Night Calls - Nyx Slaughter Book 1

by Amber Lynn

  “You could have warned me,” he says cringing at the thought of his Big Mac.

  “I could have, but first what fun would that be? And second, how was I supposed to know that your palette would reflect mine? I have never been able to handle processed foods, so fast food has always been a no-no for me.” I start the vehicle back up and get back on the road. We are only thirty minutes from Emerald Town and I would like to hurry up and find the trail.

  “Well, since I got my appetite for food from you, it might have been nice if you mentioned what I could actually handle,” he says throwing his one bite short cheeseburger out the open window.

  “What did you just do? You littered. You are as bad as all the papers say,” I comment still chuckling.

  “I am so happy you find me amusing. We are pretty close, have you picked up anything yet?” he asks.

  “Don't think so. All I can smell is baked bread and with your cinnamony flavoring it has me wondering is a cinnamon roll would taste good. I am guessing there, for some reason, is a baker in the neighborhood getting a jump on things,” I reply.

  “Just for giggles, why don't we follow the smell? Maybe I can see what your face looks like when eating something new and different,” he says.

  I find it odd that in a closed vehicle I am actually able to smell something other than cinnamon. Must be this ramped up new nose. I do as he instructs and end up parked at the edge of a forest.

  “So what are we looking for, the witch's house from Hansel and Gretel?” I ask trying to look through the trees.

  “Highly doubtful, love,” he says taking my hand. “This is where the fun begins. Keep following the smell and see where it leads.”

  “I am looking for a target, not a fricken bakery. Let's go back to town and show his picture around.”

  “You said it yourself, you are good at tracking. Follow the scent,” he says sternly.

  “Woof,” I reply and run off into the woods. At this point, I am not sure if I care that Sebastian follows. He is being a bit of a dick.

  Without vampire speed, I run slower than I would like, but quickly track down the source of the scent. I enter a small clearing and find a man sitting on a rock looking at me expectantly.

  “Babe, you made it. I heard the contract went out a few hours ago and wasn't sure if you would be here tonight or tomorrow, so I have been waiting around,” he replies. It would seem I have stumbled on my target without even trying.

  “I have promised to make this quick, so for now I am ignoring that you called me babe. Alexander Graham Monroe you are sentenced for death for taking three human children's lives. A jury of your peers has already convicted you. I am just here to carry out the execution. In the name of the Grand Collective, I remove you from this world to make it a better place for others,” I say and take out my Beretta. Without further ado, I pull the trigger and watch as the bullet hits him in the arm. Dang it he moved, but no matter the silver is in him. The death will just be a little slower than I anticipated.

  “Now you've done it. Since you brought your friend,” Alexander says tipping his head towards Sebastian who has made it to the clearing, “I have to assume you are being followed. Things would have been easier if you had come alone. At least, that is how I always pictured our first meeting.”

  I stare at him harshly. “Me being followed shouldn't be your concern. I just shot you with a silver bullet, so you don't have all that much time left on this earth.”

  “One would think that was true with me being a werewolf and all. Luckily, I have an ace up my sleeve. Since we are being closed in upon, why don't we carry over this conversation to tomorrow night? Try to lose the tail and meet me at Molly's at one. Day or night, it doesn't matter, I will be there at both times. I suppose you can bring your friend if you choose the night option, but I wouldn't mind meeting alone,” he says just before shifting into a pitch black wolf and running off into the woods.

  “Time to go,” Sebastian announces and then grabs me and pushes off the ground to launch us into the air as enormous wings spring from his back.

  “Holy crap. Why are we in the air?” I ask wrapping my arms tighter around his neck.

  “The mutt was right. Collective agents were closing in. We are going to need to lose them tonight. It wasn't bad on the road because they were just reporting back a location, but since I am under the assumption they are out for blood now, we are going to need to be more careful,” he answers.

  “How do you know they are out for blood? They might have just wanted to make sure the job was done and take back the goo for evidence,” I say.

  “I have my reasons; you will find those out tomorrow. Until then, we need to find a place to stay and figure out where Molly's is. I am not aware of one here in Emerald Town.”

  “I am hoping you have ideas on places to stay because I don't know of anything other than a hotel and with the Collective on our asses I am guessing that would be the first place they looked,” I supply.

  “I have numerous acquaintances in the city. We should be able to find a place to lay low. There are a few tunnels that I am aware of that we can probably use to get out of town even,” he flies us deep into the heart of the city and then lands on one of the tallest buildings.

  “Are you going to go all King Kong on me now?” I ask.

  “No, hurry get inside, so we are off the radar,” he says pulling me to a door. I notice that his wings have already retracted. I cannot wait to see what mine will look like. In the dark, I couldn't really see his.

