Kill Switch (Devil's Night, #3)

by Penelope Douglas

“Now…” my sister’s new husband whispered in my ear. “Now, you belong to me.”

Life felt like hell, because we expected it to feel like heaven. The quote I read years ago went something like that, but I never understood it. When you’re in the thick all your life, living in ways you eventually figure out no one else is, you learn to sleep well in heat and eat fire. Until one day it’s all you need.

Will, Michael, and Kai were my friends, and I’d walk through fire for any one of them. Will was the only one, though, who I was sure would walk through fire for me.

“Because pain in the body quiets the pain in the head. It feels good, like a kill switch for your brain.

“I’m out of my own control, Winter,” he said, not explaining any further. “There are no choices. We are who we are, and we do what we do. It’s nature. Like game pieces, I will play my part, because I can’t resist. I can’t be what I’m not.”

In fact, he was kind of an angel at the end. An angel with really black batwings. Psycho.

“I wish I could see you for real,” I told him. “I want to know what you look like when you look at me.”

He enjoyed toying with death. Fear made us feel alive.

I hated him. I hated who I turned into with him.

Red. Anger, fury, heat, and need so strong you’re a fucking animal, Winter. It’s primal. So that was red. I’d wanted to do it. I loved the flames. I had dived in. But now, the pain of the burns. I hated him.

“No one will miss you,” Michael whispered, threatening me. And I almost laughed. Bet his dick grew another fourth of an inch off that big boy threat.

“I may be married to Ari,” I told her, dying to get inside her body again. “But her little sister is who I really wanted to play with.” I yanked her down to me, the knives falling away as I whispered against her lips. “Always wanted to play with.” She trembled, and her eyes watered, and I thought she was going to pull away and run, but she was frozen. “You’re mine,” I said, kissing her mouth once as I humped her. “Mine.” I kissed her again. “Mine in that fountain. Mine in the locker room and in the janitor’s closet. Mine in the dean’s office.” I took her jaw in my hand. “You’ll have my kids and be my woman and fuck me, because that’s what I want.”