Blood Shadows (5 page)

But there was an agreement: no interference unless she bit her lip.

And there was no looking into the void unless you got dangerously close to the edge.

After a few more moments of hesitation, she grasped the arms of the chair and stood. She stepped up to his end of the table, stopping at the corner, inches from his thigh.

His gaze didn’t falter as he moved his leg out a little, enough to let her slip between him and the table before closing the gap again.

She felt the compulsion to lean back and grip the table’s edge for support, but that would have given too much away. ‘Last chance, Kane.’

His eyes sparkled coaxingly as he held up his wrists.

She hesitated for a moment longer before reaching out, her fingertips already tingling at the prospect.

But he was quick. He snatched hold of her wrist and was instantaneously on his feet.

A split second later, she was flat on her back on the table, his thighs forcing hers apart.

Caitlin snapped back a breath. Panic surged through her as, in the swift skilful move, he had trapped her beneath him, his hips melding against hers like they were two parts of the same piece. And as he slammed her hands either side of her head, gazed deep into her eyes, Caitlin shuddered.

Because even in its wrongness it felt unnervingly right. Even in her alarm, the power of his cool hard body was painfully evocative, his unwavering self-control rousing her further, the provocative playfulness in his gaze doing nothing to help abate her arousal.

‘You’re not the only one who can cheat, Caitlin.’

‘Big mistake,’ she hissed.

He looked at the mirror and then back at her. ‘No one’s come running yet.’ He dragged his gaze appreciatively down her throat, her cleavage. ‘Just how much can I get away with before they come to the rescue, huh?’ His eyes glinted with mischief as he looked back into hers. ‘I bet Max is poised and ready. I’m sure he wasn’t happy you coming in here all alone. I know how protective he is towards you after all you’ve been through. Not that you talk about it. Not that anyone ever talks about it. How fitting he made a move on your mother so soon after his best friend became ashes.’

Caitlin glowered at him, stunned by his knowledge. ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about.’

He leaned closer, his lips dangerously near hers, his eyes terrifyingly beautiful in their menace. ‘Struck a nerve, Caitlin? Not nice having people pry into your personal business, is it?’

She turned her head to the side to break from the intensity, anger, fear, resentment searing through her. And she tensed as his lips brushed intimately against her ear, just as he had done in the corridor. Only this time she knew he was doing it to avoid being lip-read.

‘I know your mission to read me isn’t just about convicting me, or uncovering vampire secrets, Caitlin. So, if it makes you feel better, yes, I do know what killed your father and yes, it is the same thing that came after your mother. And you’re right – it is some ancient species you’ve never heard of. Yes, I do know how to find it and yes, I am one of the few capable of killing it. And maybe, one day, just for the hell of it, I will. But in the meantime, I have my own revenge to fulfil.’

She held her breath as he lifted her wrist to his mouth, brushed his soft lips along one of the most tender, receptive parts of her body. And as he let it go and gently used the back of his hand to turn her head towards him, she almost conceded and raised the alarm.

‘Unfortunately, for what I have planned,’ he said, lowering his mouth to hers. ‘I’m going to need that precious glowing soul of yours.’

She knew she should have stopped it then and signalled for reinforcements. But the shock of the revelation distracted her, her need to hear more overwhelming any self-defence. She stared at him in horror. ‘That’s why you want me?’

‘Why else?’

Heat consumed her body as their lips almost touched.

‘Fight it all you want, Caitlin. But you’re no match for me. And by the time I’ve finished with you, I won’t need to seduce your soul out of that impenetrable astral body – you’re going to give it to me willingly.’

CHAPTER THREE

W
ith a triumphant glimmer in his eyes, Kane pulled back, releasing her wrists. But Caitlin caught hold of his T-shirt. Her trembling fingers clutched the soft cotton as she kept him above her, her fingers tense against his hard chest.

‘What’s it called?’ she asked, hating the urgency in her voice.

‘The question that’s been burning those lips for the past fourteen years, right?’ he said, his arms braced either side of the table, his biceps taut.

‘Tell me,’ she demanded quietly.

He glanced down at her fist then back into her eyes with a hint of a coaxing smile. ‘That’s a tight grip. I could make good use of that.’

‘How do you know all this stuff, Kane?’

‘Later,’ he said with a playful wink as he pressed his thumb down over her knuckles, forcing her to release him before lifting her hand to his lips, tauntingly kissing the back of it.

As he relaxed back in his chair, she wanted to grab him again but suppressed her exasperation. Kane wasn’t going to tell her anything between these four walls, no matter what she did. He had no intention of putting his release at risk. She had to be satisfied with knowing that it wasn’t the last she’d be seeing of Kane Malloy, that she’d achieved at least one goal tonight.

But as Caitlin pulled herself off the table, she still couldn’t suppress her indignation enough to prevent her glaring at him on her way to the door. A look that told him it most definitely wasn’t over. He might be coming for her but she’d be ready. And judging by his smirk, he was thriving on her silent defiance, their secret unspoken exchange of understanding concealed from those behind the glass.

Exiting the interrogation room, Caitlin slammed the door behind her and leaned up against the corridor wall. Resting her head back against it, she clenched the papers to her chest as the shock hit her for the second time.

Kane had at last confirmed it. Whatever others had denied, she had been right – there was a link between her parents’ deaths.

She took a few steady breaths. Her throat tightened, her heart pounding.

Seven years to the day. Seven years to the hour.

