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He grimaced. “I mean, we just got through my last name ordeal. Do you have to bring up the nickname?”

Some of the girls started laughing again with the guys.

“This is cute. Funny even.” The ghost waved his cigarette in the air, gesturing to the group. “You guys are out doing what exactly?”

“We’re looking for ghosts,” I told him. “And I want to know if you’re haunting this house or the neighbor’s.”

A hard smirk lingered on his face. His gaze returned to me and he took another drag from his cigarette. “Are you sure you want to be asking me that question?”

I frowned.

I felt panic for a moment, a brief moment. Had I gotten this wrong? Was he a Living like me, just looking— I skimmed the group. No one was looking at him. If he’d been a Living, they would’ve been watching him. The only one still paying me attention was Nimrod. His grin was starting to look a little uncomfortable, with his eyes darting from me to the wall and back again like he didn’t know how to feel about ‘the bit’ I was doing.

I wanted to shrug it off, be true to myself, talk to the ghost in front of me, but he was right.

I half glared at him before pasting a smile on my face. “Gotcha! There’s no actual ghost here.”

A couple of the girls snickered, but no one else reacted.

Josh Nimrod sidled closer and gestured to the house. “This is fun and all, but our attention spans aren’t the longest, you know what I mean?” He held up his beer and shook it. “Empty.”

“Right. Yeah. Uh, you lead the group back to the kitchen for more refreshments.” I nodded toward the rest of the backyard, which was huge and a little intimidating if I were to focus on the fact that the guy who lived here was acting like he was interested in me. But, no. Nope. Not going there because that stuff didn’t happen in my life. Not really. “I’ll do a quick circle and make sure there’s no ghosts by the garden too.”

Josh tipped his head back. A loud guffaw laugh came from him. “When you commit, you commit.”

“Sure do.”

He patted my shoulder and took the group back to the house. A few of the girls gave me odd looks, but they were too tipsy or drunk to really care about me. One girl stopped in front of me and sniffed the air. “Why do I smell smoke? Does someone have a cigarette? I didn’t think we could smoke here. Stop holding out on me.”

No one responded and she continued asking as they moved ahead.

Some of the guys gave me once-overs as they went past, but none said anything more to me. A guy tripped, falling into his buddy who immediately shoved him into the third guy. Soon all three had each other in headlocks, still going into the house.

I waited until the door closed.

“There’s no ghosts in this mansion. You’re the first one I’ve come across and you’re on the wall, literally. Do you haunt here or there?” I gestured to the other side of the fence.

The ghost didn’t answer and continued to study me. Still smoking.

I was growing impatient. “Answer me.”

His eyes grew mean, sliding past my shoulder and he flicked his cigarette away so it landed by my feet.

“That’s a bit immatu—” The smell of smoke and burning caught my attention and I stopped talking, looking down at the ground, at where there was an actual cigarette. At my feet. And it was lit, and the grass around it was dry enough and dead enough that it began to catch on fire.

Horror filled me.

I lifted my foot to stomp out the cigarette, but there was a shout behind me.

Lee and Cassian ran for me. They moved as a team with Cassian wrapping his arms around me, lifting me in the air.

Lee yelled at him, “Get her out of here!”

Cassian turned back once. “The fire, man!”

“I got it.” Lee was already stomping it out, but it was just growing every time he did. He hesitated, his eyes angry, but they locked on me. He growled, low and deep from his throat. “Get her the fuck out of here, Cass! I mean it. Go.” An emotion flashed in his eyes. An apology? Maybe? I couldn’t identify it before Cassian hurried me into the house. Nimrod and Jason Emcee were there, eyes big and watching through the window. They were frozen in place.

Cassian saw them and swore. “Are you fucking kidding me? Do something!”