Forget About Midnight (16 page)

“Alexa, how the hell can you let Kale go to Vegas?” Jez demanded as soon as I came within earshot. She shook her drink at me, and some of the pink cocktail splashed over the side of the glass, landing on my boots.

On one hand I was horrified. She was putting me on the spot, and I didn’t think it was an ideal topic for discussion just now. On the other hand, she was exuberant and loud, typical Jez, treating me like nothing had changed. That meant a lot.

I shot a glance at the back hall entry, hoping like hell Jenner wouldn’t come through the door. If he were smart, he’d go out the back as instructed. Of course I couldn’t hide my cloud of power from Kale.

“I don’t think it’s really up to me, Jezzy. Besides, Vegas kind of needs him. You saw how bad it was.”

She flung her arms around me in a tipsy hug. She smelled slightly of cigarettes, alcohol, lilac perfume, and shifter. I breathed it in, and my wolf raised its head, pawing at my insides. It had been too long since my last shift.

“Fuck Vegas,” she said, pulling me down in the booth beside her, across from Kale. “It doesn’t deserve someone like you, Kale. It will change you, and it won’t be for the better.”

My gaze met Kale’s, and I shrugged apologetically. Jez’s opinion on the matter was less than surprising.

“It can’t do any worse to me than what’s already been done,” he said. He reached across the table to take her hand, holding tight when she tried to pull away out of spite. “I’ll come back. It’s not forever. You can always come visit.”

“Are you seriously giving me this crap, as if you think I’ll buy it? I’m not a child.” Jez leaned back against the wall, settling herself so she could see us both. “Although it does feel a little like mom and dad are splitting up.”

“Jez, come on,” I protested, holding a hand up to silence her.

With green eyes flashing in annoyance, she batted my hand away. “I’m sorry if that’s too dramatic for you, but it does. Don’t tell me you guys aren’t banging your brains out. And then it’s over? Just like that?” Blunt with a total disregard for touchy subjects, that was Jez. Damn, I loved that girl, but right then I wanted to slap her.

I risked a glance at Kale. He looked as horrified and awkward as I felt. He shook his head, just once, and sat back with a sigh.

“You know it’s not that easy.” I pinned her with a fierce stare, my eyes all wolf. I could feel it strong beneath the surface. “Do you have any idea how many people we’ve killed together? Too many. We are dangerous together, Jez.”

What I wasn’t saying was that I didn’t want him to go either and that I fully understood her stance. I didn’t tell her how badly I wanted him to stay and that numbing out was the only way to cope. There was so much I didn’t, couldn’t say. But as I looked into her eyes, beast to beast, she saw it. She knew.

She softened and laid a hand on my arm. “I know. I’m sorry, guys. This just really bums me out. I’m going to miss the team hunts.”

We hadn’t hunted as a team in some time. I missed it too. Jez had popped a hole in my bubble, destroying the afterglow I was riding.

“I’m not going to leave and never look back.” Kale spoke up, drawing both our gazes his way. “Is that what you think? We’ll stay in touch. Like I said, I’ll be back.”

There was a promise in those words. He stared into me as he said them. Saying goodbye to him was going to be impossible. I couldn’t do it.

Jez was reluctant to accept this declaration. “I don’t think you’ve given this enough thought, Kale.”

“You guys didn’t see my sister outside, did you?” I jumped to change the less-than-savory topic. “She’s supposed to meet me here.”

They both shook their heads as I expected. Kale said, “Man, she must be pissed.”

“Yeah,” Jez added. “You guys have had the FPA working overtime.”

“It feels like she should have been here by now.” I checked my phone again. Nothing. An uneasy feeling settled in the pit of my stomach. I slid from the booth. “I’m going to check in with Justin. Maybe he saw her.”

Jez popped out of the booth right behind me, her now empty glass held high. “And I’m going to get a refill.”

“Hey,” I grabbed hold of her elbow. “Are you ok? I mean, have you…?”

“Been getting high?” she snapped, pulling her arm from my grasp. “I’ve slipped. Nothing to worry about. Just having a few drinks tonight, Lex. It’s all good.”

She didn’t give me a chance to reply. She turned her back on me and pushed through the crowd to the bar. Offending her wasn’t my intention. I simply didn’t want her to feel that I was too caught up with murder and mayhem to care about her. It wasn’t all that long ago that she’d collapsed from an overdose right in front of me. Damn, I was worried.

