She grinned. “So the dip in the New York crime rate has your fingerprints on it?”
“You give me too much credit, though I’ve had my moments. Besides, the crooks have money, which has come in damn handy against Ridgemont. The Lexus belonged to this --”
“Wait a minute.” She put down her fork to stare at him. “You rob drug dealers?”
“Cops seize their assets too, if I recall.” He lifted a brow and took another sip of coffee.
“But they’re cops!”
“And I compel the bastards I catch to confess to the police, give up their drug-dealing buddies, and turn over a new leaf, none of which the cops could have done to them on their own.”
He had a point. Especially since without him, the dealers and their drugs and money would have otherwise remained on the street, doing God knew how much damage. And since with his abilities he really could make criminals go straight, it was probably worth whatever money he took. Still… “It’s a slippery slope, McKinnon.”
He snorted. “My life is a slippery slope, Val. In the meantime, I saw a 24-hour Walmart down the street. Let’s see if we can find you that burner phone.”
* * *
As they drove down I-95 an hour later, Cade listened absently as Val chatted with Beth. To his relief, the girl had been able to borrow her friend’s car. She and Val had used Snapchat to swap their new numbers and set up a voice call. Now Val was engrossed in reassuring herself Beth was all right.
When he glanced over at her, he found himself enthralled by the movement of her full lips. And was surprised to feel as much tenderness as lust. Damn, he realized suddenly. I’m falling in love with her.
The idea carried a slow, sweet bloom of warmth and a sense of inevitability, as though it was something he was meant to do. Hell, maybe he’d been falling for her since they’d started sharing those heated, erotic dreams.
He tried to remember the last time he’d been in love -- and realized it had been more than a century. Not since Ridgemont’s victimization of Caroline Johnson had taught him any woman he cared about became an instant hostage in the ancient’s sadistic eyes. He no longer dared spend more than a single night with his lovers. Partly that was because he’d run the risk of taking too much blood. But mostly it was because of Ridgemont.
He had no illusions that his relationship with Valerie would be any more enduring than his other flings. Eventually he’d have to give her up, as he’d had to give up Caro, along with all the women since. Even if Val decided to become a vampire -- a very remote possibility -- he doubted he’d survive the inevitable battle with his sire. The best he could do was make sure he took the ancient with him.
But one way or another, he was damn well going to make sure she survived. It wouldn’t be so bad to die if he knew she lived on, free at last of Ridgemont.
* * *
They were heading down the interstate again when Val smelled peppermint. She shrank against the car door as Abigail leaned her head between the front seats. A glowing, translucent finger pointed at an exit up ahead. “There’s a motel sign up that way,” the ghost said. “Shouldn’t you stop?”
“No,” Cade said shortly. “I want to make it back to the house by dawn.”
The ghost frowned. “Are you sure you ought to wait? The process will take days as it is, and you don’t know how long it will take Ridgemont to find you. I think you should get started now.”
“What process?” Val glanced from Abigail’s glowing profile to Cade’s. “What’s she talking about?”
Cade ignored the question. “We’ve already been through this, Abigail. I told you, I’m not Turning her.”
Val drew back. “God, no.”
Shimmering eyes shifted to hers. “Why not? You made love to him.”
“You were watching?” Outraged, she glared.
The ghost gave her chin a haughty tilt. “Of course not. But I sensed it Beyond.”
“Beyond where?”
Abigail shrugged. “The place Beyond.”
“It’s like an alternate dimension that exists alongside this one,” Cade told Val. “All kinds of psychic energy manifest there.” To Abigail he added, “What happened between us has nothing to do with --”
Ignoring him, the ghost turned to stare at Val, her expression icy with condemnation. “Are you a whore?”
Val stiffened. “You just stepped over the line, Ghost Brat. I --”
“His life is in danger, mortal,” Abigail snapped. “He could die. Nobody but a whore would take him into her bed and not do everything she could to help him.”
“That’s dirty pool.” Stung, she tried to ignore the nagging feeling that the ghost had a point. “You’ve got no right to send me on a guilt trip just because I don’t want to lose my humanity.”
