Bad Mouth (9 page)

“Like you showed me?” Kade’s voice thundered throughout the small room.

The man cowered in a whimpering heap.

“Kade, who is he?”

“Someone who should be dead.” His voice rose with each word until he was bellowing
at the Legion. “Why aren’t you dead? Are the others alive?”

“Yes, my lord.”

Kade turned away and roared with the rage of an erupting volcano. He upended a massive
mahogany desk and tossed it across the room, missing the window by mere inches. Val’s
hands flew to her ears to shield against the racket and terrible fear stabbed through
her in a sharp wave.

He whirled toward the Legion and drew a wicked-looking knife from behind his back.
How could he hide something that large? Had he been wearing that the whole time? When
he advanced on the cowering vampire, she launched herself in front of him, but he
brushed her to the side without a glance. Her heart raced madly. He was really going
to kill Dannon.

“Kade, no.” She latched onto his arm. “No!”

Chapter Twelve

Kade glared down at Val. He didn’t even look like himself with his face growing lean,
lengthening, and his fangs extending. She’d heard the reports about vampires who took
their more natural form but, like most humans, had never seen it. Pictures weren’t
even allowed.

“Please don’t do this,” she pleaded. “Talk to me. Tell me who he is.”

He looked back to the Legion and then to her again. He shook his head.

“Change back so you can talk to me.” She pulled hard on his armed hand with a strength
born of desperation. He shook her off and continued forward. His glowing eyes began
to elongate and slant, and he grew taller and thinner. She tried one more time, throwing
all her weight on his arm, but it was like trying to stop a tank. “Don’t do this in
front of me!”

He froze. Oh, thank the Lord that worked. He turned away from her and his features
began to shrink. When he lowered the knife, she released the breath caught in her
chest.

“Kade?”

“Get what you need from him,” he answered, his deep voice distorted. He wouldn’t look
at her. He didn’t look at the Legion either, but he spoke to him. “Answer her. If
you lie, I’ll rip your fucking intestines out and feed them to you.”

“Yes, my lord.” The Legion peeked up at her, terror masking his face.

“You stated you were boating on Lake Washington when the blooding there occurred.
You also stated you saw nothing on the pier where you moored. Now that we have your
attention, I need to know what you really saw.” Her words tumbled out. She wanted
to leave. Wanted to forget what had just transpired.

Wallace skated a look at Kade before peering at her with his watery, red eyes. “I
saw a vampire and two humans. I didn’t recognize any of them.”

She spared a glance at Kade, too, before responding. He seemed to be struggling for
control, and she worried he’d lose it before they could leave the house. “Is that
two humans including the victim or in addition to the victim? And are you sure you
didn’t know the vampire?”

“The victim was already lying on the pier, so it was two in addition to that one.
I’m sure I don’t know the vampire.”

Kade growled, sending the Legion into a fleshy lip-wobble.

“I-I’m telling the truth. I don’t know, and I didn’t see his face.”

She handed him the same packet of photos she’d shown Selene. Wallace checked each
one carefully.

“None of these. He was very big and wide, a warrior. These are all humans. Are they
deranged?” he asked. She nodded. “He couldn’t have been. He was older.”

“How could you tell?”

“He flashed.”

Flashed? Only the oldest vampires could flash. Kade couldn’t even flash. The kind
of speed that appeared to the eye as disappearing in thin air was a skill that took
many centuries to build. Her eyes closed. There was no way the Ancients could deny
it now. The Legion, maybe even the
Dominorum
, was involved in the derangements as well as the bloodings.

The air stirred next to her. She opened her eyes to Kade standing inches from her
side. Her muscles tensed, ready to launch between the vampires if necessary. Instead,
the sizzling arc of telepathy buzzed along her skin. Then Kade turned to her.

“Finished?” He radiated barely contained fury with his mouth curved into a frown,
his brows drawn close together, and his eyes like flaming coals.

“Kade—”

“Are you done here?” he asked curtly.

“Yes.”

He walked out, not waiting to see if she followed. She jogged to catch up to him.
He opened the car door for her and then slid in after her without a word.

“Who was he, Kade? What did you say to him?”

“None of your business.”

For a second, she wanted to use that knife on him, at least to club him on the head
with the pommel. Her face grew hotter the longer he sat in silence. He glanced at
her, his jaw clenching.

