Bad Mouth

chapter Eight


Val couldn’t have been more wrong. Kade didn’t simply nod and walk away. Instead, he approached Selene, his liquid gait reminiscent of the Ancients.

“You saw…nothing?” His voice grew deceptively soft, and his gaze turned heavy-lidded, hypnotic.

Distress skated across Selene’s expression. “I saw—I saw…”

“I don’t give a f*ck what you said before, Selene. Forget what you said. Tell us what you saw that night. The truth. You know damn well I know when you’re lying.”

Selene looked from Kade to Val. “I did not see the face of the victim. She was turned away from me. The vampire was deranged and clearly new. He had the color of one who still has a heartbeat.” She gestured gracefully toward Val. “Your agents showed me pictures.”

“He was in one of the photos?” Val’s heart raced. Identifying the deranged would speed up the investigation considerably because most eventually gravitated to the vicinity of their pretransformation homes.

She pulled a file folder from her satchel and handed it to Selene. The vampire flipped through the pages, shaking her head at each one until she paused near the bottom of the stack.

“This one. No question it was this one.”

Selene handed the picture to her. Val closed her eyes. An ache pounded through her with each heartbeat and tears burned under her eyelids. Will.

“Val?” Kade’s hand at her back grounded her.

“It’s okay. I’m fine.”

But she wasn’t sure she was just yet. Even after she’d discovered Will had illegally turned, she’d held onto the hope he could be captured and rehabilitated, but now he had committed at least two known bloodings. There was no going back and no redemption. When the VLO caught him, they would destroy him. She had failed him again.

“Someone else was there as well.”

“Who?” Val’s attention sharpened on Selene.

“I do not know,” Selene said. “Human, I think. I was quite sure at first, but when I heard only one body was discovered, I thought I could have been mistaken. I cannot imagine a human standing safely in the presence of a blooding.”

“Is that everything, Selene?” Kade asked.

“Yes, my lord.”

Val kept her silence as they departed and headed back toward Seattle. The hollow ache stayed planted in her chest. Kade seemed to sense her need for quiet reverie, or maybe he wanted to avoid a continuation of their earlier conversation. And she wanted to avoid thinking about Will.

“She didn’t act like your lover.” Of all the things she could have said. Sometimes she wished she had a better filter between her brain and her mouth. To her surprise, he laughed.

“That was a long time ago, when I was just a babe and older women intrigued me. I thought I could learn a thing or two. Turns out age isn’t all that important. Anyway, that bitch knows her place.”

She huffed at his word choice. “Do you talk about all your ex-girlfriends that way or just women in general?”

He only smiled. “You wouldn’t be so cross if you knew what she thought about you, my sweet.”

“I don’t care. She didn’t say what she was thinking aloud. And despite her lack of cooperation before, she was never anything but professional.”

“Noted.”

“You’re so very crude.”

“You’ll get used to me. Please forgive my lack of tact.” His mock courtesy was impossible to miss, but then his gaze softened. “Are you all right?”

Her heart kicked. “I will be.”

“Who was the guy in the photo?”

“William Parrish,” she murmured. “My ex-husband.”

He cursed under his breath. “Deranged?”

She could only nod. Will had wanted the change so badly, she should have guessed he’d try desperate measures. Maybe by that point in their marriage, she hadn’t cared enough.

“I’m sorry, Val.”

“It—it’s not your fault.” That cost her deeply to say. But his sincerity seemed genuine and surprising, considering his aggression toward everything human, though she didn’t comprehend his reasons for that aggression. Then again, she had reasons for her hostility toward vampires. Maybe she shouldn’t point fingers.

“It’s not your fault either.” He took her hand and squeezed it. “He did this to you, not the other way around. His choice and his consequences. Not yours, Val. Don’t carry his burden.”

Her shocked gaze locked on him. How’d he know? Every day over the past two years, she’d drowned, not in perpetual sorrow, but in guilt. And no one saw it, not even Graham. To have someone, anyone—a vampire included—attempt to ease her self-recrimination made her want to buckle to the floor in relief.

“I won’t let the derangements continue.” His expression held conviction. “The rest of the Immortalis might turn a blind eye, but I’m aware. We’ll put an end to it.”

She wanted to believe him, but could a vampire like him turn against his own? Acknowledging derangements this rampant reflected on them all, the Dominorum most, but especially on the Rex.

“Do you have another interview lined up or would you like me to drop you off somewhere? No sense in taking a cab from the Towers.”

She hadn’t lined another up, in part because she didn’t think they’d get results from the first one. “I’d like to go to the VLO headquarters. I have a bit of work to do before heading home,” she said. “Thank you, Kade, for everything.”

He said nothing to the driver, but the human made a U-turn and drove in the direction of her building. She looked at him in amazement.

“How’d you do that?”

“Compulsion. I’m sure you’ve seen Olen and Evangeline converse without speech.”

She had, but she’d also felt it when they did. He nodded as if he could read her thoughts.

“Between vampires it takes more power to push through their barriers, but humans have very little. A child could break through them.” He noticed her discomfort and chuckled. “Don’t worry. You’ll know without a doubt. The sensation is unmistakable.”

When they pulled up in front of her building her legs didn’t want to budge. Leaving the warm comfort of Kade’s presence didn’t feel like a welcome idea in her current state of mind. Hell must have frozen over.

He loped around the car, opened the door for her, and helped her from her seat. When he slowly brought her hand to his lips, she thought he would kiss the back, but he pressed the kiss into her palm. Her skin tingled the length of her arm and right up to the top of her head.

“Be well, Val.” The deep rumble of his voice hypnotized her. “Will you call me tomorrow?”

“Yes.” She could fall forever into his eyes. They were magnetic. When he smiled, a charming crinkle appeared at their corners. She’d never known a little laugh line could be that incredibly attractive.

She stood on the curb for several minutes after the car pulled away, her fingers stroking the feel of his lips on her palm. She barely knew Kade, but she wanted to. She wanted to find a reason to like him. Or maybe it was too late for that; she liked him too much already.