Everyone else might have insisted on it being a coincidence, but Caitlin had never believed it. And never less so than when she’d risked her new job to break into the department’s secret archives – a furtive endeavour that led to her uncovering her only clue. The psychics’ independent reports had specified both her parents had had their astral bodies torn out and, with them, their souls – souls that were subsequently trapped and not at rest. It was information that never made it onto the official database, information that had instead been shoved away in some dusty old filing box at the back of a disused storeroom never to see the light of day.

But her findings had only reinforced her logic that whatever had killed them was coming for her next.

Coming for her in less than five days’ time – the anniversary of their deaths.

Those who denied it were just protecting a scared young woman but Caitlin didn’t want protecting. Caitlin had wanted the truth. And nearly fourteen years later, Kane had been the only one to give it to her. It might have been hard, fast and cruel but it was the truth at least.

She raked her trembling fingers back through her hair. She’d been right; if anyone was going to know of the species, it had to be a master vampire. It had to be something archaic if no one else could identify it, if even the most learned of the third species from whom she had begged for information over the years had come up with nothing.

More to the point, she believed every word when Kane told her he could kill it. Whatever it was.

Though it wrenched at her stomach, tore at her dignity, her self-respect, she now knew for sure that Kane was integral to her survival, her vengeance – all he knew, all he was, all he was capable of. It was going to take something lethal to bring that creature down, and there was nothing more lethal than Kane Malloy.

Damn him that she needed him. And damn it that her wrists still tingled from his touch, heat still lingering in her cheeks. She lifted the back of her hand to her mouth so her lips could touch where his had been, but she flinched, dropping her hand away again as the doors to her left flew open.

Max stopped abruptly as their eyes met, an uncharacteristic panic in his.

‘I’m fine,’ she said, pre-empting his question.

He marched up to her and shoved open the door opposite, stepping inside. Caitlin reluctantly took her cue and followed him in.

‘What the hell was that?’ he demanded, spinning to face her, his finger thrust in the direction of the interrogation room.

‘What?’

‘Stay on your side of the table. Do not approach the assailant. Stick to the line of questioning. At what point did you decide all of the above were inapplicable?’

She leaned back against the table and placed the signed papers beside her. ‘He offered to let me read him.’

‘Which you fell for.’

‘I knew he wasn’t going to do anything to risk being able to get out of here.’

‘I just sat behind two-way glass and watched that bastard pin you to a table. Which bit of this are you not getting?’

‘He caught me off guard.’

‘Like he did in the corridor? He was toying with you, Caitlin. With all of us. He is a game player.’

‘He had his little Neanderthal routine – and so what? I’ve been pinned down by uglier and more vicious vampires than him.’

He sighed in exasperation. ‘He played you like a puppet in there all for our benefit and you let him. Just like he was planning to snatch you from right under our noses earlier. You should never have approached him. You know what he is capable of.’

‘But he hasn’t fully worked out what I’m capable of, has he? He wanted to prove a point and he did. Let him keep thinking that way and he’ll be more pliable. By lowering my guard, he’ll lower his. I know what I’m doing, Max. And I can do this, I promise you.’

Max took a step closer. ‘I have spoken to you as your boss, but now I’m telling you as your stepfather that this is over, Caitlin. You are not getting involved. You are ending this now.’

‘I can’t do that.’

‘Yes, you can. And you will. Xavier’s going to join us in a few minutes, and you’re going to tell him you’ve changed your mind.’

‘Nothing has changed, Max.’

Max frowned as he studied her warily. ‘He said something in your ear when he had you on the table. What was it?’

It sickened her to lie to him, but telling him the truth would have him locking her in a safe house whether she chose it or not. It had to be between her and Kane. She needed it to be between just her and Kane if she was going to get what she wanted. And she would get what she wanted. She wasn’t sure how yet, but she would. ‘Nothing of importance.’

‘It didn’t look that way from the expression on your face, or from the way you grabbed him.’

‘Like you said, he’s a game player. He likes a reaction. I decided to give him one to play with.’

Max’s eyes flashed with suspicion but there was also an unease behind them that, if she hadn’t so desperately wanted to get out of there, break from the scrutiny of his gaze, she may have been tempted to probe. ‘So he gave you no clue as to why you’re still alive? Or why he summoned you?’

‘We both know him better than that.’

‘Why didn’t you bite your lip, Caitlin?’

‘Like he wanted me to? He knew you were watching. He was waiting for me to call in the reinforcements. I wanted to show him I wasn’t scared of him.’

‘And are you scared of him?’

‘What kind of question is that?’

‘Too many people have been reeled in by him, Caitlin. Behind those looks and that charm he is dangerous and he is vicious and he will do whatever it takes to get what he wants.’

‘I’m the one who contributed to that profile, remember? So don’t talk to me like I’m some rookie, Max. Not you, of all people. You know I know my stuff. And I know that vampire better than anyone else in this unit. I know you have this need to protect me because of Mum, because of Dad, but I’m a grown woman. And this is well within my ability. And reluctant though you are to admit it, you know it.’

‘What you are doing is insane. It’s suicide.’

‘It’s hard to think of it as suicide when the clock’s already ticking.’

His eyes flared. ‘No. Please don’t tell me that’s what this is about.’

‘I’m just saying I see things differently to you.’

He stepped up to her. ‘Nothing is coming for you, Caitlin. What happened to your parents is totally unrelated – a mind-screwing coincidence and nothing more. You cannot put your life on the line for some delusional belief.’

But now she knew it wasn’t delusional. No matter how much everyone had tried to convince her otherwise. ‘I have a job to do, Max,’ Caitlin said firmly. ‘Kane is my case. I’m going to bring him back in and this time, I promise, I’ll do it legit.’

‘You are stepping beyond the boundaries of your job. I’ve suspected it for months and now that performance in there just confirmed it.’