Blood Shadows (47 page)

Then there was silence.

And it was gone.

Only a blackened singe remained on the concrete to show where it had been stood.

CHAPTER THIRTY

C
aitlin slid off the bonnet and stared down at the blackened concrete, not daring to take her attention off it as she staggered away.

She clutched her chest and looked up to see Kane approaching, the dagger still in his hand.

‘What happened?’ She stumbled backwards, still trembling from shock as she glanced around rapidly. ‘Why am I still here? Why am I still alive?’

He glanced down at the scorch mark. ‘It looks to me like you just killed your first soul ripper, Caitlin Parish.’

She stared back down at the concrete then back at Kane. ‘Killed it? It’s gone?’

‘I’d say that’s a definite,’ he said, giving her a hint of a smile.

As he stepped up to her she took a wary step back. ‘I don’t get it.’

‘You don’t get that the shadow reader’s soul is impossible to remove without getting to the heart first? I thought we’d just spent the last three days establishing that.’

She stood perfectly still. Her whole body felt numb. ‘I killed it?’

‘That’s what you wanted, wasn’t it? That’s what you really wanted. You asked me to kill it for you, but I knew you wouldn’t get the same satisfaction as being responsible for making the little fucker explode yourself.’

She stared at him in disbelief.

‘You had me worried for a moment though,’ he said. ‘All that not letting me put your soul back in. You nearly screwed me over, you know that?’

‘I killed it,’ she said again, still trying to let the truth sink in. ‘But that means I could have killed it all along.’

‘Of course. Those lores surrounding that precious soul of yours apply to any species, Caitlin. Thing is, your soul was already out when it arrived so it wasn’t going to know what you were.’ He smiled. ‘But when it pierced your soul it sure did. By then it was too late. It was trying to get back out of you, Caitlin. You gave it one hell of a struggle. Your anger wasn’t letting it go.’

She frowned. ‘You knew all this. You knew before now.’

His silence said it all.

She stared at him in horror. ‘You never intended to do anything, did you?’

‘I’d have stepped in if I had to, but you seemed to be doing just fine on your own.’

Caitlin swung her fist back before punching him across the jaw. ‘You bastard!’

He rubbed where she hit, but looked far from disconcerted. ‘I guess I deserved that one too.’

She stabbed her finger towards him. ‘I could have done this on my own all along! I didn’t need you – you needed me!’

‘You got this far because I let you get this far. Don’t forget that. You got what you wanted. You killed the soul ripper.’

She looked down at the dagger then anxiously back at him.

He exhaled curtly. ‘What? You think I intend to use this?’

He closed the gap between them, pressed the flat of the blade against the underside of her chin. ‘Open your eyes, Caitlin.’ He studied her for what felt like a lifetime before he lowered the blade and flipped the dagger in his hand as he stepped past her.

She turned to face him as he collected the book off the car bonnet. ‘So you’re letting me go?’

As he opened the driver’s door and eased inside, her stomach flipped.

‘I am.’ He looked around the room to where the bodies on the floor were already starting to flinch and stir into consciousness. ‘You’re going to have a few questions to face though.’

‘What about Xavier? What about your vengeance on him now the soul ripper is gone?’

‘I’ve got plenty of time to catch up with him. And a few others by the sounds of it.’

‘Feinith?’

‘Oh yeah. Feinith is one for sure.’

He leaned across the passenger seat to tuck the dagger inside the glove compartment along with the book.

‘What was Xavier talking about? What did he mean about what you needed for the prophecy?’

Kane met her gaze fleetingly. It was a glance that told her that one was going to remain undisclosed. He switched the engine on.

A sudden sense of loss clutched her stomach. He was leaving. Just like that, he was driving away. ‘You’re going? Now? I just nearly had my soul ripped out of me. I’ve just spent three days fighting for my life, and that’s it?’

He looked back across at her. ‘What do you want, sweetheart – fireworks?’

She knew exactly what she wanted. She wanted him to utter those words again. She wanted him to pull her close and confirm every single word. She wanted, needed, to believe it could be true.

She clenched her hands by her sides. She realised she was panicking, but it wasn’t like any kind of panic she’d ever known. She should have been itching to let him go. She should have been itching to get away from him. But instead she remained rooted to the spot, her throat arid, her legs weak.

She also knew what she didn’t want – she didn’t want him to go. She didn’t want him to leave just like that. She didn’t want him to act like it was all nothing.

But neither did she want him to laugh in her face or dismiss her if she told him. She didn’t want to embarrass herself any more than she clearly already had. Kane didn’t want her. Kane had never wanted her. Not beyond his own purpose. He had told her he loved her merely to get her to concede to give himself a chance at survival. He let her kill the soul ripper because she had saved him in the basement. He was making the score even, that was all. Making it even so he didn’t owe her anything. His pride, at least, would insist on that.

There would be no fireworks – just a cold, dark night outside. An empty, lonely night.

And with her vengeance gone, she didn’t even have a purpose.

It hit her like a wall. It was over. It was all over. And now there was nothing.

She pointed across at the lycans still bound and gagged. ‘What about them?’

‘They were leverage. Just like you were. Besides, their testimonies will come in useful.’

‘So you were never going to kill them?’

‘It was a condition Jask set before telling me the truth that night he came to find me.’

‘So you’re letting us all live?’

‘We had a deal, didn’t we?’

A deal. A business arrangement. She gazed into his navy-blue eyes. As if she could think he was capable of anything else. She lowered her gaze, her swallow dry and painful.

‘Caitlin.’

