Blood Dark (5 page)

T
he very thought
of her in a room alone with Caleb sent a chill down his spine. The very thought of the vampire renowned as much for his charm as well as his looks playing power games with
his
Caitlin evoked his hackles to rise.

‘Your only link between Caleb and those murders is this so-called assassination attempt,’ he said, ‘and I’ll tell you again: the basic lores of vampire physiology dictate that if any of these rumours were true, if Jake
had
drunk a girl to death, he wouldn’t still be breathing, would he? Sounds to me like you’ve got fuck all to go on, Agent Parish. And if you go around there flashing your VCU badge, making false allegations against the west’s most powerful and respected vampire, you’re going to be doing the TSCD a worse disservice than you have already.’

‘Meaning?’

‘Meaning I will tell you
again
that those killings are not Caleb’s style. If he was killing people off, you wouldn’t even be finding their DNA let alone their messed-up bodies. I’ve seen the footage in the media. It doesn’t take Caleb twenty minutes to get information out of people. He’s not that patient.’

‘Have you spoken to him?’

‘It’s not him, Caitlin.’

‘Do you know who is responsible? Are you protecting
them
?’

Hearing movement, his attention snapped to the gaps in the floorboards as he focused thirty feet away. He drew an arrow from his quiver. Caitlin’s grip snapped around his wrist again. She shook her head, her frown deep, a clear enough message that she could get rid of them.

He followed her gaze. The grey coat confirmed who it was.

Morgan.

Kane guided her silently around the back of the abandoned lockers so that they would be out of view from the steps in the distance. If Morgan found them, if he caught even a glimpse, they both knew he would have no choice but to kill the agent to retain their secret.

Sensing the tension coursing through her, he looked back into her eyes. Her warning for him to behave only sparked the temptation for a little playtime, for a small reminder of his opinion of the side she had chosen to rejoin. But that would steal more precious time – time that he’d already lost enough of.

Instead, as he heard her boss’s footsteps betrayed by the squeak of rusty metal, he gently cupped her jaw.

Her persistence in going after Caleb was one step too far. He’d seen the tenacity in her eyes, heard the sincerity in her voice when she’d said she wanted answers. The potential consequences for him being seen to side with the VCU over his own, and for her to be pushing Caleb’s unstable buttons, were too great.

If Caleb touched her, he’d kill him. A fraction between east and west would be born at a time they needed to be united.

For her sake, for Blackthorn’s, they were going to have
the
conversation that afternoon. If she loved him, she’d choose him.

‘Three o’clock,’ he whispered. ‘At the club. We’ll talk.’

A
s Kane disappeared
into the shadows, Caitlin rested her head back against the lockers and stared up at the iron girders for a moment.

She had to somehow get through to him. She had to somehow convince him she wasn’t the traitor he thought she was. She might have seen the detachment in his eyes, she might have heard the coldness in his words, both had imploded deep inside her, but he hadn’t been able to hide the affection in his touch.

Despite his resentment, he
still
felt something for her. And there was
no
way she was walking away from that while there was a fighting chance.

Taking a steadying breath, she slid her gun from her holster and spun out from behind the lockers. She held it less than three feet away from Morgan’s chest as he did the same to her.

His startled eyes instantly narrowed.

Caitlin lowered her gun. ‘I’ve checked every recess. It’s clear.’

She moved to step past him but he blocked her way by handing her back her phone.

Beneath his disapproving frown, Morgan’s eyes were laced with skepticism. He swiftly assessed the darkness behind her. ‘You should have it on you at all times,’ he reminded her as his eyes locked squarely on hers again.

‘And risk having it go off and wake another of those things?’ she said, accepting it from him. She shoved it in her back pocket before returning her gun to its shoulder holster as she moved to step past him again.

Morgan caught her upper arm. ‘There are guardian angels,’ he said quietly, ‘and then there are monsters with wings. I thought you were smarter than this.’

She calmly met his glare. ‘Last thing I knew, Kane was a vampire, not a psychic, which he would have had to have been to know I was going to turn up here.
If
it was him, that was about protecting Blackthorn from whatever that was.’ She pulled her arm free. ‘Like I said, the building is clear.’

She only got as far as the steps.

‘I want you to head straight back to headquarters,’ Morgan called after her. ‘When I said I wanted to talk to you later, it wasn’t just about the Dehain case.’

Hand poised on the rail, she looked back at him.

‘There’s something you need to know,’ he added.

And from the look in his eyes, she guessed she wasn’t going to like it.

K
ane swept
through the east side of Blackthorn under the cover of the back alleys, moving in swift silence between the shadows and the tepid morning light before taking to the tunnels as he headed north to the compound.

