The Stalking Dead (Gang of Ghouls Book 1) by Eva Chase

Author:Eva Chase [Chase, Eva]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ink Spark Press
Published: 2021-11-16T16:00:00+00:00

fifteen

Ruin

The thin beam of sunlight that came through the tiny basement window managed to hit right on my closed eyelids. It poked right through into my brain and jabbed me out of sleep.

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. Just a few feet from her bedroom door. I could even make out the hushed rasp of her sleeping breath through the gap where that door had drifted ajar. The latch didn’t appear to work right.

Her smell permeated the whole space, lightly sweet with an aquatic tang, like wildflowers that’d been drifting down a river. I wanted to roll around in it and slather it all over me like a cologne.

We were here. Really here with her, in every possible way, not just as the phantoms we’d been before.

Well, not quite in every way. There was still a wall between me and her right now.

I peeled off the sleeping bag and got up, careful not to disturb my friends. Kai and Jett had grudgingly agreed to share the futon, where they were currently stretched out at opposite ends with at least two feet of empty space in between them. Nox had insisted on taking the other air mattress, which he’d laid out right by the front door as if he thought he might need to defend Lily from middle-of-the-night intruders.

Of course, who knew if we might after all? The pricks around here had gone way too far already. We couldn’t be too prepared.

But for now, all was peaceful in the apartment. It might have been cramped and dingy, but it was Lily’s, and that made the whole space brighter all on its own.

I eased the bedroom door wider open and slipped inside. That room was even more cramped. My knees brushed the side of her bed. Lily sprawled on her side facing the wall, her face angelic in sleep, her pale hair fanned across the pillow.

A swell of affection filled my chest. She’d been through so much, but she’d hung in there. She’d grown up from that quirky, lonely kid into a woman who was maybe still quirky but also tough as steel and fiercely determined beneath the “normal” front she was trying to keep up.

And she didn’t have to be lonely anymore.

I couldn’t just stand there looking at her, not with all those joyful emotions whirling inside me. I sank down onto the edge of the mattress and tucked myself against her with the blanket between us, looping my arm loosely around her waist and nestling my face against her hair. Even through the covers, her figure was soft and warm against mine. Her smell flooded my lungs.

Maybe the four of us lost souls had never gotten there the usual way, but I’d finally made it to heaven right now.

Lily adjusted her position in her sleep. Her muscles twitched as she must have registered my presence. Her body went rigid with a sharp inhalation.

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