We Own the Night (The Night Songs Collection Book 3) (4 page)

“Lucky.” He wrapped his arms around me as he kissed me goodnight. “I wish I could just stay in bed with you all night.”

“I’ll be waiting.” I smiled at him, our eyes locking. I had to look away before he missed his show and I got nothing done.

As soon as the elevator doors closed to bring Tristan to his public, I picked up my phone and called Lennon. Before I’d become a vampire, we’d been roommates. Thankfully, she didn’t see Jacey’s death as being my fault, even though I knew I was responsible for Blade’s rage. Hopefully that wouldn’t change when she found out who did it. And why he did it.

Lennon would always be my best friend in Vegas. My cousin Keisha held the all-time title for that, but she had yet to know I’d joined the ranks of the undead. Hardly anyone in Vegas knew yet, and I sure as hell wasn’t in any hurry to tell my family.

Lennon needed to know what happened last night with Blade. I needed her to be safe. I couldn’t lose her too.

“Hey, doll!” She enthusiastically greeted me when she answered. Lennon was kind of a pro when it came to newly turned vampires, and to my relief, nothing in our relationship had changed. “I only have a few minutes to catch up. I’m headed into work.”

“Have they found anyone to replace me yet?” I’d met Lennon working at the private vampire bar Embrace. After I turned, Tristan refused to let me go back to work. I fought him so hard but as usual, I gave in to him. He’d said if I didn’t quit, he’d get me fired. Since Tristan had a penchant for engaging me in sexual acts in front of a crowd, I quit.

“No one will ever replace you.” She laughed. “Hopefully Jack doesn’t hire some pathetic Vulture chick. There have been a ton of them trying to get the job. They think you hooking up with Tristan had something to do with you working here. They aren’t even supposed to know about this place.”

The overzealous fans who obsessed over Immortal Dilemma couldn’t see anything in the world past Tristan. If they only knew how different his world was from their own. “So, has there been any added security in there lately? Any changes?”

“No, why?” Lennon sounded slightly alarmed, and I momentarily was sorry I’d said anything. I didn’t know if anything had changed now that Talis was gone and Blade was hell-bent on Vegas domination. What his next move would be. She was one of the only humans working at a vampire bar. When I was a human on the staff, I always had my guard up.

“Just be careful, okay. When’s your next day off? I need to talk to you.”

“Thursday. Come over and hang out! I miss you.”

“Sounds awesome. I miss you, too. And I was serious about being careful. Please.” I hated hanging up with her. I didn’t know if I needed to protect her from Blade. How could I do it, stuck in this apartment?

Damn Tristan for not knowing anything about what our kind could do. I was on a need-to-know basis now more than ever. Would Blade be satisfied with his past kills? Or would more people—and vampires--have to die to prove his point?

The elevator doors opened unexpectedly, making my eyes widen. Who could it be? Tristan would be gone for hours.

Or maybe not.

“That fucker was serious!” Tristan wiped his arm across a table in rage, sending books and vases scattering all over the floor. He stormed over to the bar, pouring himself a tall glass of Venom and emptying it completely in one gulp.

I put my hand over his as he lifted the second glass to his lips. His eyes told me I shouldn’t have done that, but I didn’t care. If I was going to start taking charge, it needed to start right here.

“What happened? What are you talking about?” I kept my hand firmly on his arm. “Is there no show tonight?”

“Oh, there’s a show tonight. I’m just not playing it. Bradley had me
remooooooved
from the theater.” Tristan spared no dramatics as he slipped his arm out from under mine and downed glass two. He smiled. “It took six guards to get me out.”

I sighed. Tristan usually had nothing to lose and no one to answer to. Of course he would have gotten violent.
No
was a word his brain didn’t process properly. I hated it when he acted this way. I thought of myself as his living security blanket; somehow, I had the ability to make him chill out. Some days that ability deserved a Nobel Peace Prize, but this was too much for either one of us to take lightly. Tristan
was
Immortal Dilemma. He was right; the band’s whole empire would crumble without him.

“What do you want to do about it?” I asked him softly, like I was reasoning with a child. “You know, you aren’t always happy about having to be in the band. Is this what you want?”

Talis had used Immortal Dilemma as a springboard to get her business out of the slumping economy. Once she turned Tristan into a vampire, she’d formed the band around him. She’d bribed Tristan’s father into funding the rest of the construction on the Alta Vista, which had been a half-finished eyesore. The band drew tourists by the plane load. Tristan resented being trapped in the band, but it suited him in the afterlife so perfectly I couldn’t fathom him doing anything else.

He pressed his lips together in a thin angry line, looking over my head out the windows at the city below. “With Talis gone, I finally had control. And I might not have wanted to be
forced
to be in that band, but I’m sure as hell not going to let Bradley Bennett tell me I’m fired.”

I
don’t know which made me more nervous: meeting Tristan’s dad and stepmom for the first time or flying on this tiny plane to get to them in Palm Springs.

Trevor George knew we meant business. Of course, it probably meant nothing for someone like him to send a private plane over to Vegas to fetch his son and girlfriend, or whatever Tristan considered me. Even when we were both alive, our relationship didn’t fit into a neat little compartment. Nothing about either one of us ever had.

I wrapped my arms around Tristan as we settled onto the overstuffed ivory leather couch, put my head on his shoulder and squeezed my eyes closed as the plane started to taxi down the runway.

“You’re really that afraid of flying?” Tristan teased me as he rubbed my back.

