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

Shaz was only one of many people I feared hurting. However, it was the baby that one of my best friends carried that sunk my heart into the depths of despair. I would never be able to trust myself around Kylarai.

“Don’t be,” I muttered. “There’s nobody to blame but myself. I chose this. It’s all on me.”

Kale pressed silent kisses to my cheek, my chin, and finally my lips. He hurt for me, sharing in my pain. “I feel like an asshole because I’m not more sorry. I don’t want this for you, but it would’ve killed me if you’d died.”

“How can you say that?” I mumbled between intoxicating kisses that caused heat to pool in my groin. “I wouldn’t have been here to torment you like this.”

I gently nipped his bottom lip. In response, he groaned and grew hard between my legs. “I’m willing to suffer if it means that you’re not dead. As love/hate as things have been between us recently, I’ll always love you more than I could ever hate you.”

Finished with talking, I rose up just enough to take him inside me. Face to face in the middle of the bed, we made slow, gentle love. No further words were necessary. We spoke in touches and looks, in soft murmurs and blissful cries.

When the sun descended beyond the horizon, we managed to disentangle ourselves. I wasn’t real thrilled about it though I knew that seeing Jez was important for me. And I wasn’t the only one who needed it. Jez had her own issues, and I refused to abandon her when she needed me most.

I got ready quickly, slipping into jeans and a V neck t-shirt. My eye makeup was put on in a rush. After dragging a brush through my tousled hair, I messaged Jez to ensure she was still coming. When she confirmed, I felt the first shot of anxious adrenaline. I could do this.

“Ready?” Kale asked when I joined him in the living room. “We should hunt first. It’s safer that way.”

“I don’t want to kill anyone,” I blurted as an overwhelming surge of emotion flooded me. These mood swings were going to wreck me.

“Wicked Kiss?” With a brow raised in scrutiny, Kale shook his head. “You’re not ready for that, are you?”

The thought of walking into my nightclub and having everyone stare at me flashed me back to my early teenage years. It was ridiculous. I shouldn’t be afraid to walk into a building I owned.

“I want to be. I do. I’m just not sure.”

“Arys was there last night. That’s where he and I … talked. But I think he was looking for me.” Kale was careful to keep his hatred for Arys from showing on his face, but it was still there, tainting his aura with bitterness.

I stared at the floor, seeking answers in the carpet fibers, finding only more questions. The bloodlust was creeping up, growing with every passing second. Already I longed for the days when I wouldn’t have to hunt nightly.

“It’s no big deal, Alexa. You have a strange tie to that club. I know it has to be the last place you wanted to wake up as a vampire. Don’t stress about it. We’ll go somewhere else.”

When I’d first decided to take over the blood den, it had been my mission to keep people from dying there, and more importantly, to keep them from rising as vampires. It was the last place I wanted to wake up undead. So naturally, that’s where it happened.

We ended up going to a lounge populated by corporate types stopping for a drink after a long day. While Kale blocked the door, I cornered a man in the washroom. With a little seductive manipulation, he was on his knees begging to please me.

I fed from his wrist, pausing when his blood hit my tongue. With my eyes wild with alarm, I turned to Kale. “Do you think I can still turn someone into a wolf with my bite? I don’t want to turn this guy, Kale.”

The guy was dazed, under my thrall and oblivious to what I’d said. Kale stood in front of the washroom door, brow creased in thoughtful consideration.

“My guess would be no,” he said. “A werewolf bite or scratch works like a virus. Vampires can’t carry anything viral. I think it’s a safe bet that you can’t turn anyone wolf anymore.”

“I hope you’re right.” It was too late now. So I pressed my mouth to the guy’s wrist and sucked hard at the bite. His eyes rolled back in ecstasy; he nearly fainted.

The last person I’d turned wolf was a woman for Shya. At some point I’d have to track her down, if he didn’t have her locked away in a cage somewhere.

Kale had to call my name a few times before I came back to myself enough to stop. It felt like something was missing. The need to take everything my victim had to give was a demand that it pained me to deny.

“Why does it hurt so fucking much?” I gasped, clutching the wrist in my grasp as if I couldn’t bear to let go. “I just want to kill him, after I make him beg.”

“I know you do.” Kale’s tone rang hollow. He watched me with a longing I’d seen before. He was fighting hard not to slip into the kill zone I was already in. “You don’t have to though. You’re the one in control here.”