“That wasn’t betraying her.” He smiled, but it wasn’t happy. “It was just pissing her off. There’s a difference.”
“I guess you’re right. You piss me off all the time.” I tried to make him smile for real. Didn’t work. “You better not betray me, Tristan. You’re all I’ve got.”
At one point in my life, which seemed something that happened in another universe, I had envisioned spending my life with Tristan. In my head, we led a sun-soaked existence, kissing endlessly as the ocean lapped at our ankles. It’s funny how in your dreams you never get old.
At least I got that part right.
He lowered me back down to the couch, one hand in the small of my back, the other on my shoulder. He kissed me from the center of my neck down to my breastbone. “You’re all I want,” he murmured.
I sighed, from the feel of the lips feather soft against my skin and the sound of those words. I wanted them tattooed on my heart. While I was lost in another dimension, our clothes had disappeared, unneeded. I wrapped my hands in fistfuls of Tristan’s hair, pulling his head up. He stopped what he was doing and looked up at me, fangs bared, eyes glowing.
He sunk his fangs into my skin, just above my left breast. My body bucked up against his as I screamed. He pulled the essence from my body, so close to my heart. I pushed him closer, my body reacting uncontrollably. I scraped my fingers along his arms, his blood hot as it pooled on my stomach. He lowered his head, working his tongue on the skin of my belly. I pushed his head lower, running my free hand through the blood he left behind then sucking it off of my fingers.
Tristan and I shared the same wish: that he would crawl inside of me, that we could become one. This was the only time everything felt right. Blind and screaming when I reached my peak, I pulled his face back to my mouth, smothering him with kisses, then biting his neck. His body went limp and I climbed on top of him, straddling his stomach as I drank. I slid down on top of him, fitting perfectly together and moved back and forth with all the strength I had left that night.
When we both had nothing left, we laid in a heap, gasping for air we didn’t need, sometimes having enough energy to kiss. Nobody said a word. We didn’t have to.
That was all I needed.
Cash Logan’s eyes followed me again from the moment I stepped into Embrace until I got to the bar. My skin tingled under his gaze. Was he trying to read me? What would he pick up?
Weren’t my weakness already public knowledge?
Lennon had a Venomtini waiting for me as I climbed up on the bar stool. She knew just what I needed. I licked sugar off the rim, and then downed most of it in a long, smooth sip.
“Damn, doll.” Lennon whistled. “You mean business.”
“Seriously, it’s like Kool Aid now.” I still felt Cash staring at my back. “What’s with the magician? Is he trying to use x-ray vision on me or something?”
“He can use his magic on me any time he wants.” Lennon looked over my shoulder and fluttered her eyelashes. “Jesus Christ, he’s hotter than the sun.”
Her enthusiasm over this guy still took me by surprise. “Ready to jump back into the game, huh?”
She lowered her eyes, looking sad. “I’ll always love Jacey, that’s never going away. But it’s been like two months since I’ve had any blood play. I’m about to rip myself open in the middle of this bar. I can’t take it anymore.”
“I get it.” Really, I did. Once vampire blood passed my lips, I couldn’t imagine my life without it. Lennon must have felt like she was wilting by now. “But are you sure about that guy? Maybe it’s the magic thing, but he gives me the heebie-jeebies.”
“He’s sexy and mysterious.” Lennon practically swooned, still looking past me. “And he radiates power. I want to feel that power flowing through my veins.”
That was it. It was the power. I looked over my shoulder, back to Cash. His lips turned upward in a smile. A horrible, dirty smile that said so much but gave me no answers. It was his only acknowledgement. He drank in my surprise with the same intensity I finished my Venomtini.
I turned back to Lennon quickly, trying not to let on how much her new love interest startled me. “When Melanie has a chance, ask her to meet me in the office, please.”
Lennon’s mouth dropped but I didn’t give her a chance to ask any questions. I walked away without looking at anyone.
I sat back in the chair and pulled my knees up to my chest, picking at the frayed threads around the hole in my jeans.
