Kill Switch (Devil's Night #3)

by Penelope Douglas

  She gasped, snarling at me. “Asshole!”

  “Lie down,” I told her.

  “Why do I always have to do the dirty work?”

  “Now.” I gestured to the ground.

  Frowning, she dropped to the cold earth, fallen leaves rustling under her as she carefully laid herself back.

  “Knife,” I asked Will, reminding him I needed the prop he stole from one of the haunted houses.

  He slapped it in my hand, the harness from whatever actor or mannequin he got it off of attached and dangling from my fist.

  Michael, Kai, and Will situated themselves off a short distance away, shielding themselves behind trees, while Banks and I finished getting Alex all dressed up. We did this as teenagers to one of my father’s security guards who kept patting Banks on the ass when he spoke to her.

  I poured some of the shit she got from the butcher on the professor’s clothes and then hauled him over and set him face down on top of Alex, between her legs.

  “Ugh,” she groaned, looking like she was about to gag with all the crap on her, including the professor.

  Banks planted a quick kiss on her forehead as she scrambled around her, giving her arms and chest smears of blood. “Love you. Mean it,” she chirped at Alex sarcastically and then looked up at me, smiling.

  I couldn’t help but give her one back.

  Like old times.

  We finished up, Banks gathered the backpack and everything in it, and ran to where the guys were hiding, while I pulled out the smelling salts.

  “When you’re ready,” I said, handing it to Alex.

  She took it, nodding.

  I backed away, surveying my work, that fucking prick who thought he could put his hands on something of ours and get away with it passed out between her legs with his head resting on her chest.

  Then I turned, joining everyone else where we could watch but not be seen.

  Alex moved a little, lifting her head to check the placement of his hand on the knife and her position under him.

  Will was laughing already, lifting his phone to record.

  But Kai grabbed it out of his hand to stop him. “Fuck no.”

  Will’s mouth dropped open, confused, but then the light dawned. “Oh, right.”

  Yeah. Not going down that road again. No videos.

  Alex brought the salts to his nose, and I warned everyone, “Shhh,” shutting them up.

  She waved them under his nostrils, we waited and watched, and then suddenly…he jerked to life, and her arm and head fell back to the ground in position, the salts spilling off somewhere as she closed her eyes and hung her mouth open, playing dead.

  A laugh rumbled in my chest.

  He moved, trying to lift his head, but it just bobbed as he groaned.

  He shifted on top of her body, and then hissed, putting his hand to his temple and feeling the ache of Kai’s kick.

  “Ah, what the hell?” he said in a raspy voice, rubbing his head.

  But then he slowly came to, lifted his body up, and blinked his eyes open, finally seeing what was underneath him.

  The body of a dead girl, covered in blood, and his fingers wrapped around the hilt of the prop knife buried in Alex’s chest.

  He just sat there, looking down at her, unsure if he truly knew what he was seeing.

  Removing his hand from the knife, he nudged her on the jaw, sending her head flopping side to side, and then let out a shocked cry, falling over, and scrambling to get away and making us all struggle to hold in our laughter.

  “Ah!” He crawled backward, just staring at her in utter horror.

  Snorts went off around us, and I shook my head.

  It was a prank you were never really too old for. I always dreamed of having this room in my house someday with splatters of red paint all over the walls and sheets, so I could dump drunk friends in there who would wake up in the light of day the next morning, shitting their pants at the massacre on the walls.

  The small delights in life.

  He stood up, pawing at the evidence all over his clothes and took in the blood spilling off the butcher knife buried in the chest of a young girl. He quickly looked around for anyone who might’ve seen, and we dove behind the trunks, making sure we weren’t detected.

  He was starting to freak out, his fear vibrating off him, and I could only imagine the thoughts racing through his mind right now.

  “Oh, my God,” he panted. “Oh, my God. What the fuck?”

  Aw. Poor baby.

  We peered back around to see him start running at top speed away from the body, whipping off his pullover and trying to wipe himself clean as he bolted back into the far-off crowd before he could be caught.

  “Holy shit,” Will chuckled, not holding back as we all came out from behind the trees and watched him disappear. “He didn’t even try to take his murder weapon. What a pinhead.”

  Banks’ head fell back as she and Kai laughed, and Michael couldn’t help grinning as he dipped down, helping Alex up.

  “I don’t think he’ll be at school on Monday,” he remarked.

  “Yeah, he should be three states over by then,” Kai added.

  “Or confessing to the police,” Will snickered.

  No one could stop laughing, all of us shaking with the amusement at the painful ride home he was going to have tonight and the sleep he wasn’t gonna get for a few days until he realized it was a prank.

  “And if he does it again,” Alex snapped, aggravated with the mess all over her as she shot a look to Will, “we’ll put him in a bed between your legs, surrounded by dildos and lube next time.”

  “Now that was an idea,” Will chimed in, pointing to me with an excited look.

