Kai (A Dark Assassins Novel Book One)

by Valerie Ullmer

  “You’re in danger,” she said.

  Tensing, he tried to sense whether there was anyone nearby. When he was unable to detect anyone other than the two of them, he glanced back at her.

  “What are you talking about?”

  She reached into her jacket pocket, removed a USB drive and held it up. Something on that drive drained the color from her cheeks, and he heard her pulse quicken.

  With a sudden clarity, he knew that whatever was on that drive had everything to do with the text he’d received earlier. If she was so willing to show him, he figured it was the first mark of trust between them.

  “You need to see the video, but I want to warn you that it’s…disturbing.”

  Words stuck in his throat, and he nodded at her as he held his hand out for the drive. She dropped it into his hand as if it were diseased, and he kept his eyes on her as he rounded the coffee table, opened his laptop and inserted the drive. With a few clicks, he opened the file.

  “Holy shit,” he cursed.

  He had no clue who the man was, but he knew what he was. A shifter, a lion-shifter by the look of his long blond hair and his massive size. With each second that passed on film, a rage that he’d never experienced before built in his chest, and he forced himself to concentrate on memorizing the faces of the scientists on the film, even though most of them were dead by the end. The more he knew, the faster he could find the people who were behind it.

  But the more he watched, the angrier he became. He was used to violence—hell, he committed violence against others as a profession—but there was something unsettling about watching a shifter rip his own fucking throat out.

  As soon as the video finished, he slammed the laptop closed and glared at her. “What the fuck were you researching there?”

  A shiver passed over her, but it wasn’t fear from his anger. Her eyes were glazed over, as if she were remembering, over and over again, what she had witnessed. Fuck, no one should have to watch that horrific shit, least of all her.

  She must have pieced together the similarities between the shifter and him, and knew the one place where she could find him. Her bravery was tantamount to career suicide and most likely, at the risk of her own life, but she did it to warn him and other immortals.

  As the legends stated, vampires and shifters were created when venom was passed to a human through a bite. Their specific lineage couldn’t be traced, so there was no real understanding whether shifters and vampires shared ancestry, but similarities between the two were immense. Both species were fast, stealthy, and demonstrated heightened endurance and enhanced senses—although, shifters had a better sense of smell and thus that made them better trackers.

  Ghost, a wolf-shifter, understood the unique qualities and talents in both species and created Dark Company. They were contracted and paid well by the government for specialized cases, after normal human methods of tracking and assassinating targets had been exhausted. Not all shifters and vampires were part of Dark Company, as evidenced by the shifter on the video. Their main goal was to remain undetected, because if known, their presence would cause panic. The scientists must have realized the differences and hunted the shifter, because both shifters and vampires were close to impossible to capture and extremely hard to kill.

  He ran his hand through his short hair, and sighed. “Sorry, I’m not blaming you. That was…”

  “I would never do that,” she choked out. “They used my name, but I had absolutely nothing to do with that. I’m an immunologist, trying to find a cure for cancer, but they changed my research in order to have the cells act as a mutagen. I was working on cell regeneration, not cell manipulation.”

  Fury spread through his body, unable to calm himself enough to sense whether she was telling him the truth. He clenched his fist at his sides as he glared at her, willing himself to calm down, but the scene of the shifter tearing himself apart wouldn’t stop looping through his mind.

  “All I’ve tried to do is come up with a natural way for healthy cells to combat cancer cells. I haven’t been successful, but I’ve only been working on the problem for five years. The one person in my life who cared for me died when she was twenty-one, and I would never…hurt anyone in hopes to have my research succeed. I had no idea what they were planning to do with it, but I destroyed all of their research and the only three vials they had, so they can’t replicate it.”

  “You destroyed it?” he asked, disbelief evident in his words.

  “Yes. I couldn’t allow them to continue with what they were doing. Their research was at a standstill because mine was…” She paused for a long moment before she captured his gaze in her devastated one. “And I think they have at least three other enhanced locked away, waiting until the experiment proceeds.”

  He couldn’t sense any deception in her words, even in his heightened state of anger.

  She was devastated by what she’d found out about her company, but more than that, he remembered how she turned her head away from the sound of the video, even putting her hands up to her ears to block out the horrific sounds. The way she handled herself when she learned about her company’s deception was courageous, and she even inferred that because they had three vials of the bio-weapon, there might be other shifters being held in order to be used as test subjects. She destroyed their research, and with that information, he knew that they had a bigger problem.

  “Liv?”

  “How do you know my name? And what’s yours?”

  He shrugged. “Kai. The reason I know is because I have a file on you.”

  Her brows drew down, and he could see that she was working on a problem in her head.

  When he’d received it, he perused the file that told him the basics of her life. Her parents were detached, ignoring her and her sister, giving them gifts and trips in order to keep them from interrupting their lifestyle. When Liv’s sister had died of leukemia, the strained relationship had broken, and she no longer spoke to her parents. After earning her PhD in immunology from Harvard Medical School, she was recruited by Standard Biotech with the promise of her own lab and seclusion to conduct her research. She didn’t date, nor did she make friends easily. It seemed as though her work had been her entire life.

