Chapter 22
Xander
(Two Years Ago)
KENDYLL’S HAND FIT PERFECTLY IN mine. Our fingers wove together like puzzle pieces finally fitted together. They swung idly as we walked down the sidewalk in search of an early afternoon dinner. I’d kept her hostage in my bed ever since we started kissing last night.
Her tattoo was complete, though it took much longer than it should’ve, given all the extra breaks we took due to the bleeding and need for touch-ups.
The gothic moth’s wings were spread proudly along her chest and breasts.
I wanted to stare at my handiwork, but her baggy t-shirt dashed any hopes of that.
“So what will it be? Indian? Italian? Korean?” I pursed my lips and leaned in so that my lips brushed over her ear while I whispered, “Or we could turn back now, and I could keep feasting on you.”
She turned away as her cheeks and ears turned red, no doubt trying to pretend at being unfazed. But I was sure the same memories that were currently flooding my mind were flooding hers, too.
Kissing had swung open a previously sealed door.
I’d never spent all night and day making out with only a bit of touching over and under clothes, but Kendyll had a way of altering my normal.
The typical speed at which I moved when it came to sex had slowed significantly, but I wasn’t bothered by that.
There was something sexy in exploring her slowly.
Fireworks practically exploded in every corner of my mind and chest every time she opened herself up a little more than the previous time.
Already, I salivated in anticipation for what she’d honor me with next. I really fucking hoped it would be the pleasure of getting to taste her pussy on my tongue.
Kendyll cleared her throat and gave a pointed look at my crotch before meeting my gaze. Her green eyes were full of teasing mirth. “I’m not sure what’s going through your head right now, but you might want to tame it before your dick gets any bigger.”
“You,” I murmured low as I shifted to hide my erection. I pulled her tighter under my arm and dropped a kiss on the top of her head. “You’re going through my head. What have you done to me, hmm?”
“What do ghosts do, Xander?” she laughed softly, staring up at me with glittering eyes. She pressed against me and stood on her tiptoes to hover her mouth over mine. “Obviously I’ve possessed you, Mr. Monster.”
She kissed me quickly before leaping away and continuing down the sidewalk. I gritted my teeth around a groan while she looked over her shoulder at me with a blinding smile. I blew out a hard breath and raced to catch up to her.
Yeah.
She had possessed me, and I never wanted to be exorcised of her.
We entered a bustling plaza where multiple eateries resided. The Sunday evening crowd was lively, and we wandered through the throng of people to get a closer look at the folding outdoor menu outside a Dim Sum restaurant.
“This sounds good,” I said, scanning over the various options. “Want—”
“Kendyll?”
At the sound of the unfamiliar man’s voice, Kendyll went rigid beside me. I looked down at her to find her already pale skin had gone snow white, and her previously bright eyes had dulled yet grown twice the size.
“Kendyll?” I questioned with a concerned frown.
“Kendyll,” came that pleading voice again. “That’s you, right?”
I finally turned. A twig of a man stood behind us with a woman holding onto his arm.
She bounced a surprised yet anxious look between the man and Kendyll.
I scrutinized the guy whose own wide, desperate stare stayed fixed on Kendyll’s back.
He was a good head shorter than me with a wiry build.
Short blond hair, brown eyes, and thin lips, which were set into an apprehensive frown.
He looked a few years older than Kendyll.
“Who are you?” I asked with narrowed eyes. The demand might’ve been harsh, but I didn’t like the way his presence had paralyzed Kendyll.
Finally, Kendyll moved. She turned around slowly and met this stranger’s stare. “Terrance?”
The fret vanished, and a teary smile stretched across the man’s face. He stumbled in her direction with shaking hands. “I-I can’t believe this. I can’t believe I’ve found you!”
Terrance reached toward her as though to pull her into an embrace, but I quickly sidestepped, shielding her behind me.
I glowered down my nose at this guy, and my demonic energy rippled with a spike due to my mounting unease.
I barely managed to reign in the unstable hold on my true form to snarl, “I asked who you are.”
Terrance’s moist eyes met mine briefly, trying to peer past me at Kendyll. “I’m her brother. That’s my sister.”
I couldn’t keep the shock off my face. “Brother?”
