Blood Secrets-Valorian 1 (23 page)

She wanted to bite down on his finger. To give him one ounce of the pain that he had inflicted on his victims. But she was too weak even to spit. Besides, she had the foresight to consider what his blood might do to her. Could she turn? Hadn’t she read that in one of the texts?

Sliding his finger out of her mouth, he brought it to his lips and rubbed her saliva over his flesh. Revulsion filled her, and she gagged. Turning her head, she spit up bile. There was nothing else in her stomach to bring up.

Shaking his head, Mel grinned. “Ah, what’s the matter, bitch? Don’t you feel well?” As he snickered, he put his hand on her breast, squeezing and pinching hard. “You feel good to me.”

Clamping her eyes shut, Eve tried to pull away from his horrid touch. But she could do no more than arch her shoulder and slightly roll her hip. He laughed at her effort and continued to pinch and grab her flesh. Thankfully, the fabric of Caine’s robe was a barrier between her skin and his, but she could still feel the iciness of his touch. It was as though someone had opened a window and a cold wind had blown through the room.

Flinching as if struck, Mel yanked his hand back from her body. He glanced over his shoulder nervously. “I’m doing it, Master. I was just playing a bit.”

Eve rolled her head back and stared at Mel. Was he hearing voices? Or was that a whisper she had heard on the breeze that swept over her. Had someone spoken Mel’s name?

Before she could consider it, Mel stood, walked around and stooped down by her head.

He hooked his hands under her armpits and lifted her up. Her legs were like rubber and she couldn’t support her own weight. She crumpled into his arms.

With a sigh that sounded like disgust, Mel grabbed her around the chest and began to drag her across the room. “I guess I gave you too much V.”

A few feet more and they were at a doorway. Pale yellow light spilled through it. Not light from electricity, but a glow from several candles. He dragged her through the room.

“Won’t matter, I guess. In an hour you’re going to be dead and I’m going to be immortal.”

While he dragged her across the cement, Eve could see her surroundings more clearly.

They had entered a vast area, a warehouse-type structure. Some of the features she recognized as industrial. Long chains hung from the vaulted roof. On the end were hooks in varying sizes. They were in some sort of abandoned warehousing unit. She saw dirt, trash and what looked like hay on the floor as he pulled her along.

The rancid smell was stronger out here. But the air was also fresher. She could almost place it. Something from her childhood. A disturbing memory of when her father had taken her to a farm one summer. And she’d seen her first murder.

She was in a killing house, all right. The odor was one of animals, of blood and of death.

She was in an old meat-processing plant, she now knew. And she was the animal on the chopping block.

W hen Mahina pulled her cruiser into the barren stockyard of the old slaughterhouse, the first thing Caine noticed was Mel’s red Pontiac sitting in front. He hadn’t even made an effort to hide it. For some reason Caine found that vulgar. As if Mel was flaunting his crimes. Daring the authorities to arrest him.

Anger flared inside. Caine couldn’t wait to get his hands on the murdering vampire. Mel had better pray that Eve was relatively unharmed; because if she wasn’t, Caine knew he wouldn’t be able to maintain his vow not to hurt another being.

After Mahina parked, she and Caine got out of her vehicle. The lab’s SUV pulled up behind them. Jace and Lyra jumped out, both of them wearing flak jackets and carrying guns. As a rule, the OCU didn’t possess weapons, but the baron had made an exception in this case, granting them all the power to carry while on duty.

Caine decided to forgo a gun, as he knew he’d be way too tempted to use it when he saw Mel Howard.

Mahina unholstered her weapon. “Okay, this is how it’s going down. I go in first. Caine, you’re behind me. Jace and Lyra come in when I give the go-ahead.” She stared at Caine, her eyebrow raised. “Everyone clear on that?”

He nodded, but knew he couldn’t promise her he wasn’t going to rush in if he saw Eve.

That was all he could think about—saving her.

Mahina moved forward. Caine followed close behind. Approaching the main service door, she stopped and checked the knob for a lock. There was none, so she slowly opened it.

Entering gun first, Mahina stepped over the threshold. Once she was through, Caine moved into the dark abandoned structure. Neither one of them needed a flashlight to see.

