The Darkest Kiss (28 page)

I glanced at Kade, who was still studying the body intently, then spun and followed the wolf-shifter. I saw the second body long before we reached it. His torso was sprawled across the trunk of the sports car and there was a look of pure terror frozen on his face. Or what remained of it.

That expression said that this was a man who’d experienced the depths of hell in the midst of one of life’s greatest pleasures.

I stopped and silently cataloged his injuries. The blood loss from the scratches alone would have been deadly enough, but she’d also ripped him apart limb by limb, leaving only his torso and head on top of the car’s trunk.

I closed my eyes and fought the bile that rose up my throat. It wasn’t as if I’d never seen bodies pulled apart like this before. I had, but that didn’t mean seeing it again now made it any easier. I doubted it ever would.

“God,” I said, voice thick.

“Yeah,” Cole said. “I think she must have taken cat form to get out of here, because she would have been covered in blood after all this.”

I dragged my gaze away from the body and looked around. “There would have to have been screams from both the victims. Surely someone heard them?”

Cole’s expression was grim. “The local boys are interviewing the shopkeepers and the patrons. I doubt we’re going to get anything.”

“Then how was the body discovered?”

“A bit of the woman was flung over the side of the building. It hit a kitchen hand from the restaurant next door as he was dumping bags into the trash.”

“Anyone talked to him yet?”

“I think he’s been sedated.” Cole grimaced. “He’ll probably have nightmares for weeks, poor kid.”

“He’s not the only one.” I rubbed my arms lightly, then stopped as power began to caress the air and an odd tingle raced across my skin.

Excitement surged. It
wasn’t
just the escalation of the violence that was different with this crime scene.

“What?” Cole said softly.

“There’s a soul here.” My gaze darted around the parking lot, but I couldn’t see anything that resembled the wispy smoke of a soul. Of course, the wind might be tearing any manifestation apart before it was fully formed.

“Whose soul?”

“I don’t know.” I spun around and took several steps toward the rear wall. The wind was less frantic here, and just for an instant, a wisp of smoke stirred in the shadows holding court in the corner.

Who are you?
I asked. I’d learned not so long ago that my ability to sense and hear souls had stretched into being able to converse with them telepathically, as well. Not that there was ever anything resembling whole conversations between us. The ability to talk from beyond the grave seemed to take a lot of strength, and many souls did little more than speak a word or two before their presence disintegrated and they moved on.

But maybe
this
time, one word might be all we needed to stop other innocents getting mauled by the bakeneko.

I took another step forward, and the chill in the air suddenly increased. Whoever it was, they were close by. Had to be. The presence of a soul in this world always seemed to drag me too close to the fierce cold of the underworld.

Again, smoke stirred in the shadows. Just a wisp, a bare outline—nothing that would even be defined as ghostlike. But it was there. The power of it spun all around me.

Who are you?
I asked again.

For a moment, there was no response, but the energy in the air increased, until it felt like fireflies dancing across my skin.

Why?
came the reply. So soft. So confused. And very definitely female.

No one knows why this creature is so destructive,
I said, hating that I had to talk to her, hating that I had to feel her pain like this. Yet in some odd way, it was probably helping her. She’d have no answers at all if I wasn’t here.
You weren’t its intended victim. You were just in the way.

The chill in the air increased, and with it came a sense of anger.
It was not my time.

She mightn’t have thought so, but fate always had other ideas on such things.
Can you tell me anything about the creature?

She was fast.
The sense of energy increased, until the tingling on my skin felt like fire. Very briefly, a wispy face formed in the shadows—a thin pretty face with wide lost eyes.
She took my bag. My phone. My car keys.

She took your life, too,
but I kept that thought to myself. I had no idea if souls could feel shock, but this one showed every sign of going through that right now. I didn’t need to make it any worse for her.

What is your name?

Maria. Maria Kennedy-Smith.

Is there anything you can tell me about the person who did this to you?

I knew her. But it didn’t seem like her.

The chill in the air was beginning to fade, and the shadows once again swallowed her wispy features.

What was her name?

Jenny Franklin.

One of the missing women. So if her body wasn’t in her apartment, where the hell had the bakeneko killed her?

Why would she do this?

The thought was almost a wail. I shivered and rubbed my arms.
It wasn’t her. It was a look-alike. Jenny’s dead, too.

The energy was almost gone, the fire on my skin little more than a caress of warmth.

Get whoever it is,
came the thought.
Stop her
.

Then she was gone, heading back into whatever realm her soul was destined for.

I blew out a breath and turned around. Cole was watching me with a concerned expression. “You know, I didn’t notice it before, but you almost seem to fade when you do that. It’s as if they’re sucking the life from you.”

I rubbed my arms. “I can feel the chill of the other side through them. So maybe it
is
sucking something out of me.” Who really knew? It might be a talent Jack intended to use to its full capacity, but it certainly wasn’t one that the Directorate had seen much of. My teachers were magi, not other people who shared the same skill.

“If it is, then be damn careful. You might reach a point where returning becomes difficult.”

I repressed a shiver at the thought, and forced a grin. “What’s this? Caring about a guardian? Is the world about to end?”

He snorted softly. “Did I say I cared one way or another? Woman, you’re reading me all wrong.” His blue eyes held a twinkle that took away the harshness of his words. “Now, what did the damn soul say?”

I smiled. The guardian-hating, werewolf-despising shifter actually
cared
what happened to me. He mightn’t lift a finger to help me, but he
did
care. It was nice to know, because even if I teased him endlessly and gave him hell, I did actually like him.

