Ghost at the Feast: The Nightwatch Book 3 Read online

  “Aw, shit, look at her.” Harmony helped the ghost up. “Come on, love. Let’s get you settled. You’ll feel better once you’re settled.”

  “Where?” The ghost turned her smooth face to Harmony. “Where is it?” Her voice was lost and plaintive.

  “Gone, sweetheart. But you don’t need it. You can see just fine without a face. I’ll teach you how.”

  It was a surprisingly maternal thing to say if you ignored the actual words and focused only on the tone. Not like the Harmony I’d come to know, but then, how well did we ever know someone, right?

  “I’ll leave you to it, then?”

  “Uh-huh.” Her attention was on the faceless ghost.

  Despite Harmony’s insistence to the contrary, she loved to fix things, and she loved puzzles. The faceless ghost was in the perfect place.

  I stepped out of the room and back into the bar. Mai was perched on a stool chatting to Dotty, but there was no sign of Kris.

  I joined Mai. “Where’s Kris?”

  “Being a diva as usual,” she said with a mischievous smile. “Check out the stage.”

  I glanced across the room to find Kris playing a ghostly guitar and headbanging.

  Hmmm, not bad. “He has the hair for it.”

  “Right? And the body.” She sighed. “Things were so uncomplicated with Kris.”

  Wait, what? “So, you and Kris were a thing?”

  She gave me a small smile. “For a few months. Just sex, fun, and friendship, and then I fucking had to go and spoil it by falling for Lark. Sleeping with Kris felt wrong after that, like I was using him, ya know?” She sipped her drink, a frothy green concoction that would do nothing to affect her sobriety but tasted delish.

  “You and Kris?” She arched a brow. “Any movement there?”

  “You mean, have I fallen for the sexy demon with the silver eyes and the smooth-talking ways who has no regard for my personal space?”

  “Yep.”

  I shook my head. “Nah, casual isn’t my thing.”

  She balked. “Really? Have you ever tried it?”

  “No need. I just know.”

  She sipped her cocktail and slid a sly look my way. “And Bres?”

  I tensed. “What about Bres?”

  Her smile was wicked. “Oh, come on, we all know you’ve been waking early to hang out with him before sunset, but Emmitt insists you’re not making sex sounds.”

  “Emmitt’s been spying on us?”

  “He says you leave the door open.” She shrugged. “It’s kinda sweet.”

  “Emmitt spying?”

  “No, you and Bres.”

  “It’s not like that.”

  “It isn’t? So, you are banging?” She frowned.

  Urgh. “No. I told you, I don’t do the casual sex thing. It might work for some people, but it’s not for me.”

  “Then make it a thing. Bres’s a solid guy, kinda grrr and intense, but damn, that bod, and that voice, and the fact that he’s so blunt and to the point … Damn, I need to get laid.”

  Make it a thing … A relationship? Bres was probably as much about relationships as I was about one-night stands. He’d made it clear he was happy to fuck, but nothing more had been offered, and why the hell was I even thinking about this shit?

  Time to change the subject. “How are things with Lark?”

  Mai didn’t even flinch at my shift in focus. “We’re working on getting over each other,” she said with a sigh. “It helps that we never consummated anything. We’ll be fine. Just takes time. We talked about stuff and decided we needed to see other people, to move on.” She puffed out her cheeks. “He suggested I start seeing Kris again, actually.” She leaned back on her stool. “Which is why I was feeling you out about him earlier.”

  I looked over at the stage where Kris was now on his knees, riding his guitar. “Kris and I are just friends, nothing more.”

  Kris flipped his hair off his face and our eyes locked across the floor. He blew me a kiss and went back to playing.

  “He’s a good friend,” Mai said. “Argh, I can’t do it. I stopped seeing him because I was in love with Lark, how can I see him now with the objective of getting over Lark. I’d be a hypocrite.”

  “Talk to Kris about it and see what he thinks. Demons don’t view sex and relationships in the same way we do, so you might be surprised.” I smiled. “And like you said, Kris is a good friend.” I winked.

