“The problem with you and questions is the fact that you never seem to run out of
them.”
I grinned. “You shouldn’t be such a damn mystery then, and we wouldn’t have that problem. And
seeing that you avoided my last question, I’m owed one more. Then I’ll leave.”
He rolled his eyes. “Okay.”
“How did you attend council meetings when you were living full-time in Sydney? I was under the
impression that the council met every day.”
“Every state has it own council, and they handle the day-to-day governing of the vampire
population. The highest-ranking members from each of these make up the greater council, which
presides in Melbourne. These are the meetings I attend, and they’re generally once a month,
unless problems arise.”
“Is there some sort of worldwide übercouncil?”
He smiled. “I can’t say.”
Meaning he wouldn’t say but that there was. “So the greater council would handle things like the
discontent over the Directorate’s handling of the blood whore killers and the
beheadings.”
“Yes. The man I went out with last night came to town specifically to attend the greater council
meeting. We went for drinks afterward.”
“Will I ever get to meet this friend?”
“That is a second question.”
“You are such a pain in the ass, vampire.” I leaned forward and kissed him. Lightly. Sweetly. “I
have no idea what time I’m going to be home.”
He smiled. “Nor do I. Julien has expressed a desire to visit some wolf clubs to see just what it
is that has me so engrossed with the culture.”
Something inside me twinged. Jealousy? God, I hoped not. And yet …
I couldn’t deny that some small part of me didn’t want him going to the clubs without
me.
Which was totally stupid, given the odds of my date with Kye
not
ending in sex weren’t great.
Still …
“But you hate the culture.”
“True. So perhaps he hopes to capture his own luscious redhead.” He leaned forward and kissed me
again. “I don’t have the heart to tell him my redhead is a rare and precious jewel that I’m never
going to give up.”
His words made my heart do a giddy little dance. I chuckled softly. “Just for that, I might let
you bite me again tonight.”
“I’ll bite you now if you don’t get your pretty ass in gear.” He slapped said rear lightly. “Go,
before Jack starts calling again.”
I sighed dramatically but spun around and walked out the door.
The new murder scene was in Craigieburn, which was on the northern outskirts of Melbourne. I was
going against the main flow of traffic, so it didn’t take me long to get there via the ring road
and the freeway.
Kade was already there when I arrived. I pulled up behind his car and killed the engine, then
grabbed the laser from its hidey-hole under the seat and climbed out.
“A laser?” Amusement twitched his lips and his chocolate-colored eyes sparkled with mirth. “So
you think a ghost might jump out and start hassling you?”
“I’m making a point not to go anywhere unarmed at the moment.”
“Ah, the fuss the papers are making about the so-called gang responsible for the beheadings.” He
paused. “You don’t think the vamp population is going to get antsy about it, do you?”
“I had two very old vampires warning me to be careful this morning. This is me being careful. I
haven’t got telekinesis as a weapon, like you.” I shoved the weapon in my back pocket and waved
him forward. “Has Jack filled you in on the details?”
He’d sent me the file, but the computer’s metallic tones had annoyed the crap out of me, so I’d
switched it off and concentrated instead on the road and drinking my coffee.
“Yeah, it appears to be the same MO as the last one,” Kade said, opening the front gate and
ushering me through. “The victim’s name is Janette Crowley. A divorcée in her midforties—no kids,
no family, no lovers. The woman she shares the house with found her body last night.”
“So an autopsy hasn’t been performed yet?”
He shook his head. “But the police report said there were no obvious signs of a struggle in the
room or on the body, and no sign of forced entry into the house. Because we were already handling
the Renatta Bailey case, they threw this one straight to us.”
“Even though it may not be related?”
“The cause of death may not be known, but everything else is the same.” He shrugged. “I guess
they’re not taking chances.”
I grunted and opened the screen door. Kade rapped his knuckles on the sturdy-looking front door.
The sound echoed inside, suggesting the house was empty. He knocked a second time, then dug out
his electronic lock pick. The door clicked open, and the air that rushed out was filled with the
stench of death and decay.
I wrinkled my nose and tried breathing through my mouth. “I’m guessing that not only isn’t the
housemate staying here, but she didn’t find her straightaway?”
“No. She’d just come back from a two-month holiday. Initial reports suggest Crowley died at least
a month ago.”
“Well before Renatta Bailey, then.”
