Stefan (Lost Nights Series Book 1) Read online

  The nightwalker raised one questioning eyebrow at me, looking less than pleased that a human dare correct her, but then I wasn’t going to let her continue to call me woman like I was some animal. “Ms. Prescott,” the nightwalker continued, grinding out my name between clenched teeth. “Do you know why you have been brought here?”

  Straightening my shoulders, I dropped my smile completely. “A woman was found dead in my apartment. I have been told that she was considered... important to a nightwalker within the city.” I carefully evaded the “pet” term that Stefan had used. I had no idea if it was an insulting term or not in their world. It certainly didn’t sound like a compliment, but then I didn’t know shit about nightwalkers. “I have been accused of her murder.”

  “And did you kill the woman?”

  “No, of course not,” I replied a little more sharply than I had meant to. I had never harmed a soul in my life, at least not intentionally and never physically.

  “Lies!” another vampire snarled. A lean female vampire with short, wild blond hair leaped from the sidelines and rushed toward me. I struggled to hold my ground as she drew within a dozen feet of me. Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw Stefan shift in his seat, but he didn’t rise. “You killed Sabrina! You murdered her!”

  The nightwalker wore a pair of shiny black pants that looked like they had been painted on her body while her tiny bright purple top was little more than a band of stretchy cloth that covered her breasts. A couple dozen silver bracelets clinked and jangled on both of her wrists while rings sparkled on each of her fingers. She looked like she had been in her mid to late thirties when she had been changed into a nightwalker, but her outfit said that she was trying very hard to appear to be much younger. That’s not to say that she wasn’t attractive, but I had never been a fan of the style of clothing where she showed off all your goods.

  “Prior to finding her dead on my floor, I had never seen that woman before,” I said calmly.

  “You lured her to your apartment and you killed her!”

  “That’s ridiculous!” I said with a defiant little laugh that seemed to only fuel the vampire’s temper. “I’d never seen her before; never met her before. I had no reason to harm her, let alone kill her.”

  “You were found covered in her blood, holding the knife that ripped through her,” the vampire growled, edging slowly closer.

  “And how would you know that? As far as I know, the woman and I were the only ones in my apartment. Or am I wrong?”

  The vampire hissed at me as she circled. Her fingers were bent and tensed as if she wished they were a tiger’s claws so that she could more easily gouge out my eyes. My heart was pounding so hard in my chest that I had little doubt that every nightwalker in the grand hall could hear it. But I wasn’t going to show my fear to this bitch. If the woman was hurt because she had lost someone she cared for, I was sorry about that, but I wasn’t about to let her make me into the scapegoat for this crime. While my memory might be faulty, I knew without a shadow of doubt that I had not killed that woman.

  “I looked into the memories of the police officers that found you. You were covered in her blood and held the weapon that murdered her. You have the look of a murderer,” she sneered.

  “And you have the look of a whore in those clothes. It doesn’t necessarily mean that I should assume that you are one,” I sneered. At this point, my temper had gotten the better of my common sense and forgot to more carefully choose my words. I didn’t react well to being threatened or accused of things that I didn’t do.

  The nightwalker screamed in rage a second before she launched herself at me. Gasping, I immediately dropped to my hands and knees on the cold and sticky marble floor and rolled away from her. I felt the breeze she created as she passed over my head and I swallowed a whimper of fear. I didn’t know shit about protecting myself, but I did know that it was a lot harder for them to hurt you if you weren’t where they expected you to be.

  I shoved up into a crouched position, ignoring the feel of the partially dried blood filling the grooves in my fingers. My breath was trapped in my chest as I held as still as a nightwalker, waiting to see if I would be able to escape her a second time. My hopes weren’t high. She might be out of her mind with rage, but she didn’t strike me as being completely stupid. She wouldn’t fall for the trick a second time.

  With a soft grunt, the nightwalker lunged for me, a cruel smile already stretching across her wide mouth. I started to push out of the way, but I was moving too slow and she was moving too fast. Muscles tensed, preparing for the impact. But it never came.