  We all broke into laughter again, picturing the sight, and my head was light and my stomach unknotted for the first time in a long time. I hadn’t laughed like this in a while.

  My head fell back, exhausted from the day and night, but kind of happy.

  Really happy, actually.

  But then the chuckles died down.

  They faded to smiles, which faded to nothing, and we all grew quiet, discomfort and awkwardness chilling the air as we remembered we hated each other.

  Years ago, this was what it was like with us. Before we realized fun had a price, and anger clouded everything as we latched on to anyone to blame.

  Especially me.

  Tonight was a bittersweet reminder of everything I’d ruined, and they hadn’t forgotten that it was mostly my fault.

  We’d happily fallen back into the things that helped us find each other for a few minutes. The same needs, the same passion for thrills, and the same desire to break away from restraints.

  But they couldn’t forgive.

  And this couldn’t happen.

  “Hey, where have you guys been?” Rika walked over to us with Winter in tow.

  I looked at her, but her head was down and turned away, as if she were trying to be invisible.

  Michael went over and pulled Rika into him, hefting her up into his arms. “We were doing manly things.”

  “Manly things?” she asked, not believing it for a second.

  But he just slapped her on the ass, gripping her flesh through her dress. “Let’s go to the car for a minute.”

  “Michael!” she scolded as he carried her away, what he wanted clear.

  The rest of us stood there for about two seconds, the wait of their silence enough to kill the fun I’d just had.

  I grabbed the backpack with my mask inside and looked at Will. “If she’s not home by two,” I gestured to Winter, “my security will bring her home. Don’t test me.”

  I left, strolling past her and definitely wanting another piece of her soon, half-tempted to drag her home now, but I wasn’t giving in. I didn’t want her to know I craved it. The sex would not become habit. It was a move in the game, and I needed to figure out my next one.

  Later that night, I woke with a start. Two sharp pangs hit me, one on my neck, next my throat, and anothe
r on my side, between my ribs. I sucked in a breath, feeling the sting of broken skin.

  “What is it about me that makes you so angry?” I heard Winter ask in a soft voice.

  I raised my eyes, finally realizing she was straddling me on the bed, two blades dug into my skin.

  Kitchen knives?

  I spread my fingers where my arms laid at my side, itching to grab her and throw her off me. I knew I could do it before she stabbed me, but…

  I’d been concerned with my next move instead of anticipating hers.

  I remained still, the sheets cool and soft and the room silent and black.

  “What about me makes you so angry?” she asked again, still just as calm.

  “Three years,” I said.

  Three years in jail for doing something she wanted me to do.

  “But it started before that,” she prodded. “In high school. You terrorized me. Why? What did I do?”

  I didn’t terrorize her. I never hurt her. I just wanted what I wanted.

  The points of the knives poked too hard, and my breathing trembled.

  “I was a kid,” she said, pain in her voice. “I thought I was in love. I was a naïve, stupid kid. Do you know what it’s like to think someone loves you and then you find out you were nothing but meat?”

  I curled my fists, taking the sheets with me as I shut out my own memories that tried to spring up.

  “Yes,” I whispered.

  Yes, I did.

  I knew what it was like to have horrible things being done to your body, and watch it betray you and make you think you’re bad for liking it when you knew you didn’t.

  I shot out my hands, grabbing her hips and lifting my head as the blade threatened to sink into me. “And I killed her for it,” I told her. “So do it then.”

  She breathed hard, and I could feel her grips shaking as she held her weapons.

  “Because I won’t stop,” I said quietly, smelling her shampooed hair.

  She’d showered, all the makeup and the costume now gone, replaced with silk sleep shorts and a white T-shirt with her hair still wet.

  “Do it,” I egged her on.

  The sharp points burrowed, threatening me, and I loved the view of her like this. Taking control of me, her power painful but demanding, and I wanted her to demand anything she wanted from me right now.

  My cock started to grow hard under her, drawn to her warmth as she sat on me, and I was very prepared to let this happen again tonight. Just for tonight.

  She came to me, after all.

  “You weren’t lying,” she finally said, looking thoughtful like a memory was playing in her mind.

  I’d told her in the janitor’s closet seven years ago that I killed my mother. She thought I was talking shit. Now she knew.

  “When did it start?” she asked, her brain deciphering what happened.

  But I wasn’t going there. Never, ever again.

  “In the fountain when you were eight and I was eleven,” I told her.

  “That’s not what I meant.”

  “That’s all that matters.” And I dug my fingers into her ass as I lifted my hips and pressed my cock between her legs.

  “Ah, yeah,” I gasped, my rock-hard ridge soaking in her heat through her lacy, silk boxers.

  I couldn’t fucking think.

  Breathing faster, I dove into it all, the demand of her questions and the threat of the knives ready to hurt me and end me right here, right now. Sweat cooled my skin, the rustle of my body in the sheets filled my ears, and every other sense heightened with awareness as I let go, wanting to feel this. To be filled with anything of her.

