Blood Dark (16 page)

Pushing both hands together above her head, leaving no gap between her and the wall, there was no slow penetration, no need to build to the moment. It was hard, it was deep, and it was exquisite.

Caitlin cried out against the wall, knowing no one could hear her over the noise of the club beyond, her gasps reverberating back against her.

And he withdrew only to turn her around to face him, to clutch her rib cage as he pinned her back to the wall, his thumbs beneath the under-curves of her breasts. Lips inches from hers, he brushed his thumbs over her nipples through her dress, through her bra, before he grabbed her upper arms, then her behind, lifting her. Caitlin instantly locked her thighs around his waist as he slammed her against the wall, entering her again.

He lowered his mouth to the upper curves of her breasts with a hunger that had her grasping the back of his head to keep him against her, relishing in his primal consumption.

Holding her by her elbows, he kept her trapped there, her thighs spread around his hips, her heels flat against the wall opposite as he met her gaze, as he thrust deeper, his lips less than an inch from hers, their panting intermingling. The ache deep inside her became overwhelming, his ferocity telling her he was getting closer to the edge sooner than he wanted to.

‘Kane…’

But he was unreachable, silent apart from his breathing reaching almost human rates.

His detachment only adding to it, she could feel the telling sensation working up her legs, her abdomen clenching, losing herself as her body’s needs took over.

She could think only of the pulses reverberating deep in her sex, the depth and thickness of him inside her. Holding her tight enough to bruise her, he came hard.

She cried out, her groans echoing down the narrow passage as Kane erupted inside her, coming as powerfully fast as she was.

She slumped breathlessly against the wall, Kane against her, his stance the only thing keeping her from collapsing to the floor.

C
aitlin adjusted
her dress and drew her knees to her chest as she rested her head back against the partition wall.

Beyond the door, a scream of laughter made her flinch. Then there was nothing.

Sat beside her, Kane had pulled his jeans back into position. The knee furthest away from her bent, his forearm resting on it, he stared at the wall opposite.

If she could have reached for his wrist, for his pulse, or placed her palm over his slow-beating heart and shadow read him right then, she would have.

‘I had that interview with Yale earlier. Apparently I have some kind of Stockholm-type empathy with you,’ she declared.

He rested his head back and raised his booted foot against the wall opposite. ‘Someone gets paid to come up with that shit?’

She knew if she didn’t confess to it then, she never would. ‘What you said about me hesitating going in to the party, it wasn’t solely nerves that stopped me – it was the last place I wanted to be. I had a pile of paperwork on my desk all about you. Since five o’clock that morning I’d been reading report after report, and I couldn’t get you out of my head. Even as I got dressed to go out, I was thinking of you. Even when I was buying this dress, I wondered what you’d think if you saw me in it. Although it was three years away, I was already counting down the months I had left until that thing came from me. When I called that taxi to take me home, I thought about telling it to take me to the border of Blackthorn instead. I thought about walking into one of the clubs where I knew you hung around, a club just like this one. And my choice was nothing to do with the soul ripper; it was nothing to do with catching you – it was about me. It was about what I wanted. And I wanted
you
. I’ve always wanted you.’

She looked across at him as he kept his attention on the wall ahead, his expression unreadable.

‘There
is
someone under the uniform, Kane. You’ve spent two weeks with her and she hasn’t gone anywhere. And I know that because I spent this afternoon being brutally quizzed about what went on between us and trust me when I say when it comes from someone else’s mouth, it doesn’t look good for you. But there’s still a big enough part of me that knows there is a part of you that is trying to do the right thing.’

Amidst his sustained silence, his jaw tightened.

‘I’ve got your back, Kane. I’ve got your back more than you know. In that porch, I told you you’d be okay with me and I meant it.’ She rubbed her thumb across her knuckles, her heart pounding painfully, but knew she needed to come out with it. ‘But I can’t keep doing this.’

Finally his gaze met hers, a frown furrowing his brow.

‘When it was just about the sex, I could handle it,’ she continued. ‘But it’s more than that for me now. I’ve been upfront with you about that, whether you believe me or not. I can’t do this without trust though, Kane. I cannot have you see me as someone capable of deceiving you, of being disloyal, of betraying you. That’s not who I am. It’s not who I’ve ever been.’

‘Did you come here tonight intending to give me what I asked for?’

‘I need to know more, Kane. I have to know I’m not making a mistake.’

‘Which is what the trade was about.’

‘You can’t blame me, Kane.’

Met with his silence, the unease in her chest intensified. It should have come naturally after what they’d just shared yet again, but it had changed nothing. It had changed nothing for him at least.

And she wasn’t going to do it. She wasn’t going to give more of herself than he was willing to reciprocate, whatever his reasons. Not after that.

