We Own the Night (The Night Songs Collection Book 3) (27 page)

“You can take the rest of the night off, Tony.” I didn’t look at him as I dismissed him. “Thanks.”

“You can’t do that,” he protested.

I turned towards him with an eyebrow raised. “Who in the history of work has ever refused to be done early? What’s your deal?”

“I’m security, Mistress.” He spit out that last word. “You went into that apartment with one girl and came out with another. It doesn’t take a genius to realize something ain’t right.”

He had me there. But he also managed to make
me
sound guilty. I just nodded. I gripped Holly’s arm so tightly I could feel the bone. She stared at me, unblinking. I was probably hurting her. She wouldn’t dare say anything.

What was I going to do with her? I couldn’t hold on to her forever. I could trap her in the guest room. Would I have to hog tie her? Wouldn’t she just burn through any restraints? Whatever I came up with, it needed to not involve fire. We were on the fortieth floor of a high rise building. It wasn’t like I could ask Tony what he thought.

Where the hell was Tristan? The first cracks of bright blue broke through the night sky. Soon the safety shades would block the sunrise, keeping everyone safe inside. Provided we were all inside.

“Where is he?” I asked Tony.

He shrugged. “The boss doesn’t check in with me. I was assigned to you tonight.”

Dragging Holly along with me, I brought her to the guest room. I pushed her in before me, turned on the light, and then stopped short like I’d been punched in the gut.

I found Lennon alright, naked and covered in blood, tangled in the sheets, writhing against Tristan. He looked up, like he saw right through me, his lips curling in a smile as his teeth tore through the flesh on her neck. Still looking through me, he pushed her legs apart with his knees, and then entered her.

Lennon’s cries of passion were drowned out by my screams.

“C
alm down!” Holly sunk down to her knees beside me. I’d practically melted, unable to move out of that spot while I watched the love of my life fuck my best friend. She brought her face close to my ear, probably realizing my senses had been dulled by shock. “It’s an illusion.”

Tearing my eyes away from the spectacle, I looked at her like she’d just granted me a stay of execution. “It’s not real?” My words felt like they were being choked by a river of marshmallow.

“No. I know Cash’s work when I see it.” She stood up, my hand still on her wrist. “If you let go of me, I’ll show you.”

I let my hand fall into my lap and Holly approached the bed. Lennon’s back arched up off the mattress, her head and shoulders limp, with Tristan’s arm loosely around her back, holding her up as he plunged into her repeatedly. Her face had gone slack, that mix of peace and ecstasy that could only be felt in this moment, by two people madly in love.

Explosions went off in my body. It was too much for my brain to process. The information bounced against me, but I refused to let it in. Please let Holly be right. So what, Cash betrayed me. I deserved what I got from Blade and his minions. But if this was real, it would destroy me.

Holly sat down on the bed dramatically, in the exact spot where Tristan and Lennon joined. The image still projected on her, like she was a movie screen. She waved her arm back and forth through their transparent faces, slicing the image. “See? Not real.”

Unable to blink, I felt like my eyes might actually fall out of my head. “What is that?”

“Cash dug inside of you, and found your worst nightmare to project to you,” Holly explained, now speaking slowly to me. “He’s trying to throw you off the trail.”

I cocked my head in thought. Would this girl help me? Her allegiances lay firmly with Cash. But nothing was what it seemed tonight. “Are you working with Cash, or against him?”

She sighed, and I noticed the image surrounding her was fading, losing power now that it had been exposed as a farce. “I can’t get away from him, but I don’t like what he’s doing. Everything was fine before he showed up.”

I was sure people said the same thing about me.

“How do I shut it off?” I couldn’t look at the bed any more.

“Stop giving him power over you,” she replied, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “You’d think you’d know your own kind.”

Holly had no idea how badly her words stung.

Closing my eyes, I turned my concentration inward, crawling into a little hole and shutting everyone else out. All this time, I relied on other people to save me. No one was stepping up to do anything but take advantage of that. I created this mess, and I was going to put a stop to it.

When I looked back at the bed, Holly sat on it alone, no more horror movie playing. She looked around the room, taking it all in, like anyone would when they were left alone in an unfamiliar place. “They’re gone.” My voice was little more than a whisper.

“That’s good.” She didn’t sound impressed. “Can I go home now?”

That bright blue the sky turns just before the sun rises served as our backdrop. Dawn would break any minute. The safety blinds took care of the sun, but my body would soon shut down for daylight hours, and I wouldn’t regain control until the sun went back down. Tristan told me I’d need less sleep the longer I was a vampire, but for tonight, my time was almost up. My eyes began to burn like someone had rubbed sand in them, and my thoughts came in slow motion. The negativity of the night had left me more drained than usual. Getting up off the floor took too much effort. I sat next to Holly on the bed. I couldn’t let her go, but I didn’t have time to figure out a way to make her stay.

“Stay with me.” I hoped I didn’t sound like I was begging, even if I was, a little. I didn’t want to be alone. “And I’ll figure out a way to free you from Cash.”

