Page 54 of Love at First Fright

He didn’t answer. Just stood there, swaying.

“Mate, are you—”

He lunged at the door again. The impact was sickening. Bone against iron. His shoulder took the brunt of it, and I swore I heard something crack.

“Stop!” I grabbed his arm.

He shook me off with frightening ease. His skin burned under my fingers—fever-hot despite the freezing air.

Brad’s knees buckled.

I lunged forward, catching him before his head cracked against the stone steps. His weight nearly toppled us both. He was pure muscle, heavy as lead, and my back screamed in protest.

“Brad. Brad.”

The torch slipped from his grip, clattering down the stairs. The beam spun wildly, throwing jagged shadows across the walls before settling at an angle that illuminated precisely nothing useful.

His head lolled against my shoulder.

“Brad? What the fuck?”

I tried to shift him, get a better grip, but he was dead weight. My arms shook.

Something moved in the darkness beyond the torch beam.

Not moved—breathed.

The air thickened. Pressed down. My lungs seized.

Brad’s lips moved. A whisper I couldn’t hear.

“What?”

He said it again. Barely audible.

“Run.”

nine

Bat

The door thrummed with power behind me. Brad’s consciousness writhed somewhere deep inside his skull, fighting like a fish caught on a line. I shoved harder, pinning him down.

Funny how much easier possession got the second time round.

“Run,” I said again, pitching Brad’s voice higher. Breathier. Terrified.

Charlie’s eyes went wide. Good. He needed to be scared.

Any second now, he’d bolt up those stairs. I’d make sure of it. Get him away from this basement, away from what festered behind that iron door.

Except Charlie didn’t run.

He crouched down. Reached for my hand.

His fingers wrapped around mine—warm, solid, lovely—and he pulled.

“Come on!”