“Why?” It was all I could manage.
“They were in a meeting together last night at Embrace. Blade came out, and he was laughing, telling the guys they wouldn’t have to worry about you anymore.”
My muscles twisted painfully. “Did he say why?”
“I don’t know.” Rachel sounded apologetic. “I asked Josiah about it, and all he said was that Blade was nuts, and I needed to stay away from him.”
Great. “Does Josiah know that you’ve been talking to me?”
“Not everything.”
“You need to tell him, Rachel.” I had almost no control over the amount of disclosure in my life, but this we could control. “We need to be as open with each other as possible. Blade is dangerous. And powerful.”
Lennon’s scream overpowered whatever Rachel said in return. Dropping the phone, I ran towards the bedroom. I stopped short at the threshold, met with a human-shaped fireball flailing in front of the closet.
Now it was my turn to scream. Moving as fast as I could I grabbed all the blankets off to the bed and ran towards the flames, smothering them. I held tight to the form under the blankets, tears streaming down my face. I looked up, expecting to see Blade standing there or maybe even Cash, but all I saw was a broken window by Lennon’s bed.
Fucking cowards.
Lennon whimpered from underneath the blankets. Thank God, she was still alive. I patted her softly through the blankets, trying to comfort her, but wary of causing her more pain than she was already in. I was terrified to peel back the swaddling and look at the damage Blade did to my beautiful friend. But I had to. Lennon didn’t have forever to begin with, and depending on how bad her injuries were, that clock might be ticking double time right now.
God knows that’s how my heart was beating.
I couldn’t lose Lennon.
Slowly, I pushed the blankets away from her body. My stomach flopped violently every time Lennon shuddered. Her hair spilled into my lap, remarkably unscathed. I ran my fingers through it to make sure I could believe my eyes. Lennon jerked, almost like she was trying to get away from me, but didn’t have the strength.
“It’s me, Lennon,” I reassured her, so she didn’t think she was still under siege. Her body didn’t relax. I picked up a piece of her hair, realizing all the pins were gone, along with her blonde streaks.
This wasn’t Lennon.
I jumped back, and the stranger’s body fell out of my lap. She sat up, making me scream bloody murder. How could she do that? Just minutes before, she was engulfed in flames. Only one person could survive that.
“Holly?” I asked.
She turned around and looked at me, only meeting my eyes for a second. Holly nodded more at the ground than at me. My body relaxed momentarily.
Where the hell was Lennon?
“What just happened?” My words came slow, like I was speaking to someone who didn’t speak English. But this girl, she was so timid, I felt like anything coming at her too fast would scare her deeper into submission.
She looked up at me, wide eyed, pulling the blanket tightly around her body, shivering. She was cold after igniting. When Blade did that thing to me that I thought he might cook me from the inside out, and I shivered the rest of that night. But Holly wasn’t a vampire. And she was used to bursting into flames. Maybe that’s what always happened. She looked down again, mashing her lips together like she wasn’t sure what she wanted to say.
“Who brought you here?” Eventually, she had to answer one of my questions. I moved towards her and she jumped.
“Stay away from me, bloodsucker.” She startled me by speaking loudly. I stopped in place. “I’m fine. I do this all the time.”
“You break into people’s houses and burst into flames? You make the people who live there disappear? I don’t think I’m following you.” The time for niceties passed when she conspired in whatever the hell just happened to Lennon. I moved faster than she could get away from me and grabbed her arm. “What the hell are you doing here and where is Lennon?”
Holly struggled to get away from me. “You’ll have to ask Cash.”
“He’s not exactly taking my phone calls right now, so you’re going to have to play secretary for me.” I rose to my feet, pulling Holly up with me. “You’re coming back with me.”
“What? No! I can’t,” she pleaded.
I looked back at her and laughed. “The only way Blade is going to talk to me is if I have something he wants. And since he’s got a newfound thing for redheads, I think he’s going to want you back.”
Holly pulled away from me as hard as she could, but I still dragged her easily across the carpet. “I need something to wear.”