  He leads me through a maze of hallways and stairs before arriving at a door with a number eight on it. There, he does this weird little secret knock and waits for acknowledgment from the other side.

  “What's the password?” a male voice asks from the other side of the door.

  “Open the door now Smitty, I don't have all day,” Sebby replies.

  “Are you sure Sebastian, because if I remember right, the day hasn't given you too many issues for a while now,” the man replies, but is smart enough to open the door.

  I am dragged inside and placed in a corner while Sebastian turns to stand in front of me.

  “Mine,” he says before anyone can say another word.

  “You actually brought her here. That is a little bit surprising. I figured you would keep her hidden from me forever,” the man says. With the Sebastian wall in front of me, I cannot get a look at our host.

  “No time for fun and games this time Smitty. I just wanted to clarify that she is my girlfriend before I introduce you,” Sebastian tells him.

  “Girlfriend, really? I know you mentioned that you were interested in someone, but I didn't know it had gotten to that stage just yet,” Smitty replies.

  “Yeah, where did the girlfriend label come from?” I ask tired of their five seconds of bickering. “I cannot say that I ever agreed to be called that.”

  Sebastian turns to face me and probably tell me to save it for later, but before he can, Smitty yells, “Oh shit! You brought Nyx Slaughter into my house. Are you insane?”

  He disappears for a second and returns with a gun in his hand pointing it in my direction. I just roll my eyes. I am used to people running in fear, but they usually don't arm themselves.

  “Really? What do you have in the gun? For some reason, I have a feeling only rubber bullets would work on me right now,” I say laughing while thinking this is where Sebastian thought we would be safe.

  “Currently they are silver, so I imagine they will work on you,” Smitty replies.

  “Like I said, rubber bullets are currently your best bet in caliber. I imagine a hatchet would probably scare me more than the gun,” I say.

  “You are not killing her. There are so many reasons why you aren't, but at the top of the list currently is the fact that it would kill me too,” Sebastian states. “Can you imagine how the state of our movement will be stunted without me around?”

  “Oh shit!” he yells again. I have a feeling it is a favorite phrase. “The only w
ay that is possible is if you bonded with her and I know you are not a big enough idiot to do something as stupid as bonding with Nyx Slaughter.”

  “Hey Smitty, we agree on something. I had the same reaction when he told me what he had done. I mean, he has to have a death wish, right?” I ask.

  “I would prefer if you pretend you don't know my name,” is his reply.

  “How about we lower the weapon?” I ask. “You may not love me, but everyone loves Sebby and we don't want him going hungry.”

  Defeated Smitty switches the safety on and sticks the gun into his waistband. It gives me a chance to actually take a look at the guy without the imminent threat of a bullet. He is tall, probably just six feet. He has sandy brown hair and blue eyes. With his pretty boy face, he is the exact opposite of Sebastian. More a cheerleader's wet dream than a Goth girl's.

  “How long?” Smitty asks.

  “Three years. She has only found out about it in the last twenty-four hours, though,” Sebastian replies.

  “That is just wrong man. She is enemy number one. Why would you tie yourself to her?”

  “Have you not smelled her, yet? I would think my original reason for doing so would be obvious. Aside from that, I do actually love her,” Sebastian says grabbing my hand.

  “Seriously, dude? I have known you six hundred years and you are claiming you did this because you love someone? Do I need to start listing off names?” he asks.

  “See I knew it, you have been in love before and this is all because of the shiny toy feeling,” I say.

  “Love, we have gone over this. I cannot lie to you; we have already run that test. Shiny toy feeling left the building long ago,” he says trying to calm me.

  “Have your lovers’ spat later, why does she smell so strong of wolf if she has been hanging around you? You don't usually play with the beastlies,” Smitty states.

  For some reason the room has started getting really warm. I am not feeling all that great and I hope this conversation is going to be at an end soon because I think I may just throw up.

  “I was afraid of this,” Sebastian says. “Smitty, we will be back to talk in a second, but we need some privacy for about five minutes.” He quickly lifts me and runs into a room slamming the door behind us.

  “What's wrong?” I ask. The quick movement didn't really help the way I feel. I am definitely sweating now which I didn't think a vampire tended to do.

  “You need to feed now,” Sebastian says lifting me up. “Wrap your legs around me. Since I let you choose wrist years ago, my choice is neck, so get going.”

  “But baby fangs aren't out. I don't know how to do it.” I whine feeling sicker by the second.

  “Just put your nose in close to my neck and inhale,” he says tilting his head to the right.

  I do as instructed and breathe in his cinnamony goodness. “Yum,” I whisper rubbing my nose against his neck. Just the concentrated smell is making me feel not quite so bad.

  I feel my gums tingling, so I open my mouth and start sucking on his vein to make it easier to get to.

  “That's it, love. You are a natural,” Sebastian says in a hoarse voice.

