Blood Deep (Blackthorn Book 4)

by Lindsay J. Pryor

  ‘You got a problem, Bolton?’ Eden asked, snatching his colleague’s glare from the photograph he’d been about to examine.

  Caitlin was silenced mid-sentence. Greg’s attention snapped from Eden to Alex.

  Alex Bolton held Eden’s gaze but, like everyone else in the room, he knew the best course of action. ‘No,’ he said, casting his attention back to the photo, his cheeks flushed from having caught Eden’s eye.

  ‘The only rumour we have to work with at the moment is that two nights ago there was an assassination attempt on Jake and Caleb Dehain,’ Caitlin continued.

  That locked down everyone’s attention, not least Eden’s.

  ‘I stress that these are unsubstantiated rumours,’ Caitlin added.

  ‘The Dehains are VCU business, not ours,’ Ben called from behind him. ‘We’ve got enough to deal with.’

  ‘You’re not being asked to deal with anything, just to keep your eyes and ears to the ground.’

  ‘Where we belong, right?’ Tobias said, age-old resentment leaking into his tone that echoed the majority opinion of the officers there.

  ‘We need to work together on this,’ Caitlin said. ‘If you hear anything, you’re to report it back.’

  ‘And let you boys take the credit,’ Tobias added, his glare of disapproval locked on Caitlin.

  All credit to the woman; despite her obvious discomfort, she met that glare and she held her own.

  ‘You watch your mouth,’ Greg warned him, ‘with a senior officer.’

  That brought an instant domino effect of curt exhales around the room.

  ‘You want to catch whoever’s responsible?’ Eden asked, still flicking through the photos. He looked up, making eye contact with whoever would meet his gaze. ‘Or would you rather sit around here dropping your shorts and comparing sizes?’

  He knew it was a mild choice of phrase compared to his locker-room talk, but it brought a momentary look of gratitude from Greg considering Caitlin’s presence.

  ‘I’m no expert,’ Eden said, examining another photo before throwing it down. ‘But this doesn’t look like the work of Caleb Dehain to me.’

  Her milky-coffee eyes locked on his – eyes that spoke of way too much swimming behind them, not least the weight of responsibility of what she had done; eyes that seemed grateful for a work-focused remark. ‘Why do you say that?’

  He shrugged. ‘Everyone knows Caleb does his own dirty work – it’s what makes him the head-honcho over on the west. In some cases there were more than three working on these victims at any one time.’

  A hush swept over the room. He could tell all eyes were now on him.

  ‘Doesn’t mean he wasn’t present, Reece,’ Sean remarked, his friend’s gaze steady on his.

  ‘That’s the whole point,’ Eden said. He glanced back at Caitlin. ‘They took at least forty minutes to die, right? Some of them anything up to three hours by the look of these photos and reports.’

  She frowned a little. ‘Yes.’

  ‘Not only does Caleb not need back up; this torture went on too long. Like your reports say, this is most probably a chain killing – each linked to getting information about the next. If Caleb was there, and if he suspected these people were responsible for trying to kill his brother, each of these would have been concluded in fifteen minutes tops.’

  Caitlin’s gaze lingered pensively on his for a second longer before she looked around the room again. ‘Needless to say our suspicions remain confidential for now. That’s all.’

  Eden reached for a couple more photos. He could see it; had seen enough cases of torture victims in his time. He knew the work of professionals when he saw it, and he knew the work of those who blurred the lines. Some of the wounds were unnecessary. More troublingly, some were post mortem.

  ‘Reece!’

  Eden snapped his attention back to his boss.

  ‘Are you listening to me? I said I want my best on the front line for this – and lucky for us,’ Greg said with a hint of flippancy, ‘that’s you. I want you heading up a team tonight.’ He looked back at Sean. ‘You’re heading up the other.’ He addressed the rest of the room. ‘We’re all out an hour earlier tonight, working an hour later.’

  Groans echoed around the room.

  ‘So gear on and shape up, boys,’ Greg said, his voice taking on the edge of authority that silenced the complaints. ‘And let’s get out there.’

