We Own the Night (The Night Songs Collection Book 3)

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  What readers are saying about

  Strassel’s writing takes off from the first page of this novel and doesn’t stop until the very end. Her approachable and vividly charismatic writing paints this enticing world right before your eyes.

  —Pure Jonel

  Kristen's books aren't for the faint of heart, but if you enjoy vampires, rock bands, and a dark edge, I recommend grabbing a copy and diving in for a thrill.

  —Psychocat Reviews

  Books by Kristen Strassel

  Night Songs Collection

  Seasons in the Sun (Night Songs Collection #0.5)

  Because the Night (Night Songs Collection #1)

  Night Moves (Night Songs Collection #2)

  We Own the Night (Night Songs Collection #3)

  Silent Night (Night Songs Collection #4)

  This one is for you! Yes, you. I want to dedicate this book to my readers. Thank you so much for enjoying this series! It means the world to me.

  “What the hell are you talking about?” I knew I didn’t have much room for negotiation. I couldn’t move, and I wasn’t ready to open my eyes yet. My captor was a pissed off, wild, newly minted monster who had just taken out the most powerful vampire in Las Vegas.

  “Shut up!” Blade roared, kneeing me in the small of my back without loosening his death grip on the hair at the nape of my neck. My torso bowed forward, my eyes widening now as all my muscles protested. He was too strong, even for me. Definitely not human. “You can’t talk your way out of this one.”

  “That hurts,” I whispered, ignoring his demands. Probably not my smartest move, but he was about to snap me in half. “My body doesn’t bend like that.”

  He pushed his knee further into my back forcing me into a complete backbend. Even though it was pitch black in the room, I could see him, his beautiful face. Just the sight of him made me ache. So many good memories. I wriggled my hands free from his grasp, I groped back, trying to reach his leg, his body.

  “Your body will move however I want it to.” He slapped my hands away from him. The cool of his body came close to my face again. “I’m going to treat you like the whore you are. I’m going to show you the respect you show yourself. That you’ve shown me. And then you’re going to learn respect.”

  “You left me,” I hissed.

  “I told you to shut up! Jesus, you never learn, do you?” He jerked my body forward by my head, and like a rag doll I found myself bent over a desk. The weight of his body crushed mine against the hard surface. I had missed the feeling of Blade against me more than I ever realized. It overwhelmed me, my body responded like we were about to have some really intense makeup sex, almost making me forget to be afraid. But my brain knew I was under attack. “You hardly waited until I was out of the parking lot before you fucked Tristan. I know every slutty move you made. Talis made sure to tell me everything before I destroyed her. Do you want to know how I did it?”

  “Is that what you’re going to do to me, Blade? Destroy me?”

  Could he? He must have been able to hear my heart battering my ribcage. It didn't need to beat anymore, but everybody had the same response to crisis, alive or undead.

  Why couldn’t I fight him? Anyone else I would have sent flying across the office. But it was Blade.

  “Oh, hell no. I’m going to let you and your piece of shit junkie boyfriend destroy yourselves. And I’m going to roast marshmallows in the flames.” He pulled the neck of my shirt down, exposing my shoulder. His beard stubble tickled my skin as he spoke. I shivered. “Talis made a mistake, trying to use me to get revenge against you and the golden boy. She likes her slaves strong. She made me too strong. I dominated her, just like I’m going to do to you. I dug her heart out of her chest with my bare hands. Stupid bitch thought I was going to fuck her. Did you know a vampire’s heart will still beat when it’s removed from the body, Callie? It’s like watching a chicken run with its head cut off. Fascinating. But enough with the science lesson. I held her heart in my hand while I set her body on fire. I liked the way it felt when it moved. When it stopped beating, I threw it in the pyre.” He licked my shoulder blade and laughed when I flinched. “You knew I didn’t want this, Callie. I guess I didn’t make myself clear.”

  “I did everything I could to get you away from her. I thought you were worth fighting for.”