  When I start to roll his vein around with my tongue, I decide it's probably safe to bite, so I slowly sink my little baby fangs into his skin. The second the blood hits my tongue, I am in ecstasy. My lady parts literally explode with pleasure.

  “Perfect, that is just perfect,” I hear Sebastian say as I start to feel him move our bodies against each other causing some delicious friction. “See if you can't go just a little deeper.” I bite down harder as instructed. “Oh God that's it. Take as much as you need, love. Make sure you get good and full.”

  At this point, he is moving our bodies together so quickly and roughly, I am about to climax again. I have sat on his lap a few times, but usually when he feeds were aren't touching this intimately, so there has never been the friction component. It is a factor I may have to insist on in the future.

  “Sweet baby Jesus!” I yell releasing my grip and hitting an octave, I didn't know I had. At the same moment, Sebastian suddenly stops moving and is holding me up while his body convulses.

  After a few moments of deep cleansing breaths, he lowers me to the ground.

  “Wait, I didn't do anything to close it,” I say when my feet touch the carpet.

  “No need. Super old vampire here, I heal immediately,” he says picking me up again anyway. “But I did forget how much I love to taste myself on your lips.” He proceeds to crush his lips to mine and work his tongue into my mouth and playfully toys with my fangs.

  A knock on the door startles us into separating. “It sounded like a fascinating show and all, but could you guys come out so we can finish our conversation?” Smitty asks.

  Drat, dang vampire hearing. As lively and fun as our talk earlier seemed, I can just imagine how the end of the talk will be after two thirds of the participants just took a break to pleasure themselves.

  Chapter 10

  A game of secrets

  Sebastian leads us out of the room. He looks like he is floating on air, while I feel more like I am on the walk of shame. As a technical virgin, someone overhearing what happened in that room has got to be my most embarrassing moment.

  “Don't worry. I am sure he has heard a lot worse things than your first real feeding,” Sebastian says trying to soothe me.

  “Worse, God yes. I have heard all sorts of things that I wish I didn't have supersonic hearing for. Your audio though would have probably scored big at any porn awards show. I cannot remember a time I almost got off on just noise alone,” Smitty responds as we enter his living area.

  “That does not make it better,” I say covering my face.

  “You needed to eat, love, before you got really sick. I gave us as much privacy as I could. I didn't figure you wanted to give him a floor show to go along with the sounds,” Sebastian says lifting my hands from my face and lowering them to my sides.

  “You are right. I mean it isn't like we had our clothes off or anything, but visual would be worse,” I say. Now that I am not stuck behind Sebby or arguing with Smitty, I have a chance to look at the apartment we are in.

  It isn't anywhere near as nice as the penthouse, but it is tastefully decorated in a minimalistic way. A black leather sectional is set up in the middle of the room as the focal point with a glass coffee table set out a couple feet in front of it. There is a television hanging from the ceiling close to the wall opposite the sectional. There is no art, but the lighting is recessed like the penthouse. Other than that, there is nothing but black carpet and red walls.

  “So, now that you guys have had your fun, let's go back to the question I had just asked. Why does she smell like dog?” Smitty asks.

  “Because she is part wolf. She was born with both genes, but they had been recessive traits. One of my feedings the other day got a little intense and she ended up taking a sip for herself, which we believe is what activated her fangs,” Sebastian says.

  I smile at Smitty, showing off baby fangs since they are still out. “Cute, aren't they?”

  “This is priceless,” Smitty says laughing.

  I decide to take offense. “Apologize to baby fangs. They don't like you laughing at them.”

  “Don't worry, Ms. Slaughter. I am not laughing at them. I am trying to figure out how the Collective's human assassin has been out there this long and no one has reported back that she wasn't actually human,” he says with a hysterical edge to his voice. “I mean, really, how ironic is that?”

  “Sorry, I have lived a relatively sheltered life. I imagine most of the people at the Collective knew, but just couldn't, or wouldn't, tell me. Sebastian has known for years, but thankfully, he was nice enough to keep the information private. Although, it would have been nice if he mentioned it to me. Most of the other people I meet and deal with end up dead after the meeting, so they are not fountains of information,” I explain.

  “So wait, not only are you this one of a kin
d hybrid, but you also didn't actually know it?” he asks. “This really does just keep getting better.”

  “All true statements, which bring us back to the reason we are here. She is parting with the Collective, but agreed to take on one more mission. I, inadvertently, made her interested in it, and it has now become a suicide mission. Even if she hadn't converted and left the co-Hab this was going to be her last Collective mission, but since she did, we are now being followed, so we need to hide out until we can figure out where we are supposed to meet her target,” Sebastian briefs him.

  “Interesting. I am guessing, since you are sounding knowledgeable of this mission you saw something in the future and that is what has led us to this point,” Smitty replies.