  Eden turned his attention to Caitlin amidst the shuffle of bodies and the scrape of chairs. He slid her a handful of the photographs she was collecting in. ‘So is it all bullshit?’

  Her eyes met his, their unusual colour even more captivating up close. ‘What?’

  ‘How fucked up Kane is. Is it bullshit?’

  ‘And you’d believe what I say?’

  ‘I don’t know what kind of kinks you’re into behind closed doors, it’s none of my business, but I’m guessing it’s more likely that there’s another side to him – a side that only you have seen. Catching monsters is one thing; screwing them is another. He’s no monster, is he, Caitlin? Why did he let you go? Why did he let you come back here?’

  She held his gaze for a couple of seconds then gathered up the remaining photos. ‘Thank you for your contribution. And for what you said back then. Let’s leave it at that, shall we?’

  Catching her gaze again, he sent her a hint of a fleeting smile before she turned away. He stood along with the others, ready to follow them out of the room.

  ‘Wait a moment, Reece,’ Greg said.

  Eden slouched back into his seat, the prospect of Greg having found out about Cass an extra hassle he could do without.

  As the room cleared, Greg headed over to him.

  ‘Good day off?’ he asked.

  ‘Kept myself busy,’ Eden declared.

  ‘You were supposed to come back and finish those reports before clocking off.’

  ‘I was heading in early today to do it.’

  ‘You look like you’ve got something on your mind. Have you?’ Greg asked. ‘Only I can’t afford you not to be on top form tonight.’

  ‘Nothing I can’t handle, boss.’

  ‘Good, because you look like shit. Less of the daytime athletics and compromising liaisons and you’ll be better fit for the job. You might be the biggest pain in my arse, but you’re still my best, Eden. I need you to stay that way. The others look up to you, as you know, and that helps maintain those standards I want – however you choose to go about that.’

  On a low exhale, Eden pushed back his chair and stood again.

  ‘We’re not done yet,’ Greg declared. ‘Before you get yourself kitted up, someone wants to talk to you.’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘Follow me and you’ll find out. And you will want to be on your best behaviour for this one.’

  It was the part of the hallway that few ever went. Even Eden had only been there on one occasion, some months before, when he’d been informed of his two-month-long suspension – the longest in TSCD history – for his public altercation with a Higher Order vampire outside the headquarters. It had brought embarrassment to the TSCD and humiliation for the Higher Order, especially as it was a diplomatic visit.

  Greg opened the door, letting Eden inside, but he didn’t join him. Instead, he closed it behind him.

  Eden took a mint from his inside jacket.

  The guy stood facing the floor-to-ceiling reinforced window turned around.

  Dr Sirius Throme, head of the TSCD, flashed him a welcoming smile, his hands remaining in his suit-trouser pockets. ‘Eden Reece, a pleasure to make your acquaintance.’

  Eden placed the mint in his mouth. ‘Well, this wasn’t mentioned in my horoscope this morning.’

  Sirius’s smile didn’t falter. ‘Please, take a seat.’ He sat on the opposite side of the table from where he indicated for Eden to sit, in front of the three perfectly aligned folders. Eden’s name marked the top pile to the left.

  ‘If you’re about to fire me, calling me in earl
y to do so is really rubbing salt into the wound.’

  Sirius smiled again. ‘Oh, that’s not why I’m here, though your record is most certainly colourful, to say the least. You’ve been a Curfew Enforcement Officer for ten years, three weeks and four days now and in that time you’ve managed to rake up twenty-three conduct complaints, some of which are from your fellow officers, have had sixteen formal warnings, I don’t know how many informal, four suspensions without pay and one near dismissal.’

  ‘You forgot to add the highest conviction rate this unit has seen.’

  ‘Don’t worry – that hadn’t passed me by. Why else would you still be here? Your methods are somewhat unorthodox but most certainly effective. I don’t think anyone can deny that, even if they do skirt what could be deemed acceptable. But, between you and me,’ Sirius said, leaning forward, ‘I’m don’t worry about that. I know of some of those characters you’ve brought in. What you do takes guts. And I admire guts, Eden.’ He leaned back, crossing one leg over the other, his hands resting casually in his lap. ‘Which is why I’m here with a proposition. I have an important job and I’m looking for the right person to do it.’