Her gaze snapped back to his, her heart skipping a beat.

‘You’re going to be okay,’ he said as he leaned his arm on the open window. ‘You know that, right?’

Her heart pounded. She glanced back around the room as a couple of the soldiers started to ease themselves up onto their elbows, looking as dazed as if they’d been out for days. She looked back at Kane. ‘I can look after myself.’

He held her gaze for a moment longer then lifted his hands on the steering wheel.

‘Wait!’ she said, taking a step forward, her throat so tight it was almost a struggle to breathe. ‘I’ll make sure the truth comes out.’

Going against everything her heart was telling her to do, she took a step back again, creating the distance he clearly wanted.

She had to stay resolute. It was less painful this way. Letting him go had to be less painful. And she had to do it while she still had the conviction. She was used to facing things alone and this was no different. She didn’t need him. She needed anything but him if she was going to get her life back on track. The last thing she needed was a broken heart. If any more threads that held it together were cut, she wasn’t sure it would ever repair again. And she knew Kane was more than capable of being the one to ruin her.

She had to turn away. She had to walk away. It was the only way she’d know for sure if he cared enough to come after her. It was a risk, a bigger risk than anything else she had ever done because if Kane did leave, she knew the disappointment would be excruciating. But it was better that she did it then and saved herself the prolonged and inevitable pain of his eventual rejection.

She wrapped her arms protectively around herself and took those few steps away from him. She closed her eyes for a brief moment and clenched her hands into fists as she pleaded for the car door to open, to hear his footsteps towards her.

He’d take her in his arms. He’d pull her close. He’d reassure her that nothing else mattered. That they’d find a way to be together.

Instead she heard the rev of the accelerator, she heard tyres scrape on concrete. And as Kane pulled away, driving through the bodies awake enough to roll out of his way, her heart broke.

Caitlin stood alone with only the scent of night air, the chill encompassing her and melding the tears against her cheek as she watched him disappear into the darkness.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

C
aitlin sat at the café table, staring into her mug of coffee. The rain tapped against the window beside her, glistening against the darkness of Blackthorn, the coffee machines hissing in the distance.

She should have gone straight home after the verdicts, but the thought of going back to the apartment filled her with an even greater sense of loneliness than being sat in this room full of strangers. That and the prospect of the barrage of journalists guaranteed to be camping outside her apartment. For just a couple of hours, she’d opt for feeling like a coward instead of a traitor – and no one would look for her across the border.

Cold air swept into the room as the door opened. Three young women burst through the door, scanning the café for seats. Spotting the empty booth next to hers, they rustled towards her, chatting and giggling.

Caitlin stared back into her mug. Their sudden hush told her they’d noticed and recognised her. The case had been plastered across every news channel all day, let alone the three days leading up to it. It was the biggest scandal the VCU had ever faced, and the whole of the Third Species Control Division were out to prove their worth in the face of adversity. Xavier had been disowned along with Max and Rob as rogues amidst an otherwise morally flawless organisation. The fact that Caitlin had given the key testimonial was the biggest shock of all to the establishment. If she’d been held in contempt by her colleagues before, now she was well and truly hated, and not least because of her reinstatement.

After what she was sure were a few mouthed words and overdramatic eye-jerking in her direction, the women’s chatter resumed, albeit more hushed.

Caitlin glanced back out onto the rain-soaked street. Rob couldn’t even look at her when he’d been led away. But it was the resolution in Max’s eyes that hurt her the most. And when he’d looked at her across the courtroom after the decision of guilty was made, there hadn’t been anger in his eyes, but pride. Whether as his agent or his stepdaughter, maybe both, he’d told her in that single lingering gaze that she’d done the right thing. It caught in her throat even then and she fought back the tears, stared back into her mug in the hope no one would notice.

Kane hadn’t turned up at the courthouse. Too big a part of her had hoped he would. She’d checked out the gallery but there had been no sign of him. She’d hoped to linger outside for a little while afterwards, but the journalists who’d been forced to wait outside had posed too great a threat. The only one she’d come across was Jask. The fact he’d been sat in the lobby when he’d had no reason to hang about after his testimony confirmed he’d been waiting for her.

‘We’re not done yet,’ he’d said as she’d stepped past him.

She’d stopped and stared down at the mosaic floor despite knowing she should have kept walking. She’d turned to face him, his azure gaze penetrating deep into hers.

It had been his testimony that had sealed the verdict, along with the testimonies of the two lycans who’d committed the act.

‘You heard the verdict, Jask.’

‘You think ten years is enough? Twenty for Xavier? Do you think they’re even going to serve that time?’

‘That’s out of my hands,’ she’d said, turning away.

‘But you’re not out of mine.’

She’d stopped again. Turned to face his rigid gaze.

He’d stood steadily from his ornate mahogany chair, his broad six-foot frame domineering the short distance between them.

‘I don’t know why Kane let you live,’ Jask had said. ‘But I wouldn’t rest easy if I were you. If he doesn’t finish this properly, I will. Those boys in there are owed. Fourteen years of their life at least. Their families are owed. I’m responsible for seeing that happens.’

‘I put everything on the line to see that the truth came out. I can’t do anything more.’

‘Do you think your laws make any difference to us? We have our own lores. There are going to be a lot of angry lycans out there. In this locale and others. I’ve got to be seen to be doing something if Kane isn’t. I only let you off because I had his assurance that he would deal with this.’ He’d stepped around the back of her. ‘I’m giving him a few days and then I want to see some damaged goods, or I’ll see to it myself.’