Blood Bath, A Paranormal/Urban Fantasy (The Maurin Kincaide Series Book 4) (12 page)

"So this happens a lot then? Slaughtering women? Any more ancients who need a lithium drip or a lobotomy that I should know about?"

I caught the glance Kedehern gave his wife. They were holding back. "Look, if you know something now's the time to tell me. There's a fed running SPTF now. None of my people are in charge and that's going to make my job a lot harder as liaison. I'd like to get off on the right foot with this guy especially since we have to keep him away from the case and sell some bullshit story about how these girls died."

"They were never your people. It doesn't matter. The
cleanup is no longer your concern. You've been alleviated of those responsibilities."

"What? Kedehern
, you can't be serious. You can't take me off this now. I'm close. I can get a confession. You can mete out whatever justice you see fit, just let me bring him in."

"I am well aware of your record with SPTF and your unharnessed power, daughter of Arawn. Which is why you will be taking up the position as Regulator for the New En
gland region."

"I didn't know we had a Regulator. Is that like a sup sheriff? What would I be doing exactly?"

"You will no longer be responsible for acquiring passes for the pack or reporting new registrations to the authorities. Otherwise your position will remain basically the same."

"So let me see if I'm following you here. All of the ass kicking and none of the paperwork?"

"That would about sum it up." He chuckled. "Does this mean you accept?"

It was my turn to laugh. "Oh
, I'm under no delusion I had a choice, but yes I accept. Aidan said you put me on his team. I assumed it was in addition to being liaison. So does this promotion come with a raise?"

"
You're not joining Aidan's team. You'll be leading it."

And there it was. The reason they were so sweet and a
ffectionate. What did Mary Poppins say, a teaspoon of sugar makes the medicine go down. Agrona smiled, all fang, and I knew there was more to my new position. This was about keeping Aidan in check and her royal highness seemed to think making him report to me was the way to do it.

"You'll have a team of two cleaners and two investig
ators working under you. They will report to Aidan and he will report directly to you." Agrona waited for my usual temper fueled reaction but she was going to be disappointed.

I was sick of pushing paper anyway. I liked the action and I've been ass deep in it since the Council first came into my life. I was finally coming into my own, a little later than most but I'm good with a blade, come equipped with a scary fae dog and a unique skill set perfect for chasing down bad guys. I wasn't about to let vampire politics ruin the m
oment.

"So do I need to meet the new
captain at SPTF?"

Kedehern pulled h
is wife’s legs across his lap and proceeded to rub her perfectly manicured feet. I think I would rather watch them eat from live donors. Something was seriously creepy about watching them like this. The look on his face said they knew it too. "The new liaison will take care of the initial meeting. She will keep him abreast of your progress. Meet with Caligula."

"I was headed there after this. So who's the new lia
ison? I'll need her contact info."

"You already have it. We chose Amalie as your replac
ement. She'll be expecting your call." I started to walk out but he called me back. "And, Maurin, try a little finesse. Caligula can't tell you anything if he's dead."

Aidan still hadn't shown. Did he know something was wrong with the mark? Was there some connection between master and their marked that was missing, tipping him off? I really didn't want to have it out with him but if he tried to stop me from going because of a failed marking, it was on like Donkey Kong.

Actually, he couldn't stop me now that the Council made me team lead but this was about us. He said he wanted to protect me but I wasn't used to having someone at my back or at my front blocking every move I tried to make
. It was a little suffocating to say the least.

I leaned against the wall next to the rear entrance, the cold bricks leeching my body heat. The longer I
stayed the longer I stewed. I'd developed a terrible habit of hashing and rehashing things. Someone would do or say something and I would turn it over in my mind, analyzing every detail. If I didn't pull the information myself it couldn't be trusted. So the longer I waited, the longer I had to think about everything that had happened on the case, with Aidan, Cash and even the hunter's wards. Conry was pacing, gravel crunching under his paws, as he tried to shake off my anxiety.

By the time Aidan pulled up in the Camaro I was well and truly pissed. I watched him get out of the muscle car, and my mood soured even more. Something I wouldn't have thought possible. While I count
ed stars to kill the time waiting on my vampire, I obsessed over my failed marking and the likelihood it was more than my protection that had him attempting it.

Aidan was always gorgeous with impeccable taste and designer clothes, but seeing him in jeans, untucked white button down and leather jacket had my brain screaming we were mad at him to the more traitorous parts of my body. He had stopped to feed before coming here. He crossed the
parking lot with casual determination, his sights set on me. A crooked grin ignited a fire low in my body. This would be easier if he hadn't dressed like my fantasy Aidan. I couldn't let it distract me. I had to know if there was more to his attempt to mark me.

"I'm glad to see you at least had the sense to wait for me instead of going off to Caligula's on your
own."

"Only because I didn't have his address." He was tea
sing, I wasn't. If I knew where Caligula lived I would have left fifteen minutes ago.

He leaned in, pressing me tighter against the bricks. I bristled as his hands slid up my hips and his lips worked
their way along my jaw. "What's wrong? I feel the tension rolling off you."

"Nothing
," I lied. Everything was bothering me.

Aidan's lips moved down my neck and I froze when he reached the spot where his mark should have been. He jerked back. "That's why you left without me. You hop
ed I wouldn't find out."

"Why did you really want to mark me?"

"Did you think I wouldn't get close to you, touch you?" He brushed my hair back, exposing the unmarked skin.

"Why did you really want to mark me
, Aidan?"

"What does it matter now? It didn't work."