“Cade stands to lose more than that if you refuse, because Ridgemont will kill him.” The ghost’s eyes narrowed. “Perhaps you need to see a demonstration.”
“Abigail…” Cade growled.
Ignoring him, the ghost leaned forward until her face was inches from Val’s. “You may be able to shield your mind from them when you’re awake, but you can’t keep me out. See what I’ve seen.”
Involuntarily, Val met the ghost’s wide black eyes -- and felt herself begin to fall, plummeting soundlessly into…
LIGHT!
Val blinked hard, blinded. Shaking her head to clear it, she found herself standing in the middle of an arena. The walls were a good fifteen feet high under a vaulting ceiling, and the floor was thickly covered in sawdust.
The ring of blade on blade drew her eyes to the center of the huge space, where two medieval knights hacked at each other with swords.
She blinked, confused. Had she somehow traveled back in time?
Then she realized the fighters weren’t really knights, just as the armor they wore was something other than simple steel. The taller of the two men was Cade, his handsome face cold and set with concentration behind the bars of his faceplate. His opponent… Val felt a chill shudder through her. She knew those blunt, brutal features. It was the blond man who’d ordered Cade to kill her.
Ridgemont.
They came together in a blur of raw, inhuman power. Blades slashed and stabbed, blocked by parries or lifted shields, steel clanging and scraping as if from blows of a blacksmith’s hammer. It was nothing like the fights with Hirsch, bad as those had been. These attacks were harder, faster, even more brutal, though the two vampires moved like dancers in their massive armor.
But what frightened Val most was Cade’s expression. Instead of the confidence he’d displayed against Hirsch, there was a sheen of sweat on his upper lip, and his jaw was tight with effort. Yet the master vampire was smiling, cruel enjoyment shining in his pale eyes.
Ridgemont swung his sword like Babe Ruth swatting a home run. Cade barely managed to block the blow. Even so, the impact slammed his shield into his chest, driving a hoarse grunt from his throat. He stumbled backward and almost went down, then dug in his heels and caught himself. Visibly summoning his strength, he launched a ferocious attack of his own, his face twisted in a grimace of exertion.
But Ridgemont swatted his blade away with mocking ease.
“They’ve been fighting for an hour,” Abigail whispered. “Cade can match Ridgemont for short periods, but eventually the old monster wears him down.”
Val blinked, astonished he’d maintained this level of grueling combat for so long.
Suddenly it was over. Ridgemont lunged forward, driving his sword toward Cade’s belly like a spear. Desperately, Cade tried to parry the strike. His sword broke against the oncoming blade as it smashed through the armor like an eggshell and speared into his body so hard it lifted him off his feet.
Val cried out. Abigail filled her vision with Cade’s face, his eyes wide with the shock of the blow, his mouth twisted in a silent howl of agony.
Ridgemont grabbed his shoulder, easily holding him off the ground. Slowly, deliberately, the vampire twisted the blade. Cade d
ropped his sword and shield to clutch futilely at his torturer’s wrist. Blood bubbled between his lips. His face paled as he visibly fought not to scream.
“Your guard dropped a bit at the end,” Ridgemont told him, his tone as cool and clinical as a surgeon’s. He dipped the blade to let his victim’s feet touch the ground again. Panting in agony, Cade met his gaze with a hot glare.
Ridgemont grinned, planted a foot against Cade’s crotch, and kicked him off the sword. Staggering, he fell hard with a wheezing gasp of pain.
His sire lifted the gory sword as if to behead him. Panting and unarmed, Cade curled his bloody lips in a sneer. The sword arced down. Val screamed.
The point buried itself in the sawdust an inch from his throat.
“I do hope you’ll give me a better fight than this when the time comes, gunslinger,” Ridgemont taunted. “Otherwise, it will be somewhat… anticlimactic after one hundred and thirty-five years.” The master vampire turned and swaggered away. “All right, Hirsch, it’s your turn…”
“Shit!” Nauseated and gasping, Val fell against the car door as the vision released its grip on her mind.
