Forever Night: A Hidden Novella

by Colleen Vanderlinden

  “Hey,” she said, handing Sam the bottle of blood he’d gestured for.

  “Hey. Shit just fucking hit the fan,” he said.

  “What?”

  “Molly moved out. Left the team. Apparently, Brennan’s kid’s mom put some kind of spell on him that made everyone around him pissed off. That’s why we’ve been arguing so much lately.”

  “No way.”

  “Yeah. And Ada was all ‘maybe Brennan was spelled,’ trying to make excuses for why Bren messed around with that witch, and he said he wasn’t. But the kid was definitely spelled. And then all these fucking gods showed up.”

  “What?”

  “Yeah. Molly’s dad. Freaking Hades. He looks nothing like the Disney version by the way. Dude is badass.’

  ‘Holy crap.”

  “Yeah. And his wife removed the spell from Sean. And then Molly broke it off with Brennan and took off.”

  Shanti stood there in shock. She handed Sam another bottle of blood and excused herself, locking the door behind her as she went out.

  “So now what?”

  “I have no fucking idea.”

  “I’m going with her. If she left the team, then I’m going wherever she is. She was the only reason I was there anyway. I mean.. I like Nain, but I’m not leaving her on her own now.”

  “Right. I’m with you. I think E was already thinking that. She’s packing. And there’s another god, thing…whatever they are, who already said he’s only here because of her.”

  “Bring her dogs. I bet she’s going back to her house,” Shanti said. “I’ll meet you all there.”

  “Good.” He hung up.

  Shanti walked through the house, found Ronan in his usual place, studying the security monitors. “I need to take off,” she said.

  “You were off last night.”

  “Family issues. I need to go.”

  He glanced at her. “Will you be back?”

  “Yes. But I am needed. I’ll let you know when I’ll be back to work.”

  He nodded. “Take care, all right?”

  She nodded, then headed out to the garage and got in her car, started driving toward Molly’s deserted, barren neighborhood. On her way there, she called Zero. He answered on the third ring.

  “Hey,” he said, sounding a little breathless.

  Yeah. Her mind went there.

  “Did I interrupt something?” she asked.

  “Christ, Shanti. Parker is here and we’re beating the shit out of each other.”

  In the back ground, she heard a deep voice shout, “Hi Shanti. Come put this asshole out of his misery.”

  Zero muttered something under his breath, and Shanti laughed.

  “Are you going to do this all the time now? Assume the worst of me?”

  “No. I’m sorry, babe,” she said softly. “You’re right. It’s not fair. I’m just so messed up right now.”

  He was quiet for a moment. “What do you need from me, gamila? How can I help you?”

  “Just don’t hate me when I act like I’m losing my mind. Because I kind of am.” She pulled over as tears came to her eyes. Everything was hitting her all at once: the stress over Rayna’s tenuous grasp on leadership, fighting, the split between the teams. Molly.

  “It isn’t possible for me to hate you,” he said. “That is the last thing you need to worry about, ever.”

  She told him what was going on, how it felt like the only family she had was falling apart. “So now I’m going to Molly’s house, because no matter how much I love the rest of the team, she’s Molly, and she needs to know there are people who are there for her.”

  “Promise me you’ll be careful,” he said. “If she’s this distraught, and is as powerful as you say she is…”

  “She’d never hurt me, or anyone else she cared about.”

  “Not on purpose, maybe. But shit happens when your head is a mess.”

  Her first instinct was to be annoyed with him, but she knew he was speaking the truth. “I will be careful. I gotta go. Talk go you soon.”

  “Bye.”

  She shook her head and drove the rest of the way to Molly’s. E, Levitt, and a huge guy they introduced s Hephaestus were standing there, waiting. They all stood on the front porch, and within an hour or so, Molly arrived, landing in the front yard.

  Holy. Shit. She had wings. Huge black wings. Shanti tried not to stare, but it took everything in her not to. She looked like something out of a mythology book. Except really, really pissed off and upset.

  “What the hell are you guys doing here?” Molly asked, striding toward the porch.

  Once Shanti was able to stop focusing on her wings, she took in the rest of her friend.

  Shit. Moly had apparently been out messing people up. Dried blood caked her clothing, her hands. Spatters of blood were on her face. Her eyes glowed white in the dark night, and the set of her jaw told everyone that she was not in the mood to be messed with.

  They all told Molly some version of “we’re yours, we love you, we’re here for you.” And she asked if they were suicidal or something. Tears came to Shanti’s eyes, seeing her friend this way. Seeing Molly this angry and afraid of herself was terrifying. Heartbreaking.

  And there was no way in heaven, hell, or anywhere else that she was going to let Molly face this on her own.

  “Look at us, Molly,” she said in exasperation. “We were all lost in our own ways. And then you came along and showed us what we could be. You gave us a place, a home, when there was nowhere else to go. I’d rather die fighting by your side than live, leaving you to face this shit alone. You made me the kind of person who doesn’t give up. I’m not freaking giving up now.” She watched Molly, aware of the rest of their would-be team glancing back and forth between the two of them.

