We Own the Night (The Night Songs Collection Book 3)

by Kristen Strassel

  “Why?” Helping another clan leader in a quest for Blade was a trap I’d walked into blindly before. I had no plans of making the same mistake twice. Cash better give me damn good reason.

  “Because he’s more powerful than us all.”

  Holy Crap.

  Blade, the most powerful vampire?

  Reign him in or destroy him?

  How the hell was I supposed to do that?

  I returned to the Alta Vista in a daze. As promised, Lennon figured out a way to stay behind. I hoped I’d left her in good hands. She was so under Cash’s spell she wouldn’t even realize if he was using her. I certainly couldn’t tell if he was trying to help me or hurt me.

  Why would Cash, a two hundred and change year old vampire, need me to take down Blade? I hated that I didn’t think of all the questions that battered my brain now until I left him. Why couldn’t he do it himself, especially if he was a clan leader?

  Because Blade was my problem.

  I knew all along I had to do something about Blade, but I just didn’t want to. I knew that my refusal to leave him in my past hurt him more than me forgetting about him, and I knew that everything that had happened to him in the last few months was my fault. I’d created this monster. But why did I have to break him yet again?

  Once I returned to the apartment alone, I headed for Tristan’s bedroom, peeled off my clothes, and climbed in between the covers. I wasn’t in the mood for a game of hide and seek. I just wanted to use my new found mind control trickery to somehow fix this entire mess.

  I must have drifted off because I jumped a mile when I felt Tristan’s hair tickle my skin. “I love the feel of your heart beat,” he murmured as he cradled my head in his fingers and kissed me.

  Still disoriented, I knew at this moment I needed nothing more than to feel human. I pulled him down on top of me, answering his kiss with an intensity I didn’t even know I had. I pushed my fingernails into his shoulders and dragged them down his back so deeply he screamed against my lips. He pulled away from me, but I held on to his slippery back for dear life as he pulled me up so we were both upright, tangled in sheets, covered in his blood. He ran his teeth down my breastbone, matching my need. My head fell back, I gasped as I felt my skin open, the air against my insides, my blood cooling. Then it went away, healing just as fast as he ripped me apart.

  I pushed his head down between my legs, forcing him to tease me with his tongue and enter me with his fingers. I fell back on the bed, wrapping my legs around his shoulders and pulling his body further into me with my ankles.

  Digging my fingers into the mattress, I ripped the fiber away from the foam. I needed to keep myself grounded on this planet when Tristan bit the inside of my thigh. He sucked rhythmically, putting me into a dizzy trance. He climbed back up my body, his chin maroon and slick. I grabbed his arm out from under him, sending him crashing down on my body one more time. Putting his wrist to my mouth, I sank my fangs into the thin skin that kept his veins safe from me. The ebb and flow of the blood between us felt like thunder and lightning. I continued to drink as he entered me, thrusting in the rhythm of my swallows. When I was so full I couldn’t take any more, I let go of his arm, falling in an exhausted, spent heap.

  Tristan slowed until he exhausted himself, then leaned in to kiss me softly. “We should sleep in your room. This mattress is fucked.”

  I burst out laughing. “Why should it miss out on all the fun?”

  “You need a shower, beautiful.” Tristan stood up and held out his hand to help me up. He was right, this place was a mess. Blood and foam everywhere.

  “Are you telling me I smell?”

  “You smell like me.” He laughed. “I like it better when you smell like you.”

  Exhausted from the night, I could do little more than hold on to him as he washed my hair. I moaned and rest my head on his shoulders as his fingers worked at my scalp. The water stung my healing skin. After he was satisfied with his work, he wrapped me in a soft blanket like he would to a child and led me to my bedroom at the end of the hall.

  I drifted in and out of sleep with my head on Tristan’s shoulder. Vampires didn’t suffer from insomnia, we got pulled under as the sun rose no matter what. When I couldn’t totally succumb to unconsciousness, it felt more like I was trapped under ice, with the whole world unable to see or hear me screaming. Tristan provided me with the distraction I needed without me even knowing I needed it. It was like he could see inside my soul and knew what I needed. Or at least he always knew how to get inside me and get what he needed. Even though I always felt something, it wasn’t always better.

