Never did I think I’d be thankful for my mother’s banishment from the island. It gave me time to figure out what to do, what to say when it came to my family. Knowing how they would grieve would tear me into thousands of tiny pieces. But if Tristan could still function in polite society, maybe I could figure out something before Christmas.
My only human friend left in Las Vegas was Lennon. I wanted to see her so badly, but Tristan thought it was better if I waited a few days. Let me get my bearings. Thankfully, the concept of me being something other than human wasn’t completely foreign or unwelcome to her.
Tonight she planned to come to Tristan’s apartment. I’d stayed here ever since I changed. I was nervous to see her, would things be totally different? What was I going to do now? Would I just go back to working at Embrace like nothing had happened?
I practically ran to the living room when I heard her come in. Tristan had gone downstairs to film the TV show and play a concert. He left Tony to babysit me.
“Oh my God, it’s so good to see you!” I jumped on her without having a chance to really look at her, wrapping her in a tight hug. I had to be stay mindful not to make it too tight. Her fruit punch scented shampoo smelled intoxicating. My mouth watered as my hands touched the smooth skin of her arms.
“Easy.” Tony warned me like I was a dog on a leash. But I still needed the reminders.
“Yeah, yeah. I know. I’m sorry. I’m still in training, I guess.” I giggled a little bit as I led her towards the couch. “Come sit down, I want to hear everything I missed.”
“You seem to be taking to this well.” Lennon said as she sat. “You seem so vibrant. Full of life, pun intended.”
“It’s not so bad.” I admitted, never in a million years would I imagine I’d embrace being like this. But I did. I finally took a good look at Lennon. She looked like a ripe piece of fruit begging to be picked off a tree. Tristan warned me this might happen. I did as he said I should and concentrated on picking up the vibrations of the hotel to make the lust subside.
It worked, and my head cleared. I opened my mouth to ask her a million questions in rapid fire succession when I really got a good look at her. Her hair was undone, she wore very little makeup, and she wore just a T shirt dress. She usually rolled out of bed looking more made up than this. I met her eyes, and realized they looked so heavy. Sad. Heartbroken.
“Are you okay?” I reached out to touch her knee, thankful she didn’t shy away from my touch. “I mean, things are going to be normal, right? I just can’t sit out in the sun with you anymore.” I smiled, but she didn’t smile back.
“It’s not you. It’s weird that you’re different now, but I’ve been through this before. I still love you.” She looked away from me. “It’s Jacey.”
“Did you guys have a fight? You didn’t break up, did you? You know I can kick his ass now if you need me to.”
“He’s dead.” She dissolved into tears.
I cradled her in my arms and let her cry on my shoulder. I rubbed her back, trying to calm her down. How could he be dead?
“What happened?” I asked as she settled down, pulling a handkerchief from her bag.
“Someone got him in the dressing room.” Her voice cracked as she spoke. “He’d stayed behind to finish some paperwork before the show started. It had to have been another vampire. They left a note, saying that things hadn’t gone according to plan and Jacey was responsible somehow.”
“What didn’t go to plan? When did this happen?”
“Shortly after you turned. Tristan called me before you even woke up, basically so I wouldn’t panic that you didn’t come home and so I could tell Jack you wouldn’t be in for a while.”
My body filled with rage that someone had the gall to do anything to Jacey. Out of all the vampires I’d met in Las Vegas, he was the most no nonsense of all of them. I thought about what Lennon told me, trying to piece things together.
“Do you think it was Talis?” I asked.
“No.” She said right away. “If it had anything to do with what Peter cooked up with you, why would she take it out on Jacey that you guys couldn’t pull it off?”
“You’re right. It doesn’t make any sense.” I sighed. “Who else would want to hurt Jacey? Who would have cared that things didn’t work out?”
“I don’t know, doll. I’m scared.” Lennon’s eyes brimmed with tears once more. “For all of us.”
