Blood Shadows (38 page)

She yanked free and pulled away from them. ‘Torturing him? Did you seriously think you could break him? Have you learned nothing about him?’ She raked her hands through her hair. ‘All you’ve done is set yourself up to fail.’ He’d wanted them to pay before, but now he was going to want even more. Anything she could have done to convince him otherwise had potentially gone. The gap had been forged even more and she had no idea what she was going to do about it. ‘You were never intending to let him survive this, were you?’

‘This has to end tonight, Caitlin,’ Max said. ‘It’s time to finish it.’

‘Finish what you started.’

‘We can argue about the morality all night, but that’s not going to help anyone. I’m going to stop this one way or another. Xavier has been obsessed with this for too long. And one day either Xavier is going to make an offer Kane can’t refuse or vice versa. I was hoping it wouldn’t come to this. I’m not particularly keen at the prospect of you probing inside him, but it’s all we have left.’

She needed to be alone with Kane and she needed Max and Rob as far away from her as possible. She needed both of them out of her sight before her temper bubbled over. She couldn’t even look at Rob – the man she had once shared a bed with. The man she had once loved.

She needed to tend to Kane’s wounds. She needed to do something. She needed them both out of her sight before she exploded and blew any small chance she had. ‘You need to leave me alone with him.’

‘No way,’ Rob said firmly.

‘I’m not asking your permission,’ she snapped. ‘If I’m going to read him, I need to not have any distractions. I cannot do this with you here. Even in this state he’s still going to be strong.’

Max stepped over to one of the benches and removed a small black case from the bottom shelf. He flicked the clasps open and took out a syringe. He handed it across to her, the emerald liquid glinting in the dim light. ‘In case he tries to block you. It’ll weaken him even more.’

She snatched the syringe off him. ‘More illegal substances?’

‘We’re not in the interrogation room now, Caitlin. Get inside him and find out how to kill that soul ripper, and vengeance will be complete for your parents. Do this and it can all be over.’

‘But we’re not leaving you,’ Rob said firmly.

‘I don’t even want to look at you. You get the fuck out of my sight,’ Caitlin said, the vehemence in her tone unnerving even her.

Rob stepped up to her. ‘I don’t trust him and I sure as hell don’t trust you in this state.’

‘Why – what am I going to do, Rob? Release him so he can kill us all? I may hate what you’ve done, but I’m not stupid. I’m still a VCU agent. I can handle this and I will sort it. But I cannot concentrate with you here.’ She looked back at Max. ‘Give me an hour.’

Max wavered for a moment. ‘An hour,’ he said. ‘That’s all.’ He looked back at Rob and cocked his head towards the door. ‘Let her get on with her job.’

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

C
aitlin stood trembling as she looked down at Kane, finally left alone in the silence with him. Stepping up to him, she lowered to her haunches and tilted her head to the side to check his face. His eyes were closed, dark circles beneath them. Blood that had seeped from the cut on his eyebrow tainted his eyelashes. His lips, the lower of which was split, were slightly parted. The bruises on his jaw looked intrinsically painful.

She crossed to the sink and placed the syringe down. She picked up a metallic bowl and filled it with water before reaching for some cloth, dressing and tape. Stepping around the back of him, she dampened the cloth and used it to cleanse his wounds. She washed the garlic and hemlock paste from within the gashes as well as the remains of silver nitrate. She gently cleansed his back and his shoulders, working her way down his arms. She examined the iron nails and knew she’d have to pull them out before he was conscious.

She placed the bowl on the chair and headed over to the bench for the pliers. She hovered in front of him. The nails were buried deep and would take some wrenching, but she had to do it.

She secured the pliers around the tip of the nail beneath his collarbone and, taking a deep steady breath, she pulled.

She hadn’t expected him to flinch. Or gasp.

She dropped the pliers and the nail in shock and took a step back. Her stomach clenched, the tension in the room excruciating as his navy eyes fixed pointedly on her, his pupils tiny within his navy irises.

‘How long have you been conscious?’

‘Long enough.’ He sounded exhausted, the agony clear in his voice, his eyes.

She lowered to her knees in front of him. ‘I was trying to tend your wounds. If I get the nails out it should ease some of the pain.’

Kane sighed heavily and twisted his neck from side to side in a slow painful motion that made her wince. ‘Yeah, I’ll give it to your loved ones, Caitlin, they sure know how to torture.’

‘I never would have thought them capable of doing this.’

‘Really?’ he said, his eyes resting accusatorially on hers. ‘Is that why you called them?’

‘Before I knew the whole story. They confirmed it, Kane – all the sordid little details.’

‘And what have you told them?’

‘I haven’t told them you want my soul. Or why.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because we can sort this between us, right?’

He broke a hint of a smile, but winced with the pain. ‘Sure, Caitlin. The minute they let me walk out of here.’

‘I didn’t mean for this to happen. I thought they’d take you to HQ.’

‘So where am I?’

‘Believe it or not you’re in Max’s basement.’ She swallowed hard, his clear agony causing her pain. ‘I really, honestly had no idea about any of this. This place. I’m sorry, Kane.’ She reached for the pliers. ‘Let’s get the rest of these nails out of you.’ She pulled the chair closer, so she could reach the bowl and dressings. She dampened some more of the cloth, cleaned the wound where she’d pulled out the nail and taped the dressing down over it. ‘It won’t take you long to heal once these are out, will it?’

He shook his head. ‘No.’

She broke from his gaze, the intensity too much, the intimacy as she knelt in front of him too much for her to bear. ‘Did you hear they want me to read you?’

‘Yes.’

She pulled another nail from his side, hating seeing him flinch. His teeth clenched as she gently washed out the wound and dressed it. She looked down at the one on his inner thigh, glanced warily back up at him.

