Page 28 of Unhallowed Murder (A Paranormal Halloween #2)

Halloween fell on a Sunday this year, which should’ve meant Detective Veronica Woods had a day off before the festivities, but her city was in the middle of a gang war, and her team worked with the gang task force on the most publicized crimes.

However, she sent everyone home at four o’clock.

There wasn’t much more they could do until morning, anyway.

Abbott was throwing a huge Halloween bash at the Hamilton Place location of The Billiard Club. A private party, invitation only. Ronnie always did something with her girls on Halloween, and Josef had encouraged her to invite them.

Her vampire had also invited her team from work. This meant the people from three different parts of her life would be there, but she was surprisingly calm about it.

The couple had stayed in Josef’s room at the coterie house the night before, and now, the vampires and their partners were downstairs getting ready. Even Abbott and Spence, who’d be going as Batman and Robin.

Fawn helped spray red and blue onto Ronnie’s two ponytails, and then took her seat again at the long mirror. Ronnie and Josef were going as Harley Quinn and the Joker, Kendra was going as the new version of Wonder Woman, in a sexy black metallic-looking bodysuit, while Eric would be Superman.

And Fawn kicked ass as Enchantress.

The women did their own makeup, but offered pointers about eyeliner and contouring until all three looked perfect.

They slid into their costumes and walked into the downstairs living room together, arm-in-arm, laughing.

Ronnie’s heart skipped a few beats at Josef in his black pants and purple jacket, his hair slicked back, black eyeliner with charcoal shading around his eyes, and deep red lip dye. The silly mouth wasn’t drawn on, and Josef rocked the look.

He’d fed from her and given her uncountable orgasms an hour before, and she wanted him again, but they’d mess their make-up all to hell and back if they…

she almost didn’t care, but tonight was about their friends — his people and her people in the same room.

Isn’t that what couples do? Merge groups of friends?

A side door opened, and Ronnie’s stomach turned over when Gavin and Queenie walked through. She didn’t much like Gavin, but avoiding him was impossible. Josef merely told her to trust her instincts, but assured her she was safe around him .

Gavin was supposed to be the Green Arrow, but he’d decided to be the street clothes version and not the costumed one, so he was wearing black leather pants and a black silk shirt, which was pretty much what he always wore.

Queenie, however, was the Black Canary, with black leather short-shorts and bustier, and a cute little black leather bolero shrug — and sky-high heels, which was Queenie’s trademark.

Ronnie had never seen her in anything less than four-inch heels, and tonight’s were even higher, but Queenie seemed perfectly natural in them.

Ronnie knew the instant the sun dipped below the horizon, because the vampires grew stronger.

She rubbed her arms to smooth the goose bumps — she only got them when she was with a group of vampires, because the air always seemed electrified when they came into power.

Most vampires didn’t awaken until the sun went down, but these were the uber-powerful, so they rose earlier.

Abbott stood, the perfect Batman to Spence’s Robin. “That’s our cue to leave. Gavin and Queenie are driving alone, but Spence and I are in the limo if anyone wants to ride with us. We’ll return to the mountain tonight, but we can swing by here to drop people off, first.”

Kendra, Eric, and Fawn rode with him, but Josef turned down the offer since they were acting as designated driver for some of Ronnie’s friends.

They picked three of her four friends up, one after another — Silk, Gamora, and Jessica Jones. Amy and her new husband were coming as Ant-man and Wasp, and were driving themselves .

Josef was protective over Ronnie’s friends, which was yet another reason she’d fallen head-over-heels in love with him. The spark at the beginning had been important, but she genuinely liked being around him. They fit, the ancient general and the modern-day major crimes lieutenant.

Josef let everyone out under the portico before he parked the car, and Isaac gave Ronnie a hug when he saw her. She introduced him to her friends, and noted, “You’re Mr. Incredible, right?” At his nod, she added, “I can’t wait to see the rest of your little family.”

He chuckled. “Francisco had to be Elastiman to pull it off, but Cassie is Violet and Cam is Dash, so it worked.”

“Does this mean Mr. Incredible is taken?” Mandy asked when they stepped away from him.

“Sorry, but he has two boyfriends and a girlfriend, so yeah.”

Before getting involved with Josef, Ronnie hadn’t hugged anyone except her closest girlfriends, and she’d been intimidating enough that no one else tried. Well, except for Nathan, but no one intimidates him.

However, Josef’s friends were huggers, and not easily intimidated, so she’d had to get used to it. On this night, she hugged them and was happy to do it. His friends had become her friends, and her friends had become his.

She still didn’t hug her coworkers, but that was different.

Speaking of her team, she saw Myers first, dressed as The Incredible Hulk, complete with bulging muscles that weren’t fake.

His girlfriend was Betty Ross, in a red unitard with a fancy black buttoned leotard over it.

Ronnie hugged his girlfriend and welcomed her.

She’d met her at the bar a few times — it might be time to research the girl and see if she was worthy of dating her best deputy.

Speaking of which, she looked at Myers. “You ready for the exam next week?”

“I am, LT. I’ll do you proud.”

He was taking the detective’s exam, and if he failed it she’d give him shit jobs until he passed it — and she’d told him as much. Many times.

He was going to pass it, though. Myers didn’t do anything halfway.

“Of course he is. He’s had you teaching him.”

