Forget About Midnight (2 page)

“We have to go,” I announced to Kale who had silenced the woman’s screams. She hung limp against him as he drained her.

He gazed at me with glassy eyes. For a moment he didn’t react, and I thought I’d have to tear the woman away from him. Then he dropped her. She hit the ground with the dull smack of flesh on pavement.

My hungry manipulations had been disrupted, but my longing for satisfaction didn’t fade. With complete abandon, I went to Kale and kissed him like I’d wanted to so many times since he’d carried me out of the graveyard before sunrise.

Maybe I expected some resistance on his part because I was mildly surprised when he kissed me back with a thrilling voraciousness. The taste of blood was intoxicating when he slipped his tongue between my lips. Several months of longing burst forth to drown us in a desire that had long gone denied.

His hands were in my hair, on my face, my waist. When his lips moved to my neck, I knew that we were crossing a line, and God how I wanted to.

“We have to go,” I repeated, unable to form any other words.

Before the writhing force that drove us could pull us deeper into its thrall, I dragged him along beside me, fleeing the scene without a glance back.

Once I released Kale from his self-imposed cage, he was ravenous and ready to terrorize the city. Somehow my transition to vampire had revived his self-restraint, a trait I barely possessed these days. It wasn’t really his strongest trait either though. As soon as we killed together, he was back to his vicious, vampy self.

It was the same pattern he’d followed for the past few nights. Dusk found him subdued, calm in a way that was almost suspicious. As we hunted, he hovered, watching me as I chose and claimed my prey. Then he changed. His mental state shifted, and together we encouraged one another to be terrible.

I kept waiting for the guilt. Every moment that passed without it left me feeling like I walked in some kind of twisted alternate reality. I wanted to feel bad about the things I’d done since waking up at The Wicked Kiss, really I did. But I didn’t.

It would come though. At some point it would all catch up to me. Then the real struggle would begin. Then I’d fight to walk the line between madness and calculated control, choosing my victims discriminately, fairly even. I wasn’t sure how seasoned vampires managed. It was so fucking hard to give a damn when all I wanted to do was make living things beg and bleed.

Together Kale and I enjoyed a guy who’d shouted something derogatory at me about tits and ass as I’d walked by. He was a drunken mess, leering at me from the doorway of a small, dirty pub where he puffed heavily on a cigarette. With just a smile and a finger bent in invitation, he’d fallen into step beside me without a word.

Now he lay dead, sprawled on the overgrown, yellowed lawn of an abandoned house in a derelict neighborhood. Several feet away, Kale too was sprawled on the crunchy grass. I straddled him, gazing down into his handsome face as he stared up at me in a blood-drunk haze.

“I knew we would be amazing together,” he said, tracing a finger over my bloodstained lips.

“We’ve barely started.” In a teasing motion, I squirmed atop him, a playful brush of my groin against his.

“I don’t want to do it like this.” Kale gestured to the dead man with a grimace. “You’re too good for that. Since our night in the rain together, I’ve always known that if I had another chance, I’d love you the way I always wanted to.”

The tension between us had grown unbearably in the past few months. Denying the way I wanted him had become a nightly occurrence. Of course being mortal had made it dangerous to even be alone with him. Until now.

I leaned down to kiss him, reveling in his leather scent. “And how might that be?”

“Slow. Tender. I want to savor every second of being with you. No rush. Just us exploring each other for the first time.” To accompany that delicious visual, Kale sucked my bottom lip into his mouth.

Our one and only night had been a rushed, wild, and relatively brief encounter. It had replayed in my memory more times than I’d care to admit.

The first few nights after the turn had been difficult. Not only was the blood hunger at it’s worst, I had been desperate for comfort in any way I could get it. More than once I’d thrown myself at Kale, and each time he’d resisted, refusing to so much as kiss me in such a vulnerable state. My first day as a vampire had been spent in his arms. But since, he would only touch me when riding the high of the hunt.

After the first few kills, I’d started to come back to myself. I was different, but I was still me, somewhere deep down. And I still wanted Kale. However, what I wanted was so rarely what I needed.

Slow and sensual sounded fantastic… for another time. What I wanted right then was a mad, passionate frenzy of lovemaking that would leave us both disoriented and spent.

