I guess it was better that he broke furniture than took out his anger where he really wanted to—on Blade.
I bristled, mad at myself for thinking of protecting Blade while I watched my best friend crumble from the pain he caused her.
“I’ll have to come visit you guys at work so I can meet her, as soon as Tristan calms down a bit. He doesn’t want to go out yet, since everyone’s buzzing about his absence from the shows.” I’d felt sick for days. Hysteria swirled around the Alta Vista, its toxicity choking me.
“That would be so fun! And this whole thing should pass soon. Immortal Dilemma was built around Tristan. They can’t survive without him.”
“I know. We’ll figure it out.” I’d already overwhelmed Lennon with too much information. I realized I never finished telling her about why we went to see Tristan’s dad. The packet of paperwork sat in a safe place in the guest room, a place Tristan only came to when I invited him. Even completely obliterated on Venom, I hoped Tristan would know better than to destroy that paperwork. It was our key to restoring some sense of normalcy.
Lennon shook her head and smiled. “It’s never a dull moment with you, doll.”
“You need to sign that paperwork,” Tristan growled when I came back from Lennon’s house.
“I’m working on it. I haven’t finished reading it yet, and—“
“Just sign it.” He cut me off. “No one’s trying to screw you.”
Interesting choice of words, Tristan. I didn’t feel like fighting with him, but I still sighed and made a big show of turning on my heel to retrieve the packet. I signed the dotted lines with unnecessary flourish.
“There,” I said as I pushed the open binder at him. “Happy now?”
His eyes lit up as he looked from the papers to me. “You always make me happy, beautiful.”
Hopefully that meant that Hurricane Tristan had passed. “So what does this mean?”
“It means I’m back in my fucking band. It means we can start the process of putting Bradley in his place.” He slipped one arm around my waist, and moved my hair away from my neck with his other hand. He leaned down and started nibbling.
“We need to go to Embrace.” I needed to get it out before I got totally distracted. “Lennon says the new girl who took my job is with some other guy in your clan.”
“Oh yeah?” Tristan pulled away from my neck, seeming genuinely interested. “Who?”
Crap. “I don’t remember his name. But she said they were popular a while ago.”
“Soul Divider.”
“That’s it!” I took it as a good sign that Tristan knew about that band. The last thing we needed was more surprises. “Have you met them before or anything?”
“Yeah. The singer is a real dickhead, so I hope she’s not screwing around with him.”
I laughed. “Tell me what you really think.”
“I just did.” He dipped his head back into the crook of my neck. “I don’t want to think anymore, I want to do.”
My muscles turned to putty under his touch. “So, I want to go to Embrace and meet this girl.” I needed to declare my intentions in a hurry before I wasn’t able to think straight anymore. “And talk to Peter.”
Tristan stopped kissing my neck and I felt him sigh, his breath warm against my bare shoulder. “You don’t need to talk to him.”
“Don’t you think he should know that I’m in charge, or whatever it is that I’m doing? He lied to me. Like you did. Don’t forget I’m still mad at you.”
“I know. But I don’t want you going there alone.”
Rage warmed my body. “How is that going to work? If I’m supposed to be this all-powerful leader, and I can’t go out without a babysitter? Doesn’t exactly make anyone shake in their boots, Tristan.”
“Baby steps, beautiful. Baby steps.”
I had to count to ten before or else I would’ve caused bodily harm. “So what you’re telling me is you have absolutely no idea what’s going to happen and that’s why you don’t want me going to talk to him.”
Tristan laughed and ran his fingers through his hair. “Pretty much.”
I swatted at him playfully. “You should have paid more attention in vampire school.”
“How the hell was I supposed to know things were going to get serious?” He caught my hands in midair and put them around his neck, pulling the rest of my body against his chest. “I hate this shit.”
I craned my neck up to kiss him as I wrapped my legs around his waist. “I know. I do too. It all could have been avoided if you didn’t lie to me.” I nipped at his bottom lip. “Still mad.”
