Dark Caress (The Fallen) (15 page)

Fate was absolutely up to no good and feeling a whole lot of cagey. When Fate felt the tightening of time wrapping around his throat, he went out to find someone to play with. Night was in full swing. Fate wanted a challenge. He wanted something in the middle of a crossroad to point in the right or maybe even the wrong direction.

New York
was exotic. Full of mischief at night but it wasn’t the kind of entertainment he was looking for tonight. Paris? Brazil? The toothpick in Fate’s mouth tasted like diner peppermint. The steak he’d eaten was a little too overdone for his tastes. Fate stepped out onto the sidewalk and lifted his nose to the wind.

It was true what they said of change. If one knew what they were looking for, they could scent it on the wind. The hairs on the back of Fate’s neck lifted. Fate followed the wind to the wrong side of
Charleston. He took form in a darkened alley and watched.

A
black SUV pulled up in front of the hourly motel with a load weighing down the trunk. The Red Light District Hotel was low end. Right above roach motel and drug dump with the roaches running the place. Drug dealers, prostitutes, and cheap sex were everywhere. The place was a long flat box off the highway. Truckers were across the street at all night diner.

The vacancy light was flashing on and off when the warrior vampires,
Dryden and Vice, pulled up. Vice had the door open the second Dryden braked. Fate was a few feet away, close enough to hear their words. Not that proximity mattered for the omniscient sonofabitch he was.

“I’ll get the room and the prostitute.”

Dryden’s eyes were trained on the shadows. Vice was aware, too. She looked around. She probably could feel Fate watching her. Dryden’s gaze locked onto her ass as she went into the office.
Interesting. Dryden and Vice?
That was something Fate had yet to consider.

Fate scanned the office. No cameras. The night clerk was watching the late night show on a small box television. Mid-forties. Alcohol bled from his skin. His liver was a few steps away from being unusable. If he stopped right now he’d recover. This was one Fate considered a missed opportunity. Fate materialized in the shadows near the office.
Fate only became visible to those he wanted to see him. Invisible, he followed the warrior vampire inside.

“I need a room,” said Vice.

The guy did a double-take from the television to the counter. The guy slowly stood and did a gut check with his pants. He rambled over to the counter.

“Just you?”

“Three.”

Vice leaned into the counter. She focused in on the tag on Mr. Opportunity’s shirt.
Clark. She gave Clark an extra push of her breasts straining her black satin Victoria’s Secret. Clark’s gaze went wild as it lowered.

“How many nights?” he asked.

“Just one.”

He reached for a key un
der the desk. Vice took the key and signed in Chris’s name on the ledger Clark pushed in front of her. It wasn’t often that Vice tangled with humans or cared about the outcome of their lives. She leaned forward more.

“
Check-out is at ten.”

“Okay.” Her voice went dreamy. “
Clark, stop drinking and start going to AA.”

The man’s eyes went glossy. He nodded. Vice snapped him out of it. He’d have a vague memory of
Chris checking in and remember nothing of her. Fate was always impressed with the power of the warriors. They should be the ones in charge, not him.

Vice left the office.
Dryden was still waiting with the SUV running in the parking lot.

“Four-C. Go ahead and pull around.”

Fate stuffed his hands in his khakis and shadowed Vice. The parking lot jammed up against the walkway. Dryden backed the SUV into the space in front of the room. The doors to the rooms were blood red. Vice slipped the electronic cardkey into the slot to make sure it worked. The light went green, and she swung open the door. Must lingered in the air. Mildew seeped from the bathroom like a bitch in heat. Dryden got out of the SUV and scanned the lot.

The warrior vampire, Vice, opened the
caged back end of the SUV and watched the muscles in Dryden’s arms strain as he took the human from the trunk. The tires protested with relief when the weight was lifted. Neither said anything as they went about their business.

Blood edged around his mouth. Bruises were forming on his head from being knocked around.
Dryden lifted him, shut the trunk, and brought him inside in only three long strides. He dropped him on the bed. Vice brought out a penlight and checked his pupils.

Back to normal, reactive. Good. No head trauma he wouldn’t recover from.
Fate wanted him healthy for the next step.

“Give me a few,” said Vice.

She shut the door to the room. Fate went with the warrior. Fate lifted his head and caught the faint odor of a heavily perfumed woman. It grated on Fate’s nose like bug spray. Vice headed up wind toward the spray. The woman was about to cross the street to the truck stop. This was her working girl.

Her cheap spikes hit the pavement in a quick stride. She we
nt down a few rooms and got another working girl. Dryden was in the process of staging the room. Two guns without serial numbers were put in a black backpack, along with two thousand in cash, drugs, and condoms. Fate was truly impressed with their work. Changing the outcome took talent. They had skills. He really could hire them.

A minute later, there was a knock on the door. Vice opened it to see her two working girls. They were eager to get started. They came inside and assessed the damage to the room.

“My friend had a little too much to drink. I’m going to give you each a thousand dollars to baby-sit him for the night.”

They both nodded.

“He’s out cold. Don’t steal from him. Just take care of him,” said Vice.

Their
eyes turned glassy and were fixed. They both nodded. They’d stay the night, Fate was certain of that. As an afterthought, Vice went to the bed where Chris was out cold.
Would she scrub his memory, too?

Fate stared down at his jaw line. The
human was of noble heritage. Vice reached out and touched his temples. Cleaning a mind worked better if vampires had direct eye contact. Touching worked, too, most of the time. Fate would know in twenty-four hours if the human had any recollection of the events that ruined his career. 

Dryden
was out the door a second later and in the SUV. Vice didn’t bother getting into the passenger seat. She dematerialized from the sidewalk.