  “They sent you to kill me,” she muttered. “Is that why you’ve been coming to the diner? Because I’m a target?”

  “Yes, you are a target, but no, I haven’t been surveilling you. I received the contract tonight. The government keeps tabs on all the research conducted at Standard, and other biotech companies, and since your name is plastered all over the research for the bio-weapon, they figured you were going to use it for criminal purposes or sell it to the highest bidder. Whoever set you up was very thorough, and never used their name or any identifiers. I’m sure the government has no idea about the video, or who they were experimenting on, but sent out the contract based on the research notes.”

  Without telling her why he had been going to the diner, he needed her to know the complete truth about the situation she now found herself in. As he thought back to when he noticed her, and every night since, he could finally admit to himself the reason he followed her.

  Over the last several decades, he’d heard rumors of vampires and shifters alike finding their mates. He’d known several vampires in his existence, but not one of them had ever felt the pull toward another vampire, much less a human that might signify that they’d found their mate. Although shifter mates were less rare, none of the shifters that he knew were mated. The idea of finding a mate was such a remote possibility that he still doubted that Liv could be his.

  Her steady gaze met his. “So, you believe me?”

  He nodded. “What were you writing on the table, back in the diner?”

  “I was working on a vaccine to combat the bio-weapon, based on the research I read while downloading it.”

  “You have the formula for the bio-weapon?” he asked.

  “Yeah, I downloaded it onto the same drive. I needed to have it since
I planned to make a countermeasure for it.”

  “I don’t understand. Why were you writing it in sugar?”

  “I have an eidetic memory. Once I’m exposed to anything written, I can recall it with perfect clarity. It’s very rare in adults, and no one knows but you.”

  “Holy shit. So the entire formula for the bio-weapon…”

  “Is in my head and on that drive, yes.”

  Well, that changed everything.

  He paced the length of his living room, planning his next step, when she appeared in front of him.

  “The man, the one who…died—is he like you?” she asked.

  Everything she had told him sounded reasonable, and he couldn’t detect even the slightest hint of a lie. There was no proof, other than her name on the research notes, that she was the one who captured the shifter or that she had been the one to create and implement the drug trial. His instincts, those he relied on to get him through assignments, told him she was truthful.

  Her devastation wasn’t for the scientists who’d lost their lives because of their lack of precautions when administering the unlawful test, but for the shifter who had killed himself. And she had sacrificed the work that meant the world to her, to warn him and his kind about the danger it posed to them. The least he could do was tell her the truth.

  “I’m a vampire. The man on the video was a shifter, probably a lion-shifter. I’m an assassin, contracted by the government, to eliminate anyone who has the ability to threaten or attack national security.”

  “Do vampires and shifters associate?” she asked.

  It didn’t skip his notice that she ignored his profession. He noticed that she concentrated on the topics she cared about, and everything else went by the wayside.

  “Some of my best friends are shifters. We usually work by ourselves, but if there is an operation, such as a rescue, we work together.”

  Her brows drew down, and this time, she was the one who paced the floor.

  He knew that as a scientist, her curiosity bloomed at finding out that vampires and shifters were real, but she was sensitive about hurting others’ feelings. With the way her brow drew down, and the quick glances she kept shooting him, he knew she was looking to phrase her questions in a way that wouldn’t offend him.

  He found amusement in that.

  “Are all the legends about vampires true?” she asked.

  “Hardly any. We’re not affected by garlic, or crosses, nor are we damned. Like shifters, we have heightened senses, speed, and strength. We both heal quickly, or what they call regenerative healing. My heart pumps blood throughout my body, so I have a pulse, but I’ve been told that because of the venom from the bite, I’m in a form of stasis, and I will never grow older than the age I was bitten. I need blood to survive, and although unpleasant, I can eat a small amount of food. But I prefer not to. Sunlight isn’t deadly, but I have a high UV sensitivity, and stay inside during the day. There are very few ways to kill either shifters or vampires.”

  “How could they capture a shifter?”

  That was the question he couldn’t answer. The smile slipped from his face and he backed away. “I don’t know. I have to report in.”

  Before he could realize her actions, she jogged forward and stopped his progress when her warm hands settled on his chest, her eyes pleading. His body tightened at her touch, but her reaction sent heat spiraling through his already taut body. He listened as her heartbeat accelerated and her pupils widened, all from a simple touch. He wanted to step closer to her, capture her lips and find out whether she tasted as sweet as he imagined, but until he had the situation straightened out, he wouldn’t allow himself to touch her.

  Taking a step back, he swallowed a snarl when her cheeks glowed in embarrassment. Before he could follow his instincts and taste her, he walked backward out of the room, and away from temptation.

  “Be right back,” he said.

  He caught her nod as he turned and strode out of the room and down the hall to his office, his phone already in his hand. Without looking, he dialed the number and listened. He gazed out at the darkening night and watched as the fresh swirling snow gave the lights of the town a picturesque feel. Just as he shut the door to his office, shutting himself away from temptation, Ghost answered.

  “What?”

  “The contract on the scientist is bad. Someone set her up.”

