Night Calls - Nyx Slaughter Book 1 (15 page)

“I still don't think you need to
know about my personal life. All you need to know is I am usually
one of Alex's personal bodyguards and then you show up and suddenly
I am demoted to babysitter,” he grumbles.

“Hey it wasn't my idea. In fact, I
advocated against it. I have never been popular with wolves, so the
thought of having some of them look after me doesn't leave me
feeling all warm and gooey inside. Think of it as still being his
bodyguard. Since me and him are connected now if anything happens
to me, he will suffer. That's the way he is looking at it. In
reality, if he could sever the connection without pain or death for
himself, he would,” I inform him.

“Oh, I doubt that,” Sebastian
offers. “If you guys ever have children, they would be the heirs to
the wolf kingdom from the sound of things. I doubt any
self-respecting wolf would turn that away.”

“Wait, you think you are a Gentry?”
Jonas asks. “They don't have female offspring, so that is
impossible. Did you somehow get Alex to believe
otherwise?”

“Why couldn't the birthmark be on
my forehead? My father is Aaron Gentry, so yes I am a descendant of
whatever the Gentry line is. As far as I know, they are just a
bunch of wolves,” I state.

“We will get the history of wolves
all worked out later. For now, though, Jonas you have gone from
guarding a general, so to speak, to guarding the princess herself.
To me that sounds like a climb up the ladder,” Sebastian
says.

“I still don't believe it. Until I
see the mark or hear from Alex that it exists, there is no way you
could be the princess. A princess isn't even supposed to exist,”
Jonas comments.

“Sebastian, don't put ideas in his
head. I am not a princess. My dad didn't say anything about being
royalty when I met him and I would have thought that would be
something worth mentioning,” I scold.

“Hey, Alex is the one that said
your family was the top of the werewolf hierarchy. Plus, on the
vampire side since I am the oldest around, you might as well be
considered a queen,” he lifts my right hand off the steering wheel
and gives it an old-fashioned kiss.

“Do vampires have a hibernation
mode? I think I would like to sleep the next ten years or so away,”
I groan returning my hand to the wheel.

“Anyone want to explain that
comment?” Jonas asks from the back. “We weren't given a lot of
information for this assignment. I can smell Alex on you, so I know
he has scented you indicating you as his mate. You sharing pain was
another indicator of your relationship, but I don't understand why
you are affectionate towards the vampire. As a wolf, you should
find it distasteful. You guys should not be as close as you seem to
be.”

“I guess since Alex did his little
scenting trick that must have covered your other smells for the
wolves,” Sebastian inserts. “Not that they would have picked
anything up.”

“So he doesn't get surprised when
he meets Lil and Bebe we should probably fill him in a little. If I
told you that until a couple days ago, I thought I was human, what
would you say, Jonas?” I ask.

“Besides laugh in your face, I
don't know. I currently smell Alex so strongly on you I don't know
what your own scent is like, but in order for him to do that you
would have to be wolf,” he replies.

“It seems that the fact that I was
carrying the wolf gene was kept from me and since it was recessive,
I never showed any wolfy traits,” I inform him. “Also kept from me,
was the fact that I carried the vampire recessive gene. I don't
believe any wolf without access to my medical records knew that
tidbit. Sebastian found out three years ago and bonded with me, and
neglected to tell me about the gene or bond. Without going into any
more detail of how insane my life has become, I will say I am a
freak and if I have to learn to live with it, as long as you are
guarding me, you are going to have to live with it.”

“Are you a unicorn as well?
Everything I have heard you say so far has been impossible. First,
you are a princess and now you are a werewolf vampire hybrid. Did
they destroy all of your brain cells while you lived within the
Collective?”

“That could be or maybe I am
actually dreaming. I could really see this as all being a dream.
All my life I have hoped to be something more than just a human and
now I am part human, wolf, and vampire. My imagination is great,” I
suggest.

“I think I should call Alex and
resign this post. I didn't sign on for crazy,” Jonas
responds.

“Love, concentrate on Lil and Bebe
for a second. See if you can get them to appear,” Sebastian
suggests.

I follow instructions and feel a
little tingle indicated it actually worked. “Awesome, that's all I
have to do? I don't have to be hungry or angry?”

“You should be gaining more power,
so you will be able to achieve more control on the little things
like that. Now, I will take the wheel for a second, so you can
introduce Jonas to the girls,” he says moving over so he can reach
the wheel.

Jonas is sitting directly behind
me, so once Sebby has control of the wheel I unbuckle my seat belt
and turn around in my chair. “See vampire,” I say opening my mouth
for him to see.

“Holy shit!” he yells. I smile and
turn back around.

“Thank you, dear, but I can take
the wheel back now,” I tell Sebastian.

“Of course, love. I think you might
have made him pee his pants,” he replies.

“She did not,” Jonas immediately
says. “I don't understand how this is possible. It shouldn't be. A
vampire and a werewolf cannot produce offspring.”

“Just like a Gentry male cannot
produce female offspring. Until I am able to have a more in depth
talk with my father, I don't know the situation of my birth.
Sebastian thinks my mother was a human and either turned or was
killed by a vampire before I was born. I imagine she was human, but
I don't know where the vampire part came from,” I
explain.

“The whole situation seems bizarre.
Wolves shouldn't be able to produce offspring with humans. If that
is what happened, a witch would have had to be involved at some
point. There had to have been a spell to make the female attractive
to the male and another one for her to even be able to be
impregnated by him,” he states.

“Interesting. More things I was not
aware of. When Dad comes out of hiding he will have a lot of
explaining to do,” I reply. “So this conversation that started out
with me trying to find out more about you has led to me revealing
most of my life secrets. Are you still not going to tell me about
yourself?”