“But now I have you for eternity.” He nipped back at me. “It’s worth you being mad at me for a little while.”
THE FOLLOWING evening, we were escorted down to The Sin City Vampire Club, paperwork in hand, by a lawyer and Tony from security. The guys walked so fast I had to practically run to keep up with them. I had to keep it normal looking, Vulture eyes watched our every move.
“It’s about time we’re doing this,” Tony muttered. “I couldn’t take another night of the uprising.”
“What happened?” Tristan asked.
“Those girls didn’t take the news of you not being there happily. They flipped out, wanting their money back, which they technically shouldn’t get refunded because the show was still happening. I’ve spent all week dealing with overzealous, hormonal lunatics.”
“Did anyone take Tristan’s place?” I asked. My stomach flopped as we got closer to the club. Black noise buzzed in my ears.
“Yeah, that blonde guy who’s been walking around here like he owns the place.” Tony sounded disgusted.
Tristan burst out laughing. “Oh, Bradley. This is going to be awesome.”
Good thing somebody thought so. My brain had yet to reconcile the difference between Blade, my ex-boyfriend I tried so hard to save, and Blade, the vengeful vampire who wanted to make our lives miserable. I hated that I felt bad for him, but I did.
The tension hung noticeably thick in the air around the theater as we entered. Roadies slowed their work to watch us pass through the hallways. Producers for the reality show scrambled for their cell phones. Any random fans who’d made it in before the show stood with their mouths open.
We entered the common area, a room with a few smaller dressing rooms surrounding it. As I could have predicted, the rest of the band was hanging out together in the middle room, but tonight they were going over music with Blade. Like this was the way things were supposed to be. My heart went from hurting for Blade to hurting for Tristan. The band had all but forgotten him already.
Everyone froze when they noticed us. Now I could see the confusion on the rest of the guys’ faces, which made me feel better. Maybe they weren’t complete sheep and felt a shred of loyalty towards Tristan. Blade’s eyes glowed red when he realized what the interruption was. He laid his guitar down with quiet purpose and approached us.
“What are you doing here?” He stepped right up to Tristan, too close. The glow from his eyes reflected on Tristan’s skin. It made my skin crawl. He looked like a monster.
“Get the fuck out of here, Bradley.” Tristan didn’t seem fazed at all by the glowy eye thing. I’d seen Tristan’s eyes change before too, but not like that. They usually blackened. That I could handle. The red thing was just freaky. “You can talk to my lawyer outside about the paperwork that proves you’re an insignificant piece of shit.”
“You can talk to my lawyer outside,” Blade mocked. “Whatever it is, it doesn’t mean shit.”
“Blade, you should come with us,” Tony sounded like everyone’s dad. “The paperwork is legit. Let’s just get this over with.”
Blade looked over to me, and I looked down as fast as I could. I wanted to disappear. Man, I needed to work on my leadership qualities. I hated this. So much. Blade scoffed, knowing that he’d called my bluff and won.
“Yeah, let’s just get this over with.” Blade spit the words out, still in Tristan’s person
al space. Before I knew what happened, Blade grabbed me, pulling me with him out of the theater.
I squirmed and kicked but I couldn’t break free. What the hell? I thought as leader, I automatically was stronger than the rest of the clan, but Blade made me feel almost human again. Powerless. It pissed me off. I bit at his arm. He laughed as he pushed it up into my face. The warm trickle of blood from my nose made me fear it was broken.
Tony and the lawyer didn’t have any chance of keeping up, but what about Tristan and the rest of the band? Did Blade have super speed from the ghost of Talis? Or was everyone in Immortal Dilemma just too lazy and stupid to take anything seriously?
Blade put me down and pushed me through the lobby of the Stratosphere, across the street from the Alta Vista. His claws dug into the back of my neck, but my hair covered it. We didn’t really stand out at all, we just looked like a couple of tourists anxious to get to our crappy hotel room. He didn’t bother with the elevator, directing me to a never-ending spiral of stairs until we reached his floor. Blood ran down my back from his fingers, the only thing keeping me from running away from him was that we were attached.
