Tristan tried to talk to me while he drove, but I wasn’t in the mood for small talk. My stomach tied itself in knots. We didn’t know what we were walking into. As far as I knew, my cell phone was still lying on the floor of Lennon’s living room. Tristan had been in no shape to swap information with anyone. Disaster seemed to be the most likely outcome, and I needed to prepare for it.
Nothing seemed unusual as we made our way up the walk. I clutched Tristan’s hand tightly. More than anything else, I was worried about Lennon.
“Is she awake yet?” I asked Melanie, who looked as exhausted as I felt. She was as worried sick about Lennon as I was. And she couldn’t have possibly gone through anything like this before.
“Not yet,” she sighed.
No news was good news, right? She still had a chance. And when she did come back to us, she’d be among friends. That’s all anyone could really ask for.
I didn’t sit, and neither did Tristan. They’d welcomed him in, too. All the guys were doing those guy handshake, half hug thingies I would never understand. Girls just hugged. Guys had to do some weird dance to cover up the fact they were hugging.
“What’s going on with Blade?” I hated to bring the reunion to a crashing halt, but we had things to take care of.
“He’s still under wraps, and pissed off,” Rachel said. “I’ve been neutralizing him so he doesn’t burn the house down. I don’t know how much longer I can keep it up. It takes a lot of energy.”
My heart sank. “So we need to act quickly.” We couldn’t lose Rachel. Without her, we had no chance.
“What do you want to do?” Ryder asked.
“I don’t think I can kill him,” I said quietly, settling on the arm of the sofa. “What can I do to stop him that doesn’t require actually destroying him?”
“Oh, come on!” Tristan groaned, rolling his eyes and running his hand through his hair.
“I can’t physically overcome him. You should know better than anyone.” I hated that he doubted me. “So I want to know how to make him go away without hurting any of us.”
“We could bury him,” Ryder suggested. “It will be a bitch, but we can do it.”
“Where?” I asked. There was never a practical place to hide a body. The last thing we needed was a neighborhood dog to dig up the vampire we intended to punish.
“The house doesn’t have a basement.” Ryder ran his hands through his hair and sighed, as he tried to figure out a good spot. “The garage would probably be the best place. We’d have to break through the concrete, but the same tool would be able to cut through the rock underneath, and then we could seal it back up with concrete.”
Concrete. Holy shit. We weren’t fooling around. But if we did this, it needed to be as final as possible. Nobody wanted to deal with the consequences of this months or even years from now.
“Will he be able to dig his way out?” I asked.
“Honestly, I don’t know. He’s powerful. Anything is possible.” Ryder looked worried, and it made my stomach flop.
“How are we going to get him in there?” Melanie asked. “He’s crazy.”
“He’s chained up now, so he can only fight so much, but if we all take a limb, we should be able to get him in the hole.”
“But the fire!” Melanie’s arms flailed in protest. “We can’t lose all of you.”
“I can stop it.” Rachel assured her.
“For everyone in this room?”
“I survived it.” Tristan added. “It sucked, but it can be done.”
“Tristan, you probably shouldn’t get too close to him,” I said. “It’s too soon for you, I think. You probably aren’t in as good shape as you think you are.”
He shot me a look. Clearly, I just challenged his manhood. “Are you kidding me? I want to be the first one to kick dirt on that bastard’s face.” He practically spit the words. “I’m in.”
“Fine,” I sighed, “You’re in.”
“We’ve already kept him in the garage.” Ryder led the way out of the house. “It seemed to be the most fire proof.”
I hated that this is what we all finally banded together over. That Blade had to be the odd man out. This creature that had possessed his body, it wasn’t Blade. It was my fault and now I had to be the one to punish him for it.
“Listen,” I said to Ryder, stalling. “If you guys are going to be in my clan, I can’t allow Noah to stay in the band. He’s worked with Blade all along to sabotage this clan.”
