Night Huntress 06 - Eternal Kiss of Darkness (14 page)

“Walk with me,” Mencheres replied, not addressing that. He went out into the garden, stopping by the small reflecting pool, waiting until Bones was next to him before he spoke again.

“The future is like water. All our actions ripple over it, changing its reflection. If I had told either you or Cat what was to come, you would have altered your actions, making the reflections of who you are different than who you were meant to be. We would all like to change our future to the simplest path, the straightest line, the road of least regrets”—Mencheres paused to smile sardonically—“but then the final outcome wouldn’t be the same.”

“Easy to say when you’re the bloke who could see that final outcome in advance,” Bones replied with an edge to his tone. “The rest of us had to wonder if those we loved would suffer or die because of our actions.”

“We all wonder,” Mencheres said quietly. “Even if we
know,
we still wonder.”

Bones didn’t say anything. Then he picked up a small pebble and absently threw it into the reflecting pool.

“Something I’ve wanted to ask you, grandsire. You said you’d seen before I was even born that I’d be the one you’d share your power with. Why didn’t you change me into a vampire yourself, then? You were there that night. Yet you let Ian sire me instead.”

“To keep you safe. Patra searched my people for the one I’d prophesied would murder her. My wife thought it would be someone I had sired myself. You were unusually strong, Bones, even as a young vampire. If I’d changed you over, you would have been even stronger—too strong to stay unnoticed by Patra for as long as you did. So I let Ian change you. You were still of my bloodline that way, as I made Ian; but it gave you a chance to grow without rousing Patra’s lethal interest until you were ready to defeat her. As I said”—Mencheres gestured at the water in the reflecting pool, which still vibrated from the pebble Bones had thrown into it—“the smallest ripple can change everything.”

Bones gave Mencheres a look he couldn’t decipher. “The power you shared with me increased my strength and gave me the ability to read humans’ minds, all in the first night. It’s been almost a year and a half since then. Haven’t you wondered if anything else has popped up in the interim?”

Mencheres stared at Bones, unblinking. “I would think if you manifested more of my powers, you would tell me.”

A smile ghosted across Bones’s lips. “Perhaps. Unless, of course, it might cause a problematic
ripple
in future events.”

Had Bones begun to manifest the power of visions? That was how it had started with Mencheres when he was not much older than Bones; he’d caught tiny, indistinct flashes that he’d first dismissed as imaginings and only later realized were slivers of the future.

Then again, it was also a possibility that Bones was just trifling with him. Bones knew that Mencheres’s loss of visions disturbed him, and the cold part of Bones might think it was a fitting revenge to have Mencheres believe Bones knew something about the future but wouldn’t reveal it to Mencheres.

Just as Mencheres hadn’t told him what he knew about Bones and Cat.

But if Bones wasn’t just attempting to trifle with him… “Then I can only trust in the blood vow we made when we merged our lines,” Mencheres said, his tone hardening. “Despite what happened in the past, I kept my vow to do everything that was best for you and for our line.”

Boned nodded once at the reflecting pool before he turned away. “I don’t intend to betray the vow I made when we forged our alliance. But mind those ripples, mate. They might surprise you with what they bring.”

K
ira blew out a tight sigh as she stood outside a club named Around the World. This was probably another waste of time. Seven straight nights of going to bars, clubs, or even coffeehouses that were reported to have had unexplainable or supernatural events had so far resulted in nothing. Well, except her sleeping just as little as before, paying high cover fees, getting hit on by persistent men and women, and finding zero evidence of any vampiric presence.

Furthermore, Kira was starting to wonder if she’d read too much into Mencheres’s gesture with her boss. If he’d truly wanted to see her again, he could have left a business card under her door. Called her. Returned her cell phone with his number entered into it, something
easier
to follow. Doubts crept into her. Mencheres knew where she worked and where she lived, yet it had been a week with neither sight nor sound of him since he’d mesmerized her boss. All she had driving her was a nagging persistence that said Mencheres didn’t want to disappear from her life despite his very effective vanishing act.