**
I needed to talk to Peter about this. Were we stupid to focus on Talis when there was another vampire in the city, killing his own? Was that the person who got Janelle? If it was, who else would be after me? I didn’t know if I was brave or stupid for wanting to face this head on.
Tristan wouldn’t let me out of his sight. At first it was cute, but now it just made me crazy. He said my behavior was too unpredictable still to be left unsupervised. Even though drinking too much of his blood had complicated matters, I couldn’t ever tell him why I’d done it. It was such a betrayal. Karma was having a field day with me.
I convinced him to bring me to Embrace, telling him I had a meeting with Jack about coming back to work. I had to be careful, since Tristan could read my mind as my creator. Nothing was more violating than someone knowing your every thought.
Lennon was to have Peter meet me in the office. Embrace looked totally foreign to me through my new eyes. Still soft and pretty, but welcoming instead of threatening. Almost like home.
Tristan sat on a stool by the bar. I jumped over the bar, since my feet were practically spring loaded. Some of the regulars looked at me in surprise, and then smiled welcomingly. I winked back at them, now that I shared their secret. I grabbed a bottle of Venom and two glasses. I poured it over ice and handed one to Tristan. He whistled low as I downed it in one sip. I hoped it would be enough to cloud both of our minds enough he couldn’t pick up on what happened during my meeting.
The Venom tasted like sugar water now. No wonder he pounded it. I leaned over the bar, kissing Tristan deeply. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.” His gaze smoldered back at me.
“The afterlife looks good on you, little girl.” Peter leaned back in Jack’s chair.
“Are you challenging me?” His condescension put me on edge. “Because I don’t need you anymore.”
“I’m not, and you do.” He grinned at me, anything but friendly. “So you’re wrong on both counts. I was paying you a compliment.”
“Thanks, I guess.” I didn’t sit. “I don’t have a lot of time, and I don’t want Tristan to hear this. But I’m concerned that we have someone to worry about other than Talis.”
“I think you’re right. You’ve been created from her bloodline. That gives her rank over you. But you’re a woman, and you may have noticed, there aren’t many woman vampires.”
I thought about it for a second. “I hadn’t noticed, but you’re right.”
“It’s because the women are much stronger than the men. They usually fight each other to the death if there are two in the same territory. But again, you’re in her bloodline. She didn’t create you, so that does put you at a disadvantage.”
“So what are you saying?”
He handed me an envelope. “I have someone who might be able to set you straight about things.” I started to open it. “No, not now. Open it during the next Immortal Dilemma show. It will cloud your creator from being able to know what it says.”
I narrowed my eyebrows at him. Curiosity had the best of me. “I have Tristan to guide me.”
“Tristan is a reckless addict who scrapes by on his good looks and his pull on women. You won’t learn anything from him. Trust me, Callie. You’re going to need all the help you can get.”
Chapter Fifty
The envelope practically burned a hole in my purse for the rest of the night and day before the show. I wanted to know what Peter’s plan was, but I couldn’t risk Tristan mentally eavesdropping or even tuning into my reaction. I tried to keep my mind either busy with other things or just plain sil
ent. At least I could attribute any strange behavior to my newly undead status.
“Come in the studio, beautiful.” Tristan grabbed my arm and dragged me playfully into his music room. This was the Tristan I’d always wanted. The one I now got to wake up with every day. The one who didn’t care what anyone thought. The one who felt free to be himself.
“Are you throwing me a surprise party in here?” I teased. He practically jumped up and down like a little kid.
“We’ll celebrate later.” His lips moved against my hair. “But I finally finished that song I’ve been working on. I want you to hear it.”
He pulled the strap of his acoustic guitar over his shoulder and sat down on a stool near the sound equipment. I sat on a speaker beside him. I wanted to be closer than the couch. He seemed a bit shy and unsure of himself as he started to strum out the melody. A ballad that needed no words, it told a passionate story by just moving his fingers over the strings. It was the sweetest, most hopeful song I’d ever heard.
