Night Calls - Nyx Slaughter Book 1 (4 page)

Sebby has obviously gone delirious
because he decides now would be a good time to test the sponginess
of my tonsils and crawls on top of me securing his lips to my
mouth. His kiss is nothing like the ones Ryan has given me, even
the ones where Ryan was trying to be passionate.

Sebastian’s kiss blows me into the
Milky Way with the amount of desire that starts to flow through my
body. Before he goes too far, I bite gently on his tongue to try to
tell him we need to talk about this. Just because the Kool-Aid was
extra sugary tonight, doesn’t mean we get to sleep together in the
way he seems to be hoping.

Knowing me as well as he does, he
takes the bite to be the red light and not some symbol to move on
full steam ahead. He pulls back after giving me one more kiss on
the lips and rolls over on his back returning to his side of the
bed.

“Well that was different,” I say
trying to clear the air as we both catch our breaths.

He chuckles in a sort of drunken
way. “Love, you have no idea. When you bit me I thought I might
shoot fireworks out my head. That was without a doubt the best
experience I have ever had and I am still wearing my pants. Here,
in the chaos I didn’t get your wound sealed. You don’t want to
leave here with that still opened.” He grabs my arm and swiftly
closes up the small holes.

“I don’t know how much time passed,
did you get enough? I don’t really want to offer more right now,
but I don’t want you to be hungry,” I say still a little blitzed
from the feeding.

“After that, I am not sure I will
ever have to eat again. I guess I should ask if you got enough,
love. I think your trying to get a little taste is what blew it up
to volcanic proportions.”

“Since that is the only thing that
was different this time, I would have to agree. I really don’t know
what possessed me to do that. I didn’t know I even had at the time.
Is your arm okay? I don’t exactly have nice pointy teeth to make
nice incisions,” I pick up his hand worried about the damage I may
have done.

“No problem, it is all healed,” he
says waving it in front of me. “You are going to have to keep
yourself alive for the next week or so. I don’t imagine you got a
ton of blood, but until it is out of your system there is the
chance you might turn. Maybe sometime we can talk about finishing
that process, but I don’t think either of us is quite
ready.”

“I am not sure I could handle being
a vampire right now, so I will be extra careful on my next
mission,” I say sitting up. Now that they euphoria is wearing off,
I should probably get going. Sebastian has already been talking
like we are a couple and it pains me to hear these things from him.
I try to go into our meetings thinking he just finds me a delicious
meal and attempt to make myself deaf when he calls me love. If I
knew my heart wouldn't eventually get broken, I would go full steam
ahead with the relationship. It would be a great solution to my
Ryan problem, but in the end I know it wouldn't work
out.

“Running already. You would think I
would become used to it. Maybe next time if I don’t wait a whole
month, you won’t turn into a wild woman,” he says standing in one
fluid motion. It is really creepy sometimes to watch him move.
“Remember, if pea head starts acting stupid, my door is always open
for you, my love.”

He walks around and lifts me off
the bed and to my feet. “You will be my first stop if my talk
doesn’t go as planned. I probably better brush my teeth before I go
and change back into my dress. I don’t want anyone getting
suspicious.”

“You do that,” he says caressing my
face. His hand feels good, so I lean into it and close my eyes. “I
wish I could ask you to not take this next mission. I have seen
things that worry me and may affect how you feel towards me. If I
could prevent them, I would, but I have always promised myself to
allow you to live your life.”

“No hints?” I whine as I open my
eyes to stare into his sad ones.

“No, the gift of the future I have
never hated more than I do now, but I still will not sway you. Just
know I am always here for you and will always love you,” he says
giving me one last kiss before he flashes out of the
room.

“I love you, too,” I whisper to the
empty room. Sadly, it is the truth, even though eventually he will
be forced to leave me, I cannot help but feel love for him. He may
call me love all the time, but this is the first time he has
actually declared his love for me. For now, I choose to be happy
with his declaration.

I hurry in the bathroom to change
and get myself righted. No one in the club would notice a
disheveled woman walking through, but I never know who may be
waiting outside while I make the trek back to the van.

I fold my clothes and I know
Sebastian will have them laundered while I am away. I also take a
moment to send him a quick text saying I will see him again within
two weeks. A month was obviously too long for one of us, and
amazingly enough it wasn’t the hungry vampire.

Chapter 4

Man troubles. Who needs them?

The trip back to the van and the
ride to the Collective habitation are uneventful. In fact, they are
downright boring. After quickly changing back into my assassin
attire, the only thing I had going for me was trying to figure out
how to make Sebastian happy and what his cryptic message actually
meant. I don’t know of anything that would make me feel different
about him. Even though I have only known him for three years, he
really is my closest friend. Short of going on a killing spree, he
can do no wrong.

With my oldest friend driving me
crazy as of late, I really cannot stand to lose Sebby. He has to
know I would always choose him over something one of my targets
say. I mean, my targets are marked for death, they would say
anything to get me to not kill them.

I haven’t received my next
assignment yet, so I have a little time to decide what I should do.
I know he said he wanted me to make my own choices, but the fact
that this choice may make me not want to be close to him, has me
not wanting to take the assignment.

After parking the car, I follow the
path to my living quarters. The co-Hab, as we call it, is a
secluded building in a large wooded area. With all the werewolves
it houses, the forest comes in handy when they need to shift and go
for runs. It is more or less a motel. Entrances to the rooms are
all on the outside, so there isn't a lot of mingling, which is all
done in the Collective proper. Right as I am about to initiate the
fingerprint scan that will allow me entrance to my pod, a voice
startles me.