The motel carpet was squishy beneath Fate’s leather soles.
Oh, yes.
He had plans for the human. Many plans. The warriors under Kane’s command fascinated Fate. He was cloaked within the shadows as he watched the warrior Dryden drive away. He had plans for this one, too. Fate felt a shiver of anticipation as he thought about messing with all of their lives. He wanted to jump all over this. The fall would be so worth the dive. He looked up at the moon. There wasn’t much time left.

After dealing with Chris, Kane went back upstairs to Amber. He slipped into bed beside her and held her close. He was sleeping when he felt the call from Gabriel whisper through his mind. He was summoning Kane to the mill outside of their normal meeting time.
Jade. It had to be her Shunning.
Cold fear chilled his heart. He didn’t want her to do this. Not now. Not ever. Kane held on tighter to Amber as she slept within his arms. He didn’t want to leave her, but he had to.

He dressed quickly and
went over there. Alone.

Candlelight lit the darkened room. Two of Gabriel’s soldiers held her bound by iron shackles on her wrists. Gabriel leaned up against the wall. The sharpened blade of the knife in his hand was resting on his palm. Kane looked from Jade’s terrified face to Gabriel. She’d been stripped and beaten as an example. Her beautiful wings were ripped in patches. She didn’t deserve this fate.

By the tilt of her defiant chin, Kane was sure she had fought back. Hard.

“What’s going on?” Kane asked.

“It seems Jade isn’t happy with us. So I’m giving her to you,” Gabriel said.

The soldiers dragged her forward to kneel before Kane. He reached out and calmed her with a touch on her cheek.

“I understand you’re having trouble with Fate.”

“Do you know where he is?” Kane asked.

By the look on Gabriel’s face, Kane was sure he had a good idea where he was. Would he tell Kane? Hell no.

“I’m curious as to why you chose now to
love?”

Fate had pushed him to this moment in his life. That was something Gabriel would never understand as an archangel. Fate didn’t govern his choices the way he did over the Fallen and humanity. “It was time.”

Gabriel tilted his head as though he didn’t like the answer he was given. “Very well.”

He motioned to his soldiers. They pulled Jade’s arms wide and pushed her head low. Reflex had her wings thrusting out defiantly. Kane knew it was what Jade wanted but not like this. Gabriel brought the cruel knife forward. Gabriel held her wing. There was nothing Kane could do to stop this from happening.

Jade’s screams echoed. Her wings were handed off to one of the soldiers. Gabriel wiped the blood from his knife and replaced the blade into its sheath. He scooped up a handful of angel’s dust and blew it into the wounds. She fell forward onto the stone floor. Kane wanted to smash his face in but held back.

“You didn’t have to beat her,” Kane said.

Gabriel looked down his long narrow nose at Jade. “It’s fortunate that Fate wants her alive.”

They evaporated. Kane cursed Fate for having such a cruel hand in Jade’s future. Kane lifted her into his arms, whispering soothing words. He stared into her luminous eyes. “It’s going to be okay, Jade. I promise.”

“I didn’t know how painful it would be.”

The pain would soon fade
, and she’d be left with an insatiable hunger she needed to learn how to control. She’d be lucky if she lived through the night, though. Her body still needed to suffer through the transition.

Kane dematerialized to one of the many guest bedrooms in the
Armory. Jade needed blood to heal. It couldn’t be his. She needed someone else to walk her through this mess. Kane tucked her into the bed. She was out cold. Kane flipped out his cell phone and dialed Dryden.

“I have something for you. I’m downstairs. Come now.”

Amber tossed and turned in the big bed. She awoke with a start, and it took her several moments to realize she wasn’t in her bed at
her
loft.

Her eyes adjusted to the darkness of the room and the latenes
s of the night. She was at the Armory with Kane. Soft, downy pillows were plumped under her head. The mattress was firmer and made for a Fallen warrior.

Movement in the
Armory must have awakened her. No, not movement. Howling. Amber closed her eyes and focused on the sound vibrating the walls. She opened her eyes. Kane had a ghost. Amber knew that the Armory dated back to the Civil War. She had heard that the wounded were often brought there for treatment. Someone must have stayed.

Amber slipp
ed out of bed, smoothing down her wrinkled dress. She opened the bedroom door and moved silently down the hallway. It didn’t take long for her to hear a gathering of voices coming from below the main level. Amber went down another floor.

Downstairs, there was movement
among several rooms. Voices rose. Amber picked out Kane’s. She hugged the wall as she crept silently downward through the corridor.

There was a crack in the doorway of a bedroom where she
could see in. A woman thrashed on the bed.

Kane cursed. Paced. They were worrying over the woman. She was sick. A man hovered on the side of the bed with his shirt off. She was lying on her belly. She was naked with a sheet covering her up to her waist. Her back was raw. The skin was healing. Pain undulated off her body. She twisted under the sheet
, not from the pain of her wounds but from hunger.

She was a newly Fallen.  

Kane kneeled down by her face, brushing her hair out of her eyes. “Jade. You need to feed.”

“Kane
… I didn’t know it would feel
so
bad.”

“Don’t be afraid. It is what y
ou are. You are safe here,” Kane said.

This wasn’t her problem. This was so far out of her expertise. What Amber did know about was pain. Amber had the empathic ability to ease hurting.
It was a gift unique to her alone. Elementals did not have the ability to ease pain the way she did. Amber considered it a genetic quirk. Vice stared at her as she came up behind Kane. She placed her hand on his shoulder. This woman was important to Kane, and for that reason she was important to Amber. She was a beautiful vampire with long blonde hair. Her sharpened fangs protruded over her lower lip.