  “Enough, Carla,” said a weary voice. The nightwalker froze, hovering in the air as if she were held in place by invisible wires before she flew across the room with frightening speed and slammed into the far wall. Carla fell to the ground with what sounded like a bone-crunching thud.

  I looked up to find that the redheaded nightwalker had shifted in her seat, looking a bit irritated by the proceedings. “She’s right. You do dress like a whore.” She paused as several nightwalkers around the room snickered, while others shifted nervously, seeming to edge a little farther away from the redhead. “We didn’t gather tonight to witness your temper tantrums. We’re here for justice.”

  “Then give me justice!” Carla screamed as she shoved back to her feet. While her movements were initially a little stiff, she didn’t act injured despite being flung against the stone wall. “Let me kill the bitch!”

  “For what? Being in the wrong place? Being framed?” I shouted back at Carla, feeling a little better now that there was a little breathing room between myself and my attacker. Sure, I’d seen her close that distance in a heartbeat, but I appreciated the space while I had it. “I didn’t kill your friend. I have no reason to touch her.”

  “Silence!” Stefan thundered, pushing to his feet so that he loomed over the gathered masses. Everyone was instantly quiet and still, their breath held as if fearing to catch his narrowed gaze. “We have more important things to deal with in our world than the insignificant death of a pet.”

  “Your pet killed mine,” Carla said in a low, respectful voice, but there was no masking the boiling rage within her. “By our laws, I have the right to kill your pet without fear of retribution.”

  I bit back the urge to shout that I wasn’t Stefan’s pet, holding to the belief that he would say the words. But he didn’t. Stefan didn’t speak. He didn’t move. And a little part of me died inside. Why wasn’t he telling everyone there that I wasn’t a pet? He knew that this was all some kind of insane misunderstanding; that I had been framed.

  Knox’s warnings rang loud and clear in my brain. It was the only thing that was keeping me from shouting at all of them. I wasn’t his fucking pet, but I was hoping that the sneaky bastard had some nifty idea rattling around in his head and I didn’t want to ruin his attempt to save my ass.

  “That’s true,” Stefan said blandly with a slight indifferent shrug. He stepped back and seemed to flow back into his throne as if he were made of water rather than bone. That was it? He was going to hand me over like that? My mouth fell open and I prepared to let these damn vampires know what I was thinking, but Stefan continued, cutting off my rant. “But you have yet to prove that Ms. Prescott actually killed Sabrina. If you kill Ms. Prescott when she had nothing to do with it, then...”

  The sentence was left hanging ominously in the air. A sickening cold smile slithered across Stefan’s face and I glimpsed the reason he had been able to climb to his position of power. There was a ruthlessness glinting in his eyes that I had seen associated only with playfulness. If Stefan discovered that I was truly innocent after I was killed, not only was Carla dust but so was anyone close to her.

  Crossing her arms over her chest, Carla struck a pose that reminded me of a rebellious six year old. “Read her memories,” Carla said defiantly. The statement struck me as strange. She had to know that I had no memories of Sabrina. Of course, I had been assuming that Carla had been inv
olved in Sabrina’s attack. Maybe Sabrina and I weren’t the only victims of this nasty trick.

  I turned my attention back to Stefan to find him glaring at me. He couldn’t be more pissed at me. I hadn’t done anything too horrible since stepped into their throne room. Well, at least I didn’t think I had. Not liking the look on his face, I looked at the nightwalkers on the dais and took a nervous step backward. They were all looking at me that way.

  “I can’t read her,” the nightwalker with the dark hair murmured in surprise.

  Stefan shook his head in frustration, only willing to admit his own failure now that another had done it. Everyone looked expectantly down at the redhead with the frightening man leaning against the back of her chair.

  “Mira?” The blue-eyed man’s voice was a low rumble, prompting her when we’d waited nearly a minute in absolute silence. Everyone was watching her. It made me wonder if she was the oldest among them, or at the very least, the most powerful.

  She frowned and gave a small shake of her head. “Small bits and pieces. It’s very fragmented. Something is wrong with her.”