It had been exactly two days since the one and only time he’d met with Caleb – face to face with the only other vampire in Blackthorn who matched him in status and reputation. Until then, his and Caleb’s paths had never crossed. They’d never needed to. Kane ran the east. Caleb ran the west. And, like him, Caleb did so with an iron first, building impenetrable walls of defense through reputation alone. The vampire was notorious for his zero-tolerance – both in reality and in reputation. Cons would be suicidal to go there, anyone trying to take Caleb’s ground even more so.

Fortunately, neither of them did anything to warrant one or the other instigating any kind of conflict. Both seemed to have a similar attitude and outlook. Up to that point, Blackthorn had been big enough for both of them.

That morning two days ago, Kane had headed west to test if that still applied.

The meeting between them had taken place after Caitlin had turned up at the club just after dawn with news of Sirius’s ultimatum: either Kane gave himself up or an invasion of Blackthorn was imminent. When Caitlin had mentioned Sirius’s claim he’d used the lycans as an example, Kane had gone straight to the compound. He’d discovered the aftermath of an attack on the pack: nine of the lycan young stolen, the greenhouse burned down, several of Jask’s pack dead.

To add to the devastation, he’d come face-to-face with the last thing he’d expected to find there: a serryn. And, according to the prophecy, if the serryn had finally appeared in Blackthorn then so had the pending vampire leader – right in the middle of Sirius’s threat. To avoid catastrophe, Kane had to ensure that Phia and the pending vampire leader – prophesied to be one of the Higher Order – didn’t meet. Easier said than done with Phia already being pursued by the HO’s once most proficient serryn hunter: Caleb Dehain.

He
had
to get Caleb to abandon his hunt. Even more so because of Caleb’s rumoured illicit relationship with a Higher Order vampire named Feinith. Kane knew that Feinith had already been leaking secrets about the serryn’s role in the prophecy to the now ex-head of the TSCD, Xavier Carter. And if she’d leaked secrets to Xavier, there was every chance she’d leaked those same secrets to Caleb.

The urge to tackle him head-on about what he knew had been overwhelming. But if Caleb was in the dark about the serryn role, even an inkling of Kane’s concern could evoke questions. Only one reassurance remained: Caleb had had Phia’s older sister, Leila, from whom the serryn line had jumped. For some reason, Caleb had let Leila go. If Caleb had any inclination of the serryn role in the prophecies, Leila would have surely already been in Higher Order hands.

So the plan had been simple: for now, just get Caleb to back off from Phia without raising his suspicion.

Any other vampire and he’d simply give an instruction. Unfortunately, Caleb gave about as much of a fuck about master-vampire ranking as he did the royal status of the Higher Order.

Kane had crossed the street and took the alley to the right, down to where he knew the fire exit was – the back door where Caleb traded away from the main street. Locating the camera concealed in the brickwork to the left of the door, he’d pressed the intercom and stared directly down the lens.

Caleb’s curiosity had been evoked enough for him to answer his own door.

Instead of even a glint of anxiety in his eyes at coming face-to-face with a master of their species, Caleb had looked him straight in the eye, the vibrant green of his not dulled by the muted light.

‘We’ve got a problem, Caleb,’ Kane had told him, getting straight to the point.

He’d not planned on being there a second longer than he’d needed to be. Feinith had had a call out for him for months. Feinith who had yet to work out he gave as much of a fuck about their status as Caleb did.

‘More to the point, Blackthorn has a problem,’ Kane had added. ‘The north was attacked in the early hours of this morning. The lycan compound was invaded.’

Caleb had raised his eyebrows slightly as he’d rested his shoulder against the doorway. He’d folded his arms. ‘Someone with a death wish?’

‘It was a military operation. They were uniformed. Strategic. They took them by surprise; invaded when Jask wasn’t there. Almost thirty of Jask’s pack were slaughtered. Rone, Jask’s son, was amongst the deaths. Some of the young have been taken. We don’t know where.’

He’d frowned. ‘They took the
kids
?’

‘Nine of them, including Corbin’s. And they burned their greenhouse to the ground.’

He’d seen in Caleb’s eyes that no further explanation was needed of the gravity of it. Sirius had purposely burned down all of the lycans’ medicinal reserves to stop them morphing: the herbs and spices that they couldn’t replace in time for the pending blue moon. The lack of concoction to control their condition would kill most of them. Those that survived would be out-of-control killers.
That
was Sirius’s back-up plan for a justified invasion. That was the timeframe Sirius had put on Kane’s surrender.

Caleb had stepped back, indicating for Kane to enter.

Kane had given a curt shake of his head despite knowing turning down the offer would do little to forge an allegiance.

But Caleb had seemingly accepted the decline with little offense. Instead he’d refolded his arms and leaned against the doorframe again. ‘Do you know who’s responsible?’

