Blood Shadows Read online

  Releasing the gun from her side, he flipped her around and pinned both her hands above her head with one of his.

  Her eyes flared as she snapped back a breath, their eyes meeting for the first time.

  Hers were captivatingly bright, their milky-coffee colour beautifully offset by her flawless pale skin. Her shoulder-length sandy-brown hair was still damp and tousled from the rain, its unruliness suiting her. From a distance she could be mistaken for unassuming, but up close she was pretty. Her features were delicate, her full lips enticing – lips that under any other circumstance he would already have been tasting. And from the sudden dilation of her pupils, the flush in her cheeks, he wasn’t alone in liking what he saw.

  It was a shame. Another place, another time, she had enough feistiness to keep it interesting until he chose to exhaust her, playfully and cruelly manipulating the resilience indicative of her kind. Because the more self-controlled they were, the more pleasurable it was. And this girl oozed restraint.

  But this was no time to play. This was about preserving her until it was time to drain her body, mind and spirit. This was about toying with her slowly and excruciatingly until she made that fatal choice of letting him in, allowing him access to that otherwise inaccessible soul.

  He raked the tranquilizer gun teasingly down her chest, along the top of her jeans, now sitting loose on her slender hips, over the inviting hint of bare flesh, the subtle curve of her toned stomach. Hitching the waistband down just a little further, his gaze lingered tauntingly on the cream lace band of her underwear before meeting her eyes again. ‘Are you calling my bluff, Caitlin?’

  Her chest heaved beneath her T-shirt, her defiant gaze fixed with steely determination on his. Her curt breaths were enticingly sexy, her pulse racing, her warm body trembling.

  ‘Or maybe you’re just stalling until the real agents show up?’ he added.

  Caitlin’s eyes narrowed in indignation. ‘I’ll repeat: Kane Malloy, I’m detaining you on twenty-one alleged accounts of crimes against members of the third species, including your own, thirty-two against humans, crimes of the third, second and first degree. You will be detained until further notice whereon you will undertake questioning through which a confession is recommended. Should you elect not to confess, your shadow will be read. If you are subsequently found guilty of any charges, your reticence will automatically qualify you for a more severe sentence.’

  The girl was unbelievable. Hauled up against a wall and still reading him his rights. Taming her for the sheer pleasure of it really would have made for an interesting couple of nights.

  ‘You don’t do submissive well, do you, Caitlin?’

  ‘I don’t do submissive at all.’

  He leaned closer, his mouth hovering less than an inch from hers, her erratic breath evocative against his lips. She recoiled tight against the wall, forging whatever distance she could. To taunt her further, he nudged her thighs apart, keeping them that way with one of his. The panic in her eyes was further confirmation of what he’d guessed from her reaction when he’d unclasped her belt: Caitlin was way out of her depth coming after him. And if the stakes hadn’t been so high, he’d already be proving it.

  ‘Tell me you’ve never fantasised about this moment,’ he said, revealing just enough of his incisors to goad her.

  Her pulse raced as she floundered under his scrutiny. ‘I have,’ she said breathily. ‘Only I’d already lodged a stake in your dysfunctional heart. Now are you going to pull that trigger or am I supposed to stand here all night until you work out how to use it?’

  He laughed tersely, but then he saw something in her eyes. There was uneasiness there – an uneasiness that wasn’t attributed to VCU agents used to staring into the eyes of vampires for a living. She clearly knew he wasn’t an ordinary vampire. And if she’d known that beforehand, her actions in pursuing him were far more than just reckless, they were insulting.

  But restraint was a necessity, and the echoes of two sets of footsteps fast approaching from the main corridor told him time was short.

  Taking both her hands in one of his, he turned her around again, tucking her against him as he raised the tranquiliser gun to the brighter light of the main corridor ahead. ‘Looks like we have company,’ he whispered against her ear. ‘Make a noise and I’ll do more than send them to sleep.’

  As soon as they appeared, Kane let off a single shot.

  Neither agent saw it coming.

  His shot pierced the first agent cleanly in the chest.