Ronnie turned at Sergeant Perry’s gruff voice, and frowned. He was in his usual tweed pants and dress shirt. “Who are you dressed as?”

“Myself. I’m a goddamned superhero. Didn’t you know?”

“Of course you are,” Josef said as he stepped to them. “We’ll call you Grumpy Man, able to tell when someone’s lying with a single frown.”

Perry glowered at him, but his eyes were happy, and that didn’t happen often. “Every group has a smart ass. The Joker fits you.”

Carter and Henderson walked up together — Henderson an absolutely stunning Black Panther, while Carter was in jeans and a supertight black t-shirt that showed every muscle. And Carter has a lot of muscles .

“ Two of my team didn’t dress up? Really?” Ronnie said with a laugh. “Ya’ll are a disappointment!”

“What?” said Carter, indignant. “I’m Luke Cage!”

Ronnie shook her head at him, and then turned at RaeLynn’s voice.

“Nathan pulled the same stunt. He’s dressed as he always is, but with a shiny yellow glove on one hand.

He says he’s Iron Fist.” She waved at her navy blue unitard with pale yellow sewn into the right places up top, and said, “I’m Kitty Pryde. Seemed fitting.”

“It’s perfect,” Ronnie said, hugging her friend. Nathan had taken Ronnie to RaeLynn’s grandmother the morning after that horrible night, so RaeLynn felt a little like a cousin.

Ronnie played pool and drank beer with her team.

She did shots and danced with her girlfriends.

She drank margaritas with the women from the coterie house, and she took Josef downstairs to make him take a few sips of her while she was tipsy.

She didn’t often drink enough to feel it, and she knew it wouldn’t last long, but she needed to share it with him.

If someone had told her a year earlier that she’d be downstairs with the aloof vampire, taking her Harley Quinn sequined panties off in a downstairs office of TBC and demanding a quickie feed-and-fuck, she’d have thought them delusional.

And yet, here she was, doing just that while she unzipped his pants and pulled him out.

“What time is it?” she asked. “About the time we first saw each other, right? We’ll call it an anniversary fuck. ”

“Oh, I have plans after the party to celebrate our one-year anniversary, and there will be nothing quick about them, but for now…” He lifted her, pressed her against the wall, and drove into her.

“I believe I can accommodate your request. The office is soundproof, feel free to scream in three, two…”

He scraped across the spot inside her, jackhammer fast, and she was just tipsy enough that within seconds she was swept away in bliss.

* * * *

Josef walked to the back wall and looked in the mirror behind the huge plant. He was amazed the lip dye hadn’t smeared. The same couldn’t be said of his little tiger’s lipstick.

She put her sequined panties back on, adjusted the belt over them, and pulled a tube of lipstick from her bra. She glanced in the mirror, saw the lipstick all around her mouth, and sighed.

“This is a vampire’s office. Where are the baby wipes?”

He chuckled and retrieved them. “Not a vampire’s office, but close enough.”

She casually repaired the bottom part of her face — so matter of fact on the outside, but he knew she wanted him again already. That was okay, he wanted her again, too. They’d stay until the end, take her friends home, and the wait would make the rest of their evening even sweeter .

“Nathan made a short appearance and didn’t stay long. He and Abbott in the same room is still…” She sighed, and Josef agreed with the sentiment.

The Abbott and Amakhosi had a treaty in place once again, but there was zero trust between them.

“He let RaeLynn stay,” Josef pointed out. “Things are better. Speaking of which, did you notice Mandy and Jamison?”

She looked at him in the mirror. “Yeah, but I thought it was just because of the Luke Cage and Jessica Jones thing.” Her eyes got big, then showed dismay, but then hope.

She wasn’t thrilled that two parts of her life she’d so carefully sectioned off might be mixing, but was also happy for her friends. “You think it’s more?”

“Possibly. We should get back out there, but first,” he pulled her to him, kissed her nose, “I’d like to point out that in one year, we’ve completely merged our homes, our friends, our things, our bodies, our lives .

You are my other half. My partner. My lover.

My everything, Bellula . These are now our friends — not my friends and your friends. ”

* * * *

Ronnie turned and let him hold her. She needed his arms around her before she said what she’d wanted to tell him for months, but hadn’t been able to.

“You healed me. Or maybe you gave me a safe space to finally allow the healing to happen, but however you want to phrase it, I was still broken when I met you, and within a week, I wasn’t broken anymore.

You’re my everything too, you know.” She leaned into him, soaking in his strength.

“I know you keep telling me not to worry about the difference in our lifespans, but I worry about you. I’m going to grow old and die, eventually.

I know I live a lot longer than humans, but I won’t live centuries, much less millennia. ”

“We have options, my impatient little tiger, but I can’t speak of them with you for another eleven years. Please trust me. Have I let you down yet?”

She took a breath. “No, but you also never told me there were options before.”

He gave her a roguish smile. “We’ve hit the one-year mark, and I don’t believe Abbott will enforce consequences for sharing such a teeny little piece of a secret. He likes you. He won’t want you to be worried.”

Ronnie smiled and let him lead her back upstairs, her final concern assuaged. She’d been worried that her happily ever after would one day be a heartbreak for him, but if there was a way around the fact she’d die and leave him alone, then everything was, indeed, right with her world.

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Keep reading for an excerpt from Hallowed Destiny !