We Own the Night (The Night Songs Collection Book 3) (19 page)

“A strong leader.” Cash paced near the bookshelf.

“So you do it.” I crossed my arms.

Cash shook his head. “You have to be the one.”

“So you’re chicken shit,” I scoffed, rolling my eyes. “Great.”

Cash laughed again. “I can be accused of a lot of things, but being a chicken shit isn’t one of them.”

“What do you suggest I do, you know, leader to leader? Because I’ve got nothing. And I don’t owe you anything, either, for this. I’m doing this for me.”

“Is that so?” He raised an eyebrow. “That’s the only reason you should do this.”

He was pissing me off more every second. “Stop evading my question and tell me what I need to do.”

Cash enjoyed my irritation a little too much. “You need to get in his mind, and control the emotion that he uses to work the fire. There’s no telling which one it is, no two vampires are alike, but I’d be willing to bet it’s anger.”

That made sense. Blade hated Talis, and in anger burned her to death. And now, he hated me, so anger would be an easy emotion for me to evoke in him.

But if I got close enough to touch the flames in his mind, could I survive?

“I didn’t know we could manipulate thoughts.” Every day I spent as a vampire I felt stupider. Was that what he was just trying to do, inside my head? I hated the possibility. “I thought we could just feel the emotions. We can control them?”

“It takes practice.” Cash sat back down. I had yet to sit since I’d entered the room. I couldn’t afford to get comfortable around this vampire. I’d been screwed over enough already by the rest of them, and Cash was more--
dangerous
.

“Great. How will I know when I’m ready to try it on Blade?”

“You’ll know.”

As frustrating as his answer was, it made a lot of sense. He couldn’t have any idea when I’d be comfortable taking on Blade, and from my past experience with these guys, his idea of “ready” would be a lot different than mine.

I couldn’t rely on everyone else’s opinions. I had to find people to practice these mind tricks on. Maybe I could learn to use my powers for good, instead of evil.

Maybe I could learn to leave well enough alone.

“So, the female vamp hanging around with Soul Divider,” I needed to change the subject before he berated me for not embracing evil. It didn’t come naturally to all of us. “Did you create her?”

“I did. I thought I needed a female vampire to work against Talis, but now, Mistress, that is no longer the case,” Cash said as if I asked him about lunch. “Rachel is weak.”

“How can that be? If I’m automatically the leader just because I’m a woman, but she’s not a leader. It makes no sense.”

“She was no longer needed for the purpose I intended for her.”

Just like that, huh? “Did you use mind control on her?”

“You’re catching on.”

“I’d appreciate it if you’d continue to control her, instead of letting Blade get his mitts on her, so she doesn’t screw with me, please and thank you.” This felt like an appropriate time to lay my demands on the table.

“She’s got nothing to stand on.”

The memory of Blade putting his arm around her at the Soul Divider show flashed in my mind. “She doesn’t seem to think so. There’s dissension in the ranks, and it doesn’t end with me. And you have no idea what Blade is telling her.”

“No, Callie.
You
have no idea what Blade is telling her.”

How infuriating. I wondered how much of Rachel’s thoughts he actually did control. “Do you know?”

“I do. But what fun would it be to give you all the answers? You need start figuring these things out on your own. And the sooner you take care of Blade, the less you’ll have to worry about what Rachel does.”

I sighed. “Good point.” Even if I hated it.

“Rachel is not your problem.” Cash reiterated. “You know what you need to do to solve your problems. You just don’t know how yet. But you will.”

Cash saw something in me I was just starting to discover in myself.

Tony’s black SUV waited for me outside of Circus Circus. I closed my eyes and leaned my head against the cool glass of the window on the short ride back to the Alta Vista. I concentrated as hard as I could on Tony, to see if I could break through to his mind. I needed all the practice I could get before I went after Blade. On a human, it always felt like stealing.

I picked my head up, startled when I reached inside and read him. Tony’s brain radiated anxiety, and that was the last thing I expected from the head of security. He should be the most confident man on earth. I continued to concentrate on the waves his brain sent out, it was almost like heat wafting on pavement.

Deception.

Tony was lying to someone, and I had a bad feeling it was me and Tristan.

I thanked him profusely for bringing me back, probably too much, because he seemed confused by my appreciation of him doing his job. My poker face sucked. What did Tony really know about being a vampire? After all, he’d been assigned to guard Tristan, and Tristan certainly didn’t know anything about being a vampire.

But Cash seemed to think Tristan had settled in to this life just fine.

Cash shattered everything I thought I knew about being a vampire.

“I need to talk to you.” I grabbed Tristan by the arm the minute the director announced a wrap on the night’s shoot of Immortal Forever.

“I missed you too.” Tristan frowned. He didn’t know where I’d been. Last time he knew that I had any contact with Cash, he’d asked me if I was going to have sex with him. I didn’t want to go through that again. “Are you ready for another girl?”

“Jesus. No.” I pulled him towards the elevator. “Away from the cameras.”

“Are you sure? Because there are a couple of good ones here tonight.”

I hissed at him and pulled him into the elevator. “If you don’t stop asking, it’s going to be you I drain dry.”

“So we never get to do that again?” He looked like a little kid who didn’t understand that his mom was pretending to be Santa Claus.

“Oh my God, shut up about the threesomes! Not tonight.”