Once we reached the room, he shoved me up against the wall hard enough that it shook. Thankfully, he didn’t put me through it. He kept me pressed against it firmly as he dug a key out of his pocket with his free hand.
“Home sweet home, huh?” I said as he pulled me into the room. Although there was nothing personal about it, it was obvious he’d been here a while. And he was long overdue for housekeeping. The stench of garbage, desperation, and the tang of blood slapped me in the face as soon as I’d been pushed inside. Not only had he lost all sense of civility, he’d become a pig in the afterlife.
“We can’t all fuck our way to the top and live in a penthouse.” He sneered at me, the red glow returning to his eyes.
I ignored that remark. “What’s with the eye thing? It’s freaking me out.”
“Your eyes do this too, once you accept what you really are. A beast. You can do all kinds of things.”
“Like what?” I sat as close to the edge of the bed as I could, since the sheets were stained with the blood of God only knew who. Somehow, I clung to hope he’d really tell me what I could do. I crossed my arms as I watched him pace back in forth in the tiny room. He acted like nothing more than a caged animal. I had to keep reminding myself that I was just as powerful as he was, and he couldn’t hurt me.
He stopped short, like he’d just remembered I was there and approached me quickly. He shoved his knee between my legs and I leaned back to get away from him, not quite enough to be totally flat on the ruined bed. “Remember all those hooker cards we used to collect? I’ve called those girls, and brought them up here, as you can see. Do you want to know what I do with them, Callie?”
His face was too close to mine, his fangs glistening. I fought the urge to look away, even though I felt every bit like the coward I didn’t want to be. I bared my fangs back and hissed at him. He smiled, as if he was proud of me.
“Feels good, doesn’t it?” He ran a hand up my thigh, under my skirt, stopping just below my hip. My muscles clenched, totally confused by the swirl of emotions in my body. “I don’t have to be so gentle with them. With you anymore, either, now that I know you’ll fuck anyone to get what you want.”
He leaned in to kiss me, and in my shock, I let him for a few seconds. My body betrayed me again and responded. Once I came back to my senses, realizing in the great battle of good Blade vs. bad Blade in my brain that I couldn’t let bad Blade win. I shoved him off of me with all my might, sending him back against the TV, shattering it. Blades of glass and plasma rained down around his head.
“You little bitch.” He was back on top of me almost immediately, I crawled up the filthy bed to get away from him. I reached for the lamp to bash it over his head. It wouldn’t kill him, but maybe I could stun him long enough to get the hell out of here.
Blade caught my arm in midair, the lamp hanging between us. “You asked what I else I could do. I started to tell you about those whores before you so rudely interrupted me. I thought that would interest you.”
I considered my options as he paused, his grip tight enough on my wrist to shatter a bone. It would be little more than a nuisance, but Blade had enough advantages already. We might technically be an even match on paper, but he was bigger and stronger than me, before you even factored in the insanity.
“We don’t need the blood, but I like it.” He bit my shoulder before I had a chance to push him away. “Those whores come running for their forty bucks, and no one misses them, Callie.”
“What does this have to do with me?” I frowned, hoping he’d think I wasn’t horrified, and projected my thoughts as hard as I could to Tristan. I needed to buy time before someone showed up to help me. Where the hell were they?
“I don’t know what the hell your little bundle of paperwork said, but the lack of respect pisses me off.”
“Tell me about it.” I dropped the lamp, letting it shatter on the floor. Blade let go of me and I sat up. Thank God, because those sheets were rank.
“I play guitar way better than your boyfriend, but I don’t have a rich daddy who can mortgage a hotel. So I don’t get what I want. Then I meet this great girl, but she can’t keep her hands off of the pretty, pretty vampire. And somehow, because of the two of you, I wind up getting kept in a meat locker having the shit kicked out of me every day until they decide to make me like this.”
“This isn’t what I wanted,” I whispered.