  “And is Bres a good friend?”

  Bres with his inked skin and his honey-over-gravel voice. Bres with his way of seeing into my soul. Bres, who was a sweet, undeniable addiction.

  “Kat, whoa, you’re blushing.”

  “I am not.” I rubbed my cheeks. “Piss off.”

  “You’re falling for him, aren’t you?”

  “No.” I don’t know.

  She raised a hand to get Dotty’s attention. “A Soul Surfer with a kick for my friend here.” She leaned in toward me. “I know Henri meant a lot to you, but he left. You freed him, and he left. If you love someone, you don’t leave.” Her expression was stern. “Ever.”

  “He needed to find himself.” God, I sounded sappy and weak. “Fuck it. I’m pissed at him, okay. I fucking want to punch him in his golem face. But most of all, I just want him home. I miss him. I miss his stupid, arrogant tone, his berating, and the banter.”

  “Yeah, but does he miss you? I mean, it’s been two months, no call, not even a fucking postcard to let you know he’s okay. He ran away first chance he got.” She breathed in sharply through her nose. “You don’t leave your loved ones behind. Ever.”

  Her words hit home, hard. I puffed up my cheeks and blew out a breath. “I need to sort my head out.”

  The drink arrived, and she pushed it across the bar toward me. “Drink up, and then let’s get on that stage and show Kris how it should be done.”

  I downed my Soul Surfer. “Let’s do it.”

  I’d barely stood when the lights began to flicker. A low buzz rippled through the bar, and everyone went still.

  “What was that?” Mai asked.

  And then shapes shot through the walls, black writhing shapes with razor teeth and faces that were all mouth.

  Riders.

  Chapter Twelve

  Riders weren’t regular ghosts. They may have been human once, but they were something else now. Entities that fed off human emotion and contact. They latched on to human hosts and rode them until they’d driven the host insane or killed it. Then they moved on to the next. But there were no humans here, so what the fuck were they doing?

  The riders swooped, arms extending out of their inky masses, claws grasping for purchase on something. The ghosts scattered. The riders screeched, an eerie sound that made my bones rattle and my teeth ache.

  “What? What’s happening?” Mai asked. “Shit, are those riders?”

  I grabbed her and pulled her down as a rider flew over our heads. He would have slammed right into us, and although riders couldn’t ride a supernatural, they could do some serious hurting if they managed to latch on to our souls. Thing was, they usually didn’t give a shit about anything that wasn’t mortal; it was like offering them a dried-up piece of beef jerky in place of a juicy steak. So, what the hell were they doing here?

  The bar was going crazy, specters running back and forth, screaming in terror. Harmony appeared to my left, cursing colorfully when she realized what was happening.

  The riders continued to whizz about, wailing and screeching.

  What the hell? “Harmony!” I made my way over to her. “How did they get in?”

  “There’s nothing stopping them from coming in. They just never do.” We ducked to avoid being hit. “Nothing for them here.”

  Up ahead, two riders smashed into the ghost of a young woman and began to tear at her.

  “They’re ripping her,” Harmony cried. “Fucking hell, they’re killing her.”

  Another rider slammed into a specter, and the ghost shattered and faded away.

&nb
sp; “We need to get them out of here,” Harmony cried.

  Kris was swiping at the riders with his guitar while two ghosts hid behind him. Mai was on the bar waving an empty bottle. Fuck, I loved those guys, but their efforts wouldn’t stop the riders.

  The ghosts were dropping like flies. Ripped by the riders. Ripped, like when they’d been working for the shimmer man, except he was gone. Wasn’t he?

  The lights flickered and dimmed.

  I had to get the riders away from here, and there was only one way to do that. I needed to lead them out.

  I’d need to tether myself to them.

  Oh, fuck.

  Bad idea, Kat, Henri said in my head. Do not do the thing.

  But I had to do the thing, or these spirits would be ripped. Deader than dead.

  I needed to tether and get the riders out of here. Not only that, but I needed to make sure they didn’t come back, and there was only one way to do that.

  I’d have to take them to the Shade.

  Cold dread gripped me by the throat.

