Blood Shadows (36 page)

In choosing him, she’d let the soul ripper win.

In him choosing her, all his enemies would win.

But she’d seen it. She’d seen that look in his eyes – the look that had reignited a glimmer of hope. She had got to him. She had broken through the armour. How, when, why, she had no idea. But those words that he had uttered without restraint had let her see a part of him that told her it wasn’t over. It had given her something to work with – something that had been snatched away with Max and Rob’s untimely arrival.

She needed to see him again. She had to see him again. They needed to find a way through this. There had to be a way through it. If it had become possible that Kane Malloy’s armour had cracked, if it had become possible that her impenetrable heart had been touched, if it had become possible that they had connected on a level deeper than the all-consuming need for vengeance, there was hope in the impossible.

She craned her neck to look at the clock on the dresser. It was already late morning. She needed Max or Rob back there. And quick.

Kane bit into his bottom lip as he tried to control the pain searing through his body. Max was proficient, he’d give him that. Painfully proficient.

He shuddered in the manacles. The iron nails were thickening his blood to the point it was clogging his veins. Every nerve ending ached from the invasive silver nitrate. His pores burned from the garlic essence, his perspiration saturated with it. The open cuts and lacerations Max and Rob had inflicted all over his body scorched from the hemlock they had been coated with.

As he felt himself slide to the edge of unconsciousness again, Max rammed another syringe of adrenaline into his heart.

Kane cried out, but then gritted his teeth against the surge in agony as his brain acknowledged just how much trauma his body was suffering. He closed his eyes and lowered his head.

‘You’re certainly resilient, Kane,’ Max said.

Kane glanced up to see he was already preparing another syringe at the table. ‘I want to see Caitlin.’

He needed to see Caitlin. He was not done. That wasn’t going to be the last he saw of her. Resent it though he may, he needed to look at her again. He needed to look in her eyes and know she knew, believed, the truth.

Besides, he needed to think. He needed the pain to stop just long enough for him to be able to think.

He could persuade her to let him go. To at least release him from the restraints. He could bargain with her. Or he’d opt for the only other choice he had. Because he wouldn’t fail. Even if they killed him that night, he would get his vengeance through her, because she wasn’t like them. And if she believed what they had done, she would have no choice but to seek justice for Arana. She was too good a person not to. The truth would eat away at her and she was too strong a person to let that happen. She’d confront it. She’d deal with it. He had to believe she’d make the right choice. And if she gave him her word that she would see justice through, he’d tell her. He’d tell her how to kill the soul ripper.

If he could look in her eyes and believe she would do the right thing, he’d do that for her.

If not, he’d see her destroyed and the lives of those she loved with her.

He had no option. He couldn’t let them win.

Max lowered in front of him and held his gaze. ‘Why couldn’t you have just done as you were told, Kane? Xavier made you a good offer. You could have saved all of this.’

The door opened.

Rob crossed the room towards them. He stood beside Max and folded his arms. ‘Still nothing?’

‘Give it time.’

‘Then why don’t you get yourself a drink? Take a break. Let me take over.’

Kane lowered his head again. Him and Max had just got into a stride. He’d got used to his pace, his technique. Rob, on the other hand, was erratic – too driven by his emotions. Rob was the one most likely to cause a fatal injury.

He looked up to see some sort of private exchange pass between the two of them before Max stepped away and left the room.

Rob pulled the chair over and sat down in front of him. He leaned back and surveyed the wounds Max had inflicted on him. ‘Tell me how to kill it.’

Kane stared him square in the eyes.