“She’s just upset because of me,” Kale offered upon spying my crestfallen face. He rose and quickly captured my hand before I too could disappear.

Something occurred to me, and I had to ask, “Kale, when you bit Jez, could you tell that the dark part of her was in there?”

Pondering this, he shook his head. “No, but to be fair, I wasn’t quite in a focused state of mind that night.” Pulling my hair aside, he eyed Jenner’s bite. “Should I ask?”

The bite had healed considerably though enough remained to tell the tale of what I’d been up to. As speedy as vampire healing was, it still had it limits.

“I’d rather you not.” What else could I say? Kale knew as well as I did how this worked. “Jenner was here. We had a little chat.”

He nodded and stepped back, as if he couldn’t stand to touch me just then. Perhaps I was reading too deeply into the action.

“Go ahead, talk to Justin. I’ll stay here and take Jez’s abuse until she feels better.” There was something missing from the smile he bestowed on me. It was hard to look at. There was something missing inside me too.

I touched his face, started to say something, then stopped. There were no words.

Touching base with Justin didn’t help. He hadn’t seen her. Which meant she was late. Or missing.

I slipped outside into the parking lot to escape the noise inside. Telling myself that Juliet had a demanding job didn’t convince me that nothing had happened. Intuition told me otherwise.

I pulled my phone out to call her but didn’t get a chance to before a loud, black Dodge Challenger tore into the parking lot. The car screeched to a stop, and two werewolves got out. They both looked pissed.

Dayne was as rough around the edges as usual. His short, silver-brown hair matched the rugged stubble on his jaw. Piercing blue eyes pinned me with an angry wolf stare. He stalked up to me with a cigar clenched between his teeth.

His enforcer wolf, Owen, followed at his side. He hung back a little, letting his Alpha take the lead here. I had a sinking feeling that this wasn’t a friendly visit.

“Care to tell me why the fuck your vampires are hunting my wolves?” Dayne came to a stop much closer than I’d have preferred. The wolf was in his fifties or so, but he carried himself like he was half that age.

“Wait, what?” I held up a hand, trying to wrap my mind around what he’d just said.

“You fucking heard me,” Dayne growled, blowing a puff of cigar smoke in my face. “One of my wolves is dead. Killed by a vampire. Last I checked, we had an alliance.”

“We do,” I said quickly. “But I don’t know what you’re talking about. Whatever happened, I had nothing to do with it.”

Dayne nodded, and Owen came forward with his phone held out. A photo of a dead werewolf filled the screen. The punctures in his neck had clearly been made by a vampire. This was bad. This was really bad.

“I agreed to take in your wolf. It’s not official yet, but it’s in the works. I’d hate for this shit to ruin that for him. Someone’s gotta pay for this, Alexa.” Dayne towered over me, his fierce wolf eyes burning into my soul.

“I completely agree. Dayne, I’m sorry. Really. There’s no way I’d turn a blind eye to this. If I’d known—”

He cut me off with a guttural snarl. He clenched and unclenched a fist. “You know now. Do something about it. Because if this keeps up, we’re gonna have a full blown war on our hands. And there are no alliances in war. Not between enemies.”

The tall, dark-haired, handsome Owen showed no emotion, but he buzzed with a calm aggression. A leather jacket hid his tattooed arms. Like the last time I’d seen him, a black bandana was tied around his dark head of hair. The crescent moon tattoo on the side of his neck matched Dayne’s. This pack was tight. Something like melancholy envy swam through my soul.

Emotions threatened me. Damn them for being so heightened and out of control right now. I should’ve known the vampires would fuck this up for me.

“Dayne, I know you may look at me and see a vampire, but I am a wolf. I have been one since I was sixteen, and the wolf is who I am. The vampire is what I am. Please don’t miss how different those two things are. I’m wolf. Please, trust that the wolves mean more to me than the vampires do.” It was a plea, an obvious one. Even though he’d never allow me into his pack, it meant a lot to me that Dayne accept me as a fellow wolf.

Owen shuffled his feet, kicking a stone across the parking lot. “Are you willing to prove that?”

Dayne’s face lit up, and he nodded. I couldn’t help but feel a little offended, but seeing as they had a dead wolf on their hands, I didn’t have much room to defend myself.

