Worth Dying For

by Luxie Ryder

  The old man nodded. “Ah yes, Katerina. She is a wilful child. But you know that already.”

  “I do.” Bane fought to keep the hatred out of his mind. Ulrich read others too well and would be offended if he knew how Bane despised his beloved offspring.

  “I have never been able to refuse her anything.” Ulrich’s expression changed and his stare held Bane’s. “And I would never put the needs of a human above my daughter’s wishes. You test my patience with this pathetic obsession you have for that woman.”

  Bane suppressed his rage—Ulrich could never know how much Amber meant to him. “She is a fascinating creature and I had planned to enjoy using her for a while longer but she is nothing to me.”

  “Yet you killed two of our kind to protect her?”

  “No, Ulrich. I killed to protect what was mine.”

  “Why did you not kill her?”

  “As I said, she enchants. Maybe one day, when Katerina tires of me as I am sure she will, I will visit her again.”

  The elder would understand Bane’s supposed weakness for a female, Ulrich himself still had many lovers, both human and vampire. The curiosity in his eyes caused a moment’s fear that Bane had said too much and piqued the old man’s interest. Making Amber sound too rare or special would attract his attention and he would have to have her, if only to exert his power over Bane.

  “So, she is beautiful?”

  “No, quite plain.” Bane laughed as convincingly as he could. “I do not know what draws me to her.”

  “Have you tasted her then? She is sweet, I wager.” Ulrich visibly salivated at the thought.

  “No…she is unclean.” Bane hit upon the excuse at the last second, knowing Ulrich would accept it without question. He cringed at the memory of the time he had taken blood from a human with an illness. The smallpox virus had done no more than make him sick to his stomach for days but it had been a lesson he would never forget. “She got ill just after I took her. I had planned to wait until she was well.”

  Bane feared that his actions and the lengths to which he’d gone to protect her would intrigue Ulrich. He distracted Ulrich from the topic at hand by engaging him in conversation about Vechea and its welfare.

  The last thing Amber needed was a new—and unstoppable—threat. If Ulrich wanted her while she was still human, there would be nothing Bane could do to stop him taking her.

  * * * *

  “Yes, Detective. That’s the man I saw in my apartment.”

  Amber turned her face towards the man sitting opposite her, trying to still the nervous tic in her eyelid as she held his gaze.

  “So this guy we’ve got in the cells, he murdered your boyfriend, busted you out of jail and held you hostage for a week? Why would he take you back to your apartment when he knew we’d be looking for you?”

  “I told you already.” She banged her fist on the table in front of her, remembering that someone wrongly accused of lying would be acting indignant by now.

  Detective Gillion wasn’t impressed. “Well, tell me again.”

  He leant back in his seat, wheezing out a rancid breath as he moved his considerable belly away from the table. Amber recoiled from the stench of whisky and cigarettes—could the man emit any more smells? The small room already smelt like an armpit.

  Tears welled in her eyes, caused by both the unrelenting interrogation she’d been subjected to and the traumatising experience of the past few hours. Solomon had shown none of Bane’s restraint and allowed his nature free reign. The whole time they had been together, Amber had been terrified. She consoled herself with a reminder that she need never see him again, but with the comforting thought came a more painful one—she would never see Bane again either.

  Amber looked at the detective, trying to recall exactly what she had said before. She repeated the story about Solomon in a flat monotone. “I don’t know where he kept me hostage or why he decided to take me back to the apartment. He kept me blindfolded until he had to take me out of the car and walk me down the street. That’s when you guys showed up.”

  “Where did he leave the car?”

  “I’m not sure. On Johnson, I think.”

  “You don’t know?” Gillion pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped the perspiration from his face and the shine from his bald head.

  “No.” Her stomach clenched as she tried to convince him of the one detail Solomon hadn’t thought to cover when he had told her the plan. Solomon thought he could just confess and that they would leave her alone. But he hadn’t known about this detective—the same one who had interviewed her after David’s death—the one who looked at her now and saw through her lies. Amber could sense his frustration and knew he had no intention of letting her go anytime soon.

