Night Moves (The Night Songs Collection)

by Kristen Strassel

“Calm down, Melanie, and look at me.” He said sternly. I turned my face away from him, still acting like a child. “Look at me.”

  I steamed for a minute, trying to catch my breath. I didn’t want to give in, like Ryder did with everything. I wanted to keep fighting.

  But I needed him on my side. There was so much fight left to go. He might not be helping me, but I didn’t need him working against me, either. I turned my face back to his, forcing myself to meet his eyes. Not in defeat, but defiance.

  “The police might not be able to find you. But Drake and Talis will. They will go to the ends of the earth to hunt you down and drag you back. This might seem like the absolute worst thing in the world right now. And you’re right. It sucks. But it won’t get any better if you run. I’ve run. I’m back. They will make you do what they want you to do.”

  “So they just get their way.” I whispered, my throat raw from screaming.

  “Pretty much.” He sighed.

  “Why can’t you fight them?” My lips quivered, on the brink of another breakdown.

  “They created me.” He explained again, his patience ever ending. “I answer to them. It doesn’t matter what we think, what we want. They pull the strings, Melanie. I can fight a lot of battles, but that is one I will lose every time. Do you understand me?”

  I nodded, exhausted, and put my head on his shoulder.

  He let go of me, my legs slid down his body. Too weak to stand, I had to hold on to him by the waist. He put his arms back around me to steady me. Humiliated by my body’s response to this challenge, I couldn’t look at him.

  “We’re going to go talk to them. We don’t know what they want right now. We might be thinking the worst.” Ryder tried to make his voice soothing, but I bristled at every we. It didn’t matter how many ways he explained it to me that there was no way around this, I still felt like he was selling me down the river. This wasn’t we. It was me. “Let’s just make this easy on ourselves.”

  We rode in silence to the Alta Vista hotel. Ryder drove the white car Joy had delivered me in. I could barely see, still furious with him, furious with the whole situation, furious with myself. I had to fight the urge to jump out of the moving car.

  Ryder drove into a back entrance of the hotel, far removed from the fanfare of the Strip. I didn’t move when he stopped in the space. He came around to my side and opened the door and offered me his hand. I glared at him.

  What a gentleman. Leading me to my execution.

  The service entrance reeked of hot garbage. Bile rose in my throat, as it had been threatening to do ever since Ryder answered the phone. I fought the urge to let it go. Sweat dappled my brow.

  “Melanie!” Ryder said sharply as I ran between two cars over to the concrete wall. Did he think I was enough of a moron that I would run away from him into a wall? Probably. I was enough of a moron to follow him to this place.

  He rubbed my back as I purged, again, his gentlemanly gestures ironic in the face of where we were. I got up off my knees and wiped the pebbles off of my knees with as much dignity as I could muster, refusing to look him directly in the eye. I wanted to smack the look of pity right off of his face.

  “Come on, let’s get this over with.” It didn’t even sound like my voice. Rage ripped in an electric undercurrent under my skin. I’d felt like this once before. When I came home in the storm and found Jamie with Angela. It scared me. Not so much about what would happen to me anymore, but what I would do.

  Ryder didn’t say another word as he headed into the building. I followed, having to walk double time to keep up with his long, quick strides. This wasn’t like him to leave me behind like this, but everything leading up to this moment was unprecedented. We walked through a maze of hallways, unimpressive concrete and linoleum, not meant to dazzle. Ryder entered a code into an elevator control pad and we stepped inside. My knees buckled as the doors closed. My stomach stayed in the basement as the unit shot upward. I held on the railing for dear life. I had to try to be strong.

  I expected to see a dark, dank basement like room that I’d seen in mafia transactions time and again on TV and in movies. Instead the doors opened into an opulent golden hued room with low blue and orange Moroccan style furniture and strings of lights cascaded down like curtains.

  Nothing bad could possibly happen in the most beautiful room I’d ever seen, right?

  Heels clicked on the dark wood floor. Drake walked out, looking like the small person he was against the grandeur of the room.

  “Where’s The Mistress?” Acid dripped from my tone. I was beginning to relax. This wasn’t what I expected at all.

