Forget About Midnight (Alexa O'Brien, Huntress #9)

“For the first few decades I did kind of miss it, although I’d never really enjoyed being a werewolf anyway. After a while, I stopped feeling it. I never missed it again until I met you.” He paused as if thinking back all those centuries. “I was never really cut out for being a wolf. Not like you are.”


He told me about becoming a wolf, how the military that served the existing English monarch at the time forced him into it for an operation so long ago. That had led him straight into the arms of a vampiress with a serious case of the crazies. I hated hearing about Eva. I hated her for what she’d made him. And then I hated myself for being so much like her, unable to let him go but unable to love him the way he deserved. She and I were not so different.

We lay there talking about so many things. And while we talked, we touched. A simple caress was not so simple at all when it was Kale’s hands in my hair or his lips finding the curve of my hip. Sunset drew closer, and with it, my disappointment grew. I didn’t want to leave that room.

“What do you plan to do with Gabriel?” Kale’s sudden question reminded me that there was another new and very powerful vampire roaming the city.

“I have no idea. I suppose I’ll have to do something. Keeping him away from the FPA is a must.”

“Not to mention Shya,” Kale said. “He’s being awfully quiet these days. It’s suspicious.”

I stiffened at the sound of that name. Even the fire Kale stoked back to life with every touch couldn’t soothe the chill that Shya instilled. Shya’s rage had scared me. His silence was soul-crushingly terrifying. There was no underestimating him. I wasn’t fool enough to believe I’d won when it came to the demon. I might have stopped him from taking over a demon queen’s empire, but I still bore his mark.

“He’s not done with me. Not by a long shot. I don’t even want to think about him right now.” I stretched out beside Kale and slid my hands over his chest. My fingertips tingled as our energies collided.

“If you need me for anything, just say the word. I’m ready to act as your second. It’s only right.” He nuzzled my neck with playful bites that coaxed a sigh from me.

It bothered me to hear Kale refer to himself as my second, mostly because those were Shya’s words. To me it reinforced the vampire queen status that everyone had been forcing on me. If anyone was to be my second in command, however, it would be Kale. Arys and I were equals, even more so now that I had no mortal weakness. Kale was the next most powerful vampire in the city, aside from possibly Gabriel, which fueled my ridiculous lust for Kale and his power.

Whether I liked it or not, Kale was my second. He was so much more than that really. Being the most powerful vampire in the city was going to come at a price. I needed to accept help where I could find it.

“There’s one thing you can do,” I said, rolling him over onto his back so I could climb atop him.

A mischievous grin lit up his face. Raw longing filled his touch as he gripped my waist and slid his hands up to my breasts. “At your service, my queen.”

“No, not that,” I laughed. “Well, yes, that, but that’s not what I was talking about. I’m supposed to meet Jez after sunset. Come with me? You know, just in case.”

“Of course. Sometimes it’s easier with people you love. Because you don’t really want to hurt them.” He sat up to kiss me, a tender melding of our mouths that rubbed my emotions raw. Why did everything have to be so damn complicated?

I had to laugh at the absurdity of what he’d said. “You’re kidding, right? That’s not how it works for our kind. If anything, we want very much to hurt the people we love. Our entire relationship is built on it.”

Kale shook his head and put his arms around me. I sat naked in his lap, unbearably aware of our closeness. “It doesn’t have to be that way with everyone,” he said. “It won’t be. Not always. I promise.”

I flashed back to the night I awoke at The Wicked Kiss. When Shaz walked in the door, I’d attacked him without a second thought. Taking him down had been swift and easy. If Arys hadn’t been there, I would’ve killed him.

“But how can you say that?” With my arms around Kale’s neck, I let him see the fear and uncertainty I harbored. “You attacked Jez. After five hundred years of practicing self control, you still did it.”

Guilt flashed through him, and he gave a halfhearted shrug. “Yeah, I did. I really fucked up. But you’re better than me, better than all of us. You have something no other vampire has. You’re a Hound of God. A creature of the light. This is all just a stepping stone for you, Alexa.”

Being both light and dark didn’t make me any less dangerous than anyone else. If anything, it was the opposite. The mood swings between Hound and vampire made me too unpredictable.

Kale was so much more than I would ever deserve. His insistence was genuine, yet I knew the truth. “Maybe. But maybe not. There’s always a chance that I’ll hurt someone I love. Isn’t there?”

“I’m sorry.”