  “Fine,” Molly said, shaking her head. She unlocked the front door and swung it open. “Welcome home.”

  “Tomorrow is another day, Scarlett,” Shanti said as she walked past Molly and into the house. Molly just shook her head, but Shanti noticed a ghost of a smile on her lips. For now, it was enough.

  Chapter Eight

  Between getting into the routine of a new team with Molly, Levitt, and the immortals, and still trying to help Nain when she could, Shanti was ready for a vacation. Things at Rayna’s were insane as well, because why would even one part of her life be nice and calm when everything could go nuts at once, right? After they’d fought back the attack on her home, more vampires started coming out, pledging loyalty to Rayna. Which was great, except that it only pissed the opposition off more. Shanti was busy for two nights straight, she and Ronan each taking a section of the city. Assassinating the few vocal vampires who were still speaking out against Rayna.

  No. It wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t nice. But Shanti knew of a few of those jerks from her work with Nain’s team. They’d been a danger to the city for quite a while now, and when she ended them she felt no remorse. She knew she was doing God’s work with each death.

  She hadn’t seen Zero in four days, since they’d argued about whether any of this was worth it. She knew she’d hurt him. And she could admit it: she was scared to death of what he made her feel. She’d thought she’d maybe been in love with Levitt, at least a little bit. What she felt for Zero… she could easily see how losing him would crush her completely, the way losing Nain and then Brennan’s betrayal had crushed Molly. And Molly was a stronger woman than she was.

  She still called him every night, and they were short with each other, but at least they were talking. She was on her way to her final job of the night, and she called Zero to check in.

  “Are you working all night again?” he asked.

  “I have one more thing to do. It should be fast. I hope so, anyway,” she answered, walking down a dark street.

  “So are you going to come see me tonight, or are you going to keep avoiding me?” he asked.

  “I’m not avoiding you,” she answered.

  “You kind of are.”

  Shanti
shook her head. “Do you still want me to come around?”

  She heard him let out an irritated breath. “What do you think? You drive me completely nuts, but I miss you.”

  “This is not going to work,” she muttered.

  “Only if you decide not to bother trying to make it work. Come over when you’re done,” he said, and then he hung up.

  Shanti shook her head, shoved her phone in her pocket. So he was pissed. Just what she needed.

  The vampire was easy to find, and easy to end, thanks to her being a little extra aggressive after her talk with Zero. She ran back to Rayna’s and cleaned up and changed, then headed to Zero’s. It was almost two o’clock. When she go there, she knocked on his door. “It’s me,” she said, and a second later the door opened.

  He was wearing jeans and not a whole lot else. He pulled her inside and shut the door behind her. Then her back was pressed up against the door and he was devouring her, his arms tight around her body. She kissed him back, running her hands over his shoulders as he crushed her body to his. His heart was pounding, his hands firm on her body.

  When he pulled away, he looked down into her eyes. “Stop running from this, gamila,” he murmured.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “I’m not going to hurt you. I’m not going to run off on you. I’m not going to cheat on you, and I sure the hell am not going to die on you. I love you, Shanti.”

  She stared up at him. His eyes were on hers, and he was still holding her body tight to his. “You do?”

  “So much I’m about to lose my mind. You make me crazy. You make me laugh, and you frustrate the hell out of me. You chase away the anger in me, and I didn’t think anyone would ever be able to do that.”

  She stared up at him.”I love you, too,” she whispered. “That first night, when I saved you… I couldn’t get you out of my mind. It was like something changed inside of me. It scares me.”

  “I know. There’s not much you’re afraid of.”

  “There’s not.”

  “You have no reason to fear me, either,” he said, kissing her again, his tongue darting into her mouth. It grazed one of her fangs, and she moaned.

  “Sorry.”

  “Don’t be,” she murmured.

  “Did that feel good?” he asked.

  “Uh huh.”

  He kissed her again, and this time the tip of his tongue tentatively ran along the sides, then the tip of first one fang, then the other, and she whimpered at the sensation.

  Zero started kissing his way down her throat. She moaned and let her head fall back, giving him access to her throat.

  And when his hands reached for the hem of her top, she helped him pull it up over her head, and then she shivered when he pushed her jeans down over her hips. He pulled back, just a little, and she felt her entire body go hot under his gaze.

  “You are so beautiful, Shanti,” he murmured. And then he was kissing her again, maneuvering her body toward the narrow bed. Her hands were at his zipper, and she pushed his jeans down, felt him spring free.

  Oh. Yes. Her man was built, in every way.

  She started running her hand over his hard length, and he groaned, kissed her harder. Soon her bra was gone, and then her panties. He took her hand away from him.

  “If you don’t stop that I’m going to lose my goddamn mind,” he growled as he pushed her back onto the mattress.

  “That’s kind of the point, Zero,” she said, and when he lowered his mouth and took one of her nipples between his lips, she lost all sense of anything but him.

  He was thorough, just as she’d known he would be. He worshipped her breasts with his lips, tongue, teeth, murmured several things that would have made her blush if she could. As it was, they made other parts of her body react. Her center ached, needing to have him there, on the verge of begging as he just kept on licking, sucking her breasts. He lowered his hand between her thighs, let out a low curse when he found her already wet, swollen.

