Bad Mouth(18)

He’d never see that look on her face again if she knew what he hid from her. The thought of caring about a human’s perception of him should make his skin crawl. Nevertheless, the image of her repulsion and her disappointment was a jagged, rusty spike shoved right up into no man’s land.

Dangerous emotions. May as well roll over and expose his belly to a pack of starving wolves. Humans were vulnerable, short-lived, and fundamentally different when it came to ethics and morality. No upside existed in dealing with them, and caring for one invited pain and conflict through the front door. There was a reason he never learned the names of his subjugates before they were turned, no matter how well they served him. A vamp never knew how long a human would last in the life.

He’d already made a mistake by opening up to her with his past. Goddamn. He had to stop. She could get him killed. Fuck’s sake, she could get herself killed. If he had to stifle his crushing need to touch her and tie her to his side in order to keep them both safe, then he’d eat the bullet and do whatever was necessary. He would keep on lying to her despite the backlash of his regret.

…

When Kade’s gentle touch dropped from her face, Val mourned the loss. Only days ago being close and nearly intimate with a vampire would have been a nightmare to her. But Kade wasn’t just a vampire. He was a whole person. He had a dark past and feelings and opinions and a keen intellect. She wanted to know his dreams. She wanted to heal his soul the way he’d tried to heal hers. At the moment, though, time was ticking, the night wasting, and they had work to do.

“You’re thinking about getting to work, aren’t you?” he asked. Psychic.

She let her hand trail down his chest. “Uh-hmm. Thinking about it.” His chest moved with laughter beneath her palm, and then he groaned.

“I feel something, Val, right under your hand. It kinda hurts. Think I might have caught something.”

She tipped her head back to look at him and lost her breath. Raw emotion and the velvety-red glow of his gaze softened his features. He cupped her cheek and brought his lips to hers. His kiss brought tears to her eyes. He lingered, his touch soft and tender, and firing off her nerve endings. She could spend all night basking in kisses like this and it would never be enough. His eyes were still closed when he pulled back. She ran her fingers through his hair, loving the satiny texture against her skin.

“Thank you,” he said. He opened his eyes and winked. “See? I’m learning.”

“Don’t look so happy with yourself. You’re far from housebroken.”

With a grin, he headed toward the bathroom, tugging her off the sofa as he went. They freshened up their disheveled appearances, using separate bathrooms in spite of his efforts to talk her into sharing. They wouldn’t get any interviews done if they kept that up. It was entirely too easy to lose her head with him.

Shortly, they were on their way to a suburban residence of a Legion vampire named Wallace Dannon. The vampire had witnessed the aftermath of a more recent blooding near Lake Washington.

This blooding, along with the one at Gas Works Park, were body dumps—the crime had been committed at some other unknown site. Unease rippled through her. Deranged weren’t known to cover up their crimes. They were too far beyond logical reasoning. Maybe she’d catch a break, and they’d have as much luck with this Legion as they’d had with Ptolomy and Selene.

“Ready for this?” He flashed her a smile with a shot of fang.

She huffed. “You are dying to light into someone, aren’t you?”

A wicked laugh was his answer. He laced his fingers with hers and led her up the walkway. A demure young female subjugate, greeting him properly, allowed them entry and guided them to an office to await the Legion.

Val admired Kade’s profile as he watched out the window. The night was loving toward him, the moonlight highlighting the dip and swell of his muscles, sharpening the angles of his face. Even from halfway across the room, the faint, spicy scent of him sent a kaleidoscope of images through her mind. His touch, his kiss, that terrible, sexy mouth, the way his hips fit perfectly between her legs. She pressed her hands to her cheeks, trying to cool them. She was behaving like a teen in the throes of her first crush.

Wallace broke her train of thought with a noisy entrance. After tripping over obstacles in his office, the clumsy, robust man addressed them.

“Ahem. How may I serve, my lord?”

Kade turned from the window, a smile hinted at the corners of his lips, but then it was gone. His eyes widened and then narrowed. “You!”

Wallace collapsed to his knees, his hands over his head. “Mercy! I beg you, my lord.”

“Like you showed me?” Kade’s voice thundered throughout the small room.

The man cowered in a whimpering heap.

“Kade, who is he?”

“Someone who should be dead.” His voice rose with each word until he was bellowing at the Legion. “Why aren’t you dead? Are the others alive?”

“Yes, my lord.”

Kade turned away and roared with the rage of an erupting volcano. He upended a massive mahogany desk and tossed it across the room, missing the window by mere inches. Val’s hands flew to her ears to shield against the racket and terrible fear stabbed through her in a sharp wave.

He whirled toward the Legion and drew a wicked-looking knife from behind his back. How could he hide something that large? Had he been wearing that the whole time? When he advanced on the cowering vampire, she launched herself in front of him, but he brushed her to the side without a glance. Her heart raced madly. He was really going to kill Dannon.

“Kade, no.” She latched onto his arm. “No!”





Chapter Twelve


Kade glared down at Val. He didn’t even look like himself with his face growing lean, lengthening, and his fangs extending. She’d heard the reports about vampires who took their more natural form but, like most humans, had never seen it. Pictures weren’t even allowed.

“Please don’t do this,” she pleaded. “Talk to me. Tell me who he is.”

He looked back to the Legion and then to her again. He shook his head.

“Change back so you can talk to me.” She pulled hard on his armed hand with a strength born of desperation. He shook her off and continued forward. His glowing eyes began to elongate and slant, and he grew taller and thinner. She tried one more time, throwing all her weight on his arm, but it was like trying to stop a tank. “Don’t do this in front of me!”

He froze. Oh, thank the Lord that worked. He turned away from her and his features began to shrink. When he lowered the knife, she released the breath caught in her chest.

“Kade?”

“Get what you need from him,” he answered, his deep voice distorted. He wouldn’t look at her. He didn’t look at the Legion either, but he spoke to him. “Answer her. If you lie, I’ll rip your f*cking intestines out and feed them to you.”

“Yes, my lord.” The Legion peeked up at her, terror masking his face.

“You stated you were boating on Lake Washington when the blooding there occurred. You also stated you saw nothing on the pier where you moored. Now that we have your attention, I need to know what you really saw.” Her words tumbled out. She wanted to leave. Wanted to forget what had just transpired.

Wallace skated a look at Kade before peering at her with his watery, red eyes. “I saw a vampire and two humans. I didn’t recognize any of them.”

She spared a glance at Kade, too, before responding. He seemed to be struggling for control, and she worried he’d lose it before they could leave the house. “Is that two humans including the victim or in addition to the victim? And are you sure you didn’t know the vampire?”

“The victim was already lying on the pier, so it was two in addition to that one. I’m sure I don’t know the vampire.”

Kade growled, sending the Legion into a fleshy lip-wobble.

“I-I’m telling the truth. I don’t know, and I didn’t see his face.”

She handed him the same packet of photos she’d shown Selene. Wallace checked each one carefully.

“None of these. He was very big and wide, a warrior. These are all humans. Are they deranged?” he asked. She nodded. “He couldn’t have been. He was older.”

“How could you tell?”

“He flashed.”

Flashed? Only the oldest vampires could flash. Kade couldn’t even flash. The kind of speed that appeared to the eye as disappearing in thin air was a skill that took many centuries to build. Her eyes closed. There was no way the Ancients could deny it now. The Legion, maybe even the Dominorum, was involved in the derangements as well as the bloodings.

The air stirred next to her. She opened her eyes to Kade standing inches from her side. Her muscles tensed, ready to launch between the vampires if necessary. Instead, the sizzling arc of telepathy buzzed along her skin. Then Kade turned to her.