, edging ever-closer to that euphoric crash.
I swiveled my hips, chasing the delicious friction of his clever tongue and quaking when he didn’t hesitate to give me exactly what I wanted. Ghost was a master with his mouth.
My hand went to his head, guiding him, pleading with him to end the torture. I was so close. Both heat and ice radiated out of me in equal measure. Water slid down my skin everywhere the wave of hot and cold touched. Soon, I was covered in little streams, making the bed under me wet.
I whimpered when Ghost pulled away. Our clothes were suddenly gone and he didn’t give me any warning; he plunged forward and buried his hard length to the hilt inside me, one of his hands under my back and the other grasping my hip.
I bowed off the bed, fire and ice shooting through my veins. But nothing was aflame and nothing left covered in ice. The feeling stayed perfectly inside my skin as if it’d been locked away.
“That’s it,” Ghost whispered before kissing me like it was his intention to devour me from both ends. “You’re so beautiful.”
“No, you’re so beautiful,” I gasped back, completely spellbound.
He grunted as I tightened around him. His hips smacked into me several times, setting our pace for total destruction. I anchored myself to his flexing shoulders, voicing my pleasure and moving in perfect sync with him. We exchanged breaths and moans before the crash hit.
“Ghost!”
As I screamed out, I was lifted and sat on his lap with my legs straddling his thighs. I shuddered, still battered by my orgasm, and tightly wound my arms around his neck.
His thrusts slowed some but they didn’t stop. His hands guided me, lifting and dropping me on his cock, as his lips teased across mine. Heat expanded where his fingers trailed across my stomach. Hot became cold, leaving a shivery chill everywhere he touched.
“Now use your power, little wisp.”
I leaned back, still swiveling my hips, and stared at him. I brushed a thumb across his cheek, and a thin sheen of glossy ice was left behind.
His lips slanted. “Good. Now summon heat to melt it away.”
Ghost’s hand cupped my breast, and the intensity of his scorching touch that became ice-cold in a flash went from the tip of my nipple to my pussy. My inner walls squeezed around him in sputtered bursts, and a little hiss left his mouth. He buried his cock as deep as it’d go, but otherwise waited.
My legs quivered with residual need, but I brushed my thumb across the same path and the ice liquefied and slithered down the curve of his cheek.
“Perfect,” he murmured, then fucked me the way we both wanted.
I gasped and bounced with every hard thrust. “Why is it so easy now?”
“Because all you needed was me.” His words punctuated several smacks, making it nearly impossible to think. “And all I need is you, little wisp.”
The ecstasy of another orgasm was so close, it left me panting and clinging as pleasure swelled and threatened a world-shattering explosion.
Ghost brought his mouth to my ear and plunged all the way inside, driving hard into the place that always destroyed me. “I love you, Nomi.”
I came so hard it shattered my voice, and I felt his liquid release as soon as I constricted around him. But even through the mind-numbing pleasure, I rushed to say what had been in my heart this entire time.
“And I love you, Limos.”