Bait and Bleed

by Elizabeth Blake

  “Swear. I mean it.”

  “I swear on pain of death.” She slowly crossed her heart, and my eyes planted on the motion while she purred, “Never ever, cross my soul.”

  I blinked. “Why are you here?”

  “He is cute.”

  “Yes, he is. Now, what do you want?”

  “I want the vampire’s book.”

  “Rainer says it is useless, nothing but a list of names, a gigantic family tree. Nothing about who might have sabotaged the wolves’ good name.”

  “I disagree. The book refers to Alexei as the Cannibal, yes?”

  “But you already knew his nickname.”

  “Which validates the accuracy of the book’s recollection. If the Cannibal is known as such, then other names might offer insight to deeds or god-plagues. If I know their names, their talents…There are hints in those pages, Kaidlyn. Riddles of truth. Perhaps keys to the entire kingdom.”

  I shuffled my feet. “What do I get out of this?”

  “A kiss.”

  My cheeks flared. “I’m serious.”

  Her smile indicated she was, too. Jesus. Talk about being in over my head.

  “What do you want?” she purred, which tangled my head in a boiling, fluffy knot. Unable to answer the question, I stood dumb while she came closer. Her sweet wild scent, the lecherous grin, the brazen eyes and striking body.

  “You’ll owe me a favor someday?” I said.

  “Sure.” Her smile dimmed, and she slid past me, stalking my coffee pot instead. A slow sigh leaked from me. Not regret, surely.

  “Maybe a few names,” I said. “Anyone in particular?”

  “Anyone who is in Russia.”

  “We can only guess…sometimes there are no estates listed.”

  “We can begin with the ones who are in the book. I want to know who lives in my country, turning my people against me. I should be prepared for any vamps to move on me when I kill Alexis.”

  “Any word of him?”

  “He is not at home; this is all I know.”

  “If I give you vamp names, you aren’t simply going to kill them, are you?”

  “Kaidlyn.”

  “No, Svetlana, I am not ordering hits on every vampire in Russia. You can’t execute them. It’s wrong and Sigurd will blame me.”

  “Protest received. Morally, you are covered. Your conscience is clear.”

  “Not good enough.”

  “Do you actually care?” She frowned. “They’re vampires.”

  “It’s the principle. What if they haven’t done anything wrong?”

  She scoffed. “They’re vampires. Plus, their species wants to eliminate mine!”

  “Which is unfair, right? So you wouldn’t go and play the same genocidal game, would you? That would be so…hypocritical.”

  “If I say I will give each name fair consideration, would that appease you?”

  “Define fair.”

  She laughed. “Awful. You’re impossible sometimes. Did anyone ever mention you should have been a lawyer?”

  “My dad. When I was two.”

  A chuckle rolled up her throat, curling around me like a delicious syrup. I wanted to plant my lips on hers, which would be totally inappropriate. We were discussing murder, after all.

  “Svetlana, I understand you and Erik and everyone else in the world are involved in a power struggle over this territory, but don’t forget it’s my city, too. My world. I have to live in it, so don’t go mucking it up.”

  She smiled over the rim of her coffee cup. I wanted to shoot her and kiss her at the same time. I needed to get laid, fast, with someone who wasn’t going to start the next apocalypse. While warm turmoil sang through my veins, she sipped her coffee in feigned oblivion. As if she didn’t know she affected me.

  “I mean it, Svetlana. This book is not a golden ticket to start another war.”

  She set the coffee cup down with a click.

  “I like what you’ve done with the place.”

  “Davey did it. He painted, cleaned, and restored the hardwood.”

  “It does feel like him, doesn’t it?”

  “He’s been staying at your house, right? With Peter? I can tell he’s only here when he thinks I’ll be home.”

  She shrugged, but it wasn’t because she didn’t know. She knew, alright, and she was either using it to her advantage or saving it for leverage. Peter was part of her holy trinity, three mutts who collaborated to unify the entire species and fight for equal rights.

  Rights which were won by tearing bodies apart in dark alleys. Maybe that’s what she wanted: a war on the streets, blood flowing through the gutters.

  “Relax, darling,” she said. “I’ll take care of him.”

