Page 133 of When Darkness Calls

My brows furrow. Explosion? It wasn’t an explosion when they got out? There were eight guards there too…

And cameras?

“It is our belief that these assailants—these fiends,” he spits, “are a part of a larger issue that has taken over this once thriving town.”

The crowd begins to stir, rumbling beginning in the back and working towards the front.

“You have all heard of the incident that occurred after the events of this year’s Founder’s Festival. A girl was cruelly murdered, and another abducted. Though the police have been working diligently to find her, there has been no update in the case,” Mayor Cook takes a deep breath, pausing, before adding, “Until a few weeks ago, when another girl was spotted in the midst of a possible abduction. An anonymous tip described the girl in the back of a vehicle before disappearing. The police have not found any evidence of the occurrence; however, the girl is now confirmed as a missing person.”

Grayson reaches out for my hand, gripping me tightly. I look up at him, and there is a fire burning deep within the gray of his irises. He shakes his head slightly, a movement so small I almost missed it.

Whatever the mayor’s saying, Grayson’s telling me it’s a complete fucking lie. And I don’t know if that thought is as unnerving as it is settling. The mayor does know something, and the fact he thinks that everyone in the crowd doesn’t, means we have an advantage. And we desperately need the advantage right now.

“The fiends that have taken over the East End, filling it with depravity, terror, and darkness will be stopped. I will stop at nothing to ensure that you, the citizens of this town, are safe, secure, and unafraid. When darkness calls, justice will answer. Thank you.” The mayor gives a solemn nod to the crowd as an uproar begins. People shouting at him, cursing his name and the police. The few officers who were unlucky enough to get this assignment worked to keep the crowd from pressing further into the building as the mayor disappears inside.

Beside me I hear a quick click, and a soft chuckle.

“What is it?”

“Fiends,” he snorts, looking at me amused. “It has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?”

forty

Dani

After news of Mayor Crook’s speech circled around town, as well as through the guys, things have been…bleak. Shadow Grove had already been suffering a slight melancholy that had begun a few years ago, but now it seems like no one’s really leaving their homes. Campus is not nearly as lively as it was at the beginning of September, and now nearing the end of the second week of October, I’m afraid it will only get worse from here.

The plaza is empty, the town square is empty. There might be a handful of cars on the street as Grayson passes on his bike, taking us home.

It’s heartbreaking. I think it's at this moment that I fully begin to grasp why the guys are doing this. They’re older than me, so they remember when Shadow Grove was…better, alive. I remember mom locking the doors and telling me I always needed to be sure the windows and doors were locked once the sun went down.

But I guess the guys remember when it used to not be this way.

Fighting for the town to not only stop getting worse, but with hope that it may heal, and return to what it used to be before the darkness settled over the streets and the homes of these innocent people.

We pull into the driveway, and I note the subtle differences in Grayson’s house from the first time I was here a little over two weeks ago.

There are lights strung across the porch, and I hung a wooden sign by the front door that has “You better have Boos” written in a loopy script. Grayson rolled his eyes when I showed him the purchase I had made when Liz took me with her to pick up some more cold meds the other day. I think it makes the place homey…and maybe I also knew that it would annoy him. Win-win.

Things with Grayson have pretty much remained the same. It’s like he’s completely ignoring the fact that he’s had his cock shoved down my throat or that he had given me the best orgasms I’d ever had in my entire life.

It hurts.

A voice in my brain keeps telling me it’s because this entire time he was just playing a game, and I was a pawn. Using me to have some fun while he was tied to me due to Cade’s fucking orders.

But he told me everything he did, said, it was all true. And despite all of them keeping so much from me, he’s not someone who would blatantly lie. Especially not about something like this.

We’re quiet walking up the steps to the house. Cade told me Monday night that I was good to come home, but I don’t want to leave yet.

Grayson’s house is warm, it’s comforting. Feels like home. It’s only a bonus that I don’t feel the thousand eye monster staring at me from the dark.

I shiver at the thought that maybe my imagination hadn’t been playing tricks on me, and the thousand eye monster was the man in the ski mask the whole time. Even Grays’s reassurance that he’d only seen someone once doesn’t really give me much comfort.

“What’s wrong?” Concern laces each word as Grayson looks over me, his eyes pausing at my hips. The first sign of anything more than platonic from him since I learned he was Shadow.

I scoff, rolling my eyes. “Nothing. Hope you enjoy your eyeful. Take a picture, Grays, it’ll last longer. And I know you're plenty good at that.” I huffed, passing him walking to the guestroom I’ve claimed as my own. A few times since I’ve been here, he has climbed into bed beside me. Those were the nights I slept peacefully. But that’s all it was…sleep.

I stayed this week instead of going home hoping that something would change in him. That he would stop tiptoeing around me—around us. I guess I was wrong.