"It matters to me."

"Have I ever given you a reason to doubt me? Have I e
ver done anything but care for you? And still you rush to think the worst of me. Someone says something, plants a seed of doubt and you let it grow into a gnarled hedge of mistrust that I must once again hack my way through. Just to get close to you. All those nights I spent with you, getting to know you, did you learn nothing about me? About the kind of man I am?"

"You still didn't answer the question." My heart was pounding. I wanted to believe the words flowing from his beautiful lips. He was saying all the right ones but there was more to his driving need to mark me. He had to have known about my new position with the Council. Agrona had said he was afraid of what I would become. How many times had they called me daughter of Arawn. Why would he ask me to do something that could sever me from my fae lineage? He knew more last night before he sank his fangs
into my neck than he bothered to share with me. He was keeping something from me.

"Didn't I?"

"Did you know last night that I was going to be Regulator? That I was basically in charge of your team?"

"You have got to be fucking kidding me
? You think I was trying to what, hold sway over you with my mark? It couldn't possibly have anything to do with the others seeking to claim you. Your wolf, the stranger marking your door, even your father is making moves to find you a match. Did you know that?

“
Christ, Maurin, even the Council is trying to claim you. Caligula could lay claim to you. I want to show the world that you are mine and you assume I only want to control you. That my mark gives me power over you.  I sought to win your heart and mind. But I haven't, have I? Last night you let your guard down, truly let me in but I see the walls are back up and thicker than ever."

My throat was tight, my voice waver
ed as I held back tears. He was right. I had already fortified the walls around my heart. "Did you know that being marked by a vampire is forbidden among the fae? That in order to be marked I would be giving up my lineage, the thing that gives me my power, that makes me, me?"

"If I thought such a thing was possible I wouldn't have tried. Were you the daughter of Arawn when I first met you? Were you my superior when I first kissed you? I don't give a damn about your power or position. I wasn't asking you to give up anything but your heart.

“You know, I used to find all your little insecurities endearing. Now I see them for what they really are. A handicap. You will always look for the worst in others. You don't value yourself, so why should anyone else. You don't see what everyone else sees when they look at you, when I look at you." He walked toward the car. "Let's go. The night isn't getting any younger and we still have Caligula to question."

I didn't say anything, just numbly climbed into the pa
ssenger seat as Conry sprawled out in back. He called me an emotional cripple and he was right. It wasn't like my life had been over flowing with love and support. I couldn't accept the fact that Aidan wanted me, that his desire to mark me stemmed more from his feelings for me than anything else. So I let Agrona, master manipulator, plant doubt in my head- for her own enjoyment no doubt. Combine that with my father's declaration that a vampire mark was like the scarlet letter for fae and I had enough to question everything about Aidan and his intentions. I had royally fucked up.

"Aidan?"

"Don't. You've said enough for one night."

"Aidan
, I just, I..."

"You just what? Want to offer some half hearted apol
ogy? Spare us both. It will offer little solace after hearing what you really think of me."

"A lot's happened the last couple of days. I admit it, I let my insecurities get the best of me. I was overwhelmed, I didn't know what to think."

"Let me know when you do."

The rest of the ride to Caligula's was in painful silence.
I watched the city morph into suburbia and tried to piece myself together enough to get through the questioning. I had planned to confront Aidan about his ulterior motives, but there weren't any. In exchange Aidan laid me bare, exposing all the self esteem issues I typically kept hidden behind a sharp wit and sharper tongue.

I closed my eyes and worked on breathing. I'd tried meditation before
. I couldn't sit still long enough. Since I was stuck in the car I tried it again. I couldn't afford any chinks in my mental armor when I talked to Caligula. I needed some serious repair work after the argument with Aidan.

Caligula lived in an unassuming two story Cape Cod with grey shaker siding, white trim, red shutters and door. It was the quintessential upper middle class home, one you
found anywhere along the New England coastline and totally not what I expected.

Spring was far from making an appearance but the
yard was neatly kept. Boxwood hedges trimmed the grass in place of a fence and two birch trees stood on each side of the walk, the stark white bark a contrast against the grey backdrop of the house. I half expected a mother to pull up in her silver suburban, dragging three kids from hockey practice home for dinner. It was hard to reconcile this house, this home, with a killer-vampire or otherwise.

Aidan hadn't said another word to me on the way over and st
ood as far from me as possible without actually waiting in the car. How could we work together like this? I tried to get his attention, to get him to look at me. I needed reassurance we were going to be all right, not for the future, just right now- that we were going to walk out of here.

Despite what was said between us earlier, Aidan was excellent at picking up on my emotions. He didn't so much as check me in his
peripheral. The hard clipped sound of his voice when he reminded me that he was a professional and despite my new title I was a rookie compared to him, left me colder than the wind blowing off the Atlantic. He stepped in front of me and knocked on the door. The man who answered was as unexpected as the house.

"Well, isn't this a pleasant surprise. I heard you'd been spending more time state side
, Aidan. I'm disappointed you haven't called before now." Caligula was dressed in a charcoal grey v-neck sweater with white under shirt, jeans that looked broken in but definitely came that way and black Vans. He looked like he belonged in this neighborhood, hell in this decade, except for his eyes. Something in those dark chestnut orbs showed his age. He may have fooled the elderly couple next door but the power cresting against this suburban facade was obvious to me.

"Aren't you going to invite us in?" Aidan still dwarfed me with his body but Caligula wasn't surprised when Aidan said
us. He would have sensed my heartbeat.