Blood Dark (10 page)

He could have come in the time he made her wait, relieving himself in the other room or there as he watched her. But holding back was going to make the moment even more powerful. He’d pushed her to the edge of her adrenaline, as much as an aphrodisiac as the situation he had created.

If he could have kept her in that room forever at that point, he would have. Whatever her protests, he would have kept her there safe and enclosed and his. He would have forgotten all the problems beyond the door and lost himself in her.

Because if he’d wanted to test her trust in him, she had already passed. Everything about her submission told him that, despite the setbacks of the past few days, she was still willing to give herself to him. To give herself to the elusive bastard who, because of his own fragilities and those of the world beyond, couldn’t do the same.

Finally, she may have accepted that fact.

C
aitlin’s heart
skipped a beat as she felt his cool fingers at the hip-band of her knickers before they were gently slid down over her behind, along the length of her thighs, and down her calves.

Kane unbound one ankle, still holding it as he slid her knickers over her foot before securing it again.

She felt his palms slide up her inner thighs as her legs were parted again.

The feel of Kane’s incisors scraping against her fragile flesh had her gasping against her gag, her whole body tensing as they approached her sex. But it was the softness of his tongue that met her sensitive nub in a move that was both agony and bliss.

She cried out against her gag without restraint. Sparkles of white light glinted behind her blindfold, her ears numb to the sound of anything but her own beating heart. The sheer escapism of being lost on the cusp of her own orgasm was a bliss that she realised, only then, just how much she missed.

As he pushed his tongue inside her, as he simultaneously worked her clit with his thumb, her sex throbbed, her thighs trembling as the arousal travelled up from her toes. Anxiety was replaced with sheer desire, her trepidation with need. As he teased her to the point of agony, she swore against her gag, arched her back, not caring what he did next, wanting him only to ease the ache, spreading her legs just that little bit further in the hope he would finally relent.

But
again
he withdrew, as if sensing every single time when she was drawing close.

As the bed sank beside her, she turned her head towards him, wishing she could give him a mouthful of her frustration, sensing without needing to see that his eyes would be glinting with triumph.

She could feel his breath on her cheek as he leaned over her, breath that traced down her throat betraying that he was looking in the direction of what he was about to do.

As his finger slid into her sex, she coiled her fingers into fists.

Shooting pains of pleasure erupted up her spine as he lowered his mouth to her breast again, the feel of his tongue on her nipple excruciating; his tongue that soon worked in perfect unison with his fingers caressing her sex, connecting the two parts of her body so that every nerve ending fired, until she could focus on nothing else.

As he replaced one finger with two, she could barely breathe, her breasts aching, her legs quivering.

She knew she was on the edge of coming, knew that he knew that too.

‘Clench,’ he said, his breath caressing her ear. ‘No matter how deep I go, no matter how hard I push, I want to feel you clenching.’

The sound of his familiar rasp against her ear almost had her coming there and then. She did as he asked. She closed her thighs as she did so, creating a whole new sensation.

Her breaths became rapid as he pushed seemingly as far as he could go. Keeping them there, his thumb working her clit, the excruciating ripples shot through her.

And she knew she was finally coming – coming in a way only Kane could incite.

She cried out against her gag, his fingers buried deep inside her as she came and came hard.

And he withdrew.

The mattress lifted beside her again.

Still reeling mid-orgasm, she heard him move to the foot of the bed.

‘Open your legs,’ he said. ‘I’m not done.’

She parted her knees, no longer caring that he’d be stood there watching her.

The feel of his hardness, his thickness, his length, finally breaking into her was excruciating bliss. Caitlin arched her back to him all over again, knowing her screams would have been ricocheting around the entire building had they not been suppressed by her gag.

Palms pressing into the bed either side of her shoulders, his penetration was slow, deep, hard as if he planned to make her linger in her orgasm for as long as he could as she came and came and came again. Because the feel of him inside her was enough to set off a chain reaction, one that escalated as she felt his mouth on her breast again, on her neck.