“But it’s what you got.” He pushed me back down on the bed, and pressed the weight of his body against mine. He ran his finger against my cheek. “You don’t know how happy it made me to find out that you’re just like me. I’m sure Tristan changed you over so you two could live happily ever after together.”
I opened my mouth to tell him that’s not how it happened, but I shut it without saying anything. He didn’t deserve to know the truth.
Someone kicked at the door. Blade jumped up, but after a few blows, Tristan and the rest of the band were already in the room. Tristan jumped on Blade, looking wilder than I’d ever seen him. He pushed him against the wall, punching him repeatedly. Monkey and Ramsey, the drummer and the singer, pulled me up off the bed and forced me out of the room.
Both of them had to wrestle me into the hallway. Whatever the hell was about to happen could be nothing short of catastrophic. They could tear each other apart. Someone could actually die, and I wasn’t prepared to lose either one of them. I screamed every time I heard something crash against something else, breaking into pieces.
And why the hell was I not stronger than the rest of these vampires? When was I going to get answers?
Damn it.
When I didn’t think I could stand another second of waiting, Tristan came out of the room.
Alone.
He took down Blade.
He shouldn’t have been able to do that.
Open wounds bled on his face. He wiped them clean with his shirt. “We’ve reached an understanding.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket. “And we should be able to start the show on time.”
The closer we got to The Sin City Vampire Club, the madder I got at myself. This damsel in distress thing was nothing short of pathetic. I couldn’t expect Tristan and his band of merry men to come and rescue me every time I got myself in trouble. Tristan might be strong, but he wasn’t a leader. Tristan was the master of passive aggressive behavior. It was time to show him, and everyone else, who was boss.
He kissed me as he slung his guitar strap over his shoulder.
“Have a great show.” I wound my fingers around a lock of his hair that had landed on my shoulder. “I’m going to have Tony bring me to Embrace.”
“You’re going to do what?!” Tristan acted like he didn’t hear me correctly. “Like hell you are.”
“You can’t order me around, remember? I’m the boss.” I went up on my tiptoes to kiss him again, ignoring hi
s slack-jawed look of shock. “And after I signed your paperwork, I own Embrace. It would be irresponsible of me not to go.”
Rumor had already spread that Tristan was back with the band because the waiting crowd had already reached a fever pitch. These girls didn’t waste any time.
He might not be a leader, but the minute the lights went down on that stage, he was a fantastic actor. Drunk on the enthusiasm of the crowd, he played into all of their fantasies. Teasing, leaning, preening, and strutting. The crowd begged for more, and he delivered everything they asked for.
I could have my own private show anytime I wanted. Yet, it was still hard to tear my eyes away from the surveillance screens in Tony’s security office. I needed to focus on convincing Tony that taking me to Embrace was indeed a good idea.
“No way.” Tony looked at me like I’d just asked him to poison the entire audience. “The boss will have a fit.”
“I’m the boss.” I reminded him. “And if you don’t want me to have a fit, you’ll do as I say.”
When were any of these people going to start taking me seriously?
This was the first time I’d been back to Embrace since I was officially no longer an employee. I’d been here as a vampire, but not since I knew Talis was gone. And before I knew that Blade was batting for Team Undead. Not since I knew that I had to take this place by storm.
I took a deep breath and threw my shoulders back before opening the door.
“You don’t have to do this, Callie, if you don’t think you’re ready.” Tony hovered in my shadow.
“Is anyone ever ready for this? I just need to do it.” I shot him a dirty look as I countered his vote of no confidence. Pulling the door open harder than I needed to, I hoped it slammed shut in his face.
Everyone turned around to look at me as I walked through the bar. I wished I’d dressed for the occasion. Ripped jeans and sneakers didn’t scream power. Tristan and I might have kept the change in guard quiet, but Blade certainly hadn’t when he tried to insert himself into Immortal Dilemma. I met some of their eyes, just to see how they reacted. I knew all these vampires, I’d served them drinks for months. That’s all they thought of me as, a barmaid. Possibly Tristan’s playmate. Not their leader.
We Own the Night (The Night Songs Collection Book 3) Page 4