Holly scoffed, knowing it was an empty promise. “This I’ve got to see.”

“C
ALLIE!
C
ALLIE!”
Someone shook me awake. I didn’t know where I was, or what I was late for. My lids were slow to open, and I found myself practically on top of someone I didn’t know. Another couple of blinks and I realized it was Holly, still sound asleep. For whatever reason, she stayed. The temptation to drift back to oblivion was wildly strong.

“Callie!” Who was calling me? It was a man’s voice I couldn’t place. Was I still dreaming? I jumped up, realizing that Tristan may not have come home last night.

“Tristan?” I called out.

“It’s Ryder.” His voice was soothing, like he was trying to wake a child before school. Soul Divider had been such a wildcard since they’d arrived in our lives Ryder’s presence here tonight could have meant anything. He kept his hands on my shoulders, either to calm me down or keep me in place. Panic burned in my stomach. Had he learned Blade’s fire trick, too?

“What’s going on?” My voice was gravelly from sleep. “Where’s Tristan?”

“He’s okay.” No one ever led off with saying that when they had good news for you. “Something happened at the bar last night—“

“Is it Lennon? Is she alright?”

Ryder raised his eyebrows and his jaw dropped. “What’s wrong with Lennon?”

“Oh God.” I fell against him. “Cash killed a girl during his show last night, and he told me Lennon would be next. I insisted she come back here with me, but she wanted to get clothes first. Someone took her from her bedroom, and left Holly in her place, on fire, of course to scare the shit out of me. It’s either Cash or Blade. We can’t trust either of them.”

“Shit,” he said under his breath as he rubbed my back. Holly woke up, and scrambled away from us. I’d figured out that vampires terrified her. I didn’t know how long this girl had been alive, if she was immortal or not, but she needed to realize she had the advantage. I looked up at Ryder to see his reaction, and he seemed to take it in stride. “I didn’t know anything about Lennon.”

My whole world caved in. Whatever he wanted to tell me was about Tristan, and Lennon was still a wildcard. And here I clung to someone who’d sworn to work against me for comfort.

“Tell me what happened to Tristan!” I slammed my hand against his shoulder.

“Like I said, he’s going to be alright.”

Going to be. Oh my God.

“Immortal Dilemma went to Embrace last night after the show. Tristan got pretty out of control, and confronted Blade. It got ugly fast, as you would expect. When Tristan came close to kicking Blade’s ass, Blade did the fire thing.”

I wanted to ask questions but all I could do was gasp.

“Tristan got burned pretty badly—“

The image of Tristan’s skin melting away from the bone was more than I could handle. Was that my imagination, or was I picking that up from Ryder? I dissolved in hysterical sobs against his chest. I could only keep repeating to myself that no matter what else Ryder told me, he said Tristan was going to be okay.

“Shhh.” Ryder tried to calm me down. “He’ll heal fast, Callie. He already looks much better than he did last night.”

“Where is he?”

“We brought him back to my house. You weren’t answering your phone.” It was still on the floor in Lennon’s living room. “We ran out of time to do anything else.”

“I want to see him!” I jumped up out of Ryder’s lap.

Ryder took a deep breath. “There’s more. Blade is there, too.”

“What? Why would you do that?”

“We didn’t want him to come here and do anything to you,” Ryder explained. “He thinks he’s invincible now, and it looks like he’s probably right. But there was no way we were going to let him attack you when we knew you were alone.”

Waves of shock went through my body. Everything that had happened in the last twenty- four hours ricocheted in my brain, and it threatened to explode. Even this gesture of kindness almost brought me to my knees.

“But, I thought you were working with Blade,” I whispered.

“We were, and it was a mistake,” he said. “You’re our Mistress, and we need to protect you.”

Those words made the room spin around me. I could hardly believe what I heard. Everything I’d believed until last night was totally backwards. I had to hold on to the dresser behind me to keep myself steady. “Thank you.”

“It’s our duty,” Ryder said without any sarcasm. I hadn’t expected to gain respect simply because my rival was a lunatic, but I’d take it any way I could get it.

Holly sat silent, rolled up in the sheet at the corner of the bed.

“We need to bring Holly with us,” I said.

“No!” she cried.

“You’re our only real weapon against Blade.” I tried to reason with her. I didn’t even know if what she could do could be used against him, but it was better than what I had.

“It doesn’t work like that,” she protested.

“You can tell us what to do.” Ryder stood up, conversation over. “Let’s go, ladies.”

“B
eautiful.” Tristan’s voice was weak. “God, am I glad to see you.”

I had to hold it together. If he knew how bad he looked, would he want to heal? It took everything I had not to run out of the room. His skin looked like it had melted and cooled badly, with deep red grooves and raised wrinkles. The smell of burned flesh lingering from him made my stomach spin violently. But instead of running away, I smiled as brightly as I could, running my hand through his hair, which was short and stubby. Burned off.

Before I could stop myself I flinched and gasped.