Blood Shadows (32 page)

She had to stop him. She had to somehow block him getting her soul long enough for Max to come. They had enough to prosecute him. It could be over within the hour. Kane had no compassion for her – that was clear. She owed him nothing. He would use her right up to the last minute. She had to remember who she was. Who he was. He wasn’t going to stop and if she didn’t stop him, the only people she had left to care about were going to suffer.

She had to toughen her heart. She’d had enough experience of shutting off the feelings and emotions. She would hate him. She would make him do something. She’d anger him. She’d make him lash out. She’d make him hurt her. She’d make him forget himself and reveal who he really was. Maybe worse than she had ever thought he was.

But she had to have one last stab at convincing him he was wrong. Something deep in her wanted to give him that chance. He’d been right to call her a hypocrite when she’d gone after him seeking equal retribution for her own loved ones. She had to reason with him.

‘If Xavier set all this up, if he’s as manipulative and powerful as you make him out to be, then maybe those I care about were just as much the victims in this as those lycans. Have you thought of that? Maybe they had no more choice than those lycans.’

He strolled back over to the sofas. ‘We’ll know when we get their confessions, won’t we?’

‘Surely you know this isn’t going to work, Kane. Xavier is not going to fall for it. If what you’re saying about him is true, he knows it’ll be a set-up. Arana’s gone, Kane.’ She limped over to him. ‘A long time ago. You need to accept that and move on.’

‘Like you’ve moved on from the death of your parents?’

‘I haven’t got that luxury, have I?’

He reached for his drink. ‘No,’ he said, knocking back a mouthful, ‘but at least you’ve got the option to be reunited with them.’

The coldness of the remark chilled her, adding to her escalating fury. Her hands trembled as she stepped between him and the television. She wasn’t going to get through to him, so she had no choice.

She knew how to get the reaction she needed. Kane had only one weakness – she’d seen it already. Her stomach clenched at the cruelty of what she was about to say.

‘Your sister was no saint, Kane. Maybe you should accept that. I know what happened to her wasn’t pleasant, but how do you know she didn’t go there on purpose? Everyone knows what she was like.’ Kane’s gaze rested unnervingly on hers as she twisted the knife a little further. ‘And maybe it didn’t help her always thinking she had her hero older brother to help her – his reputation to save her. Maybe she wouldn’t have got herself in the situation if it wasn’t for you always looking out for her. So why don’t you try and take some responsibility for what happened instead of blaming everyone else? Maybe if you’d given in to Xavier none of it would have happened. It’s a shame you weren’t thinking of Arana then instead of yourself and your pathetic pride.’

She waited for the onslaught, but he said nothing. He did nothing. His eyes narrowed slightly in a way that terrified her. She swallowed hard and braced herself.

‘Arana suffered because you’re too arrogant to accept your place,’ she continued. ‘Just like you and Arana suffered as kids because your parents couldn’t. Your father was too conceited to accept defeat and so are you. It’s your inflated sense of self-importance that killed Arana in the end, just like your father’s killed your mother and nearly killed you. You’re nothing Kane. Master vampire means nothing anymore.’

His gaze didn’t flinch as he stood up and sauntered over to her. Caitlin backed against the wall, her heels hitting the skirting board as he braced his hand beside her head. She held her breath, not daring to move.

‘Are you trying to incite me, Caitlin? Do you want me to do something to hurt you so you can hate me? Do you really think I’m that gullible?’

‘I’m stating facts, Kane: those little things that seem to be eluding you in all this.’

‘Your precious Max and Robert held those two lycans captive for three days before a full moon and starved them of their meds,’ he said, his tone unnervingly calm. ‘They delivered them in a cage to where your father had tied my sister to a post. They hid in a van and watched it all on screen as they deactivated those cage locks. They didn’t even give her a chance to run or defend herself. Those are the facts.’

‘According to Jask. According to the lycans who killed her.’

