Hunt Me! I Crave the Chase (Spooky Boys #3)

“I brought pizza,” Blair shoved the box at me with a grin. “It’s a new flavor. I’m calling it…claw-sauge and pepper-moon-ie.” He blinked. “Damn. Didn’t realize how much that sucked till I said it out loud.”

“Vegan?” I asked curiously, climbing back onto my favorite headstone. Blair struggled up beside me, watching closely as I pulled the box open.

“Nah,” Blair kicked his feet against the stone we sat on in excitement, practically bursting at the seams. “I already finalized the vegan portion of the menu. Which is why I need you?—”

“And me!” a familiar voice popped up from behind us. I jerked in surprise, twisting to see that Collin, my youngest brother, had apparently come with him. Immediately, my calm melted, nerves fluttering around in my belly.

“And Collin,” Blair rolled his eyes fondly, nudging me till I finished pulling the box open. “To taste test.”

There was a nervous flip in my belly as I tossed Collin a smile over my shoulder and reached for the first slice. It was hot to the touch still. Not surprising, since Blair had bought the building across the street from Avery’s magic shop and was turning it into a restaurant. It was only a few blocks from here, which meant the pizza was probably fresh out of the oven.

He’d hired a whole bunch of staff members already—thankfully—since no one we knew had any idea how to run a business. Blair took great pleasure from the planning side of things and the aesthetic of it all, even if he wasn’t the one that actually rolled out the dough—or whatever pizza places did. Or the one who knew how to fill out paperwork.

They weren’t open yet, because Blair was one goth motherfucker, and was quite stubbornly waiting till Halloween.

It was amazing how quickly something could come together when you had money, and Blair…well. He had a shit ton of money. At least—now he did. It was weird that the kid I’d grown up pilfering pennies from my allowance for, could now afford to buy my entire apartment complex on a whim, if he so chose.

Lydia had stolen a lot from him, just like she’d stolen from me. But at least she hadn’t been able to take his fortune—despite doing her damndest to steal just that.

How the tables had turned.

Collin reached past my hand and snagged a slice of his own, groaning happily as he stood sentinel behind Blair’s shoulder, watching me.

I liked Collin.

He was supposed to be my kid brother, after all. Supposed to be—because, even though he was, he felt more like a stranger than the rest of the siblings I’d left behind. He’d been born after I was taken, after all, and at fifteen years old with his gangly boy-feet and pointy knees, he might as well have been an alien for all I knew how to talk to him.

He was my only brother that was still human. Since the other three had transitioned to vampires while I was living with Lydia.

But I got the feeling Collin saw through me better than everyone else did, and that made me wary. Something about being the youngest made him have this super sharp bullshit radar. He could smell my lies from a mile away—and he always looked at me like he knew I was hiding something.

I didn’t know what to do with him.

Especially because looking at him was just…weird.

Because he looked just like me.

Well…

Just like I’d looked at fifteen. Minus all the scars I hid under long sleeves, and the weight on my shoulders. But unlike me at that age, Collin’s smiles weren’t fake. They were genuine. He wasn’t faux sunshine, he was an actual summer day. He was everything I tried so hard to be, only he wasn’t pretending.

How the hell are we gonna smoke a joint with him here? I tried to convey to Blair, but he was too distracted by pizza to read my eyeballs.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and took a bite of the pizza to appease the both of them.

Salty, cheesy deliciousness burst across my tongue.

“Shit, fuck.” I groaned, shoving more inside my mouth. My tastebuds danced and I sighed, eyes pinching shut. “Shit, that’s good.”

“See?!” Collin nudged Blair. “I told you hiring me would pay off.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Blair nudged him back, his green eyes bright with mischief. “Collin’s helping with the non-vegan items.”

“And the names,” Collin added. “Because you’re horrible at them. The pepperoni is imported,” he added in a British accent, looking self-important.

“I want them all to be puns,” Blair glared at him. “Sue me.”

“No one argued with that,” Collin shrugged. “I’m just saying. Zom-beef is way better than Peppermoonie.”