  There was a long pause on the other end of the line. “How?”

  “Someone, as of right now unidentified, used her research to create a bio-weapon. She had no idea what they were developing. There is a video, and it shows them experimenting on a shifter. It’s bad. She copied their research before destroying their drives and their samples, and then she came to the diner to find me. One more thing. She thinks they have others who are imprisoned for further experiments.”

  A loud growl erupted on the line a split second before a click told him that he’d been put on hold, and he waited in silence for a directive that would soon be forthcoming. He knew that Ghost wouldn’t allow the contract to be fulfilled after what he’d learned, and after working together for many decades, the boss took him at his word. Another click sounded.

  “I’ve removed the contract, letting them know that we are investigating the real culprits. I’ll call everyone together, meeting at your place in three days. We’ll figure out details of a rescue while there. In the meantime, you keep her close. No leaving the house, and use all the security measures you installed. I’ll send out a team to find out who might be involved. But until you hear from me, sit tight.”

  “She’s working on a formula to destroy the weapon, just in case they are able to recreate it.”

  Ghost must’ve heard something in his voice when he spoke of Liv, and his next words proved it. “Smart and sexy. I can’t wait to meet her.”

  A low snarl erupted from his throat before he thought about the repercussions. Instead of a reprimand, Ghost’s booming laugh came through the line, surprising him into silence.

  “It’s like that, huh?”

  “Fuck you.”

  Another laugh burst through before the line went dead.

  Breathing deeply, he closed his eyes and replayed their conversation, looking for clues that she deceived him. In the darkness, her smoky voice surrounded him, and he savored every word that had left her luscious mouth.

  He drew a deep, steady breath and opened his eyes. She hadn’t lied.

  At that realization, he had another problem. They were stuck together for several days, and he had no food in the house for her. On top of that, he had no means to feed, so he would have to broach the subject of feeding from her. At the thought of her blood coating his tongue and warming his body, his cock swelled and pressed uncomfortably against the front of his jeans. His breathing quickened and he pressed his forehead against the window, hoping to cool his sudden lust.

  Despite the fact that she had escaped, she was in danger and he needed to make sure she was protected. They would make a play for her. He was sure of it. If there was any chance to recover their data, they would jump on it.

  He strode to the desk and triggered the security shutters for all the exposed windows. The doors were reinforced steel and already locked, and with everything secured, he dashed out of the office and down the long hall, cursing himself for leaving her alone. There was no telling how long it would take them to realize that their research and samples had been destroyed, and conclude that Liv had a hand in it. He would have to call the guys to see whether they could come early.

  Rage filled him at the thought of anyone hurting her in any way, and when he reached the doorway and caught her curled up by the fire, the anger warred inside him as a new sensation overwhelmed him.

  A flame flared in his chest at the sight of her in his home, under his protection, and although he’d never experienced it, a wave of possessiveness crashed over him. He would keep her from harm, even if it meant sacrificing himself to do it.

  It had been over two centur
ies since he was human, and his memories of that time were vague. When he had died on the battlefield, the pain of being shot and left for dead had stayed with him.

  The knowledge that she would be the key to their destruction would make them desperate enough to search for her, and when they were finished extracting what they needed, they would kill her. Enraged by that thought, a feral smile lifted his lips as he thought about the torture he would put them through, and the ways he would make breathing their last breaths even more painful.

  Mine.

  Chapter Four

  Olivia

  Olivia’s heart squeezed in her chest when she glanced away from the flames dancing in the fireplace, and watched him drift back into the room.

  It had been like that since the beginning. There had been an awareness of him from the first moment she spotted him in the diner, unable to remember when he wandered in. But his presence alone had pulled her from her work and made her cognizant of him.

  Since then, something compelled her to watch for him whenever he entered. She learned to observe him from beneath her lashes, not making her examination obvious. For the first few months, he kept his face shielded under a hood as she tried to catch a glimpse of any part of his face, and failed. Without the hood, he hurried past her, and she had the impression that he liked his anonymity, so she refrained from spying on him. But she was always aware.

  When he confronted her, a primitive part of her understood that he was dangerous. Someone needed to know what she stumbled upon, and he was the one person she believed she could trust. What she hadn’t counted on was her reaction to his nearness, or the instant attraction that slammed into her. Being in his arms and feeling his warmth against her as he traveled with her up the mountain had been as close to ecstasy as she’d ever experienced. She had been surprised that he couldn’t feel her heart try to beat out of her chest, or her skin flush with his touch.

  She continued to lecture herself that Kai carrying her was a matter of convenience and not out of a need to touch her, but her rebellious heart refused to believe anything else. It shouldn’t have mattered to her, and she tried to look at her reaction to him analytically. But her mind kept going back to the feel of hard muscles pressed against her side, and his sizable hands holding her gently to him, as if he worried about her comfort. At one point, when he tucked her into his body, she relaxed against him as she inhaled his scent—a mix of cedar and a hint of citrus, a scent that was truly unique—and she closed her eyes and committed every moment to memory. If he noticed any of the signs of her evident attraction, he had the decency not to mention it.