Kane

by Loribelle Hunt

  Kane

  Title Page

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  KANE

  A SPECIAL BRANCH NOVELLA

  By

  Loribelle Hunt

  SMASHWORDS EDITION

  *****

  PUBLISHED BY:

  Loribelle Hunt on Smashwords

  Kane by Loribelle Hunt

  Copyright  2010 Loribelle Hunt

  Discover other titles by Loribelle Hunt at http://www.loribellehunt.com/.

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

  Smashwords Edition License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.

  *****

  KANE

  A SPECIAL BRANCH NOVELLA

  *****

  CHAPTER ONE

  New Atlanta—1905

  Kane Dupree bounded up the back stairs of the Southern Star Hotel, taking them two and three at a time. The boss hadn’t even given him time to clean off the dust from the road before calling him here. Irritation ate at him. He wanted to find Calista, not drink and catch up with the others.

  As he ran up the seven flights of stairs, he heard the steam-powered lift rising behind the wall next to him. He easily overtook it and shook his head. Modern convenience had a long way to go. Perhaps it was better for some to ride to the top floors than to climb the numerous steps—the sick or old or infirm. It was the able-bodied that confounded him. No amount of persuasion would force him into that tiny metal box. It went against his animal nature.

  He reached the top of the stairwell on the sixth floor and walked into the hall, careful to scan the passageway for guests, before entering the maid’s closet on the far end. Inside, he counted seven panels over on the back wall and pushed his palm flat against a pear-shaped knot in the wood. The section of wall slid away, revealing another set of stairs. Taking a deep breath, he walked through, pausing only long enough to flip the lever that closed the opening behind him before starting up.

  At the top he lifted another lever to open the wall and entered the library. The door swung shut behind him on its own. This was new. He raised an eyebrow at the man sitting in an armchair behind the huge mahogany desk.

  “Pressure plates under the floor.” Phineas grinned.

  Kane glanced around, a little nervous and cautious before he entered the room. Phineas’ new toys were sometimes dangerous and unpredictable.

  An amused chuckle rose from one of the dark corners and Kane’s eyes narrowed. Alec. They were wary allies. The vampire rubbed him the wrong way and usually did it on purpose. Kane stalked forward, right to the window where he was silhouetted by the late afternoon glare. He was rewarded by Alec’s huff and bit back a grin. The vampire wouldn’t combust in the sunlight, but he’d blister like hell so he avoided it. He’d probably come to the hotel through the passages under the city.

  Kane turned his back to the window and faced the room with his feet braced apart and arms crossed over his chest. He was not in the mood for business. After his last mission, he’d hoped for a little rest and relaxation and he knew just whose thighs he wanted to it between. They belonged to one feisty bounty hunter who refused to settle down. To be fair, she didn’t exactly know what he was. Or, more specifically, all that he was. Secrets and lies. Would he ever be free of them?

  “Can we get on with it?” drawled the werepanther sitting in the corner. Kane and Nico were definitely on the same page.

  “Of course.” Phineas rose and crossed the room to draw the curtains closed.

  Alec came out of the shadows when he did.

  “You take all the fun out of tormenting the vampire, Phin,” Kane complained.

  Phineas snorted a laugh, but when he spoke his tone was dead serious. “This time I’m pretty sure y’all might act like adults. Trust me. You want to hear what he has to say.”

  Kane arched an eyebrow and walked to the fancy sofa. He sat and waited for Alec to begin. This should be good. Not as good as Calista, but it was all he had to work with at the moment. Last he heard the other man was busy in the Old City infiltrating one of the rebel groups. The South refused to accept the war was over and some of the rebel forces still plotted and fought almost thirty-five years after the cease-fire.

  “I got into General Tobias’ camp.”

  Kane felt his eyebrows arching into his hairline and Alec laughed, the sound rueful and mocking.

  “Don’t get excited or anything. I’m just another foot soldier.”

  “I have a hard time believing that,” Kane answered. The vampire wasn’t really a friend, but he wasn’t an enemy either. They worked well together when they had to, and Kane had never known Alec not to get exactly the information they needed. Sometimes through skill, sometimes pure luck.

  “A common foot soldier with uncanny hearing and an exceptional ability for sneaking around?” Alec grinned.

  Kane snorted while Phin and Nico laughed. That about summed up Alec, but he was getting fed up with the drawing out of whatever revelation was coming.

  “And? What have you found in your sneaking around down there?”

  Alec immediately changed, his countenance going from good-natured indifference to deadly killer in an instant. “Do you know what your girl’s sister has been working on?”

  Tension coiled through him, stiffening his limbs. He forced himself to relax, but it was difficult. He kept Calista and her sisters far away from this, the secret part of his existence. She thought he was just another bounty hunter and he’d agreed with his colleagues to keep it that way, which was a major problem all things considered. He wanted to claim her, make her his, but that would be impossible as long as such a deception lay between them. So he settled for an on again off again affair. That seemed to be as far as she was willing to go anyway. It rankled, but for the time being it was safer.