‘Your father was a cruel and merciless coward. Max, the man you look up to in place of him, the man who shared your mother’s bed after your father died, is a liar and a self-seeking hypocrite. Rob, the man you loved, the only man you’ve ever loved, abandoned you and ran away because he was scared of what was coming after you. You keep defending them all you want, but I know the truth. And you can push me all you want, but I’m not going to hurt you. I wouldn’t give you or them the satisfaction.’

She exhaled curtly as he pulled away. ‘No, you’re just using me to get to Xavier, just like Xavier used Arana. You’re no different. You’re both the same you and him. If anything of what you’ve said is true then he’s won. You’re as much a monster as he is and you’re going to prove it to everyone, just like you’re already proving it to me. You can’t even see that you’ve already lost. I couldn’t hate you more right now if I tried.’

He turned to face her again.

Her hands clenched, but she refused to move as he stepped up to her again.

She flinched as he cupped her jaw, as he ran his thumb across her lips. But then he kissed her, a full, slow, lingering kiss that knocked her off guard until she tore her lips from his.

‘Hate, right?’ he said, the mocking clear in his eyes.

She lifted her hand ready to swipe the infuriating smirk off his face, but he caught her wrist in an instant, pressed her hip back against the wall with his other hand, her glower clearly meaning nothing to him.

‘Do you really want to do this?’ he asked.

She pulled on every reserve and every resolve. ‘My family have done nothing wrong. Legally or morally. Your sister had it coming, Kane. Just as you have.’

Caitlin shivered in the passing moments as Kane’s attention remained painfully unwavering, his eyes disturbingly unreadable. She braced herself, fear consuming her to a point she was sure she stopped breathing.

‘Finished?’ he asked.

The simplicity of his response made every hair stiffen on the back of her neck.

He leaned closer as he pressed her wrist back against the wall beside her head. ‘Do you know what I’m seeing when I look into your eyes right now? One very desperate and very scared little girl who’s clutching at whatever she can. That’s the same look that your father, Max and Rob would have seen in my sister’s eyes when she realised what they had set up. So do I treat you the same way? Do I tie you to a post now? Do I torture you and rape you and beat you? Do I humiliate and degrade you? Do I leave you here for Max and Rob to find you? Will that make me feel better? Will that allow me to exact my revenge? No. Because the very thought of it sickens me to my stomach. Because I’m not the same even if you do want to convince yourself otherwise. I would never enact it nor would I stand by and allow it to happen. To anyone. That’s the difference between me and those you know and love, hard as it is for you to take. So you keep looking for an excuse to hate me and rebuild that wall around your heart, but I’m giving you no reason because you have none.’

‘No, you’re just planning to rip out my soul to use it to your own ends before shoving it back in so the soul ripper can get me. Where’s your morality in that, Kane? Tell me how I deserve that any more than Arana deserved what happened to her? You might have held back on what you could have done to me but that’s only because you’ve had to. You are still a brutal killer. Hide behind whatever mask or guise you want, I know what you are and I am going to give you one hell of a battle for my soul. Try and take it now. Go on – I dare you.’

He assessed her eyes then smiled before releasing her and stepping away.

‘You know, don’t you?’ she said. ‘You know you’re not in there enough. You’ve tried every trick and you’ve failed. Less than a day to go and you haven’t won the heart of the one woman you need. And you’re not going to. Any self-respecting vampire would already be opting for plan B.’

He stopped at the footboard, clutching it, his back still to her as she took a few steps closer.

‘Come on, Kane, you’re no hero so you might as well play the villain to the full. All that pent-up frustration must be fit to bursting point. You know what you want to do to me. It’s the only way you’re going to get any kind of payback for Arana and we both know it.’ She paused, her throat constricted in fear, in desperation. ‘If you loved her, you wouldn’t even be hesitating.’

