Bad Mouth

chapter Twenty-three


Kade knew what to expect when they entered the office, but he was pretty damned sure Val had never seen a deranged vampire in person. But she was a determined woman. God, he loved her. No weak, watery like or lust for him. He’d fallen hard. He hadn’t seen much of her life after his feeding, but a good portion of what he’d seen involved either Will or himself, and that surprised him more than anything.

Could it be possible she’d fallen for him too?

A few days ago, he would have ruled that out. He was the epitome of unlovable. Any of his friends could have told him that, and Ezra often did. But she’d allowed him to feed from her. There’s no way she’d have done that if she didn’t care.

“We forgot to get a sample.” She whispered as if they had to sneak up on the group waiting in the office. Her voice wavered. He wanted to clear her worry away like it was a physical being.

“The venom stays in the blood for a while.” He lifted her shaking hand to his lips. “It’ll be all right. I won’t let him get to you.”

The look in her eyes nearly brought him to his knees. She was a wonder, a miracle. How could she make him so weak and so damned strong at the same time? He would keep her forever, no matter how old and frail she became. But then he’d be left with eternal centuries without her. He could decapitate himself or go to Alaska during their long daylight and lay in the sun hoping that would take him out, but then he had no progeny to take over the Dominorum. His duties would force him to suffer her loss.

He reached for the doorknob, but Val stopped him. She took a deep breath. Another shriek pierced through the door. Finally, she nodded. He kissed the top of her head and then opened the door.

Chains around his wrists, ankles, and neck held Will low to floor. That would keep him from finding enough purchase to put any considerable force on the restraints. His red eyes glowed, as they always would, because deranged stayed in a perpetual state of bloodlust. His fangs were full length and bared in fury.

He looked too thin. Wherever he’d been, he’d been kept from feeding. Someone had to have held him prisoner. At this point, that was a good thing. He’d be weakened by it. He stank of old blood, unwashed bodies, and nasty sex. Kade wished the guys had at least hosed him down so Val didn’t have to endure the filth.

Ezra seared an angry glare into Kade. “You brought her here?”

“It’s my investigation, Ezra.” Val stood tall, her shoulders squared, and faced the angry vampire as she would a pouty child. “I wouldn’t let him leave without me.”

Ezra scowled until he noticed the fading marks on Val’s throat. His eyebrow shot up as he looked between Val and Kade.

“Well, well, well.” He nodded with approval.

When Val finally faced Will, her composure slipped. Tears glistened in her eyes. Kade would do anything to protect her from this, but he felt her need for closure.

There was no recognition on Will’s face. His fiery gaze burned into Val with lust and famine as he’d look at any human, like a walking meal. Hungry sounds came from the back of the deranged’s throat, and he strained against his bonds. The vampire was halfway changed, his face, torso, and fingers lengthened slightly, and his eyes at the cusp of that familiar slant. Kade had known he would look this way, had known he’d smell this awful. Had Val known that he’d be so very different?

“He doesn’t even look like Will,” she said. “Is he aware of what he’s become?” She looked at Kade, her eyes shining. He brushed a tear from the corner of her eye.

“I don’t believe so, my sweet. I think the Will you knew was gone not long after he transformed, maybe even before he transformed.”

She nodded in understanding. “He’d changed a lot during our marriage. By the end, transformation was all he could think about. It was like some crazy addiction.”

“You know you can’t do anything to change an addict,” Guns said softly. His dark eyes held a wealth of sympathy, and Kade was grateful for the man’s compassion. It rarely showed its face. “They have to want to overcome it themselves.”

Guns would know. He dealt with addicts on a daily basis in his work with gangs. The others murmured their concurrence.

“There’s nothing you could have done to help him, Val,” Luc said. “And there’s nothing you can do to help him now.”

If she hadn’t known it before, she accepted it then. Her shoulders shook and she sank into Kade’s embrace, her arms wrapped around his waist and her damp face buried against his chest. He willed his strength into her as he nuzzled her fragrant hair. Her fingers clutched his shirt. She’d have internal scars from this, but her wounds would heal. Maybe she could end that unfinished chapter of her life and free herself for him.

He lifted his head from her hair and glanced around at his team. They’d pulled through for him. Again. Yeah, even the humans. Luc and Guns were good men, and he didn’t need to taste their blood to know that. How could he have spent so much of his life hating them all? Maybe he’d been as blinded by his early experiences as Val had been by her marriage to Will. Maybe they both needed to put the past behind them

“So what do we do with T-Rex here?” Declan asked. He shot a nervous look at Val. They couldn’t very well kill Will in front of her. There was no rehabilitation for the deranged. They had to be put down, to put it nicely.

“This kind of solves one problem, don’t you think?” Ian said.

“Ah, right!” Luc said, nodding. “We can close the blooding cases.”

Val eased away from Kade, but kept an arm around his waist. “Right. We have to turn him over to the VLO.” She looked up at Kade, relief in her expression. “We identify him as the one committing the bloodings, all of them. This will tie up all the cases, including the ones committed by the deranged your team…took care of. Then the public can rest in peace, and the legislation would lose some wind.”

