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

‘Look at the vampire queen, all locked up like a miserable human. Where is your power now? Flown away on mechanical wings, leaving you behind. Such a shame. But no, that was your sad heart.’


Somehow it knew about Kale. Had it heard my silent communication with Arys? Did it know us all so well? The FPA were fools to house their headquarters in a place with such a thing. Did they even realize what was here with them?

After my silence continued, it fell quiet, and I felt it slip away. Though it never really left. The energy of it pulsed everywhere, throughout the entire building and the land it was built on. I could feel it like pressure in my head, speaking to my dark side.

I wasn’t going to last two nights at this rate. Between the boredom, the guilty thoughts, and the evil entity, I was going to lose what little was left of my damn mind.

I was slipping from sound mind into madness when I felt the air ripple. No way. Tense, I sat up straighter and waited for the unseen newcomer. It could be a few different people. I slumped back in disappointment and relief when Falon appeared in the middle of the room.

“Don’t look so damn happy to see me,” he said with a scowl. “Please, really, contain your enthusiasm.”

I’d hoped it was Willow and dreaded it was Shya. With a shrug I mumbled, “If you were expecting some kind of applause or something you have the wrong audience. What are you doing here anyway?”

He cast a glance down at the shattered remains of the chair and kicked a few pieces aside. “Maybe one day that won’t be the first thing you say when you see me.”

I didn’t reply, merely regarded him with a raised brow.

His exasperated sigh was forced and highly exaggerated. “Fuck, Alexa, would it kill you to fake a smile? Or a personality?”

Along with my best fake smile, I shot him a middle finger. Falon’s presence was suspicious. Until I knew who sent him and what he was doing here, I couldn’t trust him. Well, I wouldn’t trust him anyway.

Falon perched on the edge of the desk and fixed me with curious silver eyes. “I came to save you, of course. Saving your ass seems to be a thing lately, doesn’t it? I tried to warn you about this nonsense with your sister, but you didn’t listen.”

“Excuse me? Saving my ass? Is that what you think you’ve been doing?” My laughter was maniacal. I wasn’t sure if it was due to Falon’s apparent lunacy or the evil entity manipulating my emotions.

Falon grinned, happy with my angry reaction. “Isn’t it what I’m doing? Again?”

I groaned and flung the pillow from the bed at him. My bound wrists made the throw terrible. He caught the pillow and set it aside on the desk.

I held my wrists out, feeling pathetic and needy. It was not a good feeling. “Can you please get these things off me?”

He could. I’d seen him break them off Gabriel like they were toy cuffs. He stared at my cuffed wrists, pondering as if it were a tough decision. “I can. That doesn’t mean I will.”

“I’m going to claw your eyes out,” I hissed between clenched teeth. “If you only came to antagonize me, then you can just leave right now. How did you find me anyway?”

Falon’s chuckle was low and smooth. He was enjoying this. “You don’t want to know.” At my glare, he added, “I felt out your energy signature. I know it pretty well by now.”

That was awkward. “You’re right,” I said with a nod. “I didn’t want to know.”

Too many strange encounters involving fallen angel blood and succubus thrall had enabled him to know my energy very well. So well that he could pick it out of all the vampires and shifters in this building and find me. My sense of self-preservation did not feel good about that.

Falon’s silver stare grew heavy. His appraisal began to make me feel like a freak on display: Look at the hybrid, as crazy as crazy bitches come.

“Stop staring at me like that,” I said, still holding my wrists out. “Either you came to help me or you came to taunt me. There are enough people here who want to study me already. I don’t need you doing it.”

He held the stare a few more moments, just enough to get me riled up, then he got up and approached the bed. “Correction. I came to both help and taunt. It’s kind of a package deal.”

The only thing that stopped me from snarking back at him was the fact that he reached for the cuffs. With very little effort, he pried them open, freeing me. Having access to my power again felt so good, like everything could flow free, as it was meant to.

“Thank you.” It wasn’t easy to show gratitude toward him. I despised it. “Why do you want to help me? What’s in it for you?”