WALL MEN Read online

  “I am sorry I took so much,” he says, “but I was hungry after being away from you for so long.”

  He was drinking from me while I slept. That’s why I feel so weak, so good. “Take more, my Blood King. Just don’t leave me again.”

  “Sadly, after the feast tonight, I march to the wall with my men—another issue I must deal with.”

  “The wall? How long will you be gone?”

  He flashes a seductive smile. “A few nights.” He dips his head and places a soft kiss on my lips. “But fear not, I will bite you again before I go. Would you like that?”

  “Yes. I would.”

  “Very good.” He brushes his hand over my hair. “Now rest. I will send Uhrn to help you bathe for our feast. You must look your best for me tonight, Lake. Can you do that?”

  I nod.

  “Good. I have brought someone special, a human male to make love to you tonight. You have earned it.”

  A human? “But I want you.”

  He pushes a sharp fingernail into my lip. “You know I cannot. But I will watch. You will feel me with you, drinking from you.”

  “I’d like that…” I mutter, enjoying the warm nothingness flowing through my veins. I’m free, so free, and filled with the afterglow of a million orgasms, every muscle limp. My mind is vacant of every bad thing in the world.

  “I will see you soon.”

  I open my eyes to beg him for another bite before he leaves, but he’s already gone.

  CONTENTS

  Cover

  About the Book

  Other Works by Mimi Jean Pamfiloff

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Author’s Note

  Excerpt from Mr. Ultra Mega Love

  About the Author

  OTHER WORKS BY MIMI JEAN PAMFILOFF

  COMING SOON!

  Wall Men, Book Two ← Plot twist warning. Is Alwar really the good guy?

  Never King’s (King Series #8) ← Paging Kleenex. Please pick up the white courtesy phone.

  Just Mr. Love (RevoLUVtion #2) ← It’s hard being a superhero with a big-ass heart.

  The Immortal Tailor (Immortal Tailor #1) ← Boxers or commando? Inquiring minds…

  She’s Got the Time (M.O. Mack, Suite #45 Series) ← Errr…Mimi wondering if now’s the time to write a book about border violence. Fuck yeah!

  THE ACCIDENTALLY YOURS SERIES

  (Paranormal Romance/Humor)

  Accidentally in Love with…a God? (Book 1)

  Accidentally Married to…a Vampire? (Book 2)

  Sun God Seeks…Surrogate? (Book 3)

  Accidentally…Evil? (Novella, Book 3.5)

  Vampires Need Not…Apply? (Book 4)

  Accidentally…Cimil? (Novella, Book 4.5)

  Accidentally…Over? (Finale, Book 5)

  THE BOYFRIEND COLLECTOR DUET

  (New Adult/Suspense)

  The Boyfriend Collector, Part 1

  The Boyfriend Collector, Part 2

  FANGED LOVE

  (Standalone/Paranormal/Humor)

  THE FATE BOOK DUET

  (New Adult/Humor)

  Fate Book

  Fate Book Two

  THE FUGLY DUET

  (Contemporary Romance)

  fugly

  it’s a fugly life

  THE HAPPY PANTS SERIES

  (Standalones/Romantic Comedy)

  The Happy Pants Café (Prequel)

  Tailored for Trouble (Book 1)

  Leather Pants (Book 2)

  Skinny Pants (Book 3)

  IMMORTAL MATCHMAKERS, INC., SERIES

  (Standalones/Paranormal/Humor)

  The Immortal Matchmakers (Book 1)

  Tommaso (Book 2)

  God of Wine (Book 3)

  The Goddess of Forgetfulness (Book 4)

  Colel (Book 5)

  Brutus (Book 6)

  God of Temptation (Finale)

  THE KING SERIES

  (Dark Fantasy/Suspense)

  King’s (Book 1)

  King for a Day (Book 2)

  King of Me (Book 3)

  Mack (Book 4)

  Ten Club (Book 5)

  The Dead King (Book 6)

  Lord King (Book 7)

  Never King’s (Finale) ← Coming late 2022.

  THE LIBRARIAN’S VAMPIRE ASSISTANT

  (Standalones/Mystery/Humor)

  The Librarian’s Vampire Assistant (Book 1)

  The Librarian’s Vampire Assistant (Book 2)

  The Librarian’s Vampire Assistant (Book 3)

  The Librarian’s Vampire Assistant (Book 4)

  The Librarian’s Vampire Assistant (Book 5)

  Vampire Man (Book 6, Finale)

  THE MERMEN TRILOGY

  (Dark Fantasy/Suspense)

  Mermen (Part 1)

  MerMadmen (Part 2)

  MerCiless (Part 3)

  MR. ROOK’S ISLAND TRILOGY

  (Contemporary/Suspense)

  Mr. Rook (Part 1)

  Pawn (Part 2)

  Check (Part 3)

  THE OHELLNO SERIES

  (Standalones/New Adult/Romantic Comedy)

  Smart Tass (Book 1)

  Oh Henry (Book 2)

  Digging A Hole (Book 3)

  Battle of the Bulge (Book 4)

  My Pen is Huge (Book 5)

  Wine Hard, Baby (Book 6)

  Baby, Please (Book 7)

  REVOLUVTION SERIES

  (Romance/Action/Dark Humor)

  Mr. Ultra Mega Love (Book 1)

  Just Mr. Love (Book 2) ← Coming soon.