‘Sirius Throme.’

Caleb’s eyes had flared. ‘The Global Council have turned on the lycans?’

‘I don’t know if it’s the entire Global Council or if Throme is rogue. Either way, it’s about more than just the lycans. I’ve heard there was an attempt on yours and Jake’s lives a few days ago too.’

Caleb’s eyes had narrowed slightly as he’d waited for Kane to continue.

Kane had had no intention of disclosing that Feinith’s betrothed, Jarin, may have been involved too. If Caleb found out, Blackthorn was not going to be a pretty place. Because as strategic and smart as he was, Caleb had a dark side to rival even Kane’s. A dark side that could take over at the flick of a switch. And nobody in Blackthorn wanted that switch to be flicked. No one anywhere wanted that switch to be flicked. It was crucial for Blackthorn’s survival that Caleb was kept calm and focused.

‘I’ve got no confirmation that both are related, but I’m suspicious,’ Kane had declared. ‘You know the TSCD want me. Now Sirius has threatened an invasion if I don’t surrender. Based on what happened to Jask and what happened to you, I’m guessing he’s trying to take down my potential allies first – those with enough power to form an effective defense or attack against him. I think he wants Blackthorn floundering. I have no intention of letting that happen. If anything kicks off, I want you on side. More specifically, I want you on the outside.’

He’d frowned. ‘Outside of what?’

‘I know you’re pursuing those you think are responsible for the assassination attempt.’

Caleb’s eyes had turned guarded. ‘You really do have your finger on the pulse, don’t you, Kane?’

‘Are you the one killing them off?’

A hint of a smile had revealed a glimpse of Caleb’s incisors. ‘The reports on the news? Not my style, Kane. It seems to me that someone else is doing my job for me – and I’m guessing it’s not out of loyalty.’

It was one of the reasons Kane respected Caleb: because he took little at face value. Caleb had a suspicious mind, a paranoid mind, and both lead to effective survival in that place.

‘Why do you say that?’ Kane had asked.

Removing a cigarette from his shirt pocket, an amber flame had ignited Caleb’s green eyes further as he’d flicked open his lighter, turning the end of his cigarette molten for a second. He’d stepped out into the early morning air, his wary but subtle assessment of the alley not going unnoticed before he’d looked Kane squarely in the eyes. ‘Because it looks to me like those vigilantes were out of their depth. That whoever wanted me and Jake dead is covering their tracks. Now you’re telling me that might be Throme?’

‘I’m saying it’s a possibility. Either way, whoever it is, they’re going to be happy for you to take the fall for those murders. You’ve got a call out on one girl in particular. She goes by the name of Sophia – or Phia to you. Pursuing her is making you look guilty, Caleb. It’s giving them what they want. And like I said, I want you on the outside.’

He’d hoped it had been a good enough argument – unless Caleb had known more all along. Unless Caleb already knew that the entire future of his kind rested on him finding that girl.

And Caleb’s gaze hadn’t flinched as he’d exhaled a controlled stream of smoke into the cool air.

‘Redirect your resources,’ Kane had said. ‘I could do with you focusing your attention on having your ears to the ground for the lycan kids. If anything happens to them, that pack going on the rampage is only going to fuel Sirius’s bid to invade this place. I’m asking for a couple of days.’

Enough time to get Phia in contact with her sister Leila again so they could find out exactly what Caleb knew about the prophecies and the risk his knowledge posed.

Enough time to try and find a replacement supply of what the lycans so desperately needed to stop them morphing in a few days time.

‘Asking or
telling
?’ Caleb had asked.

Kane had held his gaze steadily on Caleb’s, reminding him of his status. ‘Whichever gets the result I want.’

Now, two days later, it was time for round two. Except, this time, Caleb was potentially holding the ace.

Corbin was already waiting outside the compound on his arrival, so there was no need for him to knock.

‘Everyone still intact?’ Kane asked, heading down the stretch of tunnel-like corridor alongside him, the florescent lights buzzing subtly overhead.

‘So far.’

‘Has he said anything else?’

‘He’s not so much as flinched.’

As soon as Corbin opened the door to the outer room, the tension descended on Kane like a weighted blanket.

Jask was sat cross-armed on the left side of the round table that lay central to the room. His stoic face, his composure as his legs were crossed at the ankle, spoke of a lycan accustomed to staring down his opponent.

Caleb sat to the right, directly opposite Jask. His legs were parted casually, one arm resting on the back of the chair, his other hand flipping an unlit cigarette over and over in his hand as he intermittently and rhythmically tapped it on the table.

His composure may have been relaxed but, as his green eyes met Kane’s, Kane could sense every iota of rebuke.

Caleb had pieced things together.

And Caleb was now one
extremely
disgruntled vampire.