Once in the bedroom, we curled up together on the bed. You’d never know just a couple nights before, a girl died in the very spot we lay. Honey’s body was long gone, and in its place were now a new mattress and bedding. A reward for bad behavior.

“I don’t think we can trust Tony.” The words felt traitorous coming out of my mouth.

“What? Beautiful, Tony’s my man. He’s been with me since Immortal Dilemma started.” Tristan wasn’t going to just buy into this one.

“I read his thoughts, and he’s deceiving someone. I’m afraid it’s us.” I left out why I was fishing around in Tony’s head. No need to complicate things with details.

“That’s his job. He needs to keep things from people who aren’t on a need-to-know basis. I think you’re overreacting.”

Tristan knew he’d said the wrong thing. I opened my mouth to speak and closed it. I couldn’t afford to lose my cool, even with Tristan. “I’m not overreacting. I don’t think we can be too careful. That sex tape got out, and God only knows what Blade and other people have on us. That should have never made it out of the surveillance office.”

“That’s the team. That’s not a reflection on Tony.”

“Yes it is! Either he allowed it, or they don’t respect him. Either way, it’s a problem. Just be careful, okay? From now on, Tony is on a need to know basis.”

“I can do that,” Tristan conceded.

“Good.”

“So can we have someone send up one of the groupies?” He raised his eyebrows and smiled.

I fell back on the bed, disgusted. “That isn’t going to be an all-the-time thing. You’re still making me feel like I’m not good enough for you.”

Tristan climbed on top of me. “I thought you liked the power. I like you with that power.”

“Well, when I want it, I’ll ask for it.” I pulled him down on top of me by his hair, and he laughed as he fell in a heap on my body.

Whatever the hell he wanted that other girl for, I made sure he forgot she existed.

O
n Martha’s Vineyard, there was no need for me to learn how to drive. I could walk or ride my bike everywhere I had to go. My mother never trusted me learning to drive with her car. As infuriating it was, in retrospect, I couldn’t blame her. I mean, look what I did with a little bit of freedom. But still, I cursed that now, resenting the fact I needed a chaperone to get anywhere in Las Vegas.

Tony knew too much. If he was working against us, we couldn’t let him go. Keep your enemies close and all that. I hated the fact he’d been at that first meeting with Cash. Hell, he set it up. All the blood in my veins ran cold. Was this whole arrangement with Cash a set up? There was no way to tell. I had to trust my instincts.

And they still insisted that I needed them both.

I had to learn mind control, and Tony would be the perfect guinea pig. If I could learn to read his thoughts, and he really was working against us, I’d have a warning against what was coming next. And if I could learn to
control
his thoughts, I could use Tony to work against any enemies.

Lennon came to pick me up that night, and we headed back to her apartment.

“It smells like hamburgers in here.” I inhaled deeply. Bloodlust made Lennon crave red meat. She’d tried to cover the scent up with candles, but now it just smelled like apples and cooked meat. A good, juicy cheeseburger sounded like heaven right now.

For the first time, I realized I hadn’t cooked for anyone since I began my afterlife. I had loved to cook. I thought back to the restaurant, training Tristan to be a barista. Believe or not, he made a hell of a latte. Now he was training me. It was lonely, being the only one who mourned for the parts of myself that died when I did.

“I’m going to get fat if I don’t stop eating all this meat!” Lennon collapsed on her couch after handing me a Venom cocktail. She got the good stuff from Embrace and brought it home just for me. A lot of the novelty gift shops around the Alta Vista sold a knock-off Venom drink, something that was safe for humans to drink. It didn’t even have the right to be called by the same name. “But Cash and I can’t keep our hands off of each other. And he knows just how to bring me to the brink. He drinks my blood until the world goes fuzzy. Most intense orgasm ever.”

If he wasn’t careful, he was going to kill her or turn her. “What do you guys talk about when you’re not doing, you know, that?”

Lennon looked at me like I’d sprouted a second head. “I tell you that he brings me to the moon and you want to know what we talk about? Seriously, doll?”

Maybe I was being too transparent. I smiled at her, trying to cover up my digging in her brain. She was on the moon, alright. Her elation filled me, making me feel like I’d just fallen in love myself.

It was one of those feelings I could be drunk on forever. I needed to focus. I couldn’t let her distraction with Cash throw me off course.

I debated whether or not I should tell her what Tristan and I did to Honey, speaking of mind blowing sex acts. It would probably scare the hell out of her. I knew it would freak me out if I was still human. Lennon had never expressed any interest in being a vampire, so it was surprising that she’d let Cash drain her like that. I had to wonder if she wanted to be turned, since she was so comfortable in our realm. Besides Melanie and me before I turned, I wasn’t sure if Lennon had any other friends who weren’t vampires.

Cash had to be manipulating her emotions, even though she was too smart for that.

“It’s not that,” I pulled back out of her brain. “It’s just that sex is different as a vampire, so—“

She cut me off, rolling her eyes. “My mind blowing sex doesn’t impress you, Mistress?”

I smiled, surprising myself by embracing being called Mistress. Lennon didn’t think of me as sarcastically as it sounded. And I deserved it. “I’m glad you’re having it. But Cash intrigues me for different reasons.”

“That’s a good thing, I don’t need you getting your fangs into my man.” She pushed at me with her foot playfully. She exhaled, and I could feel her mind flipping, almost like turning pages. Too fast for me to read. “We don’t talk about much. Mostly about me, the bar, what brought me to Vegas, and my life before I came here.”