Blood Shadows (15 page)

He snatched a glance in her direction as she strolled further into the room, the concrete cold and rough beneath her bare feet. She leaned against the workbench as he turned his attention back to what he was doing. The concentration in his eyes was intense as he screwed another component back on, those sexy fingers working swiftly and deftly with tiny fittings, as adeptly as they did the larger ones.

He seemed neither irritated nor bothered by her presence, the unlocked door indication enough that she could wander. And she needed to show him that she wasn’t intimidated.

She reached for the helmet beside the toolbox – black, glossy, the visor blacked out. ‘Have you any idea how many times we’ve tried to impound that bike of yours? As well as your car.’

‘Then you guys should learn to drive faster.’

‘Anything over fifty miles per hour is prohibited, Kane. Even for the unit.’ She glanced at him to see his attention was still on his bike, so she subtly assessed the array of tools in the box beside her. She focused on the crowbar, the chisel and the screwdrivers. A couple were small enough that she might have a chance of concealing them. ‘Not that prohibited means anything to you, right? What was your last recorded speed? Eighty?’

‘At least I can handle the speed. Which is more than can be said for your lot.’

‘We have to watch for civilians, which is clearly the last thing on your mind.’ She pulled the helmet on. She lifted the visor up and closed it again before taking it back off.

‘You never get told about not touching things that don’t belong to you?’ he asked with a fleeting glare.

‘The rule doesn’t seem to apply to you.’

As his navy eyes met hers, her stomach jilted, but instead of confrontation, his attention turned back to what he was doing. ‘You’ve got an answer for everything, Caitlin. That tongue needs taming.’

‘And are you planning to be the one who does it?’

He almost smiled. ‘I’m planning all sorts for you, shadow reader.’

The instant stirring she felt was inexcusable, her heart skipping a beat. ‘For someone who seemed very keen to get their hands on me earlier, you’re suddenly very lax with your time.’

‘Time we’re going to have to make up for, but I’m sure we’ll manage.’ He reached for another tool, his eyes narrowed in concentration, his jaw tense as he prised something off the machine. He rubbed his hands on a cloth before swiping the back of his hand across his forehead. There, in the garage, she could almost mistake him for human, had his sneer at whatever was causing him difficulty not given a hint of those incisors.

As the stir in her abdomen deepened, she tried to distract herself by focusing on some of the things he had done. The sadistic streak he was renowned for. Behind those intoxicating eyes and enticing smile was a compassionless and twisted heart and mind. He was damaged. She’d never been able to segregate the reports sufficiently to prove it, but what had happened to Arana had made him worse. She was sure of it. Before then he had been bad; since then he had become monstrous. Xavier could say what he liked but she had no doubt that plenty of those cases they wanted to convict him for were the result of his seeking answers. And a part of her, a tiny part that remembered the outrage she’d felt on reading those psychic reports of what had happened to her parents, understood.

But it didn’t excuse what he’d done. And she had to keep telling herself that, just as she needed to keep reminding herself there was nothing appealing enough about him to warrant her attraction. Nothing at all.

And then he frowned, frustration emanating from his stunning eyes – eyes that had once emanated love. Because he had loved his sister. No one could dispute that. They had been inseparable – a bond that had been tightly formed after witnessing their parents’ slaughter on their homeland by anti-vampiric vigilantes. From a young age he had protected her and cared for her. In many ways it seemed she had been his salvation. Then she had been murdered. And the darkness had been unleashed.

Caitlin snapped from her thoughts.

She needed to get closer to the corrugated door to check it out. She had to make the most of every opportunity.

She folded her arms and strolled over to stand beside him, to look down at what he was doing. She saw his gaze linger on her ankles, her calves before turning his attention back to the machine. It gave her a warm flush to know he was checking her out, until she berated herself, reminding herself it was all just game playing. A game Kane Malloy was more than adept at.

She backed away and wandered over to the corrugated door to examine the padlock. It was as basic as the locks on the door.

‘Back where I can see you,’ he said.

‘I’m not doing anything.’ She glanced back over her shoulder at him to see he was glowering at her. She pulled away from the door and circled past the other side of him. ‘So where do you really live? Because it sure isn’t here, is it?’

She looked down at the trapdoor in the floor and ran her hands over the cool leather of the punchbag on her way back across to the car. She stopped at the exposed engine and assessed it as she waited for him to answer. She sauntered around the periphery of the car, her fingers tracing over the silky paintwork before coming full circle to the driver’s door. His refusal to answer didn’t surprise her. Resting her hip against it, she folded her arms. ‘Did you go out to feed earlier?’

His eyes remained narrowed pensively on the engine.

‘Do you need to feed often?’ she added.

‘You mean is it different for us master vampires?’

‘Is it?’

‘What else have you been itching to ask me, Caitlin? Where I hang out? When I took my first bite? What kind of women I like? What I do when I’m not committing crimes? Where on the human body I like to feed?’ He reached for another tool. ‘All those uninventive little questions.’

‘You hang out mainly on the east side of Blackthorn but sometimes come west. You prefer the basement bars and clubs. You like your females experienced, a little obvious but sexy without being slutty. You like mechanics, obviously, and playing cards. When you feed you prefer the neck or the inner thigh. I don’t know when you took your first bite, but I’m guessing that you were fairly young.’ Her attention on him didn’t flinch as she tentatively awaited his confirmation.

It felt like a lifetime before he responded. ‘What’s my middle name?’

‘James. Kane James Malloy. If the records are correct.’

He almost smiled, his gaze meeting hers fleetingly before he turned his attention back to what he was doing. ‘Genuine little stalker, aren’t you?’