“Two problems solved,” Ezra said, his ever-present grin in full force. “You are one smart lady. Damn, Kade, if you didn’t have dibs…”

He growled at his friend, though he knew Ezra was only joking. He cupped Val’s face, kissed her forehead, and gave her a direct look. “You know, baby, what they’ll have to do with him.”

She nodded in reply, fresh tears pooling and then spilling down her pretty, rosy cheeks. He rubbed away the tears with his thumbs. He’d rip out his heart to take this pain from her. It didn’t matter that she hurt over another man. It wasn’t love; it was her beautiful soul, the one he’d tasted a little of, which made him only want more.

Without warning, the office door flew open, bouncing into the wall. Kade whirled, his fangs readying for battle. A Dominus in the midst of changing form stood in the open doorway behind the team. The two long windows along one wall and a smaller one along another shattered and more Dominorum entered the space.

His team pulled their weapons.

Val’s arm tightened on him, but she didn’t scream. He pushed her behind him against the only wall with no windows. She tried to move around him, but he pinned her in place with one hand while he let the change sweep him. His teammates dove into battle with enthusiasm, but were outnumbered as more vampires entered through the broken glass.

Kade drew his blade but could do nothing to aid his men without leaving Val exposed. A bolt from a crossbow hit him in the shoulder, sending a shock of pain to his middle. He bit down on the agony, not wanting to alarm Val. One of the Dominorum came at him, and he let go of her long enough to engage the attack. He prayed she didn’t leave her safe spot behind him.

He dodged the other vampire’s strike and landed a stab into the artery on the man’s arm. The Dominus screamed like a bitch and the blood spurted out of him.

The Dominus came at him again, but the wound had weakened his thrust. Kade ducked the blow and came up slicing his wicked blade through a femoral artery. The vampire couldn’t match Kade’s speed. His block was ineffective, and with another thrust of Kade’s knife, the Dominus lay in a heap soaked in blood from the man’s jugular.

Kade ripped the bolt from his shoulder and engaged the next contestant. He tried not to let the exhilaration go to his head. It’d been a while since he’d participated in a battle and it brought back fond memories. From glimpses, he saw his team doing fairly well. No losses yet. None in the end, if he had any say in the matter. A second later, the next Dominus had lost his head to Kade’s expertise.

“Val!” The yell came from the window. Kade glanced up to see Douchebag standing outside the window. “What in God’s name are you doing here?”

“Graham?” Val cried.

One Dominus grabbed Graham by the scruff and pulled him away, and the remaining Dominorum retreated. Kade moved to go after them, but Val screamed with anguish. She was lying on the floor, a crossbow bolt protruding from her midriff.

“F*ck!” He knelt, ripping his shirt away to bundle around the bolt. Her precious blood pooled next to her body. Agony whipped through him. He should have gotten her out when the battle started. Her eyes glazed over with pain, and her eyelids fluttered shut. She was going to die and he could do nothing. He had no juice to transform her. He searched the room.

“Ezra!” Kade called. “Ezra, I need you. Turn her. Turn her now!”

Ezra dashed to his side and knelt, but Val’s hand clamped with surprising strength onto Kade’s wrist.

“No!” Her eyes were wide with terror. “No, Kade. I’d rather die. Please don’t do this to me. I could never forgive you.”

His world dimmed as the shock of her words struck. She’d rather die than share his life. He’d known she might not consider turning, but to choose death over a life with him made it abundantly clear how she felt about him.

Guns squeezed his shoulder. “Ambulance is almost here.”

“She’s conscious. She’s breathing. Pulse is rapid, but steady.” Luc offered encouragement. “She’ll be all right.”

Were his feelings that plain to see? He nodded, his gaze returning to the woman he loved. Her eyes had closed, but she still breathed, her heart still beat, and the bleeding had slowed. If she died, it would be because he’d fed from her, weakened her. Siren wails reached his ears. They were close, but not close enough to ease his tension.

He scanned the room. Will was gone, the chains broken where he’d been restrained. Lucky for the team, these Dominorum had lacked skill and focus. What purpose would they have for freeing Will?

Ezra walked over to examine one of the dead vampires. He checked two others before sinking onto the deck. “They’re f*cking Dominorum Enforcers.”

“Yeah. Thought so.” Kade made eye contact with each of his teammates. Grim awareness filled their expressions. If they went after the Enforcers who took Will, they’d face the entire Dominorum along with the Legion at their command. F*ck.

In one night, he’d gone straight from heaven into a hellish nightmare. His parents were behind this attack. The full effect of that knowledge didn’t even have the chance to fully sink in. He was too consumed by his worry for the woman he knelt beside. She may have spurned his race, the very core of who he was, but he’d be damned if he’d let her die like this on a cold, dirty floor of an abandoned warehouse.

His teammates were right. She was stable, though pale and unconscious, and she would recover from this. But he wouldn’t. He had to do what was destined from the day he met her, the incredible, brave human who’d turned his life upside down. He’d let go of her, let her get on with her life, while he spent his centuries alone to dream of how things could have been for them. Yeah, this was a f*cking hellish nightmare.