Blood Dark (11 page)

‘I have something for you,’ Kane said, stepping over to his own jacket.

He pulled out two drawstring pouches. Opening her jacket, he tucked the pouches into the inside pocket. ‘One is full of grains. It’s a good distractor for most fourth species if you drop them on the floor. It’ll give you a chance to get away. If you don’t get away, the other pouch contains ash dust. It’ll repel most. Keep them with you at all times,’ he said, gently clutching the lapels on her jacket as he tugged her close. ‘It won’t work against everything, but short of locking you up here, it’s all I can do.’

‘You
are
expecting others.’

‘I always find it’s better to expect anything. Of course, if you come up against a big bastard like you did this morning use the best survival technique there is.’

‘Which is?’

‘Run like fuck.’

She broke a smile.

‘Please, Caitlin,’ he said, his grip back on the lapels of her jacket, his mouth dangerously close to hers. ‘Come back to me tonight.’

C
aitlin sat
cross-legged on her chair, her boots abandoned on her office floor, notes spread around her desk as she pensively and rhythmically tapped her pen on the list of all the dates and times and locations of murders.

‘He’s far from done with you,’
Sirius had declared on his way out of the door in the wake of his threat that morning two days before. ‘You’re alive because he wants you alive. You can get to him because he wants you to get to him, just like that night you pursued him into the club. And when he’s done, he will spit you out
.

‘Open your eyes, Caitlin. Is your entire unit wrong? Kane uses people. It’s what he does. And you’re letting him do it. You don’t have to believe me. I don’t expect you to. But however you feel about me is irrelevant. Whatever you think of your father, of Rob, of Max, of Xavier … they’re not evil. They did what they had to because they understood what they were up against. People, good people, do terrible things at times of war. It doesn’t make them bad – it makes them survivors. The question is: how many of them are you willing to take down with you before Kane’s done?’

Sirius hadn’t seen what had happened between them though. He hadn’t been there in that last crucial moment when she’d seen Kane for who he truly was. At a time when he could have so easily played the hero by killing the soul ripper for her and left her indebted to him, he’d instead given her a chance to save herself. He had ultimately sacrificed his own vengeance to allow her hers. And in doing so, he had severed the ties between them. He had been the one to walk away. He had given her the option to be freed from him.

Except
she
had pursued
him
.

Her thumb mindlessly rubbed the chain that now permanently graced her ankle since the day Kane had given it to her.

She’d woken to find him lying next to her, backlit by the bedside lamp in his subterranean haven. Bare-chested and in nothing but sweat pants, he’d rested up on his elbow, watching her.

He’d smiled at her in a way that had made her tingle, her stomach clench as she’d gazed into his eyes. Eyes that lingered on hers with an easy confidence she had always loved about him.

‘Happy birthday, Caitlin,’ he’d said, his jaw resting on his knuckles.

Seven years of not expecting to ever see her thirtieth birthday, she’d expected to wake in Kane Malloy’s bed on the day even less.

‘So,’ he’d said, ‘shall we fuck now or later?’

She’d lifted her head off the pillow and swept back her hair so she could look him in the eyes.

And as she’d been greeted with that same entrancing hint of a smile, the same mischievous glint, it had been hard to suppress her own smile.

She’d reached out to shove at his chest. ‘You are
so
crass.’

‘I’ll take that as a “now”,’ he’d said, his smile broadening.

He’d pulled her beneath him, fending of her playful struggles with ease as her smile had matched his. And she’d chuckled as he’d eased back on his haunches to take hold of her ankles.

‘Keep still,’ he’d said as he’d rested her left foot on his thigh.

The small chain had glinted silver in the dim lamp light, though she had no doubt it was platinum.

He’d fastened it around her ankle, its coldness caressing her warm skin as much as the vampire fingers that had placed it there. It slid into place, the small pendant skimming her anklebone.

He’d laid down on top of her, between her thighs, his jaw back on his knuckles as he used his elbow to hold himself up so he could look in her eyes.

‘Family heirloom,’ he’d declared.

At first her breath had caught in her throat. Then she’d laughed.

Until she’d seen the sincerity in his eyes.

It had been one of those moments that had changed things, even though she still didn’t know if he’d been joking. His humour was so dark, so wry sometimes that she still struggled to read it. But what ultimately mattered wasn’t just that he knew it was her birthday, it was that he’d chosen to give her something to mark it. What mattered was that she knew she’d have no intention of ever taking it off again.

