The Long Fall of Night: The Long Fall of Night Book 1 Read Online Free PDF

you, Jeeves,” Ash teased with a hint of mean.
    “You gentlemen be careful,” Julian replied, ignoring the dig. “Please let me know if there’s anything you need.”
    They started up the steps, the flashlight beam bouncing off the white walls, their footfalls echoing eerily in the near silence.
    “Why do you do that?” Elliot demanded. “Julian has never been anything but nice to you.”
    “I noticed you have valet service for your parking garage, and a doorman who’s more like a butler, but your building doesn’t have a generator?” Ash ribbed, ignoring the question. Elliot wasn’t in the mood. He was too busy thinking Julian had no idea what was coming. The man had three daughters in high school and a librarian wife who loved to talk books with Elliot. They were nice people, and they could end up hurt. That’s not going to happen. Ash isn’t necessarily right. That thought was followed by, Then why are you going with him? But he knew why.
    “The generator at Rogers Hall failed. How do you know the one here didn’t as well?” Elliot asked, running his hand over his forehead as sweat beaded due to the tight quarters of the stairwell. His legs ached from the climb.
    “Jeeves was way too calm. He’d have been assuring you someone was working on it if there was one.”
    “Building maintenance would be looking into it, not Julian.”
    Ash let it drop. Elliot led them out of the stairwell and to his door, unlocking it and entering his sanctuary. He breathed in relief as familiarity washed over him, passing the flashlight to Ash since he could move blindly.
    Ash shone the light over the long, narrow living room with white leather furniture across from a squat, black entertainment cabinet bearing a flat screen TV, an Xbox, and several games and DVDs. Elliot dug into a kitchen drawer for a long-stem lighter and lit a few of the candles scattered around the living space. When he had enough of a soft glow to see by, he moved to the bedroom and lit two more on his dresser.
    “I appreciate you trying to set the mood,” Ash said, following him. “But we don’t have time to get off. We’ve got to hurry.”
    “I’m aware,” Elliot snapped, hastily pulling a duffel bag from beneath his bed, yanking when the strap caught. He was still irritated at how Ash could be such an asshole to the doorman, someone Elliot considered a friend. Hell, Julian and his wife were two of only four people Elliot had confided in about his sexuality. He wanted to establish himself as someone to be respected, a force to be reckoned with, before he opened himself up to those criticisms. He certainly wasn’t going to come out while bullies were still slamming him into the sides of cars and calling him—
    Gay. Kinda stupid hiding it if people are going to call me that anyway.
    Ash was silent, playing the flashlight into the bathroom across the hall from Elliot’s bedroom. Elliot grabbed jeans from his dresser, t-shirts, and other necessities for a few days’ travel, and shoved them in the bag. He hesitated at his nightstand, thinking about the condoms and lube inside, and glancing at his partner. Ash was busy looking around Elliot’s room at a bookshelf in the corner bearing more DVDs, a couple Lego airplanes, and a framed photo of him and his parents on vacation in Paris. While he was distracted, Elliot fumbled with the iPod on his nightstand as a cover for getting in the drawer and shoved the supplies into his bag and his iPod in his pocket, never looking away from Ash. On Elliot’s bookshelf beside the planes was a Rubik’s Cube and Ash picked it up, giving it a few absent turns.
    “Aw, c’mon,” Elliot complained, flopping an annoyed hand at his lab partner. “You have to mess up my stuff?”
    “You’re kidding, right?” Ash asked, giving the cube a few more pointed turns. “I guarantee you this is the least of our problems.” He tossed the cube to Elliot, who awkwardly flinched and fumbled it as it hit his hands. He