Page 7 of The Devil and His Ghost

For me, that emotion manifested as the gnashing of teeth and savage swings.

“Why are you here, Xander?” I hissed with a curled lip and an irritated shake of my head.

His lips parted as the same feeling I’d latched onto briefly rippled in the crease of his brow and set of his eyes. He pressed his lips back together and dropped his head with a humorless laugh. “I see. It turned out this way after all. That’s fine. I promised to remind you.”

I had no idea what he was going on about, and I didn’t bother asking him. Instead, I bent down to pick up my blankets and snarled, “You promised? That’s hilarious. Because you’re so good at keeping your promises, aren’t you, Xander?”

Those deeply dark eyes, like pools of fresh ink, set into his handsome face searched my own gaze. Yet he kept his expression blank so that I couldn’t get a read on anything he was thinking or feeling. He looked the same as the last time I’d seen him, save for a new tattoo I couldn’t quite make out on the outside of his pinky and his hairstyle. The dark locks had been longer the last time we’d been together. His black septum nose ring stood out against his flawless skin, and those pink lips, ones I still remembered all over my body, were set in a flat line.

Suddenly, that mouth broke into a charming grin that masked whatever he was really feeling. “You’re still so hot when you’re pretending to be angry.”

Talking to him was like talking to a wall. With a huff, I repeated, “Why are you here?”

I knew I shouldn’t drift closer, but my bed was right by where he sat. I worried that getting close to him would spur a temptation I couldn’t resist, but I’d always been good at pretending to be strong. So with my head held high and an unbothered set to my shoulders, I crossed the room to the bare mattress and dropped my blankets onto it.

“I’m following you,” he finally answered.

I could see him watching me from the corner of my eye.

I didn’t need to ask how he knew I’d be here. After all, he and I had a lengthy history, the most recent chapter having been not long ago. And what a chapter that had been. It was happy. It was warm. It was together. He and I had planned to do this very investigation of Mountview Psychiatric Hospital as the ultimate duo—a ghost-seeing human and a Mischief demon.

But that was then.

That was before.

Before he broke that final promise.

Before my fears came to life.

Before I realized running from him was the only thing I could do.

“I don’t need or want you here,” I told him coldly, refusing to look at him.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Xander stand and drift closer. His familiar clean and spicy shampoo crowded my senses, and warmth rolled off his muscular body. Without taking my eyes off the sheets I tucked around the mattress, I felt his eyes boring into me.

New memories of the last time we were here together flooded me. This demon had reappeared in my life after ten years of waiting on him, and he’d begrudgingly taken me away with him. He was always doing that—showing up only for things to pull us apart. He was back now, but like always, I knew it wouldn’t last. We’d drift apart again. It was an inevitable pattern for us. It was like I told him the last time we were together.

My story? Our story? It didn’t have a happy ending.

Chapter 5

Xander

(7 Years Ago)

“I THINK THIS PIECE IS the one you’re looking for,” I told the older woman across from me while pointing at the puzzle piece in question.

The round, smiling Black woman didn’t hear me, thus she coasted right over the puzzle piece she needed in favor of the wrong one. She attempted to jam the small piece into place.

“Told you.”

Leaning forward, I blew on the correct piece, ensuring it was only enough air to make the square jostle minutely. The old woman spotted the movement, grabbed the piece, and laughed ecstatically when it fit. She clapped her hands, and the other patients around the common room glanced at her while others were too lost in their own world to notice. A nearby nurse smiled and congratulated her on finding a piece, encouraging her to keep going until she finished the puzzle depicting the golden retriever puppy in a basket of flowers.

My attention tracked the busty nurse, more than interested in seeing what lay beneath those scrubs. I turned back to my mentally unstable friend to bid her farewell, but I froze. She chewed giddily on a puzzle piece.

“Yum,” I teased with a grimace. “Gotta love the taste of cardboard.” I looked around the bustling open room at the handful of staff. “Anyone gonna come stop her before she eats the whole puzzle?”

No one could hear me, of course, but a male nurse spotted her and quickly dashed over to pry the puzzle piece from her lips. A trail of spit followed the chewed board, and I took that as my cue to move on. Hopping up from my seat, I waltzed past the other psych patients and staff to follow the sexy nurse down a hallway lined with doors. A quick glance into one showed a barren bedroom with a single small bed, some open shelves, and a wardrobe. The nurse was casually looking into the rooms, checking on any patients who lingered there instead of in the common room.