Rob leaned forward, his arms resting loosely across his thighs. ‘Come on, Kane, let’s play along. At least for Max’s sake. He still believes he can get something out of you. You know you’re not going to talk. I know you’re not going to talk and, to be honest, I’m fine with it. In less than twelve hours, you’ll have no further purpose. In less than twelve hours, you’ll be mine.’ He leaned closer. ‘Your sister thought she was unbreakable too. And look what happened to her. It was a shame in some ways, but she had it coming. I’m still not completely sure she didn’t enjoy it. In fact, I’m sure I heard her yelling for more at one point.’ He smiled. ‘You know what a slut she was. Of course you did. I know how close you two were. Maybe closer. Maybe a bit more than just brother-sisterly love?’

Kane glowered up at him, anger and hatred burning the pit of his stomach.

‘I mean, even I could see it,’ Rob added. ‘She was hot. If you like them rough.’ He laughed lightly. ‘I could hear her screaming. She spent her last few minutes begging for her life. Or maybe it was just for them to keep going. Harder, I’m sure I heard her yell,’ he said in a mocking voice. ‘Harder, boys. I still have some dignity left. I was nearly tempted to join in myself at one point.’

Kane buckled and wrenched in his manacles, unable to contain his fury.

Rob pulled back. ‘That’s more like it. Truth hurts, doesn’t it, Kane?’

‘You were a coward then and you’re a coward now.’ He twisted his wrists in the restraints. ‘Or you wouldn’t opt for these.’

‘I’m going to opt for a lot more than that before I’m done with you.’

Kane glared at him. ‘Don’t worry – I know what you’re capable of. I know all about what you’ve done in your quest to save your precious Caitlin. How honest have you been with her about how far you were willing to go? Only you boys know how to cover it up, don’t you? Just how much of that did you blame on me, huh? And you can keep asking all you want, but the only one with answers is me. That’s why she came after me. Frustrating, isn’t it? Not being able to help her. Me being the only one capable of doing what you can’t. Performing where you can’t. Every which way she needs. As deep as she needs.’

Rob slammed an angry punch into his stomach and then his side, once then twice then punched him hard in the mouth. ‘She told us where you were, Kane. So you’re not quite in as deep as you thought.’

Kane spat blood from his mouth. ‘I was in deeper than you can imagine. Than you could ever manage.’

Rob sneered and slammed his fist into him again. He shook his hand from the impact.

Kane winced. ‘You’ve never been enough for her, Rob. And you never will be. You failed her.’

‘Really?’ He cocked his head to the side slightly. ‘You think she needs you?’

‘You know it. I know it. She knows it.’

‘Until I tell her Xavier has a safe room. Well, more an apartment. It’s not much but it’ll do. What matters is that it’s blessed, protected and charmed to the hilt. Nothing is going to cross there. And that’s where Caitlin is going to be in a few hours, whether she likes it or not. Because I will keep her safe, Kane. I will save her from this. And from you.’

Kane frowned. If that’s what they were counting on, they were making a horrific mistake. He should have been panicking that his own leverage may have been gone, but instead all he could think about was Caitlin. ‘Is that what Carter promised you? Protection for her? When he doesn’t even know what the fuck it is? It’s fourth species, Rob. It’s like nothing you’ve ever come across before. And I promise you, nothing is going to keep it out.’

Rob lifted his hands to his nape as he marched away, trying to calm himself. He stepped over to the bench and picked up the nails. ‘That’s a chance we’ll have to take.’ He strode back over. ‘The same as we’ll have to take the chance Xavier never finds out we took you out of the equation once and for all.’

Kane looked him square in the eyes. ‘Think carefully, Robert. You kill me and Caitlin’s dead too. And you know it.’

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

C
aitlin heard the garage door open and footsteps crossing the kitchen. Footsteps she knew the rhythm of only too well.

Cupboard doors opened and closed, echoing through the open door in the far corner to her left. She heard the hiss of a percolator. A subtle aroma of coffee snagged the air.

‘Rob!’ she called out, yanking her wrist against the radiator for good measure. ‘Get yourself in here!’

Rob appeared through the doorway a second later. From the instant defensiveness in his eyes, her glare clearly spoke the volumes she’d intended. ‘You’re finally awake then.’