  “Why aren’t you asking Solomon these questions? He’s the only one who knows the details or why he did it.”

  In fact, why was she answering questions at all? Detective Gillion hadn’t followed protocol. She should have seen a doctor and talked to a lawyer. He knew that, and he wouldn’t risk jeopardising any future conviction he might be hoping for if he really had anything on her.

  “Have you spoken to him?” He nodded. “And what did he say?”

  She knew she had him when his gaze left hers for the first time in what seemed like hours. “He confessed,” Gillion said, in a voice more suited to a grungy kid than the fifty-plus walking heart attack he was.

  Amber got to her feet. “Then what am I doing here?”

  Gillion looked at his paperwork and used his pen to point towards the chair she’d just scraped across the tile floor. “Sit down, Mrs. Kirkwood. I haven’t finished with you yet.”

  “Charge me with something or let me go.” She leant over the table, locking her gaze with his, almost daring him to do it. Two or three weeks ago, the guy may have scared her, but not now, not after what she’d been through.

  He got to his feet and scowled, not even trying to hide his irritation. “Don’t leave town.”

  Gillion turned to the door and held it open for her as if he was kicking her out. Amber smiled at his attempt to act like the decision she could leave had been his. He handed her over to another officer, instructing him to take her home and walked away without a backward glance.

  An hour later, Amber let herself into her apartment for the first time in almost two weeks. She fell onto her bed, too tired to care about the dirty sheets or the rotten food and stale milk in her refrigerator that needed to be thrown away. And too tired to cope with the emotion it would take to think about Bane.

  But sleep wouldn’t come. Dawn broke over the city and the sun began its ascent, blinding her as its rays streamed in through the windows. The sunlight hurt her eyes even when she closed them and she remembered just how long she’d spent in the darkness with him. Amber fought off the memory, knowing it would shatter her fragile calm to think about Bane. Forced to her feet to escape thoughts of him, she shut the curtains, changed the sheets, took a shower and tried to sleep again.

  The phone disturbed her an hour later. Amber buried her head under the duvet and waited for the machine to pick up. Richard wanted to know if all was okay and begged her to call as soon as she got the message. But the idea of dealing with her boss and the endless questions she would have to face about what had happened to David—and where she’d been the last week—sent her further down under the covers.

  When Amber opened her eyes and surfaced again, the room was dark. The clock on the bedside table showed four a.m.—too early to get up, but she couldn’t go back to sleep, not after spending the whole day in bed and dead to the world.

  She thought about getting ready for work and heading in early to avoid the looks and whispers that would certainly greet her then realised she had no idea even what day it was. The local news channel on the TV informed her that it was four in the morning on Saturday fourteenth of April—two days after what would have been her wedding anniversary.

  Amber braced herself for the guilt that forgetting th
e first anniversary since her husband’s death would bring, but it never came. She’d been fighting for her survival—alone in a world he had abandoned her in. Tom had opted out of sharing any future anniversaries with her.

  Bane—

  His name crawled into her mind without warning and with the thought came pain. From the moment he’d run from her, she’d had a dull ache in her throat, as if trying to swallow back a sob. Amber tried to imagine where he would be and how he felt. An image of him doing what he had done with her to the mysterious Katerina made her nauseous. She didn’t even know the woman but Amber bet she would be beautiful. Bitch.

  Amber didn’t want to dishonour Bane with such shallow thoughts. He’d sacrificed his freedom and gone back to a dangerous situation and a person he despised to save her life. She had no right to be jealous. He had never truly been hers.

  A sudden tap on the window of her bedroom sent her diving for the floor, her scream echoing off the walls. She peered over the edge of the bed, terrified of who it might be. Considering she lived on the fourth floor, she knew whatever was out there couldn’t be human. Had that bitch double crossed them? Maybe she’d got Bane out of the way with false assurances and sent more assassins?

