We Own the Night (The Night Songs Collection Book 3) by Kristen Strassel Page B

he’d always have girls begging for a sliver of his attention. I knew it too, and I hated it. Once he saw how easily it all could be taken away from him, he seemed to have a newfound appreciation for his fans.
    “It can.” I liked him caring about things. “But don’t keep me waiting too long.”
    “Got to keep the master happy.” Tristan swatted my ass then walked away to join the rest of the band.
    I headed back to the apartment, really glad for the alone time. Too much had happened tonight. And I’d made a lot of it happen. It was exhausting. I’d be glad when the sun rendered all of us down for the count in a few hours.
    I peeled off my clothes, replacing them with a tank top and sweatpants, wrapped myself in a blanket on the couch, and fired up my laptop. Immediately, I looked up Melanie Vaughn. Everything she told me was here; she was wanted for questioning in the double murder investigation of her boyfriend and a neighbor. The authorities considered her to be on the run, and their trail went cold in the middle of the country. I clicked on link after link, not liking what I found as I dug deeper.
    A girl named Erin Monticelli, who was reported to be Melanie’s best friend, had been found dead in the Alta Vista, which sent a shiver down my spine. Soul Divider’s singer, Drake Bonham, had been reported missing by his wife.
    What was going on with Melanie? What had she done? Did she really want my protection, or did she want something else from me?
    I read the stories about Erin over and over, haunted by the memories of my former roommate Janelle, who’d been murdered in an eerily similar way. A gruesome end with no real clues, except for a connection to a vampire band. Some of the articles linked Erin to Drake.
    “Whatcha looking at, beautiful?” Tristan slid his body behind mine, becoming my new cushion. I’d been so absorbed in the computer screen I hadn’t heard him come in.
    “Do you know anything about this girl?” I tapped the screen over Erin’s picture. “It says she was dating Drake Bonham.”
    “I thought that dude was married. Not that it really means anything.” Tristan’s words punched me in the stomach. He leaned over my shoulder to take a closer look. “She looks familiar, but she looks like a thousand girls I see every night.”
    “She died. Here.” I pushed the laptop to the far cushion and turned around to face Tristan. “Why does this keep happening?”
    “When you want to play with things that go bump in the night, bad things happen.” Tristan’s hands ran up my shirt in a fluid motion and he bit my lip. “You should know that.”
    I pushed him back, meeting his challenge, nipping him repeatedly until I drew blood. I licked away the crimson as it pooled on the surface of his lip, then pulled away quickly.
    He tasted like Blade.
    Not that I’d ever had Blade’s blood, but I’d tasted everything else he had to offer. My head swam, the essence swirling around in my brain, strangling my soul.
    If I still had one.
    “What’s the matter?” Tristan pulled me back towards him.
    “What happened in that hotel room? With Blade?” Tristan shouldn’t have won that fight.
    “The fifth ring of Hell, you mean? Leave it to Bradley to make the Strat even worse.” He sighed, but it sounded more like a groan. “I took care of it.”
    This was a hell of a time for Tristan to start pulling his man card. “But how are you stronger than him? If he’s a clan leader, shouldn’t he have won that fight?”
    Tristan’s eyes darkened. “Did you want him to?”
    “That’s not what I’m saying. I’m just trying to figure out how these things work.”
    “I don’t really give a shit.” Tristan pulled my tank top over my head, maybe in an effort to distract me, maybe in an effort to work out some of his obvious frustration. He lowered his head to my chest, his hair tickling my belly as he scraped his teeth against my nipples.
    As much as I wanted to let him crawl inside of me and