Hollowed: Return to Sleepy Hollow, the Complete Duology

by Candace Wondrak

  “She’s right,” Bones said. “Keep the Horseman you have. Wash here won’t be in town for long, anyway.”

  Bernice said nothing more, eyeing up Wash one more time before leaving us. I turned to Bones once she was gone, saying, “Leaving town?” I cocked a brow, moving toward the table to dump a whole lot of sugar in my cup. My perfect ratio of coffee to sugar was mostly sugar. I never understood the people who could drink their coffee black.

  Shrugging, Bones moved beside me, making his own cup how he liked his. “I didn’t know what else to say to get her off our backs.” His blue eyes glanced at Wash. “I mean, look at him. She wasn’t wrong. He would make the perfect Horseman—”

  “Because he is the Horseman,” I hissed.

  “Yeah, but they don’t know that. All they know is the Horseman is huge and intimidating, and he’s…like another species,” Bones said, taking a sip from his cup as he turned to view the town square.

  Wash stood there, watching us talk. Correction: watching me. He only had eyes for me.

  I handed Bones my cup, asking Wash, “Do you want some too?” He gave me the tiniest nod, an almost imperceptible movement, so I made him his own cup. I moved past Bones to hand it to him, and when our hands touched, again, it was like electricity. I practically jumped away from him once he had the cup in his hands, rubbing my palm against my jeans.

  So much for acting normal.

  Bones hadn’t noticed the exchange. He was busy surveying the workers around us, wordlessly handing me back my coffee. We started to walk around. Nearly every single person we passed had to stop what they were doing and talk to him. Everyone loved him, no joke. It was kind of annoying, because I didn’t get to talk to him myself when everyone else was busy chatting his ear off.

  I had to give him credit, though. He spoke to each and every person who waved to him, smiling and laughing whenever an older person made a joke—even if it wasn’t that funny. He even diverted the conversations when they inevitably brought up me being there, and what happened to my dad.

  It didn’t take long for the attention to turn to me after that. Everyone was so sorry, they’d really miss him at the festival this year. The kids always loved his stories, blah, blah, blah. It was nice enough to hear, I guess, but I didn’t need to hear it. Hearing them talk about my dad like that made me feel even worse, guiltier than I already was. This had been his life, and I’d mocked him for it, hated him for it. I was an ass.

  Eventually I was able to drag Bones away from his adoring crowd, and the curious, sympathetic crowd that had gathered around me—and the fucking crowd that oohed around Wash, because apparently we were like the three musketeers. Something to stare at, something to gawk at. Something to break up the monotony of their lives. I brought us near the gazebo and ran a hand through my hair.

  “We’ll be the talk of the town,” Bones remarked, finishing his coffee and tossing it in the nearest trash can. I’d finished mine a while ago, as had Wash. Bones was just too busy talking to everyone else to pause to drink it. “I bet the rumor will be that we’re engaged or something.”

  It really was a good thing I didn’t have my coffee, because at that, I would’ve either spilled it or spat it out. “What?”

  “Oh, come on. You have to know the whole town always thought you’d change your mind about this place,” Bones said, hooking his thumbs in his belt. The muscles in his chest strained beneath his shirt, and it took every ounce of strength inside of me not to ogle him and wish that we were someplace more private. “I don’t know what your dad thought, but I know a lot of the town was rooting for us to get together, even as teenagers.” He let out a chuckle. “This place has a thing for its legends.”

  A thing didn’t cut it. This part of Tarry had a hard-on for everything involving the Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

  And shipping teenagers together? How weird. I mean, it wasn’t like I hadn’t done so while watching TV shows, but that was different. This was real life, not some supernatural TV show about high schoolers facing down demons every day.

  The wind blew past us, and the scar lining my arm itched. I glanced down at it, feeling something touching me.

  The scar wasn’t scabbing anymore—it was a wide-open wound, full of pus and maggots, all squirming and trying to crawl around each other. Two dozen maggots, all fighting to feast on my flesh to help their metamorphosis.

  Did maggots metamorphosize? Who knew, but this was just fucking nasty.

