Forget About Midnight (Alexa O'Brien, Huntress #9)(59)

I left the room without a backward glance, but it wasn’t easy. I was all kinds of confused. Emotion plagued me like a virus that I needed to exterminate. Unfortunately, the only way to be free of it was to lose myself in the kill. Lucky for me, I was off to do just that.

Chapter Sixteen

I rushed Kale and Jez out of The Wicked Kiss with little explanation. There was no way I could stand to witness another confrontation between Arys and Kale, especially not on Kale’s last night in town.

The three of us piled into Jez’s beat up Jeep Liberty. It was a good vehicle for blending in, better than my bright-red Charger. I held tight to the door handle as we careened around corners and jerked to stops at red lights. Being much harder to kill did give me some additional comfort.

We headed for a sketchy area on the north side of the city. The address Brinley had given me wasn’t in the worst part of town, but it was far from a safe, family-friendly neighborhood.

“I knew a dealer who lived over here.” Jez peered out the window at a ramshackle convenience store on a corner. “He told the craziest stories about the weird shit that went on. It never ceases to amaze me how f*cked up humans really are.”

“It was Arrow, wasn’t it?” I quipped. “He looks exactly like the kind of guy who would live around here.”

She rolled her eyes and gave me a look. “Arrow drives a BMW and lives nowhere near here. It was not him.”

“Figures.”

It didn’t surprise me that Jez’s drug dealer was rolling in the dough. He was a nephilim, a dark one I’d learned, which was pretty much a demon, albeit one with human weaknesses. My first impression of him had been terrible. He was bad news. Jez could have died that night because of the drugs he supplied her. The slimy little f*cker had had the nerve to offer some to me.

Kale sat quietly in the backseat, listening to us banter back and forth. It was awkward, having him so close, wanting so badly to touch him and to beg him not to leave, having to smile through the pain and pretend all was well. It f*cking sucked.

We pulled up a few doors down from the address I’d been given but close enough to see the place. It was a small house, older and dimly lit. Curtains hid the interior from view. It was just as ramshackle as the store we’d passed on the way.

“I guess pimping out young girls doesn’t fetch a lot of money in these parts,” I mused. Anticipation sparked in my stomach and flowed throughout me until I was giddy and unable to sit still.

“So how are we doing this?” Kale asked, leaning forward between the front seats. “Good cop, bad cop, and crazy-ass vampire?”

Jez scoffed. “Which one of you is the crazy-ass vampire?”

“He is,” I said at the same time Kale said, “She is.”

Jez’s laughter filled the Jeep. “Oh man, I’m gonna miss this. Ok, you two can decide who gets to be good cop and who gets to be the crazy-ass vampire. Bad cop is all mine.”

I turned in my seat to meet Kale’s enchanting eyes. It took great effort to keep from staring a little too long. “I’ll be the vampire. I need to get it out of my system anyway.”

“Then I guess I’m good cop. Someone has to keep you two in line,” Kale mused. “You guys go first. A couple of knockout females shouldn’t have a hard time getting the guy to open the door. I’ll be right behind you.”

“Especially, Lex. She’s starting to look like a working girl herself.” Jez’s quip started a slap war between us that bordered on childish.

I held up both hands to ward off another smack from the feisty cat. “This is the red lipstick that you made me buy, Jez. You can’t judge me for wearing it.”

She leaned down to adjust the small dagger in her boot, and I took the opportunity to flick her hard on the arm. “Ow, dammit,” she cursed. “I’m not judging. Just observing. You’re not yourself these days, Lex.”

“Gee,” I muttered, tossing the Dragon Claw on the floor at my feet, then kicking it under the seat. I wouldn’t be needing it here. “I hadn’t noticed.”

Kale regarded us both with a neutral expression that revealed nothing of what he was really thinking. I was pretty sure that it had something to do with how damn ridiculous we were, but he was too nice to say so.

Jez and I got out of the Jeep and headed for the house. I gave my hair a toss and affected my best sexy smile.

“The guy’s name is Ben, and we’re looking for a girl named Allie. I hope she’s here.” My pace quickened, and I had to make a conscious effort to slow down. I was eager to wrap my hands around this guy’s throat.

“This is definitely a change of pace from hunting down rogue vamps and shifters,” Jez said. Her boot heels clicked loud on the pavement as we walked. “I can’t imagine it will be as much of a challenge, but it should still be fun.”

“Oh, it’ll be fun all right.”

Jez eyed me; her watchful cat gaze didn’t miss anything. “You’re totally getting off on the idea of tearing this guy apart, aren’t you? Never mind, don’t answer that. The evil glint in your eye says it all.”

“Trust me, Jez. I need this.”

We walked across the yellow, patchy lawn to the front door. Reaching out mentally to assess the area, I could feel three or four humans inside. I pulled open the screen door, wincing as it squealed. Then I knocked, and we waited.