‘And the thread you have with Kane?’
‘This is nothing to do with him.’
She looked him in the eyes as she lied. Because her reluctance to bring Caleb in had everything to do with Kane. It had everything to do with him promising her Caleb was not involved, as well as his insistence she stay out of it. That meant Kane knew something. That meant if anyone else took over the case in the interim, trails could lead to him.
She closed the gap between them. ‘Matt, if you pull me off this case, I’m finished at the TSCD.’
‘Shadow read him. See the evidence with your own eyes. Rule him out, that’s all you have to do.’
And get up close and personal with the one vampire Kane had told her to stay the hell away from.
Morgan turned on his heels and strode past the parked cars.
‘Give me a little more time,’ she said, catching up with his strides and keeping pace as she marched alongside him. ‘I’ll get a lead in the next couple of days.’
If anything, it could give Kane no choice but to let her in on what he knew.
Morgan glanced across at her before taking a left as a couple more cars screeched out of the car park. ‘Caitlin, I really don’t have time for this now.’
It wasn’t just the activity surging around them, it was the urgency in his eyes, in his composure, as he picked up pace towards his car that incited Caitlin to quicken her footing to match his.
‘What’s going on?’
He passed her the small, handheld screen as they kept walking. ‘This footage came in twenty minutes ago.’
The pile of what could only be described as white flab filled the alley to the point Caitlin had to study the image closer to confirm what she was looking at.
‘It was discovered on the east side of Blackthorn less than half an hour ago.’ The car’s amber lights flashed, the beep simultaneously echoing around the enclosed concrete tomb. Morgan headed around to the driver’s side. ‘One of the Curfew Enforcement Officers discovered it. He was pursing an assailant crossing the border late when he came across it on one of the back alleys.’
‘What is it?’
‘We don’t know,’ Morgan said, meeting her gaze across the car roof. ‘But it has a heart beat.’ He held his hand out across the roof for Caitlin to hand the device back, but instead she opened the passenger door. ‘What are you doing?’
‘We can talk more on the way,’ she declared, securing her passenger seat belt one-handed.
‘Caitlin, this doesn’t concern you.’ Morgan slid into the driver’s seat alongside her. ‘Whatever it is, it isn’t a vampire. This is one for the Demon Control Unit, more likely.’
She relooked at the digital picture. ‘You said this is in an alley? It looks like it fills the entire breadth of it.’
‘And spans twenty foot high.’
‘Any limbs?’
‘None that are visible.’ He held out his hand to get his device back. ‘You’re not coming with me, Caitlin.’
‘Are you going to kick me out? Come on, we can talk about Caleb on the way. Two jobs done at once.’ Her gaze lingered on his as she waited for his approval. She didn’t get it. More tyres screeched in the distance. ‘Sounds like you don’t have time to sit here arguing with me, Morgan.’
He took the device from her hand and shoved it in the space beneath the stereo. ‘I’m your boss now,’ he reminded her. ‘Not the other way around.’
‘Which I respect,’ she said. ‘As long as you respect me in return.’
Caitlin glanced over her shoulder as another TSCD car skidded into view behind theirs as Morgan sped out of the car park, taking a sharp right onto the main road. She looked out of the passenger side window, at the blurred buildings of Lowtown as they left the Third Species Control Division behind.
Morgan stared pensively ahead, awkward silence filling the cabin of the car. ‘Then fess up,’ he said. ‘Are you still with him, Caitlin?’ He glanced across at her, holding her gaze a second longer than was safe considering he was behind the wheel.
Kane had told her to deny it at all costs. He’d told her that confirmation of their being together would both worsen things for her at the TSCD and complicate what he needed to do. She knew he was right about the former. As for the latter, she still had no idea what it was that he needed to do. But she’d known the moment Sirius had expected her to be his messenger to Kane, that denial had been the best option.