He’d caught her wrists, gently pinned them either side of her head, his lips having trailed down her throat, across her collarbone up to her ear. ‘Now are you ready for your present?’

‘That wasn’t it?’

‘Oh, how very materialistic of you, Caitlin Parish,’ he’d said, his raspy whisper against her ear having sent tingles down her spine. ‘You know me
far
better than that.’

Caitlin flinched as she caught the shadow in the corner of her eye, her feet instantly dropping to the floor, her thoughts snapping back to reality, to the here and now.

‘I owe you an apology,’ Meghan declared from the doorway as she held two steaming mugs of coffee.

Caitlin dropped her gaze back to her work, hoping she didn’t look too flushed. ‘What for?’

‘Me leaping on you like that this morning after what you’d just been through. I had no idea. Not your average morning, huh?’ she said, tagging on an attempt at a placating smile.

And not exactly the average afternoon either.

Meghan indicated towards the only other chair in the tiny space. ‘May I?’

Caitlin reluctantly held out a hand towards it by way of agreement, knowing she wasn’t going to get to opt out without appearing any more mardy than she already had.

‘The reason I’m here is because I want you to know I’m on your side,’ Meghan added, handing her one of the coffees. ‘I understand it must be difficult someone else taking over the case after you worked so intensely and committedly on it for so many years. You
are
the resident Kane Malloy expert. You know him better than anyone else in this division. Even before you spent those three days with him, you knew everything there was to know about him. I’ve read your files. They’re impressively detailed.’ She half expected Meghan to add on
to the point of obsession
. ‘I know the others didn’t give you an easy time taking it on and I know–’

‘And I appreciate your empathy,’ Caitlin interjected, ‘but that’s all it is: a case. You’re making it sound like you’re remarrying my husband after I’ve divorced him. It’s not that big a deal. Everyone else is making it that big a deal. It’s not to me.’

Even though that was exactly what it was, the extent of her territorial and protective instincts surprising even her.

Meghan pushed her lips out like the brightest student in class being corrected by the teacher. She tongued the imaginary lipstick from her upper teeth. ‘So it
really
is over then?’

‘There was nothing between us beyond a couple of intense days that got out of hand. We both got what we wanted and we moved on. That’s it.’

‘And the last couple of weeks …’

‘When I was asked to take time off after the court case until the attention died down? Disappearing like they wanted me to?’

‘But you came back. I have to say, that took courage after what you’d done. If you don’t mind me adding though, you’re lucky to still have a job.’

‘I’m sure it’s only because they had no choice – at least for now. The person who had exposed the corruption simultaneously being sacked wasn’t exactly going to look good for public relations.’

Meghan frowned. ‘Look, I know you’ve got enough on your plate with your latest case and I know revisiting this is the last thing you need, so maybe we could get this chat of ours over and done with now to get it out of the way.’

In a sinkhole with no excuse-trampoline to bounce her out of this one, Caitlin knew she had no option but to concede. ‘Sure,’ she said with a dismissive shrug as she threw down her pen and reached for the much-needed caffeine fix.

Meghan returned promptly with a leather-bound folder before closing the door behind her. She attempted to turn the chair more towards Caitlin but finally resigned to its still slightly awkward angle, a glimmer of frustration on her face at it not working quite as she’d intended. Sitting with a subtly impatient sigh, she set her notes to the right hand side of the folder, smoothed her hand over the new ream of paper to the left and clicked her pen in preparation. ‘Shall I fire away?’

‘Feel free.’

Meghan slid out a photograph from amidst her paperwork and laid it out directly in front of Caitlin. ‘My aims are both to predict Malloy’s next course of action as well as learn a little more about how he operates one-to-one.’

Caitlin took a mouthful of coffee and swallowed harder than she would have liked as she stared down into those navy eyes. He looked so harsh, so predatory in the picture, his eyes darkly threatening.

‘And you,’ Meghan said, her gaze as steady and confident as she’d seen on any agent, ‘thank goodness, are in the prime position to give me clues as to both.’ She flashed a smile. ‘Firstly, I’d like to recap quickly on what happened in the lead-up to those three days you spent with him, if that’s okay? I’d like to be sure I have it clear in my head.’

‘Go ahead.’

‘I don’t know if Matt’s told you, but I’ve been made fully aware of the confidential elements of the situation.’

Caitlin’s pulse raced a little faster. ‘Meaning?’