  SUITE #45 SERIES by M.O. MACK

  (Thriller/Suspense/Action)

  She’s Got the Guns (Book 1)

  She’s Got the Money (Book 2)

  She’s Got the Time (Book 3) ← Coming soon.

  WALL MEN

  (Dark Suspense/Paranormal)

  Book One, a Haunted House ← You are here

  Book Two, a Vow Broken ← Coming soon.

  WISH, a Standalone Novel

  (Romantic Comedy)

  Wall Men

  Book One, a Haunted House

  MIMI JEAN PAMFILOFF

  Copyright © 2022 by Mimi Jean Pamfiloff

  Kobo Edition

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the writer, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademar
ks are not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

  Cover Design: Sweet ’N Spicy Designs

  Developmental Editing: Stephanie Elliot

  Copyediting and Proof Reading: Pauline Nolet

  Formatting: Paul Salvette

  Wall Men

  CHAPTER ONE

  “Are you sure she doesn’t have more time?” I clutch a bouquet of yellow roses to my chest, whispering to the hospice nurse in the hallway. I pray there’s been a mistake. I’m not ready to lose my grandma, even though I’ve known for months she’s nearing the end.

  “I’m sorry, Lake, I wish we could do more.” She offers a sympathetic look that feels rehearsed. Of course, I know it’s her job to help families deal with the inevitable, so I’m not put off.

  I appreciate her professionalism at a time when my heart is breaking. I thought Grandma Rain had a few more weeks, but as I was driving over just now, I got the call. This will be my last chance to speak to her.

  I hold back the tears. “Thank you for taking such good care of her.”

  “I’m here for you. Whatever you need.” The nurse gently squeezes my shoulder. “I’ve given your grandmother a sedative to keep her comfortable, so she might be a little out of it. Press the red button if you need anything.”

  I thank the nurse again and enter the white sterile room. The blinds are open, and the afternoon sun is shining across the foot of Grandma’s bed. They’ve taken off her oxygen and unhooked her IV. It was one of her final requests. No crap attached to her body.

  “Grandma Rain? I’m here.”

  She doesn’t respond, but her chest is moving beneath her favorite gray flannel nightgown.

  I tug on the beige blanket covering her frail legs and bring it up to her waist. I don’t know how to digest the harshness of the moment. I don’t know how to say goodbye. Grandma Rain raised me as her own after my parents disappeared. Still, there’s a part of me that feels grateful her suffering is coming to an end. Pancreatic cancer is not a nice way to go.

  “Grandma Rain, can you hear me? I’ve come to say goodbye.”

  She doesn’t respond, and I can only hope she knows I’m here. She’s not dying alone.

  I grab the green pleather armchair from the corner of the small room and drag it across the linoleum floor, parking it next to her bed.

  I sit and take her cool soft hand. So many thoughts are running through my mind. If she can hear me, what do I say? I want to thank her for everything. I want her to know how much I love her and—

  “You’re late,” she snaps, cracking open a pale blue eye.

  I jolt in my seat. “Oh my God. You’re awake.”

  “What took you so long to get here, girl? Who makes an old woman wait to die?”

  “I’m—I’m so sorry. Jim made me stay an extra hour.” Jim is my boss at the 911 call center. We’re always shorthanded. Mostly because the pay is shit, the hours are long, and the job can be stressful. It was only supposed to be a temporary gig while I looked for a teaching job, but that’s life. I needed a job close to home.

  The good thing about Tionesta, Pennsylvania, where I work, is that it’s generally quiet. We get the tourists in the summer who go up to the lake and sometimes drink too much—boating accidents and heatstroke—but that’s about the worst of it. We actually live about thirty minutes east of Tionesta in Mayburg. Population: It depends. Mayburg is literally a bend in the Tionesta Creek along Route 666 near the Allegheny National Forest. There are a few family farms, but most of it’s thick wooden forest. Cold as hell in the winter.

  “Your boss is a useless fuckhole,” Grandma Rain says. “Someone should light his dick on fire and throw him off a cliff before he procreates.”

  Did I mention that Grandma Rain is a foulmouthed curmudgeon who hates just about everyone except me, her dog Master, and her live-in handyman, Bardolf?

  I’m told by Bardolf, “Bard,” that when Mom was around, she and Grandma didn’t get along either. “Like two feral cats, ready to scratch each other’s eyes out,” he once said. Dad was barely welcome on Grandma’s estate. It was why the police accused Grandma of killing my parents when they disappeared over twenty years ago. I was almost nine at the time.

  Obviously, no evidence was ever found, but the rumors never stopped. The locals hate Grandma just as much as she hates them.

  As for me, I don’t know what I’m going to do after she’s gone. Grandma Rain and I are opposites in every sense of the word—she’s mean, I’m not. She’s tall, I’m five two. She wears her hair short, mine is long and dark. Blue eyes, brown eyes. Winter, summer. Hates everyone, loves everyone. Still, despite our differences, we always got along.

