The Darkest Kiss

She grinned. "No one said the future was easy to understand."



"And you make a living out of this mumbo jumbo?"



"A very good living," she said solemnly, then chuckled. "I'm just glad most of my clients aren't as skeptical as you."



"I'm not skeptical of your talent - just what it's saying about my future." I took a sip of coffee, and licked away the froth from my lips. "Besides Alana, was there any other Trollop who might be on Cherry's hit list?"



Dia frowned. "For all Cherry's faults, she doesn't seem like the murdering kind."



"Many serial killers don't."



She acknowledged the point with a nod, but added, "Cherry wanted to be a part of their group. Destruction wasn't in her agenda."



"Well, it's in someone's agenda, and right now, she seems the most likely. Who else did she hate?"



She hesitated. "Enna Free would probably be next on any hate list."



I wondered if the body Kade had gone to check out today was Enna Free. If it wasn't - and she was still alive - then someone had to get to her before the killer cat did. I grabbed my phone and sent Jack a quick message, asking him to haul in both Enna and Cherry, then pulled a piece of banana cake toward me and scooped up a spoonful. It was, as usual, delicious. This had to be the one place in Melbourne where I'd choose banana over chocolate any day. "Don't suppose you'd know where Enna is today?"



"No, but there's an invitation-only charity fund-raiser happening over at Sparkies this evening, and I know some of the Trollops are attending that. Apparently, there's going to be some good man-meat there. Alana's words, not mine."



I snorted softly. "You know, if a man said that about a woman, there'd be an uproar."



"The world is warped," she agreed, then waved her spoon at me. "You want to get into that shindig?"



"If you can get me in, yes."



"Risa, can you get Mommy's phone out of her bag, please?"



The little girl leaned sideways, dug into the patent leather handbag sitting beside her, pulled out the phone, and handed it across. Then she gave me a cheeky grin and said, "Cake, please."



"Come here then, monster."



She scooted around, and I fed her cake while Dia made her call.



"Done," she said, after a few minutes. "And that's enough cake for you, little one."



Risa's pout lasted for all of two seconds, then she scooted back around the table again to finish off her Coke.



"The ticket will be waiting at the door. The cost is five hundred."



I just about choked. "God, I'm glad the Directorate will be paying for it."



"You're just lucky it's one of the cheap functions. Some of the others can be a grand or two."



Thankfully, tonight's event wasn't one of those, because Jack's reaction would not have been pretty. "Have you got Cherry's address?"



"Not on me, but I can phone it through once I get home." She paused, and sipped her coffee. "Would you like a list of all the Trollops?"



"That would be great."



I dug into my bag, then handed over a small notebook and pen. She scrawled in fourteen names, then handed both the pan and book back. "Anything else?"



"What does Enna look like?"



Dia smiled. "I thought you might have guessed that."



I raised my eyebrow. "Blond hair, blue eyes, and rake thin?"



"Yep. It's their calling card - even when they are naturally dark."



"Men do seem to like their blondes."



She snorted softly. "Like redheads have any reason to complain. Except when they're on a self-imposed diet, that is."



"I've got a feeling the diet might be ending."



"Really? Do tell."



So I told her about Ben and the case we were involved in, and we filled the next hour chatting away like old friends rather than new - something I'd once thought would never happen.



Of course, as much as I would have liked to stay there all day, I couldn't - Jack would have a pink fit - so I eventually headed back to the Directorate.



Jack wasn't in the day-shift office when I arrived, but Kade was sitting at his desk. I tossed my bag on my desk, then walked over to the coffee machine. We finally had mugs rather than those horrible plastic cups, but it didn't make the coffee taste any better. Jack had promised a machine upgrade, but after months of hearing a similar promise when it came to our office area, I had no expectations of it actually happening any time soon.



I slopped some milk into both cups, pressed the coffee button, and shoved the first cup underneath, then glanced over at Kade. "So who was murdered this time?"



He grimaced and leaned back in his chair. "One Cherry Barnes. Thirty-four-year-old divorcee who's been dead for three weeks."



Well, so much for my thoughts about Cherry having all the right motives for murder. "And no one noticed the smell?"



"Apparently not. No one reported her missing, either. Her mom and sister thought she was off on a cruise with some man."



"So who found her?"



"Pest control. They'd been called in because of a sudden influx of rats in the other apartments."



I screwed up my nose and switched mugs. "Don't tell me - "



"Yep, they've been chowing on the body. I don't think the pest controller will be eating for the next week."



"I'm glad I wasn't the one called in." I plonked my butt on the edge of his desk and handed him a mug. "I guess the body was too badly decomposed to tell whether she'd been mutilated or not?"



"She was, but according to Cole, it wasn't our cat. The slashes to her back and stomach are different."



I raised my eyebrows. "Different how?"



Kade shrugged. "He wouldn't be pinned down. I guess we have to wait for the report."



"What about Alana Burns?"



"She'd been slashed on the neck, and there was bruising. She wasn't as cut up or eaten as our second female victim, but both did happen."



"So the violence is definitely escalating." I paused and drank some coffee. It was bitterer than usual, but maybe that was a direct result of drinking the silky smooth stuff at the cafe. "So if Cherry died three weeks ago, we might have another male body out there waiting to be discovered."



"Could be. I'm currently going through the cops' unsolved murder files, just to see if I can find anything." He reached forward, grabbed a folder, and handed it to me. "Forensic reports for Gerard James and the shoe seller. The DNA found at both scenes matches."



"What about Alana Burns? Any DNA found on her?"



"No. But Cole suspects they'll find plenty on the body of the second woman. She was bitten a lot."



