Because the Night (The Night Songs Collection)

by Strassel, Kristen

  Tristan tipped up my chin so I looked into his eyes, which were glistening. I remembered this look well, from our time on the Vineyard. He whispered in my ear, nipping my earlobe and making me gasp. “You drove me crazy for weeks making me chase you, and now that I finally have you, I’m not letting you go.”

  Chapter Thirty One

  Hey, Callie, it’s Dave Bennett.” I was too stunned to respond to the voice on the phone, so he added, “Blade’s brother.” Like I didn’t know. So this was how Blade was going to get in touch with me? He made his brother do his dirty work. Unbelievable.

  “I know,” I tried my hardest not to be short with him. I liked Dave. But still, I was guarded. The hairs standing on the back of my neck told me this phone call couldn’t be good. “What’s up?”

  “This, um, might be a really strange question, but is my brother with you?”

  “What? No. Why?” Strange indeed. I guess Blade wasn’t much for talking to anyone lately.

  “I figured as much. Listen, I’m really worried now. I thought maybe you guys had gone away somewhere and I just forgot. This isn’t like him.”

  “When was the last time you saw him?” Dave was right; this wasn’t like Blade at all. I understood why he didn’t want to see me. But his brother?

  “God, I haven’t seen him in over a week. But our schedules are so different, even though we live together, we can go days without seeing each other. So I didn’t think anything of it. But now it’s just weird. When did you see him last?”

  I sighed. “Not since he left me at that awful casino in the middle of nowhere.”

  “What?! When was that?!”

  “The night he played drums in that show. He got pissed at me and left me there without saying a word.”

  “OK, Callie, we have a problem. A big problem.” The panic was building in Dave’s voice. “No matter how pissed he was at you, he would never leave you behind somewhere.”

  “Well, he did.” It still stung to talk about it.

  “No. No.” Dave was adamant. “He. Would. Never. Do. That. My brother is absolutely crazy about you. Although sometimes I don’t understand why.”

  My insides crumbled as the reality hit me. Something had happened to Blade that night. And what had I done since? Everything in my power to punish him in his absence and rebuild my bruised ego.

  “I am a really lousy girlfriend.” I whispered, more thinking out loud than anything else.

  “Yeah. You really are.”

  “This isn’t a time for sarcasm, Dave.”

  “You’re right. I’m serious. You are. My brother is an awesome guy, and he deserves someone that’s not going to walk all over him and go around acting like some little vampire groupie.”

  “I thought he left me,” I clapped my hand over my mouth in an effort to shove the words back into it before Dave figured out what I had done. Somehow though, I think he already did.

  “What did you say?”

  “Nothing. Just, nothing. Please.” I needed to collect myself. “What should we do?”

  Dave laughed, so horrible in its inappropriateness. “What should we do?” His voice was full of disbelief. “I think you have already done enough. If my brother is missing, and I don’t see any way around that one right now, I am willing to bet you have something to do with it.”

  Full panic mode set in. What had happened to Blade? Could it really be my fault? Why would someone capture Blade?

  Well, Tristan didn’t seem to care for him. But I knew he didn’t consider him a threat. Although, once Blade disappeared, Tristan got what he wanted from me. What we both wanted. God, I didn’t want to regret what I had done. As many questions I had about the Bloodlust, somehow, it made me feel complete. It was the piece of me that some people spend their whole lives looking for.

  But hurting Blade like this felt like a torpedo tearing apart my soul.

  “Dave, please don’t be like this. I would never do anything to hurt Blade.”

  His voice sharpened. “Bullshit. People talk. Especially about your little friend Tristan. Your name has been on everyone’s lips. If you gave a shit about my brother—“

  “Don’t say that! I love your brother!”

  “Maybe that was true before some drugged out dead guy with a God complex crooked his finger in your direction. I’ve got news for you, you’re not special. Tristan will fuck anything that doesn’t crawl out of his way. That’s what you put my brother in danger for.”