  Solomon’s face came into view and she screamed again. Seeing him didn’t reassure her much. He’d made his dislike of Amber clear, and he obeyed Katerina without question. Had he been sent to kill her?

  When he didn’t claw a hole in the wall or kick the window in, but beckoned for her to approach, Amber crawled to the edge of the bed and opened the vents so she could hear him without letting him in. A thousand closed windows wouldn’t stop him if he wanted to get to her but the thin pane of glass formed a barrier between them and she wasn’t giving it up without a fight.

  “What are you doing here?”

  Solomon grinned, taking a macabre delight in the fact he terrified her. Jerk. “Bane told me to make sure you got home safely. I broke out of the pathetic holding cell back at the police station and I am on my way to meet up with Alexandra. You may get a call from Detective Gillion very soon. I’m sure this is the first place they will look.”

  “Did they believe your story?”

  He gestured towards the prison garb he wore. “You don’t think I’d be dressed like this through choice, surely? They charged me with murder, kidnapping and a few other things. I stopped listening after a while.” He laughed. “I’m due before a judge to be arraigned on Monday morning. The fools probably don’t even know I’ve escaped yet.”

  His head snapped around to look over his shoulder, down to the street below. A growl erupted from him, shaking the window pane, sending Amber scooting away in panic. He turned back to face her, smiling again when he noted the distance she’d put between them. “It looks like you have visitors.”

  Solomon leant closer to the vent, fixing her with a cold glare. “Pray you never see me again, Amber.”

  Pinned to the spot by his angry glare, she could feel the weight of his threat. If Solomon came back ever again, it would be to kill her.

  The doorbell sounded out and she tore her gaze from Solomon’s. In the seconds it took her heart to recover from the shock and for her to turn back to the window, Solomon had disappeared, leaving nothing behind but the echo of his mocking laughter.

  Amber wrapped a robe around her shoulders and went to find out who was at the door. The uniformed officers informed her that Solomon had escaped and they’d been sent to keep an eye on her and maintain a presence outside her building. The idea that they could do anything to save her almost made her laugh. The police had only managed to arrest him because he’d played dumb and slow.

  Amber had suffered his wrath while they had waited for what seemed like an age for the police in a nearby cruiser to notice them outside of Amber’s apartment. The officers had leapt from the vehicle, pulling their weapons and instructing Amber and Solomon to lay on the ground with their hands behind their heads. Amber could still remember Solomon’s grumbled protests about the dirty sidewalk ruining his expensive suit.

  He’d allowed them to put the handcuffs on and manhandle him into the back of the vehicle without protest, even when the clumsy officer had smacked Solomon’s head against the side of the car. She guessed the cops were nervous, and with good reason. If a suspect the size of the one they were trying to arrest turned nasty, there wouldn’t be much they could do about it.

  To add to his humiliation, Solomon had been forced to lie across the back seat to fit inside the cruiser at all. The look of pure hatred he’d given her as they had charged him at the front desk of the police station and dragged him away to a cell made it clear he resented her for all he had to endure. Amber was pleased she’d pissed him off, even if only for a moment. Payback was a bitch.

  She wondered where Solomon would go now he had escaped. Would he see Bane? Amber envied Solomon for one brief moment. He could go wherever he wanted and see who he pleased. Unlike her. She had to live without a man she’d come to care for deeply—all because some vindictive witch didn’t want anyone else to be happy.

  Amber felt shame at how little she wanted to be back home. Her old life held very little interest now, despite the sacrifices that had been made for her and the people who had died because of her.

  For all of his efforts to save her, Bane had ultimately let her down by sending her back out to face the world alone. Just because he’d done it for her benefit didn’t make being without him hurt any less. She had loved and lost again.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Katerina, this isn’t the time.”

