We Own the Night (The Night Songs Collection Book 3) (14 page)

The theater went black. The next performer strutted out in dim light to a bluesy, yet hard hitting soundtrack, wearing a top hat, corset, and fishnets. She spun around the pole that had replaced the silks in the middle of the stage, sliding down to her knees, tossing her top hat and pulling off her gloves with her teeth as she danced. She picked up batons and dipped them in the flame pots at the edge of the stage, twirling them and tossing them, not the least bit afraid of burning herself. Even safe in the tenth row, I shrank back into Lennon’s side. Not many things made me weary, but fire certainly did.

When the music changed to wailing heavy metal, the performer swallowed the flame and blew it out, letting it drip down and engulf her skin.

“Holy shit.” I clutched Lennon’s arm. “How can she do that?”

“I don’t know,” Lennon whispered. “She must have some sort of protective suit on, or it’s an illusion. Otherwise, she’d be dead.”

We continued watching her dance, climb and twist her body around the pole, a fiery figure, until she flipped her way over to the side of the stage, and everything went black again, including the flames.

The first intermission couldn’t have been more perfectly timed. Everyone needed a break after that performance. As the smoky lights came up on an empty stage, the entire theater sighed with relief in unison.

A man who looked like a carbon copy of Tony came up the stairs towards us. He must have been a member of the Tony wheelhouse since they exchanged those lifted chin nod acknowledgements that is some guy sign language.

Tony rose, spilling his popcorn all over the floor and on the lady next to him. She started to bitch, but he silenced her simply by raising his hand. “Let’s go, ladies.”

L
ennon rambled so fast I couldn’t understand a word she said. Now, instead of trying to lose Tony, I was trying to keep up with him, chasing him through the unfamiliar hallways backstage at the Cirque Macabre with Lennon close on my heels. He seemed to know his way around here. I wasn’t sure if I could let my human-speed guard down, and I liked to act as human as possible around Lennon. We’d had enough differences lately.

“Slow down,” I finally said to her. “I love you, but I’m not here to play matchmaker right now.”

“Oh, I know.” She actually needed to catch her breath. “I’m just going to try to linger after you take care of business. Then I can take care of business.”

“Knock yourself out.” We headed downstairs. How big was this place? “Tony, do you have any idea where we’re going?”

“We’re here.” He pulled out his phone and put on his glasses before he punched a code from the screen into the lock pad. Like giving a secret handshake, the door magically opened.

Lennon latched on to my arm, muttering that she couldn’t see anything. I don’t think Tony could either, he used the flashlight app on his phone to guide the way. I had that advantage, but still I didn’t see Cash. The walls were black with blood red accents in a burnout fleur de lis pattern. All the wood was black lacquer, shining in the silhouette of the wall torch lighting. It looked like flames coming from the walls. I knew that couldn’t be real, but remembering the girl just moments before who seemed to combust, I shuddered. Plush maroon furniture matched fabric gathered in the corners of the windowless room.

A truly stereotypical vampire lair. So where was the vampire?

“I’m right here, Mistress.” Cash laughed as I jumped. Other people reading my mind would always be freaky, even though I liked to do it to pretty much everyone around me. Having someone read my mind felt like someone broke the lock and climbed in the window. Now that I followed the pull as he read from me, I found him in the corner, his black leather jacket blending in against the leather bindings lining the bookshelf behind him.

“Thanks for having us. Wait, were we invited? I don’t even know what I’m doing here.”

Cash snapped and the lights automatically brightened enough to see Lennon and Tony visibly relax. He jumped over the back of the couch and settled, legs spread, as if he did this all the time, then motioned for all of us to sit. How very Tristan of him. I hoped he didn’t do it for the shock value, since it was lost on me. I knew Lennon loved it. Tony took one of the high back chairs flanking the couch. I took the other. I figured I’d let Lennon sit on the couch with Cash. Give her a chance to work some magic of her own.

“Yes. I wanted you here.”

“I hope I didn’t overstep my bounds by just showing up at the —“

Cash held his hand up. “We sell tickets to the show. We
want
people to come.” He smirked, making the sides of his beard rise. “Stop apologizing for foolish things. It doesn’t make you much of a leader.”

“Are you a part of this clan?” As far as I knew, no one took a census.

He rolled his eyes and leaned back, his arm extending back on the couch in the direction of Lennon. Her face brightened and she ever so subtly scooted towards him. She didn’t even notice or care he that was laughing at me. Little Miss One Track Mind. I could forgive her. Did I ever know what it was like to get distracted from reality.

“I haven’t followed another vampire since the French American War. Talis and I never saw eye to eye on anything, and we split early on in our vampire lives.”

“How did you know Talis?”

“We have the same creator,” Cash explained. “But I never followed that whore. That’s what she was, you know that? A common prostitute. She betrayed me, Callie. No one does that. She locked me away because she couldn’t stand the thought of a fair fight. Once I broke out of there, I made it my mission to destroy anyone who has the gall to deceive me.” Cash turned towards Lennon, with a faraway look in his eye. She batted her eyelashes, inviting him closer, but he didn’t move. Something about the exchange made me shudder. “She wasn’t much older than you when she was created. So don’t sell yourself short.”