Or her instinct was wrong, and things were exactly as Mencheres wanted them to be. He’d said goodbye, and he hadn’t contacted her since then. Maybe it was time for her to take the hint and quit chasing her tail.

If this place turned up nothing, she’d have to reexamine her actions. She might want to see Mencheres again so much that it was clouding her judgment, making her think her gut was telling her something that it wasn’t.
One last scouting mission,
she decided, heading inside the club. Too bad this place had been last on her list for establishments that Mencheres or other vampires might frequent. It was a strip club, and somehow she couldn’t imagine the suave Mencheres paying to see women take their clothes off. As for other vampires… well, they could mesmerize women into taking their clothes off if they chose to. Why buy the cow when you can get the cream for free, as the old saying went.

Kira paid the admission fee and was advised of the three-drink minimum bar tab. Once inside, she did a slow sweep of the interior, which consisted of several bars, a huge center stage with a runway, a VIP area cordoned off by glittering floor-to-ceiling strands, draperied alcoves, and a small dining area, to her surprise. The inside of Around the World was actually more high-end than she’d expected, but she didn’t plan to become a regular. Applause signaled that a dancer had just taken the stage. Kira decided to find a seat and order a drink. This was her last night of reconnaissance, after all. She might as well stay until she’d gotten a good look at the club’s clientele. It was only 9:00 P.M. Probably still too early for a lot of the regulars.

An hour and a half later, Kira had been approached by about a dozen men trying to buy her drinks, pick her up, or otherwise not pay attention to the women they were supposed to be focused on. Kira kept her rebuffs quick and to the point, causing a few of them to rudely state their speculation on her sexual orientation. She didn’t care. Whatever made them feel better about being rejected.

A new blast of music announced the next dancer on the stage. Kira glanced over, her attention more focused on seeing if any of the people around the stage had that telltale pale skin or too-quick movements than on the dancer, when her gaze narrowed. That dancer looked familiar. If she’d just quit whipping her hair around so wildly while she gyrated next to the pole, Kira could get a better look at her face to be sure.

She got up from her seat, moving closer to the stage. The dancer performed several very athletic, erotic maneuvers that showed off her flexibility, but still didn’t give Kira a good view of her face. Kira pulled some money out of her wallet and let out a loud whistle, ignoring the comments from a few of the males near her. If this girl was who Kira thought she was…

The dancer came over with a sultry smile, bending down and placing her gartered thigh very close to Kira’s face. She didn’t look at the girl’s lower half, bare and close enough for Kira to feel uncomfortable. She searched the girl’s heavily made-up features, comparing them to photographs she’d just went through in one of those missing-person files. Older, yes, and a damn sight less shy-looking, but this was Jennifer Jackson.

“Hurry up,” someone barked at Kira.

She tucked a twenty into the garter belt in front of her. Jennifer gave Kira a wink and strutted away, continuing on with the rest of her routine. Kira just stared at her, not even really seeing the explicit moves but concentrating on her memory of what was in Jennifer’s file.

Disappeared three years ago when she was seventeen. Thought to have run off with an older boyfriend named Flare, real name unknown. Jennifer’s record as a high-school dropout who’d dabbled in drugs reinforced the police’s opinion that Jennifer simply left town to escape her parents’ strict household. Jennifer’s parents disagreed and hired Frank two years ago, but he’d gotten nowhere. Jennifer’s disappearance was in Frank’s “cold case” pile now. It ended up at Kira’s apartment because of the interview Frank had with one of Jennifer’s old boyfriends, who told Frank that Jennifer had come to see him asking him to help her escape Flare, who “wasn’t human.” Jennifer had set up a meeting with her old boyfriend outside Around the World, but then supposedly never showed.

Frank’s interviews with Around the World’s staff resulted in all of them saying they’d never seen Jennifer, yet here she was, dancing naked under the stage name of Candy Corn while still one year too young to legally even be let in the door.