  “Bullshit. I know how Bloodlust works now. You didn’t care about anything else. I thought you were worth fighting for, and you tossed me aside like garbage. And look what it got you.”

  He scraped his fangs down my back. I screamed. Was he going to rip me apart, right here in this office, while thousands of people enjoyed a concert just down the hall? He slammed my head down on the desk with the hand still tangled in the back of my hair. I tasted my own blood. Blade must have been able to smell it as it welled in my mouth. He flipped me forward and pressed against me, aroused, and put his mouth over mine to drink from me.

  I responded to his kiss, my body once again betraying me. My mind tricking me into thinking my ex-boyfriend was somewhere inside this monster. I pulled him in closer to me, my synapses on overdrive. How could he could he make me want him? Like this? I nipped at him, trying to draw his blood.

  Did he realize what I was? Just like him.

  “Did you know whoever takes out the master becomes the master?” Blade pulled away from me just enough to speak. His lips moved against mine. I could feel them arch upward in a smile. “The time to kiss and make up has passed. This whole city answers to me now. You answer to me now.”

  MAYBE IF I'd paid more attention, I would have noticed something wasn't quite right. But in my fantasy world, I didn't want to believe that Talis had disappeared for any other reason than she was somehow giving me permission to be with Tristan. That I had won. I was too arrogant, naive, and foolish to believe that the spoils could go to someone else.

  I wanted to kick and scream like a child. I wasn't getting my way. In my old life, before Las Vegas, I'd been used to it. Breaking free from my mother and my sheltered life on Martha's Vineyard, made me think that things had changed for good, that I had some control over my universe. Oh, who was I kidding? I was every bit the stupid little girl that I bristled about every time someone accused me of being exactly that. I had no more control than I ever did. Less, even. Now I let Tristan pull the strings as if we existed in a vacuum.

  Blade realized it long before I did.

  He had plenty of time to think about what he would do, at the helm at last. I punched the wall, alarmed when I easily put my fist through the drywall. I hadn’t gotten used to my vampire strength yet. I shook it as I withdrew, and then smoothed my hand over the fresh pockmark in the wall. It didn't do any good.

  One of these days, I'd make peace with the consequences of my actions. But today wasn't going to be that day.

  I needed to get to Tristan before Blade did.

  Tristan must have noticed by now I wasn't where he left me by the side of the stage. Maybe he'd come looking for me during a break as he changed guitars. I was still too new in this world, he wasn't comfortable having me out of his sight. For all the chiding I'd subjected him to in the last couple weeks about it, this was just a giant I Told You So.

  What would Blade say to him? I couldn’t help myself. He smelled so fresh, so new. So feral. It made everything in my body go haywire. My veins sang with need.

  I wanted his blood.

  I stood up, dizzy with Bloodlust, and started back to the stage. I walked close to the wall, needing to hang on to it for balance. The crowd roared just out of my sight. I looked up
at the ceiling, and prayed to whatever Supreme Being that claimed responsibility for our kind that Blade was satisfied with his work for the night, and would leave us alone.

  At least until I could talk to Tristan. Luck wasn’t my strong suit around here. I sat back down on the road case I'd watched Tristan from so many nights before.

  "I thought you left me." Tristan startled me, his breath hot against my ear, his long dark hair tickled my cheek. I'd slipped back into my Blade induced trance as soon as I climbed on my roadcase. I could barely see my hand in front of my face. Those words, the same ones I had just pleaded my innocence with to Blade moments before.

  "I had some business to attend to." I gulped. The words felt wrong as they came out of my mouth, even though they held more truth than I should’ve admitted to.

  Tristan looked puzzled and slightly angry.

  And something else. Possessive. Great.

  I fought the urge to roll my eyes and get prematurely defensive. Tristan could read my mind, and he knew something wasn’t right. He shook his head as he brought down his favorite encore guitar over his shoulder. I watched his tattooed arm ease the strap into place. “Beautiful, if you leave me, know that I will make it my business to find you."

