The Stalking Dead (Gang of Ghouls, #1)

by Eva Chase

All at once, I was fed up. What was the point in trying to teach these idiots anything when they cared more about keeping their existence all nice and peaceful than finding out how the world really worked?

Then I was gunning the engine, nothing on my mind except for getting to the docks ASAP. And oh boy, were the fuckers out there not going to be happy to see me.

Vincent—scrawny, nerdy Vincent, who’d somehow gotten significantly less scrawny in the past few days—slammed into the guy who’d spat at me with a one-two-three flurry of punches that left the guy’s lip split and his eye swollen shut like he’d just gone through a four-hour torture session.

“Got a headache?” he asked, smiling fiercely as he tossed the sticks aside. “You only have a head still because she asked. You’d better remember to show her nothing but gratitude for that from now on.”

Mr. Grimes stepped up to me, and I was struck by how he’d changed too. He seemed taller now, and broader, and his chin seemed to have filled out into more of a square than a point. Between that and the spiky crimson-tipped hair, he barely passed for my professor at all. He rested his hand on my shoulder, renewed fury burning in his dark blue eyes as he looked me over.

You’re with us, Minnow, just like you’re meant to be, and we can show you ten times better than any fucking normal.” Minnow. The nickname sank into my brain with a spike of adrenaline. I stared at him. My voice came out in a whisper. “What did you just call me?”

“Minnow. Like old times, when you were a little thing splashing around in the marsh like you were going to learn to breathe water. Are you going to complain about that now? I guess I can come up with a more fitting one since you’re not so little anymore.” No. It couldn’t be.

He… He knew. In therapy, I’d talked a little about the imaginary friends who’d occupied so much of my free time, but I’d never gotten into that much detail. I’d never told anyone—and it’d always been him talking to me when he called me that name, not the other way around, so no one could have overheard—no one could have known about that… Except the guy who’d coined the nickname in the first place.

“We all remember, Waterlily,” Ansel said, taking a step closer. At the second familiar nickname, my heart stuttered. Zach shrugged. “We’ve been trying to tell you all along, kid.” Vincent shot him a look. “She’s not a kid anymore. But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t need us. She’s our Lily.” He shot me a hesitant smile. “Or maybe Lil when the mood is right.”

How could my imaginary friends actually be the ghosts of a bunch of murdered guys? How could those ghosts have stolen totally new lives? But either I’d hallucinated most of the past week… or any other explanation I could come up with was just as impossible.

They were here. My protectors, my friends, my voices in the dark. And however that’d happened, they’d made it more than clear that I wasn’t getting rid of them. I wasn’t even sure I’d want to anymore. I couldn’t run away from this insanity anymore.

I drew my spine up straighter and looked each of them in the face. “I think you’d better come back to my apartment, and I’ll let you really explain this t...

If I’d thought having the guys around would somehow feel less weird now that I’d started to believe they were who they said they were—and not who they continued to kind of look like—I’d been wrong. It was still absolutely fucking bizarre.

The gesture brought back the image of his face so close to mine yesterday, his arms around me, his warmth and scent enveloping me. An equally uninvited flare of heat tingled through my belly.

Before my horrified eyes, he dug into it with his teeth to break the peel and then squeezed sour juice all over the contents of his chip bag. That right there was the scariest thing I’d seen all day.

“My name’s Lennox, but that sounds like a dork, so we’ll stick with Nox. Nox Savage. It’s good to finally—properly—meet you after all this time.”

It’d been their voices back then—these four men. Like a faint echo in the back of my mind. You can do it. Kick those feet, they’re coming free. Just reach—reach! Tiny nudges against my limbs, prodding me forward.

“You did the rest. We couldn’t have dragged you out on our own. You were so strong—you are so strong.”

“You grounded us in this world, and we wanted to be here.” “And you needed us like we needed you.” Ruin’s smile softened. “So strong but with so many people trying to pick away at that strength.”

It’s just a big blank in my memory. I can see myself walking up to the house, and the next thing is waking up in the hospital.”

“We managed to avoid getting arrested for years in our lives before.” I gave him a skeptical look. “Somehow I have to believe that back then you were slightly more discreet than playing pinata with students in broad daylight on campus.”

“And our way works.” Nox folded his arms over his chest in an authoritarian pose that brought back dissonant echoes of the man he’d possessed. “We’re putting the fear into people, and they’re figuring out not to mess with you. It’s only been a slow start because you kept telling us to back off.”

What was the point in continuing to argue with them about it? Was I really bothered by what they’d done to the jerks who’d hauled me across town in their trunk?

Deal with anyone who tries. I don’t think it’ll take very long—most of the kids at that college have never had to deal with a real threat in their lives.” His face split with a vicious grin that shouldn’t have thrilled me… but did. Please tell me my panties didn’t just get wet, I begged myself. Myself pleaded the fifth.

He was also, with his new imposing presence and dark demeanor, undeniably hot. And damn it, he wasn’t the only one. They were actually all pretty easy on the eyes now that they’d mostly obliterated my associations with the men they’d used to be. In ways I definitely hadn’t noticed or even been thinking about when I’d been a kid and they’d barely been real.

