Blood Shadows (17 page)

She frowned at the mocking in his tone. ‘Something had to be done.’

‘Yes, like dumping us all in places like Blackthorn with all the dregs and criminals of your kind and throwing up borders to make sure we stay contained there.’

‘Why did you come here, Kane?’

He silently held her gaze until she had no option but to look away. He was only ever going to disclose what he wanted to disclose, that much was apparent.

‘I know the set-up isn’t ideal,’ she said, looking down at the tiled floor.

‘Then why do you support it?’

‘Because there’s no alternative at the moment.’

‘Because you also don’t believe there’s any common ground, more like. Because you know your kind will never trust us enough to let us mix with your family, your friends, to work alongside you, to contribute to constitutions and regulations, to anything that might knock you off your power pedestal. Because when all is said and done, your instincts tell you we’re the enemy. And you lump all the third species in together because if one is let in, we all come in.’

‘We know about the prophecies, Kane. We know your kind tried to keep them secret but they’ve filtered through. Maybe the prospect of vampires taking over one day might be a small factor in the Global Council resisting your pleas for equality. Something that tells us that same equality won’t be the vampires’ key agenda if that prophecy is right.’

‘So we stay imprisoned until some fairy tale is proved right.’

She glanced across her shoulder. ‘And that’s what you think? That it’s a fairy tale?’

He almost smiled as he lifted the bottle to his lips again.

‘So that’s not why I’m here?’

Irritated by his silence, she looked ahead.

‘Who’s Rob?’ he asked.

Her heart skipped a beat. That was the last name she needed to hear. She almost asked how he knew of him, but then she remembered the cards in her apartment.

‘And why did he give you five years of birthday cards at once?’

She glowered across her shoulder at him. ‘You went through my things?’

‘Post. Paperwork. Drawers. You’ve got some sexy lingerie considering no one ever sees it. Or is it just in case Rob comes round?’

She snatched her attention back to the sink, away from the coaxing in his eyes. ‘You had no right to read those cards.’

‘Is he an ex?’

She maintained her silence.

‘Was he your first?’ he persisted. ‘Maybe even your only?’

She pressed her lips together, embarrassment warming her face.

‘Who finished it?’

She scowled back over her shoulder at him. ‘What’s that got to do with anything?’

‘I’m interested.’

‘So you can use whatever you learn against me?’

‘Was he any good?’

She looked back across to the windows, giving him a full view of the back of her head again. ‘I’m not having this conversation with you.’

‘Is that what ended it? Was he not up to the job? Or was it you?’

She focused on the gentle smatters of rain as she struggled to collect her thoughts.

‘A beautiful and sensual girl like you. Maybe he just didn’t have the skills to make the most of it.’

Heat flushed her cheeks again. It was a double-edged compliment, she knew that. Mocking. Derisive. She moved to stand, but he caught her upper arm, kept her seated, his hand, warm from the water, feeling almost human.

‘I didn’t say you could move,’ he said, his grasp, albeit gentle, reminder enough that he was still in charge. Equally a reminder to herself not to be over familiar. He was being pleasant only because her acquiescence allowed him to be.

The stirring in her lower abdomen was instant. Her heart pounded. She kept her gaze ahead, refusing to make eye contact, and hoped her lack of struggle would evoke him to let her go.

‘Maybe I should ask him as you’re clearly so reluctant.’

She glared back at him. ‘You leave him alone.’

‘Protective over him, too. Sweet. Shame he can’t do the same for you.’ He released her arm. ‘Have you told him about me?’

‘I don’t discuss work outside of it.’

‘But I’m more than work, aren’t I, Caitlin? I’m the vampire who can save your life.’

She looked deep into his eyes. Kane confirming it for the second time only made her more resolute. ‘So you claim.’

‘And did you tell your boyfriend that? Does he know what you really want with me?’

‘He’s not my boyfriend.’

‘All your male friends send you cards like that, do they?’ He knocked back a mouthful of beer. ‘I’m assuming that, as the cards were never posted, it wasn’t a pretty ending.’

‘Why are you so interested in him?’

‘Why are you so defensive about him?’

‘How would you feel if I pried into your love life, Kane?’

‘I don’t have a love life.’

‘Just a sex life, right?’

His lips curled into a hint of a smile. ‘You really think you know so much about me, don’t you?’

‘I’ve heard the rumours.’

‘And I keep telling you that you can’t believe everything you hear.’

‘How many individuals have you killed, Kane? Across all the species.’

‘I don’t have enough fingers to count.’

She frowned at his nonchalance.

‘Did he break that resilient heart, Caitlin?’

She desperately wanted to stand, to get out of that enclosure that seemed to be contracting more by the minute. But she wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of trying again. ‘Rob is nothing to do with you. Nothing to do with any of this. Leave him out of it.’

‘Wow, he sure meant something to you once.’ His gaze didn’t flinch. ‘Is he the reason you’ve been alone ever since? Or had you already seen what you wanted elsewhere? Someone you wanted more?’

She frowned at the taunt in his entrancing eyes. ‘And who would that be, Kane?’

He moved his hand to rest just behind the small of her back, her awareness of its presence making her spine ache. ‘Why the VCU, Caitlin? I mean, out of all the units you could have worked for, why vampires?’

‘I went where the opening was.’

‘Still, it’s a bit of a dark and risky place for a girl like you.’

She felt like rolling her eyes at the number of times she’d heard that line over the years. It still didn’t suppress her need to challenge it. She turned to face him a little. ‘A girl like me? And what am I like, Kane?’

‘One who has no place chasing vampires like me.’

