Bad Mouth

chapter Eighteen


To Val’s surprise, Ezra answered the door to Kade’s penthouse. He wore his usual Cheshire grin, but his pale red eyes were diamond-hard.

“Welcome, Ms. Craig. Won’t you come in?”

Said the spider to the fly. His welcoming words didn’t exactly match his tone. Maybe coming here wasn’t such a good idea. Even if she called the VLO, the detention team wouldn’t stand much chance against two Dominorum in an enclosed space.

“Good evening, Ezra. What are you doing here?”

“Kade thought you should meet the guys. Come,” he said, stepping aside.

She saw the guys once she passed Ezra. At one end of the sofa facing her sat a vampire who had to be Killian. He matched Graham’s description perfectly. Beside him sat a man with hair as dark as Kade’s; he was shorter and leaner than the others. On the other sofa were two others with their backs toward her. Those two rose to greet her as she drew closer.

What in the hell was going on?

The darker-haired of the two offered his hand. “Valerie Craig, I’ve heard nothing but good things about your work. I’m Gunner.”

She shook his hand automatically, her mind in a stupor. The fairer man shook her hand as well. “And I’m Lucca, but you can just call me Luc.”

She looked into a serious set of hazel eyes. Luc didn’t seem happy to be there. But…She looked back and forth between the two, noting Gunner’s dark green eyes.

“You’re…human.”

The whole group laughed.

“Yeah, we certainly are,” Luc said. “Guns over here works for the Washington State Police on the Gang Intervention Unit, and I’m an agent with the FBI. I work mostly on abduction cases.” Her eyes widened as he spoke. “This guy over here is Killian. He’s a Legion, and so is Declan over there. They’re both Trackers.”

Killian and Declan did nothing more than nod. They looked at her with suspicion, their expressions guarded. Her gaze swept the room to find Kade standing with his arms crossed at his favorite position by the balcony window. He didn’t face her. She wanted to go to him, but everyone stared like she was a circus freak.

She looked at Killian. “So you can flash.”

“Not as fast as Kade, but I do all right.”

Kade stiffened at the window.

For a moment she just stood there, not exactly knowing what to do or what to think. She wasn’t about to become too emotional in front of this group, however. “Another lie, Kade?” she asked smoothly.

The others looked away, shifting uncomfortably. Confusion clouded Killian’s expression. “Why does it matter if he can flash or not?”

“He said only older vampires can flash.”

“And he’s right,” Ezra said, shooting Kade a glare. “If he were permitted to speak of such things,” Ezra faced her, “Kade would tell you he’s the only young vampire who has achieved the ability.”

“You weren’t supposed to tell me?” she asked Kade.

“No,” Ezra answered again. “And you never should have met us. You’re endangering peace between vampires and humans just by being here.” He began pacing between the sofas.

She put a hand to her head. “Would someone please tell me what you have to do with the fake bloodings?” She grasped Ezra’s arm as he passed. “Was Kade the one who flashed at Lake Washington?”

“No,” Killian said. Her relief was so great Val sank onto a sofa, unable to keep her legs under her. “That was me.”

She stared at him in disbelief. He’d just admitted to involvement in the murder of a human. She glanced around at the others.

“Who were the humans with you?” But she suspected the answer.

“That would be me,” Guns said.

“And me,” Luc added.

She went light-headed, and the room spun for a moment. How could any of this be possible? “You’re peace officers. Why were you involved, and why didn’t you call it in?”

“Because we killed the victim.” Luc said it as if it were no big deal.

“And the other victim at Gas Works?”

“Same,” he said.

“I know you’re giving me answers, but it’s only generating more questions.” She threw up her hands. “Why would you do this?”

Kade finally turned away from the window. He looked drawn and pale, his eyes shadowed. “The Ancients will never understand this, Val. To them, it’s fine for vampires to harm humans, but when humans victimize a vampire, it will only end in war.”

“What do you mean by victimize a vampire?”

“These deranged are being created by enslaved vampires.” He stepped closer to her. “Did you notice the bloodings have dwindled over the past few weeks?”

She thought about the dates. “We haven’t discovered a known blooding in the past seven days, and they had been decreasing in frequency before that.”

“Nearly all of the deranged you’re searching for have been destroyed, Val. We took care of that.” He sat on the sofa across from her. “As well as the humans creating them.”

She frowned. “How can humans create them?”

He heaved a sigh. She startled at the movement—he was breathing. She bit her lip. She’d made his heart beat again, which sent a sweet bliss through her limbs she shouldn’t welcome. She caught Ezra’s knowing smirk and chose to ignore it.

