AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“It’s not a good idea.”
“So? Make a bad choice with me, then. I’ve seen you for years, shadow-girl, years of wanting you but not knowing exactly where you were. Let me have you finally.”
Years?The words crept past all that mindless, stupid lust.
“What do you mean you’ve seen me for years?” Was he some sort of weird supernatural stalker?
He inhaled slowly through his nose, then went unnaturally still. “Invite me in.”
I shook my head. “Not a chance. You realize watching a girl foryearsis creepy, right?”
“Ava, you need to let me in, right now.” His face had shifted, changed to an expression of absolute seriousness.
However, given he’d just admitted to watching me for years, I wasn’t inclined to take his seriousness as something that mattered to me. Maybe his sudden emergency was nothing more than a pesky erection he felt needed immediate attention.
And while I would have been only too happy to attend to it prior, his own admission had dried up my lust like one of those towel infomercials.
I took a step away from the door. “You need to leave.”
Those flames in his eyes consumed the entire iris, and in that there was no question—he wasn’t anything close to human, and nothing I knew anything about either.
The wards gave me a comfort they hadn’t before. Beyond vampires and werewolves who lacked an understanding of boundaries, I was thankfulthathad to stay outside.
“You don’t understand,” he pressed and seemed to try to enter. The ward functioned not like a wall but more like drying cement—too thick and heavy to pass through. He couldn’t make progress, though the muscles I could see and the cords in his neck all stood out as though he gave it his best try.
I could kiss Kase right now.
I shuddered. Nope. That wasfartoo much.
Still, I took another step away as he let out a roar I swore I’d heard in my nightmares before. It was dark and inhuman and chilled me.
I didn’t notice a sound behind me at first, nor did the way the hair on my neck stood occur to me. I was too taken by the sight of Hunter trying to get through the ward.
An electric sensation ran down my spine—one I knew far too well—and I turned.
Behind me stood Melinda, but she wasn’t on schedule. It was hours early for her to show, and she’d been unfailingly punctual.
“I don’t have time for this,” I told her.
She tilted her head as she floated forward, lowering herself until her feet touched the floor as though she were walking. It was eerie. Melinda hadneverbeen silent.
That was when I really saw it, though, the thing I’d missed because I’d been so focused on Hunter.
Melinda was untethered. That leash that had connected her before to her corpse, the one that had held her to this realm, was gone. Which could only mean one thing, something that terrified me far more than whatever it was trying to force his way through my wards.
Melinda was a poltergeist.
I opened my mouth to invite Hunter in, but before I could make a sound, Melinda rushed forward and wrapped a freezing, ethereal hand around my throat.
I never would have guessed it would beMelindawho ended up killing me.
