Blood Shadows (2 page)

And on too many occasions, when the darkness was all-encompassing, when the rain tapped lightly against the windowpanes, she’d find her mind wandering to what their first encounter would be like. Sometimes he would visit her in her dreams when her subconscious took over, when the deep dark fantasies she suppressed were allowed free reign. She would wake at times beaded in perspiration, other times soaked in sensual heat.

Caitlin refocused and pressed on through the crowds, knowing there were three exits he could choose from but only one that led up to the roof.

Senses overwhelmed, ears ringing, she burst through the doors and into the corridor. The volume of the music evaporated slowly with the increased distance as she marched ahead through the stragglers, turning left down a dimmer, more isolated corridor.

‘Caitlin, listen to me, damn it!’ Max commanded, a faint crackle telling her the depth of the building was already causing connection problems. ‘You cannot face him alone. Do not face him alone.’

‘This is my case, Max,’ she said, every sense on full alert as she glanced warily over her shoulder before assessing the corridor ahead again. Reaching into her jacket pocket, she pulled out her gun, holding it poised and ready, loaded with enough sedatives to knock out four Great Whites if she let off enough rounds. ‘I know what I’m doing.’

‘You sure as hell better, Caitlin,’ Max warned, his stepfather tone finally overriding his role as her boss. ‘Brovin and Morgan are coming in behind you. Be careful. You know how…’ The crackle developed to a buzz so piercing she was forced to pull the earpiece out, lower her guard and strike position for a split second.

That was all it took.

He appeared from behind her.

His movements were swift and accurate: snatching the gun from her hand, in the same instant he forced her face-first up against the wall, her earpiece hitting the ground.

She caught her breath, pressed her palms and knee to the wall in preparation to push back but his hard body was already against hers, his power reminding her that the strength she had in spirit was absolutely no match for the supposedly three hundred-year-old six-foot vampire who had her pinned to the wall as easily as he would a sheet of paper. And as she felt the tip of her own gun press below her ribs, she knew all four shots of the potent sedative, too powerful for the human body, would end it all for her.

Just like that.

But instead of firing, his soft lips brushed her ear, the arrogant upward curl of those enticing bow lips as clear in her mind as if he were facing her. He tutted playfully, his low rasp raking beneath her skin. ‘A little girl doing a man’s job – bound to end in tears.’

Caitlin clenched her fists. Brovin and Morgan had to be less than a minute away. She had to stall him. Her instinct was to try to reach back and catch his wrist. All she needed was her fingers on his pulse point and she’d finally know those dark recesses that no expert could reach – information she so desperately needed. But she knew she wouldn’t have enough time to wait for that painfully slow vampire heartbeat, even if she was in a position to get to him. There was only one way she was going to get the time with him that she wanted and needed.

‘Kane Malloy, I’m detaining you under section 3.4 of the Vampire Disciplinary Clause…’

He laughed, deep, guttural, terse. ‘You’re detaining me?’

‘On twenty-one alleged accounts of crimes against members of the third species including your own, thirty-two against humans…’

‘Delusional as well as reckless. Are you seriously the best they’ve got?’

‘It’s over, Kane.’

‘You breathe too fast to be convincing,’ he goaded.

‘You don’t breathe enough to judge me.’

He exhaled curtly. Panic jolted through her as he deftly unclasped the belt threaded through her jeans. To her disgust, for the first time on any tracking operation, she froze.

Kill her? Yes, of course the thought had crossed her mind. No matter how unbelievable or surreal it seemed, she had known it was a possibility. But rape? With her colleagues closing in there was no way even Kane would have the arrogance to attempt it in the minutes, maybe even seconds he had left.

But this was Kane. And if he wanted to leave a message for the VCU, a dead and violated tracker would ring loud and clear.

The fact she’d even got this close would be insult too much for his ego.

She snapped back a breath as he yanked her belt through the loops. And as his heel cracked the buckle, destroying the only way the VCU could locate her, she knew it was about to get worse.

Her phone followed next, removed from her back pocket by his stealthy fingers.

‘You’re lucky you serve a purpose,’ he said, combing her hair back over her shoulder.

Her heart pounded painfully. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘You’re the one who’s obsessed with me – what do you think?’

As he traced the back of his cool fingers tenderly down her exposed neck, a caress more sensual than she would have thought possible for someone with such renowned brutality, Caitlin held her breath. She was stunned by her own involuntary arousal, suppressing it with every iota of conviction she had.

‘I think you’d better walk away,’ she said, battling to get her focus back on the job. ‘Or give yourself up.’

‘Not going to happen, Caitlin.’ Pressing the tranquiliser gun tighter into her side, Kane made her wince, his reputation restored. ‘Question is, are you going to walk out of here co-operatively or am I going to have to carry you?’

The girl may have flinched when he’d pushed the gun deeper into her flesh, but she hadn’t made a sound. He’d already seen her in action enough, heard enough to know she was used to keeping a brave face. She wasn’t about to let that slip now. Instead, Caitlin’s fingers coiled against the wall, her knuckles pale, her body tensed in anticipation of the shot.

‘I’m flattered you’re giving me an option,’ she said, turning her head towards him, ‘considering your usual tack.’

Kane couldn’t help but smile. Controlling her body had been easy, but controlling her mind was going to be a whole other challenge.

This was worth the lingering moment.

He leaned closer, one arm above her head as he slid the gun slowly and coaxingly over the inward curve of her waist and down her hip. ‘Is that what keeps you warm at night in that empty bed of yours, Caitlin – thinking you know me?’

She frowned, clearly using all her willpower not to flinch. ‘I know this is where it ends for you.’

Easing her jacket aside to assess the outward curve of the small of her back, the pertness of her behind, he whispered against her ear, ‘Tell me, what’s it like being the token psychic on the big boys’ team? Someone have an equal opportunities box to tick, did they? Or was someone promised the prising open of those slender thighs?’