“What?”
“My clothes burn when the fire comes.” Her voice was so low, I could barely make out the words. But the way she said it, it sounded like she had no control over bursting into flames.
Sighing, I stopped, pushing her back in the direction of Lennon’s walk-in closet. Lennon took immaculate care of her clothes, so many of them vintage pieces, and she kept them in better order than some stores I’d been in. I gave Holly a shove hard enough to make her fall back against the rack of clothes. Lennon would be pissed about the mess, if she ever got to see it. “Pick something. I don’t care if it fits or not. Make it fast. We’ll clean this up later.”
Holly started flipping through the hangers, and pulled out a T shirt dress. Her other arm still held the blanket tightly against her body. She tipped her chin up towards me, defiant. Sort of. “Are you going to watch me get dressed?”
I crossed my arms and tried to fill as much of the doorway as possible. I hated shaming this girl, but I couldn’t give her any opportunity to get away from me. “Yeah.”
Now it was my turn to look at the floor while she pulled the dress over her head, letting the blanket fall. I still shook with the horror of finding someone on fire in Lennon’s bedroom and the anger of Lennon being missing. Again I hated that I couldn’t drive, I was at Tony’s mercy to bring me and Holly back to the Alta Vista. And Tony was probably as in on this as Holly was. And on top of all of it, I was irritated that after all that just happened this evening, I could still manage to feel bad about being mean to this girl. Whatever, Holly, you burn your clothes off every night in front of a live audience. The whole world had watched me have sex. Naked bodies weren’t anything remarkable around these parts.
“Her shoes don’t fit me.”
“Too bad.” I grabbed her arm and brought her out to the parking lot barefoot. Tony waited for us outside of the SUV, and looked alarmed when I returned with someone other than Lennon. I didn’t bother offering an explanation. “Can you get the door, please?”
“Back to the Alta Vista?” Tony asked once we were settled and he put the car into drive.
“Yeah. Unless you want to tell me what the hell Cash is doing to Lennon.”
He looked back at me. “What the hell are you talking about?”
His guilt slapped me in the face. I wanted to put his head through the windshield. If Lennon was being hurt right now, he was just as responsible for letting it happen, and I’d never forgive him. Lennon had nothing to do with any of this. But I had to be careful. Tony had a really good idea I was on to him, but I still needed him to cooperate. Or at least bring us back to the Alta Vista.
“Just bring us home, and I’ll handle it from there.” I leaned against the window, rubbing my hand over my eyes. I was having a hard time resisting the urge to jump out of my own skin. I looked over at Holly, who sat stick straight beside me. “You’re not going to burst in to flames, are you?”
“Jesus Christ,” Tony muttered.
“I’ll try not to.” She didn’t sound too convincing.
The fifteen minute drive back to the Alta Vista seemed like it took roughly a day and a half. I couldn’t take my eyes off of Holly, who seemed just as nervous as I was. Every so often, I managed a quick glance out the window, to make sure Tony was bringing us where he was supposed to.
I wanted to kiss the concrete floor of the parking garage of the Alta Vista, but that meant I would have had to let Holly out of my grasp. No chance of that.
The apartment was quiet when we came in. I wasn’t sure what time it was, but it felt really late. As much as Tristan could probably use a babysitter, I usually had no reason to wonder where he was. So far, he’d made good on his promise of no more girls. Outside of work and its extracurricular activities, Tristan didn’t stray far from my side. The world’s most unlikely homebody.
“You can take the rest of the night off, Tony.” I didn’t look at him as I dismissed him. “Thanks.”
“You can’t do that,” he protested.
I turned towards him with an eyebrow raised. “Who in the history of work has ever refused to be done early? What’s your deal?”
“I’m security, Mistress.” He spit out that last word. “You went into that apartment with one girl and came out with another. It doesn’t take a genius to realize something ain’t right.”