“You reek of him tonight. I thought
maybe so much time had passed that you had stopped seeing
him.”

I turn around to face Ryan looking
at me with angry eyes that match Sebastian’s from earlier. There
was a small moment when my night was actually going good. Maybe I
should go back in time and not kill the target for tonight and see
if it doesn’t turn out differently.

I complete the scan, so we can take
the conversation inside the apartment. I am guessing by the way he
is acting this isn’t something I want to be heard by others. For
that reason, I press my privacy button the second we enter. That
should jam any listening devices that have been installed in my
quarters and keep outside ears from tuning in.

“How do you know my informant isn’t
a female?” I ask. The answer is obvious and Ryan thankfully doesn’t
know who this informant is or what the nature of our relationship
really is. I do have a few other vampire informants, so it isn’t
like Sebastian is the only one. He is the only one I see privately
in his bedroom, but not the only one I talk to.

“You already know I can sense the
difference. This werewolf nose is at least good enough for that.
What happened tonight that made it so I want to stand downwind of
you?” he asks plugging his nose. We both know that won't do him
much good and it is more a gesture of his disgust for the kind of
people I have been hanging around.

I am guessing the fact that I have
a bit of Sebastian’s blood running through my veins has something
to do with that and no shower is going to make it better. Of
course, I cannot exactly just come out and say that to Ryan. It
would be the second time tonight that I had a guy thinking about
shooting fireworks out his head and this won't be the happy
variety.

“Nothing really. He just asked to
meet, so he could tell me about a shifty character he has seen
around town the last few nights in case it is something I end up
having to follow up on. It was like any of our other meetings,” I
say. As far as meetings went, the description was on par with what
usually happens with my other informants.

“I am tired of playing second
fiddle to him. I think I should come along on these meetings to see
what really does transpire. I am your boyfriend and I have a right
to know how you are spending your time with other males,” he
says.

“First off, in case you didn’t
notice you are my pretend boyfriend and if that is getting to be
too much of a hardship for you we can make that relationship go
away easy peasy,” I say getting angry myself. I cannot believe he
thinks he owns me. Sebby gets upset that I have Ryan here, but he
doesn’t try to control how I live my life.

“Secondly in case your werewolf
nose has taken a little vacation or cannot sense it through the
vampire stink, as you would call it, my virtue is still safely
intact, so there should be no worry on your part about how I spend
my time. I am not out there making myself available to anyone who
can offer me some information on one of my targets. They, like you,
have mates that eventually, I am sure, they will find, so I don’t
waste my time trying to hook up with them. Now, if you started
smelling tasty humans on me, you might have an issue because with
them I don’t have to worry about some girl walking in one day and
breaking my heart by taking a guy away from me.”

I really wish that dang mate issue
wasn't standing in my way. Sebastian and I have such an easy
relationship that it wouldn’t be hard to fall into a habit of
living with him day after day. Of course, living behind a club
where people have sex, do drugs and try really hard each day to be
even more depraved than they were the day before, may have an
effect on that decision.

“Wait hold on just a second,” Ryan
says in his calming voice. “No one said anything about us breaking
up. I don’t want that at all. I just get frustrated when I smell
another male on you and it is worse than usual. I am sorry I lost
my temper.”

“Look Ryan, you have been my friend
forever and I really appreciate that,” I say copying his calmness.
“You stuck around even when that made you unpopular, but I really
think you should get out and try to find the right girl for you. We
both know she isn't me because I am not a werewolf. You have spent
so much time with me that I am afraid you are missing out on other
opportunities.”

“It's him isn't it,” he yells back
doing a total one eighty. Heck, this might be a three sixty. His
face is growing redder by the second. “That's it. I don't care what
kind of information he is giving you, you cannot see him
anymore.”

“Out!” I scream at the top of my
lungs. “You get out of this apartment right now and don't you ever
come back making demands of me again. You don't own me Ryan Hart.”
I walk to the door and open it waiting for him to exit.

“I think we should both take some
time to calm down. Being around your scent and his is making my
head muddled. I will leave for now, but once you are cleaned up we
will continue this conversation,” he says storming out of the room
still acting like he would have a say in whether or not I meet with
Sebastian.

Fat chance, I think to myself as I
start moving my tongue around in my mouth. My gums have started to
hurt and for some reason something feels off. I shut and lock the
door and head to the bathroom to see if maybe during Sebastian's
thorough kiss something got nicked.

When I look in the mirror to
investigate, what I find is definitely not what was expected. First
I have targets telling me I am a werewolf and now I conveniently
sprout little baby vampire fangs. Oh, this is just too good to be
true.

Sadly, since I have spent more time
with the wolves, I don't exactly know how to make the teeth pop
back into my gums. I really hope I don't start having crazy
cravings. As I mentioned to Sebastian earlier, I just don't think I
can handle being a vampire at present. Speaking of the devil, I
should probably call and ask what to do about the teeth. Even
though they are kind of cute, I don't want to walk around here
flashing them.

I dig out my secure throwaway cell
phone that I have, so far, never had to use. It only has one number
in it and that goes straight to Sebastian's cell phone of a similar
nature. I really hope he has it on him because I don't want to
spend all night trying to get a hold of him.

Thankfully he answers on the second
ring. “Love, what's wrong. Pea brain didn't try to hurt you did
he?” he asks with a worried edge to his voice.

For some reason, I find it funny
and laugh. “No darling,” I respond calling him something I have
never called him before. “He yelled some, but even he is smart
enough not to take me on. I do have a slight issue, which is
probably going to cause me to move out of co-Hab for a while, but
not necessarily in with you.”