I followed Kade inside but didn’t shut the door behind us. The house desperately needed some
fresh air. We made our way down through the living room and small kitchen area to the back of the
house, following the smell. It led us into a small hall at the rear of the house, past a large
bedroom and bathroom, before dumping us into a second, smaller bedroom.
Janette Crowley’s taste in furnishings was the polar opposite to Renatta Bailey’s. Her bed was a
single, and the rumpled sheets and blankets looked threadbare and worn. The dresser and side
tables were teak, but both had seen better days, as had the small writing desk that sat
underneath the half-window. The smell of decay had permeated the room, and I very much doubted
there’d be much in the way of emotions lingering, let alone a soul.
I stopped near the doorway, desperately trying to ignore the smell as I watched Kade move through
the room, his large form dominating the space.
“Nothing,” he said after a moment. He glanced over his shoulder. “You?”
I shook my head. “It’s been a month. Most souls tend to lose energy after a few days, so even if
she was here, I might not be able to sense her.”
He frowned and turned around, his gaze sweeping the room. “Jack would have known that, so why
bother sending you in the first place?”
“Because I keep doing the unexpected, and he’s hoping for an easy way to solve the puzzle.” I
shrugged—a movement he wouldn’t have seen because he was walking toward a mirror on the
wall.
“It’s opposite the bed, just like the one at Renatta Bailey’s,” I commented.
“That was my thinking.” He lifted the mirror and looked behind it. “I can’t sense anything, but
as you said, it’s been a month.”
My gaze swept the room, spotting a purse on the dresser. Wrinkling my nose against the
overwhelming stench of death, I walked across and picked it up. Surprise, surprise, more vampire
club business cards inside.
“We have a connection,” I said, holding up the cards. “You know, it seems a little odd that blood
whores have now come up as a connection in two apparently separate cases.”
Kade dropped the mirror and walked over. He plucked the cards from my fingers and examined them
critically. “The beheadings just happened near a whore club. And none of these women appears to
have gone near Dante’s.”
“Just because they haven’t got a card doesn’t mean they haven’t visited. And at least two of the
beheading victims serviced ‘clients’ at Dante’s.” Given the propensity of cases to intertwine in
the past, I wasn’t about to ignore a possible link now. Not if it meant a quick end to one or
both of the cases.
Of course, to discover if either of the women had gone to Dante’s, I’d have to go question the
man himself—and that wasn’t something I wanted to do. The man was sexual dynamite, and I really
didn’t want to take my chances with him any more than necessary.
“I can’t sense any sort of magical or emotional tag on the cards, so I don’t think they’re
connected.” Kade handed them back to me, then shoved his hands in his pockets, his expression one
of frustration. “There has to be more of a connection between these women than just the
clubs.”
My gaze went to the bed, and I frowned. “Maybe there is. Let’s presume Crowley died the exact
same way as Bailey. So if she’d been found early enough, there would have been a feeling of
ecstasy in the room, would there not?”
“Yes.”
“Well, emo vampires feed off that sort of emotion, don’t they?”
He frowned. “Yeah, but emo vampires can’t travel through mirrors.”
“That we know of.” I met the warm chocolate of his gaze. “Even if they can’t, they’re still
vampires and still territorial. The first murder was on Vinny’s turf. She’d surely be aware of
someone encroaching.”
I’d discovered Vinny’s existence a while back, and she was currently under observation, thanks to
the fact her wealth was growing extraordinarily fast and because she had several underage,
unidentified, newly turned vampires under her care. The Directorate—and the council,
apparently—didn’t like having unknowns in their midst.
“Then we’d best go talk to her.”
I grinned. “And wouldn’t Vinny just love you? Which is why we’d better split up. I’ll talk to
Vinny. You go investigate these clubs.” I waved the business cards at him.
He raised his eyebrows. “You don’t trust my control?”
“No, I don’t trust Vinny. Her aura is so powerful she had me kissing her, and I’m definitely
not
attracted to women. You’d be putty in her hands.”
His lips twisted cheekily. “I’m never putty when I’m in someone’s hands. As you should
know.”
My grin widened. “I do remember that fact quite fondly.”
He stepped forward, wrapping a hand around my waist and dragged me against his long, strong body.
“Care for a refresher?”
The stallion was already half rampant. I sighed wistfully then shook my head. “I’m afraid I have
enough men on my plate at the moment.”
