Night Calls - Nyx Slaughter Book 1 (10 page)

Chapter 10

A game of secrets

Sebastian leads us out of the room.
He looks like he is floating on air, while I feel more like I am on
the walk of shame. As a technical virgin, someone overhearing what
happened in that room has got to be my most embarrassing
moment.

“Don't worry. I am sure he has
heard a lot worse things than your first real feeding,” Sebastian
says trying to soothe me.

“Worse, God yes. I have heard all
sorts of things that I wish I didn't have supersonic hearing for.
Your audio though would have probably scored big at any porn awards
show. I cannot remember a time I almost got off on just noise
alone,” Smitty responds as we enter his living area.

“That does not make it better,” I
say covering my face.

“You needed to eat, love, before
you got really sick. I gave us as much privacy as I could. I didn't
figure you wanted to give him a floor show to go along with the
sounds,” Sebastian says lifting my hands from my face and lowering
them to my sides.

“You are right. I mean it isn't
like we had our clothes off or anything, but visual would be
worse,” I say. Now that I am not stuck behind Sebby or arguing with
Smitty, I have a chance to look at the apartment we are
in.

It isn't anywhere near as nice as
the penthouse, but it is tastefully decorated in a minimalistic
way. A black leather sectional is set up in the middle of the room
as the focal point with a glass coffee table set out a couple feet
in front of it. There is a television hanging from the ceiling
close to the wall opposite the sectional. There is no art, but the
lighting is recessed like the penthouse. Other than that, there is
nothing but black carpet and red walls.

“So, now that you guys have had
your fun, let's go back to the question I had just asked. Why does
she smell like dog?” Smitty asks.

“Because she is part wolf. She was
born with both genes, but they had been recessive traits. One of my
feedings the other day got a little intense and she ended up taking
a sip for herself, which we believe is what activated her fangs,”
Sebastian says.

I smile at Smitty, showing off baby
fangs since they are still out. “Cute, aren't they?”

“This is priceless,” Smitty says
laughing.

I decide to take offense.
“Apologize to baby fangs. They don't like you laughing at
them.”

“Don't worry, Ms. Slaughter. I am
not laughing at them. I am trying to figure out how the
Collective's human assassin has been out there this long and no one
has reported back that she wasn't actually human,” he says with a
hysterical edge to his voice. “I mean, really, how ironic is
that?”

“Sorry, I have lived a relatively
sheltered life. I imagine most of the people at the Collective
knew, but just couldn't, or wouldn't, tell me. Sebastian has known
for years, but thankfully, he was nice enough to keep the
information private. Although, it would have been nice if he
mentioned it to me. Most of the other people I meet and deal with
end up dead after the meeting, so they are not fountains of
information,” I explain.

“So wait, not only are you this one
of a kind hybrid, but you also didn't actually know it?” he asks.
“This really does just keep getting better.”

“All true statements, which bring
us back to the reason we are here. She is parting with the
Collective, but agreed to take on one more mission. I,
inadvertently, made her interested in it, and it has now become a
suicide mission. Even if she hadn't converted and left the co-Hab
this was going to be her last Collective mission, but since she
did, we are now being followed, so we need to hide out until we can
figure out where we are supposed to meet her target,” Sebastian
briefs him.

“Interesting. I am guessing, since
you are sounding knowledgeable of this mission you saw something in
the future and that is what has led us to this point,” Smitty
replies.

“That would be a correct guess,”
Sebastian confirms.

“So is this target supposed to call
or something? How are you going to know where to meet? Why would a
target schedule a meeting in the first place?” he fires
off.

“Because the target is Alexander
Monroe,” Sebastian states like the name means something.

“Oh, now that makes things really
interesting.”

“You have no idea,” Sebastian
comments.

“Okay, who in the world is this
Alexander guy? All my sheet said was he liked to kill kids, but you
obviously both know him,” I say.

“Yes, well I can tell you right now
that Alex does not go around killing children. The Collective just
wants him killed because he is the werewolf leader of their
opposition. How they found out that information, I don't know, but
obviously they feel threatened by it. We try to keep that kind of
info on the down low,” Smitty answers.

“There is actually a group mounting
to take on the Collective?”

“You have been a part of them since
you were a child, so you don't understand how corrupt they are,”
Sebastian says. “I mentioned that one of the things I have kept
from you over the years is my real opinion of the Collective and
that's mainly because I am a part of the opposition. Your oath at
the time was to them, so I couldn't let you know.”

“How involved are you? Maybe if you
told me sooner there was this organization banding together against
them, I would have gotten out sooner. I have known for a while that
there is shady business going on inside those walls,” I
state.

“How involved is he?” Smitty asks.
“Alex may be the leader of the wolves, but Bastian here is the
leader of us all. He has been looking for a way to take down the
Collective since they had one of his pals killed decades ago.
Probably before you were even born.”

“Wow, look who's been keeping
secrets,” I say staring at Sebastian.

“You have to admit telling the
Collective's number one assassin that I was trying to bring the
organization down, wouldn't have been a very healthy idea on my
part,” he claims.

“True, but if I told you my father
was Aaron Gentry, would that mean anything to you?” I
ask.

“No way,” Smitty says in a whisper.
“Aaron has been buried deep underground for months now. After he
infiltrated the Collective a while back, he said it was necessary
to lie as low as he could go for at least a few months.”

