Sunset to Sunrise (3 page)

“Why do you look so troubled, Kale? Is it because Alexa is gone?” The demon smirked. “Don’t fret. I’ve instructed Falon to keep an eye on her.”

“I’m not troubled. Just concerned. If Arys is doing things here without her knowledge, that won’t go over well when she finds out.”

“And just how will she find out?” Shya challenged. “You would never tell her something that is no business of yours, would you?”

After several centuries of dealing with the bastard demon, I had learned to shrug off his thinly veiled threats. He seemed to think that I still owed him, all these years later.

My past was decorated with ugly memories. Most of which were created by the vile thing who made me what I am. She had been a sick, twisted monster, all too willing to pass on her sadistic madness. Making a deal with the demon had been my best chance at the time. It was because of Shya that I had escaped her. I couldn’t even bring myself to speak her name.

Nothing bound me to the demon now. My debt to him had been paid several times over. We had settled into a working partnership that suited us both. Our supernatural secrets must be kept. I had no desire to have the masses of humankind learn that we walk among them. So I was happy to hunt those that threatened to expose us.

That merely scratched the surface of what I did for Shya, though I had much preferred it when Veryl had been the middleman. Since his death, things had changed. And not for the better.

Sunrise was coming. I got up to leave, ignoring Shya when he followed along behind me. It was because of him that Alexa and I were at such odds these days. Not only had he forced her to take a demon mark for me, but he was also the one who issued the kill order that resulted in the time I spent in the FPA prison.

“Let me know when you’ve dealt with them,” Shya said. “I want it made clear that any creature who tries to harm either Arys or Alexa will be promptly destroyed.”

I turned at the door to find him standing in the foyer, arms crossed and black wings flared. He was imposing without having to say a word. Surely he knew he was loathed by many. He just didn’t give a damn. We were all going to do what he wanted anyway.

“Since leaving the FPA lockup, have you gotten any better?” he asked. “I was concerned you’d be a problem, what with your fragile grip on sanity.”

The many ways I wanted to address that snide comment would only instigate trouble. He wasn’t worth it.

“I’m as good as I’ve ever been,” I said, turning my back on the ever-watchful demon. Descending the front steps, I strode toward my black Camaro without a look back. “No worries. I’ll take care of things.”

I peeled out of his driveway with a squeal of tires. I loved that sound. My ’73 Chevy did pretty well at kicking up a nice piece of his lawn as well. Knowing Shya, he’d find a malevolent way of mentioning that at our next meeting.

It wasn’t as if I didn’t know what people were saying and thinking about me. Shya, Alexa, Jez. They all thought I was batshit crazy. They likely were not wrong. However, there was more to it than that. Being crazy wasn’t my crime, but rather, that I accepted and even enjoyed it.

The most loud and annoying rock station on the radio accompanied me on the ride home. Alexa had asked me once why I didn’t upgrade my wheels, get something new with all of the tech inputs, heated seats and whatnot. My classic ride had been a rebuild project back in the late 80s. I had restored every inch of her myself. I didn’t need bells and whistles. I had a badass motherfucker of a car that purred like a kitten and roared like a lion. Nothing would part me from that car short of true death.

The sky had begun to fade in preparation for the morning sun. Instead of seeking shelter at The Wicked Kiss, I headed south, for home.

There was nothing special about my house. Two floors, a backyard I’d never stepped foot in and neighbors that left me alone. All in all, it was adequate. But it wasn’t home. Nothing felt like home anymore. Not for a very long time.

I paused in the entryway, trying to recall the last time I’d been here for something other than a change of clothes. It had been a while. Some might say I spent too much time at the club bleeding victims and fucking away the night. Some might be totally correct in that assessment.

A layer of dust had settled atop the counters. I’d have to make a call to the cleaning service so it actually looked as if someone lived here.

I shed my jacket, tossing it over the back of a chair. After a quick visit to my bedroom, the rest of my clothing landed in a heap on the floor beside the laundry basket. Wearing only my favorite pair of grey sweatpants, I turned on the television and flopped down in the center of my bed.