Cade stared at Abigail in chilly displeasure. “I don’t appreciate that.”
The ghost shrugged. “She needs to know what you’re facing.”
“God, Cade… How often did he do that to you?”
He focused his attention on the dark highway. “It wasn’t as bad as it looked, obviously. I did survive.”
“Only because he’s a vampire,” Abigail said. “A human would have died rather quickly. And considering how he suffered while that particular injury healed, he probably would have preferred death.”
“Yeah, well, I didn’t die,” he told her roughly. “I never do.”
“You mean you never have. Yet.” Abigail turned her demanding gaze on Valerie. “Now will you let him Change you?”
“Abigail, go Beyond,” Cade said. “Now. You’ve done enough.”
“But…”
“Now, Abigail.”
With an outraged little huff, she flew up through the roof of the car. Val, stunned and sick, barely noticed.
Chapter Eleven
The image of Cade’s chocolate eyes glazing in agony ripped at her. Val shuddered. “Changing me would keep him from doing that to you again?”
“No,” he said.
She blinked at him. “But I thought you said…”
“It would make the odds more equal, but that’s all. He could still defeat me in battle. There’s no guarantee.”
She balled her fists in her lap. “But if you don’t Change me, and you fight him again…”
“I’ll probably lose,” he admitted.
“Don’t fight him.”
Cade laughed shortly. “I wish it were that simple. Unfortunately, Ridgemont has a way of forcing the issue.”
Val’s thoughts churned as she struggled to come up with an alternative. “But does it have to be swords? Isn’t there some other way to kill him?”
“Oh, yeah. Anything that takes the head off or destroys the heart would work. A shotgun blast might do it, though with Ridgemont you never can tell. I tried a car bomb a few days ago, but Abigail warned him, and he escaped.”
She stared at him. “Why on earth did she do that?”
“I was in the car at the time.”
“You were going to blow yourself up?” The chill in her heart grew even colder. Cade could have died before she had the chance to know he was real, touch him, kiss him…
“I wanted to take him out before you arrived.”
He was willing to give his life to protect me, she thought. That dream image of him as her cowboy hero was a lot closer to the truth than she’d realized.
How could she refuse to do anything that would help him? And yet… Becoming a vampire meant giving up her humanity, the end of any chance at a normal life.
But could she live with herself if she let Cade die without doing everything in her power to save him?
Val swallowed, feeling her gut clench at the brutal conflict. She couldn’t have turned her back on anybody, much less the man who had sacrificed so much to save her. Her heart began to pound. “Cade --”
“No.”
She blinked. “No?”
“I’m not letting you make that decision out of pity for me. If I Turn you, you won’t have children. You’d never again work the job you love. You’d never marry -- at least, not a mortal. Everything your life has been up until now will be over.”
“Which will be equally true if Ridgemont gets me,” she told him. “If you make me immortal…”
“The point is you won’t be immortal.” A muscle ticked in his jaw. “You won’t age, and you won’t get sick, but you can still die. And if I fight Ridgemont and lose, he’ll kill you in the most humiliating, sadistic way he can. I’m not putting you --”
“Wait a minute,” she interrupted. “You said you’d Turn me if I were willing. Why the sudden turnaround?”
I realized I love you, Cade thought. He bit back the words. “I’ve reassessed the situation, and I’ve decided the risk is unacceptable,” he told her shortly. “I’ll come up with something else.”
“Like what?”
Cade shrugged. “I don’t know. An ambush, maybe. Something.”
She shook her head. “Cade --”
“Val, drop it.”
“Quit being a pigheaded jerk, McKinnon,” she snapped. “This is my life too. I have a right to a say in --”
“Who the hell do you think you are, Buffy the Vampire Slayer?” he growled. “Until three days ago, you didn’t believe any of us even existed. You have no idea what will work against us and what won’t, so I suggest you just shut the hell up and let me think.”
Stung, she snapped her teeth closed.
Cade greeted her icy silence with a mental sigh of relief. He’d take pissed over pitying any day.
