Blood Shadows (37 page)

‘I didn’t just abandon you, Caitlin. I want you to know that. I meant it when I said I’ve been trying to find out what was responsible and how to stop it. We knew Arana was the cause of what happened to Rick, but we never expected it to come for Kathleen too. We tried to get answers, but couldn’t. That’s why I went further afield and moved to another locale. I never gave up on you; I just had no way of explaining why I was leaving or when I’d be back.’

‘So you left me with the excuse that we weren’t right for each other.’

‘Better that than looking you in the eye and keep lying to you. When you kept probing me about your suspicions that something was coming for you, I didn’t know what to say.’

‘Max managed to stick around. He even married my mother.’

‘And he knew I’d left to find out what I could.’

‘So I was right – you had planned to come back all along.’

‘I’ve been back two months tracking him. I’d narrowed it down to three places he was most likely to be. Me and Max had planned to do it all undercover and then you got in sooner. But then Kane waiting for you in the corridor, Xavier getting involved, Kane taking you the night before I’d planned to take him were all complications that got in the way. If we’d pulled you out, if we’d told you the truth, Xavier would have known. We’ve needed to keep him on side. But that doesn’t matter now. What matters is you knowing I did not turn my back on you.’

‘Then don’t turn your back on me now and listen to me, please. You need me to talk to him. I can negotiate with him. I can offer his release to get him on side.’

Rob shook his head and took another sip of coffee. ‘No. You’re not going near him again.’

She wrenched her wrist in the cuff. ‘If you kill him, I will not make it through the night. Please let that sink in.’

‘What happened between you two, huh?’ he asked, his cool gaze settling on hers again.

She felt as though she’d been physically winded. She wasn’t even sure she knew the answer. She frowned. ‘Why, what did he say?’

‘Did you sleep with him?’

‘What business is that of yours?’

Rob exhaled tersely, his tongue meeting his upper teeth. He lifted the mug back to his lips.

‘That has nothing to do with any of this,’ she added.

‘What, you jumping into bed with the vampire you were employed to hunt? The vampire whose sister was responsible for the death of your parents? The vampire who wants to kill you, Max and me?’ His eyes narrowed coldly and accusatorily on hers. ‘That’s nothing to do with any of this?’

‘And what you did to Arana was perfectly justifiable was it? A means to an end? I never would have thought it, Rob. I never would have thought you were capable of those things. How could you stand by and let it happen?’

‘We did what we did for the good of this district.’

‘What you did was follow Xavier’s orders with no thought for morality or the lore.’

‘Kane doesn’t operate inside the lore.’

‘So if you can’t beat them, join them.’

Rob held her gaze steadily, not a glimpse of guilt behind his blue eyes. ‘You would know.’

In that moment she wasn’t just angry, she realised she wasn’t even sure if she liked him anymore. ‘I was handling it.’

‘Just like he was handling you,’ Rob sneered, the resentment clear in his eyes.

‘I’m the only one who can get through to him.’

He laughed derisively. ‘Oh, he’s got you right where he wants you, hasn’t he? He’s using you. He’s playing you. And I can’t believe you of all people are letting him. He wants you dead, Caitlin. He wants us all dead. And then he’ll bring down the TSCD. His rise to power will be overnight. He will rule this territory. Everything we have worked for, everything your father worked for, will be gone. What if this is it? Has that crossed your mind? What if he’s the key to these prophecies we keep hearing about? This vampire rise to supremacy. What if it starts with him?’

‘We don’t even know if they’re true.’

‘Can we take the risk? Caitlin, he wants only one thing, and that’s vengeance. You need to remember who and what you were before all this started and you need to get a grip.’

‘Don’t you dare patronize me. What makes you so sure you’re right? All your opinions are drip-fed by Xavier, just like mine were. But what do any of us really know about Kane and his intentions? What proof have any of us had? This whole mess was started by us, not him.’