Kissing with vampire fangs was tricky. I bit Kale’s lip, murmuring an apology as I flicked my tongue over the blood that welled up. Metallic and tangy, it tasted like an explosion of honey-drenched power.

Laughter echoed around us. Falon announced his arrival with a malicious chuckle before he appeared. Kale and I both jumped up, like we’d been caught doing something sinful.

I smoothed back my hair and squared my shoulders, doing my best to appear composed. “Maybe I should just give you my phone number, Falon. That way you can annoy me from a distance.”

The fallen angel stood there smirking, his arms crossed and his silver wings spread wide. I hadn’t seen him since the night I died. Even though it had been for his own selfish reasons, he’d come through for me that night.

“Get a look at you two,” Falon said, silver eyes shining with dark amusement. “It didn’t take long for your reign of terror to begin. This is just some weird vampire initiation phase, right?”

“What do you care?” I asked. “I doubt you came to talk to me about my recreational activities.”

Kale was quiet, but he looked guilty as hell. Instant buzzkill. Falon studied us, assessing the sudden change in mood.

“Actually, I did.”

“Shya didn’t send you?” I found that hard to believe.

Falon scoffed. “Do you really think he would trust me again after what I did to him? You’ve got to know him better than that by now, wolf.”

My heart clenched when he called me that. It used to insult me that he refused to call me by name. Now, it made me want to cry. So many people saw me as a hybrid or a vampire. It meant a lot that Falon still saw me as the wolf.

“Have you seen him? Do you know where he is?” I didn’t want to know, but I had to ask. Shya was no quitter. He wouldn’t forget the vengeance he owed me, nor would he forget that I still owed him.

“No. I assume he’s licking his wounds on the other side. Regrouping. Whatever he’s doing, he’s keeping a low profile.” Falon paused, and his smile faded. “Eventually he’ll come after us both. Be on your guard, Alexa.”

I nodded uncertainly. Shya’s wrath was something I knew I didn’t want to see. My mind raced. “How does the other side work exactly? Is there anything we can do to trap him there?”

Falon frowned in thought. He wandered through the yard, stepping over the body in the grass, coming to a stop near an old stone birdbath.

“The other side is the realm beyond the physical. It’s where the spirits dwell. Those without bodies and those who manifest unnatural bodies dwell there. The only way to keep him there is to find a way to prevent him from crossing over into the physical realm.” Falon ran a hand over the crumbling statue. “Even if we could pull that off, which we can’t, it would only save your ass and leave mine on the line.”

“And that would be a problem?” I expected the glower he shot my way. The middle finger that followed was a surprise that made me snicker. “I’m kidding. Sort of. There’s got to be something we can do. Otherwise we’re sitting ducks. What’s stopping him anyway? Why hasn’t he already come for us?”

Falon peered into the stone eyes of what appeared to be a broken angel as he spoke. “I don’t think he’s ready to deal with me yet. Shya’s a plotter. He likes to take his time. But if there’s anything keeping him away from you, that’s Willow.”

The sorrow I felt at that name penetrated deep. A night hadn’t passed when I hadn’t had a moment of panic, wondering where he was and if he was ok. He had saved me. I was forever in Willow’s debt. Taking my darkness had made him a demon. It had allowed me to keep the balance of light and dark rather than being consumed by the dark entirely. Though my mental state was now divided in a severe Jekyll and Hyde manner, without Willow’s sacrifice I would just be the Hyde.

“Willow,” I repeated, softly to myself. “Just how powerful is he now?”

Falon hesitated before saying, “Like you wouldn’t believe.”

“Have you seen him?” Kale asked, his curiosity evident. Or was that fear?

“No.” There was an awkward silence. Falon sneered at the broken angel statue before turning back to me. “Anyway, we’ve gotten a bit off topic. None of this is why I came so, if you’ll stop with the chit chat, I can get to the point.”

I frowned, wanting to grill him further about Willow. Knowing it was useless to try to nag info out of Falon, I motioned for him to say whatever he’d come to say.

Falon gestured to the body before pinning us with a hard stare. “This shit has got to stop. You,” he pointed at Kale, “should know better by now. And you,” his angry finger swung my way, “are smarter than this. Do you think this kind of behavior comes without consequence?”

