Blood Dark (21 page)

C
aitlin’s glare
could have melted steel as Erica emerged from the room in front of him – no doubt a by-product of Erica still readjusting the spaghetti straps on her dress.

Kane felt an uncharacteristic jab of awkwardness but even that couldn’t relinquish his preoccupation with what the text had said – his head too busy formulating conclusions.

Caitlin had given him the dates and times but, in the process, got out of him why he needed them. The very next morning, they’d taken Caleb in before he’d barely had time to do anything to construct the alibis the information was intended for. Yet there was nothing contrite in her composure. In fact, as that glare snapped back to his, she jutted her chin up just a little, her jaw tight.

For all he knew, she’d already read Caleb.

For all he knew, she knew everything.

And, for the first time ever, he didn’t know what the hell to do next.

She was the one to close the gap between them. That act in itself grasped the attention of the ten or so people in the room.

‘I want to talk to you,’ she said, her voice low. ‘Outside.
Now
.’

Kane’s jaw clenched at her directive, especially amidst her possible betrayal.

An awkward, shocked hush swamped the room.

He narrowed his eyes. ‘Everyone
out
,’ he instructed the room a second later, reclaiming control as he refused to take his eyes off hers.

All around them there was silent movement towards the door until it finally closed, leaving them alone.

She stepped over to the coffee table and pulled her bag from across her body. She sat down and cleared the surface. Not even waiting for him to join her, she took out photographs and several pieces of paper and slammed them down in succession as if the table were some kind of pinboard.

Curiosity abounding, the unease in his chest intensifying, he joined her, taking the seat directly opposite hers.

There was a photograph of Sophia, though her hair was a shade far lighter than the dye she currently wore. There was a photograph of a young blonde female. There were phone records and travel records and other official looking papers. And there amongst it all was a photograph of a woman with russet hair.

His gaze snapped back to Caitlin as she stared a little too calmly back at him. But her breathing was rapid despite clearly trying to control it; he could hear her heart pounding.

He wanted to convince himself it wasn’t possible she had pieced it all together but the evidence spread in front of him told a story he didn’t want to hear.

‘What do you know about The Alliance, Kane?’

The fact she even knew the name told him things had rapidly gone wrong.

She fixed her expectant gaze on his as she awaited his response; as she awaited his justification despite knowing he justified himself to no one.

‘You took him in,’ was all he was willing to say, his annoyance cresting beneath the uncharacteristic disquiet flooding his veins.

The stare he got back told him she was in no mood to justify herself either.

It irked more than he wanted – more than he could allow her to see.

‘To save wasting both of our time,’ she said. ‘I’ll tell you who they are – or
were
. They were a secret vigilante group consisting of humans who weren’t happy with the way things are evolving in Blackthorn under the control of pivotal third species leaders such as yourself, Jask and Caleb, so they decided to assassinate as many of you as they could. They’re the ones whose murders I’ve been investigating.

‘In the early hours of this morning, the head of The Alliance gave herself up. She confessed they sent in two honeytraps in the hope Caleb and Jake would drink the girls to death, killing themselves in the process. She claimed she watched Jake kill one of them; then she watched Caleb dispose of the body to cover it up. Jake
did
murder Trudy Lawrence, just as Caleb covered it up to protect him. And you knew this, didn’t you? You asked me to give Caleb the chance to get alibis knowing what he had been involved in.’

Kane’s chest tightened under the intensity of the condemnation in her eyes – a condemnation he was unwilling to entertain. ‘To ensure he didn’t go in for something he hadn’t done. Because Caleb is not responsible for what happened to the rest of The Alliance members, Caitlin.’

Her breathing became terser. ‘And you’re sticking by that?’

‘Because it’s the truth.’

‘That same witness identified Caleb as having been at one of the scenes of the murders,’ she added. ‘She spoke to the survivor – for as long as he was alive.’

‘That’s a lie.’

He knew it was.

It had to be.

‘You really believe Caleb would let one live?’ he added, needing to convince himself. ‘Or that he’s
that
sloppy?’

‘The witness gave us names. She gave us addresses.’ She pointed to one of the photographs. ‘One of those names was Sophia McKay, known as Phia on the street. She’s a resident of Summerton. She’s been on the missing person’s list for almost a year. I visited her bedsit the witness claimed was funded by The Alliance. The place is littered with her fingerprints. Forensics show she was there as little as a few days ago. Other fingerprints there confirm at least one other name the witness gave us. That’s one heck of coincidence, especially as he too is registered as missing.’

She pointed to another of the photographs, showing the blonde woman with Jake Dehain. ‘I found this photograph in Sophia’s bedsit. It was taken less than twenty-four hours after the assassination attempt. Her name Alisha McKay. She’s Sophia’s younger sister. At first I thought she might have been in on it – maybe a honeytrap like the others, going back in for seconds. Then I noticed this on her neck.’

She moved the paperwork around to pull out a close-up photograph of a tattoo.

‘It’s the Dehain symbol,’ she said. ‘But I’m guessing you already know that. It signifies ownership, or “protection” as the more romantic may claim. Others would say it’s a cattle brand. From what I know, it’s rare. They don’t just hand those out. And that tells me either Jake is naïve enough to have been reeled in by this girl over quite some time, or there’s a committed thing going on between those two. I’m opting for the latter, especially on Alisha’s part considering she’d find it tough getting back across the border into Summerton with that gracing her neck. She must
really
like Jake to give up all that luxury and security for him.