“I love it.” I stood up and kissed him on the forehead when he finished. Relief washed over his face when I gave my approval.
“I wrote it for you.” He looked down, shy again. “I wasn’t sure you’d ever understand it. Music is different to us. I don’t know if you’ve figured it out yet. We can hear more than humans. You would have never picked up on the highs and the lows before.”
“Honestly, I would have loved anything you wrote, any time. But how did you know to do it? You didn’t plan for this.”
“I guess I wanted to have a little piece of you I could keep with me always.” He smiled sheepishly.
“Now you can keep me always.” I helped him lift the guitar away and fell into his arms.
We were almost late for the concert. I helped Tristan get into his stage regalia and smear paint on his face. Not only were there things vampires heard that humans couldn’t, but we could see more, too. I highlighted his face with a clear paint that glowed Technicolor under the lights. He said he’d used it countless times before, but I never knew. I had plans for that paint that had nothing to do with an audience of adoring fans.
After a quick kiss, Tristan left me on the side of the stage. Once the band launched into their first song, I pulled Peter’s envelope from my purse. Inside one plain, typewritten piece of paper held my next clue.
MEET ME IN GREEN ROOM B DURING THE THIRD SONG. IGNORE THE SIGN THAT SAYS MEETING IN PROGRESS. WE ARE THE MEETING.
I sang along with the first two songs to keep my mind quiet. Tristan had thrown himself into his stage theatrics, and hadn’t looked back at me once. The flashpots exploded at the beginning of the third song. The heat of the fire licked my skin. I braced myself, looking back after every step as I headed away from the stage and into the labyrinth of hallways behind The Sin City Vampire Club.
Someone came up behind me and pulled me hard by my hair into a pitch black room off of the main hallway. Whoever it was moved fast and with authority. From the strong hold my arms were looped in behind my back, I assumed it was a man. I struggled against his body, but I couldn’t free myself. This wasn’t an ordinary man. Was this the monster who took out Jacey? Janelle? My muscles locked in fear. My mind raced, trying to figure out how I was going to stop this abduction without getting raped or killed for real. I couldn’t muster a scream. Maybe my captor would think I hadn’t lost my cool.
“I took care of Talis for you,” My knees buckled at the sound of Blade’s voice and I inhaled his cool, minty scent. He pulled my hair again, so my head jerked back, exposing my neck. I squeezed my eyes closed, waiting for new fangs to sink into my flesh but instead shuddered at the feel of beard stubble against my cheek. “But now you have to deal with me.”
Acknowledgements
I’ve often said it takes a village to raise a book, but it also takes a village to raise a Kristen. Because the Night came into being during the hardest time in my life. I want to thank the people who lifted me up and made sure I righted the ship: Dorothy Chisholm, Jess and Riley Pike, Leigh Ann Dascoli, Joni Tozzi, Priscilla and Chris Nardone, Barbara Wentz, Gary Hassett, and Donna Petrangelo. Because of you guys, I know I’ll always land on my feet. I love all of you.
Julie Hutchings and I have been writing together since we were teenagers. I’d tried and failed many times to complete a book, but with Julie’s help, guidance, enthusiasm, love, mayhem, and general foolishness, Because the Night is a thing going out into the world. We said we were going to do this, and we did it, baby.
When ‘vampire’ was a four letter word in publishing, Pam van Hycklama Vlieg was willing to take a chance on my manuscript. Although we took the road less travelled, we got it out into the world. Thank you for believing in me and helping me make my crazy dream a reality.
About the Author
Kristen shares a birthday with Steven Tyler and Diana Ross. She spends each day striving to be half as fabulous as they are. She’s worn many hats, none as flattering as her cowboy hat: banker, retail manager, fledgling web designer, world’s worst cocktail waitress, panty slinger, now makeup artist and aspiring author. She loves sunshine, live music, the middle of nowhere, and finding new things to put in her house. Kristen is represented by Pam van Hylckama Vlieg of Foreword Literary.
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