  Bane pushed her away again and jumped from the bed to get out of her reach. She’d come to his room as soon as her husband left to hunt. Bane had hoped Paolo’s sudden arrival earlier in the day would keep Katerina busy but as usual, things hadn’t gone Bane’s way. He’d just shrugged off the filthy shirt he’d worn for three days—and crossed a continent in—when she burst unannounced into his room.

  “Damn, woman. Can I not take a moment to bathe and rest?”

  Katerina threw the T-shirt she’d ripped over her head in Bane’s face and had her hand on the button of her jeans, ready to remove those when he reached out and grabbed her wrists, stopping her. Her full breasts swayed millimetres from his face and she laughed as she saw him lean away from them.

  “Have you no shame? Your father is only a few feet away.” Ulrich had insisted Bane stay in his residence. The large, rambling mansion had dozens of rooms, all of them furnished with priceless antiques that Ulrich had either purchased or taken as bounty. The genteel surroundings hid an ugly purpose—Ulrich often kept his newly created captives in his home while he ‘trained’ them. Bane considered the place no more than a brothel but had been unable to refuse without the risk of offending the old man.

  “So?”

  Her pout warned him that a tantrum was brewing. Bane cared not if she got angry with him, in fact he relished the thought of it, but he didn’t only have himself to consider. He swallowed against the knot of rage and disgust burning in his throat. His brain said to just give in, to do as she asked, but his body refused. It still bore the imprint of the pain this woman had inflicted on him over the years. Katerina pulled her wrists free, spinning away from him. Her blonde hair billowed around her face, neck and breasts and, had she been anyone else, Bane would have been aroused by the display.

  “It’s her isn’t it—that pathetic little human? You would rather have her than me.”

  “I am tired. I travelled many days to get here. I need to rest—that is all.” Bane struggled to make his voice sound indifferent.

  He lay back on the bed, closed his eyes and commanded his body to obey his mind and do what it needed to. The rasp of a zipper and the gentle thud of fabric hitting the floor told him Katerina was naked. Bane had to find a way to give her what she asked for. The mattress shifted as Katerina placed a knee upon it and he tensed further when he felt the flat of her hand on his abdomen.

  A growl tore from his throat
before he could suppress it. Bane held his breath while he waited for Katerina to respond with her usual anger, but instead she laughed. He looked up to find her lust filled gaze roaming over his body. She flicked a glance at him then smiled as she watched her own hand begin to trail across his skin, brushing over the hair below his navel, following it down to the waistband of his pants.

  Bane turned his face towards the wall, resisting the urge to throw her across the room and away from him. He had to tolerate her touch even if he couldn’t find the strength to reciprocate. Amber’s life depended on it.

  Amber. The thought of her, combined with the sensual movements of Katerina’s hand, sent a hard pulse of pleasure through his groin. Bane latched on to the image of her, remembering how Amber’s gentle fingers had caressed him and the way she had trembled above him when he’d taken her. Katerina’s throaty laugh pulled him from his fantasy and he urged her to be silent, claiming a need to concentrate. Thankful she did as he had asked, Bane tried to recall the memory of Amber’s body again while Katerina undid his pants and pulled his hardening penis out.

  His mind filled with an image of Amber’s porcelain skin and the beautiful auburn curls that framed her face and caressed her cheek. He groaned as he remembered the gasps and cries he had elicited from her when he’d entered her, and the way she had felt wrapped around him.

  Bane grasped the moment, aroused enough to do what he needed to as long as he thought of the woman he loved. Katerina giggled in triumph as he pulled her down roughly and turned her over, pinning her to the bed. He turned his face from her and pulled her thighs apart, sliding his erection into her before he could be repulsed again.

  How Katerina could be satisfied by such animalistic rutting, he didn’t know, but he’d be eternally grateful that the highly sexed woman seemed to find her orgasm without any help or interest from him. She climaxed so fast that Bane was able to fake his own orgasm and pull out of her within minutes.