‘That’s not the most interesting part of all of this though,’ she added, pulling the other headshot into clear view. ‘There’s another sister. The eldest.
Leila
McKay. She too is a lifelong resident of Summerton. She keeps her head down, holds down a good job at the local library in the archives department. Thirty-two years old, and she’d never ventured beyond Midtown. It’s hardly surprising as she’s quite the anti-vampire-equality protester – she even wears the rings by all accounts. But considering her own mother was killed by a rogue vampire, which
she
witnessed, it’s understandable.

‘Yet just over a week ago, not only did she venture out of Summerton but beyond Midtown too. In fact, I have evidence – travel records and even glimpses of CCTV footage – that show her venturing as far as the very border of Lowtown. I had to ask why, so I checked her incoming personal phone records. She’d received a call that night. She left within the hour, almost as if it was some kind of emergency.

‘And that’s where this gets
really
interesting. Leila may be an archivist, but she’s also an interpreter. She was registered at the age of five which also makes her an extremely
talented
interpreter; some might safe gifted. If anyone is going to know how to cast a spell, it’s her – which is yet
another
interesting thing. As I’m sure you know, anything crossing Summerton’s border has to be declared. That means I also happen to know she took a book with her that night as well as a miscellaneous box, both of which she claimed she was taking to a buyer in Midtown. She returned to Summerton without them – but more than two days later. And all of this happened around the time of the assassination attempt.’

And there she was: the agent laid bare. This was Caitlin Parish at her best.

Kane rubbed his hand across his stubbled jaw as the accusation leaked from Caitlin’s eyes. Worse, the disappointment and distress behind them created an even more formidable barrier than his own irritation at the consequences of her discovery, let alone her subsequent actions. His own irritation at the gut-wrenching implications of Caleb’s secret being out; that she already knew and was waiting for him to say it.

But she didn’t need him for answers her shadow reading could provide. If her trust in him was as fragmented as it appeared to be, she wasn’t stupid enough to go to confront him without backup. This was a personal quest for Caitlin – a deeply personal quest betrayed by the fact her right leg was trembling a little, her hands the same. He hadn’t seen that look in her eyes since she’d been told the truth of what her family had done and had finally accepted it. And now she looked at him the same way – but as if he had committed an even worse betrayal.

Worse than her having betrayed him by taking the Dehains right out from under him.

‘I don’t know what Alisha said to get Leila to Blackthorn that night, but she did,’ Caitlin declared. ‘Like everyone else, I’ve always believed it impossible to cure a vampire who has drunk dying blood, but it looks as though it simply takes an extremely powerful witch with the right tools. My question is, how long have
you
known? And what is it between you and Caleb that is
so
much more important than what we have that you would protect him, that you would get me to put my job on the line by enabling the alibis he needs? Why are you
really
so desperate to keep him outside? I think its time you told me what the
fuck
is really going on here, Kane, don’t you?’

K
ane’s silence
sparked something in Caitlin that only ever appeared when she knew she had nothing to lose.

Everything pointed to it: Leila McKay had been there that night. Leila McKay had been in the Dehain brothers’ club.

Jake Dehain was alive
because
of Leila.

That was the missing link.

And if she
was
right, confirmation of Caleb’s potential guilt for The Alliance murders was slapping her in the face.

Kane had looked her in the eye and had
assured her Caleb was innocent.

Had
promised
her.

He dropped his gaze contemplatively. There was no shock, no defensiveness and, worse, no denial.

But he
was
going to justify himself to her because if he had known about any of it, he was going to have to come up with some momentous reason for his deceit – that he hadn’t done so out of choice, but because of a total lack of it.

Caught between her job and giving Kane just one more chance to let her in on it, she knew she was wavering on the edge of things being about to go horribly wrong. But for the sake of any semblance of trust left in their relationship, she had no choice.

It hit her in a mass of disjointed images, from the second he first pinned her to the wall in the corridor the night they first met, to him following her home last night. The feeling now felt so cruel in its lie: the feeling when she’d got into bed in the early hours of that morning that he cared,
truly
cared. The feeling that she had found everything she had ever wanted; that all of it up to that point had somehow been worth it. As she’d lain in bed running her hand over the cold sheet beside her, she’d resolved that
he
was worth it. She was going to walk away from the VCU, her life there, kiss goodbye to any prospect of normality, take the leap of faith and be with him. Because every minute with him felt precious, no matter how few those minutes were eventually going to be.

But then the spears of truth had pierced.

Her right leg trembled at the prospect of finally facing what she was in the midst of – let alone the truth of Kane himself. She squeezed the tips of her left-hand fingers in her right palm until they turned numb as she waited for him to speak.

‘When did you work this out?’ he asked.

‘Does it matter?’

‘Fuck yeah, it matters. Did you know last night? When you came to me?’

She knew exactly what his train of thought was and there was no way she was willing to let him throw even one accusation in her direction. ‘I didn’t work it out until today. The witness came in during the night when I was with
you
. The Dehains were already being brought in by the time I got to work this morning. As were Alisha and Hade, also at the club, as witnesses.’

‘And Leila?’

Caitlin’s heart skipped a beat that he mentioned Leila but not Sophia. More so, there was a look in his eyes as he asked it – a look that had darkened with suspicion. He knew
exactly
what she was talking about, revealed by him being worried enough to ask about Leila. He knew exactly what the implications were: if she was right, Caleb was never getting out of that place again.