Page 29 of Beautiful Madness

I hesitated, uncomfortable.“Help me find my alpha. Help me kill daywalkers. That’s what I want.” Then Ijogged away, going to see the detective and the prisoner he held—likely one ofBastien’s vampires, which I would return to him.

And the detective wasn’t goingto like that at all.

But when I arrived at thepolice station, I discovered that Rick Moreno had more to worry about than acaptured and injured vampire in a cell.

ChapterFifteen

The closeness and connectionbetween us had sort of crept up on me. I didn’t question the fact that Igenuinely cared for Detective Rick Moreno, or that I would have his back, nomatter what.

When Frederick Axton had heldhim, Rick had done things. Bad things. Rick knew it, though he couldn’t quitesee exactly what it was he’d done. But the memories had been creeping up onhim, much like our relationship. And I’d known that someday, he’d remembereverything.

That day had come.

He had the prisoner in aholding cell, and I knew immediately the prisoner was a newly turned daywalker.There was no hope for returning the human to his pre-turned state, and I didn’teven consider it. I’d deal with the baby daywalker.

But first, I would deal withRick.

He looked awful. Stillgood-looking, just in a terrible way. He leaned against the wall, his breathingshallow, his skin ashen and his eyes feverish. He stared through the window atthe pacing, hungry daywalker, but I didn’t believe he was actually seeing him.

He was seeing the monsters inhis head.

“Rick?” I tentatively reachedout to touch his arm, and even that small touch caused him to recoil.

He jerked his head around tolook at me and his eyes cleared, at least somewhat. He blew out a shaky breathand ran his hand over his face. “Kait.” He gestured at the daywalker. “Even Ican tell he’s—”

I squeezed his arm. “I’ll takecare of it, and then we’ll go somewhere and talk about you. The cameras in thecell—”

“Off,” he said. “What do youneed to do?”

I pulled my demon blade, thenpatted a stake. “I’ll destroy it.”

“The body…”

“Open the door.”

But despite what he knew was inthe cell, he hesitated.

“Rick,” I said. “Trust me. Openthe door.” And finally, I walked into the room with a new, hungry daywalker,and the detective pulled the door shut and watched through the window.

The daywalker rushed me, anddespite his newness and his starvation, he was stronger than I would havethought. His desperation got in his way, though, and he was clumsy andcareless. He was alone in his need with no master to teach him or take care ofhim, and his mutant brain was full of confusion.

It wasn’t difficult for me tokill him. I thrust my demon blade into his chest, three quick, hard stabs, thenshoved my blade into its sheath and staked him with the sharp, red-tinged woodenstake. He burst into a cloud of dust, and I kicked at the pile, dispersing itas I slid the stake back into my belt.

In only a few seconds, the deedwas done.

When I emerged from the room,Rick continued to stare through the window, his eyes a little too wide, andwhen he finally turned his head to look at me, there was something in his faceI’d seen from him a couple of times before.

Not disgust, exactly, and maybenot quite fear. But something damn close to both those things with a littlehorrified disbelief thrown in for good measure. If he hadn’t been so worriedabout what was in his own past, he might have put some distance between us.

He might have believed I was amonster.

But right then, he believedthathewas the biggest monster in the room. At least I was nonhuman. Hewas human law enforcement, and he was going to have a hard time coming to termswith things he’d done.

I held out my hand and finally,he took it. “Where can we talk in private?” I asked.

He shook the judgments from hismind. “Let’s take a drive. I need to get away from here anyway.”

Someone was going to askquestions about the prisoner, but I didn’t let that bother me. This was histerritory, and he’d handle it.