“Fine. He’s out.” Ryder didn’t even hesitate. “But we want the rights to our songs back. Drake sold them to Talis. Blade couldn’t figure out how to do it, basically because he wasn’t really a clan leader.”
“I can do that for you.” That was more than a reasonable request. Tristan pointed out these guys created music for the love of it. They should benefit before anyone else.
This transaction gave me a great idea. “Since you guys need a singer, I know someone who’s looking for a band.” I bumped Tristan with my hip.
Tristan’s jaw dropped. “Beautiful, not yet. I haven’t said anything to anyone but you. And you know what I said about the singing.”
“You’re leaving Immortal Dilemma?” Ryder looked shocked.
“Yeah.” Tristan needed a moment to let saying it out loud sink in. “When I thought it really all might be over, I realized that I really didn’t have forever. And that wasn’t what I wanted.”
Tristan had been in worse shape that he told me. My blood ran cold thinking about it.
He didn’t have forever. None of us really did.
The guys started chatting about a possible collaboration. Musicians spoke a whole other language not meant for the rest of us, and it had been a long time since Tristan was so animated and passionate, and actually thinking about the future.
But there was still so much not to be happy about.
This wasn’t what I wanted. I stopped short, covering my face with my free hand. Tristan took a step but stopped when he would have had to drag me to keep going. The others went a few more steps before they realized we were no longer following.
They all stared at me, waiting for an explanation.
“I can’t do it.” My pulse bounced against my skin, out of control.
More than one person groaned.
“Come on, beautiful.” Tristan wrapped his arms loosely around me. “He would have killed me if Rachel hadn’t intervened. And he’s doing everything in his power to make your life a living hell.”
“Because that’s what I did to him!” I cried.
Ryder overheard us, and put his hand on my shoulder. “Callie, did you want to be a vampire?”
I shook my head.
“You aren’t the only one he’s acted like this towards. Talis, girls he calls to his room, and even the donors at Embrace.” Ryder ticked off the list. Blade’s rage towards me sadly sounded like just the tip of the iceberg. “I know you feel bad about getting him mixed up with Talis. None of us wanted to be mixed up with her. But he’s the only one who went crazy.”
My eyes glistened with tears and I just stood there, looking up at him while I clung to Tristan, and let his words sink in.
“You need to stop blaming yourself for his behavior,” Ryder continued.
“It just sucks,” I whispered. “I wish it didn’t have to be this way.”
No one said another word as we resumed the trip to the garage. Blade snarled and fought against his chains in the corner.
“Of course you wouldn’t come by yourself, Mistress.” His eyes glowed and little sparks flew off of him as he fought.
“What would you have done if I did?” I asked as calmly as I could. Maybe, just maybe he’d snap out of it.
“The same thing that I did to that piece of shit you sleep with.”
No snapping out of it.
“I have to thank you, Blade.” I threw him a curveball, and for a moment he stopped fighting his restraints. “Because if it wasn’t for you hating me, I would have never been abl
e to channel that hatred and destroy Cash.”
His red eyes widened. “You killed Cash?”
I nodded. “My power is that I can channel the powers of any vampire that I can read.” My voice was still even. “So, when Cash decided to brutalize Lennon, I could do something about it. And you were so angry, I had to use that power for good, for once.”
Blade’s chest rose and fell dramatically. He knew why we were all here.
“So are you going to use my own power against me? Because that’s not going to work.” Blade’s voice was surprisingly calm. “I repel the fire. It doesn’t affect me.”
“No, we aren’t going to destroy you.” I was losing my nerve. But this was the only civil conversation I’d had with him since we both crossed into the afterlife. “Blade, I wish you could just get over what happened. Ryder put it all into perspective. None of us wanted this. But you’re the only one acting like this. Please, work with us. There’s a place for you here.”
“What the hell are you doing?” Tristan whispered.
The red faded from Blade’s eyes a bit, and I let go of Tristan’s hand. Everyone gasped as I took a couple of steps forward towards him. “Is this how you act towards all of your ex-girlfriends?”
