We Own the Night (The Night Songs Collection Book 3) (11 page)

Trevor motioned for me to sit at the head of the long table, in a chair that threatened to swallow me. The suits all stared back and forth from me to Trevor as he pulled out the chair for me.

“What is this, Trevor, bring your daughter to work day?” Laughter erupted. I pursed my lips so hard I was afraid my fangs would cut through my bottom lip.

“No, gentlemen. I was just about to introduce you to Calliope Chabot.” Trevor smiled warmly in my direction, the argument in the elevator forgotten for now. “Or you may refer to her as your new Mistress.”

I winced. “Callie will be just fine.”

A bald man with glasses scoffed. “Isn’t that the gal who’s screwing your son? What the hell is going on, Trevor?”

My eyes burned, and before I knew what I was doing, me and the bald guy were on the floor, his chair knocked back with me on top of him, fangs bared.

“I—I’m sorry.” Baldy choked out the words. Without a word, I went back to my seat. The rest of the table murmured to each other, not realizing I could hear every nasty thing they said about me. “Loose cannon” and “a problem” were the words they kept repeating.

Not only was I the only vampire in the room, I was the only woman. I had no guidance on how I should behave, but I wasn’t sorry about what I just did. He deserved it, talking about me like I was an object and not a person. I was embarrassed that I couldn’t control my emotions, sure, but if that was the only way I could get my message across right now, so be it. I had forever to work on the finesse part.

Trevor cleared his throat. “So, if we could go over the minutes of the last meeting, and get Callie up to speed.” Everyone opened their laptops, so I did the same, not knowing if there was something specific we were supposed to be looking at. Trevor rattled off figures and pieces of information quicker than I could type it all out. I’d have to ask him to go over everything again for me later.

“Does anyone have any new business?” he continued. Thankful for the break, I stretched my fingers like starfish.

“Sorry I’m late.” Blade breezed into the room like he owned it. He sat in the one empty chair and pulled his laptop out of a bag that looked like he’d found it on a battlefield in Iraq.

The burn rose from the pit of my belly into my brain. My head threatened to pop off. “What the hell are you doing here?”

The rest of the room looked back and forth like they’d scored seats at Wimbledon.

Blade smiled at me like he hadn’t tried to kill me the last two times we’d crossed each other’s paths. I balled my hands into fists under the table. I didn’t want the board to see how much he rattled me. “This is my corporation, Callie. I wouldn’t miss a meeting. Sounds like I got here right in time. I have some new business I’d like to share.”

Trevor sighed. “Blade, the paperwork that Callie gave you released you of your duties concerning the Enterprise. But why don’t you go ahead and share whatever this news is that you have.”

I glared at Trevor. I wanted Blade out of here, for him to go back to his little den of inequity across the street. Yet I had to admit, I was curious about what he had to say, too.

Blade passed around handouts. Really? “Since the revenue from Immortal Dilemma and Immortal Forever is down compared to the same quarter last year, I’m creating a new revenue stream with another band in our clan. The revamped Soul Divider is going to debut with a new singer at the beginning of next month—“

“Of course you’re behind this,” I hissed, tossing my handout back at him. “Noah isn’t even a part of our clan! Peter was working against this clan and probably still is.”

“That’s partly true.” Blade smiled, and I would’ve done anything to wipe it off his face. Then I thought about the way his beard felt against my fingers and my heart leapt into my throat. When were these goddamn feelings going to go away? “He actually partnered with me to make the clan stronger.”

“How so?”

“Immortal Dilemma is riding a wave. Waves crash. You need to reinvigorate the public interest in the music scene we have here.”

“So which one is better, Blade? Destroying the band or creating direct competition?”

“It’s not competition, Callie. It’s a completely different fan base. Mothers go see Soul Divider, daughters go to Immortal Dilemma.” He spoke only to me, and like I was an idiot.

“But Noah. He has to go.” I protested. “I’m sure you understand my objections.”

Blade shrugged. Did he just stifle a laugh? I practically had to push myself down in the chair not to go up over the table. Again. “Soul Divider needs a singer—“

“Because Ryder Maddox killed him. Which is treason in this clan,” I interrupted.

Blade ignored me. “Noah needs a band. I don’t see the problem.” He straightened the pile of papers in his hands. “You can’t make everyone you fuck disappear, no matter how hard you try.”

My mouth dropped open and everyone at the table turned varying shades of red. I wanted to rip him to pieces so badly, but these suits already thought I was a loose cannon. I might need these guys on my side. And Blade seemed to have much more of their favor right now than I did. Frigging chauvinist pigs. They knew how this worked. Yet they wouldn’t follow me blindly. Did I blame them? No. Did I resent them? Hell yes.

“Blade. That’s enough,” Trevor reprimanded him.

“Tickets have already gone on sale for the Soul Divider shows. It’d be a public relations nightmare if we pulled the show. We’d have to tell the entire world why you object, Callie.” Blade shrugged, I wanted to smack the smug look off his face. “I also have some ideas about how to rekindle interest in Immortal Dilemma.”

“And what would that be?” His last idea was nothing short of a disaster. The fans practically rioted when Blade tried to replace Tristan.

He smiled at me, clicking his laptop closed and putting it back in its filthy carrying case. He stood up and headed towards to the door. “You’ll just have to wait and see.”

I
couldn’t ignore Lennon’s phone calls forever. All of her messages pleaded with me to call her back, insisting we needed to talk. But I didn’t want to talk about Melanie. The decision was made. I couldn’t let her change my mind.