The smell of new and old death hit him like a sledgehammer to the abdomen. He nearly doubled over from the intensity of the sensation. Closing his eyes, he tried to sense if the new death was Eve’s.

He didn’t think so, but he knew she was in trouble. He could sense her alarm and confusion swirling all around him. It was disjointed and incoherent. She must have been drugged. Vampatamine was his guess. He feared they didn’t have much time.

After they passed the doorway, they entered what looked like a series of offices. The windows were broken, and the desks long gone. Just the dirt and trash of something long ago forgotten remained on the cement floors.

Once they passed the offices and ascertained there was no imminent danger, Mahina radioed to Jace and Lyra that it was safe to enter. Once done, she and Caine continued on into the open warehouse area.

Mahina stopped in her tracks, glanced over her shoulder at Caine and whispered, “I can smell the bastard.”

“Me, too.”

They continued walking side by side now. Caine had conveniently forgotten to stay behind. He couldn’t now, even if he wanted to. His predatory instincts had kicked in. He had a vampire to hunt down.

As they moved farther into the warehouse, it became apparent quite quickly that there was no one else in the expansive room. There were no walls or structures to hide behind in the vast area. It was one large, open floor space. Probably when in use, it had been the shipping and receiving area of goods and merchandise.

The slaughterhouse was where they needed to go. That was where Mel would do his work. His summoning. Where the stink of death and decay already permeated the air like a cloying perfume.

Caine pointed to the far wall. Mahina nodded and picked up her pace. They were nearing a set of double doors. A faint yellow glow emanated from underneath the metal.

Candlelight, most likely.

The odor of fear, Eve’s fear, distinctive by the licorice taste, intensified as they got closer.

Caine pushed forward intent on crashing through the doors. Eve was calling to him. He was sure of it. She was waiting for him to come. He wouldn’t fail her again.

Before he could, Mahina grabbed his arm, yanking him to a halt. “I can hear some chanting. Sounds like two voices.”

“Are you sure?”

She screwed up her nose and tilted her head, then shook it. “No, but it’s strange. I can hear him, but also this low-level hum just under his octave. Like a second voice, but not.”

“I don’t care if it’s Balam himself having a sing-along with the bastard, I’m going in. Eve is still alive—I can feel it. But I’m not sure for how much longer.”

Mahina let him go and nodded. “Okay, but stay behind me. We’ll go in together—on three.”

They both looked over their shoulders at Jace and Lyra as they crept along the side of the warehouse wall. Mahina put up her hand to tell them to stop where they were and to wait for them to move. They both nodded that they understood.

Resigned to being held back, Caine huddled up behind Mahina as she took a position in front of the double metal doors. Wrapping her hands around her gun, she counted,

“One…two…three.”

She kicked in the door and rushed through it. Caine was right behind her. If she had turned they would’ve been nose to nose, but she never got the chance to do that.

The sound of gunfire rang in Caine’s ears even before he knew what was happening.

Mahina pushed him to the ground as she took two bullets. One in her right hand, and the other in her side.

Diving across the room, Caine watched as the detective fell to the floor, her weapon falling from her crimson-stained hand. Blood quickly drenched the side of her shirt. The side not protected by the Kevlar vest. It had been a lucky shot.

Finding refuge behind a turned-over metal filing cabinet, Caine surveyed the room and spied Mel standing by a makeshift stone altar, candles all around, with a gun in his hand.

Behind him on the altar, blood stained the stone, dripping down the side. And Eve lay spread out on top, Caine’s robe that she wore pulled open and her naked form glistening in the flickering light of the candles. Her arm hung lifelessly over the flat surface.

“You’re too late, assholes! The deed is done.” Mel laughed hysterically as he swung his weapon back and forth. Caine didn’t think he was in control; the vampire was insane.

Clenching his teeth, Caine wanted to rush out and rip Mel’s throat out with his bare hands.

Tears sprang to his eyes. She couldn’t be dead. She just couldn’t. He would’ve felt it. He was sure he would’ve felt it deep inside his soul. He was too late. Again, too late to save the woman he loved. History had a nasty habit of repeating itself.

Glancing over the cabinet again, Caine caught sight of something that set his heart racing and his throat constricting with emotion. Movement from atop the altar.

