Bad Mouth (2 page)

“Perhaps the
Dominorum
is losing control over the Legion.” Val kept her voice low and steady and her expression
placid as she dug into his sense of pride. Her knees went weak at the risk of pushing
him too far, but she’d be damned if she’d return to her seat while the vampires stood
over her.

Olen’s eyes flared with inner light before he composed himself. She was glad she’d
brought Graham, despite his earlier lapse in good taste. It wouldn’t be a stretch
for her to disappear, the victim of a mysterious
accident
on the way back to Seattle.

Evangeline turned to Olen, her head tilted to the side. When Olen met his mate’s gaze,
Val’s fine hairs stood on end. The air charged with restrained energy as the two vampires
spoke telepathically. After a few silent, tense minutes, Olen’s attention settled
on Val.

“It is in our interest to punish any Legion who may be violating
Dominorum
rule. In light of the possibility the murderer may not be a rogue but one of the
Legion, we offer you a liaison to smooth over any…bumps you encounter with the Legion
when questioning them.”

“A liaison? As in
only one
? You want to give us a desk jockey and no enforcement officers?”

This time Evangeline’s smile exuded wicked delight and grew broad enough to expose
her fangs. Even Olen, the one who never smiled, had a look of smug amusement.

“You need someone with
Immortalis
jurisdiction to find the killer you’re looking for, even to eventually discover that
the killer is simply a rogue,” he said.

There were too many derangements in such a short period of time to be caused by one
rogue.

“Yes, Ms. Craig, we’ll give you one vampire. Once you meet him, you’ll see one could
never speak his name and the word
only
in the same sentence.”

Something in his tone put those icy fingers back into her spine. “Do I know this vampire?”

“No. He’s not particularly inclined toward politics.” Olen’s strange inflection gave
her the impression he’d made an inflated understatement.

“Who is he?”

“Kade Rollins.”

“A last name,” Val noted. “He’s young then. Will the Legion obey him?”

Evangeline laughed. “Oh, they’ll obey. He’s an adjuvant.”

Val’s face tightened. Adjuvants were the ultimate bane of her existence, the only
vampires capable of turning humans and supercharged with extraordinary strength, speed,
and abilities. No good could come of working with a creature like Kade Rollins.

“Find someone else.” Amazed she’d kept her voice steady, she willed Olen to rescind
his choice.

He didn’t even blink. “Your liaison is Kade. By the time you reach Seattle, his contact
information will be at your disposal. Keep in mind that he’s one of ours. He is not
your minion.” He cocked his head in thought. “Although I doubt you’ll have any trouble
remembering that.”

The pair turned in unison, walked out through the archway, and disappeared down the
hall. Val and Graham had been dismissed.

As they started for the foyer, the walking corpse appeared on cue to lead the way.
Val sensed the tension humming in Graham. At least he waited until the massive door
boomed shut behind them before he spoke.

“Holy Christ!”

She sighed, wishing she wasn’t about to hear the veneration in his voice but knowing
she would nonetheless. “Let’s go. I can’t get away from here soon enough.”

“Wow. They were something amazing. Did you feel that—their presence?”

“Graham.” She peered at him like a bug under glass. “Stop. What you’re doing, what
you’re thinking. Just stop. They’re the bad guys you know.”

“But they don’t have to be.” He cupped her shoulders and held her at arm’s length.
“I know you have a reason to hate them, but Will’s weakness isn’t their fault. Look,
they’re willing to help out with the investigation. Doesn’t that count?”

“It’s calculated. This Rollins guy will be useless. They made it look like they’re
helping, but instead they’ve given us a roadblock.”

“Maybe.” Graham’s semiagreement was grudging at best. She wanted to wipe the traces
of reverence from his face. Forty-grit sandpaper would do nicely. “He could get the
Immortalis
to talk.”

“Did you miss the
desk jockey
part?”

“So are we. Now look at us, neck-deep in a murder investigation.”