  “I’ve known Tristan since I was fourteen years old. This isn’t some little groupie crush. He’s my friend. I have a news flash for you, women and men can just be friends.” I didn’t think it was necessary to say what kind of friends we’d become after Blade’s disappearance. It was beside the point. The last thing Dave needed to hear about was Bloodlust.

  “As a guy, I have a newsflash for you. No guy wants to just be friends with a good looking woman. And you’re not exactly playing hard to get. I saw him come up to you at the bar that night, Callie. He doesn’t want to be your friend.”

  “I never meant to hurt Blade.” I managed to whisper.

  “Keep telling yourself that. You hurt him. Worse than any girl ever has.”

  I sat frozen on my bed what seemed like forever, cradling the phone to my chest after Dave hung up on me.

  What had happened to Blade? Did someone do something to him? Or had he had an accident? Could he be stranded somewhere, hurt, bleeding, waiting for help? Dead?

  Did I really have something to do with it?

  “Janelle, have you talked to Blade since the night you picked me up at Santa Fe Station?” I burst into the living room.

  She looked up from her computer, puzzled. “No. He only came to talk to me when he was trying to get back together with you.” I could feel my face crumble at her words.

  She winced, watching me. “I’m sorry. Why?”

  “He’s missing. His brother just called. He hasn’t seen him since the night he played at the bar.”

  “Shit.”

  “Shit is right.” I flopped down on her bed. My tears flowed freely. Saying it out loud made it all that more real. “Dave thinks it’s my fault.”

  “How is that even possible?” Janelle looked scared.

  “I don’t know.” Every possible scenario had been running through my head since I got off the phone with Dave. It suddenly ground to a halt when it hit an ugly possibility.

  “Do you know anything about Talis de Rancourt?” My heart beat so hard. I was so afraid that just saying her name out loud would trip alarms somewhere in the city and her goons would drag me out of my apartment in my pajamas and leave me in a dungeon somewhere.

  Maybe a dungeon with Blade in it. Oh, God, what was happening to him?

  Janelle looked thoughtful. “Well, sure. She’s the executive producer of Immortal Forever. She owns the Alta Vista, and I think a few other properties. She’s very a very powerful woman, but other than that not much.” She seemed to be racking her brain for any other knowledge. “Why?”

  “Has she ever had any contact with anyone in your circle before? Anyone that’s gotten a little too close to the band?”

  “Why would she do that?” Janelle didn’t seem to be following me.

  “She threatened me one night at the bar. She doesn’t like me being anywhere near Tristan. Have any of the girls just suddenly disappeared?”

  Janelle licked her lips like all the moisture had gone from her body. “I have had friends who have just disappeared. I don’t know why or if it has anything to do with what you’re talking about. I always just assumed that they didn’t want anything to do with the vampires anymore.”

  My blood felt like it ran dry as well. “Maybe you’re right, and it’s just that.” But the sinking feeling inside of me said otherwise.

  Chapter Thirty Two

  “I think Talis has Blade.” I said to Lennon as we got to work. She had pretty much become my mentor since I’d moved to Las Vegas, especially where Tristan was concerned. No one
I knew understood the vampire world. Keisha didn’t want to listen, she just told me to come home every time things got tough. Everything was a fantasy to Janelle, like she watched it on TV. Somehow, even though she immersed herself in it, she was still so removed from what really happened.

  “Talis doesn’t take prisoners.” Her voice had a shaky edge to it. “If she’s got Blade, he’s either a vampire or just plain dead.”

  “God.” I leaned my head back against the wall of lockers in the back room. “He never wanted to be a vampire.” It went without saying he didn’t want to be dead.

  “I’m going to go set up.” She squeezed my hand and smiled as brightly as she could. “We’ll keep an eye out, see what we can find out.”

  “Can Jacey help? Or is he bound by that bitch too?”

  “Maybe there is something he can do.”

  I folded my clothes to put in my locker after Lennon went out. I didn’t want to leave her with all the work. The door closed behind me. “Hey, Jack.”

