We Own the Night (The Night Songs Collection Book 3) (31 page)

“I can stop it.” Rachel assured her.

“For everyone in this room?”

“I survived it.” Tristan added. “It sucked, but it can be done.”

“Tristan, you probably shouldn’t get too close to him,” I said. “It’s too soon for you, I think. You probably aren’t in as good shape as you think you are.”

He shot me a look. Clearly, I just challenged his manhood. “Are you kidding me? I want to be the first one to kick dirt on that bastard’s face.” He practically spit the words. “I’m in.”

“Fine,” I sighed, “You’re in.”

“We’ve already kept him in the garage.” Ryder led the way out of the house. “It seemed to be the most fire proof.”

I hated that this is what we all finally banded together over. That Blade had to be the odd man out. This creature that had possessed his body, it wasn’t Blade. It was my fault and now I had to be the one to punish him for it.

“Listen,” I said to Ryder, stalling. “If you guys are going to be in my clan, I can’t allow Noah to stay in the band. He’s worked with Blade all along to sabotage this clan.”

“Fine. He’s out.” Ryder didn’t even hesitate. “But we want the rights to our songs back. Drake sold them to Talis. Blade couldn’t figure out how to do it, basically because he wasn’t really a clan leader.”

“I can do that for you.” That was more than a reasonable request. Tristan pointed out these guys created music for the love of it. They should benefit before anyone else.

This transaction gave me a great idea. “Since you guys need a singer, I know someone who’s looking for a band.” I bumped Tristan with my hip.

Tristan’s jaw dropped. “Beautiful, not yet. I haven’t said anything to anyone but you. And you know what I said about the singing.”

“You’re leaving Immortal Dilemma?” Ryder looked shocked.

“Yeah.” Tristan needed a moment to let saying it out loud sink in. “When I thought it really all might be over, I realized that I really didn’t have forever. And that wasn’t what I wanted.”

Tristan had been in worse shape that he told me. My blood ran cold thinking about it.

He didn’t have forever. None of us really did.

The guys started chatting about a possible collaboration. Musicians spoke a whole other language not meant for the rest of us, and it had been a long time since Tristan was so animated and passionate, and actually thinking about the future.

But there was still so much not to be happy about.

This wasn’t what I wanted. I stopped short, covering my face with my free hand. Tristan took a step but stopped when he would have had to drag me to keep going. The others went a few more steps before they realized we were no longer following.

They all stared at me, waiting for an explanation.

“I can’t do it.” My pulse bounced against my skin, out of control.

More than one person groaned.

“Come on, beautiful.” Tristan wrapped his arms loosely around me. “He would have killed me if Rachel hadn’t intervened. And he’s doing everything in his power to make your life a living hell.”

“Because that’s what I did to him!” I cried.

Ryder overheard us, and put his hand on my shoulder. “Callie, did you want to be a vampire?”

I shook my head.

“You aren’t the only one he’s acted like this towards. Talis, girls he calls to his room, and even the donors at Embrace.” Ryder ticked off the list. Blade’s rage towards me sadly sounded like just the tip of the iceberg. “I know you feel bad about getting him mixed up with Talis. None of us wanted to be mixed up with her. But he’s the only one who went crazy.”

My eyes glistened with tears and I just stood there, looking up at him while I clung to Tristan, and let his words sink in.

“You need to stop blaming yourself for his behavior,” Ryder continued.

“It just sucks,” I whispered. “I wish it didn’t have to be this way.”

No one said another word as we resumed the trip to the garage. Blade snarled and fought against his chains in the corner.

“Of course you wouldn’t come by yourself, Mistress.” His eyes glowed and little sparks flew off of him as he fought.

“What would you have done if I did?” I asked as calmly as I could. Maybe, just maybe he’d snap out of it.

“The same thing that I did to that piece of shit you sleep with.”

No snapping out of it.

“I have to thank you, Blade.” I threw him a curveball, and for a moment he stopped fighting his restraints. “Because if it wasn’t for you hating me, I would have never been able to channel that hatred and destroy Cash.”

His red eyes widened. “You killed Cash?”

I nodded. “
My
power is that I can channel the powers of any vampire that I can read.” My voice was still even. “So, when Cash decided to brutalize Lennon, I could do something about it. And you were so angry, I had to use that power for good, for once.”

Blade’s chest rose and fell dramatically. He knew why we were all here.

“So are you going to use my own power against me? Because that’s not going to work.” Blade’s voice was surprisingly calm. “I repel the fire. It doesn’t affect me.”

“No, we aren’t going to destroy you.” I was losing my nerve. But this was the only civil conversation I’d had with him since we both crossed into the afterlife. “Blade, I wish you could just get over what happened. Ryder put it all into perspective. None of us wanted this. But you’re the only one acting like this. Please, work with us. There’s a place for you here.”

“What the hell are you doing?” Tristan whispered.

The red faded from Blade’s eyes a bit, and I let go of Tristan’s hand. Everyone gasped as I took a couple of steps forward towards him. “Is this how you act towards all of your ex-girlfriends?”

