Night Calls - Nyx Slaughter Book 1 (11 page)

“If I spend more time in the
penthouse, will I find cubby holes like this?” I ask.

“As I said, we will be well
protected there. You cannot go up against an organization like the
Collective and not have plenty of secret weapons,” he states
walking into the passage.

“And do you consider me one of
those secret weapons?” I ask following him.

“Not unless you want to be. As
always the choice is yours, and if you did want to become a weapon
for our side, you would be the greatest one we have in our
portfolio,” he replies.

“I think greatest is a little
overkill.” We start making our way down a very long flight of
stairs. For the most part everything is dark, but there are little
sconces every so often lighting the way.

“You are unique, so no one knows
what you can really do, especially since you grew the fangs. I
don't think greatest is too far of a stretch,” he
responds.

“I do. So, do you know what is
going to happen at this little meeting?” I ask.

“This is one of the moments where I
choose to be silent. I haven’t seen anything specific about your
interactions with Alex since the first time and many things have
changed since then. I do, however, know Alex, so it is bound to be
exciting,” he says and I can tell he is smirking.

“You should have stopped at
choosing to be silent,” I retort.

“But it is so fun to ruffle your
feathers, love.”

“Is Tuesday your day to be
annoying?” I say as my come back.

“Turn here. We are done with the
stairs, now we just have to get to the other side of the city,” he
replies. “And no, Tuesdays are not my annoying days. I reserve
those for Saturday.”

“Good thing I am in shape,
otherwise I would have been dragging by now. How well do you know
these tunnels?” I ask.

“I helped build them, so I know
them better than most. There are also markings on the wall to
indicate where we are going. I am guessing your night vision isn’t
active. Just as well, I like leading you around.”

So, he proceeds to just that. If I
was asked later to follow the path from Smitty’s to the bar alone,
I would be lost. If the way smelled like cinnamon still, I might be
able to make it a little ways, but I highly doubt it.

As we go deeper into the tunnels,
shops start to appear. A small grocery store, a bookstore and a
couple restaurants line the way. Before too long Sebastian stops in
front of a nondescript door.

“This has to be it, we are at the
end of this tunnel,” he says as he reaches out and turns the
doorknob. It doesn’t seem locked, so that is a good
sign.

We enter a typical looking bar.
There is a giant wood counter lined with a dozen or so bar stools.
The wall behind the bar is lined with alcohol of all kinds and
giant mirrors. Scattered throughout the room are half a dozen
tables. The lighting is low, but I can make out a few pool tables
in the back of the room. The time of day evidently is really slow
for business because I don’t see a single customer.

“What can I get ya?” a man behind
the bar asks. He has an Irish or Scottish accent, for some reason I
never can tell those two apart.

“Just here to have a talk with
Alex, Joe. Have you seen him around?” Sebastian asks.

“I am a little surprised at ya
bringing an assassin into our midst. If Alex hadn’t already
mentioned she might be stopping by, I would have probably shot her
on first sight.”

“You would have tried,” I remark.
“Others have tried and so far no one has been
successful.”

“It’s the thought that counts,” he
counters. “Alex said you could go on back. Didn’t even ask me to
check for weapons. Pretty silly if you ask me.”

“He knows she won’t kill him once
they speak, so he has nothing to worry about. When does the traffic
start to pick up in here?” Sebastian asks.

“Not until the sun goes down, so
you have a few hours. Every once in a while a wolf or shifter may
stumble in before then, but it is rare,” the man
replies.

“That’s what I wanted to hear. We
probably won’t be long, so your customers won’t run away from the
sight of her,” Sebastian says laughing as he leads me to the back
of the room. On the way, he pulls a light cord hanging overhead and
a wall opens.

“How did you know to do that if you
haven’t been here before?” I ask.

“The bar and name are new to me,
but I know everything there is to know about the
location.”

We walk behind the wall into an
open area where bench seating around the wall horseshoes the
entrance. Alexander is casually lying along the far wall with one
of his knees up.

“Babe, you brought the blood
sucker. I find myself a little disappointed. Don’t trust yourself
to keep your hands off me without him?” he asks.

“I have a name, use it, and my
hands are having no problem not reaching out to you,” I
reply.

“That really hurts, Nyx,” he says
emphasis on his use of my name. “I take it you were able to help
her out last night, Sebastian?”

“That was a little rude of you, but
yes I helped. It wasn’t my place to say anything and since you were
absent I thought it best,” Sebby replies.

“It would have probably been a lot
to take in. I am guessing the fangs are a newer touch, since the
grapevine hasn’t reported them yet.”

“How did you know about them?” I
ask moving my tongue around to make sure they aren’t sticking
out.

“The only way Sebastian could have
helped last night is if your vampire gene was activated,” he states
simply.

“What do you know about my
genes?”

“Enough. We have crossed paths
before, correct that, I have come across you before. Just one
chance passing on a street, told me a world of information about
you,” he replies.

“Sebastian, have you been giving
him mysterious lessons? Because let me tell you I have had it up to
the sky with all this crap. Someone just tell me what is going on,”
I scream.

“Well love, last night answered
whether or not your werewolf gene could ever be activated now that
I have triggered the vampire one,” Sebastian says. “That answer is
yes. I did not feed you last night because you were
hungry.”

“I do wonder what would happen if
she ever tried to take a sip from me,” Alexander interrupts causing
Sebastian to growl. “Don’t worry. We aren’t at that point in our
relationship yet, fang boy. Babe, the reason you had to take a bite
out of him last night is because meeting your werewolf mate made
you want to shift. You got all connected on the chemical level
everyone is always talking about. If he wouldn’t have interrupted
the change, you would have gone furry and since I wasn’t there to
assist, it really was best for it not to happen just
yet.”