  “You should really think about what you say, Calliope.” All the breath went out of my body. Talis had cornered me in the office. “When ‘that bitch’ you talk about has you on payroll.”

  “You own this place, too?” I stiffened, trying to keep my face as brave as possible.

  “Interesting way of wording it.” She smiled then sat down at Jack’s desk. “I own many things in this city. Including Tristan.”

  Her nerve was incredible.

  “Lady, I don’t know how old you are, but slavery was outlawed in this country one hundred and fifty years ago. You can’t own people.”

  “Aren’t you cute, giving me a history lesson. Here’s a lesson for you. Vampires aren’t people. We don’t play by your rules, your laws. We consider ourselves above those things. It’s something you should keep in mind if you insist on continuing to defy my orders to stay away from Tristan.”

  “So do you have Blade?” I matched her glare. This bitch played dirty. If she wanted to, she could obliterate me right now and just tell Jack to put up the help wanted sign on her way out. But for some reason, she kept wanting to test me, to draw me into her game.

  I had no other defense than to tell her loud and clear I didn’t want to play. My whole body shook with fear. She had to know my bravado was just an act. She knew I had nothing to fight against her with.

  Or did I? I had to wonder if she had warned Tristan away from me. If she had, he wasn’t listening.

  Interesting.

  I had to wonder if she could smell him on me. His blood coursing through my veins.

  “Blade’s run away before.” She continued, tapping a heavy pen against the desk. She might as well of just ran her manicured fingernails down a chalkboard.

  “From you.”

  It was Talis’ turn to purse her lips. “From all of this. Which you seem hell bent on becoming a part of. Can’t you see there are consequences to your actions, Calliope? As beautiful as Tristan is, he doesn’t know what to do with the brains God gave him. It’s always worked in my favor, but now —”

  Did I have the upper hand here, against this power hungry maniac? “But now what?”

  Talis smiled and the temperature in the room dropped. “I told you that I don’t like complications. And I don’t think you do, either. You and I aren’t so different, Calliope.”

  “No, we’re not.”

  Talis sat up straighter and gave me a puzzled glare. She may have her immortal super powers in her favor, but no one could out bitch my mother. I smiled, realizing this, and met her stare. I’d had almost nineteen years of training for this. Bring it on, you crazy dead bitch.

  She missed a beat with her obnoxious pen tapping, but kept smiling. “It’s about time you humans realize you don’t have a choice when I want something. You, your Blade. Although, I must say it’s convenient that the two people most defiant in this city wound up in bed together. I have to hand it to you, you’ve taught him well. And he seems to enjoy pain.” I winced, holding my reaction in the best I could. “Your boyfriend is somewhere in this city. The question you need to ask yourself is does he want you to find him?”

  Shell-shocked, I went out to the bar to start my shift as Talis sat at the desk and watched me leave.

  “What the hell happened?” Lennon stopped stocking glasses when I came out. I was shaking like a leaf.

  “She has him.” I whispered.

  “What?”

  “Talis just cornered me back there. I didn’t know she owned this place!” I whined like a little kid, throwing a rag down on the bar.

  “She usually doesn’t interfere with much around here, but oh yeah, it’s hers.” Lennon said sadly. “I should have warned you. She’s made this a place that all vampires can come to, regardless of what clan they belong to, to give them a place to belong.”

  “What a diplomat.” I rolled my eyes. More like a militant dictator.

  “Without her, the vampire culture wouldn’t be what it is in this city.” Was Lennon taking her side? “We wouldn’t have this job, or probably any job in this economy, and there would be no Immortal Dilemma.”

  “Exactly. And Tristan would have continued his life, happily ever after.” I pouted again.

  “Cal, we both know he wasn’t happy, or else he would have never become such an addict. This is probably the best thing that could have happened to him.” She put up her hand as I tried to protest. “Let me finish. Honey, he’s safe here. He can do whatever he wants with no consequences. Before, he was trying to kill himself. What would you have done if he was gone forever? Now you don’t have to worry about that.”