“Her name was Maria Kennedy-Smith. Her killer was Jenny Franklin, who’s one of the Trollops we haven’t yet gotten into protective custody.”

“And now won’t. Past evidence would have to say she’s well and truly dead by now.”

“Yeah.” I dug my phone out of my pocket. If we could trace Jenny’s car, we might just find the bakeneko’s trail. I glanced around as Kade walked up. “You found something?”

“The bakeneko is mad.”

I snorted softly as I pressed the button for the Directorate. “You don’t need empathy to know that.”

He gave me an annoyed look. “No, I mean she’s going mad. There was no taste of insanity in what she did to Gerard James. There wasn’t even insanity in what she did to the shoe man. But there was an insane amount of anger in that last woman’s apartment and here—” He hesitated. “Here there is just violence for the sheer pleasure of it. She might have had a motive to begin with, but that has long since gone.”

“So she’s just killing for the sake of killing now?”

“I would say so.”

“Fuck.” I blew out a breath, then added, “Jenny Franklin was one of the women you were supposed to take to the safe house, wasn’t she?”

“Yeah, but we checked her house and there was no sign of her. She hasn’t reported in for work, either. Last I heard, the liaisons were chasing up the location of a couple of exes, to see if they could shed any light on her whereabouts.” He studied me for a minute, then said, “Don’t tell me the remains under the car are her.”

“No, the remains belong to Maria Kennedy-Smith. Her soul wasn’t sucked up by the bakeneko, which is why I know the cat had Jenny’s form.”

Kade looked at Cole. “Why would she waste a perfectly good soul like that?”

“Maybe it was a last-minute killing. Maybe she needed to get out before she was discovered.” Cole shrugged, then looked at me. “Yell if you have any further questions.”

He spun and walked away, picking up a set of fresh gloves before moving back to the body under the car. I looked away. I didn’t want to see him retrieve what was left of Maria. Not when her anguish and pain were still fresh in my mind.

“What can I do for you, wolf girl?” a familiar voice said into my ear.

“Kade said a trace was being put on Jenny Franklin’s car. Do you know if that’s come through yet?”

“Hang on and I’ll check.” She paused. “Okay, she owns a white Porsche, and it’s currently parked in Lygon Street.”

Which was a long street with lots of clubs and restaurants. It could take forever to find the bakeneko there. “Is there anything in Jenny’s history that could give a clue as to why the bakeneko has gone there?”

“One of her exes owns the Lygon Towers, and lives on the top floor. We’ve tried contacting him, but there’s no answer.”

If he also happened to be one of Cherry’s exes, then there was probably very good reason for him not answering. Like, death at the hands of a bloodthirsty, sex-crazed cat. “Send me the address.”

“Will do. Oh, and Jack just said to make sure tracking and sound are on.”

“Jack’s a nag.” I hung up and flicked the small button in my ear, turning on the tracker and the sound. They’d hear me if I yelled for help, but I couldn’t actually hear them unless I flicked the button again.

Kade was frowning. “Why would the bakeneko go straight from one kill to another? From what I’ve seen of cats, they tend to sleep off a kill.”

“Maybe that’s what she’s doing. Maybe she figures it’ll be safe to hide out in the apartment of one of Jenny’s exes.” I shrugged. This thing was a cat, so who really knew how its thought processes worked? “But the Porsche is parked there, so that’s where we go.”

He grinned and flung an arm around my shoulder, his fingers casually brushing one breast. Even through the thickness of my coat and sweater, I felt the heat of that caress. But then, I knew just what those clever fingers could do. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t be doing anything clever to
me
any time soon, and not just because we had an insane killer to catch.

“You know I’ll follow you anywhere,” he said, amusement enriching his warm tone. “I’ll also do you anywhere, but you won’t let me.”

“Once you’ve seen Jack really angry, you’ll understand why,” I said wryly. “In the meantime, you have to drive. At least that’ll keep your hands busy.”

“I drive an automatic. There’s plenty of scope for my hands to play.”

I snorted softly and stepped out from under his arm. “You’re incorrigible.”

“I’m a horse-shifter. We have sex on the brain.”

“Let’s try to concentrate on catching our killer, huh?”

He shook his head sorrowfully. “You’re just no fun anymore.”

“Oh, I’m still party central, it’s just that you’re not on the invite list anymore.” I pushed him lightly toward the ramp. “Lead the way, horse man. We have a killer to stop.”

T
he apartment building belonging to Jenny’s ex was set right in the heart of busy Lygon Street, and close to the Blue Moon. The heavy thump of old rock-and-roll music ran across the incessant hum of traffic and brought a smile to my lips as I climbed out of the car.

I hadn’t been back to the Rocker since they’d switched to more modern music to attract the younger crowd on the weekends, but it was nice to know they hadn’t totally abandoned the old-style music that had made them one of the more popular wolf clubs. Maybe I could start visiting them again, now that my version of celibacy was basically over.

But even as that thought crossed my mind, doubt stirred. Was I really ready to dive headfirst into being a free and easy wolf again? Part of me whispered yes, but another part—the part that still ached—said no. I had Quinn and, right now, that was enough.

Especially considering Quinn himself was more than able to break my heart again.

I turned and studied the building in front of me. It was modern in style—all glass, metal, and sharp angles—and, to my eye at least, there was nothing appealing about it. Not even its closeness to the wolf clubs would have enticed me to live here. Even from the outside, it just didn’t feel “open” enough.