I would have done anything to not have to do this.
When the door cracked open, I straightened myself up, trying at least to look respectable.
“Hey, Callie.” Melanie sat down as I nodded to her. Her expression changed from hopeful to puzzled when I didn’t smile at her greeting.
“I wanted to thank you and Ryder for inviting me over the other night. Everything he told me was really helpful.”
“Isn’t he the best?” Her face lit back up. Her warm emotion washed over me. Damn it. This wasn’t going to be easy.
“You guys seem really happy together.” I stood up, feeling foolish sitting at the desk. I looked like I was playing office. “But I feel like he didn’t tell me everything.”
Melanie’s mouth dropped. “You weren’t there very long. I mean, you can’t learn everything you need to know in one night.”
I ran my finger along the bookshelf. I didn’t want to look her in the eye. Not exactly a leadership quality, but I was doing the best I could. “That’s not what I’m talking about. I wish someone had mentioned that Noah Dalle had replaced Drake Bonham as Soul Divider’s singer.”
She brought her eyebrows together, confused. So she didn’t know everything, either. “What difference does that make?”
“Noah isn’t a part of this clan. And Noah was helping another clan leader work against me while I was still human. Soul Divider is a part of my clan. Major decisions, like this, need to go through me.”
“I think you need to talk to Ryder about this.” Melanie closed herself off.
“I will.” I leaned against the bookshelf. I drank in her defiance and tried to read her mind. A scramble. “I don’t like it when people keep things from me.”
“What are you trying to say, Callie?” Great. Melanie wasn’t even a vampire and I’m pretty sure she wasn’t the least bit intimidated by me.
“I don’t know if I can trust you.” There. I said it.
“Oh.” That’s all she said. I watched her deflate.
“I don’t think I can offer you the protection you’re looking for right now.”
“What?” Melanie stiffened. “You can’t do this to me. They’ll send me to jail. For life.” She dissolved into tears. My insides crumbled, but her meltdown did her no good.
“Melanie, stop it. Please. I just need to know you’re telling me everything I need to know. Then I’ll reconsider.”
She looked back up at me, her eyes filled with hatred. Now I could see how she could’ve killed people. “If you won’t help me, I’ll find someone who will.”
She got up and ran out of the office. I slid down against the bookshelf, falling to the floor. I had no doubt she’d find someone to help her. Even if their only motivation was to hurt me.
“Seriously? You’re not going to come with me? Not even for moral support?” My mouth hung open in disbelief as Tristan flipped through television channels. It wasn’t like he even had anything to do.
“Beautiful, those meetings are all blah, blah, blah. I can’t be bothered with all that shit. And my dad will be there.” Tristan tipped his head back towards Trevor George, who looked as shocked as I was. “You’ll be great.”
“Fine. Don’t care about your future.”
“Why start now?”
I rolled my eyes. “I’ll do my best to get you a gig on the Praise the Lord channel. Wish me luck. I’ll need it.” I didn’t wait for his reaction before I turned on my heel, heading towards the elevator and pushing the button to get the hell away from him. Tr
istan’s dad followed me into the elevator, and waited until the doors closed until he said anything.
“He’s never going to change, Callie,” Trevor sighed. “It’s a waste of your energy to try.”
“I wish someone had put some more energy into him before he got himself into this mess.” I met Trevor’s eyes as they widened in surprise. “He’s not a waste of energy. I really hate that everyone thinks so.”
“Are you telling me how to love my son?”
I sighed and leaned up against the wall as the elevator came to a stop. “I just wish he knew how much you did.”
Great. I couldn’t have been tied in tighter knots of tension if I had tried walking into the board meeting for the shareholders of Talis Enterprises. I felt ridiculous, my big debut in a conference room full of middle aged men in suits, wearing my ombre baby doll dress and china doll slippers. I’d never been to anything so stuffy and formal in my life. I was homeschooled, for crying out loud. Corporate anything was so far out of my comfort zone I didn’t even know what to expect.
