Chapter 40 Asher
CORD ARRIVES JUST after ten o’clock with a haunted look in his eyes. “What’s wrong?” I ask before he even gets into the apartment.
“Can I get a drink?”
I lead him to the livingroom and grab a glass to pour him three fingers of Belvedere. When I hand it to him, he drains half of it before lowering himself to the couch. He sweeps his hand back through his hair and sighs heavily.
“You were right.”
I sit down on the opposite couch. “About what?”
“The Black Guild.”
“You mean they’re here?” Jesus, that was quick.
He nods. “Arrived last night and took over everything. Told us not to pursue the Python situation. Basically cut Dante out of the loop.”
“How did they find out?”
“That’s what I’d like to know. We’ve kept the lid on this pretty tight. Someone had to have told them.”
Interesting. Does Dante have a mole in his organization? “You think it was one of yours?”
He shrugs. “Who knows?”
“You don’t think it’s Thalium, do you?”
“I considered it, but what motivation would he have? He’s the one causing the uprising.”
I glance at the folder on the coffee table. “Maybe it has something to do with what Elaine found.”
He quirks a brow at me. “Don’t keep me in suspense, Ash. I’ve had a shitty day.”
I pick up the folder and leaf through it to find the page I’m looking for. “Remember the info about Thalium buying an Asian pharmaceutical company?”
“Yeah, I was thinking about that this morning. I figured it had to mean something if he was talking about it.”
“It does.” I pass the paper over to him.
He scans it and looks up at me. “What is this?”
“That’s a corporate overview of the company, Kusuri Pharmaceuticals. You’ll notice there’s a picture of their CEO on it, a Mr. Kenzo Matsumoto. Hailed as being a rising genius. The website lists him as being forty-eight years old, but look at that picture.”
He glances down at the paper in his hand. I know what he’s seeing. If the man in the picture is forty-eight, he’s definitely not human. Matsumoto looks to be in his mid-twenties.
“Is this an old picture?”
“No. That was taken last year when the company applied for a patent on a groundbreaking drug.”
“So Matsumoto is Clan.”
“The whole company is. Elaine did some digging and managed to uncover ties to Sanguine Corporation, which is one of two White Guild organizations that collect a share of profits from Clan businesses. I know them because I have to share my own profits with them. That’s how Clan companies do business. ”
“Okay, so Thalium bought a Japanese Clan company. Why is that significant?”
“Like I said, they were very proud of the scientists who developed this new drug and the fact that they applied for the patent, saying it will change everything, but there’s been no further word about it.
Nothing has been released to the public.
Near as I can figure, it’s something meant for Clan only. ”
“Does it say what the drug is?”
“All we could find is that it’s called LTS3.0.”
Cord’s face pales. “Did you say LTS3.0?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Lifeblood Termination Serum,” he murmurs.
“You know it?”
“I’ve used it. From what I understand, it was developed to kill vamps. Incinerates them from the inside out. It’s what we’re using in our crossbows to hunt the Python’s men.”
“Why would they create something like that?”
“Obviously as an efficient means to eliminate vamps.”
“And you say you’re using this now? Where did you get it?”
“Fucking Uno. He told me he developed it.” He looks back down at the paper in his hand. “Son of a bitch. Is this fucker playing us?”
“So you’re telling me there’s someone in Dante’s organization who has a drug developed by the company Thalium just purchased? How did he get it?”
“I don’t know but I’m sure as hell going to find out.”
He stands up and looks like he’s going to leave, but I move in front of him, blocking his escape.
“I need to go, Ash.”
“No, wait a minute. It’s late, and you said it yourself, the Black Guild has taken over the Python investigation. What are you going to do?”
“I need to tell Dante. I need to string that snake Uno up in the basement and make him talk.”
“And you will. But not tonight. If the Black Guild is cutting you all out, you need to be smart about how you handle this. I don’t know a lot about them, but I do know this–they have zero tolerance for Clan members disobeying their orders.
If they find out you’re investigating this on your own, the punishment could be severe. ”
“How severe?”
“Imprisonment or death.”
“Fuck. Dante asked me to stay on this without letting them know.”
Figures. Once again Dante is using Cord without any regard for his wellbeing. Half of me hopes the Black Guild strips him of his power.
“There’s nothing you can do about it tonight.”