“Nope. All you need to know about
me is I am a very strong werewolf and I have been named one of your
permanent guards,” he says.

“Have it your way. It wasn't like I
was looking to become best friends. I just thought if you were
going to do more than sit there silent while on duty, it might be a
good idea to see if we had anything in common,” I say.

“I am good with silence,” he
replies simply.

“I am a solitary person, so I will
just pretend you aren't in the room. It will be like any other
day,” I tell him. “So Sebastian, would you like to stop for a Big
Mac?” I ask laughing at my own joke.

“I am sorry I ever referred to you
as the assassin with a heart. It is clear that along with your
messed up biological makeup, your creator also forgot to put that
necessary organ in your chest.”

“When we get home, I am cooking you
a steak to make it up to you. So, what sleeping arrangements do you
have planned? I don't know the floor plans of the building and I
don't want to kick you out of your penthouse,” I say. “Oh and
please tell me Jonas has to sleep on the couch.”

“There are a few rooms in the
penthouse you haven't seen, so there is plenty of space for
everyone there. Until Alex comes to town, I will be staying with
you. When he arrives, I will still be close by, but will refrain
from sharing your bed most nights. The floor directly below yours
will probably be my choice. Tomorrow we can go pick out new sofas
and you can scout some different storefronts that I know are
available,” he informs me.

“Thanks for always thinking two
steps ahead. At some point in the coming days, I would like us to
sit down and have a discussion on what your underground
organization has been doing in its efforts to get the Collective to
shut down. I lived inside for over twenty years and may be able to
help. I know I was always treated as an outsider, so I don't know
all their secrets, but I may have overheard things that didn't seem
important at the time, but would be helpful to your cause,” I
say.

“I wasn't sure how soon you would
be ready to go against them. I will bring you up to speed once we
get things settled. I believe there is a big meeting in a couple
days. Maybe you would like to accompany me to it,” he
suggests.

“They tried to get me to kill my
father and my mate. Even if they didn't know the exact relationship
I had with those two people, the charges brought up against them
were lies. It makes me question whether my other executions were
legit. Thankfully, I do things in person and not with a sniper
rifle or poison. I actually talk to the people before I kill them
and most of them don't act innocent.”

“If it puts you at ease, our spies
have not indicated that any of your kills were amongst our ranks.
We have lost five people over the last year to unjust killings,
which is actually lower than it has been for a while. I hope that
means we are getting better at hiding ourselves,” he says as I
finally pull into the parking area.

Usually at this time of day, I
would just be waking up, or at least starting to think about waking
up. Today it feels like I have run a marathon and have already
finished my waking hours, but in reality, the night is still young.
Let's just hope I can get through my first night possibly being on
the Collective's hit list without taking a bullet. 

Chapter 16

Dinner with the new guys

As I predicted, Smitty is waiting
in the parking lot for us. We all climb out of our
vehicles.

“Hey Smitty, long time no see,” I
say smiling at him. “Just out of curiosity, what is Smitty short
for?”

“Didn't I tell you just last night
to pretend you didn't know my name?” he asks.

“Sure, but why in the world do you
think I would actually listen to you?” I reply. “Plus you got to
hear a pretty intimate situation between me and Sebby, so I think
that gives me the right to know your name.”

“Not really, but you are starting
to grow on me, so I will tell you my name is Grant Smith,” he says
giving in.

“Thank you, Smitty,” I say choosing
to continue calling him by the nickname he seems to prefer. We have
started making our way up to the penthouse. “I have a feeling we
will end up being great friends. You know a lot about Sebastian.
You are going to fill me in on all those old girlfriends,
right?”

“He is not,” Sebastian says darkly.
“I already told you there is no chance of anything affecting our
relationship. Even if someone showed up, which they won't, we are
bonded, so they will be barking up the wrong tree.”

“Come on, he said you had been in
love before. I would love to know more about the women of your
past. I will even tell you all about all the guys I have ever
loved,” I barter.

“I have been around enough women to
know they never want to know about a guy’s past conquests, so don't
try it. I am also aware of the fact you have never loved anyone
other than me, so your offer falls just a little flat, my love,” he
replies. “I will fill you in on my history minus all the 'loves' I
have supposedly had in time.”

“Party pooper. So, who is up for
steak? I promised to cook Sebastian one, so I might as well cook
one for anyone else who is hungry,” I suggest as we exit the
elevator into the penthouse.

“I am always up for a nice, juicy
steak,” Jake says taking in the foyer.

“If you have enough steaks I will
prepare my own,” Jonas says.

“What is it going to take for you
to trust me, Jonas?” I ask. “I promise I don't bite. Unless you are
Sebastian, you are pretty safe in that aspect.”

“I didn't like you before I met
you. Meeting you has not increased my opinion of you,” he says
gruffly.

“Hey I don't like the assignment
either, but a steak is a steak,” Jake says.

“Yeah, but you didn't have to ride
with her and hear her stories about being a unicorn,” Jonas tells
him.

Jake looks me up and down. “Doesn't
look like much of a unicorn to me.”

“Exactly. Alex sent us to guard a
lunatic. Just wait until she shows you her vampire fangs,” Jonas
counters.

“Why would Alex scent a vampire?
That makes no sense. I mean she is cute and I wouldn't mind
spending a little quality time with her, but she is Nyx Slaughter.
Just thinking her name makes my balls kind of shrivel up trying to
hide.”

“Glad to know I make such an impact
on you Jake. I will let someone else explain to you the situation
you find yourself in. I am going to cook us some steaks, as long as
you are still willing to allow me to cook for you,” I
say.