  If I could have moved, I would have run my fingers along the outline of his stomach muscles while I thought about the night. It seemed sacrilegious to want to touch Tristan while I figured out how to rein in Blade. I hated myself for it, but there was no way to make it stop. I’d have to give myself a lobotomy.

  It was a relief to have Cash give me this ultimatum of sorts. Finally, here was someone who knew what he was doing in this world. We only had our loathing of Talis in common, as far as I knew. But he had that in common with Blade, as well.

  I needed this guy.

  Blade and I were so far past the possibility of a truce it wasn’t funny. But I still didn’t hate him. There was this weird, numb, guilty feeling where the hate should be. If I left it alone it would grow and fester and kill me.

  Melanie and Ryder told me that somehow Blade made Talis burst into flames. It was remarkable enough to make an impression on Cash. Neither of them knew how he did it.

  The last thing I wanted to do was ignite his madness. I wouldn’t survive.

  Before I did anything else, I needed to apologize to Melanie. I knew she wasn’t going to be open to anything I had to say, but I had to try. It had to mean something, right? Even if I didn’t always make the right decisions, I made the ones that were right for me at the time. Now that I knew I was wrong, I wanted to fix it.

  “Oh my God!” Lennon hardly let me get to the bar. “I have so much to tell you!”

  The tension around me dissipated and my whole body relaxed. For a second, I could forget why I came to Embrace. “I take it your night went well.”

  “Doll,” Lennon held on to the tap and leaned forward. “I thought I knew Bloodlust before. I didn’t know anything.”

  My eyes widened. “Are you sure it’s not because it’s been a while?”

  She shook her head emphatically. “There is no way I could forget anything like that.”

  “We need to hang out on your next night off.” I had to admit, I was curious about this. “Hey, is Melanie around?”

  Lennon’s face darkened and she pulled back to her side of the bar. “She should be in any minute. You’re not going to start a fight or anything, are you?”

  “Since when have I ever done that?”

  Lennon went back to work, drying glasses, looking down and sighing. “I’m just so tired of all the drama. I’m sick of being caught in the middle. When you guys are in the same room, I can hardly breathe. Just because you don’t need oxygen anymore, doesn’t mean we all don’t.”

  “I’m going to try to fix that.”

  Lennon looked back up at me, her face brightening. “Really? That’s the best thing I’ve heard all day.” But then her smile faded. “I just hope it’s not too late.”

  Same here, Lennon. Same here.

  We chatted a bit more in between her customers. It would never feel right for me to sit and watch Embrace from this vantage point. I longed to be back behind the bar with Lennon.

  Melanie came out from the backroom and went behind the bar with a smile on her face. It promptly faded when she saw me nursing a glass of Venom. I hoped that she’d smile back at me, but she didn’t. Instead, she looked away from me as quickly as possible.

  I made a face at Lennon, and thankfully, she picked up on what I wanted her to do. “Callie wants to talk to you, sugar.”

  “Why?” Melanie crossed her arms, still not looking
at me. She made sure I could hear her. “Hasn’t she said enough?”

  Well, didn’t she have big brass ones? I fought the overwhelming urge to jump over the bar and crush her windpipe. But that would totally defeat the purpose of my visit. Now I understood why Talis had hated me so much. And Melanie wasn’t even trying to sleep with my creation.

  Melanie and Lennon continued volleying back and forth about why Melanie should talk to me, or not, but I was totally zoned out for the rest of the conversation.

  I’d never have a baby, I’d have a creation. It sounded like a horror movie. My life had become a horror movie. “Fine, Callie, what do you want? I don’t want to leave Lennon alone too long.”

  I jumped slightly in my seat, having to remember where I was. “You don’t have to leave her at all. We can talk right here.” It was probably better if others heard what I said, anyway.

