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

“I can’t believe you’re even considering this.” I leaned in to press my face to his in a wolfish nuzzle. “You’re crazy, you know that?”


“So I’ve been told.” His soft chuckle both warmed and crushed my heart. “I think it might actually be good for me. And I know it will be good for you.”

I kissed him, a desperate act that exposed how weak he made me. I didn’t care. “I can’t imagine how you leaving me can ever be a good thing.”

“I know,” he murmured against my lips. “That’s why I have to.”

Chapter Ten

I lay in Kale’s bed, staring at the dust motes playing in the stray beam of light that found its way through a small crack in the blinds. It was nowhere near enough to be a danger, just a mockery of what I’d lost.

After a minute of staring at the shard of light, my eyes began to sting, and I looked away. Kale had fallen into a fitful sleep beside me. He’d tried so hard to reassure me, insisting that maybe Arys’s idea wasn’t so bad after all. No, it wasn’t bad, just cruel.

Arys wanted to separate me from Kale. My dark vampire was so headstrong, so certain that he knew what was best. He didn’t stop to consider what I wanted. He so rarely did.

I pondered his motives, wondering how he’d gotten Jenner to agree to take Kale back to Las Vegas. It didn’t strike me as something Jenner would voluntarily do. The thought of Kale in Jenner’s club didn’t sit well with me. Yet I knew there was trouble in Sin City and that Kale would be a valuable asset there. I was torn, hating that my reasons for wanting him to stay were entirely selfish and despising that I knew deep down it was better for us both if we parted.

The more I lay there thinking about it all, the more crazy I drove myself. Finally I slid out of the bed and went to fetch my phone from my shoulder bag in the living room. There were several missed calls from my sister and a handful of voice messages that I ignored. I selected a number from my contact list and listened to it ring.

“Did you miss the memo that said vampires usually sleep during the day?” Jenner’s voice was thick with sleep. “Damn, girl, it’s only noon. What do you want from me at this ungodly hour?”

“I want to see you. Tonight. Alone.” I paused so he could absorb that. “Do not tell Arys. If you do, I’ll do something dreadful to you.”

Jenner made a sound somewhere between a snicker and a scoff. “You mean like enthralling me so I crave you until my eventual demise? Oh wait, you already did that.”

“Get over it. Will you meet me, or do I have to spend the rest of the day plotting to harm you?” I had already reached my capacity for guilt with Kale. Perhaps one day I’d have some to spare for Jenner.

He gave an exaggerated sigh. “When and where?”

After we hung up, I listened to the messages from Juliet. In a frantic tone she demanded to know if I was aware that Arys had killed several FPA agents and wounded Briggs. She insisted that we speak and begged me to return her call.

I rubbed my forehead, stressed out by the panic in my sister’s voice. Whatever Arys had been up to recently, it wasn’t any saner than what I’d been doing. He was losing it, and I was willing to bet he didn’t even realize it. At least I knew I was going mad.

As nice as it would have been to plead ignorance and go on as if I knew nothing, I couldn’t leave Juliet hanging. So I called her next, hoping that she wouldn’t pick up. Very chicken shit of me, but other than Shaz, she was the one person I feared most seeing me now, as a vampire.

“Alexa?” She answered on the second ring. Awake and alert, there was nothing in her tone to indicate she’d been asleep. “Is it really you? Are you ok?”

“Yeah,” I said, cringing as my voice cracked. “It’s me. I’ve been better. Tell me what’s going on.”

Juliet didn’t require any prodding. She began to talk a mile a minute, detailing Arys’s recent behavior. Apparently he’d been busy. Not only had he baited Briggs into a deadly trap, he’d manipulated her into sharing some info, which she would not disclose to me.

“He messed with my head, Lexi. He made me tell him things and—” She broke off, swallowing audibly. There was disgust in her tone when she continued. “He made me want him. Like sexually. It was sick.”

I smothered a laugh. It shouldn’t have been funny, really. Arys was clearly up to no good. But it was just so obvious how little experience Juliet had with vampires of Arys’s caliber. Her telling of it bordered on comedic.

“Was that your first time being enthralled by a vampire?” When she only made a noise as a response, I added, “If it makes you feel any better, you got off easier than most who encounter that side of Arys. He’s not a threat to you, Juliet.”