‘Then I need to get back in there.’ She moved to stand, frightened what it would mean if he let her. ‘I’ll face a barrage of questions tomorrow if I don’t. If you could get whoever took my bag …’

His hand was instantly on hers.

He didn’t meet her gaze, but he interlaced his fingers with hers.

And Caitlin stilled.

‘You’re my addiction, Caitlin, keeping me sane at the same time as driving me crazy.’ His eyes met hers again with an intensity that took her breath away, the walls around them melting away and, with it, any sense of the world beyond. ‘I keep taking you to my bed, making you a bigger and bigger part of me when I promised myself that I would never again let anyone close, that I wouldn’t care that much again, that I would never risk let happening to anyone else what happened to Arana.
That’s
how I feel. I might be rough with you at times, I might be blunt and coarse, but I
am
real when I’m with you. And I like that feeling. But I can’t make you promises, Caitlin, other than for any time we’ve got together I’ll make you feel as alive as I can. I’ll make your pulse race and your heart beat so fast that it hurts. And it works both ways. That’s how it is.’

She let his words be absorbed deep into her system, the sincerity of his eyes, his tone, as he said it. ‘But we’re nothing without trust, Kane – without faith in each other. Because we have moments like what just happened and then afterwards nothing changes. It’s not enough. I’ve tried to convince myself it is, but it’s not. It’s stalemate – and I don’t know what else to do about it.’

She waited in the silence for him to offer her the solution.

But nothing came from his lips.

Caitlin freed her hand from his grip. To her heart-wrenching disappointment, he let her.

She’d told him she wasn’t going to fight if it wasn’t what he wanted. She needed to stand by that. For her own self-respect, she needed him to do the chasing for once.

And she needed out of there before her tears stopped snagging in the back of her throat.

She turned her back on him, and took what felt like the longest walk of her life to the door at the far end.

‘
C
aitlin
, wait!’

She was less than ten feet from the end of the alley by the time he joined her.

She turned to face him from six feet away, the disappointment of his reluctance still lingering in her eyes. Accompanying it, frustratingly, there was still that unmistakable look of Caitlin digging her heels in.

He sent a wary glance to the alley opening behind her, knowing he needed to stay vigilant to the agents lurking around the area.

‘Not here,’ he said, cocking his head towards the far end of the alley, the dark end, where they wouldn’t be spotted.

He could lead her away from them. He could keep her talking. He could lead her too far away to justify her walking back. He could take her somewhere for the night as he continued to work on her. Because she wasn’t going to give him anything right then, not unless he gave her something back.

But it was about more than keeping her on side for what he needed, for the time pressures around getting that information. A bigger part of him wasn’t willing to allow her to turn her back on him.

‘What for?’ she asked.

‘We’ll talk.’

‘You’ll tell me everything?’

He cast another wary glance towards the alley opening before looking her square in the eyes again. He closed the gap by a couple of feet, the dense cloudy sky holding back the moonlight so they were both primarily in shadow. ‘You’re completely unarmed,’ he reminded her. ‘You’re smarter than this.’

‘If you were that worried, you’d give me my gun back.’

‘You don’t need it while you’re with me.’

‘
If
I’m with you.’

‘Don’t make me put you over my shoulder, Caitlin.’

She raised her eyebrows slightly.

If it could have gained anything, he would have done so regardless. Instead, he stepped side-on to her, his hand held out in the direction of the depths of the alley behind. ‘I’m asking nicely.’

Arms folded in defiance, she held his gaze. But she didn’t move.

He glanced once more at the alley opening. ‘When I told you Caleb is innocent of those murders, I wasn’t lying to you,’ he said, looking back at her, lowered his voice even more. ‘The vigilante group that are rumoured to be responsible – someone was pulling their strings. Someone who funded the operation to go after the Dehains.’

Her frown deepened. She looked back at his hand still outheld.

With a reluctant sigh, she followed.

The back alley was dark, but the reemergence of the moon helped cast them both in a tepid grey light. Few ventured back there and he’d have enough warning if anyone did. He knew no one would overhear, but he still kept his voice low as he led her into the maze.

‘I’ve been given a name,’ he said. ‘Jarin. He’s a Higher Order vampire.’

Her eyes flared. ‘You’re telling me that the Higher Order went after their own?’

‘Jarin and Caleb have history. Caleb’s older brother, Seth, once worked for Jarin as his bodyguard. To protect his own arse, Jarin accused Seth of negligence – had him thrown out. Disgraced him. Recently, Jarin became bethrothed to Feinith.’

‘Diplomat Feinith? The same one Xavier mentioned in the warehouse that night?’