  Moving one hand to where her neck met her shoulder, I took hold of her body and rode her from the bottom, her clothes still on and the torture making it all the more insane.

  “Stop,” she breathed out. “Damon, stop.”

  “Get off me then.”

  She was sitting on me. I had no control here.

  “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.”

  “No,” she said, barely audible.

  But then she locked her hand around my neck and whimpered, her body arching to meet my hips.

  “You’re different than them,” I whispered, pulling off her shirt to feel her tits against my chest. “Different than my friends. Different than Ari. Different than my parents, my sister, and every woman. You see everything.”

  A sob escaped her, and I gripped the back of her hair, bending her head back to watch her face as I dry-fucked her, our bodies moving in perfect sync.

  “Yeah, was that the line you fed my mother to get her to leave?” she spat out. “That I was everything to you?”

  I flicked her lips with my tongue, so fucking hungry for her despite myself. “I told her the only way I could stay married to Ari for a year was if we were together as little as possible,” I said, both of us mouth to mouth and panting.

  “I told her that I wanted you,” I went on. “That you loved me, because there was no faking what happened in that fucking video, and I told her that I loved you, too, and I was sorry for stealing you the way I did, but it was the only way I could get close to you.”

  Her breath shook as she sucked it in between her teeth.

  “I told her that I never intended for anyone to see that video,” I admitted, “and I needed time. Time to convince you that you were mine and that you wanted to be mine. We just needed to be left alone.”

  It was true. I told her mother all those things. Things she wanted to hear. Things she wanted to believe.

  I married Ari to get into this house and because she was easy, but they all knew what I was really after.

  “I told her you’d be set for life,” I said, both of us rubbing on each other, “and I’d make all your dreams come true. You’ll dance and no doors will be closed to you ever again.”

  Grunts and groans filled the room, while my other hand roamed, sliding down her back and feeling the light layer of sweat before I gripped her ass, helping her move.

  Yeah, Ari left, because she did what she was told, and she wanted to believe I was joining them in a few days. Her mother left because she wanted to believe all the things I said to get her to go. That Winter and I were fucking in love, and we needed space to get through our shit.

  My cock was so hard, and I wanted inside her, but just as I pulled her up, taking her nipple in my mouth, she came, rasping and shaking as I sucked on her.

  And as she came down, quivering with her orgasm, I stopped moving and wrapped my arm around her, holding her to me as I licked and kissed her breast.

  I wanted this. So much more of this. Her body in my arms, shivering and sweating, in a hundred different positions, no piece of her left untouched.

  But as hard as I was and as much as I wanted to strip her down and take full advantage that I had the house all to myself with my sweet, new little sister-in-law… this bitch sent me to jail with no hesitation and no regret.

  We weren’t in love.

  I pulled her head down to me, teasing her with little kisses she didn’t return because she hated what she just let happen again.

  “I love fucking you,” I told her. “There’s no struggle to connect in bed. No mystery with you.”

  Her thighs were so warm, and my dick ached, thinking about how hot and wet she probably was right now.

  But I simply tightened my grip on her, brushing her
nose with mine and taunting her. “It’s comforting how it’s always the same,” I said. “How all you cunts turn into sluts once you’ve got a good dicking.”

  She grew still, a slight tilt to her lips that looked like she was trying not to cry, but everything else was calm and stoic.

  As if she finally understood… I was here to hurt.

  Damon

  Five Years Ago

  I blew out smoke, staring at the back of Erika Fane’s head as we drove through the neighborhood, having just left the village. It had been a long day—and it would probably be an even longer night—and I was both intrigued and pissed Michael let her tag along for Devil’s Night tonight.

  I’d been away at college, with my friends all at different schools, and it finally felt fucking good to be back where I was happiest, and now everyone had to guard themselves to not offend Michael’s pet project.

  But then again, maybe a distraction—something to take my mind off Winter and what happened last night in the shower—was exactly what I’d needed.

  Perspective.

  And closing my eyes, shutting off my head, and just charging on into whatever shit behavior I could, would tear my gut to shreds, so I couldn’t feel her anymore.

  So I could let her go before she found out.

  Maybe years down the road, when I was out of college, and she was older and away from her parents…

  No.

  No, that wouldn’t happen, either.

  She’d still need to know the truth. About who I was and what I did to her these past few years. I didn’t want her to ever know.

  I was fucked. It had to end.

  I just had to find a diversion. A nice, healthy, blonde diversion who looked a little like Winter Ashby and smelled just as good.

  Rika sensed me staring and turned her eyes over her shoulder, meeting mine.

  I stared back at her.

  She had blue eyes. Just like Winter.

  But unlike Winter, I could hate Rika and remind myself what women were for.

  They were the same age, too. I wasn’t sure if they hung out anymore, but maybe I could pretend the little Winter-lookalike was actually Winter to drown out the real one in my head.

  Rika tipped her chin up and turned back around, and I laughed under my breath, taking another drag of my cigarette.