  But something also pierced Kane. Pierced him in the palm of his shooting hand. Something that threw him off balance, weakening his hold on the gun as paralytic pins and needles swarmed his fingers, his wrist and his elbow.

  The second agent took the opportunity and shot Kane twice in the shoulder.

  But Kane’s world was already turning black.

  He didn’t even have time to curse.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Caitlin’s breath misted the office window as she gazed out across the headquarters’ floodlit grounds. The smattering of rain obscured Lowtown’s cityscape, Blackthorn nothing more than a blackened mass beyond the distant border.

  The radiator warmed her thigh through her jeans, as she nervously bit the thumbnail she had jammed between her teeth. Vampires hunted more in the rain. Rain meant hoods up, umbrellas up, deficiency of sound, lowered eyes. Rain disorientated and distracted people, making the kill or capture so much easier. Even there in Lowtown, rainy nights were busy nights. Busy nights when you weren’t suspended pending a full investigation.

  She mindlessly rubbed her neck where he’d caressed her. All those years studying him and none of it had prepared her for the lethal spark behind those navy-blue eyes. Eyes that only seven hours before had confirmed her deepest fears, her deepest hopes. The truth of what he was had glimmered through that compelling self-assured gaze. Kane Malloy was indeed a dual feeder, a master vampire: a rare archaic strain of vampirism believed to have slipped into extinction in place of the weaker but more prevalent singular-blood feeders. And deep in the shadowy recess of his absent soul, every last remaining truth about his species lay concealed.

  Or at least it would be concealed until she got into that interrogation room, which is exactly where she needed to be instead of wasting time waiting on others to decide her fate.

  She pulled away herself from the window, glanced down at her watch for the ninth time in ten minutes and wandered over to her desk to find the last of her caffeine tablets.

  ‘Caitlin,’ Mark called from behind, ‘you’re wanted.’ He looked as sullen and tired as the rest of the team but there was something more. He cocked his head towards the corridor. ‘Max’s office. Now.’

  Her stomach flipped. With leaden legs, Caitlin walked past the disdainful looks of her male colleagues and headed a few doors down the corridor. She steadied her breathing and composed herself before opening the door.

  Her stepfather stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, his hands cradled behind his back. As he turned to face her, his lips were taut, his eyes grave.

  And behind the dominating conference table, folder neatly opened in front of him, sat Xavier Carter, chief of both the Third Species Control Division, of which the VCU was a component, and the Third Species Intervention Division. His (usually elusive) presence was enough to tell her something had gone horribly wrong.

  Xavier stood, indicated for her to move to the seat opposite his, his wrinkled grey eyes observant, intrigued. ‘Agent Parish. It’s nice to meet you. I’ve heard much about you.’ He held out a hand across the table.

  ‘Just in the last few hours I bet.’

  Xavier smiled as he shook her hand once, firm, businesslike, and indicated for her to sit. ‘On the contrary. Your work hasn’t gone unnoticed. Your name has been put forward for some rather significant achievement awards at next year’s ceremony.’

  ‘I don’t do this for personal accolade, Mr Carter.’

  He smiled again but just
a hint this time. ‘Your dedication hasn’t gone unnoticed.’

  She eased her chair under the table, perched on the edge, her hands concealed in her lap so they couldn’t see the tremor.

  ‘Which is why I’m sure your temporary suspension has come as quite a shock to you,’ he added. ‘I can see it has caused you some distress.’

  She glimpsed across at Max as he took his seat beside Xavier, in full official role mode. She wouldn’t expect anything less. Wouldn’t want anything less. In this room, under these circumstances, Max wasn’t her stepfather, he was her boss.

  ‘Max warned me of the consequence if I proceeded with my course of action,’ she responded. ‘I chose to ignore it.’

  ‘So you agree with the suspension?’

  ‘Absolutely not.’

  Max shot her a warning glare as Xavier lifted his eyes from the paperwork. ‘You appear very resolute in your conviction,’ Xavier remarked.

  ‘I have a job to do, Mr Carter. My job is to track and detain vampires who breach the code of conduct established by the Global Council. Kane Malloy has proven elusive for far too long. As soon as I sensed that he was going to abscond, I proceeded to locate him and detain him. That’s what I’m paid to do.’