“You’re an idiot, do you know that?” Abigail said.
“Shut up.”
Frowning at the dotted line blurring past the Lexus as it sped down I-95, he focused on trying to come up with a solution to the problem of killing Ridgemont. And tried to ignore the feeling his sister was right.
* * *
Cade’s house sprawled across its wooded, three-acre lot, long and low, vaguely Spanish in design, with white stuccoed walls that shimmered golden in the early morning light. The lights were on behind stained-glass windows that spilled color out onto the dewy grass. As the Lexus rolled up the drive, a robin took off and flew into the trees.
“Damn.” Val gazed at the elegant arched doorway and the play of bright color in the windows. “I’m impressed.”
Cade slanted her a grin as he reached past her to get a garage door opener out of the glove compartment. “Thanks. Invested some of the drug money I seized, and it paid off.”
Cade pulled the car into the garage next to a blue Toyota minivan.
Wondering where it came from, Val studied it. It was packed with boxes, all labeled in black magic marker. One of them read “Camille’s clothes.” Who the heck was Camille, and why did Cade have her clothing?
Before she could ask, a door opened at the other side of the garage. A slim black woman stepped out of the house, a broad smile spreading across her round, pretty face. She was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt with a college logo on the front. “Hey, Cade. You made good time.”
“Hello, Camille.” Cade got out of the car. She spread her arms and he stepped into the hug. As they separated, he studied her. “You look relaxed, considering the pressure I’ve put you under. Sorry about that.”
“What pressure? Any stress I was ever under, you got rid of.” Warm brown eyes watched Val get out of the car. “This your lady friend?”
Val came around the hood to shake the woman’s delicate hand. “Hi. Valerie Chase.”
“This is Camille Robbins,” Cade told her. “She and her three children have been keeping an eye on the house for me.”
“You mean w
e’ve been living here rent-free,” Camille corrected dryly as she led the way into the house and down a short entrance hall into a huge kitchen. “Which I’m going to do something about as soon as I graduate.”
While Cade told her he had no intention of accepting her money, Val gazed around at the kitchen’s gleaming white appliances, butcher block counter tops, and red ceramic tile floor. Copper pots hung over a central island, and herbs grew in pots on the windowsill. Organized, efficient, with an underlying love of simple beauty, it suited Cade.
Finally, Camille gave up the fight to convince her benefactor to accept rent. “Look, I’m sure you’re tired. I’ve bent your ear long enough, and I’ve got to get to get the kids to school.”
“Yeah. Have a good day, Camille.”
“Sleep well.” She stopped short. “Oh, I’ve got the main bedroom ready for you. Through the living room, down the hall, only door on the left.”
As Camille padded out, Val turned to Cade. “You didn’t have to send them away. They could have stayed here.”
“And get caught in the crossfire between me and Ridgemont?”
“Oh. Didn’t think of that.” She hesitated. “We could have gone to a hotel.”
“Endangering the guests and staff instead? Not likely. No, this was the best way.” He turned back toward the garage. “I’ll go unload the car, then I’ll show you around.”
“I’ll help.” She followed him.
* * *
Camille walked back into the kitchen. She needed a cup of coffee before she drove the kids to school.
She could hear McKinnon arguing with his lady friend out in the garage about whether she was going to carry her own bags.
That was Cade all over. He was chivalrous the way other men breathed.
The luckiest night in Camille’s life had been when he’d walked into the Brooklyn coffee shop she managed. He’d gone on to become a regular, always showing up when the shop was mostly empty. Somehow or other, she’d found herself telling him about her worries for her kids, of her dreams of becoming a nurse, her frustration at not being able to afford a nursing degree.
One night he’d offered her a job as his assistant at a salary she’d never dared dream of. He told her he had a house he’d built in South Carolina that was now sitting empty. Some of the neighborhood kids had broken in and trashed the place. He needed someone to live there and keep an eye on it until he left the abusive asshole he worked for. She’d jumped at the chance.
Forever Kisses Volume 1 Page 15