Forget About Midnight (Alexa O'Brien, Huntress #9)(34)

“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.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that. Did you miss the part where I told you that he bit Thomas?”

It was weird to hear her call Agent Briggs by his first name, as if he were a person and everything. I didn’t like to think of him that way. He might have been human but that didn’t make him any less monstrous than me. The man was hell bent on policing the supernatural and, even worse, controlling it.

“Is he ok? I mean, is that all that happened?”

“Is that all?” Juliet’s voice rose. There was a slam in the background, as if she’d pounded a fist on a hard object. “Arys threatened to turn him. I’d say that’s pretty goddamn serious. We can’t just act like this never happened. Thomas is outraged. I’ve never seen him so upset.”

“Does he make you call him Thomas?” I blurted. The man seemed so tightly wound. Eventually, he was going to snap. “Never just Tom?”

“What the hell does that have to do with anything?” she snapped. Then, suddenly calmer, she said, “Lexi, we need to keep this from getting worse than it already is. I’ve been trying to keep your kills under wraps by redirecting the blame, but Arys has screwed that all up. I don’t think I can protect you anymore.”

My poor sister had taken on too much responsibility too young. She should have been a university student chasing the dreams of normal people, living a normal life. Cleaning up my messes and bearing the burden of a government agenda was going to age her or get her killed.

“What does that mean for you?” I hedged the question, not really wanting an answer but needing one anyway. “Are you going to get in some kind of shit for all this?”

Her moment of silence lasted a little too long. “Don’t worry about me. Just stay off Thomas’s radar, ok? Arys too.” A muffled voice sounded in the background. It sounded like Briggs. When Juliet spoke again, it was hushed, as if she didn’t want to be overheard by him. “Can we talk tonight at your nightclub? Please, Lexi, I need to see you. After everything that’s happened, you shouldn’t be alone right now.”

“I’m not alone.” My gaze strayed down the hallway toward the bedroom. A heavy weight dragged on my heart. “Maybe it’s not such a good idea for us to meet right now, if things are shaky there.”

Blowing off my sister wasn’t going to be easy. She wouldn’t allow it. “You f*cking died, Alexa. Give me a reason to believe that it’s still you in there. Because all I’ve seen are the bodies I’ve been cleaning up.”

The use of my whole name meant she was in ruthless little sister mode. She wouldn’t be deterred. An argument with her would never end. There could be no winner when the two of us locked horns. I was meeting Jenner anyway. What was one more?