I knew I should sleep at some point. Vampires didn’t need a lot of slumber though going without made it harder for us to stay alert and at full strength. Of course, sleep came much easier when it wasn’t filled with dreams that quickly became nightmares.

“Give me a fucking break,” I muttered as I channel surfed past an infomercial for some magic weight loss solution. Humans were far too eager to latch onto the first person or product claiming to give them all they ever wanted. Who was I to judge? I’d been one of them once.

It was hard to remember my time as human. It was so short compared to my time as vampire, almost nonexistent. Just twenty-nine mortal years I’d lived before my fate was sealed.

I liked to pretend I would change things if I could. But if changing it meant never knowing Alexa, then perhaps I would choose to suffer as I do. I could accept that she was not to be mine, I just couldn’t accept that I loved her in spite of that.

Alexa. I couldn’t think about that damn woman without immediately going back to that night in the rain. The night we’d made love.
Fuck.
My dick grew hard despite the many times it had been satisfied earlier that night. That’s what she did to me. I would always want her.

I scowled at the TV, angrily hitting buttons on the remote. Loathing boiled up inside me, spilling over until I threw the remote in a fit of poorly executed rage. Why couldn’t I escape her?

The remote bounced off the TV and hit a lamp, causing it to smack the floor with the sound of shattering glass. With the phony commercial chatter a constant noise in the background, I lay back on the bed and stared at the ceiling.

Being enslaved to Alexa was growing more difficult to accept with the passing of each night. She had purposefully drawn me into her thrall, forcing her blood upon me. Blood that she knew I had a weakness for. The night she stopped Shya from killing me in the graveyard was the night she shackled me for all eternity. Did she still not realize what she’d done?

Eva. The name floated through my thoughts, rising up from a deep, dark place where my greatest secrets and fears were kept. With it came the image of a woman with long red hair and a body that would make even the strongest man weep. She was a goddess. I had awakened to find myself within the walls of her elaborate mansion. Sent by order of the king to spy on her, I’d quickly realized the woman spoken of so suspiciously by so many was no woman at all.

Eva never gave me a choice. She turned me the very night she discovered me and my fellow men. I was the only one. She killed the rest in an act of torture and mayhem that I later learned had taken days.

It was my eyes that saved me. She told me it would be a shame to destroy someone so beautiful. Being a werewolf did nothing to stop her. She had no sympathy for my beast when she ended my life and gave me a new, much darker one.

That had been a very long time ago, back in the 1500s, a rich time when both David and the Mona Lisa were brought to life. The New World had still been new to many then. I didn’t see it myself until many years later.

Europe had been my home for so long. Leaving had been difficult but important to my personal growth. Shedding my accent had occurred naturally over time. I couldn’t even fake it now if I tried. The person I was then no longer existed.

“I hope you’re burning in hell now, bitch,” I whispered aloud to no one.

I regretted not telling Alexa about my wolf. It had been trapped inside me for so long now, an echo of what it once was. I didn’t want to be the one to tell her. It had taken decades to get over the feeling of having it caged inside a form that cannot shift. Eventually I ceased to feel it altogether.

The wolf had also been forced upon me. Many soldiers were infected with lycanthropy in order to make us stronger and immune to human disease. However, it didn’t make us strong enough to take on a vampire like Eva.

I did all I could to avoid thinking of her. I would never forget the things she made me do. More than once, she starved me to the point of maniacal madness before setting me loose in a room filled with helpless victims. She kept their skulls in a large glass display case, a collection she was proud of. Rape and torture were part of who she was. No victim died at Eva’s hand without suffering first, as much as any human could withstand.

“I hope you got what you deserved.” I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to see anything but Eva’s torture room. It would live forever in my mind.

Thinking of the things we did to victims there, I couldn’t help but think of what I’d done to Alexa in the FPA basement. Forcing myself on her like that, it was disgusting, completely unforgivable. If she hadn’t fought back, I would have taken it all the way; I don’t deny that. If only she hated me for it as much as I hated myself. Her forgiving nature could very well be her undoing.

