“We’re always around to save the day. Don’t think you don’t owe us. And I will collect,” Killian said as he backed away. Then his gaze shifted to me. “I’m still waiting to hear from you, Octavia. Don’t take too long.” He spun around, gathered his pack, and left—with a dead body in tow. At least they cleaned up their own messes.
I pulled my wrist away from my chest and cringed as I peered at the bite mark that was there.
“Maybe we should talk about this …?” Maverick suggested.
“No!”
“Octavia,” he sighed. “The feeling is normal. It’s nothing to be ashamed of—”
“Let’s just go.” I scrambled up to my feet and dusted myself off.
The whole purpose of us coming to NightCrawlers was now moot. Roberto was dead, and who knew where my paycheck was? We went through all that for nothing. In one day, two acquaintances of mine had died.
Hmm. Usually these things come in threes.
11
We drove back to Marina del Rey in an uncomfortable, ponderous silence. Maverick tried to make conversation, but I wasn’t in the mood. I knew offering him my blood was a bad idea. I was so stupid. But if I hadn’t, he wouldn’t be driving us home right now.
Maverick called Tristan, who was already waiting for us at the house with Echo. From the wince that came from Rick, I could tell Tristan was not happy that we left the house. He would be even more pissed after he found out what happened. There was no hiding it. He would eventually find out that his favorite hangout spot was now closed because its owner was dead, killed by shifters. I didn’t know how well this would do for their peace talks.
We pulled into the parking garage and sat in the car for a few moments without moving or saying a word, listening to the pinging of the car’s engine as it cooled.
“Let me do all the talking,” Maverick instructed. “It’s better if he hears it from me.”
I wasn’t going to argue, so I nodded and got out of the car. It was my fault we left the house to begin with, and I really shouldn’t let him take the fall for it. But I was a coward, so I kept my mouth shut.
We entered the elevator and ascended to the penthouse in silence. As we approached Tristan’s door, Maverick pulled out a key and opened the door. We entered cautiously and crossed the living room on our way to the dining room. I could see Echo’s pink hair as she sat at the table, her back to us. She spun in her seat and gave us a grim look.
Uh, oh.
“Hey, where’s Tristan?” Maverick asked as we approached, neither of us sitting down.
“He’s in his study,” Echo whispered. “What were you thinking, Rick?”
Maverick ran a hand through those golden curls. “It’s not a big deal; let’s not make it one,” he said.
“Be warned: he’s in a mood. We heard what happened at NightCrawlers. News travels fast, you know that.” Echo’s gaze flitted over to me and back to Maverick. “He’s going to want to know what happened.”
“And I’ll tell him,” Maverick gritted between his teeth. “I have nothing to hide.”
Echo grunted. “You better hope not.”
The door to Tristan’s study opened and he walked out. The three of us straightened guiltily, like we were teenagers about to get busted doing something we weren’t supposed to be doing.
Those vibrant green eyes trailed over each of us and narrowed. He entered the dining room, fastening his unwavering glare on Maverick.
“Well?” Tristan prompted. “Care to explain your absence?”
This was the part where I should have jumped in and took the blame. Said I pushed him to go. But instead, I did as Maverick instructed and stayed quiet, letting him do all the talking.
“Octavia had to pick up her last paycheck from NightCrawlers. I thought I’d take her there to do so, thinking it would be safe if I tagged along.”
“Was it safe?” Tristan asked, obviously already aware of the answer.
Maverick cleared his throat. “No, it wasn’t. Roberto ambushed me. He was working with someone to capture Octavia.”
“And who was this someone that Roberto was working with?” Tristan inquired sleekly.
Maverick looked to me, giving me silent permission to speak.
“His name is Murdoch. He’s the one who killed me.”
At that, Echo kicked back from the table and stood. “You saw him?” she asked, clearly shocked.
I nodded. “Yeah, he almost got me, too.”