  “Do you really think Talis could be bothered with the likes of you?” His words delivered as much bite as mine. “Don’t flatter yourself.”

  So it looked like I might have relaxed prematurely. I resisted the urge to hold on to Ryder. I snuck a sideways glance at him. He stood stiffly with his arms crossed. I had to put aside my rage for him right now. I needed to channel it all towards Drake.

  “Then why are we here? You got us out of bed for nothing.” I spat.

  “Oh, I’m sorry, did I interrupt your fucking?” Drake mocked me. “It would explain why you look like something the cat dragged in.”

  “I don’t know if you would call it that, since no one beat me with a strap.”

  “I’m willing to bet you didn’t have any of Ryder’s precious blood, either.” Drake looked so amused.

  Ryder sighed. “Drake, just don’t.”

  “Just don’t what?” Drake flashed a toothy grin. “Just don’t share blood? Just don’t get close to anyone? Just be afraid? Is that what I should do, Ryder? This is why you’re not a leader. You won’t take a chance.”

  Ryder closed his eyes. I could tell he was mentally counting to ten.

  “You dragged us here so you could ridicule Ryder?” Why was I coming to his rescue? It should have been the other way around. “Like you haven’t done enough of that over the last decade?”

  “Oh, I know, poor Ryder. Poor, millionaire, famous, beautiful, tragic Ryder. No, Melanie. You know why you’re here.”

  Drake snapped his fingers, and I heard wheels scrape the expensive floor. Two men flanked a cage that housed a snarling, wild Rachel. She looked more like a rabid coyote than the sweet girl I left at the party.

  “Oh my God,” I gasped. “What did you do to her?”

  “This is what you did to her.” Drake spoke to me like I was a child. “New vampires are very unpredictable, Melanie. She needed to be secluded for her own safety. For the safety of the general public. She has no mentor, since no one wants to own up to creating her. No one to teach her how to survive.” He looked back at the cage sympathetically. Rachel reached through the bars, grabbing at him. Of course the slippery bastard was just out of reach.

  It hurt to look at Rachel. She had been reduced to an animal so Drake could prove a point. There was no reason why this couldn’t have been handled civilly, besides the fact that Drake was at the helm.

  “I told you what happened already. You refuse to believe me.” I didn’t want to plead with him. I wanted to pretend I still had some free will in this situation.

  “Because you won’t take responsibility for your actions.” He was so infuriating.

  Even more infuriating was that Ryder had done nothing to stop any of this. Really, this was better than running? Drake was insane. With his superiority complex, I’m not sure he’d even notice we were gone.

  “Fine. I’ll take fucking responsibility for my actions. Since no one else in this room will. No one would be in this mess if you weren’t so afraid of being the old has been that you really are. Nobody’s going to give a fuck forever, Drake. You aren’t the Beatles, you aren’t the Stones. You’re fucking Soul Divider. No one takes you seriously.”

  “Well, you better start.” His calm was unsettling. He turned away from me. “Sweetheart, come in here, please.”

  Erin came out from the same place the cage did, looking frightened. S
he didn’t say anything or meet anyone’s eyes. God only knows what she had seen happen in that room with that cage.

  “I’m going to open the cage, Melanie.” Drake continued as matter of factly, as if he was telling me how to cook his favorite meal. “There’s a stake in there. You need to drive it into her heart before she tears apart your friend, or maybe even your boyfriend. Female vampires are extremely powerful. This one doesn’t know how to control her strength. And she’s hungry.”

  “How the hell am I supposed to be able to take down a vampire?” I screamed. “If she’s strong enough to take down Ryder, she’ll kill me without even trying.”

  Drake smiled. Fuck, was that his plan all along? “Maybe you need some blood to make you stronger.”

  “I’m not going to have sex in front of you to get Ryder’s blood.” I was beginning to panic. I had no idea where this was going.

  “Ryder would never give you his blood. That’s what ruined his marriage.” Drake mocked. “But I want to make this a fair fight. I’ll give you mine.”