  Melanie didn’t say anything, but she looked surprised.

  “I know you didn’t have anything to do with what happened to Josiah and Rachel on the road.” I watched her relax a little. “I came to apologize.”

  She nodded slowly. “Do you know anything about what happened to Erin?” There was such naked desperation to her question, I was fairly certain that she didn’t have anything to do with that, either.

  “I’m sorry. I don’t.” My heart broke as her face fell. I wanted to tell her the truth, but it was going to cause drama with Lennon, and that was exactly what I was trying to avoid. But it had to be said. “You should probably talk to Cash.”

  As I could’ve predicted, Lennon bristled at my words. I said, “You heard him, Lennon. He was the one who was screwing with Soul Divider on the road.”

  “But why would he have wanted Erin dead?” Melanie’s eyes shined with tears that threatened to fall any second.

  “I don’t know.”

  “So what does this all mean?” Lennon held up her hand to tell a customer they needed to wait. “Are you going to protect Melanie?”

  “I don’t want it,” Melanie said quickly. “I still can’t trust you, Callie.”

  Fair enough. Just what I expected. But at least the air had cleared a little. “I understand that.”

  “We’re better off with Blade. Blade has a vision. He’s a leader.” Melanie had fallen under his spell. I understood that, too. Most days I had a hard time shaking it as well.

  “You have to do what you think is best for you.” Even if I knew it wasn’t best at all.

  AS LONG as I didn’t push Tristan to care about anything, our relationship was magical. I was used to people wanting to know what was going on around them, to try to make things better. This was why Tristan drove everyone around him to madness. He didn’t want that at all. Once I realized he was incapable of thinking of anything beyond the present and his own happiness, it made my life easier.

  If I still needed to breathe, he would be my oxygen. We didn’t fit any sort of neat description, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

  But I knew his limits. We snuggled, played, talked about whatever was on his mind. Sometimes it was me, him, the band, whatever he thought was important at the time. I didn’t tell him about what happened recently with Cash, Blade, or Melanie. It wasn’t that he wasn’t interested in what I was doing, now I knew he just liked things the way they were. He didn’t respond well to challenge. I finally figured out how to play this game, and now it was fun instead of frustrating. He was never going to be anything other than what he was, and I loved him that way. There was no changing Tristan. He didn’t have the answers I needed, but I knew he had my back.

  Once I figured this out, I could hardly keep my hands off of him. And Tristan certainly didn’t complain.

  I didn’t even hear the elevator door open as it brought us back down to earth. A couple of fans squealed and tried to get Tristan’s attention from the backstage hallway. I hated that, as much as I knew Tristan and I belonged to each other, I also knew we had appetites we couldn’t satisfy for each other.

  Vampires weren’t meant to be monogamous.

  As we walked by, hand in hand, the girls started whispering and giggling. That’s not what they usually did. I turned around, knitting my brows together in confusion. When one of them caught my eyes, hers widened and her mouth dropped. Like I caught her doing something wrong.

  Whatever.

  The scene repeated as we got closer to the set of Immortal Forever. A group of producers looked alarmed when we walked in, taking deep breaths and scattering. Monkey came over to Tristan and gave him a high five. “Nice job, man.”

  This couldn’t be my imagination. Had Blade shown up again, deciding he wanted to be in the band? What the hell was going on?

  “Thanks.” Tristan sounded as puzzled as I was. “What are you talking about?”

  “Your little show.” Monkey nudged him, waggled his eyebrows then slapped Tristan on the ass. Then he leaned in a little too close to me. He reeked of Venom. “You too, Callie.”

  “Yeah. What are you talking about?” I had the sinking feeling I was the butt of a joke no one wanted to tell me about.

  “Tristan. Callie. Would you meet me in the office, please?” Denise, one of the producers, called to us. My heart sank to my stomach. Nothing good ever happened to me in offices. The way tonight was going so far, I didn’t expect my streak to be broken.