“So are you trying to take over this clan?” I got it, he’d hated Talis, and had something to prove around here. But he still hadn’t made it clear what that was, especially with Talis gone. “Because if you are, you might as well talk to Blade and join his little revolution.”

Tony raised an eyebrow at me from the other side of the room. Like anyone had to tell me I was pushing my luck.

Cash remained unimpressed. He examined his fingernails on the hand that wasn’t touching Lennon’s shoulder. “I thought about it. Talis thought she was invincible. I stirred up some trouble with that band that’s now playing across the street, Soul Divider, but no one really paid any attention. Then I found out that someone took out Mistress de Rancourt. A brand new vampire.” He snorted. “Now that was worthy of my attention.”

My mouth dropped. So the things I’d accused Melanie of doing, Cash was responsible for. I’d divided the clan and aligned myself with a volatile wild card for all the wrong reasons.

Cash continued, registering my shock. “Blade appears to have some special powers that I haven’t seen in generations.”

“Which are?”

“He manipulates fire.”

“Like the girl that just performed?” I don’t know if I’d ever get that image out of my mind.

“She’s not one of us. Technically,” Cash said quickly. “I have to decide what to do with this Blade. I could use him on my side.”

I counted to ten and tried not to pass out. This was a trap, and as usual I walked right into it. “I can’t help you with that.”

“That’s what you think.” He leaned forward, both elbows now resting on his knees. “You’re the clan leader. You need to help me reign him in, or help me destroy him.”

“Why?” Helping another clan leader in a quest for Blade was a trap I’d walked into blindly before. I had no plans of making the same mistake twice. Cash better give me damn good reason.

“Because he’s more powerful than us all.”

H
oly Crap.

Blade, the most powerful vampire?

Reign him in or destroy him?

How the hell was I supposed to do that?

I returned to the Alta Vista in a daze. As promised, Lennon figured out a way to stay behind. I hoped I’d left her in good hands. She was so under Cash’s spell she wouldn’t even realize if he was using her. I certainly couldn’t tell if he was trying to help me or hurt me.

Why would Cash, a two hundred and change year old vampire, need
me
to take down Blade? I hated that I didn’t think of all the questions that battered my brain now until I left him. Why couldn’t he do it himself, especially if he was a clan leader?

Because Blade was my problem.

I knew all along I had to do something about Blade, but I just didn’t want to. I knew that my refusal to leave him in my past hurt him more than me forgetting about him, and I knew that everything that had happened to him in the last few months was my fault. I’d created this monster. But why did I have to break him yet again?

Once I returned to the apartment alone, I headed for Tristan’s bedroom, peeled off my clothes, and climbed in between the covers. I wasn’t in the mood for a game of hide and seek. I just wanted to use my new found mind control trickery to somehow fix this entire mess.

I must have drifted off because I jumped a mile when I felt Tristan’s hair tickle my skin. “I love the feel of your heart beat,” he murmured as he cradled my head in his fingers and kissed me.

Still disoriented, I knew at this moment I needed nothing more than to feel human. I pulled him down on top of me, answering his kiss with an intensity I didn’t even know I had. I pushed my fingernails into his shoulders and dragged them down his back so deeply he screamed against my lips. He pulled away from me, but I held on to his slippery back for dear life as he pulled me up so we were both upright, tangled in sheets, covered in his blood. He ran his teeth down my breastbone, matching my need. My head fell back, I gasped as I felt my skin open, the air against my insides, my blood cooling. Then it went away, healing just as fast as he ripped me apart.

I pushed his head down between my legs, forcing him to tease me with his tongue and enter me with his fingers. I fell back on the bed, wrapping my legs around his shoulders and pulling his body further into me with my ankles.

Digging my fingers into the mattress, I ripped the fiber away from the foam. I needed to keep myself grounded on this planet when Tristan bit the inside of my thigh. He sucked rhythmically, putting me into a dizzy trance. He climbed back up my body, his chin maroon and slick. I grabbed his arm out from under him, sending him crashing down on my body one more time. Putting his wrist to my mouth, I sank my fangs into the thin skin that kept his veins safe from me. The ebb and flow of the blood between us felt like thunder and lightning. I continued to drink as he entered me, thrusting in the rhythm of my swallows. When I was so full I couldn’t take any more, I let go of his arm, falling in an exhausted, spent heap.

Tristan slowed until he exhausted himself, then leaned in to kiss me softly. “We should sleep in your room. This mattress is fucked.”

I burst out laughing. “Why should it miss out on all the fun?”

“You need a shower, beautiful.” Tristan stood up and held out his hand to help me up. He was right, this place was a mess. Blood and foam everywhere.

“Are you telling me I smell?”

“You smell like me.” He laughed. “I like it better when you smell like you.”

Exhausted from the night, I could do little more than hold on to him as he washed my hair. I moaned and rest my head on his shoulders as his fingers worked at my scalp. The water stung my healing skin. After he was satisfied with his work, he wrapped me in a soft blanket like he would to a child and led me to my bedroom at the end of the hall.