We Own the Night (The Night Songs Collection Book 3)

by Kristen Strassel

  I’d love to think that I didn’t have to worry about what they thought, but I did. I couldn’t afford to have any more people think of me as weak. I had my hands full with one challenger, and I was about to poke my nose in the business of another clan leader.

  One patron I’d never seen before met my stare. Long dirty blonde hair and a full beard to match, he sat stiffly in his spiked motorcycle jacket. Neither of us blinked. My skin prickled with anxiety. With one look, I knew that man was dangerous. I only turned away from him to make sure I didn’t walk into a barstool.

  “Look who’s here!” Lennon pulled herself up by her arms so she could lean over the bar to kiss my cheek. I wiped off her red lipstick. “Whatcha doin, doll? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

  More like a monster. “Something like that. Who’s that guy?” I jerked my head in the mystery biker’s direction.

  “That’s Cash Logan. He’s a magician.” Lennon fanned herself. I guess the mourning period was over.

  A girl I’d never seen before behind the bar eyed me suspiciously. My replacement. I smiled at her, just wide enough to bare my fangs. She startled and looked away quickly, going back to her work.

  “Oh! I’m so rude. Callie, this is Melanie. The one I was telling you about.” Immediately, I felt like a bitch. She looked like a nice enough girl, surprisingly normal with a dark brown bob and minimal makeup. I’d expected some glamazon rock star’s girlfriend. Even if it didn’t describe me, either.

  Melanie approached me cautiously, but held out her hand. “Nice to meet you.”

  “I’m just kind of sad to see someone else doing my job.” I needed to smooth over my earlier threat. This leader thing definitely came with growing pains. “I miss it here.” I turned my attention back to Lennon. “Is Peter hanging around?”

  She sighed. “Unfortunately. I hate even looking at him. He’s set up camp in Jack’s office.”

  Poor Jack. His office was always being overrun by overzealous vampires. It was a wonder he ever got any work done.

  I didn’t even break my pace when I opened the door.

  “Get out,” I said firmly, as I crossed my arms. Peter looked up in shock and I loved it. Mission accomplished.

  “You think you’re going to cut your baby teeth on me, little girl?” His eyes flared as I met his stare.

  “How long were you going to have your clan suck me dry before you told me Blade killed Talis?” My voice shook as I talked, and I had to put all my energy into not yelling. “This is my bar now, and I want you out of it.”

  “You loved every minute of it,” he sneered, still not moving.

  “Like hell. It killed me inside. But I did it to help someone I had no idea was beyond help. Did you really think I’d never find out what you were up to? That you were just fucking with me? Maybe you should have planned for that day. Because it’s here, Peter.”

  Peter finally rose, his meaty body cast a shadow over me. He came in too close, his face just inches from mine, but I refused to flinch. “Blade knew what he wanted when he came to me, unlike you. I partner with strength, and take out weakness. That’s what leaders do.”

  He spit when he talked. My stomach churned.

  “Get out. Now. This is my bar now, and I don’t want the shadow of your fat ass darkening its doorstep. I don’t want to see any members of your clan here, and I don’t want to see Blade here. And I don’t want your leadership advice. Do you understand me? Go.”

  “Your bar?” he scoffed.

  “Mine. Shut up and leave.” I felt my eyes burn and glow. Were they red like Blade’s had been? I hoped so.

  I only broke my stare with Peter to point to the door.

  “This isn’t how Talis did business, little girl.” The acid dripped off of his words as he made his way to the door. “You have no idea what kind of trouble you’re stirring up.”

  “Neither did you, Peter.” I sat in Jack’s chair. “Neither did you.”

  I’d never sat behind the desk before. I balanced on the edge of the chair, not feeling comfortable enough to sink back and let it swallow me. The leather stunk of Peter: tobacco, sweat, and animal blood. Nauseating. This place needed incense, flowers, and an exorcism.

