Eternal Kiss of Darkness

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 tell tale 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 wall et 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?"

Kira 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 br**sts 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.