“I could at least warn Dante about Uno. He’s got to be working with Thalium.”
“That makes no sense. Why would he give you the drug to use against the Python’s men if he’s working with him?”
“I don’t know. I thought it was odd that Dante brought him in out of the blue. I had heard he was part of a Japanese death squad.”
“Maybe that’s what they were doing with the drug. That would be the equivalent of a military application, right?”
“I guess so. I don’t know a lot about death squads. It’s really an Asian thing.”
He pulls away from me and starts to pace. “None of this makes sense. It’s like the more we learn, the less we know.”
“I think all we do know is Thalium has his own agenda. He’s like some kind of evil genius.”
He snorts. “Some evil genius. I spent the day spying on him.”
“How did you do that?”
“From the roof of the building across the street from his Park Avenue apartment. Other than a visitor in the morning, he did absolutely nothing all day. I’m supposed to go back tomorrow.”
So that’s where he’s been today. I don’t like that Dante has him disobeying a direct order from the Black Guild. What if he was spotted?
“I don’t think that’s a good idea. What if they see you?”
“I was careful.”
“Come on, Cord. What are you going to prove by doing this? If they say they’re going to handle it, let them handle it. They’ve got the resources. It’s not worth getting caught. If Dante wants to know what Thalium is doing, let him take the risk.”
He stops pacing and exhales loudly. “I know you’re right. In fact, I’ve been seriously considering what we talked about the other day.”
“Which is?”
“Leaving the Guild. I don’t know what I’d do, but I’m tired of being on the shit end of everything bad that happens in this city.” He looks at me. “Were you serious when you said you would consider leaving your company?”
I step up to him, wrapping my hands around his arms and urging his face down to mine. “I’d do it for you.”
Could he be serious? Is he really thinking about walking away from Dante?
Would the prick even let him? I don’t know if the Crimson Guild is as strict as the human mafia about members being in it for life, but Cord has given Dante the best years of his existence.
He’s been loyal since coming to the city the year after his transition.
Dante was his assigned mentor. It wasn’t meant to be a lifetime relationship.
I walked away from my mentor Carlyle twelve years ago.
We speak maybe four or five times a year now, but we’re still on friendly terms.
“What would we do?” he asks.
“Whatever we want. We could travel, become men of leisure.”
He frowns. “No offense, but that sounds like it would get boring pretty quick. I need to be doing something. To have a purpose. Plus…” He looks away, biting his lip. “I need to hit something now and then.”
“They do have the fights,” I venture. “I know you used to frequent them.”
“It’s not the same. There’s a darkness in me, Ash. One that’ll eat me alive if I ignore it.”
“I know that.” I close my arms around him and lean forward, my forehead touching his. “It’s what makes you, you.” I brush my lips across his. “We’ve got time to figure all that out. What I want right now is this.”
I capture his mouth with mine, pressing the kiss. He resists at first until my tongue pushes its way inside, seeking his. Vodka and human blood swirl against my tongue, telling me he fed recently. That erases one worry.
I suck on his lower lip, biting down until the metallic taste of him explodes inside me. The sweetest aphrodisiac.
He moans and counters the attack, his teeth ravaging my own lips. Branding me. There’s no more need for words as we speak with our teeth and our tongues.
Devouring. Punishing.
Suddenly the need to be inside him is relentless, squeezing my veins. I tear at his clothes, frustrated when they don’t yield to me immediately. I need to feel his skin against mine.
He pushes my sweatpants down, freeing my cock, which is already straining for him. I break the kiss long enough to shed my T-shirt, then shove my hand inside his pants to palm his own rigid shaft.
The button and zipper take too long; I want to rip them apart to get at him. He toes off his boots and sheds his jeans, then his jacket and shirt drop until we’re standing flesh to flesh.
Heat to heat.
“Need you inside me,” he rasps.
Right where I want to be.
Somehow we stumble backwards into my bedroom and fall onto the bed, where I slide down his body, biting and sucking his tattooed skin. Breaking the barriers to savor his hot, thick blood.
I can’t get enough of him.
He arches his back, his fingers tangled in my hair as he urges me lower, his cock weeping for me. My tongue lashes out, tasting him, and the effect is like mainlining the best drug there is. I lick up and down his shaft until he starts to whimper.
“Fuck, Ash. Suck me.”