  ‘You are also part of a team, Agent Parish. You moved directly against my orders,’ Max reminded her. ‘You went in there unprepared and unsupported. You put yourself at risk as well as Morgan and Brovin. You’re lucky they turned up when they did.’

  ‘I hear Morgan’s doing fine.’

  ‘You’re fortunate Malloy only got one round in him.’

  ‘I was handling it.’

  ‘And if they hadn’t intervened when they did?’ Max asked.

  ‘Morgan wouldn’t have got shot,’ she finished. ‘Just me.’

  Max opened the package in front of him, took out the plastic bag, placing the gun it contained on the table between them.

  Her gun.

  Her heart thudded uncomfortably as Max slid it towards her, displeasure clear in his eyes.

  ‘Who made this for you?’ he asked.

  ‘Does it matter?’

  ‘Illegal customisation of VCU property? Yes, Agent Parish, it matters. The lab tells me the release pin was not only loaded with sedative but also a hefty dose of hemlock – an illegal weapon and an illegal substance. Who designed it?’

  Caitlin lowered her gaze.

  ‘Agent Parish?’ Max persisted.

  She sighed and reluctantly looked back at him. ‘I did.’

  ‘You?’

  ‘I wanted a backup plan.’

  He picked the gun up, held it by the barrel and squeezed the trigger. The pin sprang through the back of the grip with a powerful stab, hitting the air instead of the flesh of his palm as it was designed to – what it had succeeded in doing with Kane. ‘So anyone with pressure different to yours activates this and that goes straight into their bloodstream.’

  She shrugged. ‘Worked didn’t it?’

  Max placed the gun back on the table, unable to mask the disapproval and disappointment in his eyes as he leaned back in his chair.

  ‘Tell me again what happened,’ Xavier said, drawing her attention back to him.

  ‘Like I said in my statement and in every interview since then, when I saw Kane Malloy re-enter the building, I pursued him. I worked out that he was most likely to head up to the roof where he would be able to cross several buildings and enter any one of them to escape. There is a single corridor leading to the roof so I chose that one. I proceeded several metres and turned down a darker corridor when interference in my earpiece caused me to momentarily lower my guard. He came up behind me, took my gun and pinned me up against the wall. I advised him of his rights and suggested he give himself up. As I was disarmed, but knew Brovin and Morgan were not far behind, I resolved to keep him occupied for as long as possible. Malloy heard Brovin and Morgan approach, shot Morgan, thus activating the pin in my gun, releasing the hemlock and sedative, the former temporarily paralysing his hand and arm. Brovin immediately counter-shot Malloy twice in the shoulder. Malloy was unconscious within seconds.’

  There was a momentary silence. Max and Xavier exchanged glances, adding to Caitlin’s unease. She clenched her hands to stop herself from demanding they just spit it out. If they had a point, she wished they’d just make it.

  Max leaned forward again. ‘I last spoke to you at 10:27 p.m.’

  ‘Okay.’

  ‘Brovin reported having taken Malloy down at 10:31.’

  ‘So?’

  Max’s eyes were riddled with suspicion. ‘Four minutes to read him his rights?’

  ‘If you say so.’

  ‘And what did Kane say to you?’

  ‘Very little.’

  ‘In four minutes?’

  ‘Time flew.’

  ‘Agent Parish,’ Xavier cut in. ‘You’re the only member of this division, let alone this unit, who has ever got that close to Malloy and survived. I’m sure you understand we want to know why.’

  Because he had a purpose for her and one that clearly required her to be alive for the time being. ‘He was interrupted.’

  ‘Four minutes later, yes. It would have taken him a split second to kill you,’ Max said.

  ‘I’d have been no use as a hostage then, would I?’

  Max narrowed his eyes. ‘Why would he need a hostage when he could have outrun you? All of you? Instead he held back, followed you down that corridor, subsequently increasing his risk of getting caught.’

  ‘What do you want me to say? I took a chance and it paid off.’

  ‘A chance that could have got you killed,’ Max reminded her.

  ‘It was a snap decision.’