‘What makes you so sure I can even find him again to pass this message on?’ she’d asked the head of the Global Council as he’d sat in her armchair after breaking into her apartment.
Sirius had remained poised, his gaze steady on hers. ‘Are you telling me that you can’t?’
‘I’m telling you that you’re assuming a lot.’
‘Kane could have killed you at any point, Caitlin. The fact you’re still alive tells me you remain useful to him. So, yes, I think you’re the perfect person to pass my message on. Tell him to give himself up. Tell him he does not want to face the alternative.’
She’d known she’d need to buy Kane as much time as possible. ‘I can’t guarantee how long it will take me.’
Sirius had leaned forward again. ‘And I can’t guarantee how long it will be before I lose my patience. Best not drag your heels, Caitlin. Like I said, the clock is ticking.’
‘Well?’ Morgan asked, the blurred images that had passed her those few seconds ago now coming back into focus and reminding her where she was. She’d barely registered that they had pulled up at the district’s border and were being permitted, without question, into Blackthorn.
‘No,’ she said, her gaze still out of the window as she scanned the thirty-foot-high concrete wall that permanently marked the border into third-species territory. ‘We’re not together.’
Silence filled the car again.
Caitlin folded her arms. ‘He didn’t like me coming back to the Vampire Control Unit. I guess it was never going to work. And if you must know, this whole thing has been humiliating enough without needing to go over it.’ She looked across at Morgan. She’d seen the brief fleck of uncertainty in Sirius’s eyes when she’d claimed the same, but she’d worked with Morgan too long. ‘So I most certainly have no plans to jump straight into bed with another vampire – least of all Caleb Dehain.’
Morgan took a left and then a right, splashing through the puddles that lingered as evidence of the thunderstorm the night before. It had struck in the early hours, waking Caitlin at her desk, her face stuck to paper, her coffee cold beside her. It had ignited the sky enough for her to turn to face the window, to see Blackthorn being backlit before being cast into darkness again.
Morgan had moved her out of the main office, from the maze of cubicles, to give her a break from the glares. She never had a problem with concentration, but her return to the Unit had left her more drained than even she wanted to admit to. Her new office was a cupboard, but at least she could close the door. At least she could get her head down and work without her every move being watched and her every phone call being monitored as others hung on her every action, ready to pounce.
Morgan had been good to her. Having headed up the Division since the convictions, albeit on a temporary basis pending a new appointment, he’d tried his best. It wasn’t easy to step up to the mark with so much resentment still brewing, but at least Morgan had earned his stripes in the eyes of the rest of the team – even if he had once been Caitlin’s partner.
She could only hope she could persuade him to continue to be good to her, because if he did take her off the case, the fire would most definitely be fanned. If he did take her off the case, she may as well quit.
And this was no time not to have her ear to the ground.
They pulled up outside the cordoned-off alley. Fortunately, with it being mid-morning, the streets were quiet. Clearly they’d managed to keep the discovery under wraps.
‘Wait here,’ Morgan said, before easing out. The car juddered slightly as he slammed the door
.
Caitlin strained to hear the muffled voices beyond the glass, relying more on the gestures and facial expressions of both Morgan and the officer who had greeted him from behind the yellow tape.
Figures head-to-foot in white jump suits and masks milled around at the bottom of the alley in the distance, the officer addressing Morgan pointing to them several times in between resting his hands on his hips and running his hand back through his hair. From what she could gather as another came to join them, this one bearing the blue logo of the Unidentifed Species Unit, his shrugs and head shakes told they were no further forward.
The urge to leave the car and head down the alley to investigate for herself was overwhelming. Caitlin remained rooted as she had been told though, not wanting to give Morgan any further cause to reconsider her position.
She chewed her bottom lip, tightened her folded arms and looked down to where Morgan had tucked the phone beneath the stereo. She reached for it and examined the image again. She tapped it against her lips a couple of times, watching Morgan as he headed down the alley towards the corner where the creature was tucked out of sight.
