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Kade hung back, grinning as Homeboy's beefy driver-slash-bodyguard came out of the office and saw him standing there in the hallway. The male was Breed, as well, and menace flashed as amber light in his irises when he saw the threat before him now.
"Shh," Kade said pleasantly, a dagger already gripped in his hand and ready to let fly. He released the blade in the instant the driver reached for his own weapon, nailing the big vampire dead center in the throat. The bulky body sagged to the floor, and as the heavy thump carried over the din of music and moaning from up the hall, Kade leapt around the corpse to fill the open doorway of Homeboy's office.
The pair of white pit bulls lunged faster than their master in the ridiculous fur coat could react. Snarling and snapping, the dogs charged Kade. He didn't flinch; there was no need. He caught their wild eyes in an unblinking look of command that brought them both to a sudden halt on the carpeted floor in front of his boots.
All of the Breed were born with their own unique talents--or curses, in some cases--in addition to the longevity, strength, and bloodthirst that were traits of their kind. In Kade, his talent was the ability to connect psychically with predator animals and direct their actions with a simple thought. It was a power he had honed to lethal precision from the time he was a boy in the frozen Alaskan wild, and with animals far more dangerous than these.
"Stay," he said calmly to the dogs, then glanced up at the Breed male who gaped at him from across the small room. "You stay, too."
"What the--who the fuck are you?" Panic and outrage deepened the lines around the vampire's mouth as he took in Kade's appearance, from the black fatigues and combat boots that matched the dark color of his spiky hair, to the impressive collection of blades and semiautomatic weaponry he sported at his hips and on holsters strapped to his thighs. "Warrior," he breathed, evidently not so arrogant--or stupid--that he didn't know some measure of fear at this unannounced visit. "What could the Order possibly want from me?"
"Information," Kade replied. He took a step inside the room and closed the door behind him, pausing to scratch one of the now-docile pit bulls behind the ear. "We've heard some disturbing things about this business you're running here. We need to know more."
The vampire lifted his shoulders and made a half-assed attempt to look confused. "What's to tell? I dabble in a variety of ventures."
"Yeah, I noticed. Nice little venture you've got going down in the basement of this shithole. How long have you been trafficking women?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Now, see, making me repeat myself is not a smart thing to do." Kade crouched low and motioned to the pair of pit bulls to come up alongside him. They sat at his feet like squat gargoyles, staring at their former master and obediently awaiting Kade's command simply because that's what he wanted them to do.
"I'll bet if I told these dogs to rip your throat out, I wouldn't have to ask them twice. What do you think?
Should we find out?"
Homeboy swallowed hard. "I-I haven't been doing it for very long. A couple months short of a year, I guess. Started out with drugs and whores, then I started getting certain ... requests." He fidgeted with one of the many gold rings that gleamed on his fingers. "You know, requests for services of a more permanent nature."
"And your clients?" Kade prompted as he rose to his full six-foot-four height. "Who are they?"
"Humans, primarily. I really don't keep good records."
"But you do provide these services" --he hissed the word through his fangs--"to members of the Breed, as well."
It wasn't a question, and Homeboy knew it. He gave another shrug, the collar of his fox coat brushing against his diamond-studded earlobe. "I deal in a cash business, simple supply and demand. Breed or human, the money is all the same."
"And business is good," Kade guessed.
"I'm getting by. Why is the Order so interested in what I'm doing, anyway? You looking for a piece of the action?" he hedged, his smile little more than a slimy split of his lips. "I could cut Lucan in, if that's what this is about. I am a businessman, after all."
"You are scum," Kade said, incensed but not surprised that a bottom-feeder like this would think that he or any of his brethren were for sale. "And if I told Lucan you said that, he would shred you open from chin to balls. You know what? Fuck that. I'll save him the trouble--"
"Wait!" Homeboy held up his hands. "Wait. Tell me what you want to know."
"Okay. Let's start with this. How many of the women you've locked up in that basement and sold were Breedmates?"
A sickening silence lengthened while the vampire considered how best to answer. Even this worthless offal had to know that those rare females bearing the Breedmate birthmark were revered, precious to all of the Breed. To bring harm to a Breedmate was to bring harm to the entire vampire race, for there were no other females on the planet who could carry Breed young in their womb. To knowingly collect a profit from a Breedmate's pain, or to benefit in any way from her death, was about the most heinous thing one of Kade's kind could do.
He watched the other vampire as he would an insect trapped under glass, and in fact, he valued this Breed male's life even less.
"How many, you disgusting fuck? More than one? A dozen? Twenty?" He had to work to bite back his snarl. "Did you sell them unknowingly, or did you make an even bigger profit off their suffering?
Answer the goddamn question!"
With Kade's outburst, the pair of pit bulls rose up onto their feet, their compact muscles taut and straining, both of them growling with menace. The dogs were as attuned to Kade's anger as he was to them. He held the dogs back with only the barest thread of self-control, knowing that if the vampire cowering in front of him had any information of value, he was duty-bound to wring it out of him. Then he could kill him with a clear conscience.
"Who have you been selling Breedmates to? Answer the fucking question. I'm not going to wait all night for you to cough up the truth."
"I-I don't know," he stammered. "That is the truth. I don't know."