“That's because I told him it was
necessary. I had an order of execution for him. It is the only one
I have ever been handed that I didn't actually see through. I let
him go and marked him as terminated. When anyone asked if he said
anything before I killed him, I just always told them he didn't
have a chance and didn't clue them in that I found out who he
really was,” I inform them. I turn to Sebastian and say, “I told
you I wasn't the straight and narrow person everyone always
believed me to be. I couldn't kill my own father and I can tell you
right now I do not regret that decision.”

“You shouldn't. Aaron hasn't ever
done anything wrong except work against the Collective. In your
assassin status, you were only supposed to be sent on missions
where the target had killed innocents. I wonder if they actually
did figure out that he was a spy,” Sebastian says stopping to
ponder for a second. “What if that wasn't what the order was about?
What if they had figured out that you were his daughter? A simple
blood test would have done it. They have had your blood for a
couple decades, so if they somehow got a hold of his and put it in
their computer a match may have come up. We will have to ask him
what he remembers about the time.”

“Why would they order him
terminated for just being my father? Not only that, but why would
they send me to do it? He might have said something, if he knew the
truth and I would think they wouldn't want that to come out,” I
say.

“It could have just been to test
your loyalties or a test to see if he actually knew. Since you
turned in the termination though, hopefully they have closed the
book on that chapter and will allow Aaron to live in peace,” Smitty
says. “The man has done invaluable work for the cause and he
deserves the rest and relaxation he is currently
receiving.”

“You knew going into last night who
Alexander was and you still let me shoot him, why would you do
that?” I ask.

“A couple reasons, really. One, it
made me feel better. Two, I had an interest in seeing if the bullet
would harm him,” Sebastian replies shrugging at his description
lacking reply.

“I take it that is all I am going
to get out of you, so moving on in the here and now, what are our
plans?” I ask.

“First things first, does Molly's
mean anything to you?” Sebastian asks Smitty.

“Sure. It's the code name for an
underground bar called Webster's. It is just before the end of the
east tunnel,” he replies.

“Good, then tomorrow afternoon we
are heading there to have a meeting with Alex. If you still want
to,” Sebastian says.

“Might as well. It sounded like he
had something he wanted to say and I would really like to know why
my bullet didn't do the damage it was supposed to,” I
state.

“Oh yeah, I am sure he has tons to
say. Sadly, I am sure I won't like a word of it,” Sebastian
claims.

“I thought you were like brothers
in arms with the guy. Why are you sounding so against him now?” I
ask.

“Situations change, my love. There
is no doubt Alex is a great guy, I am just having a slight issue
with him currently,” he says.

“Well mister, just because you like
my mysterious answers, don’t expect the feeling to be reciprocated.
In other words, if you got no real answer for me, zip your lips,” I
say sticking out my tongue and just now noticing Lil and Bebe have
disappeared. Those would be the names I decided to give my fangs
for those of you at home.

“That could equate to days without
hearing my voice,” Sebastian says sarcastically.

“Whatever, now I am getting a
little sleepy. Are we staying here for the day or are we running
somewhere else?”

“The spare room is yours,” Smitty
says. “Sheets should be clean and you already know where the
bathroom is. I am going to step out for a few minutes for a snack,
but feel free to make yourselves at home.” Just like that, he
vanishes from sight and I hear a quick opening and closing of a
door.

“Come on Sleeping Beauty,”
Sebastian says picking me up. “You have already visited the bedroom
once tonight. This time I will turn on the light, you can actually
see there is a bed.”

“Don't bother. Just lay me on the
bed and cover me up. If you really love me, you will go ahead and
remove my weapons. I am down for the count and can’t be bothered,”
I say as he follows orders perfectly and I venture off into dream
world.

Chapter 11

This just keeps getting better

“Wake up, love,” I hear Sebastian
say as he nuzzles my hair.

“Why? Sleeping is fun,” I
reply.

“That it is, especially with you in
the bed, but it is noon and I thought it would be fun to show up in
the day just to mess with Alex,” Sebastian says.

“That does sound like a fun. I am
guessing the majority of people don't know about your love of the
sun,” I say stretching trying to wake myself up.

“That would be very true. I am sure
none of the wolves know and very few vampires do. I think it is
time to let my true power be made aware,” he answers.

“We don't have any clothes here do
we? We will have to remedy that after our meeting because I am
feeling grungy,” I say pushing him over on his back and giving him
a sweet kiss on the lips.

“So are you really offended by me
introducing you as my girlfriend? Is there another term you would
rather me use?” he asks.

“You don't think acquaintance is
strong enough?” I ask sweetly.

“Since we cannot live without each
other I think mere acquaintances is a little weak,
love.”

“You are probably right. Can I
think of what term sounds good to me and get back to you? I guess
for now you can go with girlfriend, unless you want to tell
everyone I am your midnight snack,” I tell him finally getting out
of the bed. “How far away is this meeting location?”

“It will take us about thirty
minutes to get there, so we should probably get going. When we are
done here, hopefully we can get back to our penthouse and figure
out where to go from there,” he says joining me at becoming
vertical.

“You think it is safe for us to go
back to the city?” I am sure the penthouse is being watched, so I
figured we would be going underground, especially since he believes
the Collective is trying to kill me.

“Don't worry, we will be well
protected. Let's go. Smitty is asleep for the day, so he won't be
joining us,” he says grabbing my hand and leading me out into the
main room.

He walks over to the television and
hits a button causing it to rise into the ceiling. He then stands
on tiptoe and presses a button on the wall behind where the
television was. The wall slides away opening up a
passageway.