Could Jennifer really have been hiding in plain, explicit sight this whole time? Or did those who noticed not remember afterward because Jennifer was right, and her boyfriend Flare really
wasn’t
human?

Kira took in a deep breath. She’d only come here to get a foothold in the vampire world in the hopes of its leading her to Mencheres. Not to get involved in a case where a young girl might have become an unwilling stripper for a vampire. Jennifer had asked her boyfriend for help two years ago. That didn’t sound like Jennifer wanted to be in this situation, but things might have changed. If they hadn’t, and Jennifer was held against her will by a vampire, it would be damn hard for Kira to help Jennifer do anything about that, as she knew from experience.

Save one life,
Mack’s credo echoed in her mind. Mack hadn’t taken the easy way out when it came to her over a decade ago. If he had, Kira probably wouldn’t be alive. This situation was way over her head, yes, but Kira couldn’t just walk away without even trying to see if Jennifer needed help.

She squared her shoulders and flagged down the next topless waitress who walked by.

“Who do I see about setting up a private lap dance?”

K
ira sat in one of the private booths that were sectioned off from the rest of the room. After several minutes, the dark curtains parted, and Jennifer appeared, smiling seductively as she approached.

“Hi, beautiful,” Jennifer crooned, running her hands up Kira’s legs as she began to twist her hips. “I was hoping you’d be the one waiting for me—”

“Jennifer,” Kira said quietly. “Jennifer Jackson.”

The girl paused, her eyes darting around. Then she began snake-hipping again, leaning forward to brush her breasts against Kira’s legs.

“How do you know my name?” she whispered.

This was an awkward way to carry on a conversation. Jennifer was naked except for an extremely small g-string, and she kept rubbing and swaying her body against Kira. Kira assumed the curtained booths were being monitored if Jennifer kept up the lap dancing even though she now guessed Kira wasn’t just here for a thrill. Jennifer didn’t seem to be afraid to verbally acknowledge her real name, though, so maybe the monitoring was only visual. Kira tried to fix an appreciative look on her face and ignore the softer parts Jennifer pressed on her as she spoke.

“I’m an investigator your parents hired,” Kira whispered back.

Jennifer’s face twisted even though her frozen smile still remained. “They can’t help me. Neither can you. Get out before you’re discovered or you might end up like me.”

Poor girl clearly sounded like she was here against her will. Kira’s resolve strengthened. Someone had forced Jennifer to disappear from her family’s life at seventeen to become a stripper. What if Kira’s little sister had been the one kidnapped so young, and someone who could have helped Tina didn’t try because it
might
be too dangerous? She’d wanted to become a cop to protect the people who needed it. Well, here was someone who really needed it, and Kira might be the only one who knew enough about what held Jennifer to help her get away.

“Did Flare make people forget they’d even seen you when you tried to get away before?” Kira asked, taking the plunge.

Jennifer stopped in the act of straddling her. “Who are you? How do you know that?”

“Keep dancing,” Kira hissed. Jennifer began her sultry squirming again even though her practiced smile had slipped.

“I’m someone who knows what kind of creature can make people forget things they’ve seen with just a look,” Kira said, her confidence growing as Jennifer’s expression changed from suspicious to hopeful.

She
would
hang a bat sign in her apartment window and shine a big light behind it to get Mencheres’s attention if she had to. Or she’d take an ad out in the papers with her picture and a plea for someone tall, dark, and dead to contact her. Everyone but Mencheres would think she was just a crazy, horny female. Mencheres had kept Kira captive before, yes, but he’d been faultless in his courteous treatment of her. Kira couldn’t imagine that he’d condone another vampire’s snatching a teenage girl from her family and forcing her to strip.

“And I’m someone with a gun containing silver bullets right here in my purse,” Kira went on. “If you come with me, Jennifer, I’ll try to get you away from this. I—I know someone who might be able to help.”