“Because they pushed it this far and because…Just get in the damned car, Graham. There’s
something you need to know.”

She climbed into her seat, closed her eyes, and waited for him to walk around. Once
she’d settled in, she couldn’t stop the fine tremors that always followed her contact
with vampires. She kept her eyes closed until she heard his door open. He watched
her curiously as he slid in, buckled his seat belt, and started the car.

“Alice left me a message. They identified one of the deranged,” she said, finally
making eye contact with him. “It was Will. He got the transformation he would have
given a limb for, but it didn’t turn out the way he’d wanted. He’s missing.”

Chapter Two

The fucked-up call from Olen couldn’t have come at a worse time for Kade. Not that
every call from the Ancients wasn’t warped, but this went beyond the norm. He’d already
worked up a thunderous temper, on his way to make some human’s quixotic fantasy of
eternal life a reality—what a crock of bullshit they were willing to buy—and now he
had the mood in triplicate. The Ancients knew damn well how he’d feel about being
a wet nurse to a couple of fat, pasty politicians from the Vampire Liaison Office.

He slammed the beeping handset onto the mantel and leaned on the heavy timber frame.
His foot rested on a river rock protruding from the hearth’s face. Focusing on the
grain of the wood under his palms and the shape of the stone, he tried to reach a
Zen moment. Guess Zen wasn’t his thing. A foul mood clung to him snugger than his
skin to his body. And it would stay there, at least until after he’d indoctrinated
another unworthy human into the world of vampirism.

With a dissatisfied grunt, Kade trudged up the stairs leading to the room where the
subjugate awaited him. Each step wound him tighter and tighter until his subconscious
screamed for him to turn and walk the other way. After more than two centuries of
turning humans, the vileness of the task had never faded. If anything, his revulsion
had grown. By the time he reached the room, his gut rode a roller coaster, and the
shit was plummeting.

Any minute now, he was going to…Yep, there it was. The disgust. The nausea. Kade braced
his hand on the wall beside the steel-reinforced door. His stomach clenched, and his
mouth watered. It always hit hardest before he went in, but he had no choice other
than to enter and fulfill his duty.

There was a name for what he was—Killian would call him a whiny little bitch. Kade,
at over six feet tall and over two hundred pounds, could be a tough motherfucker,
but at the moment, he was acting like a pussy.
Suck it up. Do the dirty deed and get over it.

The human who waited on the other side for him was likely creaming himself in anticipation
of Kade’s arrival, hungry for the power about to be bestowed. Little did he know the
agony he would have to first endure. The anticipation of delivering that agony steadied
Kade like nothing else.

A red glow reflected off the door’s surface in front of his face, and he laughed without
humor. Oh, he was primed all right if his eyes were already glowing. He glanced around
in both directions. If it hadn’t been for the high-tech steel door, it’d look like
the average hallway with plain vanilla walls, plush chocolate carpeting, and cherry
handrails along the open balcony.

The house staff had made themselves scarce. They never liked to be around for the
screams. He supposed he should have had the room soundproofed when the reinforcements
were installed, but where was the fun in that? He pressed his hand against the biolock
and when the door whooshed open he stepped inside.

The human subjugate turned from the barred window. Even from across the room, Kade
could see the man shake with excitement. Hell, please let the man not have a woody—partly
why Kade preferred to approach male subjugates from behind their backs. The short,
stocky man wore only a pair of khaki shorts that went midthigh, his barrel chest sporting
a carpet of thick black hair.

Kade’s stomach churned again at the thought of touching the disgusting creature. His
customary rage would come on the heels of sinking his fangs into the subjugate. Then
he’d have a front-row seat to the man’s sins, thanks to his unique adjuvant ability.

“You washed?” Kade asked.

The man gave a jerky nod. “Yes.”

The human would never be clean. Neither would Kade for that matter. The man glistened
with a sheen of nervous sweat that made Kade want to hose down the bastard. That acrid
taste would linger on his lips. He motioned the subjugate to lean against the wall.