“It was nothing to do with your case, so drop it.”

“Are you
trying
to make me angry?”

“I have more important things to worry about than how to piss you off, don’t you think?”

Her cheeks flaming, she sat back against her seat, making sure no part of her made
contact with him. He really did have important things to worry about. For her, this
evidence would prove what she’d alleged all along, that it wasn’t merely rogues performing
illegal transformations. This implication of the
Immortalis
in the crimes could bring a world of turbulence to them, especially to Kade. But his
brush-off stung right to the deepest part of her.

“What did he do to you?” she murmured, her eyes downcast. She didn’t expect him to
answer, more wondering aloud than anything.

“Val.” His tone was soft, as if to make up for his harsh words. He waited for her
to look at him. “He was one of the house staff, one of the Ancients’ subjugates when
I was a boy.
Domina
Evangeline told me they’d all been executed for their crimes.” He looked away. “Instead,
I find they’ve been rewarded with transformation and near-immortal life.”

The earth opened under her feet. Or at least she wished it would. Wished it would
rise up to swallow her and her wash of remorse. She should have let him kill that
Legion, though it was better in the long run that he hadn’t. The last thing the
Immortalis
needed was murder charges brought against their prince.

“Why?” he asked the night. “Why were they rewarded?”

She took his hand in hers and lifted it to her lips. She had no answer for him, only
her sympathy. A weak substitute for a man still tortured by his past. But not defeated
by it.

“We’ll find out, Kade. I promise you that.”

“We?” His brows rose. “The Ancients hold the answers, and baby, you don’t want to
deal with the Ancients.”

“I deal with them all the time. It’s my job, remember?”

“Not like this you don’t. They won’t like that I know.”

It broke her heart that his parents had treated him so badly. Had lied to him. She
couldn’t imagine what he was feeling right now. “Are you afraid of them?”

“No. I’d be afraid for you, if you mess with them.”

“You would?”

His words and the look in his eyes thawed her anger until it melted away. He leaned
into her, and then his mouth was on hers. Untangling his hand from hers, he cupped
the back of her head. Her arms slid over his shoulders, and she pulled him deeper
into the kiss. The slide of his tongue burned into her. Her body was alive in a way
she’d never experienced, every cell humming with sensation. The rich, dark scent of
him went right to her head and crowded out the rational thoughts clambering for purchase.
She tensed to pull away, but then he broke the kiss long enough to speak.

“Mmmm. You taste like berries and mint. Need to go anywhere else tonight?” He ducked
his head, letting his lips graze her throat. And then he kissed her again and again
and again. As if he couldn’t stop, couldn’t get enough. She couldn’t answer with him
claiming her mouth. Laughter bubbled up, and she had to push gently at his shoulders.

“Yes, but I’m not going to.” No way could she concentrate on work anymore with her
rational being taking a hike. Oh, she was in trouble. His hands had wandered southward
as she spoke, his face nuzzling hers. He took her mouth again, his drug of choice
at the moment, and he was hers. Intoxicating. She couldn’t think with him peeling
her clothes away like a kid opening presents on Christmas morning.

“I need this right now,” he whispered against her lips. “I need you so fucking much.
Don’t deny me.”

And the depth of the want in his voice obliterated any objection left in her. He took
a moment, still lip-locked with her, to raise the glass divider between them and the
driver, and then he pushed her skirt up and ripped her panties away. As if the way
he touched wouldn’t have melted them off her eventually. She unbuckled his belt, opened
the front of his jeans, and rubbed the length of him through the denim.

“That’s so damn good, baby,” he whispered against her lips. He was hot and hard and
silky when she reached in. He groaned, rolled back into his seat, and tugged her toward
his lap. “Come here. Take it.”

She straddled his lap while he opened her shirt. Her bra posed no challenge for him.
He was at the perfect level and seemed infatuated with her C cups. His mouth worked
over her nipples, kissing and nipping and sucking until her breath rasped in ragged
pants. She’d never known the powerful aphrodisiac such lavish attention could be.
She cradled his head with her arms and pressed her cheek against the softness of his
hair.

“These are awfully pretty, Val. I’m a little distracted,” he said breathlessly. He
kissed her lips again, sweet and shallow. He worked his hand between their bodies
and shifted his erection to her entrance. His voice went deep and deliciously rumbly.
“I want you. I need inside you now.”

“Yes, Kade. Yes.”