It was true that Kendyll kept her past hidden tight under lock and key.
All I’d been privy to was what I’d personally witnessed.
She didn’t divulge any information about her old life prior to Mountview or during, and I never asked, because I could see the unbreakable bars she kept forged around that part of herself.
Coming face-to-face so suddenly with a part of her that I didn’t know about, rendered me silent and still.
Kendyll gripped the back of my shirt in a tight, shaking hand before stepping around me. She hugged her arms around herself like armor before facing her brother. “It’s been awhile.”
“Eleven years,” Terrance choked. “It’s been eleven years.
I haven’t seen you since the day they took you to Mountview.
” He wiped his eyes and looked around the crowded plaza.
“Can we go somewhere and talk? Please. I-I never thought I’d find you, and I just …
Kendyll, I’ve never stopped searching for you. ”
Kendyll’s gaze was trained on her feet. Her expression tightened the more he talked, but still, she gave a small nod.
Breathing had become a foreign concept as our confusing group of four moved out of the plaza to a neighboring park.
Gold and brown leaves littered the ground, but I barely heard the crunch beneath my feet from all the blood rushing in my head.
We found a private bench, but before I could make a move to sit, the lady attached to Terrance grabbed my arm.
“Let’s go sit at the table over there.” She pointed at a distant picnic table. “We should give them privacy.”
Fuck privacy. I didn’t know these people, so leaving Kendyll alone with Terrance sent my inner demon pacing.
I didn’t give a damn that he was her brother.
When I shot a glance at Kendyll, she gave me a small nod in agreement with this woman.
My brow tightened, and my fists clenched.
With a great deal of reluctance, I went to the table with the girl, though I chose the seat that would keep the siblings in my line of sight.
“What the fuck is happening?” I grumbled under my breath as my knee began a restless bounce under the table.
“I know,” the lady agreed with a puff of air. She tucked her chin-length chestnut hair behind an ear. “I can’t believe they’ve found each other again. And by accident, no less. Terrance has looked so hard for her, yet it’s when he wasn’t searching that he managed to find her.”
“Who are you? Are you a sibling, too?”
She laughed and waved a dismissive hand. “Absolutely not. I’m Terrance’s fiancé, Becca. Are you and Kendyll together?”
“Yeah, that’s my girl,” I answered without hesitating.
Becca smiled. “You’re protective. That will make Terrance happy. I’m sure you know about … you know … her being a patient at Mountview Psychiatric Hospital.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Yeah. So?”
“Terrance has been so worried about her ever since he and his parents learned that she was suddenly released from there but didn’t come home.
He and I had just started dating back then, so I don’t know all of the details around everything.
All I know is that when she didn’t come home or reach out to anyone, especially Terrance, he began searching for her.
He said they’d been like best friends before she went into the hospital. ”
You mean, before she was wrongly admitted, I wanted to growl but settled with keeping that to myself.
Still, I couldn’t stop myself from asking, “They were close, huh?”
If that were true, why hadn’t Kendyll mentioned missing him or wanting to find and see him as much as he seemed to hope to? When I’d helped her out of Mountview, she had been adamant that she didn’t have a family or home to return to.
“Yeah,” Becca answered. “But then her … issues started. That put a strain on things, I think.”
“And what issues would that be, Becca?”
Her cheeks reddened at my biting tone, and she quickly held up her hands in appeasement.
“Please don’t misunderstand. I’m not judging her or anything.
Terrance’s parents told us how Kendyll couldn’t help lying and making all of that stuff up.
She was sick, after all. But I’m glad she’s better now.
Maybe this can be a fresh slate for their family. I know Terrance would like that.”
I was typically a very calm being, much different than my fellow spawns of Hell.
I didn’t take life too seriously. I usually let stuff roll right off me.
But the longer this woman spoke about Kendyll, the more I found that calm giving way to something volatile.
What did Becca know? She was merely dating Terrance.
Who was she to speak about Kendyll when she didn’t know a goddamn thing?
Even as I thought that, the bitterness swirling inside of me grew, because it wasn’t Becca who knew nothing.
It was me. However misguided Becca’s impression of Kendyll’s “illness” was, she had an insight into Kendyll’s younger years that I didn’t.
She knew about a part of her that had been blocked from me.