He said it without a hint of concern, but the words tugged at my heart all the same. These guys had literally come back from the dead—and for me.

“We’ll figure it out. And we’ll bring our own food. We’re not going to have you starving either.” He motioned to Ruin. “Come on, you bottomless pit. Let’s go out for supplies.” Jett got up too. “I’m going to grab a few things from Vincent’s room before that doofus of a roommate messes with them.” Kai stole Jett’s spot on the sofa and picked up my textbook. “I’m perfectly happy staying right here, thank you. Bring me back something comfy and something tasty. But not both in the same item.”

I’d never really been alone when I was in Lovell Rise, and I still wasn’t.

But I didn’t mind. Waking up early gave me even more time to revel in the fact that I was waking up here, in Lily’s home.

As much as she’d accepted my hug outside the grocery store two days ago, before that she’d shied away from physical affection. I wanted her to feel how much I adored her, but only if she was enjoying the demonstration. She stayed tensed for several seconds, but she didn’t pull away from me. Gradually, her body relaxed, sinking into the bed and my arms. “Are you always this cuddly first thing in the morning?” she muttered in her softly husky voice. “Only with people I like!” I declared, and nuzzled the back of her neck—gently, still careful not to overstep my welcome. Lily snorted. “Somehow I don’t think you spoon the other guys in bed. And I assume you like them.” I cocked my head, considering. “I would if they wouldn’t punch me in the face. The guys aren’t much for PDAs. But they’re like brothers to me. I’d die for them. Of course I’d hug them. If they wanted.”

The tiny movements of her body against mine stirred another sensation, one that was more than affection. One I hadn’t felt in decades, because spirits didn’t have skin that heated or dicks that hardened at the feel of a pretty woman’s curves.

“My waterlily,” I murmured against her skin, nibbling her jaw, kissing my way down her neck. “My angelfish.” A giggle tumbled out of Lily at the old nicknames,

“That’s right, precious,” I said, sliding up her shirt to bare her chest. “I’m gonna take care of you. You just keep telling me how much you’re liking it.”

And the door creaked wider open, with the growl of my boss’s unmistakable voice. “Ruin,” Nox said. “Get your ass out here.” Lily flinched. I pulled back quickly, tugging her shirt back down to cover her and giving her one last quick kiss on the mouth to show her nothing was wrong before turning to face Nox.

He was my boss, and my friend and practically my brother, but a faintly defiant air came over me. I wasn’t going to apologize for this.

“Yes,” she said, with a hint of her own defiance. “And it might have gotten even better if you hadn’t interrupted.”

“Of course I wouldn’t do anything she didn’t want. She’s our girl. Our woman.” My lips curved back into a smile at my self-correction. And then another reason Nox might have been upset occurred to me. “I’m not trying to make her all mine. We’re all with her. However she wants any of us.”

I didn’t know exactly what the guys had looked like before they’d died, but their spirits were clearly shifting their new physical presences to match their most essential qualities.

Then there was Nox. Lennox Savage. Something about the name sent another quiver through me that was both giddy and unsettled. Every time I saw him, the professor guise had fallen away more, brawn taking over the formerly mediocre build, his square jaw getting stronger.

He ruled this crew like he had when they’d been the Skullbreakers, and I suspected he had twice as much brutality in him as the rest of them. So why wasn’t I outright scared of him? Because he looked at me like the world began and ended with me, and I didn’...

If I was going to be scared for anyone, it was the people who came near me… and I was having more and more trouble summoni...

The way she’d talked, it’d sounded like nothing I did was going to be good enough. I could graduate at the top of Lovell Rise College with commendations from my manager under my belt, and she’d still talk to me like a psychotic mental patient.

The unsettling hum that’d risen up inside me yesterday on the docks reverberated through my chest again, potent enough that my ears started to ring. My breath snagged in my throat. And the entire contents of Peyton’s water bottle leapt from its opening and splatted into her face.

I woke up tucked against planes of taut muscle and knew from the warm, musky scent filling my nose that it was Ruin’s sinewy arms wrapped around me. He was really making a habit of this sneaking into bed with me thing, even though I’d gotten the impression that Nox had told him off the last time.

From the slow rhythm of his breaths, he’d slipped in here long enough ago that he’d fallen back asleep himself. This time he’d eased under the blanket, though not the sheet, and the heat of his body engulfed me as much as his arms did.

It was kind of like having a very large cat suddenly take up residence in my home—the persistent kind that’d squirm into bed next to you...

Nox watched me the most, his usual cocky attitude somewhat subdued this morning. There was a fierce grimness in his dark gaze, like he was prepared to take on a whole world of trouble. Hopefully there wasn’t a whole lot more than I was already aware of.

It was wrong to find all four of these guys attractive, right? But Nox had somehow transformed my bitter professor into a stud. I mean, Mr. Grimes had been a hardass, but not in the literal sense.

“Kids?” I asked conversationally, contemplating the array of rods. Wade frowned. “A daughter,” he said grudgingly. Singular, not plural. The fucker.

The man’s face shuttered in an instant. If he thought that’d stop me from picking up on his cues, he was shit out of luck. His hands twitched with obvious anxiety. Something about the subject made him nervous. Because he didn’t want that reputation associated with his store, or was there more to it?