He guided her hips as she lowered onto him and welcomed the slow, erotic burn of the
intimate invasion. He grunted through clenched teeth, his head tipping back against
the seat. The sight of his exposed throat, with that sexy Adam’s apple, supercharged
the fire blazing in her core.

She leaned forward, driving down to take him deeper, and showered his smooth skin
with openmouthed kisses. He rewarded her with powerful thrusts, his breathing hard
and erratic. Kade was a noisy lover, and every raspy sound struck an unbearably carnal
hunger in her. His involvement in loving her was all consuming, his body, mind, and
soul engulfed with his passion.

“That’s it, baby,” he murmured. Unbearable tension coiled inside of her at the sound
of his hoarse voice at her ear. Then he intensified that sweet tension as he nipped,
licked, and sucked a blazing path from her ear down along the column of her throat
to her collarbone. He stroked every inch of her exposed flesh within his reach before
settling his grip at her hips to drive her forcefully into his hard thrusts. “Yes,
yes, yes. Ride me. Ah, pound my cock.”

Fine tremors of pleasure rippled through her, building and building with each slick
stroke of his thick shaft. He filled her with delicious heat and friction until ecstasy
burst along her limbs, devouring her, and he was right behind. His legs began to shake,
and then his fangs flashed. He wrapped her tightly in his arms, curving his hands
over her shoulders and pressing her down for deep penetration. Then he came with her
name on his lips.

Val went limp against him, her pulse thumping nearly out of her chest and her breath
harsh. A sheen of sweat covered her skin. She was suddenly glad the car interior was
toasty.
A car
. She’d just had hot, sweaty sex in a backseat. This probably should have been checked
off her to-do list in high school.

“Damn, you don’t know what those tits do to me.”

With a groan, she pushed off his chest. “Lovely, Kade. Very refined.”

He wasn’t smiling, though. He had a strange look on his face, a stunned look. With
a slight shake of his head, his attention went to her shirt as he slowly buttoned
her back up. She’d been stroking her fingers through his slightly dampened hair when
she stilled. This night was going to haunt her. It couldn’t have been a more monumental
mistake.

“This—what we’re doing—it’s a bad idea, isn’t it?” she asked.

“Well, yeah, of course it is.” He met her gaze and grinned.

He lifted her off him with a soft groan and settled her in her seat. She took a minute
to rearrange her clothing and allowed him time to do the same. After searching futilely
for a way to address what they’d done, she gave up and asked a question that had been
at the back of her mind since the encounter with Wallace. “How old does a vampire
get before he can flash?”

He drew her legs over his lap and pulled her into the crook of his arm as if he hadn’t
a care about what had happened between them. She liked his face so close to hers.
It felt intimate.

“I’d say six hundred years. At least six hundred. More like eight hundred.”

“
Immortalis
involvement in the murders is going to cause a lot of problems for you.”

“More than you know. Believe it or not, there aren’t many vampires old enough to develop
that ability.”

“At least it narrows down the search.”
Drastically
.

“Comforting.”

“Smart ass.”

He laughed. “I can’t believe you just cussed.”

She had cursed, hadn’t she? “It’s because you’re a terrible influence.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever said the word
ass
around you.” He ran his hand over her rear. “Maybe next time we—”

She pressed her fingers against his lips. “Don’t go there.”

“You want to stay at my place? I hole up at dawn, but we have a little time…”

She peered out the window. They were parked at the curb of her apartment building.
“Oh. How long have we been here?”

“The whole time.”

“You mean your driver—”

“Has been patiently waiting for us to finish fucking, yes.”

She covered her face with both hands. As usual lately, her skin was hot under her
fingers. It was wild enough to do what they’d done without adding the thought of a
semiwitness to their impulsive behavior.

“It’s okay, Val. He didn’t hear a thing.” He grinned. “Compulsion.”

She lowered her hands and glanced at his amused expression, but it was the underlying
gleam of male satisfaction that made her decide her wanton abandon had been worth
this embarrassment.

“No, I can’t stay at your place.” Yeah, that would only lead to more wanton abandon.
She grabbed his arm to keep him in the car and climbed over him to get to the curbside
door. “I appreciate it, but you don’t need to get the door for me every time, Sir
Lancelot. Now,” she sighed, “let me get this walk of shame out of the way. I’ll see
you tomorrow night.”