  Absentmindedly, I began leafing through the piles of paperwork on the desk. I didn’t feel right doing it, but after all, it was my business now. Everything was. Most of it was restocking forms for alcohol, bills, and mundane stuff like that. Some of it looked more involved. I tossed it aside, not yet ready to deal with it.

  Someone knocked on the door almost too softly for me to be certain of what it was.

  “Come in?” I hoped to see Tony come through the door. I’d had enough Embrace for one evening.

  “Hi.” Melanie peeked around the door. “Is this a good time?”

  “Not really,” I felt bad as her face fell. I of all people knew how hard it was to be a human in this world. “But come in. What’s up?”

  Melanie sensed her window of opportunity was narrow and quickly sat in one of the chairs in front of the desk. “Thanks. I’m just going to cut to the chase. Lennon’s told me about you, and what you’ve, um, become, and I need to ask a favor of you.”

  Big surprise. She wanted something from me. I admired her bravery.

  “Okay.” My curiosity peaked. “What kind of favor?”

  Melanie took a deep breath. “I don’t know if you know anything about me, but I’m wanted for murder. Two murders.” She paused to see my reaction, and seemed pleased that I didn’t have one. Once I moved past the human realm, death didn’t shock me anymore. Sad, but true. Been there, done that. Lived to tell about it.

  She continued. “My boyfriend, Ryder Maddox, he’s a part of Talis’s clan, which I guess is your clan now. Talis was going to offer me protection, before everything went haywire with Blade.”

  “What do you know about what happened with Blade?” I asked slowly. Maybe Melanie could be as useful to me as I could be to her.

  Her posture deflated and she looked down at her hands. “I was here the night it happened. You were, too.”

  My eyes widened. “I was?”

  “Yeah. You saw us come in, I think. You were on the bar, Tristan was on top of you. You saw Talis come in with Blade. I’m sure you wouldn’t remember the rest of us being there, but I remember you slapping Tristan when you saw everyone come in with Talis.”

  I nodded and bit my lip. That night. Would I have been able to stop anything if Jack would’ve let me in that room? Would Blade have gone for me instead? “Was Blade still human then?”

  “I’m not sure. He was so strong, he overpowered her easily. Could a human do that?”

  “I don’t think so.” Blade had been the kind of strong that came from manual labor, not from being a gym rat. Definitely not strong enough to take out a vampire clan leader. Somehow, I felt better that the last thing he saw as a human wasn’t me laying under Tristan in a room full of people. “What did he do?”

  “She wanted to show me what happened when someone betrayed her.” Melanie wouldn’t meet my eyes. “He’d been beaten up pretty badly already, but she was going to do something else to him. She had him on his knees. Talis was so tiny, he still almost came up to her shoulders. He tore her heart right out of her chest.”

  I sucked in a sharp breath at the visual. Just like Blade said. Is that what he’d done to Janelle and Jacey? Or those poor prostitutes he lured to the Strat?

  Is that what he’d planned to do to me?

  “Somehow, he managed to light her body on fire. I don’t know what happened. You guys move so fast sometimes, I can’t comprehend it all. And I was in total shock, to see a beating heart outside of someone’s body. He licked it, the heart, as he watched Talis’ body melt.”

  All the blood in my body rushed to my stomach as I listened to her. Did vampires puke? We were dangerously close to finding out.

  “Then he threw the heart in the fire, and it all just disappeared.” Tears ran down Melanie’s cheeks. “I don’t know
how. I never asked Ryder, this is the first time I’ve really talked about what I saw. It was just too horrible. But I think you need to know.”

  I nodded. Keep your composure, Callie. “So what is it that you want me to do for you?”

  “Ryder said that Talis controlled the cops in Las Vegas.” She looked hopeful. “Ryder and the guys in Soul Divider are the only vampires I know, so all I know about vampires is what they’ve told me. They don’t have all the answers. I’m not a bad person, Callie. I know you don’t know me, but I caught my boyfriend in bed with another woman. I just went crazy with rage. I’m not a killer.” The tears flowed again.

  Now it was my turn to look away. I’d done things I wasn’t proud of, too. And most of them involved sex and passion. I had no place to judge this girl.