  It was my turn to glare at the nightwalker. There was nothing wrong with me, but I swallowed back that declaration. “I was in a car accident several years ago,” I admitted through clenched teeth.

  She smiled at me, little more than a baring of her teeth at me, but I think she might have been amused. “Brain damage?”

  I nodded stiffly to more snickers. Yeah, it sounded bad. I sounded broken and slow of thought, but I wasn’t. Fine. Let them think that I was slow. Let them underestimate me. I’d use it to my advantage later and get the hell out of here. After all this bullshit, I didn’t want to see another nightwalker or vampire as long as I lived. And that included Stefan.

  But there was something in Mira’s expression, something thoughtful. I had this feeling that she wasn’t going to underestimate me. There was something shrewd in the woman’s eyes. Despite all this talk of pets, I didn’t get the impression that she de-valued humans like the rest of her kind. If I was lucky, I might find a way around Carla, but I wasn’t going to find a sneaky way around Mira.

  “What do you remember?” the man standing behind Mira asked. As he spoke, I noticed that his hand slipped down and took Mira’s, his thumb rubbing across the top of her hand in a gentle caress.

  Closing my eyes for a moment, I clung to the sight of the man holding the nightwalker’s hand. It was a sweet, tender image that helped to push back the cold fear and growing frustration. This man had not been cruel to me. I would temper my words for him.

  “It was late. After eight, I think, and I was lying on the couch, reading a book. One more chapter and then I was going to get ready for bed,” I started slowly, keeping my eyes closed and trusting that Stefan or Mira would keep me safe for that short time.

  I left out the mention that I hadn’t been expecting Stefan that evening like I usually did. He’d already told me that he wasn’t coming over. Besides, these assholes didn’t need to know all my habits.

  “There was a knock at the door. I remember thinking that it was strange because I wasn’t expecting anyone.”

  “Did you think it was Stefan?” Mira asked and my eyes snapped open.

  “No. He doesn’t knock.” At my words, Mira smiled like she’d expected that answer. Had she managed to pull some thought from my battered brain? God, I hoped she had. It could save my life, even if I wasn’t a fan of having someone rummage around in my thoughts. “Anyway, I opened the door and...”

  “And then what? Who was there?” Carla snapped, her voice lashing out at me from across the room.

  I flinched at the harsh sound, taking an unconscious step back toward the dais as if I actually expected them to protect me. “I don’t remember. The next thing I remember is someone pounding on my door. It was the cops and I was covered in blood.”

  “You killed her! You just don’t want to remember,” Carla shouted.

  “No!”

  “You said yourself, you’re damaged. You’re a monster. Something in your bad brain snapped and you killed her!”

  “No!” I screamed, my voice cracking as her words scraped over an old fear. I had spent too many nights lying awake with that very fear dancing through my mind. There had been so much damage and I’d spent years rebuilding myself so that I closely resembled the person I had been before, but there were holes in my mind. Those voids haunted me and I didn’t want this woman’s death to fall into one of those voids. I wanted to remember.

  “This is a waste of time,” muttered the nightwalker seated closest to Stefan. “We’re talking about a pet. Carla, will you be appeased with the life of this woman?”

  “Yes, Mistress Elizabeth,” she said, bowing deeply to the dark-haired nightwalker. “Then, Stefan, allow her to kill your pet to even the score. It’s not as if you’ve had her long and amusing humans are easy enough to find.”

  I wanted to cry out that I was innocent. That such a thing should count for something, but I held my tongue. Stefan would say something in my defense. I knew he would.

  “She’s not my pet,” he said, seeming to look anywhere but at me.

  That was not the argument that I had been hoping for. In fact, it only seemed to make things worse. While I certainly didn’t want to be regarded as a pet, I wanted to be counted as something to this creature. After spending our nights together for almost a week, I thought I was something. At the very least, a friend.

  “Then why are we even discussing this?” Elizabeth said, sounding thoroughly exasperated by the waste of her time. “She’s nothing. Carla, kill her and let’s be done with this business.”