  I jerked, my back colliding with the side of the gazebo. I went to wipe them off—which, in retrospect, wouldn’t have done shit if they were nestled under the top layer of skin, eating me alive—but the moment I hit the gazebo, the maggots were gone, as was the wound. I stared down at nothing but my arm and the very itchy scab.

  Bones moved closer to me, asking, “Are you all right? What happened? You look…” He paused, probably hating himself for saying it, but he said it anyway, “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

  A spirit, technically, since they weren’t really ghosts. Ghosts would infer they used to be human, and these spirits were never human. Wash was…different. Crane said he had died in such a gruesome and horrific way that his soul was twisted into something else, something non-human. Wash might look human now, but he wasn’t. He could go in and out of the otherworld at will, and his ax…his ax was powerful, even against spirits.

  I shook my head. “I need air.”

  Bones gave me a strange look as he said, “We’re outside.”

  Oh. Right. Plenty of air out here, then. Call me stupid.

  I touched the pendant on my chest, running a finger over its flat-pressed metal. The metal was warm, definitely warmer than it should be, warmer than the air around us…almost as if it heated up on its own. And if it had heated up on its own, it meant it had just protected me from something.

  I was about to say I don’t think I should be here, or something along those lines, when Bones gestured away from the square, saying, “Let’s go check out the barn.”

  What else could I do but nod?

  Our trio left the town square, and we headed down one of the sidewalks in front of the many shops around it. The barn wasn’t too far away, less than a mile, but it still took us ten minutes to get there, mostly because Bones was strolling at a slow pace, tossing me worried looks every few moments.

  I get it. He was worried about me. I was worried about me too, so I didn’t need his constant worrying filling up my time.

  Whatever that was…it was weird. Unexplainable. Nothing like that had ever happened before, which made me a bit nervous, honestly. It made me wonder if things hadn’t really settled down, if it wasn’t quite over yet.

  Of course, in the end, I was stupid for ever hoping to believe it was over. It wasn’t. The shitstorm of Sleepy Hollow had only just begun. Things were about to get so much worse.

  Chapter Three

  The barn was just off the road, the non-official separator of the urban and rural areas of town. It was an old barn, not much used anymore, and the farmer kept it up purely for the sake of the town. I doubted the barn saw much action outside of the festivals. It was a two-story barn, its outer walls full of old wood, some of it holey. Its roof was mostly intact, though I could see a tarp covering some of it in the back. Its owner was probably refusing to fix it, hoping the town would offer to pay for it since they used the barn.

  As we walked closer, I realized no one else was around. No busy folks decorating or cleaning. I threw a confused look to Bones, who gave me a cheeky, dimpled smile and said, “They don’t start on the barn until next week. We have it all to ourselves…” He let his voice trail off, leaving the final part unsaid.

  His blue stare was clearer than the waters in the tropics, the most beautiful blue color I’d ever seen. And those dimples? Totally swoon-worthy, even my fourteen-year-old self had realized it. In that uniform, who the hell could deny a man like that? Not any sane woman, that’s for sure.

  “I thought you were supposed to watch ov
er the square and make sure nothing happens?” I asked, tilting my head as I stepped toward him. We were twenty feet from the barn’s large doors, a few acres away from the house who owned it. There would be no interruptions…other than Wash, and I was certain he’d wait outside if I told him to.

  Bones nodded. “And I’ll go back. After.” He grinned. “Last year nothing happened, and the year before that, the extent of the problem was a kid who thought he could steal one of the hay barrels. I think they’ll survive for a little while without me.”

  Well, when faced with a vacant barn and Bones in his uniform, what was I supposed to do? Say no? Uh, fuck no. Nobody in their right mind would say no to the sexy-as-sin policeman before them.

  He knew I wasn’t going to argue, so he went for my hand, taking it in his own. Bones tossed a look at Wash, who stood about ten feet behind us, near the edge of the road. “Keep watch,” he said. “If anyone comes over, can you please stop them long enough so we can put our clothes back on?”

  Wow. So blunt. I almost felt bad for Wash, but then when I met his dark stare, Wash nodded.