“But then the brave shifters arrived. I wonder how they knew where you were?” Tristan accused, his dark glower shifting to me.
I diverted my eyes. “I called Killian,” I admitted, quickly adding, “I didn’t know if Maverick was dead or not. I was trapped in an office with no escape, and I didn’t have your phone number or any way to contact you. He was my only option!”
“I told you I would handle it!” Tristan exploded. “I told you both to stay inside!”
“You can’t keep her locked up forever,” Maverick chided.
At that, I could have sworn Tristan’s eyes took on a glimmer of red. “There is a threat on her life,” Tristan bristled calmly, his anger roiling just beneath the surface. “Did you stop to think about her safety at all?”
I threw my hands in the air. “I’m not completely helpless! We got out of that bind and we’re fine! If we hadn’t left the house and gone to NightCrawlers, we never would’ve known who Murdoch was and that he’s working for someone even more sinister, and—”
“What is that?” Tristan pointed to my arm and I froze. His eyes zeroed in and I realized he was looking at the two puncture wounds on my wrist. My hand subconsciously slapped over it just as Tristan’s accusatory gaze slid over to Maverick. “Did you bite her?”
“Oh, shit,” Echo mumbled and took a step back, grabbing my arm and pulling me with her. I stumbled backward, confused as to what was going on.
“Tristan … let me explain,” Maverick pleaded, holding up his hands. “I was completely out of it. A wooden bullet had grazed my heart and I had holy water thrown on me. I wouldn’t have been able to make it home on my own.”
“Oh my God,” Echo whispered. “Tristan, he was hurt,” she pleaded.
“It was my idea!” I shouted. “He was barely conscious enough to make a decision. I practically forced him.”
Tristan had a murderous look in his eyes that was focused solely on Maverick. He wasn’t listening. His fangs slid out and he snarled right before launching himself at Maverick. He tackled him to the ground, the force making the penthouse shake.
Echo grabbed me and shielded me from the wood that splintered and shot toward us, raining all around. The dining table had broken, smashed to pieces. She tried to move us out of the way, toward the living room, but the warring vampires blocked our escape. We were trapped in the dining room with the unfolding brawl.
Tristan punched Maverick mercilessly as Maverick tried to block each blow. But he wasn’t just taking them, he was hitting back just as savagely. Tristan took a wooden shard from the table and jabbed it into Rick’s gut, making him hunch forward in agony.
“No!” I yelled and tried to run into the fray, but Echo held me back in an unyielding grip.
Tristan didn’t stop there; he plunged his hand into Maverick’s chest and clenched his heart, making him gasp.
I couldn’t continue standing on the sidelines and watching the events unfold. Tristan was going to kill him. He was insane.
Tristan started whispering something in Maverick’s ear that I couldn’t hear, but Echo must have because she loosened her grip on my arms and I pushed her away.
I grabbed a piece of wood that had broken from the table and ran up to Tristan from behind, jabbing it into his back. He arched his back and roared into the expansive penthouse.
Releasing Maverick with a grunt, they both dropped to their knees.
Echo hurried to their sides, removing the remnants of wood from their flesh, while I stood by and watched the horrific scene unfold.
<
br /> “Get me blood,” she ordered. The suddenness of her command took me by surprise and I paused a moment before I complied.
I hurried to the refrigerator and reached in the back where the blood bags were stored, retrieving two and running back to the destroyed dining room. I handed them to Echo, who distributed one to each of the guys.
I didn’t bother sticking around. Turning on my heel, I crept to the bedroom where I’d been staying and closed the door quietly.
I was having a really bad day.
The way this trio of friends interacted sometimes reminded me of me and my brother and sister, the way they were close knit and always had each other’s backs, even when the occasional fight broke out. Then again, we never tried to kill each other.
I felt incredibly guilty for getting Maverick into this mess. If it wasn’t for me, none of this would have happened. He wouldn’t have been tortured by Roberto, and then almost killed by Tristan. I was starting to think bad luck followed me wherever I went. Either that, or I was the bad luck.