  Vampires weren’t meant to be monogamous. Tristan’s voice echoed in my head. I hated it and felt comforted by its justification all at the same time.

  I didn’t have time to mull over my sins at that moment. This girl needed an answer. And she reminded me of something very important. I didn’t only have a bar, or a band, or a hotel in my arsenal, I had the entire city. And I knew what they needed to be protected from, even if I wasn’t quite sure how to do it.

  “I’ll help you out,” I said quietly, raising my hand to still Melanie before she rose to hug me. “But I think I need you to help me, too.”

  “Back so soon?” Tristan raised an eyebrow and smirked. I made it back to the side of the stage in time to watch the encore. Like nothing unusual had happened tonight.

  “I do my dirty work quickly.” I smiled and pecked his cheek as I slipped my fingers around his. I felt better, being here. Excitement and adoration of the crowd filled me even if it wasn’t intended for me. “I need to talk to you, though.”

  “Can it wait?” He’d turned so he leaned his forehead on mine. His skin didn’t feel cool anymore, since my body temperature now matched his, but he never broke a sweat. “I was thinking I should do the meet and greet tonight.”

  Before Blade tried to pull rank, Tristan had taken the band’s fan events for granted. He knew he’d always have girls begging for a sliver of his attention. I knew it too, and I hated it. Once he saw how easily it all could be taken away from him, he seemed to have a newfound appreciation for his fans.

  “It can.” I liked him caring about things. “But don’t keep me waiting too long.”

  “Got to keep the master happy.” Tristan swatted my ass then walked away to join the rest of the band.

  I headed back to the apartment, really glad for the alone time. Too much had happened tonight. And I’d made a lot of it happen. It was exhausting. I’d be glad when the sun rendered all of us down for the count in a few hours.

  I peeled off my clothes, replacing them with a tank top and sweatpants, wrapped myself in a blanket on the couch, and fired up my laptop. Immediately, I looked up Melanie Vaughn. Everything she told me was here; she was wanted for questioning in the double murder investigation of her boyfriend and a neighbor. The authorities considered her to be on the run, and their trail went cold in the middle of the country. I clicked on link after link, not liking what I found as I dug deeper.

  A girl named Erin Monticelli, who was reported to be Melanie’s best friend, had been found dead in the Alta Vista, which sent a shiver down my spine. Soul Divider’s singer, Drake Bonham, had been reported missing by his wife.

  What was going on with Melanie? What had she done? Did she really want my protection, or did she want something else from me?

  I read the stories about Erin over and over, haunted by the memories of my former roommate Janelle, who’d been murdered in an eerily similar way. A gruesome end with no real clues, except for a connection to a vampire band. Some of the articles linked Erin to Drake.

  “Whatcha looking at, beautiful?” Tristan slid his body behind mine, becoming my new cushion. I’d been so absorbed in the computer screen I hadn’t heard him come in.

  “Do you know anything about this girl?” I tapped the screen over Erin’s picture. “It says she was dating Drake Bonham.”

  “I thought that dude was married. Not that it really means anything.” Tristan’s words punched me in the stomach. He leaned over my shoulder to take a closer look. “She looks familiar, but she looks like a thousand girls I see every night.”

  “She died. Here.” I pushed the laptop to the far cushion and turned around to face Tristan. “Why does this keep happening?”

  “When you want to play with things that go bump in the night, bad things happen.” Tristan’s hands ran up my shirt in a fluid motion and he bit my lip. “You should know that.”

  I pushed him back, meeting his challenge, nipping him repeatedly until I drew blood. I licked away the crimson as it pooled on the surface of his lip, then pulled away quickly.

  He tasted like Blade.

  Not that I’d ever had Blade’s blood, but I’d tasted everything else he had to offer. My head swam, the essence swirling around in my brain, strangling my soul.

  If I still had one.

  “What’s the matter?” Tristan pulled me back towards him.

  “What happened in that hotel room? With Blade?” Tristan shouldn’t have won that fight.

