The Vampire's Curse (28 page)

"I—I didn't see any ferals or any machines. But I know they have guns, or had one. I'm not sure if there are any others of those either."

That explained where she got the gun from at least.

A man wearing bulletproof armor, a helmet, and holding a big gun ran up to Carter. “We got them trapped in the basement sir. Hostage is confirmed.”

Carter nodded and looked at Kyle. "I need you in there, McKane."

"What?" Kyle stepped back at the offer that he hadn't been expecting.

Carter found his hat in the snow, cleaned it off and put back on his head so that he looked more like a cowboy instead of a cop again. "You're the only vamp I've got with me tonight, and I don't want to risk that she's got anymore down there aside from Evey. We might need your strength. It'll only be for a few minutes. ‘Sides, she’s asking for you."

Jackie's hands tightened on his. He lifted her chin and looked into her eyes. "I'll come back for you."

She wet her lips and nodded, raised herself to her toes to meet his mouth, then stopped. She hissed and pulled back. "I can't kiss you until you come back out."

Kyle clenched a fist. That was right. Though she had some control when she concentrated hard enough, so much as touching her lips to his forehead would possibly be enough to turn him back into a man when his strength might be needed. But he wanted her lips on his.

"McKane, either you’re coming or you’re not." Carter snapped.

Kyle took her face into his hands and pressed his lips to her forehead, the top of her eyes, and then her jaw. He kissed her in the thick snowfall but did not touch her lips. "I'll come back for more. Don't worry."

He left her in the hands of the paramedic who wrapped her in a blanket and gently pulled her towards the awaiting ambulance to check her arm.

Kyle turned away from her, his focus returning to the women in the house that had him so angry minutes ago until all he could think of was getting in there and bringing out the people who'd hurt her.

EIGHTEEN

Although only one was needed to invite him inside, there were many cops in the house now. Kyle was led down a narrow hall toward the door to the basement. He was allowed to walk down to speak to the trapped women alone.

There were no ferals in the house waiting to spring at him, and at this point he doubted there were anymore downstairs, but the occasional claw marks he passed on the walls brought a spidery shiver up his spine and the heavy feeling of dread in the bottom of his gut.

This was definitely the house where vampires had been starved to monstrous madness.

Charity must’ve heard his footsteps approaching because he didn’t even knock on the thick wooden door before it opened enough for a desperate woman to point a gun at his face.

The guns from the men behind him clicked as their safeties were disengaged, but it brought him no strength. He wondered if the women downstairs chose this house for the purpose of this hall. Should the men behind him open fire, not even his vampire speed would get him out of the way of their bullets. He’d be a human shield to their true target, whom had her shiny medium framed Smith and Wesson barrel pointed right between his eyes.

“I just want to talk,” he said.

Charity’s hand shook as she held the gun. “I should kill you.”

“If you do that I won’t be able to save your daughter.”

Charity’s eyes flashed, and the gun lowered a fraction of a hair.

He nodded. “Jackie got outside. She told me what happened.”

The revolver was brought up again. “That thing down there has my baby. I want her to let my little girl go.”

“And I’ll work on getting that done for you. You asked to see me; you might as well put me to work.”

Her small hand stopped shaking around the big steal weapon. “I don’t believe you.”

Despite his training and the advantages of being half vampire, Kyle had never gotten used to having the barrel of a gun pointed at his head. It got his blood pumping in a bad way, knowing she was going to kill him.

“Your safety’s on, y’know.”

Oldest trick in the book. She probably knew he was pulling one on her but the forces of nature dictated that when someone told you that, while you held a gun in your hand, your eyes flickered to the weapon to check. Regardless of the fact that most revolvers didn't have a safety feature.

That flicker was all he needed. His arm flew out and he grabbed her hand and forced the deadly end of the weapon up. She clawed his wrists and squeezed the trigger. The men down the hall ducked for cover as the shots fired into the ceiling.

When she emptied her weapon harmlessly into the plaster, he twisted and pulled Charity over his back and threw her under him. She screamed as she landed, he turned her to her stomach and secured her hands with the handcuffs he'd been given earlier.

She screamed and wriggled like a mad woman. He didn’t care. To piss her off some more he winked and pat her cheek. “Smith and Wesson revolvers don’t have safeties.”

She opened her mouth and screamed so hard he jumped back.

Two men in uniform took her out of his hands. Kyle didn't watch as she was dragged out of the house.

He ran down to the basement where Evey and her captor, or rather, Evey and her hostage were waiting for him.

He ran down the feeble wooden steps, kicked in the door and stopped dead. Thick, tall cages lined the walls. Some had chains in them and others contained dried blood. Just to his left was a plain wooden desk with a single laptop humming on it and a few of the burned or broken collars strewn around.

“Hey, over here.” Evey called from one of the cages in the back, patiently holding Claire by the neck against the bars of her cage.

Kyle started walking. “I never forgot you, don’t worry.”

She smiled at him. "For a second I thought you did."

Mike rushed in after Kyle, weapon drawn and ready.

“There aren’t anymore ferals down here.” Kyle said.

Mike tucked away the weapon. “Standard procedure.”

“Will someone get this thing
off
me?” Claire’s hostile demand was made less threatening by the mascara streaming black rivers down her cheeks.

Mike slapped Kyle’s shoulder. “Good work, McKane. You can let her go now, Evey. She ain’t goin’ nowhere.”

Mike made his arrest and things suddenly got busy in the damp room.