  Eden flipped his mint more slowly in his mouth. ‘What kind of job?’

  He opened a folder and slid it towards Eden to expose the black-and-white photograph. ‘Nathan Stark. He was amongst our first convicts extradited into Blackthorn when we resolved to use it as a backup for the penitentiary here in Lowtown. He set up roots in the south, those parts not owned by Malloy and Dehain. He was one of the key players in starting this whole Circus act, in fact. Safety in numbers and all that.’

  ‘So?’

  ‘As you know, that was fifty years ago. He was thirty-four at the time.’ Sirius slid him another photograph. ‘This was taken less than a month ago.’

  Eden looked down at the photo. The guy in the photo couldn’t have been a day over fifty. His attention snapped back at Sirius, his boss’s eyes painfully serious.

  ‘You won’t know this,’ Sirius declared, ‘but we have a team that not even the TSCD know about – an elite team of agents who regularly penetrate Blackthorn, keeping their ear to the ground and feeding back on what’s going on in there. One of them managed to get this shot. He was reporting back on ringleaders amongst the cons. Face recognition brought this up as Stark – though he goes by the name of Pummel now.’

  ‘He should look eighty, at least.’

  ‘Exactly. But our technology doesn’t lie. That’s not all though. One of my agents reported seeing Pummel get stabbed. It should have been fatal. The next day, he was fine. The agent didn’t get a chance to witness anything in between, except for this.’ He placed another photo in front of him – a black-and-white photograph of a female, blurred at best, her ringlets all but consuming her face. Sirius interlaced his hands on the table. ‘That same night, she was seen going into Pummel’s room and coming out again.’

  ‘A witch?’ Eden asked.

  ‘Potentially. Or something else entirely.’

  Eden folded his arms as he leaned back in his chair. ‘Such as…?’

  ‘Surely you’re already putting the pieces together. It’s no secret that we have, as yet, failed to find this potential adhesive between our blood and that of the Higher Order. Without it, we’re still completely reliant on them to help us find the answer to the permanent cure we are all seeking.’

  ‘You think she’s it? You suspect she’s some kind of vampire?’

  ‘We have no idea what she is. We’ve run that picture through everything we have and it has showed up with nothing – no ID, no idea who she is, where she came from. All we know is that Pummel has an impenetrable wall built around her.’

  ‘Have you asked the Higher Order about her?’

  It was Sirius’s turn to lean back in his chair. ‘I know you’ll understand when I say I’d rather not have them in the loop. In fact, the sooner we get them out of the loop and into Blackthorn where they belong, the better – don’t you agree? Especially if it turns out that, after all these decades, it’s not their blood we need at all; that they’ve just been turning the promise, the whole situation, to their advantage. Do you see where I’m going with this?’

  ‘I see exactly where you’re going with this, and it all sounds like highly classified talk to me. Which begs the question, why are you having this conversation with someone like me, who can technically be known as a grunt?’

  ‘Because we both know you’re anything but a grunt, Eden. In fact, for someone of your background, I think we can say you’ve done exceptionally well to get to the position you have. Fighting your way out of Lowtown lifestyle, when most of the boys around here are from nice, educated, privileged Midtown or Summerton backgrounds, couldn’t have been easy. Though I do wonder if that’s the real reason why you’ve never attempted to hit the dizzying heights of the VCU. Too much resentment bubbling under the surface maybe?’

  Eden kept his gaze steady on Sirius as he flipped the mint in his mouth again.

  ‘Most impressive of all though is how you’ve still managed to be well-respected, feared even, as you’ve fought your way up through the ranks,’ Sirius added.

  ‘I take what I’m offered.’