  Could have been ominous, but instead, it was a promise. She actually liked Davey, was impressed by his fortitude and integrity. I know this because she was the one who outed him to me and revealed not only was he L-pos, but he was gay.

  Two reasons to get black-bagged and murdered in the modern age.

  “Can you do something for me?” I said.

  She cocked her head. “Maybe.”

  I retrieved the dirty gloves I’d kept from the murder scene. “When I was mutt-wounded, you were immediately able to tell if I was infected or not. I wonder, could you identify a mutt from the blood or saliva left on its victim?”

  She didn’t answer the question, but she took the plastic bag. She opened it and sniffed its contents. A frown creased her forehead. She sniffed deeper, even turned to the side and shut her eyes like it would help her sense of smell.

  “This is not good, Kaidlyn,” she said. “Not good at all.” She tucked the evidence into her pocket.

  “What?”

  “The wolf…”

  “Iago?”

  “No. Not as we thought. The odor is ancient. Feral. Perfume so strong it is like acid. Maybe the wolf is with Iago’s plot, but it is much worse.”

  “We need to find Iago. If we get him, then we can bag this other wolf.”

  “You are not to go anywhere near these crime scenes or this wolf. Is that understood? I forbid you.”

  “Oh, you forbid me?” My volume rose along with my temper. “You aren’t my queen, Svetlana. You aren’t my boss. Technically, you aren’t anything. And you sure as hell do not get to tell me how to do my job.”

  Her cheeks flushed, her jaw twitched. Brown eyes flashed golden honey. My breath caught in my throat. She’s going to shed and kill me.

  “Easy,” I said.

  Her mouth widened with a sneer. “You ask too much. Pushing me. Keeping your secrets and pushing me for more. Who do you think you are?”

  “And you’re not keeping secrets?” I countered, forgetting the goal was to keep her calm. “Like you’re so goddamn forthright?”

  “I could strangle you,” she growled.

  “Likewise, bitch.”

  She grunted and turned her back. While she took a moment to calm herself, I admired her posture and watched her mouth. A mouth she had kissed me with.

  I shook my head.

  “Perhaps a name for an address,” I bargained. “Tell me where to find Iago, and I’ll give you some vampire intel. I need to know where the bastard lays down to sleep.”

  “Not him. He’s mine, when the time is right.”

  “Not fair. His mutt came to my house. He tried to kill me, wanted to blow me to smithereens. I get a crack at him.”

  “No cracks at nothing. He attacked my home! My children! You have no more right to him than I.”

  “Fine. Let’s kill him together. No more Iago, home invasions, or turf war.”

  Frowning, she crossed her arms. “He is currently Erik’s trouble.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Two kennel masters in the same city; it is their battle. Afterward, I will negotiate with the victor. Do not forget, I am scarcely more than an ambassador.”

  “When it’s convenient,” I said. “You strolled into Phoenix and crushed a trail of enemies, but all
of a sudden you’re shy and diplomatic? Bullshit.”

  “This is the bargain upon which Erik and I agreed. I shall not interfere with his city, I simply move my children on the outskirts to keep them safe. While Erik and Iago divide territory, fight for manpower, and negotiate their respective levels of manliness, I am to be silent and observant. Besides, if I solve all of Erik’s troubles, I only serve to make him weaker. And pampered. He’d resent it.”

  “Don’t do this to me. Don’t make me helpless to protect the people who are important to me.”

  “Iago is not mine to bargain with. Neither is he yours to kill.”

  “Then to hell with you!” I threw a coffee mug at her. It was empty. She ducked. I felt even more ineffective. “Get out of my house.”

  “Kaidlyn, ljubonvnik,” she cooed.

  “Don’t ‘beloved’ me. Don’t you dare. Get out.”

  God, I was being such a girl. She stood, staring, no doubt deciding if it was best to navigate my anger or give me a chance to cool down. In the end, she set her mug down, strolled past Sarakas without so much as a glance, and disappeared down the street.

  Sarakas waited a moment longer, watching her movement and scanning the neighborhood. Then he returned to the house, locked the door, and threw the bolt. Tension grabbed his shoulders like I’ve never seen before. He was mad at me. For me, maybe.