Kyle wanted to inspect the cages before leaving to give the photographers and other specialists their space to work.

These were no animal cages. At least not any sold to local people. The things were made custom, he could tell by the sloppy wielding work of the bars.

They were made to hold people, strong people. Kyle stood in the torture chamber where so many vampires lost their minds, where Charles Clayton was held until deemed worthless and thrown away, like his daughter.

Thoughts and emotions that weren’t his rushed him and swelled inside his head. Painful cries and memories that made him ache inside.

He turned for the door but stopped. The emotions he experienced did not belong to Jackie. He was sure she was the only one he could read, yet these emotions felt as real as anything that came from her.

Gradually they calmed themselves and disappeared. Kyle was left feeling … empty somehow that they were gone. Saddened. It made breathing difficult.

He ran back upstairs, through the halls and out the front door. When out of the house he sucked back a fresh breath of cold, snowy air. Freedom swept over him, rushed him like the emotions he felt in the basement, and he couldn’t get enough of it.

He'd been in and out, hadn't experienced the horror that Jackie had surely gone through but the house crushed and pressed on his chest. He was glad to be out of the place that held so much suffering for the people Claire and her mother kidnapped and killed.

A firm hand gripped his shoulder. He turned and saw Carter. “You alright?”

He shook his head. “Down there … I felt—”

He nodded. “It happens sometimes. Poltergeists.”

Kyle gaped at him and turned back to the house. “You mean there are ghosts down there?”

Carter shook his head. “Tourists. Yes, when people die like that their spirits tend to stay in that spot.”

The idea that people could be trapped like that even after their death horrified him. “So then, what are they going to do now?”

Carter smiled, as though it was the most natural thing in the world to have a haunted basement to deal with. “We’ve got someone coming to take care of the stragglers. But after what happened today, having their killers arrested and taken away, I wouldn’t be surprised if most of them went to the other side on their own. Prob’bly what they were waitin’ around for.”

“I’m never going to get used to living here.”

“You’re staying?”

Carter’s eyes on him were cautious.

Kyle nodded. Somehow he’d made this decision with himself without fully realizing it until now. The burn to return home no longer alive and on fire in his chest. “Yeah. I think I got a good reason to stay.”

Carter inhaled deeply through his nose. “Good. I think that good reason wants to see you.”

Kyle spun as Jackie hopped out of a parked squad car. He opened his arms when she ran to him and closed them so tightly it felt like he would never let her go.

She babbled relief and worry into his chest but he didn't hear a word she said.

Nervous laughter bubbled out his throat. "When I found out you were gone, I was so scared."

She looked up at him and he stared into her eyes, saw his reflection there, and knew she was where he needed to be. "I love you."

Her eyes brightened and he feared she would cry. She grabbed him by the ears and kissed him instead, kissed him without the worry that he might need his strength. Kissed him like she knew she belonged with him too.

The air became cold and his teeth returned to normal as he melted back into a human, but paid no mind to the change.

She must have felt the change because she pulled her lips away when he finished, though their faces stayed close. "I love you too." She burst out laughing. "Oh my God, I love you!"

He forcefully pulled her mouth to his again. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and the blanket fell away from her. They pulled apart and both bent down to grab it, still laughing like giddy teenagers, and he wrapped it snuggly around her again, tucking a few strands of her hair out of her face and behind her ear.

"Does this mean you're not going to use the excuse that we can't be together because it's unprofessional?"

A silent laugh shook the top of his chest. "No."

"Good." She leaned in so that he could hold her again.

"It's snowing. Heavy," he said, watching the police working through the falling cotton balls. No one approached and asked them to answer questions. He figured he owed Carter for that.

"I know. I think it's kind of romantic."

They were outside the house she’d been held hostage in, where numerous people had died. "What's so romantic about it?"

She looked him in the eye. "What's not romantic about kissing in the snow?"

He shrugged. "Alright, Gorgeous. It has its appeal."

She leaned back into him, content with his answer. "See? That wasn't so hard."

He felt her emotions shift, and the change startled him considering their happy reunion a few seconds ago. "What's wrong?"

She chewed her bottom lip. "I know you can't be cured."

He shook his head, knowing her guilt stemmed from the fact that her own sister was the one to lay the curse on him. "Don't worry about that. As long as I'm going to bed with you every night then it hardly matters, doesn't it?"

She breathed a sigh, as though he’d just lifted a heavy weight from her shoulders.

God, he wanted her. “How’s your shoulder?”

She shrugged the injured side easily. “A paramedic gave me some new bandages and painkillers. I feel pretty good.”

"Good, because right now I just need to take you home and have you to myself. No hospitals, police, or mothers."

She gave him a wicked grin. "By all means, don't let me stop you."

***

The door to her apartment slammed open and Kyle rushed blindly into the dark space with his package in his arms, her legs wrapped tightly around his waist.

Though she’d claimed her shoulder was fine, he didn’t want to risk it by running into a wall. Awkwardly, he carried her down the hall and towards her room, her fingers threaded his hair as she sighed in his mouth.

He opened his eyes long enough to punch open her door, not bothering to kick it shut behind him as he all but fell onto the bed with her beneath him.

She gasped, and his heart stopped. “Are you hurt.”

She laughed. “That’s so exciting. I can’t believe you carried me all the way in here!”

Not hurt then. Somehow, the fact that he’d scared himself got him laughing too. He'd never laughed in bed with anyone before, and he couldn't wait to find out what other firsts a true relationship with his soul mate could offer.