“Such a shame,” he murmured, and bent to give me a quick kiss on the lips. It was a friend’s
kiss, not one shared by lovers. He was teasing, not actively trying to seduce.
Still, it wouldn’t have taken much to flare into something more serious, so I pulled free of his
grip and stepped back. “I’ll meet you back at the Directorate, then.”
“One of these days, I’m going to break down those barriers and enjoy that luscious body of yours
once more.”
“In your dreams, my friend.”
“Oh, you don’t want to know about my dreams, trust me on that.” Kade walked past me and headed
for the front door.
I trailed along behind, enjoying the view. I might not be able to touch, but that didn’t mean I
couldn’t look. And he always did wear jeans
extremely
well.
Once in my car, I zoomed into the main road traffic, then clicked the com-link in my ear and
said, “Hello, hello, anyone there?”
“Unlike some who shall not be named, I do not slack off.” Benson’s deep tones were dry. He’d
obviously been taking lessons from Sal. “What can I do for you, Riley?”
“Did Jack pass on a request for an information search on a Luke Johnson?”
“Yes, and I’ve done it. He’s human.”
“He’s also a possible source of information. I need his details.”
“Patching them through now. Anything else?”
The onboard beeped as the information came through. I glanced at it briefly, then said, “Did you
get any hits on the other man?”
“Nothing yet. We’re currently going through license information.”
“Thanks, Benson.”
“My pleasure,” he said, and signed off.
I transferred Johnson’s address to the nav computer and drove across town to his place.
Luke Johnson, it turned out, was a dead end in more ways than one. He opened the door naked, and
his scrawny body stank of booze, cigarettes, and sex. His neck was littered with the scars of old
vampire bites and there was an unhealthy, sallow look to his skin—suggesting he was indulging in
his drug of choice a little
too
often.
“Yeah,” he said, squinting blue eyes and leaning forward slightly, as if he were having trouble
seeing me.
“Luke Johnson?” I flashed my badge. “Did you visit Dante’s club two nights ago?”
He frowned and gripped the door frame a little tighter, though it didn’t seem to help stop his
swaying. “I think so. Why?”
“Do you remember talking to this woman?”
I took out a photo of Mandy and held it up. He leaned forward, squinting harder. “Yeah. She’s not
a vamp.”
“No, she isn’t. What did you talk to her about?”
“Thought she was a vamp, didn’t I?” He teetered backward, his viselike grip on the door and the
frame the only things holding him upright. “She wasn’t.”
“Did you talk to her about anything else?”
“No. Found me a vamp, didn’t I?”
Which left me with Kye, and he’d already denied talking to the woman about the vampire found dead
outside the club.
So why would he lie? Because he obviously was. I’d seen the cash in Mandy Jones’s wallet and had
found no lie—or psychic interference—in her thoughts or memories.
“Thanks for your help, Mr. Johnson.”
He nodded and closed the door. His footsteps meandered away, going back to whoever was sharing
his bed. I could only feel sorry for them.
I went back to my car and headed over to Vinny’s.
She still lived in one of those high-rise brick-and-glass buildings that the government had
insisted on building some fifty years ago. The intention had been to relieve the low-income
housing crisis, but the resulting buildings were neither pretty nor truly functional. Add tenants
who hadn’t really given a damn about the place, and you were basically left with a large hovel.
One with many smashed windows and doors, and decorated by multicolored graffiti.
Vinny’s building had been vacated by both the government and the real tenants years ago, and
according to recent Directorate records, she’d bought it outright. It was interesting to note
that the broken glass and graffiti that had once decorated this place were now gone.
I walked up to the front door. As before, the stink of vampire grew stronger with every step,
until the cloying, unhealthy smell all but surrounded me.
Obviously, she still hadn’t got the water running properly in the downstairs area.
I opened the glass front doors and stepped inside. Footsteps whispered through the shadows—the
sounds so soft regular hearing wouldn’t have caught it.
“Riley Jenson from the Directorate,” I said, raising my voice just a little. “I’m here to see
Vinny.”
A young woman in her late teens emerged from the shadows to the right. Her plump face was smeared
with dirt, but otherwise she was extremely pretty—and very healthy looking. Which was a vast
change from the scrawny, half-starved figures I’d seen on these lower levels when I first
visited. Vinny was obviously feeding well if the lower levels were looking this good.