‘I’ve studied the archives. You moved into the area just before the regulations came into force. You bought out most of the east side, some of the south and north. We don’t know where you came from exactly, but have indications it might have been somewhere north. The Malloy clan dominated areas up there for centuries. Your family line dates back pre-1200s, though where you fit into that timeline we don’t know. It’s unusual for a vampire to migrate that far from their homeland. Especially a master vampire.’ She paused. ‘There must have been good reason for you to leave. Maybe the challenge of getting somewhere new under your thumb?’

‘I’m not here for control, Caitlin, just to have a good time. One long vacation.’

‘Most people swim, read or go trekking on vacation. They don’t murder, maim and assault other campers.’

She could have sworn she detected another fleeting smile, but it could just as easily have been a sneer. ‘When I see something out of line, I do something about it. It’s what master vampires do. We keep order. It’s what our bloodline dictates. And we’re sure as fuck better at it than the Higher Order sat on their thrones in Midtown bowing and scraping to the likes of your self-elected powers.’

‘The Higher Order work actively with the Global Council on many issues to improve the situation of your kind.’

He exhaled curtly. ‘You don’t believe that any more than I do. Any more than any vampire who doesn’t live in the privileged Midtown believes.’

‘I know the situation isn’t perfect, but agreements were made. Agreements your Higher Order signed.’

‘They are not my Higher Order. I have nothing to do with them.’

‘So it’s true – master vampires are a separate race within the species.’

He wrenched another piece from his bike.

She frowned at his silence. ‘Is it true you dual feed? That you use blood and energy? Is it true that’s what makes you different?’ She knew she had to be wary of how far she pushed. ‘The Higher Order are nervous of you, right? Because you’re stronger?’

He acknowledged her only with a glance.

‘So when you see something out of line, you say you do something about it,’ she added. ‘You think you have that right?’

‘I don’t harm anyone who doesn’t deserve it.’

‘So everyone you’ve ever hurt was asking for it?’

He reached for his bottle and leaned back on a braced arm, every taut muscle in his biceps, shoulders and chest tensing enticingly. ‘The problem with you third-species agents is you spend so long focusing on what I’ve done, you don’t ask why I did it. Like I’ve said, we have different lores. Why do you think the people you interview don’t speak? You think it’s purely out of fear? Has it never crossed your mind it’s because they understand that’s the way it is? That they’re loyal? Things go on that your kind have no understanding of.’

She strolled back across to the bench. ‘Then tell me. Help me understand.’

‘There’s nothing to understand other than that there’s an order to things. An old order. Some get told what to do; others take charge because they’re born with that right or earned it. That’s all there is to it.’

‘And which are you?’

‘I was born with it, and my actions have justified me keeping it. Whatever your reports say, there are two simple reasons you can’t corroborate half those accusations – it’s either lies or unwarranted. And your so-called witnesses know it.’

‘You’ve had plenty of opportunities to be judged fairly. You prefer to avoid it.’

‘Which, as far as the VCU is concerned, is representative of my guilt as opposed to me not giving a fuck about your systems. I’m not accountable to the VCU – or anyone.’

‘That’s right – you’re above any lores except your own.’

He placed his bottle back on the floor and wiped his hands on the nearest cloth. ‘I’m above Carter’s, for sure. And I sure as hell don’t need to justify myself to his supremacy mission. His ways are nothing to do with protecting our species, no matter what he claims. He wants to control us. He wants to keep humans at the top, while he’s too arrogant to realise there’s no competition.’ Picking his beer up again, he stood and strolled towards her. ‘If we wanted to be on top, we’d take you down overnight.’

She clutched the edge of the bench as he stopped in front of her, his now undivided attention making every hair on the back of her neck stand on end. His masculine scent lingered tantalizingly on his skin, mixing with the scent of beer and engine oil. ‘Confident of that, are you?’

‘We have our way of dealing with things. Effective ways.’

‘Through threats, torture and murder, you mean?’

He ran the rim of his bottle across her collarbone. ‘Look at you taking the moral high ground. There’s nothing less moral than peering into a species’ most intimate part and stealing their thoughts and memories.’

Caitlin swallowed hard against the resentment in his tone. ‘Unless it suits,’ she said, refusing to be intimidated by the intimacy of the act.

‘Your species used to help us keep order; there was nothing wrong with that. Now you just buckle and bow to control-freaks who think they have the right to tell my kind how to live.’

‘As opposed to shadow readers being enslaved to the likes of you, you mean? Selling information that caused disputes and riots and disloyalty. It’s the place of the courts to judge. I just act as a mirror, exposing truths – nothing more.’

‘Truths of a world you know nothing about. Have no experience of.’

‘I’ve seen enough.’

‘Really?’ He lifted the bottle back to his lips. ‘You know that’s why Carter wants me, right? You do know he doesn’t want to imprison me? Or did he forget to tell you that part?’

Unease swept through her. ‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean you know he wants me to work for him. He has told you that, right?’

She exhaled curtly. ‘Yeah, sure he does. He’s desperate for a vampire on the payroll.’

He frowned pensively. ‘So he didn’t tell you?’

Caitlin tried to read any hint of a lie behind his eyes, but they were as sincere as they’d been when he’d had her pinned to the table. ‘Work for him doing what exactly?’

Kane stepped beside her and placed the bottle on the bench. ‘Carter wants to rule the third species with a rod of iron,’ he said, packing his tools away. ‘Why do you think he’s one of the most vehement advocates for keeping the third species divided? He keeps us apart because if we ever got together, you lot wouldn’t stand a chance. And the prospect of having a master vampire under his control in case it ever does kick off, well, that’s just too much power for one man to ignore. He knows the best way to control the third species is with one of their own. And Carter likes control.’