  Don’t dwell. Just do it.

  Taking a deep breath, I fell into blur mode. Tag, you’re it. Tag. Ice hit me in the chest. I leaped up onto the bar and tagged another one. One more to go over by the stage attacking Kris.

  A chill washed over me, burrowing into me as I dragged the riders across the room with me like an insane dog walker, walking killer wolves. They didn’t go all limp and floaty like faceless girl, they fought, tugging on the tether, pushing their ice into me. My blur faltered. Shit. I hit the stage, caught Kris’s wide-eyed look of horror, and tagged the final rider before beelining for the door.

  My boots hit the street a moment later, but I kept going, straight across the road and into an alley. What would a human see if they saw me now? The riders tried to break free by digging their phantom icy talons into my chest.

  You shall not have my heart.

  I needed a door. I need to get into the Shade.

  Now.

  Heat erupted at my solar plexus, and then I was tumbling onto gray sand, my body alight with an inner fire. The riders screamed, flying around above me like insane bats, linked to me by silver threads.

  The tethers.

  I was seeing the bloody tethers. Cool, or maybe not, because death situation and all that.

  I needed to break the tethers, but the ice they were channeling into me was stronger than my fire. Oh, crap, I was out of inner kindling. Chill pressed me to the sand and held me there. The riders stopped fighting and hovered over me, no longer pushing ice into me but drawing heat from me. They were siphoning from me. Slurping my energy like it was a fucking smoothie.

  What flavor smoothie did I taste like to them?

  Oh, God. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t …

  Shouldn’t have done the thing, Kat.

  Henri’s voice filled my head.

  Fuck you. You left me. You fucking left, and now I’m going to die. The thunder of blood filled my head. My pulse slowed. Thud. Thud. Thud.

  Dying was cold and creepy.

  The thunder in my head was joined by a roar and a howl. Monsters coming for me. Riders to take my soul, and monsters to tear at my flesh. A laugh bubbled up inside me and then reverberated around my skull.

  Great time to go insane, Justice.

  A shadow blocked out the riders, and neon blue eyes glared at me reproachfully. Silver claws cut through the air above me, snagging on the tethers. My body arched, and then I was free of the tethers. Still, my body remained limp and useless.

  The monster with the hackles and the eyes straddled me. “Get up.”

  Oh, man. I was going nuts because I could have sworn that the monster—

  “Get up now.”

  Ookay.

  “You need to get up, and you need to leave. Now.”

  Yep, totally certifiable. I wanted to bop the beast on the nose, but my body refused to obey me. The monster placed a paw on my chest. Here it was. He was going to crush me. Dead.

  Crack.

  Dead.

  Except the pressure didn’t come. The crack didn’t come. Instead, warmth bloomed across my torso and settled into my skin. My fingers … I could move my fingers, and then my arms were free of the sand.

  The monster leaned in close, so we were nose to snout. “It’s out there. One of them is out there. You have to find it and bring it back.”

  “What?”

  Howls and growls surrounded us, getting closer.

  “Try to remember. Try to remember to find it.”

  The howls were getting louder.

  The monster’s head jerked up. “Now, little one. It’s time to leave. It’s time to shine.”

  “What are you?” My voice was a broken whisper.

  He growled and turned his back on me to face the predators headed our way.

  “Up,” he demanded.

  I stood on shaky legs.

  “Run!”

  I turned and ran, wobbly at first, then fast and faster. A door. I needed a door. I needed—

  I tripped and landed on asphalt, grazing my cheek. Blood filled my mouth. My blood.

  “Kat, fucking hell.”

  Kris?

  The world tilted as I was hauled up into his arms, and then my body was shaking involuntarily. Shit. The power the monster had given me was draining away, as if it couldn’t follow me through the door, and the death grip of ice was back, quaking me. Threatening to consume me. The monster. The tear … I had to remember to … to … what? What was I trying to remember?

  “Kat, dammit. Kat, speak to me.” Mai cupped my face. “Fuck, she’s freezing, and her pupils are red. She needs to feed. Now.”