‘Desperate, Caitlin. So desperate,’ he said quietly. He looked over his shoulder at her. ‘Because you’d have to be to even be contemplating what you’re suggesting.’ He turned to face her. ‘Taking one for the team who have got no respect for you anyway. For the people who care about you so deeply that they let you come after me knowing what I could do to you. Is that all you’re worth?’ He reached out and pulled her towards him, pressed her up against the bedpost. ‘Do you really want to call my bluff? Shall I call yours? One more little shove, Caitlin, and who knows what I’ll do.’

But as she held his calm, intense gaze, she dropped her own in irritation.

He gently caught hold of her jaw, forcing her to look back at him again. ‘Do you want to know how I know it was your father who was responsible? The soul ripper is passed on by a curse, Caitlin, not by chance. And it can only be incanted by the spilling of archaic blood. In this case, Arana’s. Now blame her if you choose, but ask yourself what you would have done in her situation? Gone out quietly or left a trail for your brother to follow? Xavier is to blame for this. And your father, Max and Robert were a willing part of it. Everyone’s using you, Caitlin. It just depends if you’re going to stand by those principles of yours, your claims of the selflessness of humanity, and let the right one win.’

Caitlin felt the tears welling up behind her eyes. ‘My father was a good man.’

‘Your father was a dogmatic power seeker.’

‘You didn’t know him.’

‘I know he had a taste for female vampires.’

‘You’re a liar,’ she said as she lashed out to punch him in the arm, but he caught her hand. ‘Everything you say is a lie,’ she added, swiping with the other.

He caught both. ‘Why? Because telling you these lies would help my cause? I’m telling you them because I think you deserve the truth.’

‘I don’t believe anything that comes out of your mouth,’ she snapped, trying to struggle free, but his grip was firm and unrelenting. She blinked away a tear of frustration. ‘Get off me!’

‘They allowed you to come after me because they think I don’t know about their dark little secret. They think they’ve got away with it. And as far as Xavier is concerned, everyone’s expendable on his quest for me. This is never going to stop unless I end it. You want to hate me? Try – but you already know that it makes sense. You understand why I’m doing this. Deep down you know I need to do this. Deep down you know I’m right.’

She pulled away from him, rubbing the tears from her eyes with the heel of her palm as she limped across to the bathroom. Slamming the door behind her, she fell back against it.

CHAPTER TWENTY

J
ask was lying. Kane was lying. The alternative didn’t bear thinking about.

Caitlin’s body ran cold. If it were true, Max knew and had said nothing. He’d let her track Kane without any word of the history. Xavier, Max and Rob had all let her come there and not one of them had told her the truth. Not even Rob that night he had come around. But it explained why both had tried so vehemently to persuade her otherwise. And other things niggled such as Rob’s sudden departure from her life and his and Max’s fervent denial of any link between her parents’ deaths. Then there was Max’s insistence she shouldn’t take Kane’s case all those years ago.

And those questions during the disciplinary interview. All Xavier and Max had wanted to know was what Kane had said: if he had mentioned why he wanted her. The same questions that Rob had asked when he came to her apartment the following night. They were worried. But why wouldn’t they be? Kane Malloy had her in his sights – of course they’d be worried. She clutched her head. He was toying with her mind – making her believe what he wanted her to believe. He was shifting the blame to her family so she’d feel no loyalty to them, so that she’d feel empathy with him. He was playing her and she was letting him.

She needed Max there now. She needed to know that he and her father were not capable of such an atrocity. That Max would have cared enough about her to warn her rather than hide his dark and nasty secret. More so, that Rob would have done more to stop her.

She grabbed a bunch of toilet paper. She stepped up to the sink and ran the paper under the cold tap before dabbing the red patches and blemishes around her eyes, cooling her cheeks and calming her tears.

But if Kane and Jask were telling her the truth, Xavier was responsible for the worst atrocities. And her father, Max and Rob had gone along with it. Xavier who could, at that moment, be on the way to collect Kane. And he wouldn’t let him go this time. Xavier could do anything to him – anything to the monster he was responsible for creating. Xavier who had encouraged her there even though he knew her life was at risk.