  Carla laughed and I wanted to scream. The air froze in my lungs as I stared hard at Stefan, waiting for him to say something. Was he really going to allow me to be killed for something I didn’t do? He said he believed me. I know he believed me. It was more of a matter that he didn’t wish to dirty his hands with me. I wasn’t worth his time. I wasn’t worth putting him in a potentially vulnerable position. I was nothing to him and it hurt more than I wanted to admit.

  I was about to die but it wasn’t the brutal ending that was coming for me that created the knot in my throat. It was Stefan’s betrayal.

  “Wait,” Mira said, jerking all eyes to her. She lounged in her chair, her chin resting in her left hand while she twined the fingers of her free hand through the man’s. “I think I would like to have her for a pet. She’s adorable and can keep Danaus company during the day.” The man beside her rolled his eyes as he dropped her hand. He crossed his arms and frowned at Mira as if he were annoyed that she was dragging him into this.

  “Why? She’s going to die,” Elizabeth argued.

  “Only if she’s actually guilty. If not, she remains safe within my care.” Mira sat up and gave a wide smile that was full of fangs and menace. I wasn’t exactly sure this was an improvement over my current fate. No one ever said they felt safe when they were in the company of a vampire. Well… I had… with Stefan, but not anymore.

  “No!” Carla screamed. She started to run toward me and I froze. She was moved with frightening speed so that she was nearly a blur of garish color. There was no escaping.

  A ring of flames burst up from the marble, surrounding me in a neat circle. I gasped, lurching back a step away from the wave of heat while Carla screamed. Her hard-soled shoes scraped along the marble as she fought to stop herself in time from plunging into the flames. Sliding the last few feet, she halted mere inches from the circle of fire and then jumped back, landing on her hands and knees in her haste to reach safety.

  The nightwalker’s face was twisted with impotent rage and anguish. My heart went out to her. She saw me as Sabrina’s killer and there was a chance that I was now escaping justice. I knew that I would be heartbroken as well if someone I cared about had been harmed and the killer was walking away.

  “I’m sorry, Carla,” I murmured with a shake of my head. “But I didn’t kill Sabrina.

  I had no rea
son to harm her.”

  The nightwalker hissed at me as she rose to her feet. “Lies. You’re guilty and your lies will catch up to you in the end. Not even the Fire Starter can protect you. You will pay for what you did and I’ll be there when you do.”

  Carla ran from the massive throne room, disappearing through a pair of wide double doors on the other side of the chamber. At the same time, the flames surrounding me disappeared and I breathed a small sigh of relief.

  “This matter is still not settled to my satisfaction,” Elizabeth said irritably.

  “True,” Mira murmured.

  “I don’t like the idea of Sabrina being murdered and there being no one to punish.” Elizabeth slid gracefully from her chair and approached me, moving as if she were gliding across the marble floor. Her movements were almost hypnotic. “She served the court well over the past three years. Her killer must be found.”

  “And the killer will be found,” Mira said. “It will be my new pet’s first task.”

  “You trust her to find the killer when she could be the killer?” Elizabeth said skeptically.

  Mira shrugged, seeming indifferent to the entire conversation. “No, but then she won’t be working alone. And if it is discovered that she is the killer, I will hand her over to Carla so we have peace again.”

  Elizabeth remained standing close for several seconds, her lovely green eyes narrowed on me. If she was trying to read my mind, I felt nothing. In the end, she made a soft tsking sound and then turned away from me. “That will be acceptable.”

  Mira rolled her eyes and shook her head, and I swallowed back my own giddy relief. Apparently the redhead didn’t give a shit what Elizabeth thought was appropriate. A part of me wanted to ask her about this gathering of nightwalker rulers and how they all got to where they are, but then as she rose, the other nightwalkers shrank away from her. Their fear and distrust of her was a palpable thing in the air. It might be best if I didn’t try to be too chummy with her.

  In the next second, Knox was at my elbow again, guiding me firmly back across the room toward the door through which we had entered. I looked back over my shoulder toward Stefan. He had stood and turned his back on me. And like that, I belonged to someone else.