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“There you are.” I kiss her forehead, rubbing my hand up and down her spine comfortingly. “What happened? Forget where you hid the body?”

“I-I didn’t.”

“WHAT?!” I shout, like an idiot. “What do you mean?” I whisper this time. “Where’s the body?”

“It’s gone.”

Chapter Sixty-five

Graves

Mallory paces, trying to rein in her panic, as I work to wrap my head around what she just revealed. “What do you mean, it’s gone?” I whisper-shout.

She whips around, honey eyes dilated by the stress of the situation. “That’s a pretty self explanatory statement, Nox,” she snips.

“Are you sure we’re in the right place?” Even as I say it, I know we are, death’s distinct scent lingers in the air.

She nods, moving towards a large pine tree. Heaving in a deep breath, her gaze casts downward. Moving the grass with the tip of her boot, “Definitely,” she replies, smirking. The shadows obscure whatever it is she’s trying to show me, so I tentatively inch closer. I don’t know what I’m so afraid of. It’s not like something’s going to pop out of the long wisps of grass and bite me in the dick. “Watch where you step,” she damn near snickers. I shoot my eyes to her then back to the ground.

Lying at the foot of the tree is a gelatinous puddle of grey mush. “W-What is that?”

“His brain,” she replies as coolly as if I asked what the weather forecast is.

“HIS WHAT?!” My voice cracks, coming out high pitched and squeaky. Mal slaps her hand over her mouth to keep from bursting with laughter. Glad she finds my mounting hysteria amusing.

My mind races as she assesses me from across the small cavernous distance between us. The divide grows with each passing second of silence.

“I knew you couldn’t handle it,” she whispers, completely defeated.

“No. That’s not it,” I say, trying to dig myself out of this hole I created by my silence. “I’m wondering what the fuck he did to you that made you want to do…this.”

Mallory quickly recounts the incident, and by the time she’s done, I’m shaking with rage.

“I’m sorry I missed your speech. I really wanted to be there,” she finishes.

Closing the distance between us, my boots squash through the puddle of cerebral juices. “You’re forgiven,” I reply, removing my mask and stowing it away in the pocket of my hoodie.

“What do you think happened to the body?” she whispers.

“I don’t know. Maybe some pervert found it and took it to play with.” I smirk down at her, waggling my eyebrows.

“UGH! GROSS, NOX!”

I shrug. Honestly, who knows what happened to it. I’ll have to come back later, in the light of day to more thoroughly inspect the scene.

“Do you think an animal took it away?”

“Maybe,” I say only to assuage some of her fear. It’s extremely unlikely an animal came anywhere close to the Haunt because of all the noise. “Let’s get out of here. We can come back later and look around.” She nods, turning away from me to head back the way we came. I quickly clasp her hand in mine, spinning her back to me, and crashing my lips against hers. She gasps in surprise, and I feast on the sound like a starving animal. My tongue traces across her lips and she nips at it playfully before stroking her own against mine. Mal pulls away before things between us get too heated, tugging at our linked fingers to get me moving. I stay rooted to my spot, and her eyes rise to lock with mine.

“Thank you,” I rasp.

“What for?” She’s genuinely curious, anticipation of what I’ll say gleaming in her amber irises. But beneath that, I can see the truth. She may think she’s hiding the lingering trepidation from her missing kill well, but she’s not. Mallory is spiralling on the inside, and I know there’s more to this that she isn’t telling me, again. I get it…I really do. She’s never had anyone to trust before, no one to lean on. So, I’ll wait patiently at her side until she’s ready to tell me the rest of whatever it is she’s hiding. Tonight has been a thousand times harder on her than it has been on me, perhaps she just needs a few days to come to terms with everything.

“Letting me in.” Guilt flicks across her features for a fraction of a second before she throws that fake-ass facade on her face.

Smiling sweetly, she replies, “I’m sorry it took me so long.”

Chapter Sixty-six