  Maybe because I grew up feeling lucky to have her. She loved me, encouraged me to be independent, and made sure I got an education. I never minded her eccentricities or profanity because deep down she’s the sort of woman who’ll fight tooth and nail for you. And for the record, she loved my mom, Storm. Her disappearance is what made Grandma so inconsolably bitter, though she’d never admit it. Too prideful.

  “I’ll be sure to let my boss know you were thinking of him.” I’ll leave out the part about him being a useless fuckhole or lighting his dick on fire.

  “And,” Grandma Rain adds, “you be sure to read that speech at my funeral. Word for word. No sugarcoating. I want those pieces of shit to know how little their lives mean.”

  Doubt anyone could miss the meaning. The speech literally says, You’re all useless pieces of shit. Rot in hell.

  I want to roll my eyes. How’s it possible to be filled with so much hate in one’s final moments? Also, she and I both know that no one from town is going to her funeral.

  “Shouldn’t you be thinking about things that make you happy, Grandma? Your garden? Master? All your books?” Me?

  “You think I’ve been hanging on for hours just to take a piss down memory lane? Get your head out of your ass, child. I’ve got something important to say, so you listen and listen good. From this day forward, there is no place in your life for happy thoughts. Put it out of your stupid head.” She grabs my wrist, digging her nails into my skin.

  “Ow. What are you doing? Let go.” I try to pull away, but she digs in harder.

  The nurse said she’d be out of it, but Grandma Rain seems disturbingly lucid, her pale blue eyes intense.

  “Lake, I broke the rules. Once and only once. It cost me your mother’s life. Your father’s, too. Not that I gave a crap about him. Useless prick. But you loved that man. And you lost him because of me.”

  Outside, the sun is suddenly eclipsed by a dark cloud, casting a gray shadow over the room. The air around us instantly chills, and the fine hairs on the back of my neck stiffen.

  “Are you saying you had something to do with their disappearance?”

  “I had everything to do with it,” she spits. “I turned my back on the rules for one minute, and the Wall Men took them. They did it to punish me because I wouldn’t set them free.”

  What the…?

  My horror turns to deep sadness as I realize she’s fallen into a delusional state. Grandma Rain has always marched to her own beat—hanging lavender sachets over doors, lighting massive sage bonfires on the front lawn during full moons, and planting quartz crystals all over the property. But this is different. This is crazy talk.

  I pry her hand off my wrist. “Just try to relax, okay? I’ll call the nurse.” I reach for the cord with the button by her side.

  “No!” She smacks my hand away.

  “Grandma! You can’t hit—”

  “You must hear what I have to say, Lake. You must listen. The monsters on the other side of my bedroom wall are nothing like in the fairy tales. They will strip the flesh from your bones, slice by slice. They will drain your blood to fill their goblets. They will rape you, rip the child from your swollen belly, and eat it while you watch.” Her voice lowers to a chilled whisper, her eyelids twitching with emotion. “They don’t just want to end us, Lake. The
y want to hurt us first. They want to watch humans scream.”

  I cover my mouth. I don’t know how to process the disgusting thoughts coming from her mouth. I get that she’s not of sound mind, but where is all this coming from?

  “Stop, Grandma, just stop,” I say in a firm but calm tone. “I don’t want to hear any more.”

  “Foolish girl. I’m trying to tell you something. The only thing protecting the wall between us and the pain are the Wall Men. The monsters fear them because they are a thousand times more vicious than anything else. Which is why you must never unchain them from the wall. Do you understand? You must never give in. They will use threats. They will use your fear against you, and if that fails, they will try to seduce you.”

  Seduce? What the hell?

  She continues, “But they are violent, soulless men, Lake. They only feel hunger—for bloodshed, fucking, food. It is their hunger that feeds their blind rage and keeps us safe. Never forget that. And above all, girl, you keep that damned bedroom door closed. Do not go inside. It is too dangerous.” She points a shaky finger in my face. “Promise me you’ll read my journals. All the rules are there. I’ve left them for you in my office.”

  “Grandma, I—”

  “Promise!”

  “Okay, I promise.” I know she’s dying and on meds, but I’m suddenly realizing her words are not the result of either. She’s disturbed. Grandma Rain has always kept the master bedroom door locked. She’s never stayed in there once that I’m aware of. Always slept on the couch in her study.

  So this is why? All these years, she believed there were men chained to the wall inside, guarding us from monsters?

  My heart sinks into a deep hole, comprehending that she’s been mentally ill for years, and I did nothing to help her. How did I not see the signs? How could I have sat by, chalking up her extreme behavior to a textbook case of eccentricity?

  I swallow hard, a wave of guilt steamrolling over me. I did nothing to help her. Nothing.

  Grandma gasps and clutches her chest, sputtering out her words, “Hide my journals in a safe place after you read them. And if you fuck up, burn down the house. It will buy everyone time to hide.” She closes her eyes.

  “Grandma Rain?” I grip her shoulder and give it a shake, but she doesn’t respond. “Grandma, wake up.” The tears pool in my eyes. “Grandma!”