  “Please,” she begged. “Please, Zero.”

  He lowered his lips to hers, kissed her as his fingers started to work her, rubbing over her sensitive nub. She started to feel her orgasm building. Warmth spread through her body. So close.

  And then his tongue darted into her mouth, and he flicked his tongue over the tip of one of her fangs, in tempo with the way his hand was working between her legs, and she came, hard, and he captured her scream with his mouth, kissed her, kept rubbing her until she came down.

  She was trembling, whimpering when he finally pulled back. His hand was still between her thighs, and it was torture. She’d thought she would be sated, but his touch, her response, had only made her want more. She wanted him, buried deep inside her. She ached with it, and she pushed her hips up.

  “Do we need to be careful?”

  “I can’t get pregnant. Or get or give STDs. So no.”

  “Good. I want to feel you. All of you,” he said in that low, hoarse way of his. She spread her thighs, wrapping her legs around his lean hips. His eyes were on hers, her body held tight in his arms. He started pressing into her and she cried out.

  Oh, yeah. Definitely built right.

  She felt every inch of him stretching her walls as he pressed slowly, firmly into her, not stopping until he was sheathed in all the way, their hips meeting, pressing hard against one another.

  She was trembling. Aching.

  “Okay?” he asked, leaning down and kissing her, letting her body adjust to having him inside her.

  “Tell me again why we didn’t do this before?” she gasped.

  He laughed, and she felt it deep inside her, and she moaned. They started moving, their bodies finding one another’s rhythm, meeting. Writhing against one another. He was kissing her, tongue darting over her fangs. He pushed his tongue hard against the tip of one, and she tasted his blood her mouth.

  “Suck, Shanti,” he murmured, and she did, sucking his tongue between her lips hungrily, tasting his mouth, his blood, as his body started to hammer harder into hers. He groaned as she sucked his tongue. She swept her tongue over his, licking up the last of his blood, healing the wound her fang had caused.

  He was taking her harder, faster, obviously turned on by what they’d just done.

  “Fuck,” he groaned. “Bite me, gamila.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes. Now. I need it,” he whispered. His movement slowed, and she lowered her mouth to his throat, to that sensitive spot just above his pulse, and she licked his skin gently, readying him for her. He put a hand to the back of her head, and he trembled in barely contained need. She twisted her fingers in his hair, then slowly sank her fangs into his neck.

  “Oh my god,” he growled, and his movements became jerkier. She felt him thickening inside her. He started moving faster, harder, and the combination of his body taking her, his punishing pace, the taste of his blood on her tongue, the way his heart was racing, the low curses he uttered as she fed from him. She continued feeding, running her hands over his back, and he shouted as he exploded inside her, his hips slamming into hers, his hands gripping her ass hard. And that did it; she followed him over the edge, her fangs still sunk into his throat, his blood coating her tongue and throat. Color erupted in front of her eyes as she felt her release wash over her.

  When they were both spent, she gently pulled her fangs out of Zero’s neck, licked his wounds closed.

  He lay on top of her, inside her. He took her hands in his and they twined their fingers together.

  “Holy shit,” he said when he finally caught his breath.

  “That was… wow,” she breathed.

  “Yeah. That.” His lips met hers, and he kissed her gently, lovingly. “Are you okay? I kind of lost it at the end. When you started sucking me like that…”

  “You liked that, huh?”

  “That’s a definite yes,” he said, kissing her again. “I didn’t hurt you?”

  “Not in any way I minded,” she said, nuzzling his neck.

 
“I love you, Shanti.”

  “I love you, Zero.”

  They laid there, naked in one another’s arms, and talked and laughed. Shanti glanced at the clock. A little after five. Damn.

  “It’ll be dawn soon. I have to go.”

  “You can stay here,” he said, running a hand over her hip, down her thigh.

  “I need to be in a sun-feee place.”

  He smiled. “You don’t think I planned to have my vampire girlfriend sleep over eventually? Look.”

  He got out of bed and she didn’t even care what else he wanted her to look at. The man’s ass was absolute perfection. And when he turned so she could see the front, she could feel her mouth start watering.

  “Shanti. Eyes up here,” he said, and she glanced up. The smirk on his face was enough to make her want to jump him where he stood.

  “Huh?”

  He laughed, and then he pulled the blinds aside. Beneath them was one of those pull-down metal window grates, like you see in stores. “I put these on all of the windows here. Partially for security, because I know you worry.”

  “I do,” she said, marveling at the way he thought.

  “And partially because they let absolutely no light through. The door is weatherstripped so tight not a speck of sunlight gets through. And I added two more locks to the door, because I remember you saying how vulnerable you feel when you’re asleep.”

  She was sitting up in bed, then. She reached down and grabbed her phone. “Hey Molly. I won’t be home. I’ll see you tomorrow night, okay?” she was watching Zero. “Okay. Bye.”

  He came and joined her beneath the covers again. She felt like he had to know that he was getting into.

  “Zero, I don’t sleep the way you do,” she said as he gathered her into his arms.

  “Okay.”