Page 40 of The Devil and His Ghost

I leaned on the table to mimic her posture. “It’s Mr. Monster to you. And we’re not that famous. Yet.”

The waitress returned with our drinks. Kendyll took a sip before stirring her straw idly in the glass and looking around the dimly lit downtown street. “Your guitar playing is pretty good.”

My lip twitched. She’d spoken in an overly casual way, like the compliment begrudgingly slipped out. Her efforts to play it cool were obvious but amusing.

“You can say you’re impressed,” I told her. “Complimenting me won’t kill you.”

“It might,” she quipped beneath her breath.

Catsper seemed to decide he was done surveying us from the railing. He hopped onto the table, walking through our drinks to perch by Kendyll’s hand. She glanced around to make sure no one was watching and subtly lifted her finger to scratch at his chest.

“I’m surprised you don’t have more attachments,” I told her with a nod at the cat.

“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.”