He had me there. But he also managed to make me sound guilty. I just nodded. I gripped Holly’s arm so tightly I could feel the bone. She stared at me, unblinking. I was probably hurting her. She wouldn’t dare say anything.
What was I going to do with her? I couldn’t hold on to her forever. I could trap her in the guest room. Would I have to hog tie her? Wouldn’t she just burn through any restraints? Whatever I came up with, it needed to not involve fire. We were on the fortieth floor of a high rise building. It wasn’t like I could ask Tony what he thought.
Where the hell was Tristan? The first cracks of bright blue broke through the night sky. Soon the safety shades would block the sunrise, keeping everyone safe inside. Provided we were all inside.
“Where is he?” I asked Tony.
He shrugged. “The boss doesn’t check in with me. I was assigned to you tonight.”
Dragging Holly along with me, I brought her to the guest room. I pushed her in before me, turned on the light, and then stopped short like I’d been punched in the gut.
I found Lennon alright, naked and covered in blood, tangled in the sheets, writhing against Tristan. He looked up, like he saw right through me, his lips curling in a smile as his teeth tore through the flesh on her neck. Still looking through me, he pushed her legs apart with his knees, and then entered her.
Lennon’s cries of passion were drowned out by my screams.
“Calm down!” Holly sunk down to her knees beside me. I’d practically melted, unable to move out of that spot while I watched the love of my life fuck my best friend. She brought her face close to my ear, probably realizing my senses had been dulled by shock. “It’s an illusion.”
Tearing my eyes away from the spectacle, I looked at her like she’d just granted me a stay of execution. “It’s not real?” My words felt like they were being choked by a river of marshmallow.
“No. I know Cash’s work when I see it.” She stood up, my hand still on her wrist. “If you let go of me, I’ll show you.”
I let my hand fall into my lap and Holly approached the bed. Lennon’s back arched up off the mattress, her head and shoulders limp, with Tristan’s arm loosely around her back, holding her up as he plunged into her repeatedly. Her face had gone slack, that mix of peace and ecstasy that could only be felt in this moment, by two people madly in love.
Explosions went off in my body. It was too much for my brain to process. The information bounced against me, but I refused to let it in. Please let Holly be right. So what, Cash betrayed me. I deserved what I got from Blade and his minions. But if this was real, it would destroy me.
Holly sat down on the bed dramatically, in the exact spot where Tristan and Lennon joined. The image still projected on her, like she was a movie screen. She waved her arm back and forth through their transparent faces, slicing the image. “See? Not real.”
Unable to blink, I felt like my eyes might actually fall out of my head. “What is that?”
“Cash dug inside of you, and found your worst nightmare to project to you,” Holly explained, now speaking slowly to me. “He’s trying to throw you off the trail.”
I cocked my head in thought. Would this girl help me? Her allegiances lay firmly with Cash. But nothing was what it seemed tonight. “Are you working with Cash, or against him?”
She sighed, and I noticed the image surrounding her was fading, losing power now that it had been exposed as a farce. “I can’t get away from him, but I don’t like what he’s doing. Everything was fine before he showed up.”
I was sure people said the same thing about me.
“How do I shut it off?” I couldn’t look at the bed any more.
“Stop giving him power over you,” she replied, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “You’d think you’d know your own kind.”
Holly had no idea how badly her words stung.
Closing my eyes, I turned my concentration inward, crawling into a little hole and shutting everyone else out. All this time, I relied on other people to save me. No one was stepping up to do anything but take advantage of that. I created this mess, and I was going to put a stop to it.
When I looked back at the bed, Holly sat on it alone, no more horror movie playing. She looked around the room, taking it all in, like anyone would when they were left alone in an unfamiliar place. “They’re gone.” My voice was little more than a whisper.
“That’s good.” She didn’t sound impressed. “Can I go home now?”