  That wasn't like him. At all. I might have protested if Tristan's mouth hadn't covered mine in a teeth-crashing, urgent kiss. I pulled him in closer to me, trying to close my bubble of oblivion back to the way it was before Blade had popped it.

  Tristan always got his way. A trust fund baby of Hollywood royalty, he still had a hard time grasping the concepts of want and need. Sure, it had turned him into a spoiled brat, and later an arrogant bastard, but those were cards he rarely ever pulled on me. It had always made me feel special.

  Like I wasn't part of the problem, but the solution.

  That being said, I shouldn't be all that surprised he'd think of me as a possession. I was, by default, his creation now.

  It didn't mean I had to like it.

  In another lifetime, literally, Tristan told me that vampires weren't meant to be monogamous. It was a bullshit line then, and even more so now. Calm down, Callie, I thought, staring out at the stage, watching Tristan move in slow motion. He couldn't possibly know what had happened with Blade in that room.

  That I’d wanted him.

  But Tristan knew my every thought. Damn it.

  My brain went into overdrive as I stared blankly at him while he played the encore. If Talis was gone, Tristan would have known about it. I gritted my teeth together and my jaw locked in anger. Talis created Tristan, making her his master. She could read his mind, because she was his creator, just like Tristan was my creator. Even if nothing had changed, he'd feel her absence.

  Tristan's presence filled me like the warm beat of a heart. We locked eyes as he played. He knew what I was thinking and from the look on his face, I could tell he was just as shocked as I was.

  That bastard lied to me.

  Blade’s appearance next to me at the side of the stage made my stomach flop. He smiled at me like a pawn shop owner screwing me out of my prized possessions. I wanted to plead with him, try to reason with him, but nothing I said would do anything to help my cause.

  “What do you think Tristan’s going to say when I tell him how willing you still are to fuck me?”

  His words took my breath away. Jumbled thoughts cluttered my brain, none becoming coherent enough to form an argument. So instead of fighting back, I froze in place and waited for the inevitable. Whatever that may be. My anger with both Blade and Tristan paralyzed me.

  So much for saving the day. I should have ripped him in two. My inability to stand up to him stewed with my fury.

  As Immortal Dilemma rose from their bow and the curtain dropped on the night’s performance, I bit my lip hard enough to draw blood. Again. I refused to make eye contact with Blade. I did simple arithmetic in my head to block my thoughts.

  Tristan deserved to be as surprised as I was tonight.

  "Bradley, what the hell are you doing here?" Tristan hardly looked at Blade as he made a beeline for me. He always mocked Blade by using his real name. I looked down at my feet, hoping maybe I would just disappear.

  Because that would solve all my problems.

  "Now that Callie is one of us, it’s time to end our little charade." Blade's voice sounded even and calm, less full of rage and hate than it was in that office.

  “What would that be?" Tristan put his hand on my shoulder and I flinched. In the middle of whatever the hell was going on, I wasn't going to let him off the hook.

  "She knows I'm running the show. This show,” he said, sweeping his hand towards the arena. Blade smiled as I glared at him, willing him to keep his fucking mouth shut. In doing so, Tristan would know what I was thinking. What I was feeling.

  There was no winning in this situation. It was time for all the cards to be on the table.

  Blade continued. "Since your contract was with Talis, it's now null and void. You're no longer a part of Immortal Dilemma, Tristan. Effective immediately."

  Tristan burst out laughing. "Are you serious? You can’t do that. Anyway, do you think anyone gives a fuck about those guys?" He jerked his hand back to the empty stage. "They come to see me, Bradley, as you found out at your little dive bar show."

  The night Blade disappeared, he’d played out with a bunch of his musician friends for the first time in years. A few Immortal Dilemma fans saw me there, word spread, and everyone expected to see Tristan instead of Blade. It didn’t end well.