And all she could see was images of them. She could see her legs spread for him, her arms tied above her head, his hungry mouth on her breasts, his strong, firm, tattooed back glistening in the dim light. She could see the strength and power of his biceps flexing as he kept himself braced above her, those slender, muscular thighs controlling the power of his thrusts, his bare, rounded, muscular behind pounding into her.

She couldn’t breath as another orgasm erupted, one like she had never felt, an orgasm that wouldn’t stop coming, tears trickling down her cheeks behind her blindfold.

She wanted him to bite. She wanted to feel his incisors break into the flesh of her neck without anesthetic. She wanted him to take everything, draw every iota of energy as only a master vampire could.

She wanted him to want her that much.

Just thinking of it, the sensations erupted through her body in an explosion, her body jolting under the force, bound only by the restraints as she felt herself hurtle through a million stars as she felt Kane empty inside her.

‘
D
o
you ever wonder what it would have been like, Kane, if the regulations had never been put into place? If the third species had simply been accepted on face-value?’

He lay behind her, both wrapped naked in the sheet, facing the window. Caitlin mindlessly drew a small heart in the condensation on the glass, the gap having not yet dispelled it.

Right then he would have given anything to make the reality beyond that window go away.

‘That was never going to happen,’ he said.

She rubbed out the heart as if realising what she was doing. Instead she drew a hash sign, and placed a circle in the centre. ‘Because of the prophecy?’

The agent, it seemed, was still never fully off duty.

‘Because your species are so predictable.’ He drew a cross in the top right-hand corner.

‘Or is it because yours are?’ She sent him a playful glance across her shoulder before turning her attention back to the window to draw a circle adjacent to both their symbols. ‘Why did you really come here, Kane? To Blackthorn? Why did you pick this place? You told me in your garage it was for pleasure. I don’t believe you.’

‘Do you remember everything I tell you?’

‘Pretty much.’

He ended her row with a cross before adding them left and right and in the bottom-hand left of the hash.

‘Cheat,’ she said.

He smiled against her ear. ‘And you ask too many questions.’

She swiped her hand through the game and slid the window up a fraction more so she could hold her hand outside and feel the smatters of rain. ‘But if it
had
transpired that way, I wonder how different things would be.’

‘You would have been out of a job for a start. We probably would never have met.’

‘Do you regret it?’ Her question was abrupt. Without hesitation.

She turned her hand and cupped it to catch the raindrops in her palm as she avoided his gaze pending his response.

‘Sometimes whilst watched you sleeping, I’ve wished I’d never come to Blackthorn,’ he said. ‘That your family had never made the choices they did. That you could have had an uncomplicated, untainted and peaceful life where you didn’t even know I existed. Sometimes I’ve wished it for myself too: for a life where I had never met you so I wouldn’t have to make the choices I do now. Where I wouldn’t have to consider making myself vulnerable by trusting the one person who can tear me apart in so many ways and leave me with a nothing, a nothing that will be made all the more intense because now I remember what it’s like to feel something.’

She rolled onto her back to meet his gaze, to study his eyes for a moment as if assessing their sincerity. ‘I wouldn’t do that to you.’

It was moments like that he wanted to open up to her – to tell her everything that was going on. To reassure her that he was handling everything the best way he could whilst minimizing as much risk as possible in the process.

Because in those moments, even greater than the fear of the war was the fear of losing her. Of what he would be without her.

Worse was knowing he’d leave her feeling that he’d walked out on her because it had got tough, exactly as Rob had left her for the same reason.

But he couldn’t promise her he wouldn’t. He couldn’t promise her he could put her first.

He rested his temple on his knuckles. ‘So you say, but you keep asking me to share things that could make me weak at a time when I need to be strong. That’s the truth, Caitlin. There are parts of me that you have to accept.’

‘And if I can’t?’

Not liking the panic in her eyes, not wanting to follow the line of thought she was racing ahead with, he shrugged. ‘I’ll have no choice.’ He paused. ‘I’ll have to drug and kidnap you again. And find some dark room to lock you in until your mind is no longer your own.’

She laughed.

