Nightfall (Devil's Night, #4)

by Penelope Douglas

“Don’t you know that you can have anything you want?” His eyes searched mine. “I’ll hurt anyone for you.” The weight on my chest was too heavy, it almost hurt to breathe. “Who is it?” he asked. “Who do I have to hurt?”

Emory Scott hated me, but she hated nearly everyone. So, she was making me work for it. So what? I’d be disappointed if she didn’t. She didn’t respect Michael, Kai, or Damon, either. It shouldn’t hurt. But it did. I always liked her. I always looked for her.

And over the years, passing her in the halls and feeling her in the classroom next to me, she got hot as fuck in ways no one else seemed to notice but me. God, she had a mouth on her. I loved her attitude and her anger, because I was always too warm and I needed the ice. It made me smile.

“Come on, Will,” I said. “I have nothing you want. I’m not a happy person. Ever. We don’t mesh. Your life is trite to me, far removed from reality, and I thought your views on Lolita were repugnant, and worse, dangerous.” His jaw flexed, his green gaze turning defiant. “I hate your friends,” I continued. “I don’t want to be around any of them. Except Kai, maybe. One of three Asian kids in a

school full of WASPs, he, at least, has some clue what it’s like to be me.” Pretty sure the only other Jewish kid graduated last year. “And you have nothing I want,” I went on. “You coast through everything, so where does your character come from? I don’t want to have fun with you, because there’s nothing and no one you don’t use. I don’t respect you.” He tipped his chin down, looking angry now as he glared. “In twenty years, you’ll all be your fathers—powerful, wealthy, and with a string of mistresses your wives will be drugging themselves in order to forget that you have.” I stood up, looking down on him. “But even as Masters of the Universe, Will Grayson III will never forget that I was one notch on his belt that he could never get. I’m not going to let you win this one. At least, I’ll have that.”

breathed out a bitter laugh. Aw, someone’s lost his temper. “Why?” I asked. And the next thing I know, the bus stopped, he yanked the earbuds out of my ears, and I sucked in a breath as he leaned into my face. “Because you’re mine,” he growled in a whisper.

“I think that’s why I’ve always liked this time of day best. People hide in the dark. They quench their thirsts in the dark. They build their secrets in the dark. We’re more ourselves here than anywhere else. I get to be me...” he swallowed, staring at me, “when nightfall is coming.”

“I really don’t like you,” I said nice and loud so we were clear. He smiled and pushed himself up, coming up to the truck and climbing up on the step, peering down at me. “I like that you don’t like me,” he taunted. He pushed his hood off, and I watched streams of rain cascade down his face. “So, I’m a challenge then?” I asked. “That’s what all this is really about?” “No.” He shook his head. “You just make me want to be…” “Better?” I rolled my eyes at the cliché statement. But he paused a moment. “More,” he finally said. “No one ever expects more from me.”

“I…” He trailed off, struggling for words. “I…like you.” It sounded like “I love you,” and my chin trembled. “I’ve liked you forever,”

“But you’re going to be fucking mine someday,” he growled. “Come hell or high water, Emory Scott. You’re my woman, and you’re going to come home to me every day and sit at my table and warm my fucking bed.” He kissed me. “And you’re going to give me a Will Grayson IV. Mark my words.”

You’ve been blowing my mind for forever.

I’d loved Emory since the moment I laid eyes on her when I was fourteen.

“The role of the villain is only determined by who’s telling the story.”

“I don’t want to grow up anymore,” I told him. “Take me back to Thunder Bay.” Back to Neverland. I’m ready.

“I love you,” I said, and I could see people filming us with their phones out of the corner of my eye, but I didn’t care. “I’m wild crazy for you, and I’m sure I’ll kill you at some point, but… God, I love you so much, and I want you to marry me.” More tears streamed down my face as I choked out the words. “Marry me, Will Grayson.” I rushed up and hugged his back, wrapping my arms around him. “Can you marry me? Can I marry you?”

“Live for your love,” the judge said, “love your life, and raise hell.”

“You either have my back,” Michael said. “You’re at my side,” Kai continued.

“Or you’re in my way,” the rest of us finished. “Be Lilith,” the girls said. Athos pulled the Red Death over her eyes, all of us setting off as she whispered. “Never Eve.”