Free The Book of Lost Souls by Michelle Muto

and had irked her at a bad time. “No,” she said. “Not at all.”
    Nick smiled and leaned forward. He gently grasped one of her hands. When their eyes locked, Ivy didn’t pull away. Why didn’t she pull away? Why couldn’t she look away?
    “Oh, come on Ivy. We both know you only think you want Dean. Now, I may not be anything like him, but I’m not like anyone else you’ll ever meet, either.”
    Two women raced past them outside the window. One screamed for help. But what the other cried out caught her attention the most.
    “Right here in Northwick. In daylight! He’s been murdered!”

CHAPTER 9

    Ivy and Nick dashed out the door along with everyone else. Really? A murder in Northwick? Ivy couldn’t believe it.  
    A crowd had gathered around two older, heavyset women who were screaming and crying hysterically. The younger of the two women, Vivian, was Mr. Nash’s wife. She was a large, beefy woman with a double chin and small, watery eyes. The Nash’s were long-time Northwick residents and while neither of them could be considered very nice, Mr. Nash was downright hateful. Even his looks weren’t nice. If Ivy didn’t know better, Mr. Nash resembled an ogre who’d caught a whiff of something nasty. But, despite his appearance, Mr. Nash was a Regular and the only powers he had were of the bullying kind.  
    Ivy recognized the other sobbing woman as Vivian’s sister, Gloria Albert. Both women wore a heavy coating of makeup, including purple eyeshadow the color of a nasty bruise. They were the town gossips, and on more than one occasion they’d talked about Ivy’s father and how they thought his daughter would turn out just like him. It wasn’t a nice thought, but Ivy couldn’t stop thinking that Gloria Albert resembled a rather ugly man in drag. The woman’s complexion was unnaturally pink, and she sported jowls like a mastiff.  
    “He’s dead!” Vivian continued to wail. “Please, someone... he’s back there. He... he... these awful people came out of nowhere!” She pointed back to the rear parking lot. “The man, this lunatic , he charged my husband. And, this horrible woman, stopped us from helping Robert. She had a knife. Oh! My poor, brave Robert.” Then, she collapsed onto the crowd. Bystanders groaned as they fought to keep Vivian upright. Someone, Ivy couldn’t tell who, was trying to comfort the distraught woman as they led her toward Saludo’s.  
    Ivy started to follow them back inside.
    Nick held her arm. “Wait.”  
    “Some freak in a costume killed my brother-in-law,” shrieked Gloria as she followed her sister’s entourage. Another bystander patted her shoulders consolingly.
    But who’d do such an awful thing? Mr. Nash might not have had many friends—okay, any friends but Ivy couldn’t believe that someone living in Northwick would resort to killing him.  
    “It’s starting. This way,” Nick said, pulling Ivy in the direction of the parking lot. A few others were headed that way, too. Maybe they thought Mr. Nash was still alive. Maybe they just wanted to see the body.
    Ivy hurried after Nick as he sprinted down the sidewalk and disappeared around the corner of the building. Ivy rounded the same corner a few seconds later. No one seemed to notice or mind as she and Nick pushed their way through the crowd. They were all in shock. When they reached the front, Ivy understood their reaction. She froze, too stunned, too horrified to take another step. Mr. Nash’s attacker had impaled him against the iron fence dividing the alley from a storage warehouse. Mr. Nash hung limply, his blood trickling down the wrought iron into a glistening pool at the fence’s base.  
    Mr. Nash wasn’t a small person. Whoever did this was either incredibly strong or wasn’t a Regular. Maybe both.  
    Three or four people gathered around the body. Someone wretched and vomited, and although Ivy stood too far away for the smell to reach her, she covered her nose and mouth fighting off her