She laughed not knowing how often it had crossed his mind since her return. But her eyes turned grave again. ‘Does it ever bother you – what they say about you? The rumours? The lies?’

‘Assumptions about others are nothing more than reflections of yourself. Fortunately I don’t give a fuck either way.’

She smiled again but this one barely had time to meet her eyes. ‘Why don’t you get away from here, Kane? Why don’t you leave Blackthorn, this locale? If there’s any truth in those secret tunnels, why don’t you use them?’

He hoped Caitlin didn’t feel the tension wash through him at the suggestion, at how tempting, during moments like that, the prospect was.

‘You’re the key to this plan Sirius has,’ she added. ‘It all rests on you. If you escape now you can prevent him getting to you.’

‘You think that would stop him?’

‘Without you, he has no way of knowing how the soul transference can be performed. Without you in the equation, he’ll have no choice but to back off.’

‘And what about you, Caitlin? If I left this place, would you come with me? Or for all the reasons you gave me downstairs, would you not risk it?’

‘Right now, in
this
moment, I’d come with you.’

As her lingering gaze oozed earnestness, it was the perfect opportunity to call her bluff. It was the perfect time to ask her again to leave the VCU just as he’d intended – to give it up for him. To stand by her words and prove it.

He could so easily escape with her – take her far away from there, through to some other locale where they could hide before starting again. But soon there would be nowhere to hide. Soon the darkness would spread its tendrils through every locale if he didn’t stop the Tryan from rising, if he now didn’t stop Sirius too.

Because there would be nowhere for any of them to hide once the invasion begun – once the Tryan believed the only way to succeed was to fight back.

The cool breeze on his neck reminded him of the freedom he would never know, that he had no right to contemplate. A sheriff of the vampire lores, of the vampire world, his responsibility would always be to keep the peace by whatever means: to maintain the balance and stop an all-out bloody war.

Now that the war was coming, it was not the time to be hightailing through the underground passages to his own temporary freedom.

‘You know Sirius won’t stop there, Caitlin. We both do.’

‘Which is why you can’t tell me you’re not planning to do something about it. Because you are, aren’t you?’

‘I’m waiting for Sirius to make his next move.’

Because they weren’t going to strike first. They weren’t going to give Sirius the satisfaction. They were smarter than that. Winning the war was not about acting on impulse but was about second-guessing the opposition – the greatest strategy of all.

And his plan was far greater.

‘And in the interim?’ she asked.

‘I’m warning those who need to know.’

‘Like Caleb?’

‘Caleb could be a powerful ally, Caitlin.’

He knew if he didn’t ask then, he was going to lose the moment.

He hoped she wasn’t going to completely freak out at the suggestion; that he’d gone some way to bridge the gap.

‘Which is why I want you to do something for me,’ he added.

I
t was
rare that she ever saw Kane hesitate. It only added to the churning in her stomach.

‘I need the dates and times and locations of all the murders – things that haven’t been made public knowledge,’ he finally said.

Caitlin’s heart pounded, increasing the discomfort lodged in her chest. ‘
What
?
Why
?’

‘Because I need to make sure that Caleb has alibis.’

She recoiled, sitting upright, clutching the sheet to her chest as she faced him. ‘Is this a joke?’

He slowly sat up. Bracing himself back on his arms, his gaze held steadily on hers. ‘Anything but.’

Her grip on the sheet tightened as she remained waiting for the punchline. ‘You want me to give you crucial evidence to cover for a potential murderer?’

‘Someone’s trying to set him up, Caitlin. Someone wants him on the inside at a time when I need him on the outside.’

Clearly there was no punchline. Nor was there anything but seriousness in Kane’s eyes.

She rubbed her fingers across her dry mouth. ‘Do you realise what you’re asking me?’

‘Yes.’

‘To put my job on the line.’

‘I know. But you yourself know you have found no evidence of Caleb’s involvement.’

‘And I have no evidence of his innocence either.’ She glanced at the ceiling before looking back at him. ‘We agreed we wouldn’t do this. That we wouldn’t put each other in this situation.’

‘You’re the one who came to me about him.’

