Night Moves (The Night Songs Collection) (17 page)

“Because you’re never nice to me?” I offered, crossing my arms across my stomach. I was the only one in the room standing. I might be looking down on Drake, but it didn’t feel that way.

“Maybe we just don’t understand each other.”

“I understand just fine.” Rage bubbled in my brain, wanting to lash out. “I think we just don’t like each other.”

Erin tried her best to stifle a gasp.

He set his glasses down on the desk. “But we want the same things. For the band to be successful. For Ryder to be happy.”

“You want Ryder to be happy?” The end of the sentence came out in a nervous laugh. “Could have fooled me.”

“Melanie, I am the CEO of this corporation. I want what’s best for all of us. Which means the bottom line. Sometimes that means hard decisions.”

“At least you got to make decisions.” I glared at him as he stood up and started pacing.

“Since you seem to know better than I do, I’ll let you make the decisions for a little while, Melanie.” He put special emphasis on my name. When my mother said my name like that, I knew I was in trouble. I braced myself for what was came next. “I want to talk to you about Rachel O’Leary.”

My first reaction was to say I didn’t know Rachel O’Leary, which was partially true. But I knew who he was talking about. Catelyn’s friend. The one who got bit at the party and was claiming to be a vampire.

“What about her?”

“You invited her to Tommy’s party?”

“Not exactly. They did come with me, but I told them they were on their own.”

“Then what happened?” He settled on the bed, and Erin snuggled in beside him. Something about it was just obscene, him questioning me like I was on the witness stand while they cuddled.

“I have no idea. I went back to my room and fell asleep.”

“We have a problem, Melanie. Someone turned Rachel into a vampire. That can’t happen.”

“Why? Are you threatened by some random girl?” I watched Erin’s eyes widen.

“No. Like I said, this is a business. Profit and loss.”

“What does this have to do with me, Drake?” I rolled my eyes at his boardroom explanation to this poor girl becoming undead or whatever the technical term was for it.

“You need to fix your mistake. That’s all.” His hand caressed Erin’s back. His attention went to her like I wasn’t even in the room anymore.

“What the hell does that mean?”

“Fix the mistake. Do I have to spell it out for you? She’ll be in Vegas. It will give you some time to think about how to get the job done.”

My mouth almost dropped to the floor. He wanted me to kill this poor girl just because she’d tried to get closer to him.

I tried to speak several times, but the words sounded all wrong in my brain. “What if I say no?”

“Then Ryder doesn’t get his solo album. And we renegotiate his contract. If you’re going to be a gold digger, Melanie, you probably shouldn’t shit where you eat.”

My skin burned with anger. So kill Rachel or make Ryder miserable. Weren’t those fantastic choices?

“You can’t do that.” Ryder might be a vampire, but he still had free will, right? He was still a person.

“I can.” He unzipped the front of Erin’s sweatshirt to reveal her bare skin, most likely just to make me uncomfortable. Intimidate me by degrading her. “How are you going to stop me?”

I
didn’t know what to do. My mind raced as I made my way back to my room.

Of course, I was going to tell Ryder what happened. It was no surprise to him that Drake was a megalomaniac asshole. But he’d be furious that Drake found out about his plans for the album. Why did Erin turn to mush around that jackass? It was like her brain cells became oatmeal. Didn’t I tell her to keep quiet about the solo album?

Not that it mattered. She just couldn’t think straight around him.

The blood. That’s what she’d blame it on. If she was honest with me. Was it really that powerful? Would I ever find out? Now that Ryder was talking about the long haul, would he be willing to share it with me?

I never wanted to act like Erin did around Drake, but it would be nice to be someone’s everything.

What about Catelyn? Should I tell her that Drake wanted me to kill Rachel? She was acting awfully calm about this. If it was Erin who was unexpectedly turned into a vampire, I’d be freaking out. Maybe she was just putting on a brave face in front of me. I didn’t know if I’d even be capable of that. If she was pulling some sort of prank, she’d get herself killed as a result. Catelyn knew too much, no matter what was going on.

And I still didn’t see how any of this was my fault.

I didn’t want to do anything to Rachel, and I certainly didn’t want to hurt Ryder. He’d been burned badly enough when it came to this band.

Maybe I should leave this whole crazy parallel universe I stepped into. But to go where? I had no home. No car. No cell phone. And only fifty dollars left of Jamie’s cash.

But I did have the police looking for me, so there was that. Three hots and a cot.

“Fuck.” Ryder leaned back against the headboard of the bed after I told him about my meeting, his arm thrashing upward almost knocking the questionably framed rendition of a pear off the wall. “I don’t have to do the album right now.”

“Come on, Ryder, you should see how your eyes light up when you talk about it. You want this bad.” I laid on the end of the bed, my body perpendicular to his, staring at the ceiling. I focused on the odd stains above. They weren’t any more disturbing than this conversation.

“I have until the end of time, babe. No hurry. It’s not worth sacrificing someone over.”

“How are you going to pull that off, anyway? People will catch on eventually. Unless they think you just have a great plastic surgeon.”

“God knows Drake will save thousands on keeping his face pretty.” Ryder smiled and I giggled. “I figure when it’s not believable anymore, I can disappear and come back as someone else. I don’t know if it will work or not, or if I’ll even have to worry about it. Maybe I’ll want to do something different.”

I sighed, rubbing my hands hard over my face. “I don’t know why it has to be one or the other. Why can’t you just make your album and Rachel live in undead bliss? You know, happily ever after?”