  Bones dragged us into the barn, and we slid through the barn doors like mice, inching inside so as to not open the big doors fully. It was pretty clean for a barn; you could tell it’d been gutted a long time ago and left undisturbed. I spotted a few cornstalks that must’ve been leftovers from last year, their stalks yellowed and hard, dried up and curled into themselves.

  “Huh,” I said, gazing up at the vast expanse around and above us. I had no clue what this barn used to be, if it was used for animals and the individual stalls were taken out over time, or if this was where the farmer had stored his tractor and other big machinery. Either way, it was empty now. “It doesn’t smell half as bad as I thought it would.” My voice carried in the open space. The barn had a few windows which were shut, though sunlight streamed through the small cracks and holes in the wood. There was plenty of light to see what we were doing.

  And, hell, even if there wasn’t any light, Bones and I would manage just fine.

  I found myself leaning my back against one of the columns keeping the barn up. Bones moved before me, pressing his forehead against mine. The heat from his skin flooded into me, and I breathed him in. Everything about him, there was nothing I would change.

  “I hate always having an audience when I’m with you,” Bones murmured, his hands grazing my hips, pulling my midsection toward him. His thumbs touched the tender, sensitive skin just under my shirt around my hip bones. I shuddered, closing my eyes. It was amazing what this guy could do with a single touch. “I wish we could be alone.” His breath, hot on my face, tantalizing in every way.

  “We are alone,” I whispered as our noses touched. Our mouths were so close, yet still so far.

  Bones’s wide shoulders rose and fell with a single chuckle. “You call this alone? We’re hiding out in a barn with your not-so-headless bodyguard just outside. I wouldn’t call this alone.” He dipped his head, pressing his lips against my neck. “If we were alone…”

  I tilted my head back as his mouth roamed my throat, kissing me everywhere, making me sigh against him. I could feel his growing hard-on against my lower stomach, and the sensation set a fire burning deep within me, something only he could put out with his mouth, his hands, or the hard rod between his legs.

  “If we were alone, I would give you all the pleasure you could ever ask for,” Bones murmured against my neck, giving me a soft nip on my jaw. “And then more. If we were alone, I would make you scream out my name until your voice broke.”

  Oh, God. I had no idea Bones could talk like this. It was nice. Made me tingly in all the right places. So I whispered, “Keep going.” I let out a sigh when his hands snaked up my shirt, beneath my bra, fingers grazing over my nipples, making them both hard points. The sensitivity of my nipples betrayed me, and it took so much strength to stand there and not let my legs give into the gooey feeling creeping up.

  “If we were alone,” his voice was a bare whisper now, so low and soft I could hardly hear him, “I would fuck you until you couldn’t remember anything else, no one else in that sexy head of yours but me.” Bones pressed his lips against my ear, still toying with my nipples mercilessly. “I would take you and make you mine forever, Kat.”

  “Then take me,” I egged him on, tilting my face just enough so that our mouths could finally meet. Passion exploded between us, and I wrapped my arms around his neck, running fingers through his hair, tugging ever so gently. When he pressed his tongue against my lips, I parted them, letting him in, letting him do whatever it was he wanted to me.

  Bones didn’t need to be told twice.

  His hands left my breasts, moving downward until he undid the button and zipper on my jeans. Bones was the type of man who liked to get me all worked up before the finale, before the big show even started, but I’d never complain. The way he touched me, both like I was precious to him and like he could never get enough of me, made me wet when I thought about it. Everything about this man aroused me, frankly.

  When his fingers dipped below my panties, when they curved against me, diving between the folds of skin that were already slick with anticipation, I let out a whimper. No more coherent thoughts or words from me, not until we were finished. Not until our inner, lustful animals were sated.

  Bones worked me like an expert. He knew precisely where to touch me, what to do, what speed to use and what motions to take to make me mewl against him like a feline in heat. My arms were still around his neck, his mouth still on mine, but I had to tear my lips away, panting as I let out a cry.

