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Forever Together is dedicated to Abri and Emma.
Thank you Abri for helping me realize that there is no harm in admitting I need a break. Forever Together wouldn’t have been the best it could be without you convincing me to step back.
Emma, thank you for your endless encouragement and understanding with how far I pushed back handing the book over to you. Even with the limited time, and you dealing with your own shit, you still managed to get the book done with time to spare. I will forever be grateful for your help and support!
Turney yawned and stretched, sleep slowly clearing from his mind. Patting the space on the bed next to him, he frowned at finding Octavius gone. Dang Halloween obsessed bat… He was probably already running around decorating—as if there wasn’t enough up already.
Sighing, he cracked his eyes open. A scream of abject terror slipped from his mouth at the sight of what was dangling over him. A hideously twisted face of some creature hung down above him, its sharp teeth gashing. The face looked somewhat human, but as if the skin had partly melted off—muscles and blood showing beneath.
Turney tried to sit up to flee, but he found himself literally tied up in the covers—bow and all. He could easily break them. Turney was strong enough… But between one blink and the next, the face disappeared. It just sort of floated away, to be replaced by a terror of a different sort—his boyfriend in bat form.
“OCTAVIUS!” Turney raged.
The bat giggled hysterically and swooped away, his little bat wings flapping.
“You crazy ass bat,” Turney groaned. The bedroom door opened and he heard tiny feet patter across the floor as the bat ran away down the hallway.
He took a deep breath to calm his pounding heart. The damn thing felt like it was going to burst. Wiggling his arms free, he untied the blankets from around himself. The nut had literally bundled him up like a present.
“Five more days. Just five more days,” he told himself.
Five more days and Turney would no longer have to deal with Octavius' Halloween obsession… At least, not for another year.
It was exactly four days before Halloween, and before Octavius' giant ass party. The houses—the mansions, really—were both thoroughly decorated on the inside. Not all the rooms, there were just too many. Though he was sure Octavius would have done just that if Scarlett and Henry hadn’t been able to rein him in some. Octavius was still running around decorating like crazy, but for the most part, the place was decked out.
Not that Turney had gotten to see it all… Octavius had forbidden him and the others from a shit ton of rooms. This, of course, made traversing either of the houses a pain in the ass. Half the time, he had to go around in circles just to get to the room he wanted to be in.
And, unfortunately, Octavius not only wanted the rooms to be a surprise, but he also wanted everyone tobesurprised…shocked…terrified…
Turney so wished these ‘surprises’ would only happen on the actual day of the party, instead of Octavius sprinkling them throughout the month and randomly scaring the crap out of him each and every day.
The party itself was set for the thirty-first of October. A ton of people were coming. And it was going to be a huge ass spectacular, spanning from Octavius' mansion to Scarlett’s—a two-house party. Oh joy…
Turney had never been a party type of person, even when he’d been human. College parties… Yeah, no. He’d gone to small get-togethers, but nothing like what he knew Octavius had planned. Not that he had gone to many get-togethers either. Now that he thought about it, he had sort of been a loner. His friend pool was small and somewhat nonexistent, due to him distancing himself from racing…
In college, he’d kept to himself, besides Alexander. And that was only because he lived with the man. It wasn’t like he had any family left. He supposed his friend pool was now bigger due to working at the agency. At least, he was going to assume he could consider most of them friends, after the insanity they’d been through.
The Undead Detective Agency was currently on hiatus…as Octavius had put everyone on paid leave for the rest of the month. Not that Turney didn’t still see most of his coworkers, or friends, or whatever, every day anyway. Hard to miss them when you lived with two of them—one who he was dating and the other who sort of was like family now because she saved his life. Then another was half living there too, because she was dating the one who had saved his life. And then the other one lived right next door with his brother who they had rescued… God, had his interpersonal relationships gotten really weird.
Odd relationships aside, they probably deserved a break after everything that had happened. Though, from what Turney gathered, Octavius had only temporarily closed the agency so he could dive fully into his beloved Halloween decorations without interruptions.
Between all the crazy Halloween stuff, their training had also begun about a week and a half ago. Scarlett had ramped up his zombie training, and he had gotten a fighting coach—Bob… Turney didn’t like Bob. Bob looked way too long at Octavius for Turney’s liking. Fucker needed to keep his eyes to himself before he lost them. And being a zombie now, he felt that threat had more oomph to it. Though, Bob was something, Turney just hadn’t figured out what that something was.
Octavius had begun to practice his ‘super vamp’ mode, often sparring with Henry. Turney had to say, it was a sight to see. They both moved fast and skillfully. Turney would like to say he too moved with such skill, but he definitely moved much more clumsily than anything. Which Bob loved to point out—the irritating asshole.
At least Cormac had started joining in on the lessons, so now he had a partner in crime to piss Bob off. Scarlett seemed to find his dislike for Bob entertaining, but then again, as she had pointed out multiple times, Octavius was pretty oblivious to the trainers flirting.
She and Min-ji, like Octavius and Henry, sparred together expertly. Though, Turney often thought that Scarlett was holding back as she fought. A point driven home by the differences he’d seen when Scarlett fought Octavius compared to when she fought Min-ji. He wasn’t sure if Scarlett held back because the two were dating now, or because a witch couldn’t compete against a zombie in hand-to-hand combat without a handicap. Based on what he knew about witches, he was going to guess it was the second reason, as he couldn’t imagine Scarlett holding back just because she was dating someone.
Theo… Theo’s job right now was to get healthy. His time with the Knights had not been kind to him, leaving the werewolf severely underweight and weak. He was doing better now though, even if he was still on the thinner side.
Turney stared at the cobwebs and fake spiders above the bed and sighed again. The fact that Octavius had been creepily hanging there probably meant it was time to get up.
Stretching, Turney slipped out of bed and walked to the large vanity mirror in front of their bed. Leaning in close, he ran his hand over one of the scars on his neck. The ones he had gotten from the witch. They were faded now, as if they had happened many years ago. What hadn’t faded were the scars of his turning. While they weren’t pink anymore, they were in no way less noticeable. Maybe less ugly—a big maybe.
Turney hated to admit it, but he was still struggling with them. Mind you, he was doing better… Octavius had worked hard on that part, making sure he knew they didn’t detract from his attractiveness. Still…he wouldn’t be winning any beauty contests, that’s for sure.
Turney straightened up on another sigh and headed to the bathroom.