  Erin’s eyes widened and her mouth dropped. I’m sure she mirrored my expression. I couldn’t look at Ryder right now. I squeezed my eyes shut, weighing my options. And that’s when a plan formulated. I said a quick prayer to any deity that happened to be listening and took a deep breath.

  “Okay.”

  Erin’s eyes widened even more.

  “Babe.” Ryder started to say something but I held my hand up.

  “You’ve already proved you don’t want to help me, Ryder.” It killed me to see the hurt on his face. A part of me knew he deserved it for not standing up to Drake. “I’m not going to die because everyone else is afraid to do something.”

  I took a few steps over to Drake without acknowledging Ryder or Erin. I couldn’t hear them over Rachel’s howling and babbling, anyway. I had no idea what I was going to have to do to get his blood. My stomach churned at the thought of having to put my mouth anywhere on his body.

  “What do I need to do?” I whispered. If I spoke any louder, he’d hear my voice shake.

  “We don’t need to have sex.” His tone had softened as well. I resisted the urge to fall to my knees and thank those deities for answering the first of my prayers. What was going to happen when I took his blood? Would I feel some bond for him? Would he feel anything for me? Was he even capable of such a human emotion? “I’ll open up my wrist. All you have to do is drink.”

  I nodded as I watched Drake brace himself and lift his wrist to his mouth and break through the flesh with his fangs. Blood darkened his sleeve and ran down his chin as he offered the wound to me. My whole body shook uncontrollably. I grasped his arm and he guided it up to my mouth.

  Rachel wailed at the sight of blood in the background.

  I placed my lips on his open skin. Even though vampires ran cold, the blood was warm as it touched my tongue. It tasted slightly sweet, thick and syrupy. My body tingled as it slid down my throat, warming my belly. I tried not to swallow. Still I felt lighter, as if all the stress and worry left my body. I could almost feel my muscles building, like I was becoming more efficient. A machine. I opened my eyes and looked at Drake for approval. Colors swirled in my vision like a kaleidoscope. I felt my body swoon, and Drake steadied me with his free hand as he murmured things that sounded encouraging.

  Everything about this was otherworldly.

  “Okay, that should be good.” Drake took his arm back, his voice slightly husky, licking his wound to clean himself. I stood there bewildered, trying to get my bearings. The universe had changed its composition while I drank Drake’s blood. “You know what to do, Melanie. This isn’t the first time you’ve killed someone.”

  I had held as much of his blood as possible in my mouth. Just the little bit I had to swallow changed me. Not enough to make me forget my mission.

  I spit the blood in my mouth out in Drake’s face. I wasn’t going to be a slave to him like Erin or Ryder.

  “You fucking bitch!” He roared. He came at me, but I ducked him.

  Rachel let out a bloodcurdling scream at the sight of so much wasted blood. In the midst of the commotion, the stake flew out from between the bars and skidded across the floor, hitting my feet.

  Again, the deities responded appropriately.

  Drake’s body shuddered in anger as he stopped his attack to wipe his own blood out of his eyes. Erin screamed, the sound ripped through my body. My ears were so much more sensitive with vampire blood flowing through my veins. I turned to see her fall to her knees, pointing to Drake.

  I never saw Ryder plunge the stake into Drake’s chest.

  Drake howled, dropping to his knees. Ryder jabbed him over and over, twirling the wood to make sure the impalement meant business. Nothing could be left to chance. He grabbed on to Ryder’s hands, but he shook him off easily as Drake lost strength. Erin tried to pry Ryder away from him, but he pushed her off of him like he was flicking a feather away. Drake withered in front of us as the rest of his blood poured from his eyes, nose and mouth. Finally, he fell in a crumpled lifeless heap.

  No longer undead. Just dead.

  My brain recognized that Ryder and Erin were in a tailspin, but I was still shrouded in shock. I walked over to the cage and released the latch. Rachel flocked to Drake’s lifeless body like a buzzard on road kill.

  Dazed, confused, and covered in a dead man’s blood, I looked back and forth from Erin to Ryder. I smiled. Ding dong, the witch was dead.

  No one seemed happy about it but me and Rachel.