  “No,” he answered Alec, not sure he wanted to know where this conversation was going. How could he know? He’d been gone several months.

  Alec only nodded while seeming to collect his thoughts. The atmosphere in the room was heavy, tense, and Kane wished he’d just spit it out.

  “She’s been looking for a cure for the plague, trying to stop the new mutations.”

  That news didn’t really surprise him. Isadora was a brilliant scientist and if anyone could find a way to stop the plague’s return she would be the one. When it first appeared in the Middle Ages, people thought the worst of it was the widespread death toll. Within a generation or two they’d discovered its other strange effects when the children of survivors were born with odd new abilities and talents—many varieties of animal shift
ers and another, more dangerous, group, the ones cursed with long lives and a lust for blood.

  “But what she found is a cure for us.”

  Kane froze. A cure? For shifters and vampires? He didn’t need or even want a cure; he liked himself just fine the way he was. It took a few seconds before his brain kicked in and took over his emotional response. What would the rebels want with such a thing? Considering some of the positions weres and vamps held in both Armies he could see the advantage to one side or the other being deprived of its extrasensory abilities. If the rebels knew about the cure, they’d understand the benefit of having access to it.

  Dread constricted his heart. He didn’t need to be here. He needed to be checking in on the Nichols sisters, seeing to their safety. Calista would go crazy over the suggestion she needed help taking care of her family, but she’d just have to get over it.

  “Don’t worry,” Phin said. “We have guards watching them, but we thought you’d want this one.”

  “Tell me everything,” he demanded of Alec, who narrowed his eyes at the order but didn’t hold back his response.

  “Not much to tell. I overheard the general talking about it to his lieutenants, ordering them to get her and her research materials. So I arranged a family emergency and came up here. I need to get back soon, see if I can find out the rest of their plans.”

  Kane looked at Phin. “And they’re safe?”

  “Yes, of course, Kane. I made sure of that first.”

  “Really? Do they know anything about this? Does Calista?”

  The other man frowned. Kane knew the answer without hearing it and swore under his breath. Calista was more than capable of protecting her home from humans and maybe the weaker weres or very young vampires, but not from anyone seasoned or experienced. And without being fully informed she was left wide open. He glared around the room, meeting everyone’s gaze.

  “She gets told. Everything.”

  Nico and Phin immediately protested, but Alec was silent. He’d examine that curiosity later. Slashing his hand through the air, he turned to his boss.

  “She has to be told. She can’t take the necessary steps to protect herself or her family if she isn’t.” As the regional Alpha, Kane understood all about protecting those you took responsibility for. “I know y’all don’t trust her, but you’re wrong about her.”

  “You’d risk us all to prove that point? She’d turn any of us over, even you, for the right amount of money.”

  Kane shook his head. “No. She wouldn’t.”

  Phin frowned, but nodded. “Fine. But it’s on you if it backfires.”

  “It won’t,” he assured everyone in the room, though Alec didn’t seem to need it. He walked to the exit but paused to look over his shoulder. “Anything else I should know?”

  “Two weres and a vamp,” Alec answered curtly, and Kane took that to mean the men sent for Isadora. He nodded his thanks, then left to search out the woman who drove him crazy, the woman he was going to shock to hell when she learned the whole truth.

  *

  The world was going to hell and determined to drag her along with it. As soon as the shooting started, Calista ducked into an alley. She wasn’t stupid—it was never safe to stand in the middle of flying bullets. She risked a peek out to see if it was anyone she cared to assist. Meaning they could pay for her trouble. Hell, altruism only went so far and a girl had to eat.

  Dust flew through the air as the north end of New Peachtree filled with Union soldiers. On the south side of the road, rebels took cover in doorways and behind carts through the haze. Sighing, she backed up far out of view and straightened, hands instinctively resting on the heels of her revolvers. She turned around, looking for an exit.

  Wouldn’t you know I’d get stuck in a dead end alley?

  There was a door at the back of one of the buildings near the alley’s rear wall and she headed for it. She wanted to get clear before the opposing forces started lobbing dynamite each other.

  Damn! The door had no knob. Did she risk being heard banging on it? A soft thud had her whirling, hands on the butts of her pistols again. If she had drawn as she turned, she might have had the advantage, but she was too slow. The blue-eyed devil before her had much quicker reflexes, speed, and strength. Werewolves put a real crimp in her style.

  “What do you want, Kane?” she asked, seriously considering that door now.

  “Looks like you got trouble.”

  He grinned. Why did her heart have to flutter in response?

  “Not me. Them.” She jerked her head toward the street and shrugged. “Nothing to do with me.”

  “’Cept you’d rather not get caught in the middle of it.”