She narrowed her eyes. ‘What was it you said to me – a little girl doing a man’s job? And yet here we are, wasting time in one of your dens as you helplessly wait for me to fall in love with you. Does that not strike you as a little tragic?’

There was a hint of amusement in his eyes. ‘For a girl who looks at me the way you do, you’re very confident in your ability to abstain, Caitlin.’

She exhaled a terse laugh as she turned away from him again, fearful of what he might see otherwise. ‘We’re not all victims to our libidos, Kane.’

‘Is that what you have against us, Caitlin? Do we not meet your moral standards?’

‘I don’t have anything against vampires. I’ve met plenty of decent ones. And I’m just as willing to protect those as humans or any other third species, which is why I do the job I do. I focus on the ones that don’t take their meds or advice, the ones who don’t follow the guidelines.’

‘Guidelines created by humans.’

‘We’re still the morally dominant species, like it or not. Souls will always outweigh shadows.’

‘According to your lores. Your religions.’

She looked back at him. ‘In any lore, the soul is the base for morality.’

‘And I thought it was the decisions someone made.’

‘Based on what you know to be right. And that’s what your soul dictates to you.’

‘So someone without a soul is incapable of making good decisions?’ he asked.

‘Self-sacrifice is the greatest sign of morality. Unfortunately, it’s something third species are incapable of. They can do the right thing, but it’s always about self-preservation in the end. Those shadows inside of you where your souls should be prove there is no hope for redemption.’

He smiled. ‘You really believe that, don’t you?’

‘Why did you hold back earlier on the bed? Is it because of conscience? A basic understanding of what is wrong? No, it’s because you want something out of this. You thought holding back would make you appear to be in control of your emotions so you could start to gain my trust. You held back because you want me to want you. You need me to want you, to give you my consent so your plan can work.’

‘I remember telling you I wouldn’t need to seduce your soul out of you.’

Unease squeezed her chest. ‘It’s the only way you can get to a shadow reader’s soul.’

‘Is it?’

She stared at him. ‘Are you saying it isn’t?’

He broke a hint of a smile. ‘You almost look disappointed.’

She exhaled curtly and looked ahead again. ‘You are so unbelievably arrogant, Kane.’

‘I’m not arrogant. I just say it as it is. And you most definitely have a little spark in there for me,’ he said, clipping the base of her spine with his thumb in a way she found provocatively and surprisingly playful.

She didn’t bother denying it. She wasn’t even sure she could sound convincing enough even to attempt it. Instead she clenched her hands around her knees and kept her attention ahead. The rain continued to patter, the tension in her chest tightening as the minutes passed in silence. She rubbed her hands down her shins for reassurance, a sheen of humidity from the bathwater steam lightly coating her skin.

She berated herself for flinching as he reached up and tucked her hair back over her shoulder, slid the back of his fingers over her artery. ‘Have you ever been bitten? For pleasure, I mean.’

Her heart lunged at the thought of his incisors sinking into her. She subtly shrugged him off and pulled her hair back over her shoulder. ‘I don’t agree with feeding. There are systems. Protocols.’

‘Is that the real reason? Most people are put off by the pain. But it doesn’t have to be painful. No more painful than sex anyway. Not if it’s done right. It can’t be or people wouldn’t give themselves over time and time again.’

‘And I’ve seen what that addiction does to people. Whatever neurotransmitter or enzyme or whatever else it is you use to drug them into thinking they need it.’

‘People keep coming back because it feels good. Some even prefer it to sex. It’s a whole different high, a different kind of intimacy.’ He traced the back of his hand up her upper arm, his cool fingers tantalizingly fresh against the heat of her skin. But she wouldn’t move. She wouldn’t give him the reaction he was seeking. Not this time. And something, something in the sensuality of those fingers, compelled her to wait to see what he’d do next. ‘Bites aren’t supposed to be aggressive. The very opposite, in fact. Bites used to be about protection as much as the feed itself. If someone was bitten, other vampires would leave them alone. The vampire would get a regular feeder and the feeder, in turn, would be safeguarded for their loyalty. It was a special bond. The original friends with benefits.’

‘And a great way to create your own harem. Sounds more like a protection racket to me.’

‘You have such a low opinion of me, Caitlin.’

‘I know too much about you.’

‘No, you think you know about me.’

‘You’ve done little to prove me wrong.’

‘I’ve done nothing to prove you right other than kidnap you. Other than that, I think I’ve been more than civilised.’

She looked back over her shoulder at him. ‘And if I hadn’t stopped you on the bed, just how far would you have gone?’

‘As far as you wanted me to go.’

Her stomach clenched at the subtle intimidation in his gaze. She looked back ahead. She couldn’t stay there. She couldn’t sit there like that. Not with that low rasp challenging the most intimate parts of her. But running would give him all he needed to know that she was faltering.

‘Don’t tell me you’ve never wondered what it would be like.’

‘You really do flatter yourself, Kane.’

‘What I’m flattered by is the way you look at me,’ he said, running the back of his hand up her spine. She held her breath at the slow caress to the nape of her neck. And as he traced the back of those fingers across her shoulder blade to the shoulder nearest him, every tiny hair on the back of her neck stood on end. A shiver ricocheted through her as he stroked down her upper arm to her inner elbow, but Caitlin kept perfectly still.

She could feel him watching her every reaction. But she wasn’t going to falter like he expected her to. Especially not when his touch was so shockingly compulsive as he worked up under her short, fluted sleeve, his hand enveloping her shoulder.

As he slid his hand across the upward curves of her breasts, she gripped the step either side of her. She shuddered at the intense surge in her abdomen, the intimacy almost unbearable.