‘So your parents deserved to die – is that what you’re saying?’

‘Did Arana?’

Rob stared at her, lost for words, but anger gleamed behind his eyes. ‘Look at you – going there determined to bring him down and coming out his advocate.’

‘I went after him to find out how to kill the soul ripper. I went after him because I had no other option left because I thought the only people I had left to care about didn’t believe me. If you’d told me the truth before all this, we could have worked together. Instead I went in there and all but begged him for his help. Do you know what that took? Tonight, Rob. It’s coming tonight. And if you and Max don’t let me deal with this, it’s taking me with it.’

‘It’s not taking you, Caitlin. We have a backup plan. Xavier has a safe haven for you where you’ll be protected from the soul ripper.’

It took a moment for what he’d said to sink in. ‘What?’

‘Xavier has kept it over our heads to stop us retaliating against Kane. If we got nowhere with Kane, we knew we had it as a backup.’

‘A haven?’

‘A small apartment. Fully charmed and protected.’

‘And beyond that apartment?’ The look in his eyes said enough. ‘There would be no beyond the apartment, right?’

‘At least you’d be alive.’

‘I either die at the hands of the soul ripper or spend the rest of my life in a make-shift jail?’

‘Until we find the answers we need.’

She stared back across the room. ‘I can’t believe how clueless I’ve been to all this.’

‘I’ve already been scouring all our resources these past few hours after you gave us the name,’ he added. ‘There’s still nothing.’

‘Because you haven’t found anyone archaic enough – no one with as archaic a bloodline as Kane.’

‘We will find a way to kill it. I promise.’

And for as long as they believed that, they wouldn’t need Kane. They wouldn’t need her to have any communication with him. She wouldn’t get a chance to explain herself. She wouldn’t even get a chance to see him again. Her heart wrenched. He’d be slaughtered right beneath her. The world suddenly seemed like a painfully empty, dark place.

‘Let me read him,’ she said. ‘Take me to him. It was the one opportunity I didn’t have back in his den but I can do it now. I’ll find the truth. I’ll find out how to kill it.’

Rob shook his head. ‘I can’t let you do that. I’m not having whatever darkness is inside of him inside of you.’

‘It’s not your place to make that choice for me.’

‘I told you I would keep you safe and that’s what I’m doing.’

Fury and panic simmered – resentment that he dared continue to take her decisions away from her. ‘I need to see him.’

‘And I am not having you blemished by him.’

‘Blemished?’ She exhaled curtly. ‘It’s a bit late for that.’

She saw his eyes narrow, his attention distracted only by more footsteps crossing the kitchen.

Her attention snapped to the door.

Max appeared in the doorway. He looked composed, calm, but he was tired. She could see it in his expression, in his sallow face. He gave her something of a placating smile before stepping over to join them. ‘How are you doing?’

She held up her wrist, it clinking against the radiator. ‘What do you think?’

‘Any progress?’ Rob asked.

Max shook his head.

‘You’ve got to let me in there,’ Caitlin said. ‘I told Rob. You have to let me read him. It’s the only way.’

Max nodded. ‘I know. We might not have any choice.’

She heard Rob’s subtle intake of breath, felt his tension escalate despite him being a foot away. He pulled himself to his feet. ‘We said we’d talk about that.’

‘The clock’s ticking, Rob. It’s an option we need to consider.’

Caitlin’s heart pounded. ‘It’s a good option,’ she cut in. ‘It’s our only option.’

But the men’s attention was firmly locked on each other.

‘We said that was a last resort,’ Rob said, his voice low.

‘It is. He isn’t going to break. There’s nothing more we can issue other than to kill him.’

Her stomach wrenched. ‘What do you mean, issue? What have you done?’

‘You don’t know the risks,’ Rob said, his attention from Max not wavering.

‘She’s the best shadow reader I know. We have to try.’

‘Isla failed.’

