Page 109 of Haunt the Mall

I rubbed his head. “There we go. See, I’m not a real spider lady.” Although it had been fun to draw cobweb eye makeup on today.

Victor dug into his pocket. “Oh, Kat, I almost forgot; I got you something in honor of Jinx.”

I expected a black cat sugar cookie. Cat ears. Fuzzy handcuffs, maybe. Instead, he presented me with the thick, flat metallic outline of a cat’s face. “You can put this on your keychain, and security won’t notice anything. I tested it this week.”

He slipped my fingers through the cat eyes, so I wore them like brass knuckles. The ears angled out like claws. I flexed my fist and ran the points of the ears up his chest. “This cat could do some serious damage.”

“I wanted you to have some self-defense handy,” he rumbled, his thumb grazing my wrist.

Oh my god. The puns. The gentle seduction. He was too much, which was perfect for me.

I tapped his lips with the cat ears. “Think of all the gouging possibilities.”

“The gouging?” His laugh accidentally shot the fake fangs out. Sucking the plastic against his gums, he covered his mouth. His gaze flashed across my face.

“Are you…savoring those teeth?” I teased.

We clutched each other and burst out laughing. Jinx purred, sliding through our legs.

This was perfect, messy love: dark desires, extra-as-fuck fabulousness, loyalty, fun, and everyday adventures. Today was special, though. The world was wilder, and so were we.

Whatever monster lurked in my chest was welcome to come out to play with Victor on Halloween. This was such a weird, wonderful holiday to spend with my equally weird and wonderful person.

We spent the next two hours handing out candy to eager kids and watching the Halloween film series. Jinx got tired of switching laps every time we got up, so he resigned himself to the back of the couch to nap and judge costumes through the window.

“This costume is not conducive to cuddling,” I said, maneuvering the spider legs so they didn’t jab Victor’s ribs again.

“Next year, we’ll work on the accessories,” he lisped through the plastic teeth.

Next year. We’d still be a ‘we.’ I smiled and squeezed his thigh. “You can probably spit those out, now. We know you have sharp enough teeth.”

He snapped them at me and arched his brow. “Does that mean we can finally ruin our makeup?”

“Maybe a little bit.” I giggled and leaned in for a kiss.

Just as our lips brushed, someone rapped on the door.

“Ah, fuck,” I muttered, maneuvering my costume so I could stand without knocking half our goodies over, including the skull glasses on the coffee table.

I grabbed the candy bowl and prepped a smile as Victor opened the door to a bunch of taller kids.

All six of my bonus legs might as well have scampered up my throat and closed around it.

One of the kids was wearing that creepy-ass clown mask from Hot Contra, the same one Sam showed interest in.

He wouldn’t dare come to my house again, would he?

The masked group held out their bags and reached for the candy—for me.

I jerked the whole bowl away and thrust out my elbow to keep them back. “Hey!”

Victor furrowed his brow and hugged the door tighter around me. The masked kids glanced at each other.

“Uh, what?” one of them asked.

They might’ve been an innocent group of teens or bigger kids, but if my stalker was among them, I was going to handle it.

“You haven’t said, ‘trick or treat’ yet,” I chided. “Now, you have to pay a penalty to get the candy. One peek under the mask.” I pointed to the clown. “You, first.”

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