“There’s a gang known to us as Slavers. This is how Ezra and I first met Guns.” Kade glanced at his teammate, who nodded in reply. “Gangs use anything to put money in their pockets, drug trafficking, theft, sex trade, and abductions—which is where Luc came into this.” Luc sent her a short wave. “Humans pay exorbitant amounts of money for transformation. Their desperation to turn is beyond reason. The Slavers saw a market and found a way to meet the demand. They enslave adjuvants and force them to perform transformations.”

She didn’t know that was possible. “How did you find out about this?”

“By chance. Adjuvants have an unspoken bond, innate, but unlike telepathy with other vampires.” He shrugged. “I went for a walk, passed by an old, empty building, and felt the pull of an adjuvant. It was distinct, and it was anguished. It takes a lot to make a vampire, an adjuvant at that, go against the Dominorum. What I discovered inside…” His eyes closed, and she knew he had to be thinking of his own suffering as a child.

“Kade freed the adjuvant and contacted me,” Ezra said. He sat next to Kade. “We brought in our trusted friends and began fighting back. Of course, this had to be kept secret for the reasons Kade already told you. No one could know. No one can know, human or vampire. Arresting the Slavers would bring it into the light. Do you understand the implications if this became public?”

She sat back in her seat. If Olen Rex and Evangeline found out about the Slavers, they’d go ballistic. They each had an explosive nature and weren’t the most rational beings. Historically, they had started and ended wars over much less.

Her eyes went to Kade. “I would have thought you wouldn’t mind putting humans in their place.”

Kade’s intense gaze held hers. “There are rifts among us.” He leaned forward in his seat, strain lining his features. “There are those who resent the restrictions the Rex has put on the Immortalis. They want the freedom to hunt and kill, freedom to transform whom they choose, freedom to feed from anyone they choose. Then there are those who are so young, they’re still closely attached to their humanity, those who will permit no harm to humans. And then there are those of us who know balance is the key to survival, who have been around long enough to see the results of gluttony, who know it’ll only lead to our own ruin.”

“And where do you fall?”

A ghost of a smile crossed his lips. “Where do you think I fall?”

She considered his brutal reputation and then considered what she knew to be true of him. Despite his deceit, she couldn’t see him as anything other than honorable. “You’re not a cold-blooded killer, Kade.”

A flicker of emotion came and went in his expression before she could identify it, and then he sank back into his seat with a single nod. “I’m not overjoyed with the bow and scrape the Ancients do with humans, but restrictions are necessary. There was a time we nearly wiped ourselves from the earth because of our greed. Some of us learned our lesson.”

She had to do something about the fake bloodings. The public believed the killers to be rogue vampires, and she had to maintain that perception. No humans or Immortalis could be connected to any of the bloodings. But the evidence was already documented. Whatever route she took, it would be illegal. What kind of person was she to cover up a murder, no matter the justification?

It looked like she had no choice, just as Kade hadn’t any choice but to act as he had. She understood why they hadn’t taken the Slavers to the authorities. He wasn’t only protecting the Immortalis, but humankind as well. This was a complete disaster, all the more problematic because of complex Immortalis politics.

“Our labs showed the victims weren’t bitten. Why make them look like bloodings?”

“Someone,” Kade shot a deadly look at Killian, “decided the body would be easier passed off as one of the blooding victims than a gang slaying.”

“And it was easier.” Killian returned the look. “If your sorry arse hadn’t found the only smart blond on the planet, no one would have known those two vics didn’t match the others.”

“No one? Right. I’d agree with you, Ian, but then we’d both be wrong. Could have at least bitten the bastards.” Kade rubbed the back of his neck. “There’s no use arguing. It’s done.”

She glanced at the wary faces around her as her distress mounted. She didn’t like being lied to. She didn’t like not knowing what to believe or what to do. “I don’t know how to proceed.”

Kade stepped over the coffee table and knelt in front of her, his hands cupping hers. “That’s all right, Val. We’ll figure something out.”

She melted inside all over again and wanted her lips on his so badly. Instead, she carefully pulled her hands from his. His expression shuttered, he stepped back and eased onto the couch across from her again.

He had repeatedly lied to her and he would do it again. He was honest now, but only because he’d been backed into a corner. He could so easily deceive and manipulate her when it suited his purpose. But he’d also revealed Immortalis secrets to her. He’d gotten Immortalis witnesses to truthfully answer her questions about the murders. He’d exposed all of his men’s identities knowing she could ruin him. There was nothing selfish in what he’d done.

She needed time to think, needed more information. Val stood and headed for the door.

“Where are you going?” Kade had asked the question, but all of the men had risen from their seats, their collective tension radiating nuclear force.

“I have some things to look into,” she said.