  “The fifth ring of Hell, you mean? Leave it to Bradley to make the Strat even worse.” He sighed, but it sounded more like a groan. “I took care of it.”

  This was a hell of a time for Tristan to start pulling his man card. “But how are you stronger than him? If he’s a clan leader, shouldn’t he have won that fight?”

  Tristan’s eyes darkened. “Did you want him to?”

  “That’s not what I’m saying. I’m just trying to figure out how these things work.”

  “I don’t really give a shit.” Tristan pulled my tank top over my head, maybe in an effort to distract me, maybe in an effort to work out some of his obvious frustration. He lowered his head to my chest, his hair tickling my belly as he scraped his teeth against my nipples.

  As much as I wanted to let him crawl inside of me and stay there forever, I pulled him away from my skin by his hair so I could see his eyes. They’d changed again, from dark and disastrous to sparkling and sensuous. I had to count to three before speaking to keep my bearings.

  “We need to go talk to Ryder Maddox.”

  Tristan backed away from me, irritated. “Why?”

  “His girlfriend asked me for protection. Talis was going to give it to her. She was there the night Blade killed Talis. It happened at Embrace. You were there, too, Tristan. She says everything she knows about being a vampire is from that band he’s in.”

  “Where else would she find out about vampires?” Tristan leaned back and grabbed a bottle of Venom from the table, drinking directly from it. I looked at the bottle and curled my lip. I shook my head when he offered me a sip.

  “I don’t know, Tristan. Why don’t you tell me about being a vampire?” I pulled the blanket back up around my shoulders.

  He took another swig from the bottle but didn’t say anything right away. He just stared into space. I’d seen this look before, and it never led to anything good. Usually just drunken rages. I wasn’t in the mood. This night, Tristan, everything about this new world I lived in, it just exhausted me.

  He licked his lips and didn’t say a word. After a minute, he got up from the couch and whipped the alcohol bottle against the wall, sending glass and alcohol showering all over the records and awards hung there.

  “What the hell was that about?” Sometimes it was hard to remember not to be frightened. But irrational behavior didn’t change, even in the afterlife.

  “I’m sick and tired of not being good enough for you.” Tristan reached for another bottle.

  I jumped up off the couch, not knowing what his intended target was. I grabbed his wrist, still holding the blanket tightly under my neck like a superhero cape. I met his eyes, refusing to blink. “When did I say that?” My voice was hardly more than a whisper.

  “You
say it every day.” He looked away from me, not moving his hand. He stared out the window, his mouth settled in a hard thin line.

  “That’s what you think?” I ran my hand up his arm and he flinched. I wanted to die. For real.

  “All you care about is Blade.” Tristan never used Blade’s nickname, and it sounded way more obscene than if he’d mocked him and called him Bradley. He finally looked back at me, his eyes black again. “You would have left me for dead if you thought you could save him.”

  I closed my eyes and sighed. It was true, to a point. I was responsible for everything that had happened to Blade, and I’d felt responsible to get him out of it. That’s why I drained Tristan. And turned myself.

  But Tristan was as much a part of me as my skin.

  “Do you think I’d be here if I didn’t care about you? If you hadn’t dominated my every thought ever since I met you?”

  “You’re only here because you think you need to save me.” Tristan‘s tone frightened me. “I’m not a fucking rehab project.”

  “I’m here because I’m in love with you.” My voice broke, tears threatened to flow. “And if you can’t handle that, maybe I shouldn’t be a part of your life.”

  Tristan’s expression softened with my words, and finally I no longer felt like I was withering. His lip curled up in a smile. “You’re stuck with me. I created you.”

  “You destroyed me.”

  The smile faded. “You destroyed yourself.”

  I gasped. Truer words had never been spoken. But still, if it wasn’t for him, I’d be living in oblivion on Martha’s Vineyard. Living.

  “I hate it, beautiful. But it’s true.”

  I regained what little was left of my composure. “I just want you to be at peace with what you are. You need to come to terms with this. Play time is over.”