She scowled. ‘You can go to hell, Kane. And I’m going to put you there.’

Cornered and still fighting. He could almost like her if she wasn’t a tracker, if she wasn’t who she was. But the VCU and their sanctimonious ways irritated the hell out him, interfering in things that were none of their concern whilst they hid behind their masks of respectability. And with her mind admirably but insultingly still focused on the job, coupled with her naivety, Caitlin Parish was already presenting a lethal concoction that was threatening his self-control. Self-control that was brittle enough from finally being able to touch her, let alone sensing her potency. Her years of abstinence had clearly made her precious shadow-reader soul as untouchable as if she’d been celibate all her life. Still, challenge was good.

‘Now that sounded like you meant it,’ he said.

‘There’s no way out, Kane. Just pull the trigger or give yourself up.’

Releasing the gun from her side, he flipped her around and pinned both her hands above her head with one of his.

Her eyes flared as she snapped back a breath, their eyes meeting for the first time.

Hers were captivatingly bright, their milky-coffee colour beautifully offset by her flawless pale skin. Her shoulder-length sandy-brown hair was still damp and tousled from the rain, its unruliness suiting her. From a distance she could be mistaken for unassuming, but up close she was pretty. Her features were delicate, her full lips enticing – lips that under any other circumstance he would already have been tasting. And from the sudden dilation of her pupils, the flush in her cheeks, he wasn’t alone in liking what he saw.

It was a shame. Another place, another time, she had enough feistiness to keep it interesting until he chose to exhaust her, playfully and cruelly manipulating the resilience indicative of her kind. Because the more self-controlled they were, the more pleasurable it was. And this girl oozed restraint.

But this was no time to play. This was about preserving her until it was time to drain her body, mind and spirit. This was about toying with her slowly and excruciatingly until she made that fatal choice of letting him in, allowing him access to that otherwise inaccessible soul.

He raked the tranquilizer gun teasingly down her chest, along the top of her jeans, now sitting loose on her slender hips, over the inviting hint of bare flesh, the subtle curve of her toned stomach. Hitching the waistband down just a little further, his gaze lingered tauntingly on the cream lace band of her underwear before meeting her eyes again. ‘Are you calling my bluff, Caitlin?’

Her chest heaved beneath her T-shirt, her defiant gaze fixed with steely determination on his. Her curt breaths were enticingly sexy, her pulse racing, her warm body trembling.

‘Or maybe you’re just stalling until the real agents show up?’ he added.

Caitlin’s eyes narrowed in indignation. ‘I’ll repeat: Kane Malloy, I’m detaining you on twenty-one alleged accounts of crimes against members of the third species, including your own, thirty-two against humans, crimes of the third, second and first degree. You will be detained until further notice whereon you will undertake questioning through which a confession is recommended. Should you elect not to confess, your shadow will be read. If you are subsequently found guilty of any charges, your reticence will automatically qualify you for a more severe sentence.’

The girl was unbelievable. Hauled up against a wall and still reading him his rights. Taming her for the sheer pleasure of it really would have made for an interesting couple of nights.

‘You don’t do submissive well, do you, Caitlin?’

‘I don’t do submissive at all.’

He leaned closer, his mouth hovering less than an inch from hers, her erratic breath evocative against his lips. She recoiled tight against the wall, forging whatever distance she could. To taunt her further, he nudged her thighs apart, keeping them that way with one of his. The panic in her eyes was further confirmation of what he’d guessed from her reaction when he’d unclasped her belt: Caitlin was way out of her depth coming after him. And if the stakes hadn’t been so high, he’d already be proving it.

‘Tell me you’ve never fantasised about this moment,’ he said, revealing just enough of his incisors to goad her.

Her pulse raced as she floundered under his scrutiny. ‘I have,’ she said breathily. ‘Only I’d already lodged a stake in your dysfunctional heart. Now are you going to pull that trigger or am I supposed to stand here all night until you work out how to use it?’

He laughed tersely, but then he saw something in her eyes. There was uneasiness there – an uneasiness that wasn’t attributed to VCU agents used to staring into the eyes of vampires for a living. She clearly knew he wasn’t an ordinary vampire. And if she’d known that beforehand, her actions in pursuing him were far more than just reckless, they were insulting.

But restraint was a necessity, and the echoes of two sets of footsteps fast approaching from the main corridor told him time was short.

Taking both her hands in one of his, he turned her around again, tucking her against him as he raised the tranquiliser gun to the brighter light of the main corridor ahead. ‘Looks like we have company,’ he whispered against her ear. ‘Make a noise and I’ll do more than send them to sleep.’

As soon as they appeared, Kane let off a single shot.

Neither agent saw it coming.

His shot pierced the first agent cleanly in the chest.

But something also pierced Kane. Pierced him in the palm of his shooting hand. Something that threw him off balance, weakening his hold on the gun as paralytic pins and needles swarmed his fingers, his wrist and his elbow.

The second agent took the opportunity and shot Kane twice in the shoulder.

But Kane’s world was already turning black.

He didn’t even have time to curse.

CHAPTER TWO

C
aitlin’s breath misted the office window as she gazed out across the headquarters’ floodlit grounds. The smattering of rain obscured Lowtown’s cityscape, Blackthorn nothing more than a blackened mass beyond the distant border.

The radiator warmed her thigh through her jeans, as she nervously bit the thumbnail she had jammed between her teeth. Vampires hunted more in the rain. Rain meant hoods up, umbrellas up, deficiency of sound, lowered eyes. Rain disorientated and distracted people, making the kill or capture so much easier. Even there in Lowtown, rainy nights were busy nights. Busy nights when you weren’t suspended pending a full investigation.