He jumped the couch and stalked toward her. Her heartbeat kicked up several notches despite the calm she tried to convey. Was he trying to intimidate her? No, a hint of alarm lurked in his eyes. “You think I’ll sit back and take your word for it? I have no reason to trust you.”

“No, you don’t, but trust this. You hold the fate of nations in your hand right now. Millions of people. Think long and hard before you make a move. You may hate vampires all you wish, and you may hate me all you wish, but this has more damning consequences than only for us. If the Ancients catch word of the Slavers, humans will have no chance. We’ll annihilate you.”

“You’ve never been able to before.”

He recoiled as if she’d slapped him. “This is what you want?”

She blinked. Of course she didn’t want things to go that direction. She’d pushed legislation opposing transformations, but never with the intent to cause a war. “No, I don’t. I only want space so I can think about this and what has to be done.”

“Well, think about this. How many transformations were approved sixty years ago? How many were approved last year? Look at your statistics and then tell me we don’t have the capability to turn humans into cattle.”

Her eyes widened. When she’d reviewed Kade’s records, the numbers had been sporadic, two over one month, one the next, and then nothing for several months. The last few years there had been a steady increase to one or two per month, the maximum an adjuvant could produce.

There had to be someone in the VLO monitoring the overall vampire population, but what if there wasn’t? She’d been so focused on the legislation that she’d trusted the VLO staff to work as they always had. She had to talk to Graham as well as Alice, the only two people she trusted.

“Val?” Kade ducked his head to catch her downcast eyes. He had a tender look in his gaze, one that made her tears burn. She blinked them back as best she could. After only a few days, she couldn’t possible feel this wrecked over him—exhaustion had to explain her moodiness.

“I’m not reporting any of this for now. I’m only going to look into some records.” She glanced at the others. “I promise that’s all I’m doing. And I have to figure out what to do about the false bloodings. They won’t disappear just because I want them to.”

“I can try at my end to get the cases turned over,” Luc said.

She sent him a hollow laugh. “You won’t get within a hundred yards of that case. The VLO is like a bulldog when it comes to anything vampire. It’s theirs, and they won’t share with another agency.”

“Well, I’ve got state resources, Luc’s got FBI resources, those two dickheads have Legion Tracker resources, and these other two bastards have the Dominorum,” Gunner said. “You’re not alone. We’re all here helping each other solve the problem before it blows up everywhere. Let us know if you need anything.”

All these men from different societies really were fighting against a catastrophe, and they were willing to bend some rules and break laws to avert it. She was part of this now. She would end up having to do the same, but she wasn’t sure how far she was willing to go. They didn’t stop at murder. She didn’t have it in her to do that and wasn’t entirely sure they’d needed to go to that extreme.

“I have to go, but I’ll call when I find something useful.” She stopped at the door and turned back to Kade. “What is your driver’s name?”

His brow furrowed. “My driver? Hell if I know. Why?”

“I just—never mind. When do you turn him? Is he next?”

“Yes, in a little over a week. I haven’t recovered enough from the last one.”

He wasn’t recovered? If he was physically compromised now, she couldn’t imagine how strong he’d be at full power. He’d been terrifying enough when he’d gone into a rage and into the throes of a change at Dannon’s house.

“Kade?” She hesitated at the doorway and glanced over her shoulder at him. “I don’t hate you.” She slipped out the door before he could respond.

Once she reached the plaza, she couldn’t flag down a cab and get to the VLO fast enough. Her mind raced, and she needed her keyboard under her fingers. First thing after she arrived, she checked a hunch completely unrelated to the bloodings and the deranged transformations.

And that hunch paid off quickly.

Kade’s driver, Jerome Wiley, had been a serial rapist. He’d been there, a few feet away, when she’d made love with Kade in the backseat. Her skin crawled; she hoped Kade had been right and the man hadn’t seen or heard anything with the glass separating them.

She rescinded his application’s approval and then checked the approval signature. Ginger Kowolski. Jerome’s criminal record was blatantly easy to find and the woman should have caught it. Ginger had to have known but disregarded it. Why would she do that?

Val checked Kade’s most recent, the pedophile. His record was easy to find and his application had Ginger’s signature as well. Val checked back further. Ginger had signed all the applications for the past six months. Those before were signed by Jenna Grier, whose signature went back a year prior to Ginger’s. Val stopped at two years. She would need help getting through the records.

Before she left for the night, she viewed the approval numbers. They’d increased at a rate of 300 percent over the last four years. The adjuvants were working overtime. Who had authorized the large number of transformations? Vampires lived practically forever. Soon the world would be overrun by them. Her lungs seized, and goose bumps spread over her arms. This wasn’t an oversight. It was intentional.

Someone was building an army.