He wouldn’t look at me. “You were the only one I really gave a shit about.”
We were so far beyond the let’s-be-friends speech it wasn’t even funny. It wasn’t the time to try to explain where I thought our relationship went wrong, or to defend myself.
“I’m sorry I hurt you.” More than anything else in the world, I wanted to touch him. But it would be the last thing I did. “I’m sorry it happened this way.”
A hand grabbed my shoulder and I flinched. “Jesus.” Tristan sighed. “I want to talk to you, outside.”
“You already have me chained up.” Blade’s eyes lit back up. “It’s obviously about me, you might as well just say it here instead of being a complete pussy.”
“Yeah, Bradley, it’s about you.” Tristan paused to sneer at him, then turned back to me. “There’s an underground city—“
“What?” I stopped him. “That’s absurd.”
“He’s right.” Blade’s voice was flat. “And it has a vampire jail.”
“It does?” I looked back at Tristan. The rest of the crowd looked just as surprised as I was.
He nodded.
It was the best news I’d heard all day.
The underground jail was beneath The Flamingo. We formed a caravan, there were too many of us for one car. Tristan explained to me on the way over that it was formerly owned by Bugsy Siegel, the renowned mobster. The jail originally held mobsters, people who couldn’t make good on gambling debts, and whoever else Siegel didn’t think deserved to see the light of day. His version of cement shoes.
That was until Talis de Rancourt showed up and created a whole race of people who would never see the light of day again. The underground jail became a convenient necessity.
“Are humans still jailed there?” I would hate to be the only human locked up with a bunch of pissed off vampires.
“Not that I know of,” Tristan said as he pulled into the parking garage behind Ryder’s SUV. “It’s possible, though. Blade isn’t the first vampire to go bad, beautiful. This place exists for a reason.”
We waited for Soul Divider to pour out of their SUV, and pull Blade out of the back. The girls had driven behind us in a separate car. They came over to join us as the band struggled with Blade. I turned around when Melanie sniffled, and noticed she was crying.
“This is how we met him,” she explained. “He was bound, and angry. Talis’ guys dragged him into Embrace to do something awful to him. I can’t help it, I just feel bad.”
I had to walk away from her. I’d lose it if I listened to her any longer. Blade wasn’t that much different than other vampires. We killed people. I’d killed people. More than one now. He just worked his hardest to piss me off. It wasn’t enough to kill him for, I knew that.
All of us fit in the cargo elevator that went down to the jail. Blade had stopped fighting at this point, accepting his fate. I wouldn’t look at him.
One person manned the desk, a pockmarked older man who looked like he hadn’t seen daylight since before I was born. I didn’t know if he was a vampire or not, but I would not screw with this dude.
“Who’s in charge of this group?” His voice cracked the silence with the subtlety of a gun being fired.
“I am.” I stepped forward.
He laughed. “You’ve got to be shitting me. What are you, sixteen? Go play somewhere else.”
I slammed my hand down on the desk, pushing it back towards him, baring my fangs and letting my eyes glow. “I’m the Mistress.”
“Jesus Christ. Any sick bastard that turns a child like you into a vampire deserves to go straight to Hell.” He looked at the group, trying to figure out which one was the offender.
“Isn’t that where we are?” I asked. If he only knew.
“Home sweet home.” The man held out his arm in mock welcome. “Alright, who’s the lucky new resident?”
The guys pushed Blade forward. He grunted, but didn’t say anything. Ryder handed the end of the chain to the warden, the crypt keeper.
Wrapping the chain around his hand, he pulled on it hard enough to send Blade stumbling forward. Alright, the crypt keeper was a vampire.
“Blade!” I called to him before he was taken away. He looked back at me, his eyes redder than ever. “I didn’t want to kill you, but you undermined me. I can’t have that. Once your anger fades, maybe we can work something out.”
