It’s release day!!! 🥳 Ghost Dater is a short story about Thad and Sandy from Soul Eater, but when I told JMS Books that I was gonna write a story for their Trick or Treat call, I meant to write it about Jaecar and Elijah from Mind Scrambler. When they weren’t cooperating, I figured I’d better let Thad and Sandy have a story instead.
It’s been ten years since Sandy was killed and one year since he was brought back. Thad thinks it’s something worth celebrating – Sandy does not.
Sandy has been moping for about a week, and Thad has had enough. Since all stories should be either about a trick or a treat, I decided to have Thaddeus trick Sandy into believing they’re having a party. Sandy isn’t pleased.
Here’s the beginning of the story:
Excerpt:
Thaddeus Esax was a sorcerer extraordinaire—or not extraordinaire exactly. He was of mixed race which was considered taboo in most, if not all, wizard families. Growing up, he’d believed he was a lousy mage, but then he’d brought a werewolf back from the dead and kept his ghost alive. Not only alive, but the stupid wolf was also a talking, thinking, sometimes solid asshole. It had to mean he wasn’t completely useless. He hoped.
The werewolf in question, Sandulf—Sandy—Hunter, was Thad’s mate—or so he had believed. Sandy was the biggest jerk he’d ever met. The hottest too, but telling him that only went to his head. Stupid wolf.
Thad glared at him. “Are you gonna mope all day?”
Something had happened a little over a week ago. Thad didn’t know what, but Sandy was keeping a distance between them, and it fucking hurt. He’d believed they’d be together till the end of time, but Sandy hadn’t touched him in days. Shifters were known to want to touch. All. The. Time. Mates were never far apart, but Sandy hardly looked at him these days. Last night, he hadn’t even come to bed.
“I’m not moping.” He ended the sentence with a silent snarl.
Sandy had been in ghost form most of the week—as he was now. Thad could see him; a washed-out version of the strong, virile man he had been when alive.
Should someone enter the room, they’d only see Thad, though.
If Thad were to flood him with energy, Sandy would grow solid and appear alive to the people around them, but since he’d stayed a couple of feet away for an eternity, Thad hadn’t touched him.
He didn’t need to touch him to send energy his way, but why pollute the world with a grumpy werewolf when he could keep him invisible to those who didn’t need to suffer the sulking? He was doing the world a favor.
For days, Thad had walked around feeling hurt. Was Sandy acting like this because he didn’t want Thad anymore? It was his biggest fear, that he wasn’t enough for Sandy.
But Sandy couldn’t leave him, they were tied together. Thad had involuntarily forced him to stay close to him at all times. They couldn’t break up, or he guessed they could, but then it would mean Sandy would go back to being dead for real.
He hoped Sandy didn’t want to break up. What if there would be a day when he chose death over having to spend every second of every day with Thad?
At the same time… Sandy was a werewolf, and he claimed Thad was his mate. It should mean Sandy would want him forever. He didn’t want to believe Sandy had lied to him, and why would he?
Thad tried to push away the hurt in his chest. It was as if Sandy was withdrawing from him—from the world. And it scared the crap out of him. What would he do without Sandy? Who would he be without Sandy? Where could Sandy go? Theoretically, Thad could put his ghost to rest, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t kill Sandy. Some might claim he wasn’t alive at all, that he had been killed on Halloween ten years ago—and he had, but Sandy was alive. He was a talking, feeling, thinking being, and Thad loved him—when he wasn’t being a stupid werewolf.
But after a week of hurt and worry, Thad was rapidly growing angry. He’d had enough.
“Great!” He’d meant to smile, but it came out as a sneer. “I have things to do today, so we’re leaving.”
“You are off from work.” Sandy crossed his arms over his chest.
“I’m never off.” Not true. He was a cop, so if something were to happen, Jaecar, his boss, would call and demand he come in, but they didn’t have any major cases at the moment, so he’d most likely have the day off.
Sandy scowled, and anger flared in Thad. Energy rushed to his fingertips, but he curled his hands into fists to prevent it from escaping. “I’m going shopping.”
“Shopping? You went shopping yesterday!”
“That was grocery shopping. Now I’m going shopping shopping.”
Sandy hated shopping. If he was in solid form, he could undress and put on whatever clothes he wanted, but as soon as he faded, he was back in his T-shirt, threadbare jeans, and bare feet. Thad wasn’t planning on going clothes shopping though, but he didn’t tell Sandy that. Right now, he didn’t think Sandy deserved that kind of information.
He grabbed a jacket and walked out the front door, slamming it with more force than needed. He used magic to lock it and stomped toward the car. Sandy would kill him, or try to at least, but he hurried into the driver’s seat and turned the key.
As he accelerated, the prickles on his skin grew more intense, meaning Sandy would soon be yanked to him. He prepared to be snarled at, so he pushed the gas pedal harder. The prickles intensified, and he slammed the brakes right before the swoosh pulling Sandy to him happened.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Sandy snarled, as predicted, and climbed off—out of—Thad. It was a good thing he didn’t weigh anything when in ghost form.
“Going shopping.” It was their first Halloween in their new house and Thad wasn’t going to let Sandy’s foul mood ruin it. Sandy might claim to hate all holidays ever invented, and he might scoff at Thad’s decorations, but the house would be properly decorated. He pursed his lips as the wheels spun in his head. He needed to do something to cheer Sandy up or this Halloween would be dreadful.
A date! They’d never been on a proper date. Going to a restaurant was out of the question, but they could have a dinner date at home… only… Sandy couldn’t eat.
“You couldn’t wait two minutes until I was ready to go?”
Thad narrowed his eyes. There had to be a way to make it so Sandy could eat, if only for an hour or so.
All Hallows’ Eve was when the veil between the living and the dead was the thinnest. There had to be some spell or rite or something he could perform to get Sandy to be more alive than he was. Sandy would never let him try, though. They’d both seen what could happen when you played around too much with the dead. But if he tricked him somehow… How would he get away with cooking and stuff? Sandy would notice if he did more than the quick meals he usually did for himself.
“What? You needed to make yourself pretty before you left the house? I told you we were leaving.” Thad did his best not to let any of his plans show. Sometimes he believed Sandy was turning into a mind reader.
Blurb:
Thaddeus Esax has a grumpy werewolf problem. For a year, he’s been mated to Sandulf Hunter, a ghost werewolf he brought back from the dead without meaning to. It’s been great. Thad’s been happy, and he believed Sandy was too. But Sandy has been sulking for more than a week, and Thad fears their relationship isn’t going as well as he believed.
The problem with being mated to a ghost is that said ghost never can leave your side, and therefore it’s extremely hard to keep secrets. Thaddeus wants to surprise Sandy, to cheer him up, but to do that, he has to trick him into believing they’re doing something they’re not.
Telling Sandy they’re having a Halloween party doesn’t go over well, but how do you trick a ghost? By making him believe he’ll be dressed up as a pirate for an evening, of course.
Buy links:
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