His tone bordered on annoyed, and it was just so ridiculous that I burst out laughing. My emotions had been running on overdrive since the turn. Now was no exception.

“Am I missing something here?” I asked. “Since when do you care what I do? Not that it’s any business of yours.”

Kale didn’t share my humor. He stood there with arms crossed, his face disturbingly expressionless. Falon merely waited for me to stop cackling. It dawned on me that he had just complimented my intelligence, and for some reason that made me start to take him seriously. I sobered slightly though the blood high made it difficult.

“Are you quite finished?” Falon’s eyes glinted with disdain. A few paces brought us face to face so he could give me his holier-than-thou stare. “You do not have the luxury of acting out like a fledgling vampire. Not with the reputation that you have. Do you have any idea how many eyes are on you right now?”

I heard him and understood his words meant something, but my gaze dropped to the vein in his neck. I fumbled for a response. “Other than yours? Why don’t you enlighten me, Falon?”

The subtle but constant hum of his angelic power made my skin tingle. It was mesmerizing. I’d never been able to feel it before, when I was alive, unless he actively used it. The scent of his blood was sharp and familiar. The taste of it lived in my memory, and oh, how that lovely aroma taunted me. I didn’t need to actively breathe to function though the action was automatic. My senses were heightened to an extent even the wolf had not possessed. Falon’s angelic blood smelled sinful and divine. I wanted to breathe it in, to tease myself into a taste.

“The FPA has been following you. Little sis is cleaning up your mess. Even as stupid as you can be, you must know that won’t end well.” Falon glared when he realized I was ogling his jugular.

“Wait. So am I smart or stupid? You’re giving me mixed messages.” I forced my gaze back to his and smiled, certain that it looked as creepy as it felt on my face.

Falon wasn’t impressed. “You’re going to end up in lockup. Is that what you want?”

His reasoning was valid. I agreed wholeheartedly. The FPA lockup was a nasty place. However, I still questioned his motives.

“Why though? Why do you care if I end up there? I’d think you’d be happy with that.”

“Look, you childish little idiot, if you get yourself locked up, then everything we both did to stop Shya will have been for nothing. Now is not the time to act like a horror-movie monster. Get your shit together.” Falon paused as if concocting another round of insults.

I noticed that he still hadn’t answered my question. “Are you trying to give me some guidance, Falon? That’s so sweet. I didn’t think you still had it in you. You know, with you being fallen from grace and all.”

Falon scoffed and shook his head of fair hair. “Consider it a warning. You’re a Hound. One of the last. Don’t fuck that up any more than you already have.”

There was no understanding him. Falon was an enigma. I wanted to figure him out, but every time I thought I had, he threw me another curve.

“I really don’t understand you,” I said, my gaze on his but my mind on what lay beneath the surface of his skin. “But I’m going to figure you out, Falon. Because I know that you don’t want me to.”

His bark of laughter was loud, shattering the relative calm. “That’s never going to happen. It’s strange that finding out what makes me tick means so much to you. I’m going to have fun with that.”

“As am I.”

We stared at one another until it grew awkward. Such a bizarre relationship we shared. We were nothing really. Not friends nor allies, not even really enemies. I didn’t know where I stood with Falon. He was a mystery that way.

Finally I stuck my hand out. Antagonizing one another had become a vicious game we shared. But I was mature enough to set that aside, to take him seriously for a moment. “I’m sure you didn’t do it for me,” I said, “but thank you. For getting Shya out of my way like that.”

Falon hesitated just long enough to make me think he would refuse my hand. Then he took it, fast, like he had to force himself. There was a coolness to his tone when he said, “Don’t make me regret it.”

I wasn’t going to make any promises I didn’t know I could keep. I opened my mouth to say as much, but the warmth of his hand in mine stole my voice. The sound of his heart reverberated in my ears.

Power snaked up my arm. Falon’s power had once knocked me on my ass, but things had changed since then. I was up for the challenge now. Licking my lips, I considered the many ways I could enjoy this.

The fragile barrier between control and desire shattered. Holding tight to Falon’s hand, I pulled him closer. I went for his neck, knowing that if I could taste his blood he would be all mine.