Angry God (All Saints High, #3)

by L.J. Shen

It is worthy and beautiful, just like you. I wish I were strong enough not to do what I need to do. I wish I could get the girl. Because, Len, you are her. You are that girl. My safe place. My asymmetric happiness. My Edgar Allan Poe poem. You are my Smiths, and my favorite fantasy book, my brownie, and summer vacations in lush places. There will never be anyone else like you. And that’s exactly why you deserve someone better than me. Love, Vaughn

I should have known they weren’t divine because of some secret recipe—he’d sent them from different places, in different countries, even. They’d tasted divine because I knew, subconsciously, that they came from him.

I understood alcoholics now. Numbness was far superior to pain.

Thank you for giving my son a home away from home. You broke down his walls, yet gave him shelter. I am forever in your debt. Emilia LeBlanc-Spencer

i just burst ibto tears

It is said that Edwards was interrupted many times during the sermon by people asking, “What shall I do to be saved?” What will you do to be saved? Would you go so far as losing the love of your life?

Vaughn took me by the hand and walked me to my bed, where we slipped under my blanket, legs entwined, mimicking the statue—his face in my hair, my nose pressed against his neck. Home, I thought, and everything became clear.

It dawned on me that Vaughn and I had been ruthlessly patient with one another all those years. He’d waited for me to open up while I long-sufferingly watched as he crawled from behind the tall walls he’d built around himself.

“I started working on this statue before we were together. I started it before we’d even kissed. Before Jason. Before Arabella. Before everything, there was you,” he whispered into my hair. “You came before art. Before life. Definitely before hate.”

“How could you think you are less than enough? How could you ever think that?” I asked, feeling my cheeks heating up with anger. “I don’t think that anymore,” he said softly, caressing my hair. “Or if I am, I don’t care. I couldn’t go through with it. I couldn’t kill your uncle. I stood there with my weapon, and all I could think was what if he were right—if it was getting revenge or getting the girl…” He closed his magnificent blue eyes, taking a deep breath, opening them again. Determination zinged through them. “I’d rather have the girl.”

I’ve been your shadow for so long, Lenora. I wanted you to bask in the sun a little.” “My shadow?” I breathed. He nodded. “Always there, following you, even when you didn’t see. Remember the day Arabella, Soren, and Alice crowded you in that locker room and a door slammed in the distance, making them leave? That was me. And they paid for what they did. I stole Soren’s Maserati and totaled it, causing his parents to almost disown him, and I planted cocaine in Alice and Arabella’s purses. Alice’s parents gave her so much shit they decided to send her to rehab instead of college. With Arabella, I got even better results. She got hooked.”

“I’ve always loved you in my own fucked-up, destructive way.” I closed my eyes, relishing the word as it rolled off his tongue. So fantastically rare, and forever mine. “Say it again,” I whispered to his lips, cupping his cheeks. “I love you,”

“I.” He nuzzled his straight nose along my jawline. “Love.” He flicked my ear with his tongue. “You,” he finished, closing his mouth over mine in a passionate kiss that made my eyes roll in their sockets and took my breath away.

This. This was what I wanted and needed. Vaughn Spencer, of all people. In my bed. Protecting me from my favorite monster. Himself.

It practically feels like Len and I are married, but that’s not enough for me. Every single time I see some random motherfucker checking her out at the airport, in a pub or a club, or even the goddamn fucking supermarket, I get an unexplainable urge to bash his head against the floor until both crack.

Considering this fact, it would be best if I put both the world’s male population and myself out of misery by putting a ring on it, pissing on my territory, and making sure everyone knows Lenora Astalis is off limits. Because that’s the essence of what I’ve been trying to do for years anyway, isn’t it? Put my mark on her. Make sure people know she is mine.

“You saw what I wanted you to see. I think I always had this idea that you should be my savior, but naturally, the stubborn ass that I am, I didn’t understand it. Now I do. I want you to save me today, and tomorrow, and in a month, and in a year, and in a decade. Save me. Give me your best and your worst and everything in between. I’ve always watched my dad loving my mom and thought he was stuck in a state of insanity. But he wasn’t. Turns out, love really can be that fucking intense.”

“Fine.” She rolls her eyes. “I’ll marry you, Vaughn Spencer. But on one condition.” I frown. “Yes?” “No children.” “You don’t want any children?” “Nope.” I don’t pause to think about it. “Fine.

omg wakt whattt

“I said that just to see what kind of husband you’d be if you don’t get your way. It was a test.”

“Do you love me?” I ask him. “To death,” he says. “And that’s not just a figure of speech, although I’d appreciate it greatly if you don’t test me on the matter.”

“Scared yet?” I smirk at him. “With you by my side?” He grins. “Never.”