Immortal Dilemma had the night off, and the walls were closing in on both Tristan and I. Not being able to go out in daylight slashed your options for fun in half, but being someone whose face was splattered all over the city put the nail in the proverbial coffin. In a lot of ways, it brought us closer together, just us in this little bubble. But sometimes, the bubble ran out of air. Tonight, we didn’t have many other choices if we wanted to get out of here than to go to Embrace.

“You ready to go?” Tristan poked his head into the bathroom as I fiddled with my hair. Braiding it, wrapping it into a bun, taking it down, pulling it back in a barrette. All the indecision did nothing but make it bigger.

“Yeah,” I sighed, spraying some concoction that promised to tame my curls in a cloud around me.

“We don’t have to go if you don’t want to.” Tristan leaned against the door jamb. “I can think of plenty of things to do here.”

“Later.” I grazed his cheek with my fingertips. “I don’t have anything to be scared of. I own the place.”

“Who are you trying to convince of that?”

I smiled sadly. “Me.”

Tristan pulled me into his body and kissed me, hard. Maybe we didn’t have to go out. No, we did. “Whatever you want, I support you. You know that, right?” he whispered against my lips.

I nodded, still trembling.

Maybe I should have returned Lennon’s phone calls. Or at least listened to her messages. It would’ve prepared me for the scene I walked into.

Blade had moved his conference table persona from the boardroom to the barroom. Only this time, instead of being surrounded by corporate drones in suits, he surrounded himself with Soul Divider. The new version, of course, complete with Noah, who licked his lips and winked at me when I walked into the room. And Melanie, wearing my old uniform, gave me a look that would have obliterated a mere mortal.

Melanie wasn’t the only female at the table. Another girl sat next to Blade. Young, round faced, and pretty with a blonde streak in her hair much like Lennon’s, minus the pinup sassiness. Her mouth opened in surprise when she saw me, then her eyes narrowed. The guy on the other side of her, with spiky hair and glasses, held her back as she rose in her seat.

The other female vampire.

Baring my fangs, I hissed, and Tristan held on to me in the same way this other female’s friend hung on to her. Annoyed, I wrestled free from his arms and glared at him, hissing back at him, too.

“Shhh….” Tristan whispered in my ear. “You show her who’s in charge, beautiful. A cat fight won’t do that.”

I hissed at him one more time for good measure as we took seats near the bar.

“She lives.” Lennon didn’t give me her usual warm greeting as she plunked two glasses down in front of us, filling the glasses and pushing them towards us.

“Who the hell is that?” I motioned back towards the table.

“Well, if you had called me—“

“I didn’t call you back because--” I had to speak quickly. Lennon’s pursed lips and crossed arms told me exactly what she thought of my excuses. Tristan squeezed my thigh under the bar. “I didn’t feel the need to explain my decision about Melanie. What I think of you has nothing to do with Melanie.”

“If you had called me back, as I was trying to say, I could have told you what was going on around here. But you’re right, doll, you don’t need my help.” She walked away before I had a chance to say anything else. I took a hard swallow of my drink and looked down at the bar. Her words crushed me. I needed her, more than ever. I just didn’t know how to tell her anymore.

I turned my attention back to the gathering in the middle of the room. As predicted, Noah’s eyes were fixed on me. As mine met his, I felt the burn rise from the pit of my belly and release, locked in his gaze.

“I knew I could make the fire rise in you, lover.” He still moved faster than I could see, or maybe I was just blind with rage. I sure as hell wouldn’t be asking Ryder. Time to figure things out on my own.

“Get away from me,” I growled. “And by away, I mean Phoenix.”

Noah laughed. Tristan had turned around, glaring at him as well. Noah smiled back at him with all the bravado of an asshole that had slept with someone’s girlfriend.

Tristan crushed the glass in his hand, sending broken shards and spilled booze all over the three of us. Blood ran from his palm, distracting me as he pinned Noah down on the bar by the neck. Right, Tristan, cat fights wouldn’t solve anything.

Noah’s face turned burgundy from the lack of blood flow and Tristan’s blood spilling on him. Tristan leaned in, from the sound of Noah’s grunt, pushing down more weight on his throat. “Leave her the fuck alone. And get that other bitch out of here.”

Ryder pulled Tristan away from Noah by his hair. “What the fuck, Tristan? He didn’t do anything.”

“This time,” Tristan practically spat. “But give him a chance. He’s a slippery fucker. Don’t trust him around your girl.” He looked over Ryder’s shoulder at Melanie.

“I don’t trust your girl. Period.” Ryder’s words were icy. He didn’t look at me at all, his eyes fixed on Tristan. “We’ve decided, as a band, that it makes better sense for us to support Blade.”

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” I shrieked, grabbing at Ryder’s arm to get it away from Tristan’s hair.

“You’re weak, Callie. And you’ve already told us where you stand. If you can’t help us, you can’t expect us to help you.”

My heart pounded in my chest. Noah looked so satisfied, I just wanted to slap him. I looked back at the table, more smug smiles. I had to keep my cool. Falling apart wasn’t going to prove my strength.

“You’re making a big mistake, man,” Tristan said. My mouth dropped at how he took this in stride. It was like he just told Ryder he ordered the wrong sandwich. “We could have had a great partnership.”

“There’s nothing you can do for us,
man
. We don’t need your female vampire. We can train ours to be strong,” Ryder spat, looking at me like I was a rat. “You need us more than we need you.”

He turned around and went back to the table without another word, glaring back once to make sure he got his point across. Noah made a show of pushing away from the bar, blowing me a kiss before he turned away and back to his band.