  "Not anymore they don't." Blade crossed his arms, no doubt steeling himself against the memory of that awful show. "How is it going to be when you're nothing, when all those girls don't want to fuck you anymore--?"

  "I don't know, Bradley, but I'm sure you can tell me." Tristan put his arm around me, tightly enough that I couldn’t shrug away from him. "Anyway, my father owns half of the band, the TV show, and the resort. He’ll pull out faster than a kid in the backseat with a broken condom. Your house of cards will fall. It’ll be fun to watch."

  "Of course, Tristan, it's all about you. And your daddy's money," Blade mocked.

  I squeezed my eyes shut, waiting for them to come to blows. I wanted to scream at them both to shut up. They were both so stupid.

  "Well it's certainly not about you, you dumb fuck." Tristan actually laughed. I opened my eyes and narrowed them at him. "Female vampires trump us all. I don't answer to you. You answer to Callie."

  Female vampires trump us all.

  My head swam as we made our way back to Tristan's apartment. I guess I should call it our apartment. I'd barely left it since the night I drank too much of Tristan's blood and changed my life forever. I never officially moved in, but since I’d started to decorate, it was pretty clear I was staying.

  We'd walked away from Blade, leaving him to absorb Tristan’s bombshell. It was news to me as well. I knew female vampires had a lot of power, but me? In charge?

  Even I knew that was a recipe for disaster.

  I stole a couple looks back at Blade as we left. I didn't know if I wanted to say I'm sorry or in your face.

  "When the hell were you going to tell me?" I hissed at Tristan and shoved him against the side of the elevator hard enough to make the wall rattle.

  "Careful, beautiful, I'll go right through the glass."

  "Don't you beautiful me, you condescending bastard. And it would serve you right to splatter all over the sidewalk in front of your adoring public."

  "I was going to tell you about your power once you really came into your own. I didn't want too many people to know about you until you could really handle it." Of course Tristan would try to turn this around with smooth talk.

  "That's not what I'm talking about!" I shouted as we stepped off the elevator into the penthouse living room that overlooked Las Vegas Boulevard. My voice echoed against the marble floors and glass wall. "When were you going to tell me about Blade being a vampire? And that he destroyed Talis! I spent all this ti
me looking for him—"

  "While he was busy killing your friends."

  Tristan's words stopped me dead in my tracks. "You knew he killed them?" Because I sure as hell didn’t. Not only did I have no idea, I had no idea it was possible to be any angrier at Tristan that I already was. I could barely make my mouth form words. "And you let me keep searching for him like he was one of the victims? Like poor Janelle or Jacey? If I had known, I would have never become a vampire. I would have never slept with Noah."

  I clapped my hand over mouth, horrified at the words that just came out of it.

  Tristan's face turned a shade of red I didn't know it was possible for a vampire to achieve. "You would have never done what?" He grabbed my shoulders as I stood there wide eyed with my hand still over my mouth. I thought he was going to rattle me, but he didn’t. He just looked empty. "You slept with Noah?"

  "Peter told me..." I started then stopped. Peter was a rival clan leader that had now very obviously duped me. He’d even led me to tonight’s meeting with Blade. "I thought I was helping Blade."

  "Oh, this I've got to hear." Tristan let go of me and straddled the arm of the couch, crossing his arms and smiling unhappily.

  "Peter told me if his vampires had your blood, Talis's blood, he may be able to defeat her and help Blade."

  "Peter knew all along what Blade had done." Tristan's voice was flat and frightening. My heart pounded listening to him. I’d been had in every possible way. "I still don't understand why you fucked Noah."

  God, those words sounded so ugly.

  "He said it would be easier for me. With the blood. I got carried away." I couldn't look Tristan in the eye. I couldn't trust him any more than any of the rest of them. Apparently I didn't have one friend in this undead realm.

  Somehow, even though they all screwed me over in every way possible, they all answered to me. It wasn't working out real well so far.

  "That sounds about right." Tristan smirked as I looked back at him.