Chapter 15 #3
“While I go to a lot of haunted places, most ghosts don’t want to leave with me. They like chatting while I’m there, but there’s usually a reason they’re there. I’ve yet to meet a ghost who wanted to tag along with me.”
“Can’t say the same … Ghost.” I gave her a pointed look over the rim of my glass.
Her eyes narrowed. “It was you or the mental hospital. What would you choose?”
“Demon from Hell or mentally unsound humans. That’s certainly a tough one.”
“It was a no brainer for me,” she shrugged.
I placed a hand over my heart. “You love me that much?”
“Can demons be killed?”
“Sort of,” I answered the abrupt question. “We don’t really die. We just stop existing, our forms and lives returning to Lucifer, our maker. He can then choose to regenerate us or let us fade from existence.”
She nodded thoughtfully. After a pregnant pause, she stated flatly, “You’re about to rejoin him.”
I chuckled. “Threaten me some more. I like it.”
She rolled her eyes, but she couldn’t hide the light flush to her cheeks. Instead of poking at her too much, I diverted the conversation to other topics. Otherwise, I feared she might rear up and hiss at me much like the black cat next to her did to a squirrel darting by.
Throughout dinner, she told me about all the places she’d gone to with Haunted Days and Nightmares.
She recounted an interesting ghost encounter she’d had while I revealed some of my more lively fan interactions—a girl who gave me a vibrator she’d used while thinking of me to sign, a guy who flashed me his dick, and one wild lady who’d tried following me home from a concert.
Stalking a demon wasn’t a very smart decision.
That woman was still on that county’s missing persons list.
The walk home was dark, and the neutral air had a slight chill in it now.
Kendyll walked with her arms tight around herself while Catsper walked on her other side.
The cat really seemed interested in tagging along with the girl who could finally see him.
Not that I could focus on that too much.
I was too blown away by everything Kendyll was still missing out on.
“So you really haven’t ridden a coaster, yet?” I asked her with wide eyes.
“When would I have gotten the chance?” she replied with a shake of her head. “As soon as I left your place, I was almost immediately snagged by Bethelma, so I’m always working. If I’m not doing the TV show, I’m doing live shows or busy work for her.”
Appalled, I questioned, “Ice skating?”
“No.”
“Going to the movie theatre?”
“Nope.”
“Skinny dipping?”
“Oh, yeah,” she drew flatly. “That, I do every day.”
A breeze blew by, and Kendyll shivered. The thin long-sleeved gray shirt didn’t offer much against the chill, so I wrapped my arm around her shoulder and tucked her against my side.
A shiver ran through her again. Maybe it was just my ego, but I liked to think that tremble wasn’t from the cold air this time.
Following that small tremor, her body went rigid with an ensuing argument on her tongue.
Sensing that brimming rejection, I quickly kept the conversation moving. “We need to correct all of this. It’s a crime to be twenty-two yet never have ridden a ferris wheel.”
She walked beneath my arm in silence for a while. The only sounds came from our footfalls against the leaf-strewn pavement. As the inn came into view, she asked, “You’ve lived a long time, right?”
“I’ve been around for a minute.”
She smiled briefly while her gaze traveled far away with distant hopes.
“I bet you’ve been everywhere. Done everything.
Seen everything. The traveling part that comes with working for Bethelma is nice, but I don’t get the chance to see or do much.
I know it’s crazy to travel as much as I do yet still not have seen or done anything.
” She looked up at me. “What’s your favorite place you’ve ever been to? ”
“Oh, man.” I let out a low whistle and looked up at the dark, cloudy sky. “There are so many great places out there. It’s really hard to choose just one, though I do have a special place in my heart for China. That’s where I was originally created and placed.”
“How long were you there?”
I shook my head with an incredulous laugh. “I’m not even sure. A long ass time. I was placed there during the Three Kingdoms period to help cause trouble and stir things up.”
“As it goes for a Mischief demon,” she nodded understandingly.
I smirked and squeezed her lightly under my arm.
“You know me so well. Anyway, I was there through a few more dynasties. My favorite was by far the Tang Dynasty. Chaos is fun, so the harder times were obviously more fulfilling for me. But I also enjoyed the easier life of the Tang Dynasty. I like to think of that era as my vacation period.”
“I’m sure you still caused some trouble,” she retorted with a grin.
“Obviously. I’m pretty sure the legend concocted around me being a ghost who snatches people walking alone at night still persists in one village. Pitted a few neighbors against each other, too. You know, simple stuff.”
She shook her head. We made it back to the inn, so I merged back into the invisibility of shadows while Kendyll let Wendy know that she’d returned. I followed her to The Violet Room, and with the door shut, I dropped the shadows and my human guise.
“Jokes aside,” I said as I watched Catsper pad across the room and jump onto the bed. I sat on the edge to play with his paws. “I really do love visiting China when I can. The food, the people, the sights, the festivals. You’ve not seen anything until you’ve seen the Lantern Festival.”
Intrigue brightened her eyes before she disappeared into the en suite with arms loaded down in pajamas. She reemerged moments later in a silk charcoal long-sleeve top and pants. She fixed her attention on me while drifting closer. “What’s that like?”
“Magical. That’s really the only way to describe it.
Lanterns of all sizes crafted in vibrant, bright displays of animals, immortals, and ancient tales.
The sky is completely dark, but you can’t even remember what darkness looks like because you’re so captivated by a red and gold dragon flying across the air or a moon goddess who’s smiling down upon those at her feet. ”
“That sounds incredible,” she mused wistfully.
I stood to pull my shirt off. Her eyes traced my hands as they undid my jeans so that I stood in nothing but my skin-tight black briefs. I rearranged the pillows on the bed and fluffed the blanket. Catsper was unbothered as the thick duvet passed through him.
“I’ll take you next time,” I vowed. “It’s the fifteenth day of the first Chinese lunar month, so you’ll have to wait until then. I think it will fall in February this coming year.”
“Really? You’ll really take me?” she asked happily, clasping her hands.
“Really.”
She held out her pinky with a cheeky grin. “Pinky promise?”
Kendyll’s body and personality might’ve changed, but some things would always be the same, such as the glow that lit up her eyes when promised a new experience or this habit.
Chuckling, I wrapped my pinky around hers. “Pinky promise.”