  Denise motioned for us to sit on the couch. My brain spun. What could she be telling us? Tristan couldn’t be fired, we’d made sure of that after Blade tried it. She couldn’t be kicking us out of the apartment. I was technically her boss.

  This couldn’t be good.

  “Is there anything you two want to tell me about?” she asked once she closed the door.

  The urge to automatically apologize for something, anything, choked me. I felt like my mother caught me doing something wrong. Oh God, my mother. Please tell me this had nothing to do with her. Vampires be damned. They didn’t know her wrath.

  Tristan and I looked at each other in disbelief.

  “No,” he answered. “Is there something you want to tell us?”

  “Something weird is going on, isn’t there?” It didn’t feel right to say it out loud. Like giving it a name gave it power.

  Denise sighed and cracked open her laptop. A couple clicks of the mouse later, I was watching myself have sex in Tristan’s living room on the screen.

  My whole body froze, shock tingled against my skin. I wanted to speak, scream, tell her to shut it off, but I couldn’t form words. Instead, I just kept watching myself, my bare skin slick with blood, writhing and moaning against Tristan in the living room.

  Tristan squeezed my knee. “You look hot, beautiful.”

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” My voice rose two octaves as I came back to life. “Where did you get this thing? Other people haven’t seen this, have they?”

  Denise looked away from me. “It’s on the internet. On one of the fan sites.”

  “Give me that thing.” I grabbed the laptop. On screen, I still screamed and cried as Tristan brought me to the breaking point on the screen in my hands.

  Immortal Fans Forever dot com. That was the site Janelle ran before Blade murdered her.

  “How—“ I could barely collect my thoughts beyond clicking on the X to make that video stop. “--did this happen? The girl who runs this website is dead.”

  Tristan grunted. “Then who’s running the site?”

  “Exactly!” I jumped out of the chair. The laptop fell to the floor, and I didn’t give a damn if it was broken. Someone could get Denise a new one. “This site should be null and void. And that video needs to come down, like yesterday.”

  Denise scrambled to pick up her computer. “Someone else must be running it. And it’s not the only place on the web that’s hosting the video. I’m afraid it’s gone viral.”

  Tristan laughed.

  “What’s funny?” Seriously. How could he think anything was funny right now?

  “A sex tape? Viral? Virus?” Both Denis
e and I glared at him. “Never mind.”

  “How the hell could this have happened?”

  “There are cameras everywhere in the apartment.” Tristan sounded more serious now. “We haven’t filmed in there since you’ve been staying with me.”

  How could I be so stupid? There were cameras and video clutter in the corners of most of the rooms, besides the bedroom. But when no one was there, I assumed they were off.

  “But if you haven’t filmed—“

  “There’s twenty-four hour surveillance cameras in the apartment,” Denise said. “But those only go to the production office.”

  “Who the hell would do this?” My hysteria had yet to wane.

  “Are you ashamed?” Tristan asked.

  My mouth dropped open. “I don’t want the whole world watching me have sex! I’m not some porn star!”

  Tristan smirked. I wanted to kill him.

  I stormed out of the room, ignoring the judging looks of everyone I passed between the office and the elevator. I was going to find every hidden camera in that apartment and rip them out by the wires.

  Tristan caught up to me, grabbing me by the shoulder, before I made it to the elevator. The Vultures nearby gasped. I’m sure it looked pretty rough to them, I’d barely felt it, but they didn’t know I wasn’t like them anymore.

  That wasn’t true. They’d watched me drink blood on that video. Still, they didn’t know all the specifics.

  “What?” I roared. I could see the reactions around us, the fans now joined by more producers in my peripheral vision. This type of exchange was reality show gold. Too bad for them I’d make sure it wound up on the cutting room floor.

  “You need to calm down, beautiful.” Tristan said so calmly, and he was still smiling, making me even crazier.

  “Not until I rip every one of those cameras out of that apartment.” The murmurs grew louder. This crowd, that seemed endless, they’d all seen the video. They knew what I was talking about. I turned away from him.

  He grabbed my arm again. “You can’t. It’s part of the contract.”