  “So wet for me,” Bones whispered, his chest heaving. As he spoke, he slid a finger inside of me, stroking the one spot that made me start to move my hips along with his hand. He pumped his finger in and out for a while, adding another and making me close my eyes. “Are you ready for me?” His husky voice fell over my ears like honey, sexy and manly honey I wanted to drink up with every fiber of my being.

  What kind of question was that? Of course I was fucking ready for him. I was as ready as I could be, since there was no bed around for me to lay on, spread eagle before him.

  All I could do was nod, knowing no words would escape me right now. Bones withdrew his hand from me, fumbling with his pants. Within moments, his hard cock was free, standing eager and ready, dripping precum, the sign he was as needy as I was. He wanted me just as badly as I wanted him.

  He helped me hoist my legs up, and I wrapped them around his waist as I felt the tip of his dick prodding my entrance. With my slickness, he needed no help in sliding right in, filling me up in one swift motion. I inhaled sharply, throwing my head back as I let out a moan. Oh, yes. If this was how my life was, I never wanted it to change. Having Bones like this…it was indescribable.

  Fully inside of me, Bones muttered, “You feel so good, Kat.” His head leaned down as his hips began to thrust, dragging his length out of me before pushing it back in. He held onto me, my back against the wooden beam. A bit uncomfortable, but I was able to focus on the man holding me, and the cock pumping me with ecstasy.

  I wanted to tell him that he felt good too, but I didn’t even bother. The pressure started to build inside of me, the same pressure that had begun to grow when his fingers were touching me, and I let it take over. An orgasm swept through me, a surge of unbridled and heated bliss that felt like fire in every nerve. My inner walls clenched around his shaft, and I heard him moan against me. I cried out, louder this time, not bothering to try to stifle myself.

  After all, we were as alone here as we could be, right?

  My orgasm only made him work harder. Bones’s thrusts became more eager, harder and a bit rougher, but I wasn’t going to complain. There wasn’t a feeling in the world that was comparable to how his cock fit inside of me, how he could fill up every inch of me and still make me crave more.

  His shoulders tensed, sweat pooling on his blonde brow. Bones jerked once more before letting out a groan that I felt in my core
, a groan that was pleasure made into sound. He came inside of me, his cock pumping every last ounce of him out.

  It was a very good thing I was on birth control, otherwise I’d definitely had gotten pregnant by now. Yeah—a mini Bones or a mini Crane was the last thing I needed.

  Right now I wanted to be selfish. Right now I wanted everything to be about me. Right now I wanted to enjoy my life as best as I could with my two men…and my stoic bodyguard.

  Bones let out a ragged breath before slipping out of me, leaning his forehead against mine. His skin was a bit red after the physical exertion, but he still looked downright sexy. It was a pity he didn’t undo his shirt and let me get all doe-eyed over his abs. He helped me down, releasing me only when my feet were flat on the ground.

  I was quick to pull up my clothes; Bones did the same. We locked eyes, and he begrudgingly said, “Back to it, I guess.” I knew he’d much rather spend more time here with me than watch over the townsfolk setting up, but he was getting paid by taxpayer dollars for a reason. We’d already wasted enough time.

  Although, I took that back, because sex with Bones was never a waste. It was always wonderful and hot, passionate and wanton. I loved it, I did—and I was sure if I wasn’t staying in Crane’s house, we’d be having a lot more of it.

  I ran my fingers through my hair as we left the barn, finding Wash standing nearby, his arms crossed. He looked like a statue, almost. Like a man on a mission, a serious expression on his clean-cut face. He looked much better clean—and with a head—I had to admit. It was difficult not to constantly ogle him, especially while in front of Bones and Crane.

  They had to know I had a connection with Wash, too. They had to know I felt something for the Horseman, something inexplicable, just like I felt with them. Sure, I’d never acted on it, but that didn’t mean I didn’t want to.

  I wanted to. Oh, how badly I wanted to. I just…there were a few problems there, actually. First, I didn’t know how Wash would take it. If he even liked human contact, or if he’d flip out and bring his ax into the equation. I didn’t think he’d hurt me, but you never knew when it came to a vengeful spirit, or whatever the hell he was.