“Why?” the man asked.

“Don’t question me.” He bared his fangs. He could simply have told the subjugate he’d
need the extra support, but Kade didn’t believe in making things easier for these
humans. They had to learn their place in their newly adopted two-caste society, and
rule-number one demanded that Legion vampires must submit to a
Dominus
. And this human man was about to become one of the Legion.

The man did as Kade ordered, his blunt, ham-hock hands splayed on the wall. Kade approached
silently, acute hunger striking him hard. He hadn’t fed in nearly three weeks. The
queasiness of his stomach warred with his need for blood, but his fangs lengthened
anyway. The need would always win out.

Kade struck viciously at the carotid, tearing through skin, muscle, and membrane,
hot blood spurting across his tongue. A high-pitched shriek ripped from the man’s
lips. Kade pulled away, bringing tissue with him. Again he struck, and the endless
screams began.

Human, this is just the beginning.

It took only half an hour for the subjugate to break to Kade’s will and submit to
the life-transforming venom from his fangs. That was a record. Too bad he’d likely
be babysitting the wretch a few more hours, tending to the first couple of hand-feedings.
Only then could he safely leave the infant in another’s care and head to Seattle.

Neglecting the aftercare would lead to derangement. Even leaving the newborn vampire
to one of his staff didn’t relieve him of his responsibility to orient the guy to
an entirely new existence. Ah, the glamour of it all. How the fuck could a guy go
about quitting a job he was born for?

He would have offered up his left nut for an answer to that question.

The first sign of one of his nameless subjugates came from a light knock and then
an opened door. A thin, mousy guy poked his head in, barely spared a glance at the
blood on the floor, and nudged a stocky redhead into the room before pulling the door
firmly shut.

From the looks of her, she’d been used a lot without the benefit of the vampires’
curative serum. Bite scars tracked her arms, shoulders, and throat. Probably her legs,
too, but she wore jeans and a tank top, and he couldn’t see the rest of her skin.
Either she’d picked the wrong vampires to work for, or she got off on the scarring.
There were plenty of those types hanging around the
Immortalis
.

“You’re the best they could come up with?” Kade eyed her critically.

“I’m clean, and I had references.” She shrugged. “Who’m I doing?”

“Lovely,” he muttered. “I’ve eaten. Thank fuck for small favors.” He gestured to the
whimpering heap of vampire infancy on the floor. She gave Kade a vapid look, but made
her way to the guy’s side. Kade stood by to restrain the heap. When the hunger hit,
little could divert the infant from murder, other than exerting his brute strength.

The feeding went beyond tiresome and sloppy, but soon enough it ended. Not the best
experience, but not the worst, either. He could risk leaving the tweak with a surrogate
coach. He had much to do before meeting the liaisons Olen
Rex
had dumped on him, and the sun was close to rising. The trip to Seattle would take
four hours, maybe more with the shitty traffic on I-5. With a subjugate driver, Kade
could sleep on the way to the Akkadian Towers.

Before daylight hit, he had called in a car and driver and had already begun the trip
to the human-infested city of Seattle. Everything that could go wrong rolled from
one side of his brain to the other. The stakes were too high to pretend danger didn’t
exist in working with the VLO, over and above how much he despised getting screwed
over with the duty.

Enough time passed that he gave up trying to sleep and cracked open the UV blocking
window to let the rays in. At his age, the sun had no fatal effect on him, although
he preferred to avoid the light sensitivity and the weakness that came with solar
exposure. The sun’s power pulled him into a deep, dark slumber interrupted by his
chauffeur when they arrived in secured parking garage below the Akkadian Towers.

Still tired, he made his way into the Towers and up to his penthouse apartment. The
guards on the ground floor said nothing about his bloody clothing. He should have
cleaned up before the trip, but fuck it. Now would work.

