Forget About Midnight (Alexa O'Brien, Huntress #9)(4)

“Get a look at you two,” Falon said, silver eyes shining with dark amusement. “It didn’t take long for your reign of terror to begin. This is just some weird vampire initiation phase, right?”

“What do you care?” I asked. “I doubt you came to talk to me about my recreational activities.”

Kale was quiet, but he looked guilty as hell. Instant buzzkill. Falon studied us, assessing the sudden change in mood.

“Actually, I did.”

“Shya didn’t send you?” I found that hard to believe.

Falon scoffed. “Do you really think he would trust me again after what I did to him? You’ve got to know him better than that by now, wolf.”

My heart clenched when he called me that. It used to insult me that he refused to call me by name. Now, it made me want to cry. So many people saw me as a hybrid or a vampire. It meant a lot that Falon still saw me as the wolf.

“Have you seen him? Do you know where he is?” I didn’t want to know, but I had to ask. Shya was no quitter. He wouldn’t forget the vengeance he owed me, nor would he forget that I still owed him.

“No. I assume he’s licking his wounds on the other side. Regrouping. Whatever he’s doing, he’s keeping a low profile.” Falon paused, and his smile faded. “Eventually he’ll come after us both. Be on your guard, Alexa.”

I nodded uncertainly. Shya’s wrath was something I knew I didn’t want to see. My mind raced. “How does the other side work exactly? Is there anything we can do to trap him there?”

Falon frowned in thought. He wandered through the yard, stepping over the body in the grass, coming to a stop near an old stone birdbath.

“The other side is the realm beyond the physical. It’s where the spirits dwell. Those without bodies and those who manifest unnatural bodies dwell there. The only way to keep him there is to find a way to prevent him from crossing over into the physical realm.” Falon ran a hand over the crumbling statue. “Even if we could pull that off, which we can’t, it would only save your ass and leave mine on the line.”

“And that would be a problem?” I expected the glower he shot my way. The middle finger that followed was a surprise that made me snicker. “I’m kidding. Sort of. There’s got to be something we can do. Otherwise we’re sitting ducks. What’s stopping him anyway? Why hasn’t he already come for us?”

Falon peered into the stone eyes of what appeared to be a broken angel as he spoke. “I don’t think he’s ready to deal with me yet. Shya’s a plotter. He likes to take his time. But if there’s anything keeping him away from you, that’s Willow.”

The sorrow I felt at that name penetrated deep. A night hadn’t passed when I hadn’t had a moment of panic, wondering where he was and if he was ok. He had saved me. I was forever in Willow’s debt. Taking my darkness had made him a demon. It had allowed me to keep the balance of light and dark rather than being consumed by the dark entirely. Though my mental state was now divided in a severe Jekyll and Hyde manner, without Willow’s sacrifice I would just be the Hyde.

“Willow,” I repeated, softly to myself. “Just how powerful is he now?”

Falon hesitated before saying, “Like you wouldn’t believe.”

“Have you seen him?” Kale asked, his curiosity evident. Or was that fear?

“No.” There was an awkward silence. Falon sneered at the broken angel statue before turning back to me. “Anyway, we’ve gotten a bit off topic. None of this is why I came so, if you’ll stop with the chit chat, I can get to the point.”

I frowned, wanting to grill him further about Willow. Knowing it was useless to try to nag info out of Falon, I motioned for him to say whatever he’d come to say.

Falon gestured to the body before pinning us with a hard stare. “This shit has got to stop. You,” he pointed at Kale, “should know better by now. And you,” his angry finger swung my way, “are smarter than this. Do you think this kind of behavior comes without consequence?”

His tone bordered on annoyed, and it was just so ridiculous that I burst out laughing. My emotions had been running on overdrive since the turn. Now was no exception.

“Am I missing something here?” I asked. “Since when do you care what I do? Not that it’s any business of yours.”

Kale didn’t share my humor. He stood there with arms crossed, his face disturbingly expressionless. Falon merely waited for me to stop cackling. It dawned on me that he had just complimented my intelligence, and for some reason that made me start to take him seriously. I sobered slightly though the blood high made it difficult.

“Are you quite finished?” Falon’s eyes glinted with disdain. A few paces brought us face to face so he could give me his holier-than-thou stare. “You do not have the luxury of acting out like a fledgling vampire. Not with the reputation that you have. Do you have any idea how many eyes are on you right now?”

I heard him and understood his words meant something, but my gaze dropped to the vein in his neck. I fumbled for a response. “Other than yours? Why don’t you enlighten me, Falon?”

The subtle but constant hum of his angelic power made my skin tingle. It was mesmerizing. I’d never been able to feel it before, when I was alive, unless he actively used it. The scent of his blood was sharp and familiar. The taste of it lived in my memory, and oh, how that lovely aroma taunted me. I didn’t need to actively breathe to function though the action was automatic. My senses were heightened to an extent even the wolf had not possessed. Falon’s angelic blood smelled sinful and divine. I wanted to breathe it in, to tease myself into a taste.