Chapter 19
Kendyll
(Two Years Ago)
I LEANED AGAINST THE TABLE with my chin propped in my palm and a delirious smile hidden behind my fingers.
Catsper perched on the table across from me, watching the falling leaves and birds outside the window.
I waited by the large window in the sitting room of the inn for the Haunted Days and Nightmares team to arrive, though I didn’t mind waiting as they headed here from the airport.
It gave me a chance to watch the news clip of Sinners Do It Better from earlier this morning.
A global morning news station had the rock band on for an interview and a live performance of their new single.
All five members were dressed sharply, taking turns answering questions about their music and themselves.
Xander looked especially good in his loose shirt, which would’ve been open if not for the single string connecting the two halves.
His hair had been mussed to look classically disheveled and sexy, and a silver chain rested against his throat and matched the silver hoop in his nose.
All the guys were in their human forms for the interview, but once they moved to the TV station’s stage for their performance, they appeared in their true forms—demon horns, eyes, claws, and fangs on full display.
The rest of the world assumed the look was a costume for their band’s persona, but I knew the truth. They were all the real deal.
I loved watching Xander play with his band.
He was in his element and confident as he strummed the bass guitar with hands that worked his dick just as skillfully the night before.
I could still vividly remember those strong fingers and how they’d circled and stroked his length.
The memory made me swallow hard but also made a certain heaviness settle over me.
I wasn’t naive. I knew that just because we’d crossed some sort of line last night, that didn’t suddenly make us lovers or something more than … Ghost and Mr. Monster, a broken soul and the demon who always managed to stumble upon those fragments.
I wasn’t expecting anything, and I didn’t want to label our friendship as anything more than that. What we were now was good enough. Xander said we’d hang out and he’d stick around, but I knew that wasn’t true, either. The minute this trip was over, we’d go our separate ways.
And that was for the best. Better now while I still had my wits about me instead of after my demons caught up to me, which I still expected to happen.
My mental state balanced on a tight rope over a burning candle.
The heat promised to snap each fray a strand at a time until the flames consumed too much, snapping the rope in one wretched blow.
I didn’t want to be around Xander when those final frays split down the middle.
The door to the inn behind me opened, and Bethelma’s high-pitched voice followed. With a sigh, I closed out of the video and slid my phone into my jeans before getting to my feet and joining the newly arrived people in the foyer.
Spending the past few days with Xander had cracked my hard shell in a way only he seemed able to manage.
The world with him almost felt separate from this one.
Being alone with my coworkers, the weak spots in my armor reinforced as the cracks filled in.
Any freedom and bliss I’d felt from Xander’s influence became lost to the dullness of real life.
Alex was the first to spot me leaning against the archway that connected the front sitting room to the foyer. He smiled brightly and waved after setting down his gear.
“Kendyll,” he greeted and drifted closer. “How was the stay?”
“Kendyll,” Bethelma screeched before I could answer. She drifted over in her lacy black gown. Her many rings clinked on her bony fingers as she waved them at me. “You haven’t checked in at all, stupid girl! What have you been doing these past three days?”
“Working?” I retorted with a raised incredulous brow. “What else would your slave do, hmm?”
“Watch it,” she hissed, pointing her sharp nail at me.
“Easy, easy,” Alex soothed, waving us both down. He patted Bethelma’s hand, which still shook at me, and tried to calm the star. “You know certain places can keep Kendyll too busy to check in often.” He looked at me. “So was it … lively here?”
“Nope,” I answered flatly, popping the P on the word. I smiled icily at the old woman. “There’s nothing here, so you’ll have an easy time pulling whatever lies and bullshit you want out of your ass.”
“Then just what have you been doing?” she huffed with a dramatic eye roll.
I tapped a finger to my chin while pretending to ponder. “Now that you mention it, I did slack off a bit to fuck around with a demon I found.”
Bethelma scoffed and shuffled away in a flurry of skirts. “You’re an obnoxious little girl. Now where’s that innkeeper woman?” She swept down the hallway leading to Wendy’s quarters.
“Thank you,” I shouted sweetly at her back, breathing a little easier after she’d disappeared.
Alex shifted on his feet and flashed me a nervous grin. “You two are as lovely together as always.”
Alex often played mediator between Bethelma and I.
He was a calm, happy guy, and he seemed to really love being the cameraman who followed Bethelma and caught her in action as she “conversed and interacted with” the spirits of the locations we shot at for Haunted Days and Nightmares.
He worked with production, too, so I supposed he was a natural at mediating.
Ignoring him, I went in the direction Bethelma had gone, grabbing some of the bags on the way. “Wendy, the innkeeper, said we can make her room the safe room. I’ve already moved my stuff into there.”
“Was it okay sleeping here all on your own?”
I looked over my shoulder. “I’m a big girl, Alex. What is there to be scared of? Things that go bump in the night? You know who you’re talking to, right?”
His cheeks turned pink, and if his arms and hands weren’t loaded down with bags, he probably would’ve been rubbing his chestnut head sheepishly. “Right. I guess the dark and ghosts don’t really scare you.”
No. The things that made normal people quiver in fear brought me comfort and peace. I clung to all things spooky in my moments of fear. I much preferred the undead to the living.
Wendy and Bethelma were in the middle of chatting when we walked in. Bethelma was laying it on thick, pretending she already felt a presence within the inn, and Wendy hung on her every word with stars in her eyes.
Alex and I set up monitors and our various equipment in the sitting area of Wendy’s space.
Since I’d interviewed and filmed Wendy this morning for the show, she left the three of us to go to the hotel that the network had set up for her while we filmed here.