  She nodded absently, turning to examine the wall. Maybe she could scale it. Her stomach spasmed at the height. It had to be at least nine feet tall and as smooth as she imagined a baby’s bottom would be. No handholds. No toeholds.

  “Need a hand up?”

  She scowled at him. What was his game this time? Kane was a competitor. Sometimes an ally, sometimes an enemy. Sometimes a lover. They shared a motto. Nothing is free. His help would come with a price.

  Out on the street the shooting started again, and he smirked at her. A cat ate the canary grin. It made her immediately suspicious. She blinked and he moved closer. So close she had to crane her neck back to see him. He knew that pissed her off.

  “What’s it going to be, Calista?” he asked, a husky timbre to his voice. “Do I stay? Or do I go?”

  Frustration riding her hard, she stepped away and faced the end of the alley, putting her hands on her hips. There weren’t any sounds of retreat from the street. She could settle in for a long wait or accept Kane’s help.

  “Oh, hell,” she muttered. What choice did she have?

  Turning to face him, she nodded acceptance and stepped up to the wall. She expected him to give her a boost, so when his hands settled on her hips she didn’t have enough warning to repress a flinch. As usual, even his most casual touch left her feeling like she was in free fall, the bottom dropping out of her belly and her head spinning. She clenched her fists and tried to step back, but he held on, his fingers gripping the flesh of her backside. She liked his roughness, liked his ragged breath across her ear as he whispered to her, knew it was a sign she made him lose control just as much as he made her lose control.

  “Invite me to stay tonight,” he said softly, not allowing his voice to carry in the sudden silence that reigned from the street.

  Oh, hell, no. She reminded herself of all the good reasons she had for staying away from Kane. He messed up her focus. He was jealous and possessive. He stole her business. That thought almost cooled her body enough to reconnect to her brain. She had two sisters to take care of. She couldn’t afford to lose any income. And, yes, she had an independent streak a mile wide too. If she weren’t careful, he would steal away her freedom like a thief in the night. She pulled free of his grasp and glared at his relaxed pose. The interlude seemed to mean nothing to him, while her body was still raring to go.

  “Just get me out of here. You can get your slap and tickle somewhere else,” she grumbled, unwilling to admit she was jealous as hell over whoever’s bed he’d spent the last few months in.

  He pushed a lose strand of hair over her ear, the tender gesture at odds with the intense gleam in his eyes. Meshing his hands together to form a step, he moved closer. She set her foot on his palms, felt the power gathering through his body as he prepared to lift her up.

  “Wait for me at the top,” he said.

  Then he pushed her up, almost catapulting her over the top. Fast. Too fast. The speed of her assent took her by surprise and she barely remembered to grab onto the ledge of the wall. She got it just in time, leveraging her upper body high enough to fling one leg over and sit up. She glanced down to where Kane waited and her belly dived again, this vertigo not unlike her one experience of riding in one of the newfangled hot air balloons. Wrenching her gaze away from the ground she focused o
n the wall she sat on, wishing Kane would get his butt moving. The longer she sat up here, the heavier her breathing and her panic grew. She’d learned the hard way years ago that everyone had weaknesses. This just happened to be one of hers. Man—and woman—kind were not meant to be feet off the ground. Well, unless they were one of the new breeds. But she was one hundred percent human, and her feet were meant to be firmly planted on the dirt. The air whooshed around her as Kane jumped up to join her on the ledge, and she tilted her head back up to meet his worried gaze. He would know. The bastard.

  “You’re going to have jump to me, Calista.”

  She cringed, knowing her eyes widened like saucers when she looked at him. It hadn’t occurred to her how she would get down. Hell and damnation. Her nod was jerky. She’d close her eyes and bite her lip as she dropped if she had to, but she sure as hell wasn’t staying up here all night. Kane didn’t wait for further discussion, instead lifting his leg over the side of the ledge and leaping off. In less than a second he stood on the ground waiting for her, and she decided she just couldn’t do it. She’d sit here forever.

  “Come on, sweetheart. You can do this. You know I won’t let you fall,” he crooned.

  Her hackles rose. So she didn’t like heights. That didn’t mean he needed to talk to her like she was a child, did it? She swung her leg over the side and perched there, eyes focused on the ground. If he didn’t catch her, it was going to hurt like the devil. Then she would have to retaliate, of course. She spent a minute ruminating over ways to torture Kane and her thoughts turned carnal—they always did with him—recalling a set of silk scarves Rheana had recently given her.

  “Calista, darling, we don’t have all night here.”

  She jerked back to the present when she heard the tension in his voice. She’d accepted his senses were much sharper than hers long ago. They’d saved her ass more than once and something had him on edge now. Closing her eyes, she sent up a quick prayer and jumped. She dropped so fast the fall didn’t even register before his arms closed around her, cradling her close to his chest as he took off in a run down the new alley.