“You think my anger is going to fade in this hell hole?” He laughed. “When are you going to wake up out of the dreamland that you’re walking around in?”
“It was either this or bury you under concrete,” I told him. “That was the plan in the garage. I think you’re going to be a lot less angry here than buried alive under a half a ton of rock.”
“When’s he getting out?” The warden made it clear we were wasting his time.
I looked at the crowd, and then at Blade. “We’ll check on him periodically,” I said. “But if he causes any more trouble, he’ll be down here as long as I exist.”
“You bitch,” he spat.
I just had to walk away. There was no good resolution to this situation. As the clan leader, I couldn’t simply let him go free to antagonize me. This was the kindest solution. I’d check on him regularly. That wasn’t a lie.
I knew deep down the Blade I fell in love with still existed. And even if our relationship could never be what it was, I hoped some day we could at least be civil to one another.
“I can’t believe you did that. He almost killed me, beautiful, and I guarantee he would have done the same thing to you if he had the chance.” Tristan didn’t stop ranting about my decision the whole way back to Ryder’s. “I swear you’re the patron saint of lost causes.”
“It’s a good thing I am.” He was pissing me off. “A lot of people wiped their hands of you, too. Because there was no helping you. If they hadn’t done that, we would have never met.”
He glared at me before turning his eyes back to the road. I refused to apologize for this.
As we pulled into the driveway, I had a whole new reason to panic.
Lennon. We’d left her alone.
Tristan barely brought the car to a complete stop before I got out. After the last few days, I couldn’t take any more surprises.
Now I knew my way around Ryder’s house, and I headed straight to the bedroom we’d left Lennon in. The crowd had gathered there, choking the doorway. I pushed my way past everyone to get a look at what was going on.
Lennon was awake, sitting up, holding her head, and looking dazed.
Rachel and Josiah held on to her, and Ryder was trying to convince Melanie to get out of the room.
“It’s not safe for you in here,” he insisted.
“She needs me,” Melanie countered.
“He’s
right,” I told her. “It’s not safe. Don’t make her do something she’ll regret later. She doesn’t have any control yet.”
I sat at the foot of the bed. “Lennon, honey, we’re all here.”
She looked at me like she’d never seen me before. Oh, shit. When I came to as a vampire, I knew exactly who Tristan was. Please tell me we didn’t make another mistake.
“Do you know who I am?” I asked her, keeping my voice soft.
Lennon looked at me for what seemed like forever, then looked around at the room. I wished I knew what she was seeing and thinking. Her mind just projected static. This was just so totally different than what I had experienced. Finally, she nodded.
And hissed at me.
“I did that to Tristan when I woke up.” I laughed. Rites of passage. “Doesn’t it feel weird?”
“God, yes.” She still sounded like herself. I wanted to hug her, but I knew it was too soon. She couldn’t hurt me, but I didn’t want to provoke her. “What happened?”
I wasn’t sure what to tell her. “What’s the last thing you remember?”
“We went back to my house to get clothes. You wanted me to stay with you. How did we get here? Where are we?” She looked around at everyone, confused. “Why is everyone here?”
Thank God she didn’t seem to remember anything with Cash. I wanted so badly to check her body, to see if she’d been able to heal from her injuries, but not with all the guys in the room. We had forever to find out.
“We’re at Ryder’s house. A lot’s happened while you were joining us. We’ll tell you later. All you need to know now is that you’re safe and we love you.”
“I’m a vampire?” She looked at me in disbelief.
I nodded.
“Well, it’s about freakin’ time.” She fell back against her pillows. The room erupted into laughter.
“Rachel is your creator,” I told her. “So we’re all going to give you a couple minutes with her and Josiah, and they’ll show you what you need to know right off the bat, okay?”
“Okay, I guess.” She was still confused, of course. Everything would be off for her at first. Smells, sight, touch, it was all different for a vampire.
We Own the Night (The Night Songs Collection Book 3) Page 21