She squinted through the glint of sunlight that bounced off the wet paving, leaned forward to look up at the tops of the buildings, wondering if she could maybe sneak up there for an aerial view.
Until her attention snapped to the end of the alley.
Even within the vacuum of the car, she heard the yells, the simultaneous scuffle beyond causing her to snatch back a breath.
One of the officers at the end was there one minute and gone the next. As she stared ahead wide-eyed, two more followed in quick succession, what looked like giant white suckers shooting out from the shadows.
The others ran. Ran back down the alley towards her.
Heart pounding, adrenaline kicking in, Caitlin pulled her gun from her holster. She shoved the car door open, the morning breeze cool against her perspiring forehead as she braced herself.
As its body filled the end of the alley, its roar reverberating out onto the street where Caitlin stood, she stopped breathing. A second later, it spun towards her like some limbed snowball, its myriad of elongated suckers clamping to the walls either side of it as if to control its momentum as it grabbed runners trying to escape.
Caitlin held her gun poised, despite not knowing where to shoot first. Others fired regardless, Caitlin joining in as the frenzy of bodies shoved and ploughed past her.
But it didn’t stop, the gunfire only seeming to infuriate it more.
Caitlin slid over the bonnet of Morgan’s car to create a shield, but the vehicle was cast aside seconds later, smashing to the ground forty feet away. A sucker snagged her calf, yanked her to the ground, her chin hitting tarmac. She lost her gun in the impact, desperately clutched for it as she was dragged towards the alley entrance, the creature having stopped there as if sensing the threat of open space beyond.
She snapped her head to the right, saw one of her fellow agents, his gun poised his hand as he held it at the creature, firing with no effect, before looking down to notice her.
‘Shoot it!’ she yelled, pointing at the sucker that gripped her leg.
But he just stared at her somewhere between blank and pensive.
At first she thought it was shock, maybe even panic. She held out her hand. ‘Give me your gun!’
But then she saw it in his eyes, in his expression as she was yanked past him.
He had no intention of helping her.
Caitlin clawed concrete, ripping her nails as she clutched onto a pothole. As the creature yanked again, she twisted onto her back, kicking at the sucker with her free foot.
She thought of Kane. Thought of not seeing him again. She kicked with more fervency as she glared up at the now thirty-foot-high monster bearing down on her.
Morgan was behind her a second later, clutching her arms, struggling to hold her back as another agent was grabbed, and another.
Caitlin continued to try and kick the tentacle away as Morgan nestled in behind her, being dragged along with her as he shot at the sucker, further ammunition firing off around them.
And everything fell silent.
There was a spark of light, a distant crack. Caitlin shielded her eyes, only looking back when she felt the tension had left her leg. She stared back at the empty alley, still panting as Morgan did the same against her back.
‘What the…?’ Morgan muttered under his breath, his confusion matching her own.
‘Where did it go?’ Caitlin asked. ‘Is it gone?’
His breaths were heavy in her ear. ‘It looks like it.’
She snatched her gaze back to the agent who had abstained from helping her. Despite the pain in her calf, overriding the shock of the past few minutes, she struggled to her feet. She lunged at him seconds later.
To her frustration, Morgan had pre-empted her and was right in behind her, dragging her away from giving the agent a face full of fist.
‘I know,’ Morgan whispered in her ear. ‘I saw. But back down – this isn’t going to help.’
She reluctantly conceded, Morgan only then letting her go.
She limped down the alley, wiping the back of her trembling hand across her dry mouth before glaring over her shoulder to see Morgan jabbing the infuriated officer in the chest. She looked around at the eyes still too startled from the onslaught to notice the reprimand, to notice anything but their own gratitude for having survived.
She rested her hands on her hips as she finished catching her breath and stared down at what lay just a few feet away.