Kade shed his clothes along the hallway to his master bedroom. The spacious room was
cool and well protected from sunlight by custom-designed blinds over the full-length
wall of glass facing the door. His jaw clenched rhythmically as he peeled off his
briefs, strode into the en suite bathroom on his right, and got the shower running.
He avoided his reflection in the mirror while he waited for the steam to rise. Stepping
under the jets of hot water, he savored the heat against his cold skin. Grim satisfaction
settled over him at last, warming him deeper than the water—down to his bones. He
ducked his head to wet his hair, and his eyes lingered on the blood trailing down
his body onto the pale tile at his feet. Diluted to a watery pink, it swirled around
and into the drain.

He rinsed the last clinging residue of blood from his chest and stepped from the shower.
A frown pulled at his lips as he toweled off. The Ancients wasted their time with
the humans. The
Dominorum
should be leading the
Immortalis
into the supremacy they existed for instead of allowing humans to lead them around
by the nut sack, allowing humans to make rules regarding what should have been vampire
business. They negotiated and compromised as if the humans were equals. In this, he
conformed more with the Legion’s philosophies.

The idea of equality revolted him, but it wasn’t Kade’s place to protest, only obey.
Wandering back into the bedroom, he threw on a fresh pair of jeans and a T-shirt,
growling as he went, but no amount of dissent would get him out of the unsavory task
of dealing with the pair from the VLO.

His experience with humans extended no further than ripping into their frail bodies
and mutating them into something more than human. He didn’t want any contact beyond
the sound of screams and tearing flesh, the warm, wet sensation of life ebbing away,
and the weak, shuddering beat of a useless muscle. Whether the subjugate survived
the change or not, each formed sweet retribution.

Olen had warned him the liaison humans were off-limits. Ordered to do them no harm,
he had to assist them in tracking one of his own. Aiding the enemy. It was treason,
though the
Dominorum
in general wouldn’t admit it. The Legion wouldn’t tolerate his involvement in the
VLO’s investigation, and he didn’t relish the imminent backlash.

He’d tried to warn Olen and Evangeline about the Legion’s discontent with the
Dominorum
, but the Ancients refused to accept they had anything but iron control over the impure
masses. Their pride would get them destroyed one day with Kade right alongside, because
he would fight to the death to protect the Ancients from any being—whether Legion,
Dominorum
, rogue, or human.

He headed back down the hallway to the main living area and stepped out onto the enormous
balcony overlooking the Puget Sound. The Sound was in a rare state of calm for this
time of year, the wind and rain from the morning subsided. The sun must have eventually
come out in the afternoon, but all that remained now of its passing was a red-orange
glow over the horizon.

The view from the penthouse encompassed a panorama of Seattle. There wasn’t much he
hated more than the sounds of human life around him, but he needed the bracing cold
of the fresh air. If it had been his call, he would have met the liaisons at a more
isolated location like the Ancient’s mansion or at his residence in Glacier.

He suspected Olen took delight in his discomfort or maybe wanted Kade to lose his
mind and slay the humans. It sure as fuck felt like another one of their irrational
tests. Wouldn’t surprise him if the
vesania
had polluted them early. Vampire madness was a bitch.

The Ancients should have chosen Ezra, another adjuvant with many more years of experience
than Kade. His friend would have been giddy with joy at the prospect of working with
the humans.

The liaisons were due to arrive soon, and each passing minute tightened his knotting
muscles. He rubbed the back of his neck to ease the tension and prowled around the
penthouse. Nothing he did could shake his premonition of impending disaster.

He jerked his cell from the back pocket of his jeans and punched in a familiar number.

“Hey, it’s me,” he said the second he heard the coarse voice on the other end. “The
damned VLO liaisons are on their way over to meet me here at the Towers to discuss
the bloodings. I know what the hell you’re thinking, but I can’t do anything about
it. The Ancients sent them.” He turned to the fast-darkening sky beyond the balcony,
his mood turning pitch-black along with it. “I think we have a problem.”