‘Be my guest,’ he said.

She pinched the nail in the pliers and pulled it sharply. She quickly applied the dressing through the tear in his jeans, adding pressure to stop the blood flow for a few moments. She glanced up to meet his gaze, the proximity dangerously inviting. ‘They’ve given me something to suppress you and help make access easier.’

‘You know you can’t agree to this, Caitlin.’

Caitlin wiped the wound on his thigh clean and applied the some clean dressing. She sat back on her haunches. ‘And how do I know you’re telling the truth, Kane? What if it’s just a ploy to stop me from seeing the truth, from finding out how to kill the soul ripper myself?’

‘You try and read me,’ he said, his gaze steadily on hers, ‘and it will kill you. I’ve never lied to you about that.’

‘But I only have your word.’ She dampened the cloth again and wiped the cut above his belly button. ‘Tell me how to kill the soul ripper and I’ll get you out of this.’

He exhaled curtly then flinched as she cleaned another wound.

‘It’s your only option, Kane. I am offering to help you if you help me. We both need to trust each other. I cannot get you out of here without that information.’

‘And you won’t just run with the information? How about you get me out of here and then I tell you?’

She sat back on her haunches again. ‘So this is stalemate, is it? And the only lives hanging in the balance are ours. The only one who’s going to win is Xavier. You’ll be gone and what will that mean for this place? Do you want the whole territory to think he beat you? The minute he knows you’ve gone missing he’ll declare he caught you. Do you want him to win, Kane?’

Kane narrowed his eyes. ‘Where have you been all this time, Caitlin?’

She could see the suspicion in his eyes, the accusation. ‘Tied to a radiator.’

‘What is it about you that makes people want to cuff you, huh?’

The glimmer of playful mischief in his eyes was almost too much.

‘I need you to compromise with me, Kane.’

‘Then let me go. If those principles of yours are so strong, release me. What was it that you said to me: that it’s selflessness that makes your species great? That it’s selflessness above personal survival that separates humans from the third species?’

‘This isn’t just about my survival though, is it? If I release you, you’ll kill them, right?’

‘We all look after our own, don’t we? And you’re no different. You know they don’t regret one moment of it, don’t you? They’re still justifying it to themselves. How does that make them differ from the worst of my kind – the ones you work every day to bring to justice? Rob looked me in the eye and mocked Arana’s death, Caitlin. There is not even one iota of remorse there.’

She held his silent gaze. She looked at the dignity in his eyes, the posture despite the pain. He wasn’t going to give up. He wasn’t going to go down without a fight. She knew the traits only too well from herself. But she had faltered – faltered because she felt something. And if he felt anything for her, he might do the same. ‘Xavier is the one we both want. If we don’t do this together, he will win.’

‘And if I tell you what you want to know, they’ll kill me – and they win too.’

‘In a few hours’ time this won’t even be open for negotiation.’

‘No – and you’ll be safe and sound in your prison. At least that’s what Xavier’s been telling them. It’s amazing that he knows how to protect you against something he doesn’t even have a name for.’

‘Are you saying it won’t work?’

‘The only way to kill a soul ripper is with something whose power is just as archaic, just as strong.’

‘You, you mean.’

‘You need to get me out of here.’

‘But I keep you here and at least Rob and Max will be safe.’

‘You think so? You think Xavier won’t work out what happened? You do this and the only winners in any of this are Xavier and the soul ripper – the two that deserve to pay the most.’

‘But you’ve already told me you won’t kill it. So what choice do I have? Releasing you means giving myself over to you and the soul ripper. Why would I do that?’

‘They are going to kill me Caitlin. What this comes down to is whether you can stand by and let that happen. You know they’re wrong. You keep proclaiming the goodness of your species, so prove it to me.’

‘You make it sound like it’s a simple moral choice, but it’s not. I know what you’re capable of.’

‘Get me out of here and I promise to let Max and Rob live in return. That’s the best I can offer.’

‘And how do I know I can trust you on that?’

‘I have never lied to you. I will never lie to you. It’s down to you, Caitlin, if you believe me or not.’

‘How do I know betraying them is worth it? If you won’t kill the soul ripper for me, if you won’t even tell me how to do it myself, what’s the point?’

His gaze didn’t falter. ‘This is the only way we both win.’ Something in his eyes softened. Something in the way he looked at her. ‘You’ve seen for yourself, Caitlin. You’ve seen what goes on here. You know everything I have told you is true. And now that you know that, you know you have no choice. You can’t let them get away with this. Let me go.’

She eased onto her knees in front of him, still searching those beautiful navy eyes that brimmed with sincerity. She felt sick at the thought of what they had done and even sicker at the thought of what they were planning. And she knew she couldn’t walk away. She needed to trust him. She wanted to trust him.

But he was still a vampire and he still wanted vengeance – revenge that he had openly admitted to. And she was moments away from helping him succeed. Once and for all, she needed to know what was inside him, what was in his heart. She needed the truth – the whole truth, before she made her decision. And she knew there was only one way to find it.

She had been betrayed too many times – thought she knew and understood the truth only to have it thrown back in her face. She couldn’t risk it again. Too much was at stake. Too much for her to cross that final line without being sure.

She saw in his eyes that he knew what she was thinking. And he frowned, followed by a flare of panic in his eyes – something she had never witnessed before. As she reached out and placed her palm flat on his chest over his heart, he tried to recoil.

‘What the fuck are you doing, Caitlin?’

‘I’m sorry,’ she said, swallowing hard against her constricted throat, her pulse racing. ‘I need to do this.’

He tried to pull back in the restraints, but he was bound too tightly. He looked down at her hand, trembling on his chest, then back into her eyes. ‘Caitlin, get your hand off me.’