“Woman vampires are extremely powerful. There are very few, and they are creators and clan leaders. They’re not made by accident, only if a leader is needed.” Ryder sighed. “Talis is a control freak. And very easily threatened. It’s not the type of thing she’d let slide.”

“Even if Rachel just lays low? Can’t she just not be a power player?”

“I don’t think it works that way.” He frowned, not liking this anymore than I did. “Rachel’s not going to be long for this world, and you’ll definitely be the kindest to her.”

“Kill her with kindness?” I sat up and made my way to the head of the bed to snuggle into the crook of Ryder’s body.

“Something like that.” He nuzzled against my neck. It was so easy to forget the drama that swirled around us when his lips touched my skin. Little bolts of electricity sent currents to every pleasure center in my body.

It was one of those rare moments we were actually alone. Josiah had gone off to find Adam or Thomas or God knows what. In a few hours we’d be on a bus headed to Denver, leaving our privacy behind for the time being.

I ran my tongue along the line of his teeth, stopping on one of his sharp canines. I flicked and curled around it, hoping my teasing would elicit some response deep in his soul.

It worked. Ryder flipped over, quickly tensing his arms above my body, his head buried in my chest. I pulled him down so he collapsed on me, the crush of his weight making my pulse race. I traced my hands along the sides of his stomach, under his shirt, clutching his shoulders, my fingernails pushing into his skin.

I wanted the blood.

Ryder sensed this, pulling himself away from me. “Melanie,” he moaned, half with desire, half with disapproval. “Not now.”

“When?” I was just as frustrated as he was, maybe more. After all, he could have my blood. “You just asked me to kill someone for you, and I can’t have your blood? What else do I need to do?”

He let out a long breath and bowed his head against me, his hair tickling my face and neck. He didn’t say a word.

“It’s just that—” I choked up a little, and I was furious with myself for dissolving into tears at the prospect of not getting what I wanted. But this was so much more than that. And I should be stronger than this. “—you’re talking about wanting to stay with me forever and then you can’t do this. I don’t know which one you mean.”

He picked his head up, just inches away from my face, and looked into my eyes. It took a long time for one of us to blink.

“I mean everything I say to you. You have nothing to prove to me. I have to prove it to myself.” He looked away, and I pushed his face back to mine. “It changes things, Melanie. We have enough to deal with right now. And I like you just the way you are. Do you want to start acting like Erin?”

“Are you going to treat me like Drake treats her?”

“Of course not. But she’ll sell you down the river if she thinks it will get her any more of him. She’s an addict. I’ve watched her crumble. You haven’t seen it when it’s ugly, babe. Wait ‘til Polina shows up. She’ll claw Erin to pieces.”

“But I’m not Erin and you’re not Drake. I’m not Shannon, either.”

“And I’m not Jamie.” He hit below the belt, and I gasped. He cradled my cheek in his hand, his fingers touching my skin so I could barely feel it. I fought the urge to turn away from him, to push him off of me just out of spite. His lips met mine, and I hesitated before accepting.

“And I don’t want you to be.” I whispered, the last thing anyone said before we dissolved into one. Not so much in lust and desire but out of sadness and frustration.

M
aybe I just wanted to spite Ryder for not giving me what I wanted. Or Drake because I couldn’t beat him. Okay, especially Drake. It had been too long since I’d seen anything outside of this bus. Miles and miles of gorgeous countryside all around this country and I’d seen nothing but the inside of Ryder’s bunk. Not that it was a bad view, but still.

Maybe I just wanted to tempt fate.

I decided to ride with Erin to Denver. The sun blinded me before she handed me a spare pair of sunglasses. Already I was turning into a sunless creature. I adjusted quickly and reclined my seat to relax and enjoy my coffee and the gently rolling grasslands of north Texas.

“Can we listen to something besides Soul Divider?” I asked Erin as we made our way out of the city and into farmlands. I needed to be able to think without the soundtrack to my latest problem assaulting my brain.

“Sure.” She popped the CD out and turned on her satellite radio. I was surprised she had it in her beat up car. “Do you have this? It’s the best thing ever if you travel a lot.”

“No. I usually listened to NPR in the car.” Because everyone else in my office did, and I was sick of feeling hopelessly left out of their conversations. Truth be told, I hated talk radio. But all my CD’s had been played one or one thousand too many times, and I didn’t have the time or the inspiration to find something new.

“How positively grown up of you.” Erin giggled. “We will be doing nothing so hipster on this drive.”

“Thank God.” I laughed. “How do you keep yourself entertained on all these long rides?”

“Look out the window! Look at that countryside! Tomorrow we hit the mountains, and wait ‘til you see that. Books on tape help, because I can’t fit too many real books in the car. When I really need to bore the shit out of myself I do phone interviews, set up shoots, that kind of stuff. I make it a rule to never eat in a chain restaurant, so I usually go check out random towns. You find some amazing stuff that way. I have a lot sent to my neighbor’s house when I see something one of a kind that I can’t live without. I just make the most of it.”

I loved that Erin knew how to make the most of everything. No wonder she could handle Drake with such ease. “Where is your house?” I was embarrassed I had to ask.

“Las Vegas.”
What?
The very place I may be hiding out for the rest of eternity? Too weird. And amazing. I never bothered to picture Erin anywhere other than her parents’ house. “I’ve lived there about a year and a half.”