‘As part of routine questioning.’ She moved to clamber past him. ‘What you’re asking me to do is way over the line.’

He caught hold of her, pulling her back between his legs, her back against his chest.

She instinctively tried to fend him off but he gently caught both her wrists, crossing her arms over her chest, his grip immoveable.

‘I’m asking for your help,’ he said against her ear. ‘I’m trusting you enough to ask for your help.’

She stilled at the prospect of it.

She didn’t want to fight. She had neither the energy nor the inclination. But she did need an answer.

‘And I know what that must be taking for you to do so. Why, Kane? Why is Caleb so important to you?’

‘I think he’s being set up. I think Sirius knows how much of a powerful ally he could be. All I know is that Caleb’s innocent. I’m asking you to trust me enough to do this for me.’

‘Without knowing more?’

His silence was his inevitable response.

Caitlin pressed her lips together. Suddenly she didn’t feel quite so at ease in her own skin. Suddenly his arms felt more oppressive than reassuring.

Suddenly she felt used.

The need to shower became overwhelming.

She shook her head slightly. ‘You’ve got a bloody cheek, Malloy,’ she said, finally breaking free, knowing how persuasive his proximity, his touch, was.

She ploughed into the bathroom opposite, slamming the door behind her.

She stepped into the cracked bath and yanked the ripped shower curtain across behind her. She turned the mottled chrome handle that operated the showerhead, the water spitting at her but at least allowing her a quick rinse off.

If Morgan hadn’t been the one to give her the case following
her
insistence that she wanted to be straight back out on the job, if they hadn’t all been clueless that Caleb would be a suspect, she could have almost believed she was perfectly and intentionally positioned for Kane’s own ends.

In the absence of a towel, she used the sheet she’d been wrapped in to dry off before crossing the hallway again.

Kane was sat on the edge of the bed, his shorts and jeans back on, his elbows resting on his knees as he leaned forward.

She pulled on her knickers under the sheet before reaching for her bra cast aside on the floor. Once her underwear was back in position, she tugged on her jeans and shirt.

‘I guess you’re glad I didn’t leave the VCU now?’ she remarked, insecurity making her bite despite not wanting to.

‘I wouldn’t ask you if I had an alternative.’

‘It’s whether you need him so much that you mask his crimes for him – and make me a party to that.’

‘I told you– ’

‘He’s innocent, yeah.’ She perched on the chair as she slipped on her socks and zipped up her boots one after the other. Crossing the room, she stood with her back to the door, her hands low on her hips. ‘Is this why you agreed to see me? Did you already know you were going to ask?’

Her throat clogged at the prospect. She felt a small pang of anger at the mind games in the bedroom whilst he knew his intention all along.

When he didn’t deny it, she shook her head and turned away. She crossed the threshold, headed to the outer door, her heart pounding for the wrong reason this time.

‘I wanted to see you.’ He flattened his palm to the door as she reached for the handle. ‘That’s the truth,’ he said, stood behind her.

‘And for all the inside benefits that come with me?’ she remarked, unable to look at him.

She reached for the handle again.

‘Wait,’ he said.

‘I have to get back to work.’

‘Not yet. Don’t leave it like this.’

‘I need to,’ she said, knowing she couldn’t suppress her upset any longer as it burned her throat. ‘I
really
need to.’

‘Then come back to me later.’

The insistence of his palm against the door was compelling, the rare hint of a plea in his tone even more so.

‘You wanted me to show trust,’ he added, ‘then realise how much of a risk it is for me to ask you for those dates, exposing that I’m trying to protect Caleb, potentially giving Sirius even more of a reason to want him inside. You asked me to trust you, Caitlin, and that’s why I’ve told you what I want. And I’m not going to pressure you about it, but I
am
asking you to come back to me again.’

Her grip tightened on the handle. ‘Then let me walk away.’

In the silence, he finally stepped back.

She headed down the stairs before her legs gave way beneath her.

Stepping back into the room they’d spoken in, Caitlin pulled on her shoulder holster and her jacket before slipping the strap of her bag across her body.