“This isn’t right. This is a living room. Not a plane.” A beautiful living room at that. All ivory leather furniture, light wood, gold accents and a fluffy area rug at our feet. I tried to relax a little bit, but as the nose of the plane tipped skyward, I buried my head back in Tristan’s chest.

“It’s not like you’re going to die or anything.” He laughed at his own joke when I didn’t. “This is the way to go. Not shoved in like cattle with a bunch of disgusting tourists and crying babies. We can do whatever we want. We have the whole place to ourselves.” He tipped my face to his and kissed me.

I didn’t move or respond until I was certain we were no longer climbing. I loosened my grip on Tristan slightly and looked at him. He’d been watching me, amused, but totally relaxed, like he didn’t know any other way to be. His free arm was slung across the back of the couch. He pulled me into his lap and brought his legs up on the cushions. Two glasses of amber liquid sat chilled in little indented holders on the table beside us. I picked one of them up and swallowed its contents in one gulp.

“If you think I’m going to have sex with you right before I meet your family for the first time, you’re insane.” I whacked him as he started laughing. “And I’m pretty sure if this puppy drops out of the sky, we’d be pretty dead. Like the real kind.”

“You’re no fun.” Tristan shook his head playfully, and then reached for the remote to turn on the giant flat screen in front of us. He picked some ridiculous comedy movie. I was glad for the distraction, but the movie made me sad. This isn’t what we did. This is what Blade and I used to do. Blade loved to get pizza, watch movies, lay on the couch, and snuggle. I missed the easy comfort of it all, the feeling of home.

That Blade was gone. And it was all my fault.

“You tell me I’m no fun all the time.” I sat up and looked into Tristan’s eyes for a little too long. I looked away, knowing if I looked any longer and I’d show up at Daddy’s house with blood running down my chin. “But you’re stuck with me.”

“I’ll make you fun yet.” He cupped my chin in his hand, dragging my eyes back to his. I met him in the middle and laid back against his chest. “Alright, so I should prep you on our meeting.”

I looked back up at him. “What a nice change of pace.”

“Stop it, beautiful. Do I look like a business mogul?” He refilled my glass. “My dad had his lawyers draw up some new paperwork. Somehow, they are going to buy Talis Enterprises out of their holdings on the hotel and the band. Then he’s going to make you a trustee.”

I sat up, wide eyed. “What? They’re going to put me in charge of a band and a multimillion dollar resort? Is he nuts?” I emptied my glass for at least the second time.

“I doubt that. But if he can get you on the board, then you can ease your way in if you wind up being the clan leader.”

If.
I didn’t like that.

“And no one is going to question an eighteen-year-old girl at a board meeting? I mean seriously, which one of my tie dyed skirts should I wear?” This would be nothing short of ridiculous.

“Those people are so brain dead, they will
yes
anyone with an opinion to death.” Tristan smirked. “And powerful people should be eccentric. That’s what makes them stand out. So you can wear your cute little hippie dresses or your cloth shoes as much as you want.” He grabbed at my china doll slipper.

I was glad he gave me a warning on what to expect for once, but this made me more nervous than ever. Even if all I had to do was go to meetings, this was way more responsibility than I’d ever had in my life. At my parents’ house, all my decisions were made for me. And since I came to Vegas, I seemed to royally screw up every decision I made.

No one could afford for me to continue that track record.

My stomach, full of Venom, lurched when the plane seemed to hit the brakes, signaling the beginning of our descent. Landing always seemed so much smoother than takeoff, maybe because I was so damn thankful to have my feet back on solid ground.

A black car waited for us on the runway. I could get used traveling like a rich person. We climbed into the backseat and the driver whisked us towards Palm Springs.

This was my first trip to California, although this visit was not quite the circumstances I’d imagined coming here for. I sat close to the window so I didn’t miss anything as we passed by. Besides being much smaller, disappointingly it didn’t seem that much different here than Vegas. The houses got progressively nicer, all low midcentury ranches, so I assumed we were close to our destination.

The driver opened the door and Tristan held my hand to help me out of the car. We were at the end of an impossibly long driveway lined by lit up palm trees. The warm desert breeze whipped my skirt around my thighs. Hand in hand, we headed towards a sleek white house that looked like it was made of nothing but plastic and glass.

Nobody had to introduce Trevor George to anyone in the civilized world. I was so nervous to finally meet him. He’d been a huge movie star as long as I’d been alive. His awards lined the fireplace mantle in the living room, the Oscar taking center stage. His presence filled the space the awards did not.

Tristan hugged his father much more warmly than I expected. I loved it. When they pulled away from each other, his father eyed me with curiosity and the same charisma as his son, making butterflies flutter in my stomach. How could I not be star struck?

“Dad, this is Callie. Callie, Dad.”

“Hi,” I wasn’t sure what else to say that wouldn’t sound ridiculous.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Callie. I’ve heard so much about you.” Trevor held out his hand to me and frowned when he realized how cold my hand was as he shook it. Maybe hadn’t heard everything about me. But he had to know what I’d become to be talked into making me part of such an enormous business decision that would affect Tristan for the rest of his—and everyone else’s--life. I guess some things always caught you off guard.

“You have?” My voice sounded high and thin.

“Don’t worry, I only tell him the good stuff.” Tristan winked at me. He seemed so normal in his father’s house. So not like the rock star he usually was. Like someone’s son.

“Come on out back. Sherri’s waiting for us out there.” Trevor turned around to lead us to the back yard. If he was freaked out about having two vampires in his house, he didn’t show it. An Oscar worthy performance indeed.