“I sincerely hope you aren’t
implying what I think you are. As far as I know, you are the only
werewolf I met last night and I would rather die than have you as
my mate, you inconsiderate jerk,” I say scowling at him.

“You are just too cute. Apparently,
you dying is just what the Collective had in mind sending you after
me. If you had been successful, you wouldn’t be standing here right
now. Of course, since you have a connection with both of us now, I
do wonder if you may be able to survive a single one of us dying. I
guess it will depend on your diet and such, but that is talk for
another day,” Alexander remarks.

“That is what you meant by it being
a suicide mission,” I say to Sebastian. “But wait I did shoot you,
how come it didn’t have the normal effect?”

“That would be because my mate
isn’t a normal werewolf and as I imagine parts of your lifestyle
are rubbing off on Sebastian, I too get to benefit from our
relationship. You aren’t the first assassin they have sent for me.
Thankfully, the others came after I saw you eight months ago. Since
then, I have learned silver doesn’t have its usual effect on me. I
have to assume that is because of you.

“I imagine that is also why the
Collective ended up sending you. After three assassins returned to
them peeing their pants and two were never to be heard from again,
they had to resort to the big guns. Whether or not they know why
silver no longer affects me, I cannot say, but I have a hunch they
are aware of our tie,” he says finally deeming it time to sit
up.

In the darkened room, I cannot get
a good fix on his features, but the Collective photo indicated he
has bright green eyes. Those are what actually made me comment on
his appearance to Sebastian. Even in the photo, they searched you
out and made you want to spill all of your secrets. Too bad, he is
an ass in real life.

“So this means I am seriously going
to be sprouting fur? What if I don’t want to, can it be stopped?” I
ask. “It seemed that Sebastian was able to stop it last night, can
we just keep doing that?”

“I would prefer you didn’t,”
Alexander replies. “At least not when I am not forewarned, it is
rather awkward from my point of view.”

“What do you mean?” In my mind, my
feeding should not have any effect on him.

“He feels it when we feed. Probably
even experiences the same ending result, if I were to guess,”
Sebastian offers.

“Yup, for the last eight months,
nine times my regular scheduled life has been interrupted by you
two. As I said, if someone sent me a memo about it, so I can seek
privacy, I wouldn’t be complaining. It has made a couple strategy
meetings more interesting, though. Thankfully, I am a gentleman and
don’t kiss and tell, so the people around me don’t really know what
happened,” he explains.

“How did you know it was us causing
it? Maybe you were just really randy at those times,” I
suggest.

“I didn’t at first. I followed you
into Sins after the fourth time, just to try to make sense of it. I
didn’t know anyone else I could be connected with on that level and
since I experienced the phenomenon that night, I put two and two
together. Remarkably I came up with four,” he clarifies.

My newly developing relationship
with Sebastian seems to have grown a third wheel and I am not
really sure how I feel about that. Okay that is a lie; I am pissed
by the thought of even being connected to this
jerk. 

Chapter 12

How do you spell jerk? A L E X

“Great. So, what do we do now?” I
ask.

“Well, Babe, I thought at first
about the rejection way out of this mating, but decided I liked
being immune to silver, so I discarded that idea pretty quickly.
Plus, even though I can take bullets now and heal pretty quickly, I
still don’t enjoy pain that much and rumor is rejection hurts. I
think you have had quite a bit of time to grow affectionate with
your fangy side of things, so eventually I think we are going to
have to spend a little bit of time together. Otherwise, our
relationship would be a little bit strained.

“I say, you go back home and get
settled into whatever life you are planning to make for yourself
and in a couple months I will seek you out, so we can go on some
dates to get to know each other better. I will note ahead of time
that Sebastian is not invited to these dates, so please leave him
at home,” he states.

“Why? Do you see us settling down
sometime soon and having one big happy family? You can keep your
extra abilities and just let us live our lives. Sure, Sebastian may
need to help me to keep from changing into a wolf and we will
probably feed every once in a while, but I can call you when we
plan to and give you warning,” I propose.

“You want to tell her, or should
I?” Alex asks, his full name is just too long, I have
decided.

“It is part of your culture, not
mine,” Sebastian says.

“Fine. Since it is September, we
have four months to get to know each other better before we are
forced to get to know each other better.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” I
question. I mean, I know how it sounds, I just really hope I am not
right.

“Love, it means that January is the
Wolf Moon. During the Wolf Moon, wolf mates do what they do best
and mate. You, basically, will be going into heat and sadly, he
will probably be the only one that can alleviate the problem,”
Sebastian offers.

“No, that just ain’t right. You
cannot expect me to submit to that. Lock me in a closet and throw
away the key until it is over,” I say praying that will be
enough.

“You really are just adorable,”
Alex says standing and crossing the room to pinch my cheek like a
child stuck in their grandmother’s clutches. “Don’t cause us both
unnecessary pain. I have already offered to adjust my schedule, so
we can get to know each other better. I will even allow the fact
that you will probably practice with your vampire before then, but
I will not allow you to refuse me.”

“What makes you think you get a
choice on what you ‘allow’? I live my own life and make my own
decisions,” I screech.

“You haven’t made a decision by
yourself since the day you were born. The Collective has guided you
all the way. I have already stated my aversion to pain and the pain
from not mating would be so intense I would find you anyway and
take you against your will. It would be for your own good, if you
didn’t resist,” he claims.