Dead End: Midnight Hollow by Penn Cassidy (free novel 24 TXT) 📗

Why don’t you just ask them yourself? And better yet, do tell them you can hear their thoughts. I can sometimes feel you in here, which is actually quite pleasant.” He tapped his head before grabbing a handful of popcorn with a wink, completely ignoring my flabbergasted stare.

“I do not…” I started to lie, but gave up when he turned back to me and Jason’s curious grey gaze met my own.

“Don’t what?” he mumbled around a mouthful of popcorn, and I only shook my head before settling back into the cushions. Seemed Damon had been practicing how to take over more completely…secretive bastard.

I grumbled as Auntie Fe handed me a mug of warm cider with a teasing glint in her eyes. Yeah, yeah. I should put it all out there and tell them. But what if they thought it was an intrusion of privacy? I couldn’t control it. It came and went randomly.

Maddie plopped herself down across the bonfire from me, munching on her web candy and looking smugly comfortable cushioned between Cal and Baen.

“Thank you for the invite, Pip. It was most considerate,” Baen said in a deep, regal voice and pulled a flask out of his brown leather jacket as his skin rippled with a small tint of green. He sipped from the flask quickly, putting it away with a grin as Maddie reached for it with a pout.

“Are you ever going to tell me what you are?” Maddie asked, bumping Baen’s shoulder.

“One day, perhaps, but today is not that day. Wouldn’t want you running for the hills.” He winked and glanced over her shoulder at Cal with a scowl that pretty much said to shove it, as Maddie shook her head, blowing a raspberry.

Ah, Cal knows what Baen’s beast is…very interesting. I’ll have Maddie tickle it out of him later just for shits and giggles.

This night was almost perfect, but I was missing my furry eight legged familiar and my other furry Freddy. My heart hurt thinking about Jessica, wishing she’d send me some kind of note or something to tell me if she was mad at me. And Freddy… I could really use some of his wild warmth right now.

“This seat taken?” a raspy voice asked over my shoulder. Hearing Freddy’s voice had me whipping my head around to see him towering over me with dark circles under his eyes and a tired smile.

My heart soared. “For you? It’s always open.” I patted the cushion next to me and bounced a little as he plopped down with an exhausted huff.

He wasted no time laying sideways and setting his head in my lap, a very contented sigh humming through his pouty lips. I slid my hands through his sunkissed, soft hair and kissed his forehead as he closed his eyes with a small grin.

“Gonna put…ring on her…” Even his mental voice sounded tired as it skittered through my head, and I hid my grin behind the curtain of my orange hair. I stared down at his fluttering lashes. He was asleep in seconds, and when I looked up, Norman was watching with us with his eyebrows scrunched together in concern.

“Hey,” I whispered, and his emerald eyes connected with mine. I reached my hand out to him and laced our fingers together. “He’ll be okay. We all will.”

Norman bent forward without a word and kissed me softly on the lips before wrapping a cool arm around my shoulder. I smiled as my eyes wanted to fill with happy tears. This was what family meant—to be surrounded by the people you love the most, laughing while not knowing what the next day will bring.

Knocking woke me from a deep sleep. I blinked my eyes open groggily, and even after a little over a week and a half in this strange world, I still couldn’t get used to the fact that there was absolutely no sunlight streaming through my windows.

My body felt sore when I slid out of bed, but it was the good kind of sore, and it brought back every crisp memory of my time with Michael at the morgue of all places. I smiled at the memory. If you had asked me only a couple weeks ago where I thought my first time with any of them would be, a morgue wouldn’t have even made it to the list. I laughed outright, and it filled my empty bedroom.

I couldn’t believe this was my life now. Raising the dead, magic, monsters… I felt like this was all some sort of fever dream I was bound to wake up from soon. But I didn’t want to wake up. The others actually seemed like they were fitting in pretty well, even though Maddie was trying to suppress magic that clearly came easy to her. I knew the moment she decided to accept the fact that she was a witch, she’d become a force to be reckoned with. I just had this deep, gut feeling Baen and Cal were going to help get her there.

I showered for the day and dressed in a black and purple plaid skirt, a black tank top tucked into my high waistband, and some heeled boots that laced up to my knees and zipped down the sides. Deciding to leave my orange hair loose and wavy today, I simply swiped on some winged eyeliner and my signature black lipstick and called it good. I grinned at my reflection, thinking about how much I’d changed since the accident.

Sometimes, it was hard to remember what the old October used to look like, with her blonde hair and tanned skin. I shivered just thinking about the cheer uniform. I felt much more like myself these days, and now that I’d heard from Jason’s own lips that the guys didn’t hate it as much as they made me think, I was feeling lighter than air.

The second I stepped out into the hall, I reared back, my eyes stinging immediately. Something smelled horrendous, and I could tell