Trevor motioned for me to sit at the head of the long table, in a chair that threatened to swallow me. The suits all stared back and forth from me to Trevor as he pulled out the chair for me.
“What is this, Trevor, bring your daughter to work day?” Laughter erupted. I pursed my lips so hard I was afraid my fangs would cut through my bottom lip.
“No, gentlemen. I was just about to introduce you to Calliope Chabot.” Trevor smiled warmly in my direction, the argument in the elevator forgotten for now. “Or you may refer to her as your new Mistress.”
I winced. “Callie will be just fine.”
A bald man with glasses scoffed. “Isn’t that the gal who’s screwing your son? What the hell is going on, Trevor?”
My eyes burned, and before I knew what I was doing, me and the bald guy were on the floor, his chair knocked back with me on top of him, fangs bared.
“I—I’m sorry.” Baldy choked out the words. Without a word, I went back to my seat. The rest of the table murmured to each other, not realizing I could hear every nasty thing they said about me. “Loose cannon” and “a problem” were the words they kept repeating.
Not only was I the only vampire in the room, I was the only woman. I had no guidance on how I should behave, but I wasn’t sorry about what I just did. He deserved it, talking about me like I was an object and not a person. I was embarrassed that I couldn’t control my emotions, sure, but if that was the only way I could get my message across right now, so be it. I had forever to work on the finesse part.
Trevor cleared his throat. “So, if we could go over the minutes of the last meeting, and get Callie up to speed.” Everyone opened their laptops, so I did the same, not knowing if there was something specific we were supposed to be looking at. Trevor rattled off figures and pieces of information quicker than I could type it all out. I’d have to ask him to go over everything again for me later.
“Does anyone have any new business?” he continued. Thankful for the break, I stretched my fingers like starfish.
“Sorry I’m late.” Blade breezed into the room like he owned it. He sat in the one empty chair and pulled his laptop out of a bag that looked like he’d found it on a battlefield in Iraq.
The burn rose from the pit of my belly into my brain. My head threatened to pop off. “What the hell are you doing here?”
The rest of the room looked back and forth like they’d scored seats at Wimbledon.
Blade smiled at me like he hadn’t tried to kill me the last two times we’d crossed each other’s paths. I balled my hands into fists under the table. I didn’t want the board to see how much he rattled me. “This is my corporation, Callie. I wouldn’t miss a meeting. Sounds like I got here right in time. I have some new business I’d like to share.”
Trevor sighed. “Blade, the paperwork that Callie gave you released you of your duties concerning the Enterprise. But why don’t you go ahead and share whatever this news is that you have.”
I glared at Trevor. I wanted Blade out of here, for him to go back to his little den of inequity across the street. Yet I had to admit, I was curious about what he had to say, too.
Blade passed around handouts. Really? “Since the revenue from Immortal Dilemma and Immortal Forever is down compared to the same quarter last year, I’m creating a new revenue stream with another band in our clan. The revamped Soul Divider is going to debut with a new singer at the beginning of next month—“
“Of course you’re behind this,” I hissed, tossing my handout back at him. “Noah isn’t even a part of our clan! Peter was working against this clan and probably still is.”
“That’s partly true.” Blade smiled, and I would’ve done anything to wipe it off his face. Then I thought about the way his beard felt against my fingers and my heart leapt into my throat. When were these goddamn feelings going to go away? “He actually partnered with me to make the clan stronger.”
“How so?”
“Immortal Dilemma is riding a wave. Waves crash. You need to reinvigorate the public interest in the music scene we have here.”
“So which one is better, Blade? Destroying the band or creating direct competition?”
“It’s not competition, Callie. It’s a completely different fan base. Mothers go see Soul Divider, daughters go to Immortal Dilemma.” He spoke only to me, and like I was an idiot.
“But Noah. He has to go.” I protested. “I’m sure you understand my objections.”
Blade shrugged. Did he just stifle a laugh? I practically had to push myself down in the chair not to go up over the table. Again. “Soul Divider needs a singer—“
“Because Ryder Maddox killed him. Which is treason in this clan,” I interrupted.