  My body softened a little bit as her words sunk in. “I guess you’re right.”

  “I know how you feel about both Tristan and Blade, and I get it. But sugar, you’ve got to stop trying to save the world. It’s too big of a job for just one person. Both of them dove into this mess head first, just like you did.”

  “But Blade,” I couldn’t just let him suffer. “He needs us.”

  “He does. And we’ll do what we can. But Callie, you have to prepare yourself. You might not like what you find out.”

  Chapter Thirty Three

  Despite being worried sick about Blade, my very essence pulled me to Tristan with an inexplicable force. I didn’t want to fight it.

  He smiled warmly at me when I walked into his apartment, catching me off guard in my Blade induced haze. The snarky smirk was gone. It felt like we’d erased the past and got to start over.

  “I got you something.” Tristan motioned for me to sit in one of the stools near his bar. He circled around to my back and lifted my hair. I froze, on edge with my neck exposed not having any idea what he could be doing. A cool pendant dropped into the center of my chest. I clutched it as he fastened the silver chain at my nape.

  I picked up the purple and white dragonfly. Intricate and delicate, it looked somehow Native American. Handcrafted and one of a kind.

  “Do you understand what it means?” He came back to the front of me and ran his finger along the chain. His other hand fell in my lap, his fingers intertwined in mine.

  I pulled away from him slightly, not enough to break contact, looking at him with wonder. I never would have guessed there was any meaning behind the charm besides its being beautiful. I should have known better. Tristan’s presents, as gorgeous as they were to look at, always meant something. “No, I don’t.”

  His fingers dropped to the pendant, cradling it as he spoke. “The dragonfly is a spirit that’s always with you. Do you know what the wampum is?”

  “Native American money?”

  “Besides that. Do you know why I chose it?”

  “Because purple is my favorite color?” Although I knew nothing was that simple with Tristan.

  “That, and,” Tristan lowered his eyes from mine and focused on the jewelry in his hand, resting just next to my pounding heart. “It signifies an unbreakable bond between two people.”

  I sucked in my breath sharply as I waited f
or him to raise his eyes to meet mine. When he did, I saw something in them I’d never seen before. Shyness? Vulnerability?

  “It was always you.” He leaned in and kissed me in Technicolor. Fireworks burst throughout my body.

  “I need to get ready for the show.” Tristan leaned his forehead against the top of my head, still holding my hands in my lap. “Do you want to help me?”

  “Sure. How?” I didn’t know if I’d be able to do anything right then.

  “Come with me.” Tristan led me through the apartment towards his bedroom. He let go of my hand and motioned for me to sit on the bed. I had no idea what he had in mind. He disappeared into a closet that was the size of my bedroom, and came out later with an armful of clothes he laid out on the bed behind me.

  “What should I wear? Dress me.” He instructed.

  I looked at him like he was crazy, but picked through my choices. I chose a pair of lace up leather pants and a red T shirt. He sat perfectly still for me, raising his arms up over his head like a little kid. When he stood up so I could undo his jeans, I had to think of anything else but was happening in this room. If I really looked at him, I would push him back on to the bed and neither of us would be getting dressed any time soon.

  My mouth watered at the thought of how his blood tasted.

  Tristan sat so I could slide the pants over his feet, and then stood up again. “Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea,” his voice had an edge to it he moved away from me.

  I breathed a sigh of relief. There was only so much longer I could keep myself glued together. “No. It was a terrible idea.”

  Tristan burst out laughing, dissolving the cloud of tension. “Come on, you can still help make me pretty. I think we can handle that.”

  He motioned for me to follow him into the bathroom, and then sat down on the closed lid of the toilet.

  “What do you want me to do?”

  “Put my makeup on for me.”

  Now it was my turn to laugh. “You’ve got the wrong girl. See what I’ve got on? Lip gloss. I have no idea what to do with that stuff.” The whole thing was ridiculous. I was sleeping with a guy who wore more makeup than I did.