‘I can do this.’ She stared from Max to Rob and back to Max again. ‘You owe me this chance.’

Max broke away from the glare in Rob’s eyes. He took the release device from his pocket and stepped towards Caitlin.

‘Think about this,’ Rob said firmly, catching his arm.

‘I’m only doing it because I have to.’ He pulled his arm free and lowered to his haunches. He slid the device across the cuffs, the anti-magnetism releasing Caitlin from the binds.

She rubbed her wrist. ‘You’re doing right, Max,’ she said, looking deep into his eyes.

‘She’s exhausted,’ Rob cut in. ‘She needs to rest.’

‘We don’t have time to rest,’ Max reminded him. He stood up and helped Caitlin up with him.

Caitlin passed Rob, purposefully avoiding his glower, and limped behind Max across the lounge to the kitchen. Coffee still lingered in the air and the house was silent. Even the weak sunlight pouring into the kitchen did nothing to soften the atmosphere.

This was it now. This was what was left of her life. The last 24 hours. The last 24 hours with the truth she wished she’d never learned.

Max led the way through the garage door. Caitlin cautiously took the single step down behind him while gripping the doorframe to balance herself.

He took the next door on the left.

Clutching the handrail, she tentatively followed him down the wooden slatted steps, bracing herself for seeing Kane again, for what she might find. But the wine cellar was empty.

Straight ahead, the floor-to-ceiling wine rack was slid aside to reveal an iron door she never knew existed. Unease clenched her stomach. Her heart thudded painfully, reverberating in her eardrums, exacerbated by the deathly silence.

As Max opened the door and led the way inside, she limped towards the bright clinical light. The room looked unnervingly like an operating theatre, but this room wasn’t designed to help anyone. It was kitted-out with every possible torture device for vampires. Hung, strung and mounted on the walls were contraptions of iron and silver. More devices lay on the surrounding benches. The air was thick with the aroma of garlic and hemlock.

Max closed the door behind her. The thrum resounded in her ears as they adjusted to the pressure of the airtight silence. The cellar walls seemed to throb as she instinctively turned towards the right-hand corner, and followed the glare of spotlight to the focal point.

Kane was on his knees on the tiled floor, the only thing holding him up being the manacles and chains that bound his outstretched arms to the floor-to-ceiling posts. His head was lowered, concealing his face. He was shirtless, the bright light bouncing off every defined muscular sinew of his back, shoulders and arms. A position that emphasised the power behind the body that now hung lax, damaged and bleeding.

Her heart wrenched. Her stomach vaulted. ‘What have you done?’ she demanded quietly.

‘What we had to,’ Max said.

She stepped warily closer to Kane, her pulse racing. She assessed the iron nails meticulously rammed into his shoulder blades, his chest and thighs. Stepping around the back of him, she stared in horror at the wounds amidst his tattoos. They had treated him savagely, the cuts etched into his skin as though torture was a major part of the pleasure of the wounding. ‘What the hell is wrong with you?’ she said, fighting back rage as she glared across at them both.

‘Sometimes extra measures are needed, Caitlin,’ Max declared.

She scanned the room again, taking in the torture devices. ‘I don’t know you at all, do I?’ she said, looking back from one to the other. ‘I’m not even sure who the real monsters are around here.’

‘The only monster around here is the one who kidnapped you and subjected you to hell these past couple of days,’ Rob said. A smirk almost graced his lips. ‘He had it coming.’

It was a smirk that sickened her. She snapped. Lunged at him. He stumbled backwards, his eyes wide and startled. It was the only time she had ever seen him shocked. If Max hadn’t been quick, caught her and yanked her back, she would have smacked the smirk right off his face. ‘Like Arana did?’ she demanded, fighting against Max’s vice hold. But her anger limited her adeptness. ‘You think this is okay? You think this is justified? Is this what Xavier has reduced you to?’

‘This is what Kane has reduced us to,’ Max said.