He wouldn’t look at me. “You were the only one I really gave a shit about.”

We were so far beyond the let’s-be-friends speech it wasn’t even funny. It wasn’t the time to try to explain where I thought our relationship went wrong, or to defend myself.

“I’m sorry I hurt you.” More than anything else in the world, I wanted to touch him. But it would be the last thing I did. “I’m sorry it happened this way.”

A hand grabbed my shoulder and I flinched. “Jesus.” Tristan sighed. “I want to talk to you, outside.”

“You already have me chained up.” Blade’s eyes lit back up. “It’s obviously about me, you might as well just say it here instead of being a complete pussy.”

“Yeah, Bradley, it’s about you.” Tristan paused to sneer at him, then turned back to me. “There’s an underground city—“

“What?” I stopped him. “That’s absurd.”

“He’s right.” Blade’s voice was flat. “And it has a vampire jail.”

“It does?” I looked back at Tristan. The rest of the crowd looked just as surprised as I was.

He nodded.

It was the best news I’d heard all day.

T
he underground jail was beneath The Flamingo. We formed a caravan, there were too many of us for one car. Tristan explained to me on the way over that it was formerly owned by Bugsy Siegel, the renowned mobster. The jail originally held mobsters, people who couldn’t make good on gambling debts, and whoever else Siegel didn’t think deserved to see the light of day. His version of cement shoes.

That was until Talis de Rancourt showed up and created a whole race of people who would never see the light of day again. The underground jail became a convenient necessity.

“Are humans still jailed there?” I would hate to be the only human locked up with a bunch of pissed off vampires.

“Not that I know of,” Tristan said as he pulled into the parking garage behind Ryder’s SUV. “It’s possible, though. Blade isn’t the first vampire to go bad, beautiful. This place exists for a reason.”

We waited for Soul Divider to pour out of their SUV, and pull Blade out of the back. The girls had driven behind us in a separate car. They came over to join us as the band struggled with Blade. I turned around when Melanie sniffled, and noticed she was crying.

“This is how we met him,” she explained. “He was bound, and angry. Talis’ guys dragged him into Embrace to do something awful to him. I can’t help it, I just feel bad.”

I had to walk away from her. I’d lose it if I listened to her any longer. Blade wasn’t that much different than other vampires. We killed people. I’d killed people. More than one now. He just worked his hardest to piss me off. It wasn’t enough to kill him for, I knew that.

All of us fit in the cargo elevator that went down to the jail. Blade had stopped fighting at this point, accepting his fate. I wouldn’t look at him.

One person manned the desk, a pockmarked older man who looked like he hadn’t seen daylight since before I was born. I didn’t know if he was a vampire or not, but I would not screw with this dude.

“Who’s in charge of this group?” His voice cracked the silence with the subtlety of a gun being fired.

“I am.” I stepped forward.

He laughed. “You’ve got to be shitting me. What are you, sixteen? Go play somewhere else.”

I slammed my hand down on the desk, pushing it back towards him, baring my fangs and letting my eyes glow. “I’m the Mistress.”

“Jesus Christ. Any sick bastard that turns a child like you into a vampire deserves to go straight to Hell.” He looked at the group, trying to figure out which one was the offender.

“Isn’t that where we are?” I asked. If he only knew.

“Home sweet home.” The man held out his arm in mock welcome. “Alright, who’s the lucky new resident?”

The guys pushed Blade forward. He grunted, but didn’t say anything. Ryder handed the end of the chain to the warden, the crypt keeper.

Wrapping the chain around his hand, he pulled on it hard enough to send Blade stumbling forward. Alright, the crypt keeper was a vampire.

“Blade!” I called to him before he was taken away. He looked back at me, his eyes redder than ever. “I didn’t want to kill you, but you undermined me. I can’t have that. Once your anger fades, maybe we can work something out.”

“You think my anger is going to fade in this hell hole?” He laughed. “When are you going to wake up out of the dreamland that you’re walking around in?”

“It was either this or bury you under concrete,” I told him. “That was the plan in the garage. I think you’re going to be a lot less angry here than buried alive under a half a ton of rock.”

“When’s he getting out?” The warden made it clear we were wasting his time.

I looked at the crowd, and then at Blade. “We’ll check on him periodically,” I said. “But if he causes any more trouble, he’ll be down here as long as I exist.”

“You bitch,” he spat.

I just had to walk away. There was no good resolution to this situation. As the clan leader, I couldn’t simply let him go free to antagonize me. This was the kindest solution. I’d check on him regularly. That wasn’t a lie.

I knew deep down the Blade I fell in love with still existed. And even if our relationship could never be what it was, I hoped some day we could at least be civil to one another.

“I
can’t believe you did that. He almost killed me, beautiful, and I guarantee he would have done the same thing to you if he had the chance.” Tristan didn’t stop ranting about my decision the whole way back to Ryder’s. “I swear you’re the patron saint of lost causes.”