Caitlin stepped up to the long, slender piece of wood, the aluminum arrowhead glinting in the morning light. She crouched down, her heart pounding as she recognised the navy blue fletchings. Fletchings that matched the colour of his eyes.
She looked across her shoulder up at where the sunlight, dull though it was, blocked her vision to the roof of the building above.
‘Who the hell uses a bow and arrow these days?’ Morgan asked, stepping in behind her.
She stood up, her gaze locking back on the arrow.
Her pulse raced. She had to hide her smile.
Because she knew exactly who.
* * *
Kane Malloy held the bowstring back to anchor point, the arrow aimed directly at the back of the agent’s neck. Two centimetres higher and he could kill him outright. Two centimetres lower and he could leave him paralysed from the neck down. He pulled the string a little tauter, his hands as steady as his gaze on his target as he ran his tongue slowly and contemplatively down his elongated incisor.
The bastard deserved to die after what he’d just done to Caitlin. He knew it was a mistake her returning to the TSCD and this was proof. No one had her back, no one but Morgan. But letting that arrow go would have confirmed too much. It would have exposed that there was still something between them. It would have lead to Caitlin being hated even more than she already was.
Hidden by the sun in just the right place, a trick he had learned and perfected as a child when he had first picked up his weapon of choice those centuries before, he lowered his bow, removed the arrow and reluctantly placed it back in the quiver on his back.
He looked down the alley at Caitlin, at where she stared up at the building, her hand a visor to shield her eyes from the sun.
As soon as she sensed Morgan behind her, she dropped her gaze, avoiding drawing attention to his presence. Because she had to know it was him.
She’d been looking through his myriad of glass cabinets some days before and had come across his bow standing proud and central in one of them. Highly polished with aluminum carved tips, it worked in perfect unity with the matching collection of arrows by its side. She’d taken it out to handle it, having been told by him she was fine to explore. He’d rested his shoulder against the arched doorway as her eyes had met his – eyes that had ignited with intrigue.
‘It’s surprisingly heavy,’ she’d declared.
‘Have you ever used one?’
He’d stepped in behind her, guiding one hand to the shaft and the other to the bowstring as he helped her slowly stretch it. ‘It’s as much about posture as pressure,’ he’d told her, her body distractingly warm and soft against his. ‘And a steady hand,’ he’d declared, his breath teasing her ear.
‘Are you any good?’
His laugh had been brief, deep. ‘Yeah, I’m good.’
‘Show me.’
She’d eased away from him, reached for a piece of paper discarded on the nearby table. She scrunched it up into a ball and held it in her open palm. ‘How far away could you shoot this from my hand?’
He’d glanced over his shoulder, through the open-arched rooms. He looked back at Caitlin, her eyes glinting with excitement in the muted light.
He’d eased her back against the wall, holding her paper-holding hand out to the right and guiding the flat of her hand to the wall to her left. ‘You mustn’t move.’
She’d nodded, trying to suppress the glimmer of apprehension in her expression.
He’d wandered through the arch to three rooms away – the furthest distance he could get to in the confinement of the place.
And he’d drawn back his bow.
Contrary to what she’d expected, he hadn’t aimed at the ball of paper. Instead he’d aimed at the tiny space between her ring finger and little finger as she’d held her palm flat to the wall. He’d nestled the arrowhead side on between them, her gaze saying it all as he sauntered back through the rooms to join her.
‘You missed,’ she’d declared teasingly.
‘To think so tells me you assumed,’ he’d said. He’d placed his palm flat beside her head, pulled the arrow from the wall before raking its tip slowly across her bare collarbone. ‘You know better than that.’
As his eyes had met hers again, her breathing had picked up a notch, her lips slightly parted in a way that had become impossibly tempting.
He’d had her in his domain for nine days at that point. Nine days of letting the drama of the trial die down in the world beyond – the world that had felt like another universe in the two weeks they’d had alone together.
Blood Deep (Blackthorn Book 4) Page 43