Bound to Shadows

"Yeah. I'm not getting any vibrations along the clairvoyant lines, either, so her soul hasn't hung about for a chat."

"Meaning it was a natural death?"

I shrugged. "Maybe. Or maybe it was a death she went to willingly." Souls didn't seem to hang about in that case, either.

I opened up her purse and went through it. There were over one hundred dollars sitting in it, as well as several credit cards. There were also half a dozen business cards, all of them for vampire clubs—the higher end ones, not clubs like Dante's. I plucked one out and showed it to Kade.

He raised an eyebrow. "The police report didn't mention that she was a blood whore."

"Maybe daddy hushed it up." It certainly wouldn't be the first time that had happened. "There's been enough press about them lately to make it an unpalatable co

Kade snorted. "Yeah, but he also wants her death solved, and that's hard to do if we haven't got all the facts."

"So there was no mention of vampire bite marks in the report?"

"None. If she was a whore, she hadn't gone to the clubs for a while."

"From what I've heard, it's as hard for a whore to give the clubs up as it is for a drug addict to give up substance abuse."

"We don't know she was an addict."

"She's got six business cards in her purse. That suggests a more than casual interest." I put the purse back on the bedside table. "Maybe whoever she was with found out about the addiction and found a sneaky way to get rid of her. "

"Maybe." His voice was lazy, but his expression was intent as he walked around the bed. I didn't say anything, just watched him. After a moment, he added, "There is something else here."

I raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"I don't know. It's very faint." He hesitated, then walked across to the dresser mirror. "It came through here."

"Through the mirror?"

He glanced at me. "The sensation is strongest here."

I walked across and stopped beside him, flaring my nostrils and tasting the flavors in the air. I couldn't find anything that triggered either my mental or psychic alarms.

"Nothing," I murmured. "Whatever it is you're feeling, I'm not catching it."

"It's not really anything I can define."

He shifted the mirror to look behind it. I peeked under his arm, but there was nothing more than dust.

"Jack's going to ask you to, so you'd better try."

"It's a wisp of power, a sensation of age." His frown deepened. "What the hell sort of creature can come through mirrors and attack a person? And why wouldn't Renatta have been terrified?"

"Two good questions I can't possibly answer."

He gri

"You're confusing me with Jack."

"Ah," he said, a devilish twinkle in his warm brown eyes. "But you're Jack's little protege."

I snorted and swiped at his arm. The blow had enough power in it to rock him back on his heels. "Watch your mouth or I won't go vamp hunting with you."

"Yeah you will, because you want my help more than I want yours."

He had a point. I trailed after him as he walked from the bedroom and checked out the other rooms. The rest of the house was also done in neutral colors, with easy comfortable furniture. I couldn't feel anything out of place, and nothing seemed to have been touched or broken into.

"I don't think there's anything else to find," I commented, after the last room. "What about you?"

"The only room that has the other scent is her bedroom. I'll snag one of the liaisons to do some research on mirror creatures." He glanced at me, a grin of anticipation twitching his lips. "In the meantime, let's go hunt us a vampire."

The screams and giggles of children on rides mingled with the blare of music and the scent of fried food and humanity, creating an ambience that was both intriguing and oddly nauseating.

I slammed the car door and stared up at the huge face with its open mouth that was the entrance to the park. Though the face was supposed to be laughing, I'd always thought it had a slightly maniacal edge. But maybe that was just an adult werewolf's natural distaste for anything that involved being confined in a somewhat small area with too many people.

Yet humans certainly didn't seem to have that problem. Despite the fact that it was nearly nine, the park was packed with people. And most of them seemed to be having a good time—if you ignored the high-pitched screams of the little ones who were obviously either tired or not getting what they wanted from their parents.

Something I could look forward to if I agreed to Liander's and Rhoan's plans.

Depending, of course, on whether everything went to plan and the pregnancy and birth went off without a hitch, the disbelieving side of me felt obliged to add.

And really, when had anything in my life gone off without a hitch?

I worried lightly at my bottom lip, and then thrust the concern aside as I fell in step beside Kade. Now was not the time for these sorts of thoughts. Work first, babies later.

"So when was the last attack?" I asked, watching the roller coaster roar overhead, the screams of the people lingering in the air long after the carriages had sped by.

"Last Saturday. He seems to be active only on the weekends." Kade showed his badge to the woman at the ticket counter, but she basically waved him through without even looking at it. Which didn't mean she wasn't looking at Kade—and the amused twitch of his lips suggested he was more than a little aware of it.

"Don't tell me the ticket lady is yet another conquest," I said, voice dry. "Jack won't be pleased if you've been fooling around during investigations."

He might be all for using sex as a tool to get information from suspects, but I very much doubted he'd believe the ticket seller would have any information that couldn't be gained through less involved methods.

"There's been no fooling around as yet," he said cheerfully, "but she's been most helpful during the investigation and is definitely a possibility once this case is handled,"

I shook my head in disbelief. "How can your herd not be satisfying your sexual needs?"

"They are," he said, a devilish glint in his eyes. "But there's always room for a little outside fun. Keeps the little man interested."

I snorted. "There's nothing little about your man."

"Totally true." He waggled his eyebrows at me. "Want a hot dog?"

"Nope, but you can buy me some cotton candy. The pink one, not the blue one."

He did, and I groaned in delight as I bit into the overly sweet spun sugar. It was heaven itself. "So," I said, licking the sugary goodness from the side of my mouth. "What are we going to do? Just wander around and wait for him to attack someone? Or are we going to check out the underbelly of this place and see what we can find?"

"I've checked every ride, and I haven't been able to spot anything."

Which didn't mean that I couldn't, if only because I had the advantage of infrared which could pick up body heat. And of course, vamps did have body heat, despite how they were often portrayed in movies and in literature. They only got cold if they weren't feeding enough.

But Kade knew that, so I didn't bother pointing it out. "What makes you think he's made the park his home rather than simply arriving with the weekend crowds?"

"Maintenance people have reported seeing something moving around after hours, but apparently whatever—whoever—it was disappeared before anyone could track it."

"None of the maintenance people have been attacked?" Kade shook his head, and I frowned. "That's rather odd, isn't it?"

He shrugged. "Maybe he's an older vamp who only needs to feed a couple of times a week."