  “The wolf queen of Russia,” he said. “Kaidlyn, didn’t you shoot her once?”

  “Yes, but I haven’t had to since.”

  “Svetlana, the mutt kennel master—”

  “Andreas, please.”

  “How could you—And what the hell are you thinking?”

  “The city’s wolf population is dividing into factions. Not simply along the fault lines, but the species are in-fighting too. Something big is coming: a schism, a reckoning, a new age—”

  “An Armageddon.”

  “Yes, that too.”

  “Listen to you! Wolf population? Are you kidding me? The only wolves you should know are the ones you’ve killed, and now you’re talking about them as if they’re a cultural entity. How many are there? How many do you know? And Davey hasn’t joined a kennel, has he? What the hell are you doing?”

  “I’m simply saying that discontent will boil up in the streets and someone needs to minimize the disaster. Svetlana can help reduce collateral damage.”

  “You’re standing amid chaos and fraternizing with the enemy.”

  “There hasn’t been much fraternizing with anything,” I said, trying not to get excited about the idea.

  “Do not downplay what is happening here. I tried, Kaidlyn, I really did. I accepted Davey when he discovered he was L-pos. I didn’t turn him into the bureau because I thought you could—maybe—get it under control. As if you knew what you were doing! Turns out you’ve simply lost your mind.”

  “Some days, maybe.”

  “This will get you killed, Kaidlyn. You’ll be dead, Davey will be dead, and you’ll probably bring everyone else down with you. Everyone. This could get me black-bagged and tortured in a cell for two decades, just this conversation!”

  “I know, that’s why I asked you to leave.”

  “As if you’re looking out for my best interests? God, Kaidlyn…she’s a predator.”

  “I know. She also saved my life. Jumped on a pipe bomb for me, remember?”

  He crushed his fingered into his hair, mussing it, growling with stress. “And how in the world did she live through it?”

  “She’s a pretty big mutt. Old, too, I think. Maybe.”

  “We should follow her. Find out where she’s staying. Put an end to it.”

  “That won’t help, Andreas. You’ll only get yourself killed.”

  “You already know where her kennel is, don’t you?”

  “Please, Andreas, let’s drop this.”

  “Did you sleep with her?”

  “Is that important in the grand scheme of things?”

  “Might clue me in to whether or not you’ve completely lost your mind.”

  “Well, I haven’t.”

  He groaned. “I hear a ‘yet’ in that statement.”

  One can hope. I cleared my throat. “Point is, I won’t help her start a war, and she hasn’t tried to kill me recently. Plus, she promised not to hurt you, so you’re safe.”

  He scoffed. “This is insane. No one is safe. Kaid, you are an FBHS agent. You eliminate L-pos individuals for a living. It’s in your bloody job description. You cannot harbor a mutt, no matter how great a person Davey is, without it impacting your job. I mean, he’s eighteen now. I thought I had adjusted to the situation, but now you’re playing politics with psychopathic kennel masters and who knows what else. The phrase ‘conflict of interest’ doesn’t begin to touch on the conundrum you’ve created. You will need to choose. Are you going to stand with the L-pos sympathizers, or are you going to be an agent? You can’t do both.”

  “I am not stupid, Andreas. I know it’s duplicitous, and—”

  “You have to kill her. I’ll help. We’ll get the team.”

  “And who is next? Davey? Should we kill him, too?”

  “That’s not the same and you know it.”

  “Actually, I don’t know it.” I sighed. “Sarakas, we are in the profession of killing mutts. It’s our job. Hell, it’s a habit. A fear-based, instinctual reaction.”

  “Instinctive, yes. Like killing snakes.”

  “Not all snakes are poisonous.”

  He crossed his arms. “And you think…what? Svetlana is the equivalent of a Gartner snake in a nest of vipers? Harmless?”

  I laughed. “Not harmless, no. But I think she can tame the other vipers.”

  “God!” He grabbed his head like I had kicked him in the temple.

  “Andreas, do you remember when you found out about Davey?”

  “Yes. So?”

