Forever Night (Darkness Falls Book 3)

Chapter Twenty-Nine

The next two days seemed to alternate between flying past and dragging every minute into a year, while I alternated between cool confidence that I could handle this and near-gibbering fear that I was in drastically over my head. Most of the time Luke was there to offer reassuring words and support, and on the nights when he was out recruiting with Anna and Alice, I still had Ethan and Riley and Clara to support me.

My biological family was either dead or gone, but I had built a new one around me and I loved each of them fiercely. They couldn't all be slotted into assigned family roles – parents, siblings, cousins, etcetera – but they were still my family.

I needed all of them.

Finally the night I'd both dreaded and anticipated came around. As the sun sank below the horizon and the sky dissolved into the bluish-black of night, my stomach knotted and shrivelled. My mouth was as dry as my palms were clammy.

Everything depended on tonight. If I screwed up, if I wasn't convincing or inspirational enough, if I couldn't find the right words, we could lose everything. The amount of pressure on my shoulders was tremendous; it was a wonder my back didn't buckle under the weight.

Riley helped me get dressed. Fashion had never ranked on my list of priorities, but tonight was different. I wanted to make a good impression. I wanted to look like a leader.

Unfortunately I had no idea what a leader would wear. Riley insisted that high heels were professional, but I flat-out refused those. Even though we had seen absolutely nothing of Rachel since I issued my challenge, I wasn't going to let my guard down. High heels were not conducive to running and kicking butt.

We both agreed that black was probably the best colour. Riley said it was because it was dramatic and contrasted with my blonde hair – it would make me memorable. I just didn't have much choice when it came to colour. The majority of my wardrobe came from my vampire hunting days, and black was the best colour for sneaking around at night and hiding bloodstains.

Maybe when this was all over, I'd consider investing in some more adventurous clothes. The single interesting thing I owned was a form-fitting green dress with a sequinned neckline that Riley had bought for me as an early birthday present a couple of months back.

A small, private smile teased my lips. Maybe when this was all over, I'd invest in some more adventurous underwear, too.

"I think this is best," said Riley, holding up a plain black shirt.

"It's missing a button," I pointed out.

"Where?" Riley flipped the shirt upside down, intently scanning it. "It's at the bottom; no one's going to notice."

A missing button wasn't quite the air of professionalism I was going for, but I didn't have much choice. It was still the smartest thing I owned. The green dress was lovely, but it certainly wasn't appropriate for tonight.

If only I still had the white shirt that I'd worn to my job interview at the Waffle House, but that had belonged to Alice and I'd given it back to her before she moved into the team's house. Even if she no longer had designs on Luke, it felt weird to be wearing her clothes now that she was back on the scene.

After buttoning up the black shirt, I started gathering my hair into a practical ponytail.

"Whoa, hey, what are you doing?" Riley grabbed my hands.

"Um, putting my hair up?"

She vehemently shook her head, her own hair escaping twin pigtails. "No, no, no, it looks better down."

"Yeah, but when it's down I might fidget with it." I didn't want to be fiddling or twirling my hair or anything like that when I got nervous, and the nerves were already hot and heavy in my stomach.