  “What did I do?” Ryder crouched down, comforting a hysterical heap of Erin in his arms. He looked up at me with fear and bewilderment in his eyes. At first I thought his expression was for Rachel, but he never took his eyes off of me.

  “You fixed the problem. I’m so proud of you.” I moved over to put my arms around him, but he shook me off, concentrating on Erin. He wouldn’t even let me soothe him? What the hell? Wasn’t this what we all wanted? I could understand that he was upset that he’d done something so awful, but it was the only answer.

  “How could you do this to me?” Erin managed between sobs, slamming Ryder’s chest with her balled up fists. “Oh my God. Oh my God. He’s dead.”

  I stood in the middle of the chaos, not sure what to do. Ryder and Erin clearly seemed frightened. Sure, I was still covered in the Drake Kool-Aid, but they had drunk far more than I had. I still couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t be relieved. They were free of the tyrant.

  Behind me, Rachel began to seem human again. She was covered in Drake’s blood, but she no longer continued to let out guttural wails as she drank every spilled drop of him. No longer possessed by hunger, she had an inhuman serenity.

  I didn’t know what any of it meant.

  “You don’t understand what a mess I’ve just created. The Mistress—”

  I cut Ryder off. “The Mistress, who couldn’t be bothered to deal with something only she thought was a problem? If she wants Rachel dead, she can do it herself. I wanted Drake dead. I won’t lie. I did. I’m happy. You both should be too.”

  “How can you say that?” Erin wailed. She ripped at Ryder’s hair. He just let her. “You killed my everything. Don’t you understand that?”

  I rolled my eyes and hated myself for laughing, but I couldn’t help it. “Erin. He was married to someone else. He never belonged to you. You knew that.”

  “But he was still mine.” She cried. “I liked things the way they were.”

  “His wife, his wife’s family. Shit, babe. If you thought Drake was trouble, I can’t protect you from what happens next.” Ryder shook his head.

  “What did you protect me from? You delivered me straight to him! Like a present!” I didn’t care if Ryder thought I was crazy. “Ryder, I’m proud of you. Because I love you. I believe in you more than you believe in yourself. Now you have no one to hold you back.”

  I crouched down beside them, reaching out to Erin who swatted my hand away. “Don’t touch me.” She seethed.<
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  “Erin, I want you to have someone who loves you. Someone who appreciates you. Respects you. You’re my best friend. I may not have always acted like it lately, but now that I have you back, I don’t want to let you go. You’re amazing.” I kneeled down beside them, still, my voice breaking. “You deserve someone who will shout it from the rooftops, not hide you in a closet.”

  “It’s true, Erin.” Ryder said, stroking her hair to calm her. “You do deserve better than that.”

  Erin began to calm down, exhausting herself, pulling away from Ryder, wiping her face and smoothing her hair. She breathed in as deep as she could, letting her whole body rise and fall with each breath. Not much was left of Drake, Rachel had made sure of that. She made an effort not to look at the bloody, fleshy lump in the middle of the dark wood floor, cascade of lights from above making the liquid shimmer and twinkle grotesquely.

  “So what do we do now?” I asked Ryder. I had no experience in hiding dead bodies. I just left mine out in the open and split. I also had no experience with brand new vampires and we needed to deal with both.

  Ryder surveyed the room, still gorgeous and inviting, even with the gore piled in the middle of the exotica. He ran his hands through his hair and sighed. “We’re going to need to clean things up. Rachel is going to have to come with us.”

  “Please don’t lock me up again.” Rachel’s voice was small and rusty from screaming. “Please. I’ll do anything.”

  “We won’t, sweetheart.” It hurt me so much to hear Ryder taking care of all of us. He must have been so wonderful with his girls. “There’s plenty of room. I can teach you what you need to know, but it’s not going to be easy. Talis won’t want you in her territory.”

  “I know that. I can’t stay here forever.” Rachel nodded. “I just don’t want to act like an animal anymore. You don’t act like an animal.”

  I could sympathize with Rachel. She had already died once, unsuccessfully. Now in Las Vegas, surrounded by the people she’d strived to be with, she was basically waiting to die again. We had a lot in common.