Meanwhile, Bethelma stood over top of me, reading over the material I’d typed up and reviewing the photos and videos I’d taken during my time here.
“Hmph,” Bethelma huffed with her nose tilted up and lips pursed. That was the face and sound she always made when she was impressed with me but didn’t want to admit it.
“These are amazing,” Alex praised, scrolling through my photo shoot with Xander. His bright eyes met mine. “How’d you get such clear photos of a spirit if nothing’s here?”
I smirked, admiring the still image of Xander’s golden eyes peering through the cracked door of a dark room. “Someone owed me a favor, so I cashed in.”
Catsper suddenly appeared in Bethelma’s white hair. His black see-through body settled into her updo like it was a nest made for him, and he meowed at me as though asking who these people were.
“Ahh,” I suddenly piped up. “There is one ghost here. A cat.”
“A cat?” Bethelma shouted with a curl of her lip.
My smile widened at the sight of her disdain.
Bethelma hated anything with fur, scales, or really just a pulse.
Unless it was herself. I nearly revealed that the thing she hated most was sitting on her head, but poor Catsper didn’t deserve to be swatted at, even if her rampage would go right through him.
Ghosts might’ve been unable to feel physical pain, but they still had feelings.
While the sun was still up, Alex went to set up spiritual equipment that was rigged to go off or spell out certain words and phrases around the inn.
I was left with Bethelma as my only company, though Catsper’s fascination with the woman’s gaudy hair adornments and clothes made it a little less awful than usual.
“Did the network let you know about the change in the schedule?” Bethelma asked.
I was in the middle of checking the live feed that was coming into the computer from the cameras I’d set up when her words gave me pause. I looked back at her. “No. What change?”
“We were supposed to leave here and head to Colorado to film at a hotel, but the place had a massive plumbing failure that flooded the whole first floor with everything imaginable. So they’ve set up a surprise live show here in New York City instead.
We’ll be going there after this, and since it’s a one night live show, you’ll have the following three days off. ”
Live shows were a pain. I had to basically stalk people within the audience before the show began, hoping to find someone who had an attachment.
I had to quickly interview said spirit for information without getting caught and get that back to Bethelma to “read” during the show.
It was fucking stressful. Especially when audience members thought to ask something I hadn’t considered asking beforehand.
I basically had to hold ghosts hostage in the wings of the stage during the whole thing, which often failed.
The ghosts would try drifting away, because they wanted to see their loved one’s reaction to whatever they were saying.
It was like trying to wrangle toddlers in a toy store.
Not to mention, if anyone noticed the clear earpiece in Bethelma’s ear, which I spoke to her through, questions would undoubtedly arise.
But today, the news didn’t frustrate me like it usually did.
New York City.
It was where I’d lived when I first got out of Mountview.
It was where Xander lived.
I knew our time was coming to an end, but … maybe the demon and I could spend a few more days together after all.
I WATCHED THE LIVE CAMERA feed, though I wasn’t really paying too much attention.
Since there weren’t actually ghosts here, there wasn’t really a need for me to monitor the live footage in order to alert Alex and Bethelma to the appearance and ongoings of any spirits.
I glanced at the time on my phone. It was ten minutes shy of 2 a.m. We were probably going to call it here soon, as Bethelma often did.
She merely pretended to stay at locations all night when she really only filmed enough for the edit and post team to splice and tweak into an hour long show.
“Have any ghosts come out to play?”
My lips twitched with the threat of a smile as the deep timber of Xander’s voice fell right above my ear. His presence leaning over the back of my chair was palpable.
Without turning around, I answered, “It’s been a spiritual madhouse. Can’t you tell from Bethelma’s state right now?”
On screen, Bethelma was trembling and shaking her head as she muttered about feeling a mischievous presence in the corner of the room that she and Alex were filming in. A trickster spirit, she claimed, that couldn’t cause real harm but liked messing with people.
“I could make an appearance. Show her what a real trickster entity is like.”
My grin finally widened, and I turned my head toward him.
Xander’s fanged smile was hovering above me, and those golden demon eyes were beautiful crescents as he looked down at me.
One clawed hand rested on the back of the chair and the other on the armrest. If I lifted myself even slightly, I could close the gap between our faces.
But of course, I kept myself firmly seated.
“How was your concert?” I asked him, taking in the fitted band t-shirt he wore with his ripped jeans.
“Awesome,” he answered.
He flopped down in the chair beside mine, and his eyes raked over me, settling on Nightly, who I’d propped in my seat at my back. I had his wings wrapped around my shoulders like a blanket. Xander gave a small, almost silent, laugh.
“The place was sold out tonight,” he continued. “Tomorrow night’s show is, too.”
“Are you tired after this morning’s TV appearance and then your concert prep and show?”
He propped his elbow on the desk and rested his cheek on his clawed fist. “Nah. Quite the opposite actually.” He gestured at the feed on the screens in front of us. “What time is this over?”
“Probably soon. Whenever they’re done, they’ll go to a hotel in the city. Bethelma doesn’t like staying at the haunted locations, even if they aren’t actually haunted. I’ll stay the night here again.”
“Where are you off to next?”
“Actually,” I began with a forced nonchalance, “we’re staying in New York. Bethelma has a live show tomorrow in the city, and after that, we get a rare three days off.” The last part of my statement came out almost like a suggestion, question, and invitation all wrapped into one.
Xander’s smile grew with the news. “Is that right? Want to spend those days off with me?”
“Hmm,” I pretended to ponder while studying my black nail polish. I shrugged. “I suppose I could hang out with you. Since I have nothing better to do.”
He laughed, and I looked away to hide my own mirth.
Just a few more days. I wanted a few more days with my monster.