He could clearly see the rise and fall of her chest. Eve’s head turned to the side. Her eyes opened. They stared right at him, into his heart.

Ducking back down, Caine had to think and consider. If he rushed Mel, he could get shot and have no chance of saving Eve. But what other option did he have?

He glanced over at Mahina, as she still moved on the floor. She had managed to pull herself to the side behind a stack of wooden flatbeds. She was slumped over, but still alive. She looked up and met his gaze. She shook her head, letting him know she had no ideas.

Pressing his lips together, he tried to think of something else. Panic surged through him.

If he wasn’t quick enough, Eve would die.

The radio clipped to his collar crackled to life.

“Chief, I’m just outside the doors. I have a clear shot.” It was Jace.

“Are you sure?” he whispered into the radio. “You might hit Eve.” Glancing over his shoulder, Caine could see Jace’s face in the crack between the double doors.

“I won’t. Lyra has a smoke screen spell. It’ll work, trust me.”

Nodding, Caine gave him the thumbs-up.

On a count of three, Caine took a deep breath and watched as a thick layer of black smoke erupted from beneath the doors and moved across the room as if alive. Caine popped up from behind his metal shield and charged. At the same time, Jace burst through the doors and fired two shots at Mel. Both low and aimed at his legs.

Taken by surprise, Mel stumbled to the right and fired off a shot. But it was enough to afford Caine time to reach him and kick the gun from his hand. But that didn’t put Mel down.

Growling like a wild animal, he launched himself at Caine, his hands out like claws, making a grab for Caine’s throat. As he jumped, his boots knocked over a couple of candles around the altar. They fell over and rolled across the floor into a corner.

Sidestepping, Caine landed a punch to the side of Mel’s head, right to the temple. This time he was stunned and fell to one knee. Taking advantage, Caine grabbed him by the hair and kneed him in the face. Not giving him any time to react, Caine dragged Mel across the floor and put him on the ground. Caine kneeled over him and punched him two more times in the face.

“We got you, Mel. You’re going to jail for the rest of your unnatural life.”

That was when he started laughing.

Caine stared down at him incredulously.

“You’ll never take me. My soul is reserved for him.”

Caine watched in horror as blood erupted from Mel’s mouth like a geyser. He bent down and tried to pry Mel’s lips apart. The vampire convulsed on the floor, clawing at Caine’s hands. Finally, Caine got his mouth open but it was too late.

Mel had bitten off his tongue and was choking on the blood.

In a matter of seconds, Mel’s eyes rolled back in his head and he sagged onto the cement floor, dead.

With no further thoughts for Mel, Caine pushed to his feet and rushed over to the stone dais. Eve blinked up at him, her eyes glassy with tears. He stroked her hair and murmured to her. “I’m here, Eve. You’re safe now.” Leaning over, he pressed his lips to her forehead. Her skin was cold and clammy. He ran a hand over her neck and found her pulse. It was there, but weak. Had the bastard given her too much V?

After wrapping her back up in his robe, he slid an arm under her legs and around her waist just as fire erupted in the corner of the room. A few lit candles had found their way over to two jerry cans of gasoline. Suddenly Caine became aware of the smell of fuel all around them. He glanced down at the cement floor around the stone altar. It was slick with gasoline. The place was going to go up into flames any minute. With his senses so focused on Eve, he had missed the obvious odor. A stupid error on his part.

Standing up, he cradled Eve in his arms, pressing her close to his chest. When he turned, he saw Jace and Lyra tending to Mahina on the ground. Blood stained the cuff of Jace’s jeans. He’d obviously been shot.

They both glanced up at him as he ran past, Eve safe in his arms.

“Time to go,” he grunted. “The place is going to blow.”

One on either side of Mahina, Jace and Lyra lifted her up and followed Caine out of the slaughter room.

As he rushed out of the building, Caine kept looking down at Eve, making sure she was still there, still real. Her breathing was shallow and he worried that she wouldn’t make it.

By the time he walked out of the warehouse, a few other police cruisers had surrounded the building, their red and blue lights flashing like beacons. A fire truck was wailing in the distance.

Eve moved in his arms and he looked down at her. She smiled up at him and opened her mouth to speak. She mumbled something that he couldn’t quite hear.