Eva would intentionally wait until the hunger was at its worst. Then together we would torment victims until their screams drove us over the edge. The memory of so many screams lived inside my head. What I wouldn’t give to be free of them. Now Alexa’s screams were among them. I would never be free.

My past was not an excuse for the things I’d done. It was merely a reason why. I sought no sympathy from anyone, which is why I would never share the darkest parts of my past, most especially not with Alexa.

Shya killed Eva, but I wished every night that it had been me.

Now so many years later, I was again enslaved. I know Alexa’s intent had been to save me, but by forcing her blood on me in a moment of extreme weakness, she made me hers as only a powerful vampiress can. And though she did not know it, in that moment she undid several centuries of careful reconstruction.

Some vampires, like Arys, don’t feel the need to feed from willing victims because they are never conflicted about their actions. They have utter acceptance, and because of that, their sanity takes fewer hits. On the other hand, I spent centuries preying on torment and screams as much as I preyed on blood. That had been a god-awful habit to kick, one I’d managed to overcome. Until now.

There was no rhyme or reason, no way of explaining how or why a vampire hunts the way it does. We’re all monsters, and we’re all mad in our own right. Some of us have just gotten very good at hiding it.

“It’s guaranteed to work or double your money back!” The forced excitement spewing from the infomercial host was starting to piss me off.

A glance at the screen revealed a redhead that looked far too much like Eva. I blinked a few times, found myself looking at a brunette and lay back down muttering obscenities. It’s terrifying to realize you’ve lost your mind.

I clenched my teeth so hard my fangs hurt. Irritated by the TV and disturbed by my own thoughts, I got up to turn the annoying box off with a smack. Then I flopped back down in bed, burying my face in the pillow.

My phone buzzed, alerting me to a text message. It was from Jez, telling me they had arrived safely in Sin City. I tossed the annoying device onto the bedside table without replying.

Jez was a good person. She was the only woman I knew personally that I could currently stand to look at. Her forgiveness after my attack on her had meant the world to me. A guy like me didn’t have a lot of genuine friends. Not that I wanted many.

Try as I might, sleep eluded me. It was almost noon when I gave up. I could only lay there waiting for so many hours. Trapped by the sun, there weren’t a lot of ways to pass the time.

I read a book. And another after that. Waiting on sunset was driving me stir crazy. At least if I’d stayed at The Wicked Kiss I would have had something, or someone, to do all day.

Two women had made me theirs. Only the death of the first had allowed me freedom. However, Alexa’s death, her transformation to vampire, would only tighten the chains that held me to her. Did I even want to be free of her? Sometimes I wasn’t so sure. It was difficult to keep my thoughts straight these days.

I loved to toy with the thought of killing her. Would I really be able to bring myself to do it though? I hoped not.

I needed a way out. Working with Scar and his pathetic band of rebels was beneath me. I knew that. And yet, it just might be what I needed to ensure the freedom I told myself I sought. Alexa would never allow me to live if I helped in an assassination attempt on Arys. Even if she did, he wouldn’t. This time she wouldn’t be able to stop him. In fact, he would have to kill me in order to reign over the city as he intended. Allowing me to live after an attempt on his life would cause others to question his authority.

That was it; at last, I saw a way out. It wasn’t the best plan. In fact, it was totally stupid. Still, all I needed was the right opportunity. I wouldn’t have to force Alexa’s hand after all. Instead, I could force Arys’s. He would be all too eager to destroy me. Honestly, he would have already if not for her.

Either way, one of us might end up dead.

Chapter Three

Killing the man out for a run in my neighborhood hadn’t been a conscious decision. It just kind of happened, as it occasionally did. I could smell him a block away when I left the house for the evening. Slipping down the back alley behind the house, I stepped out between two houses and jerked him off his feet.

I dragged him into the shadows, muffling his startled cry with a hand. He struggled, which only heightened my enjoyment. My bite was swift and deep, meant to kill. It all happened very fast.