Blood Shadows (28 page)

Her heart skipped a beat. ‘Lycan territory?’

Clever Kane: stashing her on the outskirts of the tiny lycan territory of Blackthorn, let alone stashing himself in the last place anyone would come looking. It was no wonder she didn’t recognise the area. The LCU handled this part. She may have been there once or twice at most. Only now it was as a lone female with vampire scent all over her. If they were telling the truth, and there was no reason why they wouldn’t be, she had nowhere to hide. She’d be sensed by every lycan in a quarter-mile radius.

‘No more than it is ours, honey,’ grey-eyes remarked. She wondered what he’d done to deserve being confined to the area. What both of them had done. ‘So how can we be of assistance?’

‘Is there another phone booth near by? One that actually works?’

‘About a mile away. Can’t say whether it works though.’ He looked down at her bare feet. ‘So what you running from, sweetie?’

‘Do you have a phone?’

Grey-eyes slipped his phone out of his back pocket and held it up for her to see.

‘Would you mind if I used it?’ she asked.

He grinned. ‘Not at all. Do you have a means of payment? Something in that coat? Or under it preferably?’

She offered him a closed-lip smile as her heart began to pound to the point she could hear it reverberating in her ears. She was tempted to take them both down there and then, one clean in the face, the other clean in the groin. She would have been out of there before they’d had time to recover, but with him still holding the much-needed phone, she knew it could be worth a few more minutes of her time.

She glanced over to the bar front where the larger crowd had already disappeared. A few others were still gathered and chatting, but the fact not one of them came over to assist didn’t bode well.

‘I thought you wanted to be of assistance,’ she said, looking back at grey-eyes.

‘I do. I’m just saying maybe you can assist me back.’

She blew out her lips and lowered her gaze for a moment before looking back into his eyes. ‘You know you are such a cliché. Why can’t you be helpful?’

‘Cliché?’ he asked, frowning.

She wasn’t sure if it was a rhetorical statement, but something told her he wasn’t sure what she meant. ‘If you’re not going to help me, let me pass.’

Grey-eyes looked back across at blue-eyes. ‘Did she just refuse to pay me for my services, Boyd?’

‘Looks that way, Karl,’ Boyd replied.

‘Let’s not do this,’ she said, glaring at each of them in turn.

‘She’s not very friendly, Boyd.’

‘Certainly isn’t, Karl,’ Boyd responded as coaxingly as his friend.

‘Do you think we can make her friendly?’

‘I think we could persuade her.’ Boyd glanced over his shoulder before looking back at her with a smirk. ‘With a bit of privacy.’

‘I’d advise you don’t touch me,’ Caitlin warned, glowering up at him.

Karl laughed. ‘A fighter. This could be fun.’

‘A fighter and VCU Agent,’ she said. ‘I have an obligation to warn you that if we enter into an altercation, I have a license to use whatever force is required.’

Karl frowned, the uncertainty in his eyes telling her he was deliberating over her statement. ‘Where’s your ID?’

‘I’m undercover. There’s been a problem. I need to contact my unit.’

‘She’s bluffing,’ Boyd declared. ‘She’s too little for an agent.’

Caitlin’s gaze rested squarely on his again. ‘That’s why I work so well undercover.’ She looked back at Karl. ‘I need to use your phone. I suggest you co-operate.’

Karl frowned, studied her gaze for a moment then handed her his phone.

She accepted it warily, backing into the booth. ‘And some privacy?’

Karl held up his hands and backed away, slapping Boyd on the arm to let the door go. She watched them as they turned their backs on her. Karl’s shaved head lowered to Boyd as he whispered something to him. Whatever it was, she had the feeling it wasn’t good.

She looked down at the phone. Xavier’s number was still held in her head where she’d practised it so many times. She started to input it, but stopped as she got to the fourth digit. The things Kane had said crept into her mind. Max was the better option. She needed to talk to Max. She needed to ask him about the things Kane had said before contacting Xavier. She inputted Max’s number and held it to her ear as it rang. As it kept ringing, she bit into her bottom lip, looked out of the booth to see Karl and Boyd had turned to face her, hands shoved in their pockets as they glanced warily and guiltily over both shoulders intermittently. They weren’t going to let this go. They weren’t going to let her go.

Max’s voice-mail resounded in her ear and her heart plummeted. ‘Max, it’s Caitlin. I’m okay. I’m far north in Blackthorn. Lycan territory. I’m in a phone booth near the corner of Orkney Street. Kane’s got a place on the industrial estate a twenty-minute walk down Bishop Street. He’s about ten minutes down Hove Avenue. You need to look for a grey corrugated garage door. There’s a blue sign on the building opposite that says Sable. Behind the grey door is a garage. There’s a door to the far left as you go in. It goes into a living area. He’s after the lycans that killed Arana, so we’ve got cause to take him in.’ She hesitated for a moment. ‘Max, leave Xavier out of it for now though, will you? I need to talk to you first. I’m going to hang around Orkney Street and lay low, but I’ll keep a look out for you.’ She paused. ‘Just make it quick.’ She disconnected and took a steadying breath before pushing the door open.

Karl strolled towards her and held out his hand for his phone. Boyd tucked in tight beside him, re-forming the barrier.

Karl dialled a number and held his phone to his ear.

Caitlin frowned, but resisted asking him what he was doing as she tucked her hand back in Kane’s coat. She subtly threaded the keys back into place between her fingers, removing her screwdriver hand from her pocket and tucking it behind her back.

He smiled as he disconnected. ‘That didn’t sound like a unit on standby. Who’s Max, honey? Boyfriend?’

He was smarter than he looked.

And it was pointless trying to explain herself.

