The Darkest Kiss

“Sounds like it was a nice place to grow up.” Better than what Rhoan and I had, anyway. But then, that wouldn’t have been hard.

“It was.” He gave me a quick smile, then added, “Anyway, Young transferred into our school at the start of tenth grade. He was there long enough for the school photos, but disappeared a month or so before the end of the year.”

“Was he pulled out or suspended?”

“Neither. He actually disappeared.” He pulled to a halt at a red light and glanced at me. “There were rumors, of course. He got mixed up with some pretty bad elements, and there was talk he’d been involved in some sort of initiation gone wrong.”

“Was he human?”

“Shifter. Some sort of bird.” He shrugged. “I never had much to do with him, so I really couldn’t say for sure.”

At least that explained how he’d disappeared on me the night I’d chased him from Vi

“Yeah. No charges were ever brought, and a body was never found. If something did happen, it was well covered up by everyone involved.”

“What about his parents?”

He raised his eyebrows. “What about them?”

“How did they react to their son going missing?”

“From what I remember, furiously. But about a month after the disappearance, they picked up stakes and left town. We never saw them again.”

“And there were no whispers around town about why they might have left?”

“Not that I can remember. But I was a kid, so I’d probably lost interest in the whole situation by then.”

Which was one major difference between him, and me and my brother. We would have investigated. I had a nose for trouble, and I hadn’t been afraid to use it—as the many scars that scattered my body would attest.

“Has the school photo got names attached?”

“Yep.” He looked at me. “You think your Aron Young’s recent spate of murders has something to do with this Aron Young’s disappearance all those years ago?”

“I have no idea what to think. I don’t even know if I have the right Aron Young. Right now, I’m just grabbing at straws.”

“If it is him, it’s a long time to hold a grudge.”

“Maybe he needed time to build up courage.” Or strength, perhaps. It couldn’t be easy for a ghost to pick up solid objects. “Is there anyone up in Beechworth who might remember more about the case? Who was the cop on the case?”

“Old Jerry Mayberry was the local cop. He’s retired, but still living up there, as far as I know.” He gave me a half-smile. “Haven’t been back up there for a while now.”

I shifted in my seat and looked at him. “How did your pack react when they realized you were gay?”

“I got more grief from the local kids than I did from the pack.” He shrugged. “I think it was a disappointment to my mom, more than anything, because she wanted grandkids. But my sister has had five in the last seven years, so that’s one problem solved.”

A little bit of envy swirled through me. Having a whole pack of kids had once been my dream, too. But that was gone forever—well, mostly. I still had viable eggs frozen, but I would never be the one to carry them. “Your sister has five kids? How come we’ve never met them?”

He laughed. “She comes down here to escape the kids, not show them off.”

“But I’d love to meet them sometime.”

He gave me an amused look. “Spend an hour with that lot, and the whole idea of being a mom will suddenly not seem so alluring. Trust me, they’re a handful.”

“Kids are. Hell, I was.”

“Imagine you and Rhoan multiplied by about ten. That’s how bad they are.”

I gri

“Okay, so maybe I exaggerate a little.” The amusement in his expression and the twinkle in his eyes did little to deny the statement. It also showed just how much he loved those kids. “Seeing you’re coming back to my place after you pick up your car, you want to stop for some lunch?”

“If you’re going to cook it, I’ll definitely eat it.” My cell phone decided to ring at that precise point, so I added as I reached for it, “At least, I hope I can, if this isn’t Jack with another problem.”

Unfortunately, it was.

“Riley?” Jack said, as soon as I pressed the receive button. “We’ve got another one.”

“Man or woman?”

“Woman. Another one of the names in James’s Rolodex.”

“You know, our murderess seems to be targeting those women as much as the men.”

“Which is why I’ve sent Kade on to the murder scene, and I want you to go talk to Dia. Maybe she can shed some light on what is going on.”

It was a big maybe. I liked Dia—a lot—but the information she saw generally tended to be vague, at best. She was far more accurate when it came to personal stuff—which is why I tended to avoid too much hand-to-hand contact whenever we went to coffee or lunch. My life so far had not gone the way I’d pla

But even if she couldn’t give us any direct psychic help, she was a part of the Toorak set, so she could at least give me information about the Trollops, as James’s secretary had so charmingly called them.

“I’ve already rung her,” Jack continued. “She’s not home, but she said she’d meet you at the usual place in half an hour.”

The usual place was an out-of-the-way nook in Brunswick that had some of the best coffee I’d ever tasted, and that didn’t mind kids ru

“Yeah, but I haven’t had time to research the database yet. Personally, I never heard of that particular skill in vamps, but it’s not like I’ve been around long enough to meet all the different types.”

“But you’ve been around long enough to be fairly high up the vampire ladder.” And considering he’d been a vamp for over eight hundred years, you’d think he would have heard something in that time.

“Yeah, but that ladder is composed mainly of blood vamps, with a few emos scattered here and there. We generally don’t get other types of vamps joining.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Joining? I was under the impression the hierarchy system was a natural part of being turned.” Meaning, young suckers started at the bottom of the ladder, and rose through the ranks as they got older and stronger.

“It is for blood vamps. And it was—is—a good method of keeping track of all blood vamps, and ensuring there is no war between the different bloodlines.”

I wondered what bloodline Jack had come from—and whether he’d ever created his own fledglings.

Wondered whether Qui

He didn’t seem the type, but then, what did I really know about either him or his history?

“I still can’t see how that works, you know. Vamps are just as hungry for power as everyone else.” Probably more so. “What’s to stop someone down the ladder bumping off those ahead?”

“The threat that his or her whole line would be erased.”

“So it’s not so much a matter of honor and respect, as Qui

“It often works better than respect.” Jack shrugged. “Anyway, there’s a database kept of our history—a record, if you like, of the vamps who have lived and died since the hierarchy came into place. I’ll check it for any mention of a line of vamps immune to sunlight. But don’t hold out too much hope. I’d imagine such immunity would have been greatly studied had it existed.”

Or kept very secret indeed. After all, they wouldn’t want humanity knowing there were some branches of vampires who could move around in daylight. Humans had enough trouble dealing with the nighttime versions.