Forget About Midnight (Alexa O'Brien, Huntress #9)(15)

A little manipulation could go a long way. Her friendly demeanor was bothersome. I liked it better when she was afraid and fighting.

“No, sorry.”

“I knew it would catch up to me one day. Especially when that one got away. Your friend. I’ve been expecting this.” Sylvia examined her fingernails before holding them up for me to see. “I tried a new place for my last manicure. What do you think?”

Sparkles in her mint green fingernails caught the light from the visor mirror. Girl talk with Sylvia had not been part of my plan. Maybe I should just knock her out again.

Headlights shone in my eyes as Kale’s ’73 Camaro came around the corner. The sight of the sleek, black car rekindled my excitement. Show time. I’d been very patient up until this point.

I got out of the car and went around to Sylvia’s side. Jerking the door open, I dropped the hold I had on her and pulled her from the car.

“Alexa, what the f*ck?” Kale jerked to a stop when he saw Sylvia. A range of emotions crossed his battered face. He’d been fighting, and I had a bad feeling that I knew who had left those marks.

Without my manipulation to mess with her mind, Sylvia was a shrieking, trembling mess. The scent of her fear was intoxicating, and I savored it, going so far as to run my tongue along her jugular.

Kale watched me with growing intrigue. I saw him slip from the careful composure he’d gotten so good at hiding behind to the fierce killer he was beneath that mask.

I shoved Sylvia to him and said, “I got you a little something.”

Chapter Five

“You are the most amazing woman to ever walk this earth.” Kale regarded me with a playful grin, which vanished when his gaze dropped to the brunette squirming in his grasp.

“You don’t want to kill me. I can help you. I can be your eyes on the inside.” Sylvia’s calm acceptance had fled. Now she was ready to bargain. “I’ll do anything. Anything. Please!”

Kale held her firmly by both arms. He pulled her close, forcing her to meet his angry gaze. “Remember me, bitch? Because I will never forget you.”

“I only did what I was told to do. Really. It was my job.” Sylvia’s voice shook, but she maintained her composure.

“Is that so?” Kale snarled. “From what I recall, you enjoyed it very much. Strutting around naked, rubbing blood all over yourself. Driving me wild with bloodlust. Don’t expect me to believe that you don’t get off on having that kind of power over vampires.”

Sylvia pressed her lips tight together and shook her head. Her shoulders shook with the effort it took to stay calm. She had clearly been trained on how to react in such a situation. Although I doubted the FPA had trained her to immediately offer to be a rat.

“So, how do you want to do this?” I asked. “Slow torture or fast and final?”

I was perfectly content to sit back and watch him toy with her. It was only fair, seeing as I’d had to watch her torment him.

Kale stared at Sylvia, hunger burning in his gaze. A dark bruise spread across his nose and beneath one eye. It faded even as I watched. But it nagged at me, trying to draw me out of this moment, back into my head where I didn’t want to be.

“As much as I’d love to put her through the hell she put me through, I don’t think we have that kind of time.” Kale looked over Sylvia’s head at me where I stood between our cars. With a tilt of his head, he beckoned me closer.

Sylvia was no idiot. She saw that this was moving fast and decided to go down playing a martyr. Glaring daggers, she stood her ground. Between clenched teeth she said, “Go ahead and kill me. You’ll end up back in there, and they will show you no mercy. You and your skank will rot in that basement.”

“Skank?” I repeated, totally offended. “You don’t even know me.”

“Do I really need to?” Sylvia cast a scathing glance my way. She stood stiff in Kale’s tight grasp. “You’re a monster. A horror story. You deserve to burn in hell, and you probably will.”

I hated her. I hated her so much, but I wasn’t sure it was for the right reasons.

Kale caught a handful of her hair and pulled her head aside to bare her inviting neck. She gasped and bit back a scream.

“You are definitely going to scream for me,” he promised. “Did you know that the FPA tried to get me to work with them by promising you as an exchange? Shouldn’t be so quick to decide who the monster is.”

“Liar,” Sylvia hissed, but something about her lack of surprise told me she knew it was true. The FPA was filled with dirty agents. They couldn’t even trust each other.

“If you know the people you work for, then you know I’m not lying. They don’t give a shit about you any more than they gave a shit about me.”

Done with the meaningless banter, Kale bared his fangs. He went for her jugular, and I watched with joyous anticipation. Fangs pierced flesh, and I froze.

A shriek broke from her then. Sylvia’s survival instinct was stronger than her intention to die with self-righteous honor. When Kale pulled back with her blood staining his lips, she descended into hysterics.

Fear permeated the air. Acrid but inviting, it drove me crazy with hunger. Sylvia’s screams reverberated in my ears, and I just wanted to silence her. But Kale enjoyed a few good screams, and he encouraged it by biting her again.