“Knock, knock.” Echo poked her head inside Tristan’s bedroom. Since the brawl, I’d slinked off to his room to take a shower and now was just wallowing in misery on the bajillion-thread count bedsheets.
“Hey,” I murmured.
She slipped inside and softly closed the door behind her. She came and sat on the edge of the bed. “How are you feeling?”
“Not like a phoenix. More like a black widow.”
Echo chuckled. “I told you, we’ve all tried to kill each other at least once. It’s not you.”
I gave her a sardonic look. “Maverick must hate me.”
“Nah. He’s in a corner licking his wounds, but he doesn’t hate you. And neither does Tristan—”
“I don’t care about Tristan!” I exclaimed. “He’s an animal.”
She bit her lip to keep from smiling. “Don’t tell him that. He won’t like being compared to a shifter.”
I snorted.
“Why are you the only sane one here?” I asked. Echo seemed so normal compared to the other two. She was so chill and sweet enough to give you a cavity.
She grinned. “You haven’t seen me mad, Octavia. Pray you never do.”
That sent chills down my spine. “Oh, so you’re like, super deadly.” It was more of a statement than a question.
“Super,” she mimicked. “And just so you know, I would never have let Tristan kill Maverick. The situation was under control. Sometimes you just need to let them fight it out.”
“Do they do that often?” I asked curiously.
She shrugged. “From time to time. But it’s usually over the last blood bag.”
I laughed. That was so stupid. Boys were dumb. Even when they were vampires.
Echo got comfortable on the bed and we spent the rest of the night talking. I knew she was only doing it to distract me, but it was welcomed. I told her about my family and friends, even talked about Ben. We debated whether he was still my boyfriend or not, since I was technically dead. It was still up for debate.
Then she regaled me with salacious stories of her past lives. I knew she was only skimming the surface, but I was amazed by the escapades she’d experienced over the past two hundred years. Being a woman in the eighteen-hundreds was not ideal, but being a vampire made it bearable.
“I met the guys in the mid-nineteen-twenties during Prohibition. They were bootlegging alcohol and smuggling it across state lines, and making tons of money doing so.”
“Wait, what?” I choked on a laugh.
“You heard me,” she smirked. “At the time, I was blonde.” Echo touched her pink hair and flipped it behind her. “With a cute little bob haircut. Being a flapper was frowned upon at the time. We were considered unruly heathens, but it was during a brief period of time where women didn’t care.”
“I always thought flappers were cool.”
“We were, but there were some negative traits that went along with it during the twenties. But that’s beside the point. I used to hang out at this one speakeasy—a nightclub that sold alcohol—and that’s where I met Tristan and Maverick. I pegged them as vampires right away. One night, they were distributing to the owner when the place got raided by the police. They were stuck in a back room with no exit, and the owner was going to take the money owed to them and run. So, I enchanted the owner to stay behind the bar until the police came to arrest him, and then I stole the money. Then I took out the cops standing in their way to get them out of the back room. Now, they probably could have escaped on their own, but I think they were planning to let themselves get caught to avoid being suspected of being vampires. It was their first time at the club, so I got them out safely through the tunnels that ran beneath the speakeasy and far away from the raid.”
I stared at Echo, completely enraptured in her story. She had been with them over one hundred years, but Tristan and Maverick had been hanging around each other even longer than that. The whole concept was mind-blowing.
“What happened next?” I asked eagerly.
She chuckled as she transported to the past. “Maverick turned on the charm, but I was completely immune. Tristan was suspicious of me right away, but I admitted I hadn’t run into any vampires in a while and they looked like they needed help. When I handed them their money, that sealed the deal.”
I rolled my eyes. “Why can’t Tristan just accept help?”
“He’s careful, and trust me, it’s saved our asses more times than I can count.”
“So, you’ve been with the guys ever since?” I asked as we sat comfortably on the bed.