  Kris lifted me higher, cupped the back of my head, and pressed my face to his neck. The throb of his pulse had my fangs sliding free, and then I was feeding in huge gulps. I wrapped my arms around his neck and abandoned myself to his warmth.

  He made a strange sound, part moan, part yelp.

  “It’s okay,” Mai was saying. “We got you, Kat. We got you.”

  They had me, but something was wrong. There was something I needed to do.

  But fuck if I knew what it was.

  Chapter Thirteen

  I curled up on the sofa in Killion’s arms while Tris fussed about me, fluffing pillows and tucking the throw around us. It was like being hugged by a radiator. Fuck, the hellhound was hot, and it was just what I needed. Nightbloods didn’t feel the cold, but whatever the riders had taken from me had temporarily fucked with my ability to stay warm.

  Was it weird sitting on Killion’s lap? Yeah, kinda, but it felt too good to be warm, and yep, I would totally ignore the hard thing poking me in the thigh.

  Mai was by the fire, stabbing it with a poker to get it blazing. Emmett entered and arranged a tray of tea on the coffee table and handed me another blood bag.

  I opened my mouth to tell him I didn’t need it, but then snapped it closed when my stomach rumbled. I’d fed off Kris, which usually would have been more than enough, but what the riders had done to me had drained the crap out of me. The extra bag of blood was just what I needed.

  “Thanks.” I took it gratefully.

  “Your boxes arrived,” Emmett said. “Several boxes. I’ve placed them in the cupboard under the stairs.” He inclined his head and left the room.

  My decorations. The news chased a little of the residual chill away.

  “No.” Tris wagged her finger at me. “Not till you’ve had a full day’s rest.”

  “Spoilsport.”

  My gaze flicked to Kris, who was doing a very uncharacteristic pace up and down the lounge.

  Mai stood and stared at me, hands on hips. “You scared us half to death. What were you thinking, tethering yourself with those things?” She was pissed. Somewhere between slap something and smoke-coming-out-of-your-ears pissed. “We’re a team, you should have consulted us. You could have been killed.”

  Tris tutted. “Chickie, what were you thinking, you could have been killed?”
r />   “Is there an echo in here?” I smiled weakly. “I’m sorry if I scared you, but there was no other choice. I had to get the riders out of the bar before they ripped all the spirits, and I needed to get them as far away as possible.”

  Kris stopped pacing. “And the Shade was the only option?”

  “Yeah, it was.” I drained the blood bag under Tris’s glare of disapproval.

  Do not choke, do not choke.

  “Have you any idea how low your body temperature was when Kris carried you in?” Tris asked.

  I bit back a wince. “Trust me, if there had been any other option, I’d have taken it. I’m not suicidal.”

  “No, but Henri was right about the god complex,” Kris snapped.

  I stared at him in shock. Had he just told me off? Like lost his cool and taken a verbal bite out of me?

  Killion snorted. “Henri would be angry.”

  “Yeah, well, he isn’t here, so he doesn’t get a vote.”

  Kris ran a hand over his face. “Look, Kat, we need to work together and make decisions as a team.” He and Mai exchanged glances.

  “What?” I looked from Mai to Kris.

  It was Mai who answered. “After what happened to Lark … When you vanished like that …”

  Crap. I’d told them about the last few incidences where I’d slipped into the Shade, but even then, they would have panicked when I vanished. “I’m sorry, guys. I should have told you what I was planning. I should have taken a second to clue you in. I just … I acted.”

  “Henri always played the role of your brakes,” Tris said.

  The voice of reason, that’s what he’d been. My protector. If he were here, he’d tear me a new one. Hell, if he were here, he probably wouldn’t have let me go through with my plan. But then the riders would have ripped through all the spirits at Good Spirits.

  “What happened?” Kris asked. “What happened to the riders you took into the Shade?”

  What had happened? My mind was fuzzy around the details. The riders hovering above me and feeding off me. The ice … The bone-numbing ice …But there was more. Blue neon eyes.

  The monster.

  I’d seen the monster. He’d saved me from the riders.