She rammed the screwdriver into Karl’s thigh, leaving it in for good measure as he instantly dropped to his knees. She slammed her keyed knuckles into Boyd’s side and withdrew. It was quick and sharp enough to throw them both off balance and disorientate them enough for her to slip between them and run.

She pounded through the puddles, rainwater splashing her legs. She avoided heading down the main street, opting to take cover somewhere less exposed. She tried to memorise the names of each street she passed so she could find her way back.

Feet and calves numb, her face cold against the breeze, she weaved left and right down quieter side streets, sending a wary glance over her shoulder to see she had been successful in leaving them behind.

She stopped to catch her breath and faced the way she had run. She rested her hands on her hips as she looked around her, panting, composing herself, renewing her strength. She’d have to go back there. For the sake of Max finding her, she at least needed to be close to where she’d told him.

She took a few paces forward and flinched as a car revved around the corner, the thrum of the heavy-beat music inside pounding through the tarmac, the neon under-light glowing blue against the ground.

To her relief, it raced past her, but then it slammed to a halt, the white of the reverse lights suddenly ignited.

She didn’t need to know that whatever was in that car, it meant trouble.

Caitlin ran, taking a left and then a right. As she heard the car reverse, she picked up pace, adrenaline burning in her chest, unable to feel her feet beneath her as though she was running on air as she ploughed past street after street, the car pursuing her.

She knew she had to get into the lanes despite it going against her better judgement. If they were humans, it was her best chance to hide out. If they were lycans they would have already been out of the car and pursuing her on foot, her scent impossible not to follow.

She took a sharp right down a lane between two houses, tunnelling into the darkness, taking a left past a chain-link fence before circling around to another alley. She pounded forward until she felt excruciating pain as something hard and sharp sliced into her foot, embedding itself. She stumbled and tried to stop herself crying out.

She leaned back against the wall behind a dumpster and regained her breath again, lifting her foot as she rested her head back against the wall in agony. As the car revved past her, she lowered to her haunches, the car’s headlights igniting the alley for a moment before speeding away.

It hadn’t seen her.

Silence swamping the alley, Caitlin stood slowly and warily. Every muscle burned with exhaustion making it harder for her to balance and keep the weight off her foot. Thighs trembling, she wiped a tear from her eye at the pain aching through her whole lower right leg. She lifted her foot and touched the underside. She knew immediately from the sharpness that she’d stood on glass, a good fraction of which was still lodged in her sole. And her foot wasn’t just wet from water – it was too thick and warm to be water. Smelling of vampire and now of fresh human blood too, lycan territory suddenly became even more threatening.

She cursed under her breath and rested her head back against the wall. She wasn’t going to be running anywhere now. She’d be lucky to even walk. And from guessing what the state of her foot was, she’d be leaving a convenient trail wherever she went if she did.

But she had to get back somewhere near the booth. She rolled her head to the right towards the alley entrance and her heart leapt at the figure there.

She could only make out an outline, but whoever it was, they were more than likely male from the height and stature. Her first instinct was Kane, but the figure was too stocky. Besides, Kane would have already been storming towards her. This one lingered, exhaling cigarette smoke into the night air. He could have just stopped for a smoke or maybe to use the alley as a toilet. He might have been waiting for someone. Maybe waiting to be picked up. But he remained motionless other than his smoking hand.

She tried to quiet her breathing, grateful she had at least had a few minutes to rest. She just had to remain as quiet and still as she could until he moved away, then she could make her way back out onto the street.

At least the car was long gone, and Boyd and Karl were more than likely either getting bored with trying to find her or seeking some form of medical treatment.

But the figure didn’t move.

Feeling light-headed and exhausted, Caitlin didn’t dare take her attention off the shadow. After a couple of painful minutes, he threw down his cigarette, filling Caitlin with a sense of relief – until she saw him turn in her direction and stride forward.

Caitlin hurriedly reached inside Kane’s jacket pocket for the keys, threading them through her fingers again. She’d never outrun them, human or lycan, and she had no balance to fight nor the strength.

As soon as he stopped in front of her, she knew he was a lycan. He had to be at least six foot four, broad, his long dark hair tied back in a ponytail, his features hard in the dim light, his eyes sparkling preternaturally. And from the subtle flaring in his nostrils, the curiosity behind his eyes, he was picking up the vampire scent.

She clenched the keys.

His gaze darted to her hand, he grabbed her wrist in an instant, slamming her hand once then twice against the wall, grazing her knuckles, forcing her to release the keys into his hand. He shoved them in his pocket then bent forward to lift her up over his shoulder.

‘Get off me!’ she demanded, digging her nails under his jacket and into his back but he barely flinched as he carried her further into the depths of the alley.

Caitlin buckled and flexed futilely as it took little for him to control her, his bulk as well as his supernatural strength keeping her bolted down against his shoulder. Caitlin eventually stopped fighting him, reserving her energy for whatever he had planned.

It was over. Down the depths of some dark and unpleasant alley in lycan territory. She was stupid to have run from Kane when she had no idea what she was running into. And in that moment, she wished she were back with him. She wished he were there now. The lycan wouldn’t have stood a chance against him. But there was no Kane, only more putrid darkness.

The lycan carried her past the large metal bins, the strewn-aside cardboard boxes and crates. If he was going to interrogate her or attack her, he’d had opportunity enough. The street was already a distance away. No one could see them in the shadows. No one would hear them.

Instead he dropped Caitlin back to her feet, pushing her through the chain-link fence before forcing himself through it behind her. Despite her continued protest, he lifted her back up over his shoulder with ease and carried her across an open expanse of concrete, towards what looked like the back entrance to a warehouse.

‘What you got there, Hank?’ the lycan guarding the door asked. ‘She reeks of vampire.’

‘Yeah and lurking in an alley bleeding all over the place.’ Hank passed through the metal door held open for him and stomped along the bare corridor.