‘Believe me, there’s only one Feinith. She’s been embroiled with Caleb for decades, in and outside of the bedroom. Jarin knows the rumours and he can’t have Feinith bedding Caleb if he’s to maintain his status with the Higher Order. He has every reason to want Caleb dead. But Jarin’s a coward, especially when it comes to Caleb. It doesn’t surprise me that he had someone else do his dirty work for him – and tried to clean up the mess when it went wrong.’

‘Jarin’s the one whose been killing off the vigilantes so Caleb doesn’t find out that he was behind the assassination?’

‘Too fucking right Jarin’s going to want to make sure he doesn’t find out.’

‘How do you know this?’

‘It doesn’t matter how I know it.’

She stopped. ‘Why couldn’t you tell me this right at the beginning?’

He turned to face her. ‘Because you would have overlooked the fact that the Higher Order are killing people simply because I told you to? I couldn’t risk it, Caitlin. Bringing Jarin in would open a whole can of worms that the Higher Order aren’t going to take too well to and I didn’t want you in the firing line. Besides, imagine what the effect will be on this district if word gets out to Blackthorn that the Higher Order are hiring humans to take out the likes of Caleb. And if Caleb got word of it, it would have been him going after Jarin personally. We’d have the anarchy Sirius wants. We’d give him a reason to invade, which is why I wouldn’t put it past Sirius to be in the equation somewhere. If you’d taken Jarin in you would have put Blackthorn at more risk than you can imagine.’

She shook her head off the back of an unsteady sigh before looking back into his eyes again. ‘Kane, how can I help you if I don’t know things like this?’

‘I’m telling you now.’

‘So Caleb
does
know about Sirius’s threat?’

‘Yes.’

‘And you are preparing a retaliation, aren’t you?’

‘I’m preparing to defend my territory, Caitlin.’

‘Is that why you won’t let me in on this? Are you worried I’ll warn the authorities?’

‘You asked me why I came here. Part of my job is to protect this place. Just like your job is the same.’

She frowned. ‘The prophecy has always talked about an uprising.’ She hesitated for a moment, her eyes suddenly flashing with concern. ‘Kane, tell me it’s not you. Tell me you’re not this leader.’

‘It’s not me but I am doing what I can to stop Sirius.’

‘Then let us work together on this,’ she said, her hands reaching for his hips. ‘You
have
to let me in.’

‘And you’ll give me …’

The tic-tics were subtle, too subtle for Caitlin to hear, but they echoed towards his sensitive ears deep from the darkness to his left.

It had noticed them first, the revelatory sound prompting Kane to pick out its human-type form plastered perpendicular to the wall twenty-five feet away. From its pregnant-like convex stomach, it had already feasted – whatever victim it had found paralysed before being rolled into a ball, their bones crushed whilst still alive and fed directly into the abdominal cavity that would have opened like a toothless mouth.

Now it was relishing in the digestion as its stomach acids went to work.

But a stasher was always ready for another.

Its greatest strength was not just in the physical but in its round, piercing red eyes in its mouthless face. Because once its victim looked into those eyes, that was when the paralysis began for which there was no cure. And they would be stashed in some crevice somewhere, waiting for its return.

Blackthorn was its ideal playground for storing its human and third species victims. And cloaked in a pregnant form, it would attract more than enough attention in a district where pregnancies were rare and, as such, lucrative.

The one advantage was that stashers were lone attackers and fiercely defensive of their territory – a territory that they had just walked right into in that dense dark alley.

Caitlin frowned, searching Kane’s eyes as she waited for him to finish his sentence. But then she sensed something was wrong. Her eyes flared slightly. Her instincts kicked in for her to search the shadows behind but he clamped his hands on her neck, his thumbs on her jaw as he locked his gaze on hers.

‘Don’t move,’ he said softly.

And he could only hope with every inch of him that Caitlin would listen.

‘What’s wrong?’

‘Fourth species,’ he said.

Her eyes flared again.

His back ran cold, every instinct sparking. ‘Now twenty feet to your right and closing in. Don’t flinch,’ Kane said, his hands still clamped to her neck and jaw in case the urge overtook her. ‘Don’t look, just do as I say.’

Because if she didn’t, he’d lost her.

‘Close your eyes,’ he said.

He could see the panic, the need to look one of the most overpowering human instincts – to at least see the pending threat. She opened her mouth to protest.

‘Please, Caitlin,’ he said, his grip on her tightening. ‘If you look at it, it’ll paralyse you. Just trust me. I’ve got this.’

Her could hear her pulse race, knew he had to say more.

He knew what he was asking of her.

‘Come on,’ he said. ‘You did it on the bed this afternoon. Didn’t I tell you then nothing would touch you?’ He sent another anxious glance down the alley to the creature fifteen feet away and closing.

To his surprise, she did as he asked.

He kept the hand nearest the creature to her neck as he slowly moved the other. He reached into the inside of his jacket pocket, taking out the whisky flask. Only there was no whisky inside the container – just salt.