  “His confession to you was one of the scariest moments of my adult life. I thought for sure you wouldn’t accept him, or worse, you’d try to kill him. Then what would I have to do? Choose between you? I was petrified.”

  “Kaid—”

  “Shut up, buffoon. I’m being honest here, and it’s painful. Back then, you trusted me to manage Davey’s condition because you know that I know mutts. I know them like no one else. You said so. I need you to trust me now. Svetlana—she’s going to change the game.”

  “Undoubtedly! She’s about to bring open war to the streets that you and I have sworn to protect.”

  “She’ll make things better, Andreas. She has the experience, the wisdom, and the power to create a safer world—for wolves and people alike.”

  “You truly believe that?”

  “Yes,” I said, amazed by my confidence. I did believe it. Go figure.

  “Quit,” he said. “Quit the bureau, Kaidlyn. The more mutts you’re involved with, the more dangerous your life becomes, and the riskier it is for you and Davey. Jesus, Kaid. This is going to get both of you killed. Call HR and discuss a severance package. After your recent injuries and the threats against your life, it wouldn’t be a hard sell with upper management.”

  “I can’t quit, Andreas. If I resign for no apparent reason, after all I’ve been through—after all the blood—suspicion will fall on me. How do you think Big Fed will respond if I turn over my tags? They gave me a nickname like I was royalty. I mean, Jesus! They’ll put my life under a microscope, and I can’t escape that level of scrutiny. Hell, they might execute me. I’m stuck.”

  “No one is stuck. There are always choices, a way out.”

  I raised my eyebrows. He sank down in a chair and plopped his jaw in his hand. “Okay, you might be stuck.”

  “Hey, I’ll be alright. Life is complicated. No biggie.”

  “Complicated?” He chuckled, absent amusement. I went to the fridge.

  “Want a beer?”

  “Yeah. One for each hand.”

  I passed him a dark brew, recalling a time when he bitched at me about my drinking, not abo
ut harboring terrorists and dangling myself in the middle of an upcoming supernatural war. He had the palest blue eyes. A five o’clock shadow roughened his jaw. His fingers were long, fingernails cropped incredibly short.

  “Kaid—”

  “Maybe it’s time to distance yourself. If something happens—hell, when something happens—you should establish plausible deniability. You need a cushion so the vortex called my life doesn’t suck you in with it.”

  “Never. I will not abandon you to all this crap.”

  “You know I’m right.”

  “I happen to know for a fact that you are rarely right.”

  “Whatever.” I rolled my eyes and sat next to him, reveling in the subtle heat of his normal, mortal nearness.

  “Are we gonna watch the movie or what?” he said.

  Chapter 21

  I stayed in the house, slumbering, fidgeting, cleaning firearms and digging up contraband, considering resale and future renovations, and basically trying not to drive myself crazy.

  Deep behind the common sense portion of my brain, a childish yearning goaded me to call Svetlana. Thankfully, I couldn’t bear to pick up the phone. What if she ignored my call? Hell, what if she answered? What would I talk about? Crippled by the awkwardness of a pretend conversation that wouldn’t happen, I decided the last thing I needed was my everyday routine of being trapped in my house.

  My foot healed enough that it wasn’t painful to drive, so I decided to cruise downtown and get myself another amazing coffee.

  Narcissistic Beans was empty despite the warm, glowing sign above the clean, welcoming building. I sighed. Kill one guy with a contagious disease on the floor and people get squeamish. Shaking my head, I parked in front where everyone could see my gorgeous truck and know at least one citizen wasn’t scared to death of the place.

  The cold air conditioning blew the sweat right off my cleavage, which I should have covered anyway. Brandishing my scars made everyone uncomfortable. I reached behind me, grabbed the fabric at my spine, and yanked it down to pull my neckline up, effectively hiding an extra three inches of old wreckage.

  The barista didn’t notice me over the sound of the burr grinder whirring through whole beans. Espresso vapors filled the room like a sacred perfume. A sugary, caramel concoction baked in the kitchen. I inhaled as deeply as my sore lungs allowed. If the universe prepared a heaven especially for me, it would have smelled precisely like same. Except for the quintessential easy listening tunes droning in the background, it was perfect.