Read Online Because the Night (The Night Songs Collection) by Kristen Strassel - Free Book Online

like there had when Blade had slept against me. Tristan might as well have been carved out of stone.
    I had a dead person in my lap.
    The chill from his body spread to mine and I shivered, but I didn’t move. I didn’t want comfort right now. I wanted to feel every awful moment of this for what it was.
    My eyes burned and my muscles ached from exhaustion. I let the tears run down my face. But he was right, I couldn’t stay away. How was I ever going to go home tomorrow?
    I couldn’t.
    The sky showed hints of brightness. My heart pounded at the possibilities. I didn’t know what would happen if we stayed on the couch like that, exposed, when the sun came up. I’d read plenty of accounts of what happened to vampires in sunlight, but I didn’t know what would actually happen in real life when a vampire came in contact with the sunrise with his head in my lap. Luckily, black out blinds automatically activated and shut out any chance of the sun touching Tristan.
    His nights must end this way too often.
    I wasn’t sure how much time had passed when a scruffy looking young man with a walky talky on his belt and a clipboard in hand entered the room. He was startled to see me sitting there.
    “How long has he been out?”
    “I’m not sure. A while.”
    “Miss, you’ve got to go. He will be unpredictable at best when he wakes up, and hungry. I can’t have you here. Unless you’re a —”
    “I’m a what?” All I could think of was Amanda telling us how it felt to let a vampire feed from her.
    “Never mind. It’s just best that you go. Now. Do you need me to call you a car?”
    “Sure.”
    Daylight broke over the city and the last of the night’s revelers still wandered around, looking how I felt. Lost in a soft haze.

Chapter Ten
    “I’m not going.” I announced as I made more coffee from the little hotel room pot.
    “What the hell are you talking about?” Keisha exclaimed as she shoved things back into her suitcase.
    “I don’t want to go home.” I winced at the bitter taste of the coffee, and then put the cup down on the counter with conviction. “I want to make a go of things here.”
    “You can’t just decide not to go home. People don’t do that. Besides, do you understand how your mother is going to kill me if I come home without you?”
    I sighed. “I’ll deal with her.”
    “You can come back.”
    “She’ll never let me. She won’t even let me go to school in Boston.” I had been accepted to the School of Fashion Design. My mother thought it was impractical and wouldn’t sign the paperwork. Last I checked, everybody wore clothes. The only way I’d managed this trip was to tell her about it the last minute after everything was paid for. Even at that, it was still touch and go until the plane left the ground.
    “What are you going to do here?”
    “I’ll get a job. Janelle needs a roommate. The rent is way cheaper than anything back home. Come on, what am I supposed to do, work at my mom’s restaurant for the rest of my life? Wondering what could have happened?”
    “It’s the busy season. She needs you.”
    “She’s got a two inch thick pile of applications. I’m sure one of them can make coffee and sandwiches as well as I can.”
    “What about your fashion design?”
    “I can do that here. And it’s probably easier to go to school, living in a city.”
    “So you’ve got this all figured out.” Keisha shook her head. “I told you that you should have slept with Blade. Got it out of your system. Instead, you’ve got to be all hopeless romantic. And I do mean hopeless.”
    “It’s not just that.” I laid back down on the bed, in no hurry since I had no intention of getting on a plane today. “Tristan needs me.”
    “Tristan Trevosier is a grown ass man. And some drugged out undead freak. There is nothing you can do for him, Callie.”
    “Wow, you’ll be the first person I call when I get into trouble.”
    Keisha clicked down the locks on her suitcase and looked at