“Ever since.” She smiled.
I bit my lip as I contemplated my next question. “Have you guys ever … you know, dated?”
She barked out a raucous laugh, throwing her head back. “Good Lord, no. I refuse to be the Yoko of this band.”
I chuckled. “Smart.”
Her laughing died down and she turned solemn. “And neither should you.”
“Excuse me?” I said, taken aback.
Echo shook her head. “I’m not making any assumptions, just telling you to be careful.”
“It’s not like that,” I said quickly. “With either of them. I mean, technically I still have a boyfriend.” We both laughed. That was a topic we still hadn’t figured out how to solve. Did I, or did I not?
“Anyway, I gotta get going before sunrise,” Echo said as she rolled off the bed. “Just … have patience with him. He can be a little intense.”
I didn’t respond as she turned and silently padded out of the room, closing the door softly behind her. I knew who she was talking about, but why was I the one who had to have patience, when Tristan barely had any for me?
12
I sat at the kitchen counter, ignoring the rubble of the dining room at my back, and ate my bowl of cereal. It was late morning, almost noon, and I’d barely gotten any sleep. I blamed it on my rather eventful day yesterday. That was why my goal for the day was to relax, because nothing could possibly get worse than it already was … right?
At times like these, I missed my family the most. If things were normal, I would have called my sister and spent hours on the phone with her, dissecting every word, action, and outcome. Then she would have added our little brother in a three-way call, who would’ve no doubt tried to play the tough guy and threaten to beat someone up.
I missed them.
“Your forehead is wrinkly,” Tristan said. I shook my head, snapping out of my daydream, and stared straight ahead at the vampire before me. “What were you thinking about?”
“My family,” I muttered.
His brows scrunched inward. “Do you want to pay them a visit?” he asked tentatively, as if worried about my response.
I snapped to attention. “I thought you wanted me to stay indoors?”
Tristan pulled at his collar as if the room were getting warm and studiously avoided my gaze. “Maybe I was wrong.”
I stuck my finger in my ear and wiggled it. “Excuse m
e, can you repeat that? I don’t think I heard you correctly.”
He glared at me. “Don’t be a jackass,” he said dryly. “I’m trying to make amends for my … erratic behavior.”
“You don’t have to apologize to me,” I snorted. “It’s Maverick who you need to make things right with.”
His gaze narrowed on me. “Is there something going on between the two of you that you’re not telling me about?”
“What?” I exclaimed. “No! All I’m saying is that you were a jerk to him, especially when everything that happened last night was my fault.” I pointed to my chest for emphasis. “And if there was something ‘going on’, that’s my business, not yours.” I’d spent most of my time with Tristan anyway. When could I possibly have found time to get busy with Maverick? I was dealing with a severe lack of foresight with these vamps.
I peered into my bowl of soggy cereal and grimaced. No point in eating it now, no matter how hungry I was.
“You’re right. It is none of my business,” Tristan acknowledged tightly.
“Good!” I smiled brightly and shoved my bowl away. “Now let’s go out for breakfast. I’m craving pancakes. And since I’m not under house arrest, I’d like to go see my family.”
I might as well take advantage if he was being nice and letting me out today. I certainly wouldn’t pass up this opportunity. I hopped off the stool and sashayed around the counter to the kitchen sink to wash the bowl.
“Why don’t you just follow your family on social media? Wouldn’t that be easier?”
It was an obvious question, but it wasn’t as if I hadn’t considered it before. I’d been at this whole clandestine-stalking thing for six months. Of course it had crossed my mind.
“The only person in my family worth following is my sister, but she won’t accept my friend request from a fake account and her settings are set to private. She’s too smart to fall for it.”
“Ah, okay.” He nodded. “Well, hurry up and get ready so we can go.”
I practically skipped to the bedroom and sped through a shower. I hadn’t seen my family in days. I couldn’t wait.
Phoenix Burn (From the Ashes Trilogy Book 1) Page 12