Blade ignored me. “Noah needs a band. I don’t see the problem.” He straightened the pile of papers in his hands. “You can’t make everyone you fuck disappear, no matter how hard you try.”
My mouth dropped open and everyone at the table turned varying shades of red. I wanted to rip him to pieces so badly, but these suits already thought I was a loose cannon. I might need these guys on my side. And Blade seemed to have much more of their favor right now than I did. Frigging chauvinist pigs. They knew how this worked. Yet they wouldn’t follow me blindly. Did I blame them? No. Did I resent them? Hell yes.
“Blade. That’s enough,” Trevor reprimanded him.
“Tickets have already gone on sale for the Soul Divider shows. It’d be a public relations nightmare if we pulled the show. We’d have to tell the entire world why you object, Callie.” Blade shrugged, I wanted to smack the smug look off his face. “I also have some ideas about how to rekindle interest in Immortal Dilemma.”
“And what would that be?” His last idea was nothing short of a disaster. The fans practically rioted when Blade tried to replace Tristan.
He smiled at me, clicking his laptop closed and putting it back in its filthy carrying case. He stood up and headed towards to the door. “You’ll just have to wait and see.”
I couldn’t ignore Lennon’s phone calls forever. All of her messages pleaded with me to call her back, insisting we needed to talk. But I didn’t want to talk about Melanie. The decision was made. I couldn’t let her change my mind.
Immortal Dilemma had the night off, and the walls were closing in on both Tristan and I. Not being able to go out in daylight slashed your options for fun in half, but being someone whose face was splattered all over the city put the nail in the proverbial coffin. In a lot of ways, it brought us closer together, just us in this little bubble. But sometimes, the bubble ran out of air. Tonight, we didn’t have many other choices if we wanted to get out of here than to go to Embrace.
“You ready to go?” Tristan poked his head into the bathroom as I fiddled with my hair. Braiding it, wrapping it into a bun, taking it down, pulling it back in a barrette. All the indecision did nothing but make it bigger.
“Yeah,” I sighed, spraying some concoction that promised to
tame my curls in a cloud around me.
“We don’t have to go if you don’t want to.” Tristan leaned against the door jamb. “I can think of plenty of things to do here.”
“Later.” I grazed his cheek with my fingertips. “I don’t have anything to be scared of. I own the place.”
“Who are you trying to convince of that?”
I smiled sadly. “Me.”
Tristan pulled me into his body and kissed me, hard. Maybe we didn’t have to go out. No, we did. “Whatever you want, I support you. You know that, right?” he whispered against my lips.
I nodded, still trembling.
Maybe I should have returned Lennon’s phone calls. Or at least listened to her messages. It would’ve prepared me for the scene I walked into.
Blade had moved his conference table persona from the boardroom to the barroom. Only this time, instead of being surrounded by corporate drones in suits, he surrounded himself with Soul Divider. The new version, of course, complete with Noah, who licked his lips and winked at me when I walked into the room. And Melanie, wearing my old uniform, gave me a look that would have obliterated a mere mortal.
Melanie wasn’t the only female at the table. Another girl sat next to Blade. Young, round faced, and pretty with a blonde streak in her hair much like Lennon’s, minus the pinup sassiness. Her mouth opened in surprise when she saw me, then her eyes narrowed. The guy on the other side of her, with spiky hair and glasses, held her back as she rose in her seat.
The other female vampire.
Baring my fangs, I hissed, and Tristan held on to me in the same way this other female’s friend hung on to her. Annoyed, I wrestled free from his arms and glared at him, hissing back at him, too.
“Shhh….” Tristan whispered in my ear. “You show her who’s in charge, beautiful. A cat fight won’t do that.”
I hissed at him one more time for good measure as we took seats near the bar.
“She lives.” Lennon didn’t give me her usual warm greeting as she plunked two glasses down in front of us, filling the glasses and pushing them towards us.
We Own the Night (The Night Songs Collection Book 3) Page 7