“Owen, come on,” I said. “You were there when those vampires jumped me. It’s not as if they’re all following some kind of group structure and rules the way wolves do.”

“Then maybe they ought to be.” Dayne spat on the ground between us and rolled angry wolf eyes toward the club. “The only good vampire is a dead vampire. But I get a good feeling from you. I want to give you a chance to prove you’re not just like the rest of them.”

My gaze strayed from one wolf to the other. They waited, wanting something from me. Something I had to give them.

With a finger bent in invitation, I turned to go back inside. “Follow me.”

I didn’t wait to see if they followed. My heightened emotions were swinging madly. It was no secret that the vampires felt I was a threat, but I’d thought the worst of their rebellion was over. They would not ruin this alliance with the wolves for me. I was done with the rebels. Time to show them.

I stalked back inside, each boot heel clicking on the pavement. There was no hesitation, no second thoughts. I was hungry for violence. Hungry for control. Humans made weak targets. Vampires always made things a little more interesting.

Reaching out to feel those undead gathered in the building, I reveled in the ability to detect them. They couldn’t hide from me even if they wanted to. That included Jenner, whose energy I felt among them.

Passing in front of the stage, I caught the eye of the band’s frontman and slashed my hand through the air, telling him to cut the music. He held up a hand, and the band stumbled to a finish.

Right away the crowd knew something was up. The humans stared around in confusion. Some of them edged away, the regulars who knew trouble when they saw it.

The vampires braced themselves. It didn’t help them though. With a flick of my wrist, the power went out from me, targeting them each in turn. One by one they dropped to their knees, hands on their heads as pained screams rang out.

Not so long ago I’d done something similar and accidentally dropped Kale as well. I was happy to see him untouched this time. My focus was improving nicely, as was the ease with which I commanded my power. I wasn’t missing the headaches and nose bleeds.

“Now,” I spoke in a loud, commanding tone. “Who wants to tell me which one of you idiots killed a Doghead wolf?”

Scanning each vampire in turn, I sought any sign of guilt or acknowledgement. I eased up on them, allowing them to stand, but I was ready to take them down again. Most of them stared stony faced at me, expressions unreadable. A few exchanged a look with one another.

Dayne and Owen had stopped near the doorway, and I motioned them forward. The vampires appraised the wolves, and the air bristled with tension.

“Here’s the thing,” I tried again. “I know most of you come here for a reason, to keep the kill count down as all good little vampires should. However, someone killed a Doghead wolf, and now a life must be traded for a life. This is your chance to make sure you’re not the one who pays the price for someone else’s mistake. So, think fast about what you want to do here.”

Dayne came to a stop beside me. Arms crossed over his wide chest, he glowered at each vampire present. His seething hatred was red hot on my skin though we didn’t touch. Owen stood close enough to protect his Alpha. I was very aware of Kale and Jez abandoning their booth across the room to drift closer.

“I want no trouble with the vampires,” Dayne thundered. “But if a war is what you want, then a war is what you’ll get.”

I shot him a look, which he ignored. All the damn war talk wasn’t going to help. His wolf was close, showing in his eyes. It caused my skin to prickle and made my wolf push for release.

“My alliance with Doghead will be respected by each and every one of you. I’ll destroy anyone who threatens it.” I wasn’t being unfair. In fact, as horrible as they all wanted me to be, I’d never really given them a reason to believe that.

People believed what they want to believe. So it came as no surprise when one mouthy vampire stepped forward.

“You can’t just start throwing your power around, punishing all of us because of one. We don’t operate as a group, and we sure as fuck don’t take the fall for each other.” Dark eyes, filled with vehemence, met mine. A smattering of dark hair on his jaw gave him a tough look that his short, blond hair contradicted.

No vampire could be judged on looks alone, so I gave him a metaphysical appraisal and found him to be stronger than he appeared. But he wasn’t stronger than me. Unfortunately for him, he’d just sealed his fate. I was done with vampire bullshit, and he was going to help me make that clear.

Dayne’s watchful wolf stare bore into me as he waited to see how I’d react. Everyone else was watching as closely, but I cared about his opinion.

“Is that right? So I guess that means you’d like to tell me who did it.” I already knew how this would go down. This guy wasn’t going to tell me shit.