  ‘And in turn you give all of that away to your family. No wife, no kids of your own, but a brother and a sister-in-law and a little niece. They live in Lowtown at the moment, don’t they? Not too far from you? Not such a nice part of the district, from what I hear. I know you visit them regularly – have stayed over on more than one occasion when things have got tough. I know how reliant they are on you. How you sustain them with payments you get from this job, how you pay for those reinforced doors, security on the windows, put food on the table, so your brother and sister-in-law can look after their little girl without being on the streets putting themselves at risk. It’s very admirable what you do.’

  Sirius’s penetrative gaze grated deep, exacerbated by the invasion of his privacy. The rumours were clearly true – that anything Dr Sirius Throme wanted to know about anything or anyone, he knew.

  ‘My private life is out of bounds.’

  ‘Oh, I know,’ Sirius said. ‘As well as knowing all the other things I do about you. But that is why you do this, isn’t it? Why you opted for honest work when you know what you’re capable of. When you know the kind of rackets you could be running out there, the kind of money you could be making. Yet you do this, struggling to keep your head above water, out of the local penitentiary, because where would your family be then? We both know they wouldn’t survive without you. And when it comes to survival, you, Eden, know all the tricks there are.’

  Eden leaned forward, his steady gaze locking on Sirius. ‘I have work to do. Do you want to be a little quicker about this, boss?’

  ‘I need someone on the inside.’

  ‘Inside The Circus? Inside that row?’

  Sirius nodded. ‘That someone I need is you.’

  Eden laughed and leaned back in his chair. ‘I might be reckless but I’m not fucking suicidal.’

  ‘If she’s the missing link, we could have the solution we have been trying to find for decades at our fingertips.’

  ‘If she’s that vital, why don’t you have her already?’

  ‘I’ll be honest with you: I’ve had three of my best inside that row. None have made it back out. Whether Pummel suspected or they got into other kinds of bother, we don’t know. But I can’t take any more risks – anything that will have Pummel suspecting and withdrawing her.’

  ‘Then go in and take her. Send an army in.’

  ‘We could be dealing with the most precious find possible since these regulations were first put into being. For all we know, we could burst in there and she could take down an entire army before disappearing into the depths of Blackthorn. Or Pummel could take her out himself if he knows we’re on to him, and we could lose her for good. We all know Blackthorn is a warren these days; another reason why flagging this up to the Higher Order could work to our disad
vantage if she is proven to be the answer that maybe they don’t want us to discover. Which is why we need someone to go in there, someone to get close to her, to find out what she is first, maybe even to get her on side and get her out of there – alive.’

  Eden stared into his eyes as he leaned forward again. ‘No.’

  Sirius leaned forward to meet him halfway. ‘I’m here to make you an offer, Eden. I’m here to make it worth your while.’

  ‘You couldn’t pay me enough.’

  ‘Because of your family? Because I know you don’t care about yourself, Eden. That’s why I’m making my offer all about them. Honey doesn’t get medical treatment at the moment, does she, what with being a Lowtown resident? In fact, I’ve heard it’s recently been withdrawn.’

  Eden’s jaw clenched. He stilled the mint in his mouth, his gaze held steadily on Sirius.

  ‘I’m offering to put her top of the list, Eden. Not just that. I’m here to offer you the chance to get your entire family out of that slum. For good.’

  13

  Five days previous

  ‘Not good?’ Eden asked.

  His sister-in-law looked liked she’d aged five years in the week since he’d seen her. She always looked so in control; now she was barely holding back the tears. ‘You’ve got to talk to him, Eden. I’ve given up trying to get through. He’s talking about going out on the streets and doing it illegally. If I can’t make him see sense, I’m going to lose them both.’

  Eden pulled her close, letting her meld her soft body against his for a few moments, his arm wrapped protectively around her before kissing her on the head and releasing her. ‘Where is he?’

  ‘In the lounge.’

  She caught hold of his hand and squeezed. ‘Thanks for coming,’ she whispered. ‘I didn’t know what else to do.’

  Eden pushed open the hallway door, to be faced with the dark lounge. His brother sat on the sofa facing the silent TV screen, the images dancing like a manic mime.

  Amanda crossed the lounge and took a left down the short hallway to give them some privacy in the tiny, two-bedroom apartment.