I opened the folder and skipped the photos, going directly to the reports. At first glance, there didn't seem to be anything I hadn't already guessed. "So has Cole got any idea of what we might be dealing with?"



"He thinks it could be a bakeneko."



"A what?"



Kade grinned. "My reaction, too."



"So what is it?"



"Apparently, it's a cat with supernatural abilities."



"A cat? So we're not dealing with a human shifter, but an actual cat who can take human shape?"



Which certainly went a long way to explain the arrogance the woman had shown by waving to the witness. Cats had a huge sense of their own superiority.



"Makes trying to catch this bitch a whole lot harder, doesn't it? I mean, she really isn't going to be thinking like a regular person." He shook his head, then took a sip of his coffee. His expression crinkled up in much the same manner as mine had. "God, that's awful."



"Won't stop either of us from drinking it, though."



"Hell, no." He raised his cup in salute, brown eyes twinkling. "I did an Internet search, and the only thing I could come up with was a couple of Japanese legends."



"I'm guessing they didn't say how to kill this thing." Japanese myths rarely did, for some odd reason.



"No. But they did say that a bakeneko can change its shape into that of a human, and has been known to eat parts of its own mistress in order to shapeshift and take her place."



"Well, some of that criteria certainly fits."



"Yes. But why is it going after these men? Why would a cat - a real cat - want to destroy these people?"



"I don't know, but something has obviously set her off. We just have to try and find out what." I took a sip of coffee and studied the file for a moment. "I wonder if she actually belonged to any of the dead women?"



"Hard to say. She obviously knew the layout of that house pretty well - she ran straight to the open window when she was escaping us."



"Yeah, but I didn't see any cat trays or food bowls, which suggests she didn't actually belong there."



"You think she's a stray the women picked up?"



I smiled. "From what Dia said, the only thing these women pick up is men."



"So why the curiosity over who the cat belongs to?"



"I don't know. It's just a niggle."



He studied me for a moment, then said, "You know, there were food bowls in Cherry Barnes's kitchen."



"Then it might be worth chasing up with the neighbors to see if she had a black cat. Cherry Barnes had good reason to hate her fellow Trollops, so if it's her cat, maybe its seeking revenge on behalf of its dead mistress."



"Yeah, but Cherry wasn't killed by the cat, which means we have yet another murderer to deal with."



"It keeps the day from getting boring," I said lightly, and tossed the file back onto the desk. "Some of the Trollops are going to be at a fancy fund-raising shindig tonight. I'm going to head there and see what I can sniff out."



"You want company?"



"At five hundred dollars a ticket, she can go alone," Jack said, as he came into the room. His bald head positively gleamed under the light of the fluorescents. It looked for all the world like he'd been polishing it. "Besides, you're going to help to round up the other Trollops."



"I get all the fun jobs," Kade muttered.



"Dia gave me a list of their names," I said helpfully, and swallowed my smile as he gave me a dark look. I glanced at Jack and added, "And she assures me the fund-raiser is one of the cheaper ones, boss."



"Dia runs a multimillion-dollar empire. We scratch by on government funds. How's the shoulder?"



"Survivable."



"Good." He handed me a folder. "The report on Vinny Castillo. Thought you might like to see it."



I didn't, because I really wanted to have as little to do with her as possible. But that wasn't an option in my job - I dealt with vampires on a daily basis, and I had a feeling Vinny was going to feature in my life for a while yet.



And God, how I hated those little "feelings" of mine. Especially when they refused to provide any further information.



"We keeping an eye on her?"



"Yep. She's empire-building, no doubt about it." He poured himself a coffee and took a sip. Unlike Kade or me, he made no face. Maybe he preferred the nasty-tasting stuff. "Watch yourself around her. She has a taste for women, and I'm not entirely sure your shields will work against her sort of magnetism."



If our first meeting was anything to go by, he could be right. "Did you find any information on invisible vampires?"



"Not yet, but it's a big database, and unfortunately, not all the early stuff has been transcribed to computer."



"What about the police report on the BDSM murder?"



"I went one better. I sent a forensic crew over to examine the body. The slashes on his body matched those Ivan Lang received before his death."



"Did they say what type of weapon was involved?"



"Something sharp, but not a knife. They didn't think it was animal claws, either."



"Nothing else?"



"Not yet." He glanced at Kade. "What's the status on the murders?"



As Kade updated him, I walked over to my desk and sat down. After the eye scan and signing in, I checked the results of the Aron Young search. Two were still listed as missing, which was interesting. The third one was married, had three kids, and had been working steadily as a chef for the last thirty years. Somehow, I doubted he was our guy, but I flagged his file anyway. Someone could go out and talk to him, just in case I was wrong. After all, it wouldn't be the first time.



I tapped my fingers on the desk for a moment, then pulled up the birth certificates for the two others.



One Aron Young was in his seventies and still listed as human, which meant he probably wasn't our man. The Young I'd chased certainly hadn't looked that old, though vampires did tend to retain whatever age it was when they'd undertaken the ceremony. Both Quinn and Jack had obviously been fairly old - for their times - when they'd undertaken it.



The other Young was in his forties, which put him in the right age bracket. Given he was listed as missing, I did a search instead on his parents.



His father, Jonathon Young, had died a month ago. According to the death certificate, the cause was a heart attack, so nothing obviously sinister there. Though why I was expecting something sinister I couldn't actually say.



His mother was still alive, however, and living in Yuroke, a community of small farms on the northern edges of Melbourne. I glanced at my watch and decided there was plenty of time to get out there and back before I had to get ready for the function tonight. I wrote down her address, then signed out of the computer and stood up.