‘Meaning I know about the soul ripper.’

‘The court decided that should be kept classified. That
any
references to the soul ripper remained classified.’

‘It was felt important that considering I was taking over Kane’s case, I understood the background to the fullest extent.’

‘What exactly have you been told?’

‘That following the TSCD being forced to release Kane because of your illegal apprehension, Xavier Carter allocated a secret assignment to you. Due to you surviving Kane once, they suspected he had some purpose for you, that you may be a part of a bigger plot, so he asked you if you would accept an assignment to catch Kane in the act that could convict him once and for all. Of course, Xavier didn’t know that you had a personal motivation to take him up on his offer: you needed Kane to help you identify the fourth species creature that killed your family, that was coming for you within a matter of days. Basically Kane was your last shot to find out how to kill it, hence your somewhat precarious behaviour pursuing him in the first place.’

‘Precarious to you, maybe. I had nothing to lose.’

‘So you planned on killing it. Or die trying?’

‘It took my family from me. It took them to a living hell.’

‘The creature was merely summoned. Arana Malloy, Kane’s sister, took your family from you. She was the one who set the curse – the reason you were destined to die at its hands.’

Because her father, her soon-to-be stepfather, and her ex had all been roped in by the then head of the TSCD, Xavier Carter, to murder her.

‘Because they tied her to a post in an abandoned warehouse and let her be slaughtered by lycans in a bid to cause fractions in Blackthorn,’ Caitlin remarked, defensively. ‘Because up until that point, despite the rumours, there was nothing concrete against convicting Kane.’

Now they were all in jail thanks to her – all except her father who had died at the hands of the soul ripper days after Arana had set her vengeful curse. What Arana had actually done was leave a trail for Kane. A trail he had followed until he worked out exactly who had been involved that night.

Xavier’s plan had failed. There had been no outbreak between the lycans and the vampires because Jask had been smarter and had got to Kane first. But Xavier and the others had believed Kane would never link it back to them.

They had been wrong.

‘And for his revenge, Kane wanted
you
,’ Meghan said. ‘More to the point, he
needed
you, more specifically your soul – the very thing the soul ripper was coming for – to make it do his bidding. Because what he intended was poetic justice: to turn that soul ripper on Xavier, Rob and Max so they met the same fate as your father; that everyone who had been involved in the murder of Arana met that fate.’

‘Yes.’

‘So Kane sat back and waited for this soul-ripper to return to sate its compulsion by taking the last family member, namely you. You were the key commodity upon which his elaborate plan hung.’ She puffed out her lips again. ‘Cold and calculated, not to say patient – controlled even – doesn’t even begin to describe his actions, does it?’

Except behind closed doors, he hadn’t been quite so able to retain the monstrous reputation.

‘There was no other way for him to get what he wanted, what he needed,’ Caitlin said.

Meghan’s gaze lingered for a moment. ‘You feel for him.’

‘What happened to Arana was despicable. Gut-wrenching.’

‘Yet whereas Kane wanted them dead, you saw to it that those responsible were prosecuted. In fact, you saved their lives. You
saved
those responsible.’

Caitlin frowned. ‘I wanted justice.’

‘For who? Arana? Kane? Yourself?’

‘Vampires have their lores; we have our legal system. Which is why I did what I could to persuade Kane from his original course of action and enable conviction of those responsible instead.’

Meghan’s eyes narrowed. ‘And you believe this?’

‘Sorry?’

‘You really believe this is over for him? That the convictions by a system he doesn’t believe, which in fact he scorns, is sufficient for the brutal murder of his sister in their attempts to detain him? Do you
truly
think his vengeance has been fulfilled?’

Meghan’s stare was intrusive, as if burying deep into the chasm where every iota of insecurity Caitlin had about Kane’s intentions was hiding, and was cruelly dragging them out for her to confront.

But Caitlin stared her down. She gave her the only honest answer she could. ‘Isn’t that
your
job to work out now, not mine?’

Meghan’s eyes were unnervingly unreadable. ‘Okay,’ she said, reverting to flashing Caitlin a friendly smile as she glanced back down at her folder. ‘I think I’m clear, so let’s get back to those three days you spent with him.’ She skimmed her notes. ‘I’d really like to get under Malloy’s skin, understand more about how he operates one-to-one. There could be vital clues behind Malloy’s psychology in his treatment of you.’ She looked Caitlin square in the eyes. ‘How long did it take him to seduce you, Caitlin?’