The movement snagged the creature’s interest enough to make it move a little faster exactly as he’d anticipated, but he’d had no choice. He knew he’d need to be quick. It didn’t have to be an exact circle but the two ends needed to meet if he was to keep it out. Carefully he passed the flask around the back of her, the trail of salt hitting the floor.

And the creature knew exactly what Kane was doing – and it lunged.

Kane closed the circle with a split second to spare, dropping the canister just as the creature landed an inch from the barrier.

Caitlin’s eyes flew open at the sound of the canister falling but Kane caught her jaw with both hands again.

‘Keep looking at me,’ Kane said, his gaze locked on hers. ‘Whatever you do, do
not
look at it. Right now it can’t touch us, but if you make eye-contact there’s nothing I can do.’

‘What the hell is it, Kane?’

‘It’s nicknamed a stasher. I’ll spare you the gory details.’

Seeing it move around the corner of his eye and around the back of him, he could feel her trembling against him, her skin cold, shivering as much from the fear no doubt as the breeze that flowed down the wind tunnel of the alley nestled between back-to-back houses. Kane glanced down at the salt, pleading that it wouldn’t move.

He gritted his jaw and scanned the shadows of the alley, looking for something he could use. He needed wood. Ash in the throat, its only vulnerable part, killed it outright. But with the chances of finding a convenient piece of ash pretty much impossible, the best he could hope for was to knock it senseless and then find something to decapitate it with.

He glanced back down at the ring of salt as the creature circled slowly, trying to snag eye contact. Caitlin’s breaths had turned heavier now that she could see glimpses of it in the corner of her eye, now that she could feel it inches from her back. There was a tremor in her lower lip and in the hands that gripped the belt loop of his jeans.

He rested his forehead against hers.

She took a steadying breath. ‘Please tell me it’s going to get bored of circling.’

‘Only if it has a better offer.’

He tightened his grip on Caitlin a little more as he caught a glimpse of its shallow nostrils flaring above its mouth-less leathery chin as it took in the scent of its prey.

A flare that also meant it was starting to get impatient.

And then there was laughter. From some distant alley, there were shouts, the kick of a bottle, a cheer.

Its head twitched in the direction, sensing more than two victims to add to its stash.

It stepped past them.

‘It’s going?’ Caitlin asked.

He gave her a single nod.

‘We have to warn them,’ she said.

He looked right to where the stasher was already disappearing around the corner. He looked back at Caitlin, back into her eyes. Her grip snapped from his belt loops to his forearms.

‘No,’ she said firmly. ‘
Don’t you dare
, Kane.’

He could see deep in her eyes, from the tension in her jaw, from what he felt in her grip, it wasn’t fear of him leaving her there alone – she was worried about
him
.

And he wasn’t sure how it made him feel.

‘I can’t have it loose,’ he said. He eased his arms away. ‘You
stay
in the circle. Do you understand me?’

Her frown deepened.

‘Promise me,’ he said, gripping her jaw.

There was a shroud of glossiness over her eyes.

And if ever he’d doubted she cared, in that moment it was obliterated.

Her hands tightened on his forearms, her reluctance to let him go as transparent as it echoing in her eyes. ‘Two are better than one. I can help.’

‘If you’re in the equation distracting me it could be fatal for us both,’ he insisted. ‘I know what I’m doing.’ He rested his forehead against hers. ‘Just don’t ever accuse me of dull dates.’

He kissed her gently on the lips, and stepped out of the circle.

He grabbed the length of wood from the pile of debris, checking its weight in its hand, the strength of the grip he could muster around its base. The couple of rusty nails that remained in it would give him added edge.

He couldn’t look back at her; he had to focus on what lay ahead around the corner. And he had taken down bigger and worse than stashers in his time.

As he stepped into the mouth of the alley, the stasher almost having reached the far end, it immediately sensed his presence.

Potential prey was one thing, but a vampire stood right behind it, less than forty feet away, was temptation too much.

It looked over its shoulder.

Avoiding its direct gaze, Kane removed his jacket, letting it fall to the floor. He tightened his grip on the wood and swung it from hand to hand for effect, just to ensure he had its full attention, just to play with it, because it was about as welcome in his side of Blackthorn as any of the other fourth species who thought they were going to get a free pass into his territory.

And if he failed, it would come back for Caitlin. And he wasn’t having that.

It turned to face him fully.

Its fingers uncoiled one after the other before flexing, revealing the nails several inches long that were exposed during combat.

Its tic-tic returned at the sheer excitement of prey within its grasp.

As it took a step towards him, Kane’s grip settled onto the wood he held. A swift close of his eyes and a steadying breath later, he opened his eyes in full battle mode.