That bright blue the sky turns just before the sun rises served as our backdrop. Dawn would break any minute. The safety blinds took care of the sun, but my body would soon shut down for daylight hours, and I wouldn’t regain control until the sun went back down. Tristan told me I’d need less sleep the longer I was a vampire, but for tonight, my time was almost up. My eyes began to burn like someone had rubbed sand in them, and my thoughts came in slow motion. The negativity of the night had left me more drained than usual. Getting up off the floor took too much effort. I sat next to Holly on the bed. I couldn’t let her go, but I didn’t have time to figure out a way to make her stay.
“Stay with me.” I hoped I didn’t sound like I was begging, even if I was, a little. I didn’t want to be alone. “And I’ll figure out a way to free you from Cash.”
Holly scoffed, knowing it was an empty promise. “This I’ve got to see.”
“CALLIE! CALLIE!” Someone shook me awake. I didn’t know where I was, or what I was late for. My lids were slow to open, and I found myself practically on top of someone I didn’t know. Another couple of blinks and I realized it was Holly, still sound asleep. For whatever reason, she stayed. The temptation to drift back to oblivion was wildly strong.
“Callie!” Who was calling me? It was a man’s voice I couldn’t place. Was I still dreaming? I jumped up, realizing that Tristan may not have come home last night.
“Tristan?” I called out.
“It’s Ryder.” His voice was soothing, like he was trying to wake a child before school. Soul Divider had been such a wildcard since they’d arrived in our lives Ryder’s presence here tonight could have meant anything. He kept his hands on my shoulders, either to calm me down or keep me in place. Panic burned in my stomach. Had he learned Blade’s fire trick, too?
“What’s going on?” My voice was gravelly from sleep. “Where’s Tristan?”
“He’s okay.” No one ever led off with saying that when they had good news for you. “Something happened at the bar last night—“
“Is it Lennon? Is she alright?”
Ryder raised his eyebrows and his jaw dropped. “What’s wrong with Lennon?”
“Oh God.” I fell against him. “Cash killed a girl during his show last night, and he told me Lennon would be next. I insisted she come back here with me, but she wanted to get clothes first. Someone took her from her bedroom, and left Holly in her place, on fire, of course to scare the shit out of me. It’s either Cash or Blade. We can’t trust either of them.”
“Shit,” he said under his breath as he rubbed my back. Holly woke up, and scrambled away from us. I’d figured out that vampires terrified her. I didn’t know how long this girl had been alive, if she was immortal or not, but she needed to realize she had the advantage. I looked up at Ryder to see his reaction, and he seemed to take it in stride. “I didn’t know anything about Lennon.”
My whole world caved in. Whatever he wanted to tell me was about Tristan, and Lennon was still a wildcard. And here I clung to someone who’d sworn to work against me for comfort.
“Tell me what happened to Tristan!” I slammed my hand against his shoulder.
“Like I said, he’s going to be alright.”
Going to be. Oh my God.
“Immortal Dilemma went to Embrace last night after the show. Tristan got pretty out of control, and confronted Blade. It got ugly fast, as you would expect. When Tristan came close to kicking Blade’s ass, Blade did the fire thing.”
I wanted to ask questions but all I could do was gasp.
“Tristan got burned pretty badly—“
The image of Tristan’s skin melting away from the bone was more than I could handle. Was that my imagination, or was I picking that up from Ryder? I dissolved in hysterical sobs against his chest. I could only keep repeating to myself that no matter what else Ryder told me, he said Tristan was going to be okay.
“Shhh.” Ryder tried to calm me down. “He’ll heal fast, Callie. He already looks much better than he did last night.”
“Where is he?”
“We brought him back to my house. You weren’t answering your phone.” It was still on the floor in Lennon’s living room. “We ran out of time to do anything else.”
“I want to see him!” I jumped up out of Ryder’s lap.
Ryder took a deep breath. “There’s more. Blade is there, too.”
“What? Why would you do that?”
“We didn’t want him to come here and do anything to you,” Ryder explained. “He thinks he’s invincible now, and it looks like he’s probably right. But there was no way we were going to let him attack you when we knew you were alone.”
We Own the Night (The Night Songs Collection Book 3) Page 18