  ‘No, Caitlin. You knew before you started last night that you weren’t going to let him go. Your gun is proof of that.’

  ‘This is my case,’ she said, meeting his accusatory gaze. ‘It’s me who got us to this point. Four years it’s taken me. So, no, I wasn’t going to just let him walk out of there. It was then or never.’

  ‘You do know that your action meant he was apprehended illegally?’ Max continued.

  ‘If he hadn’t shot Morgan, the gun wouldn’t have activated. He was an active aggressor trying to escape. I did my job and I will stick by my decision.’

  ‘Are you attracted to him, Agent Parish?’

  Caitlin’s gaze snapped to Xavier, the question almost winding her. ‘Excuse me?’

  ‘It’s a simple question. Are you attracted to him?’

  ‘I don’t see what that has to do with any of this.’

  ‘It has everything to do with this.’

  She frowned. ‘Are you accusing me of being unprofessional in my intentions, Mr Carter?’

  ‘It’s merely a question,’ Xavier said.

  ‘I acted fully within the code. I read him his rights word for word.’

  ‘You wanted him to pull the trigger.’

  ‘I was willing to take a shot to bring him down.’

  ‘Did you try to provoke him?’

  She kept her gaze solemnly on Xavier. ‘Where is this going?’

  ‘I’ll ask you again: What prevented him from shooting you?’

  ‘I don’t know. Why don’t you ask him? Or can I assume that he’s saying nothing? Just as I’m guessing he’s refused a voluntary confession. Which is why I should be in there shadow-reading him and not sat here wasting time.’

  ‘We brought in Isla,’ Max declared.

  Caitlin’s heart leapt at the treachery. But not just that. If Isla, a much weaker shadow reader though she was, got even an inkling of what Kane was, then suspension would be the least of her worries. But then again, if they got so much as a hint that her going after Kane had been far more than just professional, her life wouldn’t be worth living anyway. ‘And?’

  Max hesitated for what felt like a lifetime. ‘Nothing.’

  Her heart lunged with relief. ‘What do you mean, Nothing?’

  ‘He blocked her. She couldn’t even
read his mood.’

  He had to be a master. It was the only explanation. She stared from Max to Xavier and back again. ‘Did she retry?’

  ‘Three times,’ Max said. ‘No reading. No confession. All topped off with an illegal apprehension. Still sure we’ve won, Caitlin?’

  Discomfort squeezed the pit of her stomach, a light perspiration sweeping over her. ‘You’d better not be saying what I think you are.’

  ‘We have no choice,’ Max declared sullenly.

  ‘Yes, we do,’ Caitlin said, standing. ‘You need to reinstate me.’

  ‘Sit down.’

  ‘No third species can block shadow readers. It’s just a trick. Isla has half of my seventh sense. Let’s see how much of me he can block.’

  Max glowered up at her with the warning of a protective parent. ‘Sit down, Caitlin.’

  But she couldn’t. She needed him contained. She needed him confined. It was the only way she’d ever have him long enough, and be safe enough, to extract the information she needed. ‘He’s only been here seven hours. We can keep him for another seventeen. Let me in there and I will sort this out. You know I’m stronger than Isla—’

  ‘I said sit down!’

  Reluctantly she did so, perching on the edge of the chair. ‘He is not slipping through our fingers because you’ve suspended me over some technicality. Just give me an hour with him and I’ll get everything we need—’

  Max showed her the palm of his hand, the cue for her to stop talking and start listening. She pressed her lips together in resentment.

  ‘You’ve been suspended. Even if you were able to read him, it would be thrown out of court.’

  ‘So that’s it? He walks free? After all this?’

  Free and with clear intentions for her.

  Max held her gaze, his eyes sober, his lips terse. ‘He’s requested you be the one to take the release papers to him.’

  Her stomach flipped. ‘I bet he did.’

  Xavier leaned forward, his fingers interlinked as he rested them on the table. ‘He wants it done in private. He knows we’ll insist on watching, but he has demanded no audio. They’re his terms for not pursuing the illegal apprehension. Caitlin, he wants something from you. If he has given you any indication of what that is, you have to tell us.’