‘Where is he?’

‘I’ll go get us a coffee,’ he said, turning on his heels again.

Caitlin growled with impatience. ‘We don’t have time for this! You need to tell me where you’ve taken him!’ She waited a moment for a response. She heard the clink of ceramic. ‘Did you hear what I said?’

Rob strolled back in a minute or so later with two steaming mugs. ‘I heard you. You need to calm yourself down. How long have you been awake?’

‘Calm myself down?’ She yanked her arm within its cuff. ‘Get me out of this.’

‘When you stop glaring at me like that, I will.’ He placed the two mugs on the coffee table before stepping over to join her. ‘Stop worrying, it’s all under control.’

‘What have you done to him?’

‘We’re talking to him, Caitlin,’ he said, lowering himself to the floor in front of her.

Unease clenched her stomach. ‘And what exactly does that talking entail?’

‘It entails finding out how to kill the soul ripper.’

‘He’s not going to tell you.’

‘He will.’

‘That information is the only leverage he’s got.’

‘And we’re using the only leverage we’ve got. He’s not going anywhere until we know.’

‘So where is he? Is that where Max is?’

She hadn’t heard a car pull into the garage, which meant Rob had been there the whole time she’d been awake and that was over an hour. He’d come from the garage. The garage led down to the wine cellar. The pieces slotted together quicker than Rob had time to respond. ‘You brought him here, didn’t you?’

‘Like we said, this is between us. Nothing to do with HQ. Don’t worry, he’s perfectly secure.’

‘In the cellar? Are you insane?’

‘It’s all in hand.’

‘How did you even get him across the border?’

‘In the trunk of a VCU car being driven by the head of the unit.’

‘You have to let me see him.’

‘No, what you have to do is rest. I re-wrapped your foot. How did it happen?’

For some reason a sense of resentment clawed at her that he’d undone Kane’s handiwork. ‘I sliced it in an alley when I escaped.’

‘How did he get you back?’

‘I bumped into one of Jask’s buddies.’

‘You’re lucky to still be alive.’

‘I know. No thanks to you.’

‘Get it off your chest,’ he said, standing again. He took the coffees from the table and brought them back with him.

‘You said you’d get me out of this,’ she said, yanking her wrist in the cuff again.

‘You haven’t stopped scowling yet.’ He sat back on the floor and placed her mug down beside her. He took a sip of his own before sliding over to sit against the wall alongside her.

‘And what are you going to do a few hours from now when he’s still said nothing?’ she asked.

‘We kill him. He disappears – no questions and no answers.’

Her stomach flipped. Dread at the thought of losing him, of it happening right beneath her, consumed her. ‘You can’t do that.’

‘I think you’ll find we can.’

‘Xavier wants him alive.’

‘Xavier will never know.’

She turned more towards him, curling her legs under her. ‘Rob, Kane is the only thing between me and the soul ripper. We need him alive.’

‘So he keeps telling us. Very convenient, isn’t it?’

‘Rob, please listen to me. You’re making a mistake. Whatever you’re doing to him, you have to stop.’

Rob took a sip off his coffee. ‘What are you most worried about, Caitlin? Us messing up your plans or is it him you’re concerned about?’

Caitlin frowned at the accusation in his eyes. ‘Don’t you dare judge me after what you did. After you’ve lied to me for all those years.’

‘I did it to protect you.’

‘I didn’t need protection. I needed the truth.’

‘And I’m telling you the truth now. Me and Max will sort this out.’

‘The only one he’ll talk to is me. If he’ll even do that now.’

‘You were the one who called us, remember?’

‘Yes, to take him in so I could find out the truth for myself. Before I knew what you had done, before I knew about Xavier and his power craving. Or believe me, I wouldn’t have bothered.’

She snapped her gaze away, aware her frustration was clouding her judgement. Time was of the essence, and giving him a reason to keep her secured to the radiator was not going to help.